
(toss. 



PRESENTED EY 



AN 






ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, 



ANCIENT AND MODERN; 



FROM THE 



BIRTH OF CHRIST TO THE BEGINNING OF THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ; 



IN WHICH 

THE RISE, PROGRESS, AND VARIATIONS OF CHURCH POWER, ARE CONSIDERED IN 

THEIR CONNEXION WITH THE STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY, 

AND THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF EUROPE DURING THAT PERIOD. 



BY THE LATE LEARNED 

JOHN LAURENCE MOSHEIM, D. D. 

CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTTINGEN. 

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL LATIN, 

AND ILLUSTRATED WITH NOTES, CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES, AND AN APPENDIX, 

BY ARCHIBALD MACLAINE, D. D. 






CONTINUED TO THE YEAR 1S26, 

BY CHARLES COOTE, L.L.D. 



BY THE RIGHT REVEREND DR. GEORGE GLEIG OF STIRLING. 



CINCINNATI: 
PUBLISHED BY APPLEGATE & CO. 

NO. 43 MAIN STREET. 
1858. 



tt 



^s* 



M $ 






MISS LET'TiA THOMAS 
AUG- 3. 19:0 







THE TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. 



I cannot persuade myself, that the complaints which we hear frequently of the frivolous nature of the public 
taste in matters of literature, are so far to be relied on, as to make me despair of a favourable reception of the follow- 
ing work. A History of the Christian Church, composed with judgment, taste, and candour, drawn with uncommon 
discernment and industry from the best sources, enriched with much useful learning and several important discoveries, 
and connected with the history of arts, philosophy, and civil government, is an object that will very probably attract 
the attention of many, and most undoubtedly excite the curiosity of the judicious and the wise. A work of this na- 
ture will be considered by the philosopher, as an important branch of the history of the human mind; and I need not 
mention a multitude of reasons that render it peculiarly interesting to the Christian. Besides, there has not hitherto 
appeared in English, any complete history of the church, that represents its revolutions, its divisions, and doctrines, with 
impartiality and truth, exposes the delusions of popish legends, breathes a spirit of moderation and freedom, and, keep- 
ing perpetually in the view of the reader the true nature and design of the Christian religion, points out those deviations 

from its beautiful simplicity, which have been too frequent among all orders of men and in all ages of the world.* 

«*#♦##*#***## 

■■ ,v far justice has been done to this excellent work, in the following translation, is a point that must be left to 
the decision of those who may think proper to peruse it with attention. I can say, with the strictest truth, that I have 
spared no pains to render it worthy of their gracious acceptance ; and this consideration gives me some claim to 
their candour and indulgence, for any defects they may find in it. I have endeavoured to render my translation 
faithful, but never proposed to render it entirely literal. The style of the original is by no means a model to imitate, 
in a work designed for general use. Dr. Mosheim affected brevity, and laboured to crowd many things into few 
words ; thus his diction, though pure and correct, became sententious and harsh, without that harmony which pleases 
ihe ear, or those transitions which make a narration flow with ease. This being the case, I have sometimes taken 
considerable liberties with my author, and followed the spirit of his narrative without adhering strictly to the letter. 
Where, indeed, the Latin phrase appeared to me elegant, expressive, and compatible with the English idiom, I have 
constantly followed it ; but, in all other cases, I have departed from it, and have often added a few sentences, to ren- 
der an observation more striking, a fact more clear, a portrait more finished. Had I been translating Cicero or Taci- 
tus, I should not have thought such freedom pardonable. The translation of a classic author, like the copy of a 
capital picture, must exhibit not only the subject but also the manner of the original : this rme, however, is not 
applicable to the work now under consideration. 

When I entered upon this undertaking, I proposed rendering the additional notes more numerous and ample, than 
the reader will find them. I soon perceived that the prosecution of my original plan would render this work too 
voluminous, and this induced me to alter my purpose. The notes I have given are not, however, inconsiderable in 
number ; I wish I could say as much with respect to their merit and importance. I would only hope that some of 
them will be looked upon as not altogether unnecessary. 

Hague, December 4, 1764. 

* We omit the intervening part of Dr. Maclaine's Preface, because its insertion is rendered unnecessary by the biographical sketch which tha 
Editor has ^iven. 



THE EDITOR'S PREFACE. 



In every civilized country, the ministers of religion, from the nature of their education, may be expected to be con 
versant in literature : but in no country do they appear to be so fond of imparting their thoughts to the world, by the 
medium of the press, as in Germany. The greater part of their productions, indeed, pass silently into the gulf of 
oblivion, while some remain, and excite continued attention. To the latter class may be assigned the History of the 
Christian Church, written by Dr. John Laurence von Mosheim. 

Academical honours and ecclesiastical dignities have frequently been obtained by persons who were born in the 
lowest sphere of life ; and it may therefore be supposed that Mosheim might have obtained such honours and rewards 
by his abilities and erudition, even if he had been the son of an ordinary tradesman, of a low mechanic, or a rude 
peasant : but that was not his fate ; for he was born (in the year 1695) of a family that boasted of high rank and 
noble blood. Lubeck was the place of his birth ; but, in the short accounts of him which have fallen under our 
notice, the scene of his academical education is not mentioned. He gave early indications of a promising capacity, 
and of a strong desire of mental and literary improvement ; and, when his parents proposed to him the choice of a 
profession, the church suggested itself to him as a proper department for the exercise of that zeal which disposed him 
to be useful to society. 

Being ordained a minister of the Lutheran church, he soon distinguished himself as a preacher. His eloquence 
was impressive : he could wield with force the weapons of argumentation ; and his language was neat, perspicuous, 
and accurate. He did not bewilder his auditors in the refinements of doctrine, or the profundities of speculation, but 
generally contented himself with stating the chief doctrinal points of Christianity, while he enforced the useful pre- 
cepts of practical religion, recommending pious feelings, benevolent affections, an orderly demeanour, correct morals, 
and virtuous habits. 

His reputation as a preacher, however high, was local and confined : but the fame of his literary ability diffused 
itself among all the nations of Christendom. The Danish court invited him to Copenhagen, and rewarded his merit 
by the grant of a professorship in the university of that capital. The duke of Brunswick Wolffenbuttel afterwards 
patronised him ; and, having solicited his return to Germany, not only procured for him the theological chair at 
Helmstadt, but appointed him counsellor to the court in the affairs of the church, and invested him with authority 
over all the seminaries of learning in the dutchy. Even king George the Second, who, though a respectable prince, 
was not distinguished as an encourager" of literary merit, entertained a high opinion of the character of Dr. Mosheim, 
and selected him for the dignified office of chancellor or president of the university of Gottingen. He discharged the 
duties of that station with zeal and propriety, and his conduct gave general satisfaction. His death, therefore, wa3 
sincerely lamented oy all rames of people, particularly as it did not occur in the extremity of age; for he had not 
completed his sixty-first year. 



THE EDITORS PREFACE. v 

His literary labours were principally connected with his theological profession. He wrote, in the language of 
ancient Rome, an account of the affairs and state of the Christians before the reign of Constantine the Great ; — a 
vindication of the earlv discipline of those votaries of true religion ; — a narrative of the chief incidents of the life of the 
unfortunate Servetus. the martyr of Calvinistic bigotry ; — dissertations on various subjects of a sacred nature ; — and 
a translation of the celebrated work of Dr. Ralph Cudworth upon the intellectual system of the universe, accompa- 
nied with erudite remarks and judicious illustrations. 

His history of the church was at first a small work, which appeared under the title of Institutiones Historias Chris- 
tiana?, and passed through several editions. He was repeatedly urged by his learned friends to extend a work which 
they represented as too meagre for the importance of the subject He acknowledged the applicability of the objection ; 
but alleged various avocations, as an excuse for non-compliance. To the wish of the public he at length acceded ; 
and, having employed two years in the augmentation and improvement of his history, he published it in the year 
1755, with a dedication to Burchard Christian baron Behr, one of the counsellors of regency to his" Britannic majesty 
for the electorate of Hanover. In the preface he solemnly thanked God for having given him strength and ability 
to finish a difficult and tedious work (opus difficile, non una de causd. et tcedii plenum.) He, at the same time, 
lamented that he was almost worn out with labours and cares. Thus did he seemingly predict his speedy dissolu- 
tion ; and, before the end of that year, his honourable and useful life was closed by the will of Providence. 

Being desirous of procuring, for a work so replete with information, a more general perusal than its Latin dress 

would allow. Dr. Maclaine, a learned minister of the English church in Holland, undertook the task of translating 

it ; and the attempt was by no means unsuccessful. For his translation there is a permanent demand ; and a new 

edition is therefore prepared for the public eye, after that revision and correction which appeared to be necessary. A 

;ontinuation is subjoined, that the reader might not regret the want of a religious and ecclesiastical history of recent 

limes ; and the translator's appendix has been enriched with a judicious essay, the offspring of the spontaneous zeal 

of a distinguished divine of the episcopal church in Scotland. 

C. COOTE. 
No. 1. 2 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



The different editions of my Elements of the Christian History met with such a favourable reception, and so great 
was the demand for them, that they were soon out of print. On this occasion, the worthy person, at whose expense 
they had been presented to the public, advised that a new edition should be given of the same work, improved and 
enlarged. The other occupations in which I was engaged, and a prudent consideration of the labour I must undergo 
in the correction and augmentation of a work in which I myself perceived so many imperfections, prevented my 
yielding, for a long time, to his earnest solicitations. But the importunities of my friends at length prevailed upon 
me to undertake the difficult task ; and I have assiduously employed my hours of leisure, during two years, in bring- 
ing the work to as high a degree of perfection as I am capable of giving to it ; so that now these Elements of Eccle- 
siastical History appear under a new form, and the changes they have undergone are certainly advantageous in every 
respec:. I have still retained the division of the whole into certain periods ; for, though a continued narration would 
have been more agreeable to my own taste, and had also several circumstances to recommend it, yet the counsels of 
some learned men who have experienced the great advantages of this division, engaged me to prefer the former to 
every other method ; and indeed, when we examine this matter with due attention, we shall be disposed to allow, 
that the author, who proposes comprehending in one work all the observations and facts which are necessary to an 
acquaintance with the state of Christianity in the different ages of the church, will find it impossible to execute this 
design, without adopting certain general divisions of time, and others of a more particular kind, naturally pointed out 
by the variety of objects that demand a place in his history. And, as this was my design in the following work, 1 
have left its primitive form entire, and made it my principal business to correct, improve, and augment it in such a 
manner, as to render it more instructive and entertaining to the reader. 

My principal care has been employed in establishing upon the most solid foundations, and confirming by tlie most 
respectable authority, the credit of the facts related in this history. For this purpose, I have drawn from the fountain 
head, and have gone to those genuine sources from which pure and uncorrupted streams of evidence flow. I have 
consulted the best authors of every age, and chiefly those who were contemperary with the events which they record, 
or lived near the periods in which they happened ; and I have endeavoured to report their contents with brevity, per- 
spicuity, and precision. Abbreviators, generally speaking, do little more than reduce to a short and narrow compass 
(hose large bodies of history, which have been compiled from original authors. This method may be, in some mea- 
sure, justified by several reasons, and therefore is not to be entirely disapproved : hence, nevertheless, it happens, 
that the errors, which almost always abound in large and voluminous productions, are propagated with facility, and, 
passing from one book into many, are unhappily handed down from age to age. This I had formerly observed m 
several abridgments ; and I had lately the mortfiication to find some instances of this in my work, when I examined 
it by the pure lamps of antiquity, and compared it with those original records which are considered as the genuine 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 



Vll 



sources of sacred history. It was then that I perceived the danger of confiding 1 implicitly even in those who are the 
most generally esteemed on account of their fidelit3 r , penetration, and diligence ; and it was then also that I became 
sensible of the necessity of adding, suppressing, changing, and correcting several things in the small work (already 
mentioned) which I formerly published. In the execution of this necessary task, I can affirm with truth, that I have 
not been deficient in perseverance, industry, or attention ; and yet, with all these, it is exceedingly difficult to avoid 
mistakes of every kind, as those who are acquainted with the nature of historical researches abundantly know. 
How far I have approached to that inaccessible degree of exactness, which is chargeable with no error, must be left 
to the decision of those whose extensive knowledge of the Christian history entitles them to pronounce judgment in 
this matter. That such may judge with the greater facility, I have mentioned the authors who have been my 
guides ; and, if I have in any respect misrepresented their accounts or their sentiments, I must confess that I am 
much more inexcusable than some other historians, who have met with and deserved the same reproach, since I have 
attentively perused and compared the various authors to whose testimony I appeal, having formed a resolution of 
trusting to no authority inferior to that of the original sources of historical truth. In order to execute, with some de- 
gree of success, the design I formed of rendering my abridgment more perfect, and of giving the history of the church 
as it stands in the most authentic records, and in the writings of those whose authority is most respectable, I found 
myself obliged to make many changes and additions. These will be visible through the whole of the following 
work, but more especially in the third book, which comprehends the history of the Christian, and particularly of the 
Latin or western church, from Charlemagne to the rise of Luther and the commencement of the Reformation. This 
period of history, though it abound with shining examples, though it be unspeakably useful as a key to the knowledge 
of the political as well as religious state of Europe, though it be singularly adapted to unfold the origin and explain 
the reasons of many modern transactions, has nevertheless been hitherto treated with less perspicuity, solidity, and ele- 
gance, than any other branch of the history of the church. Many writers have attempted to throw light upon this inte- 
resting period ; but the barbarous style of one part of the number, the profound ignorance of some, and the partial and 
factious spirit of others, are such as render them by no means inviting ; and the enormous bulk and excessive price of 
the productions of some of the best of these writers must necessarily make them scarce. It is farther to be observed, that 
gome of the most valuable records that belong to the period now under consideration, remain yet in manuscript in the 
collections of the curious (or the opulent, who are willing to pass for such,) and are thus concealed from public view. 
Those who consider these circumstances will nolonger be surprised, that, in this part of the subject, the most learned 
and laborious writers have omitted many things of consequence, and treated others without success. Among' these, 
the annalists and other historians, so highly celebrated by the church of Rome, such as Baronius, Raynaldus, Bzo- 
vius, Manriques, and Wadding, though they were amply furnished with ancient manuscripts and records, have never- 
theless committed more faults, and fallen into errors of greater consequence, than other writers, who were far inferior 
to them in learning and credit, and had much less access to original records than they were favoured with. 

These considerations induce me to hope, that the work which I now present to the public will neither appear su- 
perfluous nor be found useless. For, as I have employed many years in the most laborious researches, in order to 
acquire a thorough acquaintance with the history of Christianity from the eighth century downwards, and as I flatter 
myself that, by the aid both of printed works and manuscripts too little consulted. I have arrived at a more certain 
and satisfactory knowledge of that period than is to be found in the generality of writers, I cannot but think that it 
will be doing real service to this branch of history to produce some of these discoveries, as this may encourage the 
learned and industrious to pursue the plan that I have thus begun, and to complete the history of the Latin church, 
by dispelling the darkness of what is called the Middle Age. And indeed I may venture to affirm, that I have 
brought to light several things hitherto unknown ; corrected from records of undoubted authority accounts of other 



viii THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 

things imperfectly known, and expressed with perplexity and confusion ; and exposed the fabulous nature of many 
pretended events that deform the annals of sacred history. I here perhaps carry too far that self praise, which the 
candour and indulgence of the public are disposed either to overlook as the infirmity, or to regard as the privilege of 
old age. Those, however, who are curious to know how far this self applause is just and well grounded, have only 
to cast an eye on the illustrations I have given on the subject of Constantine's donation, as also with respect to the 
Cathari and Albigenses, the Beghards and Beguines, the Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit (whose pestilential 
fanaticism was a public nuisance to many countries in Europe during a period of four hundred years,) the Fratri 
celli or Little Brethren, the controversies between the Franciscans and the Roman pontiffs, the history of Berenger 
and the Lollards, and other matters. When my illustrations of these subjects and points of history are compared with 
what we find concerning them in other writers, it will perhaps appear, that my pretensions to the merit of some inte- 
resting discoveries are not entirely without foundation. 

. The accessions to ecclesiastical history could not be exhibited with the same brevity that I have observed in treating 
other subjects, which had been amply enlarged upon by others ; for this would have been incompatible with the 
information of the curious, who would have received imperfect and confused notions - of these subjects, and would 
have made me, perhaps, pass for a fabulous writer, who advanced novelties, without mentioning either my guides or 
my authorities. I have, therefore, not only explained all those points of history which carry with them an air of 
novelty, or recede considerably from the notions commonly received, but have also confirmed them by a sufficient 
number of observations and testimonies, so as to establish their credibility on a solid foundation. The illustrations 
and enlargements, which, generally speaking, have an appearance of disproportion and superfluity in an historical 
abridgment, were absolutely necessary in the present case. 

These reasons engaged me to change the plan laid down in my former work, and one peculiar consideration 
induced me to render the present history more ample and voluminous. The Elements before mentioned, were prin- 
cipally intended for the use of those who are appointed to instruct the studious youth in the history and vicissitudes 
of the Christian church, and who stand in need of a compendious text to give a certain order and method to their pre- 
lections. In this view I treated each subject with the utmost brevity, and left, as was natural and fitting, much to 
the learning and abilities of those who might think proper to make use of these Elements in their course of instruc- 
tion. But, in reviewing this compendious work with an intention of presenting it anew to the public, I imagined it 
might be rendered more acceptable to many, by such improvements and enlargements as might adapt it not only to the 
use of those who teach others, but also of those who are desirous of acquiring, by their own application, a general know- 
ledge of ecclesiastical history. It was with this view that I made considerable additions to my former work, illus- 
trated many things that had been there obscurely expressed for the sake of brevity, and reduced to a regular and 
perspicuous order a variety of facts, the recital of which had been more or less attended with perplexity and confusion. 
Hence it is, that, in the following work, the history of the calamities, in which the Christians of the first ages were 
nvolved, and the origin and progress of the sects and heresies which troubled the church, are exhibited with an un- 
common degree of accuracy and precision. 

Hence the various forms of religion, which have sprung from the excessive love of novelty, are represented without 
prejudice or partiality, and with all possible perspicuity and truth. It is also in consequence of this change of my 
original design, that I have taken the utmost pains to state more clearly religious controversies, to estimate their re- 
spective moment and importance, and to exhibit the arguments alleged on both sides ; nor must I omit mentioning 
tne care and labour I have employed in giving an exact narration of the transactions, wars, and enterprising mea 
Bures, of the Roman pontiffs, from the reign of Charlemagne to the present time. 

Those, therefore, who are prevented from applying themselves to a regular study of ecclesiastical history through 



THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE. ix 

want of leisure, or by not having at hand the sources of instruction, and are nevertheless desirous of acquiring a dis- 
tinct knowledge of certain events, doctrines, or ceremonies, may consult the following work, in which they will find 
the information they want ; and those who are inclined to push their inquiries still farther, will see the course they 
must pursue, and find the authors mentioned whom it will be proper for them to consult. 

It would betray an unpardonable presumption in me to imagine, that in a work, whose plan is so extensive, and 
whose contents are so various, I have never fallen into any mistakes. But, as I am conscious to myself of having 
conducted this undertaking with the most upright intentions, and of having employed all those means which are 
generally looked upon as the best preservatives against the seductions of error, I would hope that the mistakes I may 
have committed are neither so frequent nor so momentous as to be productive of any pernicious effects. 

I might add more ; but nothing more is necessary to enable those to judge of this work, who judge with knowledge, 
impartiality, and candour. I therefore conclude, by offering the just tribute of my gratitude to Almighty God, who, 
amidst the infirmities of my advanced years and other pressures under which I have laboured, has supplied me with 
strength to bring this difficult work to a conclusion. 

Got tingen, March 23, 1755. 

No. I. 3 



INTRODUCTION. 



i. The Ecclesiastical History of the New Testament is a clear and faithful narration of the transactions, revolu 
tions, and events, that relate to that large community, which bears the name of Jesus Christ, and is commonly 
known under the denomination of the Church. It comprehends both the external and internal condition of 
this community, and so connects each event with the causes from which it proceeds, and the instruments which have 
been concerned in its production, that the attentive reader may be led to observe the displays of providential wisdom 
and goodness in the preservation of the church, and thus find his piety improved, as well as his knowledge. 

II. The church, founded by the ministry and death of Christ, cannot be represented with greater perspicuity and 
propriety than under the notion of a society subjected to a lawful dominion, and governed by certain laws and insti- 
tutions, mostly of a moral and spiritual tendency. To such a society many external events must happen, which 
will advance or oppose its interests, and accelerate or retard its progress toward perfection, in consequence of its una 
voidable connexion with the course and revolutions of human affairs. Moreover, as nothing is stable and uniform 
where the imperfections of humanity take place, this religious society, besides the vicissitudes to which it must bo 
exposed from the influence of external events, must be liable to various changes in its internal constitution. In this 
view of things, then, it appears, that the history of the church, like that of the state, may be divided with propriet} 
into two general branches, which we may call its External and Internal History. 

III. The External History of the church comprehends all the changes, vicissitudes, and events, that have di 
versified the external state and condition of this sacred community. And as all public societies have their periods oj 
lustre and decay, and are exposed to revolutions both of a happy and calamitous nature, so tins first branch of Eccle- 
siastical History may be subdivided into two, comprehending, respectively, the prosperous and calamitous events 
that have happened to the church. 

IV. The prosperous events that have contributed to extend the limits, or to augment the influence, of the Chris- 
ian church, have proceeded either from its rulers and leaders, or from the subordinate members of this great commu 
nity. Under the former class, we rank its public rulers, such as princes, magistrates, and pontiffs, who, by their 
authority and laws, their liberality, and even their arms, have maintained its cause and extended its borders ; as 
also, its more private leaders, its learned and pious doctors, whose wise counsels, pious exploits, eminent examples, 
and distinguished abilities, have contributed most to promote its true prosperity and lustre. Under the latter class, 
we may comprehend the advantages which the cause of Christianity has derived from the active faith, the invincible 
constancy, the fervent piety, and extensive charity, of its genuine professors, who, by the attractive lustre of these 
amiable virtues, have led many into the way of truth, and engaged them to submit themselves to the empire of the 
Messiah. 



INTRODUCTION. xi 

V. Under the calamitous events that have happened to the church, may be comprehended the injuries it has 
received from the vices and passions of its friends, and the bitter opposition and insidious stratagems of its enemies. 
The professors of Christianity, and more especially the doctors and rulers of the church, have done unspeakable 
detriment to the cause of religion, by then ignorance and sloth, their luxury and ambition, their uncharitable zeal, 
animosities and contentions, of which many shocking examples will be exhibited in the course of this history. 
Christianity had public enemies to encounter, even princes and magistrates, who opposed its progress by penal 
laws, and blood-thirsty persecution ; it had also private and inveterate adversaries in a certain set of philosophers, or 
rather sophists, who, enslaved by superstition, or abandoned to atheism, endeavoured to blast the rising church by 
their perfidious accusations, and their virulent writings. 

VI. Such then are the events that are exhibited to our view in the external history of the church. Its Internal 
History comprehends the changes and vicissitudes that have happened in its inward constitution, in that system of 
discipline and doctrine by which it stands distinguished from all other religious societies. This branch may be pro- 
perly termed the History of the Christian Religion. The causes of these internal changes are to be sought 
principally in the conduct and measures of those who have presided and lx>rne rule in the church. It has been too 
frequently their practice to interpret the truths and precepts of religion in a manner accommodated to their particular 
systems, or even to their private interests ; and. while they have found, in some, implicit obedience, they have met 
with warm opposition from others. Hence have proceeded theological broils and civil commotions, in which the 
cause of religion has often been defended at the expense both of justice and humanity. All these things must be 
observed with the strictest attention by an ecclesiastical historian. 

YII. The first thing, therefore, that should be naturally treated in the Internal History of the church, is the 
history of its ministers, rulers, and form of government. When we look back to the commencement of the Christian 
church, we find its government administered jointly by the pastors and the people. But, in process of time, the 
scene changes, and we see these pastors affecting an air of pre-eminence and superiority, trampling upon the rights 
and privileges of the community, and assuming to themselves a supreme authority, both in civil and religious mat- 
ters. This invasion of the rights of the people was at length carried to such a height, that a single man administered, 
or at least claimed a right to administer, the affairs of the whole church with an unlimited sway. Among the doc- 
tors of these early times, there were some who acquired, by their learned labours, a shining reputation and a uni- 
versal influence ; they were regarded as oracles ; their decisions were handed down to posterity as sacred rules of 
faith and practice ; and they thus deserve to be mentioned, with particular distinction, among the governors of the 
church, though no part of its public administration was actually in their hands.* 

Yin. After giving an account of the rulers and doctors of the church, the ecclesiastical historian proceeds to exhi- 
bit a view of the laws that are peculiar to this sacred community, which form, as it were, its centre of union, and 
distinguish it from all other religious societies. These laws are of two kinds. The first are properly called divine, 
because they are immediately enacted by God himself, and are contained in those sacred books, which carry the 
most striking marks of a divine origin. They consist of those doctrines that are the objects of faith and reason, 
and those precepts which are addressed to the heart and the affections. To the second kind belong those laws 
which are merely of human institution, and derive their authority only from the injunctions of the rulers of the 
church. 

IX. In that part of tne sacred history which relates to the doctrines of Christianity, it is necessary, above all things, 
to inquire particularly into the degree of authority that has been attributed to the sacred writings in the different 

Cj= * By these our author means the Fathers, whose writings form still a rule of faith in the Romish church, while, in the Protestant churches, 
Jieir authority diminishes from day to day. 



xii INTRODUCTION. 

periods of the church, and also into the manner in which the divine doctrines they contain, have oeen explained and 
illustrated. For the true state of religion in every age can only be learned from the point of view in which these 
celestial oracles were considered, and from the manner in which they were expounded to the people. As long as 
they were the only rule of faith, religion preserved its native purity ; and, in proportion as their decisions were either 
neglected or postponed to the inventions of men, it degenerated from its primitive and divine simplicity. It is farther 
necessary to show, under this head, what was the fate of the pure laws and doctrines of Christianity — how they were 
interpreted and explained — how they were defended against the enemies of the Gospel — how they were corrupted 
nd adulterated by the ignorance and licentiousness of men. And, finally, it will be proper to inquire here, 
now far the lives and manners of Christians have been conformable to the dictates of these sacred laws, and to the 
influence that these sublime doctrines ought to have upon the hearts of men ; as also to examine the rules of disci- 
pline prescribed by the spiritual governors of the church, in order to correct and restrain the vices and irregularities of 
its members. 

X. The Human Laws, that constitute a part of ecclesiastical government, consist in precepts concerning the ex- 
ternal worship of the Deity, and in certain rites, either confirmed by custom, or introduced by positive and express 
authority. Rites and ceremonies regard religion either directly or indirectly ; by the former, we under- 
stand those which are used in the immediate worship of the Supreme Being, whether in public or in private ; by the 
latter, euch pious and decent institutions as, beside direct acts of worship, have prevailed in the church. This part 
of sacr»d history is of a vast extent, both on account of the great diversity of these ceremonies, and the frequent 
changes and modifications through which they have passed. This consideration will justify our treating them with 
brevity, in a work which is only intended for a compendious view of ecclesiastical history. 

XI. As bodies politic are sometimes distracted with wars and seditions, so has the Christian church, though de- 
signed to be the mansion of charity and concord, been unhappily perplexed by intestine divisions, occasioned some- 
times by points of doctrine, at others by a variety of sentiments about certain rites and ceremonies. The principal 
authors of these divisions have been stigmatized with the title of Heretics, and their peculiar opinions of consequence 
distinguished by the appellation of Heresies.* The nature therefore and progress of these intestine divisions or 
heresies are to be carefully unfolded ; and, if this be done with judgment and impartiality, it must prove useful 
and interesting in the highest degree, though at the same time it must be observed, that no branch of ecclesiastical 
history is so painful and difficult, on account of the sagacity, candour, and application that it requires, in order to its 
being treated in a satisfactory manner. The difficulty of arriving at the truth, in researches of this nature, is ex- 
treme, on account of the injurious treatment that has been shown to the heads of religious sects, and the unfair repre- 
sentations that have been made of their tenets and opinions ; and this difficulty has been considerably augmented by 
this particular circumstance, that the greatest part of the writings of those who were branded with the name of here- 
tics have not reached our times. It is therefore the duty of a candid historian to avoid attaching to this term the 
invidious sense in which it is too often used, since it is the invective of all contending parties, and is employed against 
,ruth as frequently as against error. The wisest method is to take the word Heretic in its general signification, as 
denoting a person, who, either directly or indirectly, has been the occasion of exciting divisions and dissentions among 
Christians. 

XII. After thus considering what constitutes the matter of Ecclesiastical History, it will be more proper to bestow 
a few thoughts on the manner of treating it, as this is a point of too much importance not to deserve some attention. 
And here we may observe, that, in order to render both the External and Internal History of the Church truly inte- 

f^T * A term innocent in its primitive signification, though become odious by the enormity of some errors to which it has been applied, and 
also by the use that has been made of it to give vent to the malignity of enthusiasts and bigots. 



INTRODUCTION. sari 

resting and useful, it is absolutely necessary to trace effects to their causes, and to connect events with the circum- 
stances, views, principles, and instruments that have contributed to their existence. A bare recital or facts can at 
best but enrich the memory, and furnish a certain degree of amusement ; but the historian who enters into the 
secret springs that direct the course of outward events, and views things in their various relations, connexions, and 
tendencies, gives thus a proper exercise to the judgment of the reader, and administers, on many occasions, the 
most useful lessons of wisdom and prudence. It is true, a high degree of caution is to be observed here, lest, in dis- 
cussing the secret springs of public events, we substitute imaginary causes in the place of real, and attribute the 
actions of men to principles they never professed. 

XIII. In order to discover the secret causes of public events, some general succours are to be derived from the 
History op the Times in which they happened, and the Testimonies of the Authors by whom they are 
recorded. But, beside these, a considerable acquaintance with human nature, founded on long observation 
and experience, is extremely useful in researches of this kind. The historian, who has acquired a competent know 
ledge of the views that occupy the generality of men, who has studied a great variety of characters, and attentively 
observed the force and violence of human passions, together with the infirmities and contradictions they produce in 
the conduct of life, will find, in this knowledge, a key to the secret reasons and motives which gave rise to many of 
the most important events of ancient tunes. An acquaintance also with the manners and opinions of the persons 
concerned in the events that are related, will contribute much to lead us to the true origin of things. 

XIV. There are, however, beside these general views, particular considerations, which will assist us still farther 

in tracing up to their true causes the various events of sacred history. We must, for example, in the external history 

of the church, attend carefully to two things ; first, to the political state of those kingdoms and nations in which 

the Christian religion has been embraced or rejected ; and, secondly, to their religious state, i. e. the opinions they 

* 
have entertained concerning the divine nature, and the worship that is to be addressed to God. For we shall then 

perceive, with greater certainty and less difficulty, the reasons of the different reception Christianity has met with in 
different nations, when we are acquainted with the respective forms of civil government, the political maxims, and 
the public forms of religion that prevailed in those countries and at those periods in which the Gospel received encou- 
ragement, or met with opposition. 

XV. With respect to the Internal History of the Church, nothing is more adapted to lay open to view the 
hidden springs of its various changes, than an acquaintance with the History of Learning and Philosophy in 
ancient times. For it is certain, that human learning and philosophy have, in all times, pretended to modify the doc- 
trines of Christianity ; and that these pretensions have extended farther than belongs to the province of philosophy 
on the one hand, or is consistent with the purity and simplicity of the Gospel on the other. It may also be observed, 
that a knowledge of the forms of civil government, and of the superstitious rites and institutions of ancient times, is 
not only useful, as we remarked above, to illustrate several things in the external history of the church, but also 
to render a satisfactory account of its internal variations, both in point of doctrine and worship. For the genius 
of human laws, and the maxims of civil rulers, have undoubtedly had a great influence in forming the constitution 
of the church ; and even its spiritual leaders have, in too many instances, from an ill-judged prudence modelled its 
discipline and worship after the ancient superstitions. 

XVI. We cannot be at any loss to know the sources from which this important knowledge is to be derived. 
The best writers of every age, who make mention of ecclesiastical affairs, and particularly those who were con- 
temporary with the events they relate, are to be carefully consulted, since it is from credible testimonies and respect 
able authorities that history derives a solid and permanent foundation. Our esteem for those writers, who may be 
considered as the sources of historical knowledge, ought not however to lead us to treat with neglect the historians 



xiv INTRODUCTION. 

and annalists, who have already made use of these original records, since it betrays a foolish sort of vanity to reject 
the advantages that may be derived from the succours and labours of those who have preceded us in their endea- 
vours to cast light upon points that have been for many ages covered with obscurity. 1 

XVII. Prom all this we shall easily discern the qualifications that are essential to a good writer of ecclesiastical 
nistory. His knowledge of human affairs must be considerable, and his learning extensive. He must be endowed 
with a spirit of observation and sagacity ; a habit of reasoning with evidence and facility ; a faithful memory ; and 
a judgment matured by experience, and strengthened by exercise. Such are the intellectual endowments that are 
required in the character of a good historian ; and the moral qualities necessary to complete it, are, a persevering and 
inflexible attachment to truth and virtue, a freedom from the servitude of prejudice and passion, and a laborious and 
patient turn of mind. 

XVIII. Those who undertake to write the history of the Christian church are exposed to the reception of a bias 
from three different sources ; from times, persons, and opinions. The times, in which we live, have often so 
great an influence on our manner of judging, as to make us consider the events which happen in our days, as a rule 
by which we are to estimate the probability or evidence of those that are recorded in the history of past ages. The 
persons, on whose testimonies we think we have reason to depend, acquire an imperceptible authority over our 
sentiments, that too frequently seduces us to adopt their errors, especially if these persons have been distinguished by 
eminent degrees of sanctity and virtue. And an attachment to favourite opinions, leads authors sometimes to per- 
vert, or, at least, to modify, facts in favour of those who have embraced these opinions, or to the disadvantage of 
such as have opposed them. These kinds of seduction are so much the more dangerous, as those whom they de- 
ceive are, in innumerable cases, insensible of their delusion, and of the false representations of things to which it 
leads them. It is not necessary to observe the solemn obligations that bind an historian to guard against these three 
sources of error with the most delicate circumspection, and the most scrupulous attention. 

XIX. It is well known, nevertheless, how far ecclesiastical historians, in all ages, have departed from these rules, 
and from others of equal evidence and importance. For, not to mention those who lay claim to a high rank among 
the writers of history in consequence of a happy memory, loaded with an ample heap of materials, or those whose 
pens are rather guided by sordid views of interest than by a generous love of truth, it is too evident, how few in 
number the unprejudiced and impartial historians are, whom neither the influence of the sect to which they belong, 
nor the venerable and imposing names of antiquity, nor the spirit of the times and the torrent of prevailing opinion, 
can turn aside from the rigid pursuit of truth alone. In the present age, more especially, the spirit of the times, 
and the influence of predominant opinions, have gained with many an incredible ascendancy. Hence we find fre- 
quently in the writings, even of learned men, such wretched arguments as these : Such an opinion is true ; there- 
fore it must of necessity have been adopted by the primitive Christians. — Christ has commanded us to live in 
such a manner ; therefore it is undoubtedly certain, that the Christians of ancient times lived so. — A certain 
custom does not take place now; therefore it did not prevail in former times. 

XX. If those who apply themselves to the composition of Ecclesiastical History be careful to avoid the sources of 
error mentioned above, their labours will be eminently useful to mankind, and more especially to those who are called 
to the important office of instructing others in the sacred truths and duties of Christianity. The history of the church 
presents to our view a variety of objects that are every way adapted to confirm our faith. When we contemplate 
here the discouraging obstacles, united efforts of kingdoms and empires, and the dreadful calamities which Chris- 
tianity, in its very infancy, was obliged to encounter, and over which it gained an immortal victory, this will be suf 

■ The various writers of ecclesiastical history are enumerated by Sever. Walt. Sluterus, in his Fropylajum Historiae Christiana?, published at 
Lunenburg in 4to. in the jear 169G; by Casp. Sagittarius, in his Introductio ud Historian! Ecclesiastical!!, singulasque ejus partes. 



INTRODUCTION. xv 

ficient to fortify its true and zealous professors against all the threats, cavils, and stratagems, of profane and impious 
men. The great and shining examples also, which display their lustre, more or less, in every period of the Christian his- 
tory, must have an admirahle tendency to inflame our piety, and to excite, even in the coldest and most insensible hearts, 
the love of God and virtue. Those amazing revolutions and events that distinguished every age of the church, and 
often seemed to arise from small beginnings, and causes of little consequence, proclaim, with a solemn and respecta- 
ble voice, the empire of Providence, and also the inconstancy and vanity of human affairs. And, among the many 
advantages that arise from the study of Ecclesiastical History, it is none of the least, that we shall see therein the 
on<rin and occasions of those ridiculous rites, absurd opinions, foolish superstitions, and pernicious errors, with which 
Christianity is yet disfigured in too many parts of the world. This knowledge will naturally lead us to a view of the 
truth in its beautiful simplicity, will engage us to love it, and render us zealous in its defence ; not to mention the 
pleasure and satisfaction that we must feel in researches and discoveries of such an interesting kind. 

XXI. They, more especially, who are appointed to instruct the youth in the public universities, and also such as 
are professionally devoted to the service of the church, will derive from this study the most useful lessons of wisdom 
and prudence, to direct them in the discharge of then respective offices. On the one hand, the inconsiderate zeal and 
temerity of others, and the pernicious consequences with which they have been attended, will teach circumspection ; 
and in the mistakes into which even men of eminent merit and abilities have fallen, they will often see the things 
they are obliged to avoid, and the sacrifices it will be prudent to make, in order to maintain peace and concord in the 
church. On the other hand, illustrious examples and salutary measures will hold forth to them a rule of conduct, a 
lamp to show them the paths they must pursue. It may be farther observed, that, if we except the arms which 
Scripture and reason furnish against superstition and error, there is nothing that will enable us to combat them with 
more efficacy than the view of their deplorable effects, as they are represented to us in the history of the church. It 
would be endless to enumerate all the advantages that result from the study of Ecclesiastical History ; experience 
alone can display these in all their extent ; nor shall we mention the benefits that may be derived from it by those 
who have turned their views to other sciences than that of theology, and its more peculiar utility to such as are en- 
gaged in the study of the civil law. All this would lead us too far from our present design. 

XXII. As the history of the church is External or Internal, so the manner of treating it must be suited to 
that division. As to the first, when the narration is long, and the thread of the history runs through a great number 
of ages, it is proper to divide it into certain periods, which will give the reader time to breathe, assist memory, 
and also introduce a certain method and order into the work. In the following history the usual division into 
centuries is adopted in preference to all others, because most generally approved, though it may be attended with diffi- 
culties and inconveniences. 

XXIII. A considerable part of these inconveniences will be however removed, if, beside this smaller division into 
centuries, we adopt a larger one, and divide the space of time that elapsed between the birth of Christ and our days 
into certain grand periods, which were distinguished by signal revolutions or remarkable events. It is on this account 
that we have judged it expedient to comprehend the following History in Four Books, which will embrace four re- 
markable periods. The First will be employed in exhibiting the state and vicissitudes of the Christian church, from 
its commencement to the time of Constantine the Great. The Second will comprehend the period that extends 
from the reign of Constantine to that of Charlemagne, which produced such a remarkable change in the face of Eu- 
rope. The Third will contain the History of the Church, from the time of Charlemagne to the memorable period 
when Luther arose in Germany, to oppose the tyranny of Rome, and to deliver divine truth from the darkness that 
covered it. And the Fourth will carry down the same history, from the rise of Luther to the present times. 

XXIV. We have seen above, that the sphere of Ecclesiastical History is extensive, that it comprehends a great 



xvi INTRODUCTION. 

variety of objects, and embraces political as well as religious matters, so far as the former are related to the latter, either 
as causes or effects. But, however great the diversity of these objects may be, they are closely connected ; and it is the 
particular business of an ecclesiastical historian to observe a method that will show this connexion in the most conspi- 
cuous point of view, and form into one regular whole a variety of parts that seem heterogeneous and discordant. 
Different writers on this subject have followed different methods, according to the diversity of their views and their 
peculiar manner of thinking. The order I have observed will be seen above in that part of this Introduction, 
which treats of the subject-matter of Ecclesiastical History ; the mention of it is therefore omitted here, to avoid unne- 
cessary repetition. 



AN 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



BOOK I. 



CONTAINING THE HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, FROM ITS ORIGIN, TO THE TIME OF 

CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. 

PART I. 

COMPREHENDING THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the Civil and Religious State of the World 
at the Birth of Christ. 

I. A great part of the world was subject to the Ro- 
man empire, when Jesus Christ made his appearance 
upon earth. The remoter nations which had submitted 
to the yoke of this mighty empire, were ruled either by 
Roman governors invested with temporary commissions, 
or by their own princes and laws, in subordination to the 
republic, whose sovereignty was to be acknowledged, and 
from which the conquered kings, who were continued in 
their dominions, derived their borrowed majesty. At the 
same time, the Roman people and their venerable senate, 
though they had not lost all shadow of liberty, were in 
reality reduced to a state of servile submission to Augus- 
tus Caesar, who, by artifice, perfidy, and blood shed, had 
acquired an enormous degree of power, and united in his 
own person the pompous titles of emperor, sovereign 
pontiff, censor, tribune of the people, proconsul ; in a word, 
all the great offices of the state. 1 

II. The Roman government, considered both with respect 
to its form and its laws, was certainly mild and equitable. b 
But the injustice and avarice of the praetors and proconsuls, 
and the ambitious lust of conquest and dominion, which 
was the predominant passion of the Roman people, together 
with the rapacious proceedings of the publicans, by whom 
the taxes of the empire were levied, were the occasions of 
perpetual tumults and insupportable grievances ; and 
among the many evils which thence arose we may justly 
reckon the formidable armies, that were necessary to sup- 
port these extortions in the provinces, and the civil wars 
which frequently broke out between the oppressed nations 
and their haughty conquerors. 

HI. It must, at the same time, be acknowledged, that 
eliis supreme dominion of one people, or rather of one man, 
over so many kingdoms, was attended with many consi- 

1 See for this purpose the learned work of Augustin Campianus, en- 
titled, De Officio et Potestate Magistratuum Romanorum et Jurisdictione, 
lib. i. cap. i. p. 3, 4, &c. Geneva;, 1725. 

b See Moyle'* Essay on the Constitution of the Roman Government, 
in the posthumous works of that author, vol. i. as also Scip. Maffei Vero- 
na illustrata, lib. ii. 

6 See, for an illustration of Oris point, Histoire des grands Chemins de 

No. I. 1 



derable advantages to mankind in general, and to the pro 
pagation and advancement of Christianity in particular ; 
for, by the means of this almost universal empire, many 
nations, different in their languages and their manners, 
were more intimately united in social intercourse. Hence 
a passage was opened to the remotest countries, by the 
communications which the Romans formed between the 
conquered provinces. Hence also the nations, whose 
manners were savage and barbarous, were civilized by the 
laws and commerce of the Romans. And by this, in 
short, the benign influence of letters and philosophy was 
spread abroad in countries which had lain before under 
the darkest ignorance. All this contributed, no doubt, in 
a singular manner, to facilitate the progress of the Gospel, 
and to crown the labours of its first ministers and heralds 
with success. d 

IV. The Roman empire, at the birth of Christ, was 
less agitated by wars and tumults, than it had been for 
many years before ; for, though I cannot assent to the 
opinion of those who, following the account of Orosius, 
maintain that the temple of Janus was then shut, and 
that wars and discords absolutely ceased throughout the 
world. e yet it is certain, that the period, in which our Sa- 
viour descended upon earth, may be justly styled the 
Pacific Age, if we compare it with the preceding times; 
and indeed the tranquillity that then reigned, was neces- 
sary to enable the ministers of Christ to execute, with suc- 
cess, their sublime commission to the human race. 

V. The want of ancient records renders it impossible 
to say any thing satisfactory or certain concerning the 
state of those nations, who did not receive the Roman 
yoke ; nor, indeed, is their history essential to our present 
purpose. It is sufficient to observe, with respect to them, 
that those who inhabited the eastern regions were stran- 
gers to the sweets of liberty, and groaned under the bur- 
then of an oppressive yoke. Their softness and effemi- 
nacy, both in point of manners and bodily constitution, 



l'Envpire Romain, par Nicol. Bergier, printed in the year 1728. See also 
the very learned Everard Otto, De tutela Viarum publicarum, part ii. 

d Origen, among others, makes particular mention of this, in the se- 
cond book of his answer to Celsus. 

e See Jo. Massoni Templum Jani, Christo nascente, reseratum, Rote- 
rodami, 1706. 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



contributed to make them support their slavery with an 
unmanly patience ; and even the religion they professed 
riveted their chains. On the contrary, the northern na 
tions enjoyed, in their frozen dwelling's, the blessings of 
sacred freedom, which then government, their religion, a 
robust and vigorous frame of body and spirit, derived from 
the inclemency and severity of their climate, all united to 
preserve and maintain. 11 

VI. All these nations lived in the practice of the most 
abominable superstitions ; for, though the notion of one 
Supreme Being was not entirely effaced in the human 
mind, but showed itself frequently, even through the dark- 
ness of the grossest idolatry ; yet all nations, except that 
of the Jews, acknowledged a number of governing powers, 
whom they called gods, and one or more of which they 
supposed to preside over each particular province or people. 
They worshipped these fictitious deities with various rites ; 
they considered them as widely different from each other 
in sex and power, in their nature, and also in their respec- 
tive offices ; and they appeased them by a multiplicity of 
ceremonies and offerings, in order to obtain their protection 
and favour ; so that, however different the degrees of enor- 
mity might be, with which this absurd and impious the- 
ology appeared in different countries, yet there Was no na- 
tion, whose sacred rites and religious worship did not dis- 
cover a manifest abuse of reason, and very striking marks 
of extravagance and folly. 

VII. Every nation then had its respective gods, over 
which presided one more excellent than the rest, yet in such 
-a manner that this supreme deity was himself controlled 
by the rigid empire of the fates, or what the philosphers 
called Eternal Necessity. The gods of the East were 
different from those of the Gauls, the Germans, and other 
northern nations. The Grecian divinities differed widely 
from those of the Egyptians, who deified plants, animals, 
and a great variety of the productions both of nature and 
art. b Each people also had a particular manner of wor- 
shipping and appeasing their respective deities, entirely dif- 
ferent from the sacred rites of other countries. In process 
of time, however, the Greeks and Romans became as am- 
bitious in their religious pretensions, as in their political 
claims. They maintained that their gods, though under 
different names, were the objects of religious worship in all 
nations, and therefore they gave the names of their deities 
to those of other countries. This pretension, whether 
supported by ignorance or other means, introduced inex- 

a " Fere itaque imperia (says Seneca) penes eos fuere populos, qui 
mitiore cceIo utuntur : in frigora septemtrionemque vergentibus immansu- 
eta ingenia sunt, ut ait poeta, suoque simillima ccelo." Seneca de Ira, lib. 
xi. cap. xvi. 

b See the discourse of Athanasius, entitled, Oratio contra Gentes, in 
the first volume of his works. 

c This fact affords a satisfactory account of the vast number of gods 
who bore the name of Jupiter, and the multitudes that passed under those 
of Mercury, Venus, Hercules, Juno, &c. The Greeks, when they found, 
in other countries, deities that resembled their own, persuaded the wor- 
shippers of these foreign gods, that their deities were the same with those 
• who were honoured in Greece, and were, indeed, themselves convinced 
that this was the case. In consequence of this, they gave the names of 
their gods to those of other nations, and the Romans in this followed their 
example. Hence we find the names of Jupiter, Mars, Mercury, Venus, 
&c. frequently mentioned in the more recent monuments and inscrip- 
tions wh'Lch have been found among the Gauls and Germans, though the 
ancient inhabitants of those countries worshipped no gods under such de- 
nominations. I cannot think that this method of the Greeks and Ro- 
mans has introduced so much confusion into mythology as Dr. Moshcim 
here imagines. If indeed there had been no resemblance between the 
Greek and Roman deities, and those of other nations, and if the names 
of the deities of the former had been given to those of the latter in an ar- 



pressible darkness and perplexity into the history of the 
ancient superstitions, and has been also the occasion of 
innumerable errors in the writings of the learned. 

VIII. One thing, indeed, which, at first sight, appears 
very remarkable, is, that this variety of religions and of 
gods neither produced wars nor dissensions among the dif- 
ferent nations, the Egyptians excepted. d Nor is it, per- 
haps, necessary to except even them, since their wars un- 
dertaken for their gods cannot, with propriety, be consi- 
dered as wholly of a religious nature Each nation suf- 
fered its neighbours to follow their own method of wor- 
ship, to adore their own gods, to enjoy their own rites and 
ceremonies ; and discovered no displeasure at their diver- 
sity of sentiments in religious matters. There is, however, 
little wonderful in this spirit of mutual toleration, when 
we consider, that they all looked upon the world as one 
great empire, divided into various provinces, over every 
one of which a certain order of divinities presided ; and 
that, therefore, none could behold with contempt the gods 
of other nations, or force strangers to pay homage to theirs. 
The Romans exercised this toleration in the amplest man- 
ner ; for, though they would not allow any changes to be 
made in the religions that were publicly professed in the 
empire, nor any new form of worship to be openly intro- 
duced, yet they granted to their citizens a full liberty of 
observing, in private, the sacred rites of other nations, and 
of honouring foreign deities (whose worship contained 
nothing inconsistent with the interests and laws of the re- 
public) with feasts, temples, consecrated groves, and the 
like testimonies of homage and respect. f 

IX. The deities of ahnost all nations were either an- 
cient heroes, renowned for noble exploits and beneficent 
deeds, or kings and generals who had founded empires, or 
women rendered illustrious by remarkable actions or use- 
ful inventions. The merit of these distinguished and emi- 
nent persons, contemplated by their posterity with an en- 
thusiastic gratitude, was the reason of their being exalted 
to celestial honours. The natural world furnished ano* 
ther kind of deities, who were added to these by some na- 
tions ; and as the sun, moon, and stars, shine forth with 
a lustre superior to that of all other material beings, so it 
is certain, that they particularly attracted the attention of 
mankind, and received religious homage from almost dll 
the nations of the world.* From these beings of a nobler 
kind, idolatry descended into an enormous multiplication 
of inferior powers ; so that, in many countries, mountains, 

bitrary and undistinguishing manner, the reflection of our historian would 
be undeniably true. But it has been alledged by many learned men, with 
a high degree of probability, that the principal deities of all nations re- 
sembled each other extremely in their essential characters ; and if so, 
their receiving the same names could not introduce much confusion into 
mythology, since they were probably derived from one common source. 
If the Thor of the ancient Celts was the same in dignity, character, and 
attributes, with the Jupiter of the Greeks and Romans, where was the 
impropriety of giving the same name 1 

d Ingenious observations are to be found upon this head in the Expo- 
sitio MensK Isiacre of Pignorius. 

e The religious wars of the Egyptians were not undertaken to compe. 
others to adopt their worship, but~to avenge the slaughter that was mad« 
of their gods, such as crocodiles, &c, by the neighbouring nations. They 
were not offended at their neighbours for serving other divinities, but 
could not bear that they should put theirs to death. 

f See concerning this interesting subject, a very curious and learned 
treatise of the famous Bynkershoek, entitled, Dissertatio de cultu peregri- 
naj religionis apud Romanos. This dissertation is to be found in the 
Opuscula of that excellent author, which were published at Leyden in 
the year 1719. 

s The ingenious editor of the Ruins of Balbec has given us, in the pre- 
face to that noble work, a very curious account of the origin of the rei> 



Chap. 1. 



THE STATE OF THE WORLD. 



3 



trees, and rivers, the earth, the sea, and the winds, and even 
virtues, vices, and diseases, had their shrines attended by 
devout and zealous worshippers." 

X. These deities were honoured with rites and sacri- 
fices of various kinds, according to their respective nature 
and offices. b The rites used in their worship were absurd 
and ridiculous, and frequently cruel and obscene. Most 
nations offered annuals, and some proceeded to the enor- 
mity of human sacrifices. As to their prayers, they 
were void of piety and sense, both with respect to their 
matter and their form. Pontiffs, priests, and ministers, 
distributed into several classes, presided in this strange 
worship, and were appointed to prevent disorder in the 
performance of the sacred rites ; but, pretending to be dis- 
tinguished by an immediate intercourse and friendship 
with the gods, they abused their authority in the basest 
manner, to deceive an ignorant and wretched people. 

XI. The religious worship we have now been consider- 
ing, was confined to stated times and places. The statues 
and other representations of the gods were placed in the 
temples, a and supposed to be animated in an incompre- 
hensible manner ; for the votaries of these fictitious deities, 
however destitute they might be of reason in other respects, 
avoided carefully the imputation of worshipping inani- 
mate beings, such as brass, wood, and stone, and therefore 
pretended that the divinity, represented by the statue, was 
really present in it, if the dedication was duly and proper- 
ly made. e » 

XII. But, besides the public worship of the gods, to 
which all without exception were admitted, certain rites 
were practised in secret by the Greeks and several eastern 
nations, to which a very small number had access. These 
were commonly called mysteries ; and the persons who 
desired to be initiated therein, were obliged previously to 
exhibit satisfactory proofs of their fidelity and patience, 
by passing through various trials and ceremonies of the 
most disagreeable kind. These secrets were kept in the 
strictest manner, as the initiated could not reveal any thing 
that passed on those occasions, without exposing their lives 
to the most imminent danger; 1 " and that is the reason 
why, at this time, we are so little acquainted with the true 
nature, and the real design of these hidden rites. It is, 
however, well known, that in some of those mysteries, 
many things were transacted which were contrary both to 

gious worship that was offered to the heavenly bodies by the Syrians and 
Arabians. In those uncomfortable deserts, where the day presents no- 
thing to the view, but die uniform, tedious, and melancholy prospect of 
barren sands, the night discloses a most delightful and magnificent spec- 
tacle, and appears arrayed with charms of the most attractive kind ; for 
the most part unclouded and serene, it exhibits to the wondering eye the 
host of heaven, in all their amazing variety and glory. In the view of 
this stupendous scene, the transition from admiration to idolatry was too 
easy to uninstructed minds ; and a people; whose climate offered no beau- 
ties to contemplate but those of die firmament, would naturally be dispo- 
sed to look thither for the objects of their worship. The form of idolatry, 
in Greece, was different from that of the Syrians ; and Mr. Wood in- 
geniously attributes diis to that smiling and variegated scene of mountains, 
valleys, rivers, groves, woods, and fountains, which die transported ima- 
gination, in the midst of its pleasing astonishment, supposed to be the 
seats of invisible deities. See a farther account of this matter in die ele- 
gant work above mentioned. 

1 See the learned work of J. G. Vossius, de idololatria. 

b See J. Saubertus, de sacrifices veterum. Lug. Bat. 1699. 

e See M. Brouerius a Niedeck, de adorationjbus veterum Populorum 
printed at Utrecht in 1711. 

d Some nations were without temples, such as the Persians, Gauls, 
Germans, and Britons, who performed their religious worship in the open 
air, or in the shadowy retreats of consecrated groves. 

' See Arnobius adv, Gentes, lib. vi. — Augustin de civitate Dei, lib.vii. 
cap. xxxiii. and the Misopogon of the Emperor Julian. 



real modesty and outward decency. And, indeed, from 
the whole of the pagan rites, the intelligent few might 
easily learn, that the divinities generally worshipped were 
rather men famous for their vices, than distinguished by 
virtuous and worthy deeds. s 

XIII. It is, at least, certain, that this religion had not the 
least influence towards exciting or nourishing solid and true 
virtue in the minds of men. For the gods and goddesses, 
to whom public homage was paid, exhibited to their wor- 
shippers rather examples of egregious crimes, than of useful 
and illustrious virtues. 11 The gods, moreover, were es- 
teemed superior to men in power and immortality ; but, in 
every thing else, they were considered as their equals. — 
The priests were little solicitous to animate the people to 
a virtuous conduct, either b}^ their precepts or their ex- 
ample. They plainly enough declared, that whatever 
was essential to the true worship of the gods, was contain- 
ed only in the rites and institutions which the people had re- 
ceived by tradition from their ancestors.' And as to what 
regarded the rewards of virtue and the punishment of vice 
after the present life, the general notions were partly un 
certain, partly licentious, and often more calculated to ad- 
minister indulgence to vice, than encouragement to virtue 
Hence, the wiser part of mankind, about the time of Christ's 
birth, looked upon this whole system of religion as a just 
object of ridicule and contempt. 

XIV. The consequences of this wretched theology 
were a universal corruption and depravity of manners, 
which appeared in the impunity of the most flagitious 
crimes. k Juvenal and Persius among the Latins, and 
Lucian among the Greeks, bear testimony to the justice 
of this heavy accusation. It is also well known, that no 
public law prohibited the sports of the gladiators, the exer- 
cise of unnatural lusts, the licentiousness of divorce, the 
custom of exposing infants, and of procuring abortions, or 
the frontless atrocity of publicly consecrating stews and 
brothels to certain divinities.' 

XV. Such as were not sunk in an unaccountable and 
brutish stupidity, perceived the deformity of these reli- 
gious systems. To these, the crafty priests addressed two 
considerations, to prevent their incredulity, and to dispel 
their doubts. The first was drawn from the miracles 
and prodigies which they pretended were daily wrought 
in the temples, before the statues of the gods and heroes 

'" See Clarkson on the Liturgies, sect. iv. and Meursius de Mysteriia 
Eleusiniis. 

e See Cicero, Disput. Tusculan. lib. ii. cap. xiii. 

h There is a very remarkable passage to diis purpose in the Trifitia of 
Ovid, lib. ii. 

" Ctuis locus est templis augustior 1 ha;c quoque vitet, 

In culpam si qua? est ingeniosa suam. 
Cum steterit Jovis rede, Jovis succurrct in aede, 

duam multas mat.res fecerit ille Deus. 
Proxima adoranti Junonia templa subibit, 

Pellicibus multis hanc doluisse Deam. 
Pallade conspecta, natum de crimine virgo 

Sustulerit quare quajret Eriehdionium." 

1 See Barbeyrac's Preface to his French translation of Puffendorf'a 
System of die Law of Nature and Nations, sect. vi. 

k The corrupt manners of those who then lay in the darkness of idola- 
try are described in an ample and affecting manner, in the first of Cy- 
prian's epistles. See also, on this subject, Cornel. Adami Exercitatio 
de malis Romanorum ante pradicationem Evangelii moribus. This 
is the fifth discourse of a collection published by that learned writer at 
Groningen, in 1712. 

1 See Dr. John Leland's excellent account of the religious senti- 
ments, moral conduct, and future prospects of the pagans, in his large 
work entided, The Advantage and Necessity of the Christian Reve- 
lation. 



1 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1. 



that were placed there ; and the second was deduced from 
oracles, and divination, by which they maintained, that 
the secrets of futurity were unfolded through the interpo- 
sition of the gods. In both these points the cunning of 
the priests imposed miserably upon the ignorance of the 
people ; and, if the discerning few saw the cheat, they 
were obliged, from a regard to their own safety, to laugh 
with caution, since the priests were ever ready to accuse, 
before a raging and superstitious multitude, those who 
discovered their religious frauds, as rebels against the 
majesty of the immortal gods. 

XVI. At the time of Christ's appearance upon earth, 
the religion of the Romans, as well as their arms, had ex- , 
tended itself over a great part of the world. This religion 
must be known to those who are acquainted with the 
Grecian superstitions. 11 In some things, indeed, it differs 
from them ; for the Romans, beside the institutions which 
Numa and others had invented with political views, added 
several Italian fictions to the Grecian fables, and gave also 
to the Egyptian deities a place among their own. b 

XVII. In the provinces subjected to the Roman go- 
vernment, there arose a new kind of religion, formed by a 
mixture of the ancient rifces of the conquered nations with 
those of the Romans. These nations, who, before their 
subjection, had their own gods, and their own particular 
religious institutions, were persuaded, by degrees, to admit 
into their worship a great number of the sacred rites and 
customs of their conquerors. The view of the Romans, 
in this change, was not only to confirm their authority by 
the powerful aid of religion, but also to abolish the inhu- 
man rites which were performed by many of the barba- 
rous nations who had received their yoke ; and this change 
was effected partly by the prudence of the victors, partly 
by the levity of the vanquished, and by their ambition to 
please their new masters. 

XVIII. When, from the sacred rites of the ancient 
Romans, we pass to a review of the other religions that 
prevailed in the world, we shall find, that the most remark- 
able may be properly divided into two classes. One of 
these will comprehend the religious systems that owed 
their existence to political views ; and the other, those 
which seem to have been formed for military purposes. — 
In the former class may be ranked the religions of most of 
the eastern nations, especially of the Persians, Egyptians, 
and Indians, which appear to have been solely calculated 
for the preservation of the state, the support of the royal 
authority and grandeur, the maintenance of public peace, 
and the advancement of civil virtues. Under the mili- 
tary class may be comprehended the religious system of the 
northern nations, since all the traditions that we find among 
the Germans, the Britons, the Celts, and the Goths, con- 
cerning their divinities, have a manifest tendency to excite 
and nourish fortitude and ferocity, an insensibility of dan- 
ger, and a contempt of life. An attentive inquiry into 
the religions of these respective nations, will abundantly 
verify what is here asserted. 

XIX. None of these nations, indeed, ever arrived at 



» See Dionysius Halicarn. Antic[. Rom. lib. vii. cap. lxxii. 

b Sec Petit ad leges Atticas, lib. i. tit. i. 

c rVwo-if (gnosis) in the Greek signifies science or knowledge ; and 
hence came the title of Gnostics, which this presumptuous sect claimed as 
due to their superior light and penetration in divine things. 

d St. Paul mentions and condemns both these kinds of philosophy; the 
Greek, in the Epistle to the Colossians, ii. 8., and the Oriental, or Gnosis, 
in the First Epistle to Timothy, vi. 20. 



such a universal excess of barbarism and ignorance, as 
not to have some discerning men among them, who were 
sensible of the extravagance of all these religions. But, of 
these sagacious observers, some were destitute of the weight 
and authority that were necessary to remedy those over- 
grown evils ; and others wanted the will to exert them- 
selves in such a glorious cause. And the truth is, none 
of them had wisdom equal to such a solemn and arduous 
enterprise. This appears manifestly from the laborious 
but useless efforts of some of the Greek and Roman phi- 
losophers against the vulgar superstitions. These venera- 
ble sages delivered, in their writings, many sublime things 
concerning the nature of God, and the duties incumbexjt 
upon men ; they disputed with sagacity against the popu- 
lar religion ; but to all this they added such chimerical no- 
tions and such absurd subtilties of their own, as may serve 
to convince us that it belongs to God alone, and not to man 
to reveal the truth without any mixture of impurity or error. 

XX. About the time of Christ's appearance upon earth, 
there were two kinds of philosophy which prevailed among 
the civilized nations. One was the philosophy of the 
Greeks, adopted also by the Romans ; and the other, that 
of the orientals, which had a great number of votaries in 
Persia, Syria, Chaldea, Egypt, and even among the Jews. 
The former was distinguished by the simple title of 'phi- 
losophy. The latter was honoured with the more pompous 
appellation of science or knowledge,* since those who 
embraced the latter sect pretended to be the restorers of the 
knowledge of God, which was lost in the world. d The 
followers of both these systems, in consequence of vehe- 
ment disputes and dissentions about several points, subdi- 
vided themselves into a variety of sects. It is, however, to 
be observed, that all the sects of the oriental philosophy 
deduced their various tenets from one fundamental prin- 
ciple, which they held in common ; whereas the Greeks 
were much divided even about the first principles of science. 

As we shall have occasion hereafter to speak of the ori- 
ental philosophy, we shall confine ourselves here to the 
doctrines taught by the Grecian sages, and shall give some 
account of the various sects into which they were divided. 

XXI. Of the Grecian sects, some declared openly against 
all religion ; and others, though they acknowledged a deity, 
and admitted a religion, yet cast a cloud over the truth, 
instead of exhibiting it in its genuine beauty and lustre. 

Of the former kind were the Epicureans and Acade- 
mics. The Epicureans maintained, "That the world 
arose from chance ; that the gods (whose existence they 
did not dare to deny) neither did nor could extend their 
providential care to human affairs ; that the soul was 
mortal ; that pleasure e was to be regarded as the ulti- 
mate end of man ; and that virtue was neither worthy of 
esteem nor of choice, but with a view to its attainment." 
The Academics asserted the impossibility of arriving at 
truth, and held it uncertain, " whether the gods existed or 
not ; whether the soul was mortal or immortal ; whether 
virtue ought to be preferred to vice, or vice to virtue." 
These two sects, though they struck at the foundations of 

e The ambiguity of this word has produced many disputes in the ex- 
plication of the Epicurean system. If by pleasure be understood only 
sensual gratifications, the tenet here advanced is indisputably monstrous. 
But if it be taken in a larger sense, and extended to intellectual and 
moral objects, in what does the scheme of Epicurus, with respect to 
virtue, differ from the opinions of those Christian philosophers, who 
maintain that self-love is the only spring of all human affections and 
actions ? 



Cii.vr. I. 



THE STATE OF THE WOKLD. 



all religion, were the most numerous of all at the birth of 
Christ, and were particularly encouraged by the liberality 
of the rich, and the protection of those who were in power. 1 

XXII. We observed in the preceding section, that there 
was another kind of philosophy, hi which religion was ad- 
mitted, but which was. at the same time, deficient by the ob- 
scurity it cast upon truth. Under the philosophers of this 
class, may be reckoned the Platonists, the Stoics, and the 
followers of Aristotle, whose subtile disputations concerning 
God, religion, and the social duties, were of little solid use 
to mankind. The nature of God. as it is explained by 
Aristotle, resembles the principle that gives motion to a 
machine ; it is a nature happy in the contemplation of 
itself, and entirely regardless of human affairs ; and such 
a divinity, who differs but little from the god of Epicurus, 
cannot reasonably be the object either of love or fear. 
With respect to the doctrine of this philosopher concerning 
the human soul, it is uncertain, to say no more, whether 
he believed its immortality or not. b What then could be 
expected from such a philosophy ? could any thing solid 
and satisfactory, in favour of piety and virtue, be hoped for 
from a svstem which excluded from the universe a divine 
Providence, and insinuated the mortality of the human 
soul? 

XXin. The god of the Stoics has somewhat more ma- 
jesty than the divinity of Aristotle; nor is he represented 
by those philosophers as sitting above the starry heavens 
in a supine indolence, and a perfect inattention to the 
affairs of the universe. Yet he is described as a corporeal 
oeing, united to matter by a necessary connexion, and 
subject to the determinations of an immutable fate, so that 
neither rewards nor punishments can properly proceed 
from hirn. c The learned also know that, in the philoso- 
phy of this sect, the existence of the sold was confined to 
a certain period. Now it is manifest-, that these tenets 
remove, at once, the strongest motives to virtue, and the 
most powerful restraints upon vice; and, therefore, the 
Stoical system ma} - be considered as a body of specious 
and pompous doctrine, but, at the same time, as a body 
without nerves, or any principles of consistency and vigour. 

XXIY. Plato is generally looked upon as superior to 
all the other philosophers in wisdom ; and this eminent 
rank does not seem to have been undeservedly conferred 
upon him. He taught that the universe was governed by 
a Being, glorious in power and wisdom, and possessing 
perfect liberty and independence. He extended also the 
views of mortals beyond the grave, and showed them, in 
futurity, prospects adapted to excite their hopes, and to 

1 The Epicurean sect was, however, the more numerous of the two, as 
appears from the testimony of Cicero de Finibus, &e. lib. i. cap. vii. lib. ii. 
cap. xiv. Disput. Tusculan. lib. v. cap. x. Hence the complaint which 
Juvenal makes in his xiiith Satire, of the atheism that prevailed at 
Rome, in those excellent words : 

" Sunt in fortunae qui casibus omnia ponant, 
Et nullo credant mundum rectore moveri, 
JJatura volvente vices et lucis et anni ; 
Atque ideo intrepidi quaecunque altaria tangunt." 

b See the >iOtes upon Cudworttrs Intellectual System of the Universe, 
which Dr. Mosheim subjoined to his Latin translation of that learned 
work, vol. i. p, 66, 500 ; vol. ii. p. 1171. See also, upon the same subject, 
Moursne's Plan Theologique du Pythagorisme, torn. i. 

z Thus is the Stoical doctrine of fate generally represented, but not 
more generally than unjustly. Their fatum, when carefully and atten- 
tively examined, seems to have signified no more in the intention of the 
■wisest of that sect, than the plan of government formed originally in the 
divine mind, a plan all T wise and perfect, and from which, of consequence, 
the Supreme Being, morally speaking, can never depart ; so that, when 
Jupiter is said by the Stoics to be subject to immutable fate, this 

2 



work upon their fears. His doctrine, however, besides the 
weakness of the foundations on which it rests, and the ob- 
scurity with which it is often expressed, has other considera- 
ble defects. It represents the Supreme Creator of the world 
as destitute of many perfections, d and confined to a certain 
determinate portion of space. Its decisions, with respect 
to the soul and daemons, seem calculated to beget and 
nourish superstition. Nor will the moral plulosophy of 
Plato appear worthy of such a high degree of admiration, 
if we attentively examine and compare its various parts, 
and reduce them to their principles. 

XXV. As then, by these different sects, there were many 
tilings maintained that were highly unreasonable and ab- 
surd, and as a contentious spirit of opposition and dispute 
prevailed among them all, some men of true discernment, 
and of moderate characters, were of opinion, that none of 
these sects ought to be adhered to in all points, but that it 
was rather wise to choose and extract out of each of them 
such tenets and doctrines as were good and reasonable, 
and to abandon and reject the rest. This gave rise to a 
new form of philosophy in Egvpt, and principally at Alex- 
andria, which was called the Eclectic, whose founder, ac- 
cording to some, was Potamon, an Alexandrian, though 
this opinion is not without its difficulties. It manifestly 
appears from the testimony of Philo. the Jew. who wag 
himself one of this sect, that this philosophy was in a flou- 
rishing state at Alexandria, when our Saviour was upon 
the earth. The Eclectics held Plato hi the highest esteem, 
though they made no scruple to join, with his doctrines, 
whatever they thought conformable to reason in the tenets 
and opinions of the other philosophers/ 

XXVI. The attentive reader will easily conclude, from 
the short view which we have here given of the miserable 
state of the world at the birth of Christ, that mankind, in 
this period of darkness and corruption, stood highly in need 
of some divine teacher to convey to the mind true and cer- 
tain principles of religion and wisdom, and to recall wan- 
dering mortals to the sublime paths of piety and virtue. 
The consideration of this wretched condition of mankind 
will be also singularly useful to those who are not suffi- 
ciently acquainted with the advantages, the comforts, and 
the support which the sublime doctrines of Christianity 
are so proper to administer hi every state, relation, and cir- 
cumstance of life. A set of miserable and unthinking 
creatures treat with negligence, and sometimes with con- 
tempt, the religion of Jesus, not considering that they are 
indebted to it for all the good things which they so ungrate- 
fully enjoy. 

means no more than that he is subject to the wisdom of his own counsels, 
and ever acts in conformity with his supreme perfections. The follow- 
ing remarkable passage of Seneca, drawn from the 5th chapter of his 
book de Providentia, is sufficient to confirm the explication we have here 
given of the Stoical fate. " Me ipse omnium conditor et rector scripsit 
quidem fata, sed sequitur. Semper paret, semel jussit." 

d This accusation seems to be carried too far by Dr. Mosheim. It is not 
strictly true, that the doctrine of Plato represents the Supreme Being as 
destitute of many perfections. On the contrary, all the divine perfec- 
tions are frequendy acknowleded by that philosopher. What probably 
gave occasion to this animadversion of our learned author, was the erro- 
neous notion of Plato, concerning the invincible malignity and corrup- 
i tion of matter, which the divine power had not been sufficient to reduce 
I entirely to order. Though this notion is, indeed, injurious to the omni- 
! potence of God, it is not sufficient to justify the censure now under con- 
j sideration. 

e There is an ample account of the. defects of the Platonic philosophy 
in a work entitled Defense des Peres accuses de Platonisme, par Franc. 
I Baltus; but there is more learning than accuracy in that performance. 
' f See Godof. Olearius de PhilosophiaEclectica, Jac. Brucker, and others. 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Civil and Religious State of the Jewish 
Nation at the Birth of Christ. 

I. The state of the Jews was not much better than that 
of the other nations at the time of Christ's appearance in 
the world. They were governed by Herod, who was him- 
self a tributary to the Roman people. This prince was 
surnamed the Great, surely from no other circumstance 
than the greatness of his vices ; and his government was 
a yoke of the most vexatious and oppressive kind. By a 
cruel, suspicious, and overbearing temper, he drew upon 
himself the aversion of all, not excepting those who lived 
upon his bounty. By a mad luxury and an affectation of 
magnificence far above his fortune, together with the most 
profuse and immoderate largesses, he exhausted the trea- 
sures of that miserable nation. Under his administration, 
and by his means, the Roman luxury was received in Pa- 
lestine, accompanied with the worst vices of that licentious 
people." In a word, Judea, governed by Herod, groaned 
under all that corruption, which might be expected from 
the authority and the example of a prince, who, though a 
Jew in outward profession, was in point of morals and prac- 
tice, a contemner of all laws, divine and human. 

II. After the death of this tyrant, the Romans divided the 
government of Palestine among his sons. In this division, 
one half of Judea was given to Archelaus, with the title of 
exarch ; and the other was divided betAveen his brothers, 
Antipas and Philip. Archelaus was a corrupt and wicked 
prince, and followed the example of his father's crimes in 
such a manner, that the Jews, weary of his iniquitous 
administration, laid their complaints and grievances before 
Augustus, who delivered them from their oppressor, by 
banishing him from his dominions, about ten years after 
the death of Herod the Great. The kingdom of this 
dethroned prince was reduced to the form of a province, 
and added to the jurisdiction of the governor of Syria, to 
the great detriment of the JeAvs, whose heaviest calamities 
arose from this change, and whose final destruction was 
its undoubted effect in the appointment of Providence. 

III. However severe was the authority which the Ro- 
mans exercised over the Jews, it did not extend to the en- 
tire suppression of their civil and religious privileges. — 
The Jews were, in some measure, governed by their own 
laws ; and they were tolerated in the enjoyment of the re- 
ligion they had received from the glorious founder of their 
church and state. The administration of religious cere- 
monies was committed, as before, to the high priest, and 
to the sanhedrim, to the former of whom the priests and 
Levites were in the usual subordination ; and the form of 
outward worship, except in a very few points, had suffered 
no visible change. But, on the other hand, it is impossible 
to express the inquietude and disgust, the calamities and 
vexations, which this unhappy nation suffered from the 
presence of the Romans, whom their religion obliged them 
to look upon as a polluted and idolatrous people, and in a 
more particular manner, from the avarice and cruelty of 
the praetors and the frauds and extortions of the publi- 
cans ; so that, all things considered, the condition of those 

» See, on this subject, Christ. Noldii Historia Idumaea, which is an- 
nexed to Havercamp's edition of Josephus, vol. ii. p. 333. See also Bas- 
nage, Histoire Des Juifs, torn. i. part. i. — Noris, Cenotaph. Pisan. — Pri- 
deaux, History of the Jews. — Cellarius, Historia Herodum, in the first 

Eart of his Academical Dissertations, and, above all, Josephus the Jewish j 
istorian. 



who lived under the government of the other sons 0/ 
Herod, was much more supportable than the state of those 
who were immediately subject to the Roman jurisdiction. 

IV. It was not, however, from the Romans alone, that 
the calamities of this miserable people proceeded. Their 
own rulers multiplied their vexations, and hindered them 
from enjoying any little comforts that were left to them by 
the Roman magistrates. The leaders of the people, and 
the chief priests, were, according to the account of Jose- 
phus, profligate wretches, who had purchased their places 
by bribes, or by acts of iniquity, and who maintained their 
ill acquired authority bj r the most flagitious and abomina 
ble crimes. The subordinate and inferior members were 
infected Avith the corruption of the head ; the priests, and 
those who possessed any shadoAv of authority, Avere disso- 
lute _and abandoned to the highest degree ; Avhile the 
people, seduced by these corrupt examples, ran headlong 
into every sort of iniquity, and by their endless seditions, 
robberies, and extortions, armed against them both the 
justice of God and the vengeance of men. 

V. Two religions flourished at this time in Palestine, 
viz. the Jewish and the Samaritan, Avhose respective fol- 
loAvers beheld those of the opposite sect with the utmost 
aversion. The Jewish religion stands exposed to our view 
in the books of the Old Testament ; but, at the time of 
Christ's appearance, it had lost much of its original na- 
ture and of its primitive aspect. Errors of a very perni- 
cious kind had infected the whole body of the people, and 
the more learned part of the nation were divided upon 
points of the highest consequence. All looked for a deli 
verer, but not for such a one as God had promised. In- 
stead of a meek and spiritual Saviour, they expected a 
formidable and Avarlike prince, to break off their chains, 
and set them at liberty from the Roman yoke. All re- 
garded the whole of religion, as consisting in the rites ap- 
pointed by Moses, and in the performance of some exter- 
nal acts of duty towards the Gentiles. They were all hor 
ribly unanimous in excluding from the hopes of eternal 
life all the other nations of the world ; and, as a conse- 
quence of this odious system, they treated them with the 
utmost rigour and inhumanity, when any occasion was of- 
fered. And, besides these corrupt and vicious principles, 
there preA T ailed among them several absurd and supersti- 
tious notions concerning the divine nature, invisible powers, 
magic, &c. which they had partly brought with them from 
the Babylonian captivity, and partly derived from the 
Egyptians, Syrians, and Arabians, who lived in their 
neighbourhood. 

VI. Religion had not a better fate among the learned 
than among the multitude. The supercilious doctors, who 
vaunted then profound knowledge of the law, and their 
deep science in spiritual and divine things, were constantly 
shoAving their fallibility and their ignorance by their reli- 
gious differences, and were divided into a great variety of 
sects. Of these sects, three in a great measure eclipsed the 
rest, both by the number of their adherents, and also by 
the weight and authority which they acquired. These 
were the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. b 

*> Besides these more illustrious sects, there were several of inferior 
note, which prevailed among the Jews at the time of Christ's appear- 
ance. The Herodians are mentioned by the sacred writers, the Gaulo- 
nites by Josephus, and others by Epiphanius and Hegesippus in Eusebi- 
us : and we cannot reasonably look upon all these sects as fictitious. 



Chap. II. 



THE STATE OF THE JEWS. 



There is frequent mention made of the two former in the 
sacred writings ; but the knowledge of the rites and doc- 
trines of the last, is to be derived from Josephus. Philo, and 
other historians. These three illustrious sects agreed in 
the fundamental principles of the Jewish religion, and, at 
the same time, were involved in endless disputes upon 
points of the highest importance, and about matters in which 
the salvation of mankind was directly concerned ; and 
their controversies could not but be highly detrimental to 
the rude and illiterate multitude, as every one must easily 
perceive. 

YII. It may not be improper to mention here some of the 
principal matters that were debated among these famous 
sects. A main point of controversy was, whether the writ- 
ten law alone was of divine authority. The Pharisees add- 
ed to this law another, which had been received by oral tra- 
dition. This the Sadducees and Essenes rejected as o'f no 
authority, and adhered to the written law as the only divine 
rule of obedience. They differed also in their opinions 
concerning the true sense of the law. For, while the Pha- 
risees attributed to the sacred text a double sense, one of 
which was obvious, regarding only the words, and another 
mysterious, relating to the intimate nature of the things 
expressed ; and while the Sadducees maintained that no- 
thing farther was delivered by the law, than that which was 
contained in the signification of the words ; the Essenes, 
at least the greatest part of that sect, entertained an opi- 
nion different from both of these. They asserted, in their 
jargon, that the words of the law were absolutely void of 
all power, and that the things expressed by them, were the 
images of holy and celestial objects. These litigious sub- 
tilties and unintelligible wranglings, about the nature and 
sense of the divine word, were succeeded by a controversy 
of the greatest moment, concerning the rewards and pu- 
nishments of the law, particularly with respect to their ex- 
tent. The Pharisees were of opinion, that these rewards 
and punishments extended both to the soul and body, and 
that their duration was prolonged beyond the limits of this 
transitory state. The Sadducees assigned to them the same 
period that concludes this mortal life. The Essenes dif- 
fered from both, and maintained that future rewards and 
punishments extended to the soul alone, and not to the 
body, which they considered as a mass of malignant matter, 
and as the prison of the immortal spirit. 

VIH. These differences, in matters of such high import- 
ance, among the three famous sects above mentioned, pro- 
duced none of those injurious and malignant effects which 
are too often seen to arise from religious controversies. — 
But such as have any acquaintance with the history of 
these times, will not be so far deceived by this specious ap- 
pearance of moderation, as to attribute it to noble or gene- 
rous principles. They will look through the fair outside, 
and see that mutual fears were the latent cause of this 
apparent charity and reciprocal forbearance. The Sad- 
ducees enjoyed the favour and protection of the great : the 
Pharisees, on the other hand, were exceedingly high in 
the esteem of the multitude ; and hence they were both 
secured against the attempts of each other, and lived in 
peace, notwithstanding the diversity of their religious 
sentiments. The government of the Romans contributed 
also to the maintenance of this mutual toleration and 

» See the Annotations of Holstenius upon Porphyry's Life of Pytha- 
goras, p. 11. of Kuster's edition. 



tranquillity, as they were ever ready to suppress and pu- 
nish whatever had the appearance of tumult and sedition, 
We may add to all this, that the Sadducean principles 
rendered that sect naturally averse to altercation and tu- 
mult. Libertinism has for its objects ease and pleasure, 
and chooses rather to slumber in the arms of a fallacious 
security, than to expose itself to the painful activity, 
which is required both in the search and in the defence 
of truth. 

IX. The Essenes had little occasion to quarrel with 
the other sects, as they dwelt generally in a rural solitude, 
far removed from the view and commerce of men. — This 
singular sect, which was spread abroad through Syria, 
Egypt, and the neighbouring countries, maintained, that 
religion consisted wholly in contemplation and silence. — 
By a rigorous abstinence also, and a variety of penitential 
exercises and mortifications, which they seem to have 
borrowed from the Egyptians, 1 they endeavoured to arrive 
at still higher degrees of excellence in virtue. There pre- 
vailed, however, among the members of this sect, a consi- 
derable difference both in point of opinion and discipline. — 
Some passed their lives in a state of celibacy, and employ- 
ed their time in educating the children of others. Some 
embraced the state of matrimony, which they considered 
as lawful ; when contracted with the sole view cf propa- 
gating the species, and not to satisfy the demands of lust. 
Those of the Essenes who dwelt in Syria, held the possi- 
bility of appeasing the Deity by sacrifices, though in a 
manner quite different from that of the Jews ; by which, 
however, it appears that they had not utterly rejected the 
literal sense of the Mosaic law. But those who wandered 
in the deserts of Egypt were of very different sentiments ; 
they maintained, that no offering was acceptable to God 
but that of a serene and composed mind, intent on the 
contemplation of divine things ; and hence it is manifest 
that they looked upon the law of Moses as an allegorical 
system of spiritual and mysterious truths, and renounced 
in its explication all regard to the outward letter. b 

X. The Therapeutae, of whom Philo the Jew makes 
particular mention in his treatise concerning contempla- 
tive life, are supposed to have been a branch of this sect. 
From this notion arose the division of the Essenes into 
theoretical and practical. The former of these were 
wholly devoted to contemplation, and are the same with 
the Therapeutae, while the latter employed a part of their 
time in the performance of the duties of active life. 
Whether this division be accurate or not, is a point which 
I will not pretend to determine. But I see nothing in the 
laws or manners of the Therapeutae, that should lead us 
to consider them as a branch of the Essenes ; nor, indeed, 
has Philo asserted any such thing. There may have been, 
surely, many other fanatical tribes among the Jews, besides 
that of the Essenes ; nor should a resemblance of princi- 
ples always induce us to make a coalition of sects. It is, 
however, certain, that the Therapeutae were neither Chris- 
tians nor Egyptians, as some have erroneously imagined. 
They were undoubtedly Jews : they gloried in that title, 
and styled themselves, with particular affectation, the true 
disciples of Moses, though their manner of life was equal- 
ly repugnant to the institutions of that great lawgiver 
and to the dictates of right reason, and showed them to 



b See Mosheim's observations on a small treatise, written by die learn- 
ed Cudworth, concerning the true notion of the Lord's Supper. 



8 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1. 



be a- tribe of melancholy and wrong-headed enthusi- 
asts." 

XI. None of these sects, indeed, seemed to have the in- 
terests of real and true piety at heart ; nor were their prin- 
ciples and discipline at all adapted to the advancement of 
pure and substantial virtue. The Pharisees courted popu- 
lar applause by a vain ostentation of pretended sanctity, and 
an austere method of living, while, in reality, they were 
strangers to true holiness, and were inwardly defiled with 
the most criminal dispositions, with which our Saviour fre- 
quently reproaches them. They also treated with greater 
veneration the commandments and traditions of men, 
than the sacred precepts and laws of God. b The Saddu- 
cees, by denying a future state of rewards and punish- 
ments, removed, at once, the most powerful incentives to 
virtue, and the most effectual restraints upon vice, and thus 
gave new vigour to every sinful passion, and a full encou- 
ragement to the indulgence of every irregular desire. As 
to the Essenes,they were a fanatical and superstitious tribe, 
who placed religion in a certain sort of seraphic indolence, 
and looking upon piety to God as incompatible with any 
social attachment to men, dissolved, by this pernicious doc- 
trine, all the great bonds of human society. 

XII. While such darkness, such errors and dissensions, 
prevailed among those who assumed the character and 
authority of persons distinguished by their superior sanctity 
and wisdom, it will not be difficult to imagine, how totally 
corrupt the religion and morals of the multitude must have 
been. They were, accordingly, sunk in the most deplora- 
ble ignorance of God and of divine things, and had no no- 
ion of any other way of rendering themselves acceptable 
o the Supreme Being, than by sacrifices, ablutions, and 

the other external ceremonies of the Mosiac law. Hence 
proceeded that laxity of manners, and that profligate wick- 
edness, which prevailed among the Jews during Christ's 
ministry upon earth ; and hence the Divine Saviour com- 
pares that people to a flock of sheep which wandered with- 
out a shepherd, and their doctors to men who, though 
deprived of sight, yet pretended to show the way to 
others. 1 

XIII. To all these corruptions, both in point of doctrine 
and practice, which reigned among the Jews at the time 
of Christ's coming, we may add the attachment which ma- 
ny of them discovered to the tenets of the oriental philoso- 
phy concerning the origin of the world, and to the doctrine 
of the Cabbala, which was undoubtedly derived from that 
system. That considerable numbers of the Jews had im- 
bibed the errors of this fantastic theory, evidently appears 
both from the books of the New Testament, and from the 
ancient history of the Christian church, d and it is also cer- 
tain, that many of the Gnostic sects were founded by Jews. 
Those among that degenerate people, who adopted this 
chimerical philosophy, must have widely differed from the 
rest in their opinions concerning the God of the Old Tes- 
tament, the orgin of the world, the character and doctrine 
of Moses, and the nature and ministry of the Messiah, 
since they maintained that the creator of this world was a 
being different from the Supreme God, and that his do- 



1 The principal writers, who have given accounts of the Therapeutae, 
are mentioned by Jo. Albert Fabricius, in the fourth chapter of his Lux 
Salutaris Evangelii toto orbe exoriens. 

b Matt, xxiii. 13—30. 

c Matt. x. 6 ; xv. 24. John ix. 39. 

d See Joh. Chr. Wolf. Biblioth. Ebraica, vol. ii. lib. vii. cap. i. sect. ix. 



minion over the human race was to be destroyed by the 
Messiah. Every one must see that this enormous system 
was fruitful of errors, destructive of the very foundations 
of Judaism. 

XIV. If any part of the Jewish religion was less disfi- 
gured and corrupted than the rest, it was, certainly, the form 
of external worship, which was established by the law of 
Moses. And yet many learned men have observed, that 
a great variety of rites were introduced into the service of 
the temple, of which no traces are to be found in the sacred 
writings. These additional ceremonies manifestly proceed- 
ed from those changes and revolutions which rendered 
the Jews more conversant with the neighbouring nations, 
than they had formerly been ; for, when they saw the sa- 
cred" rites of the Greeks and Romans, they were pleased 
with several of the ceremonies that were used in the wor- 
ship of the heathen deities, and did not hesitate to adopt 
them in the service of the true God, and add them as or- 
naments to the rites which they had received by divine ap- 
pointment. 6 

XV. But whence arose such enormous degrees of cor- 
ruption in that very nation which God had, in a peculiar 
manner, separated from an idolatrous world to be the de- 
pository of divine truth ? Various causes may be assigned, 
in order to give a satisfactory account of this matter. In 
the first place, it is certain, that the ancestors of those Jews, 
who lived in the time of our Saviour, had brought, from 
Chaldea and the neighbouring countries, many extrava- 
gant and idle fancies, which were utterly unknown to the 
original founders of the nation. f The conquest of Asia 
by Alexander the Great, was also an event from which 
we may date a new accession of errors to the Jewish sys- 
tem, since, in consequence of that revolution, the manners 
and opinions of the Greeks began to spread themselves 
among the Persians, Syrians, Arabians, and likewise among 
the Jews, who before that period, were entirely unacquaint- 
ed with letters and philosophy. We may, farther, rank 
among the causes that contributed to corrupt the religion 
and manners of the Jews, their voyages into the adjacent 
countries, especially Egypt and Phoenicia, in pursuit of 
wealth ; for, with the treasures of those corrupt and super- 
stitious nations, they brought home also their pernicious 
errors, and their idle fictions, which were imperceptibly 
blended with their religious system. Nor ought we to 
omit, in this enumeration, the pestilential influence of the 
wicked reigns of Herod and his sons, and the enormous 
instances of idolatry, error, and licentiousness, which this 
unhappy people had constantly before their eyes in the 
religion and manners of the Roman governors and soldiers, 
which, no doubt, contributed much to the progress of their 
national superstition and corruption of manners. We 
might add here many other facts and circumstances, to 
illustrate more fully the matter under consideration ; but 
these will be readily suggested to such as have the least 
acquaintance with the Jewish history from the time oi 
the Maccabees. 

XVI. It is indeed worthy of observation, that, corrupted 
as the Jews were with the errors and superstitions of the 

e See the learned work of Spencer, De Legibus HebrKorum, in th« 
fourth book of which he treats expressly of those Hebrew rites which 
were borrowed from the Gentile worship. 

f See Gale's observations on Jamblichus, de Mysteriis JEgyptiorum, 
p. 206. Josephus acknowledges the same thing in his Jewish Antiqui 
ties, book iii. chap. vii. sect. 2. 



Chap. III. 



THE STATE OF THE JEWS. 



neighbouring nations, they still preserved a zealous attach- 
ment to the law of Moses, and were exceedingly careful 
that it should not suffer any diminution of its credit, or lose 
the least degree of the veneration due to its divine autho- 
rity. Hence synagogues were erected throughout the pro- 
vince of Judea, in which the people assembled for the pur- 
poses of divine worship, and to hear their doctors interpret 
and explain the holy scriptures. There were besides, in 
the more populous towns, public schools, in which learn- 
ed men were appointed to instruct the youth in the 
knowledge of divine things, and also in other branches of 
science. 1 And it is beyond all doubt, that these institu- 
tions contributed to maintain the law in its primitive au- 
thority,, and to stem the torrent of abounding iniquity. 

XVII. The Samaritans, who celebrated divine worship 
in the temple that was built on mount Gerizim, lay un- 
der the burthen of the same evils that oppressed the Jews, 
Avith whom they lived in the bitterest enmity, and were 
also, like them, highly instrumental in increasing their 
own calamities. We learn from the most authentic his- 
tories of those times, that the Samaritans suffered as much 
as the Jews, from troubles and divisions fomented by the 
intrigues of factious spirits, though their religious sects 
were yet less numerous than those of the latter. Their 
religion, also, was much more corrupted than that of the 
Jews, as Christ himself declares in his conversation with 
the woman of Samaria, though it appears, at the same 
time, that their notions concerning the offices and minis- 
try of the Messiah, were much more just and conforma- 
ble to truth, than those which were entertained at Jerusa- 
lem. b Upon the whole, it is certain that the Samaritans 
mixed the profane errors of the Gentiles with the sacred 
doctrines of the Jews, and were excessively corrupted by 
the idolatrous customs of the pagan nations/ 

XVIII. The Jews multiplied so prodigiously, that the 
narrow bounds of Palestine were no longer sufficient to 
contain them. They poured, therefore, their increasing 
numbers into the neighbouring countries with such rapi- 
dity, that, at the time of Christ's birth, there was scarcely a 
province in the empire, where they were not found carry- 
ing on commerce and exercising other lucrative arts. 
They were maintained, in foreign countries, against in- 
jurious treatment and violence, by the special edicts and 
protection of the magistrates ; d and this, indeed, was abso- 
lutely necessary, since, in most places, the remarkable 
difference in their religion and manners, from those of 
the other nations, exposed them to the hatred and indigna- 
tion of the ignorant and bigoted multitude. AH this ap- 
pears to have been most singularly and wisely directed 
by the adorable hand of an interposing Providence, to the 
end that this people, which was the sole depository of the 



» See Camp. Vitringa. de Synagoga vetere, lib. iii. cap. v. and lib. i. 
cap. v. vii. 

b Christ insinuates, on the contrary, in the strongest manner, the supe- 
riority of the Jewish worship to that of the Samaritans, John iv. 22. See 
also, on this head, 2 Kings xvii. 29. The passage to which Dr. Mosheim 
refers, as a proof that the Samaritans had juster notions of the Messiah 
than the Jews, is the 25th verse of the chapter of St. John already cited, 
where the woman of Samaria says to Jesus, " I know that Messiah com- 
eth, which is called Christ ; when he is come, he will tell us all things." 
But this passage seems much too vague to justify the conclusion of our 
learned historian. Besides, the confession of one person who may pos- 
sibly have had some singular and extraordinary advantages, is not a 
proof that the nation in general entertained the same sentiments, espe- 
cially since we know that the Samaritans had corrupted the service of 
God by a profane mixture of the grossest idolatries. 

3 



true religion, and of the knowledge of one Supreme God, 
being spread abroad through the whole earth, might be 
every where, by the force of example, a reproach to su- 
perstition, might contribute in some measure to check it, 
and thus prepare the way for that yet fuller discovery of 
divine truth, which was to shine upon the world from the 
ministry and Gospel of the Son of God. 

CHAPTER IH. 

Concerning the Life and Actions of Jesus Christ. 

I. The errors and disorders that we have now been 
considering, required something far above human wisdom 
and power to dispel and remove them, and to deliver 
mankind from the miserable state to which they were re- 
duced by them. Therefore, towards the conclusion of the 
reign of Herod the Great, the Son of God descended upon 
earth, and, assuming the human nature, appeared to men 
under the sublime characters of an infallible teacher, an 
all-sufficient mediator, and a spiritual and immortal 
king. The place of his birth was Bethlehem, in Pales- 
tine. The year in which it happened, has not hitherto 
been ascertained, notwithstanding the deep and laborious 
researches of the learned^. There is nothing surprising 
in this, when we consider that the first Christians labour- 
ed under the same difficulties, and were divided in their 
opinions concerning the tune of Christ's birth. e That 
which appears most probable, is, that it happened about 
a year and six months before the death of Herod, in the 
year of Rome 748 or 749. f The uncertainty, however, 
of this point, is of no great consequence. We know that 
the Sun of Righteousness has shined upon the Avorld ; 
and though we cannot fix the precise period in Avhich he 
arose, this will not preclude us from enjoying the direction 
and influence of his vital and salutary beams. 

II. Four inspired writers, Avho have transmitted to us 
an account of the life and actions of Jesus Christ, mention 
particularly his birth, lineage, family, and parents ; but 
they say very little respecting his infancy and his early 
youth. Not long after his birth, he was conducted by 
his parents into Egypt, that he might be out of the reach 
of Herod's cruelty, s At the age of twelve years, he dis- 
puted in the temple, Avith the most learned of the JeAvish 
doctors, concerning the sublime truths of religion ; and 
the rest of his life, until the thirtieth year of his age, was 
spent in the obscurity of a private condition, and conse 
crated to the duties of filial obedience. 1 ' This is all that 
the wisdom of God hath permitted us to knoAV, Avith cer- 
tainty, of Christ, before he entered upon his public mi- 
nistry ; nor is the story of his having folloAved the trade of 
his adoptive father Joseph built upon any sure foundation. 

c Those who desire an exact account of the principal authors who 
have written concerning the Samaritans, will find it in die learned work 
of Jo. Gottlob Carpzovius, entitled, Critica S. Vet. Testam. part ii. 
cap. iv. 

d See the account published at Leyden, in 1712, by James Gronovius, 
of the Roman and Asiatic edicts in favour of the Jews, allowing them 
the free and secure exercise of their religion in all the cities of Asia Mi- 
nor. 

e The learned John Albert Fabricius has collected all the opinions of 
the learned, concerning the year of Christ's birth, in his Bibliograph, 
Antiquar. cap. vii. sect. x. 

f Matt. iii. 2, &c. John i. 22, &c. 

K Matt. ii. 13. 

>> Luke ii. 51, 52. 



10 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1 



There have been, indeed, several writers, who, either 
through the levity of a wanton imagination, or with a view 
of exciting the admiration of the multitude, have invented 
a series of the most extravagant and ridiculous fables, in 
order to give an account of this obscure part of the Sa- 
' viour's life. 1 

III. Jesus began his public ministry in the thirtieth 
year of his age ; and, to render it more solemn and affect- 
ing to the Jews, a man, whose name was John, the Son of 
a Jewish priest, a person of great gravity also, and much 
respected on account of the austere dignity of his life and 
manners, was commanded by God to proclaim to the 
people the coming of the long promised Messiah, of whom 
this extraordinary man called himself the forerunner. 
Filled with a holy zeal and a divine fervour, he cried aloud 
to the Jews, exhorting them to depart from their trans- 
gressions, and to purify their hearts, that they might thus 
partake of the blessings which the Son of God was now 
come to offer to the world. The exhortations of this 
respectable messenger were not without effect ; and those 
who, moved by his solemn admonitions, had formed 
the resolution of correcting their evil dispositions, and 
amending their lives, were initiated into the kingdom 
of the Redeemer by the ceremony of immersion, or bap- 
tism. b Christ himself, before he began his ministry, 
desired to be solemnly baptized by John in the waters of 
Jordan, that he might not, in any point, neglect to answer 
the demands of the Jewish law. 

IV. It is not necessary to enter here into a detail of the 
life and actions of Jesus Christ. All Christians must be 
perfectly acquainted with them. They must know, that, 
during the space of three years, and amidst the deepest 
trials of affliction and distress, he instructed the Jewish 
nation in the will and counsels of the Most High, and 
omitted nothing in the course of his ministry, that could 
contribute either to gain the multitude or to charm the 
wise. Every one knows, that his life was a continued 
scene of perfect sanctity, of the purest and most active 
virtue ; not only without spot, but also beyond the reach of 
suspicion ; and it is also well known, that by miracles of 
the most stupendous kind, and not more stupendous than 
salutary and beneficent, he displayed to the universe the 
truth of that religion which he brought with him from 
above, and demonstrated in the most illustrious manner 
the reality of his divine commission. 

V. As this system of religion was to be propagated to 
the extremities of the earth, it was necessary that Christ 
should choose a certain number of persons to accompany 
him constantly through the whole course of his ministry ; 
that thus they might be faithful and respectable witnesses 
of the sanctity of his life, and the grandeur of his miracles, 
to the remotest nations ; and also transmit to the latest 
posterity a genuine account of his sublime doctrines, and 
of the nature and end of the Gospel dispensation. There- 
fore Jesus chose, out of the multitude that attended his dis- 
courses, twelve persons whom he separated from the rest 



a See the account which the above mentioned Albert Fabricius has 
given of these romantic triflers, in his Codex Apocryphus Novi Testa- 
rrtenti, torn. i. 

•> Matt. iii. 6 John i. 22. 

c 1 Cor. i. 21. d Matt. x. 7. e Luke x. i. 

1 Matt. xix. 28. Luke xxii. 30. 

6 Matt. x. 5, 6 ; xv. 24. 

h Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. i. xiii. — Jo. Albert Fabric. Codex Apocry- 
phus N. T. torn. i. p. 317. 



by the name of Apostles. These men were illiterate, poor 
and of mean extraction ; and such alone were truly pro- 
per to answer his views. He avoided making use of the 
ministry of persons endowed with the advantages of for- 
tune and birth, or enriched with the treasures of eloquence 
and learning, lest the fruits of this embassy, and the pro- 
gress of the Gospel, should be attributed to human and 
natural causes." These apostles were sent but once to 
preach to the Jews during the life of Christ.* He chose 
to keep them about his own person, that they might be 
thoroughly instructed in the affairs of his kingdom. That 
the multitude, however, might not be destitute of teachers 
to enlighten them with the knowledge of the truth, Christ 
appointed seventy disciples to preach the glad tidings of 
eternal life throughout the whole province of Judea; e 
. VI. The researches of the learned have been employed 
to find out the reason of Christ's fixing the number of the 
apostles to twelve, and that of the disciples to seventy ; and 
various conjectures have been applied to the solution of 
this question. But since it is manifest from his own 
words/ that he intended the number of the twelve apostles 
as an allusion to that of the tribes of Israel, it can scarcely 
be doubted, that he was willing to insinuate by this appoint- 
ment that he was the supreme lord and high-priest of the 
twelve tribes into which the Jewish nation was divided ; 
and, as the number of disciples answers evidently to that 
of the senators, of whom the council of the people (or the 
sanhedrim) was composed, there is a high degree of proba- 
bility in the conjecture of those, who think that Christ, by 
the choice of the seventy, designed to admonish the Jews 
that the authority of their sanhedrim was now at an end, 
and that all power, with respect to religious matters, was 
vested in him alone. 

VII. The ministry of Jesus was confined to the Jews ; 
nor, while he remained upon earth, did he permit his 
apostles or disciples to extend then labours beyond this 
distinguished nations At the same time, if we consider 
the illustrious acts of mercy and omnipotence that were 
performed by Christ, it will be natural to conclude that his 
fame must have been very soon spread abroad in other 
countries. We learn from writers of no small note, that 
Abgarus, king of Edessa, being seized with a severe and 
dangerous illness, wrote to our blessed Lord to implore his 
assistance; and that Jesus not only sent him a gracious 
answer, but also accompanied it with his picture, as a mark 
of his esteem for that pious prince. 11 These letters, it is 
said, are still extant. But they are justly looked upon as 
fictitious by most writers, Avho also go yet farther, and treat 
the whole story of Abgarus as entirely fabulous, and un- 
worthy of credit.' I will not pretend to assert the genu- 
ineness of these letters ; but I see no reason of sufficient 
weight to destroy the credibility of that story which is sup- 
posed to have given occasion to them. k 

VIII. A great number of the Jews, influenced by those 
illustrious marks of a divine authority and power, which 
shone forth in the ministry and actions of Christ, regarded 



' See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, vol. i. cap. xviii. — also Theoph, 
Sigef. Bayerus, Historia Edessena et Osrocna, lib. iii. — Jos. Simon As- 
semanus, Biblioth. Oriental. Clement. Vatican, torn. i. 

k There is no author who has discussed this question (concerning the 
authenticity of the letters of Christ and Abgarus, and the truth of the 
whole story) with such learning' and judgment, as the late Mr. Jones, 
in the second volume of his excellent work, entitled, A New and Full 
Method of settling the Canonical Authority of the New Testament. 
Notwithstanding the opinions of such celebrated names, as Parker, Cave, 



Chap. IV. 



PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 



11 



tiira as the Son of God, the true Messiah. The rulers 
of the people, and more especially the chief priests and 
Pharisees, whose licentiousness and hypocrisy he censur- 
ed with a noble arid generous freedom, laboured with suc- 
cess, by the help of their passions, to extinguish in their 
breasts the conviction of his celestial mission; or at least, 
to suppress the effects it was adapted to produce upon their 
conduct. Fearing also that his ministry might tend to 
diminish their credit, and to deprive them of the advan- 
tages they derived from the impious abuse of their authori- 
ty in religious matters, they laid snares for his life, which, 
for a considerable time, were without effect. They suc- 
ceeded, at length, by the infernal treason of an apostate 
disciple, by the treachery of Judas, who discovering the 
retreat which his divine master had chosen for the pur- 
poses of meditation and repose, delivered him into the mer- 
ciless hands of a brutal soldiery. 

IX. In consequence of this, Jesus was produced as a 
criminal before the Jewish high-priest and sanhedrim, be- 
ing accused of having violated the law, and blasphemed 
the majesty of God. Dragged thence to the tribunal of 
Pdate the Roman preetor, he was charged with seditious 
enterprises, and with treason against Ceesar. Both these 
accusations were so evidently false, and destitute even of 
every appearance of truth, that they must have been 
rejected by any judge, who acted upon the principles 
of common equity. But the clamours of an enraged 
populace, inflamed by the impious instigations of their 
priests and rulers, intimidated Pilate, and engaged him, 
though with the utmost reluctance, and in opposition to 
the dictates of his conscience, to pronounce a capital sen- 
tence against Christ. The Redeemer of mankind beha- 
ved with inexpressible dignity under this heavy trial. As 
the end of his mission was to make expiation for the sins 
of men, so when all things were ready, and when he had 
finished the work of his glorious ministry, he placidly sub- 
mitted to the death of the cross, and, with a serene and 
voluntary resignation, committed his spirit into the hands 
of the Father. 

X. After Jesus had remained three days in the sepulchre, 
he resumed that life which he had voluntarily laid dowm ; 
and, rising from the dead, declared to the universe, by that 
triumphant act, that the divine justice was satisfied, and 
the paths of salvation and immortality were rendered 
accessible to the human race. He conversed with his dis- 
ciples during forty days after his resurrection, and employ- 
ed that time in instructing them more fully with regard to 
the nature of his kingdom. Many wise and important 
reasons prevented his showing himself publicly at Jerusa- 
lem, to confound the malignity and unbelief of his ene- 
mies. He contented himself with manifesting the certainty 
of his glorious resurrection to a sufficient number of faith- 
ful and credible witnesses, being aware that, if he should 
appear in public, those malicious unbelievers, who had 
formerly attributed his miracles to the power of magic, 



would represent his resurrection as a phantom, or vision, 
produced by the influence of infernal powers. After hav- 
ing remained upon earth during the space of time above 
mentioned, and given to his disciples a divine commission 
to preach the glad tidings of salvation and immortality to 
the human race, he ascended into heaven, in their pre- 
sence, and resumed the enjoyment of that glory which he 
had possessed before the worlds were created. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the prosperous Events that happened to 
the Church during this Century. 
I. Jesus, having ascended into heaven, soon showed 
the afflicted disciples, that, though invisible to mortal eyes, 
he was still their omnipotent protector, and their benevo- 
lent guide. About fifty days after his departure from them 
he gave them the first proof of that majesty and power to 
which he was exalted, by the effusion of the Holy Ghost 
upon them according to his promise.* The consequences 
of this grand event were surprising and glorious, infinitely 
honourable to the Christian religion, and the divine mis- 
sion of its triumphant author. For no sooner had the 
apostles received (.his precious gift, this celestial guide, than 
their ignorance w T as turned into light, their doubts into 
certainty, then fears into a firm and invincible fortitude, and 
their former backwardness into an ardent and inextin- 
■ guishable zeal, w T hich led them to undertake their sacred 
| office with the utmost intrepidity and alacrity of mind. 
; This marvellous event was attended with a variety of gifts ; 
particularly the gift of tongues, so indispensably necessary 
| to qualify the apostles to preach the Gospel to the different 
| nations. These holy apostles were also filled with a per- 
fect persuasion, founded on Christ's express promise, that 
the Divine presence would perpetually accompany them, 
and show itself by miraculous interpositions, as often as the 
state of their ministry should render this necessary. 

H. Relying upon these celestial succours, the apostles 
began then glorious ministry, by preaching the Gospel, 
according to Christ's positive command, first to the Jews, 
and by endeavouring to bring that deluded people to the 
knowledge of the truth. b Nor were their labours unsuc- 
cessful, since, in a very short time, many thousands were 
converted, by the influence of their ministry, to the Chris- 
tian faith. c From the Jews, they passed to the Samaritans, 
to wdiom they preached with such efficacy, that great num- 
bers of that nation acknowledged theMessiah. d And, when 
they had exercised their ministry, during several years, at 
Jerusalem, and brought to a sufficient degree of consistence 
and maturity the Christian churches which were founded 
in Palestine and the adjacent countries, they extended their 
views, earned the divine lamp of the Gospel to all the na- 
tions of the world, and saw their labours crowned almost 
every where, with the most abundant fruits. 

III. No sooner was Christ exalted in the heavens, than 



and Grabe, in favour of these letters, and the history to which they relate, 
Mr. Jones has offered reasons to prove the whole fictitious, which seem 
unanswerable, independent of the authorities of Rivet, Chemnitius, 
Walther, Simon, Du-Pin, Wake, Spanheim, Fabricius, and Le Clerc, 
which he opposes to the three above mentioned. It is remarkable that the 
story is not mentioned by any writer before Eusebius ; that it is little no- 
ticed by succeeding authors ; that the whole affair was unknown to 
Christ's apostles, and to tire Christians, their contemporaries, as is mani- 
fest from the early disputes about the method of receiving Gentile con- 
verts into the church, which this story, had it been true must have entirely 



decided. As to the letters, no doubt can be made of their spuriousness, 
since, if Christ had written a letter to Abgarus, it would have been a 
part of sacred Scripture, and would have been placed at the head of all 
the books of the New Testament See Lardner's Collection of Ancient 
Jewish and Heathen Testimonies, vol. i. p. 297, &c. It must be observ- 
ed in behalf of Eusebius, that he relates this story as drawn from the ar- 
chives of Edessa. 

■ Acts ii. 1, &c. 

b Luke xxiv. 47. Acts i. 8 ; xiii. 46. 

c Acts ii. 41 ; iv. 4. d Acts i. 8 j viii. 14. 



12 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



the apostles determined to render their number complete, 
as it had been fixed by their divine Master, and accordingly 
to choose in the place of Judas, who had desperately perish- 
ed by his own hands, a man endowed with such degrees 
of sanctity and wisdom, as were necessary in a station of 
such high importance. When therefore they had assem- 
bled the Christians who were then at Jerusalem, two men 
remarkable for their piety and faith, were proposed as the 
most worthy to stand candidates for this sacred office. 
These men were Matthias and Barnabas, the former of 
whom was, either by lot, (which is the most general opi- 
nion,) or by a plurality of voices of the assembly there pre- 
sent, chosen to the dignity of an apostle. a 

IV. All these apostles were men without education, and 
absolutely ignorant of letters and philosophy ; and yet in 
the infancy of the Christian church, it was necessary that 
there should be at least, some one defender of the Gospel, 
who, versed in the learned arts, might be able to combat 
the Jewish doctors and the pagan philosophers with their 
own arms. For this purpose, Jesus himself, by an ex- 
traordinary voice from heaven, called to his service a thir- 
teenth apostle, whose name was Saul (afterwards Paul,) 
and whose acquaintance both with Jewish and Grecian 
learning was very considerable. 15 This extraordinary 
man, who had been one of the most virulent enemies of 
the Christians, became their most glorious and triumphant 
defender. Independently of the miraculous gifts with 
which he was enriched, he possessed an invincible courage, 
an amazing force of genius, and a spirit of patience, which 
no fatigue could overcome, and which no sufferings or 
trials could exhaust. To these the cause of the Gospel, 
under the divine appointment, owed a considerable part of 
its rapid progress and surprising success, as the Acts of the 
Apostles, and the Epistles of St. Paul, abundantly testify. 

V. The first Christian church, founded by the apostles, 
was that of Jerusalem, the model of all those which were 
afterwards erected during the first century. This church 
was, indeed, governed by the apostles themselves, to whom 
ooth the elders, and those who were entrusted with the 
care of the poor, even the deacons, were subject. The 
people, though they had not abandoned the Jewish wor- 
ship, held, however, separate assemblies, in which they were 
instructed by the apostles and elders, prayed together, cele- 
brated the holy Supper in remembrance of Christ, of his 
death and sufferings, and the salvation offered to mankind 
through him ; and at the conclusion of these meetings, 
they testified their mutual love, partly by their liberality to 
the poor, and partly by sober and friendly repasts, which 
thence were called feasts of charity. Among the virtues 
which distinguished the rising church in this its infancy, 
that of charity to the poor and needy shone in the first rank, 
and with the brightest lustre. The rich supplied the wants 
of their indigent brethren with such liberality and readi- 
ness, that, as St. Luke tells us, among the primitive disciples 
of Christ, all things were in common.* This expression 

» Acts i. 26. b Acts ix. 1. « Acts ii. 42. d Acts ii. 44 ; iv. 32. 

• Acts v. 4. 

f This is proved with the strongest evidence by Dr. Mosheim, in a 
.lissertation concerning the true nature of that community of goods, which 
is said to have taken place in the church of Jerusalem. This learned 
discourse is to be found in the second volume of our author's incompara- 
ble work ; entitled, Dissertationes ad Historian! Ecclesiasticam pertmen- 
tes. 

e The names of the churches planted by the apostles in different coun- 
tries, are specified in a work of Phil. James Hartman, de rebus gestis 



has, however, been greatly abused, and has been made to 
signify a community of rights, goods, or possessions, than 
which interpretation nothing is more groundless or more 
false ; for, from a multitude of reasons, as well as from the 
express words of St. Peter, e it is abundantly manifest that 
the community, which is implied in mutual use and mu- 
tual liberality, is the only thing intended in this passage/ 

VI. The apostles, having finished their work at Jerusa 
lem, went to diffuse their labours among other nations, 
visited with that intent a great part of the known world, 
and in a short time planted a vast number of churches 
among the Gentiles. Several of these are mentioned in 
the sacred writings, particularly in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles ;s though these are, undoubtedly, only a small part 
of the churches which were founded, either by the apostles 
themselves, or by their disciples under their immediate 
direction. The distance of time, and the want of records, 
leave us at a loss with respect to many interesting circum- 
stances of the peregrinations of the apostles ; nor have we 
any certain or precise accounts of the limits of their voy- 
ages, of the particular countries where they sojourned, or 
of the times and places in which they finished their glo- 
rious course. The stories that are told concerning their 
arrival and exploits among the Gauls, Britons, Spaniards, 
Germans, Americans, Chinese, Indians, and Russians, are 
too romantic in their nature, and of too recent a date, to be 
received by an impartial inquirer after truth. The great- 
est part of these fables were forged after the time of Char- 
lemagne, when most of the Christian churches contended 
about the antiquity of their origin with as much vehe 
mence as the Arcadians, Egyptians, Greeks, and othei 
nations, disputed formerly about their seniority and pre 
cedence. 

VII. At the same time, the beauty and excellence ot 
the Christian religion excited the admiration of the reflect- 
ing part of mankind, wherever the apostles directed their 
course. Many, who were not willing to adopt the whole 
of its doctrines, were, nevertheless, as appears from un- 
doubted records, so struck with the account of Christ's life 
and actions, and so charmed with the sublime purity of 
his precepts, that they ranked him in the number of the 
greatest heroes, or even among the gods themselves. Great 
numbers kept with the utmost care, in their houses, pic- 
tures or images of the divine Redeemer and his apostles, 
which they treated with the highest marks of veneration 
and respect. 11 And so illustrious was the fame of his 
power after his resurrection, and of the miraculous gifts 
shed upon his apostles, that the emperor Tiberius is said 
to have proposed his being enrolled among the gods of 
Rome, which the opposition of the senate prevented from 
taking effect. Many have doubted of the truth of this 
story: there are, however, several authors of the first note 
who have declared, that the reasons alleged for its truth 
are such as have removed their doubts, and appeared to 
them satisfactory and conclusive.' 

Christianorum sub Apostolis, cap. vii. and also in that of F. Albert Fa- 
bricius, entitled, Lux Evangelii toti orbi exoriens, cap. v. 

11 This is particularly mentioned by Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. lib. vii. 
cap. xviii. and by Irenaeus, lib. i. c. xxv. 

1 See Theod. Hasaus, de decreto Tiberii, quo Christum referre vo- 
luit in numerum Deorum ; as also a very learned letter, written in de- 
fence of the truth of this fact, by the celebrated Christopher lelius, and 
published in the Bibliotheque Germanique, torn, xxxii. [We may add 
to this note of Dr. Mosheim, that the late learned professor Altmann 
published at Bern, in 1755, an ingenious pamphlet on this subject, enti- 



JlIAP. V. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



13 



VIII. When we consider the rapid progress of Chris- 
tianity among- the Gentile nations, and the poor and fee- 
ble instruments by which this great and amazing event 
was immediately effected, we must naturally have recourse 
to an omnipotent and invisible hand, as its true and proper 
cause. For, unless we suppose here a divine interposi- 
tion, how was it possible that men, destitute of all human 
aid, without credit or riches, learning or eloquence, could, 
in so short a time, persuade a considerable part of man- 
kind to abandon the religion of their ancestors ? How 
was it possible, that a handful of apostles, who, as fisher- 
men and publicans, must have been contemned by their 
own nation, and as Jews, must have been odious to all 
others, could engage the learned and the mighty, as well as 
the simple and those of low degree, to forsake their favour- 
ite prejudices, and to embrace a new religion which was 
an enemy to their corrupt passions ? And, indeed, there 
were undoubted marks of a celestial power perpetually 
attending their ministry. Their very language possessed 
an incredible energy, an amazing power of sending light 
into the understanding and conviction into the heart. To 
this were added, the commanding influence of stupendous 
miracles, the foretelling of future events, the power of dis- 
cerning the secret thoughts and intentions of the heart, a 
magnanimity superior to all difficulties, a contempt of riches 
and honours, a serene tranquillity in the face of death, 
and an invincible patience under torments still more dread- 
ful than death itself ; and all this accompanied with lives 
free from stain, and adorned with the constant practice of 
sublime virtue. Thus were the messengers of Christ, 
the heralds of his spiritual and immortal kingdom, fur- 
nished for their glorious work, as the unanimous voice 
of ancient history so loudly testifies. The event suffi- 
ciently declares this ; for, without these remarkable and 
extraordinary circumstances no rational account can be 
given of the rapid propagation of the Gospel throughout 
the woYld. 

IX. What indeed contributed still farther to this glorious 
event, was the power vested in the apostles of transmitting 
to their disciples these miraculous gifts ; for many of the 
first Christians were no sooner baptized according to 
Christ's appointment, and dedicated to the service of God 
by solemn prayer and the imposition of hands, than they 
spoke languages which they had never known or learned 
before, foretold future events, healed the sick by pronoun- 
cing the name of Jesus, restored the dead to life, and per- 
formed many things above the reach of human power. 11 
And it is no wonder if men, who had the power of com- 
municating to others these marvellous gifts, appeared great 
and respectable, wherever they exercised their glorious 
ministry. 

X Such then were the true causes of that amazing 
rapidity with which the Christian religion spread itself 
upon the earth ; and those who pretend to assign other 
reasons of this surprising event, indulge themselves in 

tied, Disquisito Historico-critica de Epistola Pontii Pilati ad Tiberium, 
qua Christi Miracula, Mors, et Resurrectio, recensebantur. This author 
makes it appear, that though the letter, which some have attributed to 
Pilate, and which is extant in several authors, be manifestly spurious, 
yet it is no less certain, that Pilate sent to Tiberius an account of the 
death and resurrection of Christ. See the Biblioth. des Sciences et des 
beaux Arts, published at the Hague, tome vi. This matter has been 
examined with his usual diligence and accuracy by the learned Dr. Lard- 
ner, in the third volume of his Collection of Jewish and Heathen Testi- 
monies to the truth of the Christian Religion. He thinks that the testi- 

No. II. - 4 « 



idle fictions, which must disgust every attentive observer 
of men and things. In vain, therefore, have some ima- 
gined, that the extraordinary liberality of the Christians 
to their poor, was a temptation to the more indolent and 
corrupt part of the multitude to embrace the Gospel. Such 
malignant and superficial reasoners do not consider, that 
those who embraced this divine religion exposed their 
lives to great danger ; nor have they attention enough to 
recollect, that neither lazy nor vicious members were suf- 
fered to remain in the society of Christians. Equally vain 
is the fancy of those, who imagine, that the profligate lives 
of the Heathen priests occasioned the conversion of many 
to Christianity ; for, though this might indeed give them 
a disgust to the religion of those unworthy ministers, j r et 
it could not, alone, attach them to that of Jesus, which 
offered them from the world no other prospects than those 
of poverty, infamy, and death. The person who could 
embrace the Gospel, solely from the motive now mentioned, 
must have reasoned in this senseless and extravagant 
manner : " The ministers of that religion which I have 
professed from my infancy, lead profligate lives : therefore, 
I will become a Christian, join myself to that body of men 
who are condemned by the laws of the state, and thus ex- 
pose my life and fortune to the most imminent danger." 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the calamitous Events that happened to 
the Church. 

I. The innocence and virtue that distinguished so emi- 
nently the lives of Christ's servants, and the spotless purity 
of the doctrine they taught, were not sufficient to defend 
them against the virulence and malignity of the Jews. 
The priests and riders of that abandoned people, not only 
loaded with injuries and reproaches the apostles of Jesus, 
and their disciples, but condemned as many of them as 
they could to death, and executed in the most irregular 
and barbarous manner their sanguinary decrees. The 
murder of Stephen, of James the Son of Zebedee, and of 
James, surnamed the Just, bishop of Jerusalem, furnish 
dreadful examples of the truth of what we here advance.' 
This odious malignity of the Jewish doctors, against the 
heralds of the Gospel, undoubtedly orginated in a secret 
apprehension that the progress of Christianity would des- 
troy the credit of Judaism, and lead to the abolition oi 
their pompous ceremonies. 

II. The Jews who lived out of Palestine, in the Roman 
provinces, did not yield to those of Jerusalem in point of 
cruelty to the innocent disciples of Christ. We learn from 
the history of the Acts of the Apostles, and other records of 
unquestionable authority, that they spared no labour, but 
zealously seized every occasion of animating the magis- 
trates against the Christians, and instigating the multitude 
to demand their destruction. The high priest of the 
nation, and the Jews who dwelt in Palestine, were instru- 

monies of Justin Martyr and Tertullian, who, in apologies for Clrristiani- 
ty, presented or at least addressed to the emperor and senate of Rome, 
or to magistrates of high authority in the empire, affirm, that Pilate sent 
to Tiberius an account of the death and resurrection of Christ, deservg 
some regard ; though some writers, and particularly Orosius, have made 
such alterations and additions in the original narration of Tertullian, as 
tend to diminish the credibility of the whole.] 

u See Pfanner's learned treatise, De Charismatibus sive Donis miracu- 
losis antique Ecclesise, published at Francfort, 1683. 

b The martyrdom of Stephen is recorded in the Acts of die Aposdes, 



J 



14 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1 



mental in exciting the rage of these foreign Jews against 
the infant church, by sending messengers to exhort them, 
not only to avoid all intercourse with the Christians, but 
also to persecute them in the most vehement manner." 
For this inhuman order, they endeavoured to find out the 
most plausible pretexts ; and, therefore, they gave out, that 
the Christians were enemies to the Roman emperor, since 
they acknowledged the authority of a certain person whose 
name was Jesus, whom Pilate had punished capitally as 
a malefactor by a most righteous sentence, and on whom, 
nevertheless, they conferred the royal dignity. These 
perfidious insinuations had the intended effect, and the 
rage of the Jews against the Christians was conveyed from 
father to son, from age to age ; so that the church of Christ 
had, in no period, more bitter and desperate enemies than 
the very people, to whom the immortal Saviour was more 
especially sent. 

III. The Supreme Judge of the world did not suffer the 
barbarous conduct of this perfidious nation to go unpunish- 
ed. The most signal marks of divine justice pursued 
them ; and the cruelties which they had exercised upon 
Christ and his disciples, were dreadfully avenged. The 
God, who had for so many ages protected the Jews with 
an outstretched arm, withdrew his aid. He permitted Je- 
rusalem, with its famous temple, to be destroyed by Ves- 
pasian and his son Titus, an innumerable multitude of this 
devoted people to perish by the sword, and the greatest 
part of those that remained to groan under the yoke of a 
severe bondage. Nothing can be more affecting than the 
account of this terrible event, and the circumstantial de- 
scription of the tremendous calamities which attended it, 
as they are given by Josephus, himself a Jew, and also a 
spectator of this horrid scene. From this period the Jews 
experienced, in every place, the hatred and contempt of 
the Gentile nations, still more than they had formerly 
done ; and in these their calamities, the predictions of 
Christ were amply fulfilled, and his divine mission far- 
ther illustrated. 

IV. However virulent the Jews were against the Chris- 
tians, yet, on many occasions, they wanted power to exe- 
cute their cruel purposes. This was not the case with 
the heathen nations : and, therefore, from them the 
Christians suffered the severest calamities. The Romans 
are said to have pursued the Christians with the utmost 
violence in ten persecutions ; b but this number is not veri- 
fied by the ancient history of the church ; for if, by these 
persecutions, such only are meant as were extremely 
severe and universal throughout the empire, then it is cer- 
tain, that these amount not to the number above mentioned ; 
and, if we take the provincial and less remarkable perse- 
cutions into the account, they far exceed it. In the fifth 
century, certain Christians were led by some passages of 
the Scriptures, and by one especially in the Revelations,' 
to imagine that the church was to suffer ten calamities of 
a most grievous nature. To this notion, therefore, they 
endeavoured, though not all in the same way, to accommo- 



vii. 55; and that of James the son of Zebedee, Acts xii. 1, 2; that of 
James the Just is mentioned by Josephus in his Jewish Antiquities, book 
xx. chap. viii. and by Euscbius, in his Eccles. History, book ii. chap, xxiii. 

a See the Dialogue of Justin Martyr, with Trypho the Jew. 

" The learned J. Albert Fabricius has given us a list of the authors 
who hare written concerning these persecutions, in his Lux Evangelii 
toti Orbi exoriens, cap. vii. c Rev. xvii. 14. 

d See Sulpitius Severus, book ii. ch. xxxiii. as also Augustin, de Civi- 
tate Dei, book xviii. ch. lii. 



date the language of history, even against the testimony 
of those ancient records, from which alone history can' 
speak with authority. 3 

V. Nero was the first emperor who enacted laws agains'' 
the Christians. In this he was followed by Domitian 
Marcus Antoninus the philosopher, Severus, and the 
other emperors Avho indulged the prejudices they had im 
bibed against the disciples of Jesus. All the edicts of 
these different princes were not, however, equally unjust, 
nor framed with the same views, or for the same reasons. 
Were they now extant as they weie collected by the cele- 
brated lawyer Domitius, in his book concerning the duty 
of a proconsul, they would undoubtedly cast a great light 
upon the history of the church, under the persecuting em- 
perors." At present, we must, in many cases, be satisfied 
with probable conjectures, for want of certain evidence. 

VI. Before we proceed in this part of our history, a very 
natural curiosity calls us to inquire, how it happened that 
the Romans, who were troublesome to no nation on account 
of its religion, and who suffered even the Jews to live 
under their own laws, and follow their own method of 
worship, treated the Christians alone with such severity. 
This important question seems still more difficult to be 
solved, when we consider, that the excellent nature of the 
Christian religion, and its admirable tendency to promote 
both the public welfare of the state, and the private felicity 
of the individual, entitled it, in a singular manner, to the 
favour and protection of the reigning powers. A principal 
reason of the severity with which the Romans persecu- 
ted the Christians, notwithstanding these considerations, 
seems to have been the abhorrence and contempt felt by 
the latter for the religion of the empire, which was so 
intimately connected with the form, and indeed, with the 
very essence of its political constitution ; for, though the 
Romans gave an unlimited toleration to all religions which 
had nothing in their tenets dangerous to the common- 
wealth, yet they would not permit that of their ancestors, 
which was established by the laws of the state, to be turned 
into derision, nor the people to be drawn away from their 
attachment to it. These, however, were the two things 
which the Christians were charged with, and that justly, 
though to their honour. They dared to ridicule the 
absurdities of the pagan superstition, and they were ardent 
and assiduous in gaining proselytes to the truth. Nor did 
they only attack the religion of Rome, but also all the 
different shapes and forms under which superstition 
appeared in the various countries where they exercised 
their ministry. Hence the Romans concluded, that the 
Christian sect was not only insupportably daring and 
arrogant, but, moreover, an enemy to the public tranquil- 
lity, and ever ready to excite civil wars and commotions 
in the empire. It is probably on this account, that Taci- 
tus reproaches them with the odious character of haters q, 
mankind, 1 and styles the religion of Jesus a destructive 
superstition ; and that Suetonius speaks of the Christians; 
and their doctrine, in terms of the same kind.e 

e The collection of the imperial edicts against the Christians, made 
by Domitius, and now lost, is mentioned by Lactantius, in his Divine 
Institutes, book v. chap. xi. Such of these edicts as have escaped the 
ruins of time, are learnedly illustrated by Franc. Balduinus, in his Com- 
ment, ad Edicta veterum Principum Romanorum de Christianis 

f Annal. lib. xv. cap. xliv. 

s In Nerone, cap. xvi. These odious epithets, which Tacitus gives 
to the Christians and their religion, as likewise the language of Suetoni- 
us, who calls Christianity a poisonous or ■malignant superstition {male- 



Chap. T. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



15 



TIL Another circumstance that irritated the Romans 
against the Christians, was the simplicity of their worship,, 
which resembled in nothing the sacred rites of any other 
people. They had no sacrifices, temples, images, oracles. 
9r sacerdotal orders : and this was sufficient to bring upon 
them the reproaches of an ignorant multitude, who ima- 
ffined that there could be no religion without these. Thus 
they were looked upon as a sort of atheists : and. by the 
Roman laws, those who were chargeable with atheism 
were declared the pests of human society. But this was 
not all : the sordid interests of a multitude of lazy and 
selfish priests were immediately connected with the ruin 
and oppression of the Christian cause. The public worship 
of such an immense number of deities was a source of 
subsistence, and even of riches, to the whole rabble of 
priests and augurs, and also to a multitude of merchants 
and artists. And, as the progress of the gospel threatened 
the ruin of that religious traffic, this consideration raised 
up new enemies to the Christians, and armed the rage of 
mercenary superstition against their lives and their cause. 3 

Till. To accomplish more speedily the ruin of the Chris- 
tians, all those persons whose interests were incompatible 
with the progress of the gospel, loaded them with the most 
opprobrious calumnies, which were too easily received as 
truth, bv the credulous and unthinking multitude, among 
whom they were dispersed with the utmost industry. We 
find a sufficient account of these perfidious and ill-grounded 
reproaches in the writings of the first defenders of the Chris- 
tian cause. 1 And these, indeed, were the only arms the 
assailants had to oppose the truth, since the excellence of 
the Gospel, and the virtue of its ministers and followers, left 
to its enemies no resources but calumny and persecution. 
Nothing can be ima2ined, in point of virulence and fury, 
that they did not employ for the nun of the Christians. 
Thev even went so far as to persuade the multitude, that 
all the calamities, wars, tempests, and diseases that afflicted 
mankind, were judgments sent down by the angry gods, 
because the Christians, who contemned their authority, 
were suffered in the empire. c 

DC. The various kinds of punishment, both capital and 
corrective, which were employed against the Christians, 
are particularlv described by learned men who have written 
professedly on that subject/ The forms of proceeding, used 
in their condemnation, ma}" be seen in the Slcts of the Mar- 
tyrs, in the letters of Pliny and Trajan, and other ancient 
monuments. 5 These judicial forms were very different at 
different tunes, and changed: naturally, according to the 
mildness or severity of the laws enacted by the different 
emperors against the Christians. Thus, at one time, we 
observe appearances of the most diligent search after the 
followers of Christ : at another, we find aU perquisition sus- 
pended, and positive accusation and information only al- 
lowed. L nder one reign we see them, on their being proved 
Christians, or their confessing themselves such, immedi- 
ately dragged away to execution, unless they prevent their 

f.ca superstitio^) are founded upon the same reasons. A sect, which 
could not endure, and even laboured to abolish, die religious practices of 
the Romans, and also those of all the other nations of the universe, appear- 
ed to the short-sighted and superficial observers of religious matters, as 
the determined enemies of mankind. 

.* This observation is verified by die story of Demetrius the silver- 
smith, Acts xix. 25. and by the following passage in the 97th letter of the 
xth book of Pliny's epistles : " The temples, which were almost deserted, 
oegin to be frequented again ; and the sacred rites, which have been 
•ong neglected, are again performed. The victims, which have had 
hitherto few purchasers, begin to come again to the market," &C 



punishment by apostacy: under another, we see inhuman 
magistrates endeavouring to compel them, by all sorts of 
tortures, to renounce their religious profession. 

X. All who, in the perilous times of the church, fell 
by the hand of bloody persecution, and expired in the cause 
of the divine Saviour, were called martyrs; a term borrow- 
ed from the sacred writings, signifying witnesses, and thus 
expressing the glorious testimony which these magnani- 
mous believers bore to the truth. The title of confessor 
was given to such, as. in the face of death, and at the ex- 
pense of honours, fortune, and all the other advantages 
of the world, had confessed with fortitude, before the Ro- 
man tribunals, their firm attachment to the religion of 
Jesus. Great was the veneration that was paid both to 
martyrs and confessors ; and there was. no doubt, as much 
wisdom as justice in treating with profound respect these 
Christian heroes, since nothing was more adapted to enccu- 
rage others to suffer with cheerfulness in the cause of Christ. 
But. as the best and wisest institutions are generally per- 
verted, by the weakness or corruption of men. from their 
original purposes, so the authority and privileges granted, 
in the beginning, to martyrs and confessors, became in pro- 
cess of tune, a support to superstition, an incentive to enthu- 
siasm, and a source of innumerable evils and abuses. 

XI. The first three or four ages of the church were 
stained with the blood of martyrs, who suffered for the 
name of Jesus. The greatness of then number is acknow- 
ledged by all who have a competent acquaintance with 
ancient history, and who have examined that matter with 
any degree of impartiality. It is true, the learned Dod- 
well has endeavoured to invalidate this unanimous decision 
of the ancient historians, f and to diniinish considerably 
the number of those who suffered death for the gospel ; and, 
after him, several writers have maintained his opinion, and 
asserted, that whatever may have been the calamities 
which the Christians, in general suffered for then attach- 
ment to the Gospel, very few were put to death on that 
account. This hypothesis has been warmly opposed, as 
derogating from that divine power which enabled Chris- 
tians to be faithful even unto death, and a contrary one 
embraced, which augments prodigiously the number of 
these heroic sufferers. It will be wise to avoid both these / 
extremes; and to hold the middle path ; which certainly leads ■' 
nearest to the truth. The martyrs were less in number 
than several of the ancient modern writers have supposed 
them to be, but much more numerous than Dcdwell and -/ 
his followers are willing to believe : and this medium will 

be easily admitted by such as have learned from the ancient 
writers, that, in the darkest and most calamitious times of 
the church; all Christians were not equally or promiscuously 
disturbed, or called before the public tribunals. Those 
who were of the lowest rank of the people ; escaped the best; 
their obscurity ; in some measure, screened them from the 
fury of persecution. Tire learned and eloquent, the doctors */ 
and ministers; and chiefly the rich, for the confiscation of 

b See the laborious work of Christ Kortholt, entitled, Pagamis Obtrec- 
tator, seu de Calumniis Gentilium in Christiauos ; to which may be add- 
ed, Jo. Jac. Huldricus, de Calumniis Gentiliuni in Christianos, publish- 
ed at Zurich in 1744. 

c See Arnobius contra Gentes. 

* See for this purpose Ant. Gallonius and Gasp. Sagittarius, de Cru- 
ciatibus Marlyrum. 

* See Bohmer, Juris Eccles. Protestant torn. iv. lib. v. DecretaL 
tit 1. sec. 32. 

i See Dodwell's Dissertation, de Paucitate Martyrum, in his Dissert*. 
bones Cyprianicae.. » 



i 



10 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 






whose fortunes the rapacious magistrates were perpetually- 
gaping, were the persons most exposed to the dangers of 
the times. 

XII. The actions and sayings of these holy martyrs, 
from the moment of their imprisonment to their last gasp, 
were carefully recorded, in order to be read on certain days, 
and thus proposed as models to future ages. Few, how- 
ever, of these ancient acts have reached our times ; a the 
greatest part of them having been destroyed during that 
dreadful persecution which Diocletian carried on ten years 
with such fury against the Christians : for a most diligent 
search was then made after all their books and papers ; and 
all of them that were found were committed to the flames. 
From the eighth century downwards, several Greek and 
Latin writers endeavoured to make up this loss, by compi- 
ling, with vast labour, accounts of the lives and actions of 
„he ancient martyrs. But most of them have given us 
scarcely any thing more than a series of fables, adorned 
with a profusion of rhetorical flowers and striking images, 
as the wiser, even among the Romish doctors, frankly 
acknowledge. Nor are those records, which pass under 
the name of martyrolngy, worthy of superior credit, since 
they bear the most evident marks both of ignorance and 
falsehood ; so that, upon the whole, this part of ecclesias- 
tical history, for want of ancient and authentic monu- 
ments, is extremely imperfect, and necessarily attended 
with much obscurity. 

XIII. It would have been surprising, if, under such a 
monster of cruelty as Nero, the Christians had enjoyed the 
sweets of tranquillity and freedom. This, indeed, was 
far from being the case ; for the perfidious tyrant accused 
them of having set fire to the city of Rome, that horrid 
crime which he himself had committed with a barbarous 
pleasure. In avenging this crime upon the innocent Chris- 
tians, he ordered matters so, that the punishment should 
bear some resemblance to the offence. He therefore wrap- 
ped up some of them in combustible garments, and order- 
ed fire to be set to them when the darkness came on, that 
thus, like torches, they might dispel the obscurity of the 
night : while others were fastened to crosses, or torn to 
pieces by wild beasts, or put to death in some such dread- 
ful manner. This horrid persecution was set on foot in 
the month of November, b in the 64th year of Christ: and 
in it, according to some ancient accounts, St. Paul and 
St. Peter suffered martyrdom, though the latter assertion 
is contested by many, as being absolutely irreconcilable 
with chronology." The death of Nero, who perished mise- 
rably in the year 68, put an end to the calamities of this 
first persecution, under which, during the space of four 



■ Such of those acts as are worthy of credit have been collected by the 
learned Ruinart, into one volume in folio, of a moderate size, entitled, 
Selecta et sincera Martyrum Acta, Amstelod. 1713. The hypothesis of 
Dodwell is amply refuted in the author's preface. 

•> See for a farther illustration of this point of chronology, two French 
Dissertations of the very learned Alphonse de Vignoles, concerning the 
eause and the commencement of the persecution under Nero, which are 
printed in Masson's Histoire critique de la Republique des Lettres, torn, 
viii. p. 74 — 117 ; torn. ix. p. 172 — 186. See also Toinard, ad Lactantium 
de Mortibus Persequut. p. 398. 

e See Tillemont, Histoire des Empereurs, torn. i. p. 504. — Baratier, de 
Successione Romanor. Pontif. cap. v. 

* This opinion was first defended by Franc. Balduin, in his Comra, 
ad Edicta Imperatorum in Christianos. After him Launoy maintained 
the same opinion in his Dissert, qua Sulpitii Severi locus de prima Mar- 
tyrum Gallirc Epocha vindicator, sect. i. p. 139, 140; torn. ii. part i. oper. 
This opinion is still more acutely and learnedly defended by Dodwell, in 
he xith of his Dissertationes CyprianicEe. • Apologet. cap. iv. 

» jFhis celebrated inscription is published by the learned Grater, in the 



years, the Christians suffered every sort of torment and 
affliction, which the ingenious cruelty of their enemies 
could invent. 

XIV. Learned men are not entirely agreed with regard 
to the extent of this persecution under Nero. Some con- 
fine it to the city of Rome, while others represent it as 
having raged through the whole empire. The latter opi- 
nion, which is also the more ancient/ is undoubtedly to be 
preferred, as it is certain, that the laws enacted against the 
Christians were enacted against the whole body, and not 
against particular churches, and were consequently in force 
in the remotest provinces. The authority of Tertullian 
confirms this, who tells us, that Nero and Domitian had 
enacted laws against the Christians, of which Trajan had, 
in part, taken away the force, and rendered them, in some 
measure, without effect. e We shall not have recourse for 
a confirmation of this opinion, to that famous Portuguese 
or Spanish inscription, in which Nero is praised for having 
purged that province from the new superstition ; since that 
inscription is justly suspected to be a mere forgery, and 
the best Spanish authors consider it as such. f We may, 
however, make one observation, which will tend to illus- 
trate the point in question, namely, that since the Chris- 
tians were condemned by Nero, not so much on account 
of their religion, as for the falsely-imputed crime of burn- 
ing the city,? it is scarcely to be imagined, that he would 
leave unmolested, even beyond the bounds of Rome, a sect 
whose members were accused of such an abominable deed. 

XV. Though, immediately after the death of Nero, the 
rage of this first persecution against the Christians ceased, 
yet the flame broke out anew in the year 93 or 94, 
under Domitian, a prince little inferior to Nero in wicked- 
ness.' 1 This persecutiun was occasioned, if we may give 
credit to Hegesippus, by Domitian's fear of losing the em- 
pire ; i for he had been informed, that, among the relatives 
of Christ, a man should arise, who, possessing a turbulent 
and ambitious spirit, was to excite commotions in the state, 
and aim at supreme dominion. However that may have 
been, the persecution renewed by this unworthy prince 
was extremely violent, though his untimely death soon put 
a stop to it. Flavius Clemens, a man of consular dignity, 
and Flavia Domitilla, his niece, or, as some say, his wife, 
were the principal martyrs that suffered in this persecu- 
tion, in which also the apostle John was banished to the 
isle of Patmos. Tertullian and other writers inform us, 
that, before his banishment, he was thrown into a caldron 
of boiling oil, from which he came forth, not only living, 
but even unhurt. This story, however, is not attested in 
such a manner as to preclude all doubt. k 

first volume of his Inscriptions. It must, however, be observed, that the 
best Spanish writers do not venture to defend the genuineness and au- 
thority of this inscription, as it was never seen by any of them, and was 
first produced by Cyriac of Ancona, a person universally known to be ut- 
terly unworthy of the least credit. We shall add here the judgment 
which the excellent historian of Spain, Jo. de Ferreras, has given of this 
inscription ; " Je ne puis m'empecher (says he) d'observer que Cyriac 
d'Ancone fut le premier qui publia cette inscription, et que c : est de lui 
que les autres Font tiree ; mais comme la foi de cet ecrivain est suspecte 
au jugement de tous les scavans, que d'ailleurs il n'y a ni vestige ni sou- 
venir de cette inscription dans les places ou Ton dit qu'elle s'est trouvee, 
et qu'on ne syait ou la prendre a present, chacun peut en porter le juge- 
ment qu'il voudra." 

B SeeTheod.Ruinart,Praf. ad Acta Martyrum sincera et selecta, f. 31, &c. 

h Prjef. ad Acta Martyrum, &c. f. 33 — Thorn. Ittigii Select. Histor. 
Eccl. Capit. sac. i. cap. vi. sect. 11. 

i Euseb. Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. cap. xix. xx. 

k See Mosheim's Syntagma Dissert, ad Historiam Eccles. pertinen- 
tium, p. 497—546. 



17 



PART II. 



THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Containing an Account of the State of Learning and 
Philosophy. 

I. If we had any certain or satisfactory account of the 
doctrines which were received among the wiser of the 
eastern nations, when the light of the Gospel first rose 
upon the world, this would contribute to illustrate many 
important points in the ancient history of the church. But 
the case is quite otherwise : the fragments of the ancient 
oriental philosophy that have come down to us, are, as 
every one knows, few in number, and, such as they are, 
they yet require the diligence, erudition, and sagacity of 
some learned man, to collect them into a body, arrange 
them with method, and explain them with perspicuity." 

II. The doctrine of the magi, who believed the universe 
to be governed by tivo 'principles, the one good, and the 
other evil, flourished in Persia. Their followers, however, 
did not all agree with respect to the nature of these princi- 
ples ; b but this did not prevent the propagation of the main 
doctrine, which was received throughout a considerable 
part of Asia and Africa, especially among the Chaldeans, 
Assyrians, Syrians, and Egyptians, though with different 
modifications, and had even infected the Jews themselves. 
The Arabians at that time, and even afterwards, were 
more remarkable for strength and courage, than for 
genius and sagacity ; nor do they seem, according to their 
own confession, d to have acquired any great reputation for 
wisdom and philosophy before the time of Mohammed. 

III. From the earliest times, the Indians were distin- 
guished by their taste for sublime knowledge and wisdom. 
We might, perhaps, be able to form a judgment of their 
philosophical tenets, if that most ancient book, which they 
deemed particularly sacred, and which they called veda, 
or the law, should be brought to light, and translated into 
some known language. But the accounts which are 
given of this remarkable book, by those who have been in 
the Indies, are so various and irreconcilable with each 
other, that we must yet wait for satisfaction on this head. e 
As to the Egyptians, they Avere divided, as every one 
knows, into a multitude of sects and opinions. f Fruitless, 
therefore, are the labours of those who endeavour to reduce 
the philosophy of this people to one system. 

IV. But of all the systems of philosophy that were 
received in Asia and Africa about the time of our Saviour, 
no one was so detrimental to the Christian religion, as that 
which was styled gnosis, or science, i. e. the wety to the 
true knowledge of the Deity,. and which we have above 
called the oriental doctrine, in order to distinguish it from 
the Grecian philosophy. It was from the bosom of this 

1 The history of the oriental philosophy by Mr. Stanley, though it is 
not void of all kind of merit, is yet extremely defective. That learned 
author is so far from having exhausted his subject, that he has left it, on 
the contrary, in many places, wholly untouched. The history of philoso- 
phy, published in Germany by the very learned Mr. Brucker, is vastly 
preferable to Mr. Stanley's work ; and the German author, indeed, much 
superior to the English one, both in point of genius and of erudition. 

b See Hyde's History of the Religion of the Ancient Persians, a work 
full of erudition, but indigested and interspersed with conjectures of the 
most improbable kind. 



pretended oriental wisdom, that the chiefs of those sects, 
which, in the three first centuries perplexed and afflicted 
the Christian church originally issued. These superci- 
lious doctors, endeavouring to accommodate to the tenets 
of their fantastic philosophy, the pure, simple, and sublime 
doctrines of the Son of God, brought forth, as the result 
of this jarring composition, a multitude of idle dreams and 
fictions, and imposed upon their followers a system of 
opinions which were partly ludicrous and partly perplexed 
with intricate subtilties, and covered with impenetrable 
obscurity. The ancient doctors, both Greek and Latin, 
who opposed these sects, considered them as so many 
branches that derived their origin from the Platonic phi- 
losophy. But this was mere illusion. An apparent resem- 
blance between certain opinions of Plato, and some of the 
tenets of the eastern schools, deceived these good men, who 
had no knowledge but of the Grecian philosophy, and 
were absolutely ignorant of the oriental doctrines. Who- 
ever compares the Platonic with the Gnostic philosophy, 
will easily perceive the wide difference that exists between 
them. 

V. The first principles of the oriental philosophy seem 
to be perfectly consistent with the dictates of reason ; for 
its founder must undoubtedly have argued in the following 
manner : "There are many evils in this world, and men 
seem impelled by a natural instinct to the practice of those 
things which reason condemns ; but that eternal mind, 
from which all spirits derive their existence, must be inac- 
cessible to all kinds of evil, and also of a most perfect and 
beneficent nature ; therefore the origin of those evils, with 
which the universe abounds, must be sought somewhere 
else than in the Deity. It cannot reside in him who is all 
perfection ; and therefore it must be without him. Now, 
there is nothing without or beyond the Deity, but matter ; 
therefore matter is the centre and source of all evil, of all 
vice." Having taken for granted these principles, they 
proceeded to affirm that matter was eternal, and derived 
its present form, not from the will of the Supreme God, 
but from the creating power of some inferior intelligence, 
to whom the world and its inhabitants owed their exist- 
ence. As a proof of this assertion they alleged, that it 
was incredible, that the Supreme Deity, perfectly good, 
and infinitely removed from all evil, should either create or 
modify matter, which is essentially malignant and corrupt, 
or bestow upon it, in any degree, the riches of his wisdom 
and liberality. They were, however, aware of the insu- 
perable difficulties that lay against their system ; for, when 
they were called to explain in an accurate and satisfactory 
manner, how this rude and corrupt matter came to be ar- 
ranged into such a regular and harmonious frame as that 



c See Wolf's Manichreismus ante Manichaos. 

a See Abulpharagius de Moribus Arabum, published by Pococlc. 

• Some parts of tire Veda have been published ; or, it may rather bo 
said that pretended portions of it have appeared ; but, whatever may be 
alleged by oriental enthusiasts, these Brahminical remains do not evince 
the "sublime knowledge or wisdom" which many writers attribute to the 
ancient inhabitants of India. — Edit. 

f See Dr. Mosheim's Observations on Cudworth's System. 



18 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



of the universe, and, particularly, how celestial spirits were 
ioined to bodies formed out of its malignant mass, they 
were sadly embarrassed, and found, that the plainest dic- 
tates of reason declared their system incapable of defence. 
In this perplexity they had recourse to wild fictions and 
romantic fables, in order to give an account of the forma- 
tion of the world and the origin of mankind. 

VI. Those who, by mere dint of fancy and invention, 
endeavour to cast a light upon obscure points, or to solve 
great and intricate difficulties, are seldom agreed about the 
methods of proceeding ; and, by a necessary consequence, 
separate into different sects. Such was the case of the 
oriental philosophers, when they set themselves to explain 
the difficulties mentioned above. Some imagined two eter- 
nal principles from which all things proceeded, one pre- 
siding over light and the other over matter ; and, by their 
perpetual conflict, explained the mixture of good and evil, 
apparent in the universe. Others maintained, that the 
being which presided over matter was not an eternal prin- 
ciple, but a subordinate intelligence, one of those whom the 
Supreme God produced from himself. They supposed 
that this being was moved by a sudden impulse to reduce 
to order the rude mass of matter which lay excluded from 
the mansions of the Deity, and also to create the human 
race. A third sort devised a system different from the two 
preceding, and formed to themselves the notion of a trium- 
virate of beings, in which the Supreme Deity was distin- 
guished both from the material evil principle, and from the 
creator of this sublunary world. These, then, were the 
three leading sects of the oriental philosophy, which were 
subdivided into various factions, by the disputes that arose 
when they came to explain more fully their respective opi- 
nions, and to pursue them into all their monstrous conse- 
quences. These multiplied divisions were the natural and 
necessary consequences of a system which had no solid 
foundation, and was no more, indeed, than, an airy phan- 
tom, blown up by the wanton fancies of self-sufficient men. 
And that these divisions did really subsist, the history of 
the Christian sects that embraced this philosophy abun- 
dantly testifies. 

VII. It is, however, to be observed, that, as all these sects 
were founded upon one common principle, their divisions 
did not prevent their holding, in common, certain opinions 
concerning the Deity, the universe, the human race, and 
several other subjects. They were all, therefore, unani- 
mous in acknowledging the existence of a high and eternal 
nature, in whom dwelt the fulness of wisdom, goodness, 
and all other perfections, and of whom no mortal was able 
to form a complete idea. This great being was considered 
by them as a most pure and radiant light, diffused through 



* It appears highly probable that the apostle Paul had an eye to this 
fantastic mythology, when, in his First Epistle to Timothy, he exhorts 
him not to " give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister 
questions," &c. 

•> The word a'iav, or cson, is commonly used by the Greek writers, but 
in different senses. Its signification in the Gnostic system is not very 
evident, and several learned men have despaired of finding out its true 
meaning. AiW, or ceon, among the ancients, was used to signify the 
age of man, or the duration of human life. In after-times, it was em- 

Eloyed by philosophers to express the duration of spiritual and invisible 
eings. These philosophers used the word xp6vos, as the measure of 
corporeal and changing objects; and alav, as the measure of such as 
were immutable and eternal ; and, as God is the chief of those immuta- 
Dle beings which are spiritual, and, consequently, not to be perceived by 
our outward senses, his infinite and eternal duration was expressed by 
the term ceon ; and that is the sense in which this word is now common- 
ly understood. It was, however, afterwards attributed to other spiritual 
and invisible beings; and the oriental philosophers, who lived about the 



the immensity of space, which they called plerom a, a Greek 
word that signifies fulness ; and they taught the following 
particulars concerning him, and his operations : " The eter- 
nal nature, infinitely perfect, and infinitely happy, having 
dwelt from everlasting in a profound solitude, and in a 
blessed tranquillity, produced, at length, from itself, two 
minds of a different sex, which resembled their supreme 
parent in the most perfect manner. From the prolific union 
of these two beings others arose, which were also followed 
by different generations ; so that, in process of time, a 
celestial family was formed in the pleroma.*- This divine 
progeny, being immutable in its nature, and above the 
power of mortality, was called by the philosophers «on," b 
a term which signifies, in the Greek language, an eternal 
nature. How many in number these ceons were, was a 
point much controverted among the oriental sages. 

VIII. " Beyond the mansions of light, where dwells 
the Deity with his celestial offspring, there lies a rude and 
unwieldy mass of matter, agitated by innate, turbulent, 
and irregular motions. One of the celestial natures de- 
scending from the pleroma, either by a fortuitous impulse, 
or in consequence of a divine commission, reduced to order 
this unseemly mass, adorned it with a rich variety of gifts, 
created men, and inferior animals of different kinds, to 
store it with inhabitants, and corrected its malignity by 
mixing with it a certain portion of light, and also of a 
matter celestial and divine. This creator of the world is 
distinguished from the Supreme Deity by the name of 
demiurge. His character is a compound of shining quali- 
ties and insupportable arrogance ; and his excessive lust of 
empire effaces his talents and his virtues. He claims do- 
minion over the new world which he has formed, as his 
sovereign right ; and, excluding totally the Supreme Dei- 
ty from all concern in it, he demands from mankind, for 
himself and his associates, divine honours." 

IX. " Man is a compound of a terrestrial and corrupt 
body, and a soul which is of celestial origin, and, in some 
measure, an emanation from the divinity. This nobler 
part is miserably weighed down and encumbered by the 
body, which is the seat of all irregular lusts and impure 
desires. It is this body that seduces the soul from the 
pursuit of truth, and not only turns it from the contem- 
plation and worship of God, so as to confine its homage 
and veneration to the creator of this world, but also 
attaches it to terrestrial objects, and to the immoderate 
pursuit of sensual pleasures, by which its nature is totally 
polluted. The sovereign mind employs various means 
to deliver his offspring from this deplorable servitude, espe- 
cially the ministry of divine messengers, whom he sends 
to enlighten, to admonish, and to reform the human race. 

time of Christ's appearance upon earth, and made use of the Greek lan- 
guage, understood by it the duration of eternal and immutable things, or 
the period of time in which they exist. Nor did the variations, through 
which this word passed, end here ; from expressing only the duration of 
beings, it was, by a metonymy, employed to signify the beings them- 
selves. Thus God was called ceon, and the angels were distinguished 
also by the title of ceons. All this will lead us to the true meaning of that 
word among the Gnostics. They had formed to themselves the notion 
of an invisible and spiritual world, composed of entities or virtues, pro- 
ceeding from the Supreme Being, and succeeding each other at certain 
intervals of time, so as to form an eternal chain, of which our world was 
the terminating link ; a notion of eternity very different from that of the 
Platonists, who represented it as stable, permanent, and void of succes- 
sion. To the beings that formed this eternal chain, the Gnostics assign- 
ed a certain term of duration, and a certain sphere of action. Their 
terms of duration were first called ceons, and they themselves were after- 
wards metonymieally distinguished by that title. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 



19 



In the mean time, the imperious demiurge exerts his power 
in opposition to the merciful purpose of the Supreme Being, 
resists the influence of those solemn invitations by which 
he exhorts mankind to return to him, and labours to efface 
the knowledge of God in the minds of intelligent beings. 
In this conflict, such souls as, throwing off the yoke of the 
creators and rulers of this world, rise to their Supreme 
Parent, and subdue the turbulent and sinful motions 
which corrupt matter excites within them, shall, at the 
dissolution of their mortal bodies, ascend directly to the 
fleroma. Those, on the contrary, who remain in the 
bondage of servile superstition and corrupt matter, shall, 
at the end of this life, pass into new bodies, until they 
awake from their sinful lethargy. In the end, however, 
God shall come forth victorious, triumph over all opposition, 
and, having delivered from their servitude the greatest part 
of those souls that are imprisoned in mortal bodies, shall 
dissolve the frame of this visible world, and involve it in a 
general ruin. After this solemn period, primitive tran- 
quillity shall be restored in the universe, and God shall 
reign with happy spirits, in undisturbed felicity, through 
everlasting ages." 

X. Such were the principal tenets of the oriental philo- 
sophy. The state of letters and of philosophy among the 
Jews comes next under consideration ; and of this we may 
form some idea from what has been already said concern- 
ing that nation. It is chiefly to be observed, that the dark 
and hidden science which they called the kabbala, was at 
this time taught and inculcated by many among that su- 
perstitious people."- This science, in many points, bears a 
strong resemblance to the oriental philosophy ; or, to speak 
more accurately, it is indeed that same philosophy accom- 
modated to the Jewish religion, and tempered with a cer- 
tain mixture of truth. Nor were the doctrines of the 
Grecian sages unknown to the Jews at the period now 
before us ; since, from the time of Alexander the Great, 
some of them had been admitted, even into the Mosaic reli- 
gion. We shall say nothing concerning the opinions 
which they adopted from the philosophical and theological 
systems of the Chaldeans, Egyptians, and Syrians. b 

XL The Greeks, in the opinion of most writers, were 
jret in possession of the first rank among the nations that 
cultivated letters and philosophy. In man}* - places, and 
especially at Athens, there were a considerable number of 
men distinguished by their learning, acuteness, and elo- 
quence ; philosophers of all sects, who taught the doctrines 
of Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and Epicurus ; rhetoricians also, 
and men of genius, who instructed the youth in the rules 
of eloquence, and formed their taste for the liberal arts ; so 
that those who had a passion for the study of oratory, re- 
sorted in multitudes to the Grecian schools, in order to 
perfect themselves in that, noble science. Alexandria, in 
Egypt, was also much frequented for the same purpose, as 
at great number of the Grecian philosophers and rhetori- 
cians dwelt in that city. 

XII. The Romans also, at this time, made a shining 
igure among the polished and learned nations. All the 



* See Jo. Franc. Buddei Introductio in Historiam Philos. Hebraorum; 
*nd also the works which B. Wolf mentions, with encomiums, in his 
liibliotheca Hebraica, torn. iii. 

k See the same publications. 

See Paganini Gaudentii Liber de Philosophise apud Romanos initio 
et progressu, in tertio fasciculo Novae Collectionis Variorum Scriptorum. 
Hal* 1717. 



sciences flourished at Rome. The youth of a higher rank 
were early instructed in the Greek language and elo- 
quence. Prom those pursuits they proceeded to the study 
of philosophy, and the laws of their country ; and they 
finished their education by a voyage into Greece, where 
they not only gave the last degree of perfection to their 
philosophical studies, but also acquired that refined wit and 
elegance of taste, which served to set off their more solid 
attainments in the most advantageous manner. None '>f the 
philosophical sects were more in vogue among the Romans 
than the Epicureans and the Academics, which were pecu- 
liarly favoured by the great, who, soothed by their doctrines 
into a false security, indulged their passions without 
remorse, and continued in their vicious pursuits without 
terror. During the reign of Augustus, the culture of polite 
learning, and of the fine arts, was holden in great honour, 
and those who contributed with zeal and success to this, 
were eminently distinguished by that prince. But after 
his death, learning languished without encouragement, 
and was neglected, because the succeeding emperors were 
more intent upon the arts of war and rapine, than those 
more amiable arts and inventions which are the fruits of 
leisure and peace. 

XIII. With respect to the other nations, such as the 
Germans, Celts, and Britons, it is certain, that they were not 
destitute of learned and ingenious men. Among the Gauls, 
the people of Marseilles had long acquired a shining repu- 
tation for their progress in the sciences ; d and there is no 
doubt that the neighbouring countries received the benefit 
of their instructions. Among the Celts, the Druids, who 
were priests, philosophers, and legislators, were highly re- 
markable for their wisdom ; but their writings, at least such 
as are yet extant, are not sufficient to inform us of the na- 
ture of their philosophy. e The Romans, indeed, intro- 
duced letters and philosophy into all the provinces which 
submitted to their victorious arms, in order to soften the 
rough manners of the savage nations, and form in them, 
imperceptibly, the sentiments and feelings of humanity. f 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and its Form of Government. 
I. The great end of Christ's mission was to form an 
universal church, gathered out of all the nations of the 
world, and to extend the limits of this great society from 
age to age. But, in order to this, it was necessary, first, to 
appoint extraordinary teachers, who, converting the Jews 
and Gentiles to the truth, should erect, every where, Chris- 
tian assemblies ; and then, to establish ordinary ministers, 
and interpreters of the divine will, who should repeat and 
enforce the doctrines delivered by the former, and main- 
tain the people in their holy profession, and in the prac- 
tice of the Christian virtues ; for the best system of reli- 
gion must necessarily either dwindle to nothing, or be , 
egregiously corrupted, if it be not perpetually inculcated 
and explained by a regular and standing ministry. 



J See the Histoire Literaire de la France par dcs Religieux Benedic- 
tins. Dissert. Prelim, p. 42, &c. 
' Martin, Religion des Gaulois. 
i Juvenal, Sat. xv. ver. 110. 
" Nunc totus Graias nostrasque habet orbis Athenas : 

Gallia caussidicos docuit facunda Britannos : 

De conducendo loquitur jam rhetore Thule." 



; 20 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



II. The extraordinary teachers whom Christ employed 
to lay the foundations of his everlasting kingdom, were the 
twelve apostles, and the seventy disciples, of whom men- 
tion has been made above. To these the Evangelists are 
to be added, by which title those were distinguished whom 
the apostles sent to instruct the nations, or who, of their 
own accord, abandoned every worldly attachment, and 
consecrated themselves to the sacred office of propagating 
the Gospel. 1 In this rank, also, we must place those to 
whom, in the infancy of the church, the marvellous power 
of speaking in foreign languages which they had never 
learned, was communicated from above ; for the person to 
whom the divine omnipotence and liberality had imparted 
the gift of tongues, might conclude, with the utmost assu- 
rance, from the gift itself, (which a wise being would not 
bestow in vain,) that he was appointed by God to propa- 
gate the truth, and employ his talents in the service of 
Christianity. b 

III. Many have undertaken to write the history of the 
apostles ; c a history which we find loaded with fables, 
doubts, and difficulties, when we pursue it farther than the 
books of the New Testament, and the most ancient writers 
in the Christian church. In order to have a just idea of 
the nature, privileges, and authority of the apostolic func- 
tion, we must consider an apostle as a person who was 
honoured with a divine commission, invested with the power 
of making laws, of restraining the wicked, when that was 
expedient, and of working miracles, when necessary ; and 
sent to mankind, to unfold to them the divine will, to open 
to them the paths of salvation and immortality, and to 
separate from the multitude, and unite in the bonds of one 
sacred society, those who were attentive and obedient to 
the voice of God, addressed to men by their ministry." 1 

■ See St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians, iv. 11 ; and also Euseb. Hist. 
Eccles. lib. iii. cap. xxxvii. 

b 1 Cor. xiv. 22. 

c The authors who have given accounts of the apostles, are enumera- 
ted by Sagittarius in his Introduction to Ecclesiastical History, and by 
Buddeus in his treatise de Ecclesia Apostolica. 

a See Fred. Spanheim, de Apostolis et Apostolatu, torn. ii. op. p. 289. 
It is not without weighty reasons, and without having considered the 
matter attentively, that I have supposed the apostles invested with the 
power of enacting laws. I am sensible that some very learned men 
among the moderns have denied this power ; but I apprehend they differ 
from me rather in words than in any material point. 

e These accounts are to be seen at the end of three books concerning the 
life and death of Moses, which were discovered and illustrated by Gilb. 
Gaulminus, and republished by Fabricius in his Biblioth. Graec. 

f Those who imagine, that Christ himself, or the apostles by his direc- 
tion and authority, appointed a certain fixed form of chursh-government, 
have not determined what that form was. The principal opinions that 
have been adopted upon this head may be reduced to the four following : 
The first is that of the Roman Catholics, who maintain, " That Christ's 
declared intention was, that his followers should be collected into one sa- 
cred empire, subjected to the government of St. Peter and his successors, 
and divided, like the kingdoms of this world, into several provinces ; that, 
in consequence thereof, Peter fixed the seat of ecclesiastical dominion at 
Rome, but afterwards, to alleviate the burthen of his office, divided the 
church into three great provinces, according to the division of the world 
at that time, and appointed a person to preside in each, who was digni- 
fied with the title of patriarch; that the European patriarch resided at 
Rome, the Asiatic at Antioch, and the African at Alexandria ; that the 
bishops of each province, among whom also there were various ranks, 
were to reverence the authority of their respective patriarchs, and that 
both bishops and patriarchs were to be passively subject to the supreme 
dominion of the Roman pontiff."* This romantic account scarcely de- 
serves a serious refutation. The second opinion concerning the govern- 
ment of the church, makes no mention of a supreme head, or of patriarchs, 
constituted by divine authority, but supposes that the apostles divided 
the Roman empire into as many ecclesiastical provinces as there were 
secular or civil- ones ; that the metropolitan bishop, i. e. the prelate 

* See Leo Allatius, de perpetua oonsens. Eccles. Orient, et Occident, 
lib. i. cap. ii. — Morinus, Exercitat. Ecclesiast. lib. i. excr. i. 



IV. The accounts we have of the seventy disciples are 
still more obscure than those of the apostles, since the for 
mer are only once mentioned in the New Testament. 
Luke, x. 1 . The illustrations that we have yet remaining, 
relative to their character and office, were certainly com- 
posed by the more modern Greeks, and, therefore, can have 
little authority or credit. e Their commission extended no 
farther than the Jewish nation, as appears from the express 
words of St. Luke, though it is highly probable, that, after 
Christ's ascension, they performed the function of Evan- 
gelists, and declared the glad tidings of salvation, and the 
means of obtaining it, through different nations and 
provinces. 

V. Neither Christ himself, nor his holy apostles, have 
commanded any thing clearly or expressly concerning the 
external form of the church, or the precise method accord- 
ing to which it should be governed/ Hence we may 
infer, that the regulation of this was, in some measure, to 
be accommodated to the time, and left to the wisdom and 
prudence of the chief riders, both of the state and of the 
church. If, however, it be true, that the apostles acted by 
divine inspiration, and in conformity with the commands 
of their blessed Master, (and this no Christian can call in 
question,) it follows, that the form of government which 
the primitive churches borrowed from that of Jerusalem, 
the first Christian assembly established by the apostles 
themselves, must be esteemed as of divine institution. But 
from this it Avould be wrong to conclude that such a form 
is immutable, and ought to be invariably observed ; for 
this a great variety of events may render impossible. In 
those early times, every Christian church consisted of the 
people, their leaders, and the ministers or deacons ; and 
these, indeed, belong essentially to every religious society. 

who resided in the capital city of each province, presided over the 
clergy of that province, and that the other bishops were subject to his 
authority. This opinion has been adopted by some of the most learned 
of the Romish church,* and has also been favoured by some of the most 
eminent British divines.t Some Protestant writers of note have 
endeavoured to prove that it is not supported by sufficient evidence.* 
The third opinion is that of those who acknowledge, that, when the 
Christians began to multiply exceedingly, metropolitans, patriarchs, and 
archbishops, were indeed created, but only by human appointment and 
authority, though they confess, at the same time, that it is consonant to 
the orders and intentions of Christ and his apostles, that, in every Chris- 
tian church there should be one person invested with the highest authori- 
ty, and clothed with certain rights and privileges above the other doctors 
of that assembly. This opinion has been embraced by many English 
divines of the first rank in the learned world, and also by many in other 
countries and communions. The fourth or last opinion is that of the 
Presbyterians, who affirm, that Christ's intention was, that the Christian 
doctors and ministers should all enjoy the same rank and authority, with- 
out any sort of pre-eminence or subordination, any distinction of rights 
and privileges. The reader will find an ample account of these opi- 
nions with respect to church-government in Dr. Mosheim's Larger Histo- 
ry of the first Century. This learned and impartial writer, who con- 
demns with reason the fourth opinion, as it is explained by those bigot- 
ed Puritans, who look upon all subordination and variety of rank 
among the doctors of the church as candemnable and antichristian, ob- 
serves, however, with equal reason, that this opinion may be explained 
and modified so as to reconcile the moderate advocates of the episcopal 
discipline with the less rigid Presbyterians. The opinion, modified by 
Dr. Mosheim, amounts to this : " That the Christian doctors are equal 
in this sense : that Christ has left no positive and special decree which 
constitutes a distinction among them, nor any divine commandment by 
which those who, in consequence of the appointments of human wisdom, 

* Petrus de Marca, de concord, sacerdot. et imperii, lib. vi. cap. i. — Mo- 
rinus, Exerc. Eccl. lib. i. ex. xviii. — Pagi Critica in annal. Baronii ad 
an. xxxvii. 

t Hammond, Diss, de Episcop. — Beveregii Cod. Canon. Vet. Eccles. 
Vindic. lib. ii. cap. v. torn. ii. Patr. Apost. — Usser. de Origine Episcop, 
et Metropol. 

t Basnage, Hist, de l'Eglisc, tome i. liv. i. cap. viii. — Bohmer, Annot. 
ad Pctrum de Marca de concordia sacerd. et imperii. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS. CHURCH GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



21 



The people were, undoubtedly, the first in authority ; for | 
the apostles showed, by their own example, that nothing 
of moment was to be carried on or determined without the 
consent of the assembly ; a and such a method of proceed- jj 
Wig was both prudent and necessary in those critical tunes. ; 

VI. It was. therefore, the assembly of the people, which 
chose rulers and teachers, or received them by a free and 
authoritative consent, when recommended by others. The 
same people rejected or confirmed, by their suffrages, the j 
laws that were proposed by their rulers to the assembly ; 
excommunicated profligate and unworthy members of the | 
church ; restored the penitent to their forfeited privileges ; 
passed judgment upon the different subjects of controversy 
and dissension, that arose in their community ; examined 
and decided the disputes which happened between the 
elders and deacons ; and, in a word, exercised all that 
authority w hich belongs to such as are invested with sove- 
reign power. The people, indeed, had in some measure 
purchased these privileges, by administering to the support 
of their rulers, ministers, and poor, and by offering large and 
generous contributions, when the safety or interests of the 
community rendered them necessary. In these supplies, 
each bore a part proportioned to his circumstances ; and the 
various gifts which were thus brought into the public 
assemblies, were called oblations. 

VII. There reigned among the members of the Chris- 
tian church, however distinguished they were by worldly 
rank and titles, not only an amiable harmony,- but also a 
perfect equality. This appeared by the feast of charity, in 
which ah were indiscriminately assembled ; by the names 
of brethren and sisters, with which they saluted each 
other ; and by several circumstances of a like nature. Nor, 
in this first century, was the distinction made between 
Christians, of a more or less perfect order, which took place 
afterwards. Whoever acknowledged Christ as the Sa- 
viour of mankind, and made a solemn profession of his 
confidence in him, was immediately baptized and received 
into the church. But, when the church began to flourish, 
and its members to increase, it was thought prudent and 
necessary to divide Christians into two orders, distinguished 
by the names of believers and catechumens. The former 
were those who had been solemnly admitted into the 
church by baptism, and, in consequence thereof, were 
instructed in all the mysteries of religion, had access to all 
the parts of divine worship, and were authorized to vote 
in the ecclesiastical assemblies. The latter were such as 
had not yet been dedicated to God and Christ by baptism, 
and were, therefore, neither admitted to the public prayers 
nor to the holy communion, nor to the ecclesiastical as- 
semblies. 



are in the higher ranks, can demand by divine right the obedience and 
submission of the inferior doctors or ministers, their abstaining from die 
exercise of certain functions," &c. 

The truth is, that, Christ, by leaving this matter undetermined, has left 
to Christian societies a discretionary- power of modeling the government 
of the church in such a manner, as the circumstantial reasons of times, 
places, &c. may require ; and, therefore, die wisest government of the 
church is the best and most divine ; and every Christian society has a 
right to make laws for itself, provided that these laws be consistent with 
charity and peace, and with the fundamental doctrines and principles of 
Christianity. 

■ Acts i. 15 ; vi. 3 ; xv. 4 ; xxi. 22. 

t> The word Presbyter, or elder, is taken from the Jewish institution, 
and signifies rather die venerable prudence and wisdom of old age, than 
age itself. 

• Acts xx. 17, 28. Phil. i. 1. Tit. i. 5, 7. 1 Tim. iii. 1. 
■J 1 Tim. iii. 1. Tit. 1. 5. 

• 1 Tim. iii. 2, &c. See, concerning the word Presbyter, the illustra- 

6 



The rulers of the church were called either presbyters* 
or bishops, — titles which, in the New Testament, are 
undoubtedly applied to the same order of men. c These 
were persons of eminent gravity ; and such as had distin- 
guished themselves by then superior sanctity and merit." 1 
Then particular functions were not always the same ; for, 
while some of them confined their labours to the instruc- 
tion of the people, others contributed in different ways to 
the edification of the church. Hence the distinction be- 
tween teaching and ruling presbyters has been adopted by 
certain learned men. But if ever this distinction existed, 
which I neither affirm nor den)-, it certainly did not con- 
tinue long, since it is manifest that St. Paid requires, 
that all bishops or presbyters be qualified, and ready to 
teach and instruct. e 

IX. Among the first professors of Christianity, there 
were few men of learning ; few, who had capacity enough 
to insinuate, into the minds of a gross and ignorant multi- 
tude, the knowledge of divine things. God, therefore, in 
his infinite wisdom, judged it necessary to raise up, in 
many churches, extraordinary teachers, who were to dis- 
course in the public assemblies, upon the various points of 
the Christian doctrine, and to treat with the people, in his 
name, as guided by his direction, and clothed with his 
authority. Such were the prophets of the New Testa- 
ment/ an order of men, whose commission is too much 
limited by the writers who confine it to the interpretation 
of the books of the Old Testament, and especially the 
prophecies;' for it is certain, that they, who claimed the 
rank of prophets, were invested with the power of censur- 
ing publicly such as had been guilt}- of any irregularity : 
but, to prevent the abuses that designing men might make 
of this institution, by pretending to this extraordinary 
character, in order to execute unworthy ends, there were 
always present, in the public auditories, judges divinely 
appointed, who, by certain and infallible marks, were able 
to distinguish the false prophets from the true. The order 
of prophets ceased, when the want of teachers, which 
gave rise to it was abundantly supplied. 

X. The church was, undoubtedly, provided from the 
beginning with inferior ministers or deacons. No society 
can be without its servants, and still less such societies as 
those of the first Christians were. And it appears not 
only probable but evident, that the young men, who car- 
ried away the dead bodies of Ananias and Sapphira, were 
the subordinate ministers, or deacons, of the church of Je- 
rusalem, who attended the apostles to execute then orders. h 
These first deacons, being chosen from among the Jews 
who were born in Palestine, were suspected by the foreign 
Jews of partiality in distributing the offerings which were 

tions given by the learned Vitringa, de Synagoga vetere, lib. iii. cap. i. 
p. 609; and by the venerable Jo. Bened. Carpzovius. in his Exerc. in 
Epist. ad Hebraos ex Philone, p. 499. As to die presbyters themselves, 
and die nature of their office, the reader will receive much sadsfaction 
from die accounts given of diat order by Buddeus, de Ecclesia Apostoli- 
ca, cap. vi. p. 719, and by the most learned Pfaffius, de Originibus Juris 
Eccles. p. 49. 

t Rom. xiii. 6. 1 Cor. xii. 28 ; xiy. 3, 29. Eph. iv. 11. 

e See Mosheim's Dissertation de illis qui Prophets vocanrur in Novo 
Fcedere, which is to be found in die second volume of his Syntagma Dis- 
sertationum ad Historiam Eccles. pertinendum. 

i Acts v. 6, 10. 

Those who may be surprised at my affirming that the yovng men, 
mentioned in die passage here referred to, were the deacons or ministers 
of the church of Jerusalem, are desired to consider that the words vc6rcpoi, 
vcavicKoi, i. e. young men, are not always used to determine the ages of 
the persons to whom diey are applied, but are frequendy employed to 
point out their offices, or functions, both by the Greek and Ladn writer*. 



22 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part H 



presented for the support of the poor.* To remedy this 
disorder, seven other deacons were chosen, by order of the 
apostles, and employed in the servk i of that part of the 
church at Jerusalem, which was composed of the foreign 
Jews converted into Christianity. Of these new ministers 
six were foreigners, as appears by their names ; the seventh 
was chosen out of the proselytes, of whom there were a 
certain number among the first Christians at Jerusalem, 
and to whom it was reasonable that some regard should 
be shown, in the election of the deacons, as well as to the 
foreign Jews. All the other Christian churches followed 
the example of that of Jerusalem, in whatever related to 
the choice and office of the deacons. Some, particularly 
the eastern churches, elected deaconesses, and chose for 
that purpose matrons or widows of eminent sanctity, who 
also ministered to the necessities of the poor, and perform- 
ed several other offices, that tended to the maintenance of 
order and decency in the church. b 

XI. Such was the constitution of the Christian church 
in its infancy, when its assemblies were neither numer- 
ous nor splendid. Three or four presbyters, men of remark- 
able piety and wisdom, ruled these small congregations in 
perfect harmony ; nor did they stand in need of any presi- 
dent or superior to maintain concord and order where no 
dissensions were known. But the number of the presby- 
ters and deacons increasing with that of the churches, and 
the sacred work of the ministry growing more painful and 
weighty, by a number of additional duties, these new cir- 
cumstances required new regulations. It was then judged 
necessary, that one man of distinguished gravity and wis- 
dom should preside in the council of presbyters, in order to 
distribute among his colleagues their several tasks, and to 
be a centre of union to the whole society. This person 
was, at first, styled the angel c of the church to which he 
belonged, but was afterward distinguished by the name of 
bishop, or inspector ; a name borrowed from the Greek 
language, and expressing the principal part of the episco- 
pal function, which was to inspect and superintend the 
affairs of the church. It is highly probable that the church 
of Jerusalem, grown considerably numerous, and deprived 
of the ministry of the apostles, who were gone to instruct 
the other nations, was the first which chose a president or 
bishop ; and it is no less probable, that the other churches 
followed by degrees such a respectable example. 

XII. Let none, however, confound the bishops of this 
primitive and golden period of the church with those of 
whom we read in the following ages ; for, though they 
were both distinguished by the same name, yet they differ- 

The same rule of interpretation, that diversifies the sense of the word 
presbyter (which, as all know, signifies sometimes the age of a person, 
and, at other times his function,) is manifestly applicable to the words 
oefore us. As, therefore, by the title of presbyters, the rulers of a society 
are pointed out, without any regard to their ages, so, by the expression 
■young men, We are often to understand ministers, or 'servants, because 
such are generally in the flower of youth. This interpretation may be 
confirmed by examples taken from the New Testament. Christ himself 
seems to attribute this sense to the word vctircpos, Luke xxii. 26. 6 iietgtov 
in vjtlv, ycviaQo) Sit b pctirepos. He explains the term jitifav, by the word 
tyijtevos, and it therefore signifies a presbyter, or ruler ; he also substi- 
tutes, a little after, b Sianoviov in the place of veairtpo;, which confirms our 
interpretation in the most unanswerable manner: so that iici^wv and 
vearcpo; are not here indications of certain ages, but of certain functions, 
and the precept of Christ amounts to this : " Let not him who performs 
the office of a presbyter or elder among you, think himself superior to 
the ministers or deacons." The passage of 1 Pet. v. 5, is still more 
express to our purpose : 'Opoiois, vciircpoi, iiroTiiyriTC tois TrpcapvTepoTs. It 
is evident from the preceding verses, that presbyter here is the name of 
tin office, and points out a ruler or teacher of the church ; and that the 



ed in many respects. A bishop during the first and second 
century, was a person who had the care of one Christian as- 
sembly, which, at that time was, generally speaking, small 
enough to be contained in a private house. In this assem 
bly he acted, not so much with the authority of a master, 
as with the zeal and diligence of a faithful servant. He 
instructed the people, performed the several parts of divine 
worship, attended the sick, and inspected the circumstances 
and supplies of the poor. He charged, indeed, the presby- 
ters with the performance of those duties and services, 
which the multiplicity of his engagements rendered it 
impossible for him to fulfil ; but he had not the power to 
decide or enact any thing without the consent of the pres- 
byters and people ; and, though the episcopal office was 
both laborious and singularly dangerous, yet its revenues 
were extremely small, since the church had no certain 
income, but depended on the gifts or oblations of the mul- 
titude, which were, no doubt, inconsiderable, and were 
moreover to be divided among the bishops, presbyters, dea- 
cons, and poor. 

XIII. The power and jurisdiction of the bishops were 
not long confined to these narrow limits, but were soon 
extended by the following means. The bishops, who lived 
in the cities, had, either by their own ministry, or that of 
their presbyters, erected new churches in the neighbouring 
towns and villages. These churches, continuing under 
the inspection and ministry of the bishops, by whose 
labours and counsels they had been engaged to embrace 
the Gospel, grew imperceptibly into ecclesiastical provin- 
ces, which the Greeks afterwards called dioceses. But, as 
the bishop of the city could not extend his labours and 
inspection to all these churches in the country and in the 
villages, he appointed certain suffragans or deputies to 
govern and to instruct these new societies ; and they were 
distinguished by the title of chorepiscopi, i. e. country 
bishops. This order held the middle rank between bishops 
and presbyters. 

XIV. The churches, in those early times, were entirely 
independent, none of them being subject to any foreign ju- 
risdiction, but each governed by its own rulers and its own 
laws ; for, though the churches founded by the apostles had 
this particular deference shown to them, that they were con- 
sulted in difficult and doubtful cases, yet they had no ju- 
ridical authority, no sort of supremacy over the others, nor 
the least right to enact laws for them. Nothing, on the con- 
trary, is more evident than the perfect equality that reigned 
among the primitive churches ; nor does there even appear, 
in this first century, the smallest trace of that association of 



term vecirepos is also to be interpreted, not a young man in point of age, 
but a minister or servant of the church. St. Peter, having solemnly 
exhorted the presbyters not to abuse the power that was committed to 
them, addresses his discourse to the ministers : " But likewise, ye young- 
er, i. e. deacons, despise not the orders of the presbyters or elders, but 
perform cheerfully whatsoever they command you." In the same sense 
St. Luke employs this term, Acts v. 6, 10. and his vcdrcpoi and vtaviaKoi 
are undoubtedly the deacons of the church of Jerusalem, of whom the 
Greek Jews complain afterwards to the apostles, (Acts vi. 1, &c.) ore 
account of the partial distribution of the alms. I might confirm this 
sense of the words young men, by numberless citations from Greek and 
Roman writers, and a variety of authors, sacred and profane ; but this is 
not the proper place for demonstrations of this nature. 
a Acts vi. 1, &c. 

•> For an ample account of the deacons and deaconesses of the primitive 
church, see Zeigler, de Diaconis et Diaconissis, cap. xix. p. 347. — Ba»- 
nagii Annal. Polit. Eccles. ad an. xxxv. torn. i. p. 450. — Bingham, Orig. 
Eccles. lib. ii. cap. xx. 

c Rev. ii. 3. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, &c. 



23 



provincial churches, from which councils and metropoli- 
tans derive their origin. It was only in the second century 
that the c istom of holding councils commenced in Greece, 
whence it soon spread through the other provinces. 1 

XV. The principal place among the Christian Doctors, 
and among those also, who by their writings were instru- 
mental in the progress of the truth, is due to the apostles 
and some of their disciples, who were set apart and inspired 
by God, to record the actions of Christ and his apostles. 
The writings of these holy men, which are comprehended 
in the books of the New Testament, are in the hands of 
all who profess themselves Christians. Those who are 
desirous of particular information with respect to the 
history of these sacred books, and the arguments which 
prove their divine authority, their genuineness, and purity, 
must consult the learned authors who have written pro- 
fessedly upon that head. b 

XVI. The opinions, or rather the conjectures of the 
learned, concerning the time when the books of the New 
Testament were collected into one volume, as also about 
the authors of that collection, are extremely different. 
This important question is attended with great and almost 
insuperable difficulties to us in these latter times/ It is, 
however, sufficient for us to know, that, before the middle 
of the second century, the greatest part of the books of the 
New Testament were read hi every Christian society 
throughout the world, and received as a divine rule of faith 
and manners. Hence it appears, that these sacred writings 
were carefully separated from several human compositions 
upon the same subject, either by some of the apostles them- 
selves, who lived so long, or by their disciples and succes- 
sors. 4 We are well assured, 6 that the four Gospels were 
formed into a volume during the life of St. John, and that 
the three first received the approbation of this divine apostle. 
And why may we not suppose that the other books of the 
New Testament were collected at the same time? 

XVII. What renders tins highly probable is, that the 
most urgent necessity required its being done ; for, not 
long after Christ's ascension into heaven, several histories 

* The meeting of the church of Jerusalem, mentioned in the xvtli chap- 
ter of the Acts, is commonly considered as the first Christian council. 
But this notion arises from a manifest abuse of the word council. That 
meeting was only of one church ; and, if such a meeting be called a 
council, it will follow that there were innumerable councils in the primi- 
tive times. But, every one knows, that a council is an assembly of 
deputies, or commissioners, sent from several churches associated by 
certain bonds in a general body, and therefore the supposition above 
mentioned falls to the ground. 

* For the history of the books of the New Testament, see particularly 
Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Biblioth. Graec. lib. iv. cap. v. p. 122—227. The 
same learned author has given an accurate list of the writers, who have 
defended the divinity of these sacred books, in his Delectus Argumento- 
rum et Syllabus Scriptorum proverit. relig. Christiana;, cap. xxvi. p. 502. 

e See Jo. Ens, Bibliotheca S. seu Diatriba de librorum N. T. Canone, 
published at Amsterdam in 1710 ; as also Jo. Mill. Prolegomen. ad Nov. 
Test. sect. 1. 

<i See Fricklus, de Cura Veteris Ecclesiae circa Canon, cap. iii. 

' This is expressly affirmed by Eusebius, in the xxivth chapter of the 
third book of his Ecclesiastical History. 

t Such of these writings as are yet extant have been carefully collected 
by Fabricius, in his Codex Apocryphus Novi Testamenti. Many in- 
genious and learned observations have been made on these spurious 
Books by the celebrated Beausobre, in his Histoire Critique des Dogmes 
de Manichee. 

8 After Tillemont, Cotelerius and Grabe have given some accounts of 
this great man ; and all that has been said concerning him by the best 
and most credible writers, has been collected by Rondinini, in the 
former of two books published at Rome, in 1706, under the following 
title, Libri Duo de S. Clemente, Papa, et Martyre, ejusque Basilica 
in urbe Roma. 

_ * J. A. Fabricius, in the fourth book of his Bibliotheca Graeca, men- 
tions the editions that have been given of St. Clements' epistles. To this 



of his life and doctrines, full of pious frauds and fabulous 
wonders, were composed by persons, whose intentions, 
perhaps, were not bad, but whose writings discovered the 
greatest superstition and ignorance. Nor was this all 
productions appeared which were imposed upon the world 
by fraudulent men, as the writings of the holy apostles/ 
These apocryphal and spurious writings must have produ- 
ced a sad confusion, and rendered both the history and the 
doctrine of Christ uncertain, had not the rulers of the 
church used all possible care and diligence in separating 
the books that were truly apostolical and divine from all 
that spurious trash, and conveying them down to posterity 
in one volume. 

XVIII. The writer, whose fame surpassed that of all 
others in this century, the apostles excepted, was Clemens, 
bishop of Rome. The accounts which remain of his life, 
actions, and death, are for the most part uncertain, e Two 
Epistles to the Corinthians, h written in Greek, have been 
attributed to him, of which the second is deemed spurious, 
and the first genuine, by many learned writers. '> But even 
this seems to have been corrupted and interpolated by 
some ignorant and presumptuous author, who appears to 
have been displeased at observing a defect of learning and 
genius in the writings of so great a man as Clemens. k 

XIX. The learned are now unanimous in regarding the 
other writing; which bear the name of Clemens, viz. the 
Apostolic Canons, the Apostolic Constitutions, the Recogni- 
tions of Clemens and Clementina, 1 as spurious productions 
ascribed by some impostor to this venerable prelate, in order 
to procure them a high degree of authority.™ The Apostoli- 
cal Canons, which consist of eighty-five ecclesiastical laws, 
contain a view of the church government and discipline re- 
ceived among the Greek and oriental Christians in the 
second and third centuries. The eight books of Apostolical 
Constitutions are the work of some austere and melancholy 
author, who, having taken it into his head to reform the 
Christian worship, which he looked upon as degenerated 
from its original purity, made no scruple to prefix to his 
rules the names of the apostles, that thus they might be more 

account we must add the edition published at Cambridge, in 1718, which 
is preferable to the preceding ones in many respects. 

fTlr i See the ample account that is given of these two Greek epistles of 
Clemens, by Dr. Lardner, in the first volume of the second part of his 
valuable work, entitled, the Credibility of the Gospel History. 

k See J. Bapt. Cotelerii Patres Apost. torn. i. ; and Beruardi Adnota- 
tiunculae in Clementem, in the last edition of these fathers of the church, 
published by Le Clerc. The learned Wotton has endeavoured, though 
without success, in his observations on the episdes of Clemens, to refute 
the annotations above mentioned. 

fjp i Beside these writings attributed to Clemens, we may reckon two 
epistles which the learned Wetstein found in a Syriac version of the 
New Testament, which he took the pains to translate from Syriac into 
Latin. He has subjoined both the original and the translation to his 
famous edition of the Greek Testament, published in 1752 ; and the title 
is as follows: "Duas Epistolaa S. dementis Romani, Discipuli Petri 
Apostoli, quas ex Codice Manuscripto Novi Test. Syriaci nunc primum 
erutas, cum versione Latina adposita, edidit Jo. Jacobus Wetstenius." 
The manuscript of the Syriac version, whence these episdes were taken, 
was procured by the good offices of Sir James Porter, a judicious patron 
of literature, who, at that time, was British ambassador at Constantino- 
ple. Their authenticity is boldly maintained by Wetstein. and learn- 
edly opposed by Dr. Lardner. The celebrated professor Venema, of 
Franeker, also considered them as spurious. See an account of his con- 
troversy widi Wetstein on that subject, in the Bibliotheque des Sciences 
et des Beaux Arts, torn. ii. 

m For an account of the fate of these writings, and the editions that 
have been given of them, it will be proper to consult two dissertations of 
the learned Ittigius ; one, de Patribus Apostolicis, which he has prefixed 
to his Bibliotheca Patrum Apostolicorum ; and the other, de Pseudepi- 
graphis Apostolicis. which he has subjoined to the Appendix of his book 
de Haeresiarchis Mvl Apostolici. See also Fabricius, Bibliotheca 
Graeca, lib. v. cap. i., and lib. vi. cap. i. 



24 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



pARf II 



speedily and favourably received. 1 The Recognitions of 
Clemens, which differ very little from the Clementina, 
are the witty and agreeable productions of an Alexandrian 
Jew, well versed in philosophy. They were written in 
the third century, with a view of answering, in a new 
manner, the objections of the Jews, philosophers, and 
Gnostics, against the Christian religion ; and the careful 
perusal of them will be exceedingly useful to such as are 
desirous of information with respect to the state of the 
Christian church in the primitive times. b 

XX. Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, succeeds Clemens in 
the list of the apostolic fathers, among whom were placed 
such Christian doctors as had conversed with the apostles 
themselves, or their disciples. This pious and venerable 
man, who was the disciple and familiar friend of the apos- 
tles, was, by the order of Trajan, exposed to wild beasts in 
the public theatre at Rome, where he suffered martyrdom 
with the utmost fortitude. There are yet extant several 
epistles, attributed to him, concerning the authenticity of 
Avhich there have been, however, tedious and warm dis- 
putes among the learned. Of these epistles, seven are 
said to have been written by this eminent martyr, during 
his journey from Antioch to Rome ; and these the majo- 
rity of learned men acknowledge to be genuine, as they 
stand in the edition that was published in the seventeenth 
century, from a manuscript in the Medicean library. The 
others are generally rejected as spurious. As to my own 
sentiments of this matter, though I am willing to adopt this 
opinion as preferable to any other, I cannot help looking 
upon the authenticity of the Epistle to Polycarp as ex- 
tremely dubious, on account of the difference of style ; and 

ndeed, the whole question relating to the epistles of St. 
Ignatius in general, seems to me to labour under much 
obscurity, and to be embarrassed with many difficulties. d 

XXI. The Epistle to the Philippians, which is ascribed 
to Polycarp bishop of Smyrna, who, in the middle of the 
second century, suffered martyrdom in a venerable and 
advanced age, is considered by some as genuine ; by others, 
as spurious ; and it is no easy matter to determine this 
question. 6 The Epistle of Barnabas was the production 
of some Jew, who, most probably, lived in this century, 
and whose mean abilities and superstitious attachment to 
Jewish fables, show, notwithstanding the uprightness of 
his intentions, that he must have been a very different 
person from the true Barnabas, who was St. Paul's com- 
panion/ The work which is entitled the Shepherd of 
Hermas, because the angel, who bears the principal part 
in it, is represented in the form and habit of a shepherd, 
was composed in the second century by Hermas, who was 
brother to Pius, bishop of Rome.s This whimsical and 
visionary writer has taken the liberty of inventing several 
dk 



igues or conversations between God and the angels, 



in 



a Buddeus has collected the ■various opinions of the learned concerning 
the Apostolical Canons and Constitutions, in his Isagoge in Theologiam. 

>> See, for a full account of this work, Mosheim's Dissertation, de tur- 
bataper recentiores Platonicos Ecclesia, sect. 34. f^f This Dissertation is 
in the first volume of that learned work which our author published under 
the title of Syntagma Dissertationum ad Historian! Ecclesiasticam per- 
tmentium. 

* See Tillemont's Memoires pour servir a. l'Histoire de l'Eglise, torn. ii. 
& For an account of this controversy, it will be proper to consult the 

Bibliotheca Graca of Fabricius, lib. v. cap. i. 

* For an account of this martyr, and of the epistle attributed to him, 
see Tillemont's Memoires, torn, ii., and Fabricii Biblioth. Graca, lib. v. 

' See Tillemont's Memoires, and Ittigius' Select. Hist. Eccles. Capita, 
secc. i. 

* This now appears with the utmost evidence from a very ancient 



order to insinuate, in a more easy and agreeable manner 
the precepts which he thought useful and salutary, intc 
the minds of his readers. But indeed, the discourse, 
which he puts into the mouths of those celestial beings 
is more insipid and senseless, than what we commonly 
hear among the meanest of the multitude. 11 

XXII. We may here remark in general, that these 
apostolic fathers, and the other writers, who, in the infan- 
cy of the church, employed their pens in the cause of Chris- 
tianity, were neither remarkable for their learning nor for 
thek eloquence. On the contrary, they express the most 
pious and admirable sentiments in the plainest and most 
illiterate style. « This, indeed, is rather a matter of honour 
than of reproach to the Christian cause, since Ave see, from 
the conversion of a great part of mankind by the ministry 
of weak and illiterate men, that the progress of Christiani- 
ty is not to be attributed to human means but to a divine 
power. 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church in 
this Century. 

I. The whole of the Christian religion is comprehended 
in two great points, one of which regards what we are to 
believe, and the other relates to our conduct and actions ; 
or, in a shorter phrase, the Gospel presents to us objects of 
faith and rules of practice. The apostles express the for- 
mer by the term mystery, or the truth, and the latter by 
that of godliness, or piety. , k The rule and standard of 
both are those books which contain the revelation that God 
made of his will to persons chosen for that purpose, whether 
before or after the birth of Christ ; and these divine books 
are usually called the Old and New Testament. 

II. The apostles and thek disciples took all possible care, 
in the earliest times of the church, that these sacred books 
might be in the hands of all Christians, that they might 
be read and explained in the assemblies of the faithful, and 
thus contribute, both in private and in public, to excite 
and nourish in the minds of Christians a fervent zeal for 
the truth, and a firm attachment to the ways of piety 
and virtue. Those who performed the office of interpreters 
studied above all things plainness and perspicuity. At the 
same time it must be acknowledged, that, even in this cen- 
tury, several Christians adopted the absurd and corrupt 
custom, used among the Jews, of darkening the plain 
words of the Holy Scriptures by insipid and forced allego- 
ries, and of drawing them violently from their proper and 
natural meanings, in order to extort from them myste- 
rious and hidden significations. For a proof of this, we 
need go no farther than the Epistle of Barnabas, which is 
yet extant. 

fragment of a small book, concerning the canon of the Scriptures, which 
the learned Lud. Anton. Muratori published from an ancient manuscript 
in the library at Milan, and which is to be found in the Antiq. Italic, 
medii iEvi, torn. iii. diss, xliii. 

h We are indebted for the best edition of the Shepherd of Hermas, tc 
Fabricius, who has added it to the third volume of his Codex Apocry- 
phus N. Testanienti. We find also some account of this writer'in the 
Biblioth. Grseca of the same learned author, book v. chap, ix., and alst 
in Ittigius' dissertation de Patribus Apostolicis, sect. 55. 

' All the writers mentioned in this chapter are usually called apostolic 
fathers. Of the works of these authors, Jo. Bapt. Cotelerius, and afte. 
him Le Clerc, have published a collection in two volumes, accompanied 
with their own annotations, and the remarks of other learned men. 

k 1 Tim. iii. 9; vi. 3. Tit. i. 1 



Chap. III. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH 



25 



III. The method of teaching the sacred doctrines of reli- 
gion was, at this time, most simple, far removed from all 
the subtle rules of philosophy, and all the precepts of 
human art. This appears abundantly, not only in the 
writings of the apostles, but also in all those of the second 
century, which have survived the ruins of time. Neither 
did the apostles, or their disciples, ever think of collecting 
into a regular system the principal doctrines of the Chris- 
tian religion, or of demonstrating them in a scientific and 
geometrical order. The beautiful and candid simplicity of 
these early ages rendered such philosophical niceties un- 
necessary ; and the great study of those who embraced the 
Gospel was rather to express its divine influence in their 
dispositions and actions, than to examine its doctrines with 
an excessive curiosity, or to explain them by the rules of 
human wisdom. 

IV. There is extant, indeed, a brief summary of the 
principal doctrines of Christianity in that form which 
bears the name of the Apostles' Creed, and which, from 
the fourth century downwards, was almost generally con- 
sidered as a production of the apostles. All, however, who 
have the least knowledge of antiquity, look upon this opi- 
nion as entirely false, and destitute of all foundation. 1 
There is much more reason in the opinion of those who 
think, that this creed was not all composed at once, but, 
from small beginnings, was imperceptibly augmented in 
proportion to the growth of heresy, and according to the 
exigencies and circumstances of the church, from which 
it was designed to banish the errors that daily arose. b 

\[ V. In the earliest times of the church, all who professed 
firmly to believe that Jesus was the only Redeemer of the 
world, and who in consequence of this profession, promised 
to live in a manner conformable to the purity of his holy 
religion, were immediately received among the disciples of 
Christ. This was all the preparation for baptism then 
required ; and a more, accurate instruction in the doctrines 
of Christianity was to be administered to them after their 
reception of that sacrament. But, when Christianity had 
acquired more consistence, and churches rose to the true 
God and his eternal Son, almost in every nation, this 
custom was changed for the wisest and most solid reasons. 
Then baptism was administered to none but such as had 
been previously instructed in the principal points of Chris- 
tianity, and had also given satisfactory proofs of pious dis- 
positions and upright intentions. Hence arose the distinc- 
tion between catechumens, who were in a state of proba- 
tion, and under the instruction of persons appointed for 
that purpose ; and believers, who were consecrated by 
baptism, and thus initiated into all the mysteries of the 
Christian faith. 

VI. The methods of instructing the catechumens differed 
according to their various capacities. To those, in whom 
the natural force of reason was small, only the fundamen- 
tal principles and truths, which are, as it were, the basis of 

* See Buddei Isagoge ad Theologium, lib. i. cap. ii. sect. 2. p. 441, as 
also Walchii Introductio in libros Symbolicos, lib. i. cap. ii. p. 87. 

t> This opinion is confirmed in the most learned and ingenious manner 
by Sir Peter King, in his history of the Apostles' Creed. Such, how- 
ever, as read this valuable work with pleasure, and with a certain degree 
of prepossession, would do well to consider that its author, upon several 
occasions, has given us conjectures instead of proofs ; and also, that his 
conjectures are not always so happy as justly to command our assent. 

2 Tim. ii. 2. 

d Iremeus, adv. Hreres. lib. ii. cap. xxii. Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. v. 
cap. xx. 
ibr' The Alexandrian School was renowned for a succession of learned 

No. III. 7 



Christianity, were taught. Those, on the contrary, whom 
their instructors judged capable of comprehending, in 
some measure, the whole system of divine truth, were fur- 
nished with superior degrees of knowledge; and nothing 
was concealed from them, which could have any tendency 
to render them firm in their profession, and to assist them 
in arriving at Christian perfection. The care of instruct- 
ing such was committed to persons who were distinguish- 
ed by their gravity and wisdom, and also by their learning 
and judgment. Hence the ancient doctors generally divide ^ 
their flock into two classes ; the one comprehending such 
as were solidly and thoroughly instructed ; the other, those 
who were acquainted with little more than the first princi- 
ples of religion ; nor do they deny that the methods of 
instruction applied to these two sorts of persons were ex- 
tremely different. 

VII. The Christians took all possible care to accustom 
their children to the study of the Scriptures, and to instruct 
them in the doctrines of their holy religion ; and schools 
were every where erected for this purpose, even from the 
very commencement of the Christian church. We must 
not, however, confound the schools designed only for child- 
ren, with the gymnasia or academies of the ancient Chris- 
tians, erected in several large cities, in which persons of 
riper years, especially such as aspired to be public teachers, 
were instructed in the different branches, both of human 
learning and of sacred erudition. We may, undoubtedly, 
attribute to the apostles themselves, and to the injunctions 
given to their disciples, the excellent establishments, in 
which the youth destined to the holy ministry received an 
education suitable to the solemn office they were to under- 
take. St. John erected a school of this kind at Ephesus, 
and one of the same nature was founded by Polycarp at 
Smyrna : d but these were not in greater repute than that 
which was established at Alexandria, 6 commonly called 
the catechetical school, and generally supposed to have 
been erected by St. Mark. f 

VIII. The ancient Christians are supposed by many to 
have had a secret doctrine ; and if by this be meant, that 
they did not teach all in the same manner, or reveal all at 
once, and to all indiscriminately, the sublime mysteries of 
religion, there is nothing in this that may not be fully jus- 
tified. It would have been improper, for example, to pro- 
pose to those who were yet to be converted to Christianity, 
the more difficult doctrines of the Gospel, which surpass 
the comprehension of imperfect mortals. Such were, there- 
fore, first instructed in those points which are more obvious 
and plain, until they became capable of higher and more 
difficult attainments in religious knowledge. And even 
those who were already admitted into the society of Chris- 
tians, were, in point of instruction, differently dealt with 
according to their respective capacities. Those who con- 
sider the secret doctrine of this century in any other light, 
or give to it a greater extent than what we have here attri- 

doctors, as we find by the accounts of Eusebius and St. Jerom ; for, after 
St. Mark, Panteenus, Clemens Alexandrinus, Origen, and many others, 
taught in it the doctrines of the Gospel, and rendered it a famous semina- 
ry for Christian philosophy and religious knowledge. There were also 
at Rome, Antioch, Cassarea, Edessa, and in several other cities, schools 
of the same nature, though not all of equal reputation. 

1 See the dissertation of Schmidius. de Schola Catechetica Alexan- 
drina ; as also Aulisius, delle Scuole Sacre, book ii. ch. i. ii. xxi. The 
curious reader will find a learned account of the more famous Christian 
schools in the eastern parts, at Edessa, Nisibis,and Seleucia; and, indeed 
of the ancient schools in general, in Assemani Bibliotli. Oriental. Cle« 
ment. Vaticana;, torn. iii. par. ii. 



26 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



huted to it, confound the superstitious practices of the fol- 
lowing ages, with the simplicity of that discipline which 
prevailed at the time of which we write." 

IX. The lives and manners of the Christians in this 
century are highly celebrated by most authors, and recom- 
mended to succeeding generations as unspotted models 
of piety and virtue ; and, if these encomiums be confined 
to the greater part of those who embraced Christianity in 
the infancy of the church, they are certainly distributed 
with justice : but many run into extremes upon this head, 
and, estimating the lives and manners of all by the illus- 
trious examples of some eminent saints, or the sublime pre- 
cepts and exhortations of certain pious doctors, fondly ima- 
gine, that every appearance of vice and disorder was ban- 
ished from the first Christian societies. The gieatest part 
of those authors who have treated of the innocence and 
sanctity of the primitive Christians, have fallen into this 
error ; and a gross error indeed it is, as the strongest testi- 
monies too evidently prove. 

X. One of the circumstances which contributed chiefly 
to preserve, at least, an external appearance of sanctity in 
the Christian church, was the right of excluding from it, 
and from all participation of the sacred rites and ordinan- 
ces of the Gospel, such as had been guilty of enormous 
transgressions, and to whom repeated exhortations to re- 
pentance and amendment had been administered in vain. 
This right was vested in the church from the earliest 
period of its existence, by the apostles themselves, and was 
exercised by each Christian assembly upon its respective 
members. The rulers, or doctors, denounced the per- 
sons whom they thought unworthy of the privileges of 
church communion ; and the people, freely approving or 
rejecting their judgment, pronounced the decisive sentence. 
It was not, however, irrevocable ; for such as gave un- 
doubted signs of their sincere repentance, and declared 
then solemn resolutions of future reformation, were re-ad- 
mitted into the church, however enormous their crimes 
had been ; but, in case of a relapse, their second exclusion 
became absolutely irreversible. b 

XL It will easily be imagined, that unity and peace 
could not reign long in the church, since it was composed 
of Jews and Gentiles, who regarded each other with the 
bitterest aversion. Besides, as the converts to Christianity 
could not extirpate radically the prejudices which had 
been formed in their minds by education, and confirmed 
by time, they brought with them into the bosom of the 
church more or less of the errors of their former religion. 
Thus the seeds of discord and controversy were early 
sown, and could not fail to spring up soon into animosities 
and dissensions, which accordingly broke out, and divided 
the church. The first of these controversies arose in the 
church of Antioch. It regarded the necessity of observ- 
ing the law of Moses ; and its issue is mentioned by St. 
Luke in the Acts of the Apostles. This controversy was 
followed by many others, either with the Jews, who were 
violently attached to the worship of their ancestors, or with 
the votaries of a wild and fanatical sort of philosophy, or 
with such as, mistaking the true genius of the Christian 
religion, abused it monstrously to the encouragement of 

01 Many learned observations upon the secret discipline have been col- 
lected by the celebrated Christoph. Matt. Pfaffius, in his Dissert, poster. 
de PrEBJudiciis Theolog. sect. 13, p. 149, &c. in Primitiis Tubingensibus. 

i> See Morinus, Comm. de Disciplina Poenitentiae, lib. be. cap. xix. p. 
C70. 



their vices, and the indulgence of their appetites and pas- 
sions. d St. Paul and the other apostles have, in several 
places of their writings, mentioned these controversies, 
but with such brevity, that it is difficult, at this distance of 
time, to discover the true state of the question in these 
various disputes. 

XII. The most weighty and important of all these 
controversies, was that which some Jewish doctors raised 
at Rome, and in other Christian churches, concerning the 
means of justification and acceptance with God, and the 
method of salvation pointed out in the word of God. The 
apostles, wherever they exercised their ministry, had con- 
stantly declared all hopes of acceptance and salvation delu- 
sive, except such as were founded on Jesus the Redeemer, 
and his all-sufficient merits, while the Jewish doctors 
maintained the works of the law to be the true efficient 
cause of the soul's eternal salvation and felicity. The 
latter sentiment not only led to other errors prejudicial to 
Christianity, but was particularly injurious to the glory of 
its divine Author ; for those who looked upon a course of 
life conformable to the law, as a meritorious title to eternal 
happiness, could not consider Christ as the Son of God, 
and the Saviour of mankind, but only as an eminent 
prophet, or a divine messenger, sent from above to enlight- 
en and instruct a darkened world. It is not, therefore, 
surprising, that St. Paul took so much pains in his Epistle 
to the Romans, and in his other writings, to extirpate such 
a pernicious and capital error. 

XIII. The controversy that had been raised concern- 
ing the necessity of observing the ceremonies of the Mo- 
saic law, was determined by the apostles in the wisest and 
most prudent manner. e Their authority, however, respec- 
table as it was, had not its full effect ; for the prejudices, 
which the Jews, especially those who lived in Palestine, 
entertained in favour of the Mosaic law and their ancient 
worship, were so deeply rooted in their minds, that they 
could not be thoroughly removed. The force of these pre- 
judices was indeed, somewhat diminished after the de- 
struction of Jerusalem and the ruin of the temple, but not 
entirely destroyed. And hence, as we shall see in its 
place, a part of the judaizing Christians separated them- 
selves from the rest, and formed a particular sect, distin- 
guished by their adherence to the law of Moses. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 
I. The Christian religion was singularly commendable 
on account of its beautiful and divine simplicity, which 
appears from its two great and fundamental principles — 
faith and charity. This simplicity was not, however, 
incompatible with external ceremonies and positive insti- 
tutions, which, indeed, are necessary, in this imperfect 
state, to keep alive a sense of religion in the minds of men. 
The rites instituted by Christ himself were only two in 
number ; and these were intended to continue to the end 
of the church here below, without any variation. These 
rites were baptism and the holy supper, which are not to 

e Chap. xv. 

<J See, for an illustration of these points, Witsius' Missellanea Sacra, 
torn. ii. Exercit. xx. xxi. xxii. p. 668., and also Camp. Vitringa, Observ. 
Sacra?, lib. iv., cap. ix. x. xi., p. 952. 

Acts xv. 



Chap. IV. 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



27 



be considered as mere ceremonies, nor yet as symbolic 
representations only, but also as ordinances accompanied 
with a sanctifying influence upon the heart and the affec- 
tions of true Christians. And we cannot help observing 
here, that since the divine Saviour thought fit to appoint 
no more than two plain institutions in his church, this 
shows us that a great number of ceremonies are not essen- 
tial to his religion, and that he left it to the free and pru- 
dent choice of Christians to establish such rites as the cir- 
cumstances of the times, or the exigencies of the church, 
might require. 

II. There are several circumstances, however, which 
incline us to think, that the friends and apostles of our 
blessed Lord either tolerated through necessity, or appoint- 
ed for wise reasons, many other external rites in various 
places. At the same time, we are not to imagine that they 
ever conferred upon any person a perpetual, indelible, pon- 
tifical authority, or that they enjoined the same rites in all 
churches. We learn on the contrary, from authentic 
records, that the Christian worship was, from the begin- 
ing, celebrated in a different manner in different places, 
undoubtedly by the orders, or at least with the approbation 
of the apostles and their disciples. In those early times it 
was both wise and necessary to show, in the establishment 
of outward forms of worship, some indulgence to the an- 
cient opinions, manners, and laws of the respective nations 
to which the Gospel was preached. 

III. Hence it follows that the opinion of those who 
maintain that the Jewish rites were adopted every where, 
in the Christian churches, by order of the apostles, or their 
disciples, is destitute of all foundation. In those Christian 
societies, which were totally or principally composed of 
Jewish converts, it was natural to retain as much of the 
Jewish ritual as the genius of Christianity would suffer ; 
and a multitude of examples testify that this was actually 
done. But that the same translation of Jewish rites should 
take place in Christian churches, where there were no 
Jews, or a very small and inconsiderable number, is utter- 
ly incredible, because such an event was morally impossi- 
ble. In a word, the external forms of worship used in 
ancient times, must necessarily have been regulated and 
modified according to the character, genius, and manners 
of the different nations on which the light of the Gospel 
arose. 

IV. Since then there was such a variety in the ritual 
and discipline of the primitive churches, it must be very 
difficult to give such an account of the worship, manners, 
and institutions, of the ancient Christians, as will agree 
with what was practised in all those countries where the 
Gospel flourished. There are, notwithstanding, certain 
laws, whose authority and obligation were universal and 
indispensable among Christians ; and of these we shall 

* Phil. Jac. Hartmannus, de rebus gestis Christianoram sub Apostolis, 
cap. xv. p. 387. Just. Hen. Bohmer, Dissert. 1. Juris Eccles. Antiqui 
de stato die Christianor. p. 20. &c. 

b Steph. Curcellaeus, Diatriba de Esu Sanguinis, Operum Theolog. p. 
958. Gab. Albaspinaeus, Observat. Eccles. lib. i. Observ. xiii. It is in 
vain that many learned men have laboured to prove, that, in all the pri- 
mitive churches, both the first and last day of the week were observed as 
festivals. The churches of Bithynia, of which Pliny speaks in his let- 
ter to Trajan, had only one stated day for the celebration of public 
worship ; and that was, undoubtedly, the first day of the week, or what 
We call the Lord's day. 

* There are, it is true, learned men, who look upon it as a doubtful 
matter whether the day of Eentecost was celebrated as a festival so early 
as the first century. See Bingham's Antiquities of the Cliristian Church, 



here give a brief account. All Christians were unanimous 
hi setting apart the first day of the week, on which the 
triumphant Saviour arose from the dead, for the solemn 
celebration of public worship. This pious custom, which 
was derived from the example of the church of Jerusalem, 
was founded upon the express appointment of the apostles, 
who consecrated that day to the same sacred purpose, 
and was observed universally throughout the Christian 
churches, as appears from the united testimonies of the 
most credible writers.* The seventh day of the week 
was also observed as a festival," not by the Christians in 
general, but by such churches only as were principally 
composed of Jewish converts ; nor did the other Chris- 
tians censure this custom as criminal or unlawful. It 
appears, moreover, that all the Christian churches observed 
two great anniversary festivals ; one in memory of Christ's 
glorious resurrection, and the other to commemorate the 
descent of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles. To these 
we may add the days on which the blessed martyrs laid 
down then lives for the truth, which days were probably 
dignified with particular solemnities and marks of venera- 
tion from the earliest times. 

V. The places in which the first Christians assembled 
to celebrate divine worship, were, no doubt, the houses of 
private persons. But, in process of time, it became neces- 
sary, that these sacred assemblies should be confined to 
one fixed place in which the books, tables, and desks, 
required in divine service, might be constantly kept, and 
the dangers avoided, which in those perilous times, attend- 
ed their transportation from one place to another. And 
then, probably, the places of meeting, that had formerly 
belonged to private persons, became the property of the 
whole Christian community. 4 These few remarks are, 
in my opinion, sufficient to determine that question, which 
has been so long, and so tediously debated, — whether the 
first Christians had churches or not ; e since if any are 
pleased to give the name of church to a house, or the part 
of a house, which, though appointed as the place of reli- 
gious worship, was neither separated from common use, 
nor considered as holy in the opinion of the people, it will 
be readily granted, that the most ancient Christians had 
churches. 

VI. In these assemblies the holy scriptures were public- 
ly read, and for that purpose were divided into certain por- 
tions or lessons. This part of divine service was follow- 
ed by a brief exhortation to the people, in which elo- 
quence and art gave place to the natural and fervent ex- 
pression of zeal and charity. If any declared themselves 
extraordinarily animated by the Spirit, they were permitted 
to explain successively the divine will, while the other 
prophets who were present decided how much weight and 
authority were to be attributed to what they said/ The 



book xx. chap. vi. But, notwithstanding this, there are some weighty 
reasons for believing that this festival was as ancient as that of Easter, 
which was celebrated, as all agree, from the very first rise of the church. 
It is also probable that Friday, the day of Christ's crucifixion, was early 
distinguished by particular honours from the other days of the week. 
See Jac. Godofred, in Codicem Theodosii, torn. i. Asseman. Biblioth. 
Oriental. Vatican, torn. i. Martenne, Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. v. 

<• See Camp. Vitringa, de Synagoga vetere, lib. i. par. iii. cap. i. p. 
432. 

See Blondel, de Episcopis et Presbyteris, sect. iii. p. 216, 243, 24fi. 
Just. Hen. Bohmer, Dissert, ii. Juris Eccles. Antiqui, de Antelucanis 
Christianorum Ccetibus, sect. 4. Bingham's Antiquities of the Christian 
Church, book viii. chap. i. 

< 1 Cor. xiv. 6. 



28 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part lL 



prayers, which formed a considerable part of the public 
worship, were introduced at the conclusion of these dis- 
courses, and were repeated by the people after the bishop or 
presbyter, who presided in the service." To these were 
added certain hymns, which were sung, not by the whole 
assembly, but by persons appointed for that purpose, during 
the celebration of the Lord's supper, and the feasts of cha- 
rity. Such were the essential parts of divine worship 
which were observed in all Christian churches, though, 
perhaps the method and order in which they were per- 
formed were not the same in all. b 

VII. The prayers of the first Christians were followed 
by oblations of bread, wine, and other things ; and hence 
both the ministers of the church and the poor, derived 
their subsistence. Every Christian, who was in an opu- 
lent condition, and indeed every one, according to his cir- 
cumstances, brought gifts and offered them, as it were, to 
the Lord. Of the bread and wine presented in these offer- 
ings, such a quantity was separated from the rest as was 
required in the administration of the Lord's supper ; this 
was consecrated by certain prayers pronounced by the 
bishop alone, to which the people assented, by saying 
Amen. d The holy supper was distributed by the deacons ; 
and this sacred institution was followed by sober repasts, 
denominated (from the excellent purpose to which they were 
directed,) agapce, or feasts of charity. e Many attempts have 
been made to fix precisely the nature of these social feasts. 
But here it must be again considered, that the rites and cus- 
toms of the primitive Christians were very different indiffer- 
ent countries, and that consequently these feasts, like other 
institutions, were not every where celebrated in the same 
maimer. This is the tine and only way of explaining 
all the difficulties that can arise upon this subject. 

VIII. The sacrament of baptism was administered in 
this century, without the public assemblies, in places ap- 
pointed and prepared for that purpose, and was performed 
by an immersion of the whole body in the baptismal font/ 
At first it was usual for all who laboured in the propagation 
of the Gospel, to be present at that solemn ceremony ; and 
it was also customary, that the converts should be baptized 
and received into the church by those under whose minis- 
try they had embraced the Christian doctrine. But this 
custom was soon changed. When the churches were well 
established, and governed by a system of fixed laws, then 
the right of baptizing the converts was vested in the bishop 
alone. This right, indeed, he conferred upon the presby- 
ters and the chorepiscopi (country bishops,) when the 
bounds of the church were still farther enlarged ; reserving, 
however, to himself the confirmation of that baptism which 
was administered by a presbyter, s There were, doubtless, 



a See Justin Martyr's second Apology, p. 98, &c. 

*> This must be understood of churches "well established, and regulated 
Dy fixed laws ; for, in the first Christian assemblies, which were yet in 
an imperfect and fluctuating state, one or other of these circumstances of 
divine worship may possibly have been omitted. 

See the dissertations of the venerable and learned PfafF, de Oblatione 
et Consecratione Eucharistica, which are contained in his Syntagma 
Dissertation. Theologic. published at Stutgard in 1720. 

<f Justin Martyr, Apologia secunda. The several authors who have 
investigated the manner of celebrating the Lord's supper, are mentioned 
oy Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in his Bibliograph. Antiquar. cap. xi. 

• The authors who have described the agapce are mentioned by Ittigius, 
ji his Selecta Historian Eccles. Capita, Seec. ii. cap. iii. ; and also by 
Pfaff, de Originibus Juris Eccles. p. 68. 

i See the learned dissertation of Jo. Gerard Vossius concerning bap- 
tism, Disp. i. Thes. vi. p. 31, &c. The reader will also find, in the xith 
chapter and xxvth section of the Bibliogr. Antiquar. of Fabricius, an 
account of the authors who have written upon this subject. 






several circumstantial ceremonies observed in the adminis- 
tration of this sacrament for the sake of order and decency. 
Of these, however, it is not easy, nor perhaps is it possible 
to give a certain or satisfactory account, since, on this sub- 
ject we are too much exposed to the illusion which arises 
from confounding the customs of the primitive times with 
those of succeeding ages. 

IX. Persons who were visited with violent or dangerous 
disorders, sent, according to the apostle's direction, 11 for the 
rulers of the church, and, after confessing their sins, were 
recommended by them to the divine mercy, in prayers full 
of piety and fervor, and were also anointed with oil. This 
rite has occasioned many debates, and, indeed, they must^ 
be endless, since the silence of the ancient writers upon 
that head renders it impossible to decide the matter with 
certainty. The anointing of the sick is very rarely men- 
tioned in the ancient records of the church, though there is 
no reason to doubt that it was an universal custom among 
Christians.' 

X. Neither Christ nor his apostles enacted any law con- 
cerning fasting. A custom, however, prevailed among 
many Christians, of joining abstinence with their prayers, 
especially when they were engaged in affairs of extraor- 
dinary importance. 11 As this custom was authorized by 
no public law, the time that was to be employed in these 
acts of abstinence was left to every one's private judgment ; 
nor were those looked upon as criminal, who contented 
themselves with observing the rules of strict temperance, 
without going farther.' In the most ancient times we find 
no mention of any public and solemn fasts, except on the 
anniversary of Christ's crucifixion. But, in process of time, 
days of fasting were gradually introduced, first by custom, 
and afterwards by positive appointment, though it is not cer- 
tain what those days were, or whether they were observed 
in the first century. Those, however, Avho affirm, that in 
the time of the apostles, or soon after, the fourth and sixth 
days of the week were observed as fasts, are not, it must 
be acknowledged, destitute of specious arguments in favour 
of their opinion." 1 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies which troubled 
the Church during this Century. 
I. The Christian church was scarcely formed, when, in 
different places, there started up certain pretended reform- 
ers, who, not satisfied with the simplicity of that religion 
which was taught by the apostles, meditated changes of 
doctrine and worship, and set up a new religion, drawn 
from their own licentious imaginations. This we learn 

* These observations will illustrate, and, perhaps, decide the question 
concerning the right of administering baptism, which has been so long 
debated among the learned, and with such ardour and vehemence. Sea 
Bohmer, Dissert, xi. Juris Eccles. p. 500 ; and also Le Clerc, Biblioth. 
Universelle et Historique, torn. iv. p. 93. 

k James v. 14. 

i The accounts which the ancient authors have given of this custom 
are the most of them collected in a treatise published by Launoy, de 
Sacramentis Unctionis infirmorum, cap. i. p. 444. in the" first volume of 
his works. Among these accounts there are very few drawn from the 
writers of the first ages, and some passages applicable to this subject 
have been omitted by that learned author. 

t 1 Cor. vii. 5. 

l See the Shepherd of Hennas, book iii. Similitud. v. 
m See Beverege's Vindication of the Canon, in the second volume of 
his edition of the Apostolic Fathers. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



29 



from the writings of the apostles, and particularly from the 
epistles of St. Paul, where we find, that some were inclined 
to force the doctrines of Christianity into a conformity with 
the philosophical systems they had adopted, 11 while others 
were as studious to blend with these doctrines the opinions, 
customs, and traditions of the Jews. Several of these are 
mentioned by the apostles, such as Hymenaeus, Alexander, 
Philetus, Hermogenes, Demas, and Diotrephes ; though 
the four last are rather to be considered as apostates from 
the truth, than as corrupters of it. b 

II. The influence of these new teachers was at first 
inconsiderable. During the lives of the apostles, their 
attempts toward the perversion of Christianity were at- 
tended with little success, and they had a very small 
number of followers. They, however, acquired credit and 
strength by degrees : and, even from the first dawn of the 
Gospel, imperceptibly laid the foundations of those sects, 
whose animosities and disputes produced afterwards such 
trouble and perplexity in the Christian church. The true 
state of these divisions is more involved in darkness than 
any other part of ecclesiastical history ; and this obscurity 
proceeds, partly from the want of ancient records, partly 
from the abstruse and unintelligible nature of the doctrines 
that distinguished these various sects; and, finally, from the 
ignorance and prejudices of those, who have transmitted to 
us the accounts of them, which are yet extant. Of one 
thing, indeed, we are certain, and that is, that the greater 
part of these doctrines were chimerical and extravagant in 
the highest degree; and, far from containing any thing that 
coidd recommend them to a lover of truth, they rather de- 
serve to occupy a place in the history of human delusion 
and folly. 

III. Among the various sects that troubled the tranquil- 
lity of the Christian church, the leading one was that of the 
Gnostics. These enthusiastic and self-sufficient philoso- 
phers boasted of their being able to restore mankind to the 
knowledge {gnosis) of the true and Supreme Being, which 
had been lost in the world. They also foretold the ap- 
proaching defeat of the evil principle, to whom they attri- 
buted the creation of this globe, and declared, in the most 
pompous terms, the destruction of his associates, and the 
ruin of his empire. An opinion has prevailed, derived 
from the authority of Clemens the Alexandrian, that the 
first appearance of the Gnostic sect is to be dated after the 
death of the apostles, and placed in the reign of the empe- 
ror Adrian ; and it is also alleged, that, before this time, 
the church enjoyed a perfect tranquillity, undisturbed by 
dissensions, or sects of any kind. But the smallest degree 
of attention to the language of the Scriptures, not to men- 
tion the authority of other ancient records, will prevent us 
from adopting this groundless notion. For, from several 
passages of the sacred writings,* 1 it evidently appears, that, 
even in the first century, the general Christian meeting 
was deserted, and separate assemblies were formed in seve- 
ral places, by persons infected with the Gnostic heresy ; 

* 1 Tim. yi. 20. 1 Tim. i. 3, 4. Tit. iii. 9. Col. ii. 8. 
_ b 2 Tim. ii. 18 ; and in other places. See also the accurate accounts 
given of these men by Vitringa, Observ. Sacr. lib. iv. cap. ix. p. 952. 
Ittigius, de Haeresiarchis ttvi Apostol. sect. i. cap. viii. Buddeus, de 
Ecclesia. Apostolica, cap. v. 

c Certain authors have written professedly of the sects that divided die 
church in this, and the following- century, such as Ittigius, in his treatise 
de Haeresiarchis Mrvi Apostolici et Apostolico proximi, and also in the 
Appendix to the same work - ; Renatus Massuet, in his Dissertations pre- 
fixed to Ircnaeus, and Tillemont, in his Memoires pour servir a l'His- 

8 



though, at the same time, it must be acknowledged, that 
this pernicious sect was not conspicuous, either for its 
number, or its reputation, before the time of Adrian. It 
is proper to observe here, that, under the general appellation 
of Gnostics, are comprehended all those who, in the first 
ages of Christianity, corrupted the doctrine of the Gospel 
by a profane mixture of the tenets of the oriental philoso- 
phy (concerning the origin of evil and the creation of the 
world,) with its divine truths. 

IV. It was from this oriental philosophy, of which the 
leading principles have been already mentioned, that the 
Christian Gnostics derived their origin. If it was one of 
the chief tenets of this philosophy, that rational souls were 
imprisoned in corrupt matter, contrary to the will of the 
Supreme Deity, there were, however, in this same system, 
other doctrines which promised a deliverance from this 
deplorable state of servitude and darkness. The oriental 
sages expected the arrival of an extraordinary messenger 
of the Most High upon earth ; a messenger invested with 
a divine authority, endowed with the most eminent sanc- 
tity and wisdom, and peculiarly commissioned to enlight- 
en, with the knowledge of the Supreme Being, the dark- 
ened minds of miserable mortals, and to deliver them 
from the chains of the tyrants, and usurpers of this world. 
When, therefore, some of these philosophers perceived that 
Christ and his followers wrought miracles of the most 
amazing kind and also of the most salutary nature to 
mankind, they were easily induced to believe that he was 
the great Messenger expected from above, to deliver men 
from the power of the malignant genii, or spirits, to which, 
according to their doctrine, the world was subjected, and 
to free their souls from the dominion of corrupt matter. — 
This supposition once admitted, they interpreted, or rather 
corrupted, all the precepts and doctrines of Christ and his 
apostles, in such a manner as to reconcile them with their 
own pernicious tenets. 

V. From the false principle above mentioned, arose, as 
it was natural to expect, a multitude of sentiments and 
notions, most remote from the tenor of the gospel doc- 
trines, and the nature of its precepts. The Gnostic doc- 
trine, concerning the creation of the world by one or more 
inferior beings, of an evil, or, at least, of an imperfect na- 
ture, led that sect to deny the divine authority of the 
books of the Old Testament, whose accounts of the origin 
of things so palpably contradicted this idle fiction. 
Through a frantic aversion to these sacred books, they 
lavished their encomiums upon the serpent, the first au- 
thor of sin, and held in veneration some of the most impious 
and profligate persons of whom mention is made hi sacred 
history. The pernicious influence of their fundamental 
principle carried them to all sorts of extravagance, filled 
them with an abhorrence of Moses and the religion he 
taught, and induced them to assert, that in imposing such a 
system of disagreeable and severe laws upon the Jews, he 
was only actuated by the malignant author of this world, 

toire de l'Eglise. But these authors, and others whom we shall not 
mention, hare rather collected the materials from which a history of the 
ancient sects may be composed, than written their history. Hinckel- 
man, Thomasius, Dodwell, Horbius, and Basnage, have some of Lhem 
promised, others of them attempted such a history ; but none of them 
finished this useful design. It is therefore to be wished that some emi- 
nent writer, who. with a competent knowledge of ancient philosophy 
and literature, also possesses a penetrating and unbiassed judgment, 
would undertake this difficult but interesting work. 
<J 1 John ii. 18. 1 Tim. vi. 20. Col. ii. 8. 



30 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



who consulted his own glory and authority, and not the 
real advantage of men. Their persuasion that evil resided 
m matter, as its centre and source, prevented their treating 
the body with the regard that is due to it, rendered them 
unfavourable to wedlock, as the means by which corporeal 
beings are multiplied, and led them to reject the doctrine 
of the resurrection of the body, and its future re-union with 
the immortal spirit. Their notion that malevolent genii 
presided in nature, and that from them proceeded all 
diseases and calamities, wars and desolations, induced 
them to apply themselves to the study of magic, to weaken 
the powers cr suspend the influences of these malignant 
agents. I omit the mention of several other extravagan- 
ces in their system, the enumeration of which would be 
incompatible with the character of a compendious history. 

VI. The notions of this sect concerning Jesus Christ 
were impious and extravagant. For, though they consi- 
dered him as the Son of the Supreme God, sent from the 
pleroma, or habitation of the Everlasting Father, for the 
happiness of miserable mortals, yet they entertained un- 
worthy ideas, both of his person and offices. They denied 
his deity, looking upon him as the mere Son of God, and 
consequently inferior to the Father ; and they rejected his 
humanity, upon the supposition that every thing concrete 
and corporeal is, in itself, essentially and intrinsically evil. 
Hence the greatest part of the Gnostics denied that Christ 
was clothed with a real body, or that he suffered really, 
for the sake of mankind, the pains and sorrows which he 
is said to have sustained in the sacred history. They 
maintained that he came to mortals with no other view, 
than to deprive the tyrants of this world of their influence 
upon virtuous and heaven born souls, and, destroying the 
empire of these wicked spirits, to teach mankind how 
they might separate the divine mind from the impure 
body, and render the former worthy of being united to the 
Father of spirits. 

VII. Their doctrine, relating to morals and practice, 
was of two kinds, which were extremely different from 
each other. The greatest part of this sect adopted rules 
of life that were full of austerity, recommended a strict 
and rigorous abstinence, and prescribed the most severe 
bodily mortifications, from a notion that these observances 
had a happy influence in purifying and enlarging the 
mind, and in disposing it for the contemplation of celestial 
things. As they looked upon it to be the unhappiness of 
the soul to have been associated, at all, to a malignant, 
terrestrial body, so they imagined that the more the body 
was extenuated, the less it would corrupt and degrade the 
mind, or divert it from pursuits of a spiritual and divine 
nature : all the Gnostics, however, were not so severe in 
their moral discipline. Some maintained that there was 
no moral difference in human actions ; and thus confound- 
ing right and wrong, they gave a loose rein to all the pas- 
sions, and asserted the innocence of following blindly all 
their motions, and of living by their tumultuous dictates." 
There is nothing surprising or unaccountable in this dif- 
ference between the Gnostic moralists ; for, when we 
examine the matter with attention, we shall find, that the 
same doctrine maj r very naturally have given rise to these 
opposite sentiments. As they all deemed the body the 
centre and source of evil, those of that sect, who were of a 
morose and austere disposition, would be hence naturally 

* See the Stromota of Clemens Alexandrinus, lib. lii. cap, v. 



led to mortify and combat the body as the enemy of the 
soul ; and those who were of a vuluptuous turn, might alsc 
consider the actions of the body as having no relation, 
either of congruity or incongruity, to the state of a soul in 
communion with God. 

VIII. Such extraordinary doctrines had certainly need 
of an undoubted authority to support them ; and, as this 
authority was not to be found in the writings of the evan- 
gelists or apostles, recourse was had to fables and strata- 
gems. When the Gnostics were challenged to produce 
the sources whence they had drawn such strange tenets, 
and an authority proper to justify the confidence with 
which they taught them, some referred to fictitious wri- 
tings of Abraham, Zoroaster, Christ, and his apostles ; 
others boasted of their having drawn these opinions from 
certain secret doctrines of Christ, which were not exposed 
to vulgar eyes ; others affirmed, that they had arrived at 
these sublime degrees of wisdom by an innate force and 
vigour of mind ; and some asserted, that they were instruc- 
ted in these mysterious parts of theological science by 
Theudas, a disciple of St. Paul, and by Matthias, one of the 
friends of our Lord. As to those among the Gnostics who 
did not utterly reject the books of the New Testament, it 
is proper to observe, that they not only interpreted those 
sacred books most absurdly, by neglecting the true spirit of 
the words and the intention of the writers, but also corrupt- 
ed them, in the most perfiduous manner, by curtailing and 
adding, in order to remove what was unfavourable, or to 
produce something conformable to their pernicious and 
extravagant system. 

IX. It has been already observed, that the Gnostics were 
divided in their opinions before they embraced Christianity. 
This appears from the account which has been given 
above of the oriental philosophy ; and hence we may see 
the reason why they were formed into so many different 
sects after their receiving the Christian faith. For, as all 
of them endeavoured to force the doctrines of the Gospel 
into a conformity with their particular sentiments and 
tenets, so Christianity must have appeared in various 
forms, among the different members of a sect, which pass- 
ed, however, under one general name. Another circum- 
stance, which contributed to this diversity of sects, was, 
that some, being Jews by birth (as Cerinthus and others,) 
could not so easily assume that contempt of Moses, and 
that aversion to his history, which were so virulently 
indulged by those who had no attachment to the Jewish 
nation or to its religious institutions. We may also observe, 
that the whole Gnostic system was destitute of any sure or 
solid foundation, and depended both for its existence and 
support, upon the airy suggestions of genius and fancy. 
This consideration alone is a sufficient key to explain the 
divisions that reigned in this sect, since uniformity can 
never subsist, with assurance, but upon the basis of evident 
and substantial truth ; and variety must naturally intro- 
duce itself into those systems and institutions which are 
formed and conducted by the sole powers of invention and 
fancy. 

X. As then the Christian religion was, in its rise, 
corrupted by the mixture of an impious and chimerical 
philosophy with its pure and sublime doctrines, it will be 
proper to mention here the heads of those sects, who, in the 
first century, cast a cloud upon the lustre of the rising 
church. Among these, many have given the first place 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



31 



to Dositheus, a Samaritan. It is certain, that, about the 
time of our Saviour, a man so named, lived among the 
Samaritans, and abandoned that sect ; but all the accounts 
we have of him tend to show, that he is improperly placed 
among mere heretics, and should rather be ranked among 
the enemies of Christianity ; for this delirious man set him- 
self up for the Messiah, whom God had promised to the 
Jews, and disowning, in consequence, the divine mission 
of Christ, could not be said to corrupt his doctrine." 

XI. The same observation is applicable to Simon Ma- 
gus. This impious man is not to be ranked among those 
who corrupted with their errors the purity and simplicity 
of the Christian doctrine ; nor is he to be considered as the 
parent and chief of the heretical tribe, in which point of 
light he has been injudiciously viewed by almost all 
ancient and modern writers. He is rather to be placed in 
the number of those who were enemies to the progress and 
advancement of Christianity; for it is manifest, from all 
the records we have concerning him, that after his defec- 
tion from the Christians, he retained not the least attach- 
ment to Christ, but opposed himself openly to that divine 
personage, and assumed to himself blasphemously the title 
of the supreme power of God. b 

XII. The accounts which ancient writers give us of Si- 
mon the magician, and of his opinions, seem so different and 
indeed so inconsistent with each other, that several learned 
men have considered them as regarding two different per- 
sons, bearing the name of Simon ; the one a magician, 
and an apostate from Christianity ; the other a Gnostic 
philosopher. This opinion, which supposes a fact, without 
any other proof than a seeming difference in the narration 
of the ancient historians, ought not to be too lightly 
adopted. To depart from the authority of ancient writers 
in this matter is by no means prudent : nor is it necessaiy to 
reconcile the different accounts already mentioned, whose 
inconsistency is not real, but apparent only. Simon was 
by birth a Samaritan, or a Jew : when he had studied 
philosophy at Alexandria, he made a public profession of 
magic (which was not a very uncommon circumstance 
at that time,) and persuaded the Samaritans, by fictitious 
miracles, that he had received from God the power of 
commanding and restraining those evil beings by which 
mankind were tormented. d Having seen the miracles 
which Philip wrought by a divine power, he joined him- 
self to this apostle, and embraced the doctrine of Christ, 
but with no other design than to receive the power «f 
working miracles, in order to promote a low interest, and 
to preserve and increase his impious authority over the 
minds of men. Then St. Peter pointed out to him 
solemnly the impiety of his intentions and the vanity of 

a See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, lib. ii. cap. xiii. and Rich. Simon, 
Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques de M. Du-Pin, 
torn. iii. cap. xiii. 

b Origen adv. Celsum, lib. v. 

' Clementina Homil. ii. p. 633, torn. ii. PP. Apost 

* Acts viii. 9, 10. 

• See Beausobre, Histoire de Manicli. p. 203, 395. — Van Dale's Dis- 
sertation, de Statua Simonis, subjoined to his discourse concerning the 
ancient oracles ; — Dellingius, Observat. Sacr. lib. i. observ. xxxvi. Til- 
lemont, Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire de l'Eglise, torn. i. p. 340. 
5^ The circumstances of Simon's tragical end ; his having pretended 
to fly by a miraculous power, in order to please the emperor Nero, who 
was fond of magic ; his falling to the ground, and breaking his limbs, in 
consequence of the prayers of St. Peter and St. Paul ; and his putting 
himself to death, through shame and despair, at having been thus defeat- 
ed by the superior power of the apostles ; all these romantic fictions 
nave derived their credit from a set of ecclesiastical writers, who, on 



his hopes, in that severe discourse recorded in the eighth 
chapter of the Acts of the Apostles : then the vile impostor 
not only returned, to his former ways by an entire defection 
from the Christians, but also opposed, wherever he came, 
the progress of the Gospel, and even visited different coun- 
tries with that odious intent. Many things are recorded 
of this impostor, of his tragical end, and of the statue erect 
ed to him at Rome, which the greatest part of the learned 
reject as fabulous. They are at least uncertain, and 
destitute of all probability.' 

XIII. It is beyond all doubt, that Simon was in the class 
of those philosophers, who not only maintained the eternity 
of matter, but also the existence of an evil being who 
presided, and thus shared the empire of the universe with 
the supreme and beneficent Mind ; and, as there was a 
considerable variety in the sentiments of the different mem- 
bers of this sect, it is more than probable, that Simon 
embraced the opinion of those who held that matter moved 
from eternity by an intrinsic and necessary activity, had, 
by its innate force, produced at a certain period, from its own 
substance, the evil principle which now exercises domi- 
nion over it, with all his numerous train of attendants. 
From this pernicious doctrine, the other errors attributed 
to him concerning fate, the indifference of human actions, 
the impurity of the human body, the power of magic, and 
the like extravagances, flow naturally, as from their true 
and genuine source/ But this odious magician still pro- 
ceeded to more shocking degrees of enormity in his mon- 
strous fictions ; for he pretended, that in his person resided 
the greatest and most powerful of the divine aeons ; that 
another agon of the female sex, the mother of all human 
souls, dwelt in the person of his mistress Helena^ and 
that he came, by the command of God upon earth, to 
abolish the empire of those who had formed this material 
world, and to deliver Helena from their power and dominion. 

XIV. Another wrong-headed teacher, named Menan- 
der, a Samaritan also by birth, appeared in this century. 
He is said to have been instructed by Simon ; but tliis 
opinion has no other foundation than the groundless notion, 
that all the Gnostic sects derived their origin from that 
magician. He ought rather to be ranked with the lunatics, 
than with the heretics of antiquity, since he also took it 
into Ids head to exhibit himself to the world as the promised 
Saviour ; for it appears, by the testimonies of Irenaeus, 
Justin, and Tertullian, that he pretended to be one of the 
aeons sent from the pleroma, or celestial regions, to succour 
the souls that lay groaning under bodily oppression and 
servitude, and to maintain them against the violence and 
stratagems of the daemons who held the reins of empire in 
this sublunary world. As this doctrine was built upon the 

many occasions, prefer the marvellous to the truth, as favourable to a 
system of religion, or rather superstition, which truth and reason loudly 
disown. 

' The dissertation of Horbius, concerning Simon, the magician, which 
was published not long ago in the Biblioth. Haercsiologica of Voigtius, 
torn. i. part iii. seems preferable to any tiling else upon that subject, 
though it be a juvenile performance, and not suiRciendy finished. He 
follows the steps of his master, Thomasius, who, with admirable pene- 
tration, discovered the true source of that multitude of errors with which 
the Gnostics, and particularly Simon, were so dismally polluted. Voig- 
tius gives a list of the other authors who have made mention of this im- 
postor. 

' Some very learned men have given an allegorical explication oi 
what the ancient writers say concerning Helena, die mistress of this 
magician, and imagine, that by the name Helena is signified either mat- 
ter or spirit. But nothing is more easy than to show upon what slight 
foundations this < pinion is built. 



32 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



same foundation with that of Simon Magus, the ancient 
writers looked upon him as the instructor of Menancler. 

XV. If then we separate these three persons now succes- 
sively mentioned, from the heretics of the first century, we 
may rank among the chief of the Christian sectaries, and 
particularly those who bear the general name of Gnostics, 
the Nicolaitans, whom Christ himself mentions with 
abhorrence by the mouth of his apostle. a It is true, 
indeed, that the divine Saviour does not reproach them 
with erroneous opinions concerning the deity, but with 
the licentiousness of their practice, and the contempt of 
that solemn law which the apostles had enacted (Acts, xv. 
29.) against fornication, and the use of meats offered to 
idols. It is, however, certain, that the writers of the second 
and the following centuries, Irenreus, Tertullian, Clemens, 
and others, affirm, that the Nicolaitans adopted the senti- 
ments of the Gnostics concerning the two principles of all 
things, the aeons, and the origin of this terrestrial globe. 
The authority of these writers would be entirely satisfac- 
tory in this matter, were there not some reason to imagine 
that they confounded, in their narrations, two sects very 
different from each other ; that of the Nicolaitans, men- 
tioned in the Revelations ; and another, founded by a cer- 
tain Nicolaus, in the second century, upon the principles 
of the Gnostics. But this is a matter of too doubtful a 
nature to justify a positive decision on either side. 

XVI. There is no sort of doubt, that Cerenthus may 
be placed with propriety among the Gnostics, though the 
learned are not entirely agreed whether he belongs to the 
heretics of the first or the second century. b This man was 
by birth a Jew, and, having applied himself to letters and 
philosophy at Alexandria, attempted at length, to form a 
new and singular system of doctrine and discipline, by a 
monstrous combination of the doctrines of Christ with the 
opinions and errors of the Jews and Gnostics. From the 
latter he borrowed their pleroma, their eeons, their demi- 
urge; &c. and so modified and tempered these fictions, as 
to give them an air of Judaism, which must have consider- 
ably favoured the progress of his heresy. He taught " that 
the Creator of this world, whom he considered also as the 
sovereign and lawgiver of the Jewish people, was a being 
endowed with the greatest virtues, and derived his birth 
from the Supreme God ; that he fell by degrees, from his 
native virtue and his primitive dignity; that God in conse- 
quence of this determined to destroy his empire, and sent 
upon earth, for this purpose, one of the ever-happy and 
glorious aeons, whose name was Christ; that this Christ 

1 Rev. ii. G, 14, 15. 

i> See Sam. Easnage, Annal. Polit. Eccles. torn, ii ; and Faydit, Eclair- 
cissemeus sur l'Histoire Eccles. des deux premiers Siecles, cap. v. The 



chose for his habitation the person of Jesus, a man of the 
most illustrious sanctity and justice, the son of Joseph and 
Mary, and, descending in the form of a dove, entered into 
him while he was receiving baptism from John in the 
waters of Jordan, that Jesus, after his union with Christ, 
opposed himself with vigour to the God of the Jews, and 
was by his instigation, seized and crucified by the Hebrew 
chiefs; and that, when Jesus became a prisoner, Christ as- 
cended into heaven, so that the man Jesus alone was sub- 
jected to the pains of an ignominious death." Cerenthus 
required of his followers, that they should worship the Fa- 
ther of Christ, even the Supreme God, in conjunction with 
the Son ; that they should abandon the lawgiver of the 
Jews, whom he looked upon as the Creator of the world ; 
that they should retain a part of the law given by Moses, 
but should, nevertheless, employ their principal attention 
and care to regulate their lives by the precepts of Christ. 
To encourage them to this, he promised them the resur- 
rection of this mortal body, after which was to commence 
a scene of the most exquisite delights, during Christ's earth- 
ly reign of a thousand years, which would be succeeded 
by a happy and never-ending life in the celestial world ; for 
he held, that Christ will one day return upon earth, and, re- 
newing his former union with the man Jesus, will reign with 
his people in the land of Palestine during a thousand years. 
XVII. It has been already observed, that the church 
was troubled with early disputes concerning the law of 
Moses and the Jewish rites. Those, however, who consi- 
dered the observance of the Mosaic rites as necessary to sal- 
vation, had not, in this first century, proceeded so far as to 
break off all communion with such as differed from them 
in this matter ; therefore they were still regarded as breth- 
ren, though of the weaker sort. But when, after the 
second destruction of Jerusalem, under the emperor Ad- 
rian, these zealots for the Jewish rites deserted the ordinary 
assemblies of Christians, and established separate meetings 
among themselves, they were numbered with those sects 
who had departed from the pure doctrine of Christ. Hence 
arose the names of Nazarenes and Ebionites, by which 
the judaizing Christians were distinguished from those 
who looked upon the Mosaic worship and ceremonies as 
entirely abolished by the appearance of Christ upon earth. 
We shall only observe farther under this head, that though 
the Nazarenes and Ebionites are generally placed among 
the sects of the apostolic age, they really belong to the 
second century, which was the earliest period of their exis- 
tence as a sect. 



opinion of these two learned men is opposed by Buddeus, de Eccles. 
Apostolica, cap. v. 
c Theodoret. Fabul. Haeret. lib. ii. cap. iii. 



THE SECOND CENTURY. 

PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events that happened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. In this century, the Roman sceptre was, for the most 
part, swayed by princes of a mild and moderate turn. 
Trajan, though too eagerly bent upon the pursuit of glory, 
and not always sufficiently attentive to his conduct, or 
prudent in his measures, was nevertheless endowed with 
many virtues ; and the predominant lines of his character 
were clemency and benevolence. Adrian was of a more 
harsh and intractable temper, yet far from deserving the 
odious appellation of a wicked or unjust prince. He was 
of a mixed character, chargeable with several vices, and 
estimable on account of some excellent qualities. The 
Antonines were illustrious models of humanity, goodness, 
and sublime virtue. Severus himself, in whose character 
and disposition such an unexpected and disadvantageous 
change was effected, was, in the beginning of his reign, 
unjust toward none ; and even the Christians were treat- 
ed by him with equity and mildness. 

II. This lenity of the emperors proved advantageous 
to those Christians who lived under the Roman sceptre ; 
it sometimes suspended their suffering, and alleviated the 
burthen of their distresses ; for, though edicts of a severe 
nature were issued out against them, and the magistrates, 
animated by the priests and by the multitude, shed their 
blood with a cruelty which frequently exceeded even the 
dictates of the most barbarous laws, yet there was always 
some remedy that accompanied these evils, and softened 
their severity. Trajan, however condemnable in other 
respects, on account of his conduct toward the Christians, 
was yet engaged, by the representation that Pliny the 
younger gave of them, to forbid all search to be made after 
them. He also prohibited all anonymous libels and 
accusations, by which they had so often been perfidiously 
exposed to the greatest sufferings.- 1 Antoninus Pius went 
so far as to enact penal laws against their accusers ; b and 
others, by various acts of beneficence and compassion, 
defended them from the injurious treatment of the priests 
and people. Hence it came to pass, that, in this century, the 
limits of the church were considerably enlarged, and the 
number of converts to Christianity prodigiously augmented. 



* See Pliny's epistles, book x. let. xcviii. 
b Eusebius, Eccl. Hist. lib. iv. cap. xiii. 

See Moyle's letters concerning the thundering legion, with the re- 
marks which Dr. Mosheim has annexed to his latin translation of them, 
published at the end of a work entitled, Syntagma Dissert, ad Sanctiores 
Disciplinas pertinentium. See also the Dialogue between Justin Mar- 
tyr and Trypho the Jew. 

* Irer.seus contra Haeres. lib. i. cap. x. — Tertullian adv. Judaeos, cap.vii. 

* Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. b'. v. ex. — Jerome, Catal. Script, Eccl.c.xxxvi. 
' Ursinus, Bebelius and others, have written learnedly concerning the 

9 



Of the truth of this, we have the most respectable and 
authentic testimonies in the writings of the ancients ; 
testimonies, whose evidence and authority are every way 
superior to the vain attempts which some have made to 
obscure and weaken tliem. 

III. It is not easy to point out particularly the different 
countries on which the light of celestial truth first rose in 
this age. The ancient records that yet remain, do not 
give us information sufficient to determine that point with 
certainty ; nor is it, indeed, a matter of high importance. 
We are, however, assured, by the most unexceptionable 
testimonies, that Christ was worshipped as God almost 
throughout the whole East, as also among the Germans, 
Spaniards, Celts, Britons, and many other nations ; d but 
which of them received the Gospel in the first century 
and which in the second, is a question unanswerable at 
this distance of time. Panteenus, the head of the Alexan- 
drian school, is said to have conveyed to the Indians the 
knowledge of Christ/ But, after an attentive examina- 
tion of the account which Eusebius gives of this point, it 
will appear that these supposed Indians were Jews, inha- 
bitants of the happy Arabia, whom Bartholomew the apos- 
tle had before instructed in the doctrines of Christianity ; 
for, according to the account of St. Jerome, Panteenus 
found among this people the Gospel of St. Matthew which 
they had received from Bartholomew, their first teacher. 

IV. The Christian religion, having penetrated into the 
province of Gaul, seems to have passed thence into that 
part of Germany which was subject to the Romans, and 
afterwards into Britain/ Certain German churches, in- 
deed, are fondly ambitious of deriving their origin from 
St. Peter, and from the companions of the other apostles. 
The Britons also are willing to believe, upon the authority 
of Bede, that in this century, and under the reign of 
Marcus Antoninus, their king Lucius addressed himself 
to Eleutherus, the Roman pontiff, for doctors to instruct 
him in the Christian religion, and, having obtained his 
request, embraced the Gospels But, after all, these 
traditions are extremely doubtful, and are, indeed, rejected 
by such as have learning sufficient to weigh the credibility 
of ancient narrations. 

V. It is very possible that the light of Christianity may 
have reached Trans-Alpine Gaul, now called France, be- 

origin of the German churches, which Tertullian and Irenfeus mention 
as erected in this century. Add to these the ample illustrations of this 
subject, which are to be found in Liron's Singularites Histor. et Liter, 
torn. iv. The celebrated Dom. Calmet has judiciously refuted the com- 
mon and popular accounts of the first Christian doctors in Germany, in 
his Hist, de la Lorraine, torn. i. Diss, sur les Eveques de Treves, par 
iii. iv. See also Bollandus, Act. Sanctor., and Hontheim, Diss, de jEra 
Episcop. Trevir. torn. i. 

e See Usher's Antiq. Eccles. Britann. cap. i. ; ns also Godwin, de Con- 
versione Britan. cap. i.; and Rapin's History of England. 



34 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part U 



fore the conclusion of the apostolic age, either by the minis- 
try of the apostles themselves, or their immediate succes- 
sors. But we have no records that mention, with certainty, 
the establishment of Christian churches in this part of Eu- 
rope before the second century. Pothinus, a man of ex- 
emplary piety and zeal, set out from Asia in company with 
Irenaeua and others, and laboured in the Christian cause 
with such success among the Gauls, that churches were 
established at Lyons and Vienne, of which Pothinus him- 
self became the first bishop. a 

VI. The writers of this century attribute this rapid pro- 
gress of Christianity to the power of God, to the energy of 
divine truth, to the extraordinary gifts which were impart- 
ed to the first Christians, and the miracles and prodigies 
'.hat were wrought in their behalf, and at their command ; 
and they scarcely ascribe any part of the amazing success 
that attended the preaching of the Gospel, to the interve- 
ning succours of human means, or second causes. But 
this is carrying the matter too far. The wisdom of 
human counsels, and the useful efforts of learning and 
prudence, are too inconsiderately excluded from this ac- 
count of things ; for it is beyond all doubt, that the pious 
diligence and zeal, with which many learned and worthy 
men recommended the sacred writings, and spread them 
abroad in translations, so as to render them useful to 
those who were ignorant of the language in which they 
were written, contributed much to the success and propa- 
gation of the Christian doctrine. Latin versions of these 
sacred books were multiplied by the pious labours of the 
learned, with particular diligence, because that language 
was now more general then any other. b Among these 
versions, that which was distinguished by the name of 
the Italic obtained universally the preference, and was 
followed by the Syriac, Egyptian, and iEthiopic versions, 
whose dates it is impossible to fix with certainty. 

VII. Among the obstacles that retarded the progress 
of Christianity, the impious calumnies of its enemies were 
the most considerable. The persons, the characters, and 
religious sentiments of the first Christians, were most 
unjustly treated, and most perfidiously misrepresented to 
the credulous multitude," 1 who were restrained by this 
only from embracing the Gospel. Those, therefore, who, 
by their apologetic writings for the Christians, destroyed 
the poisonous influence of detraction, rendered, no doubt, 
signal service to the doctrine of Christ, by removing the 
chief impediment to its progress. Nor were the writings 
of such as combated with success the ancient heretics 
without their use, especially in the early periods of the 

a See the epistle of Peter de Mavca, concerning the rise of Christiani- 
ty in France, published among the dissertations of that author, and also 
Dy Valesius, in his edition of Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History. See 
also Histoirc iLiteraire de la France, torn, i., and Liron's Singularites 
Histor. et Literaires, vol. iv. 

'■> See Augustin. de doctrina Christiana, lib. ii. cap. xi. 

c See Jo. Gottlob Carpzov. Critica sacra Vet. Test. p. 663. 

|3r <• Nothing more injurious can be conceived than the terms of con- 
tempt, indignation, and reproach, which the Heathens employed in 
expressing their hatred against the Christians, who were called by them 
atheists, because they derided the heathen Polytheism; magicians, be- 
cause they wrought miracles ; self-murderers, because they suffered 
martyrdom cheerfully for the truth ; haters of the light, because, to avoid 
the fury of the persecutions raised against them, they were obliged, at 
first, to hold their religious assemblies in the night. See Bingham's 
Antiquities of the Christian Church, book i. cap. ii. 

• Pfanner, de donis miraculosis ; Spencer. Not. ad Orig. contra Cel- 
suin ; Mammachius, Origines et Antiquitat. Christian, torn. i. 

f Such readers as are desirous to know what learned men have alleged 
on both sides of this curious question, may consult Witsius' Dksertat. de 



church ; for the insipid and extravagant doctrines of these 
sectaries, and the gross immoralities with which they 
were chargeable, were extremely prejudicial to the Chris- 
tian religion, by disgusting many at whatever bore the 
Christian name ; but, when it was known by the writings 
of those who defended Christianity, that these corrupt here- 
tics were held in aversion, instead of being patronized by 
the true followers of Christ, the clouds that were cast over 
the religion of Jesus were dispersed, and the prejudices 
that had been raised against it were fully removed. 

VIII. It is easier to conceive than to express, how much 
the miraculous 'powers and extraordinary gifts, which 
were displayed in the ministry of the first heralds of the 
Gospel, contributed to enlarge the bounds of the church. 
These gifts, however, which were bestowed for wise and 
important reasons, began gradually to diminish ; " propor- 
tion as the reasons ceased for which they were conferred. 
And, accordingly, when almost all nations were enlighten- 
ed with the truth, and the number of Christian churches 
daily increased, the miraculous gift of tongues began gra- 
dually to decrease. It appears at the same time, from 
unexceptionable testimonies, that the other extraordinary 
gifts with which the omnipotence and wisdom of the Most 
High had so richly endowed the rising church, were in 
several places continued during this century. e 

IX. We cannot indeed place, with certainty, among the 
effects of a miraculous power yet remaining in the church, 
the story of the Christian legion, who, by their prayers, 
drew from heaven a refreshing shower upon the army of 
Marcus Antoninus, ready to perish with thirst, when that 
emperor was at war with the Marcomanni. This remark- 
able event (which gave to the Christians, to whom it was 
attributed, the name of the thundering legion, on account 
of the thunder and lightning that destroyed the enemy, 
while the shower revived the fainting Romans) has been 
mentioned by many writers. But whether "t was really 
miraculous or not, has been much disputed among learned 
men. Some think that the Christians, by a pious sort of 
mistake, attributed this unexpected and seasonable shower, 
which saved the Roman army, to a miraculous interposi- 
tion ; and this opinion is, indeed, supported by the weighti- 
est reasons, as well as by the most respectable authorities.' 

X. Let us distinguish what is doubtful in this story, 
from that which is certain. It is undoubted, that the \ 
Roman troops, enclosed by the enemy, and reduced to the 
most deplorable and even desperate condition, by the 
thirst under which they languished in a parched desert, 
were revived by a sudden and unexpected rain. It is also 

Legione Fulminatrice, which is subjoined to his jEgyptiaca, in defence 
of this miracle; as also what is alleged against it by Dan.La-Roque, in 
a discourse upon that subject subjoined to the Adversaria Sacra of Matth. 
La Roque, his father. But, above all, the controversy between Sir 
Peter King* and Mr. Walter Moyle, upon this subject, is worthy of the 
attention of the curious ; and likewise the dissertation of the learned 
Jablonski, inserted in the eighth volume of the Miscellanea Lipsiensia, 
p. 417, under the title of Spicilegium de Legione Fulminatrice. The 
last mentioned author investigates, with great acuteness, the reasons and 
motives which induced the Christians to place so inconsiderately this 
shower in the list of miracles. 

fTJr * It is by mistake that Dr. Mosheim confounds Sir Peter King, 
lord Chancellor of England, with the person who carried on the contro- 
versy with Moyle, concerning the thundering legion. Moyle's adver- 
sary was Mr. King, rector of Topsham, near Exeter, which was the. 
place of his nativity, and also that of the famous chancellor who bore 
his name. See the letters addressed to the Rev. Mr. King, in the posthu- 
mous collection of Locke's Letters, published by Collins. See also 
Lardner's Collection of Heathen and Jewish Testimonies, &c., vol. ii ± 



Chap. II. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS 



35 



certain, that both the Heathens and the Christians consider- 
ed this event as extraordinary and miraculous; the former 
attributing it to Jupiter, Mercury, or the power of magic ; 
the latter to Christ, interposing thus unexpectedly, in 
consequence of their prayers. It is equally indisputable, 
that a considerable number of Christians served at this 
time in the Roman army ; and it is exceedingly probable, 
that, in such trying circumstances of calamity and distress, 
they implored the merciful interposition and succour of their 
God and Saviour; and, as the Christians of those times look- 
ed upon all extraordinary events as miracles, and ascribed 
to their prayers all the uncommon occurrences of an advan- 
tageous nature that happened to the Roman empire, it will 
not appear surprising, that, on the present occasion, they 
attributed the deliverance of Antoninus and his army to a 
miraculous interposition which they had obtained from 
^above. But, on the other hand, it must be carefully observ- 
ed, that it- is an invariable maxim, universally adopted by 
the wise and judicious, that no events are to be esteemed 
miraculous, which may be rationally attributed to natural 
causes, and accounted for by a recourse to the ordinary 
dispensations of Providence ; and, as the unexpected show- 
er, which restored the expiring force of the Romans, may 
be easily explained without rising beyond the usual and 
ordinary course of nature, the conclusion is manifest ; nor 
can it be doubtful in what light we are to consider that 
remarkable event. 

XL The Jews were visited with new calamities, first 
under Trajan, and then under Adrian, when, under the 
standard of Barcochebas, who gave himself out for the 
Messiah, they rose in rebellion against the Romans. In 
consequence of this sedition, prodigious numbers of that 
miserable people were put to the sword ; and a new city, 
called iElia Capitolina, was raised upon the ruins of Jerusa- 
lem, into which no Jew was permitted to enter.* This 
defeat of the Jews tended to confirm, in some measure, 
the external tranquillity of the Christian church ; for that 
turbulent and perfidious nation had hitherto vexed and 
oppressed the Christians, not only by presenting every 
where to the Roman magistrates complaints and accusa- 
tions against them, but also by treating them in the most 
injurious manner in Palestine and the neighouring coun- 
tries, because they refused to succour them against the Ro- 
mans. But this new calamity, which fell upon that sedi- 
tious nation, put it out of their power to exercise their 
malignity against the disciples of Jesus, as they had for- 
merly done. 

XII. Among other accessions to the splendour and force 
of the growing church, we may reckon the learned and 
ingenious labours of those philosophers and literati, who 
were converted to Christianity in this century. I am 
sensible that the advantages hence arising to the cause of 
true religion will be disputed by many ; and, indeed, 
when the question is thus proposed, whether, upon the 
whole, the interests of Christianity have gained or lost by 
the writings of the learned, and the speculations of philoso- 
phers who have been employed in its defence, I confess 
myself incapable of solving it in a satisfactory manner ; for 
nothing is more manifest than this truth, that the noble 

a Justin Mart. Dial, cum Tryphone, p. 49, 278. 

i> Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. lii. cap. xxxii. 

See Pliny's Letters, 'book x. let. xcvii. and xcviii., which have been 
illustrated by many learned men, such as Vossius, Bohmer, Baldwin, 
Heuman, and others. 



i simplicity and dignity of religion were sadly corrupted in 
many places, when the philosophers blended their opinions 
with its pure doctrines, and were so audacious as to sub- 
mit that divine system of faith and piety to be scrutinized 
and modified by the fallible rules of imperfect reason. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the calamitous Events that happened to the 
Church during this Century. 

I. In the beginning of this century, there were no laws 
in force against the Christians ; for the senate had annulled 
the cruel edicts of Nero, and Nerva had abrogated the 
sanguinary laws of his predecessor, Domitian. But 
notwithstanding this, a horrid custom prevailed, of persecu- 
ting the Christians, and even of putting them to death, as 
often as sanguinary priests, or an outrageous populace 
instigated by those ecclesiastics, - demanded their destruc- 
tion. Hence it happened, that, even under the reign of the 
good Trajan, popular clamours b were raised against the 
Christians, many of whom fell victims to the rage of a 
merciless multitude. Such were the riotous proceedings 
that happened in Bithynia, under the administration oi 
Pliny the younger, who, on that occasion, wrote to the 
emperor, to know in what manner he was to conduct 
himself toward the Christians. The answer which he 
received from Trajan amounted to this, " That the Chris- 
tians were not to be officiously sought after, but that such as 
were accused and convicted of an adherence to Christianity 
were to be put to death as wicked citizens, if they did not 
return to the religion of their ancestors " 

II. This edict of Trajan, being registered among the 
public and solemn laws of the Roman empire, set bounds, 
indeed, to the fury of those who persecuted the Christians, 
but was the occasion of martyrdom to many, even under 
the best emperors. For, as often as an accuser appeared, 
and the person accused of an adherence to Christianit}'' 
confessed the truth of the charge, the alternative was apos- 
tasy or death, since a magnanimous perseverance in the 
Christian faith was, according to the edict of Trajan, a 
capital crime. And, accordingly, the venerable and aged 
Simeon, son of Cleophas, and bishop of Jerusalem, was, 
by this very law, crucified in consequence of an accusa- 
tion formed against him by the Jews. d By the same law, 
also, was. the great and pious Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, 
ordered by Trajan himself to expire in the Roman theatre, 
exposed to the rapacity of furious beasts ; c for, as the law 
simply denounced death to such as were convicted of an 
attachment to Christ, the kind of punishment was left b> 
the legislator to the choice of the judge. 

III. Such of the Christians as could conceal their pro- 
fession were indeed sheltered under the law of Trajan 
which was, therefore, a disagreeable restraint upon the 
heathen priests, who breathed nothing but fury against 
the disciples of Jesus. The office of an accuser was also 
become dangerous, and very few were disposed to under 
take it, so that the sacerdotal craft was now inventing 
new methods to oppress the Christians. The law of Tra- 
jan was therefore artfully evaded under the reign of his 



<i Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. xxxii. p. 103. 

e See the Acta Martyrii Ignatiani, published by Ruinart. and also in 
the Collection of the Apostolic Fathers. 



36 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I 



successor Adrian. The populace, set in motion by the 
priests,- demanded of the magistrates, with one voice, 
during the public games, the destruction of the Christians ; 
and the magistrates, fearing that a sedition might be the 
consequence of despising or opposing these popular cla- 
mours, were too much disposed to indulge them in their 
request. During these commotions, Serenus Granianus, 
proconsul of Asia, represented to the emperor how barba- 
rous and unjust it was to sacrifice, to the fury of a lawless 
multitude, persons who had been convicted of no crime. 
Nor were his wise and equitable remonstrances fruitless ; 
for Adrian, by an edict issued out to these magistrates, 
prohibited the putting the Christians to death, unless they 
were regularly accused and convicted of crimes committed 
against the laws; and this edict appears to have been a 
solemn renewal of the law of Trajan.* The moderation 
of the emperor, in this edict, may, perhaps, have been 
produced by the admirable apologies of Q,uadratus and 
Aristides, in favour of the Christians, which were every 
way proper to dispel the angry prejudices of a mind that 
had any sense of equity and humanity left. But it was 
not from the Romans alone, that the disciples of Christ 
were to feel oppression ; Barcochebas, the pretended king 
of the Jews, whom Adrian afterwards defeated, vented 
against them all his fury, because they refused to join his 
standard, and second his rebellion. b 

IV. The law of Adrian, according to its natural sense, 
seemed to cover the Christians from the fury of their 
enemies, since it rendered them punishable on no other 
account than the commission of crimes, and since the ma- 
gistrates refused to interpret their religion as the crime 
mentioned in the imperial edict. Therefore their enemies 
invented a new method of attacking them under the reign 
of Antoninus Pius, even by accusing them of impiety and 
atheism. This calumny was refuted in an apology for 
the Christians, presented to the emperor by Justin Martyr ; 
in consequence of which, this equitable prince ordered 
that all proceedings against them should be regulated by 
the law of Adrian. This, however, was not sufficient to 
suppress the rage of blood-thirsty persecution ; for some 
time after this, on occasion of some earthquakes which 
happened in Asia, the people renewed their violence 
against the Christians, whom they considered as the au- 
thors of those calamities, and treated consequently in the 
most cruel and injurious manner. The emperor, informed 
of these unjust and barbarous proceedings, addressed an 
edict to the whole province of Asia, in which he denounced 
capital punishment against such as should, for the future, 
accuse the Christians, without being able to prove them 
guilty of any crime. d 

V. This worthy prince was succeeded by Marcus 
A melius Antoninus, the philosopher, whom most writers 
nave celebrated beyond measure on account of his extra- 
ordinary wisdom and virtue. It is not, however, in his 

a Compare Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. ix. with Balduinus ad 
Edicta Princip. in Christianos, p. 73. 

•> Justin Mart. Apologia seounda, p. 72, edit. Colon. 

Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xxvi. p. 148. 

d Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xiii. p. 126. =pT It is proper to 
be observed, that the word crime, in several former edicts, had not been 
sufficiently determined in its signification ; so that we find the enemies 
of the Christians, and even the Roman magistrates, applying this term 
to the profession of Christianity. But the equitable edict of this good 
emperor decided that point on the side of humanity and justice, as ap- 
pears from the letter he addressed to the province of Asia, in favour of 



conduct toward the Christians that we must look for the 
reasons of these pompous encomiums ; for, here the cle- 
mency and justice of that emperor suffer a strange eclipse. 
He did not, indeed, revoke the edict of Antoninus Pius, 
or abrogate the laws which the preceding emperors had 
enacted in favour of the Christians ; but he did what waa 
equally pernicious to them. Without examining impar- 
tially their cause, he lent an easy and attentive ear to the 
most virulent insinuations of their enemies, especially to 
the malignant calumnies of the philosophers, who accused 
them of the most horrid crimes and the most monstrous 
impiety, and charged them with renewing the shocking 
feasts of Thyestes, and the incestuous amours of the The- 
ban prince ; so that, if we except that of Nero, there was 
no reign under which the Christians were more injuriously 
and cruelly treated, than under that of the wise and virtu- 
ous Marcus Aurelius ; and yet there was no reign under 
which such numerous and victorious Apologies Avere 
published in their behalf. Those which Justin Martyr, 
Athenagoras, and Tatian, wrote upon this occasion, are 
still extant. 

VI. This emperor issued against the Christians, whom 
he regarded as a vain, obstinate, and vicious set of men, * 
edicts, e which, upon the whole, were very unjust ; though 
we do not know, at this distance of time, their particular 
contents. In consequence of these imperial edicts, the 
judges and magistrates received the accusations, which 
even slaves, and the vilest of the perjured rabble, brought 
against the followers of Jesus ; and the Christians were 
put to the most cruel tortures and were condemned to 
meet death in the most barbarous forms, notwithstanding 
their perfect innocence, and their persevering and solemn 
denial of the horrid crimes laid to their charge. The 
imperial edicts were so positive and express against inflict- 
ing punishment upon such of the Christians as were 
guilty of no crime, that the corrupt judges, who, through 
motives of interest or popularity, desired their destruction, 
were obliged to suborn false accusers to charge them with 
actions that might bring them within the reach of the laws. 
Hence many fell victims to cruel superstition and popular 
fury, seconded by the corruption of a wicked magistracy, 
and the connivance of a prince, who, with respect to one ' 
set of men, forgot those principles of justice and clemency 
which directed his conduct toward all others. Among 
these victims, there were many men of illustrious piety 
and some of eminent learning and abilities, such as the 
holy and venerable Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, and Jus- & 
tin Martyr, so deservedly renowned for his erudition and 
philosophy/ Many churches, particularly those of Lyons 
and Vienne, were almost entirely destroyed, during this 
violent persecution, which raged in the year 177, and will 
be an indelible stain upon the memory of the prince by 
whose order is was carried on.s 

VII. During the reign of Commodus, the Christians 



the persecuted Christians, and which concludes with the following words : 
" If any one, for the future, shall molest the Christians, and accuse them 
merely on account of their religion, let the person thus accused be dis- 
charged, though he is found to be a Christian, and the accuser be punish- 
ed according to the rigour of the law." 

See Melito ap. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xxvi. p. 147. 

f A full account of their martyrdom is to be found in the valuable 
work of Ruinart, entitled, Acta Sincera Martyrum. 

g See the letter of the Christians at Lyons concerning this persecution, 
which is to be found in Eusebius' Ecclesiastical History, book v. chap, 
ii. and also in Fox's Martyrology, vol. i. 



Chap. II. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



37 



Buffered very little; no general persecution raged against 
them ; and any cruelties which they endured were confi- 
ned to a small number, who had newly abandoned the 
Pagan superstitions. 11 But the scene changed toward the 
latter end of this century, when Severus was declared em- 
peror. Then Egypt and other provinces were dyed with 
the blood of martyrs, as appears from the testimonies of 
Tertullian, Clemens of Alexandria, and other writers. 
Those, therefore, are not to be followed, who affirm, that 
the Christians suffered nothing under Severus, before the 
beginning of the third century, which was distinguished 
by the cruel edicts of this emperor against their lives and 
fortunes; for, as the imperial laws against the Christians 
were not abrogated, and the iniquitous edicts of Trajan 
and Marcus Antoninus were still in force, there was a door, 
in consequence, open to the fury and injustice of corrupt 
magistrates, as often as they were pleased to exercise them 
upon the church. It was this series of calamities, under 
which it groaned toward the conclusion of the second cen- 
tury, which engaged Tertullian to write his Apology, and 
several other books, in defence of the Christians. 

VIII. It is very easy to account for the sufferings and 
calamities with which the disciples of Jesus were loaded, 
when we consider how they were blackened and rendered 
odious by the railings, the calumnies, and libels of the 
Heathen priests, and the other defenders of a corrupt and 
most abominable system of superstition. The injurious 

1 Eusebius, lib. v. 

Ifjr b The learned Dr. Lardner does not think it possible that Celsus 
could have been of the sect of Ammonius, since the former lived and 
wrote in the second century, whereas the latter did not nourish before the 
third. And indeed we learn from Origen himself, that he knew of two 



imputations, the horrid charges, of which we took notice 
above, are mentioned by all those who have written in 
defence of the Christians, and ought indeed, to stand 
always upon record, as proofs both of the weakness and 
wickedness of their adversaiies. Nothing can be more 
frivolous and insignificant than the objections with which 
the most famous defenders of Paganism assailed Chris- 
tianity at this time; and such as desire a convincing proof 
of this assertion, have only to read the arguments of Cel- 
sus on that subject. This philosopher wrote against the 
Christians during the reign of Adrian, and was admirably 
refuted, in the following century, by Origen, who repre- 
sents him as an Epicurean, (a mistake which has been 
almost generally followed ;) whereas it appears with the 
utmost probability, that he was a Platonic philosopher of 
the sect of Ammonius. b Be that as it will, Celsus was a 
trifling caviller, as is manifest from the answer of Origen ; 
nor do his writings against Christianity serve any other pur- 
pose, than to show his malignant and illiberal turn of mind. 
Fronto, the rhetorician, and Crescens, the Cynic philo- 
sopher, made also some wretched attempts against Chris- 
tianity. The efforts of the former are only known by the 
mention that is made of them by Minutius Felix; 1 and the 
enterprises of the latter were confined to a vehement zeal 
for the ruin of the Christians, and a virulent persecution of 
Justin Martyr, which ended in the cruel death of that emi- 
nent saint. d 

only of the name of Celsus, one who lived in the time of Nero, and the 
other in the reign of Adrian, and afterwards. The latter was the phi- 
losopher who wrote against Christianity. 

Octavius, p. 266, edit. Heraldi. 

* Justin Mart. Apologia secunda, p. 21. — Tatian, Orat. contra Grseco*. 



No. IV. 



10 






PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the state of Letters and Philosophy during 
this Century. 

I. Under the reign of Trajan, letters and philosophy 
:ame forth from the retreat where they had languished 
'luring the savage tyranny of his predecessors, and, by the 
auspicious protection of that excellent prince, were in some 
measure restored to their former lustre.* This happy revo- 
lution in the republic of letters, was indeed of a short dura- 
tion, as it was not supported by the following emperors, 
who were, for the most part, averse to literary pursuits. 
Even Marcus Antoninus, who surpassed them all in learn- 
ing, gave protection and encouragement to the Stoics 
alone, and, after the example of that supercilious sect, 
treated the arts and sciences with indifference and con- 
tempt. 1 ' And here we see the true reason why the writers 
of this century are, in general, so much inferior to those of 
the former in point of elegance and purity, eloquence and 
taste. 

II. It must be observed, at the same time, that this 
degeneracy of erudition and taste did not amount to an 
utter extinction of the one and the other ; for, even in this 
century, there were, both among the Greeks and Romans, 
men of eminent genius and abilities, who set off, in the 
most advantageous mariner, the learning of the times in 
which they lived. Among the learned Grecians, the first 
place is due to Plutarch, a man of vast erudition, whose 
knowledge was various, but indigested, and whose philoso- 
phical taste was corrupted by the sceptical tenets of the 
academics. There were, likewise, in all the more con- 
siderable cities of the Roman empire, rhetoricians, sophists, 
and grammarians, who, by a variety of learned exercises, 
seemed zealous in forming the youth to their arts of elo- 
quence and declamation, and in rendering them fit, by 
their talents and their acquisitions, to be useful to their 
country. But the instruction acquired in these schools 
was more specious than solid ; and the youth who received 
their education in them, distinguished themselves, at their 
entrance upon the active stage of life, more by empty 
declamation, than by true eloquence ; more by pompous 
erudition, than by wisdom and dexterity in the manage- 
ment of public affairs. The consequence of this was, that 
the rhetoricians and sophists, though agreeable to the cor- 
rupt taste of the time, which was incapable, generally 
speaking, of perceiving the native charms of truth, yet fell 
mto contempt among the prudent and the wise, who 
neld in derision the knowledge and education acquired in 
.heir auditories. Beside the schools now mentioned, there 
were two public academies in the empire-; one at Rome, 
founded by Adrian, in which all the sciences were taught ; 
and the other at Berytus in Phoenicia, which was princi- 
pally destined for the education of youth in the science of 
law. 

tt Plin. epist. lib. iii. ep. 18. 

i) In the first book of his Meditations, sect. 7, 17. 

Seethe Meditations of Marcus Antoninus, book i. sect. 7, 10. ■ 



III. Many philosophers of all the different sects flourish- 
ed at this time, whose names we do not think it necessary 
to mention. d Two, however, there were, of such remark- 
able and shining merit, as rendered them real ornaments 
to the Stoic philosophy ; which the meditations of Marcus 
Antoninus and the manual of Epictetus abundantly testify. 
These two great men had more admirers than disciples 
and followers ; for, in this century, the Stoical sect was not 
in the highest esteem, as the rigour and austerity of its 
doctrine were by no means suited to the dissolute manners 
of the times. The Platonic schools were more frequented 
for several reasons, and particularly for these two, that 
their moral precepts were less rigorous and severe than 
those of the Stoics, and their doctrines more conformable 
to, or rather less incompatible with, the common opinions 
concerning the gods. But, of all the philosophers, the 
Epicureans enjoyed the greatest reputation, and had un- 
doubtedly the greatest number of followers, because their 
opinions tended to encourage the indolent security of a 
voluptuous and effeminate life, and to banish the remorse 
and terrors that haunt vice, and naturally incommode the 
wicked in their sensual pursuits. e 

IV. Toward the conclusion of this century, a new sect 
of philosophers suddenly arose, spread with amazing rapid- 
ity through the greatest part of the Roman empire, swal- 
lowed up almost all other sects, and proved extremely 
detrimental to the cause of Christianity. Alexandria in 
Egypt, which had been, for a long time, the seat of learn- 
ing, and, as it were, the centre of all the liberal arts and 
sciences, gave birth to this new philosophy. Its votaries 
chose to be called Platonists, though, far from adhering to 
all the tenets of Plato, they collected from the different sects 
such doctrines as they thought conformable to truth, and 
formed thereof one general system. The reason, then, 
why they distinguished themselves by the title of Plato- 
nists, was, that they thought the sentiments of Plato, con- 
cerning that most noble part of philosophy, which has the 
Deity and things invisible for its objects, much more ration- 
al and sublime than those of the other philosophers. 

V. What gave to this new philosophy a superior air of 
reason and dignity, was, the unprejudiced spirit of candor 
and impartiality on which it seemed to be founded. 
This recommended it particularly to those real sages, 
whose inquiries were accompanied with wisdom and mo 
deration, and who were sick of those arrogant and conten 
tious sects, which required an invariable attachment to 
their particular systems. And, indeed, nothing could 
have a more engaging aspect than a set of men, who, 
abandoning all cavil, and all prejudices in favour of any 
party, professed searching after the truth alone, and were 
ready to adopt, from all the different systems and sects, 
such tenets as they thought agreeable to it. Hence also 
they were called Eclectics. It is, however, to be observed, 
as we hinted in the former section, that though these phi- 

<i Justin Mart. Dialog, cum Tryphone, op. p. 218, &c. We find also 
many of these philosophers mentioned in the meditations of Marcus 
Antoninus. 

• Lucian's Pseudomant. p. 763. torn. i. op. 



Chap. I. 



LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



39 



losophers were attached to no particular sect, yet they 
preferred, as appears from a variety of testimonies, the 
sublime Plato to all other sages, and approved most of 
his opinions concerning the Deity, the universe, and the 
human soul. 

VI. This new species of Platonism was embraced by 
such of the Alexandrian Christians as were desirous of 
retaining, with the profession of the Gospel, the title, the 
dignity, and the habit of philosophers. It is also said to have 
had the particular approbation of Athenagoras, Panteenus, 
Clemens the Alexandrian, and of all those who, in this 
century, were charged with the care of the public school » 
which the Christians had at Alexandria. These sages 
were of opinion, that true philosophy, the greatest and most 
salutary gift of God to mortals, was scattered in various 
portions through all the different sects ; and that it was, con- 
sequently, the duty of every wise man, and more especially 
of every Christian doctor, to gather it from the several 
corners where it lay dispersed, and to employ it, thus 
re-united, in the defence of religion, and in destroying 
the dominion of impiety and vice. The Christian Eclec- 
tics had this also in common with the others, that they 
preferred Plato to the other philosophers, and looked upon 
his opinions concerning God, the human soul, and things 
invisible, as conformable to the spirit and genius of the 
Christian doctrine. 

VII. This philosophical system underwent some chan- 
ges, when Ammonius Saccas,who taught, with the highest 
applause, in the Alexandrian school about the conclusion 
of this century, laid the foundations of that sect which 
was distinguished by the name of the New Platonists. 
This learned man was born of Christian parents, and 
never, perhaps, gave up entirely the outward profession of 
that divine religion in which he had been educated. b As 
his genius was vast and comprehensive, so were his projects 
bold and singular. For he attempted a general reconci- 
liation or coalition of all sects, whether philosophical or re- 
ligious, and taught a doctrine which he looked upon as 
proper, to unite them all, the Christians not excepted, in the 
most perfect harmony. And herein lies the difference be- 
tween this new sect and the Eclectics, who had, before this 
time, flourished in Egypt. The Eclectics held, that, in 
every sect, there was a mixture of good and bad, of truth 
and falsehood ; and, accordingly, they chose and adopted, 
out of each of them, such tenets as seemed to them con- 
formable to reason and truth, and rejected such as they 

* The title and dignity of philosophers delighted so much these honest 
men, that though they were advanced in the church to the rank of pres- 
byters, they would not abandon the philosophers' cloak. See Origen, 
Epist. ad. Eusebium, torn. i. op. edit, de la Rue. 

t> Porphyry, in his third book against the Christians, maintains, that 
Ammonius deserted the Christian religion and went over to Paganism 
as soon as he came to that time of life when the mind is capable of 
making a wise and judicious choice. Eusebius, on the other hand, de- 
nies this assertion; maintaining, that Ammonius persevered constantly 
in the profession of Christianity ; and he is followed in this opinion by 
Valesius, Bayle, Basnage, and others. The learned Fabricius is of 
opinion, that Eusebius confounded two persons who bore the name of 
Ammonius, one of whom was a Christian writer, and the other a Hea- 
then philosopher. See Fabric. Biblioth. Gneca, lib. iv. cap. xxvi. The 
truth of the matter seems to have been, that Ammonius Saccas was a 
Cliristian, who adopted with such dexterity the doctrines of the pagan 
philosophy, as to appear a Christian to the Christians, and a Pagan to 
the Pagans. See Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophic, vol. ii. and 
iii. Since the first edition of this work appeared, the learned Dr. Lard- 
ner has maintained, not without a certain degree of asperity, which is 
unusual in his valuable writings, the opinion of Fabricius, against Euse- 
bius, and particularly against Dr Mosheim. Sec his Collection of 



thought repugnant to both. Ammonius, on the contrary, 
maintained, that the great principles of all philosophical 
and religious truth were to be found equally in all sects ; 
that they differed from each other only in their method of 
expressing them, and in some opinions of little or no im- 
portance ; and that, by a proper interpretation of their re- 
spective sentiments, they might easily be united into one 
body. It is farther to be observed, that the propensity of 
Ammonius to singularity and paradox, led him to main- 
tain, that all the Gentile religions, and even the Christian, 
were to be illustrated and explained by the principles of this 
universal philosophy ; but that, in order to this, the fables 
of the priests were to be removed from Paganism, and the 
comments and interpretations of the disciples of Jesus from 
Christianity. 

VIII. This arduous design, which Ammonius had form- 
ed, of bringing about a coalition of all the philosophical 
sects, and all the systems of religion that prevailed in the 
world, required many difficult and disagreeable things in 
order to its execution. Every particular sect or religion 
must have several of its doctrines curtailed or distorted, 
before it could enter into the general mass. The tenets of 
the philosophers, the superstitions of the Heathen priests, 
the solemn doctrines of Christianity, were all to suffer in 
this cause, and forced allegories were to be employed with 
subtilty in removing the difficulties with which it was 
attended. How this vast project was effected by Ammo- 
nius, the writings of his disciples and followers, that yet 
remain, abundantly testify. In order to the accomplish- 
ment of his purpose, he supposed, that true philosophy 
derived its orgin and its consistence from the eastern na- 
tions ; that it was taught to the Egyptians by Hermes ; 
that it was brought from them to the Greeks, by whoso 
vain subtilties, and litigious disputes, it was rendered some- 
what obscure and deformed ; but Avas however, preserved 
in its original purity by Plato, who was the best interpreter 
of Hermes, and of the other oriental sages. He maintain- 
ed, that all the different religions which prevailed in the 
world, were, in their original integrity, conformable to the 
genius of this ancient philosophy ; but that it unfortunately 
happened, that the symbols and fictions, under which, 
according to the eastern manner, the ancients delivered 
their precepts and their doctrines, were, in process of time, 
erroneously understood both by priests and people in a 
literal sense ; that, in consequence of this, the invisible 
beings and demons, whom the Supreme Deity had placed 

Heathen and Jewish Testimonies, vol. iii. Dr. Mosheim was once ol 
the same opinion with Fabricius, and he maintained it in a Dissertation, 
de ecclcsia turbata per recentiores Platen icos ; but he afterwards saw 
reason to change his mind. His reasons may be seen in his book, de 
rebus Christianorum, ante Const. Mag. p. 281. &c. They indeed weigh 
little with Dr. Lardner, who, however, opposes nothing to them but 
mere assertions, unsupported by the smallest glimpse of evidence. For 
the letter of Origen, which he quotes from Eusebius, is so far from pro- 
ving that Ammonius was merely a Heathen philosopher, and not a 
Cln-istian, that it would not be sufficient to demonstrate that there was 
ever such a person as Ammonius in the world, since he is not so much 
as named in that letter. But allowing with Valesius that it is Ammo- 
nius whom Origen has in view, when he talks of the philosophical mas- 
ter from whom he and Heracles received instruction, it seems very 
whimsical to conclude from this circumstance, that Ammonius was no 
Christian. The coalition between Platonism and Christianity, in the 
second -and third centuries, is a fact too fully proved to be rendered 
dubious by mere affirmations. The notion, therefore, of two persona 
bearing the name of Ammonius, the one a Heathen philosopher, and 
the other a Christian writer, of which Dr. Lardner seems so fond, rests 
upon little more than an hypothesis farmed to remove an imaginary 
difficulty. 



40 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



in the different parts of the universe as the ministers of his 
providence, were, by the suggestions of superstition, con- 
verted into gods, and worshipped with a multiplicity of vain 
ceremonies. He therefore insisted, that the religions of all 
nations should be restored to their original purity, and 
reduced to their primitive standard, viz. " The ancient phi- 
losophy of the east;" and he affirmed, that this his project 
was agreeable to the intentions of Jesus Christ, whose sole 
view, in descending upon earth, was, to set bounds to the 
reigning superstition, and to remove the errors that had 
crept into all religions, but not to abolish the ancient theo- 
logy from which they were derived. 

IX. Taking these principles for granted, Ammonius 
adopted the doctrines which were received in Egypt, the 
place of his birth and education, concerning the universe 
and the Deity, considered as constituting one great whole ; 
as also concerning the eternity of the world, the nature of 
souls, the empire of Providence, and the government of 
this world by demons. For it seems evident, that the 
Egyptian philosophy, which was said to be derived from 
Hermes, was the basis of that of Ammonius ; or, as it is 
otherwise called, of modern Platonism ; and the book of 
Jamblichus, concerning the mysteries of the Egyptians, 
puts the matter beyond dispute. Ammonius, therefore, 
associated the sentiments of the Egyptians with the doc- 
trines of Plato, which was easily done by adulterating 
some of the opinions of the latter, and forcing his expres- 
sions from their obvious and natural sense ; and, to finish 
this conciliatory scheme, he so interpreted the doctrines of 
the other philosophical and religious sects, by the violent 
succours of art, invention, and allegory, that (hey seemed, j 
at length, to bear some resemblance to the Egyptian and 
Platonic systems. 

X. To this monstrous coalition of heterogeneous doc- 
trines, its fanatical author added a rule of life arid manners, 
which carried an aspect of high sanctity and uncommon 
austerity. He, indeed, permitted the people to live accord- 
ing to the laws of their country, and the dictates of na- 
ture ; but a more sublime rule wao laid clown for the 
wise. They were to raise, above all terrestrial things, by 
the towering efforts of holy contemplation, those souls 
whose origin was celestial and divine. They were order- 
ed to extenuate, by hunger, thirst, and other mortifications, 
the sluggish body, which confines the activity, and restrains 
the liberty of the immortal spirit ; that thus, in this life, 
they might enjoy communion with the Supreme Being, 
and ascend after death, active and unencumbered, to the 
universal Parent, to live in his presence for ever. As 
Ammonius was born and educated among the Christians, 
he embellished these injunctions, and even gave them an 
air of authority, by expressing them partly in terms 
borrowed from the sacred scriptures, of which we find a 
vast number of citations also in the writings- of his disci- 
ples. To this austere discipline, he added the pretended 
art of so purging and refining that faculty of the mind 
which receives the images of things, as to render it capable 
of perceiving the demons, and of performing many marvel- 
lous things, by their assistance. This art, which the disci- 
ples of Ammonius called theurgy, was not, however, 

' What we have here mentioned concerning the doctrines and opinions 
of Ammonius, is gathered from the writings and disputations of his dis- 
ciples, who are known by the name of the Modern Platonists. This 
philosopher has left nothing in writing behind him. He even imposed 
a law upon his disciples not to divulge his doctrines among the multi- 



communicated to all the schools of this fanatical philoso- 
pher, but only to those of the first rank. 

XI. The extravagant attempts of Ammonius did not 
cea.se here. To reconcile the popular religions of different 
countries, and particularly the Christian, with this new 
system, he fell upon the following inventions ; 1st, He 
turned into a mere allegory the whole history of the gods, 
and maintained, that those beings whom the priests and 
people dignified with this title, were no more than celestial 
ministers, to whom a certain kind of worship was due, but a 
worship inferior to that which was to be reserved for the 
Supreme Deity. 2dly ; He acknowledged Christ to be a 
most excellent man, the friend of God, the admirable the- 
urge ; he denied, however, that Jesus intended to abolish 
entirely the worship of demons, and of the other ministers 
of divine Providence ; and affirmed, on the contrary, that 
his only intention was to purify the ancient religion, and 
that his followers had manifestly corrupted the doctrine of 
their divine master." 

XII. This new species of philosophy, imprudently adopt 
ed by Origen and many other Christians, was extremely 
prejudicial to the cause of the Gospel, and to the beautiful 
simplicity of its celestial doctrines. For hence it was, that 
the Christian doctors began to introduce their perplexed 
and obscure erudition into the religion of Jesus ; to involve, 
in the darkness of a vain philosophy, some of the principal 
truths of Christianity, that had been revealed with the 
utmost plainness, and were indeed obvious to the meanest 
capacity ; and to add, to the divine precepts of our Lord, 
many of their own, which had no sort of foundation in any 
part of the sacred writings. From the same source arose 
that melancholy set of men, who have been distinguished 
by the name of Mystics, whose system, when separated 
from the Platonic doctrine concerning the nature and ori- 
gin of the soul, is but a lifeless mass, without any vigour, 
form, or consistence. Nor did the evils, which sprang from 
this Ammonian philosophy, end here. For, under the 
specious pretext of the necessity of contemplation, it gave 
occasion to that slothful and indolent course of life, which 
continues to be led by myriads of monks retired in cells, 
and sequestered from society, to which they are neither 
useful by their instructions, nor by their examples. To 
this philosophy we may trace, as to their source, a mul- 
titude of vain and foolish ceremonies, calculated only to 
cast a veil over truth, and to nourish superstition ; and which 
are, for the most part, religiously observed by many, even 
in the times in which we live. It would be endless to enu 
merate all the pernicious consequences that may be justly 
attributed to this new philosophy, or rather to this mon- 
strous attempt to reconcile falsehood with truth, and light 
with darkness. Some of its most fatal effects were, its 
alienating the minds of many, in the following ages, from 
the Christian religion ; and its substituting, in the place of 
the pure and sublime simplicity of the Gospel, an unseem 
ly mixture of Platonism and Christianity. 

XIII. The number of learned men among the Chris- 
tiasis, which was very small in the preceding century, 
increased considerably in this. Among these there were 
few rhetoricians, sophists, or orators. The majority were 

tude ; which law, however, they made no scruple to neglect and violate. 
See Porphyr. Vit. Plotini, cap. lii. At the same time, there is no sort ol 
doubt, that all these inventions belong properly to Ammonius, whom all 
the. later Platonists acknowledge as the founder of this sect, and the 
author of their philosophy. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



41 



philosophers attached to the Eclectic system, though they 
were not all of the same sentiments concerning the utility 
of letters and philosophy. Those who were themselves 
initiated into the depths of philosophy, were desirous that 
others, particulary such as aspired to the offices of bishops 
or doctors, should" apply themselves to the study of human 
wisdom, in order to their being the better qualified for de- 
fending the truth with vigour, and instructing the ignorant 
with success. Others were of a quite different way of 
thinking upon this subject, and were for banishing all 
argumentation and philosophy from the limits of the 
church, from a notion that erudition might prove detrimen- 
tal to the true spirit of religion. Hence the early beginnings 
of that unhappv contest between faith and reason, reli- 
gion and philosophy, piety and genius, which, increased 
in the succeeding ages, and is prolonged, even to our times, 
with a violence that renders it extremely difficult to be 
brought to a conclusion. Those who maintained that 
learning and philosophy were rather advantageous than 
detrimental to the cause of religion, gained, by degrees, the 
ascendant ; and, in consequence thereof, laws were enact- 
ed, which excluded the ignorant and illiterate from the 
office of public teachers. The opposite side of the question 
was not, however, without defenders ; and the defects and 
vices of learned men and philosophers contributed much 
to increase their number, as will appear in the progress of 
this history. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and the Form of its Government. 

I. The form of ecclesiastical government, whose com- 
mencement we have seen in the last century, was brought 
in this to a greater degree of stability and consistence. One 
inspector, or bishop, presided over each Christian assembly, 
to which office he was elected by the voices of the whole 
people. In this post he was to be watchful and provident, 
attentive to the wants of the church, and careful to supply 
them. To assist him in this laborious province, he formed 
a council of presbyters, which was not confined to any 
fixed number ; and to each of these he distributed his task, 
and appointed a station, in which he was to promote the 
interests of the church. To the bishops and presbyters, 
the ministers or deacons were subject ; and the latter were 
divided into a variety of classes, as the state of the church 
required. 

II. During a great part of this century, the Christian 
churches were independent with respect to each other ; nor 
were they joined hy association, confederacy, or any other 
bonds than those of charity. Each Christian assembly 
was a little state, governed by its own laws, which were 
sither enacted, or at least, approved by the society. But, in 
process of time, all the Christian churches of a province were 
formed into one large ecclesiastical body, which, like 
confederate states, assembled at certain times in order to 
deliberate about the common interests of the whole. This 
institution had its origin among the Greeks, with whom 
nothing was more common than this confederacy of inde- 
pendent states, and the regular assemblies which met, in 
consequence thereof; at fixed times, and were composed of 
the deputies of each respective state. But these ecclesias- 
tical associations were not long confined to the Greeks : 



their great utility was no sooner perceived, than they be- 
came universal, and were formed in all places where the 
gospel had been planted.* To these assemblies, in which 
the deputies or commissioners of several churches consulted 
together, the names of synods was appropriated by the 
Greeks, and that of councils by the Latins ; and the laws 
that were enacted in these general meetings, were called 
canons, i. e. rides, 

III. These councils of which we find not the smallest 
trace before the middle of this century, changed the whole 
face of the church, and gave it a new form : for by them 
the ancient privileges of the people were considerably dimi- 
nished, and the power and authority of the bishops greatly 
augmented. The humility, indeed, and prudence of these 
pious prelates, prevented their assuming all at once the 
power with which they were afterward invested. At their 
first appearance in these general councils, they acknow- 
ledged that they were no more than the delegates of their 
respective churches, and that they acted in the name, and 
by the appointment of their people. But they soon changed 
this humble tone, imperceptibly extended the limits of their 
their authority, turned their influence into dominion, and 
their counsels into laws ; and openly asserted, at length, 
that Christ had empowered them to prescribe to his people 
authoritative rules of faith and manners. Another effect 
of these councils was, the gradual abolition of that perfect 
equality which reigned among all bishops in the primitive 
times. For the order and decency of these assemblies re- 
quired, that some one of the provincial bishops, meeting in 
council, should be invested with a superior degree of power 
and authority ; and hence the rights of Metropolitans derive 
their origin. In the mean time the bounds of the church 
were enlarged ; the custom of holding councils was fol- 
lowed wherever the sound of the gospel had reached ; and 
the universal church had now the appearance of one vast 
republic, formed by a combination of a great number of 
little states. This occasioned the creation of a new order 
of ecclesiastics, who were appointed, in different parts of 
the world, as heads of the church, and whose office it was 
to preserve the consistence and union of that immense 
body, whose members were so widely dispersed through- 
out the nations. Such were the nature and office of the 
patriarchs, among whom, at length, ambition, having 
reached its most insolent period, formed a new dignity, 
investing the bishop of Rome, and his successors, with the 
title and authority of prince of the patriarchs. 

IV. The Christian doctors had the good fortune to per- 
suade the people, that the ministers of the Christian church 
succeeded to the character, rights, and privileges, of the 
Jewish priesthood ; and this persuasion was a new source 
both of honours and profit to the sacred order. This notion 
was propagated with industry some time after the reign 
of Adrian, when the second destruction of Jerusalem had 
extinguished among the Jews all hopes of seeing their 
government restored to its former lustre, and their country 
arising out of ruins. And, accordingly, the bishops consi- 
dered themselves as invested with a rank and character 
similar to those of the high priest among the Jews, while 
the presbyters represented the priests, and the deacons the 
Levites. It is, indeed, highly probable, that they who first 
introduced this absurd comparison of offices, so entirely dis- 
tinct, did it rather through ignorance and error, than 

* Tertullian, Lib. de Jejuniis, cap. xiii. p. 711. 






42 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



through artifice or design. The notion, however, once 
entertained, produced its natural effects ; and these effects 
were' pernicious. The errors to which it gave rise were 
many ; and we may justly consider, as one of its immediate 
consequences, the establishment of a greater difference be- 
tween the Christian pastors and their flock, than the ge- 
nius of the Gospel seems to admit. 

V. From the government of the church, let us turn our 
eyes to those who maintained its cause by their learned and 
judicious writings. Among these we may mention Justin, 
a man of great piety and considerable learning, who, from 
a pagan philosopher, became a Christian martyr. He had 
frequented all the different sects of philosophy in an ardent 
and impartial pursuit of truth ; and finding, neither among 
Stoics nor Peripatetics, neither in the Pythagorean nor 
Platonic schools, any satisfactory account of the perfections 
of the Supreme Being, and the nature and destination of 
the human soul, he embraced Christianity on account of 
the light which it cast upon these interesting subjects. — ■ 
We have yet remaining his two Apologies in behalf of the 
Christians, which are highly esteemed, as they deserve to 
be, although, in some passages of them, he shows himself 
an incautious disputant, and betrays a want of acquaint- 
ance with ancient history. 

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, a Greek by birth, and proba- 
bly born of Christian parents, a disciple also of Polycarp, by 
whom he was sent to preach the Gospel among the Gauls, 
is another of the writers of this century, whose labours were 
remarkably useful to the church. He turned his pen 
against its internal and domestic enemies, by attacking 
the monstrous errors which had been adopted by many 
of the primitive Christians, as appears by his five Books 
against Heresies, which are yet preserved in a Latin trans- 
lation,* and are considered as one of the most precious 
monuments of ancient erudition. 

Athenagoras also deserves a place among the estimable 
writers of this age. He was a philosopher of no mean 
reputation ; and his apology for the Christians, and his 
treatise upon the Resurrection, afford striking proofs of his 
learninof and genius. 

The works of Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, are more 
remarkable for their erudition, than for their order and 
method ; this, at least, is true of his three Books in Defence 
of Christianity, addressed to Autolycus. b But the most 
illustrious writer of this century, and the most justly renown- 
ed for his various erudition, and his perfect acquaintance 
with the ancient sages, was Clemens, the disciple of Pan- 
tsenus, and the head of the Alexandrian school, destined 
for the instruction of the catechumens. His Stromata, Pe- 
dagogue, and Exhortation, addressed to the Greeks, which 
are yet extant, abundantly show the extent of his learning 
and the force of his genius, though he is neither to be 
admired for the precision of his ideas, nor for the perspi- 
cuity of his style. It is also to be lamented, that his exces- 
sive attachment to the reigning philosophy led him into a 
variety of pernicious errors. 

Hitherto we have made no mention of the Latin writers, 

fTjp * The first book is yet extant in the original Greek; of the rest, 
We have only a Latin version, through the barbarity of which, though 
excessive, it is easy to discern the eloquence and erudition that reign 
throughout the original. See Hist. Literaire de la France. 

13jr b Theophilus was the author of several works, beside those men- 
tioned by Dr. Mosheim, particularly of a commentary upon the Proverbs, 
another upon the Four Evangelists, and of some short and pathetic dis- 
courses, which he published from time to time for the use of his flock. 



who employed their pens in the Christian cause. And, 
indeed, the only one of any note we find in this century, is 
Tertullian, by birth a Carthaginian, who, having first em- 
braced the profession of the law, became afterwards a pres- 
byter, and concluded by adopting the heretical visions of 
Montanus. He was a man of extensive learning, of a fine 
genius, and highly admired for his elocution in the Latin 
tongue. We have several works of his yet remaining, 
which were designed to explain and defend the truth, and 
to nourish pious affections in the hearts of Christians. 
There was, indeed, such a mixture in the qualities of this 
man, that it is difficult to fix his real character, and to deter- 
mine which of the two predominated — his virtues or his 
defects. He was endowed with a great genius, but seemed 
deficient in point of judgment. His piety was warm 
and vigorous, but, at the same time, melancholy and 
austere. His learning was extensive and profound ; and 
yet his credulity and superstition were such as could only 
have been expected from the darkest ignorance. And with 
respect to his reasonings, they had more of the subtilty 
that dazzles the imagination, than of that solidity which 
brings light and conviction to the mind/ 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church in 
this Century. 

I. The Christian system, as it was hitherto taught, pre- 
served its native and beautiful simplicity, and was compre- 
hended in a small number of articles. The public teachers 
inculcated no other doctrines, than those which are con- 
tained in what is commonly called the Apostles' Creed ; and 
in the method of illustrating them, all vain subtilties, all 
mysterious researches, every thing that was beyond the 
reach of common capacities, were carefully avoided. This 
will not appear surprising to those who consider that, at 
this time, there was not the least controversy about those 
capital doctrines of Christianity, which were afterwards so 
k-eenly debated in the church ; and who reflect, that the 

.ybishops of these primitive times were, for the most part, 
" plain and illiterate men, remarkable rather for their piety 
and zeal, than for their learning and eloquence. 

II. This venerable simplicity was not, indeed, of a long 
duration; its beauty was gradually effaced by the labori- 
ous efforts of human learning, and the dark subtilties of 
imaginary science. Acute researches were employed upon 
several religious subjects, concerning which ingenious de 
cisions were pronounced ; and, what was worst of all, seve 
ral tenets of a chimerical philosophy were imprudent!) 
incorporated into the Christian system. This disadvan 
tageous change, this unhappy alteration of the primitiv 
simplicity of the Christian religion, arose partly from 
pride, and partly from a sort of necessity. The former 
cause was the eagerness of certain learned men to bring 
about a union between the doctrines of Christianity and 
the opinions of the philosophers ; for they thought it a very 
fine accomplishment, to be able to express the precepts of 

He also wrote against Marcion and Hermogenes, and, in refuting the 
errors of these heretics, he quotes several passages of the Revelations. 

" It is proper to point out, to such as are desirous of a more particular 
account of the works, as also of the excellencies and defects of these an- 
cient writers, the authors who have professedly written of them ; and the 
principal are those who follow : Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in Biblioth. Grasc. et 
Latin. — Cave, Hist. Liter. Scriptor. Eccl. — Du-Pin et Cellier, Biblioth. 
i des Autour3 Eeclesiastiques. 



Chap. III. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



43 



Christ in the language of philosophers, civilians, and 
rabbis. The other reason that contributed to alter the 
simplicity of the Christian religion, was, the necessity of 
having recourse to logical definitions and nice distinctions, 
in order to confound the sophistical arguments which the 
infidel and the heretic employed, one to overturn the Chris- 
tian system, and the other to corrupt it. H3 3 These philo- 
sophical arms, in the hands of the judicious and wise, 
were both honourable and useful to religion ; but, when 
they were handled by every ignorant and self-sufficient 
meddler, as was afterwards the case, they produced no- 
thing but perplexity and confusion, under which genuine 
Christianity almost disappeared. 

III. Many examples might be alleged, which verify 
the observations we have now been making; and, if the 
reader is desirous of a striking one, he has only to take a 
view of the doctrines which began to be taught in this cen- 
tury, concerning the state of the soul after the dissolution 
of the body. Jesus and his disciples had simply declared, 
that the souls of good men were, at their departure from 
their bodies, to be received into heaven, while those of the 
wicked were to be sent to hell ; and this was sufficient for 
the first disciples of Christ to know, as they had more 
piety than curiosity, and were satisfied with the knowledge 
of this solemn fact, without any inclination to penetrate 
its manner, or to pry into its secret reasons. But this plain 
doctrine was soon disguised, when Platonism began to 
infect Christianity. Plato had taught that the souls of 
heroes, of illustrious men, and eminent philosophers alone, 
ascended after death into the mansions of light and felicity, 
while those of the generality, weighed down by their lusts 
and passions, sunk into the infernal regions, whence they 
were not permitted to emerge before they were purified from 
their turpitude and corruption.* This doctrine was seized 
with avidity by the Platonic Christians, and applied as a 
commentary upon that of Jesus. Hence a notion prevailed, 
that only the martyrs entered upon a state of happiness 
immediately after death, and that, for the rest, a certain 
obscure region was assigned, in which they were to be 
imprisoned until the second coming of Christ, or, at least, 
until they were purified from their various pollutions. This 
doctrine, enlarged by the irregular fancies of injudicious 
men, became a source of innumerable errors, vain ceremo- 
nies, and monstrous superstitions. 

IV. But, however the doctrines of the Gospel may have 
been abused by the commentaries and interpretations of 
different sects, all were unanimous in regarding the Scrip- 
tures with veneration, as the great rule of faith and man- 
ners ; and hence arose the laudable and pious zeal of adap- 
ting them to general use. We have mentioned already 
the translations that were made of them into different lan- 
guages, and it will not be improper to say something here 
concerning those who employed their useful labours in ex- 
plaining and interpreting them. Panteenus, the head of 
the Alexandrian school, was probably the first who enrich- 
ed the church with a version of the sacred writings, which 
has been lost among the ruins of time. The same fate 
attended the commentary of Clemens the Alexandrian, 

_ " See an ample account of the opinions of the Platonists and other an- 
cient philosophers on this subject, in the notes which Dr. Mosheim has 
added to his Latin translation of Cudworth's Intellectual System, vol. ii. 

o Viz. Clementis Hij polyposes. 

§flj= c Melito, beside his- Apology for the Christians, and the treatises 
mentioned by Dr. Mosheim, wrote a discourse upon Esther and several 



upon the canonical epistles ; and also another celebrated 
work b of the same author, in which he is said to have ex- 
plained, in a compendious manner, almost all the sacred 
writings. The Harmony of the Evangelists, composed 
by Tatian, is yet extant. But the Exposition of the Re- 
velations, by Justin Martyr, and of the four Gospels by 
Theophilus bishop of Antioch, together with several illus- 
trations of the Mosaic history of the creation, by other 
ancient writers, are lost. 

V. The loss of these ancient productions is the less to be 
regretted as we know, with certainty, their vast inferiority 
to the expositions of the holy Scriptures that appeared in 
succeeding times. Among the persons already mentioned, 
none deserved the name of an able and judicious interpreter 
of the sacred text. They all attributed a double sense to the 
words of Scripture ; the one obvious and literal, the other 
hidden and mysterious, which lay concealed, as it were 
under the veil of the outward letter. The former they 
treated with the utmost neglect, and turned the whole 
force of their genius and application to unfold the latter ; 
or, in other words, they were more studious to darken the 
Scriptures with their idle fictions, than to investigate their 
true and natural sense. Some of them also forced the ex- 
pressions of sacred writ out of their obvious meaning, in 
order to apply them to the support of their philosophical 
systems ; of which dangerous and pernicious attempts. Cle- 
mens of Alexandria is said to have given the first example. 
With respect to the expositors of the Old Testament in 
this century, we shall only make this general remark, that 
their excessive veneration for the Alexandrian version, com- 
monly called the Septuagint, which they regarded almost 
as of divine authority, confined their views, fettered their 
critical spirit, and hindered them from producing any thing 
excellent in the way of sacred criticism or interpretation. 

VI. If this age was not very fertile in sacred critics, it 
was still less so in expositors of the doctrinal parts of 
religion; for hitherto there was no attempt made, at least 
that has come to our knowledge, to compose a systc-Tn or 
complete view of the Christian doctrine. Some treatises of 
Arabians, relative to this subject, are indeed mentioned ; 
but, as they are lost, and seem not to have been much 
known by any of the writers whose works have survived 
them, we can form no conclusions concerning them. The 
books of Papias, concerning the sayings of Christ and his 
apostles, were according to the account which Eusebius 
gives of them, rather an historical commentary, than a 
theological system. Melito, bishop of Sardis, is said to 
have written several treatises ; one concerning faith, another 
on the creation, a third respecting the church, and a fourth 
for the illustration of truth ; but it does not appear from the 
titles of these writings, whether they were of a doctrinal or 
controversial nature. Several of the polemic writers, in- 
deed, have been naturally led, in the course of controversy 
to explain amply certain points of religion. But those qoc- 
taines which have not been disputed, are very rarely 
defined with such accuracy, by the ancient writers, as to 
point out to us clearly what their opinions concerning them 
were. Hence it ought not to appear surprising, that all the 

other dissertations, of which we have only some scattered fragments re- 
maining ; but what is worthy of remark here, is, that he is the first 
Christian writer who has given us a catalogue of the books of die Old 
Testament. His catalogue, also, is perfectly conformable to that of the 
Jews, except in this point only, that he has omitted in it the book of 
Esther. 



44 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



different sects of Christians pretend to find, in the writings 
of the fathers, decisions favourable to their respective tenets. 

VII. The controversial writers, who shone in this 
rentury, had three different sorts of adversaries to combat ; 
ihe Jews, the Pagans, and those who, in the bosom of 
Christianity, corrupted its doctrines, and produced various 
sects and divisions in the church. Justin Martyr, and 
Tertullian, embarked in a controversy with the Jews, which 
it was not possible for them to manage with the highest 
success and dexterity, as they were very little acquainted 
with the language, the history, and the learning of the 
Hebrews, and wrote with more levity and inaccuracy, than 
such a subject would justify. Of those who managed the 
cause of Christianity against the Pagans, some performed 
this important task by composing apologies for the Chris- 
tians, and others by addressing pathetic exhortations to the 
Gentiles. Among the former Avere Athenagoras, Melito, 
Q,uadratus, Miltiades, Aristides, Tatian, and Justin Martyr; 
and among the latter, Tertullian, Clemens, Justin, and 
Theophilus bishop of Antioch. All these writers attacked, 
with judgment, dexterity, and success, the pagan supersti- 
tion, and also defended the Christians, in a victorious man- 
ner, against all the calumnies and aspersions of then - ene- 
mies. But they did not succeed so well in unfolding the 
true nature and genius of Christianity, nor were the argu- 
ments adduced by them to demonstrate its truth and divi- 
nity so full of energy, so striking and irresistible, as those 
by which they overturned the pagan system. In a word, 
both their explication and defence of many of the doctrines 
of Christianity are defective aud unsatisfactory in several 
respects. As to those who directed their polemic efforts 
against the heretics, their number was prodigious, though 
few of their writings have come down to our times. Ire- 
naeus refuted the whole tribe in a work destined solely for 
that purpose. Clemens, a Tertullian, b and Justin Martyr, 
wrote also against all the sectaries; but the work of the last, 
upon that subject, is not extant. It would be endless to 
mention those who combated particular errors ; of whose 
writings also, many have disappeared amidst the decays 
of time, and the revolutions that have happened in the 
republic of letters. 

VIII. If the primitive defenders of Christianity were not 
always happy in the choice of their arguments, yet they 
discovered more candour and probity than those of the 
following ages. The artifice of sophistry, and the habit 
of employing pious frauds in support of the truth, had not, 
as yet, infected the Christians. And this, indeed, is all 
that can be said in their behalf ; for they are worthy of little 
admiration on account of the accuracy or depth of their 
reasonings. The most of them appear to have been 
destitute of penetration, learning, order, application and 
force. They frequently make use of arguments void of 
all solidity, and much more proper to dazzle the fancy, 
than to enlighten and convince the mind. One, laying 
aside the sacred writings, from which all the weapons of 

* In his work entitled, Stromata. 

•> In his Prescription es adversus Haereticos. 

c Several examples of this senseless method of reasoning are to be 
found in different writers. See particularly Basnage, Histoire des 
Juifs, torn. iii. p. 660, 694. 

55" d The (economical method of disputing was that in which the 
disputants accommodated themselves, as far as was possible, to the taste 
and prejudices of those whom they were endeavouring to gain over to 
the truth. Some of the first Christians carried this condescension too 
far, and abused St. Paul's example, (1 Cor. ix. 20, 21, 22.) to a degree 
.^consistent with the purity and simplicity of the Christian doctrine. 



religious controversy ought to be drawn, refers to the 
decisions of those bishops who ruled the apostolic churches. 
Another thinks, that the antiquity of a doctrine is a mark 
of its truth, and pleads prescription against his adversaries, 
as if he was maintaining his property before a civil magis- 
trate ; than which method of disputing nothing can be 
more pernicious to the cause of truth. A third imitates 
those wrong-headed disputants among the Jews, who, 
infatuated with their cabalistic jargon, offered, as argu- 
ments, the imaginary powers of certain mystic words and 
chosen numbers. Nor do they seem to err, who are of 
opinion, that, in this century, that vicious method d of dis- 
puting, which afterwards obtained the name of (Economi- 
cal, was first introduced. 6 

IX. The principal points of morality were treated by 
Justin Martyr, or, at least, by the writer of the Epistle to 
Zena and Serenus, which is to be found among the works 
of that celebrated author. Many other writers confined 
themselves to particular branches of the moral system, 
which they handled with much attention and zeal. Thus 
Clemens of Alexandria wrote several treatises concerning 
calumny, patience, continence, and other virtues, which 
discourses have not reached our times. Those of Tertul- 
lian upon chastity, upon flight in the time of persecution, 
as also upon fasting, shows, female ornaments, and prayer, 
have survived the waste of time, and might be read with 
much fruit, were the style in which they are written less la- 
boured and difficult, and the spirit they breathe less melan- 
choly and morose. 

X. Learned men are not unanimous with regard to the 
degree of esteem that is due to the authors now mentioned, 
and the other ancient moralists. Some represent them as 
the most excellent guides in the paths of piety and virtue ; 
while others place them in the lowest rank of moral writers, 
consider them as the worst of all instructors, and treat their 
precepts and decisions as perfectly insipid, and, in many 
respects, pernicious. We leave the determination of this 
point to such as are more capable of pronouncing decisively 
upon it, than we pretend to be. f It, however, appears to 
us incontestable, that in the Avritings of the primitive 
fathers, there are several sublime sentiments, judicious 
thoughts, and many things that are naturally adapted to 
form a religious temper, and to excite pious and virtuous 
affections ; while it must be confessed on the other hand, 
that they abound still more with precepts of an excessive 
and unreasonable austerity, with stoical and academical 
dictates, vague and indeterminate notions, and what is ye 
worse, with decisions that are absolutely false, and in evi 
dent opposition to the precepts of Christ. Before the ques- 
tion mentioned above concerning the merit of the ancient 
fathers, as moralists, be decided, a previous question must 
be determined, namely, What is meant by a bad director 
in point of morals ? and, if by such a person be meant, one 
who has no determinate notion of the nature and limits of 
the duties incumbent upon Christians, no clear and distinct 

e Rich. Simon, Histoire Critique des principaux Commentateurs du 
N. T. cap. ii. p. 21. 

f This question was warmly and learnedly debated between the de- 
servedly celebrated Barbeyrac and Cellier, a Benedictine monk. Bud- 
deus has given us a history of this controversy, with his own judgment 
of it, in his Isagoge ad Theologiam, lib. ii. cap. iv. p. 620, &c. Bar- 
beyrac, however, published after this a particular treatise in defence of 
the severe sentence he had pronounced against the fathers. This inge- 
nious performance was printed at Amsterdam in 1 /20, under the title of 
Traite sur la Morale des Peres ; and is highly worthy of the perusal ot 
those who have a taste for this interesting branch of literature, though 



Chap. in. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



45 



Ideas of virtue and vice ; who has not penetrated the spirit 
*tnd genius of those sacred books, to which alone we must 
ippeal in every dispute about Christian virtue, and who, in 
vonsequence thereof, fluctuates often in uncertainty, or falls 
.nto error in explaining the divine laws, though he may fre- 
quently administer sublime and pathetic instructions ; if, 
oy a bad guide in morals, such a person, as we have now 
delineated, be meant, then it must be confessed, that this 
iitle belongs indisputably to many of the fathers. 

XL The cause of morality, and indeed, of Christianity 
in general, suffered deeply by a capital error which was 
received in this century ; an error admitted without any 
sinister views, but yet with great imprudence, and, which, 
through every period of the church, even until the present 
time, has produced other errors without number, and mul- 
tiplied the evils under which the Gospel has so often groan- 
ed. Jesus Christ prescribed to all his disciples one and the 
same rule of life and manners. But certain Christian 
doctors, either through a desire of imitating the nations 
among whom they lived, or in consequence of a natural 
propensity to a life of austerity (which is a disease not 
uncommon in Syria, Egypt, and other Eastern provinces), 
were induced to maintain, that Christ had established a 
double rule of sanctity and virtue, for two different orders of 
Christians. Of these rules one was ordinary, the other 
extraordinary ; one of a lower dignity, the other more sub- 
lime ; one for persons in the active scenes of life, the other 
for those who, in a sacred retreat, aspired to the glory of a 
celestial state. In consequence of this wild system, they 
divided into two parts all those moral doctrines and instruc- 
tions which they had received, either by writing or tradi- 
tion. One of these divisions they called precepts and the 
other counsels. They gave the name of precepts to those 
laws which were obligatory upon all orders of men ; and 
that of counsels to such as related to Christians of a more 
sublime rank, who proposed to themselves great and glo- 
rious ends, and aspired to an intimate communion with 
the Supreme Being. 

XII. This double doctrine suddenly produced a new 
set of men, who made profession of uncommon degrees of 
sanctity and virtue, and declared their resolution of obeying 
all the counsels of Christ, that they might enjoy commu- 
nion with God here ; and also, that, after the dissolution of 
their mortal bodies, they might ascend to liim with greater 
facility, and find nothing to retard their approach to the 
supreme centre of happiness and perfection. They looked 
upon themselves as prohibited from the use of things 
which it was lawful for other Christians to enjoy, such as 
wine, flesh, matrimony, and trade. 1 They thought it their 
indispensable duty, to extenuate the body by watchings, 
abstinence, labour and hunger. They looked for felicity 
in solitary retreats, in desert places, where, by severe and 
assiduous efforts of sublime meditation, they raised the soul 
above all external objects and all sensual pleasures. Both 
men and women imposed upon themselves the most severe 
tasks, the most austere discipline ; all which however the 
fruit of pious intention, was, in the issue, extremely detri- 
mental to Christianity. These persons were called Asce- 

they will find in it some imputations cast upon the fathers, against which 
.»iey may be easily defended. 

* Athenagoras, Apologia pro Christian, cap. xxviiL 
t> See Salmas. Comra. in Tertullianum de Pallio. 

* These famous sects niade an important distinction between living 
according to nature, Zn" Kara fiaw, and living above nature, Znf ixip 

12 



tics, SirsSaToi, 'ExXewo/, and philosophers ; nor were they 
only distinguished by their title from other Christians, but 
also by their garb." In this century, indeed, such as 
embraced this austere kind of life, submitted themselves to 
all these mortifications in private, without breaking asun- 
der their social bonds, or withdrawing themselves from the 
concourse of men. But, in process of time, they retired 
into deserts ; and after the example of the Essenes and 
Therapeutas, they formed themselves into certain com- 
panies. 

XIII. Nothing is more obvious than the reasons that 
gave rise to this austere sect. One of the principal was, 
the ill judged ambition of the Christians to resemble the 
Greeks and Romans, many of whose sages and philoso- 
phers distinguished themselves from the generality by their 
maxims, by their habits, and, indeed, by the whole plan of 
life and manners which they had formed to themselves, 
and by which they acquired a high degree of esteem 
and authority. It is also well known, that, of all these 
philosophers, there were none whose sentiments and disci- 
pline were so well received by the ancient Christians as 
those of the Platonists and Pythagoreans, who prescribed 
in their lessons two rules of conduct ; one for the sages, 
who aspired to the sublimest heights of virtue ; and ano- 
ther for the people, involved in the cares and hurry of an 
active life. The law of moral conduct, which the Plato- 
nists prescribed to the philosophers, was as follows : " The 
soul of the wise man ought to be removed to the greatest 
possible distance from the contagious influence of the 
body ; and, as the depressing weight of the body, the force 
of its appetites, and its connexions with a corrupt world, are 
in direct opposition to this sacred obligation, all sensual 
pleasures are to be carefully avoided : the body is to be 
supported, or rather extenuated, by a slender diet ; solitude 
is to be sought as the true mansion of virtue, and contem- 
plation to be employed as the means of raising the soul, 
as far as is possible, to a sublime freedom from all corpo- 
real ties, and to a noble elevation above all terrestrial 
things. d The person who lives in this manner, shall 
enjoy, even in the present state, a certain degree of commu- 
nion with the Deity ; and, when the corporeal mass is 
dissolved, shall immediately ascend to the sublime regions 
of felicity and perfection, without passing through that 
state of purification and trial, which awaits the generality 
of mankind." It is easy to perceive, that this rigorous 
discipline was a natural consequence of the peculiar opi- 
nions which these philosophers, and some others who 
resembled them, entertained concerning the nature of the 
sold, the influence of matter, the operations of invisible 
beings, or demons, and the formation of the world ; and, 
as these opinions were adopted by the more learned among 
the Christians, it was natural that they should embrace also 
the moral discipline which flowed from them. 

XIV. There is a particular consideration that will ena- 
ble us to render a natural account of the origin of those 
religious severities of which we have been now speaking; 
and that is drawn from the genius and temper of the people 
by whom they were first practised. It was in Egypt that 

<pioiv. The former was the rule prescribed to the vulgar ; the latter, that 
which was to direct the conduct of the philosophers, who aimed at supe- 
rior degrees of virtue. See iEneas Gazeus in Theophrast. 

a The reader will find the principles of this fanatical discipline, in 
Porphyry's book ra>; ri-oxij;, i. e. concerning abstinence. That celebra- 
ted Platonist has explained at large the respective duties that belong to 
active and contemplative life, book i. sect. 2/ and 41. 



46 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



this morose discipline had its rise. That country, we may- 
observe, has in all times, as it were by an immutable law, 
or disposition of nature, abounded with persons of a melan- 
choly complexion, and produced, in proportion to its extent, 
more gloomy spirits than any other part of the world. a 
It was here that the Essenes and Therapeutae, those dis- 
mal and gloomy sects, dwelt principally, long before the 
coming of Christ ; as also many others of the Ascetic tribe, 
who, led by a melancholy turn of mind, and a delusive 
notion of rendering themselves more acceptable to the 
Deity by their austerities, withdrew themselves from hu- 
man society, and from all the innocent pleasures and com- 
forts of life. b From Egypt, this sour and insocial discipline 
passed into Syria, and the neighbouring countries, which 
also abounded with persons of the same dismal constitu- 
tion with that of the Egyptians ; c and thence, in process of 
time, its infection reached the European nations. Hence 
arose that train of austere and superstitious vows and rites, 
that still, in many places, throw a veil over the beauty 
and simplicity of the Christian religion. Hence the celi- 
bacy of the priestly order, the rigour of unprofitable penan- 
ces and mortifications, the innumerable swarms of monks, 
who, in the senseless pursuit of a visionary sort of perfec- 
tion, refused their talents and labours to society. Hence 
also that distinction between the theoretical and mysti- 
cal life, and many other fancies of a like nature, which 
we shall have occasion to mention in the course of this 
history. 

XV. It is generally true, that delusions travel in a train, 
and that one mistake produces many. The Christians 
who adopted this austere system had certainly made a very 
false step, and done much injury to their excellent and 
most reasonable religion. But they did not stop here; ano- 
ther erroneous practice was adopted by them, which, though 
it was not so general as the other, was yet extremely perni- 
cious, and proved a source of numberless evils to the Chris- 
tian church. The Platonists and Pythagoreans held it as a 
maxim, that it was not only lawful, but even praiseworthy, 
to deceive, and even to use the expedient of a lie, in order 
to advance the cause of truth and piety. The Jews, who 
lived in Egypt, had learned and received this maxim from 
them, before the coming of Christ, as appears incontesta- 
bly from a multitude of ancient records ; and the Christians 
were infected from both these sources with the same per- 
nicious error, as appears from the number of books attri- 
buted falsely to great and venerable names, from the S'byl- 
line verses, and several supposititious productions which 
were spread abroad in this and the following century. It 
does not indeed seem probable, that all these pious frauds 
were chargeable upon the professors of real Christianity, 
upon those who entertained just and rational sentiments 
of the religion of Jesus. The greatest part of these ficti- 
tious writings undoubtedly flowed from the fertile inven- 
tion of the Gnostic sects, though it cannot be affirmed that 
even true Christians were entirely innocent and irreproach- 
able in this respect. 

XVI. As the boundaries of the church were enlarged, 
the number of vicious and irregular persons who entered 



*• See Maillet, Description de l'Egypte, torn. ii. 

b Herodot. Histor. lib. ii. — Epiphanius, Exposit. Fidei, sect. 11. — Ter- 
tullian, de Exhortatione Castitat. cap. xiii. — Athanas. Vita Antonii. 

" Voyages en Perse, par Jean Chardin, torn. iv. 

1 By this distinction, we may easily reconcile the different opinions of 
tne learned concerning the effects of excommunication. See Morinus, de 

12 



into it, received a proportional increase, as appears from the 
many complaints and censures that we find in the writers 
of this century. Several methods were practised to stem 
the torrent of iniquity. Excommunication was peculiarly 
employed to prevent or punish the most heinous and enor- 
mous crimes, and the crimes deemed such, were murder, 
idolatry, and adultery, which terms, however, we must here 
understand in their more full and extensive sense. In some 
places, the commission of any of these sins irrevocably cut 
off the criminals from all hopes of restoration to the privi- 
leges of church communion ; in others, after a long, labo- 
rious, and painful course of probation and discipline, they 
were re-admitted into the bosom of the church. d 

XVII. It is here to be attentively observed, that the form, 
used in the exclusion of heinous offenders from the society 
of Christians, was, at first, extremely simple. A small 
number of plain, yet judicious rules, made up the whole of 
this solemn institution, which, however was imperceptibly 
altered, enlarged by an addition of a vast multitude of rites, 
and new-modeled according to the discipline used in the 
Heathen mysteries. e Those who have any acquaintance 
with the singular reasons that obliged the Christians of 
those ancient times to be careful in restraining the progress 
of vice, will readily grant, that it was incumbent upon the 
rulers of the church to perfect their discipline, and to render 
the restraints upon iniquity more severe. They will justi- 
fy the rulers of the primitive church in theii refusing to 
restore excommunicated members to their forfeited privi- 
leges, before they had given incontestable marks of the 
sincerity of their repentance. Yet it remains to be exami- 
ned, whether it was expedient to borrow from the enemies 
of the truth the rules of this salutary discipline, and thus 
to sanctify in some measure, a part of the Heathen super- 
stition. But, however delicate such a question may be, 
when determined with a view to all the indirect or imme- 
diate consequences of the matter in debate, the equitable 
and candid judge will consider principally the good inten- 
tions of those from whom these ceremonies and institutions 
proceeded, and will overlook the rest from a charitable con- 
descension and indulgence to human-weakness. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Of the Ceremonies used in the Church during this 
Century. 
I. There is no institution so pure and excellent which 
the corruption and folly of man will not in time alter foi 
the worse, and load with additions foreign to its nature 
and original design. Such, in a particular manner, wa 
the fate of Christianity. In this century many unneces 
sary rites and ceremonies were added to the Christian 
worship, the introduction <./ which was extremely offen- 
sive to wise and good men.' These changes, while they 
destroyed the beautiful simplicity of the gospel, were natu- 
rally pleasing to the gross multitude, who are more de- 
lighted with the pomp and splendour of external institu- 
tions, than with the native charms of rational' and solid 
piety, and who generally give little attention to any objects 

Disciplina. Pcenitent. lib. ix. cap. xix. p. 67. — Sirmond, Historia Pceni- 
tentice publicise, cap. i. — Joseph. Augustin. Orsi, Dissert, de Criminum 
capitalium per tria priora Sajcula Absolutione, published at Milan in 1730. 

• See Fabricius, Bibliograph. Antiquar. p. 397, and Morinus, de 
Poenitentia, lib. i. cap. xv, &c. 

' Tertullian, Lib. de Creatione, p. 792, op. 



Chap. IV. 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



47 



but, those which strike their outward senses." But other 
reasons may he added to this, which, though they suppose 
no bad intention, yet manifest a considerable degree of 
precipitation and imprudence. 

II. And here we may observe, in the first place, that 
there is a high degree of probability in the notion of those 
who think that the bishops augmented the number of 
religious rites in the Christian worship, by way of accom- 
modation to the infirmities and prejudices, both of Jews 
and heathens, in order to facilitate their conversion to 
Christianity. Both Jews and heathens were accustomed 
>,o a great variety of pompous and magnificent ceremonies 
in their religious service. And as they deemed these rites 
an essential part of religion, it was natural that they should 
behold with indifference, and even with contempt, the 
simplicity of the Christian worship, which was destitute of 
those idle ceremonies that rendered their service so specious 
and striking. To remove then, in some measure, this 
prejudice against Christianity, the bishops thought it ne- 
cessary to increase the number of ceremonies, and thus to 
render the public worship more striking to the outward 
senses. b 

III. This addition of external rites was also designed to 
remove the opprobious calumnies which the Jewish and 
pagan priests cast upon the Christians on account of the 
simplicity of their worship, considering them as little bet- 
ter than atheists, because they had no temples, altars, 
victims, priests, nor any mark of that external pomp in 
which the vulgar are so prone to place the essence of reli- 
gion. The rulers of the church adopted, therefore, cer- 
tain external ceremonies, that thus they might captivate 
the senses of the vulgar, and be able to refute the reproach- 
es of their adversaries. £3= This, it must be confessed, 
was a very awkward, and indeed, a very pernicious stra- 
tagem ; it was obscuring the native lustre of the Gospel, 
in order to extend its influence, and making it lose, in 
point of real excellence, what it gained in point of popu- 
lar esteem. Some accommodations to the infirmities of 
mankind, some prudent instances of condescension to 
their invincible prejudices, are necessary in ecclesiastical, 
as well as in civil institutions ; but they must be of such 
a nature as not to inspire ideas, or encourage prejudices, 
incompatible with just sentiments of the great object of 
religious worship, and of the fundamental truths which 
God has imparted by reason and revelation to the human 
race. How far this rule has been disregarded and viola- 
ted, will appear too plainly in the progress of this history. 

IV". A third cause of the multiplication of ceremonies in 
the Christian church, may be deduced from the abuse of 



13> * It is not improper to remark here, that this attachment of the 
vulgar to the pomp of ceremonies, is a circumstance that has always been 
favourable to the ambitious views of the Romish clergy, since the pomp 
of religion naturally casts a part of its glory and magnificence upon its 
ministers, and thereby gives them, imperceptibly, a vast ascendency over 
the minds of the people. The late lord Bolingbroke, being present at 
the elevation of the host in the cathedral at Paris, expressed to a noble- 
man who stood near him, his surprise that the king of France should 
commit the performance of such an august and striking ceremony to any 
subject. How far ambition may, in this and the succeeding ages, have 
contributed to the accumulation of gaudy ceremonies, is a question not 
easily determined. 

•> A remarkable passage in the life of Gregory, surnamed Thauma- 
turgus, i. e. the wonder worker, will illustrate this point in the clearest 
mariner. The passage is as follows : " Cum animadvertisset (Gregorius) 
quod ob corporeas delectationes et voluptates simplex et imperitum vul- 
gus in simulacrorumcultus'errore permaneret — permisit eis, ut in memo- 
riam et rccordationem sanctorum martyrum sese oblectarent, et in Iseti- 



certain titles that distinguished the sacerdotal orders among 
the Jews. Every one knows, that many terms used in 
the New Testament to express the different parts of the 
Christian doctrine and worship, are borrowed from the 
Jewish law, or bear a certain analogy to the forms and 
ceremonies instituted by Moses. The Christian doctors 
not only imitated this analogical manner of speaking, but 
even extended it farther than the apostles had done ; and 
though in this there was nothing that deserved reproach, 
yet the consequences of this method of speaking became, 
through abuse, detrimental to the purity of the Gospel ; 
for, in process of time, many asserted, (whether through 
ignorance or artifice is not easy to determine,) that these 
forms of speech were not figurative, but highly proper, and 
exactly suitable to the nature of the things they were de- 
signed to express. The bishops, by an innocent allusion 
to the Jewish manner of speaking, had been called chief 
priests ; the elders, or presbyters, had received the title of 
priests, and the deacons that of Levites. But, in a little 
time, these titles were abused by an aspiring clergy, who 
thought proper to claim the same rank and station, the 
same rights and privileges, that were conferred with those 
titles upon the ministers of religion under the Mosaic dis- 
pensation. Hence the rise of tithes, first-fruits, splendid 
garments, and many other circumstances of external 
grandeur, by which ecclesiastics were eminently distin- 
guished. In like manner the comparison of the Chris- 
tian oblations with the Jewish victims and sacrifices, pro- 
duced a multitude of unnecessary rites, and was the occa 
sion of introducing that erroneous notion of the eucharist, 
which represents it as a real sacrifice, and not merely as a 
commemoration of the great offering that was once made 
upon the cross for the sins of mortals. 

V. The profound respect that was paid to the Greek 
and Roman mysteries, and the extraordinary sanctity that 
was attributed to them, were additional circumstances that 
induced the Christians to give their religion a mystic air, 
in order to put it upon an equal footing, in point of dignity, 
with that of the Pagans. For this purpose, they gave the 
name of mysteries to the institutions of the Gospel, and 
decorated particularly the holy sacrament with that solemn 
title. They used in that sacred institution, as also in that 
of baptism, several of the terms employed in the Heathen 
mysteries, and proceeded so far, at length, as even to adopt 
some of the ceremonies- of which those renowned mysteries 
consisted. This imitation began in the eastern provinces ; 
but, after the time of Adrian, who first introduced the 
mysteries among the Latins, d it was followed by the Chris- 
tians who dwelt in the western parts of the empire. A 



tiam effunderentur, quod successu temporis aliquando futurem esstt, ut 
sua sponte ad honestiorum et accuratiorem vita; rationem transirent." i. c. 
" When Gregory perceived that the ignorant multitude persisted in their 
idolatry, on account of the pleasures and sensual gratifications which 
they enjoyed at the pagan festivals, he granted them a permission to 
indulge themselves in the like pleasures, in celebrating the memory of 
the holy martyrs, hoping that, in process of time, they would return of 
their own accord, to a more virtuous and regular course of life." There 
is no sort of doubt, that, by this permission, Gregory allowed the Cliris- 
tians to dance, sport, and feast at die tombs of the martyrs, upon their 
respective festivals, and to do every tiling which die pagans were ac- 
customed to do in their temples, during die feasts celebrated in honour 
of their gods." 

c See, for many examples of this, Isaac Casaubon, Exercitat. xvi. in 
Annal. Cardin. Baronii, p. 388, edit. Genev. 1654. Tollius, Insign. 
itineris Italici, not. p. 151, 163. — Spanheim's notes to his French trans- 
lation of Julian's Casars, p. 133. — Clarkson on Liturgies. 

<i Spartian, Vit. Hadriani, c. xiii. 



4tf 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part XL 



great part, therefore, of the service of the church, in this 
century, had a certain air of the Heathen mysteries, and 
resembled them considerably in many particulars. 

VI. It may be farther observed, that the custom of teach- 
ing their religious doctrines by images, actions, signs, and 
other sensible representations, which prevailed among the 
Egyptians, and, indeed, in almost all the eastern nations, 
was another cause of the increase of external rites in the 
church. As there were many persons of narrow capacities, 
whose comprehension scarcely extended beyond sensible 
odjects, the Christian doctors thought it advisable to in- 
struct such in the essential truths of the Gospel, by placing 
these truths as it were, before their eyes, under sensible 
.mages. Thus they administered milk and honey, the 
ordinary food of infants, to such as were newly, received 
into the church, showing by this sign, that by their baptism 
they were born again, and were bound to manifest the sim- 
plicity and innocence of infants in their lives and conversa- 
tion. Certain military forms were borrowed to express 
the new and solemn engagements, by which Christians 
attached themselves to Christ as their leader and their 
chief; and the ancient ceremony of manumission was used 
to signify the liberty of which they were made partakers, 
in consequence of their redemption from the guilt and do- 
minion of sin, and their deliverance from the power of the 
prince of darkness. 1 

VII. If it be considered, in the first place, that the Chris- 
tians who composed the church, were Jews and Heathens, 
accustomed from their birth, to various insignificant cere- 
monies and superstitious rites, — and if it be also considered, 
that such a long course of custom and of education forms 
prejudices that are extremely obstinate and difficult to be 
conquered— it will then appear, that nothing less than a 
continued miracle could have totally prevented the entrance 
of all superstitious mixtures into the Christian worship. A 
single example will tend to the illustrations of this matter. 
Before the coming of Christ, all the eastern nations perfor- 
med divine worship with their faces turned to that part of 
the heavens where the sun displays his rising beams. This 
custom was founded upon a general opinion, that God, 
whose essence they looked upon to be light, and whom they 
considered as being circumscribed within certain limits, 
dwelt in that part of the firmament, from which he sends 
forth the sun, the bright image of his benignity and glory. 
The Christian converts, indeed, rejected this gross error ; 
but they retained the ancient and universal custom of wor- 
shipping toward the east, which sprang from it. Nor is 
that custom abolished even in our times, but still prevails 
in a great number of Christian churches. Prom the same 
source arose various rites among the Jews, which many 
Christians, especially those who live in the eastern coun- 
tries, observe religiously at this very day. b 

VIII. We shall take no more than a brief view of these 
rites and ceremonies, since a particular consideration of 
them would lead us into endless discussions, and open a 
field too vast to be comprehended in such a compendious 
history as we here give of the Christian church. The first 
Christians assembled for the purposes of divine worship, in 
private houses, in caves, and in vaults, where the dead 
were buried. Their meetings were on the first day of the 

a See Edm. Merillii Observal. lib. iii. cap. iii. 

fc 3ee Spencer de Legilus ritualibus Hebrmorum, Prolegom. 



week ; and, in some places, they assembled also on the 
seventh, which was celebrated by the Jews. Many also 
observed the fourth day of the week, on which Christ 'was 
betrayed ; and the sixth, which was the day of his cruci- 
fixion. The hour of the day appointed for holding these 
religious assemblies varied according to the different times 
and circumstances of the church ; but it was generally in 
the evening after sun-set, or in the morning before the 
dawn. During these sacred meetings, prayers were repeat- 
ed ; b the holy scriptures were publicly read ; short discour 
ses, upon the duties of Christians, were addressed to the 
people ; hymns were sung ; and a portion of the oblation ,, 
presented by the faithful was employed in the celebration 
of the Lord's Supper and the feast of charity. 

IX. The Christians of this century celebrated anniver- 
sary festivals in commemoration of the death and resurrec- 
tion of Christ, and of the effusion of the Holy Ghost upon 
the apostles. The day which was observed as the anni- 
versary of Christ's death was called the paschal day, or 
passover, because it was looked upon to be the same with 
that on which the Jews celebrated the feast of that name 
In the manner, however, of observing this solemn day 
the Christians of Asia Minor differed much from the rest, 
and in a more especial manner from those of Rome. They 
both indeed, fasted during the great week (so that was cal- 
led in which Christ died,) and afterwards celebrated, like 
the Jews, a sacred feast, at which they distributed a paschal 
lamb in memory of the holy supper. But the Asiatic Chris- 
tians kept this feast on the fourteenth day of the first Jew- 
ish month, when the Jews celebrated their passover, and, 
three days after, commemorated the resurrection of the tri- 
umphant Redeemer. They affirmed, that they had derived 
this custom from the apostles John and Philip ; and plead- 
ed, moreover, in its behalf, the example of Christ himself 
who held his paschal feast on the day of the Jewish pass- 
over. The western churches observed a different method; 
they celebrated their paschal feast on the night that pre- 
ceded the anniversary of Christ's resurrection, and thus con- 
nected the commemoration of his crucifixion with that of 
his victory over death and the grave. Nor did they differ 
thus from the Asiatics, without pleading also apostolic 
authority for what they did ; for they alleged that of St. 
Peter and St. Paul, as a justification of then conduct in 
this matter. 

X. The Asiatic rule for keeping the paschal feast, was 
attended with two great inconveniences, to which the 
Christians at Alexandria and Rome, and all the western 
churches, refused to submit; for, in the first place, as the 
Asiatics celebrated their festival on the same day that 
Christ is said to have eaten the paschal lamb with his dis- 
ciples, this occasioned an inevitable interruption in the fast 
of the great week, which the other churches looked upon 
as almost criminal, at least as highly indecent. Nor was 
this the only inconvenience arising from this rule : for, as 
they celebrated the memory of Christ's resurrection, pre- 
cisely on the third day after their paschal supper, it hap- 
pened for the most part, that this great festival (which 
afterwards was called by the Latins pascha, and to which 
we give the name of Easter) was holden on other days 
of the week than the first. This circumstance was ex- 

c There is an excellent account given of these prayers, and of the 
Christian worship in general, in Tertullian's Apology, chap. xkXjz 
which is one of the most noble productions of ancient times. 



Chap. T 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



49 



tremely displeasing to trie greatest part of the Christians, 
who thought it unlawful to celebrate the resurrection of 
aur Lord on any day but Sunday, as that was the day on 
which this glorious event happened. Hence arose sharp 
and vehement contentions between the Asiatic and west- 
ern Christians. About the middle of this century, during 
the reign of Antoninus Pius, the venerable Polycarp went 
to Rome to confer with Anicet, bishop of that see, upon 
this matter, with a view to terminate the warm disputes 
which it had occasioned. But this conference, though con- 
ducted with great decency and moderation, was without 
effect. Polycarp and Anicet only agreed in this, that the 
bonds of charity were not to be broken on account of this 
controversy ; but they respectively continued, at the same 
time, in their former sentiments ; nor could the Asiatics be 
engaged by any arguments to alter the rule which they 
pretended to have received by tradition from St. John. a 

XI. Toward the conclusion of this century, Victor, bi- 
shop of Rome, endeavoured to force the Asiatic Christians 
by the pretended authority of his laws and decrees, to fol- 
low the rule which was observed by the western churches 
in this point. Accordingly, after having taken the advice 
of some foreign bishops, he wrote an imperious letter to the 
Asiatic prelates commanding them to imitate the example 
of the western Christians with respect to the time of cele- 
brating the festival of Easter. The Asiatics answered this 
lordly requisition by the pen of Polycrates, bishop of Ephe- 
sus, who declared in their name, with great spirit and reso- 
lution, that they would by no means depart, in this manner 
from the custom handed down to them by their ancestors. 
Upon this the thunder of excommunication began to roar. 
Victor, exasperated by this resolute answer of the Asiatic 
bishops, broke communion with them, pronounced them 
unworthy of the name of his brethren, and excluded them 
from all fellowship with the church of Rome. This excom- 
munication, indeed, extended no farther : nor could it cut 
off the Asiatic bishops from communion with the other 
churches, whose bishops were far from approving the con- 
duct of Victor. b The progress of this violent dissension 
was stopped by the wise and moderate remonstrances, 
which Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, addressed to the Roman 
prelate on this occasion, in which he showed him the im- 
prudence and injustice of the step he had taken, and also by 
the long letter which the Asiatic Christians wrote in their 
own justification. In consequence therefore of this cessation 
of arms, the combatants retained each their own customs, 
until the fourth century, when the council of Nice abolished 
that of the Asiatics, and rendered the time of the celebration 
of Easter the same through all the Christian churches. 1 

XII. In these times, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper 
was celebrated, for the most part, on Sundays, and the 
ceremonies observed upon that occasion were such as fol- 

11 Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. v. 

•> This whole affair furnishes a striking argument, among the multi- 
tude that may be drawn from ecclesiastical history, against the supre- 
macy and universal authority of the bishop of Rome. 

fjf e Dr. Mosheim, in a note, refers us for a more copious account of 
this controversy to his Commentar. de rebus Christianorum ante Con- 
itantinum M. He had said in that work, that Faydit had perceived the I 
error of the common opinion, concerning the disputes which arose in the 
church about the time of keeping Easter. But here he retracts this enco- 
mium, and, after a second reading of Faydil's book, finds himself obli- 
ged to declare, that this writer has entirely missed the true state of the 
question. See the account of this controversy, given by the learned 
Heuman in one of the treatises of his Sylloge, or collection of small 
pieces. 

No. V. 13 



low. Of the bread and wine, which were presented 
among the other oblations of the faithful, a part was 
separated from the rest, and consecrated by the prayers of 
the bishop. The wine was mixed with water, and the 
bread was divided into several portions. A part of the 
consecrated bread and wine was carried to the sick or ab- 
sent members of the church, as a testimony of fraternal 
love, sent to them by the whole society." 1 It appears by 
many and undoubted testimonies, that this holy rite was 
looked upon as essential to salvation ; and, when this is 
duly considered, we shall be less disposed to censure, as 
erroneous, the opinion of those who have affirmed, that the 
Lord's Supper was administered to infants during this 
century. The feasts of charity, that followed the celebra- 
tion of the Lord's Supper, have been already mentioned. 

XIII. The sacrament of baptism was administered 
publicly twice every year, at the festivals of Easter and 
Pentecost or* Whitsuntide/ either by the bishop, or, in con- 
sequence of his authorization and appointment, by the 
presbyters. The persons that were to be baptized, after 
they had repeated the Creed, confessed and renounced 
their sins, and particularly the devil and his pompous- 
allurements, were immersed under water, and received 
into Christ's kingdom by a solemn invocation of Father, 
Son, and Holy Ghost, according to the express command 
of our Blessed Lord. After baptism, they received the 
sign of the cross, were anointed, and by prayers and impo- 
sition of hands, were solemnly recommended to the mercy 
of God, and dedicated to his service ; in consequence ol 
which they received milk and honey, which concluded the 
ceremony.e The reasons of this particular ritual coincide 
with what we have said in general concerning the origin 
and causes of the multiplied ceremonies that crept from 
time to time into the church. 

Adult persons were prepared for baptism by abstinence 
prayer, and other pious exercises. It was to answer for 
them that sponsors, or godfathers, were first instituted, 
though they were afterwards admitted also in the baptism 
of infants. h 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning: the Heresies and Divisio?is that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 
I. Among the many sects which divided the Christian 
church during this century, it is natural to mention, hi the 
first place, that which an attachment to the Mosaic law 
separated from the rest of their Christian brethren. The 
first rise of this sect is placed under the reign of Adrian ; 
for, when this emperor had, at length, razed Jerusalem, 
entirely destroyed even its very foundations, and enacted 
laws of the severest kind against the whole body of the 



d Henricus Rixnerus, de Ritibus veterum Christianorum circa Eucha- 
ristiam. 

6 See Jo. Frid. Mayer, Diss, de Eucharistia. Infantum ; as also Zor- 
nius, Histor. Eucharist. Infantum. 

f See Wall's History of Infant Baptism, and Vicecomes de Ritibus 
Baptismi. 

* See Tertullian on Baptism. 

i> See Ger. a Maestricht, de Susceptoribus Infantium ex Baptismo, 
though he is of a different opinion in this matter, and thinks that sponsor* 
were not used in the baptism of adult persons. See also Wall's History 
of Infant Baptism. Jjf* See moreover, \ipon this subject, Isaaci Jundt, 
Arg. de Suseeptorum Baptismalium Origine Commentatio, published is 
1755, of which an account may be seen in the Biblioth. des Sciences el 
des Beaux Aits, torn. vi. 



50 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



Jewish people, the greatest part of the Christians, who lived 
in Palestine, to prevent their being confounded with the 
Jews, abandoned entirely the Mosaic rites, and chose a 
bishop named Mark, a foreigner by nation, and conse- 
quently an alien from the commonwealth of Israel. This 
step was highly shocking to those, whose attachment to 
the Mosaic rites was violent and invincible ; and such 
was the case of many. These, therefore, separated them- 
selves from the brethren, and founded in Pereea, a country 
of Palestine, and in the neighbouring parts, particular 
assemblies, in which the law of Moses maintained its 
primitive dignity, authority, and lustre. a 

II. This body of judaizing Christians, which set Christ 
and Moses upon an equal footing, in point of authority, 
afterwards divided itself into two sects, extremely different 
both in their rites and in their opinions, and distinguished 
by the names of Nazarenes and Ebionites. The former 
are not placed by the ancient Christians in the heretical 
register ; h but the latter were considered as a sect, whose 
tenets were destructive of the fundamental principles of 
the Christian religion. These sects made use of a gospel, 
or history of Christ, different from that which is received 
among us, and concerning which there have been many 
disputes among the learned. The term Nazarene was 
not originally the name of a sect, in that which distin- 
guished the disciples of Jesus but general ; and, as those 
whom the Creeks called Christians, received the name 
of Nazarenes among the Jews, the latter name was not 
considered as a mark of ignominy or contempt. Those, 
indeed, who, after their separation from their brethren, 
retained the title of Nazarenes, differed much from the 
true disciples of Christ, to whom that name had been 
originally given : " they held, that Christ was born of a 
virgin, and was also in a certain mariner united to the 
divine nature ; they refused to abandon the ceremonies 
prescribed by the law of Moses, but were far from attempt- 
ing to impose the observance of these ceremonies upon 
the Gentile Christians ; and they rejected all those addi- 
tions which had been made to the Mosaic institutions, by 
the Pharisees and the doctors of the law ;" d and hence we 
may easily see the reason why the greatest part of the 
Christians treated the Nazarenes with a more than ordi- 
nary degree of gentleness and forbearance. 

III. It is doubtful whether the Ebionites derived their 
name from one of their principal doctors, or from their 
poverty. e One thing, however, is certain, that their senti- 
ments and doctrines were much more pernicious than 
those of the Nazarenes ; f for, though they believed the 
celestial mission of Christ, and his participation of a divine 
nature, yet they regarded him as a man born of Joseph 
and Mary, according to the ordinary course of nature. 

" See Sulpitius Sevsrus, Hist. Sacr. lib. ii. cap. xxxi. 

*> Epiphanius was the first writer who placed the Nazarenes in the list 
of heretics. He wrote in the fourth century, but is very far from being 
remarkable, either for his fidelity or judgment. 

gj» c This gospel, which was called indiscriminately the gospel of the 
Nazarenes, or Hebrews, is certainly the same' with the gospel of the 
Ebionites, and that of the twelve apostles, and is probably that which St. 
Paul refers to, Galatians, ch. i. ver. 6. Dr. Mosheim refers his readers, 
for an account of this gospel, to Fabricius, in bis Codex Apocryph. Nov. 
Test. torn. i. p. 355, and to a work of his own, entitled Vindiciae contra 
Tolandi Nazarenum. The reader will, however, find a still more accu- 
rate and satisfactory account of this gospel, in the first volume of the 
learned and judicious Mr. Jones' incomparable Method of settling the 
Canonical Authority of the New Testament. 

& See Mich, le Q.uien, Adnot. ad Damascenum, lorn. i. as also a disser- 
tation of the same author, de Nazarenis et eorum Fide, which is the 



They also asserted, that the ceremonial law, instituted by 
Moses, was not only obligatory upon the Jews, but upon 
all others, and that the observance of it was essential to 
salvation ; and as St. Paul had very different sentiments 
from them, concerning the obligation of the ceremonial 
law, and had opposed the observance of it in the warmest 
manner, so, in consequence, they held this apostle in abhor- 
rence, and treated his writings with the utmost disrespect. 
Nor were they only attached to the rites instituted by 
Moses : they went still farther, and received, with an equal 
degree of veneration, the superstitions of their ancestors, 
and the ceremonies and traditions which the Pharisees 
presumptuously added to the law.s 

IV. These obscure and unfrequented heretical assem- 
blies were very little detrimental to the Christian cause, 
which suffered much more from those sects, whose leaders 
explained the doctrines of Christianity in a manner con- 
formable to the dictates of the oriental philosophy concern- 
ing the origin of evil. The oriental doctors, who, before 
this century, had lived in the greatest obscurity, came forth 
from their retreat under the reign of Adrian, b exposed 
themselves to public view, and collected, in various provin- 
ces, assemblies, whose numbers were very considerable. 
The ancient records mention a great number of these 
demi-christian sects, many of which are no farther known 
than by their distinguishing names : which perhaps, is the 
only circumstance in which they differ from each other. 
One division, however, of these oriental Christians, may be 
mentioned as real and important, since the two branches 
it produced were considerably superior to the rest in reputa- 
tion, and made more noise in the world than the other 
multiplied subdivisions of this pernicious sect. Of this 
famous division, one branch which arose in Asia, preser- 
ved the oriental doctrine concerning the origin of the world, 
unmixed with other sentiments and opinions ; while the 
other, which was formed in Egypt, made a motley mixture 
of this philosophy with the tenets and prodigies adopted in 
the religious system of that superstitious country. The 
doctrine of the former surpassed in simplicity and perspi- 
cuity that of the latter, which consisted of a vast variety of 
parts, so artfully combined, that the explication of them be- 
came exceedingly difficult. 

Y. Among the doctors of the Asiatic branch, the first 
place is due to Elxai, who, during the reign of Trajan, is 
said to have formed the sect of the Elcesaites. This here- 
tic, though a Jew, attached to the worship of one God, and 
full of veneration for Moses, corrupted the religion of his 
ancestors, by blending with it a multitude of fictions drawn 
from the oriental philosophy. Pretending also, after the 
example of the Essenes, to give a rational explication of 
the law of Moses, he reduced it to a mere allegory. It is, 

seventh of those that he has subjoined to his edition of the works of 
Damascenus. 

e See Fabric, ad Philostr. de Hajresibus ; and Itigius, de Haresibus 
iEvi Apostoiici. 

g^» f The learned Mr. Jones looked upon these two sects as differing 
very little from one another. He attributes to them both much the same 
doctrines, and alleges, that the Ebionites had only made some small addi- 
tions to the old Nazarene system. 

e Irenaeus, lib. i. contra Hseres. cap. xxvi. p. 105, edit. Massueti. Epi- 
phanius gives a large account of the Ebionites, Haeres. xxx. But he 
deserves little credit, since he confesses, (sect. 3, p. 127, and sect. 4, p. 
141,) that he had confounded the Sampsaeans and Elcesaites with the 
Ebionites, and also acknowledges that the first Ebionites were strangers 
to the errors with which he charges them. 

k Stromata of Clemens Alex. lib. viii. cap. xvii. p. 898. Cypriani epist. 
lxxv. 



Jgap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



51 



at the same time, proper to observe, that some have doubted 
whether the Elcesaites are to be reckoned among the Chris- 
tian or the Jewish sects ; and Epiphanius, who was 
acquainted with a certain production of Elxai, expresses 
his uncertainty in this matter. Elxai, indeed, in that 
book, mentions Christ with the highest encomiums, with- 
out, however, adding any circumstance from which it 
might be concluded with certainty, that Jesus of Nazareth 
was the Christ of whom he spoke. a 

VI. If, then, Elxai be improperly placed among the 
leaders of the sect now under consideration, we may place 
at its head Saturninus of Antioch, who is one of the first 
Gnostic chiefs mentioned in history. He held the doctrine 
of two principles, from which proceeded all things ; one 
a wise and benevolent deity ; and the other, a principle 
essentially evil, which he supposed to be under the super- 
intendence of a certain intelligence of a malignant nature. 
" The world and its first inhabitants were (according to the 
system of this raving philosopher) created by seven angels, 
who presided over the seven planets. This work was 
carried on without the knowledge of the benevolent deity, 
and in opposition to the will of the material principle. The 
former, however, beheld it with approbation, and honoured 
it with several marks of his beneficence. He endowed 
with rational souls the beings who inhabited this new s)^- 
tem, to whom their creators had imparted nothing more 
than the mere animal life ; and, having divided the world 
into seven parts, he distributed them among the seven 
angelic architects, one of whom was the god of the Jews, 
and reserved to himself the supreme empire over all. To 
these creatures, Whom the benevolent principle had endow- 
ed with reasonable souls, and with dispositions that led to 
goodness and virtue, the evil being, to maintain his empire, 
added another kind, whom he formed of a wicked and 
malignant character ; and hence arose the difference obser- 
vable among men. When the creators of the world fell 
from their allegiance to the Supreme Deity, God sent from 
heaven, into our globe, a restorer of order, whose name 
was Christ. This divine conqueror came clothed with a 
corporeal appearance, but not with a real body ; he came 
to destroy the empire of the material principle, and to point 
out to virtuous souls the way by which they must return to 
God. This way is beset with difficulties and sufferings, 
since those souls, who propose returning to the Supreme 
Being after the dissolution of this mortal body, must ab- 
stain from wine, flesh, wedlock, and, in short, from every 
thing that tends to sensual gratification, or even bodily 
refreshment." Saturninus taught these extravagant doc- 
trines in Syria, but principally at Antioch, and drew after 
him many disciples by the pompous appearance of an 
extraordinary virtue. b 

VII. Cerdo the Syrian, and Marcion, son to the bishop 
of Pontus, belong to the Asiatic sect, though they began 
to establish then doctrine at Rome, and, having given a 
turn somewhat different to the oriental superstition, may 
themselves be considered as the heads of a new sect, 
which bears their names. Amidst the obscurity and 
doubts that render so uncertain the history of these two 
men, the following fact is incontestable, viz. That Cerdo 
had been spreading his doctrine at Rome before the arrival 



11 Euscb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. xxxviii. — Epiphanius, Hseres. xix. 
sect. iii. Theodoretus, Fabul. Hrcret. lib. ii. cap. vii. 

>> Irenseus, lib. i. c. xxiv. — Euscb. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. vii. — 
Theodoict. Fabul. Hxret. lib. i. cap. ii. — Epiplian. Hteres. xxxiii. 



of Marcion there ; and that the latter having, through hia 
own misconduct, forfeited a place to which he aspired in 
the church of Rome, attached himself through resent- 
ment to the impostor Cerdo, and propagated his impious 
doctrines with an astonishing success throughout the 
world. " After the example of the oriental doctors, they 
held the existence of two principles, the one perfectly good, 
and the other perfectly evil. Between these, they ima- 
gined an intermediate kind of deity, neither perfectly good 
nor perfectly evil, but of a mixed nature (so Marcion 
expresses it,) and so far just and powerful, as to administer 
rewards and inflict punishments. This middle deity is 
the creator of this inferior world, and the god and legisla- 
tor of the Jewish nation ; he wages perpetual war with the 
evil principle, and one and the other aspire to the place 
of the Supreme Being, and ambitiously attempt to reduce 
under their authority all the inhabitants of the world. 
The Jews are the subjects of that powerful genius, who 
formed this globe : the other nations, who worship a variety 
of gods, are under the empire of the evil principle. Both 
these conflicting powers exercise oppressions upon rational 
and immortal souls, and keep them in a tedious and misera- 
ble captivity. Therefore the Supreme God, in order to 
terminate this war, and to deliver from their bondage those 
souls whose origin is celestial and divine, sent to the Jews 
a being most like to himself, even his son Jesus Christ, 
clothed with a certain shadowy resemblance of a body, 
that thus he might be visible to mortal eyes. The 
commission of this celestial messenger was to destroy the 
empire both of the evil principle, and of the author of this 
world, and to bring back wandering souls to God. On 
this account, he was attacked with inexpressible violence 
and fury by the prince of darkness, and by the god of the 
Jews, but without effect, since, having a body only in 
appearance, he was thereby rendered incapable of suffer- 
ing. Those who follow the sacred directions of this celes- 
tial conductor, mortify the body by fastings and austerities, 
call off their minds from the allurements of sense, and, 
renouncing the precepts of the god of the Jews, and of 
the prince of darkness, turn their eyes toward the Su- 
preme Being, shall, after death ascend to the mansions of 
felicity and perfection." In consequence of all this, the 
rule of manners which Marcion prescribed to his follow- 
ers, was excessively austere, containing an express pro- 
hibition of wedlock, of the use of wine, flesh, and of all 
the external comforts of life. Notwithstanding the rigor 
of this discipline, great numbers embraced the doctrines 
of Marcion, of whom Lucan (called also Lucian,) Severus, 
Blastes, and principally Apelles, are said to have varied, in 
some things, from the opinions of their master, and to have 
formed new sects. 

VIII. Bardesanes and Tatian are commonly supposed 
to have been of the school of Valentine, the Egyptian. 
But this notion is entirely without foundation, since their 
doctrine differs in many things from that of the Valenti- 
nians, approaching nearer to that of the oriental philosophy 
concerning the two principles. Bardesanes, a native of 
Edessa, was a man of a very acute genius, and acquired 
a shining reputation by his writings, which were in great 
number, and valuable for the profound erudition they con- 



c See Irenajus, Epiphanius, and particularly Tertullian's Five Bookt 
against the Marcionites, with his Poem against Marcion, and die Dia- 
logue against the Marcionites, which is generally ascribed to Origen. Sea 
also Tillemont's Memo, and Bcausobrc's Hist, du Manicheisme, torn. ii. 



52 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



tained. Seduced by the fantastic charms of the oriental 
philosophy, he adopted it with zeal, but, at the same time, 
with certain modifications, that rendered his system less 
extravagant than that of the Marcionites, against whom 
he wrote a very learned treatise. The sum of his doctrine 
is as follows : There is a Supreme God, pare and benevo- 
lent, absolutely free from all evil and imperfection ; and 
there is also a prince of darkness, the fountain of all evil, 
diso;der and misery. God created the world without any 
mixture of evil in its composition ; he gave existence also 
to its inhabitants, who came out of his forming hand, pure 
and incorrupt, endued with subtile etherial bodies, and 
spirits of a celestial nature. But when, in process of time, 
the prince of darkness had enticed men to sin, God, permit- 
ted them to fall into sluggish and gross bodies, formed of 
corrupt matter by the evil principle ; he permitted also the 
depravation and disorder which this malignant being intro- 
duced, both into the natural and the moral world, design- 
ing, by this permission, to punish the degeneracy and rebel- 
lion of an apostate race ; and hence proceeds the perpetual 
conflict between reason and passion in the mind of man. 
It was on this account, that Jesus descended from the upper 
vegious, clothed, not with a real, but with a celestial and 
aerial body, and taught mankind to subdue that body of 
corruption which they carry about with them in this mortal 
life, and, by abstinence, fasting and contemplation, to dis- 
engage themselves from the servitude and dominion of that 
malignant matter which chained down the soul to low and 
ignoble pursuits. Those, who hear the voice of this divine 
instructor, and submit themselves to his discipline, shall, 
after the dissolution of this terrestrial body, mount up to 
the mansions of felicity, clothed with ethereal vehicles, or 
celestial bodies." Such was the doctrine of Bardesanes, 
who afterwards abandoned the chimerical part of this sys- 
tem, and returned to a better mind ; though his sect sub- 
sisted a long time in Syria. a 

IX. Tatian, by birth an Assyrian, and a disciple of Jus- 
tin Martyr, is more distinguished, by the ancient writers, 
on account of his genius and learning, and the excessive 
and incredible austerity of his life and manners, than by any 
remarkable errors or opinions which he taught his follow- 
ers. It appears, however, from the testimony of credible 
writers, that Tatian looked upon matter as the fountain 
of all evil, and therefore recommended, in a particular 
manner, the mortification of the body ; that he distinguish- 
ed the creator of the world from the Supreme Being; denied 
the reality of Christ's body ; and corrupted the Christian 
religion with several other tenets of the oriental philosophy. 
He had a great number of followers, who were, after him, 
sailed Tatianists, b but were, nevertheless, more frequently 

a See the writer!! who have given accounts of the ancient heresies, as 
also Eusebius. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xxx. — Ongen, Dial, contra 
Marcionitas, sect. iii. — F. Strunzius, Hist. Bardesanis. — Beausobre, 
Hist, du Manich. vol. ii. 

*> "We have yet remaining of the writings of Tatian, an Oration ad- 
dressed to the Greeks. As to his opinions they may be gathered from 
Clemens Alexandrinus, Stromat. lib. ii. p. 460. — Epiphanius, Hseres. 
jdvi. cap. i. p. 391. Origen de Oratione, cap. xiii. None, however, of 
the ancients wrote professedly concerning the doctrine of Tatian. 

c We have remaining a great number of gems, and receive more from 
Egypt from time to time, on which, beside other figures of Egyptian 
taste, we find the word Abraxas engraven. See, for this purpose, a 
work entitled, Macarii Abraxas, sen de Gemmis Basilidianis Disquisitio, 
which was published at Antwerp with several improvements, by M. 
Chifflet, in 1657. See also Montfaucon, Palatograph Grac. lib. ii. cap. 
viii. All these gems are supposed to come from Basilides, and there- 
fore bear his name. Most of them, however, contain the marks of a 



distinguished from other sects by names relative to the aus- 
terity of their manners; for, as they rejected, with a sort of 
horror, all the comforts and conveniences of lite, and ab- 
stained from wine with such a rigorous obstinacy, as to use 
nothing but water even at the celebration of the Lord's 
Supper ; as they macerated their bodies by continual fas- 
tings, and lived a severe life of celibacy and abstinence, so 
they were called Encratites,* Hydroparastates,t and Apo- 
tactites.J 

X. Hitherto, we have only considered the doctrine of the 
Asiatic Gnostics. Those of the Egyptian branch differ 
from them in general in this, that they blended into one 
mass the oriental philosophy and the Egyptian theology ; 
the former of which the Asiatics preserved unmixed in its 
original simplicity. The Egyptians were, moreover, par- 
ticularly distinguished from the Asiatic Gnostics by the 
following difference in their religious system, viz. 1. That 
though, beside the existence of a deity, they maintained 
that also of an eternal matter, endued with life and motion, 
yet they did not acknowledge an eternal principle of dark- 
ness, or the evil principle of the Persians. 2. They sup- 
posed that our blessed Saviour was a compound of two 
persons, of the man Jesus, and of Christ, the Son of God ; 
that the divine nature entered into the man Jesus, when 
he was baptized by John in the river Jordan, and departed 
from him when he was seized by the Jews. 3. They 
attributed to Christ a real not an imaginary body ; though 
it must be confessed, that they were much divided in their 
sentiments on this head. 4. Their discipline, with respect 
to life and manners, was much less severe than that of the 
Asiatic sect, and seems, in some points, to have been fa- 
vourable to the corruption and passions of men. 

XI. Basilides has generally obtained the first place 
among the Egyptian Gnostics. " He acknowledged the 
existence of one Supreme God, perfect in goodness and wis- 
dom, who produced from his own substance seven beings, 
or eeons, of a most excellent nature. Two of these aeons 
called Dynamis and Sophia (power and wisdom), engen- 
dered the angels of the highest order. These angels 
formed a heaven for their habitation, and brought forth 
other angelic beings, of a nature somewhat inferior to 
their own. Many other generations of angels followed 
these, and new heavens were also created, until the 
number of angelic orders, and of their respective heavens 
amounted to three hundred and sixty-five, and thus equal- 
led the days of the year. All these are under the empire 
of an omnipotent Lord, whom Basilides called Abraxas."" 
This word (which was certainly in use among the Egyp- 
tians before his time) contains numeral letters to the 
amount of 365, and thereby expresses the number of hea- 



superstition too gross to be attributed even to a half-Christian, and I -ear 
also emblematic characters of the Egyptian theology. It is not, therefore, 
just to attribute them all to Basilides (who, though erroneus in many of 
his opinions, was yet a follower of Christ), but such of them only as 

exhibit some mark of the Christian doctrine and discipline. There ia 

no doubt that the old Egyptian word Abraxas was appropriated to the 
governor or lord of the heavens, and that Basilides, having learned it 
from the philosophy of his nation, retained it in his religious system. 
See Beausobre, Hist, du Manicheisme. vol. ii. p. 51., and also Jo. Bapt 
Passerivs, in his Dissert, de Gemmes Basilidianis, which makes a part 
of Uie splendid work that he published at Florence, 1750, de Gemmis 
steiliferis, torn. ii. p. 881. See also the sentiments of the learned Jablon- 
ski, concerning the signification of the word Abraxas, as they are deliver- 
ed in a dissertation inserted in the seventh volume of the Misceli. Leips. 
Nova. Pesserius affirms, that none of these gems can properly be saia 
to relate to Basilides, but that they concern only magicians, i. e. sorcer- 
* Temperate. t Drinkers of water. X Renouncers. 



Chap. V 



DIVISION AND HERESIES. 



vens and angelic orders above-mentioned. "The inhabi- 
tants of the lowest heavens, which touched upon the 
borders of the eternal, malignant, and self-animated mat- 
ter, conceived the design of forming a world from that 
confused mass, and of creating an order of beings to people 
it. This design was carried into execution, and was 
approved by the Supreme God, who, to the animal life, 
with which only the inhabitants of this new world were 
at first endowed, added a reasonable soul, giving, at the 
same time, to the angels, the empire over them." 

XII. " These angelic beings, advanced to the govern- 
ment of the world which they had created, fell, by degrees, 
from their original purity, and manifested the fatal marks 
of their depravity and corruption. They not only endea- 
voured to efface from the minds of men the knowledge of 
the Supreme Being, that they might be worshipped in his 
stead, but also began to war against one another, with an 
ambitious view to enlarge, every one, the bounds of his 
respective dominion. The most arrogant and turbulent of 
all these angelic spirits, was that which presided over the 
Jewish nation. Hence God, beholding with compassion 
the miserable state of rational creatures, who groaned 
under the contests of these jarring powers, sent from hea- 
ven his son Nus, or Christ, the chief of the eeons, that, join- 
ed in a substantial union with the man Jesus, he might 
restore the knowledge of the Supreme Being, and destroy 
the empire of those angelic natures which presided over 
the world, and particularly that of the arrogant leader of 
the Jewish people. The god of the Jews, alarmed at this, 
sent forth his ministers to seize the man Jesus, and put 
him to death. They executed his commands ; but their 
cruelty could not extend to Christ, against whom their 
efforts were vain. a Those souls, who obey the precepts 
of the Son of God, shall, after the dissolution of their mor- 
tal frame, ascend to the Father, while their bodies return to 
the corrupt mass of matter from which they were formed. 
Disobedient spirits, on the contrary, shall pass successively 
into other bodies." 

XIII. The doctrine of Basilides, in point of morals, if 
we may credit the account of most ancient writers, was 
favorable to the lusts and passions of mankind, and per- 
mitted the practice of all sorts of wickedness. But those 
whose testimonies are the most worthy of regard, give a 
quite different account of this teacher, and represent him 
as recommending the practice of virtue and piety in the 
strongest manner, and as having condemned not only the 
actual commission of iniquity, but even every inward pro- 
pensity of the mind to a vicious conduct, ft is true there 
were, in his precepts relating to the conduct of life, some 
points which gave great offence to all real Christians ; for 
he affirmed it to be lawful for them to conceal their religion, 
to deny Christ, when their lives were in danger, and to 
partake of the feasts of the Gentiles that were instituted in 
consequence of the sacrifices offered to idols. He endea- 
voured also to diminish the glory of those who suffered 
martyrdom for the cause of Christ impiously maintain- 
ed, fortune-tellers, and the like adventurers. Here, however, this learn- 
ed man seems to go too far, since he himself acknowledges (p. 225,) that 
he had sometimes found, on these gems, vestiges of the errors of Basilides. 
These famous monuments stand yet in need of an interpreter ; but it 
must be one who can join circumspection to diligence and erudition. 

1 Many of the ancients have, upon the authority of Irenaeus, accused 
Basilides of denying the reality of Christ's body, and of maintaining that 
Simon the Cyrenian was crucified in his stead. But this accusation is 
entirely groundless, as may be seen by consulting the Commentar. de 

14 



ing, that the}'' were more heinous sinners than others, and 
that their sufferings were to be looked upon as a punish- 
ment inflicted upon them by the divine justice. He was 
led into this enormous error, by an absurd notion that all 
the calamities of this life were of a penal nature, and that 
men never suffered but in consequence of their iniquities. 
This rendered his principles greatly suspected ; and the 
irregular lives of some of his disciples seemed to justify the 
unfavourable opinion that was entertained of their master. b 

XIV. But whatever may be said of Basilides, it is cer- 
tain, that he was far surpassed in impiety by Carpocrates, 
who was also of Alexandria, and who carried the Gnostic 
blasphemies to a more enormous degree of extravagance 
than they had ever been brought by any of that sect. His 
philosophical tenets agree, in general, with those of the 
Egyptian Gnostics. Ho acknowledged the existence of a 
Supreme God, and of the a^ons derived from him by suc- 
cessive generations. He maintained the eternity of a cor- 
rupt matter, and the creation of the world from it by angelic 
powers, as also the divine origin of souls unhappily im- 
prisoned in mortal bodies, &c. But, beside these, he pro- 
pagated sentiments and maxims of a horrid kind. He as- 
serted, that Jesus was born of Joseph and Mary, according 
to the ordinary course of nature, and was distinguished 
from the rest of mankind by nothing but his superior for- 
titude and greatness of soul. His doctrine, also, with res- 
pect to practice, was licentious in the highest degree ; for 
he not only allowed his disciples a full liberty to sin, but re- 
commended to them a vicious course of life, as a matter 
both of obligation and necessity; asserting, that eternal 
salvation was only attainable by those who had committed 
all sorts of crimes, and had daringly filled up the measure 
of iniquity. It is almost incredible, that one Avho main- 
tained the existence of a Supreme Being, who acknowledg- 
ed Christ as the Saviour of mankind, could entertain such 
monstrous opinions. One might infer indeed, from cer- 
tain tenets of Carpocrates that he adopted the common 
doctrine of the Gnostics concerning Christ, and acknow- 
ledged also the laws which this divine Saviour imposed 
upon his disciples. Notwithstanding this, it is beyond 
all doubt, that the precepts and opinions of this Gnostic 
are full of impiety, since he held, that lusts and passions 
being implanted in our nature by God himself, were con- 
sequently void of guilt, and had nothing criminal in them ; 
that all actions were indifferent in their own nature, and 
were rendered good or evil only by the opinions of men, or 
by the laws of the state ; that it was the will of God that 
all things should be possessed in common, the female sex 
not excepted ; but that human laws, by an arbitrary ty- 
ranny, branded those as robbers and adulterers, who only 
used their natural rights. It is easy to perceive, that, by 
these tenets, all the principles of virtue were destroyed, 
and a door opened to the most horrid licentiousness, and 
to the most profligate and enormous wickedness/ 

XV. Valentine, who was likewise an Egyptian by birth, 
was eminently distinguished from all his brethren by the 

rebus Christian, ante Constant, where it is demonstrated, that Basilides 
considered the divine Saviour as compounded of the man Jesus, and 
Christ the Son of God. It may be true, indeed, that some of the disciples 
of Basilides entertained the opinion which is here unjustly attributed to 
their master. 

>> For a farther accountof Basilides, the reader may consult Ren. Massu- 
et, Dissert, in Irensum, and Beausobre, Hist, du Monicheisme, vol. ii. 

See Iren. contra Hares, cap. xxv Clementis Alex. Stromata, lib. 
iii. p. 511. 



54 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



extent of his fame, and the multitude of his followers. 
His sect, which took rise at Rome, grew up to a state of 
consistence and vigour in the isle of Cyprus, and spread 
itself through Asia, Africa, and Europe, with an amazing 
rapidity. The principles of Valentine were, generally 
speaking, the same with those of the Gnostics, whose 
name he assumed ; yet, in many points, he entertained 
opinions that were peculiar to himself. " He placed, for 
instance, in the pleroma (so the Gnostics called the habi- 
tation of the Deity) thirty sons, of which the one half were 
male, and the other female. To these he added four 
others, which were of neither sex, viz. Horus, who guard- 
ed the borders of the pleroma, Christ, the Holy Ghost, and 
Jesus. The youngest of the reons, called Sophia (i. e. wis- 
dom,) conceiving an ardent desire of comprehending the 
nature of the Supreme Being, and by force of this propen- 
sity, brought forth a daughter, named Achamoth, who, be- 
ing exiled from the pleroma, fell down into the rude and 
undigested mass of matter, to which she gave a certain 
arrangement, and, by the assistance of Jesus, produced 
the demiurge, the lord and creator of all things. This 
demiurge separated the subtile or animal matter from that 
of the grosser or more terrestrial kind ; out of the former 
he created the superior world, or the visible heavens ; and 
out of the latter he formed the inferior world, or this terra- 
queous globe. He also made man, in whose composition 
the subtile, and also the grosser matter, were both united 
in equal portions ; but Achamoth, the mother of the demi- 
urge, added to these two substances, of which the human 
race was formed, a spiritual and celestial substance." This 
is the sum of that intricate and tedious fable, which the 
extravagant brain of Valentine imposed upon the world for 
a system of religious philosophy ; and from this it appears 
that, though, he explained the origin of the world, and 
of the human race, in a more subtile manner than the 
Gnostics, he did not differ from them in reality. His ima- 
gination was more wild and inventive than that of his 
brethren ; and this is manifest in the whole of his doc- 
trine, which is no more than Gnosticism, set out with 
some supernumerary fringes, as will farther appear from 
what follows. 

XVI. " The Creator of this world, according to Valen- 
tine, arrived, by degrees, at such a pitch of arrogance, that 
he either imagined himself to be God alone, or, at least, 
was desirous that mankind should consider him as such. 
For this purpose he sent forth prophets to the Jewish na- 
tion, to declare his claim to the honour that is due to the 
Supreme Being ; and in this point the other angels who 
preside over the different parts of the universe immediate- 
ly began to imitate his ambition. To chastise this lawless 
arrogance, and to illuminate the minds of rational beings 
with the knowledge of the true and Supreme Deity, Christ 
appeared upon earth, composed of an animal and spiritual 

a It is proper to observe, for the information of those who desire a more 
copious account of the Valentinian heresy, that many ancient writers 
have written upon this subject, especially Irenasus, Tertullian, Clemens 
Alex. &c. Among the moderns, see the dissertation of J. F. Buddeus 
de hseresi "Valentiniana, which gave occasion to many disputes concern- 
ing the origin of this heresy. Some of the moderns have endeavoured 
to reconcile, with reason, this obscure and absurd doctrine of the Valen- 
tkiians. See, for this purpose, the following authors: Souverain, Pla- 
tonisme devoile, ch. viii. Camp. Vitringa, Observ. Sacr. lib. i. cap. ii. 
Beausobre, Histoire du Manicheisme, p. 548. Jac. Basnage, Hist, des 
Juifs, torn. iii. p. 729. Pierre Faydit, Eclaircissemens sur l'Hitst. Eccle- 
siast. des deux premiers Siecles. How vain all such endeavours are, 
might easily be shown : and Valentine himself has determined the mat- 



substance, and clothed moreover, with an aerial body. 
This Redeemer, in descending upon earth, passed through 
the womb of Mary, as the pure water flows through the 
untainted conduit. Jesus, one of the supreme eeons, was 
substantially united to him, when he was baptized by 
John in the waters of Jordan. The creator of this world, 
when he perceived that the foundations of his empire were 
shaken by this divine man, caused him to be apprehend 
ed and nailed to the cross. But before Christ submitted to 
this punishment, not only Jesus the Son of God, but also 
the rational soul of Christ ascended on high, so that only 
the animal soul and the ethereal body suffered crucifixion. 
Those who abandoning the service of false deities, and the 
worship of the God of the Jews, live according to the pre- 
cepts of Christ, and submit the animal and sensual soul to 
the discipline of reason, shall be truly happy ; their rational 
and also their sensual souls shall ascend to those glorious 
seats of bliss which border on the pleroma ; and when all 
the parts of the divine nature, or all souls are purified tho- 
roughly, and separated from matter, then a raging fire, let 
loose from its prison, shall spread its flames throughout the 
universe, and dissolve the frame of this corporeal world." 
Such is the doctrine of Valentine and the Gnostics ; such 
also are the tenets of the oriental philosophy, and they may 
be summed up in the following propositions; " This world 
is a compound of good and evil. Whatever is good in it, 
comes down from the Supreme God, the Father of light, 
and to him it shall return ; and then the world shall be 
entirely destroyed ." a 

XVII. We learn from ancient writers, that the Valen- 
tinian sect was divided into many branches. One was the 
sectof the Ptolemites, so called from their chief Ptolemy, who 
differed in opinion from his master Valentine, with respect 
both to the number and nature of the aeons, another was 
the sect of the Secundians, whose chief Secundus, one of 
the principal followers of Valentine, maintained the doc- 
trine of two eternal principles, viz. light and darkness, 
whence arose the good and evil that are observable in the 
universe. From the same source arose the sect of Hera- 
cleon, from whose writings Clemens and Origen have 
made many extracts ; as also that of the Marcosians, whose 
leaders, Marc and Colarbasus, added many absurd fictions 
to those of Valentine; though it is certain, at the same time, 
that many errors were attributed to them, which they did 
not maintain. b I omit the mention of some other sects, 
to which the Valentinian heresy is said to have given rise. 
Whether, in reality, they all sprang from this source, is a 
question of a very doubtful kind, especially if we consider 
the errors into which the ancients have fallen, in tracing 
out the origin of the various sects that divided the church.' 

XVIII. It is not necessary to take any particular notice 
of the more obscure and less considerable of the Gnostic 
sects, of which the ancient writers scarcely mention any 

ter, by acknowledging that his doctrine is absolutely and entirely differ- 
ent from that of other Christians. . . " . 

f3= b Marc did not certainly entertain all the opinions that are attribu- 
ted to him. Those, however, which we are certain that he adopted, are 
sufficient to convince us that he was out of his senses. He maintained, 
among other crude fancies, that the plenitude and perfection of truth re- 
sided in the Greek alphabet, and alleges that as the reason why Jesus 
Christ was called the Alpha and the Omega. 

Concerning these sects, the reader will find something fuller in 
IrenEeus and the other ancient writers, and a yet more learned and 
satisfactory account in Grcebe's Spicilegium Patr. et Haereticor. sect. 2. 
There is an ample account of the Marcosians in Irenaeus, contra 
Haer. lib. i. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



55 



thing but the name, and one or two of their distinguishing 
tenets. Such were the Adamites, who are said to have 
professed an exact imitation of the primitive state of inno- 
cence ; the Cainites, who treated as saints, with the utmost 
marks of admiration and respect, Cain, Cora, Dathan, the 
inhabitants of Sodom, and even the traitor Judas. Such 
also were the Abelites, who entered into the bonds of 
matrimony, but neglected to fulfil its principal end, even 
the procreation of offspring ; the Sethites, who honored 
Seth in a particular manner, and looked upon him as the 
same person with Christ ; the Florinians, who had Flori- 
nus and Blastus for their chiefs," and several others. It 
is highly probable that the ancient doctors, deceived by the 
variety of names that distinguished the heretics, may with 
too much precipitation have divided one sect into many ; 
and it may be farther questioned, whether they have, at all 
times, represented accurately the nature and true meaning 
of several opinions concerning which they have written. 

XIX. The Ophites, or Serpentinians, a ridiculous sort 
of heretics, who had for their leader a man called Euphra- 
tes, deserve not the lowest place among the Egyptian 
Gnostics. This sect, which had its origin among the Jews, 
was of a more ancient date than the Christian religion. A 
part of its followers embraced the Gospel, while the rest 
retained their primitive superstition ; and hence arose the 
division of the Ophites into Christian and anti-Christian. 
The Christian Ophites entertained almost the same fantas- 
tic opinions that were holden by the other Egyptian Gnos- 
tics, concerning the a?ons, the eternal matter, the creation 
of the world in opposition to the will of God, the rulers of 
the seven planets that presided over this world, the tyran- 
ny of the demiurge, and also respecting Christ united to 
the man Jesus, in order to destroy the empire of this usurp- 
er. But, beside these, they maintained the following par- 
ticular tenet (whence they received the name of Ophites) ; 
"That the serpent, by which our first parents were deceived, 
was either Christ himself, or Sophia, concealed under the 
form of that animal ;" and, in consequence of this opinion, 
they are said to have nourished a certain number of ser- 
pents, which they looked upon as sacred, and to which 
they offered a sort of worship, a subordinate kind of divine 
honours. It was no difficult matter for those, who made a 
distinction between the Supreme Being and the Creator of 
the world, and who looked upon every thing as divine, 
which was in opposition to the demiurge, to fall into these 
extravagant notions. 

XX. The schisms and commotions that arose in the 
church, from a mixture of the oriental and Egyptian 
philosophy with the Christian religion, were, in the second 
century, increased by those Grecian philosophers who 
embraced the doctrine of Christ. The Christian doc- 
trines concerning the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and 
the two natures united in our blessed Saviour, were by no 
means reconcileable with the tenets of the sages and doc- 
tors of Greece, who therefore endeavoured to explain them 
in such a manner as to render them comprehensible. 
Praxeas, a man of genius and learning, began to propa- 
gate these explications at Rome, and was severely perse- 

* Here Dr. Mosheim has fallen into a slight inaccuracy in confound- 
ing the opinions of these two heretics, since it is certain, that Blastus was 
for restoring the Jewish religion, and celebrating the passover on the 
fourteenth day ; whereas Florinus was a Valentinian, and maintained 
the doctrine of the two principles, with other Gnostic errors. 



cuted for the errors they contained. He denied any real 
distinction between the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and 
maintained that the Father, sole creator of all things, had 
united to himself the human nature of Christ. Hence his 
followers were called Monarchians, because of their deny- 
ing a plurality of persons in the Deity ; and also Patri- 
passians, because, according to Tertullian's account, they 
believed that the Father was so intimately united with 
the man Christ, his son, that he suffered with him the 
anguish of an afflicted life, and the torments of an igno- 
minious death. However ready many may have been to 
embrace this erroneous doctrine, it does not appear, that 
this sect formed to itself a separate place of worship, or re- 
moved from the ordinary assemblies of Christians. b 

XXI. An opinion highly resembling that now men- 
tioned, was, about the same time, professed at Rome by 
Theodotus, who, though a tanner, was a man of profound 
learning, and also by Artemas, or Artemon, from whom 
the sect of the Artemonites derived their origin. The ac- 
counts given of these two persons, by the ancient writers, 
are not only few in number, but are also extremely ambigu 
ous and obscure. Their sentiments, however, as far as 
they can be collected from the best records, amount to this ; 
" That, at the birth of the man Christ, a certain divine 
energy, or portion of the divine nature (and not the person 
of the Father, as Praxeas imagined), united itself to him." 

It is impossible to decide with certainty which of the two 
was the more ancient, Theodotus, or Artemon ; as also 
whether they both taught the same doctrine, or differed in 
their opinions. One thing, indeed, is certain, that the 
disciples of both applied the dictates of philosophy, and even 
the science of geometry, to the explication of the Christian 
doctrine. 

XXII. A like attachment to the dictates of a presump- 
tuous philosophy, induced Hermogenes, a painter by 
profession, to abandon the doctrine of Christianity con- 
cerning the origin of the world, and the nature of the soul, 
and thus to raise new troubles in the church. Regarding 
matter as the fountain of all evil, he could not persuade 
himself that God had created it from nothing, by an 
almighty act of his will ; and therefore he maintained, 
that the world, with whatever it contains, as also the souls 
of men, and other spirits, were formed by the Deity from 
an uncreated and eternal mass of corrupt matter. In this 
doctrine there were many intricate things, and it mani- 
festly jarred with the opinions commonly received among 
Christians relative to that difficult and almost unsearcha- 
ble subject. How Hermogenes explained those doctrines 
of Christianity which opposed his system, neither Tertul- 
lian, who refuted it, nor any of the ancient writers, in- 
form us. c 

XXIII. These sects, which we have now been slightly 
surveying, may be justly regarded as the offspring of phi- 
losophy. BuMhey were succeeded by one in which igno- 
rance reigned, and which was the mortal enemy of philoso- 
phy and letters. It was formed by Montanus, an obscure 
man, without any capacity or strength of judgment, and 
who lived in a Phrygian village called Pepuza. This 



<> Tertulliani lib. contra Praxeam ; as also Petri Wesselingii Proba- 
bilia, cap. xxvi. 

c There is yet extant a book written by Tertullian against Hermoge- 
nes, in which the opinions of the latter concerning matter, and the origin 
of the world, are warmly opposed. We have lost another work of the 



56 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



weak man was so foolish and extravagant as to imagine 
and pretend, that he was the paraclete, or comforter, 1 
whom the divine Saviour, at his departure from the earth, 
promised to send to his disciples to lead them to all truth. 
He made no attempts upon the peculiar doctrines of Chris- 
tianity, but only declared, that he was sent with a divine 
commission, to give, to the moral precepts delivered by 
Christ and his apostles, the finishing touch that was to bring 
them to perfection. He was of opinion, that Christ and 
his apostles made, in their precepts, many allowances to the 
infirmities of those among whom they lived, and that this 
condescending indulgence rendered their system of moral 
laws imperfect and incomplete. He therefore added to 
the laws of the Gospel many austere decisions ; inculcated 
the necessity of multiplying fasts; prohibited second mar- 
riages as unlawful ; maintained that the church should 
refuse absolution to those who had fallen into the commis- 
sion of enormous sins ; and condemned all care of the body, 
especially all nicety in dress, and all female ornaments. 
The excessive austerity of this ignorant fanatic did not stop 
here ; he shewed the same aversion to the noblest employ- 
ments of the mind, that he did to the innocent enjoyments 
of life ; and gave it as his opinion, that philosophy, arts, 
and whatever savoured of polite literature, should be mer- 
cilessly banished from the Christian church. He looked 
upon those Christians as guilty of a most heinous transgres- 
sion, who saved their lives by flight, from the persecuting 
sword, or who ransomed them by money, from the hands 
of their cruel and mercenary judges. I might mention 
many other precepts of the same teacher, equal to these in 
severity and rigour. 

XXIV. It was impossible to suffer, within the bounds of 
the church, an enthusiast, who gave himself out for a com- 
municator of precepts superior in sanctity to those of Christ 

same author, in which he refutsd the notion of Hermogenes concerning 
the soul. 

a Those are undoubtedly in an error, who have asserted that Monta- 
nus gave himself out for the Holy Ghost. However weak he may have 
been in point of capacity, he was not fool enough to push his pretensions 
so far. Neither have they, who inform us that Montanus pretended to 
have received from above the same spirit or paraclete which formerly 
animated the apostles, interpreted with accuracy the meaning of this 
heretic. It is, therefore, necessary to observe here, that Montanus made 
a distinction between the paraclete promised by Christ to his apostles, 
and the Holy Spirit that was shed upon them on the day of Pentecost; 
and understood, by the former, a divine teacher pointed out by Christ, as 
a comforter, who was to perfect the Gospel by the addition of some doc- 
trines omitted by our Saviour, and to cast a full light upon others which 
were expressed in an obscure and imperfect manner, though for wise 
reasons which subsisted during" the ministry of Christ; and, indeed, 
Montanus was not the only person who made this distinction. Other 
Christian doctors were of opinion, that the paraclete promised by Jesus 



himself, and who imposed his austere discipline upon 
Christians, as enjoined by a divine authority, and dictated 
by the oracle of celestial wisdom, which spoke to the world 
through him. Besides, his dismal predictions concerning 
the disasters that were to happen in the empire, and the 
approaching destruction of the Roman republic, might be 
expected to render him obnoxious to the governing powers, 
and also to exite their resentment against the church, 
which nourished such an inauspicious prophet in its bosom. 
Montanus, therefore, first by a decree of certain assemblies, 
and afterwards by the unanimous voice of the whole 
church, was solemnly separated from the body of the 
faithful. 

It is, however, certain, that the very severity of his 
doctrines gained him the esteem and confidence of many, 
who were far from being of the lowest order. The most 
eminent among these were Priscilla and Maximilla, ladies 
more remarkable for their opulence than for their virtue, 
and who fell with a high degree of warmth and zeal into 
the visions of their fanatical chief, prophesied like him, and 
imitated the pretended paraclete in all the variety of his 
extravagance and folly. Hence it became an easy matter 
for Montanus to erect a new church, which was first estab- 
lished at Pepuza, and afterwards spread abroad through 
Asia, Africa, and a part of Europe. The most eminent 
and learned of all the followers of this rigid enthusiast was 
Tertullian, a man of great learning and genius, but of an 
austere and melancholy temper. This great man, by adopt- 
ing the sentiments of Montanus, and maintaining his cause 
with fortitude, and even vehemence, in a multitude of books 
written upon that occasion, has exhibited a mortifying spec- 
tacle of the deviations of which human nature is capable, 
even in those in whom it seems to have approached the 
nearest to perfection. b 

to his disciples, was a divine ambassador, entirely distinct from the 
Holy Ghost which was shed upon the apostles. In the third century, 
Manes interpreted the promise of Christ in this manner. He pretended, 
moreover, that he himself was the paraclete, and that, in his person, the 
prediction was fulfilled. Every one knows, that Mohammed entertain- 
ed the same notion, and applied to himself the prediction of Christ. It 
was, therefore, this divine messenger that Montanus pretended to be, 
and not the Holy Ghost. This will appear with the utmost evidence, 
to those who read with attention the account given of this matter by Ter- 
tullian, who was the most famous of all the disciples of Montanus, and 
the most perfectly acquainted with ever} 7 point of his doctrine. 

b For an account of the Montanists, see Euseb. Eccles. History, book 
v. ch. xvi., and all the writers ancient and modern (especially Tertullian) 
who have professedly written of the sects of the earlier ages. The learn- 
ed Theophilus Wernsdorff published, in 1751, a most ingenious exposi- 
tion of whatever regards the sect of tie Montanists, under the following 
title: Commentatio de Montanists Setculi secundi, vulgo creditis Ha:re- 
ticis. 



THE THIRD CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Which contains the prosperous Events that happened 
to the Church during this Century. 

I. That the Christians suffered, in this century, cala- 
mities and injuries of the most dreadful kind, is a matter 
that admits no debate ; nor was there, indeed, any period 
in which they were secure or free from danger. For, not 
to mention the fury of the people, set in motion so often 
by the craft and zeal of their licentious priests, the evil 
came from a higher source; the praetors and magistrates, 
notwithstanding the ancient laws of the emperors in favor 
of the Christians, had it in their power to pursue them with 
all sorts of vexations, as often as avarice, cruelty, or super- 
stition roused up the infernal spirit of persecution in their 
breasts. At the same time, it is certain that the rights 
and privileges of the Christians were multiplied, in this 
century, much more than some are apt to imagine. In 
the army, at court, and, indeed, in all the orders of the 
nation, there were many Christians who lived entirely 
unmolested ; and, what is still more, the profession of 
Christianity was no obstacle to the public preferment un- 
der most of the emperors that reigned in this century. It 
is also certain, that the Christians had, in many places, 
houses where they assembled for the purposes of divine 
worship with the knowledge and connivance of the em- 
perors and magistrates. And though it be more than 
probable, that this liberty was, upon various occasions, 
and even for the most part, purchased at a high rate, yet 
it is manifest, that some of the emperors were very favour- 
ably inclined toward the Christians, and were far from 
having any aversion to their religion. 

II. Caracalla, the son of Severus, was proclaimed em- 
peror in the year 211, and, during the six years of his 
government, he neither oppressed the Christians himself, 
nor permitted any others to treat them with cruelty or in- 
justice. Heliogabalus also, though in other respects the 
most infamous of all princes, s and, perhaps, the most odi- 
ous of all mortals, shewed no marks of bitterness or aver- 
sion to, the disciples of Jesus. His successor, Alexander 
Severus, who was a prince distinguished by a noble as- 
semblage of the most excellent and illustrious virtues, did 
not, indeed, abrogate the laws that had been enacted 
against the Christians; and this is the reason why we 
have some examples of martyrdom under his administra- 

a Lampridius, Vita Elagabali. 

b Lamprid. di Vita Severi, cap. xxix. Vide Carol. Henr. Zeibichii 
Dis. de Christo ab Alexandre) in larario culto, in Miscellan. I.ips. nov. 
torn. iii. 

c Vide F. Spanhemii Dis. de Lucii, Britonum Regis, Julia? Mam- 
maeae et Philipporum, conversionibus, tom. ii. op. p. 400. Item, Paul 
Jablonski, Dis de Alexandre Severo sacris Christianis per Gnosticos 
initiato. in Miscellan. Lips. nov. tom. iv. 

§jT d The authors of- the Universal History have determined the 
question which Dr. Mosheim leaves here une'ecided; and they think it 

15 



tion. It is nevertheless certain, that he shewed them, in 
many ways, and upon every occasion that was offered tc 
him, the most undoubted marks of benignity : he is even 
said to have gone so far as to pay a certain sort of worship 
to the divine author of our religion. b The friendly inch- 
nation of this prince toward the Christians probably arose, 
at first, from the instructions and counsels of his mother, 
Julia Mammsea, for whom he had a high degree of love 
and veneration. Julia had very favourable sentiments of 
the Christian religion : and, being once at Antioch, sent 
for the famous Origen from Alexandria, in order to enjoy 
the pleasure and advantage of his conversation and in- 
structions. Those who assert, that Julia, and her son 
Alexander, embraced the Christian religion, are by no 
means furnished with unexceptionable testimonies to con- 
firm this fact, though we may affirm, with confidence, that 
tins virtuous prince looked upon Christianity as meriting, 
beyond all other religions, toleration and favour from the 
state, and considered its author as worthy of a place among 
those who had been distinguished by their sublime virtues, 
and honoured with a commission from above. 

III. Under Gordian, the Christians lived in tranquillity. 
His successors the Philips, father and son, proved so fa- 
vourable, and even friendly to them, that these two em- 
perors passed, in the opinion of many, for Christians ; and, 
indeed, the arguments alleged to prove that they embraced, 
though in a secret and clandestine manner, the religion of 
Jesus, seem to render this point highly probable. But, as 
these arguments are opposed by others equally specious, 
the famous question, relating to the religion of Philip the 
Arabian and his son, must be left undecided. 1 * Neither 
side offers reasons so victorious and unanswerable, as to 
produce a full and complete conviction ; and this is there- 
fore one of those many cases, where a suspension of judg- 
ment is both allowable and wise. With respect to Gallie- 
nus, and some other emperors, of this century, if the}" did 
not professedly favour the progress of Christianity, they 
did not oppress its followers, or retard its advancement. 

IV. This clemency and benevolence, which the followers 
of Jesus, experienced from great men, and especially from 
those of imperial dignity, must be placed, without doubt, 
among the human means that contributed to multiply the 
number of Christians, and to enlarge the bounds of the 
church. Other causes, however, both divine and human 
must be added here, to afford a complete and satisfactory 

may be affirmed, that Philip and his son embraced the Gospel, since tha f 
opinion is built upon such respectable authority as that of Jerom, Chry- 
sostom, Dionvsius of Alexandria, Zonaras, Nicephorus, Cedrenus, Ruf- 
finus, Syncellus, Orosius, Jornandes, Ammianus Marcellinus, the iearn- 
ed cardinal Bono, Vincentius Lirinensis, Huetius, and others. Dr. 
Mosheim refers his readers, for an account of this matter, to die following 
writers : Spanheim, de Christianismo Philip, tom. ii. op. p. 400. — En- 
tretiens Historiques sur le Christianisme de rEmpercur Philippe, par P 
De L. F. — Mammachii Origines et Antiqu. Christianae, tom. ii. p. 253 
— Fabric, de Luce Evang. &c. p. 252. 



58 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



account of this matter. Among the causes which belong 
to the first of these classes, we not only reckon the intrin- 
sic force of celestial truth, and the piety and fortitude of 
those who declared it to the world, but also that especial 
and interposing providence, which, by such dreams and 
visions as were presented to the minds of many, who were 
either inattentive to the Christian doctrine, or its professed 
enemies, touched their hearts with a conviction of its truth 
and a sense of its importance, and engaged them, without 
delay, to profess themselves the disciples of Christ.* To 
this may also be added, the healing of diseases, and other 
miracles, which many Christians were yet enabled to per- 
form by invoking the name of the divine Saviour. b The 
number of miracles, however, we find to have been much 
less in this than in the preceding century ; nor must this 
alteration be attributed only to the divine wisdom, which 
rendered miraculous interpositions less frequent in propor- 
tion as they became less necessary, but also to that justice 
which was provoked to diminish the frequency of gifts, 
because some did not scruple to pervert them to mercenary 
purposes. 

V. If we turn our view to the human means that con- 
tributed, at this time, to multiply the number of Christians, 
and extend the limits of the church, we shall find a great 
variety of causes uniting their influence, and contributing 
jointly to this happy purpose. Among these must be reck- 
oned the translations of the sacred writings into various 
languages, the zeal and labours of Origen in spreading 
abroad copies of them, and the different works that were 
published, by learned and pious men, in defence of the 
Gospel. We may add to this, that the acts of beneficence 
and liberality, performed by the Christians, even toward 
persons whose religious principles they abhorred, had a 
great influence in attracting the esteem, and removing the 
prejudices of many, who were thus prepared for examin- 
ing with candour the Christian doctrine, and, consequent- 
ly, for receiving its divine light. The adorers of the pagan 
deities must have been destitute of every generous affec- 
tion, of every humane feeling, if the view of that bound- 
less charity, which the Christians exercised toward the 
poor, the love they expressed even to their enemies, the 
tender care they took of the sick and infirm, the humani- 
ty they discovered in the redemption of captives, and the 
other illustrious virtues, which rendered them so worthy 
of universal esteem, had not touched their hearts, dispelled 
their prepossessions, and rendered them more favourable 
to the disciples of Jesus. If, among the causes of the pro- 
pagation of Christianity, there is any place due to pious 
frauds, it is certain that they merit a very small part of 
the honour of having contributed to this glorious purpose, 
since they were practised by few, and that very rarely. 

VI. That the limits of the church were extended in this 
century, is a matter beyond all controversy. It is not, 
however, equally certain in what manner, by what per- 
sons, or in what parts of the world, this was effected. Ori- 

a See, for an account of this matter, the following authors : Origen, 
lib. i. adv. Celsum, p. 35. Homil. in Lucse vii. p. 216, torn. ii. op. edit. 
Basil. — as also Tertullian, de Anima, cap. xiv. and Eusebius, lib. vi. 
cap. v. 

b Origen, contra celsum, lib. i. Euseb. lib. v. cap. vii. Cypriani Ep. i. 
ad Donat. and the notes of Baluze upon that passage. 

c Spencer, not. in Origen. contra Celsum. 

d Eusebius; Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xix. p. 221. 

• Sozomenus, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. vi. Paulus Diaconus, Wst. 
Miscel. lib. ii. cap. xiv. Philostorgius, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. v. p. 470. 



gen, invited from Alexandria by an Arabian prince, con- 
verted, by his assiduous labours, a certain tribe of wander- 
ing Arabs to the Christian faith. d The Goths, a fierce 
and warlike people, who inhabited the countries of Mojsia 
and Thrace, and who, accustomed to rapine, harassed the 
neighbouring provinces by perpetual incursions, received 
the knowledge of the Gospel by the means of certain 
Christian doctors sent thither from Asia. The holy lives 
of these venerable teachers, and the miraculous powers 
with which they were endowed, attracted the esteem, even 
of a people educated to nothing but plunder and devasta- 
tion, and absolutely uncivilized by letters or science ; and 
their authority and influence became so great, and pro- •. 
duced, in process of time, such remarkable effects, that a 
great part of this barbarous people professed themselves the 
disciples of Christ, and put off, in a manner, that ferocity 
which had been so natural to them. e 

VII. The Christian assemblies, founded in Gaul by the 
Asiatic doctors in the preceding century, Avere few in 
number, and of very small extent ; but both their number 
and their extent were considerably increased from the 
time of the emperor Decius. Under his sway, Dionysius, 
Gatian, Trophimus, Paul, Saturninus, Martial, Stremonius, 
men of exemplary piety, passed into this province, and, 
amidst dangers and trials of various lands, erected chur- 
ches at Paris, Tours, Aries, and several other places. 
This was followed by a rapid progress of the Gospel 
among the Gauls, as the disciples of these pious teachers 
spread, in a short time, the knowledge of Christianity 
through the whole country/ We must also place in this 
century the origin of several German churches, such as 
those of Cologne, Treves, Mentz, and others, of which 
Eucharius, Valerius, Maternus, and Clemens, were the 
principal founders?. The historians of Scotland inform 
us, that the light of Christianity arose upon that country 
during this century ; but, though there be nothing impro- 
bable in this assertion, yet it is not built upon incontesta- 
ble authority. 11 

CHAPTER n. 

Concerning the calamitous Events which happened to 
the Church in this Century. 

I. In the beginning of this century, the Christian 
church suffered calamities of various kinds throughout the 
provinces of the Roman empire. These sufferings in- 
creased in a terrible manner, in consequence of a law 
made, in the year 203, by the emperor Severus (who, in 
other respects, was certainly no enemy to the Christians, 
by which every subject of the empire was prohibited from 
changing the religion of his ancestors for the Christian oi 
Jewish faith, i This law was, in its effects, most preju- 
dicial to the Christians ; for, though it did not formally 
condemn them, and seemed only adapted to put a stop to 
the progress of the Gospel, yet it induced rapacious and 



f See the history of the Franks by Gregory of Tours, book i. ch. 
xxviii. Theodor. Ruinart, Acta Martyr, sincera, p. 109. 

g See Aug. Calmet, Hist, de Lorraine, torn. l. dissert, i. p. 7. Jo. 
Nicol. ab Hontheim. Historia Trevirensis, torn. i. ubi. Diss, de aera 
fundati Episcopatus Trevirensis. 

h See Usher and Stillingfleot, Antiquit. et Origin. Ecclesiar. Brit. 
See also Sir George Mackenzie, de Regali Scotorum prosapia, cap. viiL 
p. 119. 

1 Eusebius, Histor. Eccles. lib. tL cap. i Spartianus in Severo, cap. 
xvi. xvii. 



^hap. II. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



59 



unjust magistrates to persecute even unto death the poorer 
sort among the Christians, that thus the richer might be 
led, through fear of the like treatment, to purchase their 
tranquillity and safety at an expensive rate. Hence many 
of the disciples of Christ, in several parts of Asia, also in 
Egypt and other parts of Africa, were put to death in 
consequence of this law. Among these Leonidas, the 
father of Origen, Perpetua and Felicitas (those two famous 
African ladies, whose acts'- are come down to our times,) 
Potamiena Marcella, and other martyrs of both sexes, 
acquired an illustrious name by the magnanimity and 
tranquillity with which they endured the most cruel 
Bufferings. 

II. From the death of Severus to the reign of Maxi- 
min, the condition of the Christians was, in some places, 
prosperous, and, in all, supportable. But with Maximin 
the face of affairs changed. This unworthy emperor, 
having; animated the Roman soldiers to assassinate Alex- 
ander Severus, dreaded the resentment of the Christians, 
whom that excellent prince had favored and protected in 
a distinguished manner ; and, for this reason, he ordered 
the bishops, whom he knew that Alexander had always 
treated as his intimate friends, to be seized and put to 
death b . During his reign, the Christians suffered in the 
most barbarous manner ; for, though the edict of this 
tyrant extended only to the bishops and leaders of the 
Christian church, yet its shocking effects reached much 
farther, as it animated the heathen priests, the magistrates, 
and the multitude, against Christians of every rank and 
order . 

III. This storm was succeeded by a calm, in which 
the Christians enjoyed a happy tranquillity for many 
years. The accession of Decius Trajan to the imperial 
throne, in the year 249, raised a new tempest, in which 
the fury of persecution fell in a dreadful manner upon 
the church of Christ ; for this emperor, either from an ill- 
grounded fear of the Christians, or from a violent zeal for 
the superstition of his ancestors, published most terrible 
and cruel edicts ; by which the praetors were ordered, on 
pain of death, either to extirpate the whole body of Chris- 
tians without exception, or to force them, by torments of 
various kinds, to return to the pagan worship. Hence, in 
all the provinces of the empire, multitudes of Christians 
were, in the course of two years, put to death by the most 
horrid punishments' 1 which an ingenious barbarity could 
invent. Of all these cruelties the most unhappy circum- 
stance was, their fatal influence upon the faith and con- 
stancy of many of the sufferers ; for as this persecution 
was much more terrible than all those which preceded it, 
so a great number of Christians, dismayed, not at the 
approach of death, but at the aspect of those dreadful and 
lingering torments, which a barbarous magistracy had 



«■ Theod. Ruinart, Acta Martyr, p. 90. 

b Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. xxviii. p. 225. Orosius, Hist. lib. 
vii. cap. xix. p. 509. 

c Origen, torn, xxviii. in Matth. op. torn. i. p. 137. See also Firmili- 
anus in Cypriani Epistolis, p. 140. 

d Eusebius, lib. vi. cap. xxxix. xli. Gregorius Nyss. in vita Thau- 
maturgi. Cyprianus, de Lapsis. 

• These certificates were not all equally criminal ; nor did all of them 
indicate a degree of apostacy equally enormous. It is therefore neces- 
sary to inform the reader of the following distinctions omitted by Dr. 
Mosheim ; these certificates were sometimes no more than a permission 
to abstain from sacrificing, obtained by a fee given to the judges, and 
Were not looked upon as an act of apostacy, unless the Christians who 
demanded them had declared to the judges that they had conformed them- 



prepared to combat their constancy, fell from the profession 
of their faith, and secured themselves from punishment, 
either by offering sacrifices, or by burning incense, before 
the images of the gods, or by purchasing certificates from 
from the pagan priests. Hence arose the opprobrious 
names of Sacrificati, given to those who sacrificed ; 
Thurijicali, to those who burned incense ; and Libellalici, 
to those who produced certificates'. 

IV. This defection of such a prodigious number of Chris- 
tians under Decius, was the occasion of great commotions 
in the church, and produced debates of a very difficult 
and jdelicate nature ; for the lapsed, or those who had 
fallen from their Christian profession, were desirous of 
being restored to church-communion, without submitting 
to that painful course of penitential discipline, which the 
ecclesiastical laws indispensably required. The bishops 
were divided upon this matter : some were for shewing 
the desired indulgence, while others opposed it with all 
their might f . In Africa, many, in order to obtain more 
speedily the pardon of their apostacy, interested the mar- 
tyrs in their behalf, and received from them letters ol 
reconciliation and peace, i. e. a formal act, by which they 
(the martyrs) declared in their last moments, that they 
looked upon them as worthy of their communion, and 
desired, of consequence, that they should be restored to 
their place among the brethren. Some bishops and 
presbyters re-admitted into the church, with too much 
facility, apostates and transgressors, who produced such 
testimonies as these. But Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, 
a man of severe wisdom and great dignity of character, 
acted in quite another way. Though he had no inten- 
tion of derogating from the authority of the venerable mar- 
tyrs, yet he opposed with vigour this unreasonable lenity, 
and set limits to the efficacy of these letters of reconcilia- 
tion and peace. Hence arose a keen dispute between him 
and the martyrs, confessors, presbyters, and lapsed, second- 
ed by the people : and yet, notwithstanding this formida- 
ble multitude of adversaries, the venerable bishop came 
off victorious?. 

V. Gallus, the successor of Decius, and Volusianus, son 
of the former, re-animated the flame of persecution, which 
was beginning to burn with less fury ; h and, beside the 
sufferings which the Christians had to undergo in conse- 
quence of their cruel edicts, they were also involved in 
the public calamities that prevailed at this time, and 
suffered grievously from a terrible pestilence, which spread 
desolation through many previous of the empire.' This 
pestilence also was an occasion wh;ch the pagan priests 
used with dexterity to renew the rage of persecution 
against them, by persuading the people that it was on 
account of the lenity used towards the Christians, that 
the gods sent down their judgments upon the nations. In 

selves to the emperor's edicts. But, at other times, they contained c pro- 
fession of paganism, and were either offered voluntarily by the apostate, 
or were subscribed by him, when they were presented to him by the 
persecuting magistrates. Many used certificates, as letters of security, 
obtained from the priests, at a high rate, and which dispensed them from 
either professing or denying their sentiments. See Spanheim's Historia 
Christiana, p. 732. See also Prud. Maranus in vita Cypriani, sect. 6. 

1 Eusebius, lib. vi. cap. xliv. Cypr. Epistolse. 

6 The whole history of this controversy may be gathered from the 
epistles of Cyprian. See also Gabr. Albaspinanis, Observat. Eccles. lib 
i. observ. xx. and Dallaeus, de Pcenis et Satisfactionibus humanis, lib. vii 
cap. xvi. 

h Euseb. lib. vii. cap. i. Cypriani. Epist, lvii. Iviii. 

1 Vid. Cypriani Lib. ad Demetrianum. 



60 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



the year 254, Valerian, being declared emperor, made the 
fury of persecution cease, and restored the church to a 
state of tranquillity. 

VI. The clemency and benevolence which Valerian 
showed to the Christians, continued until the fifth year of his 
reign. Then the scene began to change, and the change 
indeed was sudden. Macrianus, a superstitious and cruel 
bigot to paganism, had gained an entire ascendency over 
Valerian, and was chief counsellor in every thing that related 
to the affairs of government. By the persuasion of this 
imperious minister, the Christians were prohibited from 
assembling, and their bishops and doctors were sent into 
banishment. This edict was published in the year 257, 
and was followed, the year after, by one still more severe ; 
in consequence of which, a considerable number of Chris- 
tians, in the different provinces of the empire, were put to 
death; and many of these were subjected to such cruel 
modes of execution, as were more terrible than death 
itself. Of those who suffered in this persecution, the 
most eminent were Cyprian, bishop of Carthage; Sixtus, 
bishop of Rome ; and Laurentius, a Roman deacon, who 
was barbarously consumed by a slow and lingering fire. 
An unexpected event suspended, for awhile, the suffer- 
ings of the Christians. Valerian was made prisoner in 
the war against the Persians ; and his son Gallienus, in 
the year 260, restored peace to the church.* 

VII. The condition of the Christians was rather sup- 
portable than happy, under the reign of Gallienus, which 
lasted eight years ; as also under the short administration 
of his successor Claudius. Nor did they suffer much dur- 
ing the first, four years of the reign of Aurelian, who was 
raised to the empire in the year 270. But the fifth year 
of this emperor's administration would have proved fatal 
to them, had not his violent death prevented the execution 
of his cruel purposes ; for while, instigated by the unjust 
suggestions of his own superstition, or by the barbarous 
counsels of a bigoted priesthood, he was preparing a formi- 
dable attack upon the Christians, he was obliged to march 
into Gaul, where he was murdered, in the year 275, before 
his edicts were published throughout the empire. b Few, 
therefore, suffered martyrdom under his reign ; and in- 
deed, during the remainder of this century, the Christians 
enjoyed a considerable measure of ease and tranquillity. 
They were, at least, free from any violent attacks of oppres- 
sion and injustice, except in a small number of cases, where 
the avarice and superstition of the Roman magistrates in- 
terrupted their tranquillity. 

VIII. While the emperor, and proconsuls employed 
against the Christians the terror of unrighteous edicts, and 
the edge of the destroying sword, the Platonic philosophers, 
who have been described above, exhausted against Chris- 
tianity all the force of their learning and eloquence, and all 

» Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. x. xi. p. 255. Acta Cypriani, as 
they are to be found in Ruinarti Act. Martyrum, p. 216. Cypriani 
Epist. lxxvii. lxxxii. 

b Eusebius, lib. vii. Lactantius, de mortibus Persecuutor. 

Among these vexations may be reckoned the cruelty of Galerius 
Maximiam, who, toward the conclusion of this century, persecuted the 
ministers of his court, and the soldiers of his army, who had professed 
Christianity. See Eusebius, lib. viii. 

a See Holstenius de vita. Porphyr. cap. xi. Fabric. Lux Evang. p. 
154. Buddeus, Isagoge in Theologium, torn. ii. 

gjj" • This work of Porphyry against the Christians was burned, by 
an edict of Constantine th". Great. It was divided into fifteen books, as 
we find in Eusebius. and contained the blackest calumnies against the 



the resources of their art and dexterity, in rhetorical decla- 
mations, subtile writings, and ingenious stratagems. These 
artful adversaries were so much the more dangerous and 
formidable, as they had adopted several of the doctrines and 
institutions of the Gospel, and, with a specious air of mode- 
ration and impartiality, were attempting, after the example 
of their master Ammonius, to reconcile paganism with 
Christianity, and form a sort of coalition of the ancient and 
the new religion. These philosophers had at their head, in 
this century, Porphyry (a Syrian, or, as some allege, a Ty- 
rian, by birth,) who wrote against the Christians a long and 
laborious work, which was destroyed afterwards by an im- 
perial edict. d He was, undoubtedly, a writer of great dex- 
terity, genius, and erudition, as those of his works which 
yet remain sufficiently testify. But those very works, and 
the history of his life, show us, at the same time, that he 
was a much more virulent, than formidable enemy to the 
Christians ; for by them it appears, that he was much more 
attentive to the suggestions of a superstitious spirit, and the 
visions of a lively fancy, than to the sober dictates of right 
reason and a sound judgment ; and it may be more espe- 
cially observed of the remaining fragments of his work 
against the Christians, that they are equally destitute of 
judgment and equity, and are utterly unworthy of a wise 
and a good man. e 

IX. Many were the deceitful and perfidious stratagems 
by which this sect endeavoured to obscure the lustre, and 
diminish the authority of the Christian doctrine. None ol 
these seemed to be more dangerous than the seducing arti- 
fice with which they formed a comparison between the life, 
actions, and miracles of Christ, and the history of the an 
cient philosophers, and placed the contending parties in 
such fallacious points of view, as to make the pretended 
sages of antiquity appear in nothing inferior to the divine 
Saviour. With this view, Archytas of Tarentum, Pytha- 
goras, of whom Porphyry wrote the life, Apollonius Tya- 
neeus, a Pythagorean philosopher, whose miracles and pe- 
regrinations were highly celebrated by the vulgar, were 
brought upon the scene, and exhibited as divine teachers, 
and rivals of the glory of the Son of God. Philostratus, 
one of the most eminent rhetoricians of this age, composed 
a pompous history of the life of Apollonius, who was little 
better than a cunning knave, and did nothing but ape the 
austerity and sanctity of Pythagoras. This history ap- 
pears manifestly designed to draw a parallel between Christ 
and the philosopher of Tyana ; buf; the impudent fictions 
and ridiculous fables, with which this work is filled, must, 
one would think, have rendered it incapable of deceiving 
any who possessed a sound mind ; any, but such as, 
through the corruption of vicious prejudices, were willing to 
be deceived/ 

X. But as there are no opinions, however absurd, and 

Christians. The first book treated of the contradictions which he pre- 
tended to have found in the sacred writings. The greatest part of the 
twelfth is employed in fixing the time when the prophecies of Daniel 
were written ; for Porphyry himself found these predictions so clearly 
and evidently fulfilled, that, to avoid the force of the argument, thence 
deducible in favor of Christianity, he was forced to have recourse to die 
absurd supposition, that these prophecies had been published under the 
name of Daniel by one who lived in the time of Antiochus, and wrote 
after the arrival of the events foretold. Methodius, Eusebius, and Apol- 
linaris, wrote against Porphyry ; but their refutations have been long 
since lost. 

f See Olerius' preface to the Life of Apollonius by Philostratus ; as 
also Mosheim's notes to his Latin translation of Cudworth's Intellectua. 
System, p. 304, &c. 



Chap. Y. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



61 



no stories, however idle and improbable, that a weak and 
ignorant multitude, more attentive to the pomp of words 
than, to the truth of things, will not easily swallow ; so it 
happened, that many were ensnared by the absurd at- 
tempts of these insidious philosophers. Some were in- 
duced by these perfidious stratagems to abandon the Chris- 
tian religion, which they had embraced. Others, when 
they were taught to believe that true Christianity (as it was 
inculcated by Jesus, and not as it was afterwards corrupted 
by his disciples) differed in few points from the pagan sys- 
tem, properly explained and restored to its primitive purity, 
determined to remain in the religion of their ancestors, and 
in the worship of their gods. A third sort were led, by 
these comparisons between Christ and the ancient philoso- 
phers, to form to themselves a motley system of religion 
composed of the tenets of both parties, whom they treated 
with the same veneration and respect. Such was, particu- 
larly, the method of Alexander Severus, who paid in- 
discriminately divine honours to Clirist and to Orpheus, to 
Apollonius, and the other philosophers and heroes whose 
names were famous in ancient times. 

1 Hippolytus, Semi, in Susann. et Daniel, tern. i. op. 

No. VI. 16 



XI. The credit and power of the Jews were now too 
much diminished to render them as capable of injuring 
the Christians, by their influence over the magistrates, as 
they had formerly been. This did not, however, discou- 
rage their malicious efforts, as the books which Tertullian 
and Cyprian have written against them abundantly show, 
with several other writings of the Christian doctors, who 
complained of the malignity of the Jews, and of their sinis- 
J ter machinations. 1 During the persecution under Seve- 
j rus, a certain person called Dominus, who had embraced 
| Christianity, deserted to the Jews, doubtless to avoid the 
punishments that were decreed against the Christians ; and 
| it was to recall this apostate to his duty and his profession, 
that Serapion, bishop of Antioch, wrote a particular treatise 
against the Jews. b We may easily conclude, from this in- 
stance, that, when the Christians were persecuted, the Jews 
were treated with less severity and contempt, on account of 
j their enmity against the disciples of Jesus. From the same 
| fact we may also learn, that, though they were hi a state of 
great subjection and abasement, they were not entirely de- 
| prived of all power of oppressing the Christians. 

fc Eusebuis, Hist. Eccles. lib. vL cap. lii. p. 213. 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
during- this Century. 

I. The arts and sciences, which, in the preceding cen- 
tury, were in a declining state, seemed, in this, ready to ex- 
pire, and had lost all their vigour and lustre. The celebra- 
ted rhetorician Longinus, and the eminent historian Dio 
Cassius, with a few others, were the last among the Greeks, 
who stood in the breach against the prevailing ignorance 
and barbarism of the times. Men of learning and genius 
were still less numerous in the western provinces of the em- 
pire, though there were in several places flourishing schools, 
appropriated to the advancement of the sciences and the 
culture of taste and genius. Different reasons contributed 
to this decay of learning. Few of the emperors patronised 
the sciences, or encouraged, by the prospect of their favour 
and protection, that emulation which is the soul of literary 
excellence. Besides, the civil wars that almost always dis- 
tracted the empire, were extremely unfavourable to the pur- 
suit of science ; and the perpetual incursions of the barba- 
rous nations interrupted that leisure and tranquility which 
are so essential to the progress of learning and knowledge, 
and extinguished, among a people accustomed to the din of 
arms, all desire of literary acquisitions.* 

II. If we turn our eyes toward the state of philosophy, 
the prospect will appear somewhat less desolate and com- 
fortless. There were, as yet, in several of the Grecian 
sects, men of considerable knowledge and reputation, of 
whom Longinus has mentioned the greatest part. b But 
all these sects were gradually eclipsed by the school of 
Ammonius, whose origin and doctrines have been con- 
sidered above. This victorious sect, which was formed in 
Egypt, issued thence with such a rapid progress, that, in 
a short time, it extended itself almost throughout the Ro- 
man empire, and drew into its vortex the greatest part of 
those who applied themselves, through inclination, to the 
study of philosophy. This amazing progress was due to 
Plotinus, the most eminent disciple of Ammonius, a man 
of a most subtile invention, endowed by nature with a 
genius capable of the most profound researches, and equal 
to the investigation of the most abstruse and difficult sub- 
jects. This penetrating and sublime philosopher taught 
publicly, first in Persia, and afterwards at Rome, and in 
Campania ; in all which parts the youth flocked in crowds 
to receive his instructions. He comprehended the precepts 
of his philosophy in several books, most of which are yet 
extant/ 

III. The number of disciples, formed in the school of 
Plotinus, is almost beyond credibility. The most famous 
was Porphyry, d who spread abroad through Sicily, and 
many other countries, the doctrine of his master, revived 

a See the Literary History of France, by the Benedictine monks, vol. 
i. part ii. 

b In his life of Plotinus, epitomised by Porphyry, ch. xx. 

c See Porphyrii vita Plotini, of which Fabricius has given an edition 
in his Bibliotheca Graca, torn. iv. — Bayle's Diction, torn. iii. — and 
Brucker's Historia Crkica Philosophic. 

%j" * Porphyry was first the disciple of Longinus, author of the justly 



with great accuracy, adorned with the graces of a flowing 
and elegant style, and enriched with new inventions and 
curious improvements. 8 From the time of Ammonius, 
until the sixth century this was almost the only system of 
philosophy that was publicly taught at Alexandria. A 
certain philosopher, whose name was Plutarch, having 
learned it there, brought it into Greece, and renewed, at 
Athens, the celebrated Academy, from which issued a set. 
of illustrious philosophers, whom we shall have occasion to 
mention in the progress of this work. f 

IV. We have unfolded, above, the nature and doc- 
trines of this philosophy, as far as was compatible with the 
brevity of our present design. It is, however, proper to 
add here, that its votaries were not all of the same senti- 
ments, but thought very differently upon a variety of sub- 
jects. This difference of opinion was the natural conse- 
quence of that fundamental law, which the whole sect 
was obliged to keep constantly in view, viz. That truth 
was to be pursued with the utmost liberty, and to be col- 
lected from all the different systems in which it lay disper 
sed. Hence it happened, that the Athenians rejected cer 
tain opinions that were entertained by the philosophers of 
Alexandria : yet none of those who were ambitious to be 
ranked among these new Platonists, called in question the 
main doctrines which formed the groundwork of their sin- 
gular system ; those, for example, which regarded the ex- 
istence of one God, the fountain of all things ; the eter- 
nity of the world ; the dependence of matter upon the Su 
preme Being ; the nature of souls ; the plurality of gods ; 
the method of interpreting the popular superstitions, &c. 

V. The famous question concerning the excellence and 
utility of human learning, was now debated with great 
warmth among the Christians ; and the contending 
parties, in this controversy, seemed hitherto of equal force 
in point of number, or nearly so. Many recommended 
the study of philosophy, and an acquaintance with the 
Greek and Roman literature ; while others maintained, 
that these were pernicious to the interests of genuine 
Christianity, and the progress of true piety. The cause 
of letters and philosophy triumphed, however, by degrees ; 
and those who' wished well to them, continued to gain 
ground, till at length the euperiority was manifestly decid- 
ed in their favour. This victory was principally due to 
the influence and authority of Origen, who, having been 
early instructed in the new kind of Platonism already 
mentioned, blended it, though unhappily, with the purer 
and more sublime tenets of a celestial doctrine, and recom- 
mended it, in the warmest manner, to the youth who at- 
tended his public lessons. The fame of this philosopher 
increased daily among the Christians ; and, in proportion 
to his rising credit, his method of proposing and explain- 
ing the doctrines of Christianity gained authority, till it be- 

celebrated Treatise on the Sublime; but, having passed from Greece to 
Rome, where he heard Plotinus, he was so charmed with the genius and 
penetration of this philosopher, that he attached himself entirely to hill. 
See Plotin. vit. p. 3. Eunap. c. ii. p. 17. 

e Holstenius, vit. Porphyrii, republished by Fabricius. 

f Marini vita Procii, cap. xi. xii. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



63 



came almost universal. Besides, some of the disciples of 
Plotinus having embraced Christianity, on condition that 
they should be allowed to retain such of the opinions of 
their master as they thought of superior excellence and 
merit, a this must also have contributed, in some measure, 
to turn the balance in favour of the sciences. These Chris- 
tian philosophers, preserving still a fervent zeal for the 
doctrines of their Heathen chief, would naturally embrace 
every opportunity of spreading them abroad, and instilling 
them into the minds of the ignorant and the unwary. 

CHAPTER II. 

Respecting the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and its Form of Government, during this Century. 

I. The form of ecclesiastical government that had been 
adopted by Christians in general, had now acquired greater 
degrees of stability and force, both in particular churches, 
and in the general society of Christians. It appears incon- 
testable, from the most authentic records and the best his- 
tories of this century, that, in the larger cities, there was, at 
the head of each church, a person to whom was given the 
title of bishop, who ruled this sacred community with a 
certain sort of authority, in concert, however, with the body 
of presbyters, and consulting, in matters of moment, the 
opinions and the voices of the whole assembly. b It is also 
equally evident, that, in every province, one bishop was in- 
vested with a certain superiority over the rest, in point of 
rank and authority. This was necessary to the mainte- 
nance of that association of churches which had been in- 
troduced in the preceding century ; and it contributed to 
facilitate the holding of general councils, and to give a cer- 
tain degree of order and consistency to their proceedings. 
It must, at the same time, be carefully observed, that the 
rights and privileges of these primitive bishops were not 
every where accurately fixed, nor determined in such a 
manner as to prevent encroachments and disputes ; nor 
does it appear, that the chief authority in the province was 
always conferred upon that bishop who presided over the 
church established in the metropolis. It may also be no- 
ticed, as a matter beyond all dispute, that the bishops of 
Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, considered as rules of pri- 
mitive and apostolic churches, had a kind of pre-eminence 
over all others, and were not only consulted frequently in af- 
fairs of a difficult and momentous nature, but were also dis- 
tinguished by peculiar rights and privileges. 

II. With respect, particularly, to the bishop of Rome, he 
is supposed by Cyprian to have had, at this time, a certain 
pre-eminence in the church ; c nor does he stand alone in 
this opinion. But it ought to be observed, that even those, 
who, with Cyprian, attributed this pre-eminence to the 
Roman prelate, insisted, at the same time, with the utmost 
warmth, upon the equality, in point of dignity and 
authority, that subsisted among all the members of the 
episcopal order. In consequence of this opinion of an 

a Augustinus, Epistola Ivi. ad Dioscor. p. 260, tor® ii. op. 

b A satisfactory account of this matter may be seen in Blondelli Apo- 
logia pro Sententia Hieronymi de Episcopis et Presbyteris, p. 136, as 
that author has collected all the testimonies of the ancients relative to 
that subject. 

c Cyprian, Ep. lv. et lxxiii. etiam de Unitate Ecclesia:, p. 195, edit. 
Baluzii. 

1^" d So 1 have translated Principatus ordinis et consociationis, 



equality among all Christian bishops, they rejected, with 
contempt, the judgment of the bishop of Rome, when 
they thought it ill-founded or unjust, and followed their 
own sense of things with a perfect independence. Of 
this Cyprian himself gave an eminent example, in his 
famous controversy with Stephen bishop of Rome, con- 
cerning the baptism of heretics, in which he treated the 
arrogance of that imperious prelate with a noble indig- 
nation, and also with a perfect contempt. Whoever, there- 
fore, compares these particulars, will easily perceive, that 
the only dignity which the bishop of Rome could justly 
claim was a pre-eminence of order and association,* not 
of power and authority. Or to explain the matter yet 
more clearly, the pre-eminence of the bishop of Rome, in 
the universal church, was such as that of Cj r prian, bishop 
of Carthage, was in the African churches ; and every one 
knows, that the precedency of this latter prelate diminish- 
ed in nothing the equality that subsisted among the Afri- 
can bishops, and invalidated in no instance then rights 
and liberties, but gave only to Cyprian, as the president 
of their general assemblies, a power of calling councils, of 
presiding in them, of admonishing his brethren in a mild 
and fraternal manner, and of executing, in short, such of- 
fices as the order and purposes of these ecclesiastical meet- 
ings necessarily required. e 

III. The face of things began now to change in the 
Christian church. The ancient method of ecclesiastical 
government seemed, in general, still to subsist, while, at 
the same time, by imperceptible steps, it varied from the 
primitive rule, and degenerated toward the form of a re- 
ligious monarchy ; for the bishops aspired to higher 
degrees of power and authority than they had formerly 
possessed, and not only violated the rights of the people, 
but also made gradual encroachments upon the privi- 
leges of the presbyters ; and that they might cover these 
usurpations with an air of justice, and an appearance of 
reason, they published new doctrines concerning the na- 
ture of the church, and of the episcopal dignity, which, 
however, were in general so obscure, that they themselves 
seemed to have understood them as little as those to whom 
they were delivered. One of the principal authors of this 
change, in the government of the church, was Cyprian, 
who pleaded for the power of the bishops with more zeal 
and vehemence than had ever been hitherto employed in 
that cause, though not with an unshaken constancy and 
perseverance ; for, in difficult and perilous times, necessity 
sometimes obliged him to yield, and to submit several 
things to the judgment and authority of the church. 

IV. This change in the form of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment, was soon followed by a tram of vices, which dis- 
honored the character and authority of those to whom 
the administration of the church was committed ; for, 
though several yet continued to exhibit to the world 
illustrious examples of primitive piety and Christian vir- 
tue, yet many were sunk in luxury and voluptuousness, 

which could not be otherwise rendered -without a long circumlocution 
The pre-eminence here mentioned, signifies the right of convening- 
councils, of presiding in them, of collecting voices, and" such other things 
as were essential to the order of these assemblies. 

e See Steph. Baluzii adnot. ad Cypriani Epistolas, p. 387, 38'», 400. 
Consult particularly the seventy-first and seventy-third epistles ot Cyp- 
rian, and the fifty-fifth, addressed to Cornelius, bishop of Rome, in 
which letters the Carthaginian prelate pleads with -warmth and vehe- 
mence for the equality of all Christian bishops. 



f)4 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



puffed up with vanity, arrogance, and ambition, possessed 
with a' spirit of contention and discord, and addicted to 
many other vices that cast an undeserved reproach upon 
the holy religion, of which they were the unworthy profes- 
sors and ministers. This is testified in such an ample 
manner, by the repeated complaints of many of the most 
respectable writers of this age,* that truth will not permit 
us to spread the veil, which we should otherwise be desi- 
rous to cast over such enormities among an order so 
sacred. The bishops assumed, in many places, a princely 
authority, particularly those who had the greatest number 
of churches under their inspection, and who presided over 
the most opulent assemblies. They appropriated to their 
evangelical function the splendid ensigns of temporal ma- 
jesty ; a throne, surrounded with ministers, exalted above 
his equals the servant of the meek and humble Jesus ; 
and sumptuous garments dazzled the eyes and the minds j 
of the multitude into an ignorant veneration for this 
usurped authority. An example which ought not to 
have been followed, was ambitiously imitated by the pres- 
byters, who, neglecting the sacred duties of their station, 
abandoned themselves to the indolence and delicacy of an 
effeminate and luxurious life. The deacons, beholding 
the presbyters thus deserting their functions, boldly invaded 
their rights and privileges ; and the effects of a corrupt 
ambition were spread through every rank of the sacred 
order. 

V. From what has been now observed, we may come, 
perhaps, at the true origin of minor or inferior orders, 
which were, in this century, added every where to those 
of the bishops, presbyters, and deacons ; for, certainly, the 
titles and offices of subdeacons, acolythi, ostiarii, or 
door-keepers, readers, exorcists, and copiatce, would never 
have been heard of in the church, if its rulers had been 
assiduously and zealously employed in promoting the in- 
terests of truth and piety, by their labours and their 
example. But, when the honors and privileges of the 
bishops and presbyters were augmented, the deacons also 
began to extend their ambitious views, and to despise 
those lower functions and employments which they had 
hitherto exercised with such humility and zeal. The 
additional orders that were now created to diminish the 
labours of the present rulers of the church, had functions 
allotted to them, which their names partly explain. b The 
institution of exorcists was a consequence of the doctrine 
of the New Platonists, which the Christians adopted, and 
which taught, that the evil genii, or spirits, were contin- 
ually hovering over human bodies, toward which they 

a Origen. Comm. in Matthaeum, par. i. op. p. 420, 441. Eusebius, 
Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. cap. i. 

§TJr b The sub-deacons were designed to ease the deacons of the mean- 
est part of their work. Their office, consequently, was to prepare the 
sacred vessels of the altar, and to deliver them to the deacons in time of 
divine service ; to attend the doors of the church during the communion 
service; to go on the bishop's embassies, with his letters or messages to 
foreign churches. In a word, they were so subordinate to the superior 
rulers of the church, that by a canon of the council of Laodicea, they 
were forbidden to sit in the presence of a deacon without his leave. 
The order of acolythi was peculiar to the Latin church ; for there was 
no such order in the Greek church, during the four first centuries. Their 
name signifies attendants ; and their principal office was to light the 
candles of the church, and to attend the ministers with wine for the 
eucharist. The ostiarii, or door-keepers, were appointed to open and 
shut the doors, as officers and servants under the deacons and sub- 
deacons ; to give notice of the times of prayer and church assemblies, 
which, in time of persecution, required a private signal for fear of dis- 
covery ; and that, probably, was the first reason for instituting this or- 



were carried by a natural and vehement desire ; and tha 
vicious men were not so much impelled to sin by an innate 
depravity, or by the seduction of example, as by the inter- 
nal suggestions of some evil daemon. The copiatce 
were employed in providing for the decent interment of 
the dead. 

VI. Marriage was permitted to all the various ranks 
and orders of the clergy. Those, however, who continued 
in a state of celibacy, obtained by this abstinence a higher 
reputation of sanctity and virtue than others. This was 
owing to an almost general persuasion, that they, who 
took wives, were of all others the most subject to the in- 
fluence of malignant daemons. And as it was of infinite 
importance to the interests of the church, that no impure 
or malevolent spirit should enter into the bodies of such as. 
were appointed to govern, or to instruct others, so the 
people were desirous that the clergy should use their ut- 
most efforts to abstain from the pleasures of the conjugal 
life. Many of the sacred order, especially in Africa, con- 
sented to satisfy the desires of the people, and endeavoured 
to do this in such a manner as not to offer an entire vio- 
lence to their own inclinations. For this purpose, they 
formed connexions with those women who had made 
vows of perpetual chastity; and it was an ordinary thing 
for an ecclesiastic to admit one of these fair saints to the 
participation of his bed ; but still under the most solemn 
declarations, that nothing passed in this commerce that 
was contrary to the rules of chastity and virtue. d These 
holy concubines were called, by the Greeks, 2uvs«rax<roi ; 
and by the Latins, Mulieres subintroductai. This in- 
decent custom alarmed the zeal of the more pious among 
the bishops, who employed the utmost efforts of their 
severity and vigilance to abolish it, though it was a long 
time before they entirely effected this laudable purpose. 

VII. Thus we have given a short, though not a very 
pleasing view of the rulers of the church during this 
century ; and we ought now to mention the principal 
writers who distinguished themselves in it by their learned 
and pious productions. The most eminent of these, 
whether we consider the extent of his fame, or the multi- 
plicity of his labors, was Origen, a presbyter and catechist 
of Alexandria, a man of vast and uncommon abilities, and 
the greatest luminary of the Christian world that this age 
exhibited to view. Had the soundness of his judgment 
been equal to the immensity of his genius, the fervour of 
his piety, his indefatigable patience, his extensive erudition, 
and his other eminent and superior talents, all encomiums 
must have fallen short of his merit. Yet such as he was. 



der in the church of Rome, whose example, by degrees, was soon fol- 
lowed by other churches. — The readers were those who were directed 
to read the scripture in that part of divine service to which the catechu- 
mens were admitted. — The exorcists were appointed to drive out evil 
spirits from the bodies of persons possessed ; they had been long known 
in the church, but were not erected into an ecclesiastical order before the 
latter end of the third century. — The copiatce, or fossarii, were an order 
of the inferior clergy, whose business it was to take care of funerals, 
and to provide for the decent interment of the dead. In vain have Ba- 
ronius and other Romish writers asserted, that these inferior orders 
were of apostolical institution. The contrary is evidently proved, since 
these offices are not mentioned by authentic writers as having taken 
place before the third century, and the origin can be traced no higher 
than the fourth. 

e Porphyrius, mpl dxo^rjr, lib.iv. p. 417. 

d Credat Judceus Apella. See however Dodwell, Diss, tertia Cypri- 
anica, and Lud. An. Muratorius, Diss, de Synisactis et Agapetis, in his 
Anecdot. Graec. p. 218 ; as also Baluzius ad Cypriam Epistol. 



Chap. 11. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



65 



his virtues and his labors deserve the admiration of all 
ages ; and his name will be transmitted with honor 
through the annals of time, as long as learning and gen- 
ius shall be esteemed among men. a 

The second in renown, among the writers of this cen- 
sury, was Julius Africanus, a native of Palestine, a man 
of the most profound erudition, but the greatest part of 
whose learned labors are unhappily lost. 

Hippolytus. whose history is much involved in dark- 
ness, b is also esteemed among the most celebrated authors 
and martyrs of this age; but those writings which at pre- 
sent bear his name, are justly looked upon by many as 
either extremely corrupted, or entirely spurious. 

Gregory, bishop of New-Caesarea, acquired, at this time, 
the title of Thaumaturgns, i. e. wonder-worker, on ac- 
count of the variety of great and signal miracles, which 
he is said to have wrought during the course of his min- 
istry. Few of his works have come down to our times, 
and his miracles are called in question by many, as unsup- 
ported by sufficient evidence. 6 

It is to be wished that we had more of the writings of 
Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, than those which have 
survived the ruins of time, since the few remaining frag- 
ments of his works display the most consummate wisdom 
and prudence, and the most amiable spirit of moderation 
and candor, and thus abundantly vindicate from all sus- 
picion of flattery, the ancients who mentioned him under 
the title of Dionysius the Great. d 

Methodius appears to have been a man of great piety, 
and highly respectable on account of his eminent virtue ; 
but those of his works which are yet extant, evince no 
great degree of penetration and acuteness in handling 
controversy and weighing opinions. 

VIII. Cyprian, bishop of Carthage, a man of the most 
eminent abilities and flowing eloquence, stands foremost in 
the list of Latin writers. His letters, and indeed the great- 
er part of his works breathe such a noble and pathetic 
spirit of piety, that it is impossible to read them without 
the warmest feelings of enthusiasm. We must however 
observe, that he would have been a better writer, had he 
been less attentive to the ornaments of rhetoric; and a 
better bishop, had he been able to restrain the vehemence 
of his temper, and to distinguish with greater acuteness, 
between truth and falsehood. 

The dialogue of Minucius Felix, which bears the title 
of Octavius, effaces with such judgment, spirit and force, 
the calumnies and reproaches that were cast upon the 
Christians by their adversaries, that it deserves an atten- 
tive perusal from those who are desirous of knowing the 
state of the church during this century. 

The seven books of Arnobius, the African, written 
against the Gentiles, form a still more copious and ample 
defence of the Christians, and, though obscure in several 
places, may yet be read with pleasure and with profit. It is 
true, that this rhetorician, too little instructed in the Chris- 
tian religion, when he WTote this work, has mingled great 

1 See a very learned and useful work of the famous Huet, bishop of 
Avranches, entitled, Origeniana. See also, Doucin, Histoire d'Origene 
et des Mouvemens arrives dans l'Eglise au sujet de sa Doctrine; and 
Bayle's Dictionary. 

•> The benedictine monks have, with great labor and erudition, endea- 
voured to dispel this darkness in their Histoire Literaire de la France, 
torn. i. p. 361. 

c See Van-Dale's preface to his Latin treatise concerning Oracles. 

17 



errors with solemn and important truths, and has exhib- 
ited Christianity under a certain philosophical form, very 
different from that in which it is commonly received. 

We refer our readers, for an account of the authors of 
inferior note, who lived in this century, to those who have 
professedly given histories or enumerations of the Chris- 
tian writers. 

CHAPTER 1H. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church in 
this Century 

I. The principal doctrines of Christianity were now 
explained to the people in their native purity and simplici- 
ty, without any mixture of abstract reasonings or subtile 
inventions ; nor were the feeble minds of the multitude 
loaded with a great variety of precepts. e But the Christian 
doctors who had applied themselves to the study of letters 
and philosophy, soon abandoned the frequented paths, and 
wandered in the devious wilds of fancy. The Egyptians 
distinguished themselves in this new method of explain- 
ing the truth. They looked upon it as a noble and a glo- 
rious task to bring the doctrines of celestial wisdom into a 
certain subjection to the precepts of their philosophy, and 
to make deep and profound researches into the intimate 
and hidden nature of those truths which the divine Sa- 
viour had delivered to his disciples. Origen w r as at the 
head of this speculative tribe. This great man, enchant- 
ed by the charms of the Platonic philosophy, set it up as 
the test of all religion, and imagined that the reasons of 
each doctrine were to be found in that favorite philosophy, 
and their nature and extent to be determined byit. f It must 
be confessed that he handled this matter with modesty and 
caution ; but he still gave an example to his disciples, the 
abuse of which could not fail to be pernicious, and under 
the authority of which, they would naturally indulge them- 
selves without restraint in every wanton fancy. And so, 
indeed, the case was ; for the disciples of Grigen, break- 
ing forth from the limits fixed by their master, interpreted, 
in the most licentious manner, the divine truths of religion 
according to the tenor of the Platonic philosophy. From 
these teachers the philosophical, or scholastic theology, as 
it is called, derived its origin ; and, proceeding hence, pas- 
sed through various forms and modifications according to 
the genius, turn, and erudition of those who embraced it. 

II. The same principles gave rise to another species of 
theology, which was called mystic. And what must seem 
at first sight surprising here, is, that this mystic theology, 
though formed at the same time, and derived from the 
same source with the scholastic, had a natural tendency to 
overturn and destroy it. The authors of this mystic science 
are not known ; but the principles from which it sprang 
are manifest. Its first promoters argued from that known 
doctrine of the Platonic school, which also was adopted by 
Origen and his disciples, that the divine nature was diffu- 
sed through all human souls ; or in other words that the 



d The history of Dionysius is particularly illustrated by Jaques Bas- 
nage, in his Histoire de l'Eglise, torn. i. 

' See Origen, in Prjef. Libro. de Principiis, torn. i. op. p. 49, and lib. 
i. de Principiis, cap. ii. See also die Expositio Fidei by Gregorius 
Neocaesariensis. 

f This is manifest from what remains of his Stromata ; as also from 
his books de Principiis, which are still preserved in a Latin translation 
of them by Rufinus. 



C6 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part U 



faculty of reason, from which the health and vigour of the 
mind proceed, was an emanation from God into the hu- 
man soul, and comprehended in it the principles and 
elements of all truth, human and divine. They denied 
that men could, by labour or study, excite this celestial 
flame in their breasts ; and, therefore, they highly disap- 
proved the attempts of those who, by definitions, abstract 
theorems, and profound speculations, endeavoured to form 
distinct notions of truth, and to discover its hidden nature. 
On the contrary, they maintained, that silence, tranquilli- 
ty, repose, and solitude, accompanied with such acts of 
mortification as might tend to extenuate and exhaust the 
body, were the means by which the internal word was 
excited to produce its latent virtues, and to instruct men in 
the knowledge of divine things. For thus they reasoned : 
" They who behold with a noble contempt all human 
affairs, they who turn away their eyes from terrestrial 
vanities, and shut all the avenues of the outward senses 
against the contagious influences of a material world, must 
necessarily return to God, when the spirit is thus disenga- 
ged from the impediments that prevented that happy 
union ; and in this blessed frame, they not only enjoy in- 
expressible raptures from their communion with the Su- 
preme Being, but are also invested with the inestimable 
privilege of contemplating truth, undisguised and uncor- 
rupted, in its native purity, while others behold it in a vitia- 
ted and delusive form." 

III. This method of reasoning produced strange effects, 
and drove many into caves and deserts, where they mace- 
rated their bodies with hunger and thirst, and submitted to 
all the miseries of the severest discipline that a gloomy 
imagination could prescribe ; and it is not improbable, that 
Paul, the first hermit, was rather engaged by this fanatical 
system, than by the persecution under Decius, to fly into 
the most solitary deserts of Thebais, where he led, during 
the space of ninety years, a life more worthy of a savage 
animal than of a rational being. 1 It is, however, to be 
observed, that though Paul is placed at the head of the 
order of Hermits, yet that insocial manner of life was very 
common in Egypt, Syria, India, and Mesopotamia, not 
only long before his time, but even before the coming of 
Christ; and it is still practised among the Mohammedans, 
as well as the Christians, in those arid and burning cli- 
mates; 15 for the glowing atmosphere, that surrounds these 
countries, is a natural cause of that love of solitude and 
repose, of that indolent and melancholy disposition, which 
are remarkably common among their languid inhabitants. 

IV. But let us turn away our eyes from these scenes of 
fanaticism, which are so opprobrious to human nature, and 
consider some other circumstances that belong more or less 



* The life of this hermit was written by Jerome. ■ 

i> See the travels of Lucas, in 1714, vol. ii. 

c The fragments that yet remai-n of Origen's Hexapla, were collected 
and published, by the learned Montfaucon, in folio, at Paris, in 1713. 
See also upon this head Buddei Isogoge in Theolog. torn. ii. and Carp- 
zovii Critic. Sacr. Veter. Testam. p. 574. 

d For a farther illustration of this matter, the reader may consult the 
excellent preface of M. de la Rue, to the second volume of the works of 
Origen, published at Paris in 1733. An accurate and full account of 
Origen's method of interpreting the Scripture may be found in the work 
entitled Commentar. de rebus Christian, ante Constantinum M. p. 629 ; 
where the philosophy and theology of that great man, and his contro- 
versy with Demetrius bishop of Alexandria, are treated of professedly, 
and at large. 

e Origen, in his Stromata, book x., expresses himself in the following 
manner : " The source of many evils lies in adhering to th carnal or 



to the history of the Christian doctrine during this century. 
And here it is proper to mention the useful labours of those 
who manifested their zeal for the holy scriptures by the 
care they took to have accurate copies of them multiplied 
every where, and offered at such moderate prices, as ren- 
dered themof easy purchase ; as also to havethem translated 
into various languages, and published in correct editions. 
Many of the more opulent among the Christians generous- 
ly contributed a great part of their substance to the prose- 
cution of these pious and excellent undertakings. Pienus 
and Hesychius in Egypt, and Lucian at Antioch, employed 
much pains in correcting the copies of the Septuagint , 
and Pamphilus of Csesarea laboured with great diligence 
and success in works of the same nature, until a glorious 
martyrdom finished his course. But Origen surpassed all 
others in diligence and assiduity; and his famous Hexapla, 
though almost entirely destroyed by the waste of time, will, 
even in its fragments, remain an eternal monument of the 
incredible application with which that great man laboured 
to remove those obstacles which retarded the progress of 
the Gospel. 

V. After the encomiums we have given to Origen, who 
has an undoubted right to the first place among the inter- 
preters of the Scriptures in this century, it is not without 
a deep concern that we are obliged to add, that he also, by 
an unhappy method, opened a secure retreat for all sorts of 
errors that a wild and irregular imagination could bring 
forth. Having entertained a notion that it was extremely 
difficult, if not impossible, to defend every thing contained in 
the sacred writings from the cavils of heretics and infidels, 
so long as they were explained literally, according to the 
real import of the terms, he had recourse to the fecundity 
of a lively imagination, and maintained, that they were to 
be interpreted in the same allegorical manner in which 
the Platonists explained the history of the gods. In con- 
sequence of this pernicious rule of interpretation, he alleged, 
that the words of Scripture were, in many places, absolutely 
void of sense; and that though in others there were, indeed, 
certain notions conveyed under the outward terms accord- 
ing to their literal force and import yet it was not in these 
that the true meanings of the sacred writers were to be 
sought, but in a mysterious and hidden sense arising from 
the nature of the things themselves." 1 This hidden sense 
he endeavours to investigate throughout his commentaries, 
neglecting and despising, for the most part, the outward 
letter ; and in this devious path he displays the most inge- 
nious strokes of fancy, though generally at the expense of 
truth, whose divine simplicity is rarely discernible through 
the cobweb veil of allegory. e Nor did the inventions of 
Origen end here. He divided this hidden sense, which he 



external part of Scripture. Those who do so, shall not attain to the 
kingdom of God. Let us, therefore, seek after the spirit and the sub- 
stantial fruit of the word, which arc hidden and mysterious. And again, 
" The Scriptures are of little use to those who understand them as they 
are written." One would think it impossible that such expressions 
should drop from the pen of a wise man. But the philosophy, which this 
great man embraced with such zeal, was one of the sources of his delu- 
sion. He could not find in the Bible the opinions he had adopted, as 
long as he interpreted that sacred book according to its literal sense. 
But Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and, indeed, the whole philosophical tribe, 
could not fail to obtain, for their sentiments, a place in the Gospel, when 
it was interpreted by the wanton inventions of fancy, and upon the sup- 
position of a hidden sense, to which it was possible to give all sorts of 
forms. Hence all who desired to model Christianity according to their 
fancy, or their favorite system of philosophy, embraced Origen's method 
of interpretation. 



Chap. III. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



€7 



pursued with such eagerness into moral and mystical, or 
spiritual. The moral sense of Scripture displays those 
doctrines that relate to the inward state of the soul and the 
conduct of life. The mystical or spiritual sense represents 
the nature, the laws, and the history of the spiritual or 
mystical world. We are not yet at the end of the labyrinth ; 
for he subdivided this mystical world of his own creation 
into two distinct regions, one of which he called the su- 
perior, i. e. heaven, and the other the inferior, by which 
he meant the. church. This led to another division 
of the mystical sense into an earthly or allegorical sense, 
adapted to the inferior world, and a celestial or analogical 
one, adapted to the superior region. This chimerical 
method of explaining the Scripture was, before Origen, 
received by many Christians, who were deluded into it by 
the example of the Jews. But, as this learned man re- 
duced it into a system, and founded it upon fixed and deter- 
mined rules, he is, on that account, commonly considered 
as its principal author. 

VI. A prodigious number of interpreters, both in this 
and the succeeding ages, followed the method of Origen, 
though with some variations ; nor could the few, who ex- 
plained the sacred writings with Judgment and a true 
spirit of criticism, oppose with success the torrent of alle- 
gory that was overflowing the church. The commen- 
taries of Hippolytus, which are yet extant, show man- 
ifestly, that this good man was entirely addicted to the 
system of Origen, and the same judgment may be hazard- 
ed concerning Victorinus' explications of certain books of 
the Old and New Testament, though these explications 
are, long since, lost. The translation of the Ecclesiastes 
by Gregory Thaumaturgus, which is yet remaining, is 
not chargeable with this reproach, notwithstanding the 
tender and warm attachment of its author to Origen. The 
book of Genesis and the Song of Solomon were explain- 
ed by Methodius, whose work is lost ; and Ammonius 
composed a Harmony of the Gospels. 

VII. The doctrinal part of theology employed the pens 
of many learned men in this century. In his Stromata, 
and his four books of Elements, Origen illustrated the 
greatest part of the doctrines of Christianity, or, to speak 
more properly, rather disguised them under the lines of a 
vain philosophy. These books of elements, or principles, 
were the first sketch that appeared of the scholastic or phi- 
losophical theology. Something of the same nature was 
attempted by Theognostus, in his seven books of Hypoty- 
poses, which are only known at present by the extracts of 
them in Photius, who represents them as the work of one 
who was infected with the notions of Origen. Gregory 
Thaumaturgus drew up a brief summary of the Christian 
religion, in his Exposition of the Faith; and many treat- 
ed, in a more ample manner, particular points of doctrine 
in opposition to the enemies and corrupters of Christiani- 
ty. Thus Hippolytus wrote of the Deity, the resurrection, 
Anti-Christ, and the end of the world ; Methodius, of free- 
will ; and Lucian, of faith. It is doubtful in what class 
these productions are to be placed, as most of them have 
perished among the ruins of time. 

VIII. Among the moral writers, the first place, after 
Tertullian, of whom we have already spoken, is due to 

■ See Barbbeyrac, de la Morale des Peres, chap. viii. 

§£§- b This work is crititled, Testimonia contra Judasos. 

• Souverain, Platonisme devoile, p. 244. Daille, de vet, usu Patrum, 



i Cyprian, a prelate of eminent merit, who published several 
treatises concerning patience, mortality, works, alms, as 
also an exhortation to martyrdom. In these dissertations, 
there are many excellent things ; but they are destitute 
of order, precision, and method ; nor do we always find 
solid proofs in favour of the decisions they contain. 1 Ori- 
gen has written many treatises of this kind, and, among 
others, an exhortation to suffer martyrdom for the truth ; 
a subject handled by many authors in this century, but 
with unequal eloquence and penetration. Methodius treat- 
ed of chastity, in a work entitled, Symposium Virginum, 

i or, the Feast of Virgins : but this treatise is full of con- 
fusion and disorder. Dionysius handled the doctrine of 
penance and temptations. The other moral writers of 
this period are too obscure and trivial to render the men- 
tion of them necessary. 

IX. The controversial writers were exceedingly nume- 
rous in this century. The Pagans were attacked, in a 
victorious manner, by Minucius Felix, in his dialogue 
called Octavius ; by Origen ; in his writings against Cel- 
sus ; by Arnobius in his seven books against the Gentiles ; 
and by Cyprian, in his treatise concerning the vanity of 
idols. The chronicle of Hippolytus in opposition to the 
Gentiles, and the work of Methodius against Porphyry, 
that bitter adversary of the Christians, are both lost. 

We may also reckon, in the number of the polemic 
writers, those who wrote against the philosophers, or who 
treated any subjects that were disputed between different 
sects. Such was Hippolytus, who wrote against Plato, 
and who also treated the nicest, the most difficult, and the 
most controverted subjects, such as fate, free-will, and the 
origin of evil, which exercised, likewise, the pens of Me- 
thodius and other acute writers. What Hippolytus wrote 
against the Jews, has not reached our times ; but the work 
of Cyprian, upon that subject, yet remains. b Origen, 
Victorinus, and Hippolytus, attacked, in general, the 
various sects and heresies that divided the church; but 
their labours in that immense field have entirely disappear- 
ed; and as to those who only turned their controversial 
arms against some few sects and particular doctrines, we 
think it not necessary to enumerate them here. 

X. It is, however, proper to observe, that the methods 
now used of defending Christianity, and attacking Judaism 
and idolatry, degenerated much from the primitive simpli- 
city, and the true rules of controversy. The Christian 
doctors, who had been educated in the schools of the rhe- 
toricians and sophists, rashly employed the arts and eva- 
sions of their subtile masters in the service of Christianity ; 
and, intent only upon defeating the enemy, they were too 
little attentive to the means of victory, indifferent whether 
they acquired it by artifice or plain dealing. This method 
of disputing, which the ancients called O3co7iomical, c and 
which had victory for its object, rather than truth, was in 
consequence of the prevailing taste for rhetoric and sophis- 
try, almost universally approved. The Platonists contri- 
buted to the support and encouragement of this ungene- 
rous method of disputing, by that maxim which asserted 
the innocence of defending the truth by artifice and false- 
hood. This will appear manifest to those who have read, 
with any manner of penetration and judgment, the argu- 

lib. i. p. 160. Jo. Christ. Wolfii Casaubon. p. 100. With regard to 
the famous rule, to do a thing, (tor' oiKovofilav, or aconomically, see par- 
ticularly the ample illustrations of Gataker, ad Marc. Antoninum. lib. Jti. 



68 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



merits of Origen against Oelsus, and those of the other 
Christian disputants against the idolatrous Gentiles. The 
method of Tertullian, who used to plead prescription 
against erroneous doctrines, was not, perhaps, unfair in 
this century ; but they must be unacquainted both with 
the times, and, indeed, with the nature of things, who im- 
agine that it is always allowable to employ this method. 1 

XL This disingenuous and vicious method of surpris- 
ing their adversaries by artifice, and striking them down, 
as it were, by lies and fictions, produced among other dis- 
agreeable effects, a great number of books, which were 
falsely attributed to certain great men, in order to give 
these spurious productions more credit and weight ; for, 
as the greatest part of mankind are less governed by reason 
than by authority, and prefer, in many cases, the decisions 
of fallible mortals to the unerring dictates of the divine 
word, the disputants, of whom we are now speaking, 
thought they could not serve the truth more effectually 
than by opposing illustrious names and respectable autho- 
rities to the attacks of its adversaries. Hence arose the 
book of canons, which certain artful men ascribed falsely 
to the apostles ; hence, the apostolical constitutions, of 
which Clement, bishop of Rome, is said to have formed a 
collection ; hence the recognitions and the Clementina, 
which are also attributed to Clement, b and many other 
productions of that nature, which, for a long time, were 
too much esteemed by credulous men. 

Nor were the managers of controversy the only persons 
who employed these stratagems ; the Mystics had recourse 
to the same pious frauds to support their sect. And ac- 
cordingly, when they were asked from what chief their 
establishment took its rise, to get clear of this perplexing 
question, they feigned a chief, and chose, for that purpose, 
Dionysius the Areopagite, a man of almost apostolical 
weight and authority, who was converted to Christianity, 
in the first century, by the preaching of St. Paul at Athens. 
To render this fiction more specious, they attributed to 
this great man various treatises concerning the monastic 
life, the mystic theology, and other subjects of that nature, 
which were the productions of some senseless and insipid 
writers of after-times. Thus it happened, through the 
pernicious influence of human passions, which too often 
mingle themselves with the execution of the best purposes 
and the most upright intentions, that they, who were de- 
sirous of surpassing all others in piety, looked upon it as 
lawful, and even laudable, to advance the cause of piety 
by artifice and fraud. 

XII. The most famous controversies that divided the 
Christians during this century, were those concerning the 
Millennium, or reign of a thousand years ; the baptism of 
heretics, and the doctrine of Origen. 

Long before this period, an opinion had prevailed, that 
Christ was to come and reign a thousand years among men, 
before the entire and final dissolution of this world. This 

|pr a We scarcely know any case in which the plea of prescription 
can be admitted as a satisfactory argument, in favor of religious tenets, 
or articles of faith, unless by prescription be meant, a doctrine's being 
established in the time, and by the authority of the apostles. In all 
other cases, prescription is no argument at all: it cannot recommend 
error, and truth has no need of its support. 

5^* t> It is not with the utmost accuracy that Dr. Mosheim places the 
recognitions among the spurious works of antiquity, since they are 
quoted by Origen, Epiphanius, and Rufinus, as the work of Clement. 
It is true, indeed, that these writers own them to have been altered in 
several places and falsified by the heretics ; and Epiphanius particu- 



opinion, which had hitherto met with no opposition, was 
variously interpreted by different persons : nor did all pro- 
mise themselves the same kind of enjoyments in that 
future and glorious kingdom. But, in this century, its 
credit began to decline, principally through the influence 
and authority of Origen, who opposed it with the greatest 
warmth, because it was incompatible with some of his fa- 
vourite sentiments." 1 Nepos, an Egyptian bishop, endea- 
voured to restore this opinion to its former credit, in a book 
written against the Allegorists, for so he called, by way of 
contempt, the adversaries of the Millennarian system. This 
work, and the hypothesis it defended, were exceedingly 
well received by great numbers in the canton of Arsinoe; 
and among others by Coracion, a presbyter of no mean in- 
fluence and reputation. But Dionysius of Alexandria, 
a disciple of Origen, stopped the growing progress of this 
doctrine by his private discourse, and also by two learned 
and judicious dissertations concerning the divine pro- 
mises. 6 

XIII. The disputes concerning the baptism of heretics 
were not carried on with that amiable spirit of candour, 
moderation, and impartiality, with which Dionysius op- 
posed the doctrine of the Millennium. The warmth and 
violence that were exerted in this controversy, were far 
from being edifying to such as were acquainted with the 
true genius of Christianity, and with that meekness and 
forbearance that should particularly distinguish its doctors. 

As there was no express law which determined the man- 
ner and form, according to which those who abandoned 
the heretical sects were to be received into the communion 
of the church, the rules practised in this matter were nol 
the same in all Christian churches. Many of the Oriental 
and African Christians placed recanting heretics in the rank 
of catechumens, and admitted them, by baptism, into the 
communion of the faithful ; while the greatest part of the 
European churches, considering the baptism of heretics as 
valid, used no other form in their reception than the impo- 
sition of hands, accompanied with solemn prayer. This 
diversity prevailed for a long time without exciting conten- 
tions or animosities. But, at length, charity waxed cold, 
and the fire of ecclesiastical discord broke out. In this 
centuiy, the Asiatic Christians came to a determination in 
a point that was hitherto, in some measure undecided ; and 
in more than one council established it as a law, that all 
heretics were to be re-baptised before their admission to 
the communion of the true church. f When Stephen bish- 
op of Rome, was informed of this determination, he be- 
haved with the most unchristian violence and arrogance 
toward the Asiatic Christians, broke communion with 
them, and excluded them from the communion of the 
church of Rome. These haughty proceedings made no 
impression upon Cyprian bishop of Carthage, who, not- 
withstanding the menaces of the Roman pontiff, assem- 
bled a council on this occasion, adopted with the rest of 



larly, tells us, that the Ebionites scarcely left any thing sound in them. 
As to the Clementina, they were undoubtedly spurious. 

gjT ° See the learned Treatise concerning the true Millennium 
which Dr. Whitby Iras subjoined to the second volume of his Commen- 
tary upon the New Testament. See also, for an account of the doctrine 
of the ancient Millennarians, the fourth, fifth, seventh, and ninth volumes 
of Lardner's Credibility, &c. 

d See Origen, de Principiis, lib. ii. cap. xi. p. 104. torn. i. op. 

e See Eusebius. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. xxiv. p. 271, as alsoGenna- 
dius, de dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis, cap. lv. p. 32. edit. Elmenhorst. 

f Euseb. lib. vii. cap. v. vii. Firmilianus, Epistol. ad Cyprianum, 
printed among Cyprian's Letters. 



Chap. HI. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



69 



the African bishops, the opinion of the Asiatics, and gave 
notice thereof to the imperious Stephen. The fury of the 
latter was redoubled at this notification, and produced 
many threatening and invectives against Cyprian, who re- 
plied with great force and resolution, and in a second coun- 
cil holden at Carthage, declared the baptism, administered 
by heretics, void of all efficacy and validity. Upon this the 
wrath of Stephen was inflamed beyond measure ; and, by 
a decree full of invectives, which was received with con- 
tempt, he excommunicated the African bishops, whose mo- 
deration on the one hand, and the death of their imperious 
antagonist on the other, put an end to the violent contest. 1 
XIV. The controversy concerning Origen was set in 
motion by Demetrius, bishop of Alexandria, animated as 
some say, by a principle of envy and hatred against that 
learned man, with whom he had formerly lived in an in- 
timate friendship. The assertion, however of those who 
attribute the opposition of Demetrius to this odious princi- 
ple, appears more than doubtful ; for, in the whole of his 
conduct toward Origen, there are no visible marks of envy 
though many indeed of passion and arrogance, of violence 
and injustice. The occasion of all this was as follows. 
In the year 228, Origen having set out for Achaia, was in 
his journey thither, received with singular marks of affec- 
tion and esteem by the bishops of Csesarea and Jerusalem, 
who ordained him presbyter by imposition of hands. This 
proceeding gave high offence to Demetrius, who declared 
Origen unworthy of the priesthood, because he had castra- 
ted himself, and maintained, at the same time, that it was 
not lawful to advance, to a higher dignity, the principal 
of the Alexandrian school, which was under his episcopal 
inspection, without his knowledge and approbation. A 
conclusion, however was put to these warm debates, and 
Origen returned to Alexandria. This calm was indeed, 
but of short duration, being soon succeeded by a new breach 
between him and Demetrius, the occasion of which is not 
known, but which grew to such a height as obliged Ori- 
gen, in the year 231, to abandon his charge at Alexandria 
and retire to Csesarea. His absence, however, did not ap- 
pease the resentment of Demetrius, who continued to per- 
secute him with the utmost violence. To satisfy fully his 
vengeance against Origen, he assembled two councils, in 
the first of which he condemned him unheard, and depri- 
ved him of his office, and, in the second, procured his de- 
gradation from ihe sacerdotal dignity. It is probable, that 
in one of these councils, especially the latter, Demetrius 
accused him of erroneous sentiments in matters of reli- 
gion ; for it was about this time that Origen published his 
Book of Principles, containing several opinions of a dan- 
gerous tendency. b The greatest part of the Christian 
bishops approved the proceedings of the Alexandrian coun- 
cil, against which the bishops of the churches of Achaia, 

1 Cyprian, Epist. lxx. lxxiii. — Augustin, de Baptismo contra Donatis- 
tas, lib. v. vii. torn. ix. op. where are to be found the acts of the council 
Df Cartilage, A. D. 256. — Prud. Marani vita Cypriani, p. 107. 

§jf* b This work, which was a sort of introduction to theology, has 
inly come down to us in the translation of Rufinus, who corrected and 
maimed it, in order to render it more conformable to the orthodox doctrine 
of the church than Origen had left it. It contains, however, even in its 
present form, several bold and singular opinions, such as the pre-exis- 
tence of souls, and their fall into mortal bodies, in consequence of their 
deviation from the laws of order in their first state, and the final restora- 
tion of all intelligent beings to order and happiness. Rufinus, in his 
apology for Origen, alleges, that his writings were maliciously falsified 
by the heretics; and that, in consequence thereof, many errors were at- 
tributed to him which he did not adopt ; as also, that the opinions, in 

18 



Palestine, Phoenicia, and Arabia, declared at the same 
time the highest displeasure. 

CHAPTER R. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church daring this Century. 

I. All the records of this century mention the multipli- 
cation of rites and ceremonies in the Christian church. 
Several of the causes that contributed to this, have been 
already pointed out ; to which we may add, as a princi- 
pal one, the passion which now reigned for the Platonic 
philosophy, or, rather, for the popular Oriental superstition 
concerning demons, adopted by the Platonists, and bor- 
rowed from them, unhappily, by the Christian doctors. 
For there is not the least doubt, that many of the rites, 
now introduced into the church, derived their origin from 
the reigning opinions concerning the nature of demons, 
and the powers and operations of invisible beings. Hence 
arose the use of exorcisms and spells, the frequency of 
fasts, and the aversion to wedlock ; hence the custom of 
avoiding all connexion with those who were not as yet bap- 
tised, or who lay under the penalty of excommunication, 
as persons supposed to be under the dominion of some 
malignant spirit ; and hence the rigour and severity of the 
penance imposed upon those who had incurred by their 
immoralities, the censures of the church. d 

II. In most of the provinces there were, at this time, 
some fixed places set apart for public worship among the 
Christians as will appear evident to every impartial inquirer 
into these matters. Nor is it absolutely improbable, that 
these churches were, in several places, embellished with 
images and other ornaments. 

With respect to the form of divine worship, and the times 
appointed for its celebration, there were few innovations 
made in this century. Two things, however, deserve to 
be noticed here : the first is, that the discourses, or sermons, 
addressed to the people, were very different from those of 
the earlier times of the church, and degenerated much from 
the ancient simplicity ; for, not to say any thing of Origen, 
who introduced long sermons, and was the first who ex- 
plained the Scriptures in his discourses, several bishops, 
who had received their education in the schools of the 
rhetoricians, were exactly scrupulous in adapting their pub- 
he exhortations and discourses to the rules of Grecian elo- 
quence ; and this method gained such credit, as to be soon 
almost universally followed. The second thing that we 
proposed to mention as worthy of notice, is, that about this 
time, the use of incense was introduced, at least into many 
churches. This has been denied by some men of eminent 
learning ; the fact, however, is rendered evident by the 
most unexceptionable testimonies.' 

which he differed from the doctrines of the church, were only proposed 
by him as curious conjectures. 

c The accounts here given of the persecution of Origen, are drawn 
from the most early and authentic sources, — from Eusebius' History, 
the Bibliotlieca of Photius, Jerome's Catalogue of Ecclesiastical Authors, 
and Origen himself; and they differ in some respects from those 
which common writers, such as Doucin, Huet, and others, give of this 
matter. 

d For a more ample account of this matter, the reader may consult 
Porphyry's treatise concerning abstinence, and compare what that writer 
has said' on the subject, with the customs received among the Christiacs. 
Several curious things are also to be found in Theodoret and Eusebiju 
upon this head. 

• See Bishop Beverege ad Canon, iii. Apostol. p. 461 ; as also 



70 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1L 



CTI, Several alterations were now introduced in the cele- 
bration of the Lord's supper, by those who had the direction 
of divine worship. The prayers, used upon this occasion, 
were lengthened ; and the solemnity and pomp, with which 
tliis important institution was celebrated, were considera- 
bly increased ; no doubt, with a pious intention to render 
it still more respectable. Those who were in a penitential 
state and those also who had not received the sacrament 
of baptism, were not admitted to this holy supper ; and it 
is not difficult to perceive, that these exclusions were an 
imitation of what was practised in the heathen mysteries. 
We find, by the accounts of Prudentius* and others, that 
gold and silver vessels were now used in the adminstra- 
tion of' the Lord's supper ; nor is there any reason why 
we should not adopt this opinion, since it is very natural to 
imagine, that those churches, which were composed of the 
most opulent members, would readily indulge themselves 
in this piece of religious pomp. As to the time of celebra- 
ting this solemn ordinance, it must be carefully observed, 
that there was a considerable variation in different church- 
es, arising from their different circumstances, and founded 
upon reasons of prudence and necessity. In some, it was 
celebrated in the morning ; in others, at noon ; and in 
others, in the evening. It was also more frequently repeat- 
ed in some churches, than in others ; but was considered 
in all as of the highest importance, and as essential to sal- 
vation ; for which reason it was even thought proper to 
administer it to infants. The sacred feasts, which accom- 
panied this venerable institution, preceded its celebration 
in some churches, and followed it in others. 

IV. There were, twice a year, stated times when bap- 
tism was administered to such as, after a long course of trial 
and preparation, offered themselves as candidates for the 
profession or Christianity. This ceremony was performed 
only in the presence of such as were already initiated into 
the Christian mysteries. The remission of sin was thought 
to be its immediate and happy fruit ; while the bishop, by 
prayer and the imposition of hands, was supposed to confer 
those sanctifying gifts of the Holy Ghost, which are neces- 
sary to a life of righteousness and virtue. b We have already 
mentioned the principal rites that were used in the admin- 
istration of baptism ; and we have only to add, that no 
persons were admitted to this solemn ordinance, until, by 
the menacing and formidable shouts and declamation of 
the exorcist, they had been delivered from the dominion of 
the prince of darkness, and consecrated to the service of 
God. The origin of this superstitious ceremony may be 
easily traced, when we consider the prevailing opinions of 
the times. The Christians, in general, were persuaded, 
that rational souls, deriving their existence from God, must 
consequently be in themselves pure, holy, and endowed 
with the noble principles of liberty and virtue. But, upon 
this supposition, it was difficult to account for the corrupt 
propensities and actions of men in any other way, than by 



another work of the same author, entitled, Codex Canon, vindicatus, 
p. 78. ■ Ilepl rc<t>av. Hymn ii. p. 60, edit, Heinsii. 

>> That such was the notion prevalent at this time, is evident from 
testimonies of sufficient weight. And as this point is of great conse- 
quence, in order to our understanding the theology of the ancients, which 
differs from ours in many respects, we shall mention one of these testi- 
monies, even that of Cyprian, who, in his 73d letter, expresses himself 
thus : " It is manifest where, and by whom the remission of sin, con- 
ferred in baptism, is administered. — They who are presented to the 
ruiers of the church, obtain, by our prayers and imposition of hands, the 
Holy Ghost." See also Euseb. lib. vii. cap. viii. 



attributing them either to the malignant nature of matter, 
or the influence and impulse of some evil spirit, who was 
perpetually compelling them to sin. The former opinion 
was embraced by the Gnostics, but was rejected by true 
Christians, who denied the eternity of matter, considered 
it as a creature of God, and therefore adopted the latter 
notion, that in all vicious persons there was a certain evil 
being, the author and source of their corrupt dispositions 
and their unrighteous deeds. c The expulsion of this demon 
was now considered as an essential preparation for baptism, 
after the adminstration of which, the candidates returned 
home, adorned with crowns, and arrayed in white garments, 
as sacred emblems ; the former, of their victory over sin 
and the world ; the latter, of their inward purity and inno- 
cence. 

V. Fasting began now to be heVt in more esteem than 
it had formerly been ; a high degree of sanctity was attri- 
buted to this practice, and it was even looked upon as of 
indispensable necessity, from a notion that the demons 
directed their stratagems principally jvqrainst those who 
pampered themselves with delicious fare, and were less 
troublesome to the lean and hungry, who Jived under the 
severities of a rigorous abstinence." 3 The Latins, contrary 
to the general custom, fasted on the sevwUh day of the 
week ; and, as the Greeks and Orientals refused to follow 
their example in this respect, a new subject of contention 
arose between them. 

The Christians offered up their ordinary prayers at 
three stated times of the day, viz. at the third, the sixth, 
and the ninth hour, according to the custom observed 
among the Jews. But, beside these stated devotions, tru« 
believers were assiduous in their addresses to the Suprem* 
Being, and poured forth frequently their vows and sun 
plications before his throne, because they considered nrayei 
as the most essential duty, as well as the noblest employ 
rnent, of a sanctified nature. At those festivals, wnicb 
recalled the memory of some joyful event, and were to b* 
celebrated with expressions of thanksgiving and praise, 
they prayed standing, as they thought that posture the 
fittest to express their joy and then confidence. On days 
of contrition and fasting, they presented themselves upon 
their knees before the throne of the Most High, to express 
their profound humiliation and self-abasement. Certain 
forms of prayer were, undoubtedly, used in many places 
both in public and in private ; but many also expressed 
their pious feeling in the natural effusions of an unpre- 
meditated eloquence. 

The sign of the cross was supposed to administer a 
victorious power over all sorts of trials and calamities, and 
was more especially considered as the surest defence 
against the snares and stratagems of malignant spirits ; 
and, hence it was, that no Christian undertook any thing 
of moment, without arming himself with the influence ol 
this triumphant sign. 



c It is demonstrably evident, that exorcism was added to the other 
baptismal rites in the third century, after the introduction of the Platonic 
philosophy into the church ; for, before this time, we hear no mention 
made of it. Justin Martyr, in his second apology, and Tertullian, in 
his book concerning the military crown, give us an account of the cere- 
monies used in baptism during the second century, without any mention 
of exorcism. This is a very strong argument of its being posterior to 
these two great men ; and is every way proper to persuade us, that it 
made its entrance into the Christian church in the third century, and 
probably first in Egypt. 

"i Clementin. Homil. ix. sect 9. Porphyr. de abstinentia, lib. iv. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



71 



CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The same sects that, in the former ages, had pro- 
duced such disorder and perplexity in the Christian church, 
continued, in this, to create new troubles, and to foment 
new divisions-. The Montanists, Valentinians, Marcionites, 
and the other Gnostics, continued still to draw out their 
forces, notwithstanding- the repeated defeats thay had met 
with ; and their obstinacy remained even when their 
strength was gone, as it often happens in religious contro- 
versy. Adelphius and Aquilinus, who were of the Gnostic 
tribe, endeavoured to insinuate themselves and their doc- 
trine into the esteem of the public, at Rome, and in other 
parts of Italy. 1 They were, however, ckecked, not only 
by the Christians, but also by Plotinus, the greatest Pla- 
tonic philosopher of this age, who, followed by a nume- 
rous train of disciples, opposed these two chimerical teach- 
ers, and others of the same kind, with as much vigour 
and success as the most enlightened Christians could have 
done. The philosophical opinions which this faction 
entertained concerning the Supreme Being, the origin of 
the world, the nature of evil, and several other subjects, 
were entirely opposite to the doctrines of Plato. Hence 
the disciples of Jesus, and the followers of Plotinus, 
united their efforts against the progress of Gnosticism : 
and there is no doubt that their conjunct force soon 
destroyed the credit and authority of this fantastic sect, 
and rendered it contemptible in the estimation of the 
wise. b 

II. While the Christians were struggling with these 
corrupters of the truth, and upon the point of obtaining a 
complete and decisive victory, a new enemy, mere vehe- 
ment and odious than the rest, started up suddenly, and 
engaged in the contest. This was Manes (or Manichaeus, 
as he sometimes is called by his diciples,) by birth a Per- 
sian ; educated among the Magi, and himself one of that 
number, before he embraced the profession of Christianity. 
Instructed in all those arts and sciences, which the Per- 
sians, and the neighbouring nations, held hi the highest 
esteem, he had penetrated into the depths of astronomy 
in the midst of a rural life ; studied the art of healing, 
and applied himself to painting and philosophy. His 
genius was vigorous and sublime, but redundant and un- 
governed; and his mind, destitute of a proper temperature, 
seemed to border on fanaticism and madness. He was so 
adventurous as to attempt an amalgamation of the doc- 
trine of the Magi with the Christian system, or rather the 
explication of one by the other ; and, in order to succeed 
in this audacious enterprise, he affirmed that Christ had 
left the doctrine of salvation unfinished and imperfect, and 
that he was the comforter whom the departing Seviour 
had promised to his disciples to lead them into all truth. 

* Porphyr. vita Plotini, cap. xvi. p. 118. 

_ fc Plotinus' book against the Gnostics is extant in his work, Ennead. 
ii. lib. ix. 

fj" • Some allege, that Manes, having undertaken to cure the son of 
the Persian monarch of a dangerous disease, by his medicinal art or his 
miraculous power, failed in the attempt, precipitated the death of the 
prince, and, thus incurring the indignation of die king his father, was 
put to a. cruel death. This account is scarcely probable, as it is men- 
tioned by none of the Oriental writers cited by M. d'Herbelot, and as 
Bar-Hebrceus speaks of it in terms which shew that it was only an un- 
certain rumor. The death of Manes is generally attributed to another 



Many were deceived by the eloquence of this enthusiast, 
by the gravity of his countenance, and the innocence and 
simplicity of his manners ; so that, in a short time, he 
formed a sect not utterly inconsiderable in point of num- 
ber. He was put to death by Varanes I. king of the 
Persians ; though historians are not agreed with respect 
to the cause, time, and manner, of his execution. 

IH. The doctrine of Manes was a motley mixture of 
the tenets of Christianity with the ancient philosophy of 
the Persians, in which he had been instructed during his 
youth. He combined these two systems, and applied and 
accommodated to Jesus Christ the characters and actions 
which the Persians attributed to the god Mithras. The 
principal doctrines of Manes are comprehended in the 
following summary : 

" There are two principles from which all things pro- 
ceed ; the one is a most pure and subtile matter, called 
Light; and the other a gross and corrupt substance, 
called Darkness. Both are subject to the dominion of a 
superintending being, whose existence is from all eternity 
The being who presides over the light, is called God ; he 
that rules the lacliof darkness, bears the title of H}de or 
Demon. The ruler of the light is supremely happy ; and, 
in consequence thereof, benevolent and good ; the prince 
of darkness is unhappy in himself; and, desiring to render 
others partakers of his misery, is evil and malignant. 
These two beings have produced an immense multitude 
of creatures, resembling themselves, and distributed them 
through their respective provinces." 

IV. " The prince of darkness knew not, for a long 
series of ages, that light existed in the universe: and he 
no sooner perceived it. by the means of a war that was 
kindled in his dominions, than he bent bis endeavours 
toward the subjection of it to his empire. The ruler of 
the light opposed to his efforts an army commanded by 
the first man, but not with the highest success ; for the 
generals of the prince of darkness seized a considerable 
portion of the celestial elements, and of the light itself, 
and mingled them in the mass of corrupt matter. The 
second general of the ruler of the light, whose name was 
the living spirit, made war with greater success against 
the prince of darkness, but could not entirely disengage 
the pure particles of the celestial matter, from the corrupt 
mass through which they had been dispersed. The 
prince of darkness, after his defeat, produced the first pa- 
rents of the human race. The beings engendered from 
this original stock, consists of a body formed out of the 
corrupt matter of the kingdom of darkness, and of two 
souls ; one of which is sensitive and lustful, and owes its 
existence to the evil principle : the other rational and im- 
mortal, a particle of that divine fight, which was carried 
away by the army of darkness, and immersed into the 
mass of malignant matter/' 

V. "Mankind being thus formed by the prince of dark- 
cause by the Oriental writers. They tell us, that (after having been 
protected in a singular manner by Hormizdas, who succeeded Sapor on 
die Persian throne, but who was not able to defend him, at length, 
against the united hatred of the Christians, the Magi, the Jews, and the 
Pagans) he was shut up in a strong casde, which Horniizdas had erected 
between Bagdad and Susa, to serve him as a refuge asainst diose who 
persecuted him on account of his doctrine. They *dd, diat after die 
deadi of Horniizdas, Varanes I., his successor, first protected Manes, but 
afterwards gave him up to die fury of die Magi, whose resentment 
against him arose from his having adopted die Sadducean principles, as 
some say, while others attributed it to his having mingled the tenets of 
the Magi with the doctrines of Christianity. 



72 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



ness, and those minds which were the productions of the 
eternal light, being united to their mortal bodies, God cre- 
ated the earth out of the corrupt mass of matter, by that 
living spirit, who had vanquished the prince of darkness. 
The design of this creation was to furnish a dwelling for 
the human race, to deliver, by degrees, the captive souls 
from their corporeal prisons, and to extract the celestial ele- 
ments from the gross substance in which they were invol- 
ved. In order to carry this design into execution, God 
produced two beings of eminent dignity from his own sub- 
stance, who were to lend their auspicious succour to im- 
prisoned souls ; of these sublime entities one was Christ; and 
the other, the Holy Ghost. Christ is that glorious intelli- 
gence which the Persians called Mithras: he is a most 
splendid substance, consisting of the brightness of the eter- 
nal light; subsisting in and by himself, endowed with 
life, and enriched with infinite wisdom ; and his residence 
is in the sun. The Holy Ghost is also a luminous and 
animated body, diffused throughout every part of the at- 
mosphere which surrounds this terrestrial globe. This 
genial principle warms and illuminates the minds of men, 
renders also the earth fruitful, and draws forth gradually 
from its bosom the latent particles of celestial fire, which it 
wafts up on high to their primitive station. 

VI. " When the Supreme Being had, for a long time, 
admonished and exhorted the captive souls, by the minis- 
try of the angels, and of the holy men, appointed for that 
purpose, he ordered Christ to leave the solar regions, and 
to descend upon earth, in order to accelerate the return 
of those imprisoned spirits to their celestial country. In 
obedience to this divine command, Christ appeared among 
the Jews, clothed with the shadowy form of a human 
body, and not with the real substance. During his minis- 
try, he taught mortals how to disengage the rational soul 
from the corrupt body, and to conquer the violence of ma- 
lignant matter ; and he demonstrated his divine mission 
by stupendous miracles. On the other hand, the prince 
of darkness used every method to inflame the Jews against 
this divine messenger, and incited them at length to put 
him to death with ignominy upon a cross; which punish- 
ment, however he suffered not in reality, but only in ap- 
pearance, and in the opinion of men. When Christ had 
fulfilled the purposes of his mission he returned to his 
throne in the sun, and appointed a certain number of cho- 
sen apostles to propagate through the world the religion 
he had taught during the course of his ministry. But be- 
fore his departure, he promised, that, at a certain time, he 
would send an apostle superior to all others in eminence 
and dignity, whom he called the -paraclete or comforter, 
who should add many things to the precepts he had deli- 
vered, and dispel all the errors under which his servants 
laboured concerning divine things. This comforter, 
thus expressly promised by Christ, is Manes; the Persian, 
who, by the order of the Most High, declared to mortals 
the whole doctrine of salvation, without exception, and 
without concealing any of its truths under the veil of meta- 
phor or any other covering. ■ 

VII. <: Those souls, who believe Jesus Christ to be the 
Son of God, who renounce the worship of the God of the 
Jews ( the prince of darkness,) obey the laws delivered by 
Christ as they are enlarged and illustrated by the com- 
forter, Manes, and combat, with persevering fortitude, the 
lusts and appetites of a corrupt nature, derive from this 



Part 1 

faith and obedience the inestimable advantage of bein& 
gradually purified from the contagion of matter. The to- 
tal purification of souls cannot, indeed be accomplished 
during this mortal fife. Hence it is, that the souls of men 
after death, must pass through two states more of proba- 
tion and trial, by water and fire, before they can ascend to 
the regions of light. They mount, therefore, first into th« 
moon, which consists of benign and salutary water; 
whence, after a lustration of fifteen days, they proceed to 
the sun, whose purifying fire entirely removes their cor- 
ruption, and effaces all their stains. The bodies, compo- 
sed of malignant matter, which they have left behind 
them, return to their first state, aud enter into their origi 
nal mass. 

VIII. " On the other hand, those souls who have neg- 
lected the salutary work of their purification, pass, after 
death, into the bodies of animals, or other natures, where 
they remain until they have expiated their guilt, and ac 
complished their probation. Some, on account of theii 
peculiar obstinacy and perverseness, pass through a se- 
verer course of trial, being delivered over, for a certain 
time, to the power of aerial spirits, who torment them in 
various ways. When the greatest part of the captive souls 
are restored to liberty, and to the regions of light, then a 
devouring fire shall break forth at the divine command, 
from the caverns in which it is at present confined, and, 
shall destroy and consume the frame of the world. After 
this tremendous event, the prince and powers of darkness 
shall be forced to return to their primitive seats of anguish 
and misery, in which they shall dwell for ever ; for, to pre- 
vent their ever renewing this war in the regions of fight, 
God shall surround the mansions of darkness with an in- 
vincible guard, composed of those souls who have fallen 
irrecoverably from the hopes of salvation, and who, set in 
array, like a military band, shall surround those gloomy 
seats of woe, and hinder any of then wretched inhabitants 
from coming forth again to the fight." 

IX. In order to remove the strongest obstacles that lay 
against the belief of this monstrous system, Manes rejected, 
almost all the sacred books into which Christians look for 
the sublime truths of their holy religion. He affirmed, in 
the first place, that the Old Testament was not the word of 
God, but of the prince of darkness, who was substituted 
by the Jews in the place of the true God. He maintained 
farther that the Four Gospels, which contain the history 
of Christ, were not Avritten by the apostles, or, at least, that 
they were corrupted and interpolated by designing and 
artful men, and were augmented with Jewish fables and 
fictions. He therefore supplied their place by a gospel 
which he said was dictated to him by God himself, and 
which he distinguished by the title of Erteng. He re- 
jected also the Acts of the Apostles ; and though he ac- 
knowledged the epistles, that are attributed to St. Paul, 
to be the productions of that divine apostle, yet he looked 
upon them as grossly corrupted and falsified in a variety 
of passages. We have not any certain account of the 
judgment which he formed concerning the other books o\ 
the New Testament. ?-r 

X. The rules of life and manners that Manes prescri- 
bed to his disciples were extravagantly rigorous and aus- 
tere. He commanded them to mortify and macerate the 
body, which he looked upon as intrinsically evil, and es- 
sentially corrupt ; to deprive it of all those objects wliich 



£hap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



73 



could contribute either to its conveniency or delight; to 
extirpate all those desires that lead to the pursuit of exter- 
nal objects ; and to direst themselves of all the passions 
and instincts of nature. Such were the unnatural rules of 
practice which this absurd fanatic prescribed to his follow- 
ers ; but foreseeing, at the same time, that his sect could 
not become numerous, if this severe manner of living 
should be imposed without distinction upon all his adhe- 
rents, he divided his disciples into two classes; one of 
which comprehended the perfect Christians, un^»r the 
name of the elect; and the other, the imperfect and feeble, 
under the title of hearers. The elect were bound to 
rigorous and entire abstinence from flesh, eggs, milk, 
fish, wine, all intoxicating drink, wedlock, and all amor- 
ous gratifications, and were required to live in a state of 
the sharpest penury, nourishing, their shrivelled and ema- 
ciated bodies with bread, herbs, pulse, and melons, and de- 
priving themselves of all the comforts that arise from the 
moderate indulgence of natural passions, and also from a 
variety of innocent and agreeable pursuits. The disci- 
pline appointed for the hearers, was of a milder nature. 
They were allowed to possess houses, lands, and wealth, 
to feed upon flesh, and to enter into the bonds of conjugal 
tenderness ; but this liberty was granted to them with 
many limitations, and under the strictest conditions of 
moderation and temperance. 

The general Manichean assembly was headed by a pre- 
sident, who represented Jesus Christ. There were joined 
to him twelve rulers, or masters, who were designed to re- 
present the twelve apostles ; and these were followed by 
seventy-two bishops, the images of the seventy-two disci- 
ples of our Lord. These bishops had presbyters and dea- 
cons under them, and all the members of these religious 
orders were chosen out of the class of the elect. 3 

XI. The sect of the Hieracit.es was formed in Egypt, 
toward the conclusion of this century, by Hierax of Leon- 
tium, a bookseller by profession, distinguished eminently, 
by his extensive learning, and a venerable ah of sanctity 
and virtue. Some have considered this as a branch of 
the Manichean sect, but without foundation ; since, not- 
withstanding the agreement of Manes and Hierax in some 
points of doctrine, it is certain that they differed in many 
respects. Hierax maintained, that the principal object of 
Chrises office and ministry was the promulgation of a new 
law, more severe and perfect than that of Moses; and 
hence he concluded, that the use of flesh and wine, wed- 
lock, and other things agreeable to the outward senses, 
which had been permitted under the Mosiac dispensation, 
were absolutely prohibited and abrogated bj- Christ. If, 
indeed we look attentively into his doctrine, we shall find 
that, like Manes, he did not think that these austere acts 
of self-denial were imposed by Christ indiscriminately up- 
on all, but on such only as were ambitious of aspiring to 
the highest summit of virtue. To this leading error he 
added some others, which were partly the consequences of 
this illusion, and were, in part, derived from other sources. 
He excluded, for example, from the kingdom of heaven, 
children who died before they had arrived at the use 

* See all this amply proved in the work entitled Commentariide rebus 
Christianorum ante Constantinum Magnum. 

b Epiphan. Hares, lxvii. Hieracitarum. p. 710, &c. 

• See the Discourse of Hippolytus against the Heresy of Noetus, in 
the second volume of his works, published by Fabricius : as also Epi- 
phan. Haeres. lvii. torn. i. ; and Theodoret. Haeret. Fabul. lib. iii. cap. lii. 



of reason, upon the supposition that God was bound to 
administer the rewards of futurity to those only who had 
fairly finished their victorious conflict with the body and 
its lusts. He maintained also, that Melchizedec, king of 
Salem, who blessed Abraham, was the Holy Ghost; de- 
nied the resurrection of the body ; and cast a cloud of ob- 
scurity over the sacred scriptures, by his allegorical fic- 
tions." 

XII. The controversies relating to th ; divine Trinity, 
which took their rise in the former centu'.y. from the intro- 
duction of the Grecian philosophy into the Christian church, 
were now spreading with considerable vigour, and pro- 
duced various methods of explaining that inexplicable 
doctrine. One of the first who engaged in this idle and 
perilous attempt of explaining what every mortal must 
acknowledge to be incomprehensible, was Noetus of Smyr- 
na, an obscure man, and of mean abilities. He affirmed 
that the supreme God, whom he called the Father, and 
considered as absolutely indivisible, united himself to the 
man Christ, whom he called the Son, and was born, and 
crucified with him. From this opinion, Noetus and his 
followers were distinguished by the title of Patripassians, 
i. e. persons who believe that the Supreme Father of the 
universe, and not any other divine person, had expiated 
the guilt of the human race ; and, indeed this appellation 
belongs to them justly, if the accounts which ancient 
writers give us of their opinions be accurate and im- 
partial. 

XIII. About the middle of this century arose Sabelhus, 
an African bishop or presbyter, who in Pentapolis, a pro- 
vince of Cyrenaica, and in Ptolemais or Barce, its principal 
city, explained, in a manner very little different from that 
of Noetus, the doctrine of Scripture concerning the 
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. This dogmatist had a 
considerable number of followers, who adhered to him, 
notwithstanding that his opinions were refuted by Diony- 
sius, bishop of Alexandria. His sentiments were, in some 
respects, different from those of Noetus ; for the latter was 
of opinion, that the person of the Father had assumed the 
human nature of Christ ; whereas Sabelhus maintained, 
that a certain energy only, proceeding from the Supreme 
Parent, or a certain portion of the divine nature, was united 
to the Son of God, the man Jesus ; and he considered, in 
the same manner, the Holy Ghost, as a portion of the ever- 
lasting Father. d Hence it appears, that the Sabellians, 
though they might with justice be called Patripassians, 
were yet called so by the ancients in a different sense from 
that in which this name was given to the Noetians. 

XIV. At this same period, Beryllus an Arabian, bishop 
of Bozrah, and a man of eminent piety and learning, 
taught that Christ, before his birth, had no proper subsis- 
tence, nor any other divinity, than that of the Father ; 
which opinion, when considered with attention, amounts 
to this : that Christ did not exist before Mary, but that a 
spirit issuing from God himself, and therefore superior to 
all human souls, as being a portion of the divine nature, 
was united to him, at the time of his birth. Beryllus, 
however, was refuted by Origen, with such a victorious 

d Almost all the historians, who give accounts of the ancient here- 
sies, have made particular mention of Sabellius. Among other* ?ee 
Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. vi. cap. vi. p. 252.. Athanas. Lib. de senlen 
tia Dionysii. All the passages of the ancient authors, relating to 
Sabellius, are carefully collected by the learned Christopher Wormius, 
in his Histona Sabelliana. 



74 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



power of argument and zeal, that he yielded up the cause, 
and returned into the bosom of the church." 

XV. Paul of Samosata, bishop of Antioch, and also a 
magistrate, or civil judge, was very different from the pious 
and candid Beryllus, both in point of morals and doctrine. 
He was a vain and arrogant man, whom riches had ren- 
dered insolent and self-sufficient. b He introduced great 
confusion and trouble into the eastern churches, by his 
new explication of the doctrine of the Gospel concerning the 
nature of God and Christ, and left behind him a sect, that 
assumed the title of Paulians, or Paulianists. As far as we 
can judge of his doctrine, by the accounts of it that have 
been transmitted to us, it seems to have amounted to this: 
" That the Son and the Holy Ghost exist in God, in the 
same manner as the faculties of reason and activity do in 
man ; that Christ was born a mere man ; but that the reason 
or wisdom of the Father descended into him, and by him 
wrought miracles upon earth, and instructed the nations ; 
and finally, that, on account of this, union of the divine 
word with the man Jesus, Christ might, though improperly, 
oe called God." 

Such were the real sentiments of Paul. He involved 
them, however, in such deep obscurity, by the ambiguous 
forms of speech with which he affected to explain and de- 
fend them, that, in several councils convoked for an inqui- 
ry into his errors, he could not be convicted of heresy. At 
length, hoAvever, a council was assembled in the year 269, 
in which Malchion, the rhetorician, drew him forth from 
his obscurity, detected his evasions, and exposed him in his 
true colors ; in consequence of which he was degraded 
from the episcopal order. c 

XVI. It was not only in the point now mentioned, that 
the doctrine of the Gospel suffered, at this time from the 
erroneous fancies of wrong headed doctors ; for there 
sprang up now, in Arabia, a certain sort of minute philoso- 
phers, the disciples of a master, whose obscurity has con- 
cealed him from the knowledge of after-ages, who denied 
the immortality of the soul, and believed that it perished 
with the body ; but maintained, at the same time, that it 
was to be recalled to life with the body, by the power of 
God. The philosophers, who held this opinion, were de- 
nominated Arabians from their country. Origen was called 
from Egypt, to make head against this rising sect, and dis- 
puted against them, in a full council, with such remark- 
able success, that they abandoned their erroneous senti- 
ments, and returned to the received doctrine of the church. 

XVII. Among the sects that arose in this century, we 
place that of the Novatians the last. This sect cannot be 
charged with having corrupted the doctrine of Christianity 
by their opinions ; their crime was, that, by the unrea- 
sonable severity of their discipline, they gave occasion to 
the most deplorable divisions, aud made an unhappy 
schism in the church. Novatian, a presbyter ot the 
church of Rome, a man of uncommon learning and elo- 
quence, but of an austere and rigid character, entertained 
the most unfavourable sentiments of those who had been 
separated from the communion of the church. He indul- 

1 Euseb. lib. vi. cap. xx. xxxiii. Hieronym. Catalog. Scriptor. Eccles. 
cap. lx. Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. vii. ; and, among the 
moderns, le Clerc, Ars Critica, vol. i. part ii. sect. i. cap. xiv. Chauffe- 
pied, Nouveau Diction. Hist, et Crit. torn. i. 

b Euseb. lib. vii. cap. xxx. 

e Epistol. Concil. Antioch. ad Paulum in Bibliotheca Patrum, torn. xi. 



ged his inclination to severity so far, as to deny that such 
as had fallen into the commission of grievous transgres- 
sions, especially those who had apostatised from the faith, 
under the persecution set on foot by Decius, were to be 
again received into the bosom of the church. The great- 
est part of the presbyters were of a different opinion in this 
matter, especially Cornelius, whose credit and influence 
were raised to the highest pitch by the esteem and admira- 
tion which his eminent virtues so naturally excited. Hence 
it happened, that when a bishop was to be chosen, in the 
year 250, to succeed Fabianus in the see of Rome. Nova- 
tian opposed the election of Cornelius, with the greatest 
activity and bitterness. His opposition, however, was in 
vain ; for Cornelius was chosen to that eminent office of 
which his distinguished merit rendered him so highly wor- 
thy. Novatian, upon this, separated himself from the 
jurisdiction of Cornelius, who, in his turn, called a council 
at Rome, in the year 251, and cut off Novatian and his 
partisans from the communion of the church. This turbu- 
lent man, being thus excommunicated, erected a new soci- 
ety, of which he was the first bishop ; and, which, on ac- 
count of the severity of its discipline, was followed by ma- 
ny, and flourished, until the fifth century, in the greatest 
part of those provinces which had received the Gospel. 
The chief person who assisted him in this enterprise was 
Novatus, a Carthaginian presbyter, a man of no sound 
principles, who, during the heat of this controversy, had 
come from Carthage to Rome, to escape the resentment 
and excommunication of Cyprian, his bishop, with whom 
he was highly at variance. 

XVIII. There was no difference, in point of doctrine, 
between the Novatians and other Christians. What pe- 
culiarly distinguished them, was their refusing to re-admit, 
to the communion of the church, those who, after baptism, 
had fallen into the commission cf heinous crimes, though 
they did not pretend, that even such were excluded from 
all possibility or hopes of salvation. They considered the 
Christian church as a society where virtue and innocence 
reigned universally, and none of whose members, from 
their entrance into it, had defiled themselves with any 
enormous crime ; and, in consequence, they looked upon 
every society, which re-admitted heinous offenders to its 
communion, as unworthy of the title of a true Christian 
church. For that reason, also, they assumed the title of 
Cathari, i. e. the pure; and what showed a still more 
extravagant degree of vanity and arrogance, they obliged 
such as came over to them from the general body of Chris- 
tians, to submit to be baptized a second time, as a necessary 
preparation for entering into their society ; for such deep 
root had their favourite opinion concerning the irrevocable 
rejection of heinous offenders taken in their minds, and so 
great was its influence upon the sentiments they entertain- 
ed of other Christian societies, that they considered the 
baptism administered in those churches, which received the 
lapsed to their communion, even after the most sincere and 
undoubted repentance, as absolutely divested of the power 
of imparting the remission of sins. d 



p. 302. Dionysii Alex. Ep. ad Paulum. Decern Pauli Samosateni 
duajstiones. 

d Eusebius, lib. vi. cap. xliii. Cyprianus, in variis Epistolis, xlix., &c. 
Albaspiiiffius, Observat, Eccles. lib. ii. cap. xx. xxi. Jos. Aug. Orsi, de 
Criminum capital, inter veteres Christianos Absolutione, p. 254. Kenc- 
kel, de Hajresi Novatiana. 



AN 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY; 



BOOK THE SECOND: 



CONTAINING THE 



STATE OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH 



FROM THE TIME OF 



CONSTANTINE THE GREAT TO CHARLEMAGNE. 



THE FOURTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous and calamitous Events 
which happened to the Church during this Century. 

I. That I may not separate facts, which are intimately 
connected with each other, I have judged it expedient to 
corhbine, in the same chapter, the prosperous and calami- 
tous events that happened to the church during this centu- 
ry, instead of treating them separately, as I have hitherto 
done. This combination, which presents things hi their 
natural relations, as causes or effects, is undoubtedly the 
principal circumstance that renders history truly interest- 
ing. In following, however, this plan, the order of time 
shall also be observed with as much accuracy as the com- 
bination of events will allow. 

In the beginning of the century, the Roman empire was 
under the dominion of four chiefs, of whom two, Diocle- 
tian and Maximian Herculius, were of superior dignity, 
and were severally distinguished by the title of Augustus ; 
while the other two, Constantius Chlorus and Maximian 
Galerius, were in a certain degree of suborbination to the 
former, and were honoured with the appellation of Caesars. 
Under these four emperors, the church enjoyed an agreea- 
bL calm. 11 Diocletian, though much addicted to supersti- 
tion, did not entertain any aversion to the Christians ; and 
Constantius Chlorus, who, following the dictates of reason 
alone in the worship of the Deity, had abandoned the 
absurdities of polytheism, treated them with condescension 
sion and benevolence. This alarmed the pagan priests, 
whose interests were so closely connected with the contin- 
uance of the ancient superstitions, and who apprehended, 
not without cause, that to their great detriment the Chris- 
tian religion would become daily more general and tri- 
umphant throughout the empire. Under these anxious 
fears of the downfall of their authority, they addressed 
themselves to Diocletian, whom they knew to of be a tim- 
orous and credulous disposition, and by fictitious oracles, 
and other perfidious stratagems, endeavoured to engage 
him to persecute the Christians. b 

II. Diocletian, however, stood for some time unmoved 
by the treacherous arts of these selfish and superstitious 
priests, who, when they perceived the ill success of their 
cruel efforts, addressed themselves to Maximian Galerius, 
one of the Ceesars, and also son-in-law to Diocletian, in or- 
der to accomplish their unrighteous purposes. This prince, 
whose gross ignorance of every thing but military affairs 

• Eusebius, lib. viii. cap. i. p. 291, &c. 

b Eusebius, dc vita Constantini, lib. ii. cap. i. p. 467. Lactantii Insti- 
tut. divin. lib. iv. cap. xxvii. et. de Mortibus Persequutorum, cap. x. 

c Lactantius, de Mortibus Persequutorum, c. xi. Eusebius, lib. viii. 
cap. ii. 

d Augustinus, Brev. collat. cum Donatistis, cap. xv. xvii. Baluzii 
Misccllan. torn. ii. 

• Optatus Milevit. de Schismate Donatistarum, lib. i. sect xiii. 



was accompanied with a fierce and savage temper, was a 
proper instrument for executing their designs. Set on, 
therefore, by the malicious insinuations of the heathen 
priests, the suggestions of a superstitious mother, and the fe- 
rocity of his own natural disposition, he solicited Diocletian, 
with such urgent and indefatigable importunity, for an edict 
against the Christians, that he at length, obtained his hor- 
rid purpose ; for in the year 303, when this emperor was at 
Nicomedia, an order was obtained from him to pull down 
the churches of the Christians, to burn all their books and 
writings, and to take from them all their civil rights and 
privileges, and render them incapable of any honours or 
civil promotion/ This first edict, though rigorous and 
severe, extended not to the fives of the Christians, for 
Diocletian was extremely averse to slaughter and blood- 
shed ; it was, however, destructive to many of them, 
particularly to those who refused to deliver the sacred books 
into the hands of the magistrates." 1 Many Christians, 
therefore, and among them several bishops and presbyters, 
seeing the consequences of this refusal, delivered up all the 
religious books, and other sacred things that were in their 
possession, in order to save their fives. This conduct was 
highly condemned by the most steady and resolute Chris- 
tians, who looked upon this compliance as sacrilegious, 
and branded those who were guilty of it with the ignomin- 
ious appellation of traditorss 

ni. Not long after the publication of this first edict 
against the Christians, a fire broke out twice in the palace 
of Nicomedia, where Galerius lodged with Diocletian. 
The Christians were accused, by their enemies, as the 
authors of this conflagration ; f and the credulous Diocle- 
tian, too easily persuaded of the truth of this charge, 
caused vast numbers of them to suffer, at Nicomedia, 
the punishment of incendiaries, and to be tormented in 
the most inhuman and infamous manner, s About the 
same time, there arose tumults and seditions in Armenia 
and in Syria, which were also attributed to the Christians 
by their irreconcileable enemies, who took advantage of 
those disturbances to inflame the emperor's fun". And, 
accordingly, Diocletian, by a new edict, ordered all the 
bishops and ministers of the Christian church to be thrown 
into prison. Nor did his inhuman violence end here : 
for a third edict was soon issued, by which it was ordered, 
that all sorts of torments should be employed, and the 
most insupportable punishments invented, to force these 
venerable captives to renounce their profession, by sacri- 

JjT f Lactantius assures us, that Galerius caused fire to be priratelj 
set to the palace, that he might lay the blame of it upon the Christians 
and thus incense Diocletian still more against them; in which horrid 
stratagem he succeeded ; for never was any persecution so bloody and 
inhuman, as that which this credulous emperor now set on foot against 
them. 

« Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. cap. vi. Lactant. de Mortibus Perse. 
quut. cap. xix. Constant. Mag. Oratio ad sanctor. Ccetum, cap. xxv. 



No. VII. 



20 



78 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



fixing to the heathen, gods ; a for it was hoped, that, if the 
bishops and doctors of the church could be brought to 
yield, their respective flocks would be easily induced to fol- 
low their example. An immense number of persons, 
illustriously distinguished by their piety and learning, be- 
came the victims of this cruel stratagem through the whole 
Roman empire, Gaul excepted, which was under the mild 
and equitable dominion of Constantius Chlorus. b Some 
were punished in such a shameful manner, as the rules 
of decency oblige us to pass in silence ; some were put to 
death after having had their constancy tried by tedious 
and inexpressible tortures ; and some were sent to the 
mines to draw out the remains of a miserable life in po- 
verty and bondage. 

IV. In the second year of this horrible persecution, the 
304th of the Christian sera, a fourth edict was published 
by Diocletian, at the instigation of Galerius and the other 
inveterate enemies of the Christian name. By it the ma- 
gistrates were ordered and commissioned to force all Chris- 
tians, without distinction of rank, or sex, to sacrifice to the 
gods, and were authorised to employ all sorts of torments, 
in order to drive them to this act of apostasy. The dili- 
gence and zeal of the Roman magistrates, in the execution 
of this inhuman edict, nearly proved fatal to the Christian 
cause. d 

Galerius now made no longer a mystery of the ambi- 
tious project which he had been revolving his mind. Find- 
ing his scheme ripe for execution, he obliged Diocletian 
and Maximian Herculius to resign the imperial dignity, 
and declared himself emperor of the east; leaving in the 
west Constantius Chlorus, with the ill state of whose 
health he was well acquainted. He chose colleagues ac- 
cording to his own fancy; and rejecting the proposal of 
Diocletian, who recommended Maxentius and Constan- 
tine (the son of Constantius) to that dignity, he made 
of Severus and Daza, his sister's son, to whom he had a 
little before given the name of Maximin. e This revolu- 
tion restored peace to those Christians who lived in the 
western provinces, under the administration of Constan- 
tius •' while those of the east, under the tyranny of Gale- 
rius, had their sufferings and calamities dreadfully aug- 
mented.s 

V. The divine providence, however, was preparing 
more serene and happy days for the church. In order to 
this, it confounded the schemes of Galerius, and brought 
his counsels to nothing. In the year 306, Constantius 
Chlorus dying in Britain, the army saluted, with the title 
of Augustus, his son Constantine, surnamed afterwards 
the Great on account of his illustrious exploits, and forced 
him to accept the purple. This proceeding, which must 
have stung the tyrant Galerius to the heart, he was, never- 
theless, obliged to bear with patience, and even to confirm 
with the outward marks of his approbation. Soon after 
a civil war broke out, the occasion of which was as fol- 
lows ; Maximian Galerius, inwardly enraged at the elec- 
tion of Constantine by the soldiers,, sent him, indeed, the 
purple, but gave him only the title of Caesar, and created 

" Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. cap. vii. et de Martyribus Palsestinse. 
b Lactantius, cap. xv. — Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. viii. cap. xiii. xviii. 
Eusebius, de Martyribus Palrestina:, cap. iii. 
a Lactantius, Institut. divin. lib. v. cap. xi. 

• Lactant. de Mortibus Persequut. cap. xvii. xx. 
Euseb. de Martyribus Palaestiiiae, cap. xiii. 

* Lactant. cap. xxi. 



Severus emperor. Maxentius, the son of Maximian Her- 
culius, and son-in-law to Galerius, provoked at the prefer- 
ence given to Severus, assumed the imperial dignity, and 
found the less difficulty in making good this usurpation, 
as the Roman people hoped, by his means, to deliver them- 
selves from the insupportable tyranny of Galerius. Hav- 
ing caused himself to be proclaimed emperor, he chose his 
father Maximian for his colleague, who receiving the pur- 
ple from the hands of his son, was universally acknow- 
ledged in that character by the senate and the people. 
Amidst all these troubles and commotions, Constantine, 
beyond all human expectation, made his way to the im- 
perial throne. 

The western Christians, those of Italy and Africa ex- 
cepted, 11 enjoyed some degree of tranquillity and liberty 
during these civil tumults. Those of the east seldom con- 
tii ued for any considerable time in the same situation. 
They were subject to various changes and revolutions ; 
their condition was sometimes adverse and sometimes to- 
lerably easy, according to the different scenes that were 
presented by the fluctuating state of publick affairs. At 
length, however, Maximian Galerius, who had been the 
author of their heaviest calamities, being brought to the 
brink of the grave by a most dreadful and lingering 
disease,' whose complicated horrors no language can ex- 
press, published, in the year 311, a solemn edict, ordering 
the persecution to cease, and restoring freedom and repose 
to the Christians, against whom he had exercised such 
horrible cruelties. 11 

VI. After the death of Galerius, his dominions fell into 
the hands of Maximin and Licinius, who divided be- 
tween them the provinces he had possessed. At the same 
time, Maxentius, who had usurped the government of Af- 
rica and Italy, determined to make war upon Constan- 
tine (who was now master of Spain and Gaul,) with the 
ambitious view of reducing, under his dominion the whole 
western empire. Constantine, apprised of this design, 
marched with a part of his army into Italy, gave battle to 
Maxentius at a small distance from Rome, and totally de- 
feated that abominable tyrant, who, in his precipitate flight, 
fell into the Tiber and was drowned. After this victory, 
which happened in the year 312, Constantine, and his 
colleague Licinius, immediately granted to the Christians 
a full power of living according to their own laws and in- 
stitutions ; which power was specified still more clearly m 
another edict, drawn up at Milan, in the following year.' 
Maximin, indeed, who ruled in the east, was preparing 
calamities for the Christians, and threatening also with 
destruction the western emperors. But his projects were 
disconcerted by the victory which Licinius gained over 
his army, and, through distraction and despair, he ended 
his life by poison, in the year 313. 

VII. About the same time, Constantine the Great, who 
had hitherto manifested no religious principles of any 
kind, embraced Christianity, in consequence, as it is said 
of a miraculous cross, which appeared to him in the air, 
as he was marching toward Rome to attack Maxentius. 

f^T h The reason of this exception is, that the provinces of Italy and 
Africa, though nominally under the government of Severus, were yet in 
fact ruled by Galerius with an iron sceptre. 

ICj" i See a lively description of the disease of Galerius in the Uni- 
versal History. 

k Euseb. lib. viii. cap. xvi. Lactantius, cap. xxxiii. 

> Euseb. lib. x. cap. v. — Lactant. cap. xlviii. 



Chap. I. 



PROSPEROUS AND CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



79 



But that this extraordinary event was the reason of his 
conversion, is a matter that has never yet been placed in 
such a light, as to dispel all doubts and difficulties. For 
the first edict of Constantine in favor of the Christians, and 
many other circumstances that might be here alleged, 
show, indeed, that he was well-disposed to them and to 
their worship, but are no proof that he looked upon Chris- 
tianity as the only true religion ; which, however, would 
have been the natural effect of a miraculous conversion. 
It appears evident, on the contrary, that this emperor con- 
sidered the other religions, and particularly that which 
was handed down from the ancient Romans, as also true 
and useful to mankind; and declared it to be his intention 
and desire, that they should all be exercised and professed 
in the empire, leaving to each individual the liberty of ad- 
hering to that which he thought the best. It is true that 
he did not remain always in this state of indifference. In 
process of time, he acquired more extensive views of the 
excellence and importance of the Christian religion, and 
gradually arrived at an entire persuasion of its bearing 
alone the sacred marks of celestial truth and a divine ori- 
gin. He was convinced of the falsehood and impiety of 
all other religious institutions ; and, acting in consequence 
of this conviction, he exhorted earnestly all his subjects to 
embrace the Gospel, and at length employed all the force 
of his authority in the abolition of the ancient superstition. 
It is not, indeed, easy, nor perhaps is it possible, to fix pre- 
cisely the tune when the religious sentiments of Constan- 
tine were so far changed, as to render all religions but 
that of Christ, the objects of his aversion. All that we 
know, with certainty, concerning this matter is, that this 
change was first published to the world by the laws and 
edicts" which he issued in the year 324, when, after the 
defeat and death of Licinius, he reigned as the sole lord 
of the Roman empire. His designs, however, with re- 
spect to the abolition of the ancient religion of the Romans, 
and the toleration of no other form of worship than the 
Christian, were only made known toward the latter end 
of his life, by his edicts for destroying the heathen tem- 
ples, and prohibiting sacrifices. 1 ' 

VIII. The sincerity of Constantine's zeal for Christianity 
can scarcely be doubted, unless it be maintained that the 
outward actions of men are, in no degree, a proof of their 
inward sentiments. It must, indeed, be confessed, that 
the hfe and actions of this prince were not such as the 
Christian religion demands from those who profess to be- 

1 Eusebius, de vita Constant, lib. ii. cap. xx., xliv. 

i> See Godofred ad Codic. Theodosian. torn. vi. part i. 

" Eusebius, de vita Constantini, lib. iv. cap. lxi. lxii. Those who, 
dpon the authority of certain records (whose date is modern, and whose 
credit is extremely dubious) affirm, that Constantine was baptized in 
the year 324, at Rome, by Sylvester, the bishop of that city, are evident- 
ly in an error. Those, even of the Romish church, who are the most 
eminent for their learning' and sagacity, reject this notion. See Noris, 
Hist. Donatist. torn. iv. op. p. 650. Thorn. Mariae Mamachii Origin, et 
Antiquit. Christian, torn. ii. p. 262. 

* Eusebius, de vita Constant, lib. i. cap. xxvii. gjT It has been 
sometimes remarked by the more eminent writers of the Roman history, 
that the superstition of that people, contrary to what Dr. Mosheim here 
observes, had a. great influence in keeping them in their subordination 
and allegiance. It is more particularly observed, that in no other nation 
was the solemn obligation of an oath treated with such respect, or ful- 
filled with such a religious circumspection, and such an inviolable fideli- 
ty. But, notwithstanding all this, it is certain, that superstition, if it 
may be dexterously turned to good purposes, may be equally employed 
to bad. The artifice of an augur could have rendered superstition as 
useful to the infernal designs of a Tarquin and a Catiline, as to the 
noble and virtuous purposes of a Publicola, or a Trajan. But true 



! lieve its sublime doctrines. It is also certain, that, from 
his conversion to the last period of his hfe, he continued 
in the state of a catechumen, and was not received by bap- 
tism into the number of the faithful, until a few days be- 
fore his death, when that sacred rite was administered to 
him at Nicomedia, by Eusebius, bishop of that place.' 
But these circumstances are not sufficient to prove that he 
doubted the divinity of the Christian religion, or that his 
profession of the Gospel was an act of mere dissimulation; 
for it was a custom with many in this century, to put off 
their baptism to the last hour, that thus immediately 
after their receiving by this rite the remission of their sins, 
they might ascend pure and spotless to the mansions of 
life and immortality. 

Nor are the crimes of Constantine any proof of the in- 
sincerity of his profession, since nothing is more evident, 
though it be strange and unaccountable, than that many 
who believe, in the firmest manner, the truth and 
divinity of the Gospel, violate its laws by repeated trans- 
gressions, and five in contradiction to their own inward 
principles. 

Another question of a different nature might be proposed 
here, viz. Whether motives of a worldly kind did not con- 
tribute, in a certain measure to give Christianity, in the 
esteem of Constantine, a preference to all other religious 
systems ? It is indeed probable, that this prince perceived 
the admirable tendency of the Christian doctrine and pre- 
cepts to promote the stability of government, by preserving 
the citizens in their obedience to the reigning powers, and 
in the practice of those virtues which render a state happy ; 
and he must naturally have observed, how defective the 
Roman superstition was in this important point. d 

IX. The doubts and difficulties that naturally arise in 
the mind, concerning the miraculous cross that Constan- 
tine solemnly declared he had seen, about noon, in the air, 
are many and considerable. It is easy, indeed, to refute the 
opinion of those who look upon this prodigy as a cunning 
fiction, invented by the emperor to animate his troops in the 
ensuing battle, or who consider the narration as wholly 
fabulous. e The sentiment also of those, who imagine that 
this pretended cross was no more than a natural phenom- 
enon in a solar halo, is, perhaps, more ingenious, than solid 
and convincing/ Nor, in the third place, do we think it 
sufficiently proved, that the divine power interposed here 
to confirm the wavering faith of Constantine by a stupen- 
dous miracle. The oidy hypothesis, then,? which remains 



Christianity can animate or encourage to nothing except what is just 
and good. " It tends to support government by the principles of piety and 
justice, and not by the ambiguous flight of birds, or the like delusions. 

6 Hornbeck. Comment, ad Bullam TJrbaniviii.de Imagin. cultu, p. 
182. Oiselius, Thesaur. Numism. Antiq. p. 463. Tollius, Preface to 
the French Translation of Longinus, as also his Adnot. ad Lactantium 
de Mort. Persequut. cap. xliv. Christ. Thomasius, Observat. Hallens. 
torn. i. p. 380. 

1 Jo. And. Schmidius, Disser. de luna in Cruce visa. Jo. Alb. Fabri- 
cius, Disser. de Cruce a Constantino visa. 

fjr e This hypothesis of Dr. Mosheim is not more credible than the 
real appearance of a cross in the air. — Both events are recorded by the 
same authority ; and, if the veracity of Constantine or of Eusebius be 
questioned with respect to the appearance of a cross in the day, they can 
scarcely be confided in with respect to the truth of the nocturnal vision. 
It is very surprising to seethe learned authors of the Universal Histo- 
ry adopt, without exception, all the accounts of Eusebius, concerning this 
cross, which are extremely liable to suspicion, which Eusebius himself 
seems to have believed but in part, and for the truth of all which he is 
careful not to make himself answerable. (See that author's Life of 
Constantine, lib. ii. cap. ix.) 

This whole story is attended with docilities which render it, both as 



80 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



is, that we consider this famous cross as a vision represented 
to the emperor in a dream, with the remarkable inscription, 
Hac vince, i. e. In this conquer ; and this opinion is 
maintained by authors of considerable weight.* 

X. The joy with which the Christians were elated on ac- 
count of the favorable edicts of Constantine and Licinius, 
was soon interrupted by the war which broke out between 
these princes. Licinius, being defeated in a pitched battle, 
in the year 314, concluded a treaty of peace with Con- 
stantine, and observed it during the space of nine years. 
But his turbulent spirit rendered him an enemy to repose ; 
and his natural violence, seconded and still farther incensed, 
by the suggestions of the heathen priests, armed him 
against Constantine, in the year 324, for the second time. 
During this war he endeavoured to engage in his cause all 
who remained attached to the ancient superstition, that thus 
he might oppress his adversary with numbers ; and in order 
to this, he persecuted the Christians in a cruel manner, 
and put to death many of their bishops, after trying them 
with torments of the most barbarous nature. b But all his 
enterprises proved abortive ; for, after several unsucessful 
battles, he was reduced to the necessity of throwing him- 
self at the victor's feet, and imploring his clemency ; 
which, however, he did not long enjoy ; for he was 
strangled, by the order of Constantine, in the year 325. 
After the defeat of Licinius, the empire was ruled by 
Constantine alone until his death ; and the Christian 
cause experienced, in its happy progress, the effects of 
his auspicious administration. This zealous prince em- 
ployed all the resources of his genius, all the authority of 
his laws, and all the engaging charms of his munificence 
and liberality, to efface, by degrees, the superstitions of 
Paganism, and to propagate Christianity in every corner 
of the Roman empire. He had learned, no doubt, from the 
disturbances continually excited by Licinius, that neither 
himself nor the empire could enjoy a fixed state of tran- 
quillity and safety as long as the ancient superstitions 
subsisted; and therefore, from this period, he openly op- 
posed the sacred rites of Paganism, as a religion detri- 
mental to the interests of the state. 

XL After the death of Constantine, which happened 
in the year 337, his three sons, Constantine II. Constan- 
tius, and Constans, were, in consequence of his appoint- 
ment, put in possession of the empire, and were all saluted 

a miracle and as a fact, extremely dubious, to say no more. — It will ne- 
cessarily be asked, whence it comes to pass, that the relation of a fact, 
which is said to have been seen by the whole army, is delivered by 
Eusebius, upon the sole credit of Constantine % This is the more unac- 
countable, as Eusebius lived and conversed with many who must have 
been spectators of this event, had it really happened, and whose unani- 
mous testimony would have prevented the necessity of Constantine's 
confirming it to him by an oath. The sole relation of one man, concern- 
ing a public appearance, is not sufficient to give complete conviction: 
nor does it appear, that this story was generally believed by the Chris- 
tians, or by others, since several ecclesiastical historians, who wrote after 
Eusebius, particularly Rufin and Sozomen, make no mention of this 
appearance of a cross in the heavens. The nocturnal vision was, it 
must be confessed, more generally known and believed ; upon which Dr. 
Lardner makes this conjecture, that when Constantine first informed the 
people of the reason that induced him to make use of the sign of the 
cross in his army, he alleged nothing but a dream for that purpose; but 
that, in the latter part of his life, when he was acquainted with Euse- 
bius, he added the other particular, of a luminous cross, seen somewhere 
by him and his army in the day-time (for the place is not mentioned ;) 
and that, the emperor having related this in the most solemn manner, 
Eusebius thought himself obliged to mention it. 

*■ All the writers, who have given any accounts of Constantine the 
Great, are carefully enumerated by J. A. Fabricius, in his Lux. Salut. 
Evang. toti. Orbi exor. cap. xii. p. 2G0. who also mentions, cap. xiii. p. 
237, the laws concerning religious matters, which were enacted by this 



as emperors and Augusti by the Roman senate. There 
were yet living two brothers of the late emperor, namely 
Constantius Dalmatius and Julius Constantius, and they 
had many sons. These the sons of Constantine ordered 
to be put to death, lest their ambitious views should excite 
troubles in the empire ; c and they all fell victims to this 
barbarous order, except Gallus and Julian, the sons of Ju- 
lius Constantius, the latter of whom rose afterwards to the 
imperial dignity. The dominions allotted to Constantine 
were Britain, Gaul, and Spain ; but he did not possess them 
long ; for, when he had made himself master, by force, of 
several places belonging to Constans, this occasioned a war 
between the brothers, in the year 340, in which Constan- 
tine lost his life. Constans, who had received at first, for his 
portion, Illyricum, Italy, and Africa, added now the domin- 
ions of the deceased prince to his own, and thus became 
sole master of all the western provinces. He remained in 
possession of this vast territory until the year 350, when he 
was cruelly assassinated by the order of Magnentius, one of 
his commanders, who had revolted and declared himself 
emperor. Magnentius, in his turn, met with the fate he 
deserved : transported with rage and despair at his ill success 
in the war against Constantius, and apprehending the most 
terrible and ignominious death from the just resentment 
of the conqueror, he laid violent hands upon himself. 
Thus Constantius, who had, before this, possessed the 
provinces of Asia Minor, Syria, and Egypt, became, in the 
year 353, sole lord of the Roman empire, which he ruled 
until the year 361, when he died at Mopsucrene, on the 
borders of Cilicia, as he was marching against Julian. 
None of these three brothers possessed the spirit and 
genius of their father. They all, indeed, followed his 
example, in continuing to abrogate and efface the ancient 
superstitions of the Romans and other idolatrous nations, 
and to accelerate the progress of the Christian religion 
throughout the empire. This zeal was, no doubt, lauda- 
ble; its end was excellent ; but, in the means used to ac- 
complish it, there were many things not altogether lau- 
dable. 

XII. This flourishing progress of the Christian religion 
was greatly interrupted, and the church reduced to the 
brink of destruction, when Julian, the son of Julius Con- 
stantius, and the only remaining branch of the imperial 
family, was placed at the head of affairs. This active and 



emperor, and digested into four parts. For a full account of these laws, 
see Jac. Godofred. Adnotat. ad Codic. Theodos., and Balduinus in his 
Constantin. Magn. seu de Legibus Constantini eccles. et civilibus, 
lib. ii. 

b Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. x. cap. viii. et de vita Constantini, lib. 
i. cap. xlix. Julian himself, whose bitter aversion to Constantine gives 
a singular degree of credibility to his testimony in this matter, could not 
help confessing that Licinius was an infamous tyrant and a profligate, 
abandoned to all sorts of wickedness. See the Cassars of Julian. And 
here I beg leave to make a remark which has escaped the learned. Aure- 
lius "Victor, in his book de Cassaribus, cap. xli. has mentioned the per- 
secution under Licinius in the following terms ; " Licinio ne insontium 
quidem ac nobilium philosophorum servili more cruciatus adhibiti 
modum fecere." The philosophers, whom Licinius is here said to have 
tormented, were, doubtless, die Christians, whom many, through igno- 
rance, looked upon as a philosophical sect. This passage of Aurelius 
has not been touched by the commentators, who are generally more in- 
tent upon the knowledge of words than of things. 

f^> ° It is more probable that the principal design of this massacre 
was to recover the provinces of Thrace, Macedou, and Achaia, which, 
in the division of the empire, Constantine the Great had given to young 
Dalmatius, son to his brother of the same name ; and also Pontus and 
Cappadocia, which he had granted to Annibalianus, the brother of young 
Dalmatius. Be that as it will, Dr. Mosheim has attributed this massacre 
equally to the three sons of Constantine; whereas almost all authors agree 
that neither young Constantine, nor Constans, had any concern in it. 



Chav. I. 



PROSPEROUS AND CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



81 



adventurous prince, after having been declared emperor by 
the army, in the year 360, in consequence of his exploits 
among the Gauls, was, upon the death of Constantius, in 
the following year, confirmed in the undivided possession of 
the empire. No event could be less favourable to the Chris- 
tians ; for, though he had been educated in the principles 
of Christianity, he apostatised from that divine religion, 
and employed all his efforts to restore the expiring super- 
stitions of polytheism to their former vigour, credit, and 
lustre. His apostasy was imputable, partly to his aversion 
to the Constantine family, who had murdered his father, 
brother, and kinsman ; and partly to the artifices of the 
Platonic philosophers, who abused his credulity, and flat- 
tered his ambition, by fictitious miracles, and pompous 
predictions. It is true, this prince seemed averse to the use 
of violence, in propagating superstition, and suppressing the 
truth : indeed, he carried the appearances of moderation 
and impartiality so far, as to allow his subjects a full power 
of judging for themselves in religious matters, and of wor- 
shipping the Deity in the manner they thought the most 
rational. But, under this mask of moderation, he attacked 
Christianity with the utmost bitterness, and, at the same 
time, with the most consummate dexterity. By art and 
stratagem he undermined the church, annulling the privi- 
leges which had been granted to Christians and their 
spiritual rulers ; shutting up the schools in which they 
taught philosophy and the liberal arts ; encouraging the sec- 
taries and schismatics, who brought dishonour upon the 
Gospel by their divisions ; composing books against the 
Christians, and using a variety of other means to bring the 
religion of Jesus to ruin and contempt. Julian extended 
his views yet farther, and was meditating projects of a still 
more formidable nature against the Christian church, 
which would have felt, no doubt, the fatal or ruinous effects 
of his inveterate hatred if he had returned victorious from 
the Persian war, into which he entered immediately after 
his accession to the empire. But in this war, which was 
rashly undertaken and imprudently conducted, he fell by 
the lance of a Persian soldier, and expired in his tent in the 
32d year of his age, having reigned alone, after the death 
of Constantius, twenty months. 1 

XIII. It is to me a just matter of surprise, to find Julian 
placed, by many learned and judicious writers, 15 among the 
greatest heroes that shine forth in the annals of time, and 
even exalted above all the princes and legislators who have 
been distinguished by the wisdom of their government. 
Such writers must either be too far blinded by prejudice, to 
perceive the truth ; or they cannot have perused, with any 
degree of attention, those works of Julian which are still 
extant ; or, if neither of these be their case, they must, at 
least, be ignorant of that which constitutes true greatness. 
The real character of Julian has a few lines of that uncom- 
mon merit which has been attributed to it ; for, if we set 

B For a full account of this emperor, it will be proper to consult (be- 
side Tillemont and other common writers) La Vie de Julien, par l'Abbo 
Bleterie, which is a most accurate and elegant production. See also the 
Life and character of Julian, illustrated in seven Dissertations by Des- 
Voeux ; Ezech. Spanheim, Praefat. et adnot. ad op. Juliani; and Fabri- 
cius, Lux Evangel, toti orbi exoriens, cap. xiv. p. 294. 

b Montesquieu, in chap. x. of the twenty-fourth book of his work, 
entitled, L'Esprit des Loix, speaks of Julian in the following terms : 
" II n'y a point eu apres lui de prince plus digne de gouverner des 
hommes." 

§£§* ° Nothing can afford a more evident proof of Julian's ignorance 
of the true philosophy, than his known attachment to the study of ma- 

No. VII. 21 



aside his genius, of which his works give no very high 
idea ; if we except, moreover, his military courage, his love 
of letters, and his acquaintance with that vain and fanatical 
philosophy which was known by the name of modern 
Platonism, we shall find nothing remaining, that is in any 
measure worthy of praise, or productive of esteem. Besides, 
the qualities now mentioned, were, in him, counterbalanced 
by the most opprobrious defects. He was a slave to super- 
stition, than which nothing is a more evident mark of a 
narrow soul, of a mean and abject spirit. His thirst of 
glory and eagerness for popular applause were excessive, 
even to puerility ; his credulity and levity surpass the 
powers of description ; a low cunning, and a profound dis- 
simulation and duplicity, had acquired, in his mind, the 
force of predominant habits; and all this was accompanied 
with a total ignorance of true philosophy: so that, though, 
in some things, Julian may be allowed to have excelled the 
sons of Constantine the Great, yet it must be granted, on 
the other hand, that he was, in many respects, inferior to 
Constantine himself, whom upon all occasions, he loads 
with the most licentious invectives, and treats with the 
utmost disdain 

XIV. As Julian affected, in general, to appear moderate 
in religious matters, unwilling to trouble any on account of 
their faith, or to seem averse to any sect or party, so to the 
Jews, in particular, he extended so far the marks of his 
indulgence, as to permit them to rebuild the temple of Jeru- 
salem. The Jews set about this important work ; from 
which, however, they were obliged to desist, before they 
had even begun to lay the foundations of the sacred edifice ; 
for, while they were removing the rubbish, formidable balls 
of fire, issuing out of the ground with a dreadful noise, 
dispersed both the works and the workmen, and repeated 
earthquakes filled the spectators of this phenomenon with 
terror and dismay. This signal event is attested in a man- 
ner that renders its evidence irresistible/ though, as usually 
happens in cases of that nature, the Christians have embel- 
lished it by augmenting rashly the number of the miracles 
which are supposed to have been wrought upon that occa- 
sion. The causes of this phenomenon may furnish 
matter of dispute ; and learned men have, in effect, been 
divided upon that point. All, however, who consider the 
matter with attention and impartiality, will perceive the 
strongest reasons for embracing the opinion of those who 
attribute this event to the almighty interposition of the Su- 
preme Being ; nor do the arguments offered by some, to 
prove it the effect of natural causes, or those alleged by 
others to persuade us that it was the result of artifice anu 
imposture, contain any thing that may not be refuted with 
the utmost facility. e 

XV. Upon the death of Julian, the suffrages of the army 
were united in favour of Jovian, who, accordingly, suc- 
ceeded him in the imperial dignity. After a reign of seven 



gic, which Dr. Mosheim has omitted in his enumeration of the defects 
i and extravagances of this prince. 

<i See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Lux Evang. toti orbi exoriens, p. 124, whore 
all the testimonies of this remarkable event are carefully assembled; see 
also Moyle's Posthumous works. 

' The truth of this miracle is denied by the famous Basnage, Histoire 
des Juifs, torn, iv., against whom Cuper has taken the affirmative, and 
defended it in his Letters published by Bayer. A most ingenious dis- 
course was published, in defence of this miracle, by the learned Dr. 
"Warburton, under the title of Julian, or a Discourse concerning die 
Earthquake and Fiery Eruption, &c. in which the objections of Basnage 
are particularly examined and refuted. 



82 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Pari I. 



months, Jovian died in the year 364, and, therefore, had 
not time to execute any thing of importance. 1 The empe- 
rors who succeeded him, in this century, were Valentinian 
I., Valens, Gratian, Valentinian II., and Honorius, who 
professed Christianity, promoted its progress, and endea- 
voured, though not all with equal zeal, to root out entirely 
the Gentile superstitions. In this they were all surpassed by 
the last of the emperors who reigned in this century, viz. 
Theodosius the Great, who began to reign in the year 
379, and died iii 395. As long as this prince lived, he 
exerted himself, in the most vigorous and effectual manner, 
for the extirpation of the pagan superstitions throughout 
all the provinces, and enacted severe laws and penalties 
against such as adhered to them. His sons, Arcadius and 
Honorius, pursued with zeal, and not without success, the 
same end ; so that, toward the conclusion of this century, 
the Gentile religion declined apace, and had also no prospect 
left of recovering their primitive authority and splendour. 

XVI. It is true, that, notwithstanding all this zeal and 
severity of the Christian emperors, there still remained in 
several places, and especially in the remoter provinces, tem- 
ples and religious rites, consecrated to the service of the 
pagan deities. And, indeed, when we look attentively into 
the matter, we shall find, that the execution of those rigour- 
ous laws, which were enacted against the worshippers of the 
gods, was rather levelled at the multitude, than at persons 
of eminence and distinction ; for it appears, that, both du- 
ring the reign, and after the death of Theodosius, many of 
the most honourable and important posts were filled by 
persons, whose aversion to Christianity and attachment to 
Paganism were sufficiently known. 

The example of Libanius alone is an evident proof of this, 
since, notwithstanding his avowed and open enmity to the 
Christians, he was raised by Theodosius himself to the high 
dignity of prefect, or chief of the Praetorian guards. It is 
extremely probable, therefore, that, in the execution of the 
severe laws enacted against the Pagans, there was an ex- 
ception made in favour of philosophers, rhetoricians, and 
military leaders, on account of the important services which 
they were supposed to render to the state, and that they of 
consequence enjoyed more liberty in religious matters, than 
the inferior orders of men. 

XVII. This peculiar regard shown to the philosophers 
and rhetoricians will, no doubt, appear surprising when it 
is considered, that all the force of their genius, and all the 
resources of their art, were employed against Christianity ; 
and that those very sages, whose schools were reputed of 
such utility to the state, were the very persons who opposed 
the progress of the truth with the greatest vehemence and 
contention of mind. Hierocles, the great ornament of the 

* See Bleterie, Vie de Jovien, vol. ii. in which the Life of Julian, by 
the same author, is farther illustrated, and some productions of that em- 
Deror are translated into French. 

" Institut- Divin. lib. v. cap. ii. p. 535. 

See Photius, Biblioth. Cod. cap. lxv. p. 355. 

frjT d This notion, absurd as it is, has been revived, in the most ex- 
travagant manner, in a work published at Harderwyk, in 1757, by Mr. 
Struchtmeyer, professor of eloquence and languages in that university. 
In this work, which bears the title of the Symbolical Hercules, the 
learned but wrong-headed author maintains (as he had also done in a 
preceding work, entitled, An Explication of the Pagan Theology,) that 
all the doctrines of Christianity were emblematically represented in the 
Heathen mythology ; and not only so, but that the inventors of that 
mythology knew that the Son of God was tp descend upon earth ; be- 
Jieved in Christ as the only fountain of salvation ; were persuaded of 
nis future incarnation, death, and resurrection ; and had acquired all this 



Platonic school, wrote in the beginning of this century 
two books against the Christians, in which he went so far 
as to draw a parallel between Jesus Christ and Apol- 
lonius Tyanreus. This presumption was chastised with 
great spirit, by Eusebius, in a treatise written expressly in 
answer to Hierocles. Lactantius takes notice of another 
philosopher, who composed three books to detect the pre- 
tended errors of the Christians, b but does not mention his 
name. After the time of Constantine the Great, beside the 
long and laborious work which Julian wrote against the 
followers of Christ, Himeriuiv c and Libanius, in their pub- 
lic harangues, and Eunapius, in his lives of the philoso- 
phers, exhausted all their rage and bitterness in their efforts 
to defame the Christian religion, while the calumnies that 
abounded in the discourses of the one, and the writings of 
the other, passed unpunished. 

XVIII. The prejudice which the Christian cause receiv- 
ed in this century, from the stratagems of these philoso- 
phers and rhetoricians, who were elated Avith a presumptu- 
ous notion of their knowledge, and prepossessed with a bit- 
ter aversion to the Gospel, was certainly very considerable. 
Many examples concur to prove this point ; and particu- 
larly that of Julian, who was seduced by the artifices of 
these corrupt sophists. The effects of then disputes and 
declamations were not, indeed, the same upon all ; some 
who assumed the appearance of superior wisdom, and who, 
either from moderation or indiFerence, professed to pursue a 
middle way in these religious controversies, composed mat- 
ters in the following manner : they so far listened to the 
interpretations and discourses of the rhetoricians, as to form 
to themselves a middle kind of religion, between the an- 
cient theology and the new doctrine that was now propaga- 
ted in the empire ; and they persuaded themselves, that 
the same truths which Christ taught, had been for a long 
time concealed by the priests of the gods, under the veil of 
ceremonies, fables, and allegorical representations. d Of this 
number were Ammianus Marcellinus, a man of singular 
merit ; Themistius, an orator highly distinguished by his 
uncommon eloquence and the eminence of his station : 
Chalcidius, a philosopher, and others, who were all of opin- 
ion, that the two religions, when properly interpreted and 
understood, agreed perfectly well in the main points, and 
that, therefore, neither the religion of Christ, nor that of 
the gods, ought to be treated with contempt. 

XIX. The zeal and diligence with which Constantine 
and his successors exerted themselves in the cause of Chris- 
tianity, and in extending the limits of the church, prevent 
our surprise at the number of barbarous and uncivilized na- 
tions, which received the Gospel. e It appears highly proba- 
ble, from many circumstances, that both the Major and the 

knowledge and faith by the perusal of a Bible much older than either the 
time of Moses or Abraham, &c. The pagan doctors, thus instructed 
(according to Mr. Struchtmeyer) in the mysteries of Christianity, 
taught these truths under the veil of emblems, types, and figures. Ju- 
piter represented the true God ; Juno, who was obstinate and ungoverna- 
ble, was the emblem of the ancient Israel ; the chaste Diana was a type 
of the Christian church ; Hercules was the figure or fore-runner of 
Christ; Amphitryon was Joseph ; the two Serpents, killed by Hercules 
in his cradle, were the Pharisees and Sadducees, &c. Such are the 
principal lines of Mr. Struchtmeyer's system, which shows the sad 
havock that a warm imagination, undirected by a just and solid judg- 
ment, makes in religion. It is, however, honorable perhaps to the 
present age, that a system, from which Ammianus Marcellinus and other 
ancient philosophers derived applause, will be generally looked upon, at 
present, as entitling its restorer to a place in Bethlehem hospital. 

6 Gaudent. vita Philastrii, sect. 3. Philast. de hmres. Prsef. SocraU 
Hist. Eccles. lib. i, cap. xix. Georg. Cedren. Chronograph. 



Chap. I. 



PROSPEROUS AND CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



83 



Minor Armenia were enlightened with the knowledge of 
the truth, not long after the promulgation of Christianity. 
The Armenian church was not, however, completely for- 
med and established before this century ; in the com- 
mencement of which, Gregory, the son of Anax, who is 
commonly called the Enlightener, from his having dis- 
pelled the darkness of the Armenian superstitions, convert- 
ed to Christianity Tiridates, king of Armenia, and all the 
nobles of his court. In consequence of this, Gregory was 
consecrated bishop of the Armenians, by Leontius, bishop 
of Cappadocia ; and his ministry was crowned with such 
success, that the whole province was soon converted to the 
Christian faith. 1 

XX. Toward the middle of this century, a certain per- 
son, named Frumentius, went from Egypt to Abyssinia or 
Ethiopia, whose inhabitants derived the name of Axumitae 
from Axuma, the capital city of that country. He made 
known among this people the Gospel of Christ, and admin- 
istered the sacrament of baptism to their king, and to seve- 
ral persons of the first distinction at his court. As he was 
returning into Egypt, he received consecration, as the first 
bishop of the Axumitae, or Ethiopians, from Athanasius ; 
and this is the reason why the Ethiopian church has, even 
to our times, been considered as the daughter of the Alex- 
andrian, from which it also receives its bishop. b 

The light of the Gospel was introduced into Iberia, a pro- 
vince of Asia (now called Georgia), in the following man- 
ner : a certain woman was carried into that country as a 
captive, during the reign of Constantine ; and by the gran- 
deur of her miracles, and the remarkable sanctity of her life 
and manners, she made such an impression upon the king 
and queen, that they abandoned their false gods, embraced 
the faith of the Gospel, and sent to Constantinople for pro- 
per persons to give them and their people a more satisfac- 
tory and complete knowledge of the Christian religion. c 

XXI. A considerable part of the Goths, who had in- 
habited Thrace, Mcesia, and Dacia, had received the 
knowledge and embraced the doctrines of Christianity be- 
fore this century ; and Theophilus, their bishop, was pre- 
sent at the council of Nice. Constantine, after having 
vanquished them and the Sarmatians, engaged great 
numbers of them to become Christians : d yet a large body 
continued in their attachment to their ancient superstition 
until the time of the emperor Yalens. This prince permit- 
ted them, indeed, to pass the Danube, and to inhabit Da- 
cia, Mcesia, and Thrace ; but it was on condition that they 
should live in subjection to the Roman laws, and embrace 
the profession of Christianity; 12 which stipulations were 
accepted by their king Fritigern. The celebrated Ulphi- 
las, bishop of those Goths who dwelt in Mcesia, lived in 
this century, and distinguished himself by his genius and 
piety. Among other eminent services which he rendered 



B Narratio de rebus Armenia; in Franc. Comdefisii Auctario Biblioth. 
Patrum Grsecor. torn. ii. p. 287. Mich. Lequien, Oriens Christianus, 
torn. i. p. 419. 1356. Jo. Joach. Schrod. Tliesauv. lingua; Armenicaa, p. 149. 

* Athanasius, Apolog. ad Constantium, torn. i. op. part ii. p. 315, edit. 
Benedict. Socrates et Sozomcn, Hist. Eccles. book i. chap. xix. of the 
former, book ii. eh. xxiv. of the latter. Theodoret. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. 
cap. xxiii. p. 54. Ludolf, Comment, ad Hist. iEthiopic. p. 281. Hier. 
Lobo, Voyage d'Abyssinie, torn. ii. p. 13. Justus Fontaninus, Hist. 
Liter. Aquileia;, p. 174. 

Rufinus, Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. x. Sozomen, Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. 
cap. v. Lequien, Oriens Christ, torn. i. p. 1333. 

* Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. xviii. 

* Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. xxxiii. Lequien, Oriens Christ. 
torn. l. p. 1240. Eric. Benzelius, Praef. ad Gluatuor Evangelia Gothica, 



to his country, he invented a set of letters for their pecu- 
liar use, and translated the Scriptures into the Gothic lan- 
guage/ 

XXII. There remained still, in the European provinces 
an incredible number of persons who adhered to the wor- 
ship of the Gods ; and though the Christian bishops con- 
tinued their pious efforts to gain them over to the Gospel, 
yet the success was, by no means, proportionable to their 
diligence and zeal, and the work of conversion went on 
but slowly. In Gaul, the great and venerable Martin, 
bishop of Tours, set about this important work with tolera- 
ble success ; for, in his various journeys among the Gauls, 
he converted many, every where, by the energy of his dis- 
courses, and by the power of his miracles, if we may re- 
ly upon the testimony of Sulpitius Severus. He destroyed 
also the temples of the gods, pulled dowm their statues.^ 
and on all these accounts merited the high and honourable 
title of Apostle of the Gauls. 

XXIII. There is no doubt that the victories of Con- 
stantine, the fear of punishment, and the desire of pleasing 
this mighty conqueror and his imperial successors, were the 
weighty arguments that moved whole nations, as well as 
particular persons, to embrace Christianity. None, how- 
ever, that have any acquaintance with the transactions of 
his period of ime, will attribute the whole progress of 
Christianity to these causes; for it is undeniably manifest 
that the indefatigable zeal of the bishops and other 
pious men, the innocence and sanctity which shone 
forth with such lustre in the lives of many Chris- 
tians, the translations that w y ere published of the sacred 
writings, and the intrinsic beauty and excellence of the 
Christian religion, made as strong and deep impres- 
sions upon some, as worldly views and selfish consider- 
ations did upon others. 

As to the miracles attributed to Antony, Paul the Her- 
mit, and Martin. I give them up ■without the least diffi- 
culty, and join with those who treat these pretended prodi- 
gies with the contempt they deserve. 11 I am also willing to 
grant, that many events have been rashly deemed mira- 
culous, which were the result of the ordinary laws of nature; 
and also, that pious frauds were sometimes used, for the pur 
pose of giving new degrees of weight and dignity to the 
Christian cause. But. I cannot, on the ether hand, assent 
to the opinions of those who maintain, that in this centu- 
ry, miracles had entirely ceased ; and that at this period, 
the Christian church was not favoured with any extraor- 
dinary or supernatural mark of a divine power engaged in 
its cause.' 

XXIV. The Christians, who lived under the Roman 
government, were not afflicted with any severe calamities 
from the time of Constantine, except those which they suf- 
fered during the troubles and commotions raised by Lici- 

quoe Ulphila: tribuuntur, cap. v. p. 18, published at Oxford, in 1750. 

i Jo. Jac. Mascovii Historia Germanorum, torn. i. p. 317; torn. ii. 
not. p. 49. Acta SS. Martii, toin. iii. p. 619. Benzelius, cap. viii. 

e See Sulpit Severus, Dial. i. dc Vita Martini, cap. xiii. xv. xvii. et 
Dial. ii. 

h Hier. a Prato, in his Preface to Sulpitius Severus, disputes warmly 
in favor of the miracles of Martin, and also of the other prodigies of 
this century. 

■ See Eusebius' book against Hierocles, chap. iv. and Henry Dod- 
well's Diss. ii. in Irenaeum, sect. 55, p. 195. Ipr See Dr. Middleton's 
Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers which are said to have sub- 
sisted in the Christian Church. &c. in which a very different opinion is 
maintained. See, however, on the other side, the answers of Church 
and Dodwell to Middleton's Inquiry. 



84 



EXTERNAL HISTORY 01 THE CHURCH 



Part 1, 



nius, and mder the transitory reign of Julian. Their 
tranquillity, however, was, at different times, disturbed in 
several places. Among others, Athanaric, king of the 
Goths, persecuted for some time, with great bitterness, that 
part of the Gothic nation which had embraced Christiani- 
ty. 1 In the remoter provinces, the Pagans often defended 
their ancient superstitions by the force of arms, and massa- 
cred the Christians who, in the propagation of their reli- 
gion, were not always sufficiently attentive, either to the 
rules of prudence or the dictates of humanity. b The 
Christians who lived beyond the limits of the Roman Em- 
pire, had a harder fate ; Sapor II., king of Persia, vented 
his rage against those of his dominions, in three dreadful 
persecutions. The first of these happened in the eigh- 

1 See Acta Martyr, sincera, published by Ruinart, and (in that col- 
lection,) Acta S. Sabae, p. 598. 

t See Ambrosius, de Officiis, lib. i. cap. xlii. sect. 17. 

• See Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. i. xiii. There is a particu- 
.ar and express account of this persecution in the Bibliothec. Oriental. 



teenth year of the reign of that prince ; the second, in the 
30th; and the third in the 31st year of the same reign. 
This last was the most cruel and destructive of the three ; it 
carried off an incredible number of Christians, and conti- 
nued during the space of forty years, having commenced 
in the year 330, and ceased only in 370. It was not, how- 
ever, the religion of the Christians, but the ill-grounded 
suspicion of their treasonable designs against the state, 
that drew upon them this terrible calamity ; for the Magi 
and the Jews persuaded the Persian monarch, that all 
the Christians were devoted to the interest of the Roman 
emperor, and that Simeon, archbishop of Seleucia and of 
Ctesiphon, sent to Constantinople intelligence of all that 
passed in Persia. 

Clement Vatican, torn. i. p. 6, 16, 181 ; torn. iii. p. 52 ; with which it 
will be proper to compare the preface to the Acta Martyrum Onentalium 
et Occidentalium, by the learned Assemani, who has published the 
Persian Martyrology in Syriac, with a Latin translation, and enriched 
this valuable work with many excellent observations. 






PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Which contains the History of Learning and Philo- 
sophy. 

I. Philology, eloquence, poetry, and history, were 
the branches of learning particularly cultivated at this time 
by those among the Greeks and Latins, who were desi- 
rous of acquiring fame. But, though several persons of 
both nations obtained reputation by their literary pursuits, 
they came all far short of the summit of fame. The best 
poets of this period, such as Ausonius, appear insipid, harsh, 
and inelegant, when compared with the sublime bards of 
the Augustan age. The rhetoricians, departing now from 
the noble simplicity and majesty of the ancients, instruct- 
ed the youth in the fallacious art of pompous declamation ; 
and the majority of historical writers were more intent 
upon embellishing their narrations with vain and tawdry 
ornaments, than upon rendering them interesting by their 
order, perspicuity, and truth. 

II. Almost all the philosophers of this age were of that 
sect which we have already distinguished by the title of 
Modern Platonists. It is not therefore surprising, that we 
find the principles of Platonism in all the writings of the 
Christians. Of these philosophers, however the number 
was not so considerable in the west as in the eastern coun- 
tries. Jamblichus of Chalcis explained, in Syria, the phi- 
losophy of Plato, or rather propagated his own particular 
opinions under that respectable name. He was an ob- 
scure and credulous man, and his turn of mind was highly 
superstitious and chimerical, as his writings abundantly 
testify. 1 His successors were, JEdesius, Maximus, and 
others, whose follies and puerilities are exposed at length 
by Eunapius. Hypatia, a female philosopher of distin- 
guished merit and learning, Isadorus, Olympiodorus, Sy- 
nesius, afterwards a Semi-Christian, with others of inferior 
reputation, were the principal persons concerned in propa- 
gating this new modification of Platonism. 

HI. As the emperor Julian was passionately attached 
to this sect, (which his writings abundantly prove,) he em- 
ployed every method to increase its authority and lustre ; 
and, for that purpose, engaged in its cause several men of 
learning and genius, who vied with each other in exalting 
its merit and excellence. b But, after his death, a dreadful 
storm of persecution arose, in the reign of Valentinian, 
against the Platonists ; many of whom, being accused of 
magical practices, and other heinous crimes, were capitally 
convicted. During these commotions. Maximus, the mas- 
ter and favourite of Julian, by whose persuasions this em- 
peror had been engaged to renounce Christianity, and to 
apply himself to the study of magic, was put to death with 
several others/ It is probable, indeed, that the friendship 
and intimacy that had subsisted between the apostate em- 

■ Doctor Mosheim speaks here of only one Jamblichus, though 
there were three persons who bore that name. It is not easy to 
determine which of them wrote the works that have reached our 
times under the name of Jamblichus; but, whoever it was, he does 
not certainly deserve so mean a character as our learned historian here 
gives him. 

b See the learned Spanheim's Preface to the works of Julian ; and 
hat also which he has prefixed to his French translation of Julian's 

No. VIII. 22 



peror and these pretended sages, were greater crimes, in 
the eye of Valentinian, than either their philosophical sys 
tern or their magic arts; and hence it happened, that such 
of the sect as lived at a distance from the court, were not 
involved in the dangers or calamities of this persecution. 

IV. From the time of Constantine the Great, the 
Christians applied themselves with greater zeal and dili- 
gence to the study of philosophy and of the liberal arts, 
than they had formerly done. The emperors encouraged 
this taste for the sciences, and left no means unemployed 
to excite and maintain a spirit of literary emulation among 
the professors of Christianity. For this purpose, schools 
were established in many cities ; libraries were also 
erected, and men of learning and genius were nobly 
recompensed by the honours and advantages that were 
attached to the culture of the sciences and arts. d All this 
was indispensably necessary to the successful execution 
of the scheme that was laid for abrogating, by degrees, 
the worship of the gods ; for the ancient religion was 
maintained, and its credit supported by the erudition and 
talents which distinguished in so many places the sages 
of Paganism ; and there was just reason to apprehend, 
that the truth might suffer, if the Christian youth, for 
want of proper masters and instructors of their own reli- 
gion, should have recourse, for their education, to the 
schools of the pagan philosophers and rhetoricians. 

V. From what has been here said concerning the state 
of learning among the Christians, let not any reader con- 
clude, that an acquaintance with the sciences had become 
universal in the church of Christ ; for, as yet, there was 
no law enacted, which excluded the ignorant and illiterate 
from ecclesiastical preferments and offices, and it is certain 
that the greatest part, both of the bishops and presbyters, 
were men entirely destitute of learning and education. 
Besides, that savage and illiterate party, who looked upon 
all sorts of erudition, particularly that of a philosophical 
kind, as pernicious, and even destructive of true piety and 
religion, increased both in number and authority. The 
ascetics, monks, and hermits, augmented the strength of 
this barbarous faction ; and not only the women, but also 
all who took solemn looks, sordid garments, and a love 
of solitude, for real piety, (and in this number we compre- 
hend the generality of mankind,) were vehemently pre- 
possessed in their favour. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Government of the Church, and the 

Christian Doctors, during this Century. 
I. Constantine the Great made no essential altera- 
tions in the form of government that took place in the 
Christian church before his time ; he only corrected it in 

Caesars, and his Annotations to the latter ; see also Bleterie, Vie de 
l'Empereur Julien, lib. i. p. 26. 

° Ammian. Marcellin. Hist. lib. xxix. cap. i. p. 556. edit. Valesii. 
Bleterie, Vie de Julien, p. 30 — 155, 159, and Vie de Jovien, torn. i. p. 194. 

i See Godofred. ad Codieis Theodos. titulos de Professonbus et Arti- 
bus Liberalibus. Franc. Balduinus in Constantino M. p. 122. Herm. 
Conring. Dissert de Studiis Roma: et Constantinop. at the end of his 
Antiquitates Academicx. 



86 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



some particulars, and gave it a greater extent. Although 
he permitted the church to remain a body-politic, distinct 
from that of the state, as it had formerly been, yet he 
assumed to himself the supreme power over this sacred 
body, and the right of modelling and governing it in such 
a manner as should be most conducive to the public good. 
This right he enjoyed without any opposition, as none of 
the bishops presumed to call his authority in question. 
The people therefore continued, as usual, to choose freely 
their bishops and their teachers. The bishop governed 
the church, and managed the ecclesiastical affairs of the 
city or district, where he presided in council with the pres- 
byters, not without a due regard to the suffrages of the 
whole assembly of the people. The provincial bishops 
also deliberated together upon those matters which related 
to the interests of the churches of a whole province, as also 
concerning religious controversies, the forms and rites of 
divine service, and other things of like moment. To 
these minor councils, which were composed of the eccle- 
siastical deputies of one or more provinces, were afterwards 
added oecumenical councils, consisting of commissioners 
from all the churches in the Christian world, and which, 
consequently, represented the church universal. These 
were established by the authority of the emperor, who 
assembled the first of these councils at Nice. This 
prince thought it equitable, that questions of superior im- 
portance, and such as intimately concerned the interests of 
Christianity in general, should be examined and decided 
in assemblies that represented the whole body of the Chris- 
tian church ; and in this it is highly probable, that his 
judgment was directed by that of the bishops. There 
were never, indeed, any councils holden, which could, 
with strict propriety, be called universal ; those, however, 
whose laws and decrees were approved and admitted by 
the universal church, or the greatest part of that sacred 
body, are commonly called oecumenical or general 
councils. 

II. The rights and privileges of the several ecclesiastical 
orders were, however, gradually changed and diminished, 
from the time that the church began to be torn with divi- 
sions, and agitated with those violent dissensions and 
tumults, to which the elections of bishops, the diversity of 
religious opinions, and other things of a like nature, too 
frequently gave rise. In these religious quarrels, the 
weaker generally fled to the court for protection and suc- 
cour ; and thereby furnished the emperors with opportu- 
nities of setting limits to the power of the bishops,of infring- 
ing the liberties of the people, and of modifying, in various 
ways, the ancient customs according to their pleasure. 
And, indeed, even the bishops themselves, whose opulence 
and authority were considerably increased since the reign 
of Constantine, began to introduce innovations into the 
forms of ecclesiastical discipline, and to change the ancient 
government of the church. Their first step was an entire 
exclusion of the people from all part in the administration 
of ecclesiastical affairs ; and, afterwards, they by degrees 
divested even the presbyters of their ancient privileges, 
and their primitive authority, that they might have no 
mportunate protesters to control their ambition, or oppose 



* See Bos. Histoire de la Monarchie Frangoise, torn. 1, p. 64. Gian- 
none, Historia di Napoli, vol. i. 

•> This appears from several passages in the useful work of Lud. 
Thornasainus, entitled, Disciplina Ecclesiae vet. et nova circa Beneficia, 



their proceedings ; and, principally, that they might either 
engross to themselves, or distribute as they thought proper, 
the possessions and revenues of the church. Hence, at 
the conclusion of this century, there remained no more 
than a mere shadow of the ancient government of the 
church. Many of the privileges which had formerly 
belonged to the presbyters and people, were usurped by 
the bishops ; and many of the rights, which had been 
formerly vested in the universal church, were transferred 
to the emperors, and to subordinate officers and magis- 
trates. 

III. Constantine, in order to prevent civil commotions, 
and to fix his authority upon solid and stable foundations, 
made several changes, not only in the laws of the empire, 
but also in the form of the Roman government ; a and as 
there were many important reasons, which induced him 
to suit the administration of the church to these changes 
in the civil constitution, this necessarily introduced, among 
the bishops, new degrees of eminence and rank. Three 
prelates had, before this, enjoyed a certain degree of 
pre-eminence over the rest of the episcopal order, viz. the 
bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria ; and to these 
the bishop of Constantinople was added, when the impe- 
rial residence was transferred to that city. These four 
prelates answered to the four Praetorian prsefects created 
by Constantine ; and it is possible that, in this very cen- 
tury, they were distinguished by the Jewish title of patri- 
archs. After these, followed the exarchs, who had the 
inspection over several provinces, and answered to the 
appointment of certain civil officers who bore the same 
title. In a lower class were the metropolitans, who had 
only the government of one province ; under whom 
were the archbishops, whose inspection was confined to 
certain districts. In this gradation, the bishops brought up 
the rear ; the sphere of their authority was not, in all places, 
equally extensive ; being in some considerably ample, 
and in others confined within narrow limits. To these 
various ecclesiastical orders, we might add that of the 
chorediscopi, or superintendants of the country churches ; 
but this order was, in most places, suppressed by the 
bishops, with a design to extend their own authority, and 
enlarge the sphere of their power and jurisdiction. b 

IV. The administration of the church was divided, by 
Constantine himself, into an external and an internal 
inspection. The latter, which was committed to bishops 
and councils, related to religious controversies, the forms of 
divine worship, the offices of the priests, the vices of the 
ecclesiastical orders, &c. The external administration ol 
the church, the emperor assumed to himself. This com- 
prehended all those things which relate to the outward 
state and discipline of the church ; it likewise extended to 
all contests and debates that might arise among the minis- 
ters of the church, superior as well as inferior, concerning 
their possessions, their reputation, their rights and privileges, 
their offences against the laws and things of a like nature ; a 
but no controversies that related to matters purely religious 
were cognizable by this external inspection. In conse- 
quence of this artful division of the ecclesiastical government, 
Constantine and his successors called councils, presided in 



torn. i. c Euseb, de vita Constantini, lib. iv. cap. xxiv. p. 536. 

d See the imperial laws both in Justinian's Code, and in the Thee- 
dosian ; as also Godofred. ad Codic. Theodos. torn. vi. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



87 



them, appointed the judges of religious controversies, termi- 
nated the differences which arose between the bishops and 
the people, fixed the limits of the ecclesiastical provinces, 
took cognisance of the civil causes that subsisted between 
the ministers of the church, and punished the crimes com- 
mitted against the laws by the ordinary judges appointed 
for that purpose ; leaving all causes purely ecclesiastical to 
the cognisance of bishops and councils. But this famous 
division of the administration of the church was never 
explained with perspicuity, or determined with a sufficient 
degree of accuracy and precision ; so that, both in this and 
the following centuries, we find many transactions that 
seem absolutely inconsistent with it. We find the empe- 
rors, for example, frequently determining matters purely 
ecclesiastical, which belonged to the internal jurisdiction of 
the church ; and, on the other hand, nothing is more fre- 
quent than the decisions of bishops and councils concerning 
things that relate merely to the external form and govern- 
ment of the church. 

V. In the episcopal order, the bishop of Rome was the first 
in rank, and was distinguished by a sort of pre-eminence 
over all other prelates. Prejudices, arising from a great 
variety of causes, contributed to establish this superiority ; 
but it was chiefly owing to certain circumstances of gran- 
deur and opulence, by which mortals, for the most part, 
form their ideas of pre-eminence and dignity, and which 
they generally confound with the reasons of a just and 
legal authority. The bishop of Rome surpassed all his 
brethren in the magnificence and splendour of the church 
over which he presided ; in the riches of his revenues and 
possessions ; in the number and variety of his ministers ; 
in his credit with the people ; and in his sumptuous and 
splendid manner of living.* These dazzling marks of 
human power, these seeming proofs of true greatness and 
felicity, had such a mighty influence upon the minds of the 
multitude, that the see of Rome became, in this century, a 
most seducing object of sacerdotal ambition. Hence it hap- 
pened, that when a new pontiff was to be elected by the 
suffrages of the presbyters and the people, the city of Rome 
was generally agitated with dissensions, tumults, and 
cabals, whose consequences were often deplorable and fatal. 
The intrigues and disturbances that prevailed in that city 
in the year 366, when, upon the death of Liberius, another 
pontiff was to be chosen in his place, are a sufficient proof 
of what we have now advanced. Upon this occasion, one 
faction elected Damasus to that high dignity, while the 
opposite party chose Ursicinus, a deacon of the vacant 
church, to succeed Liberius. This double election gave 
rise to a dangerous schism, and even to a civil war within 
the city of Rome, which was carried on -with the utmost 

■ Ammianus Marcellinus gives a striking description of the luxury in 
■which the bishops of Rome lived. See his Hist, lib. xxvii. cap. iii. 

i> Among the other writers of the papal history, see Bower's History 
of the Popes, vol. i. 

Those who desire a more ample account of this matter, may consult 
Pet. de Marca, de Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii : Du Pin, de antiqua 
Ecclesiae disciplina ; and the very learned and judicious work of Blon- 
del, de la Primaute dansl'Eglise. 

5J" d The imprudence of the emperor, and the precipitation of the 
bishops, were singularly discovered in the following event, which favour- 
ed extremely the rise and the ambition of the Roman pontiff. About the 
year 372, Valentinian enacted a law, empowering the occupant of the 
see of Rome to examine and judge other bishops, that religious disputes 
might not be decided by profane or secular judges. The bishops as- 
sembled in council at Rome in 378, not considering the fatal consequen- 
ces that must arise from this imprudent law, both to themselves and to 
the church, declared their approbation of it in the strongest terms, and 



barbarity and fury, and produced the most cruel massacre* 
and desolation. This inhuman contest ended in the vic- 
tory of Damasus ; but wmether his cause was more just 
than that of Ursicinus, is a question not so easy to deter 
mine. b To neither, indeed, can w 7 e attribute such principles 
as constitute a good Christian, much less that exemplary 
virtue which should distinguish a Christian bishop. 

VI. Notwithstanding the pomp and splendour that sur- 
rounded the Roman see, it is certain that the bishops of 
that city had not acquired, in this century, that pre- 
eminence of power and jurisdiction in the church wdiich 
they afterwards enjoyed. In the ecclesiastical common 
w r ealth, they were, indeed, the most eminent order of citi 
zens ; but still they were citizens, as well as their brethren 
and subject, like them, to the edicts and laws of the empe- 
rors. All religious causes of extraordinary importance were 
examined and determined, either by judges appointed by 
the emperors, or in councils assembled for that purpose 
while those of inferior moment w 7 ere decided, in each dis 
trict, by its respective bishop. The ecclesiastical laws were 
enacted, either by the emperor, or by councils. None of the 
bishops acknowledged that they derived their authority 
from the permission and appointment of the bishop of 
Rome, or that they were created bishops by the favour of 
the apostolic see. On the contrary, they all maintained, that 
they v r ere the ambassadors and ministers of Jesus Christ, 
and that their authority was derived from above/ It must, 
however, be observed, that, even in this century, several of 
those steps w T ere laid, by which the bishops of Rome mount- 
ed afterwards to the summit of ecclesiastical power and 
despotism. These steps w T ere partly laid by the impru- 
dence of the emperors, partly b} r the dexteri Ly of the Roman 
prelates themselves, and partly by the inconsiderate zeal 
and precipitate judgment of certain bishops. d * The fourth 
canon of the council, holden at Sardis in the year 347, is 
considered, by the votaries of the Roman pontiff, as the 
principal step to his sovereignty in the church ; but, in my 
opinion, it ought by no means to be looked upon in this 
point of view 7 ; for, not to insist upon the reasons that prove 
the authority of this council to be extremely dubious, or 
upon those wdiich have induced some to regard its laws as 
grossly corrupted, and others, to consider them as entirely 
fictitious and spurious, 6 it wdll be sufficient to observe the 
impossibility of proving, by the canon in question, that the 
bishops of Sardis were of opinion, that, in all cases, an 
appeal might be made to the bishop of Rome, in quality ol 
supreme judge : f but if w 7 e suppose, for a moment, that this 
w 7 as their opinion, Avhat would follow? Surely that pretext 
for assuming a supreme authority, must be very slender, 
which arises only from the decree of one obscure council. 

recommended the execution of it in an address to the emperor Gratian. 
— Some think, indeed, that this law authorised the Roman prelate to 
judge only the bishops within the limits of his jurisdiction, i. e. those o. 
the suburbicarian provinces. Others are of opinion, that this power 
was given only for a time, and extended to those bishops alone, who 
were concerned in the present schism. The latter notion seems proba- 
ble : but still this privilege was an excellent instrument in die hands of 
sacerdotal ambition. 

" See Mich. Geddes, Diss, de Canonibus Sardicensibus among his 
Miscellaneous Tracts, torn. ii. 

f"jr i The fourth canon of the council of Sardis, supposing it genu- 
ine and authentic, related only to die particular case of a bishop's being 
deposed by the neighboring prelates, and demanding permission to make 
his defence. In that case, this canon prohibited die election of a succes- 
sor to die deposed individual, before the pontiff had examined the cause 
and pronounced sentence. 



88 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



Til. Constantine the Great, by removing the seat of the ' 
empire to Byzantium, and building the city of Constanti- 
nople, raised up, in the bishop of this new metropolis, a 
formidable rival to the Roman pontiff, and a bulwark 
which menaced his growing authority with vigorous oppo- 
sition ; for, as the emperor, in order to render Constantino- 
ple a second Rome, enriched it with all the rights and privi- 
leges, honours and ornaments, of the ancient capital of the 
world ; so its bishop, measuring his own dignity and rank 
by the magnificence of the new city, and by its eminence, 
as the august residence of the emperor, assumed an equal 
degree of dignity with the bishop of Rome, and claimed a 
superiority over all the rest of the episcopal order. Nor did 
the emperors disapprove these high pretensions, since they 
considered their own dignity as connected, in a certain 
measure, with that of the bishop of their imperial city. Ac- 
cordingly, in a council convoked at Constantinople in the 
year 381, by the authority of Theodosius the Great, the 
bishop of that city was, during the absence of the bishop of 
Alexandria, and against the consent of the Roman prelate, 
placed, by the third canon of that council, in the first rank 
after the bishop of Rome, and, consequently, above those of 
Alexandria and Antioch. Nectarius was the first. who 
enjoyed these new honours accumulated upon the see of 
Constantinople. His successor, the celebrated John Chry- 
sostom, extended the privileges of that see, and subjected to 
its jurisdiction all Thrace, Asia Minor, and Pontus ; a nor 
were the succeeding bishops of that imperial city destitute 
of a fervent zeal for the augmentation of their privileges 
and the extension of their dominion. 

This sudden revolution in the ecclesiastical government, 
and this unexpected promotion of the bishop of Byzantium 
to a higher rank, to the detriment of other prelates of the 
first eminence in the church, were productive of the most 
disagreeable effects ; for this promotion not only filled the 
bishops of Alexandria with the bitterest aversion to those of 
Constantinople, but also excited those deplorable conten- 
tions and disputes between the latter and the Roman pon- 
tiffs, which were carried on, for many ages, with such vari- 
ous success, and concluded, at length, in the entire separa- 
tion of the Latin and Greek churches. 

Till. The additions made by the emperors and others 
to the wealth, honours, and advantages of the clergy, were 
followed by a proportionable augmentation of vices and 
luxury, particularly among those of that sacred order, who 
lived in great and opulent cities ; and that many such addi- 
tions were made to that order after the time of Constantine, 
is a matter that admits no dispute. The bishops, on one 
hand, in the most scandalous manner, mutually disputed 
the extent of jurisdiction ; while, on the other, they tram- 

* See Pet. de Marca, Diss, de Constantinop. Patriachatus Institutione, 
subjoined to his book de Concordia Sacerdoiti et Imperii ; and Mich. 
Lequien, Oriens Christianus, torn. 1. See also an Account of the 
Government of the Christian Church for the first six hundred years, by 
Dr. Parker, bishop of Oxford. 

>> See Sulpit. Sever. Hist. Sacr. lib. i. cap. xxiii. lib. ii. cap. xxxii. 
Dialog. 1. cap. xxi. Add to this the account given by Clarkson (in his 
Discourse upon Liturgies) of the corrupt and profligate manners of the 
clergy, and, particularly, of the unbounded ambition of the prelates, to 
enlarge the sphere of their influence and authority. 

* No writer has accused Eusebius of Arianism, with more bitterness 
and erudition, than le Clerc, in the second of his Epist. Eccles. et Crit. 
and Natalis Alexander, Hist. Eccles, Nov. T. Ssec. iv. All, however, 

hat these writers prove, is, that Eusebius maintained that a certain 
disparity and subordination subsisted between the persons of the Godhead. 
If we suppose this to have been his opinion, it will not thence follow 



pled upon the rights of the people, violated the privileges of 
the inferior ministers, and imitated, in their conduct and in 
their manner of living, the arrogance, voluptuousness, and 
luxury of magistrates and princes. b This pernicious ex- 
ample was soon imitated by the several ecclesiastical orders. 
The presbyters, in many places, assumed an equality with 
the bishops in point of rank and authority. We find also 
many complaints made, at this time, of the vanity and 
effeminacy of the deacons. Those presbyters and dea- 
cons, more particularly, who filled the first stations of these 
orders, carried their pretensions to an extravagant length, 
and were offended at the notion of being placed upon an 
equal footing with their colleagues. For this reason, they 
not only assumed the titles of archpresbyters and archdea- 
cons, but also claimed a degree of authority and power 
much superior to that which was vested in the other mem- 
bers of their respective orders. 

IX. Several writers of great reputation lived in this cen- 
tury, and were shining ornaments to the countries to which 
they belonged. Among those who flourished in Greece, 
and in the eastern provinces, the following seem to deserve 
the first rank. 

Eusebius Pamphilus, bishop of Csesarea in Palestine, 
was a man of immense reading, justly famous for his 
profound knowledge of ecclesiastical history, and singular- 
ly versed in other branches of literature, more especially in 
all the different parts of sacred erudition. These emi- 
nent talents and acquisitions were, however, accompanied 
with errors and defects, and he is said to have inclined to- 
ward the sentiments of those, who looked upon the three 
person in the Godhead as different from each other in 
rank and dignity. Some have represented this learned 
prelate as a thorough Arian, but without foundation, if by 
an Arian be meant one who embraces the doctrine taught 
by Arius, presbyter of Alexandria. 

Peter of Alexandria is mentioned by Eusebius with the 
highest encomiums." 1 

Athanasius, patriarch of Alexandria, is celebrated on ac- 
count of his learned and pious labours, and particularly 
famous for his warm and vigorous opposition to the Arians. e 

Basil, surnamed the Great, bishop of Ceesarea, in point of 
genius, controversial skill, and a rich and flowing elo- 
quence, was surpassed by very few in this century/ 

Cyril, bishop of Jerusalem, left some catechetical dis- 
courses, which he delivered in that city ; he has been accus- 
ed by many of intimate connexions with the Semi-Arians.s 

John, surnamed Chrysostom on account of his extraor- 
dinary eloquence, a man of a noble genius, governed suc- 
cessively the churches of Antioch and Constantinople, 11 and 
left several monuments of his profound and extensive eru- 



that he was an Arian, unless that word be taken in a very extensive and 
improper sense. Nothing is more common than the abusive application 
of this term to persons, who have entertained opinions opposite to those 
of Arius, though perhaps they may have erred in other respects. 

J Hist. Eccles. lib. ix. cap. vi. 

c Eusebius Renaudot, in his History of the Patriarchs of Alexandria, 
has collected all the accounts which the Oriental writers give of Athana- 
sius, of whose works the learned and justly celebrated Benedictine, 
Bernard de Montfaucon, gave a splendid edition. 

i The works of Bazil were published at Paris by Julian Garnier, a 
learned Benedictine. 

B The later editions of the works of this prelate, are those published 
by Mr. Milles, and by Augustus Toutee, a Benedictine monk. 

t It must not be understood by this, that Chrysostom was bishop ol 
both these churches; he was preacher at Antioch, (a function, indeed 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



dition ; as also discourses' which he had preached with 
great applause. 

Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, in the isle of Cyprus, 
wrote a book against all the heresies that had sprung up 
in the church until his time. This work has little or no 
reputation, as it is full of inaccuracies and errors, and be- 
trays in almost every page the levity and ignorance of its 
author. b 

Gregory Nazianzen and Gregory of Nyssa have ob- 
tained a very honourable place among the celebrated theo- 
logical and polemic writers of this century, and not with- 
out foundation, as their works sufficiently testify. 6 Their 
reputation, indeed, would have yet been more confirmed, 
had they been less attached to the writings of Origen, d 
and less infected with the false and vicious eloquence of 
the sophists. 

Ephraim the Syrian acquired an immortal name by the 
sanctity of his conversation and manners, and by the mul- 
titude of those excellent works in which he combated the 
sectaries, explained the sacred writings, and unfolded the 
moral duties and obligations of Christians. 8 

Beside the learned men now mentioned, there are several 
others, of whose writings but a small number have surviv- 
ed the ruins of time ; such as Pamphilus, a martyr, and 
an intimate friend of Eusebius ; Diodorus, bishop of Tar- 
sus; Hosius, of Cordova ; Didymus, of Alexandria; Eusta- 
thius, bishop of Antioch ; Amphilochius, bishop of Ico- 
nium; Palladius, the writer of the Lausiac History ; f Ma- 
cari us, the elder and the younger ; Apollinaris the elder; 
and some others, who are frequently mentioned on ac- 
count of their erudition, and the remarkable events in 
which they were concerned. 

X. The Latins also were not without writers of consi- 
derable note, the principal of whom we shall point out 
here. 

Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, acquired a name by twelve 
books concerning the Trinity, which he wrote against 
the Arians, and several other productions. He was a man 
of penetration and genius; notwithstanding which, he 
has, for the most part, rather copied in his writings Tertul- 
lian and Origen, than given us the fruits of his own stu- 
dy and invention. s 

Lactantius, h the most eloquent of the Latin writers in 
this century, exposed the absurdity of the pagan supersti- 
tions in his Divine Institutions, which are written with un- 

which before him was always attached to the episcopal dignity,) and 
afterwards patriarch of Constantinople. 

■The best edition of the works of Chrysostom, is that published by 
Montfaucon, in eleven volumes folio. 

b The works of Epiphanius were translated into Latin, and published 
with notes, by the learned Petau. His life, written by Gervase, appeared 
at Paris in 1738. 

c There are some good editions of these two writers, which we owe 
10 the care and industry of two learned French editors of the seventeenth 
century, — f^p namely, the abbot Billy, who published the works of 
Gregory Nazianzen at Paris, in 1609, with a Latin translation and 
learned notes, and father Fronton du Due, who published those of Gre- 
gory of Nyssa in 1605. 

§j" & The charge of Origenism seems to have been adduced by the 
ancient writers only against Gregory of Nyssa. 

• There is a large and accurate account of this excellent writer in the 
Biblioth Oriental Vatic, of Joseph Simon Assernan, torn. 1. Several 
works of Ephraim were published at Oxford in Greek; and^of these 
Gerard Vossius has given a Latin translation. An edition of the same 
works, in Syriac, appeared at Rome, under the auspices of Steph. Euod. 
Assernan. 

iQr f This is the history of the solitaries, or hermits, which derived 
the name of Lausiac history from Lausus, governor of Cappadocia, at 

No. VIII. 23 



common purity and eloquence. He wrote also upon other 
subjects, but was much more successful in refuting the 
errors of others, than careful in observing and correcting 
his own. i 

Ambrose, praefect, and afterwards bishop of Milan, was 
not destitute of a certain degree of elegance both of genius 
and style ; his sentiments of things were, by no means, 
absurd ; but he did not escape the prevailing defect of that 
age, a want of solidity, accuracy, and order.* 

Jerome, a monk of Palestine, rendered, by his learned 
and zealous labours, such eminent services to the Christian 
cause, as will hand down his name with honour to the la- 
test posterity. But this superior and illustrious merit was 
accompanied, and in some measure, obscured, by very 
great defects. His complexion was excessively warm and 
choleric, his bitterness against those who differed from him 
extremely keen, and his thirst of glory insatiable. He was 
so prone to censure, that several persons, whose lives were 
not only irreproachable; but even exemplary, became the 
objects of his unjust accusations. All this, joined to his 
superstitious turn of mind, and the enthusiastic encomiums 
which he lavished upon a false and degenerate sort of pie- 
ty which prevailed in his time, sunk his reputation greatty, 
even in the esteem of the candid and the wise. His wri- 
tings are voluminous, but not all equally adapted to in- 
struct and edify. His interpretations of the holy scriptures, 
and his epistles, are those of his productions which seem 
the most proper to be read with profit ;i 

The fame of Augustin, bishop of Hippo in Africa, filled 
the whole Christian world ; and not without reason, as a 
variety of great and shining qualities were united in the 
character of that illustrious man. A sublime genius, an 
uninterrupted and zealous pursuit of truth, an indefatigable 
application, an invincible patience, a sincere piety, and a 
subtle and lively wit, conspired to establish his fame upon 
the most lasting foundations. It is. however, certain, that 
the accuracy and solidity of his judgment were, by no 
means, proportionable to the eminent talents noAV mention- 
ed ; and that, on many occasions, he was more guided by 
the violent impulse of a warm imagination, than by the 
cool dictates of reason and prudence. Hence arose that 
ambiguity which appears in his writings, and which has 
sometimes rendered the most attentive readers uncertain 
with respect to his real sentiments ; and hence also the just 
complaints which many have made of the contradictions 

whose request it was composed, and to whom it was dedicated by 
Palladius. 

e There is a very accurate and ample account of Hilary, in the Histoire 
de la France, torn, i The best edition we have of his works is that 
published by the French Benedictines. 

h See a complete account of Lactantius, Histoire Literairc de la 
France, torn. i. 

f^r ' Lactantius considers Christ's mission as having no other end, 
than that of leading mankind to virtue by the most sublime precepts and 
the most perfect example. The charge of Manicheism, brought against 
this eminent writer, is refuted in die most evident and satisfactory 
manner by Dr. Lardner, in the seventh volume of his Credibility of the 
Gospel History, where the reader may find an ample and interesting ac- 
count of his character and writings. Among those who have been editors 
of the works of Lactantius, the most reputed are Bunemann, Heumann, 
Walchius, and Lenglet du Fresnoy. 

k The works of St. Ambrose have been published, by the Benedictines, 
in two volumes in folio. 

> The defects of Jerome are exposed by Le Clerc, in his Cluaest. 
Hieronym. published at Amsterdam in 1700. The Benedictine monka 
have given an edition of the works of this father in five volumes 
republished at Verona by Vallarsius with considerable addition*. 



90 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Pari- IL 



that are so frequent in his works, and of the levity and 
precipitation with which he set himself to write upon a vari- 
ety of subjects before he had examined them with a suffi- 
cient degree of attention and diligence. 1 

Optatus, bishop of Milevi in Numidia, acquired no small 
degree of reputation, by a work which he wrote against the 
schism of the Donatists. b 

Paulinus, bishop of Nola, wrote some poems and epistles, 
which are still extant. They are not remarkable either 
for their excellence or their meanness. 

Rufinus, presbyter of Aquileia, is famous on account of 
his Latin translations of Origen and other Greek writers, 
his commentaries on several books of the holy scriptures, 
and his bitter contest with Jerome. He would have 
obtained a very honourable place among the Latin writers 
of this century, had it not been his misfortune to have the 
powerful and foul-mouthed Jerome for his adversary. 11 

As to Philastrius, Damasus, Juvensus, and other writers 
of that obscure class, we refer the reader, for an account of 
them, to those authors whose principal object is to give an 
exact enumeration of the Christian writers. We shall add, 
nevertheless, to the list already given, Sulpitius Severus, 
by birth a Gaul, and the most eminent historical writer of 
this century ; e as also Prudentius, a Spaniard, a poet of a 
happy and elegant genius. 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church in 
this Century. 

I. The fundamental principles of the Christian doctrine 
were preserved hitherto incorrupt and entire in most 
churches, though it must be confessed, that they were often 
explained and defended in a manner that discovered the 
greatest ignorance, and an utter confusion of ideas. The 
disputes carried on in the council of Nice, concerning the 
three persons in the Godhead, afford a remarkable example 
of this, particularly in the language and explanations of 
those who approved the decisions of that council. So little 
light, precision, and order, reigned in their discourses, that 
they appeared to substitute three gods, in the place of one. 

Nor did the evil end here ; for those vain fictions, which 
an attachment to the Platonic philosophy, and to popular 
opinions, had engaged the greatest part of the Christian 
doctors to adopt, before the time of Constantine, were now 
confirmed, enlarged, and embellished, in various ways. 
Hence arose that extravagant veneration for departed 
saints, and those absurd notions of a certain fire destined 
to purify separate souls, that now prevailed, and of which 
the public marks were every where to be seen. Hence 
also the celibacy of priests, the worship of images and relics, 

*■ An accurate and splendid edition of the works of St. Augustin, has 
Deen given by the Benedictines, since that of the divines of Louvain. 
This elegant edition bears the title of Antwerp, where it was published, 
vrith some augmentations, by Le Clerc, unier the fictitious name of Jo. 
Phereponus. The Jesuits, however, pretend to have found many defects 
in this edition. 

b Since the edition of Optatus, published by Albaspinaeus, another has 
appeared, which we owe to the care and industry of M. Du-Pin, doctor 
of the Sorbonne. 

The best edition of Paulinus is that which was published at Paris, 
in 1685, by Le Brun. 

JjT d Rufinus and Jerome had lived for many years in the most inti- 
mate and tender friendship, which ended in a violent rupture, on occa- 
sion of a translation which the former made of some of the works of 
Origen, particularly his Book of Principles. For an account of Rufinus, 



which, in process of time, almost utterly destroyed the 
Christian religion, or at least eclipsed its lustre, and corrupt- 
ed its very essence in the most deplorable manner. 

II. An enormous train of different superstitions were 
gradually substituted for true religion and genuine piety. 
This odious revolution proceeded from a variety of causes. 
A ridiculous precipitation in receiving new opinions, a 
preposterous desire of imitating the pagan rites, and ol 
blending them with the Christian worship, and that idle 
propensity, which the generality of mankind have toward 
a gaudy and ostentatious religion, all contributed to estab- 
lish the reign of superstition upon the ruins of Christianity. 
Accordingly, frequent pilgrimages were undertaken to 
Palestine, and to the tombs of the martyrs, as if there alone 
the sacred principles of virtue and the certain hope of 
salvation were to be acquired.? The reins being once let 
loose to superstition,which knows no bounds, absurd notions 
and idle ceremonies multiplied almost every day. Quan- 
tities of dust and earth brought from Palestine, and other 
places remarkable for their supposed sanctity, were handed 
about as the most powerful remedies against the violence 
of wicked spirits, and were sold and bought every where 
at enormous prices/ The public processions and sup- 
plications, by which the Pagans endeavoured to appease 
their gods, were now adopted into the Christian worship, 
and celebrated in many places with great pomp and 
magnificence. The virtues which had formerly been 
ascribed to the heathen temples, to their lustrations, to 
the statues of their gods and heroes, were now attributed 
to Christian churches, to water consecrated by certain 
forms of prayer, and to the images of holy men. And the 
same privileges, that the former enjo} T ed under the dark- 
ness of Paganism, were conferred upon the latter under 
the light of the Gospel, or, rather, under that cloud of 
superstition which was obscuring its glory. It is true, that, 
as yet, images were not very common ; nor were there any 
statues at all. But it is, at the same time, as undoubtedly 
certain, as it is extravagant and monstrous, that the wor- 
ship of the martyrs was modelled, by degrees, according to 
the religious services that were paid to the gods before the 
coming of Christ. 11 

From these facts, which are but small specimens of the 
state of Christianity at this time, the discerning reader 
will easily perceive what detriment the church received 
from the peace and prosperity procured by Constantine, 
and from the imprudent methods employed to allure the 
different nations to embrace the Gospel. The brevity 
we have proposed to observe in this history, prevents our 
entering into an ample detail of the dismal effects that 
arose from the progress and the baneful influence of super- 
stition, which had now become universal. 

III. This, indeed, among other unhappy effects, opened 

see Rich. Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Eccles. par 
M. Du-Pin, torn. i. An ample account of the same writer is given by 
Justus Fontaninus, Hist. Literar. Aquileiens. lib. v. 

See Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. ii. ; and consult also 
Hieron. a Prato, who has written, with great accuracy, the life of this 
Listorian. 

f See Gregor. Mysseni Orat. ad eos qui Hierosolymam adeunt, torn, 
iii. op. — Hieronym. Epist. xiii.ad Paulinum de instituto Monachi, torn, 
i. — Jac. Godofred. ad Codicem Theodosian. torn. vi. — Petri Wesselingii 
Dissertat. de causis Peregrinat. Hierosolymit. quam Itinerario Burdiga- 
le.nsi pramisit, inter Vetera Romanor. Itineraria, p. 537. 

* Augustinus, de Civitates Dei, lib. xxii. cap. viii. sect. 6. 

i> For a full account of this matter, see Beausobre, Hist, du Mani- 
cheisme, torn. ii. 



Chap. HI. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



91 



a wide door to the endless frauds of those odious impostors, 
who were so far destitute of all principle, as to enrich them- 
selves by the ignorance and errors of the people. Rumors 
were artfully spread abroad of prodigies and miracles to 
be seen in certain places ( a trick often practised by the 
heathen priests) ; and the design of these reports was to 
draw the populace, in multitudes, to these places, and to 
impose upon their credulity. These stratagems were gen- 
erally successful ; for the ignorance and slowness of 
apprehension of the people, to whom every thing that is 
new and singular appears miraculous, rendered them 
easily the dupes of this abominable artifice.* Nor was 
this all ; certain tombs were falsely given out for the 
sepulchres of saints b and confessors ; the list of the saints 
was augmented with fictitious names, and even robbers j 
were converted into martyrs/ Some buried the bones of j 
dead men in certain retired places, and then affirmed, that j 
they were divinely admonished, by a dream, that the body 
of some friend of God lay there. d Man} r , especially of the 
monks, travelled through the different provinces ; and not 
only sold, with the most frontless impudence, their fictitious 
relics, but also deceived the eyes of the multitude with lu- 
dicrous combats with evil spirits or genii. e A whole vo- 
lume would be requisite to contain an enumeration of the 
various frauds which artfid knaves practised, with success, 
to delude the ignorant, when true religion was almost en- 
tirely superseded by horrid superstition. 

IV. Many of the learned, in this century, undertook 
translations of the Scriptures ; but few succeeded in this 
arduous enterprise. Among the many Latin versions of 
the sacred books, that of Jerome was distinguished by its 
undoubted superiority/ The same ingenious and inde- 
fatigable writer, whose skill in the languages was by no 
means inconsiderable, employed much pains upon the 
Greek version of the seventy interpreters, in order to give a 
more correct edition of it than had appeared before his 
time ; and it is said that Eusebius, Athanasius, and Eu- 
thalius, had embarked in an undertaking of the same na- 
ture/ Of interpreters the number was very considerable, 
among whom Jerome, Hilary, Eusebius, Diodorus of Tar- 
sus, Rufinus, Ephraim the Syrian, Theodore of Heraclea, 
Chrysostom, Athanasius, and Didymus, are generally es- 
teemed worthy of the first rank. It is however certain, that, 
even of these first-rate commentators, few have discovered a 
just discernment, or a sound judgment, in their laborious 
expositions of the sacred writings. Rufinus, Theodore, and 
Diodorus, with some others, have, indeed, followed the 
natural signification of the words ; h the rest, after the ex- 
ample of Origen, are laborious in the search of far-fetched 
interpretations, and pervert the expressions of Scripture, 
which they very imperfectly understand, by applying them, 
or rather straining them to points with which they have no 
connexion/ St. Augustin and Tychonius endeavoured to 
establish plain and wise rules for the interpretation of 
Scripture ; but their efforts were unsuccessful/ 



•■ Henry Dodwell, Disser. ii. inlrenseum, sect. 56. LeClerc,in his Ap- 
pcrdix Augustinian. p. 492, 550, 575. 

t> Concil. Carthag. v. Can. xiv. 

e Sulpitius Severus, de vita? S. Martini, cap. viii. 
. a Augustin. Serm. cecxviii. sect. i. torn. v. op. 

* See Godofred. ad cod. Theod. torn. iii. — Augustin. de opere Mona- 
chor. cap. xxviii. sect. 36. Hieronymi. Epist. ad Rusticum, torn. i. op. 

* Jo. Franc. Buddei Isagoge ad Theologiam, torn. ii. 
« Frickius, de Canone N. T. 

* Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiast. par 



V. The doctrines of Christianity had not a better fate 
than the sacred writings from which they are drawn. 
Origen was the great model whom the most eminent o; 
the Christian doctors followed in their explications of the 
truths of the Gospel, which were consequently explain- 
ed, according to the rules of the Platonic philosophy, as 
it was corrected and modified by that learned father for the 
instruction of the youth. Those who desire a more am- 
ple and accurate account of this matter, may consult Gre- 
gory Nazianzen among the Greeks, and Augustin among 
the Latins, who were followed, for a long time, as the on- 
ly patterns worthy of imitation, and who next to Origen, 
may be considered as the parents and supporters of the 
philosophical or scholastic theology. They were both 
zealous Platonists ; and holding, for certain, all the tenets 
of that philosopher which were not totally repugnant to 
the truths of Christianity, they laid them down as funda- 
mental principles, and drew from them a great variety of 
subtile conclusions, which neither Christ nor Plato ever 
thought of. 

This, however, was not the only sect that flourished at 
this time. That order of fanatics, who maintained that 
the. knowledge of divine truth was to be acquired, not by 
reasoning, but by still contemplation, and by turning the 
eye of the mind upon itself in an entire absence from all 
external and sensible objects, became now much more 
numerous. This appears from many circumstances, par- 
ticularly from the swarms of monks that almost overspread 
the Christian world, and also from the books of Dionysius, 
the pretended chief of the Mystics, which seem to have 
been forged in this century, under that venerable name, 
by some member of that fanatical tribe. 

VI. Among the writers of this century, who published 
expositions of the Christian doctrine, the first place is due 
to Cyril of Jerusalem, justly celebrated for his catecheti- 
cal discourses, which nothing but a partial blindness to the 
truth could have induced any to attribute to a more mo- 
dern author.' Some have ranked Lactantius in the class 
of writers now under consideration, but without reason, 
since it is well known, that the labours of that eloquent 
author were rather employed in refuting the errors of 
idolatry, than in explaining the truths of the Gospel. 
The System of Doctrine addressed to the Clergy and Lai- 
ty, which, by many, has been attributed to Athanasius, 
seems to be of a much later date. There are, however, 
many things in the works of Chrysostom, Athanasius, the 
Gregories, and others, by which we may be enabled to 
form a just idea of the manner in which the principal points 
of the Christian doctrine were explained by learned men 
in this century. We may more particularly be assisted 
in this matter by the twelve books of Hilary concerning 
the Trinity ; the Ancoratus of Epiphanius, in which the 
doctrine of Scripture, concerning Christ and the Holy 
Ghost, is explained at large ; the treatise of Pacian, concern 
ing baptism, addressed to the catechumens ; and the two 

Du-Pin, torn. i. iv. as also Hist. Critique des principaux Commentateurs 
du N. T. cap. vi. 

i See Gregor. Nazianz. Carmen de Seipso, in Tollius' Insignia 
Itineris Italici. 

k This may be seen in the six books which Augustin wrote concerning 
the Christian doctrine, and in the rules of interpretation laid down 
by Tychonius, which are to be found in the Biblioth. Patr. Maxim, 
torn. vi. 

i See Jo. Fechtii Comment, de Origine Missarum in Honorem 
Sanctorum, p. 404. 



92 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



books of Chrysostom on the same subject. We need not 
mention here the various works of Jerome and Augustin, 
in which appear the laborious and noble efforts of those 
great men to inspire into the minds of the people just 
notions of religion, and to detect and refute the errors of 
those who were enemies of the truth. 

VII. The controversial writings, that were levelled 
against those who were considered as heretics, were en- 
tirely destitute of that ancient simplicity, which is the na- 
tural and the beautiful garb of truth. That simplicity was 
now succeeded by logical subtilties, acute sophisms, sharp 
invectives, and other disingenuous arts, more worthy of 
the patrons of error, than the defenders of that ' wisdom 
which is from above.' We find, accordingly, many great 
and eminent men complaining of this abuse, and endea- 
vouring in vain to oppose the muddy torrent of scurrility 
and dialectic that was overflowing the Christian schools. 1 
I pass in silence those rhetorical figures and ornaments, by 
which many evaded the arguments of their adversaries, 
and artfully perplexed the true slate of the case ; that 
6dious custom, also, observed by some, of exciting the po- 
pular resentment against those who differed from them, 
and the total want of order and of perspicuity, chargeable 
upon almost all. Several writers of this age are so far 
from disowning these indecorous qualities, that they seem, 
on the contrary, to glory in them. It must, indeed, be 
observed, that the adversaries of the truth used the same 
inglorious arms, though this does not in the least diminish 
the reproach which is on that account due to its friends. 

VIII. New methods of disputing were also added to 
chose which were practised in former times ; for the truth 
of a doctrine was now proved by the number of martyrs 
that had professed it, by miracles, by the confession of 
dcemo?is, i. e. of persons possessed with evil spirits. The 
smallest degree of discernment will persuade any one how 
ambiguous this method of reasoning was ; how dangerous 
to the truth, by furnishing innumerable occasions for the 
exercise of fraud and imposture ; and I apprehend, that 
the greatest part of those who used such arguments, how- 
ever illustrious and respectable they may have been, will 
be found, upon examination, chargeable with the dange- 
rous and criminal design of imposing upon their brethren. 
Ambrose, in his disputes with the Arians, produced men 
possessed with devils, who on the approach of the relics of 
Gervasius and Protasius, were obliged to acknowledge, with 
loud cries, that the doctrine of the council of Nice, concern- 
ing the three persons of the godhead, was true ; and that of 
the Arians not only false, but also of most dangerous conse- 
quence. This testimony of the prince of darkness was re- 
garded by Ambrose, as an unexceptionable argument in 
favour of his hypothesis. The Arians, on the other hand, 
held this prodigy in the utmost derision, and maintained 
that Ambrose had suborned these infernal witnesses by a 
weighty bribe ; b and I make no doubt that many will be 
more disposed to believe the Arians, than to credit Ambrose, 



" Methodius apud Epiphanium, Hseres. lxiv. torn. i. op. — Gregor. Na- 
zian. in many places; and others. 

t> Ambros. Epist. xxii. Paulinus, vita Ambrosii, p. 81. 

See Le Clerc, Appendix Augustiniana, p. 375. Gregor. Nyss. vita 
Gregorii Neocaesariensis, torn. ii. op. Sulpitius Severus, Hist. Sacr. lib. 
ii. cap. xxxviii. 

<• See Jos. Sim. Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental. Clement. Vatic, torn. i. 
D. 118, 125. From the extracts, which this learned compiler has given 
of the works of Ephraim, it appears that he was more distinguished by 



though he be enrolled in the order of the saints, and they 
stigmatised in the list of heretics. 6 

IX. There were, in this century, several controversial- 
ists of considerable note ; for, beside Apollinaris, Gregory 
Nazianzen, Cyril of Alexandria, and others who distin- 
guished themselves in the lists against the emperor Julian, 
many others disputed, with victorious force and a happy 
success, against the worshippers of the gods. Of this num- 
ber were, Lactantius, Athanasius, Julius Firmicus Mater- 
nus, Apollinaris the younger, whose excellent writings 
against Porphyry are unhappily lost ; Augustin, in those 
books of the City of God, and in the three books against the 
Pagans, which have also perished ; and, above all, Euse- 
bius of Ceesarea, in his Evangelical Preparation, and his 
book against Hierocles. Eusebius Emesenus, Diodorus of 
Tarsus, and St. Chrysostom, whose treatise on the subject 
is still extant, employed their learned labours to bring over 
the Jews to the profession of Christianity. Ephraim the 
Syrian, 3 James of Nisibis, Didymus, and Audentius, at- 
tacked the whole body of heretics ; as did also Epiphanius, 
in his voluminous work concerning heresies, entitled Pana- 
rium, and Gregory Nazianzen with more brevity in his 
discourse concerning faith. The books of Augustin and 
Philastrius, on the same subject, contain rather a list than 
a refutation of the several sects. 

X. If the growth and perfection of a science were to be 
estimated by the multitude of writers it produces, that of 

I morals must have flourished greatly at this time ; for a 
| very considerable number of persons applied themselves to 
that excellent study. Among the eastern writers, James, 
bishop of Nisibis, e and Ephraim, bishop of Syria, became 
eminent for their zeal and assiduity in inculcating the pre- 
cepts of morality. The writings of Basil the Great, Gre 
gory of Nyssa, Chrysostom, Ambrose, Augustin, and seve- 
ral others, upon moral subjects, are neither worthy of high 
encomiums, nor of entire contempt, as they contain a 
strange mixture of excellent reflections, and insipid details, 
concerning the duties of the Christian life. Among the 
productions of these writers, many give the preference to the 
three books of Ambrose, concerning the duty of the minis- 
ters of the church, which are written in the manner of 
Cicero, and are justly commended for the pious intention 
they discover, and the beautiful sentiments they contain 
though there be many things in them worthy of reprehen 
sion. But Macarius, an Egyptian monk/ undoubted!} 
deserves the first rank among the practical writers of this 
time, as his works display, some few things excepted, e the 
brightest and most lovely portraiture of sanctity and 
virtue. 

XI. It must, however, be observed, that almost all the 
writers of this class are defective in several respects. They 
have been entirely negligent of order in their compositions, 
and have taken no sort of care to treat with method and 
precision the subjects they undertook to explain. They 
seldom define their terms, and pour out their pious but 



his piety and genius, than by his skill in the management of controversy. 

• Jos. Sim. Assemanus, in the work quoted in the preceding note, 
torn, i., thinks, that the writings attributed to the bishop of Nisibis, 
belong rather to the bishop of Saruga ; he however corrects, in some 
measure, this notion in his Addenda, p. 558. 

' See the Acta Sanctorum, torn. i. Januar. p. 1005. 

ITJr ' The tilings here excepted by Dr. Mosheim, are some supersti- 
tious tenets that are to be found in the writings of Macarius, and also 
certain opinions that seem tainted with Origcnism. 



Chap. III. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



93 



incoherent ideas in fortuitous combinations, just as they 
offer themselves. They, moreover, neglect deducing the 
duties of mankind from their true principles, and even 
sometimes derive them from doctrines and precepts which 
are either manifestly false, or, at least, whose nature and 
meaning are not determined with any degree of accuracy. 
And hence it is, that the greatest part of them are extreme- 
ly defective, when they come to demonstrate the obligations 
of virtue, and the incongruity and unfitness of vice. These 
pretended demonstrations, instead of being deduced by 
proper conclusions from the reason of things and the divine 
laws, are nothing more than a collection of airy fancies, 
cold and insipid allegories, quaint and subtile conceits, 
which are more proper to afford amusement to the imagi- 
nation, than light to the understanding, or conviction to 
the judgment. 

XII. But, however defective this method of inculcating 
the duties of morality may have been, it was much more 
tolerable than that which was followed by the amphibious 
disciples of Christ and Plato, those Alexandrian philoso- 
phers, of whom Ammonius Sacca was the chief. The 
double doctrine of morals which they invented, and which 
was compounded of two systems, one surpassing the other 
in perfection, gained much ground in this century, to the 
great detriment of true religion. A circumstance that 
strongly tends to convince us of the growth and progress 
of this fanatical sect is, that those who in former times 
had inculcated a secret doctrine concerning divine things, 
totally different from that which was publicly propagated 
among the multitude, gave now the finishing touch to this 
doctrine, and formed it into a system. The famous Gre- 
cian fanatic, who declared himself to be Dionysius the 
Areopagite, disciple of St. Paul, and who, under the pro- 
tection of this venerable name, gave laws and instructions 
to such as were desirous of raising their souls above all 
human things, in order to unite them to their great source 
by sublime contemplation, lived most probably in this cen- 
tury, though some place him before, others after the present 
period.* No sooner were the writings and instructions of 
this fanatic handed about among the Greeks and Syrians, 
and particularly among the solitaries and monks, than a 
gloomy cloud of religious darkness began to spread itself 
over the minds of many. An incredible number of prose- 
lytes joined those chimerical sectaries, who maintained that 
communion with God was to be sought by mortifying the 
senses, by withdrawing the mind from all external objects, 
by macerating the body with hunger and labour, and by 
a holy sort of indolence, which confined all the activity 
of the soul to a lazy contemplation of things spiritual and 
eternal. 

XIII. The progress of this sect appears evidently from 

• Those who have written concerning this impostor, are enumerated 
by Jo. Franc. Buddeus, in his Isagoge ad Theologiam, lib. ii. cap. iv. 
See also Jo. Launoii Judicium de Scriptis Dionysii. torn. ii. op. part i. 
La Croze (in his Histoire du Christianisme d'Ethiopie,) endeavours to 
prove, that Synesius, an Egyptian bishop, and also the most celebrated 
philosopher of the fifth century, composed the writings attributed to Dio- 
nysius, in order to defend the doctrine of those who held, that Christ 
only possessed one nature. The arguments, however, of La Croze are 
weak. Nor are those more satisfactory, which the learned Baratier has 
employed, in a dissertation added to his book de Successione Rom. Epis- 
cop. p. 286, to prove that Dionysius of Alexandria was the true author 
of the writings in question. 

t For a full account of Antony, and the discipline established by him, 
see the Acta Sanctorum, torn. ii. Januar. ad d. 17. 

• See Jos. Simon. Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental. Clement. Vatican, 
torn. iii. oart ii. 

No. VIII. 24 



the prodigious number of solitary monks and sequestered 
virgins, which, upon the return of tranquillity to the church, 
had over-run the whole Christian world with an amazing 
rapidity. Many of this order of men had, for a long time, 
been known among the Christians, and had led silent and 
solitary lives in the deserts of Egypt ; but Antony was the 
first who formed them into a regular body, engaged them 
to five in society with each other, and prescribed rules to 
them for the direction of their conduct. b These regulations, 
which Antony brought forward in Egypt in 305, were, in 
the year following, introduced into Palestine and Syria, 
by his disciple Hilarion. Almost about the same time, 
Aones and Eugenius, with their companions Gaddanas 
and Azyzus, instituted the monastic order in Mesopotamia 
and the adjacent countries; c and their example was fol- 
lowed with such rapid success, that, in a short time, the 
east was filled with a lazy set of mortals, who, abandon- 
ing all human connexions, advantages, pleasures, and 
concerns, wore out a languishing and miserable fife, 
amidst the hardships of want and various kinds of suffer- 
ing, in order to arrive at a more close and rapturous 
communion with God and angels. The Christian church 
would never have been disgraced by this cruel and inso- 
cial enthusiasm, nor would any have been subjected to 
those keen torments of mind and body to which it gave 
rise, had not many Christians been unwarily caught by 
the specious appearance and the pompous sound of that 
maxim of the ancient philosophy, " That, in order to the 
attainment of true felicity and communion with God, it 
was necessary that the soul -should be separated from the 
body, even here below, and that the body was to be 
macerated and mortified for this purpose." 

XIV. From the east this gloomy institution passed into 
the west, and first into Italy, and its neighbouring islands, 
though it is utterly uncertain who transplanted it t hither. d 
St. Martin, the celebrated bishop of Tours, erected the first 
monasteries in Gaul, and recommended this religious soli- 
tude with such power and efficacy, both by his instructions 
and his example, that his funeral is said to have been 
attended by no less than two thousand monks. e Thence, 
the monastic discipline gradually extended its progress 
through the other provinces and countries of Europe. 

It is, however, proper to observe, that there was a great 
difference in point of austerity between the western and 
oriental monks ; the former of whom could never be 
brought to bear the severe rules to which the latter volun- 
tarily submitted. And, indeed, the reason of this difference 
may be partly derived from the nature of the respective 
climates in which they dwelt. The European countries 
abound not so much with delirious fanatics, or with persons 
of a morose and austere complexion, as those arid regions 



a Most writers, following the opinion of Baronius, maintain that St. 
Athanasius brought the monastic institution from Egypt into Italy, 
about the year 340, and was the first who built a monastery at Rome, 

See Mabillon, Praf. ad Acta Sanctorum Ord. Bened. torn. i. The 

learned Muratori (Antiq. Ital. torn, v/) combats this opinion, and pretends 
that the first monastery known in Europe, was erected at Milan : and 
Just. Fontaninus, in his Hist. Liter. Aquileiens. affirms, that the first 
society of monks was formed at Aquileia. But these writers do not 
produce unexceptionable evidence for their opinions. If we may give 
credit to the Ballerini (Dissert, ii. ad Zenonem Veronensem,) the first 
convent of nuns was erected toward the end of this century, at Verona, 
by Zeno, bishop of that city. 

See Sulpit. Sever, de vita Martini, cap. X. p. 17, edit. Veron., where 
the method of living, used by the Martinian monks, is accurately do- 
scribed. See also Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. i. part ii. p. 42. 



94 



THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



that lie toward the burning east ; nor are our bodies capa- 
ble of supporting that rigid and abstemious method of 
living, which is familiar and easy to those who are placed 
under a glowing firmament, and breathe in a sultry and 
scorching atmosphere. It was, therefore, rather the name 
only than the thing itself, which was transported into the 
European countries," though this name was indeed accom- 
panied with a certain resemblance or distant imitation of 
the monastic life instituted by Antony and others in the 
east. 

XV. The monastic order, of which we have been taking 
a general view, was distributed into several classes. It was 
first divided into two distinct orders, of which one received 
the denomination of Coenobites, the other that of Eremites. 
The former lived together in a fixed habitation, and made 
up one large community under a chief, whom they called 
father, or abbot, which signifies the same thing in the 
Egyptian language. The latter drew out a wretched life 
in perfect solitude, and were scattered here and there in 
caves, in deserts, in the cavities of rocks, sheltered from 
the wild beasts only by the cover of a miserable cottage, 
in which each lived sequestered from the rest of his spe- 
cies. 

The Anchorets were yet more excessive in the austerity 
of their manner of living than the Eremites. They fre- 
quented the wildest deserts without either tents or cottages; 
nourished themselves with the roots and herbs which 
grew spontaneously out of the uncultivated ground ; wan- 
dered about without having any fixed abode, reposing 
wherever the approach of night happened to find them ; 
and all this, that they might avoid the view and the socie- 
ty of mortals. b 

Another order of monks were those wandering fanatics, 
or rather impostors, whom the Egyptians called Sarabaites, 
who, instead of procuring a subsistence by honest indus- 
try, travelled through various cities and provinces, and 
gained a maintenance by fictitious miracles, by selling 
relics to the multitude, and other frauds of a like nature. 

Many of the Coenobites were chargeable with vicious 
and scandalous practices. This order, however, was not so 
generally corrupt as that of the Sarabaites, who were for 
the most part profligates of the most abandoned kind. As 
to the Eremites, they seem to have deserved no other 
reproach than that of a delirious and extravagant fanati- 
cism. All these different orders were hitherto composed 
of the laity, and were subject to the jurisdiction and the 
inspection of the bishops. But many of them were now 
adopted among the clergy, even by the command of the 
emperors ; and the fame of monastic piety and sanctity 
became so general, that bishops were frequently chosen out 
of that fanatical order. d 

XVI. If the enthusiastic phrensy of the monks exag- 

a This difference between the discipline of the eastern and western 
monks, and the cause of it, have been ingeniously remarked by Sulpi- 
tius Severus, Dial. i. de Vita Martini, where one of the interlocutors, in 
the dialogue, having mentioned the abstemious and wretched diet of the 
Egyptian monks, adds what follows: "Place'.ne tibi prandium, fascicu- 
lus herbarum et panis dimidius viris quinque?" To this question the 
Gaul answers, " Facis tuo more, qui nullam occasionem omittis, quin 
nos (i. e. the Gallic monks) edacitatis fatiges. Sed facis inhumane, qui 
nos Gallos homines cogis exemplo angelorum vivere — Sed contentus sit 
hoc [prandio] Cyrenensis ille, cui vel necessitas vel natura est esurire : 
nos, quod tibi scepe testalus sum, Galli sumus." The same speaker, 
in the above-mentioned dialogue, cap. viii. reproaches Jerome with hav- 
ing accused the monks of gluttony ; and proceeds thus : " Sentio de ori- 
entalibus ilium potiusmonachis, quam de occidentalibus disputasse ; nam 



gerated, in a manner pernicious to the interests of morality, 
the discipline that is obligatory upon Christians, the inter- 
ests of virtue and true religion suffered yet more grievously 
by two monstrous error;? which were almost universally 
adopted in this century, and became a source of innumer- 
able calamities and mischiefs in the succeeding ages. Of 
these maxims one was, " That it was an act of virtue to 
deceive and lie, when by such means the interests of the 
church might be promoted ;" and the second, equally 
horrible, though in another point of view, was, that " errors 
in religion, when maintained and adhered to, after proper 
admonition, were punishable with civil penalties and cor- 
poieal tortures." Of these erroneous maxims the former 
was now of a long standing ; it had been adopted for some 
ages past, and had produced an incredible number of ridicu- 
lous fables, fictitious prodigies, and pious frauds, to the 
unspeakable detriment of that glorious cause in which they 
were employed. And it must be frankly confessed, that 
the greatest men, and most eminent saints of this century, 
were more or less tainted with the infection of this corrupt 
principle, as will appear evidently to such as look with an 
attentive eye into their writings and their actions. We 
would willingly except from this charge Ambrose and 
Hilary, Augustin, Gregory Nazianzen, and Jerome ; 
but truth, which is more respectable than these venerable 
fathers, obliges us to involve them in the general accusa- 
tion. We may add also, that it was, probably, the con- 
tagion of this pernicious maxim, that engaged Sulpitius 
Severus, who is far from being, in general, a puerile or cre- 
dulous historian, to attribute so many miracles to St.Martin. 
The other maxim, relating to the justice and expediency of 
punishing error, was introduced in those serene and peace- 
ful times which the accession of Constantine to the impe- 
rial throne procured to the church. It was from that period 
approved by many, enforced by several examples during 
the contests that arose with the Priscillianists and Donatists, 
confirmed and established by the authority of Augustin, 
and thus transmitted to the following ages. 

XVII. When we cast an eye toward the lives and mo- 
rals of Christians at this time, w efind, as formerly, a mix- 
ture of good and evil ; some eminent for their piety, others 
infamous for their crimes. The number, however, of im- 
moral and unworthy Christians began so to increase, that 
the examples of real piety and virtue became extremely 
rare. When the terrors of persecution were totally dispel- 
led ; when the church, secured from the efforts of its ene- 
mies, enjoyed the sweets of prosperity and peace ; when 
the major part of the bishops exhibited to their flock the 
contagious examples of arrogance, luxury, effeminacy, ani- 
mosity, and strife, with other vices too numerous to men- 
tion ; when the inferior rulers and doctors of the church 
fell into a slothful and opprobrious negligence of the duties 

edacitas in Gracis et Orientalibus gula est, in Gallis natura." It ap- 
pears, therefore, that, immediately after the introduction of the monastic 
order into Europe, the western differed greatly from the eastern monks in 
their manners and discipline, and were, in consequence of this, accu- 
sed by the latter of voraciousness and gluttony. 

i> See Sulpit. Sever. Dial. i. de vita Martini, cap. x. 

Whoever is desirous of a more ample account of the vices of 
the monks of this century, may consult the above-mentioned dialogue 
of Sulp. Sever, cap. viii. p. 69, 70. cap. xxi. p. 88, where he par- 
ticularly chastises the arrogance and ambition of those who aspired 
to clerical honours. See also Dial. ii. cap. viii. and also cap. xv., and 
Consultat. Apollonii et Zachsei, published by Dacherius, Spicileg. 
torn. i. lib. iii. cap. iii. 

J See J. Godofred. ad Codicem Theodosianum, torn. vi. 



Chap. III. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



95 



of their respective stations, and employed, in vain wrang- 
lings and idle disputes, that zeal and attention which were 
due to the culture of piety and to the instruction of their 
people ; and when (to complete the enormity of this horrid 
detail) multitudes were drawn into the profession of Chris- 
tianity, not by the power of conviction and argument, but 
by the prospect of gain or by the fear of punishment ; then 
it was, indeed, no wonder that the church was contamina- 
ted with shoals of profligate Christians, and that the virtu- 
ous few were, in a manner, oppressed and overwhelmed 
by the superior numbers of the wicked and licentious. It 
is true, that the same rigourous penitence, which had taken 
place before the time of Constantine, continued now in full 
force against flagrant transgressors ; but, when the reign of 
corruption becomes universal, the vigour of the law yields 
to its sway, and a weak execution defeats the purposes of 
the most salutary discipline. Such was now unhappily the 
case : the age was gradually sinking from one period of 
corruption to another ; the great and the powerful sinned 
with impunity ; and the obscure and the indigent alone 
felt the severity of the laws. 

XVIII. Religious controversies among Christians were 
frequent in this century ; and, as it often happens in the 
course of civil affairs, external peace gave occasion and lei- 
sure for the excitation of intestine troubles and dissensions. 
We shall mention some of the principal of these controver- 
sies, which produced violent and obstinate schisms, not so 
much, indeed, by their natural tendency, as by incidental 
occurrences. 

In the beginning of this century, about the year 306, 
arose the famous Meletian controversy, so called from its 
author, and which, for a long time, divided the church. 
Peter, bishop of Alexandria, had deposed from the episco- 
pal office, Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis in the Upper Egypt. 
The reasons that occasioned this violent act of authority, 
have not been sufficiently explained. 

The partisans of Peter allege, that Meletius had sacrifi- 
ced to the gods, and charge him also with various 
crimes ; a while others affirm, that his only failing was an 
excessive severity against the lapsed. b However that 
may be, Meletius treated the sentence of Peter with the 
utmost contempt, and not only continued to perform all the 
duties of the episcopal function, but even assumed the right 
of consecrating presbyters ; a privilege, which, by the laws 
of Egypt, belonged only to the bishop of Alexandria. The 
venerable gravity and eloquence of Meletius drew many to 
his party ; and, among others, a considerable number of 
monks adhered to his cause. The council of Nice made 
several ineffectual attempts to heal this breach ; the Mele- 
tians, on the other hand, whose chief aim was to oppose 
the authority of the bishop of Alexandria, joined them- 
selves to the Arians, who were his irreconcileaMe enemies. 
Hence it happened, that a dispute, which had for its first 
object the authority and jurisdiction of the bishop of Alex- 
andria, gradually degenerated into a religious controversy. 
The Meletian party was yet subsisting in the fifth century. c 

* Alhanasius, Apologia secunda, torn. i. op. 

b Epiphanius, Hxres. lxviii. torn. i. op. See also Dion. Petavius, 
Not. in Epiphanium, torn. ii. and Sam. Basnagii Exercitat. de Rebus 
aacris contra Baronium. 

c Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. i. c. vi. p. 14. Theodoret. Hist, Eccles. 
lib. i. cap. v-iii. p. 548. 

* See Sam. Basnage. Annal. Polit. Eccles. torn. ii. 

•Socrates, lib. i. cap. jd'iii. — Sozomen, lib. iii. cap. xiv. lib. iv. cap. 



XIX. Some time after this, a certain person named 
Eustathius, was the occasion of great disorders and divi- 
sions in Armenia, Pontus, and the neighbouring coun- 
tries ; and he was consequently condemned and excom- 
municated by the council of Gangra, which soon followed 
that of Nice. Whether this was the same Eustathius, who 
was bishop of Sebastia in Armenia, and the chief of the 
Semi- Arians ; or whether the ancient historians have con- 
founded two different persons of the same name, is a matter 
extremely difficidt to determine. 11 However that may be, 
the leader of the Eustathian sect does not seem so much 
chargeable with the corruption of any religious doctrine, as 
with having set up a fanatical form of sanctity, an extrava- 
gant system of practical discipline, destructive of the order 
and happiness of society ; for he prohibited marriage, the 
use of wine and flesh, feasts of charity, and other thing's of 
that nature. He prescribed immediate divorce to those 
who were joined in wedlock, and is said to have granted to 
children and servants the liberty of violating the com- 
mands of their parents and masters, upon pretexts of a re- 
ligious nature. e 

XX. Lucifer, bishop of Cagliaria in Sardinia, a man 
remarkable for his prudence, the austerity of his character, 
and the steadiness of his resolution and courage, was ban- 
ished by the emperor Constantius, for having defended the 
Nicene doctrine, concerning the three persons in the God- 
head. He broke the bonds of fraternal communion with 
Eusebius, bishop of Verceil, in the year 363, because the 
latter had consecrated Paulinus, bishop of Antioch ; and he 
afterwards separated himself from the whole church, on 
account of the absolution which it had decreed in favour 
of those who, under Constantius, had deserted to the Ari- 
ans/ The small tribe, at least, that followed this prelate, 
under the title of Luciferians, scrupulously and obstinately 
avoided all commerce and fellowship, both with those 
bishops who had declared themselves in favour of the Ari- 
ans, and with those also who consented to an absolution 
for such as returned from this desertion, and acknowledged 
their error ; and thus of consequence they dissolved the 
bonds of their communion with the church in general.*? 
The Luciferians are also said to have entertained erroneous 
notions concerning the human soul, whose generation they 
considered as of a carnal nature, and maintained, that it 
was transfused from the parents into the children. h 

XXI. About this time iErius, a presbyter monk, and 
a Semi-Arian, erected a new sect, and excited divisions 
throughout Armenia, Pontus, and Cappadocia, by propaga- 
ting opinions different from those which were commonly 
received. His principal tenet was that bishops were no* 
distinguished from presbyters by any divine right, but that 
according to the institution of the New Testament, their 
offices and authority were absolutely the same. How far 
iErius pursued this opinion, through its natural conse- 
quences, is not certainly known ; but we know, with cer- 
tainty, that it was highly agreeable to many good Chris- 
tians, who were no longer able to bear the tyranny and 

xxiv. — Epiphan. Hares, lxvi. — Philostorgius, Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. 
xvi. — Wolfe. Gundling, Not. ad Concilium Gangrense. 

1 Rufin. Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. xxx. — Socrates, lib. iii. cap. ix. See 
also Tillemont's Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire de 1' Eglise. torn. vii. 

6 See, in the works of Sirmond, a book of Prayers, addressed to Thco- 
dosius by Marcellinus and Faustinus, who were Luciferians. 

h Augustin. de H acres, cap. lxxxi. with the observations of Lamb. D&- 
naeus, p. 346. 



9b 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



arrogance of the bishops of this century. There were 
other things in which iErius differed from the common 
notions of the time ; he condemned prayers for the dead, 
stated fasts, the celebration of Easter, and other rites of 
that nature, in which the multitude erroneously imagine 
that the life and soul of religion consist. 1 His great pur- 
pose seems to have been that of reducing Christianity to 
its primitive simplicity; a purpose, indeed, laudable and 
noble when considered in itself, though the principles 
whence it springs, and the means by which it is executed, 
may in some respects deserve censure. b 

XXII. The progress of superstition in this century, and 
the erroneous notions that prevailed concerning the true 
nature of religion, excited the zeal and the efforts of many 
to stem the torrent. But their labours only exposed them to 
infamy and reproach. Of these worthy opposers of the reign- 
ing superstitions, the most eminent was Jovinian, an Italian 
monk, who toward the conclusion of this century, taught 
first at Rome, and afterwards at Milan, that all those who 
kept the vows they made to Christ at their baptism, and lived 
according to the rules of piety and virtue laid down in the 
Gospel, had an equal title to the rewards of futurity ; and 
that, consequently, those who passed their days in insocial 
celibacy, and severe mortifications and fastings, were in no 
respect more acceptable in the eye of God, than those who 
lived virtuously in the bonds of marriage, and nourished 
their bodies with moderation and temperance. These judi- 
cious opinions, which many began to adopt, were first con- 
demned by the church of Rome, and afterwards by Am- 
brose, in a council holden at Milan in the year 390. c The 
emperor Honorius seconded the authoritative proceedings of 
the bishops by the violence of the secular arm, answered 
the judicious reasonings of Jovinian by the terror of coer- 
cive and penal laws, and banished this pretended heretic 
to the island of Boa. Jovinian published his opinions in 
a book against which Jerome, in the following century, 
vvrote a most bitter and abusive treatise, still extant. d 

XXIII. Among all the religious controversies that divi- 
ded the church, the most celebrated, both for their impor- 

ance and their duration, were those relating to Origen 
and his doctrine. 

This illustrious man, though he had been, for a long 
time, charged with many errors, was deemed, by the ge- 
nerality of Christians, an object of high veneration; and 
his name was so sacred as to give weight to the cause in 
which it appeared. The Arians, who were sagacious in 
searching for succours on all sides to maintain their sect, 
affirmed that Origen had adopted their opinions. In this 
they were believed by some, who consequently included 
this great man in the hatred which they entertained 
against the sect of the Arians. But several writers of the 
first learning and note opposed this report, and endeavoured 

" Epiphanius, Hares, lxxv. p. 905. — Augustin. de Haeres. cap. liii. 

b The desire of reducing religious worship 'to the greatest possible 
simplicity, however rational it may appear in itself, when abstractedly 
considered, will be considerably moderated in s-uch as bestow a moment's 
attention upon the imperfection and infirmities of human nature in its 
present state. Mankind, generally speaking, have '-'too little elevation 
of mind to be much affected with those forms and methods of worship, 
in which there is nothing striking to the outward senses. The great dif- 
ficulty lies in determining the lengths, which it is prudent to go in the 
accommodation of religious ceremonies to human infirmity; and the 
grand point is, to fix a medium, in which a due regard may be shown to 
the senses and imagination, without violating the dictates of right rea- 
son, or tarnishing the purity of true religion. It has been said, that the 
lomish church has gone thus far solely in condescension to the infirmities 



to vindicate the honour of their master from these injurious 
insinuations. Of these the most eminent was Eusebius, 
bishop of Csesarea, as appears by his learned work, enti- 
tled, An Apology for Origen. It is extremely probable, 
that these clamours raised against the memory and repu- 
tation of a man, whom the whole Christian world beheld 
with respect, would have been soon hushed, had it not 
been for the rise of new commotions, which proceeded from 
another source, and of which we shall treat in the follow- 
ing section. 

XXIV. The monks in general, and the Egyptian 
monks in particular, were enthusiastically devoted to Ori- 
gen, and spared no labour to propagate his opinions in all 
places. Their zeal, however, met with opposition, nor 
could they convince all Christians of the truth and sound- 
ness of the notions invented or adopted by that eminent 
writer. Hence arose a controversy concerning the reasons 
and foundations of Origenism, which was at first mana- 
ged in a private manner, but afterwards, by degrees, broke 
out into an open flame. Among the numerous partisans 
of Origen was John bishop of Jerusalem ; which furnish- 
ed Epiphanius and Jerome with a pretext to cast an odium 
upon this prelate, against whom they had been previously 
exasperated on other accounts. But the ingenious bishop 
conducted matters with such admirable dexterity, that, in 
defending himself, he vindicated, at the same time, the re- 
putation of Origen, and drew to his party the whole mo- 
nastic body, and also a prodigious number of those who 
were spectators of this interesting combat. This was 
merely the begining of the vehement contests concerning 
the doctrine of Origen, that were carried on both in the 
eastern and western provinces. These contests were par- 
ticularly fomented in the west by Rufinus, a presbyter of 
Aquileia, who translated into Latin several books of Origen, 
and insinuated, with sufficient plainness, that he acquies- 
ced in the sentiments they contained/ which drew upon 
him the implacable rage of the learned and choleric Je- 
rome. But these commotions seemed to cease in the west 
after the death of Rufinus, and in consequence of the 
efforts which men of the first order made to check, both 
by their authority and by their writings, the progress of 
Origenism in those parts. 

XXV. The troubles which the writings and doctrines 
of Origen excited in the east were more grievous and ob- 
stinate. Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, irritated for se- 
veral reasons against the Nitrian monks, represented them 
as infected with the contagion of Origenism, and ordered 
them to give up and abandon all the productions of Origen. 
The monks refused obedience to this command, and 
alleged in their defence two considerations : one was, that 
the passages in the writings of this holy and venerable 
man, which seemed to swerve from the truth, were insert- 



of mankind ; and this is what the ablest defenders of its motley worship 
have alleged in its behalf. But this observation is not just; the church 
of Rome has not so much accommodated itself to human weakness 
as it has abused that weakness by taking occasion from it to es- 
tablish an absurd variety of ridiculous ceremonies, destructive of true 
religion, and only adapted to promotethe riches and despotism of tha 
clergy, and to keep the multitude still hoodwinked in their ignorance and 
superstition. How far a just antipathy to the church puppet-shows of 
the Papists has unjustly driven some Protestant churches into the oppo- 
site extreme, is a matter that I shall not now examine, though it cer- 
tainly deserves a serious consideration. 

c Hieronymus in Jovinianum, torn. ii. op. — Augustin. de Hseres. cap. 
Ixxxii. — Ambros. Epist. vi. d Codex Theodosianus. torn. iii. vi. 

* Sec Just. Fontaninus, Historia Literar. Aquileicrisis. lib. iv. cap. iii. 



Chap. IV. 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



97 



ed in them by ill-designing heretics ; and the other, that 
a few censurable things were not sufficient to justify the 
condemnation of the rest. Matters were more exaspera- 
ted by this refusal of submission to the order of Theophi- 
lus; for this violent prelate called a council at Alexandria, 
in the year 399, in which having condemned the follow- 
ers of Origen, he sent a band of soldiers to drive the 
monks from their residence on mount Nitria. The poor 
monks, thus scattered abroad by an armed force, fled first 
to Jerusalem, whence they retired to Scythopolis; and 
finding that they could not live here in security and peace, 
determined, at length, to set sail for Constantinople, and 
there plead their cause in presence of the emperor. 1 The 
issue of these proceedings will come under the history of 
the following century. 

It is, however, necessary to observe here, that we must 
not reduce to the same class all those who are called Ori- 
genists in the records of this century : for this ambiguous 
title is applied to persons who differed widely in their reli- 
gious notions. Sometimes it merely signifies such friends 
of Origen, as acknowledged his writings to have been 
adulterated in many places, and who were far from patro- 
nising the errors of which he was accused ; in other places 
this title is attributed to those who confess Origen to be the 
author of all the doctrines which are imputed to him, and 
who resolutely support and defend his opinions; of which 
latter there was a considerable number among the mo- 
nastic orders. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning" the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 

I. While the Roman emperors were studious to pro- 
mote the honour of Christianity by the auspicious protec- 
tion they afforded to the church, and to advance its inter- 
ests by their most zealous efforts, the inconsiderate and ill- 
directed piety of the bishops cast a cloud over the beauty 
and simplicity of the Gospel, by the prodigious number of 
rites and ceremonies which they had invented to embellish 
it. And here we may apply that well-known saying of 
Augustin, b that 'the yoke under which the Jews formerly 
groaned, was more tolerable than that imposed upon many 
Christians in his time.' The rites and institutions, by 
Hbich the Greeks, Romans, and other nations, had for- 
merly testified their religious veneration for fictitious dei- 
ties, were now adopted, with some slight alterations, by 
Christian bishops, and employed in the service of the true 
God. We have already mentioned the reasons alleged 
for this imitation, so likely to disgust all who have a just 

1 See Pierre Daniel Huet, Origeniana, lib. ii. cap. iv. — Louis Dou- 
cin. Histoire de V Origenisme, livr. iii. — Hier. a Prato, Diss. vi. in 
Sulpitium Severum de Monachis ob Origenis noman ex Nitra totaque 
iEgypto pulsis, p. 273. 

b Augustin. Epist. cxix. ad Januarium. according to the ancient divi- 
sion. 

fjJT c The lituus, which, among the ancient Romans, was the chief 
ensign of the augurs, and derived its name from its resemblance to the 
military trumpet, became a mark of Episcopal dignity. We call it the 
crosier or bishop's staff. 

f3r d The word supplicationes, which I have rendered by that ofpro- 
cessiones, signified among the pagans, those solemn and public acts of 
gratitude for national blessings, or deprecation of national calamities, 
which were- expressed by the whole body of the people by a religious 
approach to the temples of the gods, which by a decree of" the senate, 
were open to all without distinction. See Cic. Catil. iii. 6. liv. x. 23. 

No. IX. 25 



sense of the native beauty of genuine Christianity. These 
fervent heralds of the Gospel, whose zeal outran their can- 
dour and integrity, imagined that the nations would re- 
ceive Christianity with more facility, when they saw the 
rites and ceremonies to which they were accustomed, 
adopted in the church, and the same worship paid to 
Christ and his martyrs, which they had formerly offered 
to their idol deities. Hence it happened, that, in these 
times, the religion of the Greeks and Romans differed very 
little, in its external appearance, from that of the Chris- 
tians. They had both a most pompous and splendid 
ritual. Gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax-tapers, cro- 
siers, processions," 1 lustrations, images, gold and silver 
vases, and many such circumstances of pageantry, were 
equally to be seen in the heathen temples and in the 
Christian churches. 

II. No sooner had Constantine abolished the supersti- 
tions of his ancestors, than magnificent churches were 
every where erected for the Christians, which were richly 
adorned with pictures and images, and bore a striking 
resemblance to the pagan temples, both in their outward 
and inward form. 6 Of these churches some were built 
over the tombs of martyrs, and were frequented only at 
stated times ; while others were set apart for the ordinary 
assemblies of Christians in divine worship. The former 
were called Martyria, from the places where they were 
erected; and the latter TituliJ Both of them were con- 
secrated with great pomp, and with certain rites borrowed 
mostly from the ancient laws of the Roman pontiffs. 

But our wonder will not cease here ; it will rather be 
augmented when we learn, that, at this time, it was looked 
upon as an essential part of religion, to have in every 
country a multitude of churches ; and here we must look 
for the true origin of what is called the right of patronage. 
which was introduced among Christians with no other 
view than to encourage the opulent to erect a great num- 
ber of churches, by giving them the privilege of appoint- 
ing the ministers that were to officiate in them.s This 
was a new instance of that servile imitation of the ancient 
superstitions which reigned at this time ; for it was a very , 
common notion among the people of old, that nations and 
provinces were happy and free from danger, in proportion 
to the number of fanes and temples, which they consecra- 
ted to the worship of gods and heroes, whose protection 
and succour could not fail, as it was thought, to be shed 
abundantly upon those who worshipped them with such 
zeal, and honoured them with so many marks of venera- 
tion and respect. The Christians unhappily contracted 
the same erroneous way of thinking. The more numer- 
ous were the temples which they erected in honour of 

c See Ezek. Spaiiheim, Preuves sur les Cesars de Julien, and particu- 
larly Le Bran's Explication literale et historique des Ceremonies de la 
Messe, torn. ii. A description of these churches may be found in Eusc- 
bius, de vita Constantini M. lib. iii. cap. xxxv. and an exact plan of 
their interior structure is accurately engraven in Bishop Beverage's Ad- 
notationes in Pandectas Canonum, torn. ii. and in Frederic Spanheim'i 
Institut. Hist. Eccl. It must also be observed, that certain parts of die 
Christian churches were formed after the model of the Jewish temples. 
See Camp. Vitringa de Synagoga. vetere. lib. iii. 

f Jo. Mabillon, Mus. Ital. torn. ii. in Comment, ad ordin. Roman, p 
xvi. §jr The Tituli were the smaller churches so called from this cir- 
cumstance, that the presbyters, who officiated in them, were called by 
the names of the places were they were erected, i. e. received titles, 
which fixed them to those particular cures. 

e Just. Hen. Bohmeri Jus Eccles. Protestant torn. iii. p. 466. — Bibho- 
thequc Italique, torn. v. p. 166. 



98 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part H, 



Christ, and his chosen friends and followers, the more san- 
guine did their expectations grow of powerful succours from 
them, and of a peculiar interest in the divine protection. 
They were so weak as to imagine, that God, Christ, and 
celestial intelligences, were delighted with those marks 
and testimonies of respect, which captivate the hearts of 
wretched mortals. 

III. The Christian worship consisted in hymns, prayers, 
the reading of the Scriptures, and a discourse addressed to 
the people; and concluded with the celebration of the Lord's 
supper. To these were added various rites, more adapted 
to please the eyes, and strike the imagination, than to 
kindle in the heart the pure and sacred flame of genuine 
piety.' 1 We are not, however, to think, that the same me- 
thod of worship was uniformly followed in every Christian 
society ; for this was far from being the case. Every bi- 
shop, consulting his own private judgment, and taking into 
consideration the nature of the times, the genius of the 
country in which he lived, and the character and temper 
of those whom he was appointed to rule and instruct, form- 
ed such a plan of divine worship as he thought the wisest 
and the best. Hence arose that variety of liturgies which 
were in use, before the bishop of Rome had usurped the 
supreme power in religious matters, and persuaded the 
credulous and unthinking, that the model, both of doctrine 
and worship, was to be given by the mother-church, and 
to be followed implicitly throughout the Christian world. 

IV. It would be almost endless to enter into a minute 
detail of all the different parts of public worship, and to 
point out the disadvantageous changes they underwent. 
A few observations will be sufficient upon this head. The 
public prayers had lost much of the solemn and majestic 
simplicity that characterised them in the primitive times, 
and which now began to degenerate into a vain and swell- 
ing bombast. The Psalms of David were now received 
among the public hymns that were sung as a part of divine 
service. 13 The sermons, or public discourses addressed to 
the people, were composed according to the rules of human 
eloquence, and rather adapted to excite the stupid admira- 
tion of the populace, who delight in vain embellishments, 
than to enlighten the understanding, or to reform the heart. 
It would even seem as if all possible means had been in- 
dustriously used, to give an air of folly and extravagance 
to the Christian assemblies ; for the people were permitted, 
and even exhorted by the preacher himself, to crown his 
talents with clapping of hands and loud acclamations of 
applause ; c a recompense that was hitherto peculiar to the 
actors on the theatre, and the orators in the forum. How 
men set apart by their profession to exhibit examples of the 
contempt of vain glory, and to demonstrate to others the 
vanity and emptiness of all temporal things, could indulge 
such a senseless indecent ambition, is difficult to be concei- 
ved, though it is highly to be deplored. 

V. The first day of the week, which was the ordinary 
and stated time for the public assemblies of Christians, 
was, in consequence of a peculiar law enacted by Constan- 



* For a full account of the forms of public worship, or the liturgies 
of this century, the reader will do well to consult the twenty-second cate- 
chetical discourse of Cyril of Jerusalem, and the apostolical constitutions, 
which are falsely attributed to Clementof Rome. These writers are most 
learnedly illustrated and explained by Pierre Le Brun, in his Explica- 
tion literale et historique de la Messe, torn. ii. 

•> Beausobre, Hist, du Manicheisme, torn. ii. p. 614. 

• Franc. Bern. Ferrarius, de Veterum Acclamationibus et Plausu, p. 66. 



tine, observed with greater solemnity than it had formerly 
been. d The festivals, celebrated in most of the churches, 
were five in number. They were appointed in commemo- 
ration of the birth, the sufferings and death, the resurrection, 
and the ascension of the divine Saviour ; and also the effu- 
sion of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles and first heralds 
of the Gospel on the day of Pentecost. Of these festivals, 
the Christians kept none with so much solemnity and 
respect as the fourteen days that were appointed for the 
commemoration of the resurrection. ' 

The eastern Christians celebrated the memory of Christ's 
birth and baptism in one festival, which was fixed on the 
sixth of January ; and this day was by them called the 
Epiphany, as on it the immortal Saviour was manifested 
to the world. f On the other hand, the Christians of the 
west seem to have always celebrated the birth of our Lord 
on the 25th of December ; for there appears to be very little 
certainty in the accounts of those who allege, that the 
Roman pontiff, Julius I., removed the festival of Christ's 
birth from the 6th of January to the 25th of Decembers 

The unlucky success which some had in discovering the 
carcasses and remains of certain holy men, multiplied the 
festivals and commemorations of the martyrs in the most 
extravagant manner. The increase of these festivals would 
not have been offensive to the wise and the good, if Chris- 
tians had employed the time they took up, in promoting 
their spiritual interests, and in forming habits of sanctity 
and virtue. But the contrary happened. These days, 
which were set apart for pious exercises, were squandered 
away in indolence, voluptuousness, and criminal pursuits, 
and were less consecrated to the service of God, than em- 
ployed in the indulgence of sinful passions. It is well 
known, among other things, what opportunities of ginning 
were offered to the licentious, by what were called the vigils 
of Easter and Whitsuntide, or Pentecost. 

YI. Fasting was considered in this century, as the 
most effectual and powerful means of repelling the force, 
and disconcerting the stratagems of evil spirits, and of ap- 
peasing the anger of an offended Deity. Hence we may 
easily understand what induced the rulers of the church to 
establish this custom by express laws, and to impose, as an 
indispensable duty, an act of humiliation, the observance 
of which had hitherto been left to every one's choice. The 
Q.uadragesimal or Lent-fast was regarded as more sacred 
than all the rest, though it was not yet confined to a fixed 
number of days. h We must, however, remark, that the 
fasts observed in this century, were very different from those 
which were solemnized in the preceding times. Formerly 
those who submitted themselves to the discipline of fasting 
abstained wholly from meat and drink ; but now a mere 
abstinence from flesh and wine was, by many, judged suffi- 
cient for the purposes of fasting/ and the latter opinion 
prevailed from this time, and became universal among the 
Latins. 

VII. Baptismal fonts were now erected in the porch of 
each church, for the more commodious administration of 

i Jac. Godofred. ad Codicem Theodos. torn. i. p. 135. 
" Godofred. torn. i. p. 143. 

! Beausobre, Hist, du Manicheisme, torn. ii. p. 693. 
* See Jos. Sim. Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Clement. Vatican, torn. ii. 
and Alph. des Vignoles, Diss, dans la Bibliotheque Germanique, torn. ii. 
i Jo. Dallfeus, de Jejuniis et Quadragesima, lib. iv. 
i See Barbeyrac, de la Morale des Peres, p. 250. 



Chap. IV. 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



99 



that initiating sacrament. Baptism was administered du- 
ring the vigils of Easter and Whitsuntide, with lighted ta- 
pers, by the bishop, and the presbyters commissioned by 
him for that purpose. In cases, however, of urgent neces- 
sity, and in such only, a dispensation was granted for per- 
forming this sacred rite at other times than those now 
mentioned. In some places salt was employed, as a sym- 
bol of purity and wisdom, and was thrown, with this view, 
■ nto the mouth of the person baptised ; and a double unc- 
ion was every where used in the celebration of this ordi- 
nance, one preceding its administration, and the other 
bllowing it. The persons who were admitted into the 
■hurch by baptism, were obliged, after the celebration of 
hat holy ordinance, to go clothed in white garments during 
he space of seven days. Many other rites and ceremonies 
night be mentioned here ; but, as they neither acquired 
stability by their duration, nor received the sanction of 
miversal approbation and consent, we shall pass them over 
n silence. 

VIII. The institution of catechumens, and the disci- 
pline through which they passed, suffered no variation in 
this century, but continued upon its ancient footing. It 
appears farther, by innumerable testimonies, that the 
Lord ; s supper was administered, (in some places two or 
three times in a week, in others on Sunday only,) to all 
those who were assembled to worship God. It was also 
sometimes celebrated at the tombs of martyrs and at 
funerals ; which custom, undoubtedly, gave rise to the 
masses, that were afterwards performed in honour of the 
saints, and for the benefit of the dead. In many places, the 
bread and wine were holden up to view before their distri- 
bution, that they might be seen by the people, and contem- 
plated with religious respect ; and hence, not long after, 
the adoration of the symbols was unquestionably derived. 
Neither catechumens, penitents, nor those who were suppo- 
sed to be under the influence and impulse of evil spirits, 
w r ere admitted to this holy ordinance ; nor did the sacred 
orators in their public discourses ever dare to unfold its true 
and genuine nature with freedom and simplicity. The 
reason of thus concealing it from the knowledge and obser- 
vation of many, was a veiy mean and shameful one, as 
we have ahead}- observed : many, indeed, offer a much 
more decent and satisfactory argument in favour of this 
custom, when they allege, that, by these mysterious pro- 
ceedings, the desire of the catechumens would naturally 
burn to penetrate, as soon as was possible, the sublime se- 
cret, and that they would thereby be animated to prepare 
themselves with double diligence for receiving this pri- 
vilege. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The sects which had sprung up in the preceding ages, 
transmitted their contagious principles to this century. 
Many of them yet remained, particularly in the east, and, 
notwithstanding their absurdity, continued to attract fol- 
lowers. The Manichean faction surpassed the rest in its 

1 The severe laws enacted by the emperors against the Manicheans, 
are to be found in the Theodosian Code, vol. vi. part i. In 372, Valen- 
tinian the elder prohibited their assemblies, and imposed heavy penalties 
on their doctors. In 381, Theodosius the Great branded them with 



influence and progress. The very turpitude and enormity 
of its doctrines seemed to seduce many into its snares ; and, 
■what is still more surprising, men of genius and penetra- 
tion were deluded by its enchantments, as the example of 
Augustin sufficiently testifies. It is true, the wisest and 
most learned writers of the times (and, among others. Au- 
gustin, when he returned from his errors) endeavoured to 
oppose the growth of tins spreading pestilence ; nor were 
their efforts entirely unsuccessful. But the root of this 
horrible disease was deep ; and neither the force of argu- 
ment, nor the severity of the most rigorous laws, were 
sufficient to extirpate it thoroughly. 11 For some time, 
indeed, it seemed to disappear, and many thought it utter- 
ly eradicated ; but it gathered force secretly, and broke out 
afterwards with new violence. To avoid the severity of 
the laws, the Manicheans concealed themselves under a 
variety of names, -which they adopted successively, and 

j changed, in proportion as they were discovered under them. 
Thus they assumed the names of Encratites. Apotactics, 

i Saccophori, Hydroparastates, Solitaries, and several others, 
under which they lay concealed for a certain time, but 
could not long escape the vigilance of their enemies. b 

II. The state had little danger to apprehend from a sect 
which the force of severe laws and of penal restraints 
could not fail to undermine, gradually, throughout the Ro- 

'■ man empire. But a new and much more formidable fac- 

! tion started up in Africa, which, though it arose from small 
beginnings, afflicted most grievously both the church and 

| state for more than a century. Its origin was as follows : 
Mensurius (bishop of Carthage) dying in the year 311, 
the greatest part of the clergy and the people chose, in his 
place, the archdeacon CeEcilianus, who without waiting for 
the assembly of the Numidian bishops, was consecrated 
by those of Africa Minor alone. This hasty proceeding 

! was the occasion of much trouble. The Numidian pre- 
lates, w x ho had always been present at the consecration of 
the bishops of Carthage, were highly offended at their 
being excluded from this solemn ceremony, and assem- 
bling at Carthage, called Caecilianus before them, to give 

, an account of his conduct. The flame, thus kindled, was 
greatly augmented by several Carthaginian presbyters, 
who were competitors with Caecilianus, particularly Botrus 
and Celesius. Lucilla, also, an opulent lady, who had 
been reprimanded by Caecilianus for her superstitious 
practices, and had conceived against him a bitter enmity 

[ on that account, was active in exasperating the spirits of 

! his adversaries, and distributed a large sum of money 
among the Numidians to encourage them, in their oppo- 
sition to the new bishop In consequence of all this, Cae- 
cilianus, refusing to submit to the judgment of the Nu- 
midians, was condemned in a council, assembled by Se- 
cundus, bishop of Tigisis, consisting of seventy prelates, 
who with the consent of a considerable part of the clergy 
and people, declared him unworthy of the episcopal digni- 
ty, and chose his deacon Majorinus for his successor. By 
this proceeding, the Carthaginian church was divided into 
two factions, and groaned under the contests of two rival 
bishops, Caecilianus and Majorinus. 

III. The Numidians alleged two important reasons to 

infamy, and deprived them of all the rights and privileges of citizens. 
Add, to these, several edicts more dreadful, which may be seen in pages 
137, 138, 170, of the above-mentioned work. 

b See the law of Theodosius, torn. vi. p. 134, &c. 



100 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



justify their sentence against Caecilianus; first, that Felix 
of Aptuhgus, the chief of the bishops who assisted at his 
consecration, was a traitor, (i. e. one of those who, during 
the persecution under Diocletian, had delivered the sacred 
writings and the pious books of the Christians to the ma- 
gistrates in order to be burned;) and that, as he had thus 
apostatised from the service of Christ, it was not possible 
that he could impart the Holy Ghost to the new bishop. 
A second reason for their sentence against Caecilianus was 
drawn from the harshness and even cruelty that he had 
discovered in his conduct, while he was a deacon, towards 
the Christian confessors and martyrs during the persecu- 
tion above mentioned, whom he abandoned, in the most 
merciless manner, to all the extremities of hunger and 
want, leaving them without food in their prisons, and pre- 
cluding the grant of relief from those who were willing to 
succour them. To these accusations they added the inso- 
lent contumacy of the new prelate, who refused to obey 
their summons, and to appear before them in council to 
justify his conduct. None of the Numidians opposed Cae- 
cilianus with such bitterness and vehemence, as Donatus 
bishop of Casae-Nigrae ; and hence the whole faction was 
called after him, as most writers think ; though some are 
of opinion, that the sect derived this name from another 
Donatus, surnamed the Great. a This controversy, in a 
short time, spread far and wide, not only throughout Nu- 
midia, but even through all the imperial provinces in Af- 
rica, which entered so zealously into this ecclesiastical war, 
that in most cities there were two bishops, one at the head 
of Caecilianus' party, and the other acknowledged by the 
followers of Majorinus. 

IV. The Donatists having brought this controversy 
before Constantine, that prince, in the year 313, commis- 
sioned Melchiades, bishop of Rome, to examine the matter, 
and named three bishops of Gaul to assist him in this 
inquiry. The result of this examination was favourable to 
Caecilianus, who was entirely acquitted of the crimes laid 
to his charge. The accusations adduced against Felix, by 
whom he was consecrated, were at that time left out of the 
question ; but, in the year 314, the cause of that prelate 
was examined separately by iElian, proconsul of Africa, 
by whose decision he was absolved. The Donatists, whose 
cause necessarily suffered by these proceedings, complain- 
ed much of the judgment pronounced by Melchiades and 
iElian. The small number of bishops, that had been 
appointed to examine their cause jointly with Melchiades, 
excited, in a particular manner, their reproaches, and even 
their contempt. They looked upon the decision of seventy 
venerable Numidian prelates, as infinitely more respectable 
than that pronounced by nineteen bishops (for such was 
the number assembled at Rome,) b who, beside the inferiori- 
ty of their number, were not sufficiently acquainted with 
the African affairs to be competent judges in the present 
question. The indulgent emperor, will ing to remove these 

• In the faction of the Donatists, there were two eminent persons of 
the name of Donatus ; one was a Numidian, and bishop of Casfe- 
Nigra; the other succeeded Majorinus, bishop of Cartilage, as leader of 
the Donatists, and received from this sect, on account of his learning 
and virtue, the title of Donatus the Great. Hence it has been a ques- 
tion among the learned, from which of these the sect derived its name? 
The arguments that support the different sides of this trivial question are 
nearly of equal force ; and why may we not decide it by supposing that 
the Donatists were so called from them both. 

l£jr b The emperor, in his letter to Melchiades, named no more than 
three prelates, viz. Maternus, Rheticius, Marinus, bishops of Cologne, 
Autun, and Aries, to sit with him as judges of this controversy ; but after- 



specious complaints, ordered a much more numerous 
assembly to meet at Aries, composed of bishops from Italy, 
Germany, Gaul, and Spain. Here again the Donatists lost 
their cause, but renewed their efforts by appealing to the 
immediate judgment of the emperor, who condescended 
so far as to admit their appeal ; and, in consequence thereof, 
examined the whole affair himself in the year 316 at 
Milan, in presence of the contending parties. The issue 
of this third trial was not more favourable to the Donatists 
than that of the two preceding councils, whose decisions the 
emperor confirmed by the sentence he pronounced/ 
Hence this perverse sect loaded Constantine with the bit- 
terest reproaches, and maliciously complained that Osius, 
bishop of Cordova, who was honoured with his friendship, 
and was intimately connected with Caecilianus, had by 
corrupt insinuations, engaged him to pronounce an unrigh 
teous sentence. The emperor, animated with a jusl 
indignation at such odious proceedings, deprived the Dona- 
tists of their churches in Africa, and sent into banishment 
their seditious bishops ; and he carried his resentment so 
far as to put some of them to death, probably on account of 
the intolerable petulance and malignity they discovered 
both in their writings and in their discourses. Hence 
arose violent commotions and tumults in Africa, as the 
Donatists were exceedingly powerful and numerous in that 
part of the empire. Constantine endeavoured, by embas- 
sies and negotiations, to allay these disturbances ; but his 
efforts were fruitless. 

V. These unhappy commotions gave rise, no doubt, to 
a horrible confederacy of desperate ruffians, who passed 
under the name of Circumcelliones. This furious, fear- 
less, and bloody set of men, composed of the rough and 
savage populace, who embraced the party of the Donatists, 
maintained their cause by the force of arms, filled the Af- 
rican provinces with slaughter and rapine, and committed 
the most enormous acts of perfidy and cruelty against the 
followers of Caecilianus. This outrageous multitude, 
whom no prospect of sufferings could terrify, and who, 
upon urgent occasions, faced death itself Avith the most 
audacious temerity, contributed to render the sect of the 
Donatists an object of the utmost abhorrence ; though it 
cannot be proved, by any records of undoubted authority, 
that the bishops of that faction (those, at least, who had any 
reputation for piety and virtue) either approved the proceed- 
ings, or stirred up the violence of this odious rabble. In 
the mean time, the flame of discord gathered strength 
daily, and seemed to portend the approaching horrors of a 
civil war ; to prevent which, Constantine, having tried in 
vain every other method of accommodation, abrogated at 
last, by the advice of the governors of Africa, the laws that 
had been enacted against the Donatists, and allowed to the 
people a full liberty of adhering to that party which they 
in their minds preferred. 

VI. After the death of Constantine the Great, his son 

wards he ordered seven more to be added to the number, and as many 
as could soon and conveniently assemble; so that there were nine- 
teen in all. 

c The proofs of the supreme power of the emperor, in religious mat- 
ters, appeal- so incontestable in this controversy, that it is amazing it 
should have been called in question. Certain it is, that, at this time, the 
notion of a supreme judge set over the church universal, by the appoint- 
ment of Christ, never had entered into any one's head. The assemblies 
of the clergy at Rome and Aries are commonly called councils, but 
improperly, since, in reality, they were nothing more than meetings of 
judges or commissaries appointed by the emperor. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AIND HERESIES. 



101 



Constans, to whom Africa was allotted in the division of the 
empire, sent Macarius and Paulas into that province, with 
a view to heal this deplorable schism, and to engage the ] 
Donatists to conclude a peace. Their principal bishop op- j 
posed all methods of reconciliation with the utmost vehe- ] 
mence, and his example was followed by the other prelates '. 
of the party. The Circumcelliones also continued to sup- 1 
port the cause of the Donatists by assassinations and mas- 
sacres, executed with the most unrelenting fury. They 
were, however, stopped in their career, and were defeated 
by Macarius in the battle of Bagnia. Upon this, the affairs 
of the Donatists rapidly declined ; and Macarius no longer 
used the soft voice of persuasion to engage them to an ac- 
commodation, but employed his authority for that purpose. 
A few submitted; the greatest part saved themselves by 
flight: numbers were sent into banishment, among whom 
was Donatus the Great ; and many of them were punished 
with the utmost severity. During these troubles, which 
continued near thirteen years, several steps were taken 
against the Donatists, which the equitable and impartial 
will be at a loss to reconcile with the dictates of humanity 
and justice ; nor, indeed, do the Catholics themselves deny 
the truth of this assertion. 1 Such treatment naturally ex- 
cited, among the Donatists, loud complaints of the cruelty 
of their adversaries. b 

VII. The emperor Julian, upon his accession to the 
throne in the year 362, permitted the exiled Donatists to 
return to then country, and restored them to the enjoy- 
ment of their former liberty. This step so far renewed 
their vigour, that they brought over, in a short time, the 
majority of the African provincials to their interests. Gra- 
tian, indeed, published several edicts against them, and, in 
ihe year 377, deprived them of their churches, and pro- 
hibited all their assemblies, public and private. But the 
fury of the Circumcelliones, who may be considered as ihe 
soldiery of the Donatists, and the apprehension of intes- 
tine tumults, prevented, no doubt, the vigorous execution 
jf these laws. This appears from the number of churches 
tvhich this people had in Africa toward the conclusion of 
ihe century, and which were served by no less than four 
hundred bishops. Two things, however, diminished con- 
siderably the power and Lustre of this flourishing sect, and 
made it decline apace about the end of this century : one 
was, a violent division that arose among them, on account 
of a person named Maximin ; and this division, so proper 
to weaken the common cause, was the most effectual in- 
strument the catholics could use to combat the Donatists. 
But a second circumstance which precipitated their decline, 
was the zealous and fervent opposition of Augustin, first 
presbyter, and afterwards bishop of Hippo. This learned 
and ingenious prelate attacked the Donatists in every way. 
In bis writings, in his public discourses, and in his private 
conversation, he exposed the dangerous and seditious prin- 
ciples of this sect in the strongest manner ; and as he was 

• The testimony of Optatus of Milevi is beyond exception in this 
matter ; it is quoted from die third book of his treatise, de Schismate 
Donatistarum, and runs thus : " Ab operariis Unitatis (i. e. the emperor's 
ambassadors Macarius and Paulus) multa quidem aspere gesta sunt. 
Fugerunt omnes episcopi cum clericis suis ; aliqui sunt mortui ; qui for- 
tiores fuerunt. captiet longe relegati sunt." Optatus, through the whole 
of this work, endeavours to excuse the severities committed against the 
Donatists, of which hejays the principal fault upon diat sect itself, con- 
fessing, however, that,' in some instances, the proceedings against them 
were too rigorous to deserve approbation, or admit an excuse. 



No. IX. 



26 



of a warm and active spirit, he animated against them the 
whole Christian world, as well as the imperial court. 

VIII. The doctrine of the Donatists was conformable 
to that of the chinch, as even their adversaries confess ; 
nor were then lives less exemplary than those of other 
Christian societies, if we except the enormous conduct of 
the Circumcelliones, which the greatest part of the sect 
regarded with the utmost detestation and abhorrence. The 
crime, therefore, of the Donatists lay properly hi the fol- 
lowing points: in their declaring the church of Africa, 
which adhered to Ceecilianus, fallen from the dignity and 
privileges of a true church, and deprived of the gifts of 
the Holy Ghost, on account of the offences with which 
the new bishop, and Felix, who had consecrated him, were 
charged ; in their pronouncing all the churches, which 
held communion with that of Africa, corrupt and polluted; 
in maintaining, that the sanctity of their bishops gave 
their community alone a full right to be considered as the 
true, the pure, and holy church ; and in their avoiding all 
communication with other chinches, from an apprehen- 
sion of contracting their impurity and corruption. This 
erroneous principle was the source of that most shocking 
uncharitableness and presumption which appeared in 
their conduct to other churches. Hence they pronounced 
the sacred rites and institutions void of all virtue and 
efficacy among those Christians who were not precisely 
of their sentiments, and not only re-baptised those who 
came over to their party from other churches, but even with 
respect to those who had been ordained ministers of the 
Gospel, they observed the severe custom, either of depri- 
ving them of then office, or obliging them to be ordained 
a second time. This schismatic pestilence was almost 
wholly confined to Africa ; for the few pitiful assemblies, 
which the Donatists had formed in Spain and Italy, had 
neither stability nor duration. 

IX. The faction of the Donatists was not the only one 
that troubled the church during this centuiy. In the year 
317, a contest arose in Egypt upon a subject of much higher 
importance, and its consequences were of a yet more perni- 
cious nature. The subject of this warm controversy, which 
kindled such deplorable divisions throughout the Chris- 
tian world, was the doctrine of three persons in the God- 
head ; a doctrine which, in the three preceding centuries, 
had happily escaped the vain curiosity of human researches, 
and been left undefined and undetermined by any particu- 
lar set of ideas. The church, indeed, had frequently decid- 
ed, against the Sabellians and others, that there was a real 
difference between the Father and Son, and that the Holy 
Ghost was distinct from both ; or, as we commonly speak, 
that three distinct persons exist hi the Deity : but the exact 
relation of these persons to each other, and the nature of 
the distinction that subsists between them, are matters that 
hitherto were neither disputed nor explained, and with re- 
spect to which the church had, consequently, observed 

*> See Collat. Carthag. diei terUK, sect. 258, at die end of Optatus. 
c A more ample account of die Donatists will be found in die follow- 
ing writers : Henr. Valesius, Dissert, de Schismate Donatistarum. 
! (subjoined to his edition of die ecclesiastical history of Eusebius.)— 
: Thorn. Ittigius' History of Donatism. published in die Appendix to his 
; book concerning die Heresies of die apostolic age. — Herm. AVitsius, 
Miscellanea Sacra, torn. i. lib. iv.; Henr. Noris, Hist. Donat. augmented 
by the Ballerini, op. torn. iv. — Long's History of die DonaUsts, London, 
1677. These are the sources whence we have drawn die accounts that 
we have given of this troublesome sect. 



102 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



a profound silence. Nothing was dictated on this head to 
the faith of Christians, nor were there any modes of 
expression prescribed as requisite to be used in speaking of 
this mystery. Hence it happened, that the Christian doc- 
tors entertained different sentiments upon this subject with- 
out giving the least offence, aud discoursed variously con- 
cerning the distinctions in the Godhead, each following 
his respective opinion with the utmost liberty. In Egypt, 
and the adjacent countries, the greatest part embraced, in 
this as well as in other matters, the opinion of Origen, who 
held that the Son was, in God, that which reason is in man, 
and that the Holy Ghost was nothing more than the divine 
energy, or active force. This notion is attended with 
many difficulties ; and, when it is not proposed with the 
utmost caution, tends, in a particular manner, to remove 
all real distinction between the persons in the God-head, or, 
in other words, leads directly to Sabellianism. 

X. In an assembly of the presbyters of Alexandria, the 
bishop of that city, whose name was Alexander, expressed 
his sentiments on this subject with a high degree of freedom 
and confidence, maintaining, among other things, that the 
Son was not only of the same eminence and dignity, but 
also of the same essence, with the Father. 1 This assertion 
was opposed by Arius, one of the presbyters, a man of a 
subtile turn, and remarkable for his eloquence. Whether 
his zeal for his own opinions, or personal resentment 
against his bishop, was the motive that influenced him, is 
not very certain. Be that as it will, he first treated, as false, 
the assertion of Alexander, on account of its affinity to the 
Sabellian errors, which had been condemned by the 
church ; and then, rushing into the opposite extreme, he 
maintained, that the Son was totally and essentially distinct 
from the Father ; that he was the first and noblest of those 
beings, whom God had created out of nothing, the instru- 
ment by whose subordinate operation the Almighty Father 
formed the universe, and therefore inferior to the Father, 
both in nature and in dignity. His opinions concerning 
the Holy Ghost are not so well known. It is however 
certain, that his notion concerning the Son of God was 
accompanied and connected with other sentiments, that 
were very different from those commonly received among 
Christians, though none of the ancient writers have given 
us a complete and coherent system of those religious te- 
nets which Arius and his followers really held. b 

XI. The opinions of Arius were no sooner divulged, 
than they found in Egypt, and the neighbouring provin- 
ces, a multitude of abettors, and among these, many who 
were distinguished as much by the superiority of their 
learning and genius, as by the eminence of their rank and 
station. Alexander, on the other hand, in two councils 

a See Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. i. cap. v. and Theodoret, lib. i. 

b For an account of the Arian controversy, the curious reader must 
consult the Life of Constantine, by Eusebius ; the various libels of 
Athanasius, which are to be found in the first volume of his works ; the 
Ecclesiastical Histories of Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, the sixty- 
ninth Heresy of Epiphanius, and other writers of this and the following 
age. But, among all these, there is not one to whom the merit of im- 
partiality can be attributed with justice; so that the Arian history stands 
yet in need of a pen guided by integrity and candour, and unbiassed by 
affection or hatred. Both sides have deserved reproach upon this head ; 
and those who have hitherto written the history of the Arian controversy 
have only espied the faults of one side ; e. g. it is a common opinion, 
that Arius was too much attached to the opinions of Plato and Origen 
(see Petav. Dogm. Theol. torn. ii. lib. i. cap. viii.) ; but this common 
opinion is a vulgar error. Origen and Plato entertained notions en- 
tirely different from those of Arius ; whereas Alexander, his antagonist, 
undoubtedly followed the mariner of Origen, in explaining the doctrine 



assembled at Alexandria, accused Arius of impiety, and 
caused him to be expelled from the communion of the 
church. Arius received this severe and ignominious shock 
with great firmness and constancy of mind ; retired into 
Palestine ; and thence wrote several letters to the most 
eminent men of those times, in which he endeavoured to 
demonstrate the truth of his opinions, and that with such 
surprising success, that vast numbers were drawn over to 
his party ; and among these Eusebius, bishop of Nicome 
dia, a man distinguished in the church by his influence 
and authority. The emperor Constantine, looking upon 
the subject of this controversy as a matter of small impor- 
tance, and as little connected with the fundamental and 
essential doctrines of religion, contented himself at first 
with addressing a letter to the contending parties, in which 
he admonished them to put an end to their disputes. But 
when the prince saw that his admonitions were without 
effect, and that the troubles and commotions, which the 
passions of men too often mingle with religious disputes, 
were spreading and increasing daily throughout the empire, 
he convoked, in the year 325, a great council at Nice in 
Bithynia, hoping and desiring that the deputies of the 
church universal would put an end to this controversy. In 
this general assembly, after many keen debates, and vio- 
lent efforts of the two parties, the doctrine of Arius was 
condemned ; Christ was declared consubstantial, c or of 
the same essence with the Father; the vanquished presbyter 
was banished among the Illyrians, and his followers were 
compelled to give their assent to the creed, d or confession of 
faith, which was composed on this occasion. 

XII. The council assembled by Constantine at Nice, is 
one of the most famous and interesting events that are pre- 
sented to us in ecclesiastical history ; and yet, what is 
most surprising, scarcely any part of the history of the 
church has been unfolded with such negligence, or rather 
passed over with rapidity. 6 The ancient writers are neither 
agreed with respect to the time or place in which it was 
assembled, the number of those who sat in the council, nor 
the bishop who presided in it ; and no authentic acts of its 
famous sentence are now extant. f 

The eastern Christians differ from all others both with 
regard to the number and the nature of the laws which 
were enacted in this celebrated council. The latter men- 
tion only twenty canons ; but, in the estimate of the for- 
mer, they amount to a much greater number.^ It appears, 
however, by those laws which all parties have admitted as 
genuine, and also from other authentic records, not only 
that Arius was condemned in this council, but that some 
other points were determined, and certain measures agreed 
upon, to calm the religious tumults that had so long troubled 

of the three persons. See Cudworth's Intellectual System of the 
Universe. 

c 'OfxoSaios. 

d John Christ. Luicer has illustrated this famous creed from several 
important and ancient records, in a very learned book published at Ut- 
recht in 1718. 

e See Ittigius, Hist. Concilii NicEeni. — Le Clerc, Bibliotheque Histor. 
et Universelle, torn. x. xxii. — Beausobre, Histoire du Manicheisme, 
torn. i. The accounts, which the Oriental writers have given of this 
council, have been collected by Euseb. Renaudot, in his History of the 
Patriarchs of Alexandria. 

' See the Annotations of Valesius upon the Ecclesiastical History of 
Eusebius, and Jos. Sim. Asseman. Bibl. Oriental. Clement Vatican, 
torn. i. The history of this council was written by Maruthas, a Syrian, 
but is long since lost. 

B Th. Ittigius, Supplem. op. Clement. Alex. — J. S. Asseman. torn, i, 
Euseb. Renaudot. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



103 



the church. The controversy concerning the time cf cele- 
brating Easter was terminated ; a the troubles which No- 
vatian had excited, by opposing the re-admission of the laps- 
ed to the communion of the church, were composed ; the 
Meletian schism was condemned, b and the jurisdiction of 
the greater bishops precisely denned and determined, 1 with 
several other matters of a like nature. But, while these good 
prelates were employing all their zeal and attention to cor- 
rect the errors of others, they were upon the point of falling 
into a very capital one themselves ; for they had almost come 
to a resolution of imposing upon the clergy the yoke of per- 
petual celibacy, when Paphnutius put a stop to their pro- 
ceedings, and warded off that unnatural law. d 

XIH. But, notwithstanding all these determinations, 
the commotions excited by this controversy remained yet in 
the minds of many, and the spirit of dissension triumphed 
both over the decrees of the council and the authority of 
the emperor. For those who, in the main, were far from 
being attached to the party of Arius, found many things 
reprehensible, both in the decrees of the council, and in 
the forms of expression which it employed to explain the 
controverted points; while the Arians, on the other hand, 
left no means untried to heal their wounds, and to recover 
their place and their credit in the church. And their efforts 
were crowned with the desired success : for, a few years 
after the council of Nice, an Arian priest, who had been 
recommended to the emperor, in the dying words of his 
sister Constantia, found means to persuade him, that the 
condemnation of Arius was utterly unjust, and was rather 
occasioned by the malice of his enemies, than by their zeal 
for the truth. In consequence of this, the emperor recalled 
him from banishment in the year 330, e repealed the laws 
that had been enacted against him, and permitted his chief 
protector Eusebius of Nicomedia, and his vindictive fac- 
tion, to vex and oppress the partisans of the Nicene council 
in various ways. Athanasius, bishop of Alexandria, was 
one of those who suffered most from the violent measures 
of the Arian party. Invincibly firm in his purpose, and 
deaf to the most powerful solicitations and entreaties, he 
obstinately refused to restore Arius to his former rank and 



!3r * The decision, with respect to Easter, was in favour of the cus- 
tom of the western churches ; and accordingly all churches were ordered 
to celebrate that festival on the Sunday which immediately followed the 
14th of the first moon that happened after the vernal equinox. 

fj* >> Meletius, bishop of Lycopolis in Egypt, was accused and con- 
victed of having offered incense to idols ; and, in consequence thereof, 
was deposed by Peter, bishop of Alexandria, whose jurisdiction extend- 
ed over all Egypt. Meletius, upon this, became the head of a schism in 
the church, by assuming to himself the power of ordination, which was 
vested in the bishop of Alexandria, and exercised by him in all the 
Egyptian churches. Epiphanius attributes the dissensions between 
Meletius and Peter to another cause (Haer. 68.): he alleges, that the 
vigorous proceedings of Peter against Meletius were occasioned by the 
latter's refusing to re-admit into the church those who had fallen from 
the faith during Diocletian's persecution, before their penitential trial 
was entirely finished. The former opinion is maintained by Socrates 
and Theodoret, whose authority is certainly more respectable than that 
of Epiphanius. 

gjf ° The confusion that Meletius introduced, by presuming (as was 
observed in the preceding note) to violate the jurisdiction of Peter, the 
metropolitan of Alexandria, by conferring ordination in a province where 
he alone had a right to ordain, was rectified by the council of Nice, 
which determined tnat the metropolitan bishops, in their respective pro- 
vinces., should have the same power and authority that the bishops of 
Rome exercised over the suburbicarian churches and countries. 

<i Socrates, Hist. Eccles.Iib. i. c.viii. compared with Franc. Balduinus, 
in Constant. Magn. and George Calixtus, de Conjugio Clericorum. 

|fjr * The precise time in which Arius was recalled from banishment, 
has not been fixed with such perfect certainty as to prevent a diversity of 
sentiment on that head. The Annotations of the learned Valesius (or 
Valois) upon Sozomen's History, will throw some light upon this mat- 



ofhce. On this account he was deposed, by the council 
holden at Tyre, in the year 335, and was afterwards ban- 
ished into Gaul, while Arius and his followers were, with 
great solemnity, reinstated in their privileges, and received 
into the communion of the church. The people of Alexan- 
dria, unmoved by these proceedings in favour of Arius, 
persisted in refusing to grant him a place among their pres- 
byters ; upon which the emperor invited him to Constan- 
tinople in the year 336, and ordered Alexander, the bishop 
of that city, to admit him to his communion. But, before 
this order could be put in execution, Alius died in the impe- 
rial city in a very dismal manner ; f and his sovereign did 
not long survive him. 

XIV. After the death of Constantine the Great, one of 
his sons, Constantius, who, in the division of the empire, 
became ruler of the east, was warmly attached to the 
Arian party, whose principles were also zealously adopted 
by the empress, and, indeed, by the whole court. On the 
other hand, Constantine and Constans, emperors of the 
west, maintained the decrees of the council of Nice in all 
the provinces over which their jurisdiction extended. Hence 
arose endless animosities and seditions, treacherous plots, 
and open acts of injustice and violence between the con- 
tending parties. Council was assembled against council; 
and their jarring and contradictory decrees spread perplex- 
ity and confusion through the Christian world. 

In the year 350, Constans was assassinated; and, about 
two years after this, a great part of the western empire, 
particularly Rome and Italy, fell into the hands of Con- 
stantius. This change was extremely unfavourable to those 
who adhered to the decrees of the council of Nice. The 
emperor's attachment to the Arians animated him against 
their adversaries, whom he involved in various troubles 
and calamities, and he obliged many of them, by threats 
and punishment, to come over to the sect which he esteem- 
ed and protected. One of these forced proselytes was Libe- 
rius, the Roman pontiff, who was compelled to embrace 
Arianism in the year 357. The Nicene party meditated 
reprisals, and waited only a convenient time, a fit place, 
and a proper occasion, for executing their resentment. 

ter, and make it probable, that Dr. Mosheim has placed the recall of 
Arius, too late, at least by two years. Valesius has proved, from the 
authority of Philostorgius, and from other most respectable monuments 
and records, that Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Theognis, who were 
banished by the emperor about three months after the council of Nice, 
(i. e. in 325) were recalled in 328. Now, in the writing by which they 
obtained their return, they pleaded the restoration of Arius, as an argu- 
ment for theirs, which proves that he was recalled before the year 330. 
The same "Valesius proves, that Arius, the first head of the Arian sect, 
was dead before the council of Tyre, which was transferred to Jerusalem ; 
and that the letters which Constantine addressed to that council in favour 
of Arius and his followers, were in behalf of a second chief of that name, 
who put himself at the head of the Arians. and who, in conjunction with 
Euzoius, presented to Constantine such a confession of their faith as 
made him imagine their doctrine to be orthodox, and procured their re- 
conciliation with the church at the council of Jerusalem. 

fjT ' The dismal manner in which Arius is said to have expired, by 
his entrails falling out as he was discharging one of the natural func- 
tions, is a fact that has been called in question by some modern writers, 
though without foundation, since it is confirmed by the unexceptionable 
testimonies of Socrates, Sozomen, Athanasius, and others. The causes 
of this tragical death have, however, furnished much matter of dispute. 
The ancient writers, who considered this event as a judgment of Heaven, 
miraculously drawn down by the prayers of the just, to punish the im- 
piety of Arius, will find little credit in our times, among such as have 
studied with attention and impartiality the history of Arianism. After 
having considered this matter with the utmost rare, it appears to me ex- 
tremely probable, that this unhappy man was a victim to the resentment 
of his enemies, and was destroyed by poison, or some such violent me- 
thod. A blind and fanatical V.eal for certain systems of faith, has is 
all ages produced such horrible acts of cruelty and injustice. 



]04 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



Thus the history of the church, under the emperor Con- 
stantius, presents to the reader a perpetual scene of tumult 
and violence, and the deplorable spectacle of a war, carried 
on between brothers, without religion, justice, or humanity. 

XV. The death of Constantius, in the year 352, changed 
considerably the face of religious affairs, and diminished 
greatly the strength and influence of the Arian party. 
Julian, wno, by his principles, was naturally prevented 
from taking a part in the controversy, bestowed his pro- 
tection on neither side, but treated them both with an 
impartiality which was the result of a perfect indifference. 
Jovian, his successor, declared himself in favour of the Ni- 
cene doctrine ; and immediately the whole west, with a 
considerable part of the eastern provinces, changed sides, 
conformed to the decrees of the council of Nice, and abjured 
the Arian system. 

The scene, however, changed again in the year 364, 
when Valentinian, and his brother Valens, were raised to 
the empire. Valentinian adhered to the decrees of the 
Nicene council; and hence the Arian sect, a few churches 
excepted, suffered extirpation in the west. Valens, on the 
other hand, favoured the Arians ; and his zeal for their 
cause exposed their adversaries, the Nicenians, in the 
eastern provinces, to many severe trials and sufferings. 
These troubles, however, ended with the reign of this 
emperor, who fell in a battle which was fought against 
the Goths in the year 378, and was succeeded by Gratian, a 
friend to the Nicenians, and the restorer of their tranquillity. 
His zeal for their interests, though fervent and active, was 
surpassed by that of his successor, Theodosius the Great, 
who raised the secular arm against the Arians, with a 
terrible degree of violence; drove them from their churches; 
enacted laws whose severity exposed them to the greatest 
calamities ;» and rendered, throughout his dominions, the 
decrees of the council triumphant over all opposition ; so that 
the public pi ofession of the Arian doctrine was confined to 
the barbarous and unconquered nations, such as the Bur- 
gundians, Goths, and Vandals. 

During- this long and violent contest between the 
Nicenians and Arians, the attentive and impartial will 
acknowledge that unjustifiable measures were taken, and 
great excesses committed, on both sides: so that when, 
abstractedly from the merits of the cause, we only consider 
with what temper, and by what means, the parties defended 
their respective opinions, it will be difficult to determine 
which of the two exceeded most the bounds of probity, 
charity, and moderation. 

XVI. The efforts of the Arians to maintain their cause, 
would have been much more prejudical to the church than 
they were in effect, had not the members of that sect been 
divided among themselves, and torn into factions, which 
viewed each other with the bitterest aversion. Of these, the 
ancient writers make mention under the names of Semi- 
Arians, Eusebians, Aetians, Eunomians, Acacians, Psa- 
thyrians, and others ; but they may all be ranked with 
propriety in three classes. The first of these were the 
primitive and genuine Arians, who, rejecting all these forms 
and modes of expression which the moderns had invented 
to render their opinions less shocking to the Nicenians, 

» See the Theodosian Code, torn. vi. p. 5, 10, 130, 146; as also Godo- 
fred's annotation upon it. 

b See Prud. Maran's Dissert sur les Semi- Arians, published in Voigt's 
Biblioth. Hreresiolog. torn. ii. 

c See Basnage's Dissert, de Eunomio, in the Lectiones Antiquse of 



taught simply, " That the Son was not begotten of the 
Father, (i. e. produced out of his substance,) but was only 
created out of nothing." This class was opposed by the 
Semi- Arians, who, in their turn, were abandoned by the 
Eunomians, or Anomeeans, the disciples of Aetius and 
Eunomius, of whom the latter was eminent for his know- 
ledge and penetration. The Semi-Arians held, that the Son 
was 6fAo»£(ftos, i. e. similar to the Father in his essence, 
not by nature but by a peculiar privilege ; and the leading 
men of this party were George of Laodicea and Basilius of 
Ancyra. b The Eunomians, who were also called Aetians 
and Exucontians, and may be reckoned in the number of 
pure Arians, maintained, that Christ was erepokgiog, or 
dvi^owg, i. e. unlike the Father, as well in his essence, 
as in other respects/ Under this general division, many 
other subordinate sects were comprehended, whose subtil - 
ties and refinements have not been clearly developed by 
the ancient writers. The Arian cause suffered as much 
from the discord and animosities that reigned among these 
sects, as from the laboured confutations and the zealous 
efforts of the orthodox party. 

XVII. The Arian controversy produced new sects, occa- 
sioned by the indiscreet lengths to which the contending 
parties pushed their respective opinions ; and such, indeed, 
are too generally the unhappy effects of disputes, in which 
human passions have so large a part. Some, while they 
were careful in avoiding, and zealous in opposing, the senti- 
ments of Arius, ran headlong into systems of doctrine of an 
equally dangerous and pernicious nature. Others, in de- 
fending the Arian notions, went farther than their chief, 
and thus fell into errors much more extravagant than those 
which he maintained. Thus does it generally happen in 
religious controversies : the human mind, amidst.its present 
imperfection and infirmity, and its unhappy subjection to 
the empire of imagination and the dictates of sense, rarely 
follows the middle way in search of truth, or contemplates 
spiritual and divine things with that accuracy and simpli- 
city, that integrity and moderation, which alone can guard 
against erroneous extremes. 

Among those who fell into such extremes by their incon- 
siderate violence in opposing the Arian system, Apollinaris 
the younger, bishop of Laodicea, may be justly placed, 
though otherwise a man of distinguished merit, and one 
whose learned labours had rendered to religion the most 
important services. He strenuously defended the divinity 
of Christ against the Arians ; but, by indulging himself 
too freely in philosophical distinctions and subtilities, he 
was carried so far as to deny, in some measure, his human- 
ity. He maintained, that the body which Christ assumed, 
was endowed with a sensitive, and not a rational, soul ; 
and that the Divine Nature performed the functions of 
reason, and supplied the place of what we call the mind, 
the spiritual and intellectual principle in man ; and from 
this it seemed to follow, as a natural consequence, that the 
divine nature in Christ was blended with the human, and 
suffered with it the pains of crucifixion and death itself. d 
This great man was led astray, not only by his love of 
disputing, but also by an immoderate attachment to the 
Platonic doctrine, concerning the two-fold nature of the 

Canisius, torn. i. where we find the confession and apology of Eunomieis 
yet extant. See also Jo. Alb. Fabric. Bibliotheca Grsec. vol. viii. and 
the Codex Theodos. torn. vi. 

|2r d However erroneous the hypothesis of Apollinaris may have 
been, the consequences here drawn from it are not entirely just ; for if it 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



105 



sou!, which was too generally adopted by the divines of this I 
age ; and which, undoubtedly, perverted their judgment 
in several respects, and led them into erroneous and extrava- 
gant decisions on various subjects. 

Other errors, beside that now mentioned, are imputed to 
Apollinaris by certain ancient writers ; but it is not easy to 
determine how far they deserve credit upon that head. a 
Be that as it may, his doctrine was received by great num- 
bers in almost all the eastern provinces, though, by the 
different explications that were given of it, its votaries were 
subdivided into various sects. It did not, however, long 
maintain its ground ; but, being attacked at the same time 
by the laws of the emperors, the decrees of councils, and the 
writings of the learned, it sunk by degrees under their uni- 
ted force. 

XVIII. Marcellus, bishop of Ancyra, in Galatia, may 
be ranked in the same class with Apollinaris, if we are to 
give credit to Eusebius of Ceesarea, and the rest of his 
adversaries, who represent his explication of the doctrine 
of the Trinity as bordering upon the Sabellianand Samosa- 
tenian errors. Many however are of opinion that this 
Eusebius, and that bishop of Nicomedia who bore the same 
name, represented with partiality the sentiments of Marcel- 
lus, on account of the bitterness and vehemence which he 
discovered in his opposition to the Arians, and their protec- 
tors. But though it should be acknowledged, that, in some 
particulars, the accusations of his enemies carried an aspect 
of partiality and resentment, yet it is manifest that they 
were far from being entirely groundless ; for, if the doctrine 
of Marcellus be attentively examined, it will appear, that 
he considered the Son and the Holy Ghost as two emana- 
tions from the Divine Nature, which, after performing their 
respective offices, were at length to return into the sub- 
stance of the Father ; and every one will perceive, at first 
sight, how incompatible this opinion is with the belief of 
three distinct Persons in the Godhead. Beside this, a 
particular circumstance, which augmented considerably 
the aversion of many to Marcellus, and strengthened the 
suspicion of his erring in a capital manner, was his obsti- 
nately refusing, toward the conclusion of his life, to con- 
demn the tenets of his disciple Photinus. b 

XIX. Photinus, bishop of Sirmium, may, with propri- 
ety, be placed at the head of those whom the Arian contro- 
versy was the occasion of seducing into the most extrava- 
gant errors. This prelate published, in the year 343, his 
opinions concerning the Deity, which were equally repug- 
nant to the orthodox and Arian systems. His notions, 
which have been obscurely, and indeed sometimes incon- 
sistently represented by the ancient writers, amount to this, 
when attentively examined : " That Jesus Christ was born 
of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary ; that a certain 
divine emanation, or ray (which he called the loord) de- 
scended upon this extraordinary man ; that, on account of 
the union of the divine word with his human nature, Jesus 



is true that the human soul does not, in any respect, suffer death by the 
dissolution of the body, the same must hold good with respect to the 
divine nature. 

" See Basnage's Histor. Hseres. Apollin. published by Voigt inhisBib- 
ltothaca Hae.resiologica, torn. i. fascic. i. p. 1 — 9G, and improved by some 
learned and important additions. See also torn. i. fascic. iii. and p. 607 
of the latter work. The laws enacted against the followers of Apolli- 
naris, are extant in the Theodosian Code, torn. vL Sec an account 
of Apollinaris, and his heresy, in the English edition of Bayle's Dic- 
tionary. 

i> See Montfaucon's Diatriba de Causa Marcelli in Nova. Collectione 

No. IX. 27 



was called the Son of God, and even God himself; and 
that the Holy Ghost was not a distinct person, but a ce- 
lestial virtue proceeding from the Deity." The temerity 
of this bold innovator was chastised, not only by the ortho- 
dox in the councils of Antioch c and Milan, holden in the 
years 345 and 347, and in that of Sirmium, whose date is 
uncertain, but also by the Arians in one of their assemblies 
at Sirmium, convoked in 351. In consequence of all this, 
Photinus was degraded from the episcopal dignity, and 
died in exile in 372. d 

XX. After him arose Macedonius, bishop of Constanti- 
nople, a very eminent Semi-Arian doctor, who, through 
the influence of the Eunomians, was deposed by the coun- 
cil of Constantinople, in 360, and sent into exile, where lie 
formed the sect of the Macedonians, or Pneumatoma- 
chians. In his exile, he declared with the utmost freedom 
those sentiments which he had formerty either concealed, 
or, at least, taught with much circumspection. He consi- 
dered the Holy Ghost as " a divine energy, diffused 
throughout the universe, and not as a person distinct 
from the Father and the Son." e This opinion had many 
partisans in the Asiatic provinces ; but the council assem- 
bled by Theodosius, in 381, at Constantinople, (to which the 
second rank, among the oecumenical or general councils, 
is commonly attributed,) put a stop by its authority to the 
growing evil, and crushed this rising sect before it had ar- 
rived at maturity. A hundred and fifty bishops, who were 
present at this council, gave the finishing touch to what 
the council of Nice had left imperfect, and fixed in a full 
and determined manner, the doctrine of three persons in 
one God, which is still received among the generality of 
Christians. This venerable assembly did not stop here ; they 
branded with infamy all the errors, and set a mark of 
execration upon all the heresies, that were hitherto known ; 
they advanced the bishop of Constantinople, on account 
of the eminence and extent of the city in which he resid- 
ed, to the first rank after the Roman pontiff, and determin- 
ed several other points, which they looked upon as 
essential to the well-being of the church in general/ 

XXI. The phrensy of the ancient Gnostics, which had 
been so often vanquished, and in appearance removed, by 
the various remedies that had been used for that purpose, 
broke out anew in Spain. It was transported thither, in 
the beginning of this century, by a certain person named 
Marc, of Memphis in Egypt, whose converts at first were 
not very numerous. They increased, however, in process 
of time, and counted in their number several persons 
highly eminent for their learning and piety. Among 
others, Priscillian, a layman, distinguished by his birth, 
fortune and eloquence, and afterwards bishop of Abila, 
was infected with this odious doctrine, and became its most 
zealous and ardent defender. Hence he was accused by 
several bishops, and, by a rescript obtained from the em- 
peror Gratian, he was banished with his followers from 

Patrum Gracorum, torn. ii. p. 51 ; as also Gervaise, Vie de S. Epip. p. 42. 

According to Dr. Lardner's account, this council of Antioch, in 345, 
was holden by the Arians, or Eusebians, and not by the orthodox, as 
our author affirms. See Lardner's Credibility, &c. vol. ix. p. 13; see 
also Athanas. de Synod. N. vi. vii. compared with Socrat. lib. ii. 
cap. xviii. xix. 

d Or in 375, as is concluded from Jerome's Chronicle. — Matt. Lar- 
roque, de Photini, et ejus multiplici condcmnatione. — Thorn. Illigius, 
Historia Photini, in Ap. ad librum de. Hseresiarchis ^Evi Apostolici. 

" Socrat. Hist. Eccles. lib. iv. cap. iv. 

< Socrat. lib. v. cap. viii. Sozomen, lib. vii. cap. vii. 



106 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IT 



Spain ;* but he was restored, some time after, by an edict 
of the same prince, to his country and his functions. His 
sufferings did not end here ; for he was accused a second 
time, in 384, b before Maximus, who had procured the as- 
sassination of Gratian, and made himself master of Gaul ; 
and by the order of that prince, he was put to death at 
Treves with some of his associates. The agents, however, 
by whose barbarous zeal this sentence was obtained, were 
justly regarded with the utmost abhorrence by the bishops 
of Gaul and Italy ;° for Christians had not yet learned, 
that giving over heretics to be punished by the magistrates, 
was either an act of piety or justice. 11 [No : this abomin- 
able doctrine was reserved for those times, when religion 
was to become an instrument of despotism, or a pretext 
for the exercise of pride, malevolence, and vengeance.] 

The death of Priscillian was less pernicious to the 
progress of his opinions, than might naturally have been 
expected. His doctrine not only survived him, but was 
propagated through the greatest part of Spain and Gaul; 
and even so far down as the sixth century, the followers 
of this unhappy man gave much trouble to the bishops and 
clergy in those provinces. 

XXII. No ancient writer has given an accurate ac- 
count of the doctrine of the Priscilhanists. Many authors, 
on the contrary, by their injudicious representations of it, 
have highly disfigured it, and added new degrees of obscu- 
rity to a system which was before sufficiently dark and 
perplexed. It appears, however, from authentic records, 
that the difference between their doctrine, and that of the 
Manicheans, was not very considerable. For "they de- 
nied the reality of Christ's birth and incarnation ; main- 
tained, that the visible universe was not the production of 
the Supreme Deity, but of some daemon, or malignant 
principle; adopted the doctrine of aeons, or emanations 
from the divine nature; considered human bodies as prisons 
formed by the author of evil, to enslave celestial minds ; 
condemned marriage, and disbelieved the resurrection of 
the body." Their rales of life and manners were rigid 
and severe; and the accounts which many have given of 
their lasciviousness and intemperance deserve not the least 
credit, as they are totally destitute of evidence and authori- 
ty. That the Priscillianists were guilty of dissimulation 
upon some occasions, and deceived their adversaries by 
cunning stratagems, is true; but that they held it as a 
maxim, that lying and perjury were lawful, is a most no- 
torious falsehood, without even the least shadow of proba- 
bility, 6 however commonly this odious doctrine has been 
laid to their charge. In the heat of controversy, the eye 

frjjf » This banishment was the effect of a sentence pronounced against 
Priscillian, and some of his followers, by a Synod convened at Sara- 
gossa in 380; in consequence of which, Idacius and Ithacius, two cruel 
and persecuting ecclesiastics, obtained from Gratian the rescript above 
mentioned. See Sulpit. Sever. Hist. Sacr. lib. ii. cap', xlvii. 

i> Upon the death of Gratian, who had favoured Priscillian toward the 
latter end of his reign, Ithacius presented to Maximus a petition against 
him ; whereupon this prince appointed a council to be holden at Bour- 
cleaux, from which Priscillian appealed to the prince himself. Sulp. Se- 
ver, lib. ii. cap. xlix. p. 287. 

f^- • It may be interesting to the reader to hear the character of the 
first person that introduced civil persecution into the Christian church. 
"He was a man abandoned to the most corrupt indolence, and without 
the least tincture of true piety. He was talkative, audacious, impudent, 
luxurious, and a slave to his belly. He accused as heretics, and as protec- 
tors of Priscillian, all those whose lives were consecrated to the pursuit 
of piety and knowledge, or distinguished by acts of mortification 
and abstinence," &c. Such is the character which Sulpitius Severus, 
who had an extreme aversion to the sentiments of Priscillian, gives 



of passion and of prejudice is too apt to confound the prin- 
ciples and opinions of men with their practice. 

XXIII. To what we have here said concerning those 
sects which made a noise in the world, it will not be im- 
proper to add some account of those of a less considerable 
kind. 

Audaeus, a man of remarkable virtue, being excommu- 
nicated in Syria, on account of the freedom and importu- 
nity with which he censured the corrupt and licentious 
manners of the clergy, formed an assembly of those who 
were attached to him, and became, by his own appoint- 
ment, their bishop. Banished into Scythia by the empe- 
ror, he went among the Goths, where his sect flourished, 
and augmented considerably. The ancient writers &re 
not agreed about the time in which we are to date the ori- 
gin of this sect. With respect to its religious institutions 
we know that they differed in some points from those ob- 
served by other Christians ; and, particularly, that the fol- 
lowers of Audeeus celebrated Easter, or the Paschal feast, 
with the Jews, in repugnance to the express decree of the 
council of Nice. With respect to their doctrine, several 
errors have been imputed to them/ and this, among others, 
that they attributed to the Deity a human form. 

XXIV. The Grecian and Oriental writers place, in 
this century, the rise of the sect of the Messalians, or Eu- 
chites, whose doctrine and discipline were, indeed, much 
more ancient, and subsisted, even before the birth of Christ 
in Syria, Egypt, and other eastern countries, but who do 
not seem to have been formed into a religious body before 
the latter part of the century of which we now write. 
These fanatics, who lived after the monkish fashion, and 
withdrew from all commerce and society with their fellow- 
creatures, seem to have derived their name from their habit 
of continual prayer. " They imagined that the mind ot 
every man was inhabited by an evil daemon, whom it was 
impossible to expel by any other means than by constant 
prayer and singing of hymns ; and that, when this malig- 
nant spirit was cast out, the pure mind returned to God, 
and was again united to the divine essence from which it 
had been separated." To this leading tenet they added 
many other enormous opinions, which bear a manifest 
resemblance to the Manichean doctrine, and are evidently 
drawn from the same source whence the Manicheans deri- 
ved their errors, even from the tenets of the Oriental philoso- 
phy.e In a word, the Euchites were a sort of Mystics, who 
imagined, according to the Oriental notion, that two souls 
resided in man, the one good, and the other evil ; and who 
were zealous in hastening the return of the good spirit to 

us of Ithacius, bishop of Sossuba, by whose means he was put to death. 

a See Sulp. Sever. Hist. Sacr. edit. Leips. 1709. where Martin, the 
truly apostolical bishop of Tours, says to Maximus, 'novum esse et inau- 
ditum nefas ut causam ecclesias judex seculi judicaret.' See also Dial, 
iii. de vita Martini, cap. xi. p. 495. 

e See Simon de Vries, Dissert. Critica de Priscillianistis, printed at 
Utrecht, in 1745. The only defect in this dissertation is the implicit 
manner in which the author follows Beausobre's History of the Mani- 
cheans, taking every thing for granted which is affirmed in that work. 
See also Franc. Girvesii Historia Priscillianistarum Chronologica, pub- 
lished at Rome in 1750. We find, moreover, in the twenty-seventh vo- 
lume of the Opuscula Scientifica of Angelus Calogera, a treatise entitled 
Bachiarius Illustratus, seu de Priscilliana Hairesi Dissertatio; but this 
dissertation seems rather intended to clear up the affair of Bachiarius, 
than to give a full account of the Priscillianists and their doctrine. 

f Epiphanius, Heeres. lxx.p. 811.— Augustin. de Hares, cop. 1. — Theo- 
doret. Fabul. Hseret. lib. iv. cap. ix— J. Joach. Schroder, Dissertat. de 
Audasanis, published in Voigt's Bibliolheca Historian Hreresiolog. torn. i. 

e Epiphanius, Hseres. lxxx. p. 1067.— Tlieodoret. Haeret. Fabul. lib. iv. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



107 



God, by contemplation and prayer. The external air of 
piety and devotion, which accompanied this sect, imposed 
upon many, while the Greeks, on the other hand, opposed 
it with vehemence in all succeeding ages. 

It is proper to observe here, that the title of Messalinians 
or Euchites had a very extensive application among the 
Greeks and the Orientals, for they gave it to all those who 
endeavoured to raise the soul to God by recalling and with- 
drawing it from terrestrial and sensible objects, however 
these enthusiasts might differ from each other in their 
opinions upon other subjects. 

XX V. Toward the conclusion of this century, two oppo- 
site sects involved Arabia and the adjacent countries in the 

cap. x. p. 672. — Timotheus, Presbyter, de receptione Haereticor. publish- 
ed iu the third volume of Cotelerius' Monumenta Eccles. Grsecae. — Jac. 



| troubles and tumults of a new controversy. These jarring 
factions went by the names of Antidico-Marianites and 
Collyridians. The former maintained, that the Virgin 
Mary did not always preserve her immaculate state, but 
received the embraces of her husband Joseph after the birth 
of Christ. The latter, on the contrary, (who were singularly 
favoured by the female sex), running into the opposite ex- 
treme, worshipped the Blessed Virgin as a goddess, and 
judged it necessary to appease her anger, and seek her 
favour and protection, by libations, sacrifices, oblations of 
cakes, [collyridcE.) and the like services. 1 

Other sects might be mentioned here ; but they are too 
obscure and inconsiderable to deserve notice. 

Tollii Insignia Itineris ltalici, p. 110. — Assemani,Bibliotheca Orientalis 
Vaticana, torn. i. etiii. * See Epiphan. Hxres. lixviii. lxxLx. 



THE FIFTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events that happened 
to the Church. 

I. In order to arrive at a true knowledge of the causes to 
which we are to attribute the outward state of the church, 
and the events which happened to it during the fifth cen- 
tury, we must keep in view the civil history of this period. 
It is, therefore, proper to observe, that, in the beginning of 
this century, the Roman empire was divided into two sove- 
reignties; one of which comprehended the eastern provin- 
ces, the other those of the west. Arcadius, the emperor 
of the east reigned at Constantinople ; and Honorius, who 
governed the western provinces, chose Ravenna for the 
place of his residence. The latter prince, remarkable 
only for the sweetness of his temper and the goodness 
of his heart, neglected the great affairs of the empire ; and, 
inattentive to the weighty duties of his station, held the 
reins of government with an unsteady hand. The Goths, 
taking advantage of this criminal indolence, made incur- 
sions into Italy, laid waste its fairest provinces, and some- 
times carried their desolations as far as Rome, which they 
ravaged and plundered in the most dreadful manner. 
These calamities, which fell upon the western part of the 
empire from the Gothic depredations, were followed by 
others still more dreadful under the succeeding emperors. 
A fierce and warlike people, issuing from Germany, over- 
spread Italy, Gaul, and Spain, the noblest of all the Eu- 
ropean provinces, and erected new kingdoms in these fer- 
tile countries ; and Odoacer, at last, at the head of the 
Heruli, having conquered Augustulus, in 476, gave the 
mortal blow to the western empire, and reduced all Italy 
under his dominion. About sixteen years after this, Theo- 
doric, king of the Ostrogoths, made war upon these bar- 
barian invaders, at the request of Zeno, emperor of the 
east ; conquered Odoacer in several battles ; and obtained, 
as the fruit of his victories, a kingdom for the Ostrogoths 
in Italy, which subsisted under various turns of fortune 
from the year 493 to 552. a 

These new monarchs of the west pretended to acknow- 
ledge the supremacy of the emperors, who resided at 
Constantinople, and gave some faint external marks of a 
disposition to reign in subordination to them; but, in reali- 
ty, they ruled with an absolute independence in their res- 
pective governments; and, as appears particularly from 

* See, for a fuller illustration of this branch of history, the learned 
work of M. de Boss, entitled, Histoire Critique de la Monarchie Fran- 
coise, ton*, i. p. 258 ; as also Mascow's History of the Germans. 

k Car. c.u Fresne, Dissert, xxiii. ad Histor. Ludovici S. p. 280. — Mu- 
ratori, Antiq. Ital. torn. ii. p. 578, 832. — Giannone, Historia di Napoli, 
torn. i. p. 207. — Vita Theodorici Ostrogothorum Regis, a Johanne Coch- 
laio, printed in 1699, with the observations of Peringskiold. 

c See the Theodosian Code, torn. vi. p. 327. 

* See the Saturnalia of Macrobius, lib. i. — Scipio Maffei delli Anfi- 



the dominion exercised by Theodoric in Italy, they left 
nothing to the eastern emperors but a mere shadow of 
power and authority. b 

II. These constant wars, and the inexpressible calami- 
ties with which they were attended, were undoubtedly 
detrimental to the cause and progress of Christianity. It 
must, however, be acknowledged that the Christian empe- 
rors, especially those who ruled in the east, were active and 
assiduous in extirpating the remains of the ancient super- 
stitions. Theodosius the younger distinguished himself 
in this pious and noble work, and many remarkable monu- 
ments of his zeal are still preserved; such as the laws 
which enjoined either the destruction of the heathen tem- 
ples, or the dedication of them to Christ and his saints; the 
edicts, by which he abrogated the sacrilegious rites and ce- 
remonies of Paganism, and removed from all offices and 
employments in the state such as persisted in their attach 
menttothe absurdities of Polytheism. 

This spirit of reformation appeared with less vigour in 
the western empire. There the feasts of Saturn and Pan, 
the combats of the gladiators, and other rites that were 
instituted in honour of the pagan deities, were celebrated 
with the utmost freedom and impunity ; and persons of 
the highest rank and authority publicly professed the re- 
ligion of their idolatrous ancestors. 11 This liberty was, 
however, from time to time, reduced within narrower li- 
mits: and all those public sports and festivals, which were 
more peculiarly incompatible with the genius and sanctity 
of the Christian religion, were every where abolished. e 

III. The limits of the church continued to extend them- 
selves, and gained ground daily upon the idolatrous na- 
tions, both in the eastern and western empires. In the 
east, the inhabitants of the mountains Libanus and Anti- 
Libanus, being dreadfully infested with wild beasts, im- 
plored the assistance and counsels of the famous Simeon 
the Stylite, of whom we shall have occasion to speak here- 
after. Simeon gave them for answer, that the only effec- 
tual method of removing this calamity was, to abandon 
the superstitious worship of their ancestors, and substitute 
the Christian religion in its place. The docility of this 
people, joined to the extremities to which they were redu- 
ced, engaged them to follow the counsels of this holy rnan. 
They embraced Christianity, and, in consequence of their 
conversion, they had the pleasure of seeing their savage 
enemies abandon their habitations, if we may believe the 

teatri, lib. i. p. 56. — Pierre le Brun, Hist. Critique des Pratiques super- 
stitieuses, torn. i. p. 237; and, above all, Montfaucon's Diss, de Mori- 
bus Tempore Theodosii M. et Arcadii, which is to be found in Latin, 
in the eleventh volume of the works of St. Chrysostom, and in French, 
in the twentieth volume of the Memoires de lAcademie des Inscriptions 
et des Belles Lettres, p. 197.' 

Anastasius prohibited, toward the conclusion of this century, the 
combats with the wild beasts, and other shows. Asseman. Biblioth. 
Orient. Vatic, torn. i. p. 240. 



CrfAP. I. 



PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 



109 



writers who may affirm the truth of this prodigy. The same 
Simeon,, by this influence and authority, introduced the 
Christian worship into a certain district of the Arabians : 
some allege, that this also was effected by a miracle, which 
to me appears more than doubtful. 1 To these instances 
of the progress of the Gospel, we may add tbe conversion 
of a considerable number of Jews in the isle of Crete : 
finding themselves grossly deluded by the impious preten- 
sions of an impostor, called Moses Cretensis, b who gave 
himself out for the Messiah, they opened their eyes upon the 
truth, and spontaneously embraced the Christian religion. 1 

IV. The German nations, who rent in pieces the Ro- 
man empire in the west, were not all converted to Chris- 
tianity at the same time. Some of them had embraced 
the truth before the time of their incursion ; and such, 
among others, was the case of the Goths. Others, after 
having erected their little kingdoms in the empire, embra- 
ced the Gospel, that they might thus live with more secu- 
rity amidst a people, who, in general, professed the Chris- 
tian religion. It is, however, uncertain (and hkely to 
continue so) at what time, and by whose ministry, the 
Vandals, Sueves, and Alans, were converted to Christian- 
ity. With respect to the Burgundians, who inhabited the 
banks of the Rhine, and thence passed into Gaul, we are 
informed, by Socrates/ 1 that they embraced the Gospel of 
their own accord, from a notion that Christ, or the God 
of the Romans, who had been represented to them as a 
most powerful being, would defend them against the 
rapines and incursions of the Huns. They afterwards 
sided with the Arian party, to which also the Vandals, 
Sueves, and Goths, were zealously attached. All these 
fierce and warlike nations considered a religion as excel- 
lent, in proportion to the success which crowned the arms 
of those who professed it ; and therefore, when they saw 
the Romans in possession of an empire much more exten- 
sive than that of any other people, they concluded that 
Christ, their God, was of all others the most worthy of re- 
ligious homage. 

V. It was the same principle, as well as the same views, 
that engaged Clovis. 6 king of the Salii, a nation of the 
Franks, to embrace Christianity. This prince, whose sig- 
nal valour was accompanied with barbarity, arrogance, 
and injustice, founded the kingdom of the Franks in Gaul, 
after having made himself master of a great part of that 

• Vide idem Opus, torn. i. p. 246. 

f3r* b We shall give the relation of Socrates, concerning this impos- 
tor, in the words of the learned and estimable author of the Remarks on 
Ecclesiastical History. " In the time of Theodosius the younger, an 
impostor arose, called Moses Cretensis. He pretended to be a second 
Moses, sent to deliver the Jews who dwelt in Crete, and promised to 
divide the sea, and give them a safepassage through it. They assembled 
together, with their wives and children, and followed him to a promontory. 
He there commanded them to cast themselves into the sea. Many of 
them obeyed, and perished in the waters ; and many were taken up and 
saved by fishermen. Upon this, the deluded Jews would have torn the 
impostor to pieces ; but he escaped them, and was seen no more." See 
Jortin's Remarks, vol. iii. 

c Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. xxxviii. p. 383. 

a Socrat. lib. vii. cap. xxx. p. 371. 

f~jj- * Besides the name of Clovis, this prince was also called Clodo- 
vaeus, Hludovicus, Ludovicus, and Ludicin. 

3Qr ' Tolbiacum is thought to be the present Zulpick, which is about 
twelve miles from Cologne. 

* See Gregory of Tours, Historia Francorum, lib. ii. cap. xxx. 
rxxi. — Count Bunau's Historia Imperii Romano-Germanici, torn. i. 
p. 588. — Du Bos' Histoire Critique de la Monarchie Franchise, torn. ii. 
p. 340. 

53r h The epitomiser of the history of the Franks tells us, that Re- 
migius having preached to Clovis, and those who had been baptized with 
him, a sermon on the passion of our Saviour, the king, in hearing him, 

No. X. 28 



country, and meditated with remarkable eagerness and 
avidity the conquest of the whole. His conversion to the 
Christian religion is dated from the battle he fought tv >th 
the Alemans, in 496, at a village called Tolbiacum ; f in 
which, when the Franks began to give ground, and their 
affairs seemed desperate, he implored the assistance of 
Christ, (whom his queen Clotildis, daughter of the king of 
the Burgundians, had often represented to him, in vain, as 
the Son of the true God,) and solemnly engaged himself, 
by a vow, to worship him as his God, if he would render 
him victorious over his enemies. Victor) 7 decided in favour 
of the Franks ; and Clovis, faithful to his engagement, 
received baptism at Rheims,? toward the conclusion of the 
same year, after having been instructed by Remigius, 
bishop of that city, in the doctrines of Christianity. 11 The 
example of the king had such a powerful effect upon the 
minds of his subjects, that three thousand of them imme- 
diately followed it, and were baptized with him. Many 
are of opinion, that the desire of extending his dominions 
principally contributed to render Clovis faithful to his 
engagement, though some influence may also be allowed 
to the zeal and exhortations of his queen Clotildis. Be that 
as it will, nothing is more certain than that his profession 
of Christianity was, in effect, of great use to him, both in 
confirming and enlarging his empire. 

The miracles, which are said to have been wrought 
at the baptism of Clovis, are unworthy of the smallest de- 
gree of credit. Among others, the principal prodigy, that 
of the phial full of oil said to have been brought from hea- 
ven by a milk-white dove during the ceremony of baptism, 
is a fiction, or rather, perhaps, an imposture ; a pretended 
miracle contrived by artifice and fraud.' Pious frauds of 
this nature were very frequently practised in Gaul and in 
Spain at this time, in order to captivate, with more facility, 
the minds of a rude and barbarous people, who were scarce- 
ly susceptible of a rational conviction. 

The conversion of Clovis is looked upon by the learned 
as the origin of the titles of Most Christian King, and Eld- 
est Son of the Church, which have been so long attribu- 
ted to the kings of France ; k for, if we except this prince, 
all the kings of those barbarous nations, who seized the Ro- 
man provinces, were either yet involved in the darkness 
of Paganism, or infected with the Arian heresy. 

VI. Celestine, the Roman pontiff, sent Palladius into 



could not forbear crying out, " If I had been there with my Franks, 
that should not have happened." 

i The truth of this miracle has been denied by the learned John James 
Chiflet, in his book De Ampulla Rhemensi, printed at Antwerp, in 1651 : 
and it has been affirmed by Vertot, in the Memoires de FAcademie des 
i Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, torn. iv. p. 350. After a mature consi- 
deration of what has been alleged on both sides of the question, I can 
scarcely venture to deny the fact : I am therefore of opinion, that, in order 
to confirm and fix the wavering faith of this barbarian prince, Remi- 
gius had prepared his measures before-hand, and trained a pigeon, by 
great application and dexterity, in such a manner, that, during the bap- 
tism of Clovis, it descended from the roof of the church with a phial of 
oil. Among the records of this century, we find accounts of many such 
miracles, fjf" There is one circumstance, which obliges me to differ 
from Dr. Mosheim upon this point, and to look upon the story of the fa- 
mous phial rather as a mere fiction, than as a pious fraud, or pretended 
miracle brought about by artifice ; and that circumstance is, that Gre- 
gory of Tours, from whom we have a full account of the conversion and 
baptism of Clovis, and who, from his proximity to this time, may almost 
be called a contemporary writer, has not made the least mention of this 
famous miracle. This omission, in a writer whom the Roman catholics 
themselves consider as an over-credulous historian, amounts to a proof, 
that, in his time, this fable was not yet invented. 

k See Gab. Daniel et De Camps, Dissert, de Titulo Regis Christianis- 
simi, in the Journal des Sgavans for the year 1720, p. 243, 336, 404, 448. 
Memoires de 1' Academic des Inscriptions, torn. xx. p. 466. 



110 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part! 



Ireland, to propagate the Christian religion among the 
rude inhabitants of that island. This first mission 1 was 
not attended with much fruit ; nor did the success of Pal- 
Iadius bear any proportion to his laborious and pious endea- 
vours. After his death, the same pontiff employed, in 
this mission, Succathus, a native of Scotland, whose 
name he changed into that of Patrick, and who arrived 
among the Irish in 432. The success of his ministry, 
and the number and importance of his pious exploits, 
stand upon record as undoubted proofs, not only of his re- 
solution and patience, but also of his dexterity and address. 
Having attacked, with much more success than his pre- 
decessor, the errors and superstitions of that uncivilized 
people, and brought great numbers of them over to the 
Christian religion, he founded, in 472, the archbishoprick 
of Armagh, b which has ever since remained the metropoli- 
tan see of the Irish nation. Hence this famous missionary, 
though not the first who brought among that people the 
light of the Gospel, has yet been justly entitled the Apos- 
tle of the Irish, and the father of the Hibernian church, 
and is still generally acknowledged and revered in that 
honourable character. 

VII. The causes and circumstances by which these 
different nations were engaged to abandon the supersti- 
tion of their ancestors, and to embrace the religion of 
Jesus, may be easily deduced from the facts we have re- 
lated in the history of their conversion. It would, indeed, 
be an instance of the blindest and most perverse partiality, 
not to acknowledge, that the labours and zeal of great and 
eminent men contributed to this happy purpose, and were 
the means by which the darkness of many was turned into 
light. But, on the other hand, they must be very inatten- 
tive and superficial observers of things, who do not per- 
ceive that the fear of punishment, the prospect of honours 
and advantages, and the desire of obtaining succour 
against their enemies from the countenance of the Chris- 
tians, or the miraculous influence of their religion, were 
the prevailing motives that induced the greatest part to 
renounce the service of their impotent gods. 

How far these conversions were due to real miracles at- 
tending the ministry of the early preachers is a matter 
extremely difficult to be determined; for, though I am per- 
suaded that those pious men, who in the midst of many 
dangers, and in the face of obstacles seemingly invinci- 
ble, endeavoured to spread the light of Christianity among 
the barbarous nations, were sometimes accompanied with 
the more peculiar presence and succours of the Most 
High, yet I am equally convinced, that the greatest part 
of the prodigies, recorded in the histories of this age, are 
liable to the strongest suspicions of falsehood or imposture. 
The simplicity and ignorance of the generality in those 
times furnished the most favourable occasion for the exer- 



§3r * From the fragments of the lives of some Irish bishops who are 
said to have converted many of their countrymen in the fourth centuiy, 
archbishop Usher concludes, that Palladius was not the first bishop of 
Ireland ; (see his Antiquities of the British Church ;) but it has been evi- 
dently proved, among- others by Bollandus, that these fragments are of 
no earlier date than the twelfth century, and are besides, for the most 
part, fabulous. Dr. Mosheim's opinion is farther confirmed by the au- 
thority of Prosper, which is decisive in this matter. 

b See the Acta Sanctor. torn. ii. Martii, p. 517, torn. iii. Februar. p. 
131, 179; and the Hibernia Sacra of Sir James Ware, printed at Dub- 
lin in 1717. The latter published at London, in 1656, the Works of 
St. Patrick. Accounts of the synods, that were holden by this eminent 
missionary, are to be found in Wilkins' Concilia Magna; Brit, et Hiber- 
niae, torn. l. With respect to the famous cave, called the Purgatory of 



cise of fraud, and the impudence of impostors, in contri- 
ving false miracles, was artfully proportioned to the credu- 
lity of the vulgar, d while the sagacious and the wise, who 
perceived these cheats, were overawed into silence by the 
dangers that threatened their lives and fortunes, if they 
should expose the artifice. e Thus does it generally hap- 
pen in human life, that, when danger attends the discovery 
and profession of the truth, the prudent are silent, the 
multitude believe, and impostors triumph. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Calamitous Events which happened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. It has been already observed, that the Goths, Heruli, 
Franks, Huns, and Vandals, with other fierce and warlike 
nations, for the most part strangers to Christianity, had 
invaded the Roman empire, and rent it asunder in the 
most deplorable manner. Amidst these calamities, the 
Christians were grievous (we may venture to say, the 
principal) sufferers. It is true, these savage nations were 
much more intent upon the acquisition of wealth and do- 
minion, than upon the propagation or support of the pagan 
superstitions ; nor did their cruelty and opposition to the 
Christians arise from any religious principle, or from an 
enthusiastic desire to ruin the cause of Christianity ; it 
was merely by the instigation of the Pagans who remain- 
ed yet in the empire, that they were excited to treat with 
such severity and violence the followers of Christ. The 
painful consideration of their abrogated rites, and the hope 
of recovering their former liberty and privileges by the 
means of their new masters, induced the worshippers of the 
gods to seize 'with avidity every opportunity of inspiring 
them with the most bitter aversion to the Christians. 
Their endeavours, however, were without the desired effect, 
and their expectations were entirely disappointed. The 
greatest part of these barbarians embraced Christianity, 
though it be also time, that, in the beginning of their usur- 
pations, the professors of that religion suffered heavily 
under the rigour of their government. 

II. To destroy the credit of the Gospel, and to excite 
the hatred of the multitude against the Christians, the Pa- 
gans took occasion, from the calamities and tumults which 
distracted the empire, to renew the obsolete complaint of 
their ancestors against Christianity, as the source of these 
complicated woes. They alleged, that, before the coming 
of Christ, the world was blessed with peace and prosperity ; 
but that, since the progress of his religion every where, the 
gods, filled with indignation to see their worship neglected 
and their altars abandoned, had visited the earth with 
plagues and desolations, which increased every day. This 
feeble objection was entirely removed by Augustin, in his 

St. Patrick, the reader may consult Le Brun, Histoire Critique des Pra- 
tiques superstitieuses, torn. iv. p. 34. 

s There is a remarkable passage, relating to the miracles of this cen- 
tury, in the dialogue of iEneas Gazarns concerning the immortality of 
the soul, entitled Theophrastus. See the controversy concerning the time 
when miracles ceased in the church, that was carried on about the mid- 
dle of the eighteenth centuiy, on occasion of Dr. Middleton's Free 
Inquiry. 

<• This is ingenuously confessed by the Benedictine monks in their 
Literary History of France,, torn. ii. p. 33, and happily expressed by 
Livy, Hist. lib. xxiv. cap. x. sect. 6. 'Prodigia multa nuntiata sunt, quae 
quo magis credebant simplices et religiosi homines, eo plura nuntia- 
bantur.' 

e Sulpitius Severus, Dial. i. p. 438. Ep. i. p. 457. Dial. iii. cap. ii. p. 487. 



Chap. II. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



Ill 



book de Civitate Dei ; a work exceedingly rich and am- 
ple in point of matter, and filled with the most profound 
and diversified erudition. It also drew a complete confu- 
tation from the learned pen of Orosius, who, in a history 
written expressly for that purpose, showed, with the strong- 
est evidence, that not only the same calamities now com- 
plained of, but also plagues of a much more dreadful kind, 
had afflicted mankind before the Christian religion appear- 
ed in the world. 

The misfortunes of the times produced still more per- 
nicious effects upon the religious sentiments of the Gauls. 
They introduced among that people the most desperate 
notions, and led many of them to reject the belief of a 
superintending providence, and to exclude the Deity from 
the government of the universe. Against these phrenetic 
infidels, Salvian wrote his book concerning the divine go- 
vernment. 

III. Hitherto we have given only a general view of 
'.he sufferings of the Christians; it is, however, proper, that 
we should enter into a more distinct and particular ac- 
count of those misfortunes. 

In Gaul, and the neighbouring provinces, the Goths and 
Vandals (whose cruel and sacrilegious soldiery respected 
neither the majesty of religion, nor the rights of humani- 
ty) committed acts of barbarity and violence against a 
multitude of Christians. 

In Britain, a long series of tumults and divisions invol- 
ved the Christians in many troubles. When the affairs 
of the Romans declined hi that country, the Britons were 
tormented by the Picts and Scots, nations remarkable for 
their violence and ferocity. Hence, after many sufferings 
and disasters, they chose, in 445, Tortigern for their king. 
This prince, finding himself too weak to make head 
against the enemies of his country, called the Anglo- 
Saxons from Germany to his aid, about the year 449. The 
consequences of this measure were pernicious ; and it soon 
appeared, that the warriors, who came as auxiliaries into 
Britain, oppressed it with calamities more grievous than 
those which it had suffered from its enemies ; for the 
Saxons aimed at nothing less than to subdue the ancient 
inhabitants of the country, and to reduce the whole island 
under their dominion. Hence a most bloody and obstinate 
war arose between the Britons and the Saxons, which, af- 
ter having been carried on, during a hundred and thirty 
years, with various successes, ended in the final defeat of the 
Britons, who were at length constrained to seek a retreat 
in "Wales. During these commotions, the state of the Bri- 
tish church was deplorable beyond expression ; it was al- 
most totally overwhelmed and extinguished by the Anglo- 
Saxons, who adhered to the worship of the gods, and put 
an immense number of Christians to the most cruel 
deaths. 11 



* See, beside Bede and Gildas, archbishop Usher's Antiquitat. Eccle- 
sire Britannicae, cap. xii. p. 415, and Rapin's Histoire d ; Angleterre, torn. 
i. livr. ii. 

•> Theodoret, Hist. Eccles. lib. v. cap. xxix. p. 245. Bayle's Diction- 
ary, at die article Abdas. Barbeyrac, de la Morale des Peres, p. 320. 



IV. In Persia, the Christians suffered grievously by 
the imprudent zeal of Abdas, bishop of Susa, who pulled 
down the Pyraum, which was a temple dedicated to fire ; 
for when this obstinate prelate was ordered by the king 
(Yezdejird) to rebuild that temple, he refused to comply ; 
for which he was put to death in 414, and the churches 
of the Christians were demolished. This persecution was 
not, however, of long duration, but seems to have been 
extinguished soon after its commencement. 

Warharan or Bahram, the son of the monarch already 
mentioned, treated the Christians, in 421, in a manner 
yet more barbarous and inhuman, to which he was led 
partly by the instigation of the Magi, and partly by his 
keen aversion to the Romans, with whom he was at 
Avar; for, as often as the Persians and the Romans were 
at variance, the Christians, who dwelt in Persia, felt new 
and redoubled effects of their monarch's wrath : and this 
from a prevailing notion, not perhaps entirely groundless, 
tha t they favoured the Romans, and rendered real services 
to their empire. b In this persecution, a prodigious num- 
ber of Christians perished in the most exquisite tortures, 
and by various kinds of punishment. But they were, at 
length, delivered from these cruel oppressions by the peace 
that was made in 427, between Warharan and the empe- 
ror Theodosius the younger.* 1 

It was not from the Pagans only that the Christians 
were exposed to suffering and persecution; they were 
also harassed and oppressed in a variety of ways by the 
Jews, who lived in great opulence, and enjoyed a high 
degree of favour and credit in several parts of the east.' 
Among these, none treated thern with greater rigour and 
arrogance than Gamaliel, the patriarch of that nation, a 
man of the greatest power and influence, whose authority 
and violence were, on that account, restrained, in 415, by 
an express edict of Theodosius/ 

V. It does not appear, from extant records, that any 
writings against Christ and his followers were published 
in this century, unless we consider as such the histories 
of Olympiodoruse and Zosimus, of whom the latter loses 
no opportunity of reviling the Christians, and loading them 
with the most unjust and bitter reproaches. But, though 
so few books were written against Christianity, we are 
not to suppose that its adversaries had laid aside the spirit 
of opposition. The schools of the philosophers and rheto- 
ricians were yet open in Greece, Syria, and Egypt; and 
there is no doubt that these artful teachers laboured assi- 
duously to corrupt the minds of the youth, and to instil 
into them, at least some of the principles of the ancient 
superstition. 11 The history of these times, and the wri- 
tings of several Christians who lived in this century, exhi- 
bit evident proofs of these clandestine methods of opposing 
the progress of the Gospel. 

e Jos. Sim. Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. i. p. 182, 248. 
a Socrates, Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. cap. xx. 

Socrat. lib. vii. cap. xiii. xvi. Codex Theodos. torn. vi. p. 2C5. 

1 Codex Theodos. torn. vi. p. 262. « Photii Biblioth. cod. lxxx. 
h Zacharias Mitylen. de Opificio Dei. 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the state of Learning and Philosophy. 

I. Though, in this century, the illiterate and ignorant 
were advanced to eminent and important stations, both 
ecclesiastical and civil, yet we must not thence conclude, 
that the sciences were treated with universal contempt. 
The value of learning, and the excellence of the fine arts, 
were generally acknowledged among the thinking part of 
mankind. Hence public schools were erected in almost 
all the great cities, such as Constantinople, Rome, Mar- 
seilles, Edessa, Nisibis, Carthage, Lyons, and Treves ; and 
public instructors of capacity and genius were set apart for 
the education of the youth, and maintained at the expense 
of the emperors. Several bishops and monks contributed 
also to the advancement of knowledge, by imparting to 
others their small stock of learning and science. But the 
infelicity of the times, the incursions of the barbarous 
nations, and the scarcity of great geniuses, rendered the 
fruits of these excellent establishments much less impor- 
tant than their generous founders and promoters expected. 

II. In the western provinces, and especially in Gaul, 
there were indeed some men eminently distinguished by 
their learning and talents, and every way proper to serve 
as models to the lower orders in the republic of letters. Of 
this we have abundant proof in the writings ofMacrobius, 
Salvian, Vincentius bishop of Liris, Ennodius, Sidonius 
Apollinaris, Claudian, Mamertus, Dracontius, and others, 
who, though in some respects inferior to the celebrated 
authors of antiquity, are yet far from being destitute of ele- 
gance, and discover in their productions a most laborious 
application to literary researches of various kinds. But 
the barbarous nations, which either spread desolation, or 
formed settlements in the Roman territories, choked the 
growth of those genial seeds, which the hand of science had 
sown in more auspicious times. These savage invaders, 
who possessed no other ambition than that of conquest, 
and considered military courage as the only source of true 
virtue and solid glory, beheld, in consequence, the arts and 
sciences with the utmost contempt. Wherever therefore 
they extended their conquests, ignorance and darkness fol- 
lowed their steps ; and the culture of science was confined 
to the priests and monks alone ; and even among these, 
learning degenerated from its primitive lustre, and put on 
the most unseemly and fantastic form. Amidst the seduc- 
tion of corrupt examples, the alarms of perpetual danger, 
and the horrors and devastations of war, the sacerdotal and 
monastic orders gradually lost all taste for solid science, in 
the place of which they substituted a lifeless spectre, an 
enormous phantom of barbarous erudition. They indeed 
kept public schools, and instructed the' youth in what they 
called the seven liberal arts ; a but these, as we learn 



g^f a These arts were grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, music, 
geometry, and astronomy. See cent. viii. part ii. ch. ii. in this volume. 

b The passages of different writers, that prove what is here advanced, 
are collected by Launoy, in his book, de varid Aristolelis Fortuua in 
Academia Parisiensi. 

e See Augustini Confess, lib. i. cap. ii. sect. i. p. 105, 106. torn. i. op. 

<• See his Epistles, book iv. ep. iii. xi. book iv. ep. ix. 



from Augustin's account of them, consisted only of a certain 
number of dry, subtile, and useless precepts, and were con- 
sequently more adapted to load and perplex the memory, 
than to improve and strengthen the judgment ; so that, 
toward the conclusion of this century, the sciences were 
almost totally extinguished ; at least, what remained of 
them was no more than a shadowy form, without solidity 
or consistence. 

III. The few who applied themselves to the study of 
philosophy in this age, had not yet embraced the doctrine 
or method of Aristotle. They looked upon the system of 
this eminent philosopher, as a labyrinth beset with thorns 
and thistles ; b and yet, had they been able to read and 
understand his works, it is probable that many of them 
would have become his followers. The doctrine of Plato 
had a more established reputation, which it had enjoyed 
for several ages, and was considered, not only as less sub- 
tile and difficult than that of the Stagirite, but also as more 
conformable to the genius and spirit of the Christian reli- 
gion. Besides, the most valuable of Plato's works were 
translated into Latin by Victorinus, and were thus adapted 
to general use; and Sidonius Apollinaris d informs us, that 
all those, among the Latins, who had any inclination to the 
study of truth, fell into the Platonic notions, and followed 
that sage as their philosophical guide. 

IV. The fate of learning was less deplorable among the 
Greeks and Orientals, than in the western provinces ; and 
not only the several branches of polite literature, but also 
the more solid and profound sciences, were cultivated by 
them with tolerable success. Hence we find among them 
more writers of genius and learning than in other countries. 
Those, who were inclined to the study of law, resorted 
generally toBerytus, famous for its learned academy, or to 
Alexandria/ which was frequented by the students of 
physic and chemistry. The professors of eloquence, poetry, 
philosophy, and the other liberal arts, taught the youth in 
public schools, which were erected hi ahnost every city. 
Those however of Alexandria, Constantinople, and Edessa, 
were deemed superior to all others, both in point of erudi- 
tion and method, s h 

V. The doctrine and sect of the modern Platonics, 01 
Platonists, retained, among the Syrians and Alexandrians 
a considerable part of their ancient splendour. Olympio- 
dorus, Hero, 11 and other philosophers of the first rank, 
added a lustre to the Alexandrian school. That of Athens 
was rendered famous by the talents and erudition of Theo- 
phrastus, Plutarch, and his successor Syrianus. These were 
the instructors of the renewed Proclus, who far surpassed 
the Platonic philosophers of this century, and acquired 
such a high degree of the public esteem, as enabled him tc 
give new life to the doctrine of Plato, and restore it to its 
former credit in Greece.* Marinus, of Neapolis, Amino 

e See Hasan Lib. de Academia Jureconsultorum Berytensi; as also 
Mitylenasus, de Opificio Dei, p. 164. 

f Mitylenaeus de Opificio Dei, p. 179. 

s jEneas Gazrcus in Theophrasto. >> Marinus, Vita Prodi, cap. ix. 

■ The life of Proclus, written by Marinus, was published at Hamburg, 
in 1700, by John Albert Fabricius, and was enriched by the famous 
editor, with a great number of learned observations. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



113 



nius the son of Hermias, Isidorus and Damascius, the 
disciples of Proclus, followed, with an ardent emulation, 
the traces of their master, and formed successors who 
resembled them in all respects. But the imperial laws, and 
the daily progress of the Christian religion, gradually 
diminished the lustre and authority of these philosophers; 1 
and, as there were many of the Christian doctors who adop- 
ted the Platonic system, and were sufficiently qualified to 
explain it to the youth, this naturally prevented the schools 
of these heathen sages from being so much frequented as 
they had formerly been. 

VI. The credit of the Platonic philosophy, and the pre- 
ference that was given to it, as more excellent in itself, and 
less repugnant to the genius of the Gospel than other sys- 
tems, did not prevent the doctrine of Aristotle from com- 
ing to light after a long struggle, and forcing its way into 
the Christian church. The Platonists themselves inter- 
preted, in their schools, some of the writings of Aristotle, 
particularly his Dialectics, and recommended that work to 
such of the youth as had a taste for logical discussions, and 
were fond of disputing. In this, the Christian doctors j 
imitated the manner of the heathen schools ; and this was j 
the first step to that universal dominion, which the Stagi- j 
rite afterwards obtained in the republic of letters. A second I 
and yet larger stride toward this universal empire was j 
made by the Aristotelian philosoph}^ during the controver- ! 
sies which Origen had occasioned, and the Arian, Euty- 
chian, Nestorian, and Pelagian dissensions, which, in this j 
century, were so fruitful of calamities to the Christian ! 
church. Origen, as is well known, was zealously attached | 
to the Platonic system. When, therefore, he was publicly 
condemned, many, to avoid the imputation of his errors, 
and to preclude their being reckoned among the number 
of his followers, adopted openly the philosophy of Aristotle, 
which was entirely different from that of Origen. The j 
Nestorian, Arian, and Eiitychian controversies were mana- ! 
ged, or rather drawn out, on both sides, by a perpetual 
recourse to subtile distinctions and captious sophisms ; and 
no philosophy was so proper to furnish such weapons, as 
that of Aristotle; for that of Plato was far from being 
adapted to form the mind to the polemic arts. Besides, 
the Pelagian doctrine bore a striking resemblance to the 
Platonic opinions concerning God and the human soul ; 
and this was an additional reason which engaged many to 
desert the Platonists, and to assume, at least, the name of 
Peripatetics. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Christian 
Church, and its Form of Government. 

1. Several causes contributed to bring about a change 
in the external form of ecclesiastical government. The 
power of the bishops, particularly those of the first order, 
was sometimes augmented, and sometimes diminished, 
according as the times and the occasions offered ; and in all 
these changes the intrigues of the court and the political 

• See iEneas Gazaeus in Theophrasto. 

•> Le duien, Oriens Christ, torn. i. p. 36. 

• See Bayle's Dictionaire Historique, at the article Acacius. 

fjf <• By all -Palestine, the reader is desired to understand three dis- 
tinct provinces, of which each bore the name of Palestine; and accord- 
ingly the original is thus expressed, TriumPalastinarum Episcopum 
ten Patriarcham. After the destruction of Jerusalem, «he face of Pa- 

No. X. 29 



state of the empire, had much more influence, than the 
rules of equity and wisdom. 

These alterations were, indeed, matters of small 
moment. But an affair of much greater consequence 
now drew the general attention ; and this was the vast 
augmentation of honours and rank, accumulated upon the 
bishops of Constantinople, in opposition to the most vigorous 
efforts of the Roman pontiff. In the preceding century, the 
council of Constantinople had, on account of the dignity 
and privileges of that imperial city, conferred on its bishops 
a place among the first rulers of the Christian church. 
This new dignity adding fuel to their ambition, they ex- 
tended their views of authority and dominion ; and, en- 
couraged, no doubt, by the consent of the emperor, reduced 
the provinces of Asia Minor, Thrace, and Pontus, under 
their spiritual jurisdiction. In this century, they grasped 
at still farther accessions of power ; so that not only the 
whole eastern part of Ulyricum was added to their former 
acquisitions, but they were also exalted to the highest sum- 
mit of ecclesiastical authority ; for, by the 28th canon of 
the council holden at Chalcedon in 451, it was resolved 
that the same rights and honours which had been conferred 
upon the bishop of Rome, were due to the bishop of Con- 
stantinople, on account of the equal dignity and lustre of 
the two cities, in which these prelates exercised their autho- 
rity. The same council confirmed also, by a solemn act, 
the bishop of Constantinople in the spiritual government 
of those provinces over which he had ambitiously usurped 
the jurisdiction. Pope Leo the Great, bishop of Rome, 
opposed with vehemence the passing of these decrees ; and 
his opposition was seconded by that of several other prelates. 
But their efforts were vain, as the emperors threw their 
weight into the balance, and thus supported the decisions 
of the Grecian bishops. b In consequence then of the decrees 
of this famous council, the prelate of Constantinople began 
to contend obstinately for the supremacy with the Roman 
pontiff, and to crush the bishops of Alexandria and Antioch, 
so as to make them feel the oppressive effects of his 
pretended superiority ; and no one distinguished himself 
more by his ambition and arrogance in this affair, than 
Acacius. c 

II. It was much about this time that Juvenal, bishop 
of Jerusalem, or rather of iElia, attempted to withdraw 
himself and his church from the jurisdiction of the bishop 
ofCeesarea, and aspired to a place among the first prelates 
of the Christian world. The high degree of veneration 
and esteem, in which the church of Jerusalem was holden 
among all other Christian societies (on account of its rank 
among the apostolical churches, and its title to the 
appellation of mother-church, as having succeeded the 
first Christian assembly founded by the apostles,) was 
extremely favourable to the ambition of Juvenal, and 
rendered his project much more practicable than it would 
otherwise have been. Encouraged by this, and animated 
by the favour and protection of the younger Theodosius, 
the aspiring prelate not only assumed the dignity of pa- 
triarch of all Palestine, 11 a rank that rendered him su 

lestine was almost totally changed ; and it w-as so parcelled out and 
wasted by a succession of wars and invasions, that it scarcely preserved 
any trace of its former condition. Under the Christian emperors there 
were three Palestines formed out of the ancient country of that name, 
each of which was an episcopal see ; and it was these three dioceses that 
Juvenal usurped and maintained the jurisdiction. See, for a further ac- 
count of the three Palestines, Spanhemii Geographia Sacra. 



114 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part H 



preme and independent of all spiritual authority, but also 
invaded the rights of the bishop of Antioch, and usurped 
his jurisdiction over the provinces of Phoenicia and Ara- 
bia. Hence arose a warm contest between Juvenal and 
Maximus, bishop of Antioch, which the council of Chalce- 
don decided, by restoring to the latter the provinces of 
Phoenicia and Arabia, and confirming the former in the 
spiritual possession of all Palestine,* 1 and in the high rank 
which he had assumed in the church. b Thus were 
created, in the fifth century, five superior rulers of the 
church, who were distinguished from the rest by the title of 
Patriarchs. The oriental historians mention a sixth, viz. 
the bishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, to whom, according 
to their account, the bishop of Antioch voluntarily ceded 
a part of his jurisdiction. d But this addition to the num- 
ber of the patriarchs is unworthy of credit, as the only 
proof of it is drawn from the Arabic laws 'of the council 
of Nice, which are notoriously destitute of all authority. 

III. The patriarchs were distinguished by considerable 
and extensive rights and privileges, that were annexed to 
their high station. They alone consecrated the bishops, 
who lived in the provinces that belonged to their juris- 
diction. They assembled yearly in council the clergy of 
their respective districts, in order to regulate the affairs of 
the church. The cognisance of all important causes, 
and the determination of the more weighty controversies, 
were referred to the patriarch of the province where they 
arose. They also pronounced a decisive judgment in 
those cases, where accusations were brought against bishops, 
and, lastly, they appointed vicars, e or deputies, clothed with 
their authority, for the preservation of order and tranquillity 
in the remoter provinces. Such were the great and distin- 
guishing privileges of the patriarchs ; and they were accom- 
panied with others of less moment, which it is needless to 
mention. It must, however, be carefully observed, that the 
authority of the patriarchs was not acknowledged through 
all the provinces without exception. Several districts, both 
in the eastern and western empires, were exempted from 
their jurisdiction/ The emperors, who reserved to them- 
selves the supreme power in the Christian hierarchy, and 
received, with great facility and readiness, the complaints 
of those who considered themselves as injured by the pa- 
triarchs ; and the councils also, in which the majesty 
and legislative power of the church immediately resided ; 
were obstacles to the arbitrary proceedings of the patriar- 
chal order. 

IV. Tnis constitution of ecclesiastical government was 
so far from contributing to the peace and prosperity of the 
Christian church, that it proved, on the contrary, a perpe- 
tual source of dissensions and animosities, and was produc- 
tive of various inconveniences and grievances. The 
patriarchs, who, by their exalted rank and extensive au- 
thority, were equally able to do much good and much 
mischief, began to encroach upon the rights, and trample 
upon the prerogatives of their bishops, and thus introdu- 
ced, gradually, a sort of spiritual bondage into the church; 
and that they might invade, without opposition, the rights 
of the bishops, they permitted the latter, in their turn, to 

* See also, for an account of the Three Palestines, Caroli a S. Paulo 
(Jreographia Sacra, p. 307. 

•> See Mich. Le Gluien, Oriens Christianus, torn. iii. 

■ See the authors who have written of the patriarchs, mentioned and 
recommended by the learned Fabricius, in his Bibliograph. Antiquar. 
cap, xiii. p. 453. * Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. i. 



trample with impunity upon the ancient rights and pri- 
vileges of the people; for, in proportion as the bishops 
multiplied their privileges and extended their usurpations, 
the patriarchs gained new accessions of power by the des- 
potism which they exercised over the episcopal order. They 
fomented also divisions among the bishops, and excited 
animosities between them and the other ministers of the 
church. They went still farther, and sowed the seeds of 
discord between the clergy and the people, that all these 
combustions might furnish them with perpetual matter for 
the exercise of their authority, and procure them a multi- 
tude of clients and dependents. They left no artifice unem- 
ployed to strengthen their own authority, and to raise 
opposition against the prelates from every quarter. For 
this purpose it was that they engaged in their cause by the 
most alluring promises, and attached to their interests by 
the most magnificent acts of liberality, whole swarms of 
monks, who served as intestine enemies to the bishops, 
and as a dead weight on the side of patriarchal tyranny. 
The efforts of these monastic hirelings contributed more 
than any other means to ruin the ancient ecclesiastical 
discipline, to diminish the authority of the bishops, and 
raise, to an enormous and excessive height, the power and 
prerogatives of their insolent and ambitious patrons. 

V. To these lamentable evils, were added the ambitious 
quarrels, and the bitter animosities, that rose among the 
patriarchs themselves, and which produced the most 
bloody wars and the most detestable and horrid crimes. 
The patriarch of Constantinople distinguished himself 
in these odious contests. Elate with the favour and proxi- 
mity of the imperial court, he cast a haughty eye on all 
sides, where any objectswere to be found on which he might 
exercise his lordly ambition. On one hand, he reduced 
under his jurisdiction the patriarchs of Alexandria and 
Antioch, as prelates only of the second order; and, on the 
other, he invaded the diocese of the Roman pontiff, and 
despoiled him of several provinces. The two former pre- 
lates, though they struggled with vehemence, and raised 
considerable tumults by their opposition, laboured ineffec- 
tually, both for want of strength, and likewise on account 
of a variety of unfavourable circumstances. But the pope, 
far superior to them in wealth and power, contended also 
with more vigour and obstinacy, and in his turn, gave a 
deadly wound to the usurped supremacy of the Byzantine 
patriarch. 

The attentive inquirer into the affairs of the church, 
from this period, will find, in the events now mentioned, 
the principal source of those most scandalous and deplora- 
ble dissensions, which divided first the eastern church into 
various sects, and afterwards separated it entirely from that 
of the west. He will find, that these ignominious schisms 
flowed chiefly from the unchristian contentions for domi- 
nion and supremacy, which reigned among those who set 
themselves up for the fathers and defenders of the church. 

VI. No one of the contending bishops found the occur- 
rences of the times so favourable to his ambition, as the Ro- 
man pontiff. Notwithstanding the redoubled efforts of the 
bishop of Constantinople, a variety of circumstances con- 



e Dav. Blondel, de la Primaute de 1'Eglise, chap.xxv. p. 332. Theod. 
Ruinart, de Pallio Archi-Episcppali, p. 445; torn. ii. of the posthumous 
works of Mabillon. 

f Brerewood's Dissert, de veteris EcclesiseGubernatione patriarchali, 
printed at the end of archbishop Usher's book, entitled, Opusculura de 
Origine Episcoporum et Metropolitanorum. 



Chap. II. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



115 



curred to augment his power and authority, though he 
had not yet assumed the dignity of supreme lawgiver and 
judge of the whole Christian church. The bishops of 
Alexandria and Antioch, unable to make head against the 
lordly prelate of Constantinople, often fled to the Roman 
pontiff for succour against his violence ; and the inferior 
order of bishops used the same method, when their rights 
were invaded by the prelates of Alexandria and Antioch : 
so that the bishop of Rome, by taking all these prelates 
alternately under his protection, daily added new degrees 
of influence and authority to the Roman see, rendered it 
every where respected, and was thus imperceptibly estab- 
lishing its supremacy. Such were the means by which 
that pontiff extended his dominion in the east. In the 
west its increase arose from other causes. The declining 
power and the supine indolence of the emperors, left the 
authority of the bishop, who presided in their capital, al- 
most without control. The incursions, moreover, and 
triumphs of the barbarians were so far from being preju- 
dicial to his rising dominion, that they rather contributed 
to its advancement ; for the kings who penetrated into the 
empire, were only solicitous about the methods of giving 
a sufficient degree of stability to their respective govern- 
ments; and when they perceived the subjection of the 
multitude to the bishops, and the dependence of the latter 
upon the Roman pontiff, they immediately resolved to re- 
concile this ghostly ruler to their interests, by loading him 
with benefits and honours of various kinds. 

Among all the prelates who ruled the church of Rome 
during this century, there was not one who asserted his 
authority and pretensions with such vigour and success, 
as Leo, surnamed the Great. It must however be obser- 
ved, that neither he, nor the other promoters of the same 
claims, were able to overcome all the obstacles that were 
laid in their way, or the various checks which were given 
to their ;^.mbition. Many examples might be alleged in 
proof of 'his assertion, particularly the case of the Africans, 
whom do threats or promises could engage to submit the 
decision of their controversies, and the determination of 
their causes, to the Roman tribunal. 1 

VII. The vices of the clergy were now carried to the 
most enormous excess ; and all the writers of this century, 
whose probity and virtue render them worthy of credit, 
are unanimous in their accounts of the luxury, arrogance, 
avarice, and voluptuousness of the sacerdotal orders. The 
bishops, and particularly those of the first rank, created vari- 
ous delegates, or ministers, who managed for them the af- 
fairs of their dioceses ; and courts were gradually formed, 
where these pompous ecclesiastics gave audience, and recei- 
ved the homage of a cringing multitude. The office of a 
presbyter was looked upon of such a high and eminent 
nature, that Martin, bishop of Tours, audaciously main- 
tamed, at a public entertainment, that the emperor was 
inferior, in dignity, to one of that order." As to the dea- 
cons, their pride and licentiousness occasioned many and 
grievous complaints, as appears from the decrees of several 
councils. c 

These opprobrious stains, in the characters of the clergy, 

a Du-Pin, de Antiqua Ecclesise, Disciplina, Diss. ii. p. 166. Melch. 
Leydeck. Historia Eccles. Africans, torn. ii. Diss. ii. p. 505. 

b Sulpitius Severus, de Vita Martini, cap. xx. p. 339, compared with 
Dialog, ii. cap. vi. p. 457. 

• See Dav. Blondel. Apologia pro Sententia Hieronymi de Episcopis 
et Presbyteris, p. 140. 



would never have been endured, had not the greatest part 
of mankind been sunk in superstition and ignorance, and 
people in general formed their ideas of the rights and liber- 
ties of Christian ministers from the model exhibited by 
the sacerdotal orders among the Hebrews, during the pre- 
valence of the law of Moses, and among the Greeks and 
Romans in the darkness of paganism. The barbarous 
nations also, which, on the ruin of the Romans, divided 
among themselves the western empire, bore, with the ut- 
most patience and moderation, both the dominion and vices 
of the bishops and priests, because, upon their conversion to 
Christianity, they became naturally subject to their jurisdic- 
tion ; and still more, because they considered the ministers 
of Christ as invested with the same rights and privileges, 
which distinguished the priests of their fictitious deities. 

VIII. The corruption of an order, appointed to promote, 
by doctrine and example, the sacred interests of piety and 
virtue, -will appear less surprising when we consider, that 
multitudes of people were in every country admitted, with- 
out examination or choice, into the body of the clergy, 
the greatest part of whom had no other view, than the 
enjoyment of a lazy and inglorious repose. Many of 
these ecclesiastics were confined to no fixed places or 
assemblies, and had no employment of any kind, but 
sauntered about wherever they pleased, gaining their main- 
tenance by imposing upon the ignorant multitude, and 
sometimes by mean and dishonest practices. But if any 
should ask, how this account is reconcileable with the 
number of saints, who, according to the testimonies both of 
the eastern and western writers, are said to have shone 
forth in this century, the answer is obvious ; these saints were 
canonised by the ignorance of the times ; for, in an age of 
darkness and corruption, those who distinguished them- 
selves from the multitude, either by their genius, their 
writings, or then eloquence, by their prudence and dex- 
terity in conducting affairs of importance, or by their 
meekness and moderation, and the ascendancy which 
they had gained over their resentments and passions, were 
esteemed something more than men ; they were reveren- 
ced as gods ; or, to speak more properly, they appeared to 
others as men divinely inspired, and full of the Deity. 

IX. The monks, who had formerly lived only for them- 
selves in solitary retreats, and had never thought of assu- 
ming any rank among the sacerdotal orders, were now 
gradually distinguished from the populace, and were en- 
dowed with such opulence and such honourable privileges 
that they found themselves in a condition to claim an emi- 
nent station among the supports and pillars of the Chris- 
tian community." 1 The fame of their piety and sanctity 
was at first so great, that bishops and presbyters were often 
chosen out of their order; 6 and the passion of erecting edi- 
fices and convents, in which the monks and holy virgins 
might serve God in the most commodious manner, was a*, 
this time carried beyond all bounds. f 

The monastic orders did not all observe the same rule 
of discipline, or the same manner of living. Some fol- 
lowed the rule of Augustine, others that of Basil, others 
that of Antony, others that of Athanasius, others that of 

d Epiphanius, Exposit. Fidei, torn. i. op. p. 1094. — Mabillon's Reponso 
aux Chanoines Reguliers. 

• Severus, de Vita Martini, cap. x. p. 320. Dial. i. cap. xxi. p. 426. 

f Severus, Dial. i. p. 419. — Norisius, Histor. Pelag. lib. i. cap. iii. p, 
273. torn. i. op. — Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. ii. p. 35. 



116 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part LL 



Pachomius; but they must all have become extremely- 
negligent and remiss in observing the laws of their res- 
pective orders, since the licentiousness of the monks, even 
in this century, was even proverbial, 1 and they are said to 
have excited in various places the most dreadful tumults 
and seditions. All the monastic orders were under the 
protection of the bishops in whose provinces they lived ; nor 
did the patriarchs claim any authority over them, as ap- 
pears with the utmost evidence from the decrees of the 
councils holden in this century. b 

X. Several writers of considerable merit adorned this 
century. Among the Greeks and Orientals, the first place is 
due to Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, so famous for his learn- 
ed productions, and the various controversies in which 
he was engaged. It would be unjust to derogate from 
the praises which are due to this eminent man; but it 
would betray, on the other hand, a criminal partiality, if 
we should pass uncensured the turbulent spirit, the liti- 
gious and contentious temper, and other defects, which 
are laid to his charge. 

After Cyril we may place Theodoret, bishop of Cyrus, 
(or Cyropolis,) an eloquent, copious, and learned writer, 
eminent for his acquaintance with all the branches of sa- 
cred erudition, but unfortunate in his attachment to some 
of the Nestorian errors. d 

Isidore, of Pelusium, was a man of uncommon learning 
and sanctit}^. A great number e of his epistles are yet ex- 
tant, and discover more piety, genius, erudition, and wis- 
dom, than are to be found in the voluminous productions 
of many other writers/ 

Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, few of whose wri- 
tings aie now extant, acquired an immortal name, by his 
violent opposition to Origen and his followers, e 

Palladius deserves a rank among the better sort of au- 
thors by his Lausiac History and his Life of Chrysostom. 

Theodore of Mopsuestia, though accused after his death 
of the greatest errors, was one of the most learned men of 
his time. Those who have read, with any attention, the 
fragments of his writings, which are to be found in Photius, 
will lament the want of these excellent compositions, 

a Sulp. Severus, Dial. i. cap. viii. p. 399. 

i> See Jo. Launoii Inquisitio in Chartam Immunitatis B. Germani, op. 
torn. iii. part ii. p. 3. In the ancient records, posterior to this century, 
the monks are frequently called Clerks. (See Mabillon's Prsf. ad Saec. 
ii. Actor. Sanctor. Ord. Benedicti.) And this shews, that they now be- 
gan to be ranked among the clergy, or ministers of the church. 

The works of Cyril were published at Paris by Aubert, in six vols, 
folio, in 1638. 

* The Jesuit Sirmond gave at Paris, in 1642, a noble edition of the 
works of this prelate in four volumes ; a fifth was added by Gamier, in 
1685. §r_jT We must observe, in favour of this excellent ecclesiastic, so 
renowned for the sanctity and simplicity of his manners, that he aban- 
doned the doctrines of Nestorius, and thus effaced the stain he had 
contracted by his personal attachment to that heretic, and to John of 
Antioch. 

fjf e These epistles amount to 2012, and are divided into five books. 
They are short, but admirably written, and are equally recommendable 
for the solidity of the matter, and the purity and elegance of their style. 

f The best edition of Isidore's Epistles, is that which was published 
by the Jesuit Scott, at Paris, in 1638. 

* See Euseb. Renaudot, Historia Patriarchar. Alexandrinor. p. 103. 

h See Assemani Bibl. Oriental. Clement. Vatic, torn. iii. part ii. p. 227. 

fTjf i It appears by this account of the works of Theodore, that Dr. 
Mosheim had not seen the Dissertations of the late duke of Orleans, in 
one of which that learned prince has demonstrated, that the commentary 
upon the Psalms, which is to be found in the Chain or Collection of Cor- 
derius, and which bears the name of Theodore, is the production of 
Theodore of Mopsuestia. There exists, also, beside the fragments that 
are to be found in Photius, a manuscript commentary of this illustrious 
author upon the twelve minor prophets. 



which are either entirely lost, or, if any remain, 1 " are only 
extant among the Nestorians, and in the Syriac language.: 

Nilus, disciple of Chrysostom, composed several treatises 
of a practical and pious kind ; but these performances de- 
rive more merit from the worthy and laudable intention 
of their author than from any other circumstance. 

We pass over in silence Basilius of Seleucia, Theodotus of 
Ancyria, and Gelasius of Cyzicum, for the sake of brevity. 

XI. A Roman pontiff, Leo I. surnamed the Great, 
shines forth at the head of the Latin writers of this century. 
He was a man of uncommon genius and eloquence, which 
he employed however too much in extending his authori- 
ty; a point in which his ambition was both indefatigable 
and excessive. 11 

Orosius acquired a considerable degree of reputation by 
the History which he wrote to refute the cavils of the Pa 
gans against Christianity, and by his books against the Pe 
lagians and Priscillianists.i 

Cassian, an illiterate and superstitious man, inculcated 
in Gaul, both by his discourse and his writings, the disci- 
pline and manner of living which prevailed among the Sy- 
rian and Egyptian monks, and was a sort of teacher to 
those who were called Semi-Pelagians. m 

Maximus of Turin published several Homilies, which 
are yet extant, and, though short, are for the most pari 
recommended both by elegance and piety. 

Eucherius, bishop of Lyons, was one of the most consi- 
derable moral writers that flourished among the Latins in 
this century." 

Pontius of Nola, distinguished by his eminent and fer- 
vent piety, is also esteemed for his poems, and other good 
performances. 

Peter, bishop of Ravenna, obtained by his eloquence the 
title of Chrysologus; nor are his discourses entirely desti- 
tute of genius, p 

Salvian was an eloquent, but, at the same time, a me- 
lancholy and sour writer, who, in his vehement declama- 
tions against the vices of his times, unwarily discovers the 
defects of his own character.'' 

Prosper of Aquitaine, and MariusMercator, are abundant- 
ly All the works of Leo were published at Lyons, in 1700, by the care 
of the celebrated Gluesnel of the Oratory. 

' See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Orosius. A valuable edition 
of this author, enriched with ancient coins and medals, was published at 
Leyden, in 1738, by the learned Havercamp. 

m Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. ii. p. 215. — Simon, Critique de 
la Biblioth. Ecclesiastique par Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 156. — The works of 
Cassian were published at Frankfort, in 1722, with a copious Commen- 
tary by Alardus Gazeeus. 

n See a satisfactory account of this prelate, in the Histoire Literaire 
de la France, torn. ii. p. 275. 

gj" ° This pious and ingenious ecclesiastic is more generally known 
by the name of Paulin. See Hist. Lit. de la France, torn. ii. p. 179. The 
best edition of his work is that published by Le Bmn, at Paris, 1685. 

p Agnelli, Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiae Ravennatis, torn. i. p. 321. 

i Hist. Liter, de la France, torn. ii. p. 517. ICa 3 The authors of the 
history here referred to, give a different account of Salvian's character. 
They acknowledge, that his declamations against the vices of the age, 
in his Treatise against Avarice, and his Discourse concerning Provi- 
dence, are warm and vehement ; but they represent him. notwithstand- 
ing, as one of the most humane and benevolent men of his time. It is, 
however, beyond all doubt, that he was' extravagantly austere in the 
rules he prescribed for the conduct of life. For what is more unnatural 
than to recommend to Christians, as a necessary condition of salvation, 
their leaving their whole substance to the poor, to the utter ruin of their 
children and relations 1 It must, however, be confessed, that his austerity 
in point of discipline was accompanied with the most amiable modera- 
tion toward those who differed from him in articles of faith. There is a 
most remarkable passage to this purpose, in his treatise concerning Pro- 
vidence, book v. p. 100. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



117 



[y known to such as have employed any part of their time 
and attention in the study of the Pelagian disputes, and 
the other controversies that were agitated in this century. 

Vincent of Lerins gained a lasting reputation by his 
short, but excellent treatise against the sects, entitled 
Commonitorium. a 

Sidonius Apollinaris, a tumid writer, though not en- 
tirely destitute of eloquence; Vigilius of Tapsus ; Arno- 
bius the younger, who wrote a commentary on the book 
of Psalms; Dracontius, and others of that class, are of 
too little consequence to deserve more particular notice. 

CHAPTER HI. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Church during this 
Centxiry. 

I. Many points of religion were more largely explained, 
and many of its doctrines determined with more accuracy 
and precision, than they had been in the preceding ages. 
This was one result of the controversies that were multi- 
plied, at this time, throughout the Christian world, concern- 
ing the person and nature of Christ ; the innate corrup- 
tion and depravity of man ; the natural inability of men to 
live according to the dictates of the divine law ; the neces- 
sity of the divine grace in order to salvation; the nature 
and existence of human liberty ; and other such intricate 
and perplexing questions. The sacred and venerable 
simplicity of the primitive times, Avhich required no more 
than a true faith in the word of God, and a sincere obe- 
dience to his holy laws, appeared little better than rusticity 
and ignorance to the subtile doctors of this quibbling age. 
Yet so it happened, that many of the over-curious divines, 
who attempted to explain the nature, and remove the diffi- 
culties of these intricate doctrines, succeeded very ill in this 
matter. Instead of leading men into the paths of humble 
faith and genuine piety, they bewildered them in the laby- 
rinths of controversy and contention, and rather darkened 
than illustrated the sacred mysteries of religion by a thick 
cloud of unintelligible subtilties, ambiguous terms, and 
obscure distinctions. Hence arose new matter of animosity 
and dispute, of bigotry and uncharitableness, which flowed 
like a torrent through succeeding ages, and which all 
human efforts seem unable to vanquish. In these disputes, 
the heat of passion, and the excessive force of religious 
antipathy and contradiction, frequently hurried the con- 
tending parties into the most dangerous and disgraceful 
extremes. 

II. If, before this time, the lustre of religion was clouded 
with superstition, and its divine precepts were adulterated 
with a mixture of human inventions, this evil, instead of 
diminishing, increased daily. The happy souls of depart- 
ed Christians were invoked by numbers, and their aid 
implored b) assiduous and fervent prayers, while none 
stood up to censure or oppose this preposterous worship. 
The question, how the prayers of mortals ascended to the 
celestial spirits, ( a question which afterwards produced 

H^" a This work of Vincent, which is commended by our author, 
seems scarcely worthy of such applause. I see nothing in it, but that 
blind veneration for ancient opinions, which is so fatal to the discovery 
and progress of truth, and an attempt to prove that nothing but the voice 
of tradition is to be consulted in fixing the sense of the Scriptures. 

An ample account of Vincent, Prosper, and Arnobius, is to be found in 
the Histoire Literaire de Ja France, torn. ii. p. 305, 342, 369. 

>> See the Institutiones Divinee of Lactantius, lib. i. p. 164, and Hesiod. 
Op. et Dies, ver. 122. Compare with these, Sulp. Severus, Epist. ii. p. 

No. X. 30 



much wrangling, and many idle fancies,) did not yet occa- 
sion any difficulty ; for the Christians of this century did 
not imagine that the souls of saints were so entirely con- 
fined to the celestial mansions, as to be deprived of the 
privilege of visiting mortals, and travelling when they 
pleased, through various countries. They were farther of 
opinion, that the places most frequented by departed spirits 
were those where the bodies which they had formerly ani- 
mated were interred ; and this opinion, borrowed by the 
Christians from the Greeks and Romans, rendered the se- 
pulchres of the saints the general rendezvous of suppliant 
multitudes. b The images of those who, during their lives, 
had acquired the reputation of uncommon sanctity, were 
now honoured with a particular worship in several places ; 
and many imagined that this worship drew down into the 
images the propitious presence of the saints or celestial 
beings they represented ; deluded, perhaps, into this idle 
fancy by the crafty fictions of the heathen priests, who had 
published the same things concerning the statues of Jupiter 
and Mercury. A singular and irresistible efficacy was 
also attributed to the bones of martyrs, and to the figure of 
the cross, in defeating the attempts of Satan, removing all 
sorts of calamities, and in healing, not only the diseases of 
the body, but also those of the mind. d "We shall not enter 
into a particular account of the public supplications, the 
holy pilgrimages, the superstitious services paid to depart- 
ed souls, the multiplication of temples, chapels, altars, 
penitential garments, and a multitude of other circumstan- 
ces, that showed the decline of genuine piety, and the 
corrupt darkness that was eclipsing the lustre of primitive 
Christianity. As none in these times forbade the Chris- 
tians to retain the opinions of their pagan ancestors con- 
cerning departed souls, heroes, demons, temples, and other 
things, or even to transfer them into their religious services ; 
and as, instead of entirely abolishing the rites and institu- 
tions of ancient times, these institutions were still observed, 
with only some slight alterations ; all this swelled of neces- 
sity the torrent of superstition, and deformed the beauty of 
the Christian religion and worship with those corrupt re- 
mains of paganism, which still subsist in a certain church. 

It will not be improper to observe here, that the famous 
pagan doctrine, concerning the purification of departed 
souls, by means of a certain kind of fire, was now more 
amply explained and established than it had formerly 
been. e Every one knows, that this doctrine proved an 
inexhaustible source of riches to the clergy through the 
succeeding ages, and that it still enriches the Romish 
church with its nutritious streams. 

III. The interpretation of the Scriptures employed fewer 
pens in this century than in the preceding age, in which 
the Christian doctors were less involved in the labyrinths 
of controversy. Yet, notwithstanding the multiplication 
of religious disputes, a considerable number of learned men 
undertook this useful and important task. We shall not 
mention those who confined their illustrations to some one, 
or a few books of the divine word, such as Victor of Acti- 



371. Dial. ii. cap. xiii. p. 474. Dial. iii. p. 512. — ./Eneas Gazaeus, in Theo- 
phrasto. — Macarius, in Jac. Tollii Insignibus Itineris Italici, and other 
writers of this age. 

"Clementina, HomiL- x. p. 697, torn. i. PP. Apostolic. — Arnobius 
adv. Gentes, lib. vi. p. 254. — Casp. Barthius, ad Rutilium Numantian. 
p. 250. 

a Prudentius, Hymn xi. de Coronis, p. 150. — Sulp. Severus, Ep. L p. 
364. — jEneas Gazaeus, in Theophrasto. 

• See, particularly concerning this matter, Augiistin's book de viii. 



118 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 11. 



och, Polychronius, Philo Carpathius, Isidore of Cordova, 
Salonius, and Andrew of Caesarea. We must not, however, 
pass over in silence Theodoret and Theodore, bishops of 
Cyrus and Mopsuestia, the two .most famous expositors of 
this age, who illustrated a great part of the Scriptures by 
their pious labours. They were truly eminent, both in 
point of learning and genius ; and, free and unprejudiced 
in their search after truth, they followed the explications 
given by their predecessors, only as far as they found them 
agreeable to reason. The commentaries of Theodoret are 
yet extant, and in the hands of the learned;* those of 
Theodore are concealed in the east among the Nestorians, 
though on many accounts worthy to see the light. b Cyril, 
of Alexandria, deserves also a place among the commen- 
tators of this century; but a still higher rank, among that 
Useful and learned body, is due to Isidore of Pelusium, 
whose epistles contain many observations, which cast a con- 
siderable degree of light upon several parts of Scripture/ 

IV. It is, however, to be lamented, that the greatest part 
of the commentators, both Greek and Latin, following the 
idle fancies of Origen, overlooked the true and natural 
sense of the words, and hunted after subtle and hidden 
significations, or mysteries (as the Latins then termed 
them,) in the plainest precepts of the Scriptures. Several 
of the Greeks, aud particularly Theodoret, laboured, with 
success and precision, in illustrating the books of the New 
Testament ; and their success in that task is to be princi- 
pally attributed to their perfect knowledge of the Greek 
language, which they had learned from their infancy. 
But neither the Greeks nor Latins threw much light 
upon the Old Testament, which was cruelly tortured by 
the allegorical pens of almost all who attempted to illustrate 
and explain it ; for nothing is more common, than to see 
the interpreters of the fifth century straining all the pas- 
sages of that sacred book, either to typify Christ, and the 
blessings of his kingdom, or Antichrist, and the wars and 
desolations which he was to bring upon the earth, — without 
the least spark of judgment, or the smallest air of proba- 
bility. 

V. A few chosen spirits, superior to the others in saga- 
city and wisdom, were bold enough to stand up against 
these critical delusions, and to point out a safer and plainer 
way to divine truth. This we learn from the epistles of 
Isidore of Pelusium, who, though he was not himself en- 
tirely free from this allegorical contagion, censures judi- 
ciously, in many places, such as abandoned the historical 
sense of the Old Testament, and applied its narrations and 
predictions to Christ alone. But none went greater lengths 
in censuring the fanciful followers of Origen, than Theo- 

Gusestionibus ad Dulcitium, N. xiii. torn. vi. op.'p. 128 ; de fide et ope- 
ribus, cap. xvi. p. 182 ; de fide, spe, et charitate, sect. 118, p. 222. Enar- 
ratione Psal. xxxv. sect. 3, &c. 

* See Simon's Histoire critique des principaux Commentateurs du N. 
Test. chap. xxii. p. 314 ; as also his Critique de la Biblioth. Ecclesiast. 
de M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 180. §^> Theodoret wrote Commentaries upon 
the five books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chroni- 
cles, the Psalms, the Canticles, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Barach, Lamentations, 
Ezelriel, Daniel, the 12 minor Prophets, and St. Paul's 14 Epistles. 

•> AssKrr>.an's Biblioth. Orient. Clem. Vatic, torn. iii. sect. 2, p. 227. — 
Simon's Critique de la Biblioth. Eccles. torn. i. p. 108, 677. |3p We are 
assured by Pabricius, upon the testimony of Lambecius, that Theodore's 
Commentary upon the twelve Prophets is still extant in MS. in the em- 
peror's library at Vienna. See Fabr. Bibl. Gr»c. torn. ix. p. 162. See 
also, for an ample and learned account of the writings of this author, 
Lardner's Credibility, vol. ix. p. 389. 

See, for an account of these two authors, Simon's Histoire des prin- 
cipaux Commentateurs du Nouveau Testament, ch. xxi. p. 300. 



dore of Mopsuestia, who not only wrote a book concerning 
allegory and history, against Origen, d but also in his com- 
mentary on the prophets did not hesitate to apply the 
greater part of their predictions to various events in ancient 
history. e This manner of interpreting Scripture was very 
ill received, and contributed, perhaps, more to raise the 
general cry against him, than all the erroneous doctrines 
with which he was charged/ The Nestorians followed 
the example of this remarkable and eminent man ;s and 
they continue to consider him as a saint of the first order, 
and to preserve his writings with the utmost care, as pre- 
cious monuments of his piety and learning. 

VI. The doctrines of religion were, at this time, under- 
stood and represented in a manner that savoured little of 
their native purity and simplicity. They were drawn 
out by laboured commentaries beyond the terms in which 
the divine wisdom had thought fit to reveal them ; and 
were examined with that minuteness and subtlety which 
were only calculated to cover them with obscurity ; and 
(what was still worse) the theological notions that generally 
prevailed, were proved rather by the authorities and logical 
discussions of the ancient doctors, than by the unerring 
dictates of the divine word. It does not appear that in this 
century any attempted to form a complete system of theo- 
logy, unless we give that title to six books of instruction, 
which Nicseas is said to have composed for the use of the 
Neophytes. h But, as we have already observed, the prin- 
cipal branches of religion were laboriously explained in the 
various books that were written against the Nestorians, 
Eutychians, Pelagians, and Arians. 

VII. The number of those who disputed in this century 
against paganism and infidelity, was very considerable, 
yet not greater than the exigency of the times, and the 
frequent attacks made upon Christianity, rendered neces- 
sary. Theodoret in his ingenious and learned treatise, de 
curandis Graecorum Affectionibus, Orientius in his Com- 
monitorium, and Evagrius in his Dispute between Za- 
cheeus and Apollonius, opposed, with fortitude and vigour, 
those who worshipped images, and who offered their re- 
ligious services to the pagan deities.' To these we may add 
Philip Sidetes and Philostorgius, of whom the latter attack- 
ed Porphyry, and the former Julian. Basilius of Seleucia, 
Gregentius in his Controversy with Herbanus, and Eva- 
grius in his Dialogue between Theophilus and Judaeus, 
exposed and refuted the errors and cavils of the Jews. 
Voconius the African, Syagrius in his book concerning 
Faith, Gennadius of Marseilles, who deserves to be placed 
in the first rank, and Theodoret in his Treatise concerning 
the Fables of the Heretics, opposed all the different sects ; 



i Facundus Hermianensis, de tribus Capitulis, lib. iii. cap.vi. — Liber- 
ate in Breviario, cap. xxiv. 

e Acta Concilii Constantinopol. II. sou (Ecumenici V. torn. iii. Con 
ciliorum, p. 58, edit. Harduini. 

f^=f Theodore, after his death, was considered as the parent of th« 
Pelagian and Nestorian heresies, though during his life he was an object 
of the highest esteem, and died in the communion of the church. 

s This appears by the testimony of Cosmas Indicopleustes, a writer of 
the sixth century, who was undoubtedly a Nestorian ; for this author in 
the fifth book of his Christian Topography, which Montfaucon published 
in his new collection of the Greek fathers, maintains that, of all the Psalms 
of David, four only are applicable to Christ; and, to confirm this opi- 
nion, he boldly asserts, that the writers of the New Testament, when they 
apply to Jesus the prophesies of the Old, do this by a mere accommoda- 
tion of the words, without any regard to their true and genuine sense. 

fc Gennadius Massiliensis, de Scriptor. Ecclesiast. cap. xxii. 

■ See for an account of Orientius and Evagrius, the Histoire Literaire 
de la France, torn. ii. p. 121, and 262. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



119 



not to mention those who wrote only against the errors 
of one or other party of sectaries. 

VIII. Those who disputed against the Christian sects, 
observed a most absurd and vicious method of controversy. 
They proceeded rather according to the rules of the ancient 
sophists, and, what is still more surprising, according to the 
spirit of the Roman law, than by the examples and instruc- 
tions of Christ and his apostles. In the Roman courts, 
matters of a difficult and doubtful nature were decided by 
the authority of certain aged lawyers, who were distin- 
guished by their abilities and experience ; and, when they 
happened to differ in opinion, the point was determined 
either by a plurality of voices, or by the sentiments of the 
more learned and illustrious members of that venerable 
body. 1 This procedure of the Roman tribunals, was, in 
this century, admitted as a standing law, both in the deli- 
berations of councils, and in the management of religious 
controversy, to the great and unspeakable detriment of 
truth ; for, by this, reason, and even common sense, were in 
some measure excluded from every question ; and that was 
determined as right and true, which appeared such to -the 

eatest number, or had been approved by doctors of the 
greatest note in preceding times. The acts of the various 
councils, which are yet extant, manifestly show that this 
was the case ; and this circumstance, combined with what 
we have already observed with respect to the disputants of 
the age now under consideration, will make it easy for us 
to imagine the various defects that must have prevailed in 
the methods ofdefending truth, and opposing error. 

IX. This absurd imitation of the Roman law in the 
management of religious controversy, and this preposterous 
method of deciding truth by human authorities, were 
fruitful sources of spurious and supposititious productions; 
for many audacious impostors were hence encouraged to 
publish their own writings under the names of ancient 
Christian worthies, and even under the sacred names of 
Christ himself and his holy apostles, that thus, in the 
deliberations of councils, and in the course of controversy, 
they might have authorities to oppose to authorities in 
defence of their respective opinions. The whole Christian 
church was, in this century, overwhelmed with these 
spurious productions, these infamous impositions. This is 
said to have engaged Gelasius, the Roman pontiff, to call 
a council, composed of the bishops of the Latin church ; in 
which assembly, after strict examination of those writings 
which appeared under great and venerable names, the 
famous decree passed, that deprived so many apocryphal 
books of their borrowed authority. That something of 
this kind really happened, it would be, perhaps, an instance 
of temerit)*- to deny : but many learned men assert, that the 
decree attributed to Gelasius, labours under the same impu- 
tation with the books which it condemns, and was by no 
means the production of that pontiff, but of some deceiver, 
who usurped clandestinely his name and authority. b 

X. Eucherius, Salvian, and Nilus, shine with a su- 
perior lustre among the moral writers of this century. The 
epistle of Eucherius, concerning the Contempt of the 
World and the secular Philosophy, is an excellent perform- 
ance, both in point of matter and style. The works of 
Mark the hermit breathe a spirit of fervent piety, but are 



• See the Codex Theodos. lib. i. tit. iv. de responsis prudentum. 

>> Pearson, Vindiciae Ignatianae, part i. cap. iv. p. 189. — Cave, Hist 
Liter. Scriptor. Ecclesias.p. 260. — Urb. Godofr. Siberus, Praefat. ad En- 
chiridion Sexti, p. 79. 



highly defective in many respects : the matter is ill chosen 
and is treated without order, perspicuity, or force of reason- 
ing. Fastidius composed several discourses concerning 
moral duties ; but they have not survived the ruins of time. 
The works that are yet extant of Diadochus, Prosper, and 
Severian, are extremely pleasing, on account of the solidity 
and elegance which are to be found, for the most part, in 
then moral sentences, though they afford but indifferent 
entertainment to such as are desirous of precision, method . 
and sound argumentation; and indeed this want of method 
in the distribution and arrangement of their matter, and 
a constant neglect of tracing their subject to its first princi- 
ples, are defects common to almost all the moral writers of 
this century. 

XL Had this, indeed, been their only defect, the candid 
and impartial would have supported it with patience, and 
attributed it charitably to the infelicity of the times. But 
many of the writers and teachers of this age did unspeak- 
able injury to the cause of true piety by their crude and 
enthusiastic inventions. The Mystics, who pretended to 
higher degrees of perfection than other Christians, drew 
every where to their party, particularly in the eastern pro- 
vinces, a vast number of the ignorant and inconsiderate 
multitude, by the striking appearance of their austere and 
singular piety. It is impossible to describe the rigour and 
severity of the laws which these senseless fanatics imposed 
upon themselves, in order, as they alleged, to appease the 
Deity, and to deliver the celestial spirit from the bondage 
of this mortal body. They not only lived among the wild 
beasts, but also lived after the manner of these savage 
animals ; they ran naked through the lonely deserts with 
a furious aspect, and with all the agitations of madness 
and phrensy; they prolonged the existence of their ema- 
ciated bodies by the wretched nourishment of grass and 
wild herbs, avoided the sight and conversation of men, 
remained motionless in certain places for several years, 
exposed to the rigour and inclemency of the seasons ; and, 
toward the conclusion of their lives, shut themselves up 
in narrow and miserable huts ; and all this was considered 
as true piety, the only acceptable method of worshipping 
the Deity, and rendering him propitious. The major 
part of the Mystics were led into the absurdities of this 
extravagant discipline, not so much by the pretended force 
of reason and argument, as by a natural propensity to 
solitude, a gloomy and melancholy cast of mind, and an 
implicit and blind submission to the authority and ex- 
amples of others ; for the diseases of the mind, as well as 
those of thebody,are generally contagious, and no pestilence 
spreads its infection with a more dreadful rapidity than 
superstition and enthusiasm. Several persons have com- 
mitted to wiiting the precepts of this severe discipline, and 
reduced its absurdities into a sort of system, such as Julia- 
nus Pomerius among the Latins,* and many among the 
Syrians, whose names it is needless to mention. 

XII. Of all the instances of superstitious phrensy that 
disgraced this age, none obtained higher veneration, or 
excited more the wonder of the multitude, than that of a 
certain order of men, who were called Stylites by the 
Greeks, and Sancti Columnares, or Pillar Saints, by the 
Latins. These were persons of a most singular and ex- 

° See the Pratum Spirituale of Moschus, the Lausiac History of Palla- 
dius, and Sulpitius Severus, Dial. i. 

O" * Pomerius wrote a treatise, de Vita. Contemplativa, in which tho 
doctrines and precepts of the Mystics were carefully collected. 



120 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



travagant turn of mind, who stood motionless upon the 
tops of pillars, expressly raised for this exercise of their 
patience, and remained there for several years, amidst the 
admiration and applause of the stupid populace. The in- 
ventor of this strange and ridiculous discipline was Simeon 
Sisanites, a Syrian, who began his follies by changing the 
agreeable employment of a shepherd for the senseless aus- 
terities of the monkish life. But his enthusiasm carried 
him still greater lengths; for, in order to climb as near 
heaven as he could, he passed thirty-seven years of his 
Avretched life upon five pillars, of the height of six, twelve, 
twenty-two, thirty -six, and forty cubits, and thus acquired 
a most shining reputation, and attracted the veneration of 
all about him. a Many of the inhabitants of Syria and 
Palestine, seduced by a false ambition, and an utter igno- 
rance of true religion, followed the example of this fanatic, 
though not with the same degree of austerity ; b and (what 
is almost incredible) this superstitious practice continued 
in vogue until the twelfth century, when, however, it was 
totally suppressed. 

The Latins had too much wisdom and prudence to imi- 
tate the Syrians and Orientals in this whimsical supersti- 
tion ; and when a certain fanatic, or impostor, named 
Wulfilaicus, erected one of these pillars in the country of 
Treves, and proposed living upon it after the manner of 
Simeon, the neighbouring bishops ordered it to be pulled 
down, and thus nipped this species of superstition in the 
bud. d 

XIII. The Mystic rules of discipline and manners had 
a bad effect upon the moral writers, and those who were 
set apart for the instruction of Christians. Thus, in in- 
structing the catechumens and others, they were more dili- 
gent and zealous in inculcating a regard for the external 
parts of religion, and an attachment to bodily exercise, 
than in forming the heart and the affections to inward 
piety and solid virtue. They even went so far, as to pre- 
scribe rules of sanctity and virtue little different from the 
unnatural rigour and fanatical piety of the Mystics. Sal- 
vian, and other celebrated writers, gave it as their opinion, 
that none could be truly and perfectly holy, but those who 
abandoned all riches and honours,. abstained from matri- 
mony, banished all joy and cheerfulness from their hearts, 
and macerated their bodies with various sorts of torments 
and mortifications: and, as all could not support such in- 
ordinate degrees of severity, those madmen, or fanatics, 
Avhose robust constitutions and savage tempers were the 
best adapted to this kind of life, were distinguished by the 
public applause, and saw their influence and authority 
daily increase. Thus saints started up like mushrooms in 
almost every place. 

XIV. A small number of ecclesiastics, animated by the 
laudable spirit of reformation, boldly attempted to pluck 
up the roots of this growing superstition, . and to bring 
back the deluded multitude from this vain and chimerical 

" See the Acta Sanctorum Mensis Januarii, torn. i. p. 261 — 277, where 
the reader will find the account we have given of this whimsical disci- 
pline. Theodoret, indeed, had before given several hints of it, alleging, 
among other things, that Simeon had gradually added to the height of his 
pillar, in the hope of making nearer approaches to heaven. See Tille- 
mont's Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire de l'Eglise, torn. xv. See also 
the acts of Simeon the Stylite, in Assemani Act. Martyrum, vol. ii. 

frjf b The learned Frederic Spanheim, in his Ecclesiastical History, 
p. 1154, speaks of a second Simeon the Stylite (mentioned by Evagrius,) 
who lived in the sixth century. This second fanatic seems to have car- 
ried his austerities still farther than the chief of his sect : for he remain- 



discipline to the practice of solid and genuine piety. But 
the votaries of superstition, who were superior in number 
reputation, and authority, soon reduced them to silence, 
andrendered their noble and piousefforts utterlyinenectual.» 
We have an example of this in the case of Vigilantius, a 
man remarkable for his learning and eloquence, who was 
born in Gaul, and thence went to Spain, where he per- 
formed the functions of a presbyter. This ecclesiastic, on 
his return from a voyage he had made into Palestine and 
Egypt, began, about the commencement of this century 
to propagate several doctrines, and to publish repeated ex- 
hortations quite opposite to the opinions and manners of 
the times. Among other things, he denied that the tombs 
and the bones of the martyrs ought to be honoured with 
any sort of homage or worship, and therefore censured the 
pilgrimages that were made to places which were reputed 
holy. He turned into derision the prodigies which were 
said to be wrought in the temples consecrated to martyrs, 
and condemned the custom of performing vigils in them. 
He asserted, and indeed Avith reason, that the custom of 
burning tapers at the tombs of the martyrs in broad day, 
was imprudently borrowed from the ancient superstition 
of the Pagans. He maintained, moreover, that praye*s 
addressed to departed saints were void of all efficacy; and 
treated with contempt fasting and mortifications, the celi- 
bacy of the clergy, and the various austerities of the monas- 
tic life ; and, finally, he affirmed, that the conduct of those, 
who, distributing their substance among the indigent, sub 
mitted to the hardships of a voluntary poverty, or sent a 
part of their treasures to Jerusalem for devout purposes, 
had nothing in it acceptable to the Deity. 

There were among the Gallic and Spanish bishops 
several who approved the opinions of Vigilantius: but Je- 
rome, the great monk of the age, assailed this bold reform- 
er of religion with such bitterness and fury, that the honest 
presbyter soon found that nothing but his silence could 
preserve his life from the intemperate rage of bigotry and 
superstition. This project then of reforming the corrup- 
tions, which a fanatical and superstitious zeal had introdu- 
ced into the church, was choked in its birth ; f and the 
name of the good Vigilantius remains still in that list of 
heretics, which is acknowledged as authentic by those who, 
without any regard to their own judgment or the declara- 
tions of Scripture, blindly follow the decisions of antiquity. 

XV. The controversies, which had been raised in 
Egypt, concerning Origen and his doctrine, toward the 
conclusion of the preceding century, were now renewed at 
Constantinople, and carried on without either decency or 
prudence. The Nitrian monks, banished from Egypt on 
account of their attachment to Origen, took refuge at Con- 
stantinople, and were treated by John Chrysostom, the 
bishop of that city, with clemency and benignity. This 
no sooner came to the knowledge of Theophilus, patriarch 
of Alexandria, than he formed a perfidious project against 

ed upon his pillar sixty-eight years, and from it, like the first Simeon, he 
taught, or rather deluded the gazing multitude, declaimed against heresy, 
pretended to cast out devils, to heal diseases, and to foretel future events. 

c See Urb. Godofr. Siberi Diss, de Sane. Column, and Caroli Majelli 
Diss, de Stylitis, published in Assemani Act. Martyr, torn. ii. p. 246. 

d Gregor. Turonens. Histor. Francor. lib. viii. cap. xv. p. 387. 

" Augustin complains of this, in his famous epistle to Januarius, 
No. 119. 

t Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Vigilantius. — Barbeyrac, de la 
Morale des Peres, p. 252. — Ger. Jo. Vossius, Theses Historico-Theolo 
gica, p. 170. — Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. ii. p. 57. 



Chap. IV. 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



121 



the eloquent prelate, and sent the famous Epiphanius, with 
several other bishops, to Constantinople, to compass his 
fall, and deprive him of his episcopal dignity. No time 
could be more favourable for the execution of this project, 
than that in which it was formed; for Chrysostom, by his 
austerity, and his vehement declamations against the vices 
of the people, and the corrupt manners of the ladies of the 
court, had incurred the displeasure of many, and had also 
excited, in a more particular manner, the resentment and 
indignation of the empress Eudoxia, wife of Arcadius. 
This violent princess sent for Theophilus and the Egyp- 
tian bishops, who, pursuant to her orders, repaired to Con- 
stantinople, and having called a council, inquired into the 
religious sentiments of Chrysostom, and examined his mo- 
rals, and the whole course of his conduct and conversation 
with the utmost severity. This council, which was holden 
in the suburbs of Chalcedon, in 403, with Theophilus at 
its head, declared Chrysostom unworthy of his high rank 
in the church, on account of his favourable inclinations 
toward Origen and his followers ; and in consequence of 
this decree, condemned him to banishment. The people 
of Constantinople, who were tenderly attached to their pious 
and worthy bishop, rose in a tumultuous manner, and pre- 
vented the execution of this unrighteous sentence." When 
this tumult was entirely hushed, the same unrelenting 
judges, in order to satisfy their vindictive rage and that of 
Eudoxia, renewed their sentence, in the following year, 
under another pretext, b and with greater effect; for the pious 
Chrysostom, yielding to the redoubled efforts of his ene- 
mies, w r as banished to Cucusus, a city of Cilicia, where he 
died about three years after. 

The exile of this illustrious man was followed by a terri- 
ble sedition of the Johannists (so his votaries were called,) 
which was calmed, though with much difficulty, by the 
edicts of Arcadius. d It is beyond all doubt, that the pro- 
ceedings against Chrysostom were cruel and unjust; in 
this however he was to blame, that he assumed the autho- 
rity and rank, which had been granted by the council of 
Constantinople to the bishops of that city, and even acted 
as a judge of the controversy between Theophilus and the 
Egyptian monks, which the Alexandrian prelate could not 
behold without the utmost impatience and resentment. 
These monks, when they lost their protector, were restored 
to the favour of Theophilus ; but the faction of the Origenists 
continued, notwithstanding all this, to flourish in Egypt, 
Syria, and the adjacent countries, and held their chief resi- 
dence at Jerusalem. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 
I. To enumerate the rites and institutions that were 
added, in this century, to the Christian worship, would re- 
quire a volume of a considerable size. The acts of coun- 



H=T " This is not quite exact ; for it appears, by the accounts of the 
best historians, that this sentence was really executed, and that the em- 
peror confirmed the decree of this first Synod, by banishing Chrysostom 
into Bithynia; or, as others allege, by' ordering him to retire into the 
country. 

A violent earthquake, and a terrible shower of hail, which were looked 
upon by the multitude as judgments occasioned by the unrighteous per- 
secution of their pious bishop, alarmed the court, and engaged them to 
recall Chrysostom to his office. 

f^- b This new pretext was the indecent manner in which Chrysos- 

No. XI. 31 



cils, and the records left us by the most celebrated ancient 
writers, are the sources from which the curious may draAv 
a particular and satisfactory account of this matter ; and 
to these we refer such as are desirous of something more 
than a general view of the subject under consideration. 
Several of these ancient writers, uncorrupted by the conta- 
gious examples of the times in which they lived, have inge- 
nuously acknowledged, that true piety and virtue were 
smothered as it were, under that enormous burthen of cere- 
monies under which they lay groaning in this century. 
This evil was owing, partly, to the ignorance and disho- 
nesty of the clergy ; partly to the calamities of the times, 
which were extremely unfavourable to the pursuit of know- 
ledge, and to the culture of the mind ; and partly, indeed, to 
the natural depravity of imperfect mortals, who are much 
more disposed to worship with the eye than with the heart, 
and are more ready to offer to the Deity the laborious pomp 
of an outward service, than the nobler, yet simple obla- 
tion of pious dispositions and holy affections. 

II. Divine worship was now daily rising from one de- 
gree of pomp to another, and degenerating more and more 
into a gaudy spectacle, only calculated to attract the stupid 
admiration of a gazing populace. The sacerdotal garments 
were embellished with a variety of ornaments, with a view 
of exciting in the minds of the multitude a greater venera- 
tion for the sacred order. New 7 acts of devotion were also 
celebrated. In Gaul particularly, the solemn prayers and 
supplications, which usually precede the anniversary of 
Christ's ascension, were now instituted for the first time.' 
In other places, perpetual acclamations of praise to God 
w T ere performed both night and day by successive singers, 
so that the service suffered no interruption;' as if the Su- 
preme Being took pleasure in such noisy and turbulent 
shouting, or received any gratification from the blandish- 
ments of men. The riches and magnificence of the 
churches exceeded all bounds, s They were also adorned 
with costly images, among which, in consequence of the 
Nestorian controversy, that of the Virgin Mary, holding 
the child Jesus in her arms, obtained the principal place. 
The altars, and the chests in which the relics were preser- 
ved were in most places made of solid silver ; and from 
this we may easily imagine the splendour ruid expenses 
that were lavished upon the other utensils which were em- 
ployed in the service of the church. 

III. On the other hand, the agapce, or feasts of charity, 
were now suppressed, on account of the abuses to which 
they gave occasion, amidst the daily decline of that piety 
and virtue, which had rendered these meetings useful and 
edifying in the primitive ages. 

A new method also of proceeding with penitents was 
introduced into the Latin church; for grievous offenders, 
who had formerly been obliged to confess their guilt in the 
face of the congregation, were now delivered from this mor- 
tifying penalty, and obtained from Leo the Great, a per- 
mission to confess their crimes privately to a priest appointed 



torn is said to have declaimed against Eudoxia, on account of her having 
erected her statue in silver near the church. 

c See Tillemont and Herman t, who have both written the life ot 
Chrysostom ; as also Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Acacivs. 

d See Cyrilli Vita Sabffi in Cotelcrii Monument. Eccles. Graec. torn. ii. 
p. 274. Jos. Sim. Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental. "Vatican, torn. ii. p. 31. 

• See Sidonius ApoOinaris, Epist. lib. v. Epist. xvi. lib. vi. Epist i. ; 
as also Martenne, Thesaurus Anecdotorum, torn. v. 

f Gervais, Histoire de Suger, torn. i. p. 23. 

« See Zacharias of Mitylene, de Opi£cio Mundi, p. 165. 



122 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



for that purpose. By this change of the ancient discipline, 
one of the greatest restraints upon licentiousness (and the 
only remaining barrier of chastity) was entirely removed, 
and the actions of Christians were subject to no other 
scrutiny than that of the clergy ; a change, which was 
frequently convenient for the sinner, and also advanta- 
geous in many respects to the sacred order. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Dissensions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. Several of those sects, which had divided the 
church in the preceding ages, renewed their efforts at this 
time, to propagate their respective opinions, and introduced 
new tumults and animosities among the Christians. We 
shall say nothing of the Novatians, Marcionites, and Ma- 
nicheans, those inauspicious and fatal names which dis- 
grace the earlier annals of the church, though it is evident, 
that those sects still subsisted, and were even numerous in 
many places. We shall confine ourselves to an account 
of the Donatists and Arians, who were the pests of the pre- 
ceding century. 

The Donatists had hitherto maintained themselves with 
a successful obstinacy, and their affairs were in a good 
state. But, about the beginning of this century, the face 
of things changed much to their disadvantage, by the 
means of St. Augustine, bishop of Hippo. The catho- 
lic bishops of Africa, animated by the exhortations, and 
conducted by the counsels of this zealous prelate, exerted 
themselves with the utmost vigour in the destruction of 
those seditious sectaries, whom they justly looked upon, not 
only as troublesome to the church by their obstinacy, but 
also as a nuisance to the state by the brutal soldiery 1 which 
they employed in their cause. Accordingly, deputies were 
sent, in 404, from the council of Carthage to the emperor 
Honorius, to request, that the laws enacted against heretics 
by the preceding emperors, might have force against the 
Donatists, who denied that they belonged to the heretical 
tribe; and also to desire, that bounds might be set to the 
barbarous fury of the Circumcelliones. The first step 
that the emperor took, in consequence of this request, was 
to impose a fine upon all the Donatists who refused to 
return into the bosom of the church, and to send their bi- 
shops and doctors into banishment. In the following year, 
new laws, much more severe than the former, were enact- 
ed against this rebellious sect, under the title of Acts of 
Uniformity; and, as the magistrates were remiss in the 
execution of them, the council of Carthage, in 407, sent 
a second time deputies to the emperor, to desire that certain 
persons might be appointed to execute the new edicts with 
vigour and impartiality ; and this request was granted. 

II. The Donatist faction, though much broken by these 
repeated shocks, was yet far from being totally extinguish- 
ed. It recovered a part of its strength in 408, after Stilicho 
had been put to death by the order of Honorius, and gained 
an accession of vigour in the following year, in which the 

a The Circumcelliones already mentioned. 

b See Franc. Balduin, Hist. Collationis Carthag. in Optat. Milev. Pini- 
an. p. 337. It is proper to observe here, that this meeting, holden by 
Marcellinus, is very improperly termed a conference (collatio) ; for 
there was no dispute carried on at this meeting between the catholics and 
the Donatists, nor did any of the parties endeavour to gain or defeat the 
other by superiority of argument. This conference, then, was properly a 



emperor published a law in favour of liberty of conscience, 
and prohibited all compulsion in matters of religion. This 
law, however, was not of long duration. It was abrogated 
at the earnest and repeated solicitations of the council, 
which met at Carthage in 410; and Marcellinus the tri- 
bune was sent by Honorius into Africa, with full power to 
bring to a conclusion this tedious and unhappy contest. 
Marcellinus, therefore, held at Carthage, in 411, a solemn 
conference, in which he examined the cause with much 
attention, heard the contending parties during the space of 
three days, and at length, pronounced sentence in favour 
of the catholics. b The catholic bishops, who were present 
at this conference, were 286 in number ; and those of the 
Donatists were 279. The latter, upon their defeat, appeal- 
ed to the emperor, but without effect. The glory of their 
defeat was due to Augustine, who bore the principal part 
in this controversy, and who, indeed, by his writings, coun- 
sels, and admonitions, governed almost the whole African 
church, and also the principal and most illustrious heads 
of that extensive province. 

III. This conference greatly weakened the party of the 
Donatists; nor could they ever get the better of this terrible 
shock, though the face of affairs changed afterwards in a 
manner that seemed to revive their hopes. The greatest 
part of them, through the fear of punishment, submitted to 
the emperor's decree, and returned into the bosom of the 
church ; while the severest penalties were inflicted upon 
those who remained obstinate, and persisted in their rebel- 
lion. Fines, banishment, confiscation of goods, were the 
ordinary punishments of the obstinate Donatists ; and 
even the pain of death was inflicted upon such as surpass- 
ed the rest in perverseness, and were the seditious ring- 
leaders of that stubborn faction. Some avoided these pen- 
alties by flight, others by concealing themselves, and some 
were so desperate as to seek deliverance by self-murder, to 
which the Donatists had a shocking propensity. In the 
mean time, the Circumcelliones used more violent methods 
of warding off the execution of the sentence that was pro- 
nounced against then sect; for they ran up and down 
through the province of Africa in the most outrageous man- 
ner, committing acts of great cruelty, and defending them- 
selves by force of arms. 

The Donatists, indeed, recovered afterwards their former 
liberty and tranquillity by the succour and protection they 
received from the Vandals, who invaded Africa, with Gen- 
seric at their head, in 427, and took that province out of 
the hands of the Romans. The wounds, however, which 
this sect had received from the vigorous execution of the 
imperial laws, were so deep, that though it began to revive 
and multiply by the assistance of the Vandals, it could 
never regain its former strength and lustre. 

IV. The Arians, oppressed and persecuted by the im- 
perial edicts, took refuge among those fierce and savage 
nations, who were gradually overturning the western em- 
pire, and found among the Goths, Suevi, Heruli, Vandals, 
and Burgundians, a fixed residence and a peaceful retreat; 
and, as their security animated their courage, they treated 

judicial trial, in which, Marcellinus was, by the emperor, appointed 
judge, or arbiter, of this religious controversy, and accordingly pronoun- 
ced sentence after a proper hearing of the cause. It appears, therefore, 
from this event, that the notion of a supreme spiritual judge of contro- 
versy, and ruler of the church appointed by Christ, had not yet estered 
into any one's head, since we see the African bishops appealing to the 
emperor in the present religious question. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



123 



the catholics with the same violence which the latter had 
employed against them and other heretics, and harassed 
and persecuted in various wa3"s such as professed their 
adherence to the Nicene doctrines. The Vandals who 
reigned in Africa, surpassed all the other savage nations in 
barbarity and injustice toward the catholics. The kings 
of this fierce people, particularly Genseric and Huneric 
his son, pulled down the churches of those Christians 
who acknowledged the divinity of Christ, sent their 
bishops into exile, and maimed and tormented such as 
were nobly firm and inflexible in the profession of their 
faith.* They however declared, that in using these severe 
and violent methods, they were authorised by the example 
of the emperors, who had enacted laws of the same rigo- 
rous nature against the Donatists, the Arians, and other 
sects who differed in opinion from the Christians of Con- 
stantinople. 1 ' 

We must not here omit mentioning the stupendous 
miracle, which is said to have been wrought during these 
persecutions in Africa, and by which the Supreme Being 

* See Victor Vitens. lib. iii. de Persequutione Vandalica, which 
Theod. Ruinart published at Paris in 1694, with his own history of the 
same persecution. 

i> See the edict of Huneric, in the history of Victor, lib. iv. cap. ii. p. 64. 

g^* c These witnesses, who had themselves ocular demonstration of 
the fact, were Victor of Utica, jEneas of Gaza (who examined the 
mouths of the persons in question, and found that their tongues were en- 
tirely rooted out,) Procopius, Marcellinus the count, and the emperor 
Justinian. Upon the authority of such respectable testimonies, the 
learned AbV adie formed a laboured and dexterous defence of the miracu- 
lous nature if this extraordinary fact, in his work entitled, La Triomphe 
de la Provi lence, vol. iii. p. 255, where all the fire of his zeal, and all the 
subtlety of his logic, seem to have been exhausted. Dr. Berriman, in his 
Historical Account of the Trinitarian Controversy, as also in his ser- 
mons preached at Lady Moyer's Lectures, in 1725, and Dr. Chapman, 
in his Miscellaneous Tracts, have maintained the same hypothesis. To 
the former, an answer was published by an anonymous writer, under the 
following title : " An Inquiry into the Miracle said to have been wrought 
in the fifth century, upon some orthodox Christians, in favour of the 
Doctrine of the Trinity, &c. in a Letter to a Friend." We may ven- 
ture to say, that this answer is utterly unsatisfactory. The author of it, 
after having laboured to invalidate the testimony alleged in favour of 
the fact, seems himself scarcely convinced by his own arguments; for he 
acknowledges at last the possibility of the event, but persists in denying 
the miracle, and supposes, that the cruel operation was so imperfectly 
performed upon these confessors, as to leave in some of them such a 
share of the tongue, as was sufficient for the use of speech. Dr. Mid- 
dleton (to whom some have attributed the above-mentioned Answer) 
maintains the same hypothesis, in his Free Inquiry into the Miracu- 
lous Powers. &c. supposing, that the tongues of the persons in question 
were not entirely rooted out, which he corroborates by the following con- 
sideration, that two of the sufferers are said to have utterly lost the facul- 
ty of speaking ; for though this might be ascribed to a peculiar judg- 
ment of God, punishing the immoralities of which they were afterwards 
guilty, yet this appears to be a forced and improbable solution of the 
matter, in the opinion of the doctor, who imagines that he solves it better, 
by supposing, that they had not been deprived of their entire tongues. 
He goes yet farther, and produces two cases from the Memoirs of the 
Academy of Sciences at Paris, which prove, in his opinion, "That this 
pretended miracle owed its whole credit to our ignorance of the powers 
of nature." The first is that of " a girl born without a tongue, who yet 
talked as easily and distinctly, as if she had enjoyed the full benefit of 
that organ ;" and the second, that of " a boy, who, at tire age of eight or 
nine years, lost his tongue by a gangrene, or ulcer, and yet retained the 
* faculty of speaking." See Middleton's Free Inquiry, p. 183, 184. 

This reasoning of the sceptical doctor of divinity appeared superficial 
and unsatisfactory to the judicious Mr. Dodwell, who (saying nothing 
about the case of the two Trinitarians who remained dumb, after their 
tongues were cut out, and whose dumbness is but indifferently accounted 
for by their immorality, since gifts have been often possessed without 
grace) confines himself to the consideration of the two parallel facts 
drawn from the Academical Memoirs already mentioned. To show that 
these facts prove little or nothing against the miracle in question, he just- 
ly observes, that though, in one or two particular cases, a mouth may be 
so singularly formed as to 'utter articulate sounds, without the usual in- 
strument of speech (some excrescence probably supplying the defect,) 
yet it cannot be any thing less than miraculous, that this should happen 
to a considerable numbei .of persons, whose tongues were cut out to pre- / 



is supposed to ' have declared his displeasure against the 
Arians, and his favour towards their adversaries. This 
miracle consisted in enabling those catholics whose tongues 
had been cut out by the Arian tyrant Huneric, to speak 
distinctly, and to proclaim aloud the divine majesty of the 
Saviour of the world. This remarkable fact can scarcely 
be denied, since it is supported by the testimony of the 
most credible and respectable witnesses ; c but whether it is 
to be attributed to a supernatural and miraculous power, is 
a point which admits dispute." 1 

V. A new sect, which was the source of most fatal and 
deplorable divisions in the Christian church, was formed 
by Nestorius, a Syrian bishop of Constantinople, a disciple 
of the celebrated Theodore of Mopsuestia, and. a man re- 
markable for his learning and eloquence, which were, 
however, accompanied with much levity, and with intole- 
rable arrogance. Before we enter into a particular account 
of the doctrine of this sectar)', it is proper to observe, that 
though, by the decrees of former councils, it had been 
clearly and peremptorily determined, that Christ was, at 

vent their preaching a discountenanced doctrine. To deny the miracle 
in question, we must maintain, that it is as easy to speak without a 
tongue, as with it. See Mr. Dodwell's Free Answer to Dr. Middleton's 
Free Inquiry, p. 96. 

Mr. Toll, who defended Middleton's hypothesis, has proposed an ob- 
jection, a priori, as it may be justly called, to the truth of this miracle. 
He observes, that the occasion on which it was wrought was not of suf- 
ficient consequence or necessity to require a divine interposition ; for it 
was not wrought to convert infidels to Christianity, but to bring over the 
followers of Arius to the Athanasian faith ; it was wrought, in a word, 
for the explication of a doctrine, which both sides allowed to be founded 
in the New Testament. Now, as the Scriptures are a revelation of the 
will of God, "it seems (says Mr. Toll) to cast a reflection on his wis- 
dom, as if he did things by halves, to suppose it necessary for him to 
work miracles in order to ascertain the sense of those Scriptures. This 
(continues he) would be multiplying miracles tc an infinite degree: — 
besides, it would destroy the universal truth of that proposition from 
which we cannot depart, namely, That the Scriptures are sufficiently 
plain in all things necessary to salvation." Sec Mr. Toll's Defence of 
Dr. Middleton's Free Inquiry, against Mr. Dodwell's Free Answer. To 
this specious objection Mr. Dodwell replies, that on the doctrine in dis- 
pute between the Arians and the orthodox, the time notion, as well as the 
importance and reality of our salvation, may be said to depend ; that the 
doctrines, duties, and motives of Christianity, are exalted or debased, as 
we embrace one or the other of those systems; that, on the divinity of 
Christ, the meritoriousness of the propitiation offered by him must en- 
tirely rest; and that therefore, do occasion of greater consequence can be 
assigned on which a miracle might be expected. He adds, that the dis- 
putes which men have raised about certain doctrines, are no proof that 
these doctrines are not plainly revealed in Scripture, since this would 
prove that no truth is there sufficiently revealed, because, at one time or 
other, they have been all disputed ; and he observes judiciously, that the 
expediency of interposing by miracles, is what we always are not 
competent judges of, since God alone knows the times, seasons, and oc- 
casions, in which it is proper to alter the usual course of nature, in order 
to maintain the truth, to support the oppressed, and to carry on the great 
purposes of his gospel kingdom. It is enough, that the present interpo- 
sition be not incredible, to remove Mr. Toll's objection, without consi- 
dering its particular use, and the unexceptionable manner in which it 
is attested. See Mr. Dodwell's Full and final Reply to Mr. Toll's De- 
fence, p. 270. 

We must observe here that the latter objection and answer are merely 
hypothetical, i. e. they draw their force only from the different opinions, 
which the ingenious Mr. Toll and his learned antagonist entertain con- 
cerning the importance of the doctrine, in favour of which this pretend- 
ed miracle is said to have been wrought. The grand question, whose 
decision alone can finish this controversy, is, whetherthe tongues of these 
African confessors were entirely rooted out, or not. The case of the two 
who remained dumb furnishes ashrewd presumption, that the cruel opera- 
tion was not equally performed upon all. The immorality of these two, 
and the judgment of God, suspending with respect to them the in- 
fluence of the miracle, do not solve this difficulty entirely, since (as 
we observed above) many have possessed supernatural gifts without 
grace; and Christ tells us, that many have cast out devils in his 
name, whom at the last day he will not acknowledge as his faithful 
servants. 

J See Ruinarti Histor. Persequut. Vandal, part ii. cap. vii. p. 482. Sec 
Bibliotheque Britannique, torn. iii. part ii. p. 339. torn. v. part L p. 171. 



124 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



the same time, true God and true man, yet no council had 
hitherto decreed anv thing concerning the manner and 
effect of this union of the two natures in the divine Saviour, 
nor had this point yet become a topic of inquiry or dispute 
among Christians. The consequence of this was, that the 
Christian doctors expressed themselves differently on the 
subject of this mystery. Some used such forms of expres- 
sion as seemed to widen the difference between the Son of 
God and the son of man, and thus to divide the nature of 
Christ into two distinct persons. Others, on the contrary, 
seemed to confound too much the Son of God with the son 
of man, and to suppose the nature of Christ composed of 
his divinity and humanity blended into one. 

The heresy of Apollinaris had given occasion to these 
different ways of speaking; for he maintained that the man 
Christ was not endowed with a human soul, but with the 
divine nature, which was substituted in its place, and per- 
formed its functions ; and this doctrine manifestly supposed 
a confusion of the two natures in the Messiah. The Syrian 
doctors, therefore, that they might avoid the errors of Apol- 
linaris, and exclude his followers from the communion 
of the church, were careful in establishing an accurate dis- 
tinction between the divine and the human nature in the 
Son of God ; and for this purpose they used such forms 
of expression as seemed to favour the notion of Christ's 
being composed of two distinct persons. The manner of 
speaking adopted by the Alexandrians and Egyptians, had 
a different tendency, and seemed to countenance the doc- 
trine of Apollinaris, and, by a confusion of the two natures, 
to blend them into one. Nestorius, who was a Syrian, 
and had adopted the sentiments of the divines of his na- 
tion, was a violent enemy to all the sects, but to none so 
much as to the Apollinarian faction, at whose ruin he 
aimed with an ardent and inextinguishable zeal. He 
therefore discoursed of the two natures in Christ after the 
Syrian manner, and commanded his disciples to distin- 
guish carefully between the actions and perceptions" of the 
Son of God, and those of the son of man. b 

VI. The occasion of this disagreeable controversy was 
furnished by the presbyter Anastasius, a friend of Nesto- 
rius. This ecclesiastic, in a public discourse, delivered in 
428, declaimed warmly against the title of ©saroKos, or 
mother of God, which was now more frequently attribu- 
ted to the Virgin Mary, in the controversy against the 
Arians, than it had formerly been, and was a favourite term 
with the followers of Apollinaris. He, at the same time, 
gave it as his opinion, that the Holy Virgin was rather to 
be called x^ /roTo^oj, i. e. mother of Christ, since the Deity 
Dan neither be born nor die, and of consequence, the son of 
man alone could derive his birth from an earthly parent. 
Nestorius applauded these sentiments, and explained 
and defended them in several discourses. But both 
he and his friend Anastasius Avere keenly opposed by 

|3" * The original word perpessio, which signifies properly suffering 
or passion, we have here translated by the general term, perception, be- 
cause suffering or passion cannot be, in any sense, attributed to the 
divine nature. 

b The Jesuit Doucin published at Paris, in 1716, a History of Nesto- 
rianism ; but it is such a history as might be expected from a writer, 
who was obliged, by his profession, to place the arrogant Cyril among 
the saints, and Nestorius among the heretics. The ancient writers, on 
both sides of the controversy, are mentioned by Jo. Franc. Buddeus, in 
his Isagoge in Theologiam, torn. ii. The accounts given of this dispute 
by the oriental writers, are collected by Renaudot ? in his Historia Patri- 
arch. Alexandria and by Jos. Sim. Assemanus, in his Biblioth. Orient. 
Vatican. 



certain monks of Constantinople, who maintained that the 
son of Mary was God incarnate, and excited the zeal and 
fury of the populace to maintain this doctrine against Nes- 
torius. Notwithstanding all this, the discourses of the lat- 
ter were extremely well received in many places, and had 
the majority on their side. The Egyptian monks had no 
sooner perused them, than they were persuaded, by the 
weight of the arguments they contained, to embrace the 
opinions of Nestorius, and accordingly ceased to call the 
Blessed Virgin the mother of God. 

VII. The prelate who then ruled the see of Alexandria, 
was Cyril, a man of a haughty, turbulent, and imperious 
temper, and painfully jealous of the rising power and au- 
thority of the bishop of Constantinople. As soon as this 
controversy came to his knowledge, he censured the Egyp- 
tian monks and Nestorius; and, finding the latter little 
disposed to submit to his censure, he proceeded to vio- 
lent measures ; took counsel with Celestine, bishop of Rome, 
whom he had engaged on his side; assembled a council 
at Alexandria in 430 ; and hurled twelve anathemas at 
the head of Nestorius. The thunderstricken prelate did 
not sink under this violent shock ; but, seeing himself un- 
justly accused of derogating from the majesty of Christ, he 
retorted the same accusation upon his adversary, charged 
him with the Apollinarian heresy, with confounding the 
two natures in Christ, and loaded Cyril with as many ana- 
themas as he had received from him. This unhappy 
contest between prelates of the first order, proceeded rather 
from corrupt motives of jealousy and ambition, than from 
a sincere and disinterested zeal for the truth, and was the 
source of unnumbered evils and calamities. 

VIII. When the spirits were so exasperated on both 
sides, by reciprocal excommunications and polemic wri- 
tings, that there was no prospect of an amicable issue to 
this unintelligible controversy, Theodosius the younger 
called a council at Ephesus, in 431, which was the third 
general council in the annals of the church. In this coun- 
cil Cyril presided, though he was the party concerned, and 
the avowed enemy of Nestorius ; and he proposed examin- 
ing and determining the matter in debate before John of 
Antioch and the other eastern bishops arrived. Nestorius 
objected to this proceeding, as irregular and unjust ; but, 
his remonstrances being without effect, he refused to com- 
ply with the summons which called him to appear before 
the council. Cyril, on the other hand, pushing on matters 
with a lawless violence, Nestorius was judged without 
being heard ; and, during the absence of a great number 
of those bishops who belonged to the council, he was com- 
pared with the traitor Judas, charged with blasphemy 
against the divine majesty, deprived of his episcopal dig- 
nity, and sent into exile, where he finished his days. d The 
transactions of this council will appear to the candid and 
equitable reader in the most unfavorable light, as full of 

e See Harduini Concilia, torn, i.; and the Biblioth. Orient. Vat. torn. iii. 

& Those who desire a more ample account of this council, may consult 
the Variorum Patrum Epistolai ad Concilium Ephesinum pertinentes, 
published at Louvain in 1682, from some Vatican and other manuscripts, 
by Christian Lupus. Nestorius, in consequence of the sentence pro- 
nounced against him in Oris council, was banished to Petra in Arabia, 
and afterwards to Oasis, a solitary place in the deserts of Egypt, where 
he died in 435. The accounts given of his tragical death by Evagrius, 
in his Eccl. Hist. lib. i. cap. vii. and by Theodorus the Reader, Hist. 
Eccl. lib. ii. p. 565, are entirely fabulous. §~g= Dr. Mosheim's account of 
the time of Nestorius' death is perhaps inexact ; for it appears that Nes- 
torius was at Oasis, when Socrates wrote, that is. in 43K. See SocraU 
lib. vii. cap. xxxiv. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



125 



low artifice, contrary to all the rules of justice, and even des- 
titute of the least air of common decency. The doctrine, 
however, that was established in it concerning Christ, was 
that which has heen always acknowledged and adopted by 
the majority of Christians, viz. "That Christ was one divine 
■person, in whom two natures were most closely and inti- 
mately united, but without being mixed or confounded." 

IX. Nestorius, among accusations of less moment, was 
charged with dividing the nature of Christ into two ' 
distinct persons, and with having maintained, that the 
divine nature was superadded to the human nature of 
Jesus, after it Was formed, and was no more than an auxili- 
ary support to the man Christ, through the whole of his \ 
life. Nestorius denied this charge even to the last, and | 
solemnly professed his entire disapprobation of this doc- \ 
trine. 1 Nor indeed was this opinion ever proposed by him I 
in any of his writings : it was only charged upon him by I 
his iniquitous adversaries as a consequence drawn from 
some incautious and ambiguous terms he used, and par- 
ticularly from his refusing to call the Virgin Mary the mo- 
ther of God. b Hence many, and indeed the majority of 
writers, both ancient and modern, after a thorough exami- 
nation of this matter, have positively concluded, that the 
opinions of Nestorius, and of the council which condemned 
them, were the same in effect ; that their difference was in 
words only, and that the whole blame of this unhappy 
controversy was to be charged upon the turbulent spirit of 
Cyril, and his aversion to Nestorius. 

This judgment may be just upon the whole ; but it is, 
however, true, that Nestorius committed two faults in the 
course of this controversy. The first was, his giving offence 
to many Christians by abrogating a trite and innocent 
term ; d and the second, his presumptuously attempting to 
explain, by uncouth comparisons and improper expres- 
sions, a mystery which infinitely surpasses the extent of our 
imperfect reason. If to these defects we add the despotic 
spirit and the excessive warmth of this persecuted prelate, 
it will be difficult to decide who is most to be blamed, as the 
principal fomenter of this violent contest, Cyril or Nes- 
torius. 6 

X. The council of Ephesus, instead of healing these 
divisions, only inflamed them more and more, and almost 
destroyed all hope of restoring concord and tranquillity in 
the church. John of Antioch, and the other eastern bi- 
shops, for whose arrival Cyril had refused to wait, met at 
Ephesus, and pronounced against him and Memnon, the 
bishop of that city, who was his creature, as severe a sen- 
tence as they had thundered against Nestorius. Hence 

1 See Garnier's edition of the works of Marius Mercator, torn. ii. p. 
286. See also the fragments of some letters from Nestorius, which are 
to be found in the Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. ii. 

1j* b It is remarkable, that Cyril would not hear the explanations 
which Nestorius offered to give of his doctrine. The latter even offered 
to grant the title of Mother of God to the Virgin Mary, provided that 
nothing else was thereby meant, but that the man born of her was 
united to the divinity. See Socrat. lib.vii. cap. xxxiv. 

c Luther was the first of the modern writers who thought thus ; and he 
inveighed against Cyril with the greatest bitterness, in his book de Con- 
ciliis, torn. viii. op. Altenb. p. 265, 266, 273. See also Bayle's Dictiona- 
ry, at the articles Nestorius and Rodon. — Christ. August. Salig, de 
Eutychianismo ante Eutychem, p. 200. — Otto Fred. Schutzius, de Vita. 
Chytraei, lib. ii. cap. xxix.'p. 190, 191. — Jo. Voigt Biblioth. Historia; Hse- 
resiologies, torn. i. part. iii. p. 457 — Paul. Ernest. Jablonsky, Exerc. de 
Nestorianismo. — Thesaur. Epistolic. Crozianus, torn. i. p. 184, torn. iii. p. 
175. — La Vie de la Croze, par Jordan, p. 231, and many others. As to 
the faults that have been laid to the charge of Nestorius, they are collected 
by Asseman in his Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. iii. part ii. p. 210. 

Jif a The title of Mother of God, applied to the Virgin Mary, is not 

No. XI. 32 



arose a new and obstinate dissension between Cyril and 
the Orientals, with the bishop of Antioch at their head. 
This flame indeed abated in 433, after Cyril had received 
the articles of faith drawn up by John, and abandoned 
certain phrases and expressions, of which the litigious 
might make a pernicious use. But the commotions, which 
arose from this fatal controversy, were more durable in the 
east. f Nothing could oppose the progress of Nestoriani.-m 
in those parts. The disciples and friends of the persecu - 
ted prelate carried his doctrine through all the Oriental 
provinces, and erected every where congregations which 
professed an invincible opposition to the decrees of the 
council of Ephesus. The Persians, among others, oppo- 
sed Cyril in the most vigorous manner, maintained that 
Nestorius had been unjustly condemned at Ephesus, and 
charged Cyril with removing that distinction which 
subsists between the two natures in Christ. But nothing 
tended so much to propagate with rapidity the doctrine of 
Nestorius, as its being received in the famous school which 
had for a long time flourished at Edessa. For the doctors 
of this renowned academy not only instructed the youth 
in the Nestorian tenets, but translated from the Greek into 
the Syriac language the books of Nestorius, of his master 
Theodorus of Mopsuestia, and the writings also of Diodo 
rus of Tarsus, and spread them abroad throughout Assyria 
and Persia.e 

XI. Of all the promoters of the Nestorian cause, there 
was not one to whom it has such weighty obligations as 
to the famous Barsumas, who was removed from his place 
in the school of Edessa, and created bishop of Nisibis in 
435. This zealous prelate laboured with incredible assidu- 
ity and dexterity, from the year 440 to 485, to procure, for 
the Nestorians, a solid and permanent settlement in Persia; 
and he was vigorously seconded in this undertaking by 
Maanes, bishop of Ardascira. So remarkable was the suc- 
cess which crowned the labours of Barsumas, that his fame 
extended throughout the east ; and those Nestorians who 
still remain in Chaldea, Persia, Assyria, and the adjacent 
countries, consider him alone, and not without reason, as 
their parent and founder. This indefatigable ecclesiastic 
not only persuaded Firouz, the Persian monarch, to expel 
from his dominions such Christians as had adopted the 
opinions of the Greeks, and to admit the Nestorians in 
their place, but he even engaged him to put the latter in 
possession of the principal seat of ecclesiastical authority 
in Persia, the see of Seleucia, which the Patriarch, or 
Catholic of the Nestorians, has always filled even down 
to our time. h The zeal and activity of Barsumas did not 

perhaps so innocent as Dr. Mosheim takes it to be. To die judicious 
and learned it can present no idea at all ; and to the ignorant and unwary 
it may present the most absurd and monstrous notions. The invention 
and use of such mysterious terms, as have no place in Scripture, ai2 un- 
doubtedly pernicious to true religion. 

5jT e There is no difficulty at all in deciding this question. Nesto- 
rius, though possessed of an arrogant and persecuting spirit in general, 
yet does not seem to deserve, in this particular case, the reproaches that 
are due to Cyril. Anastasius, not Nestorius, was the first who kindled 
the flame ; and Nestorius, was the suffering and persecuted party from 
the beginning of the controversy to his death. His offers of accommoda- 
tion were refused, his explanations were not read, his submission was 
rejected, and he was condemned unheard. 

' See Christ. Au<r. Salig, de Eutychianismo ante Eutychem, p. 243. 

e See Assemani Biblioth. torn. i. p. 351 : torn. iii. part ii. p. 69. This 
learned author may be advantageously used to correct what Renaudot 
has said (in die second tome of his Liturgise Orientales, p. 99,) concern- 
ing the rise of die Nestorian doctrine in- the eastern provinces. Si a 
also the Ecclesiastical History of Theodorus the Reader, book ii. p. 558. 

5S* h The bishop of Seleucia was, by die twenty-third canon of the 



126 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



end here : he erected a famous school at Nisibis, whence 
issued those Nestorian doctors, who, in this and the fol- 
lowing century, spread abroad their tenets through Egypt, 
Syria, Arabia, India, Tartary, and China." 

XII. The Nestorians, before their affairs were thus 
nappily settled, had been divided among themselves with 
respect to the method of explaining their doctrine. Some 
maintained, that the manner in which the two natures 
were united in Christ, was absolutely unknown ; others, 
that the union of the divine nature with the man Jesus 
was only an union of will, operation, and dignity. b This 
dissension, however, entirely ceased, when the Nestorians 
were gathered into one religious community, and lived in 
tranquillity under their own ecclesiastical government and 
laws. Their doctrine, as it was then determined in several 
councils assembled at Seleucia, amounts to what follows : 
" That in the Saviour of the world, there were two persons, 
or vTorcireis ; of which one was divine, even the eternal 
word ; and the other, which was human, was the man 
Jesus ; that these two persons had only one aspect; that 
the union between the Son of God and the son of man, 
was formed in the moment of the Virgin's conception, and 
was never to be dissolved ; that it was not, however, an 
union of nature, or of person, but only of will and affection; 
that Christ was, therefore, to be carefully distinguished 
from God, who dwelt in him as in his temple ; and that 
Mary was to be called the mother of Christ, and not the 
mother of God." 

The abettors of this doctrine hold Nestorius in the high- 
est veneration, as a man of singular and eminent sanctity, 
and worthy to be had in perpetual remembrance ; but they 
maintain, at the same time, that the doctrine he taught 
was much older than himself, and had been handed down 
from the earliest times of the Christian church ; and for 
this reason they absolutely refused the title of Nestorians ; 
and, indeed, if we examine the matter attentively, we shall 
find, that Barsumas and his followers, instead of teaching 
their disciples precisely the doctrine of Nestorius, rather 
polished and improved his uncouth system to their own 
taste, and added to it several tenets of which the good man 
never dreamed. 

XIII. A violent aversion to the Nestorian errors led 
many into the opposite extreme. This was the case with 
the famous Eutyches, an abbot at Constantinople, and 
founder of a sect, which was in direct opposition to that of 
Nestorius, yet equally prejudicial to the interests of the 
Christian church, by the pestilential discords and animosi- 
ties it produced. The opinions of this new faction shot 
like lightning through the east ; and it acquired such 



council of Nice, honoured with peculiar marks of distinction, and among 
others with the title of Catholic. He was invested with the power of 
ordaining archbishops (a privilege which belonged to the patriarchs 
alone,) exalted above all the Grecian bishops, honoured as a patriarch, 
and, in the oecumenical councils, was the sixth in Tank after the bi- 
shop of Jerusalem. See Acta Concilii Nicami Arab. Alphons. Pisan. 
lib. iii. cap. xxiii. xxxiv. 

" See, for an ample account of this matter, Assem. Bib. t. iii. pt. ii. p. 77. 

b Leontius Byzant. adversus Nestorian. et Butychian. p. 537, torn. i. 
Lection. Antiquar. Henr. Canisii. — Jac. Basnage, Prolegomen. ad Cani- 
sium, torn. i. cap. ii. p. 19. 

5pr* ' This is the only way I know of translating the word barsopa 
. which was the term used by Nestorius and which the Greeks render by 
the term irpfcun-oi/. The word person would have done better in this unin- 
telligible phrase, had it not been used immediately before in a different 
sense from that which Nestorius would convey by the obscure term aspecL 

d That Cyril expressed himself in this manner, and appealed, for his 
justification in so doing, to the authority of Athanasius, is evident be- 
yond all possibility of contradiction. But it is uncertain whether this 



strength in its progress, as to create much uneasiness, both 
to the Greeks and Nestorians, whose most vigorous efforts 
were not sufficient to prevent its rising to a high degree of 
credit and splendour. Eutyches began these troubles in 

448, when he was far advanced in years ; and to exert his 
utmost force and vehemence in opposing the progress of 
the Nestorian doctrine, he expressed his sentiments con- 
cerning the person of Christ, in the very terms which the 
Egyptians made use of for that purpose, and taught, that 
in Christ there was only one nature, namely, that of the 
incarnate word. d Hence he was thought to deny the exis- 
tence of the human nature in Christ, and was accused of 
this, by Eusebius of Doryleeum, in the council that wag 
assembled by Flavianus at Constantinople, probably in 
this same year. By a decree of this council he was ordered 
to renounce the above-mentioned opinion, which he obsti- 
nately refused to do, and was, on this account, excommu- 
nicated and deposed ; unwilling, however, to acquiesce 
in this sentence, he appealed to the decision of a general 
council. 

XIV. In consequence of this appeal, the emperor Theo- 
dosius assembled an oecumenical council at Ephesus in 

449, at the head of which he placed Dioscorus, bishop of 
Alexandria, the successor of Cyril, the faithful imitator of 
his arrogance and fury, and a declared enemy to the bishop 
of Constantinople. Accordingly, by" the influence and 
caballing of this turbulent man, matters Avere carried on 
in this assembly with the same want of equity and of 
decency that had dishonoured a former Ephesian council, 
and characterized the proceedings of Cyril against Nesto- 
rius. Dioscorus, in whose church a doctrine, almost the 
same with that of the Eutychians, was constantly taught, 
confounded matters with such artifice and dexterity, that 
the doctrine of one incarnate nature triumphed, and Euty- 
ches was acquitted of the charge of error that had been 
brought against him. Flavianus, on the other hand, was, 
by the order of this unrighteous council, publicly scourged 
in the most barbarous manner, and banished to Epipas, a 
city of Lydia, where he soon after ended his days. e The 
Greeks called this Ephesian council a band or assembly 
of robbers, o-uWov x»<rTgiiajt : to signify that every thing 
was carried in it by fraud or violence; f and many councils, 
indeed, both in this and the following ages, are equally 
entitled to the same dishonourable appellation. 

XV. Affairs soon changed, and assumed an aspect utter- 
ly unfavourable to that party which the Ephesian council 
had rendered triumphant. Flavianus and his followers 
not only engaged Leo the Great, bishop of Rome, in their 
interests, (for the Roman pontiff was the ordinary refuge of 

manner of expression was adopted by Athanasius or not, since many 
are of opinion, that the book in which it is found, has been falsely at- 
tributed to him. See Mich. Le Q.uien, Dissert, ii. in Damascenum; and 
Christ. Aug. Salig, de Eutychianismo ante Eutychem, p. 112. It appears 
by what we read in the Biblioth. Orient., that the Syrians expressed 
themselves in this manner before Eutyches, without intending thereby to 
broach any new doctrine, but rather without well knowing what they said. 

| We are yet in want of a solid and accurate histoiy of the Eutychian 
troubles, notwithstanding the labours of the learned Salig upon that 
subject. 

e See the Concilia Jo. Harduini, torn. i. p. 82. — Liberati Breviarium, 
cap. xii. p. 76. — Leonis M. Epist. xciii. — Nicephori Hist. Ecclesiast. 

, lib. xiv. cap. lxvii. 

fjT f Though Flavianus died soon after the council of Ephesus, of 

I the bruises he had received from Dioscorus, and the other bishops of his 

j party in that horrid assembly, yet, before his death, he had appealed to 

! Leo; and this appeal, pursued by the pontiff, occasioned the council; 

I in which Eutyches was condemned, and the sanguinary Dioscorus 

i deposed. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



127 



the oppressed and conquered party in this century,) but 
also remonstrated to the emperor, that a matter of such an 
arduous and important nature required, in order to its deci- 
sion, a council composed out of the church universal. Leo 
seconded the latter request, and demanded of Theodosius 
a general council, which no entreaties could persuade this 
emperor to grant. Upon his death, however, his successor 
Marcian consented to Leo's demand, and called, in 451, 
the council of Chalcedony which is reckoned the fourth 
general or oecumenical council. The legates of Leo, who, 
in his famous letter to Flavianus, had already condemned 
the Eutychian doctrine, presided in this grand and crowd- 
ed assembly. Dioscorus was condemned, deposed, and 
banished into Paphlagonia ; the acts of the council of 
Ephesus were annulled ; the epistle of Leo was received 
as a rule of faith ; b Eutyches, who had been already sent 
into banishment, and deprived of his sacerdotal dignity by 
the emperor, was now condemned, though absent ; and 
the following doctrine, which is at this time almost gene- 
rally received, was inculcated upon Christians as an object 
of faith, viz. "That in Christ two distinct natures were 
united in one person, without any change, mixture or 
confusion." 

XVI. The remedy applied by this council, to heal the 
wounds of a torn and divided church, proved really worse 

f|B,n the disease ; for a great number of Oriental and 
gyptian doctors, though of various characters and differ- 
ent opinions in other respects, united in opposing, with the 
utmost vehemence, the council of Chalcedon and the epistle 
of Leo, which that assembly had adopted as a rule of faith, 
and were unanimous in maintaining an unity of nature, 
as well as of person, in Jesus Christ. Hence arose deplo- 
rable discords and civil wars, whose fury and barbarity 
were carried to the most excessive and incredible lengths. 
On the death of the emperor Marcian, the populace assem- 
bled tumultuously in Egypt, massacred Proterius, the 
successor of Dioscorus, and substituted in his place Timo- 
theus iElurus, who was a zealous defender of the Euty- 
chian doctrine of one incarnate nature in Christ. This 
latter, indeed, was deposed and banished by the emperor 
Leo ; but, upon his death, was restored by Basilicus both 
to his liberty and episcopal dignity. After the death of 
iElurus, the defenders of the council of Chalcedon chose, 
as his successor, Timotheus, surnamed Salophaciolus, 
while the partisans of the Eutychian doctrine elected schis- 
matically Peter Moggus to the same dignity. An edict of 
the emperor Zeno obliged the latter to yield. The triumph, 
however, of the Chalcedonians, on this occasion, was but 
transitory ; for, on the death of Timotheu?, John Talaia, 
Avhom they had chosen in his place, was removed by the 



f^* * This council was first assembled at Nice, but afterwards re- 
moved to Chalcedon, that the emperor, who on account of the irruption 
of the Huns into Illyricum, was unwilling to go far from Constantino- 
ple, might assist at it in person. 

f^T b This was the letter which Leo had written to Flavianus, after 
having been informed by him of what had passed in the council of Con- 
stantinople. In this epistle, Leo approves the decisions of that coun- 
cil, declares the doctrine of Eutyches heretical and impious, and explains 
with great appearance of perspicuity, the doctrine of the catholic church 
upon this perplexed subject; so that this letter was esteemed a master- 
piece, both of logic and eloquence, and was constantly read, during tire 
Advent, in the western churches. 

• See Liberati Breviarium, cap. xvi. xvii. xviii. — Evagr. Hist. Eccles. 
lib. ii. cap.viii. lib. iii. cap. iii. Le Q.uien, Oriens Christ, torn. ii. p. 410. 

fjr d The Barsumas, here mentioned, was he who assisted the bishop 
of Alexandria (Dioscorus) and the soldiers, in beating Flavianus to 
death in the council of Ephesus, and to shun whose fury, the orthodox 



same emperor ; e and Moggus, or Mongus, by an imperial 
edict, and the favour of Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, 
was, in 482, raised to the see of Alexandria. 

XVII. The abbot Barsumas (whom the reader must be 
careful not to confound with Barsumas of Nisibis, the fa- 
mous promoter of the Nestorian doctrines,) having been 
condemned by the council of Chalcedon/ propagated the 
Eutychian opinions in Syria, and, by the ministry of his 
disciple Samuel, spread them amongst the Armenians 
about the year 460. This doctrine, however, as it was 
commonly explained, had something so harsh and shock- 
ing in it, that the Syrians were easily engaged to abandon 
it by the exhortations of Xenaias, otherwise called Phi- 
loxenus, bishop of Hierapolis, and the famous Peter Fullo. 
These doctors rejected the opinion, attributed to Eutyches, 
that the human nature of Christ was absorbed by the di- 
vine, 6 and modified matters so as to form the following 
hypothesis : " That in the Son of God there was one na- 
ture, which notwithstanding its unity, was double and 
compounded? This notion was not less repugnant to 
the decisions of the council of Chalcedon than the Euty- 
chian doctrine, and was therefore strongly opposed by those 
who acknowledged the authority of that council. f 

XVIII. Peter, surnamed Fullo, from the trade of a ful- 
ler, which he exercised in his monastic state, had usurped 
the see of Antioch, and after having been several times 
deposed and condemned on account of the bitterness of 
his opposition to the council of Chalcedon, was at last fixed 
in it, in 482, by the authority of the emperor Zeno, and 
the favour of Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, e This 
troublesome and contentious man excited new discords in 
the church, and seemed ambitious of forming a new sect 
under the name of Theopaschites ; h for, to the words, ' O 
God most holy,' <fcc. in the famous hymn which the 
Greeks called Tris-agium, he ordered the following phrase 
to be added in the eastern churches, 'who hast suffered for 
us upon the woss? His design in this was manifestly to 
raise a new sect, and also to fix more deeply, in the minds 
of the people, the doctrine of one nature in Christ, to which 
he was zealously attached. His adversaries, and espe- 
cially Felix the Roman pontiff, interpreted this addition to 
the above-mentioned hymn in a quite different manner, 
and charged him with maintaining, that all the three per- 
sons of the Godhead were crucified ; and hence those who 
approved his addition were called Theopaschites. The 
consequence of this dispute was, that the western Chris- 
tians rejected the addition inserted by Fullo, which they 
judged relative to the whole Trinity, while the Orientals 
used it constantly after this period, without giving the least 
offence, because they applied it to Christ alone.' 

bishops were forced to creep into holes, and hide themselves under 
benches, in that pious assembly. 

§pr * Eutyches never affirmed what is here attributed to him ; he 
maintained simply, that the two natures, which existed in Christ before 
his incarnation, became one after it, by the hypostatical union. This 
miserable dispute about words was nourished by the contending parties 
having no clear ideas of the terms person and natvre, as also by an 
invincible ignorance of the subject. 

'Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vat. torn. ii. ; and the Dissertation of 
the same author, de Monophysitis. 

' Valesii Dissertatio de Pet. Fullone, et de Synodis adversus eum 
collectis, which is added to the 3d vol. of the Scriptor. Hist. Ecclesiast. 

fTJr h This word expresses the enormous error of those frantic doc- 
tors, who imagined that the Godhead suffered in and with Christ. 

l See Norns, Lib. de uno ex Trinitate came passo, torn. iii. : op. diss, 
i. cap. iii. 782. — Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. i. p. 518; torn, 
ii. p. 36, 180. 



12S 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



XIX. To put an end to this controversy, which had 
produced the most unhappy divisions both in church and 
state,'the emperor Zeno, by the advice of Acacius, bishop of 
Constantinople, published, in 482, the famous Henoticon, 
or Decree of Union, which was designed to reconcile the 
contending parties. This decree repeated and confirmed 
all that had been enacted in the councils of Nice, Con- 
stantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon, against the Arians, 
Nestorians, and Eutychians, without making any particu- 
lar mention of the council of Chalcedon ; a for Acacius had 
persuaded the emperor, that the present opposition was not 
carried on against the decrees that had passed in the coun- 
cil of Chalcedon, but against the assembly itself; with 
respect to which, therefore, an entire silence was undoubt- 
edly prudent in a proposal, which, instead of reviving, was 
designed to put an end to all disputes, and to reconcile the 
most jarring principles. 

In the mean time, Mongus and Fullo, who filled the 
sees of Alexandria and Antioch, and headed the sect of the 
Monophysites, b subscribed this Decree of Union, which was 
also approved by Acacius, and by all those of the two 
contending parties who were at all remarkable for their 
candour and moderation. But there were on all sides vio- 
lent and obstinate bigots, who opposed with vigour these 
pacific measures, and complained of the Henoticon as inju- 
rious to the honour and authority of the most holy coun- 
cil of Chalcedon. Hence arose new contests and new di- 
visions, not less deplorable than those which the decree was 
designed to suppress. 

XX. A considerable body of the Monophysites, or Eu- 
tychians, looked upon the conduct of Mongus, who had 
subscribed the decree, as highly criminal, and consequent- 
ly formed themselves into a new faction, under the title of 1 
Acephali, i. e. headless, because, by the submission of 
Mongus, they had been deprived of their chief. d This sect 
was afterwards divided into three others, who were called 
Aiithropomorphites, Barsanuphites, and Esaianists ; and 
these again, in the following century, were the unhappy 
occasion of new factions of which the ancient writers make 
frequent mention. e It is, however, necessary to observe 
here, for the information of those whose curiosity interests 
them in inquiries of this nature, that these subdivisions of 
the Eutychian sect are not to be adopted with too much 
facility. Some of them are entirely fictitious ; others are 
characterized by a nominal, and not by a real difference ; 
the division is in words and not in things; while a third 
sort are distinguished, not by their peculiar doctrines, but 
Dy certain rites and institutions, and matters of a merely 
circumstantial nature. Be that as it will, these numerous 
branches of the Eutychian faction did not flourish long ; 

1 Evagrii Hist. Eccl. lib. iii. cap. xiv. — Liberati Breviarium, cap. xviii. 

gjf» •> This word expresses the doctrine of those who believed, that in 
Christ there was but one nature, and is, in most respects, the same with 
the term Eutychians. 

c See Facund. Hermian. Defens. trium Capitulor. lib. xii. cap. iv. 

d Evagr. Hist. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. xiii. — Eeontius Byzant. de Sectis, 
torn. i. Lection. Antiq. Canisii, p. 537. — Timoth. in Cotelerii Monu- 
ment. Ecclesiae Graecae, torn. iii. p. 409. 

• These sects are enumerated by Basnage, in his Prolegom. ad Canisii 
Lection. Antiq. cap. iii. and by Asseman, in his Dissertatio de Mono- 
physitis. 

f^» f This again is one of the periods of ecclesiastical history, in 
which we find a multitude of events, which are so many proofs how far 
the supremacy of the pope was from being universally acknowledged. 
Felix II. deposes and excommunicates Acacius the patriarch of Constan- 
tinople, who not only receives this sentence with contempt, but, in his 
turn, anathematises and excommunicates the pope, and orders his name 



they declined gradually in the following century; and the 
influence and authority of the famous Baradsus contribu- 
ted principally to their total extinction, by the union he es- 
tablished among the members of that sect. 

XXI. The Roman pontiff, Felix II., having assembled 
an Italian council, composed of sixty-seven bishops, con- 
demned and deposed Acacius, and excluded him from the 
communion of the church, as a perfidious enemy to the 
truth. Several articles were alleged against him to fur- 
nish a pretext for the severity of this sentence ; such as his 
attachment to the Monophysites, and their leaders Mon- 
gus and Fullo, the contempt with which he treated the 
council of Chalcedon, and other accusations of a like na- 
ture. But the true reasons of these proceedings, and of 
the irreconcilable hatred which the Roman pontiffs indul- 
ged against him, were his denying the supremacy of the 
bishop of Rome, his opposing it throughout the whole course 
of his ministry/ and his ambitious efforts to enlarge, be- 
yond all bounds, the authority and prerogatives of the see 
of Constantinople. The Greeks, however, defended the 
character and memory of their bishop against all the asper- 
sions which were cast upon him by the Romans. Hence 
arose a new schism and a new contest, which were carried 
on with great violence, until the following century, when 
the obstinacy and perseverance of the Latins triumphed 
over the opposition of the Oriental Christians, and brought 
about an agreement, in consequence of which, the names 
of Acacius and Fullo were erased from the diptychs, or 
sacred registers, and thus branded with perpetual infamy.* 

XXII. These deplorable dissensions and contests had, 
for their object, a matter of the smallest importance. Eu- 
tyches was generally supposed to have maintained, "That 
the divine nature of Christ had absorbed the human, and 
that, consequently, in him there was but one nature, name- 
ly, the divine ;" but the truth of this supposition is desti- 
tute of sufficient evidence. However that may have been, 
this opinion, and also Eutyches, its pretended author, were 
rejected and condemned by those who opposed the council 
of Chalcedon, and principally indeed by Xenaias and Ful- 
lo, who are, therefore, improperly called Eutychians, and 
belong rather to the class of the Monophysites. They, 
who assumed this latter title, held, " That the divine and 
human nature of Christ were so united, as to form only 
one nature, yet without any change, confusion, or mixture, 
of the two natures :" and that this caution might be care- 
fully observed, and their meaning be well understood, the}'" 
frequently expressed themselves thus : " In Christ there is 
one nature ; but that nature is two-fold and compound- 
ed." 11 They disowned all relation and attachment to Eu- 
tyches; but regarded, with the highest veneration, Dios- 

to be stricken out of the diptychs. This conduct of Acacius is approved 
by the emperor, the church of Constantinople, by almost all the eastern 
bishops, and even by Andreas of Thessalonica, who was at that time the 
pope's vicar for East Ulyricum. This was the occasion of that general 
schism, which continued for twenty-five years, between the eastern and 
western churches. It is here worthy of observation, that the eastern 
bishops did not adhere to the cause of Acacius, from any other principle, 
as appears from the most authentic records of those times, than a persua- 
sion of the illegality of his excommunication by the Roman pontiff, who, 
in their judgment, had not a right to depose the first bishop of the east, 
without the consent of a general council. 

' Hen. Valesius, Dissert, de Synodis Roman, in quibus dnmnatus est 
Acacius, ad calcem, torn. iii. Scriptor. Eccles. p. 179. — Basnage, Histoire 
del'Eglise, torn. i. p. 301, 380, 381.— Bayle's Dictionary.— David Blon- 
del, de la Primaute dans l'Egiise, p. 279. — Acta Sanctorum, torn. iii. 
Februar. p. 502. » 

t> See the passages drawn from the writings of the Monophysites by 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



129 



corus, Barsumas, Xenaias, and Fullo, aa the pillars of their 
sect ; and rejected, not only the Epistle of Leo, but also 
the decrees of the council of Chalcedon. The opinion of 
the Monophysites, if we judge of it by the terms in which 
it is here delivered, does not seem to differ in reality, but 
only in the manner of expression, from that which was 
established by the council. 1 But if we attend carefully to 
the metaphysical arguments and subtleties which the for- 
mer employed to confirm their doctrine, 15 we shall, perhaps, 
be induced to think, that the controversy between the 
Monophysites and Chalcedonians is not merely a dispute 
about words. 

XXIII. A new controversy arose in the church during 
this century, and its pestilential effects extended themselves 
through the following ages. The authors of it were Pela- 
gius and Ooelestius, both monks ; the former a Briton, and 
the latter a native of Ireland. They lived at Rome in the 
greatest reputation, and were universally esteemed for their 
extraordinary piety and virtue. d These monks looked upon 
the doctrines, which were commonly received, concerning 
"the original corruption of human nature, and the necessity 
of divine grace to enlighten the understanding, and purify 
the heart, as prejudicial to the progress of holiness and vir- 
tue, and tending to lull mankind in a presumptuous and 
faJal security. They maintained, that these doctrines were 
aff false as they were pernicious ; that the sins of our first 
parents were imputed to them alone, and not to their pos- 
terity ; that we derive no corruption from their fall, but are 
born as pure and unspotted as Adam came out of the form- 
ing hand of his Creator; that mankind, therefore, are 
capable of repentance and amendment, and of arriving at 
the highest degrees of piety and virtue by the use of their 
natural faculties and powers ; that, indeed, external grace 
is necessary to excite their endeavours, but that they have 
no need of the internal succours of the divine Spirit. These 
notions, and others intimately connected with them, e were 
propagated at Rome, though in a private manner, by the 
two monks already mentioned, who, retiring from that city, 
in 410, upon theapproach of theGoths, went first into Sicily, 
and afterwards into Africa, where they published their doc- 
trine with greater freedom. From Africa Pelagius passed 
into Palestine, while Coelestius remained at Carthage with a 
view to preferment, desiring to be admitted among the pres- 
byters of that city. But the discovery of his opinions having 

the most learned, and, frequently, impartial Asseman, in his Biblioth. 
Orient. Vatic, torn. iii. p. 25, 26, 29, &c. 

*'Many learned men treat this controversy as a mere dispute about 
words. Gregory Abulpharajius, himself a Monophy-jite, and the most 
learned of the sect, declares this as his opinion. See the Biblioth. Itali. torn, 
xvii. p. 285. — La Croze, Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, p. 23; and 
the Histoire du Christianisme d'Ethiopie, p. 14. Asseman, though a Ro- 
man by birth and by religion, seems, in a good measure, to have adopted 
the same way of thinking, as appears by p. 297, in his second volume. 

i> See the subtle argumentation of Abulpharajius, in the Biblioth. 
Orient, torn. ii. p. 288. 

§rjf e Nothing very certain can be advanced with respect to the native 
country of Coelestius, which some say was Scotland, and others Campa- 
nia in Italy. We know, however, that he was descended of an illustri- 
ous family ; and that, after having applied himself to the study of the law 
for some time, he retired from the world, and embraced the monastic life. 
Bee Gennad. de Script. Eccles. cap. xliv. 

gjf * The learned and furious Jerome, who never once thought of 
doing common justice to those who had the misfortune to differ from him 
in opinion, accused Pelagius of gluttony and intemperance, after he had 
heard of his errors, though he had admired him before for his exemplary 
virtue. Augustin, more candid and honest, bears impartial testimony to 
the truth ; and, even while he writes against this heretic, acknowledges 
that he had made great progress in virtue and piety, that his life was 
chaste and his manners were blameless : and this, indeed, is the truth. 

No. XI. 33 



blasted his hopes, and his errors being condemned in a 
council holden at Carthage, in 412, he departed from that 
city, and went into the east. It was from this time that 
Augustin, the famous bishop of Hippo, began to attack 
the tenets of Pelagius and Coelestius in his learned and 
eloquent writings ; and to him, indeed, is principally 
due the glory of having suppressed this sect in its very 
birth. f 

XXIV. Things went more smoothly with Pelagius in 
theeast, where heenjoyed the protection and favour of John, 
bishop of Jerusalem, whose attachment to the sentiments of 
Origen led him naturally to countenance those of Pelagius, 
on account of the conformity that seemed to exist between 
these systems. Under the shadow of this powerful protec- 
tion, Pelagius made a public profession of his opinions, 
and formed disciples in several places; and though, in 415, 
he was accused by Orosius, a Spanish presbyter, whom 
Augustin had sent into Palestine for that purpose, before 
an assembly of bishops who met at Jerusalem, yet he 
was dismissed without the least censure ; and not only so, 
but was soon after fully acquitted of all errors by the council 
of Diospolis. e 

This controversy was brought to Rome, and referred by 
Coelestius and Pelagius to the decision of Zosimus, h who 
was raised to the pontificate in 417. The new pontiff, 
gained over by the ambiguous and seemingly orthodox 
confession of faith, that Coelestius, who w 7 as now at Rome, 
had artfully drawn up, and also by the letters and protesta- 
tions of Pelagius, pronounced in favour of these monks, de- 
clared them sound in the faith, and unjustly persecuted by 
their adversaries. The African bishops, with Augustin 
at their head, little affected with this declaration, con- 
tinued obstinately to maintain the judgment they had 
pronounced in this matter, and to strengthen it by their 
exhortations, their letters, and their writings. Zosimus 
yielded to the perseverance of the Africans, changed his 
mind, and condemned, with the utmost severity, Pelagius 
and Coelestius, whom he had honoured with his approba- 
tion, and covered with his protection. This was followed by 
a train of evils, which pursued these two monks without 
interruption. They were condemned by the same Ephe- 
sian council which had launched its thunder at the head 
of Nestorius ; in short, the Gauls, Britons, and Africans, by 
their councils, and the emperors, by their edicts and penal 

fOf ° The doctrines that were more immediately connected with the 
main principles of Pelagius, were, that infant baptism was not a sign or 
seal of the remission of sins, but a mark of admission to the kingdom of 
heaven, which was only open to the pure in heart; that good works were 
meritorious, and the only conditions of salvation ; — with many others too 
tedious to mention. 

f The Pelagian controversy has been historically treated by many 
learned writers, such as Usher, in his Antiquit. Eccles. Britannicas , 
Laet. Ger. Vossius; Norris; Gamier, in his Supplement; Oper. Theo- 
doreti ; Jansenius in Augustino, and others. Longueval also, a French 
Jesuit, wrote a History of the Pelagians. See the preface to the ninth 
volume of his Historia Eccles. Gallicanoe. After all, it must be con- 
fessed, that these learned writers have not exhausted this interesting sub- 
ject, or treated it with a sufficient degree of impartiality. 

E See Daniel, Histoire du Concile de. Diospolis, which is to be found 
in the Opuscula of that eloquent and learned Jesuit, published at Paris, 
in 1724. Diospolis was a city in Palestine, known in Scripture by die 
name of Lydda; and the bishop who presided in this council was Eulo- 
gius of Csesarea, metropolitan of Palestine. 

§rjp i> To preserve the thread of the history, and prevent the reader'3 
being surprised to find Pelagius and Coelestius appealing to Rome after 
having been acquitted at Diospolis, it is necessary to observe that these 
monks were condemned anew, in 416, by the African bishops assembled 
at Carthage, and those of Numidia assembled atMilevum; upon which 
they appealed to Rome. 



130 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part U. 



laws, demolished this sect in its infancy, and suppressed it 
entirely before it had acquired any tolerable degree of vigour 
or consistence. 1 

XXV. The unhappy disputes about the opinions of 
Pelagius occasioned, as usually happens, other controversies 
equally prejudicial to the peace of the church, and the in- 
terests of true Christianity. In the course of this dispute, 
Augustin had delivered his opinion, concerning the ne- 
cessity of divine grace in order to our salvation, and the 
decrees of God with respect to the future conditions of men, 
without being always consistent with himself, or intelligible 
to others. Hence certain monks of Adrumetum, and others, 
were led into a notion, " That God not only predestinated 
the wicked to eternal punishment, but also to the guilt and 
transgression for which they are punished ; and that thus 
both the good and bad actions of all men were determined 
from eternity by a divine decree, and fixed by an invincible 
necessity." Those who embraced this opinion, were called 
Predestinarians. Augustin used his utmost influence and 
authority to prevent the spreading of this doctrine, and ex- 
plained his true sentiments with more perspicuity, that it 
might not be attributed to him. His efforts were seconded 
oy the councils of Aries and Lyons, in which the doctrine 
in question was publicly rejected and condemned. b But 
we must not omit observing, that the existence of this 
Predestinarian sect has been denied by many learned men, 
and looked upon as an invention of the Semi-Pelagians, 
designed to decry the followers of Augustin, by attributing 
to them unjustly this dangerous and pernicious error. 

XXVI. A new and different modification was given 
to the doctrine of Augustin by the monk Cassian, who 
came from the east into France, and erected a monaste- 
ry near Marseilles. Nor was he the only one who at- 
tempted to fix upon a certain temperature between the 
errors of Pelagius and the opinions of the African ora- 
cle ; several persons embarked in this undertaking about 
the year 430, and hence arose a new sect, the members of 
which were called, by their adversaries, Semi- Pelagians. 

The opinions of this sect have been misrepresented, by 
its enemies, upon several occasions ; such is usually the 
fate of all parties in religious controversies. Their doctrine, 
as it has been generally explained by the learned, amount- 
ed to this : " That inward preventing grace was not neces- 
sary to form in the soul the beginnings of true repentance 
and amendment; that every one was capable of producing 
these by the mere power of his natural faculties, as also of 

1 See the Historia Pelagiana of Ger. J. Vossius, lib. i. cap. lv. p. 130; 
as also the learned observations that have been made upon this contro- 
versy, in the Biblio. Ital. torn. v. p. 74. The writers on both sides are 
mentioned by Jo. Franc. Buddeus, in his Isagoge ad Theologiam, torn. ii. 
1071. The learned Wall, in his History of Infant Baptism, vol. i. chap, 
xix. has given a concise and elegant account of the Pelagian contro- 
versy ; an account which, though imperfect in several respects, abounds 
with solid and useful erudition. 

■> See Jac. Sirrwondi Historia Prasdestinatiana, torn. iv. op. p. 271. — 
Basnage, Histoire de l'Eglise, torn. i. livr. xii. cap. ii. p. 698. Dion. 
Petavius, Dogmat. Theol. torn. vi. p. 168, 174, &c. 

c See Gilb. Mauguini Fabula Praedestinatiana, confutata, which he sub- 
joined to the second tome of his learned work, entitled, Collectio vario- 
rum Scriptorum qui Ssec. ix. de Pradestinatione et Gratia, scripserunt. — 
Fred. Spanhemius, Introd. ad Hist. Eccles. t. i. op. p. 993. — Jac. Basnag. 
Adnot. ad Prosperi Chronicon et Prsef. ad Faustum Regiensem, torn. i. 
Lection. Antiqu. Canisii, p. 315, 348. Granet (who wrote the life of Lau- 
noy) observes, that Sirmond had solicited Launoy to write against Mau- 
guin, who denied the existence of the predestinarian sect ; but that the for- 
mer, having examined the matter with care and application, adopted the 
sentimentof Mauguin. The whole dispute about the existence of this sect 
wih, when closely looked into, appear to be little more, perhaps, than a dis- 
pute about words, fj" It may be very true, that, about this time, or even 



exercising faith in Christ, and forming the purposes of a 
holy and sincere obedience." But they acknowledged at the 
same time, " That none could persevere or advance in that 
holy and virtuous course which they had the power of be- 
ginning, without the perpetual support and the powerful 
assistance of the divine grace." d The disciples of Augus- 
tin, in Gaul, attacked the Semi-Pelagians with the utmost 
vehemence, without being able to extirpate or overcome 
them. e The doctrine of this sect was so suited to the ca- 
pacities of the generality of men, so conformable to the way 
of thinking that prevailed among the monastic orders, and 
so well received among the gravest and most learned Gre- 
cian doctors, that neither the zeal nor industry of its adver- 
saries could stop its rapid and extensive progress. Add to 
its other advantages, that neither Augustin, nor his follow- 
ers, had ventured to condemn it in all its parts, or to brand 
it as an impious and pernicious heresy. 

XXVII. This was the commencement of those unhappy 
contests, those subtle and perplexing disputes concerning 
grace, or the nature and operation of that divine power, 
which is essentially required in order to salvation, that rent 
the church into ihe most deplorable divisions through the 
whole course of the succeeding age, and which, to the deep 
sorrow and regret of every true and generous Christian, 
have been continued to the present time. The doctrine 
of Augustin, who was of opinion, that, in the wor^of 
conversion and sanctification, all was to be attributed to a 
divine energy, and nothing to human agency, had many 
followers in all ages of the church, though his disciples have 
never agreed entirely about the manner of explaining what 
he taught on that head. f The followers of Cassian were 
however, much more numerous ; and his doctrine, though 
variously explained, was received in the greatest part of the 
monastic schools in Gaul, whence it spread itself through 
other parts of Europe. As to the Greeks, and other Eastern 
Christians, they had embraced the Semi-Pelagian doctrine 
before Cassian, and still adhere firmly to it. The gene- 
rality of Christians looked upon the opinions of Pelagius aa 
daring and presumptuous ; and even to those who adopted 
them in secret, they appeared too free and too far removed 
from the notions commonly received, to render the public 
profession of them advisable and prudent. Certain, however, 
it is, that in all ages of the church there have been several 
persons, who, in conformity with the doctrine attributed to 
this heretic, have believed mankind endowed with a natu- 
ral power of paying to the divine laws a perfect obedience. 

from the time of St. Paul, certain persons embraced the predestinarian opi- 
nions here mentioned ; but there is no solid proof, that the abettors of these 
opinions ever formed themselves into a sect. See Basnage, torn. i. p. 700, 

fTjp d The leading principles of the Semi-Pelagians were the five fol- 
lowing: 1. That God did not dispense his grace to one more than ano- 
ther, in consequence of predestination, i. e. an eternal and absolute de- 
cree, but was willing to save all men, if they complied with the terms ol 
his Gospel ; 2. that Christ died for all men ; 3. that the grace purchased 
by Christ, and necessary to salvation, was offered to all men; 4. that man, 
before he received grace, was capable of faith and holy desires ; 5. that 
man, born free, was consequently capable of resisting the influences oi 
grace, or complying with its suggestions. See Basnage, torn. i. livr. xii 

• Basnage, torn. i. livr. xii. — Hist. Literaire de la France, torn. ii. prfef. 
p. 9. — Vossii Histor. Pelagiana, lib. v. p. 538. — Scipio Maffei, (under tha 
fictitious name of Irenasus Veronensis,) de Haeresi Pelagiana, torn. xxix. 
— Opuscul. Scientif. Angeli Calogerse, p. 399. 

I^f f It is well known that the Jansenists and Jesuits both plead the 
authority of St. Augustin, in behalf of their opposite systems with re- 
spect to predestination and grace. This knotty doctrine severely exer- 
cised the pretended infallibility of the popes, and exposed it to the'laugh- 
tcr of the wise upon many occasions ; and the famous bull Unigenitus 
set Clement XI. in direct opposition to several of the most celebrated 
Roman pontiffs. Which axe we to believe 1 



THE SIXTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events which happened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The zeal of the bishops of Constantinople, seconded 
by the protection and influence of the Grecian emperors, 
increased the number of Christians in the east, and contri- 
buted to the conversion of some barbarous nations ; of those 
particularly who lived upon the borders of the Euxinesea, 
as appears from the most authentic records of Grecian his- 
tory. Among these nations were the Abasgi, who inhabit- 
ed the country lying between the coast of the Euxine and 
mount Caucasus, and who embraced Christianity under 
the reign of Justinian ; a the Heruli, who dwelt beyond the 
Danube, and who were converted in the same reign ; b as 
also the Alans, Lazi, and Zani, with other uncivilized 
people, whose situation, at this time, is only known by vague 
and imperfect conjectures. These conversions, indeed, how- 
ever pompously they may sound, were extremely super- 
ficial and imperfect, as we learn from the most credible ac- 
counts that have been given of them. All that was required 
of these darkened nations, amounted to an oral profession 
of their faith in Christ, to their abstaining from sacrifices to 
the gods, and their committing to memory certain forms of 
doctrine, while little care was taken to enrich their minds 
with pious sentiments, or to cultivate in their hearts virtu- 
ous affections; so that even after their conversion to 
Christianity, the}" retained their primitive ferocity and sav- 
age manners, and continued to distinguish themselves by 
horrid acts of cruelty and rapine, and the practice of all 
kinds of wickedness. In the greatest part of the Grecian 
provinces, and even in the capital of the eastern empire, 
there were still multitudes who preserved a secret attach- 
ment to the Pagan religion. Of these, however, vast 
numbers were brought over to Christianity under the 
reign of Justin, by the ministerial labours of John, bishop of 
Asia/ 

II. In the western parts, Remigius, or Remi, bishop 
of Rheims, who is commonly called the Apostle of the 
Gauls, signalized his zeal in the conversion of those who 
still adhered to the ancient superstition ; d and his suc- 
cess was considerable, particularly after that auspicious 
period when Clovis, king of the Franks, embraced the 
Gospel. 

* Procopius, de Bello Gothico, lib. iv. cap. iii. — Le duien, Oriens 
Christianus, torn. i. p. 1351. 

* Procopius, lib. h. cap. xiv 

e Asseman. Bibliotli. Orient. Vatic, torn. ii. p. 85. 

•i Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iii. p. 155. 

gjf * This British apostle was prior of die Benedictine monastery of 
St. Andrew at Rome. After his arrival in England, he converted the 
heathen temples into places of Christian worship, erected Christ-Church 
into a cathedral, opened a seminary of learning, founded the abbey of 
St. Augustin, received episcopal ordination from the primate of Aries, 
was invested by pope Gregory with power over all the British bishops 
nnd Saxon Prelates, and was the first archbishop of Canterbury. 



In Britain, several circumstances concurred to favour 
the propagation of Christianity. Ethelbert, king of Kent, 
the most considerable of the Anglo-Saxon princes, among 
whom that island was at this time divided, married Bertha, 
daughter of Cherebert, king of Paris, toward the conclu- 
sion of this century. This princess, partly by her own in- 
fluence, and partly by the pious efforts of the clergy who 
followed tier into Britain, gradually formed, in the mind of 
Ethelbert, an inclination to the Christian religion. While 
the king was in this favourable disposition, Gregory 
the Great, in 596, sent over forty Benedictine monks, 
with Augustin at their head, e in order to bring to per- 
fection what the pious queen had so happily begun. 
This monk, seconded by the zeal and assistance of 
Bertha, converted the king and the greatest part of the 
inhabitants of Kent, and laid anew the foundations of 
the British church/ 

The labours of Columbas, an Irish monk, were attend- 
ed with success among the Picts and Scots, many of whom 
embraced the Gospel. « 

In Germany, the Bohemians, Thuringians, and Boii, 
are said to have abandoned, in this century, their ancient 
superstitions, 11 and to have received the light of divine 
truth ; but this assertion appears extremely doubtful to 
many. 

All these conversions and sacred exploits will lose much 
of their importance in the esteem of such as examine with 
attention the accounts which have been given of them by 
the writers of this and the succeeding ages ; for by these 
accounts it appears, that the converted nations now men- 
tioned, retained a great part of their former impiety, 
superstition, and licentiousness, and that, attached to Christ 
by a mere outward and nominal profession, they, in effect, 
renounced the purity of his doctrine and the authority of his 
Gospel by their flagitious fives, and the superstitious and 
idolatrous rites and institutions which they continued to ob- 
serve. 1 

III. A vast multitude of Jews, converted to Christianity 
in several places, were added to the church dming the 
course of this century. Maii3 T of that race, particularly the 
inhabitants of Borium in Libya, were brought over to the 
truth by the persuasion and influence of the emperor Justi- 
nian. 1 ' In the west, the zeal and authority of the Gallic and 
Spanish monarchs, the efforts of Gregory the Great, and the 

' Bede's Histor. Eccles. Gentis Anglor. lib. i. cap. xxiii. — Rapiivs His- 
tory of England. — Acta Sanctor. torn. iii. Februar. p. 470. 

* Bede's Histor. Eccles. lib. iii. cap. iv. 

i> Henr. Canisii Lection. An tiqua?, torn. iii. part. ii. p. 208. — Aventin. 
Annal. Boiorum. 

I This is ingenuously confessed by the Benedictine monks, in die His 
toire Literaire de la France, torn. iii. Introduc. See also the orders 
given to die Anglo-Saxons by Gregory die Great, in his Epist. lib. xi. 
lxxvi. where we find him permitting them to sacrifice to the saints, on 
their respective holidays, the victims which diey had formerly offered to 
the gods. See also Wilkins's Concilia Magna; Britanniae, torn. i. 

k Procopius, de ^Edificiis Justiniani, lib. vi. cap. ii. 



132 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part L 



labours of Avitus, bishop of Vienne, engaged numbers to 
receive the Gospel. It must, however, be acknowledged, 
that of these conversions, the greatest part arose from the 
liberality of Christian princes, or the fear of punishment, 
rather than from the force of argument or the love of truth. 
In Gaul, the Jews were compelled by Childeric to receive 
the ordinance of baptism ; and the same despotic mode of 
conversion was practised in Spain." This method, how- 
ever, was entirely disapproved by Gregory the Great, who, 
though extremely severe upon the heretics, would suffer no 
violence to be offered to the Jews. b 

IV. If credit is to be given to the writers of this century, 
the conversion of these uncivilized nations to Christianity 
was principally effected by the prodigies and miracles 
which the heralds of the Gospel were enabled to work in its 
behalf. But the conduct of the converted nations is suf- 
ficient to invalidate the force of these testimonies ; for cer- 
tainly, if such miracles had been wrought among them, 
their lives would have been more suitable to their profes- 
sion, and their attachment and obedience to the doctrines 
and laws of the Gospel more stedfast and exemplary 
than they appear to have been. Besides ( as we have al- 
ready had occasion to observe,) in abandoning their an- 
cient superstitions, the greatest part of them were more 
influenced by the example and authority of their princes, 
than by force of argument, or the power of a rational con- 
viction ; and indeed, if we consider the wretched manner 
in which many of the first Christian missionaries perform- 
ed the solemn task they had undertaken, we shall perceive 
that they wanted not many arguments to enforce the doc- 
trines they taught, and the discipline they recommended ; 
for they required nothing of these barbarous people that 
was difficult to be performed, or that laid any remarkable 
restraint upon their appetites and passions. The principal 
injunctions they imposed upon these rude proselytes were, 
that they should get by heart certain summaries of doctrine, 
and pay to the images of Christ and the saints the same 
religious services which they had formerly offered to the 
statues of the gods. Nor were they at all delicate or 
scrupulous in choosing the means of establishing their cre- 
dit ; for they deemed it lawful, and even meritorious, to 
deceive an ignorant and inattentive multitude, by represent- 
ing, as prodigies, things that were merely natural, as we 
learn from the most authentic records of these times. 



* Greg. Turon. Histor. Francor. lib. vi. cap. xvii. Launoius, de veteri 
More baptizandi Judaeos et Infideles, cap. i. p. 700, 704, torn. ii. part ii. op. 

i> See his Epistles, particularly those which he wrote to Vigilius of 
Aries, Theodore of Marseilles, and Peter of Terracina. 

3£jT ° The religion of Chalcidius has been much disputed among the 
learned. Cave seems inclined to rank him among the Christian writers, 
though he expresses some uncertainty about the matter. Huet, G. J. 
"Vossius, Fabricius, and Beausobre, decide with greater assurance that 
Chalcidius was a Christian. Some learned men have maintained, on 
the contrary, that many things in the writings of this sage entitle him to 
a place among the pagan philosophers. Our learned author, in his notes 
to his Latin translation of Cudworth's Intellectual System, and in a 
Dissertation ' de turbata per recentiores Platonicos Ecclesia.,' lays down 
an hypothesis, which holds the middle way between these extremes. He 
is of opinion that Chalcidius neither rejected nor embraced the whole sys- 
tem of the Christian doctrine, but selected, out of the religion of Jesus 
and the tenets of Plato, a body of divinity, in which, however, Plato- 
nisn; was predominant ; and that he was one of those Syncretist or 
Eclectic philosophers, who abounded in the fourth and fifth centuries, and 
who attempted to unite Paganism and Christianity into one motley sys- 
tem. This account of the matter, however, appears too vague to the 
celebrated author of the Critical History of Philosophy, M. Brucker. 
This excellent writer agrees with Dr. Mosheim in this, that Chalcidius 
followed the motley method of the eclectic Platonists, but does not see 
any thing in this inconsistent with his having publicly professed the 



CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the calamitous Events which happened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. Though the abjuration of Paganism was, by the impe- 
rial laws, made a necessary step to preferment, and to the 
exercising of all public offices, yet several persons, respected 
for their erudition and gravity of manners, persisted in their 
adherence to the ancient superstition. Tribonian, the fa- 
mous compiler of the Roman law, is thought, by some, to 
have been among the number of those who continued in 
their prejudices against the Christian religion ; and such 
also, in the opinion of many, was the case of Procopius, the 
celebrated historian. It is at least certain, that Agathias, 
who was an eminent lawyer at Smyrna, and who had 
also acquired a considerable reputation as an historical 
writer, persevered in his attachment to the pagan worship. 

These illustrious Gentiles were exempted from the seve- 
rities which were frequently employed to engage the 
lower orders to abandon the service of the gods. The ri- 
gour of the laws, as it usually happens in human life, fell 
only upon those who had neither rank, fortune, nor court- 
favour, to ward off their execution. 

II. Surprised as we may be at the protection granted 
to the persons now mentioned, at a time when the Gospel 
was, in many instances, propagated by unchristian me- 
thods, it will appear still more astonishing that the Platonic 
philosophers, whose opposition to Christianity was univer- 
sally known, should be permitted, in Greece and Egypt, to 
teach publicly the tenets of their sect, Avhich were absolute- 
ly incompatible with the doctrines of the Gospel. These 
doctors indeed affected (generally speaking) a high degree 
of moderation and prudence, and for the most part modi- 
fied their expressions in such a manner as to give to the 
pagan system an evangelical aspect, extremely adapted to 
deceive the unwary, as the examples of Chalcidius, and Al- 
exander of Lycopolis, abundantly testify. d Some of them, 
however, were less modest, and carried their audacious ef- 
forts against Christianity so far as to revile it publicly. 
Damascius, in the life of Isidorus, and in other places, 
cast upon the Christians the most ignominious aspersions ;' 
Simplicius, in his illustrations of the Aristotelian philosophy, 
throws out several malignant insinuations against the doc- 
trines of the Gospel ; and the Epicheiremata of Proclus, 

Christian religion. The question is not, whether this philosopher was a 
sound and orthodox Christian, which M. Brucker denies him to have 
been, but whether he had abandoned the pagan rites, and made a public 
profession of Christianity; and this our philosophical historian looks 
upon as evident; for though, in the commentary upon Plato's Timaeus, 
Chalcidius teaches several doctrines that seem to strike at the foundations 
of our holy religion, yet the same may be said of Origen, Clemens 
Alexandrinus, Arnobius, and others, who are, nevertheless, reckoned 
among the professors of Christianity. The reader will find an excellent 
view of the different opinions concerning the religion of Chalcidius, in 
the third volume of Brucker's History. The truth of the matter seems 
to be this, that the Eclectics, before Christianity became the religion of 
the state, enriched their system from the Gospel, but ranged themselves 
under the standards of Plato; and that they repaired to those of Christ, 
without any considerable change of their system, when the examples 
and authority of the emperors rendered the profession of the Christian 
religion a matter of prudence, as well as its own excellence rendered it 
most justly a matter of choice. 

|£lf d Alexander wrote a treatise against the Manicheans, which i 
published by Combefis, in the second tome of his Auctor. Noviss. Bi- 
blioth. PP. Photius, Combefis, and our learned Cave, looked upon 
Alexander as a proselyte to Christianity ; but Beausobre has demonstra- 
ted the contrary. See the Histoire du Manicheisme, part. ii. Discour 
Preliminaire, sect. 13, p. 236. 

Photii Bibliotheca, cod. ccxlii. p. 1027. 



Chap. IJ 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



133 



written expressly against the disciples of Jesus, were uni- 
versally read, and were, on that account, accurately refuted 
by Philoponus. 1 All this shows that many of the magis- 
trates, who were witnesses of these calumnious attempts, 
were not so much Christians in reality, as in appearance ; 
otherwise they would not have permitted the slanders of 
these licentious revilers to pass without correction or re- 
straint. 

III. Notwithstanding the extensive progress of the 
Gospel, the Christians, even in this century, suffered griev- 
ously, in several countries, from the savage cruelty and 
bitterness of their enemies. The Anglo-Saxons, who were 
masters of the greater part of Britain, involved a multitude 
of its ancient inhabitants, who professed Christianity, in 
the deepest distresses, and tormented them with all that va- 
riety of suffering, which the injurious and malignant spirit 
of persecution could invent. 15 The Huns, in their irruptions 
into Thrace, Greece, and the other provinces, during the 
reign of Justinian, treated the Christians with great bar- 
barity ; not so much, perhaps, from an aversion to Christi- 
anity, as from a spirit of hatred against the Greeks, and 
a desire of overturning and destroying their empire. The 
fece of affairs was totally changed in Italy, about the 
middle of this century, by a grant! levolution which hap- 
pened in the reign of Justinian 1. This emperor, by the 
arms of Narses, overturned the kingdom of the Ostrogoths, 
which had subsisted ninety years ; and subdued all Italy. 
The political state, however, which this revolution intro- 

* See J. A. Fabricii Bibliotheca Graeca, vol. iii. p. 522. 

» Usher's Chron. Index to his Antiquit. Eccles. Britann. ad annum 508. 

Paul. Diacon. de Gestis Longobardorum. lib. ii. cap. ii. xxvii. — 

No. XII. 34 



duced,was not of a very long duration; for the Lombards, 
a fierce and warlike people, headed by Alboinus their king, 
and joined by several other German nations, issued from 
Pannonia in 568, under the reign of Justin ; invaded 
Italy ; and having made themselves masters of the whole 
country, except Rome and Ravenna, erected a new king- 
dom at Ticinum. Under these new tyrants, who, to the 
natural ferocity of their characters, added an aversion to 
the religion of Jesus, the Christians, in the beginning, 
endured calamities of every kind. But the fury of these 
savage usurpers gradually subsided ; and their manners 
contracted, from time to time, a milder character. Au- 
tharis, the third monarch of the Lombards, embraced 
Christianity, as it was professed by the Arians, in 587 ; 
but his successor Agilulf, who married his -widow Theu- 
delinda, was persuaded by that princess to abandon Arian- 
ism, and to adopt the tenets of the Nicene catholics.' 

The calamities of the Christians, in all other countries, 
were light and inconsiderable in comparison of those 
which they suffered in Persia under Chosroes, the inhu- 
man monarch of that nation. This monster of impiety 
aimed his audacious and desperate efforts against Heaven 
itself; for he publicly declared, that he would make war 
not only upon Justinian, but also upon the God of the 
Christians ; and, in consequence of this blasphemous 
menace, he vented his rage against the followers of Jesus 
in the most barbarous manner, and put multitudes of 
them to the most cruel and ignominious deaths." 1 

Muratorii Antiquit. Italias, torn. i. ii. Giannone, Historia di Napolj, 
torn. i. 
* Procopius, de Bello Persico, lib. ii. cap. xxvL 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
during this Century. 

I. The incursions of the barbarous nations into the 
greatest part of the western provinces, were extremely pre- 
judicial to the interests of learning and philosophy, as must 
be known to all who have any acquaintance with the history 
of these unhappy times. During these tumultuous scenes 
of desolation and horror, the liberal arts and sciences would 
have been totally extinguished, had they not found a place 
of refuge, such as it was, among the bishops, and the mo- 
nastic orders. Here they assembled their scattered remains, 
and received a degree of culture which just served to keep 
them from perishing. Those churches, which were distin- 
guished by the appellation of cathedrals, had schools erect- 
ed under their jurisdiction, in which the bishop, or a certain 
person appointed by him, instructed the youth in the seven 
liberal arts, as a preparatory introduction to the study of the 
Scriptures." Persons of both sexes, who had devoted them- 
selves to the monastic life, were obliged, by the founders 
of their respective orders, to employ daily a certain portion 
of their time in reading the ancient doctors of the church, 
whose writings were looked upon as the rich repertories of 
celestial wisdom, in which all the treasures of theology 
were centred. b Hence libraries were formed in all the 
monasteries, and the pious and learned productions of the 
Christian and other writers were copied and dispersed by 
the diligence of transcribers appointed for that purpose, who 
were generally such monks as, by weakness of constitu- 
tion, or other bodily infirmities, were rendered incapable of 
more severe labour. To these establishments we owe the 
preservation and possession of all the ancient authors, 
sacred and profane, who escaped in this manner the 
savage fury of Gothic ignorance, and are happily trans- 
mitted to our times. It is also to be observed, that, beside 
the schools annexed to the cathedrals, seminaries were 
opened in the greater part of the monasteries, in which 
the youth who were set apart for the monastic life were 
instructed by the abbot, or some of his ecclesiastics, in the 
arts and sciences. 

II. But these institutions and establishments, however 
laudable, did not produce such happy effects as might have 
been expected from them. For, not to speak of the indo- 
lence of certain abbots and bishops, who neglected entirely 
the duties of their stations, or of the bitter aversion which 
others discovered towards every sort of learning and eru- 
dition, which they considered as pernicious to the progress 
of piety ; d not to speak of the illiberal ignorance which 
several prelates affected, and which they injudiciously 



* Fleury, Discourssurl'HistoireEccles. — Histoire Liter, de la France, 
torn. iii. — Herm. Conringii Antiq. Academicae. 

b Benedict. Anianensis Concordia Regularum, lib. ii. iii. — Jo. Mabillon, 
Praf. ad Ssc. i. Act. SS. Ord. Bened. p. 44, 

Benedict. Concord. Reg. lib. ii. p. 232. — Mabillon, Acta Ord. Bened. 
torn. i. 

a Gregory the Great is said to have been of this number, and to have 
ordered a multitude of the productions of pagan writers, and among 
others Livy's history, to be committed to the flames. See Liron's Sin- 
gula rite a Hist, et Lit. torn. i. 



confounded with Christian simplicity ; e even those who 
applied themselves to the study and propagation of the 
sciences, were, for the most part, extremely unskilful and 
illiterate ; and the branches of learning taught in the 
schools were inconsiderable, both as to their quality and 
their number.' Greek literature was almost every where 
neglected ; and those who by profession, had devoted 
themselves to the culture of Latin erudition, spent their 
time and labour in grammatical subtilties and quibbles, as 
the pedantic examples of Isidorus tind Cassiodorus abun- 
dantly show. Eloquence was degraded into a rhetorical 
bombast, a noisy kind of declamation, which was composed 
of motle}^ and frigid allegories and barbarous terms, as may 
even appear from several parts of the writings of those 
superior geniuses who surpassed their contemporaries in 
precision and elegance, such as Boethius, Cassiodorus, En- 
nodi us, and others. As to the other liberal arts, they shared 
the common calamity; and, from the mode in which they 
were now cultivated, they had nothing very liberal or 
elegant in their appearance, consisting entirely of a few dry 
rules, which, instead of a complete and finished system, 
produced only a ghastly and lifeless skeleton. 

III. The state of philosophy was still more deplorable 
than that of literature ; for it was entirely banished from 
those seminaries which were under the inspection and 
government of the ecclesiastical order. The greatest part 
of these zealots looked upon the study of philosophy, not 
only as useless, but even pernicious to those who had 
dedicated themselves to the service of religion. The most 
eminent, indeed almost the only Latin philosopher of this 
age, was the celebrated Boethius, privy counsellor to Theo- 
doric, king of the Ostrogoths. This illustrious senator had 
embraced the Platonic philosophy,^ and approved also, as 
was usual among the modern Platonists, the doctrine of 
Aristotle, and illustrated it in his writings ; and it was un- 
doubtedly in consequence of the diligence and zeal with 
which he explained and recommended the Aristotelian 
philosophy, that it rose now among the Latins to a higher 
degree of credit than it had before enjoyed. 

IV. The state of the liberal arts, among the Greeks, 
was, in several places, much more flourishing than that in 
which we have left them among the Latins ; and the em- 
perors raised and nourished a spirit of literary emulation, 
by the noble rewards and the distinguished honours which 
they attached to the pursuit of all the various branches of 
learning. 11 It is, however, certain, that, notwithstanding 
these encouragements, the sciences were cultivated with 
less ardour, and men of learning and genius were less nu- 
merous, than in the preceding century. In the beginning 
of this, the modern Platonists yet maintained their credit, 

• Mabillon, Praef. ad Saec. i. Benedict, p. 46. 

f See M. Aur. Cassiodori Liber de septem Disciplinis, which is extaM 
among his works. 

e This will appear evident to such as, with a competent knowledge of 
modern Platonism, read attentively the books of Boethius, de Consola- 
tione. &c. See also, on this subject, Renat. Vallin. p. 10, 50. Holstenius 
in Vit. Porphyrii, and Mascov.'Histor. Germanor. torn. ii. 

h See the Codex Theodos. torn. ii. lib. vi. and Herm. Conringius, de 
Studiis Urbis Romas et Constantiuop. in a Dissertation subjoined to his 
1 Antiquitates Academicse. 






Chap. I. 



LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



135 



and their philosophy was in vogue. The Alexandrian 
and Athenian schools flourished under the direction of Da- 
mascius, Isidorus, Shnplicius, Eulamius. Hermias, Pibcia- 
nus, and others, who were placed on the highest summit 
of literary glory. But when the emperor Justinian, by a 
particular edict, prohibited the teaching of philosophy at 
Athens, 1 (which edict, no doubt, was levelled at the modern 
Platonism already mentioned,) and when his resentment 
began to flame out against those who refused to abandon 
the pagan worship, all these celebrated philosophers took 
refuge among the Persians, who were at that time the ene- 
mies of Rome. b The}', indeed, returned from their volun- 
tary exile, when the peace was concluded between the Per- 
sians and the Romans in 533 ; c but they could never 
recover their former credit, and they gradually disappeared 
from the public schools and seminaries, which ceased, at 
length, to be under their direction. 

Thus expired that famous sect, which was distinguish- 
ed by the title of the Modern or Later Platonic ; and 
which, for a series of ages, had produced such divisions 
and tumults in the Christian church, and been, in other 
/espects, prejudicial to the interests and progress of the 
Gospel. It was succeeded by the Aristotelian philosophy, 
which arose imperceptibly out of its obscurity, and was 
placed in an advantageous light by the illustrations of the 
learned, but especially and principally by the celebrated 
commentaries of Philoponus ; and, indeed, the knowledge 
of this philosophy was necessary for the Greeks, since it 
was from the depths of this peripatetical wisdom that the 
Monophysites and Nestorians drew the subtilties with 
which they endeavoured to overwhelm the abettors of the 
Ephesian and Chalcedonian councils. 

V. The Nestorians and Monophysites, who lived in the 
east, equally turned their eyes toward Aristotle, and, in 
order to train their respective followers to the field of con- 
troversy, and arm them with the subtilties of a contentious 
logic, translated the principal books of that deep philoso- 
pher into their native languages. Sergius, a Monophysite 
and philosopher, translated the books of Aristotle into Sy- 
riac. d Uranius, a Syrian, propagated the doctrines of this 
philosopher in Persia, and disposed in their favour Chos- 
roes. the monarch of that nation, who became a zealous 
abettor of the peripatetic system. 6 The same prince recei- 
ved from one of the Nestorian faction (which, after having 
procured the exclusion of the Greeks, triumphed at this 
tune unrivalled in Persia 
works into the Persian language/ 

It is, however, to be observed, that among these eastern 
Christians there were some who rejected both the Platonic 
and Aristotelian doctrines, and who, unwilling to be obli- 
ged to others for their philosophical knowledge, invented 

* Johannes Malala, Historia Chronica, part ii. page 187, edit. Oxon. 
Another testimony concerning this matter is cited from a certain Chroni- 
cle, not yet published, by Nic. Alemannus, ad Procopii Histor. Arcanam, 
cap. xxvi. 

b Agathias, de Rebus Justiniani, lib. ii. 

e See Wesselingii Observat. Var. lib. i. cap. xviii. 

* See the Histor. Dynastiarum, by Abulpharajius, published by Dr. 
Pocock, p. 94, 172. 

* See Agathias, de Rebus Justiniani, lib. ii. p. 48. That Uranius made 
use of the Aristotelian philosophy in the Eutychian controversy, is evi- 
dent from this circumstance, that Agathias represents him disputing 
concerning the passibillty and imraiscibility of God {xat riiraOnTdi/ kiu 
aaiyyvTov.) f Agathias, ibid. 

_ * Bernard de Montfaucon, Prsefat. ad Cosmam, p. 10. torn. ii. Collec- 
tionis novse Patrum Grajcorum. k Biblioth. cod. xxxvi. 

fjj- i We cannot avoid taking notice of some mistakes which have 



a translation of the Stagirite : s 



systems of their own, which were inexpressibly chimeri- 
cal and pregnant with absurdities. Of this class of origi- 
nal philosophers was Cosmas, a Nestorian, commonly call- 
ed Indicopleustes, whose doctrines are singular, and 
resemble more the notions of the Orientals than the opi- 
nions of the Greeks.? Such also was the writer, from 
whose Exposition of the Octateuch, Photius has drawn 
several citations. 11 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church. 

I. The external form of church government continued 
without any remarkable alteration during the course of 
this century. But the bishops of Rome and Constantino- 
ple, who were considered as the most eminent and princi- 
pal rulers of the Christian church, were engaged in perpe- 
tual disputes about the extent and limits of their respective 
jurisdictions; and both seemed to aim at the supreme 
authority in ecclesiastical affairs. The latter prelate not 
only claimed an unrivalled sovereignty over the eastern 
churches, but also maintained, that his church was, in 
point of dignity, no way inferior to that of Rome. The 
Roman pontiffs beheld, with impatience, these lordly pre- 
tensions, and warmly asserted the pre-eminence of their 
church, and its superiority over that of Constantinople. 
Gregory the Great distinguished himself in this violent 
contest; and the following event furnished him with an 
opportunity of exerting his zeal. In 5SS, John, bishop of 
Constantinople, surnamed the Faster, on account of his 
extraordinary abstinence and austerity, assembled a coun- 
cil, by his own authority, to inquire into an accusation 
brought against Peter, patriarch of Antioch ; and on this 
occasion assumed the title of oecumenical or universal bi- 
shop.' Now, although this title had been formerly enjoy- 
ed by the bishops of Constantinople, and was also suscep- 
tible of an interpretation that might have prevented its 
giving umbrage or offence to any, k yet Gregory suspected, 
both from the time and the occasion of John's renewing 
his claim to it, that he was aiming at a supremacy over 
all the Christian churches ; and therefore he opposed his 
claim in the most vigorous manner, in letters to that pur- 
pose addressed to the emperor, and to such persons as he 
judged proper to second his opposition. But all his efforts 
were without effect; and the bishops of Constantinople 
continued to assume the title in question, though not in the 
sense in which it had alarmed the pope.' 

II. This pontiff, however, adhered tenaciously to his 
purpose, opposed with vehemence the bisbop of Constan- 
tinople, raised new tumults and dissensior.e among the sa- 
cred order, and aimed at no less than an u< limited supre- 

slipped from the pen of Dr. Mosheim in his narration of this event. 
First, the council here mentioned was holden under the pontificate of Pe- 
lagius II. and not of Gregory the Great, who was not chosen bishop of 
Rome before the year 590. Secondly, the person accused before this 
council was not Peter, but Gregory, bishop of Antioch. Thirdly, it does 
not appear that the council was summoned by John of Constantinople, 
but by the emperor Mauricius, to whom Gregory had appealed from the 
governor of the east, before whom he was first accused. 

f^T k The title of universal bishop, which had been given by Leo and 
Justinian to the patriarch of Constantinople, was not attended with any 
accession of power. 

i Gregor. Magni Epist. lib. iv. v. vii. All the passages in these epis- 
tles that relate to this famous contest, have been extracted and illustrated 
by Launoy, in his Assertio in Privileg. S. Medardi, torn. iii. op. part ii. 
p. 266. See also Lequien, Oriens Chris'tianus, torn. i. p. 67. Pfafli Dia- 
sertatio de Tilulo CEcumen. in the Tempe Helvetica, torn. iv. p. 99. 



136 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



P^rt II. 



macy over the Christian church. This ambitious design 
succeeded in the west ; while, in the eastern provinces, his 
arrogant pretensions were scarcely respected by any but 
those who were at enmity with the bishop of Constanti- 
nople ; and this prelate was always in a condition to make 
head against the progress of his authority in the east. 
How much the opinions of some were favourable to the 
lordly demands of the Roman pontiffs, may be easily ima- 
gined from an expression of Ennodius, that infamous and 
extravagant flatterer of Symmachus, who was a prelate of 
ambiguous fame. This parasitical panegyrist, among other 
impertinent assertions, maintained, that the pontiff was 
constituted judge in the place of God, which he filled as the 
vicegerent of the Most High. a On the other hand, it is 
certain, from a variety of the most authentic records, that 
both the emperors and the nations in general were far 
from being disposed to bear with patience the yoke of ser- 
vitude, which the popes were imposing upon the Christian 
church. b The Gothic princes set bounds to the power of 
those arrogant prelates in Italy, permitted none to be raised 
to the pontificate without their approbation, and reserved 
to themselves the right of judging of the legality of every 
new election. They enacted spiritual laws, called the reli- 
gious orders before their tribunals, and summoned councils 
by their legal authority. d In consequence of all this, the 
pontiffs, amidst all their high pretensions, reverenced the 
majesty of their kings and emperors, and submitted to 
their authority with the most profound humility ; nor were 
they yet so lost to all sense of shame, as to aim at the sub- 
jection of kings and princes to their spiritual dominion." 

III. The rights and privileges of the clergy were 
very considerable before this period, and the riches, which 
they had accumulated, immense; and both received daily 
augmentations from the growth of superstition in this 
century. The arts of a rapacious priesthood were practi- 
sed upon the ignorant devotion of the simple; and even 
the remorse of the wicked was made an instrument of in- 
creasing the ecclesiastical treasure; for an opinion was 
propagated with industry among the people, that a remis- 
sion of sin was to be purchased by their liberalities to the 
churches and monks, and that the prayers of departed 
saints, whose efficacy was victorious at the throne of God, 
were to be bought by offerings presented to the temples, 
which were consecrated to these celestial mediators. But, 
in proportion as the riches of the church increased, the va- 
rious orders of the clergy were infected with those vices 
which are too often the consequences of an affluent pros- 
perity. This appears, with the utmost evidence, from the 
imperial edicts and the decrees of councils, which were so 
frequently levelled at the immoralities of those who were 
distinguished by the appellation of clerks ; for, what neces- 
sity would there have been for the enactment of so many 

* See his Apologeticum pro Synodo, in the xvth volume of the Bib- 
liotheca Magna Patram. §rjj- One would think that this 'servile adulator 
had never read the 4th verse of the 2d chapter of St. Paul's 2d Epistle to 
the Thessalonians, where the Anti-Christ, or man of sin, is described 
in the very terms in which he represents the authority of the pontiff 
Symmachus. 

>> See particularly the truth of this assertion, with respect to Spain, in 
Geddes' Dissertation on the Papal Supremacy, chiefly with relation to the 
ancient Spanish Church, which is to be found in vol. ii. of his Miscel- 
laneous Tracts. ° See Mascovii Hist. German, torn. ii. not. p. 113. 

<• Basnace, Histoire des Eglises Reformees, torn. i. p. 381. 

• See the citations from Gregory the Great, collected by Launoy, de 
regia Potestate in Matrimon. torn. i. op. part ii. p. 691, and in his Assertio 
in Privilegium S. Medardi, p. 272, torn. iii. op. part ii. See also Gian- 
none, Historia di Napoli, torn. ii. 



laws to restrain the vices, and to preserve the morals of the 
ecclesiastical orders, if they had fulfilled even the obliga- 
tions of external decency, or shown, m the general tenor 
of their lives, a certain degree of respect for religion and 
virtue? Be that as it will, the effect of all these laws and 
edicts was so inconsiderable as to be scarcely perceived ; for 
so high was the veneration paid, at this time, to the clergy, 
that their most flagitious crimes were corrected by the 
slightest and gentlest punishments; an unhappy circum- 
stance, which added to their presumption, and rendered 
them more daring and audacious in iniquity. 

IV. The bishops of Rome, who considered themselves 
as the chiefs and fathers of the Christian church, are not 
to be excepted from this censure, any more than the clergy 
who were under their jurisdiction. We may form some 
notion of their humility and virtue by that long and ve- 
hement contention, which arose in 498, between Symma- 
chus and Laurentius, who w r ere on the same day elected to 
the pontificate by different parties, and whose dispute was, 
at length, decided by Theodoric king of the Goths. Each 
of these ecclesiastics maintained obstinately the validity 
of his election ; they reciprocally accused each other of the 
most detestable crimes ; and to their mutual dishonour, their 
accusations did not appear, on either side, entirely destitute 
of foundation. Three different councils, assembled at 
Rome, endeavoured to terminate this odious schism/ but 
without success. A fourth was summoned, by Theodoric, 
to examine the accusations brought against Symmachus, 
to whom this prince had, at the beginning of the schism, 
adjudged the papal chair. This council met about the 
commencement of the century, and in it the Roman pontiff 
was acquitted of the crimes laid to his charge. But the 
adverse party refused to acquiesce in this decision; and 
this gave occasion to Ennodius of Ticinum (now Pavia) 
to draw up his adulatory Apology for the Council and 
Symmachus. " In this apology, which disguises the truth 
under the seducing colours of a gaudy rhetoric, the reader 
will perceive that the foundations of that enormous power, 
which the popes afterwards acquired, were now laid ; but 
he will in vain seek, in this laboured production, any satis- 
factory proof of the injustice of the charge brought against 
Symmachus. 11 

V. The number, credit, and influence of the monks, 
augmented daily in all parts of the Christian world. 
They multiplied so prodigiously in the east, thatwhole ar- 
mies might have been raised outof the monastic order, with- 
out any sensible diminution of that enormous body. The 
monastic life was also highly honoured, and had an incre- 
dible number of patrons and followers in all the western 
provinces, as appears from the rules which were prescri- 
bed in this century, by various doctors, for directing 
the conduct of the cloistered monks, and the holy vir- 

gjT f This schism may be truly termed odious, as it was carried on 
by assassinations, massacres, and all the cruel proceedings of a desperate 
civil war. See Paulus Diaconus, lib. xvii. 

B This apology may be seen in the fifteenth volume of the Magn. BibL 
Patrum, p. 248. 

gjT h That Symmachus was never fairly acquitted, maybe presumed 
from the first, and proved from the second of the following circumstances: 
first, that Theodoric, who was a wise and equitable prince, and who had 
attentively examined the charge brought against him, would not have 
referred the decision to the bishops, if the matter had been clear, but 
would have pronounced judgment himself, as he had formerly done with 
respect to the legality of his election. The second circumstance is, that 
the council acquitted him without even hearing those who accused him, 
and he himself did not appear, though frequently summoned. 



Chap II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



13? 



gins, who had sacrificed their capacity of being - useful in 
the world, to the gloomy charms of a convent. 1 In Great- 
Britain, a certain abbot, named Congal, is said to have per- 
suaded an incredible number of persons to abandon the 
affairs, obligations, and duties of social life, and to spend 
the remainder of their days in solitude, under a rule of dis- 
cipline, of which he was the inventor. b His disciples tra- 
velled through many countries, in which they propagated, 
with such success, the contagion of this monastic devotion 
that, in a short time, Ireland, Gaul, Germany, and Swit- 
zerland, swarmed with those lazy orders, and were, in a 
manner, covered with convents. The most illustrious 
disciple of the abbot now mentioned, was Columban, whose 
singular rule of discipline is yet extant, and surpasses all 
the rest in simplicity and brevity. 1 The monastic orders, 
m general, abounded with fanatics and profligates ; the lat- 
ter were more numerous than the former in the western 
convents, while in those of the east, the fanatics were 
predominant. 

VI. A new order, which in a manner absorbed all the 
others that were established in the west, was instituted, in 
529, by Benedict of Nursia, a man of piety and reputation 
for the age he lived in. From his rule of discipline, which 
is yet extant, we learn that it was not his intention to 
impose it upon all the monastic societies, but to form an 
order whose discipline should be milder, establishment 
more solid, and manners more regular, than those of the 
other monastic bodies ; and whose members, during the 
course of a holy and peaceful life, were to divide their time 
between prayer, reading, the education of youth, and other 
pious and learned labours." 1 But in process of time, the 
followers of this celebrated ecclesiastic degenerated sadly 
from the piety of their founder, and lost sight of the duties 
of their station, and the great end of their establishment. 
Having acquired immense riches from the devout liberality 
of the opulent, they sunk into luxury, intemperance, and 
«sloth, abandoned themselves to all sorts of vices, extended 
their zeal and attention to worldly affairs, insinuated them- 
selves into the cabinets of princes, took part in political ca- 
bals and court factions, made a vast augmentation of su- 
perstitious ceremonies in their order, to blind the multitude 
and supply the place of their expiring virtue ; and among 
other 'meritorious enterprises, laboured most ardently to 
swell the arrogance, by enlarging the power and authority 
of the Roman pontiff. The good Benedict never dreamed 
that the great purposes of his institution were to be thus 
perverted ; much less did he give any encouragement or 
permission to such flagrant abuses. His rule of discipline 
was neither favourable to luxury nor to ambition ; and it 
is still celebrated on account of its excellence, though it has 
not been observed for many ages. 

It is proper to remark here, that the institution of Bene- 
dict changed, in several respects, the obligations and 
duties of the monastic life, as it was regulated in the west. 
Among other things, he obliged those who entered into 

* These rules are extant in Holstenius' Codex Regularum, part ii. 
published at Rome in 1661. See also Edm. Martenne et Ursin. Durand. 
Thesaur. Anecdot. Nov. torn. i. p. 4. 

>> Archbishop Usher's Antiq. Eceles. Britan. 

Usserii Sylloge Antiq. Epis. Hiber. p. 5 — 15. — Holstenii Codex Regu- 
larum, torn. ii. p. 48. — Mabillon, Praef. ad Sa?c. ii. Benedictinum, p. 4. 

& See Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Bened. Saec. i. and Annales Ordin. 
Ben. lorn. i. See also Helyot, and the other writers who have given 
accounts of the monastic orders. 

• See Mabillon, Praef. ad Sajc. iv. Benedict. 

No. XII. 35 



his order to promise, at the time of their being received as 
novices, and afterwards at their admission as members of 
the society, to persevere in an obedience to the rules he 
had laid down, without attempting to change them in any 
respect. As he was exceedingly solicitous about the stability 
of his institution, this particular regulation was wise and 
prudent; and it was so much the more necessary, as, befoie 
his time, the monks made no scruple of altering the laws 
and rules of their founders whenever they thought proper. ' 

VII. This new order made a most rapid progress in the 
west, and soon arrived at the most flourishing state. In 
Gaul, its interests were promoted by St. Maurus; in Sicily 
and Sardinia, by Placidus; in England, by Augustin and 
Mellitus; in Italy, and other countries, by Gregory the 
Great, who is himself reported to have been for some time 
a member of this society ; f and it was afterwards received 
in Germany by the means of Boniface. s This amazing 
progress of the new order was ascribed by the Benedictines 
to the wisdom and sanctity of their discipline, and to the 
miracles wrought by their founder and his followers. But 
a more attentive view of things will convince the impar- 
tial observer, that the protection of the pontiffs, to the ad- 
vancement of whose grandeur and authority the Benedic- 
tines were most servilely devoted, contributed much more 
to the lustre and influence of their order, than any other 
circumstances, and indeed more than all other considera- 
tions united. But, however general their credit was, they 
did not reign alone ; other orders subsisted in several coun- 
tries until the ninth century. Then, however, the Bene- 
dictines absorbed all the other religious societies, and held 
unrivalled, the reins of the monastic empire. 11 

VIII. The most celebrated Greek and Oriental writers 
that flourished in this century, w T ere the following : 

Procopius of Gaza, who interpreted with success several 
books of Scripture.! 

Maxentius, a monk of Antioch, who, beside several trea- 
tises against the sects of his time, composed Scholia on 
Dionysius the Areopagite. 

Agapetus, whose Scheda Regia, addressed to the empe- 
ror Justinian, procured him a place among the wisest and 
most judicious writers of this century. 

Eulogius, a presbyter of Antioch, who was the terror of 
heretics, and a warm and strenuous defender of the ortho- 
dox faith. 

John, patriarch of Constantinople, who, on account of 
his austere method of life, was surnamed the Faster, 
and who acquired a certain degree of reputation by 
several little productions, and more particularly by his 
Penitential. 

Leontius of Byzantium, whose book against the sects, 
and other writings, are yet extant. 

Evagrius, a scholastic writer, whose Ecclesiastical His- 
tory is, in many places, corrupted with fabulous narrations. 

Anastasius of Sinai, whom most writers consider as the 
author of a trifling performance, written against a sort of 

' See Mabillon's preface last mentioned, and his Dissertation de Vita 
Monist. Gregorii M. This circumstance, however, is denied by some 
writers ; and ar^nng others by Gallonius, concerning whose book upon 
that subject, see Simon's Lettres Choisies, torn. iii. p. 63. 

e Anton. Dadini Alteserrae, Origines rei Monasticae, lib. i. cap. ix. 
The propagation of the Benedictine order, through the different provinces 
of Europe, is related by Mabillon, Prssf. ad Sajc. i. et ad Saec. iv. 

k L'Enfant, Histoire du Concile de Constance, torn. ii. 

i See Simon's Critique de la Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique de M. Du 
Pin, torn. i. p. 197. 



138 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



heretics called Acephali, of whom we shall have occasion 
to speak hereafter. 1 

IX. Among the Latin writers, the following are princi- 
pally worthy of mention : 

Gregory the Great, bishop of Rome, who united the 
most inconsistent and contradictory qualities; as in some 
cases he discovered a sound and penetrating judgment, 
and in others the most shameful and superstitious weak- 
ness; and in general manifested an extreme aversion to 
all kinds of learning, as his Epistles and Dialogues suffi- 
ciently testify. b 

Cffisarius of Aries, who composed some moral writings, 
and drew up a rule of conduct and discipline for the Holy 
Virgins. 

Fulgentius, bishop of Ruspina, who attacked with great 
warmth the Arians and Pelagians in Africa ; but whose 
style and manner were harsh and uncouth, as was gene- 
rally the case of the African writers. d 

Ennodius, bishop of Ticinum, who was not one of the 
meanest authors of this century, whether we consider his 
compositions in prose or in verse; though he disgraced his 
talents, and dishonoured his eloquence, by his infamous 
adulation of the Roman pontiff, whom he so exalted 
above all mortals, as to maintain that he was answerable 
to none upon earth for his conduct, and subject to no hu- 
man tribunals 

Benedict of Nursia, who acquired an immortal name, 
by the rules he laid down for the order which he insti- 
tuted, and the multitude of religious societies that submit- 
ted to his discipline. 

Dionysius, who was surnamed the Little, on account of 
his extraordinary humility, and was deservedly esteemed 
for his Collection of the ancient Canons, and also for his 
Chronological Researches. 

Fulgentius Ferrandus, an African, who acquired a con- 
siderable degree of reputation by several treatises, but es- 
pecially by his Abridgment of the Canons, though his 
style and diction were entirely destitute of harmony and 
elegance. 

Facundus, a strenuous defender of the Three Chap- 
ters, of which we shall give an account in their place. 

Arator, who translated, with tolerable success, the Acts 
of the Apostles into Latin verse. 

Primasius of Adrumetum, whose Commentary upon the 
Epistles of St. Paul, as also his book concerning Heresies, 
are yet extant. 

Liberatus, whose Compendious History of the Nesto- 
rian and Eutychian controversies, must entitle him to an 
eminent rank among the writers of this century. 

Fortunatus, a man of various erudition, and whose 
poetic compositions are far from being destitute of genius. 1 " 

Gregory of Tours, who is esteemed the father of Gallic 
history; and who would have descended with honour to 
posterity, did not his Annals of the Franks, and the rest of 
his writings, carry so many marks of levity, credulity, and 
weakness, e 



1 See, for an account of this book, Simon, torn. i. p 232; as alsoBarat. 
Bibliotheque Choisie, torn. ii. p. 21. 

t> A splendid edition of the works of Gregory was published at Paris, 
in 1705, by father St. Marthc, a Benedictine monk. See an account of 
this pontiff, Acta Sanctor. torn. ii. Martii, p. 121. 

" Of this writer, the Benedictine monks have given a learned account, 
in their Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iii. p. 190. 

i See, for an account of Fulgentius, the Acta Sanct. torn. i. Jan. p. 32, &c. 

« Hist. Lit. de la France, torn. iii. p. 90 * Ibid. torn. iii. p. 464. 



Gildas, the most ancient of the British writers, who 
composed a book concerning the destruction of Britain, in 
which there are several things not altogether unworthy of 
the curiosity of the learned. 

Columban, a native of Ireland, who became famous on 
account of the monastic rules he prescribed to his followers, 
his zeal for establishing religious orders, and his poetical 
productions. 11 

Isidore, bishop of Seville, whose grammatical, theologi- 
cal, and historical productions, discover more learning and 
pedantry, than judgment and taste. 

We may conclude this enumeration of the Latin wri- 
ters with the illustrious names of Boethius and Cassiodo- 
rus, who far surpassed all their contemporaries in learning 
and knowledge. The former shone forth with the bright- 
est lustre in the republic of letters, as a philosopner, an 
orator, a poet, and a divine, and both in elegance and sub- 
tilty of genius had no superior, nor indeed any equal in 
this century; the latter, though in many respects inferior 
to him, was nevertheless far from being destitute of merit.! 
Several productions of these writers have been transmitted 
to our times. 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Church during this 
Century. 

I. "When once the ministers of the church had departed 
from the ancient simplicity of religious worship, and sullied 
the native purity of divine truth by a motley mixture of 
human inventions, it was difficult to set bounds to this 
growing corruption. Abuses were daily multiplied, and su- 
perstition drew from its horrid fecundity an incredible num- 
ber of absurdities, which were added to the doctrine of 
Christ and his apostles. The controversial writers in the 
eastern provinces continued to render perplexed and ob- 
scure some of the principal doctrines of Christianity, by the 
subtile distinctions which they borrowed from a vain and 
chimerical philosophy. The public teachers and instructors 
of the people grievously degenerated from the apostolic cha- 
racter. They seemed to aim at nothing else, than to sink 
the multitude into the most opprobrious ignorance and su- 
perstition, to efface from their minds all sense of the beauty 
and excellence of genuine piety, and to substitute, in the 
place of religious principles, a blind veneration for the clergy 
and a stupid zeal for a senseless round of ridiculous cere- 
monies. This, perhaps, will appear less surprising, when 
we consider, that the ' blind led the blind ;' for the public 
ministers and teachers of religion were, for the most part, 
grossly ignorant ; indeed, almost as much so as the people 
whom they were appointed to instruct. 

II. To be convinced of the truth of the dismal repre- 
sentation we have here given of the state of religion at this 
time, nothing more is necessary, than to cast an eye upon 
the doctrines now taught concerning the worship of ima- 
ges and saints, the fire of purgatory, the efficacy of good 



s The life of Gregory of Tours is to be found in the work last quoted, 
and his faults are mentioned by Pagi, in his Dissert, de Dionysio Paris, 
sect. 25, which is added to the fourth tome of the Breviarium Pontif. 
Romanor. Launoy defends tins historian in many things in his works, 
torn. i. part ii. p. 131. 

h No writers have given more accurate accounts of Gildas and Colum- 
ban, than the learned Benedictines, in the Hist. Lit. de la France, torn. 
iii. p. 279, 505. 

i See Simon's Critique de la Bibliotheque de M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 211 



Chap. HI. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



139 



works, i. e. the observance of human rites and institu- 
tions, toward the attainment of salvation, the power of 
relics to heal the diseases of bod) r and mind ; and the like 
sordid and miserable fancies, which are inculcated in many 
of the superstitious productions of this century, and parti- 
cularly in the epistles and other writings of Gregory the 
Great. Nothing could be more ridiculous on one hand, 
than the solemnity and liberality with which this good, 
but silly pontiff, distributed the wonder-working relics; 
and nothing more lamentable on the other, than the stu- 
pid eagerness and devotion with which the deluded mul- 
titude received them, and suffered themselves to be per- 
suaded, that a portion of rancid oil, taken from the lamps 
which burned at the tombs of the martyrs, had a super- 
natural efficacy to sanctify its possessors, and to defend 
them from all dangers, both of a temporal and spiritual 
nature.* 

III. Several attempts were made in this century to lay 
down a proper and judicious method of explaining the 
Scriptures. Of this nature were the two books of Juni- 
lius the African, concerning the various parts of the divine 
law ; b a work destitute of precision and method, and from 
which it appears that the author had not sufficient know- 
ledge and penetration for the task he undertook. 

Cassiodorus also, in his two books concerning the divine 
laws, has delivered several rules for the right interpreta- 
tion of the Scriptures. 

Philoxenus the Syrian translated, into his native lan- 
guage, the Psalms of David, and the Books of the 
New Testament.' 

Interpreters were numerous in this century. Those 
who made the greatest figure among the Greeks in this 
character, were Procopius of Gaza, Severus of Antioch, 
Julian, and a few others ; the first was an expositor of 
no mean abilities. 11 The most eminent rank, among the 
Latin commentators, is due to Gregory the Great, Cassio- 
dorus, Primasius/ Isidore of Seville/ and Bellator. 

IV. It must, however, be acknowledged, that these writers 
scarcely deserve the name of expositors, if we except a 
small number of them, and among these the eastern Nes- 
torians, who following the example of Theodore of Mop- 
suestia, were careful in exploring the true sense and the 
native energy of the words employed in the Scriptures. 
We may, therefore, divide the commentators of this age 
into two classes. In the first, we rank those w T ho did 
nothing more than collect the opinions and interpretations 
which had been received by the ancient doctors of the 
church ; which collections were afterwards called chains 
by the Latins.^ Such were the chains of Olympiodorus 
on Job, and of Victor of Capua on the four Gospels ; and 
the commentary of Primasius on the Epistle to the Romans, 
which was compiled from the works of Augustin, Jerome, 
Ambrose, and others. Even Procopius of Gaza may be 
ranked hi this class, though not -with so much reason as the 
mere compilers now mentioned, since, in many cases, he 
has consulted the dictates of his own judgment, and not 
followed, with a servile and implicit submission, the voice 
of antiquity. To the second class belong those fanciful 

e See the List of sacred Oils which Gregory the Great sent to the 
queen Thaudelinda, in the work of Ruinartus, entitled, Acta Martyrum 
sincera et selecta, p. 619. b See Simon's Critique, torn. i. p. 229. 

c Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 83. 

* See Simon's Lettres Choisies, torn. iv. 

• Simon's Critique, torn. i. p. 226 ; and his Histoire des principalis 
Comiaentateurs du N. T. chap. xxiv. p. 337. 



expositors, who, setting up Origen as their great model, 
neglect and overlook entirely the sense of the words em- 
ployed by the sacred writers, lose themselves in spiritual 
refinements and allegorical digressions, and by the aid of a 
lively and luxuriant imagination, draw from the Scriptures 
arguments in favour of every whim they have thought 
proper to adopt. Such was Anastasius the Sinaite, whose 
Mysterious Contemplations, upon the six-days' Creation, h 
betray the levity and ignorance of their author. Such also 
was Gregory the Great, whose Moral Observations upon 
the Book of Job, formerly met with unmerited commenda- 
tions. Such were Isidore of Seville and Primasius, as 
manifestly appears from that Book of Allegories upon the 
Holy Scriptures,' which was invented by the former, and 
from the Mystical Exposition of the book of the Revela- 
tion/ which was imagined by the latter. 

V. It would be needless to expect from the divines of 
this century, an accurate view, or a clear and natural ex- 
planation, of the Christian doctrine. The greatest part of 
them reasoned and disputed concerning the truths of the 
Gospel, as the blind would argue about light and colours ; 
and imagined that they had acquitted themselves nobly, 
when they had thrown out a heap of crude and indigested 
notions, and overwhelmed their adversaries with a torrent 
of words. 

We may perceive, however, in the writers of this age, 
evident marks of the three different methods of explain- 
ing and inculcating the doctrines of religion which are yet 
practised among the Greeks and Latins ; for some collected 
a heap, rather than a system of theological opinions, from 
the writings of the ancient doctors, from the decrees of 
councils, and from the Scriptures ; such were Isidore of 
Seville among the Latins, (whose three books of sentences 
or opinions are still extant,) and Leontius the Cyprian 
among the Greeks, whose common-place book of divinity 
was much esteemed. These authors gave rise to that 
species of divinity, which the Latins afterwards distin- 
guished by the name of positive theology. 

Others endeavoured to explain the various doctrines of 
Christianity by reasoning upon their nature/heir excellency 
and fitness ; and thus it was, with the strong weapons of 
reason and argument, that many of the Christian doctors 
disputed against the Nestorians, the Eutychians, and the 
Pelagians. These metaphysical divines were called school- 
men, and their writings were afterwards characterized by 
the general term of scholastic divinity. 

A third class of theological teachers, very different from 
those already mentioned, comprehended a certain species 
of fanatics, who maintained that the knowledge of divine 
truth was only to be derived from inward feeling and men- 
tal contemplation. This class assumed the appellation of 
?)iystics. These three methods of deducing and unfold- 
ing the doctrines of the Gospel have been transmitted down 
to our times. No writer of this century composed a judicious 
or complete system of divinity, though several branches of 
that sacred science were occasionally illustrated. 

VI. Those who consecrated their pious labours to the 
advancement of practical religion, and moral virtue, aimed 

' Simon's Critique, torn. i. p. 259. 

E Le Moyhe, Prolegomena ad varia Sacra, p. 53. — Fabricii Biblioth. 
Grjeea, lib. v. cap. xvii. 

t> The tide is, Contemplationes Anagogicae in Hexaemeron. 
i Liber Allegoriarum in Scripturam Saeram. 
k Expositio Mystica in Apocalypsin. 



140 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



at the accomplishment of this good purpose, partly by lay- 
ing down precepts, and partly by exhibiting edifying exam- 
ples. They who promoted the cause of piety and virtue 
in the former way modified their instructions according to 
the state and circumstances of the persons for whom they 
were designed. Peculiar precepts were addressed to those 
who had not abandoned the connexions of civil society, but 
lived amidst the hurry of worldly affairs ; while different 
rules were administered to those who aspired to higher de- 
grees of perfection, and lived in a state of seclusion from 
the contagion and vanities of the world. The precepts, ad- 
dressed to the former, represent the Christian life, as con- 
sisting in certain external virtues and acts of religion ; 
as appears from the Homilies and Exhortations of Csesa- 
rius, the Capita Parsenetica of Agapetus, and especially 
from the Formula honestse Vitee, i. e. the Summary of a 
virtuous Life, drawn up by Martin, archbishop of Braga. a 
The rules administered to the latter sort of Christians, 
were more spiritual and sublime : they were exhorted to 
separate, as far as was possible, the soul from the body by 
divine contemplation; and for that purpose, to enervate 
and emaciate the latter by watching, fasting, perpetual 
prayer, and singing of psalms ; as we find in the disserta- 
tion of Fulgentius upon fasting, and those of Nicetius, 
concerning the vigils of the servants of God, and the 
good effects of psalmody. The Greeks adopted for their 
leader, in this mystic labyrinth, Dionysius, falsely called 
the Areopagite, whose pretended writings John of Scytho- 
polis illustrated with annotations in this century. We 
need not be at any pains in pointing out the defects of 
these injudicious zealots ; the smallest acquaintance with 
that rational religion, which is contained in the Gospel, 
will be sufficient to open the eyes of the impartial to the 
absurdities of that chimerical devotion we have now been 
describing. 

VII. They who enforced the duties of Christianity, by 
exhibiting examples of piety and virtue to the view of 
those for whom their instructions were designed, Avrote, for 
this purpose, the Lives of the Saints ; and there was a 
considerable number of this kind of biographers both 
among the Greeks and Latins. Ennodius, Eugypius, 
Cyril of Scythopolis, Dionysius the Little, Cogitosus, and 
others, are to be ranked in this class. But, however 
pious the intentions of these biographers may have been, 
it must be acknowledged, that they executed their task 
in a most contemptible manner. No models of rational 
piety are to be found among those pretended worthies, 
whom they propose to Christians as objects of imitation. 
They amuse their readers with gigantic fables and trifling 
romances : the examples they exhibit are those of certain 
delirious fa}iatics, whom they call saints, men of a cor- 
rupt and perverted judgment, who offered violence to rea- 
son and nature by the horrors of an extravagant austerity 
in their own conduct, and by the severity of those singu- 
lar and inhuman rules which they prescribed to others. 
For by what means were these men sainted? By starving 
themselves with senseless obstinacy, and bearing the use- 

• See the Acta Sanctor. Martii, torn. iii. p. 86. 

>> Cyril. Scythop. Vit. Sabrc, which is to be found in Cotelerius, Monu- 
menta Ecclesias Grascaj, p. 370. — Henr. Norris, Dissertat. de Synodo 
Quinta, cap. i. ii. p. 554. torn. i. op. 

c This edict is published in Harduini Concilia, torn. iii. p. 243. 

§3= i This edict was procured by the solicitation of Pelagius, who 
was legate of Vigilius at the court of Constantinople, with a view to 
confound the Acephali, who were admirers of Origen, and particularly 



less hardships of hunger, thirst, and inclement seasons 
with stedfastness and perseverance ; by running about the 
country like madmen, in tattered garments, and sometimes 
half-naked, or shutting themselves up in a narrow space, 
where they continued motionless; by standing for a long 
time in certain postures, with their eyes closed, in the enthu- 
siastic expectation of divine light. All this was ' saint-like 
and glorious ;' and the more any ambitious fanatic departed 
from the dictates of reason and common sense, and coun- 
terfeited the wild gestures and the incoherent conduct of 
an idiot or a lunatic, the surer was his prospect of obtain- 
ing an eminent rank among the heroes and demi-gods 
of a corrupt and degenerate church. 

VIII. Many writers laboured with diligence to termi- 
nate the reigning controversies, but none with success. Nor 
shall we be much surprised, that these efforts were ineffec- 
tual, when we consider how they were conducted ; for 
scarcely can we name a single writer, whose opposition to 
the Eutychians, Nestorians, and Pelagians, was carried on 
with probity, moderation, or prudence. Primasius and Phi 
loponus wrote concerning all the sects, but their works are 
lost ; the treatise of Leontius, upon the same extensive sub- 
ject, is still extant, but is scarcely worth perusing. Isidore 
of Seville, and Leontius of Neapolis, disputed against the 
Jews ; but with what success and dexterity will be easily 
imagined by those who are acquainted with the learning 
and logic of these times. We omit, therefore, any farther 
mention of the miserable disputants of this century, from 
a persuasion that it will be more useful and entertaining 
to lay before the reader a brief account of the controversies 
that now divided and troubled the Christian church. 

IX. Though the credit of Origen, and his system, 
seemed to lie expiring under the blows it had received 
from the zeal of the orthodox, and the repeated thunder of 
synods and councils, yet it was very far from being totally 
sunk. On the contrary, this great man, and his doctrine, 
were held by many, and especially by the monks, in the 
highest veneration, and cherished with a kind of enthusi- 
asm which became boundless and extravagant. In the 
west, Bellator translated the works of Origen into the 
Latin language. In the eastern provinces, and particular- 
ly in Syria and Palestine, which were the principal seats 
of Origenism, the monks, seconded by several bishops, and 
chiefly by Theodore of Cresarea in Cappadocia, defended 
the truth and authority of the doctrines of Origen against 
all his adversaries with incredible vehemence. b This cause 
was at length brought before Justinian, who, in a long and 
verbose edict, addressed to Mennas, patriarch of Constan- 
tinople, 6 passed a severe condemnation upon Origen and 
his doctrine, and ordered it to be entirely suppressed. 11 The 
effects of this edict were more violent than durable ; for, 
upon the breaking out of the controversy concerning the 
three chapters,* soon after this time, Origenism not only 
revived in Palestine, but even recovered new vigour, and 
spread itself far and wide. Hence many commotions were 
raised in the church, which were, however, terminated by 
the fifth general council, assembled at Constantinople by 

to vex Theodore, of whose credit with the emperor Pelagius was ex- 
tremely jealous. It was to return this affront, as well as to effect the pur- 
poses mentioned in the following section, that Theodore set on foot the 
controversy concerning the three chapters, which produced such tedious, 
cruel, and fatal dissensions in the church. See Basnage, Histoire de 
l'Eglise, livr. x. ch. vi. p. 520. 

• For an explication of what is meant by the three chapters, see note b 
of the xth section. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



141 



Justinian, in 533, in which Origen and his followers were 
again condemned. 1 

X. This controversy produced another, which continued 
much longer, was carried on with still more excessive de- 
grees of animosity and violence, and the subject of which 
was of much less moment and importance. The emperor 
Justinian was eagerly bent upon extirpating that violent 
branch of the Monophysites, which was distinguished by 
the name of Acephali ; and consulted, upon this matter, 
Theodore, bishop of Csesarea, who was a Monophysite, and, 
at the same time, extremely attached to the doctrine of 
Origen. The artful prelate considered this as a favourable 
occasion for procuring repose to the followers of Origen by 
exciting a new controversy, as also for throwing a reproach 
upon the council of Chalcedon, and giving a mortal blow to 
the Nestorians and their cause. In order to effect these 
three important purposes, he persuaded the emperor, that 
the Acephali would return to the bosom of the church, 
under the following easy and reasonable conditions ; 
namely, •■ That those passages in the acts of the council of 
Chalcedon, in which Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret 
of Cyrus, and Ibas of Edessa, had been pronounced ortho- 
dox, should be effaced ; and that the productions of these 
prelates, which were known by the appellation of the three 
chapters," as also other writings of theirs, which disco- 
vered a manifest propensity toward the Nestorian errors, 
should be condemned and prohibited." The emperor lent 
a propitious ear to the counsels of this prelate ; and, by an 
edict, published in 544, ordered the three chapters to be con- 
demned and effaced, without any prejudice, however, to the 
authority of the council of Chalcedon. This edict was 
warmly opposed by the African and western bishops, and 
particularly by Vigilius, the Roman pontiff, who considered 
it as highly injurious not only to the authority of the council 
now mentioned, but also to the memory of those holy men 
whose writings and characters it covered with reproach. d 
Upon this, Justinian ordered Vigilius to repair immediately 
to Constantinople, that, having him in his power, he might 
compel him with greater facility to acquiesce in the edict, 
and reject the three chapters ; and this method was attended 
with success, for the pontiff yielded. On the other hand, 
the bishops of Africa and Illyricum obliged Vigilius to 
retract his judicatitm, by which, in a council of seventy 
bishops, he had condemned the three chapters in obedience 
to the emperor ; for they separated themselves from the 



* See Harduini Concilia, torn. iii. p. 283. — Evagrius, Hist. Eccl. lib. 
iv. cap. xxxviii. — Basnage, livr. x. chap. vi. p. 517, &c. — Pet. Dan. 
Huetii Origeniana, lib. ii. p. 224. — Doucin's Singular. Dis. subjoined to 
his Historia Origeniana, p. 345. 

fj" i> The pieces that were distinguished by the appellation of the 
three chapters, were. 1. The writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia ; 2. 
The books which Theodoret of Cyrus wrote against the twelve Anathe- 
mas which Cyril had published against the Nestorians ; 3. The letter 
which tbas of Edessa had written to one Maris a Persian, concerning the 
council of Eohesus and the condemnation of Nestorius. These writings 
were supposed to favour the Nestorian doctrine, and such indeed was 
their tendency. It is, however, to be observed, that Theodore of Mop- 
suestia lived before the time of Nestorius, and died, not only in the com- 
munion of the church, but also in the highest reputation for his sanctity. 
Nor were the writings of the other two either condemned or censured by 
the council of Chalcedon; indeed, the faith of Theodoret and of Ibas was 
there declared entirely orthodox. The decision of the council of Con- 
stantinople, in opposition to this, shows that councils, as well as doctors, 
differ. 

See Harduini Concilia, torn. iii. p. 287. — Evagrius, Hist. Ecclesiast. 
lib. iv. cap. xxxviii. p. 412. 

<• Hen. Norris, de Synodo rruinta, cap. x. p. 579, torn. i. op. — Basnage, 
torn. i. livr. x. cap. vi. 

fQr " We do not find in the acts of this council any one which con- 

No. XII. 36 



communion of this pope, refused to acknowledge him as one 
of their brethren, and even treated him as an apostate, until 
he approved what he had been obliged to condemn. The 
effect of this retraction redoubled the zeal and violence of 
Justinian, who, by a second edict, published in 551, con- 
demned anew the three chapters. 

XI. After many cabals, commotions, and dissensions, 
which were occasioned by this trifling controversy, it was 
thought proper to submit the final decision of it to an assem- 
bly of the universal church. This assembly was according- 
ly convoked at Constantinople by Justinian, in 553, and is 
considered as the fifth oecumenical or general council. The 
emperor now gained his point; for. beside the doctrines of 
Origen, e the three chapters, the condemnation of which 
he had solely in view, were, by the bishops of the east, (for 

| there were very few western prelates present at this council,) 
declared heretical and pernicious. Vigilius, who was now 
at Constantinople, refused his assent to the decrees of this 
council ; for which reason, after having received various 
affronts, he was sent into exile. He was not permit- 
ted to return before he had acquiesced in the decisions 
of this assembly/ and, changing his sentiments for the 
fourth tune, had declared the opinions contained in the 
three chapters to be execrable blasphemies. His successor 
Pelagius, and all the Roman pon tills that have since lolled 
in the papal chair, adhered to the decrees of this council ; 
but neither their authority, nor that of the emperor, could 
prevail upon the western bishops to follow their example 
in this respect. Many of these, on the contrary, carried 
matters so far as to separate themselves from the commu- 
nion of the pope on this account ; and the divisions that 
hence arose in the church, were too violent to admit an 
expeditious or easy reconciliation, and could only be healed 
by length of time.s 

XII. Another controversy, much more important, had 
been carried on before this period among the Greeks ; it was 
first kindled in the year 519, and it arose upon the following 
question: Whether it could be said with propriety, that one 
of the Trinity suffered on the cross ? This was designed to 
embarrass the Nestorians, who seemed to separate too much 
the two natures in Christ; and the Scythian monks, who 
seconded this design, and to whom the rise of this contro- 
versy is principally to be imputed, maintained the affirma- 
tive of this nice and difficult question. Others asserted, on 
the contrary, that this manner of speaking ought by no 



demns the doctrines of Origen. It is, however, generally imagined, 
that these doctrines were condemned by this assembly ; and what gave 
rise to this notion was probably the fifteen Greek canons yet extant, in 
which tire principal errors of Origen are condemned, and which are en- 
titled, The canons of the 160 fathers, assembled in the council of Con- 
stantinople. The tenets of Origen, which gave the greatest offence, 
were the following : 1. That, in the Trinity, the Father is greater than 
die Son, and the Son than the Holy Ghost; 2. The pre-existence of 
souls, which Origen considered as sent into mortal bodies for the pun- 
ishment of sins committed in a former state of being; 3. That the soul 
of Christ was united to the word before the incarnation ; 4. That the sun, 
moon, and stars, &c. were animated and endowed with rational souls: 
5. That after the resurrection all bodies will be of a round figure ; G. That 
the torments of the damned will have an end; and that, as Christ had 
been crucified in this world to save mankind, he is to be crucified in the 
next to save the devils. 

f See Petr. de Marca, Dissert, de Decreto Vigilii pro Confirmatione 
Synodi V. which is to be found among the Dissertations subjoined to his 
learned work, de Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii. 

e The best account of this matter is to be found in Norris. de Synodo 
quinla oecumenica, though even this excellent author oannot be vin- 
dicated from the imputation of a certain degree of partiality. ^Sec 
also Christ, Lupus, Not. ad Concilium quintum, in his Adnotat. ad Con- 
cilia. 



142 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II- 



means to be adopted, since it bordered upon the erroneous 
expressions and tenets of the Theopaschites, who composed 
one 'of the sects into which the Eutychians were sub- 
divided. a The latter opinion was confirmed by Hormisdas 
the R.oman pontiff, to whom the Scythian monks had 
appealed in vain ; but this, instead of allaying the heat of 
the present controversy, only added new fuel to the flame. 
John II. who was one of the successors of Hormisdas, 
approved the proposition which the latter had condemned ; 
and, confirming the opinion of the Scythian monks, expo- 
sed the decisions of the papal oracle to the laughter of the 
wise. His sentence was afterwards sanctioned by the fifth 
general council; and thus peace was restored to the church 
by the conclusion of these unintelligible disputes. 15 

With the question now mentioned there was another 
closely and intimately connected, namely, Whether the 
person of Christ could be considered as compounded ? Of 
this question the Scythian monks maintained the affirma- 
tive and their adversaries the negative. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 

I. In this century the cause of true religion sunk apace, 
and the gloomy reign of superstition extended itself in 
proportion to the decay of genuine piety. This lamentable 
decay was supplied by a multitude of rites and ceremonies. 
In the east the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies 
gave occasion to the invention of various rites and external 
institutions, which were used as marks to distinguish the 
contending parties. The western churches were loaded 
with rites by Gregory the Great, who had a marvellous 
fecundity of genius in inventing, and an irresistible force 
of eloquence in recommending superstitious observances. 
Nor will this appear surprising to those who know, that 
in the opinion of this pontiff the words of the sacred 
writings were images of mysterious and invisible things ; 
for such as embrace this chimerical system will easily be 
led to express all the doctrines and precepts of religion by 
external rites and symbols. Gregory, indeed, is worthy of 
praise in this, that he did not pretend to force others to the 
observance of his inventions ; though this forbearance, 
perhaps, was as much occasioned by a want of power, as 
by a principle of moderation. 

II. This prodigious augmentation of rites and ceremo- 
nies rendered an augmentation of doctors and interpreters 
of these mysteries indispensably necessary. Hence a new 
kind of science arose, which had, for its object, the explica- 
tion of these ceremonies, and the investigation of the causes 
and circumstances whence they derived their origin. But 
most of those, who entered into these researches, never 
went to the fountain head, to the true sources of these idle 
inventions. They endeavoured to seek their origin in rea- 
son and Christianity ; but in this they deceived themselves, 
or, at least, deluded others, and delivered to the world their 
own fancies, instead of disclosing the true causes of things. 

f3r * The deacon Victor, and those who opposed the Scythian monks, 
expressed their opinion in the following; proposition : viz. One person 
of the Trinity suffered in the flesh. Both sides received the council of 
Chalcedon, acknowledged two natures in Christ, in opposition to Euty- 
ches, and only one person in opposition to Nestorius ; and yet, by a 
torrent of jargon, and a long chain of unintelligible syllogisms, the Scy- 
thian monks accused their adversaries of Nestorianism, and were accu- 
sed by them of the Eutychian heresy. 



Had they been acquainted with the opinions and customs 
of remote antiquity, or studied the pontifical law of the 
Greeks and Romans, they would have discovered the true 
origin of many institutions, which were falsely looked 
upon as venerable and sacred. 

III. The public wnrship of God was still celebrated b] 
every nation in its own language, but was enlarged, fron 
time to time, by the addition of various hymns, and othei 
things of that nature, which were considered as proper tc 
enliven devotion b}^ the power of novelty. Gregory the 
Great prescribed a new method of administering the Lord's 
supper, with a magnificent assemblage of pompous cere 
monies. This institution was called the canon of the 
mass ; and, if any are unwilling to give it the name of a 
new appointment, they must at least acknowledge, that it 
was a considerable augmentation of the ancient canon for 
celebrating the eucharist, and occasioned a remarkable 
change in the administration of that ordinance. Many 
ages, however, passed before this Gregorian canon was 
adopted by all the Latin churches/ 

Baptism, except in cases of necessity, was administered 
only on great festivals. We omit mentioning, for the sake of 
brevity, the litanies that were addressed to the saints, the 
different sorts of supplications, the stations or assemblies of 
Gregory, the forms of consecration, and other such in- 
stitutions, which were contrived, in this century, to excite 
a species of external devotion, and to engage the outward 
senses in religious worship. An inquiry into these topics 
would of itself deserve to be made the subject of a separate 
work. 

IV. An incredible number of temples arose in honour 
of the saints, during this century, both in the eastern and 
western provinces. The places set apart for public wor- 
ship were already very numerous ; but it was now that 
Christians first began to consider these sacred edifices as 
the means of purchasing the favour and protection of the 
saints,, and to be persuaded that these departed spirits 
defended and guarded, against evils and calamities of 
every kind, the provinces, lands, cities, and villages, in 
which they were honoured with temples. The number of 
festivals, which were now observed in the Christian church, 
and many of which seem to have been instituted upon a 
pagan model, nearly equalled the amount of the temples. 

To those tbat were celebrated, in the preceding century 
were now added the festival of the purification of the bless 
ed Virgin, (invented with a design to remove the uneasi- 
ness of the heathen converts on account of the loss of their 
Lupercalia or feasts of Pan,) the festival of the immaculate 
conception, the day set apart to commemorate the birth of 
St. John, and others less worthy of mention. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The various sectswhich had fomented divisions among 
Christians in the early ages of the church, were far from 



•> See Historia Controversiae de uno ex Trinitate passo, by Norris, 
torn. iii. op. p. 771. The ancient writers who mention this controversyj 
call the monks who set it on foot, Scythians. But la Croze (Thesaur. 
Epist. torn, iii.) imagines, that the country of these monks was Egpyt, 
and not Scy thia ; and this conjecture is supported by reasons which carry 
in them, at least, a high degree of probability. 

c See Theod. Chr. Lilienlhal, de Canone Missa Gregoriano. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



143 



being effectually suppressed or totally extirpated. Though 
they had been persecuted and afflicted with a variety of 
hardships, trials, and calamities, yet they still subsisted, 
and continued to excite dissensions and tumults in many 
places. The Manicheans are said to have gained such a 
degree of influence among the Persians, as to have corrupt- 
ed even the son of Kobad, the monarch of that nation, who 
repaid their zeal in making proselytes with a terrible mas- 
sacre, in which numbers of that impious sect perished in 
the most dreadful manner. Nor was Persia the only 
country which was troubled with the attempts of the Man- 
icheans to spread their odious doctrine ; other provinces of 
the empire were undoubtedly infected with their errors, 
as we may judge from the book that was written against 
them by Heraclian, bishop of Chalcedon. 8 - In Gaul and 
Africa, dissensions of a different kind prevailed; and the 
controversy between the Semi-Pelagians and the disciples 
of Augustin continued to divide the western churches. 

II. The Donatists enjoyed the sweets of freedom and 
tranquillity, as long as the Yandals reigned in Africa ; 
but the scene was greatly changed with respect to them, 
when the empire of these barbarians was overturned in 
534. They, however, still remained in a separate body, 
and not only held their church, but, toward the conclusion 
of this century, and particularly from the year 591, defend- 
ed themselves with new degrees of animosity and vigour, 
and were bold enough to attempt the multiplication of 
their sect. Gregory, the Roman pontiff, opposed these 
efforts with great spirit and assiduity ; and as appears from 
his epistles, 15 tried various methods of depressing this fac- 
tion, which was pluming its wings anew, and aiming at 
the revival of those lamentable divisions which it had for- 
merly excited in the church. Nor was the opposition of the 
zealous pontiff without effect ; it seems on the contrary to 
have been attended with the desired success, since in this 
century, the church of the Donatists dwindled away to 
nothing, and after this period no traces of it are to be found. 

III. About the commencement of this century, the 
Arians were triumphant in several parts of Asia, Africa, 
and Europe. Many of the Asiatic bishops favoured them 
secretly, while their opinions were openly professed, and 
their cause maintained by the Vandals in Africa, the Goths 
in Italy, the Spaniards, the Burgundians, the Suevi, and 
the greatest part of the Gauls. It is true, that the Greeks, 
who had received the decrees of the council of Nice, perse- 
cuted and oppressed the Arians wherever their influence 
and authority could reach; but the Nicenians, in their 
turn, were not less rigorously treated by their adversaries, 
particularly in Africa and Italy, where they felt, in a very 
severe manner, the weight of the Arian power, and the 
bitterness of hostile resentment. 

The triumphs of Arianism were, however, transitory, 
and its prosperous days were entirely eclipsed, when the 
Vandals were driven out of Africa, and the Goths out of 

* See Photius, Biblioth. cod. cxiv. p. 291. 

aSeehisEpis. lib. iv.ep. xxxiv. xxxv. p. 714, 715, lib. vi. ep. lxv. p. 841, 
ep. xxxvii. p. 821, lib. ix. ep. liii. p. 972. lib. ii. ep. xlviii. p. 611, t. ii. op. 

• Procopius, de Bello Vandal, lib. i. cap. viii, and de Bello Gothico, lib. 
Li. cap. ii. — Evagrius, Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. iv. cap. xv. 

J See Mascovii Historia German, torn. ii. p. 76, 91. See also an ac- 
count of the barbarian kings, who abandoned Arianism, and received 
the doctrines of the Nicene council, in the Acta Sanctorum, torn. ii. 
Martii. p. 275, and April, p. 134. 

Cosmas Indicopleustes, Topograph. Christian, lib. ii. p. 125, which 
is to be found in Montfaucon's Collectio nova PP. Graxorum. 



Italy, by the arms of Justinian ; d for the other Arian princes 
were easily induced to abandon, themselves, the doctrine 
of that sect ; and not only so, but to employ the force of 
laws and the authority of councils to prevent its progress 
among their subjects, and to extirpate it entirely out of 
their dominions. Such was the conduct of Sigismond 
king of the Burgundians ; also of Theodimir king of the 
Suevi, who had settled in Lusitania ; and Recared king 
of Spain. "Whether this change was produced by the force 
of reason and argument, or by the influence of hopes and 
fears, is a question which Ave shall not pretend to deter- 
mine. One thing, however, is certain, that, from this pe- 
riod, the Allan sect declined apace, and could never after 
recover any considerable degree of stability and consistence. 

IV . The Nestorians, after having gained a firm foot- 
ing in Persia, and established the patriarch or head of 
their sect at Seleucia, extended their views, and spread 
their doctrines, with a success equal to the ardour of their 
zeal, through the provinces situated beyond the limits of (he 
Roman empire. There are yet extant authentic records, 
from which it appears, that, throughout Persia, as also in 
India, Armenia, Arabia, Syria, and other countries, there 
were vast numbers of Nestorian churches, all under the 
jurisdiction of the patriarch of Seleucia. c It is true, indeed 
that the Persian monarchs were not all equally favour- 
able to this growing sect, and that some of them even per- 
secuted, with the utmost severity, all those who bore the 
Christian name throughout then dominions ; f but it is also 
true that such of these princes, as were disposed to exercise 
moderation and benignity toward the Christians, were 
much more indulgent to the Nestorians, than to their ad- 
versaries who adhered to the council of Ephesus, since the 
latter were considered as spies employed by the Greeks, 
with whom they were connected b) 7 the ties of religion. 

V. The Monophysites, or Eutychians. flourished also in 
this century, and had gained over to their doctrine a con- 
siderable part of the eastern provinces. The emperor Anas- 
tasius was warmly attached to the doctrine and sect of 
the Acephali, who were reckoned among the more rigid 
Monophysites ;e and, in 513, he created patriarch of An- 
tioch, (in the room of Flavian, whom he had expelled 
from that see,) Severus, a learned monk, of Palestine, 
from whom the Monophysites were called Severians. h 
This emperor exerted all his influence and authority to 
destroy the credit of the council of Chalcedon in the east, 
and to maintain the cause of those who adhered to the 
doctrine of one nature in Christ ; and by the ardour and 
vehemence of his zeal, he excited the most deplorable 
seditions and tumults in the church.! After the death of 
Anastasius, which happened in 518, Severus was expelled 
in his turn ; and the sect which the late emperor had 
maintained and propagated with such zeal and assiduity, 
was every where opposed and depressed by his successor 
Justin, and the following emperors, in such a manner, that 

f Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Vatic, torn. iii. part i. p. 109. 407, 411, 
441, 449 ; torn. iii. part ii. cap. v. sect. ii. p. 83. 

e Evagrius, Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. iii. cap. xxx. xliv., &c. Theadori 
Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. ii. p. 562. See also the Index Operum Sevcri, as it 
stands collected from ancient MSS. in Montfaucon's Bibliotheca Coisli- 
niana, p. 53. 

i> See Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 47, 321. — Euseb- 
Renaudot, Historia Patriarch. Alexandrinor. p. 127, &c. 

■ Evagrius, Hist. Ecclesiast. lib. iii. cap. xxxiii. — Cyrillus, vita Sabat 
in Jo. Bapt. Cotelerii Monument. Ecclesiae Grscse, torn. iii. p. 312.— 
Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Anastasius. 



144 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



it seemed to be on the very brink of ruin, notwithstand- 
ing that it had created Sergius patriarch in the place of 
Severus.* 

VI. When the affairs of the Monophysites were in such 
a desperate situation, that almost all hope of their recovery 
had vanished, and their bishops were reduced, by death 
and imprisonment, to a very small number, an obscure 
man whose name was Jacob, and who was distinguished 
from others so called, by the surname of Baradeeus, or 
Zanzalus, restored this expiring sect to its former prospe- 
rity and lustre. b This poor monk, the greatness of whose 
views rose far above the obscurity of his station, and whose 
fortitude and patience no dangers could daunt, nor any 
labours exhaust, was ordained to the episcopal office by a 
handful of captive bishops, travelled on foot through the 
whole east, established bishops and presbyters every where, 
revived the drooping spirits of the Monophysites, and pro- 
duced such an astonishing change in their affairs by the 
power of his eloquence, and by his incredible activity and 
diligence, that when he died bishop of Edessa, in 578, 
he left his sect in a most flourishing state in Syria, Meso- 
potamia, Armenia, Egypt, Nubia, Abyssinia, and other 
countries. This dexterous monk had prudence to con- 
trive the means of success, as well as activity to put them 
in execution; for he almost totally extinguished all the 
animosities, and reconciled all the factions, that had divided 
the Monophysites ; and when their churches grew so nu- 
merous in the east, that they could not all be conveniently 
comprehended under the sole jurisdiction of the patriarch of 
AntLoch, he appointed, as his assistant, the primate of the 
east, whose residence was at Tagritis, on the borders of 
Armenia. d The laborious efforts of Jacob were seconded 
in Egypt and the adjacent countries, by Theodosius bi- 
shop of Alexandria ; and he became so famous, that all 
the Monophysites of the east considered him as their 
second parent and founder, and are to this day called Ja- 
cobites, in honour of their new chief. 

VII. Thus it happened, that, by the imprudent zeal and 
violence which the Greeks employed in defending the 
truth, the Monophysites gained considerable advantages, 
and, at length, obtained a solid and permanent settlement. 
From this period their sect has been under the jurisdiction 
of the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, who, not- 
withstanding the difference of opinion which subsists, with 
respect to some points, between the Syrian and Egyptian 
Monophysites, are exceedingly careful to maintain commu- 
nion with each other, both by letters, and by the exchange 
of good offices. The Abyssinian primate is subject to the 
patriarch of Alexandria; and the primate of the east, who 
resides at Tagritis, is under the jurisdiction of the patri- 
arch of Antioch. The Armenians are ruled by a bishop 
of their own, and are distinguished by certain opinions 
and rites from the rest of the Monophysites.- 

VIII. The sect of the Monophysites, before it was thus 
happily established, was torn with factions and intestine dis- 
putes, and suffered, in a particular manner, from that nice 

1 See Abulpharajii Series Patriarch. Antiochen. in Biblioth. Orient. 
Vatican, torn. ii. 

b See Biblioth. Orient. &c. torn. ii. cap. viii. p. 62, 72, 326, 331, 414.— 
Eusebii Renaud. Hist. Patriarch. Alexandr. p. 119, 133, 425, and the 
Liturgia Orient, torn. ii. p. 333, 342. — Faustus Naironus, Euoplia Fidei 
Catholicae ex Syrorum Monumentis, part i. p. 40, 41. 

c With regard to the Nubians and Abyssinians, see the Biblioth. Orient, 
torn. ii. p. 330. — Lobo, Voyage n'A'oyssinie, torn. ii. p. 36. — Ludolph. 
Commentar. ad Historiam iEthiopicam, p. 451. 



and subtile controversy concerning the body of Christ 
which arose at Alexandria. Julian, bishop of Halicarnas- 
sus, affirmed, in 519, that the divine nature had so in- 
sinuated itself into the body of Christ, from the very mo- 
ment of the Virgin's conception, that the body of our Lord 
changed its nature, and became incorruptible. This opi- 
nion was also embraced by Caianus, bishop of Alexandria; 
from whom those who adopted it were called Caianists. 
They were, however, divided into three sects, two of which 
debated this question, whether the body of Christ was 
created or uncreated, while the third asserted, that our 
Lord's body was indeed corruptible, but never actually 
corrupted, since the energy of the divine nature must have 
prevented its dissolution. 

This sect was warmly opposed by Severus of Antioch, 
and Damianus, who maintained that the body of Christ, 
before his resurrection, was truly cormptible, i. e. subject 
to the affections and changes with which human nature is 
generally attended. Those who embraced the opinion of 
Julian, were called Aphthartodoceta?, Docetee, Phantasiasts, 
and even Manicheans, because it was supposed to follow 
from their hypothesis, that Christ did not suffer in reality, 
but only in appearance, hunger and thirst, pain and death ; 
and that he did not actually assume the common affections 
and properties of human nature. On the other hand, the 
votaries of Severus were distinguished by the names 
Phthartolatrae, Ktistolatrae, and Creaticolae. This misera- 
ble controversy was carried on with great warmth un- 
der the reign of Justinian, who favoured the Aphthartodo- 
cetae ; soon after, it subsided gradually ; and, at length, 
was happily hushed in silence. e Xenaias of Hierapolis 
struck out an hypothesis upon this knotty matter, which 
seemed equally remote from those of the contending par- 
ties ; for he maintained that Christ had, indeed, truly 
suffered the various sensations to which humanity is expo- 
sed, but that he suffered them not in his nature, but by a 
submissive act of his will. 1 

IX. Some of the Corrupticolae, (for so they were called 
who looked upon the body of Christ to be corruptible,) 
particularly Themistius, a deacon of Alexandria, and 
Theodosius, a bishop of that city, were led by the inconsi- 
derate heat of controversy into another opinion, which pro- 
duced new commotions in the church toward the conclusion 
of this century. They affirmed, that to the divine nature 
of Christ all things were known, but that from his human 
nature many things were concealed. The rest of the sect 
charged the authors of this opinion with imputing ignorance 
to the divine nature of Christ, since they held, that there 
was but one nature in the Son of God. Hence the vota- 
ries of this new doctrine were called Agnoetee;= but their 
sect was so weak and ill-supported, that, notwithstanding 
their eloquence and activity, which seemed to promise 
better success, it gradually declined, and came to no- 
thing. 

X. From the controversies with the Monophysites arose 
the sect of the Tritheists, w T hose chief was John Ascusnage 



i Asseman. Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 410. See also this learned 
writer's Dissertatio de Monophysitis. 

• Timotheus, de Receptione HKreticorum, in Cotelerii Monumentis 
Ecclesiae GraeccB, torn. iii. p. 409. — Liberates, in Breviario Controv. cap. 
xx. — Forbesii Instructiones Historico-Theologicae, lib. iii. cap. xviii. p. 
108. — Asseman. Biblioth. Oriental, torn. iii. part ii. p. 457. 

f Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 22, and 168. 

* Cotelerius, ad Monumenta Ecclesise Graecre, torn. iii. p. 641. — Mich, 
le Ctuien, ad Damascenum de Hairesibus, torn. i. p. 107. — Forbes, Ins- 



Chap. T. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



145 



a Syrian philosopher, and, at the same time, a Monophy- 
6ite.» This man imagined in the Deity three natures, or 
substances, absolutely equal in all respects, and joined toge- 
ther by no common essence ; to which opinion his adver- 
saries gave the name of Tritheism. One of the warmest 
defenders of this doctrine was John Philoponus, an Alex- 
andrian philosopher, and a grammarian of the highest 
reputation ; and hence he has been considered by many 
as the author of this sect, whose members have conse- 
quently derived from him the title of Philoponists. b 

This sect was divided into two parties, the Philoponists 
and the Cononites ; the latter of whom were so called from 
Conon bishop of Tarsus, their chief. They agreed in the 
doctrine of three persons in the Godhead, and differed only 
in their manner of explaining what the Scriptures taught 
concerning the resurrection of the body. Philoponus main- 
tained, that the form and matter of all bodies were gene- 



tructiones Historico-Theo. lib. iii. cap. xix. p. 119.— Photius, Bib. Cod. 230. 

■ See Gregor. Abulpharajius, in Biblioth. Orient, torn. i. p. 328. 

fc See Fabricii Biblioth. Graec. lib. v. cap. xxxvii. p. 358. — Harduini 
Concilia, torn. iii. p. 1288. — Timotheus, de Receptione Hsereticorum, 



rated and corrupted, and that both therefore were to be 
restored in the resurrection. Conon held, on the contrary, 
that the body never lost its form : that its matter alone 
was subject to corruption and decay, and was consequent- 
ly to be restored when ' this mortal shall put on immor- 
tality.' 

A third faction was that of the Damianists, who were 
so called from Damian bishop of Alexandria, and whose 
opinion concerning the Trinity was different from those 
already mentioned. They distinguished the divine essence 
from the three persons, and denied that each person was 
God, when considered in itself, abstractedly from the other 
two ; but affirmed that there was a common divinity, by 
the joint participation of which each was God. They there- 
fore called the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, hypostases, 
or persons, and the Godhead, which was common to them 
all, substance or nature.* 

apud Cotelerii Monumenta Ecclesiae Graecae, torn. iii. p. 414. — Jo. E a- 
mascenus, de Hseresibus, torn. i. op. 

° Photii Biblioth. Cod. xxiv. — Biblioth. Orient torn. ii, t>. 329. 

<> Biblioth. Orient, torn. ii. p. 78, 332, &c. 



No. xm. 



37 



THE SEVENTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events which happened in 
the Church during this Century. 

I. In this century the progress of Christianity was great- 
ly accelerated both in the eastern and western hemispheres, 
and its divine light was widely diffused through the dark- 
ened nations. The Nestorians who dwelt in Syria, Persia, 
and India, contributed much to its propagation in the east, 
by the zeal and diligence, the laborious efforts and indefa- 
tigable assiduity, with which they preached it to those 
fierce and barbarous nations, who lived in the remotest 
regions and deserts of Asia, and among whom, as we 
learn from authentic records, their ministry was crowned 
with remarkable success. It was by the labours of this 
sect, that the light of the Gospel first penetrated into the 
immense empire of China, about the year 636, when 
Jesuiabas of Gadala was at the head of the Nestorians, as 
will appear probable to those Avho consider as genuine the 
famous Chinese monument, which was discovered at 
Sigenfu by the Jesuits during the last century. 1 Some 
look, indeed, upon this monument as a mere forgery of 
the Jesuits, though, perhaps, without reason : there are, 
however, some unexceptionable proofs, that the northern 
parts of China, even before this century, abounded with 
Christians, who, for many succeeding ages, were under 
the inspection of a metropolitan sent to them by the Chal- 
dean or Nestorian patriarch. 11 

II. The attention and activity of the Greeks were so 
entirely occupied by their intestine divisions, that they were 
little solicitous about the progress of Christianity. In the 
west, Augustin laboured to extend the limits of the church 
and to spread the light of the Gospel among the Anglo- 
Saxons ; and, after his death, other monks Avere sent from 
Rome, to exert themselves in the same glorious cause. 
Their efforts were attended with the desired success : and 
the efficacy of their labours was manifested in the conver- 

1 This celebrated monument has been published and explained by 
several learned writers, particularly by Kircher, in his China Illustrata ; 
by Muller, in a treatise published at Berlin in 1672 ; by Renaudot, in his 
Relations anciennes des Indes et de la Chine, de deux Voyageurs Ma- 
hometans, p. 228 — 271, published at Paris in 1718; and by Assemanus, 
in his Biblioth. Orient, torn. iii. in part ii. cap. iv. sect. 7. p. 533. A still 
more accurate edition of this famous monument was promised to us by 
the learned Theoph. Sigefred Bayer, the greatest proficient of this age in 
Chinese erudition ; but his death has blasted our expectations. For my 
part, I see no reason to doubt the genuineness of this monument ; nor can 
I understand what advantage could redound to the Jesuits from the inven- 
tion of such a fable. See Liron, Singularites Historiques et Literaires, 
torn. ii. p. 500. 

t See Renaudot, p. 56, 68, &c. also Assemani Biblioth. cap. ix. p. 522; 
the learned Bayer, in the Preface to his Museum Sinicum, assures us, 
that he had in his hands such proofs of the truth of what is here af- 
firmed, as put the matter beyond all doubt. g^T See on this subject a 
very learned dissertation published by M. de Guines in the thirtieth vol. 
of the Memoires de Literature, tires des Registres de l'Academie Royale 
des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, in which he proves that the Christians 
were settled in China so early as the seventh century. He remarks, 



sion of the six Anglo-Saxon kings, who had hitherto re- 
mained under the darkness of the ancient superstitions, to 
the Christian faith, which gained ground by degrees, and 
was, at length, embraced universally in Britain. 1 We 
are not, however, to imagine, that this general change in 
favour of Christianity was wholly due to the discourses of 
the Roman monks and doctors ; for other causes were cer- 
tainly instrumental in accomplishing this great event; 
and it is not to be doubted that the influence which some 
Christian queens, and ladies of high distinction, had over 
their husbands, and the pains they took to convert them to 
Christianity, as also the severe and rigorous laws that were 
afterwards enacted against idolaters," 5 contributed much to 
the progress of the Gospel. 

III. Many of the British, Scotish, and Irish ecclesiastics, 
travelled among the Batavian, Belgic, and German na- 
tions, with the pious intention of propagating the know- 
ledge of the truth, and of erecting churches, and forming 
religious establishments. This was the true reason which 
induced the Germans, in after-times, to found so many con 
vents for the Scotch and Irish, of which some yet remain. 6 

Columban, an Irish monk, seconded by the labours oi 
a few companions, had happily extirpated, in the prece- 
ding century, the ancient superstitions in Gaul, and tho 
parts adjacent, where idolatry had taken the deepest root ; 
he also carried the lamp of celestial truth among the Suevi, 
the Boii, the Franks, and other German nations/ and per 
severed in these pious and useful labours until his deaths 
which happened in 615. St. Gal, who was one of his 
companions, preached the Gospel to the Helvetii, and the. 
Suevi.s St. Kilian set out from Scotland, the place of 
his nativity, and exercised the ministerial function with 
such success among the eastern Franks, that vast numbers 
of them embraced Christianity. 11 Toward the conclusion 
of this century, the famous Willebrod, by birth an Anglo- 
Saxon, accompanied with eleven of his countrymen, viz. 
Suidbert, Wigbert, Acca, Wilibald, Unibald, Lebwin, the 



indeed, that the Nestorians and other Christians were for a long time 
confounded in the Chinese annals with the worshippers of Fo, an Indian 
idol, whose rites were introduced into China about 65 years after the 
birth of Christ; and that this circumstance has deceived De la Croze, 
Beausobre, and some other learned men, who have raised specious objec- 
tions against the hypothesis that maintains the early introduction of 
Christianity into this great empire. A reader, properly informed, will 
pay little or no attention to the account given of this matter by Voltaire 
in the first volume of his Essai sur PHistoire Generale. A poet, who 
recounts facts, or denies them, without deigningto produce his authori- 
ties, must not expect to meet with the credit that is due to an historian. 

c Bed« Historia Ecclesiast. Gentis Anglor. lib. ii. cap. iii. xiv. lib 
iii. cap. xxi. — Rapin de Thoyras, torn. i. 

d Wilkins' Concilia Magna? Britannia?, torn. i. p. 222. 

e See the Acta Sanctorum, torn. ii. Febr. p. 362. 

f Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ordinis Benedicti, torn. ii. iii. — Adaman. 
i lib. iii. deS. Columbano, in Canisii Lection. Antiq. torn. i. 

« Walafridi Strabonis Vit. Si Galli in Actis S. Ord. Benedict, torn. ii. 
— Canisii Lection. Antiq. torn. i. 

i> Vita S. Kiliani in Canisii Lection. Antiq. torn. iii. — Jo. Pet. de Lude- 
wig, Scriptores Rerum Wurzburgens. p. 966. 



Chap. I. 



PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 



147 



two Ewalds, Werenfrid, Marcellin, and Adalbert, crossed 
over into Batavia, which lay opposite to Britain, in order 
to convert the Friselanders to the religion of Jesus. Hence, 
in 692, they went into Fosteland, which most writers look 
upon to have been the same with the isle of Heligoland, 
or Heiligland; but, being cruelly treated there by Radbod, 
king of the Friselanders, who put Wigbert, one of the 
company, to death, they departed thence for Cimbria, and 
the adjacent parts of Denmark. They, however, returned 
to Friseland in 693, and were much more successful than 
they had formerly been in opposing the ancient supersti- 
tions, and propagating the knowledge of divine truth. 
Willebrod was ordained, by the Roman pontiff, archbi- 
shop of Wilteburg, now Utrecht, and died among the Ba- 
tavians in a good old age, while his associates continued 
to spread the light of the Gospel among the Westphalians 
and the neighbouring nations.* 

IV. These voyages, and many others, undertaken in 
the cause of Christ, carry, no doubt, a specious appearance 
of piety and zeal; but the impartial and attentive inqui- 
rer after truth will find it impossible to form the same fa- 
vourable judgment of them all, or to applaud, without 
distinction, the motives that animated these laborious mis- 
sionaries. That the designs of some of them were truly 
pious, and their characters without reproach, is unques- 
tionably certain ; but it is equally certain, that this was 
not the case of them all, or even of the greatest part of 
them. Many of them discovered, in the course of their 
ministry, the most turbulent passions, and dishonoured 
the glorious cause in which they were engaged, by their 
arrogance and ambition, their avarice and cruelty. They 
abused the power which they had received from the Ro- 
man pontiffs, of forming religious establishments among 
the superstitious nations ; and instead of gaining souls to 
Christ, they usurped a despotic dominion over their obse- 
quious proselytes, and exercised a princely authority over 
the countries where their ministry had been successful. 
Nor are we to consider, as entirely groundless the suspi- 
cions of those who allege that many of the monks, desi- 
rous of rule and authority, concealed their vices under the 
mask of religion, and endured for a time the austerities of 
a rigid mortification and abstinence, merely with a view to 
rise to the episcopal dignity. 

V. The conversion of the Jews seemed at a stand in 
this century; for few or none of that obstinate nation em- 
braced the Gospel in consequence of an inward convic- 
tion of its truth, though in many places they were barbar- 
ously compelled, by the Christians, to make an outward 
and feigned profession of their faith in Christ. The em- 
peror Heraclius, incensed against that miserable people 
by the insinuations, as it is said, of the Christian doctors 
peisecuted them in a cruel manner, and ordered multL 

* Alcuini Vita Willebrodi in Mabillon, Act. SS. Ord. Benedict, and 
Molleri Cimbria Literatae, torn. ii. p. 980. 

b Eutychii Annales Eccles. Alexandr. torn. ii. p. 212. 

* Eutychii Annales, torn. ii. p. 236. Jo. Henr. Hottingeri Historia 
Orientalis, lib. i. cap. iii. p. 129. 

* Mohammed himself expressly declared, that he was totally ignorant 
of all branches of learning and science, and was even unable either to 
write or read : and his followers have drawn from this ignorance an 
argument in favour of the divinity of his mission, and of the religion 
fie taught. It is, however, scarcely credible, that his ignorance was such 
is it is here described; and several of his sect have called in question 
the declarations of their chief relating to this point. See Chardin's Voy- 
ages en Perse, torn. iv. If we consider that he carried on, for a consi- 
derable time, a successful commerce in Arabia and the adjacent countries, 
this alone will convince us, that he must have been, in some measure, 



tudes of them to be inhumanly dragged into the Chris- 
tian churches, in order to be baptized by violence and 
compulsion. 11 The same odious method of converting was 
practised in Spain and Gaul, by the monarchs of those 
nations, against which even the bishops of Rome expressed 
their displeasure and indignation. Such were the horrid 
and abominable practices to which an ignorance of the true 
spirit of Christianity, and the barbarous genius of this age, 
led the heralds of that divine religion, which was designed 
to spread abroad charity upon earth, and to render man- 
kind truly and rationally free. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the calamitous Events that hapjiened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The Christians suffered less in this than in the pre- 
ceding centuries. They were sometimes persecuted by 
the Persian monarchs, but usually recovered their former 
tranquillity after transitory scenes of violence and oppres- 
sion. In England, the new converts to Christianity suf- 
fered various calamities under the petty kings, who go- 
verned in those boisterous times ; but these kings embraced 
the Gospel themselves, and then the sufferings of the 
Christians ceased. In the eastern countries, and particu- 
larly in Syria and Palestine, the Jews, at certain times, 
attacked the Christians with a merciless fury, c but with 
so little success, that they always had reason to repent of 
their temerity, which was severely chastised. It is true, 
the church had other enemies, even those who, under the 
treacherous profession of Christianity, were laying secret 
schemes for the restoration of Paganism : but they were 
too weak and too inconsiderable to form any attempts that 
could endanger the Christian cause. 

H. But a new and most powerful enemy to the Chris- 
tian cause started up in Arabia in 612, under the reign of 
Heraclius. This was Mahomet, or Mohammed, an illite- 
rate man/ but endowed by nature with the most flowing 
and attractive eloquence, and with a vast and penetrating 
genius, 6 distinguished also by the advantages he enjoyed 
from the place of his birth, which added a lustre to his 
name and his undertakings. This adventurous impostor 
publicly declared, that he was commissioned by Gcd to 
destroy polytheism and idolatry, and then to reform, first 
the religion of the Arabians, and afterwards the Jewish 
and Christian worship. For these purposes lie delivered 
a new law, which is known by the name of the Koran 
i. e. the book, by way of eminence ; r and, having gained 
several victories over his enemies, he compelled an incredi- 
ble multitude of persons, both in Arabia and the neigh- 
bouring nations, to receive his doctrine, and range them- 
selves under his standard. Elate with this rapid and 

instructed in the arts of reading, writing, and arithmetic, with the know- 
ledge of which a merchant cannot dispense. 

• The writers, to whom we are indebted for the accounts of the life 
and religion of Mohammed, are enumerated by Fabricius, in his Delec- 
tus et Syllabus Argumentorum, pro Veritate Religionis Christiana;: to 
which we may add Boulainvilliers' Vie de Mahomet, published at Lon- 
don in 1730, which, however, deserves rather die character of a romance, 
than of a history; Gagnier's Vie de Mahomet, printed at Amsterdam 
in 1732, and commendable both for the learning and candour with which 
it appears to have been composed; and, above all, tire learned a«id judi- 
cious Sale's Preliminary Discourse, prefixed to his English translation 
of the Koran, sect. ii. p. 37. 

' For an account of the Koran, see principally Sale's preface. See 
also Vertot's Discours sur l'Alcoran. subjoined to the third volume of his 
History of the Knights of Malta, and Chardin's Voyages en Perse, tonu 



148 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part L 



unexpected success, he greatly extended his ambitious 
views; and formed the vast and arduous project of found- 
ing an empire. Here again success crowned his adven- 
turous efforts; and his plan was executed with such 
intrepidity and impudence, that he died master of all Ara- 
bia, beside several adjacent provinces. 

III. It is, perhaps, impossible, at this time, to form such 
an accurate judgment of the character, views, and conduct 
of Mohammed, as would entirely satisfy the curiosity of a 
sagacious inquirer after truth. To give entire credit to the 
Grecian writers in this matter, is neither prudent nor safe, 
since their bitter resentment against this hostile invader led 
them to invent, without scruple or hesitation, fables and 
calumnies to blacken his character. The Arabians, on the 
other hand, are as little to be trusted to, as their historians 
are destitute of veracity and candour ; they conceal the vices 
and enormities of their chief, and represent him as the most 
divine person that ever appeared upon earth, and as the 
best gift of God to the world. Add to this, that a consi- 
derable part of his life, indeed the part of it that would be 
the most proper to lead us to a true knowledge of his charac- 
ter, and of the motives from which he acted, is absolutely 
unknown. It is highly probable that he was so deeply 
affected with the odious and abominable superstition which 
dishonoured his country, that it threw him into a certain 
fanatical disorder of mind, and made him really imagine 
that he was supernaturally commissioned to reform the 
religion of the Arabians, and to restore among them the 
worship of one God. It is, however, at the same time, un- 
doubtedly evident, that when he saw his enterprise crowned 
with the desired success, he made use of impious frauds to 
establish the work he had so happily begun, deluded the 
giddy and credulous multitude by various artifices, and even 
forged celestial visions to confirm his authority, and remove 
the difficulties that frequently arose in the course of his 
affairs. This mixture of imposture is by no means incom- 
patible with a spirit of enthusiasm ; for the fanatic, through 
the unguided warmth of zeal, looks often upon the artifices 
that are useful to his cause as pious and acceptable to the 
Supreme Being, and therefore deceives when he can do it 
with impunity.* The religion which Mohammed taught, 
is certainly different from what it would have been, if he 
had met with no opposition in the propagation of his opi- 
nions. The difficulties he had to encounter obliged him to 
yield, in some respects, to the reigning systems : the obsti- 
nate attachment of the Arabians to the religion of their an- 
cestors on one hand, and the fond hope of gaining over to 
his cause both the Jews and Christians on the other, en- 
gaged, no doubt, this fanatical impostor to admit into his 
system several tenets, which he would have rejected with- 
out hesitation, had he been free from the restraints of 
ambition and artifice. 

IV. The rapid success which attended the propagation 
of this new religion was produced by causes that are plain 

ii. p. 281. The book which the Mohammedans call the Koran, is com- 
posed of several papers and discourses of the impostor, which were dis- 
covered and aollected after his death, and is by no means that same law 
whose excellence he vaunted so highly. That some parts of the true 
Koran may be copied in the modern one, is indeed very possible ; but 
that the Koran, or Law, given by Mohammed to the Arabians, is entirely 
distinct from the modern Koran, is manifest from this, that, in the latter, 
lie appeals to, and extols the former, and therefore they must be two dif- 
ferent compositions. May it not be conjectured, that the true Koran 
was an Arabic poem, which he recited to his followers without giving it 
to them in writing, ordering them only to commit it to memory 1 Such 



and evident, and must remove, or rather prevent our sur* 
prise, when they are attentively considered. The terror 
of Mohammed's arms, and the repeated victories which 
were gained by him and his successors, were, without 
doubt, the irresistible argument that persuaded such mul- 
titudes to embrace his religion, and submit to his domi- 
nion. Besides, his law was artfully and wonderfully adapt- 
ed to the corrupt nature of man, and, in a more particular 
manner, to the manners and opinions of the eastern nations, 
and the vices to which they were naturally addicted ; for 
the articles of faith which it proposed were few in number, 
and extremely simple; and the duties it required Avere 
neither many nor difficult, nor such as were incompatible, 
with the empire of appetites and passions. b It is to be ob- 
served farther, that the gross ignorance, under which the 
Arabians, Syrians, Persians, and the greatest part of the 
eastern nations, laboured at this time, rendered many an 
easy prey to the artifice and eloquence of this bold adven- 
turer. To these causes of the progress of the Mohammedan 
faith, we may add the bitter dissensions and cruel animosi- 
ties that reigned among the Christian sects, particularly the 
Greeks, Nestorians, Eutychians, and Monophy sites, dis- 
sensions that filled a great part of the east with carnage, 
assassinations, and such detestable enormities, as rendered 
the very name of Christianity odious to many. We might 
add here, that the Monophysites and Nestorians, full of 
resentment against the Greeks, from whom they had suf- 
fered the bitterest and most injurious treatment, assisted 
the Arabians in the conquest of several provinces, into 
which, consequently, the religion of Mohammed was after- 
wards introduced. Other causes of the sudden progress 
of that religion will naturally occur to such as consider at- 
tentively its spirit and genius, and the state of the world at 
that time. 

V. After the death of the pseudo-prophet, which hap- 
pened in 632, his followers, led on by an amazing intrepi- 
dity and a fanatical fury, and assisted, as we have already 
observed, by those Christians whom the Greeks had treat- 
ed with such severity, extended their conquests beyond the 
limits of Arabia, and subdued Syria, Persia, Egypt, and 
other countries. On the other hand, the Greeks, exhaust- 
ed with civil discord, and wholly occupied by intestine 
troubles, were unable to stop these intrepid conquerors in 
their rapid career. 

For some time these enthusiastic invaders used their 
prosperity with moderation, and treated the Christians, 
particularly those who rejected the decrees of the councils 
of Ephesus and Chalcedon, with the utmost indulgence 
and lenity. But, as an uninterrupted course of success 
and prosperity renders, too generally, corrupt mortals inso- 
lent and imperious, so the moderation of this victorious 
sect degenerated by degrees into severity: and they treated 
the Christians, at length, rather like slaves than citizens, 
loading them with insupportable taxes, and obliging them 



were the laws of the Druids in Gaul and Britain, and such also thosa 
of the Indians, which the Bramins receive by oral tradition, and get by 
heart. 

* This, perhaps, is the best way of adjusting the controversy that has 
been carried on by some learned men upon this curious question,— 
whether Mohammed was a fanatic or an impostor 1 See Bayle's Dic- 
tionary; also Ockley's Conquest.of Syria, Persia, and Egypt, by the Sa- 
racens, vol. i. ; and Sale's Preface to his Translation of the Koran, sect. ii. 

t See Reland, de Religione Mahumedica ; also Sale's Preliminary 
Discourse. 

See Ockley's Conquest of Syria, Persia, and Egypt, by the Saracens, 



Chap. II. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



149 



to submit to a variety of vexatious and oppressive mea- 
sures. 

VI. The progress, however, of this triumphant sect re- 
ceived a considerable check by the civil dissensions which 
arose among them immediately after the death of Moham- 
med. Abubeker and Ali, the former the father-in-law, 
and the latter the son-in-law, of this pretended prophet, 
aspired to succeed him in the empire which he had erect- 
ed. Upon this arose a tedious and cruel contest, whose 
flame reached to succeeding ages, and produced that 
schism which divided the Mohammedans into two great 
factions, whose separation not only gave rise to a variety 
of opinions and rites, but also excited the most implacable 
hatred and the most deadly animosities. Of these factions, 
one acknowledged Abubeker as the true khalif, or succes- 
sor of Mohammed, and its members were distinguished 
by the name of Sonnites ; while the other adhered to Ah, 
and received the appellation of Shiites." Both, however, 

• See Reland, de Religione Turcica, lib. i. p. 36, 70, 74, 85 ; and Char- 
din's Voyages en Perse, torn. ii. p. 236. 
» For an account of the Mohammedan sects, see Hottingeri Histor. 



adhered to the Koran as a divine law, and as the rule of 
faith and manners; to which, indeed, the former added, 
by way of interpretation, the sonna, i. e. a certain law 
which they looked upon as derived from Mohammed by 
oral tradition, and which the Shiites refused to admit. 
Among the Sonnites, or followers of Abubeker, we are to 
reckon the Turks, Tartars, Arabians, Africans, and the 
greatest part of the Indian Moslems ; whereas the Per- 
sians, and the subjects of the great Mogul, are generally 
considered as the followers of Ah; though the latter in- 
deed seem rather to observe a strict neutrality in this 
contest. 

Beside these two grand factions, there are several subor- 
dinate sects among the Moslems, which dispute with 
warmth upon several points of religion, though withou*. 
violating the rules of mutual toleration. b Of these sects 
there are four, which far surpass the rest in point of repu 
tation and importance. 

Orient, lib. ii. cap. vi. p. 340. — Ricaut's Etat de l'Empire Ottoman, liv. 
ii. p. 242. — Chardin's Voyages en Perse, torn. ii. ; and Sale's Prelimi- 
nary Discourse, sect. viiL 



No. XIII. 



38 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the state of Letters and Philosophy during 
this Century. 

I. Nothing can equal the ignorance and darkness that 
reigned in this century ; the most impartial and accurate 
account of which will appear incredible to those who are 
unacquainted with the productions of this barbarous period. 
Any remains of learning and philosophy that yet survived, 
were, a few particular cases excepted, to be found principally 
among the Latins, in the obscure retreats of cloistered 
monks. The monastic institutions prohibited the election of 
any abbot to the government of a convent, who was not 
a man of learning, or, at least, endowed with some share of 
the erudition of the times. The monks were obliged to 
consecrate certain hours every day to reading and study : 
and, that they might improve this appointment to the 
most advantageous purposes, there were, in most of the 
monasteries, stated times marked out, at which they were 
to assemble, in order to communicate to each other the fruits 
of their studies, and to discuss the matters upon which 
they had been reading.* The youth also, who were destined 
for the service of the church, were obliged to prepare them- 
selves for their ministry by a diligent application to study ; 
and in this they were directed by the monks, one of whose 
principal occupations it was to preside over the education 
of the rising priesthood. 

It must, however, be acknowledged, that all these insti- 
tutions were of little use to the advancement of solid learn- 
ing, or of rational theology, because very few in those days 
were acquainted with the true nature of the liberal arts and 
sciences, or with the important ends which they were 
adapted to serve ; and the greatest part of those who were 
looked upon as learned men, threw away their time in read- 
ing the marvellous lives of a parcel of fanatical saints, 
instead of employing it in the perusal of well-chosen and 
excellent authors. They, who distinguished themselves 
most by their taste and genius, carried their studies little 
farther than the works of Augustin and Gregory the Great ; 
and it was of scraps collected out of these two writers, and 
patched together without much uniformity, that the best 
productions of this century were composed. 

II. The sciences enjoyed no degree of protection, at this 
time, from kings and princes ; nor did they owe any thing 
to men of high and eminent stations in the empire. On the 
other hand, the schools which had been committed to the 
care and inspection of the bishops, whose ignorance and 
indolence were now become enormous, began to decline 
apace, and had, in many places, fallen into ruin. b The 
bishops in general were so illiterate, that few of them were 
capable of composing the discourses which they delivered 
to the people. Such prelates as were not totally destitute of 
genius composed, out of the writings of Augustin and 
Gregory, a certain number of insipid homilies, which they 

* Mabillon, Acta S.anct. Orel. Benedict, torn. ii. p. 479, 513. 
*> Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iii. p. 428. 
5jr> c In the original we read Eligius Noviomagensis, which is amis- 
take either of the author, or printer. It is probable that Noviomagensis 



divided between themselves and their stupid colleagues, 
that they might not be obliged through incapacity to dis- 
continue preaching the doctrines of Christianity to the 
people, as appears from the examples of Caesarius bishop of 
Aries, and Eloi bishop of Noyon. c There is yet extant a 
summary of theological doctrine, which was unskilfully 
compiled by Taion bishop of Saragossa, from the writings 
of Augustin and Gregory; and which was so highly ex- 
tolled in this illiterate age, that its author was called, by the 
rest of the bishops, the true salt of the earth, and a divine 
light that was sent to illuminate the. world. d Many such 
instances of the ignorance and barbarity of this century 
'will occur to those who have any acquaintance with the 
writers it produced. England, it is true, was happier in this 
respect than the other nations of Europe, which was prin- 
cipally owing to Theodore Tarsus, of whom we shall have 
occasion to speak afterwards, who was appointed archbishop 
of Canterbury, and contributed much to introduce, among 
the English, a certain taste for literary pursuits, and to 
excite in that kingdom a zeal for the advancement of learn- 
ing. 6 

III. In Greece, the fate of the sciences was truly la- 
mentable. A turgid eloquence, and an affected pomp 
and splendour of style, which cast a perplexing obscurity 
over subjects in themselves the most clear and perspicuous, 
now formed the highest point of perfection to which both 
prose writers and poets aspired. The Latin eloquence 
was still very considerably below that of the Greeks; it 
had not spirit enough even to be turgid, and, a few com- 
positions excepted, it had sunk to the very lowest degree 
of barbarity and corruption. Both the Greek and Latin 
writers, who attempted historical compositions, degraded 
most miserably that important science. Moschus and 
Sophronius among the former; and among the latter 
Braulio, Jonas an Hibernian, Audoenus, Dado, and Ada- 
mannus, wrote the lives of several saints, or rather a heap 
of insipicl and ridiculous fables, void of the least air of pro- 
bability, and without the smallest tincture of eloquence. 
The Greeks related, without discernment or choice, the 
most vulgar reports that were handed about concerning 
the events of ancient times ; and hence arose that multi 
tude of absurd fables, which the Latins afterwards copied 
from them with the utmost avidity. 

IV. Among the Latins, philosophy was at its lowest ebb. 
If there were any that retained some faint reluctance to 
abandon it entirely, such confined their studies to the wri 
tings of Boethius and Cassiodorus, from which they com- 
mitted to memory a certain number of phrases and sen- 
tences ; and that was all their philosophical stock. The 
Greeks, abandoning Plato to the monks, gave themselves 
entirely up to the direction of Aristotle, and studied, with 
eagerness, the subtilties of his logic, which were of signal 
use in the controversies carried on between the Monophy 
sites, the Nestoria ns, and Monothelites. All these different 

slipped from the pen of Dr. Mosheim, in the place cf Noviodunensis ; for 
Eloi was bishop of Noyon, and not of Nimcguen. 

d Mabillon, Analecta veteris iEvi, torn. ii. p. 77. 

• 'Wulkins' Con. Mag. Brit. torn. i. p. 42.— Conringii Ant. Aca. p. 277. 



<C HAP. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



151 



sects called the Stagirite to their assistance, when they 
were to plead their cause, and to defend their doctrines. 
Hence it was, that James, bishop of Edessa, who was a 
Monophysite, translated, in this century, the dialectics of 
Aristotle into the Syriac language. 1 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and its Form of Government during this Century. 

I. The disputes about pre-eminence, that had so long 
subsisted between the bishops of Rome and Constantino- 
ple, proceeded, in this centuiy, to such violent lengths, as 
laid the.foundation of that deplorable schism, which after- 
wards separated the Greek and Latin churches. The 
most learned writers, and those who are most remarkable 
for their knowledge of antiquity, are generally agreed that 
Boniface HI. engaged Phocas, that abominable tyrant, 
who waded to the imperial throne through the blood of 
• the emperor Mauritius, to take from the bishop of Con- 
stantinople the title of oecumenical or universal bishoj), 
and to confer it upon the Roman pontiff. They relate 
this, however, upon the sole authority of Baronius ; for 
none of the ancient writers have mentioned it. If, indeed, 
we are to give credit to Anastasius and Paul the deacon, b 
something like what we have now related was transacted 
by Phocas : for, when the bishops of Constantinople main- 
tained that their church was not only equal in dignity 
and authority to that of Rome, but also the head of all 
the Christian churches, this tyrant opposed then - preten- 
sions, and granted the pre-eminence to the church of 
Rome : and thus was the papal supremacy first intro- 
duced. 

H. The Roman pontiffs used all sorts of methods to 
maintain aud enlarge the authority and pre-eminence 
which they had acquired by a grant from the most odious 
tyrant that ever disgraced the annals of history. We 
find, however, in the most authentic accounts of the trans- 
actions of this century, that not only several emperors 
and princes, but also whole nations, opposed the ambitious 
views of the bishops of Rome. The Byzantine history, 
and the Formulary of Marculfus, contain many proofs of 
the influence which the civil magistrate yet retained in 
religious matters, and of the subordination of the Roman 
pontiffs to the regal authority. It is true, the Roman wri- 
ters affirm, that Constantine Pogonatus abdicated the pri- 
vilege of confirming, by his approbation, the election of 
the bishop of that city ; and, as a proof of this, they allege 
a passage of Anastasius, in which it is said, that according 
to an edict of Pogonatus, the pontiff, roho should be elect- 
ed, toas to be ordained immediately, and without the 
least delays But every one must see, that this passage 
is insufficient to prove what these writers assert with such 
confidence. It is however certain, that this emperor aba- 
ted, some say remitted, the sum which, from the time of 

• See Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. i. p. 498. 

i> Anastasius, de vitis Pontificum. Paul. Diacon. de rebus gestis 
Longobard. lib. iv. cap. xxxvii. apud Muratorii Scriptor. rerum Italicar. 
torn. i. p. 465. 

Anastasii vit. Pontif. in Bened. p. 146, in Muratorii Scriptor. rerum 
Italicar. torn. iii. 

* Anastas. vit. Pontif. in Agathone, p. 144, compared with Mascovii 
Hist. German, torn. ii. p. 121, in the annotations. 3Qr It will not be im- 
proper to observe here, that by the same edict, which diminished the ordi- 
nation-money paid by the bishops of Rome to the emperor, Constantine 



Theodoric, the bishops of Rome had been obliged to pay 
to the imperial treasury before they could be ordained, or 
have their election confirmed. d 

The ancient Britons and Scots persisted long in the 
maintenance of their religious liberty ; and neither the 
threats nor promises of the legates of Rome could engage 
them to submit to the decrees and authority of the ambi- 
tious pontiff, as appears manifestly from the testimony of 
Bede. The churches of Gaul and Spain attributed as 
much authority to the bishop of Rome, as they thought 
suitable to their own dignity, and consistent with their in- 
terests : even in Italy his supreme authority was obsti- 
nately rejected, since the bishop of Ravenna, and other 
prelates, refused an implicit submission to his orders. e Be- 
side all this, multitudes of private persons expressed pub- 
licly, and without the least hesitation, their abhorrence of 
the vices, and particularly of the lordly ambition of the 
Roman pontiffs: and it is highly probable, that the Val- 
denses or Vaudois had already, in this centHry, retired 
into the valleys of Piedmont, that they might be more 
at liberty to oppose the tyranny of those imperious pre- 
lates.*' 

III. The progress of vice, among the subordinate rulers 
and ministers of the church, was at this time truly deplo- 
rable : neither bishops, presbyters, deacons, nor even the 
cloistered monks, were exempt from the general contagion, 
as appears from the unanimous confession of all the writers 
of this century that are worthy of credit. In those very 
places, that were consecrated to the advancement of piety, 
and the service of God, there was little to be seen but spiri- 
tual ambition, insatiable avarice, pious frauds, intolerable 
pride, and a supercilious contempt of the natural rights of 
the people, with many other vices still more enormous. 
There reigned also in many places the most bitter dissen- 
sions between the bishops and the monks. The former had 
employed the greedy hands of the latter to augment the 
episcopal treasure, and to ' draw the contributions from all 
parts to support them in their luxury, and the indulgence 
of their lust. The monks perceiving this, and also unwil- 
ling to serve the bishops in such a dishonourable character, 
fled for refuge to the emperors and princes, under whose 
civil jurisdiction they lived ; and afterwards, for their far- 
ther security, had recourse to the protection of the Roman 
pontiff. e This protection they readily obtained ; and the 
imperious pontiffs, always fond of exerting their authority, 
exempted, by degrees, the monastic orders from the juris- 
diction of the bishops. The monks, in return for this im- 
portant service, devoted themselves wholly to advance the 
interest, and to maintain the dignity of the bishop of 
Rome. They made his cause their own, and represented 
him as a sort of god to the ignorant multitude, over whom 
they had gained a prodigious ascendency by the notion that 
generally prevailed of the sanctity of the monastic order. 
It is, at the same time, to be observed, that this humanity 
toward the monks proved a fruitful source of licentious- 



resumed the power of confirming the election of the pope, which his pre- 
decessors had invested in the exarchs of Ravenna ; so that the bishop 
elect was not to be ordained till his election was notified to the court of 
Constantinople, and the imperial decree confirming it was received by 
the electors at Rome. See Anastasius, in his life of Agatlio. 

• See Geddes' Miscellaneous Tracts, vol. ii. p. 6. 

f See Antoine Leger's Histoire des Eglises Vaudoises, liv. i. p. 15. 

B See Launoii Assertio Inquisitionis in Chartam Lmmunitalis S. Ger- 
mani, op. torn. iii. par. i. p. 50. Baluzii Miscelhui. torn. ii. p. 159; torn, 
iv. p. 108. Muratorii Antiq. Italic, torn. ii. p. 944, 949. 



152 



INTERNAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH. 



Part H. 



ness and disorder, and occasioned the greatest part of the 
vices with which they were afterwards so justly charged. 
Such,- at least, is the judgment of the best writers upon 
this subject. 1 

IV. In the mean time the monks were every where in 
high repute, and their cause was accompanied with the 
most surprising success, particularly among the Latins, 
through the protection and favour of the Roman pontiff, 
and their pharisaical affectation of uncommon piety and 
devotion. The heads of families, striving to surpass each 
other in their zeal for the propagation and advancement of 
monkery, dedicated their children to God, by shutting them 
up in convents, and devoting them to a solitary life, which 
they looked upon as the highest felicity ; b nor did they 
fail to send with these innocent victims a rich dowry. 
Abandoned profligates, who had passed their days in the 
most vicious pursuits, and whose guilty consciences filled 
them with terror and remorse, were comforted with the 
delusive hopes of obtaining pardon, and making atonement 
for their crimes, by leaving the greatest part of their for- 
tune to some monastic society. Multitudes, impelled by 
the unnatural dictates of a gloomy superstition, deprived 
their children of fertile lands and rich patrimonies, in 
favour of the monks, by whose prayers they hoped to ren- 
der the Deity propitious. Several ecclesiastics laid down 
rules for the direction of the monastic orders. Those 
among the Latins, who undertook this pious task, were 
Fructuosus, Isidore, Johannes Gerundinensis, and Colum- 
ban. c The rule of discipline, prescribed by St. Benedict, 
was not yet universally followed, so as to exclude all 
others. 

V. The writers of this age, who distinguished them- 
selves by their genius or erudition, were very few in num- 
ber. Among the Greeks, the first rank is due to Maxi- 
mus, a monk, who disputed with great obstinacy and 
warmth against the Monothelites, composed some illustra- 
tions upon the Holy Scriptures, and was, upon the whole, 
a man of no mean capacity, though unhappy through the 
impatience and violence of his natural temper. 

Isychius, bishop of Jerusalem, explained several books 
of Scripture ; d and left several homilies, and some produc- 
tions of less importance. 

Dorotheus, abbot of Palestine, acquired a considerable 
name by his Ascetic Dissertations, in which he laid down 
a plan of monastic life and manners. 

Antiochus, a monk of Saba in Palestine, and a monk 
of a very superstitious complexion, composed a Pandect of 
the Holy Scriptures, i. e. a summary or system of the 
Christian doctrine, which is by no means worthy of high 
commendation. 

Sophronius, bishop of Jerusalem, was rendered illustrious 
and attracted the veneration of succeeding ages, by the 
controversies he carried on against those who, at this time, 
were branded with the name of heretics ; arid particularly 

* See Launoii Examen Privilegii S. Germani, torn. iii. par. i. p. 282. 
Wilkins' Concilia Magna Britannia, torn. i. p. 43, 44, 49, &c. 

*■ Gervais, Histoire de l'Abbe Suger, torn. i. p. 9— 16. 
e Lucse Holstenii Codex Regular, torn. ii. p. 225. 

<• See Simon's Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques 
de M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 261. 

* Sec the Acta Sanctorum, torn. ii. Martii ad d. xi. p. 65. 
» See the Acta Sanctorum, Januar. torn. ii. p. 535. 

* Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iii. p. 565. 

fj" t> This prelate certainly deserved a more honourable mention than 
is here made of him by Dr. Mosheim. His poetical talents were by no 
means the most distinguishing part of his character. He was profoundly 



against the Monothelites, of whose doctrine he was the 
first opposer, and also the fomenter of the dispute which 
it occasioned.* 

There are yet extant several homilies, attributed to An- 
drew bishop of Crete, which are destitute of true piety and 
eloquence, and which are, moreover, considered by some 
writers as entirely spurious. 

Gregory, surnamed Pisides, deacon of Constantinople, 
besides the History of Heraclius and the Avares, composed 
several poems, and other pieces, of too little moment to de- 
serve mention. 

Theodore, abbot of Raithu, published a book which ia 
still extant, against those sects who seemed to introduce 
corrupt innovations into the Christian religion by their 
doctrine relating to the person of Christ. 

VI. Among the Latin writers, a certain number were 
distinguished from the rest by their superior abilities. 
Ildefonso, archbishop of Toledo, was in repute for his 
learning ; the Spaniards, however, attribute to him with- 
out foundation certain treatises concerning the Virgin # 
Mary/ 

We have yet extant two books of Epistles, written by 
Desiderius, bishop of Cahors, and published by the learn- 
ed Canisius. 

Eligius, or Eloi, bishop of Limoges, left behind him 
several homilies, and some other productions. 

Marculf, a Gallic monk, composed two books of ecclesi- 
astical forms, which are highly valuable, as they are ex- 
tremely proper to give us a just idea of the deplorable 
state of religion and learning in this century.^ 

Aldhelm, an English prelate, composed several poems, 
concerning the Christian life, which exhibit but mchffere 
marks of genius and fancy. h 

Julian Pomerius confuted the Jews, and acquired a 
name by several other productions, which are neither 
worthy of much applause nor of utter contempt. To all 
these we might add Cresconius, whose Abridgment of the 
Canons is well known ; Fredegarius the historian, and a 
few others. 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church 
during this Century. 

I. In this barbarous age, religion lay expiring under a 
modey and enormous heap of superstitious inventions, and 
had neither the courage nor the force to raise her head, or 
to display her native charms, to a darkened and deluded 
world. In the earlier periods of the church, the Christian 
worship was confined to the one Supreme God, and hia 
Son Jesus Christ ; but the Christians of this century multi- 
plied the objects of their devotion, and paid homage to the 
remains of the true cross, to the images of the saints, and to 
bones, whose real owners were extremely dubious.' The 



versed in the Greek, Latin, and Saxon languages. He appeared also 
with dignity in the paschal controversy, that so long divided the Saxon 
and British churches. See Collier's Ecclesiastical Hist. vol. i. 

> It will not be amiss to quote here a remarkable passage out of the 
Life of St. Eligius, or Eloi, bishop of Noyoh, which is to be found in M. 
d'Achery's Spicilegium veter. Scriptor. torn. ii. p. 92. This passage, 
which is very proper to give us a just idea of the piety of this age, is as 
follows : " Huic sanctissimo viro, inter cetera virtutum suarum miracula, 
id etiam a Domino concessum era,t, ut sanctorum martyrum corpora, quae 
per tot sfficula abdita populis huctenus habebantur, eo investigante ac 
nimio ardore fidei indagante, patefactaproderentur." It appears by this 
passage, that St. Eloi was a zealous relic-hunter ; and, if we may give 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



153 



primitive Christians, in order to excite men to a course of 
piety and virtue, set before them that heavenly state, and 
those mansions of misery, which the Gospel has revealed 
as the different portions of the righteous and the wicked ; 
while the Christians of this century talked of nothing else 
but a certain fire which effaced the stains of vice, and puri- 
fied souls from their corruption. The former taught that 
Christ, by his sufferings and death, had made atonement 
for the sins of mortals ; the latter seemed, by their super- 
stitious doctrine, to exclude, from the kingdom of heaven, 
such as had not contributed, by their offerings, to augment 
the riches of the clergy or the church. 1 The former were 
only studious to attain a virtuous simplicity of life and man- 
ners, and employed their principal zeal and diligence in the 
culture of true and genuine piety, while the latter placed 
the whole of religion in external rites and bodily exercises. 
The methods also of solving the difficulties, and dissipating 
the doubts, which often arose in inquisitive minds, were 
of a piece with the rest of the superstitious system that 
now prevailed. The two great and irresistible arguments 
against all doubts, were the authority of the church and the 
working of miracles, and the production of these prodigies 
required no extraordinary degree of dexterity in an age of 
such gross and universal ignorance. 

II. Few, either of the Greeks or Latins, applied them- 
selves to the interpretation of the Scriptures during this 
century. There are yet extant some commentaries of Isy- 
chius, bishop of Jerusalem, upon certain books of the Old 
Testament, and upon the Epistle to the Hebrews. Maxi- 

credit to the writer of his life, he was very successful at this kind of game; 
for he smelt and unkenneled the carcases of St. duintin, St. Plato, St. 
Crispin, St. Crispinian, St. Lucian, and many more. The bishops of this 
age, who were either ambitiously desirous of popular applause, or intent 
upon accumulating riches, and filling their coffers with the oblations of a 
superstitious people, pretended to be endowed with a miraculous saga- 
city in discovering the bodies of saints and martyrs.* 

* St. Eloi expresses himself upon this matter in the following manner : 
" Bonus Christianus est. qui ad ecclesiam frequentius venit, et oblatio- 
nem, quae in altari Deo offeratur, exhibet; qui de fructibus suis non gustat, 
nisi prius Deo aliquid offerat; qui, quoties sanctae solemnitates adveniunt, 
ante dies plures castitatem etiam cum propria uxore custodit, ut secura 
conscientia Domini altare accedere possit ; qui postremo symbolum vel 
orationem Dominicam memoriter tenet. — Redimite animas vestras de 
poena, dum habetis in potestate remedia ; oblationes et decimas ecclesiis 
offerte, luminaria Sanctis locis, juxta quod habetis, exhibete ; ad ecclesiam 
quoque frequentius convenite, sanctorum patrocinia humiliter expetite ; 
quod si observaveritis, securi in die judicii ante tribunal aeterni judicis 
veniemes dicetis, Da, Domine, quia dedimus." Jjp We see here a large 
and ample description of the character of a good Christian, in which 
there is not the least mention of the love of God, resignation to his will, 
obedience to his laws, or of justice, benevolence, and charity toward 
men; and in which the whole of religion is made to consist in coming 
often to the church, bringing offerings to the altar, lighting candles in con- 
secrated places, and the like vain services.t 

*> This useless production has been usually published with the works 
of Gregory the Great; in consequence of which, the Benedictine monks 
have inserted it in their splendid edition of the works of that pontiff, torn. 
iv. part ii. 

c Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 93, 94. 

* That much imposition was practised in this respect, even the catho- 
lics must admit. The biographer of Eloi says, that, ' some relics were 
honoured with popular worship in places where they did not exist, while 
no one knew, to a certainty, in what spot they were to be found.' To 
supply this deficiency of knowledge, it became expedient, in the opinion 
of the clerical zealots, to point out the places of interment; and thus relics 
were wantonly multiplied, many saints having two or three heads found 
for each person, and a great number of arms and legs. This reminds us 
of the remark of a lady, who, having seen at a museum a relic which 
was said to be Cromwell's scull, asked the keeper of another repository, 
whether he could produce a scull of the same great personage. ' No, 
Madam,' he replied ; 'we have nothing of the kind.' — ' That seems very 
odd,' said the lady; : I saw one at Oxford, and I should have thought 
that you would have had another.' — Edit. 

t Some modern writers of the Romish persuasion have exclaimed 
against these strictures in terms of severe reprehension ; and Dr. Lin- 

No. XIII. 39 



mus published a solution of sixty-five questions relating to 
the Scriptures, and other productions of the same nature. 
Julian Pomerius attempted, but without success, to recon- 
cile the seeming contradictions that are to be found in the 
sacred writings, and to explain the prophecy of Nahum. 
All these writers were manifestly inferior to the meanest 
expositors of modem times. The Grecian doctors, par- 
ticularly those who pretended to be initiated in the most 
mysterious depths of theology, were continually hunting 
after fantastic allegories, as is evident from the Questions 
of Maximus already mentioned. The Latins, on the con- 
trary, were so diffident of their abilities, that they did not 
dare to enter these allegorical labyrinths, but contented 
themselves with what flowers they could pluck out of the 
rich collections of Gregory and Augustin. Of this we 
see a manifest example in Paterius' Exposition of the Old 
and New Testament, which is entirely compiled from the 
writings of Gregory the Great. b Among the interpreters 
of this century, we must not forget Thomas, bishop of 
Heraclea, who gave a second Syriac version of the New 
Testament. 

III. While philosophy and theology had scarcely any 
remains of life, any marks of existence among the Latins, 
the Greeks were wholly occupied with fruitless controver- 
sies about particular branches of religion, and did not 
think of reducing all the doctrines of Christianity into one 
regular and rational system. It is true, Antiochus, a monk 
of Palestine, composed a short summary of the Christian 
doctrine, which he entitled the Pandect of the Holy Scrip- 

gard, in particular, says, ' This citation from the writings of St Eloi 
holds a distinguished place in every invective which has been published 
against the clergy of former ages ; and this definition of a good Christian 
has been re-echoed a thousand times by the credulity of writers and their 
readers ; ' but it appears, upon due investigation, he adds, that the ' bishop 
of Noyon has been foully calumniated ;' for his definition of a good 
Christian is of the following tenor: "Non vobis sufHcit, charissimi, 
quod Christianum nomen accepistis, si opera Christiana non facitis. Illi 
enim prodest, quod Christianus vocatur, qui semper Christi praecepta 
mente retinet, et opere perficit; qui furtum, scilicet, non facit; qui falsum 
testimonium non dicit; qui nee mentitur, nee pejerat; qui adulterium 
non committit; qui nullum hominem odit, sed omnes sicut semetipsum 
diligit; qui inimicis suis malum non reddit, sed magis pro ipsis orat ; 
qui lites non concitat, sed discordes ad concordiam revocat." ' It is not 
sufficient for your characters or your credit, my dearest friends, that you 
merely bear the name of a christian ; you must perform the acts and 
duties of a Christian. He alone is worthy of the name, who retains in 
his mind the precepts of religion, and carries them into effect ; who avoids, 
as a crime, the commission of theft; who shuns the guilt of perjury or 
falsehood ; who does not commit adultery ; who hates no one, but is 
ready to serve even his enemies ; and who is so far from promoting 
strife, that he is eager to prevent all disputes, and allay all animosities.' 
These and other evidences of the Christian character and temper, in thf 
century to which Dr. Mosheim refers, are given by the catholic historian 
in the words of Audoenus (St. Ouen) bishop of Rouen, who wrote the 
life of St. Eloi; and we are bound to state, because we have ascertained 
the point, that he has quoted the original fairly and correctly, according 
to the best edition of the Spicilegium. (Paris, 1723, 3 vols, folio.) We are 
induced to mention this circumstance, because some protestant divines 
have been so eager to exculpate Dr. Mosheim, that they have accused 
Dr. Lingard of Following a spurious edition, in which various interpo- 
lations might have been made by the Romanists to support the credit of 
the early church. We are aware that papists seem to have a fellow-feel- 
ing with their religious ancestors, and are frequently hurried by their 
zeal into misrepresentation, and sometimes into gross deviations from 
truth; but it is certainly illiberal to suspect them without cause, or to 
condemn them without inquiry. 

In the present case, we cannot conscientiously decide in favour of Dr. 
Mosheim. His general impartiality we readily admit ; but he did not, on 
this occasion, strictly attend to that duty. In the very page from which 
he extracted the unfavourable passage, he must, we think, have seen 
(for he was usually keen in his researches) the detail of religious and 
moral duties quoted by Dr. Lingard, and he ought to have given one as 
well as the other. Some blame is also imputable to the translator, for 
not making due inquiry into the validity of Dr. Moshcim's charge 
against the churchmen of the seventh century. — Editor. 



154 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part H 



tures. It is, however, easy to perceive what sort of an au- 
thor he was, how void of dignity and true judgment, from 
many circumstances, and particularly from that rueful 
poem which is subjoined to his work; in which he de- 
plores, in lamentable strains, the loss of that precious frag- 
ment of the true cross, which is said to have been carried 
away by the Persians, among other spoils. The most 
elegant and judicious summary of theology that appeared 
among the Latins in this century, was the treatise of Ilde- 
fonso, de Cognitione Baptismi, which was saved by Baluze 
from the ruins of time; a work, indeed, which is not ex- 
tremely necessary, since the ignoble frauds of superstition 
have been so fully brought to light, though it contains re- 
markable proofs, that many of the corrupt inventions and 
practices, which disfigure Christianity in the popish 
churches, were not contrived till after this periods The dry 
and insipid body of divinity composed by Taio, or Tago, 
bishop of Saragossa, under the title of Five Books of Sen- 
tences, and compiled from the writings of Gregory and 
Augustin, is scarcely worthy of mention, though, in this 
century, it was considered as an admirable and immortal 
work. b 

Several particular branches of doctrine were treated by 
the theological writers of this age : thus Maximus wrote of 
the nature of Theology, and the Manifestation of the Son 
in the Flesh, and also upon the Two Natures in Christ ; 
and Theodore Raithu composed a treatise concerning 
Christ's Incarnation. But a small acquaintance with the 
state of learning and religion at this period, will enable us 
to form a just though disadvantageous idea of the merit 
of these performances, and also of their authors. 

IV. The moral writers of this century, and their mise- 
rable productions, show too plainly to what a wretched 
state that noble and important science was now reduced. 
A.mong these moralists, the first rank is due to Dorotheus 
(author of the Ascetic Dissertations,) Maximus, Aldhelm, 
Hesychius, Thalassius, and some others : yet, even in 
their productions, what groveling notions do we find ! what 
rubbish, what a heap of superstitious fancies ! and how 
many marks of extravagance, perplexity, and doubt ! Be- 
sides, the laity had little reason to complain of the severity 
of their moral directors, whose custom it was to reduce all 
the obligations of Christianity to the practice of a small 
number of virtues, as appears from Aldhelm's Treatise 
concerning the eight principal Virtues. Nor was the neg- 
lect of these duties attended with such penalties as were 
proper to restrain offenders. The false notions also, which 
prevailed in this age, tended much to diminish a just sense 
of the nature and obligation of virtue ; for the solitude of 
the monastic life, though accompanied with no marks of 
solid and genuine piety, was deemed sufficient to atone for 
all sorts of crimes, and was therefore honoured among the 
Latins with the title of the second baptism.; which circum- 
stance alone may serve to show us the miserable state of 
Christianity at this time. The greatest part of the Gre- 
cian and Oriental monks laboured to arrive at a state of 
perfection by mere contemplation, and studiously endea- 

* See Baluzii Miscellanea, torn. vi. p. 1. From the work of Ildefonso 
it appears evident, that the monstrous doctrine of Transubstantiation 
was absolutely unknown to the Latins in this century, and that the 
Scriptures were in the hands of all Christians, and were perused by 
them without the least molestation or restraint. Ildefonso, it is true, is 
zealous for banishing reason and philosophy from religious matters; he, 
however, establishes the Scriptures, and the writings of the ancient doc- 



voured to form their tempers and characters after the model 
of Dionysius, the chief of the Mystics. 

V. Theodore of Tarsus, a Grecian monk, restored among 
the Latins the discipline of penance, as it is commonly 
termed, which had been for a long time almost totally 
neglected, and enforced it by a body of severe laws borrowed 
from the Grecian canons. This zealous prelate, being 
raised beyond his expectation to the see of Canterbury, in 
668, formed and executed several pious and laudable pro- 
jects ; and, among other things, reduced to a regular science 
that branch of ecclesiastical law, which is known by the 
name of penitential discipline. He published a Peni- 
tential, which was entirely new to the Latin world, by 
which the clergy were taught to distinguish sins into 
various classes, according as they were more or less hei- 
nous, private or public : to judge of them, and determine 
the degrees of their guilt, by their nature and consequences, 
by the intention of the offender, the time and place in which 
they were committed, and the circumstances with which 
they were attended. This new Penitential contained also 
the methods of proceeding with respect to offenders ; pointed 
out the penalties that were suitable to the various classes 
of transgressions ; prescribed the forms of consolation, ex- 
hortation and absolution ; and described, in an ample and 
accurate manner, the duties and obligations of those who 
were to receive the confessions of the penitent. This new 
discipline, though of Grecian origin, was eagerly adopted 
by the Latin churches ; and, in a short space of time, passed 
from Britain into all the western provinces, where the book 
of Theodore became the model of all other penitentials, and 
was multiplied in a vast number of copies. The duration 
of this discipline was transitory ; for, in the eighth century, 
it began to decline, and was, at length, entirely supplanted 
by what was called the new canon of indulgences. 

VI. The doctors who opposed the various sects are 
scarcely worthy of mention, and would still less deserve 
an attentive perusal, did not their writings contribute to 
illustrate the history of the times in which they lived. 
Nicias composed two books against the Gentiles ; and 
Photius informs us, that a certain writer, whose name is 
unknown, embarked in the same controversy, and sup- 
ported the good cause by a prodigious number of arguments 
drawn from ancient records and monuments. d Julian 
Pomerius exerted his polemic talent against the Jews. The 
views of Timotheus were yet more extensive ; for he gave 
an ample description and a laboured confutation of all the 
various heresies that divided the church, in his book con- 
cerning the reception of Heretics. 

As to the dissensions of the catholic Christians among 
themselves, they produced, at this time, few or no events 
worthy of mention. We shall, therefore, only observe, that 
in this century were sown the seeds of those fatal discords, 
which rent asunder the bonds of Christian communion 
between the Greek and Latin churches ; indeed, these 
seeds had already taken root in the minds of the Greeks, to 
whom the Roman power became insupportable, and the 
pretensions of the sovereign pontiff odious. 

tors, as the supreme tribunals before which all theological opinions are 
to be tried, p. 14, 22. •> See Mabillon's Analecta veteris 2Evi, t. ii. p. 68. 
The Penitential of Theodore is yet extant, though maimed and im- 
perfect, in an edition published at Paris in 1G79, by Petit, and enriched 
with learned dissertations and notes of the editor. We have also the exx 
Capitula Ecclesiastica Theodori, published in the Spicilegium of M. 
d'Achery, and in the Concilia Harduini. <• Biblioth. cod. clxx. p. 379 



Chap. IV. 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



155 



In Britain, warm controversies concerning baptism and 
the tonsure, and particularly the famous dispute concern- 
ing' the time of celebrating the Easter festival, were carried 
on between the ancient Britons, and the new converts to 
Christianity, which Augustin had made among the Anglo- 
Saxons." The fundamental doctrines of Christianity were 
not at all affected by these controversies, which, on that 
account, were more innocent, and less important than they 
would have otherwise been. Besides, they were entirely 
terminated in the eighth century, in favour of the Anglo- 
Saxons, by the Benedictine monks. b 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 

I. In the council of Constantinople, which was called 
Qainisextumf the Greeks enacted several laws concern- 
ing the ceremonies that were to be observed in divine wor- 
ship, which rendered their ritual, in some respects, different 
from that of the Romans. These laws were publicly re- 
ceived by all the churches, which were established in the 
dominions of the Grecian emperors ; and also by those 
which were joined with them, in communion and doctrine, 
though under the civil jurisdiction of barbarian princes. 
Nor was this all ; for every Roman pontiff added some- 
thing new to the ancient rites and institutions, as if each 
supposed it to be an essential mark of zeal for religion, and 
of a pious discharge of the ministerial functions, to divert 
the multitude with new shows and new spectacles of de- 
vout mummery. These superstitious inventions were, in 
the time of Charlemagne, propagated from Rome among 
the other Latin churches, whose subjection to the Roman 
ritual was necessary to satisfy the ambitious demands of 
the lordly pontiff. 

II. It will not be improper to select here a few, out of 
the many instances we could produce of the multiplica- 
tion of religious rites in this century. The number of fes- 
tivals under which the church already groaned, was now 
augmented ; a new festival was instituted in honour of the 
true cr(*3s on which Christ suffered, and another in com- 
memoration of the Saviour's ascension into heaven. Boni- 
face V. enacted that infamous law, by which the churches 
became places of refuge to all who fled thither for protec- 
tion ; a law which procured a sort of impunity to the 
most enormous crimes, and gave indulgence to the licen- 
tiousness of the most abandoned profligates. Honorius em- 
ployed all his diligence and zeal in embellishing churches, 
and other consecrated places, with the most pompous and 
magnificent ornaments ; for, as neither Christ nor his apos- 
tles had left any injunctions of this nature to their fol- 
lowers, their pretended vicar thought it but just to supply 
this defect by the most splendid display of his ostentatious 
beneficence. We shall pass in silence the richness and va- 
riety of the sacerdotal garments that were now used at the 

" Cummani Epistola in Jac. Usserii Sylloge Epistolar. Hibernicar. p. 
23. — Bedce Historia Ecclesiast. gentis Anfflqr. lib. iii. cap. xxv. — Wil- 
kins' Concilia Magnas Britann. torn. i. p. 37, 42. — Acta Sanctor. Februar. 
torn. iii. p. 21, 84. f^= See also Dr. Warner's Ecclesiastical History of 
England, books ii. and iii. This history, which has lately appeared, 
deserves the highest applause, on account of the noble spirit of liberty, 
candour, and moderation, that seems to have guided the pen of the judi- 
cious author. It is, at the same time, to be wished, that this elegant his- 
torian had less avoided citing authorities, and been a little more lavish 
of that erudition which he is known to possess: for then, after having 
surpassed Collier in all other respects, he would have equalled him in 



celebration of the eucharist, and in the performance of di- 
vine w r orship, as this would lead us into a tedious detail ol 
minute and unimportant matters. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The Greeks were engaged, during this century, in 
the most bitter and virulent controversy with the Pauli- 
cians of Armenia, and the adjacent countries, whom they 
considered as a branch of the Manichean sect. This dis- 
pute was carried to the greatest height under the reigns 
of Constans, Constantine Pogonatus, and Justinian II. ; 
and the Greeks were not only armed with arguments, but 
were also aided by the force of military legions, and the 
terror of penal laws. A certain person, whose name was 
Constantine, revived, under the reign of Constans, the 
drooping faction of the Paulicians, now ready to expire ; 
and propagated with great success its pestilential 11 doctrines. 
But this is not the place to enlarge upon the tenets and his- 
tory of this sect, whose origin is attributed to Paul and 
John, two brothers, who revived and modified the doctrine 
of Manes. As it was in the ninth century that the Pauli- 
cians nourished most, and acquired strength sufficient to 
support the rigours of an open and cruel w T ar with the 
Greeks, we shall reserve a more particular account of them 
for our history of that period. 

II. In Italy, the Lombards preferred the opinions of the 
Arians to the doctrine which was established by the coun- 
cil of Nice. In Gaul and in England, the Pelagian and Se- 
mi-Pelagian controversies continued to excite the warmest 
animosities and dissensions. In the eastern provinces, the 
ancient sects, which had been weakened and oppressed by 
the imperial laws, but not extirpated or destroyed, began 
in many places to raise their heads, to recover their vigour, 
and gain proselytes. The terror of penal laws had obli- 
ged them, for some time, to seek safety in obscurity, and 
therefore to conceal their opinions from the public eye ; but, 
as soon as they saw the fury or the power of their adver- 
saries diminish, their hopes returned, and their courage 
was renewed. 

III. The condition, both of the Nestorians and Mono- 
physites, was much more flourishing under the Saracens, 
who had now become lords of the east, than it had been 
hitherto under the Christian emperors, or even the Persian 
monarchs. These two sects met with a distinguished pro- 
tection from their new masters, while the Greeks suffered 
under the same sceptre all the rigours of persecution and 
banishment. Jesuiabas, the sovereign pontiff of the Nes- 
torians, concluded a treaty, first with Mohammed, and af- 
terwards with Omar, by which he obtained many signai 
advantages for his sect/ There is yet extant a testamen- 
tary diploma of the pseudo-prophet, in which he promises 
and bequeaths to the Christians, in his dominions, the 



that depth of learning, which is the only meritorious circumstance of his 
partial and disagreeable history. 

b Mabillon, Prsef. ad Saec. iii. Benedictinum, p. 2. f^* See also Dr. 
"Warner's Ecclesiastical Hist, book iii. 

gjf ° This council was called Quinisextum , from its being considered 
as a supplement to the fifth and sixth councils of Constantinople, in 
which nothing had been decreed concerning the morals of Christians, 
or religious ceremonies. 

a Photius, lib. i. contra Manich. p. Gl.— Petri Seculi Historia Ma- 
nich. p. 41. — Georg. Cedrenus, Compend. Hist 

• Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. iii. part ii. p. 94. 



156 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



quiet and undisturbed enjoyment of their religion, together 
with their temporal advantages and possessions. Some 
learned men have, indeed, called in question the authen- 
ticity of this deed ; it is, however, certain, that the Moham- 
medans unanimously acknowledge it to be genuine." Ac- 
cordingly, the successors of Mohammed in Persia em- 
ployed the Nestorians in the most important affairs, both 
of the cabinet and of the provinces, and suffered the pa- 
triarch of that sect alone to reside in the kingdom of 
Bagdad. b The Monophysites enjoyed in Syria and Egypt 
an equal degree of favour and protection. Amrou, hav- 
ing made himself master of Alexandria, in 644, fixed 
Benjamin, the pontiff of the Monophysites, in the epis- 
copal residence of that noble city ; and, from this period, 
the Melchites c were without a bishop for almost a whole 
century. d 

IV. Though the Greek church was already torn asunder 
by the most lamentable divisions, yet its calamities were 
far from being at an end. A new sect arose, in 630, 
under the reign of the emperor Heraclius, which in a 
short course of time, excited such violent commotions, as 
engaged the eastern and western churches to unite their 
*brces in order to its extinction. The source of this tumult 
was an unseasonable plan of peace and union. Heraclius, 
considering, with pain, the detriment which the Grecian 
empire had suffered by the emigration of the persecuted 
Nestorians, and their settlement in Persia, was ardently 
desirous of re-uniting the Monophysites to the bosom of 
the Greek church, lest the empire should receive a new 
wound by their departure from it. He therefore held a 
conference during the Persian war, in 622, with Paul, a 
man of great credit and authority among the Armenian 
Monophysites; and another, at Hierapolis, in 629, with 
Athanasius, the Catholic or bishop of that sect, upon the 
methods that seemed most proper to restore tranquillity 
and concord to a divided church. Both these persons as- 
sured the emperor, that they who maintained the doctrine 
of one nature might be induced to receive the decrees of 
the council of Chalcedon, and thereby to terminate their 
controversy with the Greeks, provided that the latter 
would give their assent to the truth of the following pro- 
position, namely, that in Jesus Christ there existed, after 
the union of the two natures, but one will, and one opera- 
tion. Heraclius communicated this suggestion to Sergius, 
patriarch of Constantinople, who was a Syrian by birth, 

* This famous Testament was brought from the east in the seventeenth 
century, by Pacificus Scaliger, a Capuchin monk, and was published 
first in Arabic and Latin at Paris, by Gabriel Sionita, in 1630 ; after- 
wards in Latin by the learned Fabricius, in 1638 ; and also by Hinckel- 
man, in 1690. See Henr. Hottinger. Hist. Orient, lib. ii. cap. xx. p. 237. 
Assemani Biblioth. torn. iii. part ii. p. 95 ; and Renaudot, Histor. Patri- 
archal Alexandr. p. 168. They who, in comformity with the opinion 
of Grotius, reject this testament, suppose it to have been forged by the 
Syrian and Arabian monks, with a view to soften the Mohammedan 
yoke, under which they groaned, and to render their despotic masters 
less severe. Nor is this representation of the matter at all incredible; for 
it is certain, that the monks of mount Sinai formerly showed an edict 
attributed to Mohammed, of the same nature with the one now under 
consideration, which they pretend was drawn up by him while he was 
yet in a private station. This edict was extremely advantageous to them, 
and was, undoubtedly, an artful piece of forgery. The fraud was plain; 
but the Moslems, in consequence of their ignorance and stupidity, believ- 
ed it to be a genuine production of their chief, and continue still in the 
same opinion. There is an account of this fraud given by Cantemir, 
in his Histoire de l'Empire Ottoman, torn. ii. p. 269. The argument 
therefore which Renaudot and others draw in favour of the testament in 
question from the acknowledgment which the Mohammedans make of 
its authenticity, is of little or no weight, since those infidels of all others 
are the most liable to be deceived in things of this nature, by their gross 



and whose parents adhered to the doctrine of the Monophy- 
sites. This prelate gave it as his opinion, that the doc- 
trine of one will and one operation, after the union of the 
two natures, might be safely adopted without the least in- 
jury to truth, or the smallest detriment to the authority of 
the council of Chalcedon. In consequence of this, the 
emperor published an edict, 630, in favour of that doctrine, 
and hoped, by this act of authority, to restore peace and 
concord, both in church and state. e 

V. The first reception of this new project was promis- 
ing, and things seemed to go on smoothly; for though 
some ecclesiastics refused to submit to the imperial edict, 
Cyrus and Athanasius, the patriarchs of Alexandria and 
Antioch,- received it without hesitation ; and the see of Je- 
rusalem was at that time vacant. f As to the Roman pon 
tiff, he was entirely overlooked in the matter, as his con- 
sent was not deemed necessary in an affair that related 
only to the eastern church. In the mean time, Cyrus, 
who had been promoted by Heraclius from the see of 
Phasis to that of Alexandria, assembled a council, by the 
seventh decree of which, the doctrine of Monothelitism, 
or one will, which the emperor had introduced by the edict 
already mentioned, was solemnly confirmed. This new 
modification of the doctrine of the council of Chalcedon, 
which seemed to bring it nearer to the Eutychian system, 
had the desired effect upon the Monothelites, and induced 
great numbers of them, who were dispersed in Egypt, 
Armenia, and other remote provinces, to return into the 
bosom of the church. They, however, explained the per- 
plexed and ambiguous doctrine of one will in Christ, in a 
manner peculiar to themselves, and not quite conform- 
able to the true principles of their sect. 

VI. This smiling prospect of peace and concord was, 
however, but transitory, and was unhappily succeeded by 
the most dreadful tumults, excited by a monk of Palestine, 
whose name was Sophronius. This monk, being pre- 
sent at the council assembled at Alexandria by Cyrus, 
in 633, had violently opposed the decree, which confirmed 
the doctrine of one will in Christ. His opposition, which 
was then treated with contempt, became more formidable 
in the following year ; when, raised to the patriarchal see 
of Jerusalem, he summoned a council, in which the Mono- 
thelites were condemned as heretics, who had revived and 
propagated the Eutychian errors concerning the mixture 
and confusion of the two natures in Christ. Multitudes, 

and unparalleled ignorance. On the other hand, several of the arguments 
used by those who deny its authenticity, are equally unsatisfactory ; that 
particularly, which is drawn from the difference between the style of 
this deed and that of the Koran, proves absolutely nothing at all, since it 
is not essential to the genuineness of this testament to suppose it penned 
by Mohammed himself, because the impostor might have employed a 
secretary to compose it. But, whether it be genuine or spurious, it is 
certain that its contents were true, since many learned men have fully 
proved, that the pseudo-prophet, at his first setting out, prohibited, in the 
strongest manner, the commission of all sorts of injuries against the 
Christians, and especially the Nestorians. 

t> Asseman, p. 97. — Renaud. Histor. Patriarch. Alexandr. p. 163, 169. 

§Qf • The Melchites were those Christians in Syria, Egypt, and the 
Levant, who, though not Greeks, followed the doctrines and ceremonies 
of the Greek church. They were called Melchites, i. e. Royalists, by 
their adversaries, by way of reproach, on account of their implicit sub- 
mission to the edict of the emperor Marcian, in favour of the council of 
Chalcedon. 

* Renaud. Hist. Patriarch. Alexandr. p. 168. 

e The authors, who have written of this sect, are mentioned by Jo. Aib. 
Fabricius, in his Biblioth. Grac. vol. x. p. 204. The account which I 
have here given is drawn from the fountain head, and is supported by 
the best authorities. 

i See Lequien, Oriens Christianas, torn. iii. p. 264. 



Chap. Y. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



157 



alarmed at the cry of heresy raised by this seditious monk, 
adopted his sentiments ; but it was Honorius, the Roman 
pontiff, that he laboured principally to gain over to his 
side. His efforts, however, were vain : for Sergius, the 
patriarch of Constantinople, having informed Honorius, 
by a long and artful letter, of the true state of the ques- 
tion, determined that pontiff in favour of the doctrine, 
which maintained one will and one operation in Christ. a 
Hence arose those obstinate contests, which rent the 
church into two sects, and the state into two factions. 

TIL In order to put an end to these commotions, He- 
raclius promulgated, in 639. the famous edict composed by 
Sergius, and called the Ecthesis. or exposition of the faith. 
by which all controversies upon the question, whether in 
Christ there were two operations, or only one, were strictly 
prohibited, though in the same edict the doctrine of one 
will was plainly inculcated. A considerable number of 
the eastern bishops declared then assent to this new law, 
which was also submissively received by their chief 
Pyrrhus, who, on the death of Sergius in 639, was raised 
to the see of Constantinople. In the west, the case was 
quite different. John, the fourth pontiff of that name, as- 
sembled a council at Rome in 639, in which the Ecthesis 
was rejected, and the Monothehtes were condemned. Nor 
was this all : for, in the progress of this contest, a new 
edict, known by the name of Type or Formulary, was 
published in 64S by the emperor Constans, by the advice 
jf Paul of Constantinople, 11 by which the Ecthesis was 
suppressed, and the contending parties were commanded 
'.o terminate their disputes concerning one will and one 
operation in Christ, by observing a profound silence upon 
that difficult and ambiguous subject. This silence, so wise- 
ly commanded in a matter which it was impossible to de- 
termine to the satisfaction of the contending parties, ap- 
peared highly criminal to the angry and contentious monks. 
They, therefore, excited Martin, bishop of Rome, to op- 
pose his authority to an edict which hindered them from 
propagating strife and contention in the church: and their 
importunities had the desired effect : for this prelate, in a 
council of a hundred and five bishops assembled at Rome, 
in 649, condemned both the Ecthesis and the Type, 
though without any mention of the names of the em- 
perors who had published those edicts, and thundered out 
the most dreadful anathemas against the Monothehtes and 
their patrons, who were solemnly consigned to the devil 
and his angels. 

Till. The emperor Constans, justly irritated at these 
haughty and impudent proceedings of Martin, who treated 
the imperial laws with such contempt, ordered him to be 
seised and carried into the isle of Naxos, where he was 
kept prisoner a whole year. This order, which was fol- 
lowed by much cruel treatment, was executed by Callio- 
pas, exarch of Italy, in 650 ; and, at the same time, 
Maximus. the ringleader of the seditious monks, was 
banished to Bizyca ; and other rioters of the same tribe 



* The Roman Catholic writers have employed all their art and indus- 
try to represent the conduct of Honorius in such a manner, as to save his 
pretended infallibility from the charge of error in a question of such im- 
portance. (See, among others, Harduin, de Sacramento Altaris, pub- 
lished in his Opera Selecta, p. 255.) And, indeed, it is easy to find both 
matter of accusation and defence in the case of this pontiff. On one hand, 
it would appear that he himself knew not his own sentiments nor at- 
tached any precise and definite meaning to the expressions he used in 
the course of this controversy. On the other hand, it is certain, that he 
gave it as his opinion, that in Christ there existed only one will and one 

No. XIV. 40 



were differently punished in proportion to the part they 
had acted in this rebellion. These resolute proceedings 
rendered Eugenius and Vitalianus, the succeeding bishops 
of Rome, more moderate and prudent than their prede- 
cessor had been ; especially the latter, who received Con- 
; stans, on his arrival at Rome in 663, with the highest 
marks of distinction and respect, and used the -wisest pre- 
cautions to prevent the flame of that unhappy controversy 
from breaking out a second time. And thus, for several 
J years, it seemed to be extinguished ; but it was so only in 
appearance ; it was a lurking flame, which spread itself 
: secretly, and gave reason, to those who examined things 
with attention, to dread new commotions both in church 
and state. To prevent these, Constantine Pogonatus. the 
son of Constans, in pursuance of the advice of Agatho, 
the Roman pontiff, summoned, in 680, the sixth oecume- 
nical or general council, in which he permitted the Mono- 
thehtes, and pope Honorius himself, to be solemnly con- 
demned in presence of the Roman legates, who represent- 
ed Agatho in that assembly, and confirmed the sentence 
pronounced by the council, by the sanction of penal laws 
j enacted against such as should dare to oppose it. 

LX. It is difficult to give a clear and accurate account 
of the sentiments of those who were called Monothehtes ; 
nor is it easy to point out the objections of their adversa- 
! ries. Neither of the contending parties express themselves 
1 consistently with what seem to have been their respective 
opinions ; and they both disavow the errors with which 
they reciprocally charge each other. The following observa- 
tions contain the clearest notion we can form of the state 
! of this subtile controversy. 1. The Monothehtes declared, 
: that they had no connexion with the Eutychians and Mo- 
nophysites ; but maintained, in opposition to these two sects, 
that in Christ there were two distinct natures, which were 
I so united, though without the least mixture or confusion, 
! asto form by their union only one person : 2. They acknow- 
ledged that the soul of Christ was endowed with a will, or 
faculty of volition, which it still retained after its union with 
the divine nature ; for they taught that Christ was not 
only perfect God, but also perfect man ; whence it followed, 
that his soul was endowed with the faculty of volition : 
3. The)' denied that this faculty of volition in the soul of 
Christ was absolutely inactive, maintaining, on the con- 
trary, that it co-operated with the divine will : 4. They, 
I therefore, in effect, attributed to our Lord two wills, and 
i these, moreover, operating and active : 5. They, however, 
affirmed, that, in a certain sense, only one will and one 
manner of operation were in Christ. 

X. We must not indeed imagine, that all, who were 
distinguished by the title of Monothehtes, were unanimous 
I in their sentiments with respect to the points now mention- 
j ed. Some, as appears from undoubted testimonies, meant 
; no more than this, that the two wills in Christ were one, 
i. e. in perfect harmony ; that the human will was in per- 
petual conformity with the divine, and was, consequently, 

operation. It was for this that he was condemned in the council of Con- 
stantinople; and he must consequently have been a heretic, if it is true, 
that general councils cannot err. See Bossuet's Defence of the Declara- 
tion made by the Gallican Clergy, in the year 1682, concerning Ecclesi- 
astical Power; and also Basnage, torn. i. 

H=T b It is proper to observe here that Paul, who was a Monothelite in 
his heart, and had maintained the Ecthesis with great zeal, devised this 
prudent measure with a view to appease the Roman pontiff and die Afri- 
can bishops, who were incensed against him to the highest degree, on 
account of his attachment to the doctrine of one will. 



158 



ENTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part H. 



always holy, just, and good ; in which opinion there is no- 
thing reprehensible. Others, more nearly approaching 
the sentiment of the Monophysites, imagined that the two 
wills or faculties of volition in Christ were blended into 
one, in that which they called the personal union : ac- 
knowledging, at the same time, that the distinction between 
these wills was perceivable by reason, and that it was also 
necessary to distinguish carefully in this matter. The 
greatest part of this sect, and those who were also the 
most remarkable for their subtilty and penetration, were 
of opinion, that the human will of Christ was the instru- 
ment of the divine; or, in other words, never operated or 
acted of itself, but was always ruled, influenced, and im- 
pelled by the divine will; in such a manner, however, that, 
when it was once set in motion, it decreed and operated 
with the ruling principle. The doctrine of one will, and 
of one operation in Christ, which the Monothelites main- 
tained with such invincible obstinacy, was a natural con^ 
sequence of this hypothesis, since the operation of an in- 
strument and of the being who employs it, is one simple 
operation, and not two distinct operations or energies. 
According to this view of things, the Eutychian doctrine 
was quite out of the question ; and the only point of con- 
troversy to be determined, was, whether the human will in 
Christ was a self-moving faculty determined by its own 
internal impulse, or derived all its motion and operations 
from the divine. 

In the mean time, we may learn from this controversy, 
that nothing is more precarious, and nothing more danger- 
ous and deceitful, than the religious peace and concord 
which are founded upon ambiguous doctrines, and ce- 
mented by obscure and equivocal propositions, or articles of 
faith. The partisans of the council of Chalcedon endea- 
voured to ensnare the Monophysites, by proposing their 
doctrine in a manner that admitted a double explication ; 
and, by this imprudent piece of cunning, which showed 
so little reverence for the truth, they involved both the 
church and state in tedious and lamentable divisions. 

XI. The doctrine of the Monothelites, condemned and 
exploded by the council of Constantinople, found a place 
of refuge among the Mardaites, a people who inhabited the 
mounts Libanus and Anti-Libanus, and who, about the 
conclusion of this century, were called Maronites, from 
Maro their first bishop, a name which they still retain. 
No ancient writers give any certain account of the first 



* This ecclesiastic received the name of Maro, from his having lived in 
the character of a monk in the famous convent of St. Maro, upon the bor- 
ders of the Orontes, before his settlement among the Mardaites. For an 
ample account of this prelate, see Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Clement. 
Vatic, torn. i. p. 496. 

*> The cause of the Maronites has been pleaded by the writers of that 
nation, such as Abraham Ecchellensis, Gabriel Sionita, and others; but 
the most ample defence of their uninterrupted orthodoxy was made by 
Faustus Nairon, partly in his Dissertatio de Origine-, Nomine, ac Reh- 
gione Maronitarum, published at Rome in 1679, and partly in his Euo- 
plia Fidei Catholicae ex Syrorum et Chaldaorum Monumentis, published 
in 1694. None of the learned, however, appeared to be persuaded by his 
arguments, except Pagi* and La Rocque, of whom the latter has given 
us, in his Voyages de Syrie et.de Mont^Liban, torn. ii. p. 28 — 128, a 
long dissertation concerning the origin of the Maronites. Even the 
learned Asscmanus, himself a Maronite, and who has spared no pains 
to defend his nation t against the reproach in question, ingenuously ac- 
knowledges, that among the arguments used by Nairon and others in fa- 
vour of the Maronites, there are many destitute of force. See Jo. Morinus, 



person who instructed these mountaineers in the doctrine 
of the Monothelites ; it is probable, however, from several 
circumstances, that it was John Maro, whose name they 
had adopted.* One thing, indeed, we know, with the 
utmost certainty, from the testimony of Tyrius and other 
unexceptionable witnesses, as also from the most authentic 
records, — that the Maronites retained the opinions of the 
Monothelites until the twelfth century, when, abandoning 
and renouncing the doctrine of one will in Christ, they 
were re-admitted, in 1182, to the communion of the Romish 
church. The most learned of the modern Maronites have 
left no method unemployed to defend their church against 
this accusation ; they have laboured to prove, by a variety 
of testimonies, that their ancestors always persevered in 
the catholic faith and in their attachment to the pope, 
without ever adopting the doctrines, either of the Mono- 
physites or Monothelites. But all their efforts are insuffi- 
cient to prove the truth of these assertions to such as have 
any acquaintance with the history of the church, and the 
records of ancient times ; for, to all such, the testimonies 
they allege will appear absolutely fictitious and destitute of 
authority. b 

XII. Neither the sixth general council, in which the 
Monothelites were condemned, nor the fifth, which had 
been assembled in the preceding century, had determined 
any thing concerning ecclesiastical discipline, or religious 
ceremonies. To supply this defect, a ne Wepiscopal assem 
bly was holden in pursuance of the order of Justinian II. 
in a spacious hall of the imperial palace called Trullus, 
i. e. Cupola, from the form of the building. This council, 
which met in 692, was called Qorinisextum, as we had oc- 
casion to observe formerly, from its being considered, by the 
Greeks, as a supplement to the fifth and sixth oecumenical 
councils, and as having given to the acts of these assem- 
blies the degree of perfection which they had hitherto 
wanted. There are yet extant a hundred and two laws, 
which were enacted in this council, and which related to 
the external celebration of divine worship, the government 
of the church, and the lives and manners of Christians. 
Six of these are diametrically opposite to several opinions 
and rites of the Romish church ; for which reason the 
pontiffs have refused to adopt, without restriction, the de- 
cisions of this council, or to reckon it in the number of 
those called oecumenical, though they consider the greatest 
part of its decrees as worthy of applause.' ' 

de Ordinat. Sacns, p. 380. — Rich. Simon, Histoire Critique des Chretiens 
Orientaux, chap. xiii. p. 146. — Euseb. Renaudot, Historia Patriarchar. 
Alexandrinor. p. 179., and Prsef. ad Liturgias Orientales. — Le Brun, 
Explication de la Messe, torn. ii. The arguments of the contending 
parties are enumerated impartially in such a manner as leaves the deci- 
sion to the reader, by Le duien, in his Oriens Christianus, torn. iii. 

c See Franc. Pagi Breviar. Pontif. Roman, torn. i. p. 486., and Christ. 
Lupus, Dissertat. de Concilio Trulliano, in Notis et Dissertat. ad Con- 
cilia, torn. iii. op. p. 168. The Roman Catholics reject the following 
decisions of this council: 1. The fifth canon, which approves the eighty- 
five apostolical canons commonly attributed to Clement: 2. the thirteenth, 
which allows the priests to many: 3. the fifty-fifth, which condemns the 
Sabbath fast, that was an institution of the Latin church : 4. the sixty- 
seventh, which prescribes the most rigorous abstinence from blood and 
things strangled : 5. the eighty-second, which prohibits the representing 
of Christ under the image of a lamb: 6. the thirty-sixth, concerning the 
equal rank and authority of the bishops of Rome and Constantinople. 

* See Critica Baroniana ad A. 694. 

+ See Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. i. p. 490. 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



BOOK THE THIED, 



CONTAINING THE 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



FROM 



CHARLEMAGNE TO THE REFORMATION BY LUTHER. 



THE EIGHTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events which happened to 
the Church in this Century. 

I. While the Mohammedans were infesting with 
their arms, and adding to their conquests, the most flou- 
rishing provinces of Asia, and obscuring, as far as their in- 
fluence could extend, the lustre and glory of the rising 
church, the Nestorians of Chaldea were carrying the lamp 
of Christianity among those barbarous nations, called Sc)^- 
thians by the ancients, and by the moderns, Tartars, who, 
unsubjected to the Saracen yoke, had fixed their habita- 
tions within the limits of mount Imaus. a It is now well 
known, that Timotheus, the Nestorian pontiff", who had 
been raised to that dignity in 778, converted to the Chris- 
tian faith, by the ministry of Subchal Jesu, whom he had 
consecrated bishop, first the Gelse and Dailamites by whom 
a part of Hyrcania was inhabited ; and afterwards, by the 
labours of other missionaries, the rest of the nations, who 
had formed settlements in Hyrcania, Bactria, Margiana, 
and Sogdia. b It is also certain, that Christianity enjoyed, 
in these vast regions, notwithstanding occasional attacks 
from the Mohammedans, the advantages of a firm and 
solid establishment for a long course of ages ; while the 
bishops, by whose ministry it was propagated and support- 
ed, were all consecrated by the sole authority of the Nes- 
torian pontiff. 

II. If we turn our eyes toward Europe, we find many 
nations that were yet unenlightened with the knowledge 
of the Gospel. Almost all the Germans, (if we except the 
Bavarians, who had embraced Christianity under Theo- 
doric, or Thierry, the son of Clovis, and the eastern 
Franks, with a few other provinces,) lay buried in the 
grossest darkness of pagan superstition. Many attempts 
were made, by pious and holy men, to infuse the truth 
into the minds of these savage Germans ; and various 
efforts were used for the same purpose by kings and prin- 
ces, whose interest it was to propagate a religion that was 
so adapted to mitigate and tame the ferocity of those war- 
like nations ; but neither the attempts of pious zeal, nor 
the efforts of policy, were attended with success. This 
great work was, however, effected in this century, by the 
ministry of Winfred, a Benedictine monk, born in Eng- 
land of illustrious parents, and afterwards known by the 
name of Boniface. This famous ecclesiastic, attended by 
two companions of his pious labours, passed over into 
Friseland in 715, to preach the Gospel to the people of 

f£jT * The southern regions of Scythia were divided by the ancients 
(to whom the northern were unknown) into three parts, namely, Scythia 
within, and Scythia beyond Imaus, and Sarmatia. It is of the first of these 
three that Dr. Mosheim speaks, as enlightened at this time with the know- 
ledge of the Gospel; and it comprehended Turkestan, the Mongol, TJsbeck, 
Kalmuck, and Nogaian Tartary, which were peopled by the Bactrians 
Sogdians, Gandari, Sacs, and Massagetes, not to mention the land of 

No. XIV. 41 



that country ; but this first attempt was unsuccessful ; and 
a war breaking out between Radbod, the king of that 
country, and Charles Mattel, our zealous missionary re- 
turned to England. He resumed, however, his pious un- 
dertaking in 719 ; and being solemnly empowered by the 
Roman pontiff, Gregory II., to preach the Gospel, not only 
in Friseland, but. all over Germany, he performed the 
functions of a christian teacher among the Thuringians, 
Friselanders, and Hessians, with considerable success. 

III. This eminent missionary was, in 723, consecrated 
bishop by Gregory II., who changed the name of Winfred 
into that of Boniface : seconded also by the powerful pro- 
tection, and encouraged by the liberality of Charles Mar- 
tel, mayor of the palace to Chilperic, king of France, he 
resumed his ministerial labours among the Hessians and 
Thuringians, and finished with glory the task he had un- 
dertaken, in which he received considerable assistance 
from a number of pious and learned men,, who repaired to 
him from England and France. As the Christian churches 
erected by Boniface were too numerous to be governed by 
one bishop, this prelate was advanced to the dignity of 
archbishop, in 738, by Gregory III., by whose authority, 
and the auspicious protection of Carloman and Pepin, the 
sons of Charles Mattel, he founded the bishoprics of 
Wurtzburg, Buraburg, Effort, and Eichstadt, to which he 
added, in 744, the famous monastery of Fulda. His last 
promotion (the last recompense of his assiduous labours 
in the propagation of the truth) was his advancement to 
the archiepiscopal see of Mentz, in 746, by Zachary, 
bishop of Rome, by whom he was, at the same time, 
created primate of Germany and Belgium. In his old age, 
he returned to Friseland, that he might finish his minis- 
try in the same place where he had entered first upon its 
functions ; but his piety was ill rewarded by that barba- 
rous people, by whom he was murdered in 755, while fifty 
ecclesiastics, who accompanied him in his journey, shared 
the same unhappy fate. 

IV. Boniface, on accovint of his ministerial labours and 
holy exploits, was distinguished by the honourable title of 
the Apostle of the Germans; nor, if we consider impar- 
tially the eminent services he rendered to Christianity, 
will this title appear to have been undeservedly bestowed. 
But it is necessary to observe, that this eminent prelate 
was an apostle of modern fashion, and had, in miiny re- 
spects, departed from the excellent model exhibited in the 
conduct and ministry of the primitive and true apostles. 
Beside his zeal for the glory and authority of the Roman 

Siberia, Samoiedia, and Nova Zembla, which were uninhabited in an- 
cient times. 

b Thomas Margensis, Historia Monastica, lib. iii. in Assemani Bib- 
lioth. Orient. Vatic, torn. iii. 

• An ample account of this eminent man is to be found in a learned 
dissertation of Gudenius, de S. Bonifacio German. Apost , published 
at Helmstadt in 1722. See also Fabricii Eib. Lat. medii jEvi, torn. i. p. 



162 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



pontiff, which equalled, if it did not surpass, his zeal for 
the,service of Christ and the propagation of his religion, 1 
many other things unworthy of a truly Christian minis- 
ter are laid to his charge. In combating the pagan su- 
perstitions, he did not always use those arms with which 
the ancient heralds of the Gospel gained such victories in 
behalf of the truth ; but often employed violence and 
terror, and sometimes artifice and fraud, in order to mul- 
tiply the number of Christians. His epistles, moreover, 
discover an imperious and arrogant temper, a cunning 
and insidious turn of mind, an excessive zeal for increas- 
ing the honours and pretensions of the sacerdotal order, 
and a profound ignorance of many things of which the 
knowledge was absolutely necessary in an apostle, and 
particularly of the true nature and genius of the Chris- 
tian religion. 

V. The famous prelate, of whom we have been now 
speaking, was not the only Christian minister who at- 
tempted to deliver the German nations from the miserable 
bondage of pagan superstition; several others signalized 
their zeal in the same laudable and pious undertaking. 
Corbinian, a French Benedictine monk, after having la- 
boured with great assiduity and fervour in planting the 
Gospel among the Bavarians, and in other countries, be- 
came bishop of Freysingen. b Firmin, a Gaul by birth, 
preached the Gospel under various kinds of suffering and 
opposition in Alsatia, Bavaria, and Helvetia, now Switzer- 
land, and bad inspection over a considerable numberof mon- 
asteries/ Lebuin, an Englishman, laboured with the most 
ardent zeal and assiduity to engage the fierce and warlike 
Saxons, and also the Friselanders, Belgee, and other na- 
tions, to receive the light of Christianity : but his ministry 
was attended with very little fruit. d We pass over in si- 
lence several apostles of less fame ; nor is it necessary to 
mention Willibrod, and others of superior reputation, who 
persisted now with great alacrity and constancy in the la- 
bours they had undertaken in the preceding century, in or- 
der to the propagation of divine truth. 

VI. A war broke out at this time between Charlemagne 
and the Saxons, which contributed much to the propaga- 
tion of Christianity, though not by the force of a rational 
persuasion. The Saxons of that age were a numerous and 

709. — Hist. Liter, de la France, torn. iv. p. 92, and Mabillon, in Annali- 
bus Benedictinis. 

* The French Benedictine monks ingenuously confess that Boniface 
was an over-zealous partizan of the Roman pontiff, and attributed more 
authority to him than was just and reasonable. Their words, in their 
Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iv. p. 106, are as follow : " II ex- 
prime son devouement pour le Saint Siege en des termes qui ne sont pas 
assez proportionnes a la dignite du caractere episcopal." 

•> Baronius, Annal. Eccles. torn. viii. ad annum 716. sect. 10. Car. 
Maichelbeck, Historia Frisingensis, torn. i. 

Herm. Bruschii, Chronologia Monaster. German, p. 30. Anton. Pagi, 
Critica in Annales Baronii, torn. ii. ad annum 759, sect. ix. Histoire 
Literaire de la France, torn. iv. p. 124. 

<> Hucbaldi Vita S. Lebuini in Laur. Surii Vitis Sanctor. d. 12. Nov. 
p. 277. — Jo. Molleri Cimbria Literata, torn. ii. p. 464. 

• It will be proper here to transcribe, from the epistles of the famous 
Alcuin, once abbot of Canterbury, a remarkable passage, which will 
show us the reasons that contributed principally to give the Saxons an 
aversion to Christianity, and at the same time will expose the absurd and 
preposterous manner of teaching used by the ecclesiastics who were sent 
to convert them. This passage, in the 104th epistle, and 1647th page of 
his works, is as follows: " Si tanta instantia leve Christi jugum et onus 
ejus leve durissimo Saxonum populo praedicarentur, quanta decimarum 
redditivel legalis pro parvissimis quibuslibetculpis edictis necessitas exi- 
gebatur, forte baptismatis sacramenta non abhorrerent. Sint tandem ali- 
quando doctores fidei apostolicis eruditi exemplis : sint pradicatores, non 
prsedatores." Here the reader may see a lively picture of the kind of 
apostles that flourished at this time: apostles who were more zealous in 



formidable people, who inhabited a considerable part of 
Germany, and were engaged in perpetual quarrels with 
the Franks concerning their boundaries, and other mat- 
ters of complaint. Hence Charlemagne turned his arms 
against this powerful nation, in 772, with a design, not 
only to subdue that spirit of revolt with which they had 
so often troubled the empire, but also to abolish their idola- 
trous worship, and engage them to embrace the Christian 
religion. He hoped, by their conversion, to vanquish their 
obstinacy, imagining that the divine precepts of the Gos- 
pel would assuage their impetuous and restless passions, 
mitigate their ferocity, and induce them to submit quietly 
to the government of the Franks. These projects were 
great in idea, but difficult in execution; accordingly, the 
first attempt to convert the Saxons, after having subdued 
them, was unsuccessful, because it was made, without the 
aid of violence or threats, by the bishops and monks, 
whom the victor had left among that conquered people, 
whose obstinate attachment to idolatry no arguments or 
exhortations could overcome. More forcible means were 
afterwards used to draw them into the pale of the church, 
in the wars which Charlemagne carried on, in the years 
775, 776, and 780, against that valiant people, whose love 
of liberty was excessive, and whose aversion to every spe- 
cies of sacerdotal authority was inexpressible. 6 During 
these wars, their attachment to the superstition of their an- 
cestors was so warmly combated by the allurements of 
reward, by the terror of punishment, and by the imperious 
language of victory, that they suffered themselves to be 
baptised, though with inward reluctance, by the mission- 
aries whom the emperor sent among them for that purpose/ 
Fierce seditions, indeed, were soon after renewed, and fo- 
mented by Witekind and Albion, two of the most valiant 
among the Saxon chiefs, who attempted to abolish the 
Christian worship by the same violent methods which had 
contributed to its establishment. But the courage and li- 
berality of Charlemagne, alternately employed to suppress 
this new rebellion, engaged these chiefs to make a public 
and solemn profession of Christianity in 785, and to pro- 
mise an adherence to that divine religion for the rest of 
their days.? To prevent, however, the Saxons from re- 
nouncing a religion which they had embraced with reluc- 



exacting tithes, and extending their authority, than in propagating the 
sublime truths and precepts of the Gospel ; and yet these very apostles 
are said to have wrought stupendous miracles. 

f Alcuinus apud Gul. Malmesbur. de Gestis Regum Ane:lorum, lib.i. 
cap. iv. p. 23, inter Rer. Anglic. Script, edit. Francof. 1601. In this work 
we find the following passage, which proves what we have said with 
respect to the unworthy methods that were used in converting the Saxons. 
" Antiqui Saxones et omnes Fresonum populi, instante rege Carolo, alios 
praemiis et alios minis solicitante, ad fidem Christi conversi sunt." See 
also two passages in the Capitularia Regum Francor. torn. i. p. 246 and 
252. From the first we learn, that those Saxons who abandoned the 
pagan superstitions were " restored to the liberty they had forfeited by 
the fate of arms, and freed from the obligation of paying tribute ;" and 
in the second, we find the following severe law, that " every Saxon 
who contemptuously refused to receive the sacrament of baptism, and 
persisted in his adherence to Paganism, was to be punished with death." 
While such rewards and punishments were employed in the cause ol 
religion, there was no occasion for miracles to advance its progress ; fui 
these motives were sufficient to draw all mankind to an hypocritical and 
external profession of the Gospel ; but it is easy to imagine what sort of 
Christians the Saxons must have been, who were dragooned into the 
church in this abominable manner. Compare with the authors mentioned 
in this note, Launoius, de veteri More baptizandi Judseos et Infideles, 
cap. v. vi. p. 703, torn. ii. op. part ii. This author assures us, that Adrian, 
the first Roman pontiff of that name, honoured with his approbalion 
Charlemagne's method of converting the Saxons. 

e Eginhartus, de Vita Caroli M. — Adam Brfmensis, lib. i. cap. viii. 
See also the writers of the history and exploits of Charlemagne, enu- 



Chap. 11. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



163 



tance, many bishops were appointed to reside among them, 
schools also were erected, and monasteries founded, that the 
means of instruction might not be wanting. The same 
precautions were employed among the Huns in Pannonia, 
to maintain in the profession of Christianity that fierce 
people whom Charlemagne had converted to the faith, 
when, exhausted and dejected by various defeats, they 
were no longer able to make head agaiust his victorious 
arms, and chose rather to be Christians than slaves.*- 

VII. Succeeding generations, filled with a grateful 
sense of the exploits which Charlemagne had performed 
in the service of Christianity, canonised his memory, and 
turned this bloody toarrior into an eminent saint. In the 
twelfth century, Frederic I. emperor of the Romans, order- 
ed Paschal II., whom he had raised to the pontificate, to 
enroll the name of this mighty conqueror among the 
tutelary saints of the church ; b and indeed Charlemagne 
merited this honour, according to the opinions which pre- 
vailed in that dark period ; for, to have enriched the clergy 
with large and magnificent donations, and to have ex- 
tended the boundaries of the church, no matter by what 
methods, were then considered as the highest merits, and 
as sufficient pretensions to the honour of saintship ; but, 
in the esteem of those who judge of the nature and cha- 
racters of sanctity by the decisions of the Gospel upon 
that head, the sainted emperor will appear to have been 
utterly unworthy of that dignity; for, not to enter into a 
particular detail of his vices, the number of which coun- 
terbalanced that of his virtues, it is undeniably evident, 
that his ardent and ill-conducted zeal for the conversion 
of the Huns, Friselanders, and Saxons, was more ani- 
mated by the suggestions of ambition, than by a princi- 
ple of true piety; and that his main view, in these reli- 
gious exploits, was to subdue the converted nations under 
his dominion, and to tame them to his yoke, which they 
supported with impatience, and shook off by frequent re- 
volts. It is, moreover, well known, that this boasted-saint 
made no scruple of seeking the alliance of the infidel Sara- 
cens, that he might be more effectually enabled to crush 
■(he Greeks, notwithstanding their profession of the Chris- 
tian religion. d 

VIII. The many and stupendous miracles which are 
said to have been wrought by the Christian missionaries, 
who were sent to convert the barbarous nations, have lost, 
in our times, the credit they obtained in former ages. The 
corrupt discipline that then prevailed, admitted those falla- 
cious stratagems, which are very improperly called pious 
frauds ; nor did the heralds of the Gospel think it at all 
unlawful to terrify or allure to the profession of Christianity, 
by fictitious prodigies, those obdurate hearts which they 
could not subdue by reason and argument. It is not, how- 
ever, to be supposed, that all those, who acquired renown 
by their miracles, were chargeable with this fanatical spe- 
cies of artifice and fraud : for as, on one hand, those igno- 
rant and superstitious nations were disposed to look upon, 
as miraculous, every event which had an unusual aspect, 
so, on the other, the Christian doctors themselves were so 



merated by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Latina medii iEvi, 
torn. i. p. 950. 

* Vita S. Rudberti in Henric. Canisii Lectionibus antiquis, torn. iii. 
part. ii. p. 340. — Pauli Debreceni Historia Ecclesise Reformat, in Hungar. 
et Transylvania, a Lampio edita, cap. ii. p. 10. 

i> Henr. Canisii Lect..tom. iii. par. ii. p. 207. — Walchii Dissert, de 
Caroli Magni Canonizatione. 



uninstructed and superficial, so little acquainted with the 
powers of nature, and the relations and connexions of 
things in their ordinary course, that uncommon events, 
however natural, were considered by them as miraculous 
interpositions of the Most High. This will appear obvious 
to such as read, without superstition or partiality, the Acts 
of the Saints who flourished in this and the following 
centuries. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Calamitous Events that happiened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The eastern empire had now fallen from its former 
strength and grandeur through the repeated shocks of 
dreadful revolutions, and the consuming power of intes- 
tine calamities. The throne was now become the seat of 
terror, inquietude, and suspicion ; nor was any reign at- 
tended with an uninterrupted tranquillity. In this century 
three emperors were dethroned, loaded with ignominy, and 
sent into banishment. Under Leo the Isaurian, and his 
son Constantine, surnamed Copronymus, arose that fatal 
controversy about the worship of images, which proved a 
source of innumerable calamities and troubles, and weak- 
ened, almost incredibly, the force of the empire. These 
troubles and dissensions left the Saracens at liberty to 
ravage the provinces of Asia and Africa, to oppress the 
Greeks in the most barbarous manner, and to extend their 
territories and dominion on all sides, as also to oppose every 
where the progress of Christianity, and, in some places, 
even to extirpate it. But the troubles of the empire, and 
the calamities of the church, did not end here : for, about 
the middle of this century, they were assailed by new 
enemies, still more fierce and inhuman than those whose 
usurpations they had hitherto suffered. These were the 
Turks, a tribe of the Tartars, or at least their descendants, 
who, breaking forth from the inaccessible wilds about 
mount Caucasus, overspread Colchis, Iberia, and Albania, 
rushed into Armenia, and after having subdued the Sara- 
cens, turned their victorious arms against the Greeks, whom, 
in process of time, they reduced under their dominion. 

II. In 714, the Saracens crossed the sea which sepa- 
rates Spain from Africa, dispersed the army of Roderic 
king of the Spanish Goths, e whose defeat was principally 
occasioned by the treachery of their general Julian, and 
made themselves masters of the greatest part of the territories 
of this vanquished prince. At that time the empire of the 
Visigoths, which had subsisted in Spain above three hun- 
dred years, was totally overturned by these fierce and sav- 
age invaders, who also took possession of all the maritime 
parts of Gaul, from the Pyrenean mountains to the river 
Rhone, whence they made frequent excursions, and rava- 
ged the neighbouring countries with fire and sword. 

The rapid progress of these bold invaders was, indeed, 
checked by Charles Martel, who gained a signal victory 
over them in a bloody action near Poictiers in 732/ But 
the vanquished spoilers soon recovered their strength and 

e Vid. Caroli Testamentum in Steph. Baluzii Capitularibus Regum 
Francor. torn. i. p. 4S7. 

A See Basnage, Histoire des Juifs, torn. ix. ehnp. ii. p. 40. 

• Jo. Mariana, Rerum Hispanicarum Hist. lib. vi. cap. xxi. — Renaudot, 
Historia Patriarch. Alexandria, p. 253. — Jo. deFerreras, Hist, de Espaiia, 
torn. ii. p. 425. 

' Paulus Diaconus, de Gestis Longobard. lib. vi. cap. xlvi. liii. — 



164 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1. 



their ferocity, and returned with new violence to their de- 
vastations. This engaged Charlemagne to lead a formi- 
dable army into Spain, in the hope of delivering that whole 
country from the oppressive yoke of the Saracens : but this 
grand enterprise, though it did not entirely miscarry, was 
not attended with the signal success that was expected 
from it. a 

The inroads of this warlike people were felt by several 
of the western provinces, beside those of France and 
Spain. Several parts of Italy suffered from their incur- 
sions ; the island of Sardinia was reduced under their 

Mariana, lib. vii. cap. iii. — Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Abderamus. 
— Ferreras, torn. ii. p. 463. 



yoke ; and Sicily was ravaged and oppressed by them in 
the most inhuman manner. Hence the Christian religion 
in Spain and Sardinia suffered inexpressibly under these 
violent usurpers. 

In Germany, and the adjacent countries, the Christians 
were assailed by another sort of enemies ; for all such 
as adhered to the pagan superstitions beheld them with 
the most inveterate hatred, and persecuted them with the 
most unrelenting violence and fury. Hence, in several 
places, castles and various fortifications were erected to re 
strain the incursions of these barbarian zealots. 

a Henr. de Bunau, Teutsche Keyser-und-Reichs-Historie, torn, ii, p 
I 392. — Ferreras, torn. ii. p. 506. *> Servati Lupi Vita Wigberti, p. 304. 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
during this Century. 

I. Among the Greeks of this age were some men of 
genius and talents, who might have contributed to pre- 
vent the total decline of literature ; but their zeal was 
damped by the tumults and desolations that reigned in the 
empire ; and while both church and state were menaced 
with approaching ruin, the learned were left destitute of 
that protection which gives both vigour and success to 
the culture of the arts and sciences. Hence few or none 
of the Greeks were famous, either for elegance of diction, 
true wit, copious erudition, or a zealous attachment to the 
study of philosophy, and the investigation of truth. Frigid 
homilies, insipid narrations of the exploits of pretended 
saints, vain and subtle disputes about inessential and tri- 
vial subjects, vehement and bombastic declamations for 
or against the erection and worship of images, and histo- 
ries composed -without method or judgment, were the 
monuments of Grecian learning in this miserable age. 

II. It must, however, be observed, that the Aristotelian 
philosophy was taught every where in the public schools, 
and was propagated in all places with considerable suc- 
cess. The doctrine of Plato had lost all its credit in the 
schools, after the repeated sentences of condemnation that 
had been passed upon the opinions of Origen, and the 
troubles which the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies 
had excited in the church ; so that Platonism now was al- 
most confined to the solitary retreats of the monastic orders. 
Of all the writers in this century, who contributed to the il- 
lustration and progress of the Aristotelian philosophy, the 
most eminent was John Damascenus, who composed a 
concise, yet comprehensive view of the doctrines of the 
Stagirite, for the instruction of the more ignorant, and in 
a manner adapted to common capacities. This little work 
excited numbers, both in Greece and Syria, to the study 
of that philosophy, whose proselytes increased daily. The 
Nestorians and Jacobites were also extremely diligent in 
the study of Aristotle's writings ; and from this repository 
they armed themselves with sophisms and quibbles, which 
they employed against the Greeks in the controversy con- 
cerning the nature and person of Christ. 

III. The literary history of the Latins exhibits innu- 
merable instances of the grossest ignorance," which will 
not, however, appear surprising to such as consider, with 
attention, the state of Europe in this century. If we ex- 
cept some poor remains of learning, which were yet to be 
found at Rome, and in certain cities of Italy, b the sciences 
seemed to have abandoned the continent, and fixed their 
residence in Britain and Ireland. Those, therefore, of 
the Latin writers, who were distinguished by their learn- 
ing and genius, were all (a few French and Italians ex- 

» See Steph. Baluz. Observat. ad Reginonum Prumiensem, p. 540. 
t> Lud. Ant. Muratori. Antiq. Italics medii ^Evi, torn. iii. p. 811. 
e Jac. Usserius, Prajf. ad Syllogen Epistolarum Hibernicarum. 
* The reasons that have been used, to prove Charlemagne the founder of 
the university of Paris, are accurately collected by Du Boulay. Historia 

No. XIV. 42 



cepted) either Britons or Hibernians, such as Alcuin, Bede, 
Egbert, Clemens, Dungallus, Acca, and others. Charle- 
magne, whose political talents were embellished by a con- 
siderable degree of learning, and an ardent zeal for the 
culture of the sciences, endeavoured to dispel the profound 
ignorance that reigned in his dominions ; in which excel- 
lent undertaking he was animated and directed by the 
counsels of Alcuin. With this view he drew, first from 
Italy, and afterwards from Britain and Ireland, by his 
liberality, eminent men, who had distinguished them- 
selves in the various branches of literature ; and excited 
the several orders of the clergy and monks, by various 
encouragements, and the nobility, and others of eminent 
rank, by his own example, to the pursuit of knowledge 
in all its branches, human and divine. 

IV. In the prosecution of this noble design, the greatest 
part of the bishops erected, by the express order of the 
emperor, cathedral schools, (so called from their contiguity 
to the principal church in each diocese,) in which the 
youth, set apart for the service of Christ, received a learned 
and religious education. Those abbots also, who had any 
zeal for the cause of Christianity, opened schools in their 
monasteries, in which the more learned of the fraternity 
instructed such as were designed for the monastic state, or 
the sacerdotal order, in the Latin language, and other 
branches of learning, suitable to their future destination. 
It was formerly believed that the university of Paris was 
erected by Charlemagne ; but this opinion is rejected by 
such as have studied, with impartiality, the history of this 
age, though it is undeniably evident, that this great prince 
had the honour of laying, in some measure, the foundation 
of that noble institution, and that the beginnings from 
which it arose may be ascribed to him. d However this 
question be decided, it is certain, that the zeal of this em- 
peror, for the propagation and advancement of letters, 
was very great, and manifested its ardour by a considerable 
number of excellent establishments ; nor among others 
must we pass in silence the famous Palatine school, which 
he erected with a view to banish ignorance from his court, 
and in which the princes of the blood, and the children of 
the nobility, were educated by the most learned and illus- 
trious masters of the times. e 

V. These establishments were not, however, attended 
with the desired success ; nor was the improvement of the 
youth, in learning and virtue, at all proportioned to the 
pains that were taken, and the bounty that was bestowed 
to procure them a liberal education. This, indeed, will 
not appear surprising, when we consider, that the most 
learned and renowned masters of these times were men 
of very little genius and abilities, and that their system of 
erudition and philosophy was nothing more than a lean 
and ghastly skeleton, equally unfit for ornament and use. 
The whole circle of science was composed of, what they 

Academic Paris, torn. i. p. 91. But they have been refuted by the fol- 
lowing learned men in a victorious manner, viz. Mabillon, Act. Sanct 
Ord. Benedict, torn. v. Praef. sect. 181, 182. Launoy. Claud. Joly, da 
Scholis. 
• Boulay, torn. i. p. 281. — Mabillon, sect 179. 



166 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part D 



called, the seven liberal arts, viz. grammar, rhetoric, logic, 
arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy ; a the three 
former of which they distinguished by the title of trivium, 
and the four latter by that of quadrivium. Nothing can 
be conceived more wretchedly barbarous than the man- 
ner in which these sciences were taught, as we may easily 
perceive from Alcuin's treatise concerning them, b and from 
the dissertations of St. Augustin on the same subject, 
which were in the highest repute at this time. In the 
greatest part of the schools, the public teachers ventured 
no farther than the trivium, and confined their instructions 
to grammar, rhetoric, and logic ; they, however, who, after 
passing- the trivium and also the quadrivium, were desirous 
of rising yet higher in their literary pursuits, were exhorted 
to apply themselves to the study of Cassiodore and Boe- 
thius, as if the progress of human knowledge had been 
bounded by the discoveries of those two learned writers. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and its Form of Government during this Century. 

I. That corruption of manners, which dishonoured the 
clergy in the former century, increased, instead of dimin- 
ishing, in this, and discovered itself under the most odious 
characters, both in the eastern and western provinces. In 
the east there arose the most violent dissensions and quar- 
rels among the bishops and doctors of the church, who, 
forgetting the duties of their stations, and the cause of 
Christ in which they were engaged, threw the state into 
combustion by their outrageous clamours and their - scanda- 
lous divisions, and even went so far as to stain their hands 
with the blood of their brethren, who differed from them 
in opinion. In the western world, Christianity was not 
less disgraced by the lives and actions of those who pre- 
tended to be the luminaries of the church, and who ought 
to have been so in reality, by exhibiting examples of piety 
and virtue to their flock. The clergy abandoned them- 
selves to their passions without moderation or restraint : 
they were distinguished by their luxury, their" gluttony, 
and their lust ; they gave themselves up to dissipations of 
various kinds, to the pleasures of hunting, and, what 
seemed still more remote from their sacred character, to 
military studies' and enterprises. They had also so far 
extinguished every principle of fear and shame, that they 
became incorrigible ; nor could the various laws enacted 
against their vices by Carloman, Pepin, and Charlemagne, 
at all contribute to set bounds to their licentiousness, or to 
bring about their reformation. 11 



• Herm. Conringii Antiquitat. Academical, Diss. iii. p. 80. — Jac. 
Thomasii Programmata, p. 368. — Observat. Halens. torn. vi. Obs. 
xiv. p. 118. 

•> Alcuini Opera, par. ii. p. 1245, edit. Gluercetani. It is, however, to 
be observed, that the treatise of Alcuin, here referred to, is not only im- 
perfect, but is almost entirely transcribed from Cassiodore. 

° Steph. Baluzius, ad Reginon. Prumiensem, p. 563. — Wilkins, Con- 
cilia Magna? Britannia?, torn. i. p. 90. 

& Steph. Baluz. Capitular. Regum Francor. torn. i. p. 189, 208, 275, 
493, &c. 

• Julius Crcsar, de hello Gallico, lib. vi. cap. 13. " Druides magno sunt 
apud eos honore: nam fere de omnibus controversiis, publicis privatisque, 
constituunt ; et, si quod est admissum facinus, si casdes facta, si de haere- 
ditate, si de fmibus controversia est, iidem decernunt, prsemia prcnasque 
constituunt : si quis aut privatus aut publicus eorum decreto non stetit, 
sacrifices interdicunt. — Druides a bello abesse consueverunt, neque tri- 
buta una cum reliquis pendunt : militia? vacationem, omniumque rerum 
Labent immunitatem. Tantis excitati preemiis, et sua sponte multi in 



II. It is, indeed, amazing, that, notwithstanding the 
shocking nature of such vices, especially in a set of men 
whose profession required them to display to the world the 
attractive lustre of virtuous example ; and notwithstand- 
ing the perpetual troubles and complaints which these 
vices occasioned ; the clergy were still thought worthy of 
the highest veneration, and honoured, as a sort of deities, by 
the submissive multitude. This veneration for the bish- 
ops and clergy, and the influence and authority it gave 
them over the people, were, indeed, carried much higher 
in the west than in the eastern provinces ; and the rea- 
sons of this difference will appear manifest to such as con- 
sider the customs and manners that prevailed among the 
barbarous nations, which were, at this time, masters of 
Europe, before their conversion to Christianity. All these 
nations, during their continuance under the darkness of 
paganism, were absolutely enslaved to their priests, without 
whose counsel and authority they transacted nothing of 
the least importance, either in civil or military affairs. e On 
their conversion to Christianity, they, therefore, thought 
proper to transfer to the ministers of their new religion, 
the rights and privileges of their former priests : and the 
Christian bishops, in their turn, were not only ready to 
accept the offer, but used all their diligence and dexterity 
to secure and assert, to themselves and their successors, the 
dominion and authority which the ministers of paganism 
had usurped over an ignorant and brutish people. 

III. The honours and privileges, which the western na- 
tions had voluntarily conferred upon the bishops and other 
doctors of the church, were now augmented with new and 
immense accessions of opulence and authority. The en- 
dowments of the church and monasteries, and the reve- 
nues of the bishops, were hitherto considerable ; but in 
this century a new and ingenious method was found out 
of acquiring much greater riches to the church, and of 
increasing its wealth through succeeding ages. An opinion 
prevailed universally at this time, though its authors are 
not known, that the punishment which the righteous 
judge of the world has reserved for the transgressions of 
the wicked, was to be prevented and annulled by liberal 
donations to God, to the saints, to the churches and clergy. 
In consequence of this notion, the great and opulent, who 
were, generally speaking, the most remarkable for their 
flagitious and abominable lives, offered, out of the abun- 
dance which they had received by inheritance, or acquired 
by rapine, rich donations to departed saints, their minis- 
ters upon earth, and the keepers of the temples that were 
erected to their honour, in order to avoid the sufferings and 
penalties annexed by the priests to transgression in this 

disciplinam conveniunt, et a parentibus propinquisque mittuntur." Ta- 
citus {de Mor. Germanorum, cap. 7.) expresses also the power and au- 
thority of the priests or Druids in trie following terms-: "Neque enim 
animadvertere, neque vincire, neque verberare quidem, nisi sacerdotibus 
permissum, non quasi in pcenam, nee ducis jussu, sed velut Deo impe- 
rante ; " and again, cap. ii. " Silentium per sacerdotes, quibus et turn 
coercendi jus est, imperatur." Helmoldus (Chron. Sclavorum, lib. i. 
cap. xxxvi.) expresses himself to the same purpose. " Major flaminis 
quam regis, apud ipsos, veneratio est ; " and again, lib. ii. cap. xii. "Rex 
apud eos modicae asstimationis est comparatione flaminis ; ille enim re- 
sponsa perquirit ; — rex et populus ad illius nutum pendent." This an- 
cient custom of honouring their priests, and submitting in all things to 
their decisions, was still preserved by the Germans, and the other Euro- 
pean nations, after their conversion to Christianity ; and this furnishes a 
satisfactory answer to the question, how it came to pass that the Christian 
priesthood obtained in the west thatenormous degree of authority, which 
is so contrary to the positive precepts of Christ, and the nature and 
genius of his divine religion. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



167 



life," and to escape the misery denounced against the 
wicked in a future state. This new and commodious 
method of making atonement for iniquity, was the prin- 
cipal source of those immense treasures, which, from this 
period, began to flow in upon the clergy, the churches, 
and monasteries, and continued to enrich them through 
succeeding ages down to the present time. b 

IV. But here it is highly worthy of observation, that 
the donations which princes and persons of the first rank 
presented, in order to make expiation for their sins, and to 
satisfy the justice of God and the demands of the clergy, 
did not merely consist of those private possessions, which 
every citizen may enjoy, and with which the churches and 
convents were already abundantly enriched; for these 
donations were carried to a much more extravagant 
length, and the church was endowed with several of those 
public grants, which are peculiar to princes and sovereign 
states, and which are commonly called regalia, or royal 
domains. Emperors, kings, and princes, signalized their 
superstitious veneration for the clergy, by investing bishops, 
churches, and monasteries, with princely possessions. 
Those who, by their holy profession, were appointed to 
proclaim to the world the vanity of human grandeur, and 
to inspire the minds of men, by their instructions and their 
example, with a noble contempt of sublunary things, be- 
came themselves scandalous spectacles of worldly pomp, 
ambition, and splendour ; were created dukes, counts, and 
marquisses, judges, legislators, and sovereigns ; and not 
only gave laws to nations, but also, upon many occasions, 
gave battle to their enemies at the head of numerous ar- 
mies of their own raising. It is here that we are to look 
for the source of those dreadful tumults and calamities 
that spread desolation through Europe in after-times, par- 
ticularly of those bloody wars concerning investitures, 
and those obstinate contentions and disputes about the 
regalia. 

V. The excessive donations that were made to the 
clergy, and the extravagant liberality that augmented 
daily the treasures of the European churches, (to which 
those donations and this liberality were totally confined,) 
began in this century ; nor do we find any examples of 
the like munificence in preceding times. Hence we may 
conclude, that these donations were owing to customs pe- 
culiar to the European nations, and to the maxims of 



a The temporal penalties here mentioned were rigorous fasts, bodily- 
pains and mortifications, long and frequent prayers, pilgrimages to the 
tombs of saints and martyrs, and the like austerities. These were the 
penalties which the priests imposed upon such as had confessed their 
crimes ; and as they were singularly grievous to those who had led vo- 
luptuous lives, and were desirous of continuing in the same course of 
licentious pleasure, effeminacy, and ease, the richer sort of transgressors 
embraced eagerly this new method of expiation, and willingly gave a 
part of their substance to avoid such severe and rigorous penalties. 

>> Hence, by a known form of speech, they who offered donations to 
the church or clergy were said to do this for the redemption of their 
souls ; and the gifts themselves were generally called the price of trans- 
gression. See Lud. Ant. Muratori Diss, de Redemptione Peccatorum, 
in his Antiquitates Italicae medii iEvi, torn. v. p. 712. 

* The account here given of the rise of the clergy to such enormous 
degree's of opulence and authority, is corroborated by the following re- 
markable passage of William of Malmesbury (lib. v. de Rebus gestis 
Rcgum Anglias.) " Carolus Magnus, pro contundenda gentium illarum 
ferocia, omnes pene terras ecclesiis contulcrat, consiliosissime perpen- 
dens, nolle sacri ordinis homines, tam facile quam laicos, fidelitatem 
Domini rejicere ; praterea, si laici rebellarent, illos posse excommunica- 
tionis auctoritate et potential severitatecompescere." This is, doubtless, 
the true reason why Charlemagne, who was far from being a supersti- 
tious prince, or a slave to the clergy, augmented so vastly the jurisdiction of 
the Roman pontiff in Germany, Italy, and theother countries where he had 



policy which were established among those warlike peo- 
ple. The kings of these nations, who were employed 
either in usurpation or self-defence, endeavoured, by all 
means, to attach warmly to their interests those whom 
they considered as their friends and clients ; and, for this 
purpose, they distributed among them extensive territo- 
ries, cities, and fortresses, with the various rights and 
privileges belonging to them, reserving to themselves only 
the supreme dominion, and the military service of their 
powerful vassals. This then being the method of gov- 
erning customary in Europe, it was esteemed by princes a 
high instance of political prudence to distribute among the 
bishops, and other Christian doctors, the same sort of do- 
nations that they had formerly made to their generals and 
clients ; for it is not to be believed, that superstition alone 
was always the principle that drew forth their liberality. 
They expected greater fidelity and loyalty from a set of 
men who were bound by the obligations of religion, and 
consecrated to the service of God, than from a body of 
nobility, composed of fierce and impetuous warriors, and 
accustomed to little else but bloodshed and rapine ; and 
they hoped also to check the seditious and turbulent spi- 
rits of their vassals, and maintain them in their obedience, 
by the influence and authority of the bishops, whose com- 
mands were highly respected, and whose spiritual thun- 
derbolts, rendered formidable by ignorance, struck terror 
into the boldest and most resolute hearts. 

VI. This prodigious accession to the opulence and 
authority of the clergy in the west began with their head, 
the Roman pontiff, and spread gradually from him among 
the inferior bishops, and also among the sacerdotal and 
monastic orders. The barbarous nations, who received 
the Gospel, looked upon the bishop of Rome as the suc- 
cessor of their chief druid, or high priest. And as this 
tremendous druid had enjoyed, under the darkness of 
paganism, a boundless authority, and had been treated 
with a degree of veneration, that, through its servile excess, 
degenerated into terror ; so the barbarous nations, on their 
conversion to Christianity, thought proper to confer upon 
the chief of the bishops the same honours and the same 
authority that had formerly been vested in their arch- 
druid. d The pope received, with something more than a 
mere spiritual delight, these august privileges ; and lest, 
upon any change of affairs, attempts might be made to 

extended his conquests, and accumulated upon the bishops such ample 
possessions. He expected more loyalty and submission from the clergy, 
than from the laity ; and he augmented the riches and authority of tho 
former, in order to secure his throne against the assaults of the latter. 
As the bishops were universally held in the highest veneration, he made 
use of their influence in checking the rebellious spirit of his dukes, 
counts, and knights, who were frequently very troublesome. For in- 
stance, he had much to fear from the dukes of Benevento, Spoleto, and 
Capua, when the government of the Lombards was overturned; he 
therefore made over a considerable part of Italy to the Roman pontiff, 
whose ghostly authority, opulence, and threatenings, were so proper to 
restrain those powerful and vindictive princes from seditious insurrec- 
tions, or to quell such tumults as they might venture to excite. Nor was 
he the only prince who honoured the clergy from such political views ; 
the other kings and princes of Europe acted much in the same manner, 
and from the same principles, as will appear evident to all who consi- 
der, with attention, the forms of government, and the methods of govern- 
ing, that took place in this century: so that the successive augmentation 
of sacerdotal opulence and authority, which many look upon as the work 
of superstition alone, was, in many instances, an effect of political pru- 
dence. We shall consider, presently, the terrors of excommunication, 
which William of Malmesbury touches but cursorily in the latter words 
of the passage above quoted. 

d Cfesar speaks thus of the chief or arch-druid: " His omnibus druidi- 
bus preeest unus, qui summam inter cos (Ccltas) habet auctoritatem. 



168 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Paut II 



deprive him of them, he strengthened his title to these 
extraordinary honours, by a variety of passages drawn 
from ancient history, and (what was still more astonish- 
ing) by arguments of a religious nature. This conduct 
of a superstitious people swelled the arrogance of the 
Roman druid to an enormous size, and gave to the see of 
Rome, in civil and political affairs, a high pre-eminence 
and a despotic authority, unknown to former ages. Hence, 
among other unhappy circumstances, arose that monstrous 
and most pernicious opinion, that such persons as were 
excluded from the communion of the church by the 
pontiff himself, or any of the bishops, forfeited thereby 
not only their civil rights and advantages as citizens, but 
even the common claims and privileges of humanity. 
This horrid opinion, which was a fatal source of wars, 
massacres, and rebellions without number, and which 
contributed more than any other means to augment and 
confirm the papal authority, was, unhappily for Europe, 
borrowed by Christians, or rather by the clergy, from the 
pagan superstitions. 1 

VII. We observe, in the annals of the French nation, 
the following remarkable and shocking instance of the 
enormous power that was, at this time, vested in the Ro- 
man pontiff. Pepin was mayor of the palace to Childeric 
III., and, in the exercise of that high office, possessed in 
reality the royal power and authority ; but, not content 
with this, he aspired to the titles and honours of majesty, 
and formed the design of dethroning his sovereign. For 
this purpose, the states of the realm were assembled by 
Pepin, in 751 ; and though they were devoted to the 
interests of this ambitious usurper, they gave it as their 
opinion, that the bishop of Rome was previously to be 
consulted, whether the execution of such a project was 
lawful or not. In consequence of this, ambassadors were 
sent by Pepin to Zachary, the reigning pontiff, with the 



Hoc mortuo, si qui ex reliquis excellit dignitate, succedit. At, si sunt 
plures pares, suffragio Druidum adlegitur : nonnunquam etiam arrais de 
piincipatu contendunt." Jul. Caisar, de Bello Gallico, lib. vi. cap. xiii. 

* Though excommunication, from the time of Constantine the Great, 
was, in every part of the Christian world, attended with many disagree- 
able effects, yet its highest terrors were confined to Europe, where its 
aspect was truly formidable and hideous. It acquired also, in the eighth 
century, new accessions of terror ; so that, from that period, the excom- 
munication practised in Europe differed entirely from that which was in 
use in other parts of Christendom. Excommunicated persons were in- 
deed considered, in all places, as objects of aversion both to God and 
men ; but they were not, on this account, robbed of the privileges of citi- 
zens, or of the rights of humanity; much less were those kings and 
princes, whom an insolent bishop had thought proper to exclude from the 
communion of the church, supposed to forfeit, on that account, their crown 
or their territories. But from this century, it was quite otherwise in 
Europe ; excommunication received that infernal power which dissolved 
all connexions ; so that those whom the bishops, or their chief, excluded 
from church communion, were degraded to a level with the beasts. Un- 
der this horrid sentence, the king, the ruler, the husband, the father, and 
even the man, forfeited all their rights, all their advantages, the claims 
of nature, and the privileges of society. What then was the origin 
of this unnatural power which excommunication acquired"? It was 
briefly as follows : On the conversion of the barbarous nations to Christi- 
anity, those new and ignorant proselytes confounded the excommunication 
in use among Christians, with that which had been practised in the 
times of paganism by the priests of the gods, and considered both as of 
the same nature and effect. The Roman pontiffs, on the other hand, 
were too artful not to countenance and encourage this error ; and, there- 
fore, employed all sorts of means to gain credit to an opinion that tended 
to gratify their ambition, and to aggrandise, in general, the episcopal order. 
That this is the true origin of the extensive and horrid influence 
of the European and papal excommunication, will appear evident to 
such as cast an eye upon the following passage of Csesar, de Bello Gal- 
lico, lib. vi. cap. xiii. " Si quis aut privatus aut publicus Druidum de- 
creto non stetit, sacrificiis interdicnnt. Hax poena est apud eos gravissi- 
ma. CLuibus ita est interdictum, ii numero impiorum et sceleratorum 



following question : Whether the divine law did not permr 
a valiant and warlike people to dethrone a pusillanimoua 
and indolent monarch, who was incapable of discharging 
any of the functions of royalty, and to substitute in his 
place one more worthy to rule, and who had already ren- 
dered most important services to the state ? The situation 
of Zachary, who stood much in need of the aid of Pepin 
against the Greeks and Lombards, rendered his answer 
such as the usurper desired. When this favourable decision 
of the Roman oracle was published in France, the unhap- 
py Childeric was stripped of royalty without the least 
opposition; and Pepin, without the smallest resistance 
from any quarter, stepped into the throne of his master 
and his sovereign. Let the abettors of the papal autho- 
rity see how they can justify, in Christ's pretended vice- 
gerent upon earth, a decision which is so glaringly repug- 
nant to the laws and precepts of the divine Saviour. b 
This decision was solemnly confirmed by Stephen II., the 
successor of Zachary. He undertook a journey into 
France, in 754, in order to solicit assistance against the 
Lombards ; dissolved the obligation of the oath of fidelity 
and allegiance which Pepin had sworn to Childeric, and 
violated by his usurpation ; and, to render his title to the 
crown as sacred as possible, anointed and crowned him, 
with his wife and two sons, for the second time/ 

VIII. This compliance of the Roman pontiffs proved 
an abundant source of opulence and credit to the church, 
and to its aspiring ministers. When that part of Italy 
which was yet subject to the Grecian empire, was involved 
in confusion and trouble, by the seditions and tumults which 
arose from the imperial edicts' 1 against the erection and wor- 
ship of images, the kings of the Lombards employed the 
united influence of their arms and negotiations in order to 
terminate these contests. Their success, indeed, was only 
advantageous to themselves ; for they managed matters so 

habentur, iis omnes decedunt, aditum eorum sermonemque defugiunt, ne 
quid ex contagione incommodi accipiant ; neque iis petentibus jus reddi- 
tur, neque honos ullus communicatur." 

b See Le Cointe, Mezeray, Daniel, and other Gallic and German his- 
torians, concerning this important event ; but particularly Bossuet, De- 
fens. Declarationis Cleri Gallicani, parti, p. 225. — Petr. Rival. Disserta 
tions Histor.et Critiques sur divers Sujets, Diss. ii. p. 70; Diss. iii. p. 156 
— Henr. de Bunau, Historia Imperii Germanici, torn. ii. p. 288. Thit 
remarkable event is not, indeed, related in the same manner by all histo- 
rians, and it is generally represented under false colours by those who, 
from a spirit of blind zeal and excessive adulation, seize every occa- 
sion of exalting the dignity and authority of the bishops of Rome. 
Such writers assert, that it was by Zachary's authority as pontiff, and 
not in consequence of his opinion as a casuist or divine, that the crown 
was taken from the head of Childeric, and placed upon that of Pepin. 
But this the French absolutely and justly deny. Had it, however, been 
so, the crime of the pontiff would have been much greater than it 
was in reality. 

f^= c Pepin had been anointed by the legate Boniface at Soissons, 
soon after his election ; but, thinking that the performance of such a 
ceremony by the pope would recommend him more to the respect of his 
subjects, he desired that the unction should be administered anew by 
Stephen. Pepin was the first French monarch who received this unc- 
tion as a ceremony of coronation, at least according to the reports of the 
most credible historians. His predecessors were proclaimed by being 
lifted up on a shield ; and the holy phial of Clovis is now universally re- 
garded as fabulous. The custom of anointing kings at their coronation 
was, however, more ancient than the time of Pepin, and was observed 
long before that period both in Scotland and Spain. See Edmund Mar- 
tenne, de Antiq. Eccles. Ritib. torn. iii. cap. x. ; and also Bunau, Historia 
Imperii Germanici, torn. ii. p. 301, 36G. 

§rjr d The author has here in view the edicts of Leo Isauncus and 
Constantine Copronymus. The former published, in 726, a famous edict 
against the worship of images, which occasioned many contests and 
much disturbance both in church and state; and the latter assembled at 
Constantinople, in 754, a council of 358 bishops, who unanimously con- 
demned, not only the worship, but even the use of images. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



169 



as to become, by degrees, masters of the Grecian provinces 
in Italy, which were subject to the exarch who resided at 
Ravenna. One of these monarchs, named Aistulphus, car- 
ried his views still farther. Elate with these accessions to 
his dominions, he meditated the conquest of Rome and its 
•territory, and formed the ambitious project of reducing all 
Italy under the yoke of the Lombards. Stephen now 
addressed himself to his powerful patron and protector 
Pepin, represented to him his deplorable condition, and 
implored his assistance. The French monarch embarked 
with zeal in the cause of the terrified and suppliant pontiff; 
crossed the Alps, in 754, with a numerous army ; and, 
having defeated Aistulphus, obliged him, by a solemn 
treaty, to deliver up to the see of Rome the exarchate of, 
Ravenna, Pentapolis, and all the cities, castles, and terri- 
tories, which he had seized in the Roman dukedom. It 
was not, however, long before the Lombard prince viola- J 
ted, without remorse, an engagement which he had con- j 
tracted with reluctance. Li 755, he laid siege 10 Rome 
for the second time, but was again obliged to sue for peace 
by the victorious arms of Pepin, who returned into Italy, 
and, forcing the Lombard to execute the treaty he had so 
audaciously violated, made a new grant of the exarchate a ! 
and of Pentapolis to the pontiff and his successors. And 
thus was the bishop of Rome raised to the rank of a tem- 
poral prince. 

IX. After the death of Pepin, a new attack was made 
upon the patrimony of St. Peter, by Dideric, king of the 
Lombards, who invaded the territories that had been grant- 
ed by the French monarch to the see of Rome. In this 
extremity, pope Adrian I. fled for succour to Charles, the 
son of Pepin, who, on account of his heroic exploits, was 

* See Car. Sigonius, de Regno Italia?, lib. iii. p. 202, torn. ii. op. — 
Bunau, Historia Imperii Germanici, torn. ii. p. 301, 366. — Muratori, An- 
nales Italiae, torn. iv. p. 310. The real limits of the exarchate granted by 
Pepin to the Roman pontiff, have been much controverted among die 
learned, and have, particularly in our times, employed the researches of 
several eminent writers. The bishops of Rome extend the limits of 
this territory as far as they can with any appearance of decency or pro- 
bability, while their adversaries are as zealous in contracting this famous 
grant within narrower bounds. See Lud. Ant. Murator. Droits de l'Em- 
pire sur l'Etat Ecclesiastique, cap. i. ii. ; as also his Antiquitat. Ital. 
medii JEvi, torn. i. p. 64, 68, 986, 987. The same author treats the mat- 
ter with more circumspection, torn. v. p. 790. This controversy can only be 
terminated with facility by an inspection of Pepin's grant of the territory 
in question. Fontanini, in his first Defence of the temporal Jurisdiction 
of the See of Rome over the City of Commachio, written in Italian, inti- 
mates that this grant is yet extant, and even makes use of some phrases 
that are said to be contained in it (see the pages 242 and 346 of that 
work.) This, however, will scarcely be believed. Were it indeed true, j 
that such a deed remains, its being published to the world would be, un- I 
doubtedly, unfavourable to the pretensions and interests of the church of 
Rome. It is at least certain, that, in the dispute between the emperor 
Joseph I. and the Roman pontiff concerning Commachio, the partizans 
of the latter, though frequently called upon by those of the emperor to 
produce this grant, refused constantly to comply with this demand. On 
the other hand, it must be confessed, that Bianchini, in his Prolegom. 
ad Anastasium de Vitis Pontif. Rom. has given us, from a Farnesian 
manuscript, a specimen of this grant, which seems to carry the marks of 
remote antiquity. Be that as it may, a multitude of witnesses unite in 
assuring us, that the remorse of a wounded conscience was the source of 
Pepin's liberality, and that his grant to the Roman pontiff was the su- 
perstitious remedy by which he hoped to expiate his enormities, and par- 
ticularly his horrid perfidy to his master Childeric. 

b See Car. Sigonius, de Regno Italise, lib. iii. p. 223. torn. ii. op. — 
Bunau, Historia Imperii Germanici. torn. ii. p. 368. — Pctr. de Marca, de 
Concordia Sacerdotii et Imperii, lib. i. cap. xii. p. 67. — Lud. Anton. Mu- 
ratori Droits de l'Empire sur l'Etat Ecclesiastique, cap. ii.p. 147. — Con- 
ringius, de Imperio Roman. German, cap. vi. The extent of Charle- 
magne's grant to the see of Rome is as much disputed as the magnitude 
of Pepin's donation between the partizans of the pope, and those of the 
emperor. They who plead the cause of the Roman see, maintain that 
Corsica, Sardinia. Sicily, the territory of Sabino, the duchy of Spoleto. 

No. XV. 43 



afterwards distinguished by the name of Charlemagne. 
This prince, whose enterprising genius led him to seize; 
with avidity every 7 opportunity of extending his conquests, 
and whose veneration for the Roman see was carried very 
far, as much from the dictates of policy as superstition, 
adopted immediately the cause of the trembling pontiff. 
He passed the Alps with a formidable army, in 774; 
overturned the empire of the Lombards in Italy, which 
had subsisted above two hundred years; sent their exiled 
monarch into France, and proclaimed himself king of the 
Lombards. These conquests offered to Charlemagne an 
occasion of visiting Rome, where he not only confirmed 
the grants which had been made by his father to that see, 
but added to them new donations, and ceded to the Roman 
pontiffs several cities and provinces in Italy, which had 
not been contained in Pepin's grant. What those cities 
and provinces were, is a question difficult to be resolved at 
this period, as it is perplexed with much obscurity, from 
the want of authentic records. b 

X. By this act of liberality, which seems to cany in it 
the contradictory characters of policy and imprudence, 
Charlemagne opened for himself a passage to the empire 
of the west, and to the supreme dominion over the city of 
Rome and its territory, upon which the western empire 
seemed then to depend. He had. no doubt, been medita- 
ting for a considerable time this arduous project, which his 
father Pepin had probably formed before him ; but the 
circumstances of the times obliged him to wait for a 
favourable occasion of putting it in execution. This was 
offered him in 800, when the affairs of the Greeks were 
reduced to extremity after the death of Leo III., and the 
barbarous murder of his son Constantine, and while the 

and several other districts, were solemnly granted by Charlemagne to 
St. Peter and his successors. They, on the other hand, who assert the 
rights of the emperor, diminish as far as they can the munificence of 
Charles, and confine this new grant within narrow limits. The reader 
may consult upon this subject the authors of the present age, who have 
published their opinions of the pretensions of the emperors and the 
popes to the cities of Commachio and Florence, and the duchies of Par- 
ma and Placentia ; but above all, the learned Berret's excellent treatise, 
entitled Dissertatio Chorographica de Italia medii iEvi. f. 33. The 
spirit of party seems, in this controversy, as in many others, to have 
blinded the disputants on both sides of the question ; and this, together 
with the difficulty of avoiding mistakes upon a point involved in such 
deep obscurity, has, in many cases, rendered the truth invisible to both 
the contending parties. With respect to the motives that induced Charle- 
magne to make this grant, they are much less doubtful than the extent of 
the grant itself. Adrian affirms that the monarch's view was to atone 
for his sins by this act of liberality to the church, as we see in a letter 
from that pontiff to Charlemagne, which is published in Muratori's 
Scriptores Rerum Italicar. torn. iii. part ii. p. 265, and of which the fol- 
lowing passage is remarkable : " Venientes ad nos de Capwa, quam 
beato Petro apostolorum principi pro mercede animas vestrae atque sempi- 
ternal memona cum ceteris civitatibus obtulistis." It is not indeed impro- 
bable, that Charlemagne, who affected that kind of piety which was the 
characteristic of this barbarous age, mentioned this superstitious motive 
in the act of cession by which he confirmed his donation to the church ; 
but such as are acquainted with the character of this prince, and the his- 
tory of this period, will br. cautious in attributing his generosity to this 
religious principle alone. His grand motive was, undoubtedly, of an 
ambitious kind ; he was obstinately bent upon adding the western em- 
pire to his dominions; and the success of this grand project depended 
much upon the consent and assistance of the pope, whose approbation, in 
those times, was sufficient to sanctify the most iniquitous projects. Thus 
Charlemagne lavished gifts upon the bishops of Rome, that, by their as- 
sistance, he might assume, with a certain air of decency, the empire of 
the west, and confirm his new dominion in Italy. Of this policy we 

! have already taken notice, and it must appear manifest to all who view 
things with the smallest degree of impartiality and attention. 

c Charles, in reality, was already emperor of the west, that is, the 

I most powerful of the European monarchs. He wonted, therefore, no- 
thing more than the title of emperor, and the supreme dominion in Rome 

] and its territory, both of which he obtained by the assistance of Leo III. 



170 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part IL 



impious Irene held the reins of empire. This opportunity 
was seized with avidity by Charles, who set out for Rome, 
where he was received with lively demonstrations of zeal 
by the sovereign pontiff, 3 who had entered into his views, 
and persuaded the people, elate at this time with high 
notions of their independence and elective power, to unite 
their suffrages in favour of this prince, and proclaim him 
emperor of the west. b 

XL Charles, on his elevation to the empire of the west 
and the government of Rome, seems to have reserved to 
himself the supreme dominion, and the inalienable rights 
of majesty, while he granted to the church of Rome a 
subordinate jurisdiction over that great city and its annexed 
territory. This grant was undoubtedly suggested to him 
by the ambii ious pontiff as a matter of sacred and indis- 
pensable obligation ; and many fictitious deeds were 
probably produced to make out the pretensions, and justify 
the claims of the church to this high degree of temporal 
authority and civil jurisdiction. In order to reconcile the 
new emperor to this grant, it was without doubt alleged, 
that Constantine the Great, his renowned predecessor, 
when he removed the seat of empire to Constantinople, 
delivered up Rome, the old metropolis, with its adjacent 
territories, commonly called the Roman dukedom, to be 
possessed and governed by the church, with no other 



•Leo III. 

i> See the historians who have transmitted to us accounts of this 
century, and more especially Bunau, in his Hist. Imperii Romano-Ger- 
man, torn. ii. p. 537. The partisans of the Roman pontiffs generally 
maintain that Leo III., by a divine right, vested in him as bishop of 
Rome, transferred the western empire from the Greeks to the Franks, 
and conferred it upon Charlemagne, the monarch of the latter. Hence 
they conclude, that the Roman pontiff, as the vicar of Christ, is the su- 
preme lord of the whole earth, and, in a particular manner, of the Roman 
empire. The temerity of these pretensions, and the absurdity of this 
reasoning, are exposed with much learning and judgment by the cele- 
brated Fred. Spanheim, de ficta translatione Imperii in Carolum M. per 
Leonem III. torn. ii. op. p. 557. 

° That Charlemagne, in effect, preserved entire his supreme authority 
over the city of Rome and its adjacent territory, gave law to the citizens by 
judges of his own appointment, punished malefactors, enjoyed the pre- 
rogatives, and exercised all the functions of royalty, has been demonstra- 
ted by several of the learned in the most ample and satisfactory manner, 
and confirmed by the most unexceptionable and authentic testimonies. 
To be convinced of this, it will be sufficient to consult Muratori's Droits 
de l'Empire sur l'Etat Ecclesiastique, cap. vi. p. 77. And, indeed, they 
must have a strange power of resisting the clearest evidence, who are 
absurd enough to assert, as does Fontanini, in his treatise, entitled Do- 
minio della S. Sede sopra Commachio, Diss. i. c. 95, 96, that Charles 
sustained at Rome the character of the advocate of the Roman church, 
and not that of its sovereign or its lord, the dominion of the pontiff being 
unlimited and universal. On the other hand, we must acknowledge in- 
genuously, that the power of the pontiff, both in the city of Rome and 
its annexed territory, was very great, and that, in several cases, he 
seemed to act with a princely authority. But the extent and the founda- 
tions of that authority are concealed in the deepest obscurity, and have 
given occasion to endless disputes. Muratori maintains in his work 
above cited, p. 102, that the bishop of Rome discharged the function of 
exarch or vicar, to the emperor ; an opinion which Clement XI. reject- 
ed as injurious to the papal dignity, and which, indeed, does not appear 
to have any solid foundation. After a careful examination of all the 
circumstances that can contribute toward the solution of this perplexed 
question, the most probable account of the matter seems to be this : That 
the Roman pontiff possessed the city of Rome and its territory, by the 
same right by which he held the exarchate of Ravenna, and the other 
lands granted by Charlemagne ; that is to say, he possessed Rome by 
a feudal tenure, though charged with fewer marks of dependence than 
other fiefs generally are, on account of the lustre and dignity of a city 
Which had been so long the capital of the empire. This opinion derives 
much strength from what we shall have occasion to observe in the fol- 
lowing note, and it has the peculiar advantage of reconciling the jarring 
testimonies of ancient writers, and the various records of antiquity rela- 
ting to this point. 

a Most writers are of opinion, that Constantine's pretended grant was 
posterior to this period, and was forged in the tenth century. It appears 
to me, on the contrary, that this fictitious grant was in being in the eighth 



restriction, than that this should be no detriment to his 
supreme dominion ; and it was insinuated to Charles, that 
he could not depart from the rule established by that pious 
emperor, without incurring the wrath of God, and the 
indignation of St. Peter. d 

XII. While the power and opulence of the Roman 
pontiffs were rising to the greatest height by the events 
which we have now been relating, they received a morti- 
fying check in consequence of a quarrel which broke out 
between those haughty priests and the Grecian emperors. 
Leo the Isaurian, and his son Constantine Copronymus, 
incensed at the zeal which Gregory II. and III. discovered 
for the worship of images, not only confiscated the trea- 
sures and lands which the church of Rome possessed in 
Sicily, Calabria, and Apulia, but also •withdrew the bishops 
of these countries, and likewise the various provinces and 
churches of Illyricum, from the jurisdiction of the Roman 
see, and subjected them to the spiritual dominion of the 
bishop of Constantinople. And so inflexibly were the 
Grecian emperors bent upon humbling the arrogance of 
the Roman pontiffs, that no entreaties, supplications, or 
threats, could engage them to abandon their purpose, or to 
restore this rich and signal portion of St. Peter's patrimony 
to his greedy successors. 6 It is here that we must look for 
the original source, and the principal cause of that vehe- 

century ; and it is extremely probable, that both Adrian and his succes- 
sor Leo III. made use of it to persuade Charlemagne to that donation. In 
favour of this opinion we have the unexceptionable testimony of Adrian 
himself in his letter to Charlemagne, which is published in Muratori's 
Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, torn. iii. p. ii. p. 194, and which is extremely 
worthy of an attentive perusal. In this letter, Adrian exhorts Charles, 
before his elevation to the empire, to order the restitution of all the grants 
and donations that had formerly been made to St. Peter and to the church 
of Rome. In this demand also he distinguishes, in the plainest manner, 
the donation of Constantine from those of the other princes and empe- 
rors, and what is particularly remarkable, from the exarchate which was 
the gift of Pepin, and even from the additions that Charles had already 
made to his father's grant; whence we may justly conclude, that by the do- 
nation of Constantine, Adrian meant the city of Rome, and its annexed 
territory. He speaks first of this grant in the foiiov/ing terms : "Depre- 
camur vestram excellentiam . . . pro Dei amore et ipsius clavigeri regni 
coelorum . . . ut secundum promissionem quam polliciti estis eidem Dei 
apostolo pro anima? vestrae mercede et stabilitate regni vestri, omnia nos- 
tris temporibus adimplere jubeatis . . . et sicut temporibus beati Silvestri 
Romampontificis, a sanctse recordationis piissimo Constantino M. imper- 
atore, per ejus largitatem (here Constantine's donation is evidently men- 
tioned) sancta Dei catholica etapostolica Romana ecclesia elevata atque 
exaltata est, et potestatem in his Hesperise partibus largiri dignatus est ; 
ita et in his vestris felicissimi'i temporibus atque nostris sancta Dei ec- 
clesia germinet. .. et amplius atque amplius exaltata permaneat. . . quia 
ecce novus Christianissimus Dei gratia Constantinus imperator (here we 
see Charles, who at that time was only a king, styled emperor by the 
pontiff, and compared with Constantine) his temporibus surrexit, per 
quern omnia Deus sancta? suse ecclesia . . . largiri dignatus est." So 
much for that part of the letter that relates to Constantine's grant ; as to 
the other donations which the pontiff evidently distinguishes from it, 
observe what follows : " Sed et cuncta alia qua: per diversos imperatores 
patricios, etiamet alios Deumtimentes, pro eorumanimK mercede etvenia 
delictorum, in partibus Turcia;, Spoleto, seu Benevento, atque Corsica, 
simul et Pavinensi patrimonio, beato Petro apostolo concessa sunt, etper 
nefandam gentem Longobardorum per annorum spatia abstracta et ab- 
lata sunt, vestris temporibus restituantur." (The pontiff intimates far- 
ther, that all these grants were carefully preserved in the office of the La- 
leran, and that he sends them to Charles by his legates.) " Unde et 
plures donationes in sacro nostro scrinio Lateranensi reconditas habe- 
mus, tamen et pro satisfactione Christianissimi regni vestri, per jam 
fatos viros, ad demonstrandum eas vobis, direximus, et pro hoc petirnus 
eximiam pracellentiam vestram, ut in integro ipsa patrimonia beato Pe- 
tro et nobis restituere jubeatis." By this it appears that Constantine's 
grant was now in being among the archives of the Lateran, and was 
sent to Charlemagne with the other donations of kings and princes, 
whose examples were adduced with a view of exciting his liberality to, 
the church. 

e See Mich. Lequien's Oriens Christianus, torn. i. p. 96. Among the 
Greek writers also Theophanes and others acknowledge the fact; but they 
are not entirely agreed about the reasons to which it is to be attributed. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



171 



rnent contest between the Roman pontiff and the bishop 
of Constantinople, which, in the following century, divided 
the Greek and Latin churches, and proved so pernicious 
to the interests and advancement of true Christianity. — 
These lamentable divisions, which wanted no new incident 
to foment them, were nevertheless augmented by a con- 
troversy which arose, in this century, concerning the 
derivation of the Holy Spirit, which we shall have occa- 
sion to mention mote largely in its proper place. It is 
more than probable that this controversy would have been 
terminated with the utmost facility, had not the spirits of 
the contending parties been previously exasperated by 
disputes founded upon avarice and ambition, and carried 
on, without either moderation or decency, by the holy 
patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople, in defence of their 
respective pretensions. 

XIII. The monastic discipline was extremely relaxed at 
this time both in the eastern and western provinces, and, 
as appears by the concurring testimonies of the writers of 
this century, had fallen into a total decay. The only 
moaks who escaped this general corruption, were those 
who passed their days in the deserts of Egypt, Syria, and 
Mesopotamia, amidst the austerities of a wretched life, 
remote from all the comforts of human society : yet the 
merit of having preserved their discipline was sadly 
counterbalanced by the gross ignorance, the fanatical 
madness, and the sordid superstition that reigned among 
these miserable hermits. Those of the monastic orders, 
who lived nearer to cities and populous towns, frequently 
disturbed the public tranquillity by the tumults and sedi- 
tions they fomented among the multitude, so that it 
became necessary to check their rebellious ambition by the 
severe laws that were enacted against them by Constan- 
tine Copronymus, and other emperors. The greatest part 
of the western monks followed, at this time, the rule of 
St. Benedict; though there were every where convents 
which adopted the discipline of other orders. 1 But, as 
they increased in opulence, they lost sight of all rules, and 
submitted, at length, to no other discipline than that of 
intemperance, voluptuousness, and sloth. b Charlemagne 
attempted, by various edicts, to put a stop to this growing 
evil ; but his efforts were attended with little success.' 

XIV. This general depravity and corruption of the 
monks gave rise to a new order of priests in the west, a 
sort of middle order between the monks or regulars, and 
the secular clergy. This new species of ecclesiastics 
adopted the monastic discipline and manner of life, so far 
as to have their dwelling and their table in common, and 
to assemble at certain hours for divine service ; but they 

• See Mabillon, Prsef. ad acta SS. Ord. Benedicti, Saec. i. p. 24. and 
Saec. iv. part i. p. 26. 

b The author mentioned in the preceding note, discourses with a noble 
frankness and courage concerning the corruption of the monks, and its 
various causes, in the same work, Praef. ad Sasc. iv. part i. p. 64. 

See the Capitularia Caroli, published by Baluze, torn. i. p. 148, 157, 

237, 355, 3G6, 375, 503. Laws so severe, and so often repeated, show 

vidcndy that the corruption of the monks must have been truly enormous. 

<• See Le Boeuf, Memoires sur l'Histoire d'Auxerre, torn. i. p. 174, the 
Paris edition, published in 1743. 

• See, for an account of Chrodegangus, the Histoire Literaire de la 
France, torn. iv. p. 128. — Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, torn. i. p. 513. — 
Acta Sanctor. torn. i. Martii, p. 452. The rule which he prescribed to 
his canons, may be seen in Le Cointe's Annales Francor. Eccles. torn. v. 
ad An. 757, sect. 35; as also in the Concilia Labbei, torn. vii. 1444. He 
is not, however, the author of die rule which is published in his name, in 
the Spicilegium veter. Scriptor. torn. i. p. 565. Longueval, in his Histoire 
de l'Eglise Gallicane, torn, iv. p. 435, has given a neat and elegant 
abridgment of the rule of Chrodegangus. 



entered not into the vows which were peculiar to the 
monks, and they were also appointed to discharge the 
ministerial functions in certain churches which were 
committed to their pastoral direction. These ecclesiastics 
were at first called fr at res dominici, but soon after 
received the name of canons. 6 The common opinion 
attributes the institution of this order to Chrodegangus, 
bishop of Metz ; nor is this opinion destitute of truth ; e 
for though, before this time, there were in Italy, Africa, 
and other provinces, convents of ecclesiastics, who lived 
after the manner of the ca?io7is, ( yet Chrodegangus, who, 
toward the middle of this century, subjected to this rule 
the clergy of Metz, not only added to their religious cere- 
monies the custom of singing hymns and anthems to God, 
at certain hours, and probably a variety of rites, but also, 
by his example, excited the Franks, the Italians, and the 
Germans, to distinguish themselves by their zeal in favour 
of the canons, to erect colleges for them, and to introduce 
their rule into their respective countries. 

XV. The supreme dominion over the church and its 
possessions was vested in the emperors and kings, both in 
the eastern and western world. The sovereignty of the 
Grecian emperors, in this respect, has never been contested; 
and though the partisans of the Roman pontiffs endeavour 
to render dubious the supremacy of the Latin monarchs 
over the church, yet this supremacy is too manifest to be 
disputed by such as have considered the matter attentive- 
ly^ and it is acknowledged by the wisest and most 
candid writers, even of the Romish communion. Adrian 
I., in a council of bishops assembled at Rome, conferred 
upon Charlemagne and his successors the right of election 
to the see of Rome ; h and though neither Charlemagne, 
nor his son Louis, were willing to exercise this power hi 
all its extent, by naming and creating the pontiff upon 
every vacancy, yet they reserved the right of approving 
and confirming the person who was elected to that high 
dignity by the priests and people: nor was the consecration 
of the elected pontiff of the least validity, unless performed 
in presence of the emperors ambassadors. 1 The Roman 
pontiffs obeyed the laws of the emperors, received their 
judicial decisions as of indispensable obligation, and exe- 
cuted them with the utmost punctuality and submission. 11 
The kings of the Franks appointed extraordinary judges, 
whom they called envoys, to inspect the lives and man- 
ners of the clergy, superior and inferior, take cognizance 
of their contests, terminate their disputes, enact laws 
concerning the public worship, and punish the crimes of the 
sacred order, as well as those of the other citizens.' All 
churches also, and monasteries, were obliged to pay to the 

t Murator. Antiq. Italics, torn. v. p. 185 ; as also Lud. Thomassin's 
Disciplina Ecclesiae Vet et. Nov. part. i. lib. iii. The design of this in- 
stitution was truly excellent. The authors of it, justly shocked at the 
vicious manners of a licentious clergy, hoped that this new institution 
would have a tendency to prevent the irregularities of that order, by de- 
livering its members from the cares, anxieties, and occupations of this 
present life. But the event showed how much these pious views have 
been disappointed. 

6 For an accurate account of the rights of the Grecian emperors in 
religious matters, we refer the reader to Lequien's Oriens Christianus, 
torn. i. p. 136. 

h This Act is mentioned by Anastasius ; it has been preserved by Yvo 
and Gratian, and has been the subject of a multitude of treatises. 

i See Mabillon, Cornm. in Ordinem Romanum, in Museo Ital. torn. ii. 
p. 113. — Muratori, Droits de l'Empire sur l'Etat Ecclesiastique, p. 87. 

k This has been amply demonstrated by Baluze, in his Praef. ad Ca- 
pitularia Regum Francorum, sect. 21. 

' See Muratori Antiq. Ital. torn. i. Diss. ix. p. 470. — Franc, de Roye, 
de Missis Dominicis. cap. x. p. 44. cap. viii. p. 118, 134, 168, 195. 



172 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



the public treasury a tribute proportioned to their respec- 
tive lands and possessions, except such as, by the pure 
favour of the supreme powers, were graciously exempted 
from this general tax. 1 

XVI. It is true, indeed, that the Latin emperors did 
not assume to themselves the administration of the church, 
or the cognizance and decision of controversies that were 
purely of a religious nature. They acknowledged, on the 
contrary, that these affairs belonged to the tribunal of the 
Roman pontiff and to the ecclesiastical councils. 15 But 
this jurisdiction of the pontiff was confined within narrow 
limits ; he could decide nothing by his sole authority, but 
was obliged to convene a council when any religious 
differences were to be terminated by an authoritative 
judgment. Nor did the provinces, when any controversy 
arose, wait for the decision of the bishop of Rome ; but 
assembled, by their own authority, their particular councils, 
in which the bishops gave their thoughts with the utmost 
freedom upon the points in debate, and voted often in 
direct opposition to what was known to be the opinion of 
the Roman pontiff; all which is evident from what pas- 
sed in the councils assembled by the Franks and Germans, 
in order to determine the celebrated controversy concerning 
the use and worship of images. It is farther to be 
observed, that the power of convening councils, and the 
right of presiding in them, were the prerogatives of the 
emperors and sovereign princes in whose dominions these 
assemblies were holden ; and that no decrees of any 
council obtained the force of laws, until they were approved 
and confirmed by the supreme magistrate/ Thus was 
the spiritual authority of Rome wisely bounded by the 
civil power; but its ambitious pontiffs fretted under the 
imperial curb, and, eager to loosen their bonds, left no 
means unemployed for that purpose. They even formed 
projects which seemed less the effects of ambition than of 
phrensy : for they claimed a supreme dominion, not only 
over the church, but also over kings themselves, and 
pretended to reduce the whole universe under their ghostly 
jurisdiction. However extravagant these pretensions 
were, they were followed by the most vigorous efforts ; 
and the wars and tumults that arose in the following 
centurv, contributed much to render these efforts success- 
ful. 

XVII. If we turn our eyes toward the writers of this 
century, we shall find very few that stand distinguished in 
the lists of fame, either on account of erudition or genius. 
Among the Greeks, the following only seem worthy of 
mention. 

Germanus, bishop of Constantinople, the greatest part 
of whose high renown was due to his violent zeal for 
image worship." 1 

Cosmas, bishop of Jerusalem, who acquired some repu- 
tation by his lyric vein, consecrated to the service of religion 

a See Muratori Antiq. Ital., torn. i. Dis. xvii. p. &26. See also the 
collection of the various pieces that were published on occasion of the 
dispute between Louis XV. and his clergy, relating to the immunities of 
that order in France. These pieces were printed in 1751, under the fol- 
lowing title : Ecrits pour et contre les Imraunites pretendues par le 
Clerge de France. 

i>See the Dissertation of Charlemagne, de Imaginibus, lib. i. cap. iv. 

All this is fully and admirably demonstrated by Baluze, in his preface 
to the Capitularia, or laws of the kings of the Franks, and is also 
amply illustrated in that work. See also J. Basnage, Histoire de l'Eglise, 
torn. i. p. 270. 

* See R. Simon, Critique de la Bib. Eccles. de M. Du-Pin, t. i. p. 270. 



and employed in composing hymns for public and private 
devotion. 

George Syncellus and Theophanes, who are not the 
least considerable among the writers of the Byzantine 
history, though they be in all respects infinitely below the 
ancient Greek and Latin historians. 

But the writer, who surpassed all his contemporaries 
among the Greeks and Orientals, was John Damascenus, 
a man of genius and eloquence, who, in a variety of pro- 
ductions full of erudition, explained the Peripatetic philoso- 
phy, and illustrated the capital points of the Christian 
doctrine. It must, however, be acknowledged, that the 
eminent talents of this great man were tainted with that 
sordid superstition and that excessive veneration for the 
ancient fathers, which were the reigning defects of the 
age he lived in, not to mention his wretched method of 
explaining the doctrines of the Gospel according to the 
principles of the Aristotelian philosophy. e 

XVIII. The first place, among the Latin writers, is due 
to Charlemagne, whose love of letters formed one of the 
brightest ornaments of his imperial dignity. The laws 
which are known by the title of Capitularia, with several 
Epistles, and a Book concerning images, are attributed to 
this prince ; though it seems highly probable that most of 
these compositions were drawn up by other pens. f 

After this learned prince, we may justly place the vener- 
able Bede, so called from his illustrious virtues;? Alcuin, h 
the preceptor of Charlemagne; Paulinus of Aquileia;' 
who were all distinguished by their laborious application, 
and their zeal for the advancement of learning and science, 
and who treated the various branches of literature, known 
in this century, in such a manner as to convince us, that 
it was the infelicity of the times, rather than the want of 
genius, that prevented them from rising to higher degrees 
of perfection than what they attained to. Add to these, 
Boniface, of whom we have already spoken : Eginhard, 
the celebrated author of the Life of Charlemagne, and 
other productions; Paul, the deacon, who acquired a 
considerable and lasting reputation by his History of the 
Lombards, his Book of Homilies, and his miscellaneous 
labours ; Ambrose Authpert, who wrote a commentary on 
the Revelations ; and Theodulphus, bishop of Orleans ; 
and thus we shall have a complete list of all the writers 
who acquired any degree of esteem in this century by 
their literary productions, either sacred or profane. 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church 

during this Century. 

I. The fundamental doctrines of Christianity were, as 
yet, respected and preserved in the theological writings, 
both of the Greeks and Latins, as seems evident from the 



* Bayle, Diction, torn. ii. p. 950 ; as also the account of the writings 
of John Damascenus, which is published in Le duien's edition of his 
works, and was composed by Leo Allatius. 

f See Jo. A. Fabricii Bibliotheca medii iEvi Lat. torn. l. p. 936. His- 
toire Literaire de la France, torn. iv. p. 368. 

« See the Acta Sanctorum torn. i. April, p. 866, and the Gen. Diction- 
ary, at the article Bede. A list of the writings of this venerable Briton, 
composed by himself, is published by Muratori, in his Antiq. Italic 
medii iEvi, torn. iii. p- 329. _ _ 

h Hist. Liter, de la France, torn. iv. p. 295.— Gen. Dictionary. 

i See Hist. Lit. &c. torn. iv. p. 286.— Acta Sanct. torn. i. Januar. p. 
713. 



Chap. in. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



173 



discourse of John Darnascenus concerning the orthodox 
faith, and the confession of faith which was drawn up by 
Charlemagne. 1 The pure seed of celestial truth was, 
however, choked by a monstrous and incredible quantity 
of noxious weeds. The rational simplicity of the Chris- 
tian worship was corrupted by an idolatrous veneration for 
images, and other superstitious inventions, and the sacred 
flame of divine charity was extinguished by the violent 
contentions and animosities which the progress of these 
superstitions occasioned in the church. All acknowledged 
the efficacy of our Saviour's merits : and yet all, in one 
way or another, laboured, in effect, to diminish the persua- 
sion of this efficacy in the minds of men, by teaching, 
that Christians might appease an offended Deity by vo- 
luntary acts of mortification, or by gifts and oblations 
lavished upon the church, and by exhorting such as 
were desirous of salvation to place their confidence in the 
works and merits of the saints. Were we to enlarge 
upon all the absurdities and superstitions which were in- 
vented to flatter the passions of the misguided multitude, 
and to increase, at the expense of reason and Christianity, 
the opulence and authority of a licentious clergy, such an 
immense quantity of odious materials would swell this 
work to an enormous size. 

II. The piety in vogue, during this and some succeed- 
ing ages, consisted in building and embellishing churches 
and chapels, in endowing monasteries, erecting basilics, 
hunting after the relics of saints and martyrs, and treating 
them with an excessive and absurd veneration, in procu- 
ring tho intercession of the saints by rich oblations or 
superstitious rites, in worshipping images, in pilgrimages 
to those places which were esteemed holy, and chiefly to 
Palestine, and the like absurd and extravagant practices 
and institutions. The pious Christian, and the profligate 
transgressor, showed equal zeal in the performance of 
these superstitious services, which were looked upon as 
of the highest efficacy in order to the attainment of eter- 
nal salvation : they were performed by the latter as an 
expiation for his crimes, and a mean of appeasing an 
offended Deity ; and by the former with a view to obtain, 
from above, the good things of this life, and an easy and 
commodious passage to life eternal. The true religion of 
Jesus, if we except a few of its doctrines contained in the 
Creed, was utterly unknown in this century, not only to 
the multitude in general, but also to the doctors of the first 
rank and eminence in the church ; and the consequences 
of this corrupt ignorance were fatal to the interests of 
virtue. All orders of men, regardless of the obligations 
of morality, of the duties of the Gospel, and of the cul- 
ture and improvement of their minds, rushed headlong 
with a perfect security into all sorts of wickedness, from 
the delusive hopes, that by the intercession and prayers of 
the saints, and the credit of the priests at the throne of 
God, they might easily obtain the remission of their enor- 
mities, and render the Deity propitious. This dismal 
account of the religion and morals of the eighth century, 

• See the treatise of this prince concerning images, book iii. The 
reader may also consult Mich. Syncellus' Confession of Faith, published 
by Montfaucon, in his Bibliotheca Coisliniana, p. 90 : and, among the 
Latins, an Exposition of the principal Doctrines of the Christian Reli- 
gion, composed by Benedict, abbot of Aniane, and published by Baluze 
in his Miscellanea, torn. v. p. 56 ; as also the Creed of Leo III., published 
in the same work, torn. vii. p. 18. 

"> See for an account of the commentaries of Bed?, Rich. Simon's Cri- 

No. XV. 44 



is confirmed by the unanimous testimony of all the 
| historians who have written of the affairs of that pe- 
riod. 

III. The Greeks were of opinion, that the holy scrip- 
tures had been successfully interpreted and explained by 
the ancient commentators, and therefore imagined that 
they rendered a most important service to the students in 
divinity, when, without either judgment or choice, they 

| extracted or compiled from the wvks of these admired 
sages their explanatory observations on the sacred writings. 
The commentary of John Damascenus upon the epistles 
of St. Paul, which was taken from the writings of Chry- 
sostom, is alone sufficient to serve as a proof of the little 
discernment with which these compilations were generally 
made. 

The Latin expositors may be divided into two classes, 
according to the different nature of their productions. — 
In the first, we place those writers who, after the example 
of the Greeks, employed their labour in collecting into one 
body the interpretations and commentaries of the ancients. 
Bede distinguished himself among the expositors of this 
class, by his explication of the epistles of St. Paul, drawn 
from the writings of Augustin and others. b Still more 
estimable are the writers-of the second class, who made 
use of their own penetration and sagacity in investigating 
the sense of the holy scriptures. Such were Alcuin, 
Ambrose Authpert, the expositor of the Revelations, and 
Bede also, who belongs, in reality, to both classes. It 
must, however, be acknowledged, that all these comm ' a- 
tors were destitute of the qualities that are essential to the 
sacred critic ; for we find them in their explications neg- 
lecting the natural sense of the words of Scripture, and 
running blindfold after a certain hidden and mystical 
meaning, which, to use their jargon, they usually divided 
into allegorical, anagogical, and topological ; c and 
thus they delivered their own rash fictions and crude 
fancies, as the true and genuine sentiments of the sacred 
writers. Of this we are furnished with many examples 
in Alcuin's Commentary on St. John, Bede's allegorical 
illustrations of the Books of Samuel, and Charlemagne's 
Book concerning Images, in which various passages of 
the holy scriptures are occasionally explained according to 
the taste of the times. 3 

IV. The veneration of Charlemagne for the sacred 
writings was so excessive/ as to induce him to suppose, 
that they contained the latent seeds and principles of all 
arts and sciences ; an opinion, no doubt, which he early 
imbibed from the lessons of his preceptor Alcuin, and the 
other divines who frequented his court. Hence arose the 
zeal with which that prince excited and encouraged the 
more learned among the clergy to direct their pious 
labours toward the illustration of the holy scriptures. Se- 
veral laws which he published to encourage this species of 
learning are yet extant, as also various monuments of his 
deep solicitude about the advancement and propagation of 
Christian knowledge. f And lest the faults that were to 



tique de la Biblioth. Ecclesiast. de M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 280. See also 
Beda: Explicatio Geneseos ex Patribus, in Martenne's Thesaur. Anec- 
dot. t. v. p. Ill, 116, 140,and his interpretation of Habakkuk, ibid. p. 295 

See Carolus Magnus de Imaginibus, lrb. i. p. 138. 

d See the same imperial author, book i. p. 84, 91, 123, 127, 131, 133 
136, 138, 145, 160, 164, 165, &c. 

See Carolus Magnus de Imagin. lib. i. p. 231, 236. 

f Jo. Frickius, de Canone Scripture Sacra;, p. 184. 



174 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 11. 



be found in several places of the Latin translation of the 
Scriptures should prove an obstacle to the execution and 
accomplishment of his pious views, he employed Alcuin 
in correcting these errors," and is said, in the last years 
of his life, to have spent a considerable part of his time in 
the same learned and pious work.? It is also to his en- 
couragement and direction, that some writers attribute the 
first German translation of the sacred writings, though 
others contend that this honour is due to his son and suc- 
cessor Louis, surnamed the Debonnaire. 

V. This zeal and industry of the emperor contributed, 
no doubt, to rouse from their sloth a lazy and ignorant 
clergy, and to raise up a spirit of application to literary 
pursuits. We cannot, however, help observing, that this 
laborious prince imprudently established certain customs, 
and confirmed others, which had a manifest tendency to 
defeat, in a great measure, his laudable design of promoting 
Christian knowledge. He confirmed the practice already 
in use, of reading and explaining to the people, in the 
public assemblies, certain portions only of the scriptures ; 
and reduced the different methods of worship, followed in 
different churches, into one fixed rule, which was to be 
observed with the most perfect uniformity in all. c Persua- 
ded also that few of the clergy were capable of explaining 
with perspicuity and judgment the portions of Scripture, 
which are distinguished in the ritual by the name of 
epistle and gospel, he ordered Paul the deacon, and Alcuin, 
to compile (from the ancient doctors of the church) 
homilies or discourses upon the epistles and gospels, which 
a stupid and ignorant set of priests were to commit to 
memory, and recite to the people. This gave rise to that 
famous collection, which went by the title of the homili- 
arium of Charlemagne/ and which, being followed as a 
model by many productions of the same kind, composed 
by private persons from a principle of pious zeal, contri- 
buted much to nourish the indolence, and to perpetuate 
the ignorance of a worthless clergy. e The zeal and 
activity of this great prince did not stop here; for he 
ordered the lives of the principal saints to be written in a 
moderate volume, of which copies were dispersed through- 
out his dominions, that the people might have, in the dead, 

a Baronius, Anna!, ad A. dcclxxviii. n. xxvii. — Jo. A. Fabricius, Bib- 
lioth. Lat. medii JEy'i, toia. i. p. 950. — Hist. Lit. dela France. 

•>J. A. Fabricius, torn. i. p. 950. — Usserius, de sacris Scripturis 
vernacul. p. 110. 

They who imagine that the portions of Scripture which are still 
explained, every year, to Christians in their religious assemblies, were 
selected for that purpose by the order of Charlemagne, are undoubtedly 
in an error ; since it is manifest, that in the preceding ages there were 
certain portions of Scripture set apart for each day of worship in the 
greatest part of the Latin churches. See Jo. Henr. Thameri Sche- 
diasma de Origine et Dignitute Pericoparum quse Evangelia et Epistolse 
vulgo vocantur. See also Jo. Franc. Buddei Isagoge ad Theologiam, 
torn. ii. p. 1640. It must, however, be confessed, that Charlemagne in- 
troduced some new regulations into this part of divine service ; for where- 
as, before his time, the Latin churches differed from.each other in several 
circumstances of the public worship, and particularly in this, that the same 
portions of Scripture were not read and explained in them all, he pub- 
lished a solemn edict, commanding all the religious assemblies within 
nis territories to conform themselves, in that .respect, to the rules estab- 
lished in the church of Rome. With respect to the portions of Scripture 
which we call the epistles and gospels, and which, from the time of 
Charlemagne down to us, continue to be used in divine worship, it is 
certain that they were read in the church of Rome so early as the sixth 
century. It is also certain, that this prince was extremely careful in re- 
forming the service of the Latin churches, and appointed the form of 
worship used at Rome to be observed in all of them. Hence the churches 
which did not adopt the Roman ritual, have different epistles and gospels 
from those, which are used by us, and the other western churches, who 
were commanded by Charlemagne to imitate the Roman service. The 



examples of piety and virtue, which were no where to be 
found among the living. All these projects and designs 
were certainly formed and executed with upright and 
pious intentions, and, considering the state of things in 
this century, were, in several respects, both useful and 
necessary ; they, however, contrary to the emperor's 
intention, contributed, undoubtedly, to encourage the 
priests in their criminal sloth, and their shameful neglect 
of the study of the Scriptures. For the majority of them 
employed their time and labour only upon those parts ol 
the sacred writings, which the emperor had appointed to 
be read in the churches, and explained to the people ; and 
never attempted to exercise their capacities upon the rest 
of the divine word. The greatest part of the clergy also, 
instead of composing themselves the discourses they 
recited in public, confined themselves to the book of 
homilies, published by the authority of their sovereign, 
and thus suffered their talents to lie uncultivated and 
unemployed. 

VI. None of the Latins carried their theological enter- 
prises so far as to give a complete, connected, and accurate 
system of the various doctrines of Christianity. It would 
be absurd to comprehend, under this title, the various 
discourses concerning the person and nature of Christ, 
which were designed to refute the errors of Felix f and 
Elipand, or to combat the opinions which were now spread 
abroad concerning the origin of the Holy Ghost,? and 
several other points ; since these discourses afford no 
proofs either of precision or diligence in their authors. The 
labours and industry of the divines of this age were wholly 
employed in collecting the opinions and authorities of the 
fathers, by whom are meant the theological writers of 
the first six centuries ; and so blind and servile was 
their veneration for these doctors, that they regarded 
their dictates as infallible, and their writings as the 
boundaries of truth, beyond which reason was not per- 
mitted to push its researches. The Irish or Hibernians, 
who in this century were known by the name of Scots, 
were the only divines who refused to dishonour theii 
reason by subjecting it implicitly to the dictates of authority. 
Naturally subtle and sagacious, they applied their philo- 

church of Corbetta is an example of this, as may be seen in Mu- 
ratori's Antiq. Ital. torn. iv. p. 836 ; and also the church of Milan, 
which follows the rite of St. Ambrose. If any are desirous to know 
what epistles and gospels were used by the Franks and other west- 
ern churches before the time of Charlemagne, they have only to consult 
the Calendars published by Martenne, in his Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. v. 
p. 66, the Discourses of Bede published in the same work, torn. v. p. 339, 
and Mabillon, de Antiqua Liturgia Gallicana ; to all which may be 
added Peyret, Antiquites de la Chapelle du Roi de France, p. 566. 

& See for an account of this book of Homilies, the learned Seelen's 
Selecta Literaria, p. 252. 

• Alan, abbot of Farfa in Italy, wrote in this century a very copious 
Book of Homilies, the preface to which is published by Bernard Pczius, 
m the Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. vi. part i.p. 83. In the following age 
several works under the same title were composed by learned men ; one 
by Haymo, of Halberstadt, which is still extant ; another by Rabanus 
Maurus, at the request of the emperor Lothaire ; and a third by Heri- 
cus, mentioned by Pezius in the work above quoted, p. 93. All these 
were written in Latin. The famous Ottfrid, of Weissenburg, was the 
first who composed a Book of Homilies in the Teutonic language ; for 
an account of this work, which was written in the ninth century, see 
Lambecius, de Biblioth. Vindobon. August, torn. ii. cap. v. p. 419. i 

fj» ' The doctrine taught by Felix, bishop of Urgel, and his disciple 
Elipand archbishop of Toledo, was, that Jesus Christ was the Son of 
God, not by nature, but by adoption. This doctrine was also intimately con- 
nected with the Nestorian hypothesis, and was condemned, in this century, 
by the synod of Ratisbon, aiid the councils of Frankfort and Frioul. 

US* e The error now published relating to the Holy Ghost was, that 
it proceeded from the Father only, and not from the Father and the Son. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



175 



sophy (such as it was) to the illustration of the truth and 
doctrines of religion ; a method which was almost 
generally abhorred and exploded by all other nations. 1 

The Greeks were not so destitute of systematical 
divines as the Latins. John Damascenus composed a 
complete body of the Christian doctrine in a scientiflcal 
method, under the title of Four Books concerning the 
Orthodox Faith. The two kinds of theology, which the 
Latins termed scholastic and didactic, were united in this 
laborious performance, in which the author not only 
explains the doctrines he delivers by subtle and profound 
reasoning, but also confirms his explications by the autho- 
rity of the ancient doctors. This book was received among 
the Greeks with the highest applause, and was so exces- 
sively admired, that at length it came to be acknowledged 
among that people as the only rule of divine truth. Many, 
however, complain of this applauded writer, as having 
consulted more, in his theological system, the conjectures 
of human reason, and the opinions of the ancients, than the 
genuine dictates of the sacred oracles, and of having, in 
consequence of this method, deviated from the true source 
and the essential principles of theology. b To the work of 
Damascenus now mentioned, we may add his Sacred 
Parallels, in which he has collected, with uncommon care 
and industry, the opinions of the ancient doctors concern- 
ing various points of the Christian religion. We may, 
therefore, look upon this writer as the Thomas and Lom- 
bard of the Greeks. 

VII. None of the moral writers of this century attempt- 
ed to form a complete system of the duties and virtues of 
the Christian life. John, surnamed Carpathius, a Greek 
writer, composed some exhortatory discourses, in which 
there are scarcely any marks of judgment or genius. 
Among the monastic orders nothing was relished but the 
enthusiastic strains of the Mystics, and the doctrines of 
Dionysius the Areopagite, their pretended chief, whose 
supposititious writings were interpreted and explained by 
Johannes Darensis out of complaisance to the monks. r - 
The Latin writers confined their labours in morality to 
some general precepts concerning virtue and vice, which 
seemed rather intended to regulate the external actions of 
Christians, than to purify their inward principles, or to fix 
duty upon its proper foundations. Their precepts also, 
such as they were, and their manner of explaining them, 
had now imbibed a strong tincture of the Peripatetic philo- 
sophy, as appears from certain tracts of Bede, and the 



a That the Hibernians, who were called Scots in this century, were 
lovers of learning, and distinguished themselves, in those times of ig- 
norance, by the culture of the sciences beyond all the other European 
nations, travelling through the most distant lands, both with a view to 
improve and to communicate their knowledge, is a fact with which I have 
long been acquainted, as we see them, in the most authentic records of 
antiquity, discharging, with the higliest reputation and applause, the 
doctorial function in France, Germany, and Italy, both during this and 
the following century. But that these Hibernians were the first teachers 
of the scholastic theology in Europe, and. so early as the eighth century, 
illustrated the doctrines of religion by the principles of philosophy, I 
learned but lately from the testimony of Benedict, abbot of Aniane, who 
lived in this period. This learned abbot, in his Letter to Guarnarius, p. 
54, expresses himself thus: " Apud modernos scholasticos (i. e. public 
teachers, or schoolmasters) maxime apud Scotos est syllogismus delu- 
sionis. at dicant, Trinitatem. sicut personarum, ita esse substantiarum ;" 
'by this it appears, that the Irish divines made use of a certain syllogism, 
which Benedict calls delusive, i. e. fallacious and sophistical, to demon- 
strate that the persons in the Godhead were substances ; a captious syllo- 
gism this, as we may see from what follows, and also every way proper 
to throw the ignorant into the greatest perplexity) " quatenus si adsen- 
serit iflectus auditor, Trinitatem esse tiium substantiarum Deum, trium 



treatise of Alcuin concerning virtue and vice. d That the 
people, however, might be animated to the pursuit of virtue 
by the commanding power of example, Bede, Florus, 
Alcuin, Marcellinus, Ambrose, Authpert, and others, em- 
ployed their pious industry in writing the lives of such as 
had been eminent for their piety and worthy deeds. 

VIII. The controversies that turned upon the main 
and essential points of religion were, during this century, 
few in number; and scarcely any of them were managed 
with tolerable sagacity or judgment. The greatest part 
of the Greeks were involved in the dispute concerning 
images, in which their reasonings were utterly destitute of 
precision and perspicuity, while the Latins employed their 
chief zeal and industry in confuting and extirpating the 
doctrine of Elipand concerning the person of Christ. John 
Damascenus exposed the errors of all the different sects 
in a short, but useful and interesting treatise ; he also at- 
tacked the Manichaeans and Nestorians with a particular 
vehemence, and even went so far in his polemic labours, 
as to combat the erroneous doctrines of the Saracens. In 
these compositions we find several proofs of subtlety and 
genius, but very little of that clearness and simplicity that 
constitute the chief merit of polemic writings. The Jews 
were left almost unmolested, as the Christians were suffi- 
ciently employed by the controversies that had arisen 
among themselves : Anastasius, abbot of Palestine, how 
ever, made some attempts to subdue the infidelity of that 
obstinate people. 

IX. Of all the controversies which agitated and per- 
plexed the Christian church during this century, that 
which arose concerning the worship of images in Greece, 
and was thence carried into both the eastern and western 
provinces, was the most unhappy and pernicious in its 
consequences. The first sparks of this terrible flame, 
which threatened ruin both to the interest of religion and 
government, had already appeared under the reign of 
Philippicus Bardanes, who was created emperor of the 
Greeks soon after the commencement of this century. 
This prince, with the consent of John, patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, ordered a picture, which represented the sixth 
general council, to be pulled down from its place in the 
church of Sophia, in 712, because this council had condemn- 
ed the Monotholites, whose cause the emperor espoused 
with the greatest ardour and vehemence. Nor did Bar- 
danes stop here ; but sent immediately an order to Rome 
to remove all representations of that nature from the 

derogetur cultor Deorum : si autem abnuerit, personarum denegator cul- 
petur." It was with such miserable sophistry, that these subtle divines 
puzzled and tormented their disciples and hearers, accusing those of 
Tritheism who admitted their argument, and casting the reproach of Sa- 
bellianism upon those who rejected it. For thus they reasoned or rather 
quibbled; " You must either affirm or deny that the three Persons in the 
Deity are three substances. If you affirm it, you are undoubtedly a 
Tritheist, and worship three Gods ; if you deny it, this denial implies 
that they are not three distinct persons, and thus you fall into Sabellian- 
ism." Benedict condemns this Hibernian subtlety, and severely animad- 
verts upon the introduction of it into theology ; he also recommends in 
its place that amiable simplicity which is so conformable to the nature 
and genius of the Gospel : " Sed haec de fide (says he) et omnis callidi- 
tatis versutia, simplicitate fidei catholicse et puritate, vitanda, non captio- 
sa interjectione linguarum, scarva. inrpactione interpolanda.'' Hence it 
appears, that the philosophical or scholastic theology, among the Latins, 
j is of more ancient date than is commonly imagined. 

•> Jo. Henr. Hottinger. Bibliothecar. Quadripart. lib. iii. cap. ii. sect. 
iii. p. 372. — Mart. Chemnitius, de Usu et Utilitate Locor. Commun. p.26. 

Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 120. 

i This treatise is extant in the works of Alcuin, published by Quer- 
cetanus, torn, ii, p. 1218. 



176 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



churches and other places of worship. His orders, however, 
were far from being received with submission, or producing 
their designed effect : on the contrary, Constantine, the 
Roman pontiff, not only rejected, by a formal protest, the 
imperial edict, but resolved to express his contempt of it by 
his actions as well as his words. He ordered six pictures, 
representing the six general councils, to be placed in the 
porch of St. Peter's church ; and that no act of rebellion 
or arrogance might be left unemployed, he assembled a 
council at Rome, in which he caused the emperor himself 
to be condemned as an apostate from the true religion. 
These first tumults were quelled by a revolution, which, 
in the following year, deprived Bardanes of the imperial 
throne. 11 

X. The dispute, however, broke out with redoubled fury 
under Leo the Isaurian, a prince of the greatest resolution 
and intrepidity; and the new tumults which it excited 
were both violent and durable. Leo, unable to bear any 
longer the excessive height to which the Greeks carried 
their superstitious attachment to the worship of images, 
and the sharp railleries and serious reproaches which this 
idolatrous service drew upon the Christians from the Jews 
and Saracens, resolved, by the most vigorous proceedings, 
to root out at once this growing evil. For this purpose he 
issued an edict in 726, by which it wad ordered, not only 
that the worship of images should be abrogated and relin- 
quished, but also that all the images, except that of Christ's 
crucifixion, should be removed out of the churches. 1 " In 
this proceeding the emperor acted more from the impulse 
of his natural character, which was warm and vehement, 
than from the dictates of prudence, which avoids precipi- 
tancy where prejudices are to be combated, and destroys 
and undermines inveterate superstitions rather by slow 
and imperceptible attacks, than by open and violent 
assaults. The imperial edict produced such effects as 
might have been expected from the frantic enthusiasm of 
a superstitious people. A civil war broke out in the islands 
of the Archipelago, ravaged a part of Asia, and afterwards 
reached Italy. The people, partly from their own igno- 
rance, but principally in consequence of the perfidious 
suggestions of the priests and monks, who had artfully 
rendered the worship of images a source of opulence to 
their churches and cloisters, were led to regard the empe- 
ror as an apostate ; and hence they considered themselves 
as freed from their oath of allegiance, and from all the 
oWigations which attach subjects to their lawful sove- 
reign. 

a See Fred. Spanhemii Historia Imaginum restituta; also the Annales 
Italiae by Muratori, vol. iv. — Maimbourg's history of the controversy is 
full of the most absurd and malignant fictions: 

fjf- ij In this account of the imperial edict, Dr. Mosheim follows the 
opinions of Baronius, Fleury, and Le Sueur. Others affirm, with great 
probability, that this famous edict did not enjoin the pulling down images 
every where, and casting them out of the churches, but only prohibited 
the paying to them any kind of adoration or worship. It would seem as 
if Leo was not, at first, averse to the use of images, as ornaments, or 
even as helps to devotion and memory; for, at the same time that he for- 
bade them to be worshipped, he ordered them to be placed higher in the 
churches, some say, to avoid this adoration.; but afterwards finding that 
they were the occasion of idolatry, he caused them to be removed from 
the churches and broken. 

The Greek writers tell us, that both the Gregories carried their inso- 
lence so far as to excommunicate Leo and his son Constantine, to dis- 
solve the obligation of the oath of allegiance, which the people of Italy 
had taken to these princes, and to prohibit their paying tribute to them, or 
showing them any marks of submission and obedience. These facts are 
also acknowledged by many of the partisans of the Roman pontiffs, such 
a:-; Baronius, Sigonius,and their numerous followers. G'n the other hand, 



XL The Roman pontiffs, Gregory II. and III., were 
the authors and ringleaders of these civil commotions and 
insurrections in Italy. The former, on the emperor's 
refusing to revoke his edict against images, declared him, 
without hesitation, unworthy of the name and privileges of 
a Christian, and thus excluded him from the communion 
of the church ; and no sooner was this formidable sentence 
made public, than the Romans, and other Italian commu- 
nities, that were subject to the Grecian empire, violated 
their allegiance, and, rising in arms, either massacred or 
banished all the emperor's deputies and officers. Leo, 
exasperated by these insolent proceedings, resolved to 
chastise the Italian rebels, and to make the haughty pon- 
tiff feel in a particular manner the effects of his resentment ; 
but he failed in the attempt. Doubly irritated by this 
disappointment, he vented his fury against images, and their 
worshippers, in 730, in a much more terrible manner than 
he had hitherto done; for, in a council assembled at Con- 
stantinople, he degraded from his office Germanus, the 
bishop of that imperial city, who was a patron of images, 
put Anastasius in his place, ordered all the images to be 
publicly burned, and inflicted a variety of severe punish- 
ments upon such as were attached to that idolatrous 
worship. These rigorous measures divided the Christian 
Church into two violent factions, whose contests were 
carried on with an ungoverned rage, and produced nothing' 
but mutual invectives, crimes, and assassinations. Of 
these factions, one adopted the adoration and worship of 
images, and were on that account called Iconoduli or 
Iconolatree ; while the other maintained that such wor- 
ship was unlawful, and that nothing was more worthy of 
the zeal of Christians, than to demolish and destroy the 
statues and pictures that were the occasions and objects of 
this gross idolatry ; and hence they were distinguished by 
the titles of Iconomachi and Iconoclastse. The furious 
zeal which Gregory II. had shown in defending the odious 
superstition of image- worship, was not only imitated, but 
even surpassed, by his successor, who was the third pontiff 
of that name; and though, at this distance of time, we are 
not acquainted with all the criminal circumstances that 
attended the intemperate zeal of these insolent prelates, we 
know with certainty that it was their extravagant attach- 
ment to image-worship that chiefly occasioned the se- 
paration of the Italian provinces from the Grecian em- 
pire. 

XII. Constantine, to whom the furious tribe of the 
image- worshippers had given, by way of derision, the name 



some learned writers, particularly among the French, alleviate consider- 
ably the crime of the Gregories, and positively deny that they either ex- 
communicated the emperors above mentioned, or called off the people 
from their duty and allegiance. See Launoius, Epist. lib. vii. Ep. vii. p. 
456. torn. v. op. par. ii. — Nat. Alexander, Select. Histor. Ecclesiast. Ca- 
pit. Saec. viii. dissert, i. p. 456. — De Marca, Concordia Sacerdotii et Im- 
perii, lib. iii. cap. xi. — Bossuet, Defens. Declarations Cleri Gallic, de 
Potestate Eccles. par. i. lib. vi. cap. xii. p. 197. — Giannone, Historia di 
Napoli, vol. i. All these found their opinions, concerning the conduct of 
the Gregories, chiefly upon the authority of the Latin writers, such as 
Anastasius, Paul the Deacon, and others, who seem to have known 
nothing of that audacious insolence, with which these pontiffs are said 
to have opposed the emperors, and even represent them as having given 
several marks of their submission and obedience to the imperial authority. 
Such are the contrary accounts of the Greek and Latin writers ; and the 
most prudent use we can make of them is, to suspend our judgment 
with respect to a matter, which the obscurity that covers the history of 
this period renders it impossible to clear up. All that we can know with 
certainty is, that the zeal of the two pontiffs above mentioned for the 
worship of images, furnished to the people of Italy the occasion of falling 
from their allegiance to the Grecian emperors. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



177 



of Copronymus," succeeded his father Leo in the empire, 
in 741, and, animated with an equal zeal and ardour against 
the new idolatry, employed all his influence for the aboli- 
tion of the worship of images, in opposition to the vigorous 
efforts of the Roman pontiffs and the superstitious monks. 
His manner of proceeding was attended with greater marks 
of equity and moderation, than had appeared in the mea- 
sures pursued by Leo: for, knowing the respect which the 
Greeks had for the decisions of general councils, whose 
authority they considered as supreme and unlimited in 
religious matters, he assembled at Constantinople, in 754, 
a council composed of the eastern bishops, in order to have 
this important question examined with the utmost care, 
and decided with wisdom, seconded by a just and lawful 
authority. This assembly, which the Greeks regard as 
the seventh oecumenical council, gave judgment, as was 
the custom of those times, in favour of the opinion embraced 
by the emperor, and solemnly condemned the worship and 
also the use of images. b But this decision was not suffi- 
cient to vanquish the blind obstinacy of superstition : many 
adhered still to their idolatrous worship ; and none made a 
more turbulent resistance to the wise decree of this council 
than the monks, who still continued to excite commotions 
in the state, and to blow the flames of sedition and rebellion 
among the people. Their malignity was, however, chas- 
tised by Constantine, who, filled with a just indignation 
at their seditious practices, punished several of them in an 
exemplary manner, and by new laws set bounds to the 
violence of monastic rage. Leo IV., who, after the death 
of Constantine, was declared emperor, in 775, adopted the 
sentiments of his father and grandfather, and pursued the 
measures which they had concerted for the extirpation of 
idolatry out of the Christian church ; for, having perceived 
that the worshippers of images could not be engaged by 
mild and gentle proceedings to abandon this superstitious 
practice, he had recourse to the coercive influence of penal 
laws. 

XIII. A cup of poison, administered by the impious 
counsel of a perfidious wife, deprived Leo IV. of his life, 
in 780, and rendered the idolatrous cause of images tri- 
umphant. The profligate Irene, after having thus dis- 
missed her husband from the world, held the reins of em- 
pire during the minority of her son Constantine ; and, 
to establish her authority on more solid foundations, enter- 
ed into an alliance with Adrian, bishop of Rome, in 786, 
and summoned a council at Nice in Bithynia, which is 
known by the title of the second Nicene council. In this 
assembly the imperial laws concerning the new idolatry 
were abrogated, the decrees of the council of Constantino- 
ple reversed, the worship of images and of the cross re- 
stored, and severe punishments denounced against such as 
maintained that God was the only object of rehgious ado- 

5JT* This nick-name was given to Constantine, from his having defi- 
led the sacred font at his baptism. 

ffjr b The authority of this council is not acknowledged by the Roman 
catholics, who also disregard the obligation of the second commandment, 
which they have prudently struck out of the decalogue. 

Mart. Chemnitius, Examen Concilii Tridentim, par. iv. lib. ii. cap. 
v. p. 52. — L'Enfant, Preservatif contre la Reunion avec le Siege de 
Rome, par. iii. lettre xvii. p. 446. 

<i The aversion the Britons had to the worship of images, maybe seen 
in Spelman, Concil. Magna? Britanniae, torn. i. p. 73. 

e The books of Charlemagne concerning Images, which deserve an 
attentive perusal, are yet extant; and, when they were extremely scarce, 
were republished at HanoVer, in 1731. by the celebrated Christopher Aug. 
H juman, who enriched this edition with a learned preface. These books 

No. XV. 45 



ration. It is impossible to imagine any thing more ridi- 
culous and trifling than the arguments upon which the 
bishops, assembled in this council, founded their decrees. 5 
The Romans, however, held sacred the authority of these 
decrees ; and the Greeks considered in the light of parri- 
cides and traitors all such as refused to submit to them. 
The other enormities of the flagitious Irene, and her de- 
served fate, cannot, with propriety, be treated of here. 

XIV. In these violent contests, the greater part of the 
Latins, such as the Britons, Germans, and Gauls, seemed tc 
steer a middle way between the opposite tenets of the con- 
tending parties. They were of opinion that images might 
be lawfully preserved, and even placed in the churches ; 
but, at the same time, they looked upon all worship of 
them as highly injurious and offensive to the Supreme 
Being. d Such, particularly, were the sentiments of Charle- 
magne, who distinguished himself in this important con- 
troversy. By the advice of the French bishops, who were 
no friends to this second council of Nice, he ordered some 
learned and judicious divine to compose Four Books con- 
cerning Images, which he sent, in 790, to Adrian, the Re- 
man pontiff, with a view of engaging him to withdraw his 
approbation of the decrees of that council. In this perform- 
ance the reasons alleged by the Nicene bishops to justify 
the worship of images, are refuted with great accuracy and 
spirit. e They were not, however, left without defence: 
Adrian, who was afraid of acknowledging even an emperor 
for his master, composed an answer to the four books men- 
tioned above: but neither his arguments, nor his authority, 
were sufficient to support the superstition he endeavoured to 
maintain ; for, in 794, Charlemagne assembled, at Frank- 
fort on the Maine, a council of three hundred bishops, in 
order to re-examine this important question; in which the 
opinions contained in the four books were solemnly con 
firmed, and the worship of images unanimously con- 
demned. 1 ' Hence we may conclude, that in this century 
the Latins deemed it neither impious, nor unlawful, to dis- 
sent from the opinion of the Roman pontiff, and even to 
charge that prelate with error. . 

XV. While the controversy concerning images was at its 
height, a new contest arose among the Latins and Greeks 
about the source whence the Holy Ghost proceeded. The 
Latins affirmed, that this Divine Spirit proceeded from the 
Father and the Son : the Greeks 



on the contrary, 



as- 



serted, that it proceeded from the Father only. The origin 
of this controversy is covered with perplexity and doubt. 
It is, however^ certain, that it was agitated in the council 
of Gentilli, near Paris, in 767, in presence of the empe- 
ror's legates ;e and from this we may conclude, with a 
high degree of probability, that it arose in Greece at that 
time when the contest about images was carried on with 
the greatest vehemence. In this controversy the Latins 

are adorned with the venerable name of Charlemagne ; but it is easy to 
preceive that they are the productions of a scholastic divine, and not of 
an emperor. Several learned men have conjectured, that Charlemagne 
composed these books with the assistance of his preceptor Alcuin ; see 
Heuman's Pref. p. 51 ; and Bunau's Historia Imperii German, torn. i. p. 
490. This conjecture, though far from being contemptible, cannot be 
admitted without hesitation, since Alcuin was in England when these 
books were composed. We learn from the history of his life, that ho 
went into England in 789, and did not thence return before 792. 

f This event is treated with a degree of candour, not more laudable 
than surprising, by Mabillon, in Pra?f. ad Saieulum IV. Artorum SS. 
Ord. Benedict, part v. See also Jo. Georg. Dorscheus, Collat. ad Con- 
cilium Francofordiense. 

* See Le Cointe, Annales Eccles. Francorum, torn. v. p. 698. 



178 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



alleged, in favour of their opinions, the creed of Constanti- 
nople, which the Spaniards and French had successively 
corrupted, (upon what occasion is' not well known,) by 
adding the words filio- que to that part of it which con- 
tained the doctrine concerning the Holy Ghost. The 
Greeks, on the other hand, made loud complaints of this 
criminal attempt of the Latins to corrupt by a manifest 
interpolation a creed, which served as a rule of doctrine for 
the church universal, and declared this attempt impudent 
and sacrilegious. Thus, the dispute changed at length its 
object, and was transferred from the matter to the interpo- 
lated words above-mentioned." In the following century 
it was carried on with still greater vehemence, and added 
new fuel to the dissensions which already portended a 
schism between the eastern and western churches. b 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 

I. The religion of this century consisted almost en- 
tirely in a motley round of external rites and ceremonies. 
We aie not, therefore, to wonder that more zeal and dili- 
gence were employed in multiplying and regulating these 
outward marks of a superstitious devotion, than in correct- 
ing the vices and follies of men, in enlightening their un- 
derstandings, and forming their hearts. The administra- 
tion of the sacrament of the Lord's supper, which was 
deemed the most solemn and important branch of divine 
worship, was now every where embellished, or rather 
deformed, with a variety of senseless fopperies, which de- 
stroyed the beautiful simplicity of that affecting and salu- 
tary institution. We also find manifest traces, in this 
century, of that superstitious custom of celebrating what 
were called solitary masses," though it be difficult to de- 
cide whether they were instituted by a public law, or 
introduced by the authority of private persons." 1 Be that 
as it may, this single custom is sufficient to give us an 
idea of the superstition and darkness that sat brooding 
over the Christian church in this ignorant age, and ren- 
ders it unnecessary to enter into a farther detail of the 
absurd rites with which a designing priesthood continued 
to disfigure the religion of Jesus. 

II. Charlemagne seemed disposed to stem this torrent 
of superstition, which gathered force from day to day ; for, 
not to mention the zeal with which he opposed the wor- 
ship of images, there are other circumstances that bear 
testimony to his intentions in this matter, such as his pre- 
venting the multiplication of festivals, by reducing them 

Learned men generally imagine that this controversy began about 
the words Jilio-que. -which some of the Latins had added to the creed 
that had been drawn up by the council of Constantinople, and that from 
the words the dispute proceeded to the doctrine itself ; see Mabillon (Act. 
Sanctor. Ord. Bened. Srcc. iv. part i. praef. p. iv.) who is followed by many 
in this particular. But this opinion is certainly erroneous. The doc- 
trine was the first subject of controversy, which afterwards extended to 
the words Jilio-que, considered by the Greeks as a manifest interpolation. 
Among other proofs of this, the council of Gentilli shows evidently, that 
the doctrine concerning the Holy Spirit had been, for a considerable time, 
the subject of controversy when the dispute arose about the words now 
mentioned. Pagi, inhisCritica inBaronium, torn, iii.p. 323, is of opinion, 
that this controversy had both its date and its occasion from the dispute 
concerning images; for when the Latins treated the Greeks as heretics, on 
account of their opposition to image worship, the Greeks in their turn 
charged the Latins also with heresy, on account of their maintaining 
that the Holy Ghost proceeded from the Father and the Son. The learn- 
ed critic has, however, advanced this opinion without sufficient proof; 



to a fixed and limited number, his prohibiting the cere- 
mony of consecrating the church bells by the rite of 
holy aspersion, and his enactment of other ecclesiastical 
laws, which redound to his honour. Several circumstan 
ces, however, concurred to render his designs abortive, and 
to blast the success of his worthy purposes ; and none 
more than his excessive attachment to the Roman pontiffs, 
who were the patrons and protectors of those who exerted 
themselves in the cause of ceremonies. This vehement 
passion for the lordly pontiff was inherited by the great 
prince, of whom we are now speaking, from his father 
Pepin, who had already commanded the manner of sing- 
ing, and the kind of church-music in use at Rome, to be 
observed in all Christian churches. It was in conformity 
with his example, and in compliance with the repeated and 
importunate solicitation of the pontiff Adrian, that Charle- 
magne laboured to bring all the Latin churches to follow, 
as their model, the church of Rome, not only in the article 
now mentioned, but also in the whole form of their wor- 
ship, in every circumstance of their religious service.' 
Several churches, however, among which those of Milan 
and Corbetta distinguished themselves eminently, abso- 
lutely rejected this proposal, and could neither be brought 
by persuasion nor by violence, to change their usual method 
of worship. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The Arians, Manicheans, and Marcionites, though 
often depressed by the force of penal laws and the powei 
of the secular arm, gathered strength in the east, amidst 
the tumults and divisions with which the Grecian empire 
was perpetually agitated, and drew great numbers into the 
profession of their opinions/ The Monothelites, to whose 
cause the emperor Philippicus, and many others of the 
first rank and dignity, were most zealous well-wishers, 
regained their credit in various countries. The condition 
also both of the Nestorians and Monophysites was easy and 
agreeable under the dominion of the Arabians ; their 
power and influence were considerable ; nor were they 
destitute of means of weakening the Greeks, their irre- 
concilable adversaries, of spreading their doctrines, and 
extensively multiplying the number of their adherents. 

II. In the church which Boniface had newly erected in 
Germany, he himself tells us, that there were man3 r per- 
verse and erroneous reprobates, who had no true notion ol 
relisrion ; and his friends and adherents confirm this as- 



and we must therefore consider it as no more than a probable conjecture. 

i>See Pithgei Hist. Controv. de Processione Spiritus St. at the end ot 
his Cod. Canon. Eccles. Roman, p. 355. — Le Quien, Oriens Christian, 
torn. iii. p. 354. — Ger. J. Vossius, de Tribus Symbolis, Diss. iii. p. 65 ; 
and, above all, Jo. Georg. Walchius, Histor. Controv. de Processione 
Spiritus St. published at Jena, in 1751. 

Jj|= • Solitary or private masses were such as were celebrated by the 
priests alone in behalf of souls detained in purgatory, as well as on some 
other particular occasions. These masses were prohibited by the laws of 
the church ; but they were a rich source of profit to the clergy. They were 
condemned by the canons of a synod assembled at Mentz under Charle- 
magne, as criminal innovations, and as the fruits of avarice and sloth. 

& See the Treatise concerning Images, attributed to Charlemagne, p. 
245; as also George Calixtus, de Missis Solitariis, sect. 12. 

e See the Treatise concerning Images, p. 52 ; and Eginhard, de Vita 
Caroli Magni, cap. 26. 

t In Europe also Arianism prevailed greatly among the barbarous na- 
tions that embraced the Christian faith. 



(Jhap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



179 



sertion. But the testimony is undoubtedly partial, and 
unworthy of credit, since it appears from the most evident 
proofs, that the persons here accused of errors and heresies 
were Irish and French divines, who refused that blind 
submission to the church of Rome, which Boniface was so 
zealous to propagate every where. Adalbert, a Gaul, and 
Clement, a native of Ireland, were the persons whose 
opposition gave the most trouble to the ambitious legate. 
The former procured himself to be consecrated bishop, 
without the consent of Boniface ; excited seditions and 
tumults among the eastern Franks ; and appears, indeed, 
to have been both flagitious in his conduct, and erroneous 
in his opinions. Among other irregularities, he was the 
forger a of a letter to the human race, which was said to 
have been written by Jesus Christ, and to have been 
brought from heaven by the archangel Michael. b As to 
Clement, his character and sentiments were maliciously 
misrepresented, since it appears, by the best and most 
authentic accounts, that he was much better acquainted 
with the true principles and doctrines of Christianity than 
Boniface himself ; and hence he is considered by many as 
a confessor and sufferer for the truth in this barbarous 
age. Be that as it will, both Adalbert and Clement were 
condemned, at the instigation of Boniface, by the pontiff 
Zachary, in a council assembled at Rome, in 748, d and 
were committed to prison, where, in all probability, they 
concluded their days. 

III. Religious discord ran still higher in Spain, France, 
and Germany, toward the conclusion of this century ; 
and the most unhappy tumults and commotions were 
occasioned by a question proposed to Felix bishop of Ur- 
gel, by Elipand, archbishop of Toledo, who desired to 
know in what sense Christ was the son of God. The 



* See the Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iv. p. 82. 

b There is an edition of this letter published by the learned Baluze in 
the Capitularia Regum Francorum, torn. ii. p. 1396. 

s We find an enumeration of the erroneous opinions of Clement in 
the letters of Boniface, Epistol. cxxxv. p. 189. See also Usserii 
Sylloge Epistolarum Hibernicarum, p. 12. Nouveau Dictionnaire His- 
tor. et Critique, torn. i. p. 133. fij= The zealous Boniface was too 
ignorant to be a proper judge of heresy, as appears by his condemn- 
ing Vigilius for believing that there -were antipodes. The great heresy 
of Clement seems to have been his preferring the decisions of Scrip- 
ture to the decrees of councils, and the opinions of the fathers, which 
he took the liberty to reject when they were not conformable to the 
word of God. 

3£jT * This is the true date of the council assembled by Zachary for 
the condemnation of Adalbert and Clement, and not the year 745, as 
Fleury and Mabillon have pretended ; in which error they are followed 
by Mr. Bower, in his History of the Popes. The truth is, that the letter 
of Boniface, in consequence of which this council was assembled, must 



answer given to this question, was, that Christ, considered 
in his divine nature, was truly and essentially the Son of 
God ; but that, considered as a man, he was only so, nomi- 
nally and by adoption. This doctrine was spread abroad 
by the two prelates; Elipand propagated it in the different 
provinces of Spain, and Felix throughout Septimania, 
while the pontiff Adrian, and the greatest part of the Latin 
doctors, looked upon this opinion as a renovation of the 
Nestorian heresy, by its representing Christ as divided into 
two distinct persons. In consequence of this, Felix was 
successively condemned by the councils of Narbonne, 
Ratisbon, Frankfort on the Maine, and Rome, and was 
finally obliged, by the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, to re- 
tract his error, and to change his opinion. e The change 
he made was, however, rather nominal than real, the com- 
mon shift of temporising divines ; for he still retained his 
doctrine, and died in the firm belief of it at Lyons, to which 
city he had been banished by Charlemagne/ Elipand, 
on the contrary, lived secure in Spain under the dominion 
of the Saracens, far removed from the thunder of synods 
and councils, and out of the reach of that coercive power 
in religious matters, whose utmost efforts can go no farther 
than to make the erroneous, hypocrites or martyrs. Many 
are of opinion, that the disciples of Felix, who were called 
Adoptians, departed much less from the doctrine generally 
received among Christians, than is commonly imagined ; 
and that what chiefly distinguished their tenets were the 
terms they used, and their manner of expression, rather 
than a real diversity of sentiments.s But, as this sect and 
their chief thought proper to make use of singular and 
sometimes of contradictory expressions, this furnished such 
as accused them of Nestorianism, with plausible reasons to 
support their charge. 

have been written in 748, since he declares in that letter, that he had 
been near thirty years legate of the holy see, into which commission he 
entered, as all authors agree, about the year 719. 

§£jT e The council of Narbonne, which condemned Felix, was holden 
in 788, that of Ratisbon in 792, that of Frankfort in 794, that of Rome 
in 799. 

f The authors, who have written of the sect of Felix, are mentioned 
by Fabricius, Biblioth. Lat. medii iEvi, torn. ii. p. 482. Add to these 
Petrus de Marca, in his Marca Hispanica, lib. iii. cap. xii. p. 368. — Jo. 
de Ferreras, Historia de Espana, torn. ii. — Mabillon, Pra;f. ad. Sa:c. iv. 
Actor SS. Ord. Benedicti, part ii. There are also very particular ac- 
counts given of Felix by Dom. Colonia, in his Histoire Literaire de la 
Ville de Lyon, torn. ii. and by the Benedictine monks in the Histoire 
Literaire de la France, torn. iv. 

g Jo. G. Dorscheus, Collat ad Concilium Francofurt. p. 101. — Weren- 
fels, de Logomachiis Eruditorum, p. 459. — Basnagius, Praef. ad Ethe- 
rium in Canisii Lection, antiquis, torn. ii. part i. p. 284. — G. Calixtus, 
Singul. Diss. 



THE NINTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events which happened 
to the Church during- this Century. 

I. The reign of Charlemagne had been singularly 
auspicious to the Christian cause; the life of that great 
prince was principally employed in the most zealous efforts 
to propagate and establish the religion of Jesus among the 
Huns, Saxons, Friselanders, and other unenlightened na- 
tions ; but his piety was mixed with violence, his spiritual 
conquests were generally made by the force of arms, and 
this impure mixture tarnishes the lustre of his noblest 
exploits. His son Louis, undeservedly surnamed the 
Debonnaire, or the Meek, inherited the defects of his 
father without his virtues, and was his equal in violence 
and cruelty, but greatly his inferior in all worthy and 
valuable accomplishments. Under his reign a very favour- 
able opportunity was offered of propagating the Gospel 
among the northern nations, and particularly among the 
inhabitants of Sweden and Denmark. A petty king of 
Jutland, named Harald Klack, being driven from his 
kingdom and country, in 826, by Regner Lodbrock, threw 
himself at the emperor's feet, and implored his succours 
against the usurper. Louis granted his request, and 
promised the exiled prince his protection and assistance, 
on condition, however, that he would embrace Christiani- 
ty, and admit the ministers of that religion to preach in 
his dominions. Harald submitted to these conditions, was 
baptized with his brother at Mentz, in 826, and returned 
into his country attended by two eminent divines, Ansgar 
or Anschaire, and Authbert ; the former a monk of Cor- 
bey in Westphalia, and the latter belonging to a monastery 
of the same name in France. These venerable mission- 
aries preached the Gospel with remarkable success, during 
the course of two years, to the inhabitants of Cimbria 
and Jutland. 

II. After the death of his learned and pious companion 
Authbert, the zealous and indefatigable Ansgar made a 
vcyage into Sweden, in 828, where his ministerial labours 
were also crowned with distinguished success. Returning 
into Germany, in 831, he was loaded by Louis with 
ecclesiastical honours, being created archbishop of the new 
church at Hamburg, and also of the whole north, to 
which dignity, in 844, the superintendence of the church 

■ The writers to whom we are indebted for accounts of this pious and 
illustrious prelate, the founder of the Cimbrian, Danish, and Swedish 
churches, are mentioned by Fabricius in his Biblioth. Latin, medii JEvi, 
torn. i. p. 292, as also in his Lux Evangelii Orbi Terrarum exoriens, p. 
425. Add to these the Benedictine monks, in their Histoire Lit. de la 
France, torn. v. p. 277. — Acta Sanctor. Mens. Februar. torn. i. p. 391. — 
Erici Pontoppidani Annales Eccles. Danica Diplomat, torn. i. p. 18. — 
Molleri Cimbria Literata, torn. iii. These writers give us also circum- 
stantial accounts of Ebbo, Withmar, Rembert, and others, who were 
either die fellow-labourers or successors of Ansgar. 



at Bremen was added. The profits attached to this high 
and honourable charge were very inconsiderable, while the 
perils and labours, in which it involved the pious prelate, 
were truly formidable. Accordingly, he travelled frequent- 
ly among the Danes, Cimbrians, and Swedes, in order to 
promote the cause of Christ, to form new churches, and 
to confirm and establish those which he had already 
incorporated; in all which arduous enterprises he passed 
his life in the most imminent dangers, until, in 865, he 
concluded his glorious course.* 

III. About the middle of this century the Mossians, b 
Bulgarians, and Gazarians, and after them the Bohemi- 
ans and Moravians, were converted to Christianity by 
Methodius and Cyril, two Greek monks, whom the em- 
press Theodora had sent to dispel the darkness of those 
idolatrous nations.' The zeal of Charlemagne, and of 
his pious missionaries, had been formerly exerted in the 
same cause, and among the same people/ 1 but with so 
little success, that any faint notions which they had 
received of the Christian doctrine were entirely effaced. — - 
The instructions of the Grecian doctors had a much bet- 
ter, and also a more permanent effect ; but, as they recom- 
mended to their new disciples the forms of worship, and 
the various rites and ceremonies used among the Greeks, 8 
this was the occasion of much religious animosity and 
contention in after-times, when the lordly pontiffs exerted 
all their vehemence, and employed all the means which 
they could devise, though with imperfect success, for 
reducing these nations under the discipline and jurisdiction 
of the Latin church. 

I V. Under the reign of Basilius, the Macedonian, who 
ascended the imperial throne of the Greeks in 867, the 
Sclavonians, Arentani, and certain communities of Dal- 
matia, sent a solemn embassy to Constantinople to declare 
their resolution of submitting to the jurisdiction of the 
Grecian empire, and of embracing, at the same time, the 
Christian religion. This proposal was received with 
admiration and J03'' ; and it was also answered by a suit- 
able ardour and zeal for the conversion of a people that 
seemed so ingenuously disposed to embrace the truth : 
accordingly, a competent number of Grecian doctors were 
sent among them to instruct them in the knowledge of 
the Gospel, and to admit them by baptism into the Chris- 
tian church. f The warlike nation of the Russians were 

f^T b We have translated thus the term Myai, which is an error in 
the original. Dr. Mosheim, like many others, has confounded the My- 
sians with the inhabitants of Mcesia, by giving to the latter, who were 
Europeans, the title of the former, who dwelt in Asia. 

" Jo. George Stredowsky, Sacra Moraviss Historia, lib. ii. cap. ii. p. 
94, compared with Pet. Kohlii Introduct. in Historian! et Rem liter. Sla- 
vorum, p. 124. 

a Stredowsky, lib. i. cap. ix. p. 55. 

6 L'Enfant, Histoire de la Guerre des Hussites, liv. i. 

{ We are indebted for this account of the conversion of the Sclavonians 



Chap. II. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



181 



converted under the same emperor, but not in the same 
manner, or from the same noble and rational motives. 
Having entered into a treaty of peace with that prince, 
they were engaged by various presents and promises to 
embrace the Gospel, in consequence of which they re- j 
ceived not only the Christian ministers that were appoint- j 
ed to instruct them, but also an archbishop, whom the J 
Grecian patriarch Ignatius had sent among them, to per- ; 
feet their conversion and establish their church. a Such 
were the beginnings of Christianity among the bold and 
warlike Russians, who wore inhabitants of the Ukraine, 
and who, before their convereion, had fitted out a formi- 
dable fleet, and, setting sail from Kiow for Constantino- 
ple, had spread terror and dismay through the whole 
empire. b 

V. It is proper to observe, with respect to the various 
conversions which we have now been relating, that they 
were undertaken upon much better principles, and exe- 
cuted in a more pious and rational manner, than those of 
the preceding ages. The ministers, who were now sent 
to instruct and convert the barbarous nations, did not, 
like many of their predecessors, employ the terror of penal 
laws, to affright men into the profession of Christianity ; 
nor, in establishing churches upon the ruins of idolatry, 
were they principally attentive to promote the grandeur 
and extend the authority of the Roman pontiffs; their 
views were more noble, and their conduct more suitable 
to the genius of the religion they professed. They had 
aiefiy in view the happiness of mankind, endeavoured to 
fomote the gospel of truth and peace by rational persua- 
sion, and seconded their arguments by the victorious power 
of exemplary lives. It must, however, be confessed, that 
the doctrine they taught was far from being comformable 
to the pure and excellent rules of faith and practice laid 
down by our divins Saviour and his holy apostles ; for 
their religious system was corrupted by a variety of super- 
stitious rites, and a multitude of absurd inventions. It is 
farther certain, that there remained among these converted 
nations too many traces of the idolatrous religion of their 
ancestors, notwithstanding the zealous labours of their 
Christian guides: and it appears also, that these pious 
missionaries were content with introducing an external 
profession of the true religion among their new proselytes. 
It would be, however, unjust to accuse them on this 
account of negligence or corruption in the discharge of 
their ministry, since, in order to gain over these fierce and 
savage nations to the church, it ma)'- have been absolutely 
necessary to indulge them in some of their infirmities and 
prejudices, and to connive at many things, which pious 
missionaries could not approve, and which, in other cir- 
cumstances, they would have been careful to correct. 



to the treatise de administrando Imper^o, composed by the learned em- 

feror Constantine Porphyrogeneta. and published by Bandurius in his 
mper. Orient, torn. i. Constantine gives the same account of this event 
in the life of his grandfather Basilius, the Macedonian, sect. 54, pub- 
lished in the Corpus Scriptorum Byzantinorum, torn. xvi. 

* Constantinus Porph. in Vita Basilii Macedonis, sect. 96. p. 157. 
Corp. Byzant. See also the Narratio de Ruthenorum Conversione, 
published both in Greek and in Latin by Bandurius, in his Imper. 
Orient. 

•> The earned Lequien, in his Oriens Christianus, torn. i. p. 1257, 
gives a very inaccurate account of those Russians who were converted 
to Christianity under the reign of Basilius the Macedonian ; and in this 
he does no more than adopt the errors of many who wrote before him on 
the same subject. Nor is he consistent with himself ; for in one place 
he ainrms, that-the people here snoken of were the Russians who lived 

No. XYI. ' 46 



CHAPTER n. 

Concerning the Calamitous Events that happened 
to the Church during this Century. 

I. The Saracens had now extended their usurpations 
with amazing success. Masters of Asia, a few provinces 
excepted, they pushed their conquests to the extremities 
of India, and obliged a great part of Africa to receive their 
yoke ; nor were then enterprises in the west without effect, 
since Spain and Sardinia submitted to their arms, and fell 
under their dominion. But their conquests did not end 
here; for, in 827, by the treason of Euphemius, they 
made themselves masters of the rich and fertile island of 
Sicily ; and, toward the conclusion of this century, an 
army of those barbarians, proceeding from Asia, seized 
several cities of Calabria, and spread the terror of their 
victorious arms even to the very walls of Rome, while 
Crete, Corsica, and other islands, were either joined to 
their possessions, or ravaged by their incursions. It is 
easy to comprehend that this overgrown prosperity of a 
nation accustomed to bloodshed and rapine, and which 
also beheld the Christians with the utmost aversion, must 
have been every where detrimental to the progress of the 
Gospel, and to the tranquillity of the church. In the 
east, more especially, a prodigious number of Christian 
families embraced the religion of their conquerors, that 
they might five in the peaceful enjoyment of their posses- 
sions. Many, indeed, refused this base and criminal com- 
pliance, and with a pious magnanimity adhered to their 
principles in the face of persecution : but such were 
gradually reduced to a miserable condition, and were not 
only robbed of the best part of their wealth, and deprived 
of their worldly advantages, but, what was still more 
deplorable, they fell by degrees into such incredible igno- 
rance and stupidity, that, in process of time, there were 
scarcely any remains of Christianity to be found among 
them, beside the mere name and a few external rites and 
ceremonies. The Saracens who had fixed themselves ic 
Europe, particularly those who were settled in Spain, were 
of a much milder disposition, and seemed to have put off the 
greatest part of their native ferocity ; so that the Christians, 
generally speaking, lived peaceably under their dominion, 
and were permitted to observe the laws, and to enjoy the 
privileges of their holy profession. It must, however, be 
confessed, that this mild and tolerating conduct of the 
Saracens was not without some few exceptions of cruelty. 

II. The European Christians had the most cruel suf- 
ferings to undergo from another quarter, — even from the 
insatiable fury of a swarm of barbarians that issued out 
from the northern provinces. The Normans, under which 
general term are comprehended the Danes, Norwegians, 



in the neighbourhood of the Bulgarians, while in anothei he maintains, 
that by these Russians we are to understand the Gazarians. The only 
reason he alleges to support the latter opinion is, that, among the Chris- 
tian doctors sent to instruct the Russians, mention is made of Cyril, who 
converted the Gazari to Christianity. This reason shows, that the 
learned writer had a most imperfect knowledge both of these Russians 
and the Gazari. He is also guilty of other mistakes upon the same 
subject. There is a much better explanation of this matter given by the 
very learned Theoph. Sirrifred Bayer, Dissert, de Russorum prima Ex- 
peditione Constantinopolitana, which is published in the sixth volume of 
; the Commentaria Acad. Scientiar. Petropolitanas. 

See, for example, the account that is given of Eulogius, who suffer- 
ed martyrdom at Cordova, in the Acta Sanctorum ad d. xi. Martii, torn, 
ii. p. 8S"; as also of Roderic and Solomon, two Spanish martyrs of this 
century Ibid, ad d. xiii. Martii, p. 328. 



182 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



and Swedes, whose habitations lay along- the coasts of the 
Baltic sea, were a people accustomed to carnage and 
rapine. Their petty kings and chiefs who subsisted by 
piracy and plunder, had already, during- the reign of 
Charlemagne, infested with their fleets the coasts of the 
German ocean, but were restrained by the opposition they 
met with from the vigilance and activity of that warlike 
prince. In this century, however, they became more 
bold and enterprising, made frequent irruptions into Ger- 
many, Britain, Friseland, and Gaul, and carried along 
with them, wherever they went, fire and sword, desolation 
and horror. The impetuous fury of these savage barba- 
rians not only spread desolation through the Spanish 
provinces, 1 but even penetrated into the very heart of Italy; 
for, in 857, they ravaged and plundered the city of Luna 
in the most cruel manner ; and, about three years after, 
Pisa, and several other towns of Italy, met with the same 
fate. b The ancient histories of the Franks abound with 
the most dismal accounts of their horrid exploits. 

III. The first views of these savage invaders extended 
no farther than plunder ; but, charmed at length with the 

n Jo. de Ferreras, Historia de Espana, vol. ii. Piracy was esteemed 
among the northern nations a very honorable and noble profession; and 
hence the sons of kings, and the young nobility, were trained up to this 
species of robbery, and made it their principal business to perfect them- 
selves in it. Nor will this appear very surprising to such as consider 
the religion of these nations, and the barbarism of the times. See Jo. 
Lud. Holberg, Historia Danorum et Norvegorurn Navalis, in Scriptis 



beauty and fertility of the provinces which they were so 
cruelly depopulating, they began to form settlements in 
them ; nor were the European princes in a condition to 
oppose their usurpations. On the contrary, Charles the 
Bald was obliged, in 850, to resign a considerable part 
of his dominions to the powerful banditti ; c and a few 
years after, under the reign of Charles the Gross, emperor 
and king of France, the famous Norman chief Godofred 
entered with an army into Friseland, and obstinately 
refused to sheathe his sword before he was master of the 
whole province." 1 Such, however, of the Normans as set- 
tled among the Christians, contracted a more gentle turn 
of mind, and gradually departed from their primitive 
brutality. Their marriages with the Christians contribu- 
ted, no doubt, to civilize them ; and engaged them to 
abandon the superstition of their ancestors with more 
facility, and to embrace the Gospel with more readiness 
than they would have otherwise done. Thus the proud 
conqueror of Friseland solemnly embraced the Christian 
religion after he had received in marriage, from Charles 
the Gross, Gisela, the daughter of Lothaire the younger. 

Societatis Scientiar. Hafniensis, torn. iii. p. 349, in which there are a 
multitude of curious and interesting relations concerning the ancient pira- 
cies, drawn from the Danish and Norwegian annals. 

>> See the Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, published by Muratori. 

Annales incerti Auctoris, in Pithjei Scriptoribus Francicis, p. 46. 

& Reginonis Prumiensis Annal, lib. ii. 



183 



part n. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the Stgie of Letters and Philosophy 

duSng this Century. 

I. The Grecian empire, in this centuiy, was in circum- 
stances seemingly calculated to extinguish all taste for jj 
letters and philosophy, and all zeal for the cultivation of 
the sciences. The liberality, however, of the emperors, 
some of whom were men of learning and taste, and the | 
wise precautions taken by the patriarchs of Constantinople, | 
among whom Photius deserves the first rank in point of j 
erudition, contributed to attach a certain number of learn- 
ed men to that imperial city, and thus prevented the total j 
decline of letters. Accordingly, we find in Constantinople, ! 
at this time, several persons who excelled in eloquence \ 
and poetry; some who displayed, in their writings against j 
the Latins, a considerable knowledge of the art of reason- 
ing, and a high degree of dexterity in the management j 
of controversy ; and others who composed the history of j 
their own times with accuracy and elegance. The con- [ 
troversy with the Latins, when it grew more keen and j 
animated, contributed, in a particular manner, to excite 
the literary emulation of the disputants ; rendered them 
studious to acquire new ideas, and a rich and copious elo- 
cution, adorned with the graces of elegance and wit ; and 
thus roused and invigorated talents that were ready to 
perish in indolence and sloth. 

II. "We learn from Zonaras, that the study of philoso- 
phy lay for a long time neglected in this age ; but it was 
revived, with a zeal for the sciences in general, under the 
emperor Theophilus, and his son Michael III. This re- 
vival of letters may principally be ascribed a to the encou- 
ragement and protection which the learned received from 
Bardas, who had been declared Caesar, himself an illiterate 
man, but a warm friend of the celebrated Photius, the 
great patron of science, by whose counsel he was, un- 
doubtedly, directed in this matter. At the head of all the 
learned men, to whom Bardas committed the culture of the 
sciences, he placed Leo, surnamed the Wise, a man of the 
most profound and uncommon erudition, and who after- 
wards was consecrated bishop of Thessalonica. Photius 
explained the Categories of Aristotle, while Michael Psel- 
lus gave a brief exposition of the better works of that 
great philosopher. 

III. The Arabians, who, instead of cultivating the arts 
and sciences, had thought of nothing hitherto, but of ex- 
tending their territories, were now excited to literary 
pursuits by Almamoun, otherwise called Abu Giafar Ab- 
dallah, whose zeal for the advancement of letters was 
great, and whose munificence toward men of learning and 
genius was truly royal. Under the auspicious protection 
of this celebrated khalif of Syria and Egypt, the Arabians 
made a rapid and astonishing progress in various kinds of 
learning. This excellent prince began to reign about the 

a Zonar. Annal. torn. ii. lib. xvi. e See the treatise of Leo Africanus, de Medicis et Philosopkis Arabi- 

fc Abulpharajius, Historia Dynastiar. p. 246. — Georg. Elmacin. His- j bus, published by Fabricius in his Bibliotheca Graeca, torn. sii. p. 

tor. Saracen, lib. ii. p. .139. — Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, article Mamun, ; 259. 

p. 545. II i See the Histoirc Literaire de la France, .om. iv. p. 5S2. 



time of the death of Charlemagne, and died in 833. He 
erected the famous schools of Bagdad, Cufa, and Basra, 
and established seminaries of learning in several other 
cities ; he drew to his court men of eminent parts by his 
extraordinary liberality, set up noble libraries in various 
places, caused translations to be made of the best Grecian 
productions into the Arabic language at a vast expense, 
and employed every method of promoting the cause of 
learning, that became a great and generous prince, whose 
zeal for the sciences was attended with knowledge. 6 It 
was under the reign of this celebrated khalif. that the 
Arabians began. to take pleasure in the Grecian learning, 
and to propagate it, by degrees, not only in Syria and 
Africa, but also in Spain and Italy ; and from this period 
they give us a long catalogue of celebrated philosophers, 
physicians, astronomers, and mathematicians, who were 
ornaments to their nation through several succeeding 
ages ; c and in this certainly they do not boast without 
reason, though we are not to consider as literally true, 
all the wonderful and pompous things which the more 
modern writers of the Saracen history tell us of these illus- 
trious philosophers. 

After this period the European Christians profited much 
by the Arabian learning, and were highly indebted to the 
Saracens for improvement in the various sciences ; for the 
mathematics, astronomy, physic, and philosophy, that 
were taught in Europe from the tenth century, were, for 
the most part, drawn from the Arabian schools that were 
established in Spain and Italy, or from the writings of the 
Arabian sages. Hence the Saracens may, in one respect, 
be justly considered as the restorers of learning in Europe. 

IV. In that part of Europe which was subject to the 
dominion of the Franks, Charlemagne laboured with in- 
credible zeal and ardour for the advancement of useful 
learning, and animated his subjects to the culture of the 
sciences in all their various branches : so that, had his 
successors been disposed to follow his example, and capable 
of acting upon the noble plan which he formed, the empire, 
in a little time, wotild have been entirely delivered from 
barbarism and ignorance. It is true, this great prince left 
in his family a certain spirit of emulation, which animated 
his immediate successors to imitate, in some measure, his 
zeal for the prosperity of the republic of letters. Louis 
the Debonnaire both formed and executed several designs 
that were extremely conducive to the progress of the arts 
and sciences ; d and his zeal, in this respect, was surpassed 
by the ardour with which his son, Charles the Bald, exerted 
himself in the propagation of letters, and in exciting the 
emulation of the learned by the most alluring marks of 
his protection and favour. This great patron of the 
sciences drew the literati to his court from all parts, took 
a particular delight in their conversation, multiplied and 
embellished the seminaries of learning, and protected, in a 
more especial manner, the Aulic school, of which mention 



[84 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part U. 



has already been made, and which was first erected in the 
seventh century, for the education of the royal family and 
the -first nobility. 1 His brother Lothaire endeavoured to 
revive in Italy the drooping sciences, and to rescue them 
from that state of languor and decay into which the cor- 
ruption and indolence of the clergy had permitted them to 
fall. For this purpose he erected schools in the eight 
principal cities of Italy, in 823, b but with little success, 
since that country appears to have been entirely destitute 
of men of learning and genius during the ninth century/ 
In England learning had a better fate under the auspi- 
cious protection of king Alfred, who acquired an immortal 
name, not only by the admirable progress he made in all 
kinds of elegant and useful knowledge, 11 but also by the 
care he took to multiply men of letters and genius in his 
dominions, and to restore to the sciences, sacred and pro- 
fane, the credit and lustre which they so eminently de- 
serve. 6 

V. But the infelicity of the times rendered the effects of 
all this zeal and all these projects for the advancement of 
learning much less considerable than might have other- 
wise been expected. The protectors and patrons of the 
learned were themselves learned ; their authority was 
respectable, and their munificence was boundless ; and 
yet the progress of science toward perfection was but slow, 
because the interruptions arising from the troubled state 
of Europe were frequent. The discords that arose be- 
tween Louis and his sons, which were succeeded by a 
rupture between the latter, retarded considerably the pro- 
gress of letters in the empire ; and the incursions and 
victories of the Normans, which afflicted Europe during 
the whole course of this century, were so inimical to the 
culture of the arts and sciences, that, in most of the re- 
gions of this part of the world, and even in France, there 
remained but a small number who truly deserved the title 
of learned men/ The wretched and incoherent frag- 
ments of erudition that yet remained among the clergy 
were confined to the monasteries, and to the episcopal 
schools ; but the zeal of the monkish and priestly orders 
for the improvement of the mind, and the culture of the 
sciences, diminished in proportion as their revenues in- 
creased, so that their indolence and ignorance grew with 
their possessions. 

VI. It must, however, be confessed, that several exam- 
ples of learned men, whose zeal for science was kindled 
by the encouragement and munificence of Charlemagne, 
shone forth with a distinguished lustre through the dark- 
ness of this barbarous age. Among these, the first rank 
is due to Rabanus Maurus, whose fame was great through 
all Germany and France, and to whom the youth re- 

* Herman. Conringii Antiquit. Academicae, p. 320. — Caes. Eg. du 
Boulay, Hist Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 178. — Launoy, de Scholis Caroli 
M. cap. xi, xii. p. 47. — Histoire Liter, de la France, torn. v. p. 483. 

b See the edict for that purpose among the Capitularia, published by 
Muratori in the first volume of his compilation de Rebus Italicis. 
See Muratori's Antiq. Ital. medii JEvi, torn. iii. p. 829. 

* See Ant. Wood. Hist, et Antiquit. Academ. Oxoniens. lib. i. p. 13. — 
Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 211. — General Dictionary, at the 
article Alfred. (This prince, among other pious and learned labours, 
translated the Pastoral of Gregory I., Boetius de Consolatione, and 
Bede's Ecclesiastical History.) 

f^f • This excellent prince not only encouraged by his protection and 
liberality such of his own subjects as made any progress in the liberal 
arts and sciences, but invited over from foreign countries men of distin- 
guished talents, whom he fixed in a seminary at Oxford, and, in conse- 
quence, maybe looked upon as the founder of that noble university. — 
'ohanne3 Scotus Erigena, who had been in the service of Charles the 



sorted, in prodigious numbers, from all parts, to receive 
his instructions in the liberal arts and sciences. The wri- 
ters of history, whose works have deservedly preserved 
their names from oblivion, are Eginhard, Freculph, The- 
gan, llaymo, Anastasius, Ado, and others of less note, 
Florus, Walafridus Strabo, Bertharius, and Rabanus, ex 
celled in poetry. Smaragdus and Bertharius were emi 
nent for their skill in grammar and languages, as was 
also the celebrated Rabanus already mentioned, who ac- 
quired a very high degree of reputation by a learned and 
subtle treatise concerning the causes and the rise of lan- 
guages. The Greek and Hebrew erudition was cultivated 
with considerable success by William, Servatus Lupus, 
Scotus, and others. Eginhard, Agobard, Hincmar, and 
Servatus Lupus, were famed for the eloquence which ap- 
peared both in their discourses and in their writings.^ 

VII. The philosophy and logic that were taught in the 
European schools during this century, scarcely deserved 
such honourable titles, and were little better than an 
empty jargon. There were, however, to be found in 
various countries, particularly among the Irish, men ol 
acute parts and extensive knowledge, who were perfectly 
well entitled to the appellation of philosophers. Of these, 
the chief was Johannes Scotus Erigena, h a native of Ire- 
land, the friend and companion of Charles the Bald, who 
delighted so much in his conversation as to honour him 
with a place at his table. Scotus was endowed with an 
excellent and truly superior genius, and was considerably 
versed both in Greek and Latin erudition. He explained 
to his disciples the philosophy of Aristotle, for which he 
was singularly well qualified by his thorough knowledge 
of the Greek language ; but, as his genius was too bold 
and aspiring to confine itself to the authority and decisions 
of the Stagirite, he pushed his philosophical researches 
yet farther, dared to think for himself, and ventured to 
pursue truth without any other guide than his own reason. 
We have yet extant of his composition, five Books con- 
cerning the Division of Nature ; an intricate and subtle 
production, in which the causes and principles of all things 
are investigated with a considerable degree of sagacity, 
and in which also the precepts of Christianity are alle- 
gorically explained, yet in such a manner as to show, that 
their ultimate end is the union of the soul with the Su- 
preme Being. He was the first who blended the scholas- 
tic theology with the mystic, and formed both into one 
system. It has also been imagined, that he was far from 
rejecting the opinions of those who consider the union of 
God and nature, as similar to the union that subsists be- 
tween the soul and the body, — a notion much the same 
with that of many ancient philosophers, who looked upon 

Bald, and Grimbald, a monk of St. Bertin in France, were the most 
famous of those learned men who came from abroad : Asserius, Were- 
frid, Plegmund, Dunwuf, Wulfsig, and the abbot of St. Neot's, deserve 
the first rank among the English literati who adorned the age of Alfred. 
See Collier's Ecclesiastical History, vol. i. book iii. and Rapin's History 
of England. 

f Servati Lupi Op. Epist. xxxiv. p. 69. — Conringii Antiq. Acad. p. 
322.— Histoire Liter, de la France, torn. iv. p. 251. 

e Such as are desirous of a more circumstantial account of these wri- 
ters, and of their various productions, may consult the Histoire Literaire 
de la France, torn. iv. p. 251 to 271 ; or the more ample account given ot 
them by the celebrated Le Boeuf, in his Etat des Sciences en France 
depuis Charlemagne, jusqu'au Roi Robert, which is published in his 
Recueil de divers Ecrits pour servir d'Eclaircissement a l'Histoire de 
France, torn. ii. 

gj- i> Erigena signifies properly a native of Ireland, US Erin was the 
ancient name of that kingdom. 



Chap II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



18c 



the Deity as the soul :>f the world. But it may, perhaps, 
be alleged, and not without reason, that what Scotus said 
upon this subject amounted to no more than what the 
Realists,* as they are called, maintained afterwards, 
though it must be allowed that he has expressed himself 
in a very perplexed and obscure manner. b This cele- 
brated philosopher formed no particular sect, at least as far 
as we know ; and this will be considered, by those who 
are acquainted with the spirit of the times in which he 
lived, as a proof that his immense learning- was accom- 
panied with meekness and modesty. 

About this time a certain person named Macarius, a na- 
tive of Ireland, propagated in France that enormous error, 
which was. afterwards adopted and professed by Avenoes, 
that one individual intelligence, one soul, performed the 
spiritual and rational functions in all the human race. 
This error was confuted by Ratram, a famous monk of 
Corbey. c Before these writers flourished Dungal, a native 
of Ireland also, who left his country, and retired into a 
French monastery, where he lived during the reigns of 
Charlemagne and his son Louis, and taught philosophy 
and astronomy with the greatest reputation. 11 Heric, a 
monk of Auxerre, made likewise an eminent figure 
among the learned of this age ; he was a man of uncom- 
mon sagacity, was endowed with a great and aspiring 
genius, and is said, in many things, to have anticipated 
the famous Des-Cartes in the manner of investigating 
truth. e 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and its Form of Government during this Century. 

I. The impiety and licentiousness of the greatest part of 
the clergy arose, at this time, to an enormous height, and 
stand upon record, in the unanimous complaints of the 
most candid and impartial writers of this century. f In 
the east, tumult, discord, conspiracies, and treason, reigned 
uncontrolled, and all things were carried by violence and 
force. These abuses appeared in many thing*, but par- 
ticularly in the election of the patriarchs of Constanti- 
nople. The favour of the court was now the only step 
to that high and important office ; and, as the patriarch's 
continuance in that eminent post depended upon such an 
uncertain and precarious foundation, nothing was more 
usual than to see a prelate pulled down from his episcopal 
throne by an imperial decree. In the western provinces, 
the bishops were voluptuous and effeminate in a very high 



3~*p » The Realists, who followed the doctrine of Aristotle with re- 
spect to universal ideas, were so called in opposition to the Nominalists, 
who embraced the hypothesis of Zeno and the Stoics upon that perplexed 
and intricate subject. Aristotle held, against Plato, that previous to, and 
independent of, matter, there were no universal ideas or essences ; and 
that the ideas, or exemplars, which the latter supposed to have existed 
in the divine mind, and to have been the models of all created tilings, 
had been eternally impressed upon matter, and were coeval with, and 
inherent in, their objects. Zeno and his followers, departing both from 
the Platonic and Aristotelian systems, maintained that these pretended 
universals had neither form nor essence, and were no more than mere 
terms and nominal representations of their particular objects. The doc- 
trine of Aristotle prevailed until the eleventh century, when Roscellinus 
embraced the Stoical system, and founded the sect of the Nominalists, 
whose sentiments were propagated with great success by the famous 
Abe.lard. These two sects differed considerably among themselves, 
and explained, or rather obscured, their respective tenets in a variety of 
ways. 

•> The work here alluded to was published by Mr. Thomas Gale, in 

No.XYI. 47 



degree. They passed their lives amidst the splendour of 
courts and the pleasures of a luxurious indolence, which 
corrupted their taste, extinguished their zeal, and rendered 
them incapable of performing the solemn duties of their 
functions ;e while the inferior clergy were sunk in licen- 
tiousness, minded nothing but sensual gratifications, and 
infected with the most heinous vices the flock, whom it 
was the very business of their ministry to preserve, or to 
deliver from the contagion of iniquity. Besides, the igno- 
rance of the sacred order was, in many places, so deplo- 
rable, that few of them could either read or write ; and 
still fewer were capable of expressing their wretched no- 
tions with any degree of method or perspicuity 7 . Hence it 
happened, that, when letters were to be penned, or any 
matter of consequence was to be committed to writing, 
they commonly had recourse to some person who was sup- 
posed to be endowed with superior abilities, as appears in 
the case of Servatus Lupus. h 

II. Many circumstances concurred, particularly in the 
European nations, to produce and augment this corrup- 
tion and licentiousness, so shameful in an order of men, 
who were set apart to exhibit examples of piety to the 
rest of the world. Among these we may reckon, as the 
chief sources of the evil under consideration, the calami- 
ties of the times, the bloody and perpetual wars that were 
carried on between Louis the Debonnaire and his family, 
the incursions and conquests of the barbarous nations, the 
gross and incredible ignorance of the nobility, and the 
riches that flowed in upon the churches and religious se- 
minaries from all quarters. Many other causes also con- 
tributed to dishonour the church, by introducing into it a 
corrupt ministry. A nobleman, who, through want of 
talents, of activity, or courage, was rendered incapable of 
appearing with dignity in the cabinet, or with honour in 
the field, immediately turned his views toward the church, 
aimed at a distinguished place among its chiefs and ru- 
lers, and became, in consequence, a contagious example 
of stupidity and vice to the inferior clergy. * The patrons 
of churches, in whom resided the right of election, unwil- 
ling to submit their disorderly conduct to the keen cen- 
sure of zealous and upright pastors, industriously looked 
for the most abject, ignorant, and worthless ecclesiastics, 
to whom thej r committed the care of souls. k But one of 
the circumstances, which contributed in a particular man- 
ner to render, at least, the higher clergy wicked and de- 
praved, and to take off their minds from the duties of 
their station, was the obligation of performing certain ser- 
vices to their sovereigns, in consequence of the possessions 



1681. The learned Heuman lias made several extracts from it, and has 
given also an ample account of Scotus, in his Acts of the Philosophers, 
written in German, torn. iii. p. 858. 

c Mabillon, Praef. part ii. Actor. SS. Ord. Benedicti, sect. 156. p. 53 

d Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. iv. p. 493. 

" Le Bceuf, Memoires pour l'Histoire d'Auxerre, torn. ii. p. 4S1. — Acta 
Sanctorum, torn. iv. M. Junii ad d. xxiv. p. 829, et ad d. xxxi. Jul. p. 249 ; 
for this philosopher has obtained a place among the saintly order. 

f See Agobardus, de Privilegiis et Jure Sacerdotii, sect. 13. 

B The reader will be convinced of this by consulting As*ohax&, passim, 
and by looking over the laws enacted in the Latin councils for restrain- 
ing die disorders of the clergy. See also Servatus Lupus, Epist. xxxv. 
p. 73, 281, and Steph. Baluze, in Adnot. p. 378. 

k See the works of Servatus Lupus, Epist. xcviii. xcix. p. 126. 142, 
148 ; as also his Life. See also Rodolphi Biturioensis Capitula ad Cle- 
rum suum, in Baluzii Miscellaneis, torn. vi. p. 139. 148. 

i Hincmarus, in Opere Posteriore contra Godeschalcum, cap. xxxvi. 
torn. i. op. p. 318. — Servatus Lupus, Epist. lxxix. p. 120. 

ii Agobardus, de Privilegiis etjure Sacerdotii, cap. xi. p. 341. torn. i. op. 



LM 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part n 



they derived from the royal bounty. The bishops and 
heads of monasteries held many lands and castles by a 
feudal tenure ; and, being thereby bound to furnish their 
princes with a certain number of soldiers in time of war, 
were obliged also to take the field themselves at the head 
of these troops, a and thus to act in a sphere that was ut- 
terly inconsistent with the nature and duties of their sacred 
character. Beside all this, it often happened that rapa- 
cious princes, in order to satisfy the craving wants of their 
soldiers and domestics, boldly invaded the possessions of 
the church, which they distributed among their armies ; 
in consequence of which the priests and monks, in order 
to avoid perishing through hunger, abandoned themselves 
to the practice of violence, fraud, and all sorts of crimes, 
considering these acts as the only remaining means by 
which they could procure a subsistence. 11 

III. The Roman pontiffs were raised to that high dig- 
nity by the suffrages of the sacerdotal order, accompanied 
by the voice of the people; but, after their election, the 
approbation of the emperor was necessary, in order to 
their consecration. An edict, indeed, is yet extant, sup- 
posed to have been published, in 817, by Louis the De- 
bonnaire, in which he abolishes this imperial right, and 
grants to the Romans, not only the power of electing their 
pontiff, but also the privilege of installing and consecrating 
him when elected, without waiting for the consent of the 
emperor. d But this grant will not deceive those who in- 
quire into the affair with any degree of attention and dili- 
gence, since several learned men have proved it spurious 
by the most irresistible arguments. e It must, however, 
be confessed, that, after the time of Charles the Bald, a 
new scene of things arose; and the important change 
above mentioned was really introduced. That prince, 
having obtained the imperial dignity by the good offices 
of the bishop of Rome, returned this eminent service by 
delivering the succeeding pontiffs from the obligation of 
waiting for the consent of the emperors, in order to their 
being installed in their office ; and thus we find, that from 
the time of Eugenius III., who was raised to the pontifi- 
cate in 884, the election of the pope was carried on with- 
out the least regard to law, order, and decency, and was 
generally attended with civil tumults and dissensions, un- 
til the reign of Otho the Great, who put a stop to these 
disorderly proceedings. 

IV. Among the pontiffs of this century, there were very 
few who distinguished themselves by their learning, pru- 
dence, and virtue, or who were studious of those particular 
qualities which are essential to the character of a Christian 

* Steph. BalUzii Appendix Actor, ad Servatum, p. 508. — Muratori 
Antiq. Ital. medii JEvi, torn. ii. p. 446. — Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn, 
vi. p. 587. — Du-Fresne, ad Joinvillii Hist. Ludovici S. p. 75, 76. 

b Agobardus, de Dispens. Rerum Ecclesiast. sect. iv. — Flodoardus, 
Histor. Eccles. Rhemensis, lib. iii. cap. ix. — Servatus Lupus, Epist. 
xlv. p. 87, 437,&x. — Muratori, torn. vi. Antiq. Ital. p'. 302. — Lud. Thomas- 
sin, DisciplinaEcclesiaevet. et nova; circa Beneficia, par. ii.lib. iii. cap. xi. 
These corrupt measures prevailed also among the Greeks and Lombards, 
as may be seen in the Oriens Christianus of Lequien, torn. i. p. 142. 

' See De Bunau, Histor. Imper. German, torn. iii. 

i Harduini Concilia, torn. iv. p. 1236. — Le Cointe, An. Eccl. Francor. 
torn. vii. ad An. 817. sect. 6. — Baluzii Capit. Regum Fran. t. i. p. 591. 

1 Muratori, Droits de l'Empire sur FEtat Ecclesiast. p. 54, and Antiq. 
Ital. torn. iii. p. 29, 30, in which that learned man conjectures, that this 
edict was forged in the eleventh century. Bunau, Hist. Imper. German, 
torn. iii. p. 34. The partisans, however, of the papal authority, such as 
Fontanini and others, plead strenuously, though ineffectually, for the 
authenticity of the edict in question. 

f The arguments of those who maintained the truth of this extraor- 
dinary event are collected ir» one striking toint of view, with great iearn- 



bishop. On the contrary, the greatest part of them art 
only known by the flagitious actions that have transmitted 
their names with infamy to our times ; and all seem to 
have vied with each other in their ambitious efforts to ex- 
tend their authority, and render their dominion unlimited 
and universal. It is here that we may place, with pro- 
priety, an event which is said to have interrupted the 
much-vaunted succession of regular bishops in the see of 
Rome, from the first foundation of that church to the pre- 
sent times. Between the pontificate of Leo IV., who died 
in 855, and that of Benedict III., a certain woman, who 
artfully disguised her sex for a considerable time, is said, 
by learning, genius, and dexterity, to have made good her 
way to the papal chair, and to have governed the church 
with the title and dignity of pontiff about two years. 
This extraordinary person is yet known by the title of 
Pope Joan. During the five succeeding centuries this 
event was generally believed, and a vast number of wri- 
ters bore testimony to its truth ; nor, before the reforma- 
tion undertaken by Luther, was it considered by any, 
either as incredible in itself, or as disgraceful to the church/ 
But, in the last century, the elevation, and indeed the ex 
istence of this female pontiff, became the subject of a keen 
and learned controversy; and several men of distinguished 
abilities, both among the Roman catholics and protestants, 
employed all the force of their genius and erudition to de- 
stroy the credit of this story, by invalidating, on the one 
hand, the weight of the testimonies on which it was found- 
ed, and by showing, on the other, that it was inconsistent 
with the most accurate chronological computations. e Be- 
tween the contending parties, some of the wisest ^ind most 
learned writers have judiciously steered a middle course ; 
they grant that many fictitious and fabulous circumstances 
have been interwoven with this story ; but they deny that 
it is entirely destitute of foundation, or that the controversy 
is yet ended, in a satisfactory manner, in favour of those 
who dispute the truth ; and, indeed, upon a deliberate and 
impartial view of this whole matter, it will appear more 
than probable, that some unusual event must have hap- 
pened at Rome, from which this story derived its origin, 
because it is not at all credible, from any principles of mo- 
ral evidence, that an event should be universally believed 
and related in the same manner by a multitude of histo- 
rians, during five centuries immediately succeeding its 
supposed date, if that event had been absolutely destitute 
of all foundation. But what it was that gave rise to this 
story is yet to be discovered, and is likely to remain un- 
certain. 11 

ing and industry, by Fred. Spanheim, in his Exercitatio de Papa Fce- 
mma, torn. ii. op. p. 577. This dissertation was translated into French 
by the celebrated L'Enfant, who digested it into a better method, and 
enriched it with several additions. 

s The arguments of those who reject the story of Pope Joan as a fa- 
ble, have been collected by David Blonde], and after him with still move 
art and erudition by Bayle, in the third volume of his Dictionary, at the 
article Papesse. Add to these Jo. Georg. Eccard. (Histor. Francis 
Oriental, torn. ii. lib. xxx. sect. 119. p. 436,") who has adopted and ap- 
propriated the sentiments of the great Leibnitz, upon the matter in 
question. See also Lequien's Oriens Christian, torn. ii. p. 777, and 
Heuman's Syllogse Dissert. Sacr. torn. i. part ii. p. 352. The very 
learned Jo. Chnstoph. Wagenselius has given a just and accurate 
view of the arguments on both sides, which may be seen in the Amreni- 
tates Literaria; of Schelhornius, part i. p. 146; and the same has been 
done by Basnage in his Histoire de FEglise, torn. i. p. 408. A list of the 
other writers, who have employed their labours upon this intricate ques- 
tion, may be seen in Casp. Sagittarius' Introd. in Hist. Eccles. torn. i. cap. 
xxv. p. 676, and in the Biblioth. Bremens. torn. viii. part v. p. 935. 

h Such is the opinion of Paul Sarpi, in his Lettere Italians, Lett. 



Chap. II, 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



187 



so 



V. The enormous vices, that must have covered 
many pontiffs with infamy in the judgment of the wise, 
formed not the least obstacle to their ambition in these 
miserable times, nor hindered them from extending their 
influence, and augmenting their authority, both in church 
and state. It does not, indeed, appear from any authentic 
records, that their possessions increased in proportion to 
the progress of their authority, or that any new grants of 
land were added to what they had already obtained from 
the liberality of the kings of France. The donations, 
which Louis the Debonnaire is reported to have made to 
them, are mere inventions, equally destitute of truth and 
probability ; a and nothing is more groundless than the 
accounts of those writers Avho affirm that Charles the 
Bald divested himself, in 875, of his right to the city of 
Rome and its territory, in favour of the pontiffs, whom he 
at the same time eniiched with a variety of noble and 
costly presents, in return for the good services of John VIII., 
by whose assistance he had been raised to the empire. 
Be that as it may, it is certain, that the authority and 
affluence of the bishops of Rome increased greatly from 
the time of Louis, but more especially from the accession 
of Charles the Bald to the imperial throne, as all the his- 
torical records of that period abundantly testify. b 

VL After the death of Louis II. a fierce and dreadful 
war broke out between the posterity of Charlemagne, 
among which there were several competitors for the em- 
pire. This furnished the Italian princes and pope John 
VIII. with an opportunity of assuming the right of nomi- 
nating to the imperial throne, and of excluding from all 
concern in this election the nations who had formerly the 
right of suffrage ; and, as the occasion was favourable, it 
was seized with avidity, and improved with the utmost 
dexterity and zeal. Their favour and interest were ear- 
nestly solicited by Charles the Bald, whose entreaties were 
rendered effectual by rich presents, prodigious sums of 
money, and most pompous promises, in consequence of 
which he was proclaimed, in 876, by the pope and the 
Italian princes assembled at Pavia, king of Italy and em- 
peror of the Romans. Carloman and Charles the Gross, 
who succeeded him in the kingdom of Italy, and in the 
Roman empire, were also elected by the Roman pontiff 
and the princes of Italy. After the reigns of those poten- 
tates, the empire was torn in pieces : the most deplorable 
tumults and commotions arose in Italy, France, and Ger- 
many, which were governed or rather subdued and usurp- 
ed by various chiefs ; and, in this confused scene, the 
highest bidder was, by the aid of the greedy pontiffs, gene- 



lxxxii. p. 452 ; of L'Enfant, Biblioth. Germanique, torn. x. p. 27; of 
Theod. Hasaeus, Biblioth. Bremens. torn. viii. part v. p. 935; and of the 
celebrated PfafF, Instit. Histor. Eccles. p. 402 ; to whom we might add 
Wernsdorf, Boeder, Holberg, and many others, were such an enumera- 
tion necessary. Without assuming the character of a judge in this in- 
tricate controversy, concerning which so many decisions have been confi- 
dently pronounced, I shall only take the liberty to observe, that the mat- 
ter in debate is yet dubious, and has not, on either side, been represented 
in such a light as to bring conviction. 

* See above, sect. 3. 

i> Bunau, Histor. Imperii Rom. German, torn. ii. p. 482. — Jo. George 
Eccard, Histor. Francise Orient, torn. ii. lib. xxxi. p. 606. 

° This matter is amply illustrated by Sigonius, in his famous book de 
Regno Italia?, and by the other writers of German and Italian history. 

d See the excellent work of an anonymous and unknown author, who 
signs himself D. B. and whose book is entitled Histoire du Droit Eccle- 
siastique public Frangois, published first at London, in 1737, and lately 
republished in a more splendid edition. The author of this performance 
shows, in a judicious and concise manner, the various steps by which the 



rally raised to the government of Italy, and to the imperial 
throne. c 

VII. Thus the power and influence of the pontiffs, in 
civil affairs, rose in a short time to an enormous height, 
through the favour and protection of the princes, in whose 
cause they had employed the influence which superstition 
had given them over the minds of the people. The in- 
crease of their authority, in religious matters, was not lesa 
rapid or less considerable ; and it arose from the same 
causes. The wisest and most impartial among the Ro- 
man catholic writers, not only acknowledge, but have 
even taken pains to demonstrate, that, from the time of 
Louis the Debonnaire, the ancient rules of ecclesiastical 
government were gradually changed in Europe by the 
counsels and instigation of the court of Rome, and new 
laws substituted in their place. The European princes 
suffered themselves to be divested of the supreme authority 
in religious matters, which they had derived from Charle- 
magne ; the episcopal power Avas greatly diminished, and 
even the authority of both provincial and general councils 
began to decline. The Roman pontiffs, elate with their 
overgrown prosperity, and the daily accessions that were 
made to their authority, were eagerly bent upon persua- 
ding all, and had, indeed, the good fortune to persuade 
many, that the bishop of Rome was constituted, by Jesus 
Christ, supreme legislator and judge of the church univer- 
sal ; and that, therefore, the bishops derived all their au- 
thority from the pope, nor could the councils determine 
any thing without his permission and consent." 1 This 
opinion, which was inculcated with the utmost zeal and 
ardour, was opposed by such as were acquainted with the 
ancient ecclesiastical constitutions, and the government of 
the church in the earlier ages ; but it was opposed in vain. 

VIII. In order to gain credit to this new ecclesiastical 
system, so different from the ancient rules of church go- 
vernment, and to support the haughty pretensions of the 
pontiffs to supremacy and independence, it was necessary 
to produce the authority of ancient deeds, to stop the 
mouths of such as were disposed to set bounds to their 
usurpations. The bishops of Rome were aware of this ; 
and as those means w r ere deemed the most lawful that 
tended best to the accomplishment of their purposes, they 
employed some of then most ingenious and zealous parti- 
sans in forging conventions, acts of councils, epistles, and 
the like records, by which it might appear, that, in the 
first ages of the church, the Roman pontiffs were clothed 
with the same spiritual majesty and supreme authority 
which they now assumed." Among these fictitious sup- 
papal authority rose to such a monstrous height. His account of the 
ninth centuiy may he seen in the first volume of his work, at the 
160th page. 

• There is just reasc >n to imagine, that these decretals, and various other 
acts, such as the gran;s of Charlemagne and hi.' son Louis, were forged 
with the knowledge and consent of the Roman pontiffs, since it is utterly 
incredible that these pontiffs should, for many ages, have constantly ap- 
pealed, in support of their pretended rights and privileges, to acts and 
records that were oiily the fictions of private person.!, and should with 
such weak arms have stood out against kings, princos, councils, and 
bishops, who were unwilling to receive their yoke. A.--ts of a private 
nature would have oeen useless here, and public deeds wets necessary to 
accomplish the views of papal ambition. Such forgeries were in this 
century deemed lawful, on account of their supposed tendency to pro- 
mote the glory of God, and to advance the prosperity of thechmnh: and, 
therefore, it is not surprising, that the good pontiffs should feel no re- 
morse in imposing upon the world frauds and forgeries, that were design- 
ed to enrich the patrimony of St. Peter, and to aggrandise his successors 
in the apostolic see. 



188 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part il 



ports of the papal dignity, the famous Decretal Epistles, 
as' they are called, said to have been written by the pon- 
tiffs of the primitive time, deserve chiefly to be stigmatized. 
They were the productions of an obscure writer, who 
fraudulently prefixed to them the name of Isidore, bishop 
of Seville," to make the world believe that they had been 
collected by this illustrious and learned prelate. Some of 
them had appeared in the eighth century, 6 but they were 
now entirely drawn from their obscurity, and produced, 
with an air of ostentation and triumph, to demonstrate 
the supremacy of the Roman pontiffs. The decisions of 
a certain Roman council, which is said to have been hold- 
en during the pontificate of Sylvester, were likewise alleged 
in behalf of the same cause ; but this council had not been 
heard of before the present century, and the accounts now 
given of it proceeded from the same source with the de- 
cretals, and were equally authentic. Be that as it may, 
the decrees of this pretended council contributed much to 
enrich and aggrandize the Roman pontiffs, and exalt them 
above all human authority and jurisdiction. 11 

IX. There were, however, among the Latin bishops, 
some men of prudence and sagacity, who saw through 
these impious frauds, and perceived the chains that were 
forging both for them and for the church. The French 
bishops distinguished themselves, in a particular and glo- 
rious manner, by the zeal and vehemence with which 
they opposed the spurious decretals, and other fictitious 
monuments and records, and protested against their 
being received among the laws of the church. But the 
obstinacy of the pontiffs, and particularly of Nicolas I., 
conquered this opposition, and reduced it to silence. And 
as the empire, in the periods that succeeded this con- 
test, fell back into the grossest ignorance and darkness, 
there scarcely remained any who were capable of detect- 
ing these odious impositions, or disposed to support the 
expiring liberty of the church. The history of the 
following ages shows, in a multitude of deplorable 
examples, the disorders and calamities that sprang from 
the ambition of the aspiring pontiffs ; it represents these 
despotic lords of the church, labouring, by the aid of 
their impious frauds, to overturn its ancient government, 
to undermine the authority of its bishops, to engross its 
riches and revenues into their own hands; and, what is 
still more horrible, it represents them aiming perfidious 
blows at the thrones of princes, and endeavouring to lessen 
their power, and to set bounds to their dominion. All this 
is unanimously acknowledged by such as have looked, 
with attention and impartiality, into the history of the 
times of which we now write, and is ingenuously con- 
fessed by men of learning and probity, who are well affected 
to the Romish church and its sovereign pontiff/ 

X. The monastic life was now universally in the high- 
est esteem ; and nothing could equal the veneration that 

a It is certain that the forger of the decretals was extemely desirous of 
persuading: the world that they were collected by Isidore, the celebrated 
bishop of Seville, who lived in the sixth century. See Pabricii Biblioth. 
Latin, medii iEvi, torn. v. p. 561. It was a custom among the bishops to 
add, from a principle of humility, the epithet peccator, i. e. sinner, to 
their titles ; and, accordingly, this forger has added the word peccator 
after the name of Isidore : but this some ignorant transcribers have ab- 
surdly changed into the word mercator ; and hence it happens that one 
Isidorus Mercator passes for the fraudulent collector, or forger of the 
decretals. 

b See Calmet, Histoire de Lorraine, torn. i. p. 528. — B. Just. Hen. 
Bohmer, Pra:f. ad novam Edit. Juris Canon, torn. i.p. x. xix. Not. 

• Beside the authors of the Centurise Magdeburgenses and other 



was paid to such as devoted themselves to the sacred 
gloom and indolence of a convent. The Greeks and 
Orientals had been long accustomed to regard the monkish 
orders and discipline with the greatest admiration ; but it 
was only from the beginning of the eighth century, that 
this holy passion was indulged among the Latins to 
such an extravagant length. In the present age it went 
beyond all bounds : kings, dukes, and counts, forgot their 
true dignity, even the zealous discharge of the duties of 
their high station, and affected that contempt of the 
world and its grandeur, which they took for magnanimity, 
though it was really the resultof a narrow and superstitious 
spirit. They abandoned their thrones, their honours, and 
their treasures, and shut themselves up in monasteries, 
with a view of devoting themselves entirely to God. Seve- 
ral examples of this fanatical extravagance were exhibited 
in Italy, France, German)^ and Spain, both in this and 
in the preceding century ; and if the allurements of 
worldly pleasures and honours had too much power over 
the minds of many, to permit their separating themselves 
from human society during their lives, such endeavoured 
to make amends for this in their last hours ; for, when 
they perceived death approaching, they demanded the 
monastic habit, and actually put it on before their depar- 
ture, that they might be regarded as of the fraternity, and 
be in consequence entitled to the fervent prayers and other 
spiritual succours of their ghostly brethren. 

But nothing affords such a striking and remarkable 
proof of the excessive and fanatical veneration that was 
paid to the monastic order, as the conduct of several kings 
and emperors, who drew numbers of monks and abbots 
from their cloisters, and placed them in stations entirely 
foreign to their vows and their character, even amidst the 
splendour of a court, and at the head of affairs. The tran- 
sition, indeed, was violent, from the obscurity of a convent, 
and the study of a liturgy, to sit at the helm of an empire, 
and manage the political interests of nations. • But such 
was the case ; and pious princes alleged, as a reason for 
this singular choice, that the government of a state could 
never be better placed than in the hands of such holy men, 
who had subdued all irregular appetites and passions, and 
were so divested of the lusts of pleasure and ambition, as 
to be incapable of any unworthy designs, or any low, sor- 
did, or selfish views. Hence we find, in the history of 
these times, frequent examples of monks and abbots per- 
forming the functions of ambassadors, envoys, and minis- 
ters of state, and displaying their talents with various 
success in these high and eminent stations. 

XI. The morals, however, of the monks, were far from 
being so pure as to justify the reason alleged for their pro- 
motion. Their patrons and protectors, who loaded them 
with honours and preferment, were sensible of the irregu- 
lar and licentious lives, that many of them led, and used 

writers, the learned Blondel has demonstrated, in an ample and satisfac- 
tory manner, the spuriousness of the decretals, in his Pseudo-Isidorus et 
Turrianus vapulantes ; and in our time the imposition is acknowledged 
even by the Roman catholics, at least by such of them as possess some 
degree of judgment and impartiality. See Buddeus' Isagoge in Theolo- 
giam, torn. ii. p. 726; as also Petr. Constantius' Prolegom. ad Epistolas 
Pontificum, torn. i. p. 30; and a dissertation of Fleury, prefixed to tire six- 
teenth volume of his Ecclesiastical History. 

i See J. Launoy, de cura Ecolesia; erga pauperes et miseros, cap. i. Ob- 
servat. i. p. 576. torn. ii. part ii. op. 

• See the above-mentioned author's treatise, entitled Regia Potestas in 
Causis Matrimonial, torn. i. part ii.-op. p. 764; as also Petr. Constantius, 
Prref. ad Epist. Romanor. Pontif. torn. i. p. 127. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



189 



their utmost efforts to correct their vices, and to reform 
their manners. Louis the Debonnaire distinguished his 
zeal in the execution of this virtuous and noble design ; 
and, to render it more effectual, he employed the pious 
labours of Benedict, abbot of Aniane, in reforming the mon- 
asteries, first in Aquitaine, and afterwards throughout the 
whole kingdom of France, and in restoring, by new and 
salutary laws, the monastic discipline, which had been so 
neglected as to fall into decay. This worthy ecclesiastic 
presided, in 817, in the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, where 
several wise measures were taken for removing the disor- 
ders that reigned in the cloisters ; and, in consequence of 
the unlimited authority he had received from the emperor, 
he subjected all the monks, without exception, to the rule 
of the famous Benedict, abbot of Mont-Cassin, annulled the 
variety of rites and customs that had prevailed in the 
different monasteries, prescribed to them all one uniform 
method of living, and thus united, as it were, into one 
general body or society, the various orders which had 
hitherto been connected by no common bond.* This 
admirable discipline, which acquired to Benedict of Aniane 
the highest reputation, and occasioned him to be revered 
as the second father of the western monks, nourished 
during a certain time, but afterwards declined through 
various causes, until the conclusion of this century, when, 
under the calamities that oppressed both the church and 
the empire, it almost entirely disappeared. 

XII. The same emperor, who had appeared with such 
zeal, both in protecting and reformingthe monks, gave also 
distinguished marks of his favour to the order of canons, 
which Chrodegangus had introduced in several places 
during the last century. He distributed them through all 
the provinces of the empire, and instituted also an order of 
canonesses, the first female convent known in the Chris- 
tian world. b For each of these orders the zealous emperor 
had a rule drawn up, in 817, in the council of Aix-la- 
Chapelle, substituting it for that which had been appointed 
by Chrodegangus ; and this new rule was observed in 
most of the monasteries and convents of the canons and 
canonesses in the west until the twelfth century, although 
it was disapproved by the court of Rome. The author of 
the rule, framed for the canons, was undoubtedly Amal- 
arius, a presbyter of Metz ; but it is not so certain whether 
that which was drawn up for the canonesses-, was com- 
posed by the same hand. d Be that as it may, the canoni- 
cal order grew into high repute ; and from this time a 
great number of convents were erected for its members in 
all the western provinces, and were richly endowed by the 

» Jo. Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Benedict. Ssec. IV. par. i. Pr<ef. p. 
xxvii. and Praef. ad Skc. V. p. xxv. et ejusdem Annales Ordin. S. Bene- 
dict, torn. ii. p. 430. — Calmet, Hist, de Lorraine, torn. i. p. 596. For a 
particular account of Benedict of Aniane, and his illustrious virtues, see 
the Acta Sanctor. torn. ii. Febr. 606; and the Histoire Lit. de la France, 
torn. iv. p. 447. 

>> See Mabillon, Annal. Ordin. S. Benedicti, torn. ii. p. 428. 

e This rule was condemned in a council held at Rome, A. D. 1059, 
under the pontiff Nicolas II. The pretexts used by the pontiff and the 
assembled prelates, to justify their disapprobation of this rule, were, that 
it permitted the canons to enjoy the possessions they had before their 
vows, and allowed to each of them too large a portion of bread and wine ; 
but the true reason was, that this order had been instituted by an empe- 
ror without either the consent or knowlege of the Roman pontiff. For 
an account of the rule and discipline of these canons, see Fleury's Hist. 
Eccles. torn. x. p. 163, 164, &c. Brussels edition in 12mo. 

d Lud. Thomassin, Disciplin. Eccles. Vet. et Novae, parti, lib. iii. cap. 
xlii, xliii. — Muratori, Antiq. Ital. media iEvi, torn. v. p. 186, 540. No 
accounts of the canons are less worthy of credit, than those which are 
given by writers, who have been themselves members of that order, such 

No. XVL 48 



liberality of pious and opulent Christians. But this insti- 
tution degenerated in a short time, like all others, from its 
primitive purity, and ceased to answer the laudable 
intention and design of its worthy founders. e 

XIII. Of the theological writers who nourished among 
the Greeks, the following are the most remarkable: 

Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, a man of most 
profound and universal erudition, whose Bibliotheca/ 
Epistles, and other writings, are yet valuable on many 
accounts. 

Nicephorus, also a patriarch of the above-mentioned 
city, who, among other productions, published a warm 
defence of the worship of images against the enemies of 
that idolatrous service.? 

Theodoras Studites, who acquired a name chiefly by his 
warm opposition to the Iconoclasts, and by the zeal with 
which he wrote in .favour of image worship. 1 " 

The same cause has principally contributed to transmit 
to after ages the names of Theodoras Graptus, Methodius, 
who obtained the title of Confessor for his adherence to 
image worship in the very face of persecution, Theodoras 
Abucara, i Petrus Siculus, Nicetas David, and others, who 
would probably have been long since buried in oblivion, 
had not the various contests between the Greek and Latin 
churches, and the divisions of the former among them- 
selves upon the question concerning images, excited the 
vehemence of these inconsiderable writers, and furnished 
them with an occasion of making some noise in the 
world. 

Moses Barcepha, a Syrian bishop, far surpassed all 
whom we have now been mentioning, and deserved the 
shining reputation which he has obtained in the republic 
of letters, as what we have yet extant of his works disco- 
ver marks of true genius, and an uncommon acquaintance 
with the art of writing. 11 

XIV. Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Metz, is deser- 
vedly placed at the head of the Lathi writers of this age ; 
the force of his genius, the extent of his knowledge, and 
the multitude of productions that flowed from his pen, 
entitle him to this distinguished rank, and render impro- 
per all comparison between him and his contemporaries. 
He may be called the great light of Germany and France, 
since it was from the prodigious fund of knowledge he pos- 
sessed, that those nations derived principally their religious 
instruction. His writings were everywhere in the hands 
of the learned,' and were holden in such veneration, that, 
during four centuries, the most eminent of the Latin divines 
appealed to them as authority in religious matters, and 

as Raymond ChapponeFs Histoire des Chanoines, published at Paris in 
1699; for these writers, from fond prejudices in favour* of their institution, 
and an ambitious desire of enhancing its merit, and rendering it respecta- 
ble, derive the origin of the canonical order from Christ and his apostles, 
or trace it up, at least, to the first ages of the Christian church. 

"Calmet, Hist, de Lorraine, torn. i. p. 591. — Hist. Lit. de la France, 
torn. iv. p. 536. 

f See Camusat, Histoire des Journaux, torn. i. p. 87. 

s Acta Sanctor. torn. ii. Martii ad d. xiii. p. 293. — Oudinus, Scriptor. 
Eccles. torn. ii. p. 2. 

JjT i> Theodore Studites was one of the most voluminous writers of this 
century, and would certainly have been known as a man of genius and 
learning in after ages, even if the controversy concerning images had 
never existed. There are of his writings, yet extant, 265 letters, several 
treatises against the Iconoclasts, 124 epigrams in iambics, and a large 
manuscript, which contains a course of catechetical instruction concern- 
ing the duties of the monastic life. 

i See Bayle's Dictionary, vol. i. 

k Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 127. 

i See, for a particular account of the life and writings of Rabanu 



190 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



adopted almost universally the sentiments they contained. 
After this illustrious prelate, the writers who are most 
worthy of mention are, 

Agobard, archbishop of Lyons, a man of wisdom and 
prudence, and far from being destitute of literary merit; 
out whose reputation has deservedly suffered by Lis vin- 
dicating, and even fomenting the rebellion of Lothaire 
and Pepin against Louis the Debonnaire, their father 
and their sovereign." 

Hilduin, abbot of St. Denis, who acquired no small 
reputation by a work entitled Areopagitica. b 

Eginhard, abbot of Selingestadt, the celebrated author 
of the Life of Charlemagne, remarkable for the beauty of 
his diction, the perspicuity and elegance of his style, and 
a variety of other literary accomplishments.' 

Claudius, bishop of Turin, whose exposition of several 
books of Scripture, d as also his Chronology, gained him an 
eminent and lasting reputation.' 

Freculph, bishop of Lisieux, whose Chronicle, which 
is no more than a heavy compilation, is yet extant. 

Servatus Lupus, of whose composition we have several 
epistles and treatises: and who, though a copious and 
subtle writer, is yet defective in point of elegance and 
erudition. f 

Drepanius Florus, who left behind him several poems, 
an exposition of certain books of Scripture, and other per- 
formances less worthy of attention.? 

Christian Druthmar, the author of a Commentary upon 
St. Matthew's Gospel. h 

Godeschalc, a monk of Orbais, who rendered his name 
immortal by the controversy which he commenced con- 
cerning predestination and free grace. 

Paschasius Radbert,' a name famous in the contests 
concerning the real presence of Christ's body in the eu- 
charist ; and who, to pass in silence his other writings, 
composed a book upon this very subject, which furnished 
abundant matter of dispute throughout this century. 

Bertram, or Ratram, a monk of Corby, who deserves the 
first rank among the writers that refuted the doctrine of 
Radbert; and whose book concerning the sacrament of the 
Lord's supper, composed by the order of Charles the Bald, 
gave occasion to many contests among learned divines. 11 

Haymo, bishop of Halberstadt, the laborious author of 
several treatises upon various subjects, and who is more 
to be esteemed for his industry and diligence, than for his 
genius and learning.' 

Walafridus Strabo, who acquired no mean reputation by 
his Poems, his Lives of the Saints, and his explications of 
many of the more difficult passages of Scripture." 1 

Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, a man of an imperi- 

Maurus, the Histoire Literaire de la Prance, torn. v. p. 151 ; as also the 
Acta Sanctor. torn. i. Febr. p. 500. 

* See Colonia, Hist. Liter, de la villr de Lyon, torn. ii.p. 93. — General 
Dictionary, at the article Agobard.— Hist. Lit. de la France, torn. iv. p. 
567. [Agobard opposed with great zeal both the worship and the use of 
images, in his famous book,de Picturis et Imaginibus, a work which has 
greatly embarrassed the doctors of the Romish church.] 

*> Hist. Lit. de la France, torn. iv. p. 607. 

° Hist. Lit. de la France, torn. iv. p. 550. See also the Life of Charle- 
magne, the best edition of which is that published bv Schminkius at 
Utrecht, in 1711. 

13= i This prelate, who was famous for his knowledge of the holy 
Scriptures, composed 111 books of commentaries upon Genesis, 4 upon 
Exodus, and several upon Leviticus. He wrote also a commentary upon 
the Gospel of St. Matthew, in which there are many excellent things 
and an exposition of all the Epistles of St. Paul. His commentary on 
the Epistle to the Galatians is printed, but all the rest are in manuscript. 



ous and turbulent spirit, but who deserves a distinguished 
place among the Latin writers of this century, since his 
works discover an aspiring genius, and an ardent zeal 
in the pursuit of truth, and tend, in a singular manner, 
to throw light both upon the civil and ecclesiastical his- 
tory of the age in which he lived." 

Johannes Scotus Erigena, the friend and companion 
of Charles the Bald, an eminent philosopher, and a learned 
divine, whose erudition was accompanied with uncommon 
marks of sagacity and genius, and whose various per- 
formances, as well as his translations from the Greek, 
gained him a shining and lasting reputation. 

It is sufficient barely to name Remigius Bertharius, Ado, 
Aimoin, Heric, Regino, abbot of Prum, and others, of 
whom the most common writers of ecclesiastical history 
give ample accounts. 

CHAPTER IH. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church 
during this Century. 

I. The zeal of Charlemagne for the interests of 
Christianity, and his liberality to the learned, encouraged 
many to apply themselves diligently to the study of the 
Scriptures, and to the pursuit of religious truth : and, 
as long as this eminent set of divines remained, the west- 
ern provinces were happily preserved from man)' errors, 
and from a variety of superstitious practices. Thus we 
find among the writers of this age several men of eminent 
talents, whose productions show that the lustre of true 
erudition and theology was not yet totally eclipsed. But 
these illustrious luminaries of the church disappeared one 
after another; and barbarism and ignorance, encouraged 
by their departure, resumed their ancientseats, and brought, 
in their train, a prodigious multitude of devout follies, 
odious superstitions, and abominable errors. Nor did any 
encourage and propagate with more zeal and ardour, 
these superstitious innovations, than the sacerdotal orders, 
the spiritual guides of a deluded people ; and if we in- 
quire how it came to pass, that the clergy were so zealous 
in such an inglorious cause, we shall find that this zeal 
was in some the effect of ignorance, and, in others, the 
fruit of avarice and ambition, since much was to be gained, 
both in point of authority and opulence, from the progress 
of superstition. Among the Greeks and orientals, Chris- 
tianity was almost in the same declining and deplorable 
state, though there arose, from time to time, in the eastern 
provinces, men of superior abilities, who endeavoured to 
support the cause of true religion, and to raise it fr.om the 
pressures under which it laboured. 

e See Simon, Critique de la Biblioth. Eccles.de M. Du-Pin, t.i.p.284. 

f Histoire Lit. de la France, torn. v. p. 255. 

e Colonia, Histoire Liter, de Lyon, torn. ii. p. 135. — Hist. Lit. de la 
France, torn. v. p. 213. 

k Hist. Lit. de la France, torn. v. p. 84. 

i For an account of Radbert, see the work last quoted, torn. v. p. 287. 

k We shall have occasion to speak more particularly of Bertram, and 
his book, in the following chapter. 

i It is proper to observe, that a great part of the writings that are attri- 
buted to Haymo, bishop of Halberstadt, were composed by Remi, or 
Remigius, of Auxerre. See Casimir Oudinus, Comment, de Scriptor. 
Eccles. torn. ii. p. 330. — Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. v. p. 111. 
torn. vi. p. 106. — Le Bosuf, Recueil de IJiss. sur l'Histoire de la France, 
torn. i. p. 278. m See the Histoid de la France, torn. v. p. 544. 

n The same work, torn. v. p. 416. 

8 See Herm. Conringius, Antiq. Academical., p. 309, and the Hist. 
Lit, de la France, torn. v. p. 416. 



CH4P.IIL 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



191 



II. The causes of this unhappy revolution, that covered 
the Christian church with superstition and darkness, will 
appear evident to such ap are at all acquainted with the 
historic of these times. The Oriental doctors, miserably 
divided among themselves, and involved in the bitterest 
contentions and quarrels with the western churches, lost 
all notion of the true spirit and genius of Christianity, 
and, corrupted and biassed by the prejudices and passions 
that are generally excited and nourished by ill-managed 
controversy, became incapable of promoting the true and 
essential interests of religion. Intent also upon defending 
the excellence and divine authority of their doctrine and 
discipline against the Latin doctors, and in maintaining 
among themselves the worship of images, which began to 
be warmly opposed, tuey advanced, in the course of these 
disputes, many things that were highly erroneous ; and, 
as one error follows another, their number increased from 
day to day. The savage and unnatural lives of the monks 
and hermits, whose number was prodigious, and whose 
authority was considerable, who haunted the woods and 
deserts, the gloomy scenes of their extravagant devotion, 
— contributed much, among other causes, to the decay of 
solid and rational piety. Add to all this, the irruptions of 
the barbarous nations into the west, the atrocious exploits 
of usurping princes, the drooping and neglected condition 
of the various branches of learning, the ambitious phrensy 
of the Roman pontiffs, (who were incessantly gaping after 
new accessions of authority and dominion,) the frauds and 
tricks of the monastic orders carried on under the specious 
mask of religion ; and then we shall see the true causes 
that founded the empire of superstition and error, upon the 
ruin of virtue, piety, and reason. 

III. The ignorance and corruption that dishonoured 
the Christian church, in this century, were great beyond 
measure ; and if there were no other examples of their 
enormity upon record, than the single instance of the stu- 
pid veneration that was paid to the bones and carcasses of 
departed saints, this would be sufficient to convince us of 
the deplorable progress of superstition. This idolatrous 
devotion was now considered as the most sacred and mo- 
mentous branch of religion ; nor did any dare to entertain 
the smallest hopes of finding the Deity propitious, before 
they had assured themselves of the protection and inter- 
cession of some one or other of the saintly order. Hence 
it was that every church, and indeed every private Chris- 
tian, had their particular patron among the saints, from an 
apprehension that their spiritual interests would be but in- 
differently managed by those, who were already employed 
about the souls of others ; for they judged, in this respect, 
of the saints, as they did of mortals, whose capacity is 
too limited to comprehend a vast variety of objects. This 
notion rendered it necessary to multiply prodigiously the 
number of saints, and to create daily new patrons for the 
deluded people ; and this was done with the utmost zeal. 
The priests and monks set their invention at work, and 
peopled, at discretion, the invisible world with imaginary 



f" See Dr. Middleton's Letter from Rome, in which we find the names 
of St. Baccho, St. Viar, St. Amphibolus, Euodia, &c.] 

t> Mabillon, Act. Sanctor. Ord. Bencdicti, Ssec. V. Praef. p. 44. — Lau- 
ncy, de Lazari, Maardalenae, et Martha? in Provinciam Appulsu, cap. i. 
sect. sii. — Franc. Pagi, Breviarum Pontif. Roman, torn. ii. p. 259. torn, 
iii. p. 30. 

• See Dan. Papebrochius, de solennium Canonizationum Initiis et 
Progress, in Propybeo Actor. SS. mens. Maii, p. 171 ; and the other au- 



protectors. They dispelled the thick darkness which 
covered the pretended spiritual exploits of many holy men ; 
and invented both names and histories of saints 5 that never 
existed, that they might not be at a loss to furnish the 
credulous and wretched multitude with objects proper to 
perpetuate their superstition, and to nourish their confi- 
dence. Many chose their own guides, and committed 
their spiritual interests either to phantoms of their own 
creation, or to distracted fanatics, whom they esteemed as 
saints, for no other reason than their having lived like 
madmen. 

IV. The ecclesiastical councils found it necessary, at 
length, to set limits to the licentious superstition of those 
ignorant wretches, who, with a view to have still more 
frieuch at court, (for such were their gross notions of things.) 
were daily adding new saints to the list of their celestial 
mediators. They, accordingly, declared by a solemn de- 
cree, that no departed Christian should be considered as a 
member of the saintly order before the bishop in a pro- 
vincial council, and in the presence of the people, had 
pronounced him worthy of that distinguished honour. b 
This remedy, feeble and illusory as it was, contributed, in 
some measure, to restrain the fanatical temerity of the 
saint makers : but, in its consequences, it was the occasion 
of a new accession of power to the Roman pontiff. Even 
so early as this century, many were of opinion, that it was 
proper and expedient, though not absolutely necessary, 
that the decisions of bishops and councils should be con 
firmed by the consent and authority of the pope, whom 
they considered as the supreme and universal bishop ; and 
this will not appear surprising to any who reflect upon the 
enormous strides which the bishops of Rome made toward 
unbounded dominion in this barbarous and superstitious 
age, whose corruption and darkness were peculiarly fa- 
vourable to then ambitious pretensions. It is true, we 
have no example of any person solemnly sainted by the 
bishop of Rome alone, before the tenth century, 1 when 
Udalric, bishop of Augsburg, received this dignity in a 
formal manner from John XV. It is, however, certain, 
that before that time the pontiffs were consulted in matters 
of that nature, and their judgment respected in the choice 
of those who were to be honoured with saintsbip ; d and it 
was by such steps as these, that the church of Rome en- 
grossed to itself the creation of these tutelary divinities, 
which at length was distinguished by the title of canoni- 
zation. 

V. This preposterous multiplication of saints was a new 
source of abuses and frauds. It was thought necessary to 
write the lives of these celestial patrons, in order to pro- 
cure for them the veneration and confidence of a deluded 
multitude ; and here lying wonders were invented, and all 
the resources of forgery and fable exhausted, to celebrate 
exploits which had never been performed, and to perpetu- 
ate the memory of holy persons who had never existed. 
We have yet extant a prodigious quantity of these trifling 
legends, the greatest part of which were, undoubtedly 



thors who have written upon this subject, of which there is an ample list 
in the Bibliographia Antiquar. of Fabricius, cap. vii. sect. 25. 

a See the candid and impartial account that is given cf tins matter by 
the late pope Benedict XIV. in his laborious work, de Servorum Dei Be- 
atificatione et Beatorum Canonizatione, lib. i. cap. 7. p. 50, torn. i. op. It 
is to be wished, that historians of the church of Rome would learn to 
imitate the prudence, moderation, and equity of that illuslrkus pon- 
tiff: 



192 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



forged after the time of Charlemagne, by the monastic 
writers, who had both the inclination and leisure to edify 
the' church by these pious frauds. The same impostors, 
who peopled the celestial regions with fictitious saints, 
employed also their fruitful inventions in embellishing, 
with fulse miracles and various other impertinent forgeries, 
the histories of those who had been really martyrs or 
confessors in the cause of Christ ; these fictions, however, 
did not pass without animadversion, but were severely 
censured by some of the most eminent writers of the 
times." Various were the motives that engaged different 
persons to propagate these impositions, and countenance 
their authors. Some were incited to this by the seductions 
of a false devotion, which reigned in this perverse and 
ignorant age, and made them imagine, that departed saints 
were highly delighted with the applause and veneration 
of mortals, and never failed to crown, with peculiar marks 
of their favour and protection, such as were zealous in 
honouring their memories, and in celebrating their exploits. 
The prospect of gain, and the ambitious desire of being 
reverenced by the multitude, engaged others to multiply 
the n imber, and to maintain the credit of the legends, or 
saintly registers. The churches, that were dedicated to 
the saints, were perpetually crowded with supplicants, who 
flocked to them with rich presents, in order to obtain suc- 
cour under the afflictions they suffered, or deliverance from 
the dangers which they had reason to apprehend ; and it 
was regarded also as a very great honour to be the more 
immediate ministers of these mediators, who, as it is like- 
wise proper to observe, were esteemed and frequented in 
proportion to their antiquity, and to the number and im- 
portance of the pretended miracles that had rendered their 
lives illustrious. The latter circumstance offered a strong 
temptation to such as were employed by the various 
churches in writing the lives of their tutelar saints, to 
supply by invention the defects of truth, and to embellish 
their legends with fictitious prodigies ; indeed, they were 
not only tempted to this imposture, but were even obliged 
to make use of it in order to swell the fame of their re- 
spective patrons. b 

VI. But even all this was insufficient to satisfy the de- 
' mands of superstition, nourished by the stratagems of a 
corrupt and designing priesthood, and fomented by the 
zeal of the more ignorant and stupid sons of the church. 
It was not enough to reverence departed saints, and to 
confide in their intercession and succours; it was not 
enough to clothe them with an imaginary power of heal- 
ing diseases, working miracles, and delivering from 3"! 
sorts of calamities and dangers ; their bones, then clothes, 
the apparel and furniture they had possessed during their 
lives, the very ground which they had touched, or in which 
their putrefied carcasses were laid, were treated with a 
etupid veneration, and supposed to retain the power of 

"• See Servatus Lupus' Vita Maximini, p. 275, and the candid and 
learned observations upon this subject that are to be found in various 
places of the works of the celebrated Launoy : -e. g. in his Dispunctio 
Epistolae Petri de Marca, de Tempore quo in Gallia Christi Fides recepta, 
cap. xiv. p. 110, in his Dissertationes de primis Christians Relig. in 
Gallia Initiis, diss.ii. 149, 144, 145, 147, 168, 169, 181.— De Lazari, Mag- 
ial. et Martha:, in Galliam Appulsu, p. 340. — De duobus Dionysiis, p. 
i>27, 529, 530. torn. ii. part i. op. — See also Martenne, Thesaurus Anec- 
dotor. torn. i. p. 151. — Histoire de la France, torn. iv. p. 273. 

•* Of all the lives of the saints written in this century, those which were 
drawn up by the monks of Great Britain, and of Bretagne in France, 
Bcem to be the most liable to suspicion. See Mabillon, Pra^f. ad Ssec. I. 
Benedictin. 



healing all disorders both of body and mind, and of de 
fending such as possessed them against all the assaults and 
devices of Satan. The consequence of this absurd notion 
was, that every one was eager to provide himself with 
these salutary remedies ; for which purpose great numbers 
undertook fatiguing and perilous voyages, and subjected 
themselves to all sorts of hardships, while others made use 
of this delusion to accumulate riches, and to impose upon 
the miserable multitude by the most impious and shocking 
inventions. As the demand for relics was prodigious and 
universal, the clergy employed all their dexterity to satisfy 
these demands, and were far from being scrupulous in the 
methods they used for that end. The bodies of the saints 
were sought by fasting and prayer, instituted by the priest 
in order to obtain a divine answer and an infallible direc- 
tion, and this pretended direction never failed to accomplish 
their desires ; the holy body was always found, in conse- 
quence, as they impiously gave out, of the suggestion and 
inspiration of God himself. Each discovery of this kind 
was attended with excessive demonstrations of joy, and 
animated the zeal of these devout seekers to enrich the 
church still more and more with this new kind of trea- 
sure. Many travelled with this view into the eastern 
provinces, and frequented the places which Christ and his 
disciples had honoured with their presence, that, with the 
bones and other secret remains of the first heralds of the 
Gospel, they might comfort dejected minds, calm trembling 
consciences, save sinking states, and defend their inhabi- 
tants from all sorts of calamities. Nor did these pious 
pilgrims return home with empty hands ; for the craft, 
dexterity, and knavery of the Greeks, found a rich prey in 
the stupid credulity of the Latin relic-hunters, and made 
profitable commerce of this new devotion. The latter 
paid considerable sums for legs and arms, skulls and jaw- 
bones, (several of which were pagan, and some not hu- 
man,) and other things that were supposed to have be- 
longed to the primitive worthies of the Christian church ; 
and thus the Latin churches came to the possession of 
those celebrated relics of St. Mark, St. James, St. Bartholo- 
mew, Cyprian, Panteleon, and others, which they show at 
this day Avith so much ostentation. But there were many 
who, unable to procure for themselves these spiritual trea- 
sures by voyages and prayers, had recourse to violence 
and theft ; for all sorts of means, and all sorts of attempts 
in a cause of this nature, were considered, when success- 
ful, as pious and acceptable to the Supreme Being. 

VJT. The study of the Scriptures languished much 
among the Greeks in this century. Photius, who com 
posed a book of Questions, d relating to various passages' 
of Scripture, an exposition of the Epistles of St. Paul, and 
other productions of the same nature, e was one of the 
few who employed their talents in the illustration of the 
sacred writings. He was a man of great sagacity and 

• See Muratori, (Antiq. Ital. torn, v.) who gives examples of the truth 
of this assertion. 

J^> * This work, which is entitled Amphilochia, from its having been 
addressed to Amphiloehius, bishop of Cyzicum, consists of 308 .jiies- 
tions, and answers to them; a sixth part of which, at least, are to be 
found in the Epistles of Photius, published in 1651 by bishop Montague. 
The greater part of these questions relate to different texts of the Old 
and New Testament; but these are interspersed with others of a philoso- 
phical and literary kind. The. work is still extant in manuscript in the 
Vatican, Barberinian, and Ba-arian libraries. 

f^ " Such as a catena (a chain) of commentaries on the book of 
Psalms, compiled from the writings of Athanasius, Basil, Chrysostom, 
&c, and a commentary upon the Prophets, both of which are yet extant 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



193 



genius, who preferred the dictates of reason to the decisions 
of authority ; notwithstanding all which, he cannot be 
recommended as a model to other commentators. The 
other Greek writers, who attempted to explain the Scrip- 
tures, did little more than compile and accumulate various 
passages from the commentators of the preceding ages ; 
and this method w T as the origin of those Catena, or 
chains of commentaries, so much in vogue among the 
Greeks during this century, of which a considerable num- 
ber have come down to our times, and which consisted en- 
tirely hi a collection of the explications of Scripture that 
were scattered up and down in the ancient authors. The 
greatest part of the theological writers, finding themselves 
incapable of more arduous undertakings, confined their 
labours to this compilatory practice, to the great detriment 
of sacred criticism. 

VHI. The Latin commentators were greatly superior 
in number to those among the Greeks, in consequence of 
the zeal and munificence of Charlemagne, who, both by 
his liberality and by his example, had excited and en- 
couraged the doctors of Ihe preceding age to the study of 
the Scriptures. Of these expositors there are two, at least, 
wdio are worthy of esteem, — Christian Druthmar, wmose 
Commentary on St. Matthew has reached our times ; a 
and the abbot Bertharius, wmose Two Books concerning 
Fundamentals are also said to be yet extant. The rest 
seem to have been unequal to the important office of 
sacred critics, and may be divided into two classes, wmich 
we have ahead}' had occasion to mention in the course of 
this history ; the class of those who merely collected and 
reduced into a mass the opinions and explications of the 
ancients, and that of a fantastic set of expositors, w x ho were 
always hunting after mysteries in the plainest expressions, 
and labouring to deduce a variety of abstruse and hidden 
significations from every passage of Scripture, all which 
they did, for the most part, in a very clumsy and uncouth 
manner. At the head of the first class w 7 as Rabanus Mau- 
rus, who acknowledges that he borrowed from the ancient 
doctors the materials of which he made use in illustrating 
the Gospel of St. Matthew and the Epistles of St. Paul. 
To this class also belonged Walafrid Strabo, who borrowed 
his explications chiefly from Rabanus ; Claudius of Turin, 
who trod in the footsteps of Augustin and Origen ; Hinc- 
mar, whose Exposition of the four Books of Kings, com- 
piled from the fathers, we still possess ; Remigius of Aux- 
erre, who derived from the same source his illustrations of 
the Psalms and other books of sacred writ ; Seduiius, 
who explained in the same manner the Epistles of St. 
Paul ; Floras, Haymo bishop of Halberstadt, and others, 
whom, for the sake of brevity, we pass in silence. 

LX. Rabanus Mauras, whom we introduced above at 
the head of the compilers from the fathers, deserves also 
an eminent place among the allegorical commentators, on 
account of his diffuse and tedious work, entitled Scripture 
Allegories. To this class also belong Smaragdus, Haymo, 
Scotus, Paschasius Radbert, and many others, w T hom it 
is not necessary to particularize. The fundamental and 

in manuscript, the former in the Bibliotheca Segueriana or Coisliniana, 
and die latter in the Vatican library. 

* See R. Simon, Histoire critique des principalis Commentateurs du 
Nouv. Testament, chap. xxv. p. 348 ; as also his Critique de la Biblio- 
theque Ecclesiastique de M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 293. 

b See the preface to his, Commentary on the Book of Kings, in the 
Bibliotheca Patrum, Maxima, torn. xv. p. 308. The commentary of An- 

No. XVII. 49 



general principle, in w r hich all the writers of this class 
agree, is, that, beside the literal signification of each pas- 
sage in Scripture, there are hidden and deep senses which 
escape the vulgar eye; but they are not agreed about the 
number of these mysterious significations. Some attri- 
bute to every phrase three senses, others four, and some 
five; and the number is carried to seven by Angelome, a 
monk of Lisieux, an acute, though fantastic writer, who 
is far from deserving the meanest rank among the expo- 
sitors of this century. b 

X. The teachers of theology were still more contempt- 
ible than the commentators ; and the Greeks, as well as 
the Latins, were extremely negligent both in unfolding 
the nature, and proving the truth of the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity. Their method of inculcating divine truth was 
dry and unsatisfactory, and more adapted to fill the me- 
mory with sentences, than to enlighten the understanding, 
or to improve the judgment. The Greeks, for the most 
part, followed implicitly Damascenus, while the Latins 
submitted their hoodwinked intellects to the authority of 
Augustine. Authority became the test of truth, and sup- 
plied in arrogance what it wanted in argument. That 
magisterial decisions were employed in the place of rea- 
son, appears manifestly from the Collectaneum de tribas 
Qucestionibus of Sewatus Lupus ; and also from a trea- 
tise of Remigius, concerning the necessity of holding fast 
the truths of the Gospel, and of maintaining inviolable 
the sacred authority of the holy and orthodox fathers. If 
any deigned to appeal to the authority of the Scriptures 
in defence of their systems, they either explained them in 
an allegorical manner, or understood them in the sense 
that had been given to them by the decrees of councils, 
or in the WTitings of the fathers ; from which senses they 
thought it both unlawful and impious to depart. The 
Irish doctors alone, and particularly Johannes Scotus, had 
the courage to spurn the ignominious fetters of authority, 
and to explain the sublime doctrines of Christianity in a 
manner conformable to the dictates of reason, and the 
principles of true philosophy. But this noble attempt 
drew upon them the malignant fury of a superstitious age, 
and exposed them to the hatred of the Latin theologians, 
who w*ould not permit either reason or philosophy to in- 
terfere in religious matters. 

XI. The important science of morals suffered, like all 
others, in the hands of ignorant and unskilful writers. 
The labours of some were wholly employed in collecting 
from the fathers an indigested heap of maxims and sen- 
tences concerning religious and moral duties ; and such, 
among others, was the work of Alvarus, entitled Scintilla 
Patrum. Others wrote of virtue and vice, in a more s\"s- 
tematic manner ; such as Halitgarius. Rabanus Mauras, 
and Jonas, bishop of Orleans ; but the representations they 
gave of one and the other w T ere very different from those 
w T hich we find in the Gospel. Some deviated into that 
most absurd and delusive method of instructing the igno- 
rant in the will of God by a fantastic combination of 
figures and allegories ; and several of the Greeks began 



gelome upon the book of Genesis was published by Bernard Pezius, in 
his Thesaurus Anecdotorum, torn. i. parti.; but, indeed, the loss would 
not have been great, if it had never seen die light. 

° For an account of die persecution and hatred that Johannes Scorns 
suffered in the cause of reason and liberty, see Du Boulav, Hist. Aeadem. 
Paris, torn. i. p. 182; as also Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ord. Bened. S:ec 
V. p. 392. 



194 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



to turn their studies towards the solution of cases of con- 
science," in order to remove the difficulties that arose in 
scrupulous and timorous minds. We pass in silence the 
writers of homilies and books of penance, of which a con- 
siderable number appeared in this century. 

XII. The doctrine of the mystics, whose origin is falsely 
attributed to Dionysius the Areopagite, and whose precepts 
were designed to elevate the soul above all sensible and 
terrestrial objects, and to unite it to the Deity in an inef- 
fable manner, had been now for a long- time in vogue 
among the Greeks, and more especially among the mo- 
nastic orders ; and to augment the credit of this fanatical 
sect, and multiply its followers, Michael Syncellus and 
Methodius composed the most pompous and eloquent 
panegyrics upon the memory of Dionysius, in which his 
virtues were celebrated with the utmost exaggeration. 
The Latins were not yet bewitched with the specious 
appearance, and the illusory charms of the mystic devo- 
tion, which was equally adapted to affect persons of a lively 
fancy and those of a more gloomy turn of mind. They 
lived in a happy ignorance of this contagious doctrine, 
when the Grecian emperor Michael Balbus sent to Louis 
the Debonnaire, in 824, a copy of the pretended works b 
of Dionysius the Areopagite, which fatal present imme- 
diately kindled the holy flame of mysticism in the western 
provinces, and filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic 
admiration of this new religion. The translation of these 
spurious works into Latin by the express order of the em- 
peror, c who could not be easy while his subjects were de- 
prived of such a valuable treasure, contributed much to 
the progress of mysticism. By the order of the same em- 
peror, Hilduin, abbot of St. Denys, composed an account 
of the life, actions, and writings of Dionysius, under the 
title of Areopagitica, in which work, among other impu- 
dent fictions, usual in those times of superstition and im- 
posture, he maintained, in order to exalt the honour of his 
nation, that Dionysius the Areopagite, and Dionysius the 
bishop of Paris, were one and the same person. d This 
fable, which was invented with unparalleled assurance, 
was received with the most perfect and unthinking cre- 
dulity, and made such a deep and permanent impression 
upon the minds of the French, that the repeated demon- 
strations of its falsehood have not yet been sufficient en- 
tirely to ruin its credit. As the first translation of the 
works of Dionysius that had been executed by order of 
Louis, was probably in a barbarous and obscure style, a 
new and more elegant one was given by the famous Jo- 
hannes Scotus Erigena, at the request of Charles the Raid, 
the publication of which increased considerably the parti- 
sans of the mystic theology among the French, Italians, 
and Germans. Scotus himself was so enchanted with 

» See Nicephori Chartophylac. Epistolae Duse, in the Bibliotheca Mag- 
na Patrum, torn. iii. p. 413. 

b CJsserii Sylloge Ep. Hibernicar. p. 54, 55. §^> The spuriousness 
of these works is now admitted by the most learned and impartial of the 
Roman catholic writers, as they contain accounts of many events that 
happened several ages after the time of Dionysius, and were not all men- 
tioned until after the fifth century. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. liv. 54. 
torn. vi. p. 528. edit. Bruxelles. 

' That these books were translated by the order of Louis, appears 
manifestly from the Epistle to that emperor, which Hilduin prefixed to 
his Areopagitica, and in which we find the following passage: "de no- 
titia Kbrorum, quos (Dionysius) patrio sermone conscripsit, et quibus 
petentibus illos composuit, lectio nobis per Dei gratiam et vestram ordi- 
nationem, cujus dispensatione interpretatos, scrinia nostra eos petentibus 
reserat, satisfacit." From this passage, it is evident that they are in an 



this new doctrine, that he incorporated it into his philoso- 
phical system, and upon all occasions either accommodated 
his philosophy to it, or explained it according to the prin- 
ciples of his philosophy. 

XIII. The defence of Christianity, against the Jews 
and Pagans, was greatly neglected in this century, in 
which the intestine disputes and dissensions that divided 
the church, gave sufficient employment to such as had an 
inclination to controversy, or a talent of managing it with 
dexterity and knowledge. Agobard, however, as also Amu- 
lo and Rabanus Maurus, chastised the insolence and ma- 
lignity of the Jews, and exposed their various absurdities 
and errors, while the emperor Leo, Theodorus Abucara, 
and other writers, whose performances are lost, employed 
their polemic labours against the progress of the Saracens, 
and refuted their impious and extravagant system. But 
it may be observed in general of those who wrote againsi 
the Saracens, that they reported many things, both con- 
cerning Mohammed and his religion, which were far from 
being true ; and if, as there is too much reason to imagine, 
they did this designedly, knowing the falsehood, or at 
least the uncertainty of their allegations against these 
infidels, we must look upon their writings rather as intend- 
ed to deter the Christians from apostacy, than to give a 
rational refutation of the Saracen doctrine. 

XIV. The contests of the Christians among themselves 
were carried on with greater eagerness and animosity than 
the disputes in which they were engaged with the com- 
mon enemies of their faith ; and these contests were daily 
productive of new calamities and disordeis, which dishon- 
oured their profession, and threw a heavy, though unde- 
served reproach, upon the cause of true religion. After 
the banishment of Irene, the controversy concerning 
images broke out anew among the Greeks, and was 
carried on by the contending parties, during the half of 
this century, with various and uncertain success. The 
emperor Nicephorus, though he did not abrogate the 
decrees of the council of Nice, or order the images to be 
taken out of the churches, deprived the patrons of image- 
worship of all power to molest or injure their adversaries, 
and seems upon the whole to have been an enemy to that 
idolatrous service. But his successor Michael Curopalates, 
surnamed Rhangebe, acted in a very different manner. 
Feeble and timorous, and dreading the rage of the priests 
and monks who maintained the cause of images, he 
favoured that cause during his short reign, and persecuted 
its adversaries with the greatest bitterness and cruelty. 
The scene changed again, upon the accession of Leo the 
Armenian to the empire, who abolished the decrees of 
the Nicene council relating to the use and worship of 
images, in a council assembled at Constantinople, in 814; e 



error who affirm that the Latin translation of the works of Dionysius 
was not executed before the time of Charles the Bald. And they err also, 
who, with Mabillon, (Annal. Benedict, torn. ii. lib. xxix. sect. 59. p. 488.) 
and the authors of the Hist. Lit. de la France, (torn. v. p. 425.) inform 
us, that Michael Balbus sent these works already translated into Latin 
to the emperor Louis. It is amazing how men of learning could fall into 
the latter error, after reading the following passage in the Epistle above 
quoted : " Authenticos namque eosdem (Dionysii) libros Graeca lingua 
conscriptos, cum ceconomus ecclesiae Conbtanlinopolitanae et ceteri missi 
Michaelis legatione — functi sunt — pro munere magno suscepimus." 

d Launoy, Diss, de Discrimine Dionysii Areopag. et Parisiensis, cap. 
iv. p. 38. torn. ii. p. i. op. ; as also the writings of this great man concern- 
ing both those divines. 

§rjr * Fleury and some other writers place the meeting of this coun- 
cil in 815. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



195 



without however enacting any penal laws against their 
idolatrous worshippers. This moderation, far from satisfy- 
ing the patriarch Nicephorus, and the other partisans of 
image-worship, only served to encourage their obstinacy, 
and to increase their insolence; upon which the emperor !. 
removed the haughty prelate from his office, and chastised j 
the fury of several of his adherents with a deserved pun- j 
ishment. His successor Michael, surnamed Balbus, or the , 
Stammerer, was obliged to observe the same conduct, and \ 
to depart from the clemency and indulgence which, in the 
beginning of his reign, he had discovered toward the 
worshippers of images, whose idolatry, however, he was 
far from approving. The monks more especially provo- 
ked his indignation by their fanatical rage, and forced 
him to treat them with particular severity. But the zeal 
of his son and successor Theophilus, in discouraging this 
new idolatry, was still more vehement ; for he opposed 
the adorers of images with great violence, and went so 
far as to put to death some of the more obstinate ringlead- 
ers of that impetuous faction. 

XV. On the death of Theophilus, which happened in 
842, the regency was entrusted to the empress Theodora 
during her son's minority. This superstitious princess, 
fatigued with the importunate solicitations of the monks, 
deluded by their forged miracles, and not a little influenced 
also by their insolent threats, assembled, in the year above 
mentioned, a council at Constantinople, in which the de- 
trees of the second Nicene council were reinstated in their 
tost authority, and the Greeks were indulged in their cor- 
rupt propensity to image-worship by a law which encou- 
raged that wretched idolatiy ; a so that, after a controversy, 
which had been carried on during the space of a hundred 
«,nd ten years, the cause of idolatry triumphed over the 
dictates of reason and Christianity ; the whole east, the 
Armenians excepted, bowed down before the victorious 
images ; nor did any of the succeeding emperors attempt 
to cure the Greeks of this superstitious phrensy, or restrain 
them in the performance of this puerile worship. The 
council that was holden at Constantinople under Photius, 
in 879, and which is reckoned by the Greeks the eighth 
general council, gave a farther degree of force and vigour 
to idolatry, by maintaining the sanctity of images, and 
approving, confirming, and renewing the Nicene decrees. 
The superstitious Greeks, who were blind-led by the 
monks in the most ignominious manner, esteemed this 
council as a most signal blessing derived to them from the 
immediate interposition of Heaven, and accordingly insti- 
tuted, in commemoration thereof, an anniversary festival, 
which was called the Feast of Orthodoxy. b 

XVI. The triumph of images, notwithstanding the 
zealous efforts of the Roman pontiffs in their favour, was 
obtained with much more difficulty among the Latins, 
than it had been among the Greeks ; for the former yet 
maintained the inalienable privilege of judging for them- 



* See Fred. Spanheim, Historia Imaginum, sect viii. p. 845, torn. ii. 
ep. — L'Enfant, Preservatif contre la Reunion avec le Siege de Rome, 
tom. iii. lett. xiv. p. 147 ; lett. xviii, xix. p. 509. 

k See Gretser's Observat. in Codinum de Officiis Aulas et Eccles. Con- 
stuntinopolitanse, lib. iii. cap. viii. ; as also the Ceremoniale Byzantinum, 
published by Reisk, lib. i. c. xxviii. p. 92. 

gjT c So Michael and his son Theophilus style Louis in their letter 
to him, refusing him the title of emperor, to which, however, he had an 
undoubted right, in consequence of the treaties which they now desired 
to renew. 

i^T d Fleury, Le Sueur, and other historians, unanimously place this 
council in 825. It may be proper to observe, that the proceedings of this 



selves in religious matters, and were far from being disposed 
to submit their reason implicitly to the decisions of the 
pontiff, or to regard any thing as infallible and true, which 
had authority for its only foundation. The greater part 
of the European Christians, as we have seen already, 
steered a middle course between the idolaters and the 
Iconoclasts, between those who were zealous for the wor- 
ship of images on the one hand, and those who were 
averse to all use of them on the other. They were of 
opinion, that images might be suffered as the means of 
aiding the memory of the faithful, and of calling to their 
remembrance the pious exploits and the virtuous actions 
of the persons they represented ; but they detested all 
thoughts of paying them the least marks of religious 
homage or adoration. Michael Balbus, when he sent, in 
824, a solemn embassy to Louis the Debonnaire, to renew 
and confirm the treaties of peace and friendship which 
had been concluded between his predecessors in the em- 
pire and Charlemagne, charged his ministers, in a particu- 
lar manner, to bring over the king of the Franks to the 
party of the Iconoclasts, that they might gradually suppress, 
by their united influence, the worship of images, and thus 
restore concord and tranquillity to the church. Louis, on 
this occasion, assembled a council at Paris, in 824, d in 
order to examine the proposal of the Grecian emperor; in 
which it was resolved to adhere to the decrees of the coun- 
cil of Frankfort, which allowed the tise of images in the 
churches, but severely prohibited the treating of them with 
the smallest marks of religious worship. But in process 
of time the European Christians departed gradually from 
the observance of this injunction, and fell imperceptibly into 
a blind submission to the decisions of the pope, whose in- 
fluence and authority daily became more formidable ; so 
that, toward the conclusion of this century, the Gallican 
clergy began to pay a certain kind of religious homage to 
the saintly images, in which their example was followed 
by the Germans and other nations. e 

XVII. Notwithstanding this apostacy, the Iconoclasts 
were not destitute of adherents among the Latins. Of 
these, the most eminent was Claudius, bishop of Turin, 
by birth a Spaniard, and also a disciple of Felix, bishop of 
Urgel. This zealous prelate, as soon as he had obtained 
the episcopal dignity through the favour of Louis the 
Debonnaire, began to exercise the duties of his function, 
in 823, by ordering all images, and even the cross, to be 
cast out of the churches, and committed to the flames. 
The year following he composed a treatise, in which he 
not only defended these vehement proceedings, and de- 
clared against the use, as well as the worship, of images, 
but also broached several other opinions, that were quite 
contrary to the notions of the multitude, and to the preju- 
dices of the times. He denied, among other things, in 
opposition to the Greeks, that the cross was to be honoured 
with any kind of worship ; he treated relics with the 

council evidently show, that the decisions of the Roman pontiff were by 
no means looked upon at this time either as obligator}*, or infallible : for, 
when the letter of pope Adrian, in favour of images, was read in die coun- 
cil, it was almost unanimously rejected, as containing absurd and erroneous 
opinions. The decrees of the second council of Nice, relating to image- 
worship, were also censured by the Gallican bishops ; and the authority 
of that council, though received by several popes as an oecumenical one, 
absolutely rejected ; and what is remarkable is, that the pope did not, on 
this account, declare the Gallican bishops heretics, or exclude them from 
the communion of the apostolic see. See Fleury, liv. xlvii. 

• Mabillon, Annal. Benedictin. tom. ii. p. 488, et Act. Sanctorum Ord, 
Bened. sac. IV. — Le Cointe, Annal. Eccles. Francor. t. iv. ad Ann. 824. 



196 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part H. 



utmost contempt, as absolutely destitute of the virtues that 
were attributed to them, and censured with great freedom 
and severity those pilgrimages to the holy land, and those 
journeys to the tombs of the saints, which, in this century, 
were looked upon as extremely salutary, and particularly 
meritorious. This noble stand in the defence of true 
religion, drew upon Claudius a multitude of adversaries ; 
the sons of superstition rushed upon him from all quarters ; 
Theodemir, Dungallus, Jonas of Orleans, and Walafrid 
Strabo, a combined to overwhelm him with their volumi- 
nous answers. But the learned and venerable prelate 
maintained his ground, b and supported his cause with such 
dexterity and force, that it remained triumphant, and 
gained new credit ; and hence it happened, that the city 
of Turin and the adjacent country were, for a long time 
after the death of Claudius, much less infected with super- 
stition than the other parts of Europe. 

XVIII. The controversy that had been carried on in 
the preceding century concerning the procession (if we 
may be allowed to use that term) of the Holy Ghost from 
the Father and the Son, and also concerning the words 
filio-que, foisted by the Latins into the creed of Constan- 
tinople, broke out now with redoubled vehemence, and 
from a private dispute became a flaming contest between 
the Greek and Latin churches. The monks of Jerusalem 
distinguished themselves in this controversy, and com- 
plained particularly of the interpolation of the words filio- 
que, i. e. and from the so?i, in the above-mentioned 
symbol ; nor did they stop here, but despatched to Charle- 
magne, in 809, a certain ecclesiastic of their order, whose 
name was John, to obtain satisfaction in this matter/ 
The affair was debated in due form, in a council assembled 
in that year at Aix-la-Chapelle, and also at Rome, in the 
presence of pope Leo III. to whom the emperor had sent 
ambassadors for that purpose. Leo adopted the doctrine 
which represented the Holy Ghost as proceeding from the 
Father and the Son, but he condemned the addition that 
had. been made to the symbol, d and declared it as his 
opinion, that filio-que, being evidently an interpolation, 
ought to be omitted in reading the symbol, and at length 
stricken out of it entirely, not every where at once, but in 
such a prudent manner as to prevent disturbance. His 
successors were of the same opinion ; the word, however, 
being once admitted, not only kept its place in opposition 
to the Roman pontiffs, but was by degrees added to the 
symbol in all the Latin churches. e 

XIX. To these disputes of ancient origin were added 
controversies entirely new, and particularly that famous 
one concerning the manner in which the body and blood 
of Christ were present in the eucharist. It had been 
hitherto the unanimous opinion of the church that the 

f^T * In order to do justice to the adversaries of Claudius here men- 
tioned, it is necessary to observe, that they only maintained the innocence 
and usefulness of images, without pretending to represent them as ob- 
jects of religious worship. 

i> Mabillon, Annal. Benedictin. torn. ii. p. 488. — Prsef. ad saec. IV. Actor. 
SS. Ord. Benedict, p. 8. — Histoire Liter, de la France, torn. iv. p. 491, 
and torn. v. p. 27, 64. — Basnage, Histoire des Eglises Reformees, torn. i. 

' See Steph. Baluzii Miscellanea, torn. vii. p. 14. 

fjf d This addition of filio-que to the symbol of Nice and Constanti- 
nople, was made in the fifth and sixth centuries by the churches of Spain; 
and their example was followed by most of the Gallican churches, where 
the symbol was read and sung with this addition. 

• See Le Cointe, Annal. Eccles. Francor. torn. iv. ad a. 809. — Lon- 
gueval, Histoire de l'Eglise Gallicane, torn. v. p. 151. 

t See Mabillon, Annales Benedict, ii. p. 539. An accurate edition of 
Radbert's book was published by Martenne, in the sixth volume of his 



body and blood of Christ were administered to those who 
received the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and that 
they were consequently present at that holy institution , 
but the sentiments of Christians concerning the nature 
and manner of this presence were various and contradic- 
tory, nor had any council determined with precision that 
important point, or prescribed the manner in which this 
pretended presence was to be understood. Both reason 
and folly were hitherto left free in this matter ; nor had 
any imperious mode of faith suspended the exercise of the 
one, or restrained the extravagance of the other. But } 
in this century, Paschasius Radbert, a monk, and after- 
wards abbot of Corbey, pretended to explain with preci- 
sion, and to determine with certainty, the doctrine of the 
church on this head ; for which purpose he composed, in 
831, a treatise concerning the sacrament of the body and 
blood of Christ. f A second edition of this treatise, revised 
with care, and considerably augmented, was presented, in 
845, to Charles the Bald ; and it principally gave occasion 
to the warm and important controversy that ensued. The 
doctrine of Paschasius amounted, in general, to the two 
following propositions : first, that, after the consecration of 
the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper, nothing remain- 
ed of these symbols but the outward figure, under which 
the body and blood of Christ were really and locally pre- 
sent ; and, secondly, that the body of Christ thus present 
in the eucharist was the same body that was born of the 
Virgin, that suffered upon the cross, and was raised from 
the dead. This new doctrine, and more especially the 
second proposition now mentioned, excited, as might well 
be expected, the astonishment of many. Accordingly it 
was opposed by Rabanus Maurus, Heribald, and others, 
though they did not all refute it in the same method, or od 
the same principles. Charles the Bald, on this occasion, 
ordered the famous Ratram and Johannes Scotus to draw 
up a clear and rational explication of that important doc- 
trine which Radbert seemed to have so egregiously cor- 
rupted, s These learned divines executed with zeal and 
diligence the orders of the emperor. The treatise of 
Scotus perished in the ruins of time ; but that of Ratram 
is still extant, h which furnished ample matter of dispute, 
both in the last and present century, i 

XX. It is remarkable that in this controversy each of 
the contending parties were almost as much divided among 
themselves as they were at variance with their adversaries. 
Radbert, who began the dispute, contradicts himself in 
many places, departs from his own principles, and main- 
tains, in one part of his book, conclusions that he had 
disavowed in another. His principal adversary Bertram, 
or Ratram, seems in some respects liable to the same 
charge ; he appears to follow in general the doctrine ol 

Ampliss. Collect, veter. Scriptor. p. 378. The life and actions of this 
wrong-headed divine are treated of at large by Mabillon, in his Acta 
Sanctor. Ord. Benedict. Sac. IV. part II. 126, and by the Jesuits, in the 
Acta SS. Antwerp, ad d. xxvi. Aprilis. 

e For an account of Ratram, or Bertram, and his famous book which 
made so much noise in the world, see the Biblioth. Lat. of Fabricius, 
torn. i. p. 1661. 

§£JT t A new English translation of the book of Bertram, (who was 
a priest and a monk of Corbey) concerning the Body and Blood of Jesus 
Christ in the Sacrament, was published at Dublin in 1752: to which is 
prefixed a very learned and judicious historical dissertation respecting 
this famous author and his works, in which both are ably defended 
against the calumnies and fictions of the Roman catholic writers. 

i There is an account, but a partial one, of this controversy in Mabil- 
lon's Prarf. ad Srec. IV. part ii. Benedict, p. viii. which the curious reader 
will therefore do well to compare with Basnage's Hist, de l'Eglise,t. i, 909. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



197 



those, who deny that the body and blood of Christ are 
really present in the holy sacrament, and to affirm on 
the contrary that they are only represented by the bread 
and wine as their signs or symbols. There are, however, 
several passages in his book which seem inconsistent with 
this just and rational notion of the eucharist, or at least 
are susceptible of different interpretations, and have there- 
fore given rise to various disputes. Johannes Scotus, 
whose philosophical genius rendered him more accurate, 
and shed through his writings that logical precision so 
much wanted, and so highly desirable in polemical pro- 
ductions, was the only disputant in this contest who 
expressed his sentiments with perspicuity, method, and 
consistency, and declared plainly that the bread and wine 
were the signs and symbols of the absent body and blood 
of Christ. All the other theologians of his time fluctuate 
and waver in thteir opinions, express themselves with 
ambiguity, and embrace and reject the same tenets at 
different times, as if they had no fixed or permanent 
principles on this subject. Hence it evidently appears, 
that there was not yet in the Latin church any fixed or 
universally received opinion concerning the manner in 
which the body and blood of Christ are present in the 
eucharist. 

XXI. The disputants in this controversy charged each 
other reciprocally with the most odious doctrines, which 
each party drew by way of consequences from the tenets 
they opposed, — a method of proceeding as unjust, as it is 
common in all kinds of debate. Hence arose the imagina- 
ry heresy, that, on the triumphant progress of the doctrine 
of transubstantiation in the eleventh century, was branded 
with the title of Stercoranism, and of which the true 
origin was as follows : They who, embracing the opinion 
of Paschasius Radbert, believed that the bread and wine 
in the sacrament were substantially changed after the 
consecration, and preserved only their external figure, 
drew a most unjust conclusion from the opinion of their 
adversaries, who maintained, on the contrary, that the 
bread and wine preserved their substance, and that Christ's 
body and blood were only figuratively, and not really, 
present in the eucharist. They alleged that the doctrine 
of the latter implied, that the body of Christ was digested 
in the stomach, and was thrown out with the other excre- 
ments. But this consequence was quickly retorted upon 
those that imagined it ; for they who denied the conversion 
of the bread and wine into the real body and blood of 
Christ, charged the same enormous consequence upon 
their antagonists who believed this transmutation ; and 
the charge certainly was much more applicable to the 
latter than to the former. The truth is, that it was neither 
truly applicable to the one nor to the other ; and their 
mutual reproaches, most wretchedly founded, show rather 
a spirit of invective, than a zeal for the truth. The charge 
of Stercoranism is but a malignant invention; it can 
never, without the most absurd impudence, be brought 
against those who deny the transmutation of the bread 
into the body of Christ; it may indeed be charged upon 
such as allow this transmutation, though it be a conse- 
quence that none of them, except those whose intellects 
were unsound, perhaps ever avowed. 1 

XXII. While this controversy was at its greatest 

• For an account of the Stercoranists, see Mabillon, Praef. ad Saec. 
IV. Benedict, part ii. p. 21. — J. Basnage, Histoire de l'Eglise, torn. i. p. 

No. XVII. 50 



height, another of a quite different kind, and of much 
greater importance, arose, whose unhappy consequences 
are yet felt in the reformed churches. The subject of 
this new contest was the doctrine of predestination and 
divine grace, and its rise is universally attributed to Godes- 
chalcus, an illustrious Saxon, who had entered involunta- 
rily into the monastic order in the convent of Fulda, 
whence he removed to the monastery of Orbais, in the 
diocese of Soissons, where he prosecuted his theological 
studies, not only with great assiduity, but also with an 
insatiable desire of sounding the deepest mysteries, and of 
being 'wise above what is written.' This eminent eccle- 
siastic, upon his return from Rome in 847, took up his 
lodging for some time with count Eberald, one of the 
principal noblemen at the court of the emperor Lothaire, 
where he discoursed largely of the intricate doctrine of pre- 
destination in the presence of Nothingus, bishop of Terona, 
and maintained that God, from all eternity, had pre- 
ordained some to everlasting life, and others to everlasting 
punishment and misery. Rabanus Maurus, who was by 
no means his friend, being informed of the propagation of 
this doctrine, opposed him with great vigour. To render 
his opposition more successful, he began by representing 
Godeschalcus as a corrupter of the true religion, and a 
forger of monstrous heresies, in some letters addressed to 
count Eberald and to the bishop of Verona ; and when 
the accused monk came from Italy into Germany to justify 
himself against these clamours, and for that purpose appear- 
ed at Mentz, of which Rabanus his accuser was arch- 
bishop, he was condemned in a council assembled by the 
latter in that city, in 848, and sent thence to Hincmar, 
archbishop of Rheims, in whose diocese he had received 
the order of priesthood. Hincmar, who was devoted to the 
interests of Rabanus, assembled a council at Quiercy in 
849, in which Godeschalcus was condemned a second 
time, and was also treated in a manner equally repugnan •, 
to the principles of religion and the dictates of humanity. 
Because he was firm in maintaining his doctrine, which 
he affirmed, and indeed with truth, to be the doctrine of St. 
Augustine, the imperious Hincmar degraded him from the 
priesthood, and was so barbarous as to order him to be 
scourged with the utmost severity, until the force of his 
pain overpowering his constancy, obliged him, according 
to the commands of his reverend executioners, to burn 
with his own hands that justification of his opinions 
which he had presented to the council of Mentz. After 
these barbarous proceedings, the unfortunate monk was 
cast into prison in the monastery of Hautvilliers, where he 
ended his misery and his days in 868, or the following 
year, maintaining with his last breath the doctrine for 
which he had suffered. 

XXIII. While Godeschalcus lay in prison, his doctrine 
gained him followers; his sufferings excited compassion ; 
and both together produced a considerable schism in the 
Latin church. Ratram, monk of Corbey, Prudentius, 
bishop of Troyes, Loup, or Lupus, abbot of Ferrieres, 
Florus, deacon of Lyons, Remi, archbishop of the same 
city, with his whole church, and many other ecclesiastics, 
whom it would be tedious to mention, pleaded with the 
utmost zeal and vehemence, both in their writings and in 
their discourse, the cause of this unhappy monk, and of 

926, and a Treatise of the learned Dr. Pfaft" published at Tubingen in 
1750. 



198 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part H 



his-condemned opinions. Some, indeed, confined them- 
selves principally to the defence of his person and conduct, 
while others went farther, and employed all their zeal, 
and all their labour, in the vindication of his doctrine. On 
the opposite side of the question were Hincmar. his un- 
righteous judge, Amalarius, the celebrated Johannes 
Scotus, and others, who all maintained, that Godeschal- 
cus and his opinions had received the treatment they 
deserved. As the spirit of controversy ran high between 
these contending parties, and grew more vehement from 
day to day, Charles the Bald summoned a new council, 
or synod, which met at Quiercy in 853, in which, by the 
credit and influence of Hincmar, the decrees of the former 
council were confirmed, and in consequence Godeschalcus 
was again condemned. But the decrees of this council 
were declared null ; and decisions of a different kind, by 
which he and his doctrine were vindicated and defended, 
were enacted in a council assembled at Valence in Dau- 
phine, in 855. This council was composed of the clergy 
of Lyons, Vienne, and Aries, with Remi, archbishop of 
Lyons, at their head ; and its decrees were confirmed, in 
859, by the council of Langres, in which the same clergy 
were assembled, and in 860, by the council of Tousi, in 
which the bishops of fourteen provinces supported the 
cause of the persecuted monk, whose death allayed the 
heat of this intricate controversy. 1 

XXIV. If we attend to the merits of this cause, we 
shall find that the debate still subsists in all its force, and 
that the doctrine of Godeschalcus has in our days both 
able defenders and powerful adversaries. He undoubtedly 
maintained a two-fold predestination, one to everlasting 
life, and the other to eternal death. He held also, " that 
God did not desire or will the salvation of all mankind, but 
that of the elect only ; and that Christ did not suffer 
death for the whole human race, but for those persons only 
whom God has predestinated to eternal salvation." These 
*decisions, which carry a severe and rigorous aspect, are 
softly and favourably interpreted by the followers of Go- 
deschalcus. They deny, for example, that their leader 
represents God as predestinating, to a necessary course of 
iniquity, those whom he has previously predestinated to 
eternal misery ; and, according to them, the doctrine of 
Godeschalcus amounts to no more than this : " That God 
has, from all eternity, doomed to everlasting misery such 
as he foresaw would go on impenitent in a sinful course, 
and has decreed their ruin in consequence of their sins 
freely committed and eternally foreseen : that the salutary 
effects of the mercy of God, and the sufferings of Christ, 

•Beside the common writers, who speak of this controversy, the 
curious reader will do well to consult the more learned and impartial 
accounts he will find of it in Boulay's Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 178. 
^-Mabillon's Praef. ad Sasc. IV. Benedict, part ii. p. xlvii. — Hist. Lite- 
raire de la France, torn. v. p. 352. — Usserii Historia Godeschalci. — Ge- 
rard. Joh. Vossii Historia Pelagiana, lib. vii. cap. iv.— Fabricii Biblioth. 
Latin, medii iEvi, torn. iii. p. 210. 

>> The cause of Godeschalcus has been very learnedly defended by the 
celebrated Maguin, who published also a valuable edition of all the trea- 
tises that were composed on both sides of this' intricate controversy. 
This interesting collection, which was printed at Paris in 1650, bears 
the following title: " veterum Auctorum qui Nono Sseculo de Prsedesti- 
" natione et Gratia scripserunt, Opera et Fragmenta, cum Historia et 
" gemina Prasfationc." Cardinal Norris maintained also the cause of 
the predestinarian monk with more brevity, but less moderation than 
Maguin. This brief vindication may be seen in the Synopsis Historia; 
Godeschalcanae, which is inserted in the 4th volume of the works of that 
cardinal, p. 677. All the Benedictines, Jansenists, and Augustin monks 
maintain, almost without exception, that Godeschalcus was most unjustly 



extend indeed only to the elect, and are made good to 
them alone ; though this mercy and these sufferings, con- 
sidered in themselves, belong equally to all mankind." 
But this contradictory jargon did not satisfy the adversa- 
ries of the predestinarian monk ; they maintained, on the 
contrary, that, under ambiguous terms and perplexed sen- 
tences, Godeschalcus had concealed the most enormous 
errors, propagating it assiduously as an article of faith, 
" That God had not only by an original decree predesti- 
nated one part of mankind to eternal damnation, but had 
also pushed them on by an irresistible necessity, by a pre- 
pollent force, to those crimes and transgressions which 
were proper to render that damnation just." b Without 
determining any thing upon such an intricate and incom- 
prehensible subject, with respect to which silence is the 
truest wisdom, we shall only observe, that the private 
quarrels, and mutual hatred, that prevailed between Ra- 
banus Maurus and Godeschalcus, were the real source of 
the predestinarian controversy, and of all the calamities 
in which it involved the unfortunate monk. c 

XXV. Another, though less important, controversy, 
arose about this time, concerning the concluding words of 
a very ancient hymn, which runs thus ; te, trina Deltas 
unaque, poscimus, which may be thus translated, ' O 
God, who ait three, and at the same time but one, we be- 
seech thee,' &c. Hincmar wisely prohibited the singing 
of these words in the churches that were under his juris- 
diction, from a persuasion that they tended to introduce 
into the minds of the multitude notions inconsistent with 
the unity and simplicity of the Supreme Being, and might 
lead them to imagine that there were three Gods. But 
the Benedictine monks refused to obey this mandate, and 
Bertram, who was one of the most eminent of that order, 
wrote a copious work to prove the expression trina Deitas, 
or threefold Deity, orthodox, from the authority of fathers, 
esteemed the only criterion of truth in those miserable 
times. Godeschalcus, who now lay in prison, heard of 
this dispute, entered warmly into it, and in a laboured dis- 
sertation supported the cause of his Benedictine brethren ; 
on which account Hincmar accused him of tritheism, and 
drew up a treatise to prove the charge, and to refute that 
impious and enormous heresy. This controversy, how- 
ever, was but of a short duration ; and the exceptionable 
passage of the hymn in question maintained its credit, 
notwithstanding all the efforts of Hincmar, and continued, 
as before, to be sung in the churches. 3 

XXVI. A vain curiosity, and not any design of pro- 
moting useful knowledge and true piety, was the main 



persecuted and oppressed by Rabanus Maurus. The Jesuits are of a 
different opinion; they assert in general, and Louis Cellot, one of their 
order, has in a more particular manner laboured to demonstrate, in his 
Historia Godeschalci Pisedestinationis, published at Paris in 1655, 
that the monk in question was justly condemned, and deservedly pu- 
nished. 

c The parents of Godeschalcus consecrated him to God, by devoting 
him from his infancy, as was the custom of the times, to the monastic 
life in the monastery of Fulda. The young monk, however, having 
arrived at a certain age, seemed much disposed to abandon his retreat, 
to shake off his religious fetters, and to return into society; but he was 
prevented from the execution of this purpose by Rabanus Maurus, who 
kept him against his will in his monastic bonds. Hence a violent con- 
test arose between these ecclesiastics, in which Louis the Debomiaire 
was obliged to interpose; and hence proceeded the furious disputes con- 
cerning predestination and grace. See Centuriae Magdeb. Cent. ix. c. 
10. — Mabillon, Annal. Bened. torn. ii. ad annum 829, p. 523. 

* An account of this controversy is given by the writers of the life, 
actions, and doctrines of Godeschalcus. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



199 



source of the greatest part of the controversies that were 
carried on in this century ; and it was more especially this 
idle curiosity, carried to an indecent and most extravagant 
length, that gave rise to the controversy concerning the 
manner in which Christ was born of the Virgin, which 
began in Germany, and made its way from that coun- 
try into Prance. Certain Germans maintained, that Jesus 
proceeded from his mother's womb in a manner quite dif- 
ferent from those general and uniform laws of nature that 
regulate the birth of the human species; which opinion 
was no sooner known in France, than it was warmly op- 
posed by the famous Ratram, who wrote a book expressly 
to prove that Christ entered into the world in the very same 
way with other mortals, and that his Virgin mother bore 
him, as other women bring forth their offspring. Pascha- 
sius Radbert, who was constantly employed, either in 
inventing or patronising the most extravagant fancies, 
adopted the opinion of the German doctors, and composed 
an elaborate treatise to prove that Christ was born, without 
his mother's womb being opened, in the same manner as 
he came into the chamber where his disciples were assem- 
bled after his resurrection, though the door was shut. He 
also charged those who held the opinion of Ratram with 
denying the virginity of Mary. This fruitless dispute was 
soon hushed, and gave place to controversies of superior 
moment. 11 

XXVII. Of all the controversies that divided Christians 
in this century, the most interesting, though at the same 
time the most lamentable, was that which occasioned the 
fatal schism between the Greek and Latin churches. A 
vindictive and jealous spirit of animosity and contention 
had long prevailed between the bishops of Rome and Con- 
stantinople, and had sometimes broken out into acts of 
violence and rage. The ambition and fury of these con- 
tending prelates became still more keen and vehement 
about the time of Leo the Isaurian, when the bishops of 
Constantinople, seconded by the power and authority of 
the emperors, withdrew from the jurisdiction of theRoman 
pontiffs many provinces, over which they had hitherto 
exercised a spiritual dominion. b In this century the con- 
test rose to an enormous height, and broke forth into a most 
dreadful flame, in 858,° when the learned Photius was 
chosen the patriarch of Constantinople, by the emperor 
Michael, in the place of Ignatius, whom that prince had 
driven from his see and sent into exile. This violent pro- 
ceeding, though it was vindicated and even applauded by 
a council assembled at Constantinople in 861, was far 
from being attended with a general approbation. Ignatius 
appealed from this council to pope Nicolas I., who es- 
poused his interests, and, in a council assembled at Rome 
in 862, excommunicated Photius as unlawfully elected, 
and his abettors for having been concerned in such an 
unrighteous cause. The new patriarch, however, was so 
far from being terrified or dejected by this excommunica- 
tion, that he returned the compliment to the pope, and, 
in a council assembled at Constantinople, in 866, he de- 
clared Nicolas unworthy of the place he held in the 
church, and also of being admitted to the communion of 
Christians. 

* Ses the Spicilegium veterum Scriptoruni, published by M. d'Ache- 
ri, torn. i. p. 396. — Mabillon, Praef. ad Scec. IV. Benedict. j>art ii. p. 51. 

>> See Giannone, Historia di Napoli, torn. i. — Petr. de Marca, de Con- 
cordia Sacerdotii et Imperii, lib. i. cap. i. p. 6. — Lequien, Oriens Chris- 
tianus, torn. i. p. 96. 



XXVIII. The Roman pontiff alleged a specious pre- 
text for his acting with such violence, and exciting such 
unhappy commotions in the church. This pretence was 
the innocence of Ignatius, whom, upon an accusation of 
treason, whether true or false, the emperor had degraded 
from his patriarchal dignity. This, however, was not the 
true reason ; ambition and interest were the real though 
secret springs that directed the motions of Nicolas, who 
would have borne with patience, and viewed with indif- 
ference, the unjust sufferings of Ignatius, if he could have 
recovered from the Greeks the provinces of Illyricum, 
Macedonia, Epirus, Achaia, Thessaly, and Sicily, which 
the emperor and Photius had removed from the jurisdic- 
tion of the Roman pontiff. Before he engaged in the 
cause of Ignatius, he sent a solemn embassy to Constan- 
tinople, to demand the restitution of the provinces; but his 
demand was rejected with contempt. Hence, under pre- 
tence of avenging the injuries committed against Ignatius, 
he indulged without restraint his own private resentment, 
and thus covered with the mask of justice the fury of dis- 
appointed ambition and avarice. 

XXIX. While affairs were in this troubled state, and 
the flame of controversy was growing more violent from 
day to day, Basilius the Macedonian, who by the murder 
of his predecessor, had paved his way to the imperial 
throne, calmed at once these tumults, and restored peace 
to the church, by recalling Ignatius from exile, to the high 
station from which he had been degraded, and by confin- 
ing Photius in a monastery. This act of authority was 
solemnly approved and confirmed by a council assembled 
at Constantinople, in 869, in which the legates of pope 
Adrian II. had great influence, and were treated with the 
highest marks of distinction. 11 The Latins acknowledge 
this assembly as the eighth oecumenical council ; and in 
it the religious contests between them and the Greeks were 
concluded, or at least hushed and suspended. But the 
controversy concerning the authority of the pontiffs, the 
limits of their just power, and particularly their jurisdiction 
in Bulgaria, still subsisted ; nor could all the efforts of 
papal ambition engage either Ignatius or the emperor to 
give up Bulgaria, or any other province, to the see of 
Rome. 

XXX. The contest that had arisen between the Greeks 
and Latins concerning the elevation of Photius, was of 
such a nature as to admit an easy and effectual remedy. 
But the haughty and ambitious spirit of this learned and 
ingenious patriarch fed the flame of discord instead of 
extinguishing it, and unhappily prolonged the troubles? 
and divisions of the Christian church. In the year 866, 
he added to the see of Constantinople the province of Bul- 
garia, with which Nicolas had formed the design of aug- 
menting his spiritual dominion. While the pope was 
most bitterly provoked at missing his aim, Photius went 
yet farther, and entered into measures every way unworthy 
of his character and station: for he not only sent a circular 
letter to the oriental patriarchs to engage them to espouse 
his private cause, as the public and momentous cause of 
the church, but drew up a most violent charge of heresy 
against the Roman bishops, who had been sent among 

$jT c In the original, we find die date of 852 ; but, as this is probably 
an error of the press, the translator has taken the liberty to correct it in 
the text. 

d The writers on both sides of this controversy are enumerated by F»- 
bricius, in his Biblioth. Grseca, vol. iv. c. xxxviii. p. 372. 



200 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part II 



the newly-converted Bulgarians, and against the church 
of Rome in general. The articles of corrupt doctrine, or 
heresy, which this imperious and exasperated prelate 
brought against the votaries of the Romish system, were 
as follow : first, that they fasted on the Sabbath, or 
seventh day of the week : secondly, that in the first week 
of Lent they permitted the vise of milk and cheese : third- 
ly, that they prohibited their priests from marrying, and 
separated from their wives such as had been married when 
they entered into orders : a fourthly, that they represented 
the bishops alone as authorized to anoint with the holy 
chrism baptized persons, and, in consequence, obliged 
those who had been anointed by presbyters, to receive that 
unction a second time from the hand of a bishop : lastly, 
that they had adulterated the symbol or creed of Constan- 
tinople, by adding to it the words Jilio-que, i. e. and from 
the son, and were therefore of opinion that the Holy Spirit 
did not proceed from the Father only, but also from the 
Son. b Nicolas I. finding the Roman church thus attack- 
ed, sent the articles of this accusation to Hincmar and the 
other Gallican bishops in 867, desiring them to assemble 
their respective suffragans in order to examine and answer 
the reproach of Photius. In pursuance of this exhortation 
of the pontiff, Odo, iEneas, and Ado, bishops of Beauvais, 
Paris, and Vienne, as also the celebrated Ratram, stepped 
forth gallantly into the field of controversy against the 
Greeks, answered one by one the accusations of Photius, 
and employed the whole force of their erudition and zeal 
in maintaining the cause of the Latin church. 

XXXI. On the death of Ignatius, which happened in 
878, the emperor took Photius into favour, and placed him 
again at the head of the Greek church. This restoration 
of the degraded patriarch was agreed to by the Roman 
pontiff John VIII. on condition, however, that Photius 
would permit the Bulgarians to come under the jurisdiction 
of the see of Rome. The latter promised to satisfy in this 
the demands of the pontiff, to which the emperor also seem- 
ed to consent; 3 and hence it was that John VIII. sent 
legates to the council holden in 879 at Constantinople, 
by whom he declared his approbation of the acts of that 
assembly, and acknowledged Photius as his brother in 
Christ. The promises, however, of the emperor and the 
patriarch were far from being accomplished ; for after this 
council the former, most probably by the advice, or at 
least with the consent of the latter, refused to transfer the 
province of Bulgaria to the Roman pontiff ; and it must be 
confessed that this refusal was founded upon most weighty 
and important reasons. The pope was highly irritated at 
this disappointment, and sent Marinus to Constantinople 
in the character of legate, to declare that he had changed 
his mind with reference to Photius, and that he entirely 
approved the sentence of excommunication that had been 
formerly given against him. The legate, upon delivering 
this disagreeable message, was cast into prison by the 
emperor, but was afterwards liberated ; and, being raised 
to the pontificate upon the death of John VIII., recalled the 

a Photius attributes, to this forced and unnatural celibacy of the clergy, 
that multitude of children whose fathers were unknown. Remarkable to 
this purpose is .the following passage from a book of Alvaro Pelagio, 
bishop of Sylva in Portugal, de Planctu Ecclesicc : "It is to be wished," 
says he, " that the clergy had never vowed chastity, especially the clergy 
of Spain, where the sons of the laity are not much more numerous 
than the sons of the clergy." 

» See the letter of Photius in the collection published by bishop Mon- 
tague, N. ii. p. 47. Other writers mention ten heads of accusation 



remembrance of this injurious treatment, and levelled a 
new sentence of condemnation against Photius. 

XXXII. This sentence was treated with contempt by 
the haughty patriarch ; but, about six years after this 
period, he experienced anew the fragility of sublunary 
grandeur and elevation, by a fall which concluded his 
prosperous days; for, in 886, Leo, surnamed the Philoso- 
pher, the son and successor of Basilius, deposed him from 
the patriarchal see, and confined him in an Armenian mo- 
nastery, where he died in 891 . The death of Photius, who 
was the only author of the schisms that divided the Greeks 
and Latins, might have been an occasion of removing these 
unhappy contests, and of restoring peace and concord in 
the church, if the Roman pontiffs had not been regardless 
of the demands of equity as well as of the duty of Christian 
moderation. But these imperious lords of the church 
indulged their vindictive zeal beyond all measure, and 
would be satisfied with nothing of less moment than the 
degradation of all the priests and bishops, who had been 
ordained by Photius. The Greeks, on the other hand, 
were shocked at the arrogance of these unjust pretensions, 
and would not submit to them on any conditions. Hence 
a spirit of resentment and irritation renewed the rage of dis- 
pute, which had been happily declining; religious as well as 
civil contests were again set on foot ; new controversies 
were added to the old, until the fatal schism took place, 
which produced a lasting and total separation between the 
Greek and Latin churches. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 

I. That religious rites and ceremonies were progres- 
sively multiplied, evidently appears from the labours of 
those writers who began in this century to explain to the 
ignorant multitude their origin, their nature, and the pur- 
poses they served ; for the multiplicity alone of these reli- 
gious rites could render the explication of them necessary. 
Johannes Scotus, Angelome, Remi or Remigius, bishop of 
Auxerre, and Walafrid Strabo, were the principal authors 
who distinguished themselves in this species of sacred 
literature, to whom we may add Amalarius, many of whose 
explanations were, however, refuted byAgobard and Flo- 
rus. Their works are generalty entitled De Officiis Di- 
vinis ; for in the style of this age religious ceremonies 
were called by that. name. The labours of these pious 
and learned men in illustrating the ritual were undoubt- 
edly undertaken with good intentions ; but their utility 
may be well called into question; and it would be bold 
to affirm that they were not as prejudicial to the church in 
some respects, as they might be advantageous to it in others. 
Their books afforded, indeed, a certain sort of spiritual 
nourishment to the minds of Christians in their attendance 
upon public worship; but this nourishment was both 
coarse and unwholesome. The reasons alleged for the 

brought against Photius ; but such do not distinguish between the first 
and second controversy that arose between the Greeks and Latins, and 
they add to the articles, with which this patriarch was charged, those that 
were drawn up in the time of Michael Cerularius. Certain it is, that in 
the epistle of Photius, which relates only to the first controversy, and is 
the only criterion by which we ought to judge of it, there are no more 
heads of accusation than the five which we have enumerated in the text 

c Mabillon, Pr»f. ad Sasc. IV. Bened. part ii. p. 55. 

a Mich, le Q.wen, Oriens Christianus, torn. i. p. 103. 



Chap. IV. 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



201 



ceremonies in vogue at this time in the church, and the 
purposes they were supposed to answer, were, for the most 
part, not only far-fetched, childish, and ridiculous, but also 
bore the strongest marks of forgery and fiction. It is also 
farther observable, that these illustrations not only encou- 
raged, but augmented prodigiously, to the detriment of real 
piety, the veneration and zeal of the multitude for exter- 
nal rites and ceremonies ; for who would dare to refuse 
their admiration and reverence to institutions, which they 
were taught to consider as full of the most mysterious 
wisdom, and founded upon the most pious and affecting 
reasons 1 

II. It would be endless to enter into an exact enume- 
ration of the various rites and ceremonies, which were now 
introduced, for the first time, and of .which some were 
adopted by the whole body of Christians, and others only 
by certain churches. We shall therefore dismiss this mat- 
ter with the general account which follows, and point out 
in the notes the sources from which the curious reader may 
derive a more particular knowledge of the absurdities of 
this superstitious age. The carcases of the saints trans- 
ported from foreign countries, or discovered at home by the 
industry and diligence of pious or designing priests, not only 
obliged the rulers of the church to augment the number of 
festivals or holidays already established, but also to diver- 
sify the ceremonies in such a manner, that each saint 
might have his peculiar worship ; and, as the authority 
and credit of the clergy depended much upon the high 
notion which was generally entertained of the virtue and 
merit of the saints whom they had canonised, and present- 
ed to the multitude as objects of religious veneration, it 
was necessary to amuse and surprise the people by a va- 
riety of pompous and striking ceremonies, by images and 
the like inventions, in order to keep up and nourish then- 
stupid admiration for the saintly tribe. Hence arose the 

* See the work of J. Fecht, de Missis in Honorem Sanctorum. 

!• See Mabillon, de Re Diplomatica, p. 537. 

c The holidays or festivals of the saints were yet but few in number 
among the Latins, as appears from a poem of Florus, published by Mar- 
tenne in the fifth volume of his Thesaurus Anecdotorum. 

IpT d All these were presumptuous attempts to force the divine pro- 
vidence to declare itself miraculously in favour of the truth. In the trial 
of cold water, the person accused had the right foot and left hand bound 
together, and was, in this posture, thrown naked into the water. If lie 
sunk, he was acquitted ; but, if he floated upon the surface, this was 
considered as an evidence of guilt. The most respectable authors, an- 
cient and modern, attribute the invention of this superstitious trial to pope 
Eugenius II., and it is somewhat surprising that Mr. Bower has taken 
no notice of it in his history of that pontiff. Baluze has inserted, in the 
second volume of his Capitularia, the solemn forms of prayer and pro- 
testation, which Eugenius had caused to be drawn up as an introduction 
to this superstitious practice ; and both Fleury and Spanheim look upon 
that pontiff as its inventor. On the other hand, father Le Brun, a priest 
of the oratory, maintains in his Histoire Critique des Pratiques Super- 
stitieuses, torn, ii., that this custom was much more ancient than Eugenius, 
and his reasons are not unworthy of attention. Be that as it may, this 
custom was condemned and abrogated at the request or rather by the au- 
thority of Louis the Debonnaire, about the year 829. It was, however, 
revived afterwards, and was practised in the tenth, eleventh, and twelfth 
centuries, as we shall see in the progress of this history. For an account 
of this mode of trial. Dr. Mosheim refers us, in a note, to Mabillon's 
Analecta veteris iEvi, torn. i. p. 47, and Roye's work de Missis 
Dominicis, p. 152. 

The trial by duel, or single combat, was introduced toward the con- 
clusion of the fifth century by Gondebald, king of the Burgundians, when 
the abuse of oaths had occasioned the most horrible perjuries, and open- 
ed the door to all sorts of injustice. The duel was then added to the oath 
by Gondebald ; the successful combatant was supposed to be in the right, 
and this barbarous test of truth and justice was, in spite of humanity 
and common sense, adopted by the Lombards, French, and Germans, 
and borrowed from them by other nations. It was first prohibited in 855, 
in the third council of Valence. 

The fire ordeal was practised in various ways. The accused either 

No. XVII. 51 



splendour and magnificence that were lavished upon the 
churches in this century, and the prodigious number of 
costly pictures and images with which they were adorned; 
hence the stately altars, which were enriched with the 
noblest inventions of painting and sculpture, and illumi- 
nated with innumerable tapers at noon-day; hence the 
multitude of processions, the gorgeous and splendid gar- 
ments of the priests, and the masses that were celebrated in 
honour of the saints." Among other novelties, the feast 
of All-Saints was added, in this century, by Gregory IV. 
to the Latin calendar ; b and the festival of St. Michael, 
which had been long kept with the greatest marks of de- 
votion and respect by the Orientals and Italians, began now 
to be observed more zealously and universally among the 
Latin Christians. 

III. Nor was it only in the solemn acts of religious wor- 
ship that superstition reigned with unlimited sway; it3 
influence extended even to the affairs of private life, and 
was observable in the civil transactions of men, particu- 
larly among the Latin Christians, who retained with more 
obstinacy than the Greeks a multitude of customs, which 
derived their origin from the sacred rites of paganism. The 
barbarous nations, which were converted to Christianity, 
could not support the thoughts of abandoning altogether 
the laws and manners of their ancestors, however incon- 
sistent they might be with the indispensable demands of 
the Gospel : on the contrary, they persuaded the Chris- 
tians among whom they lived to imitate their extravagant 
superstition in this respect ; and this was the true and 
original source of the barbarous institutions that prevailed 
among the Latins, during this and the following century ; 
such as the various methods by which it was usual for 
persons accused to prove their innocence in doubtful cases, 
either by the trial of cold water, by single combat, by the 
fire ordeal, or by the cross. d It is no longer a question 

held a burning ball of iron in his hand, or was obliged to walk bare- 
footed upon heated ploughshares, whose number was increased in pro- 
portion to the number or enormity of the crimes imputed to him : and 
sometimes a glove of red-hot iron was used on this occasion, as we see in 
the tenth book of the history of Denmark, by Saxo the Grammarian. If 
in these trials the person impeached remained unhurt, and discovered no 
signs of pain, he was discharged as innocent; otherwise he was punish- 
ed as guilty. The first account we have of Christians appealing to this 
kind of trial as a proof of their innocence, is that of Simplicius, bishop 
of Autun, who lived in the fourth century. This prelate, as the story 
goes, before his promotion to the episcopal order, had entered into the 
matrimonial state ; and his fond wife, unwilling to quit him after his ad- 
vancement, continued to sleep in the same chamber with her spouse. The 
sanctity of Simplicius suffered, at least in the voice of fame, by the con- 
stancy of his wife's affection ; and it was rumoured that the holy man, 
though a bishop, persisted, in opposition to the ecclesiastical canons, to 
taste the sweets of matrimony ; upon which the dame, in the presence 
of a great concourse of people, took up a considerable quantity of burn- 
ing coals, which she held in her clothes, and applied to her breasts, with- 
out the least hurt to her person or damage to her garments, as the legend 
says, and her example being followed by her husband with like success, 
the silly multitude admired the miracle, and proclaimed the innocence of 
the loving pair. Bricius, or St. Brice, (whom Mr. Collier, in his Eccle- 
siastical History of England, represents by mistake as the first Christian 
who endeavoured to clear himself in this way,) played a trick of much the 
same nature in the fifth century. 

The trial by the cross was made by obliging the contending parties to 
stretch out their arms, and he that continued the longest in this posture 
gained his cause. 

Jo. Loccenii Antiquit. Sueo-Gothicse, lib. ii. cap. vii. viii. p. 144. This 
barbarous method of deciding controversies by duel was practised even 
by the clergy. See Just. Hen. Bohmeri Jus Eccles. Prot. t. v. p. 88. 

Petr. Lambecius, Res Hamburg, lib. ii. p. 39. — Usserii Sylloge 
Epistol. Hibernic. p. 81. — Johnson, Leges Eccles. Britannia:. — Michel 
de la Roche, Memoires Liter, de la Grande Bretagne, torn. viii. p. 391. 

See Agobardus, contra Judicium Dei, torn. i. op. et contra Legem 
Gundobaldi, cap. ix. p. 114. — Hier. Bignonius, ad Formulis Marculphi, 
cap. xii. — Baluzius, ad Agobardum, p. 104. 



202 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



in our days, from what source these methods of deciding 
dubious cases and accusations derived their origin; all 
agree that they were mere delusions, drawn from the bar- 
barous rites of paganism, 5 and not only opposite to the 
precepts of the Gospel, but absolutely destructive of the 
spirit of true religion. The pontiffs, however, and the 
inferior clergy, encouraged these odious superstitions, and 
Avent so far as to accompany the practice of them with the 
celebration of the Lord's Supper and other rites, in order 
to give them a Christian aspect, and to recommend them 
to the veneration and confidence of the multitude. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The sects, that had sprung up in the earlier ages of 
the church, subsisted still, with little change in their situ- 
ations or circumstances. Such of them as were consider- 
ably numerous, fixed their settlements beyond the limits 
both of the Greek and Latin empires, and thus out of the 
reach of their enemies. The Nestorians more especially, 
and the Monophysites, secure under the protection of the 
Arabians, were extremely industrious in maintaining their 
credit, and also discovered a warm and active zeal in the 
propagation of Christianity among those who were yet 
unacquainted with that divine religion. Some learned 
men are of opinion, that it was only in this century that the 
Abyssinians or Ethiopians embraced the sentiments of the 
Monophysites, in consequence of the exhortations address- 
ed to them by the doctors of that sect who resided in 
Egypt. But this is undoubtedly an erroneous account of 
the matter ; for it is certain, that the Abyssinians, who 
were accustomed to receive their spiritual guides from the 
bishop of Alexandria, commenced Monophysites in the 
seventh century, if not sooner ; for in that period the Ara- 
bians made themselves masters of Egypt, oppressed the 
Greeks, and granted to the Monophysites such a powerful 
protection, as enabled them to reduce under their jurisdic- 
tion almost all the churches that had been established in 
Egypt. b 

II. The Greeks, during the greatest part of this cen- 
tury, were engaged in a most bitter controversy, or, to 
speak more properly, in a bloody and barbarous war with 
the Paulicians, a sect that may be considered as a branch 
of the Manichseans, and which resided principally in Ar- 
menia. This pernicious sect is said to have been formed 
by two brothers, Paul and John, sons of Callinices, and 
inhabitants of Samosata, from the former of whom it de- 
rived its name ; though others are of opinion that the 
Paulicians were so called from another Paul, an Armenian 
by birth, who lived under the reign of Justinian II. 6 Be 
that as it may, a certain zealot called Constantine, revived, 
in the seventh century, under the government of Con- 
stans, this drooping faction, which had suffered deeply from 
the violence of its adversaries, and was ready to expire un- 



■ Strabo tells us, in the fifth book of his Geography, that, while the 
sacred rites of the goddess Perona were celebrated in a grove not far 
from mount Soracte, several persons, transported with the imaginary 
presence of this pretended divinity, fell into fits of enthusiasm, and 
walked bare-footed over heaps of burning coals without receiving the 
least damage. The historian adds, that a spectacle so extraordinary 
drew a prodigious concourse of people to this annual solemnity. Pliny 
relates something of the same nature concerning the Hirpii. See his 
Nat. Hist, book vii. chap. ii. 



der the severity of the imperial edicts, and of those pena, 
laws which were executed against its adherents with th* 
utmost rigour. Constans, Justinian II., and Leo the Isau 
rian, exerted their zeal against the Paulicians with a pe 
culiar degree of bitterness and fury, left no method oj 
oppression unemployed, and neglected no means of accom 
plishing their ruin ; but their efforts were ineffectual, nor 
could all their power, or all their barbarity, exhaust the pa 
tience or conquer the obstinacy of that inflexible people, 
who, with a fortitude worthy of a better cause, seemed to 
despise the calamities to which their erroneous doctrine 
exposed them. The face of things changed, however, to 
their advantage toward the commencement of this cen- 
tury ; and their affairs wore a more prosperous aspect 
under the protection of the emperor Nicephorus, who fa- 
voured them in a particular manner, and restored to them 
their civil privileges, as well as their religious liberty." 1 

III. Their tranquillity, however, was but of short du- 
ration ; it was a transient scene that was soon to be suc- 
ceeded by yet more dreadful sufferings than they had 
hitherto experienced. The cruel rage of persecution, 
which had for some years been suspended, broke forth 
with redoubled violence under the reigns of Michael Cu- 
ropalates, and Leo the Armenian, who caused the strictest 
search to be made after the Paulicians, in all the provinces 
of the Grecian empire, and inflicted capital punishment 
upon such of them as refused to return to the bosom of 
the church. This rigorous decree turned the afflictions of 
the Paulicians, who dwelt in Armenia, into vengeance, 
and drove them into the most desperate measures. They 
massacred Thomas, bishop of New Cassarea, and also the 
magistrates and judges whom the emperors had establish- 
ed in Armenia ; and, after avenging themselves thug 
cruelly, they took refuge in the countries that were go- 
verned by the Saracens, and thence infested the neigh- 
bouring states of Greece with perpetual incursions.' After 
these reciprocal acts of cruelty and vengeance, the Pauli- 
cians, as it would seem, enjoyed an interval of tranquil- 
lity, and returned to their habitations in the Grecian pro- 
vinces. 

IV. But the most dreadful scene of persecution that was 
exhibited against these wretched heretics, arose from the 
furious and inconsiderate zeal of the empress Theodora. 
This impetuous woman, who was regent of the empire 
during the minority of her son, issued out a decree, which 
placed the Paulicians in the perplexing alternative either 
of abandoning their principles, or of perishing by fire and 
sword. The decree was severe ; but the cruelty with 
which it was put in execution by those who were sent 
into Armenia for that purpose, was horrible beyond ex- 
pression ; for these ministers of wrath, after confiscating 
the goods of above a hundred thousand of that miserable 
people, put their possessors to death in the most barbarous 
manner, and made them expire slowly in a variety of the 
most exquisite tortures. Such as escaped destruction fled 
for protection and refuge to the Saracens, who received 



b Nouveaux Memoires de la Compagnie de Jesus dans le Levant, torn, 
iv. p. 283, 284 — Le Grand, Dissert, iv. — Lobo, Voyage Historique da 
l'Abyssinie, torn. ii. p. 18. 

Photius, lib. i. contra Manichseos, p. 74, in B. Wolfii Anecdotis 
Gr^cis, torn. i. 

d See Georg. Cedrenus, Compend. Historiar. torn. ii. 

' Photius, lib. i. contra Manichaeos, p. 125. — Petri Siculi Historia 
Manichaeorum, p. 71. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISION'S AND HERESIES. 



203 



them with compassion and humanity, and permitted them 
to build a city for their residence, which was called Tibri- 
ca. Upon this they entered into a league with the Sara- 
cens ; and, choosing for their chief an officer of the great- 
est resolution and valour, whose name was Carbeas, they 
declared against the Greeks a war which was carried on 
with the utmost vehemence and fury. This war conti- 
nued during the whole century ; the victory seemed often 
doubtful, but the slaughter was terrible, and the numbers 
that perished on both sides prodigious. Many of the Gre- 
cian provinces felt, in a more particular manner, the dire 
effects of this cruel contest, and exhibited the most affect- 
ing scenes of desolation and misery. 1 During these com- 
motions, some Paulicians, toward the conclusion of the 
century, spread abroad among the Bulgarians their pesti- 
lential doctrines, which were received with docility, and 
took root speedily, as might naturally be expected, among 
a barbarous people, recently converted to the Christian faith. b I 
V. The Greeks treated the Paulicians, of whom we have [ 
now been speaking, as Manvchseans ; though, if we may 
credit the testimony of Photius, the Paulicians expressed j 
the utmost abhorrence of Manes and his doctrine/ Most | 
evident it is, that they were not altogether Manichseans, 
though they embraced some opinions that resembled cer- j 
tain tenets of that abominable sect. They had not, like 
the Manichseans, an ecclesiastical government administer- 
ed by bishops, priests, and deacons : they had no sacred j 
order of men distinguished by their manner of life, their ! 
habit, or any other circumstance, from the rest of the as- j 
sembly ; nor had councils, synods, or the like institutions, 
any place in their religious polity. They had certain doc- 
tors whom they called Synecdemi, i. e. companions in the 
journey of life, and also Notarii. Among these, there 
reigned a perfect equality ; and they had no peculiar rights 
or privileges, nor any external mark of dignity to distin- 
guish them from the people." 5 The only singularity that 
attended their promotion to the doctorial rank was, that 
they changed their lay-names for Scripture ones, as if there 
had been something peculiarly venerable in the names of 
the holy men, whose lives and actions are recorded in the 
sacred writings. They received all the books of the New 
Testament, except the two Epistles of St. Peter, which 
they rejected for reasons unknown to us; and their copies 
of the Gospel were exactly the same with those used by 
all other Christians, without the least interpolation of the 

» Georg. Cedrenus, Compend. Hist. p. 541, edit. Paris. — Zonoras, 
Armal. lib. xvi. The principal authors who have given accounts of the 
Paulicians are Photius, lib. i. contra Manichaeos, and Petrus Siculus, 
whose history of the Manichaeans Matth. Raderus published in Greek 
and Latin in 1604. By the account of Petrus Siculus that is given by 
himself, we learn that, in 870, under the reign of Basilius the Macedo- 
nian, he was sent ambassador to the Paulicians at Tibrica, to treat with 
them for the exchange of prisoners, and lived among them during the 
space of nine months; this is sufficient to give us a high idea of the 
power and prosperity of the Paulicians at that time. It is from this | 
eminent writer that Cedrenus seems to have taken what he has advanced 
in his Compend. Hist. p. 431. What we learn concerning the Paulicians 
from more modern writers, (such as Bayle, in his Dictionary, and B. Jo. 
Christ. Wolfius, in his Manichaeismus ante Manichaeos, p. 247,) seems 
to be derived from Bossuet's Histoire des Variations des Eglises Protes- 
tsmtes, torn. ii. p. 129. But this authority is highly exceptionable ; for 
Bossuet did not consult the true sources of knowledge upon this point ; 
and, what is still worse, the spirit of party seems to have led him into 
voluntary errors. 

•> It is not improbable that there are yet, in Thrace and Bulgaria, Pau- 
licians, or Paulians as they are called by some. It appears at least cer- 
tain, that in the seventeenth century some of that sect still subsisted, and 
dwelt at Nicopolis, as we- learn from the testomony of Urb. Csrri, who 



sacred text ; in which respect also they differed consider- 
ably from the Manichaeans. e They moreover recom- 
mended to the people without exception, with the most 
affecting and ardent zeal, the constant and assiduous pe- 
rusal of the Scriptures, and expressed the utmost indigna- 
tion against the Greeks, who allowed to priests alone an 
access to these sacred fountains of divine knowledge/ — 
In explaining, however, the doctrines of the Gospel, they 
often departed from the literal sense and the natural signi- 
fication of the words, and interpreted them in a forced and 
allegorical manner, when they opposed their favourite opi- 
nions and tenets ;s and such more especially were the de- 
lusive and erroneous explications, which they gave of what 
is said concerning the institutions of baptism and the 
Lord's Supper, and the divine authority of the Old Tes- 
tament, all which they obstinately rejected. Beside the 
books of the New Testament, they treated with particular 
veneration certain epistles of Sergius, the most eminent 
and illustrious doctor of their sect. 

VI. The Greek writers, instead of giving a complete 
view of the Paulician system, which was undoubtedly 
composed of a great variety of tenets, content themselves 
with mentioning six monstrous errors, which, in their es- 
timation, rendered the Paulicians unworthy of enjoying 
either the comforts of this world, or the happiness of the 
next. These errors are as follow : 1. " They denied that 
this inferior and visible world w T as the production of the 
Supreme Being, and they distinguished the creator of 
this world, and of human bodies, from the most high 
God, who dwells in the heavens." It was principally 
on account of this odious doctrine, which was, however, 
adopted by all the Gnostic sects, that the Paulicians were 
deemed Manichaans by the Greeks. But what their sen- 
timents were concerning the creator of this world, and 
whether they considered him as a being distinct from the 
evil principle, are matters that no writer has hitherto ex- 
plained in a satisfactory manner. We learn only from 
Photius, that, according to the Paulician doctrine, the evil 
principle was engendered by darkness and fire : whence 
it plainly follows that he was neither self-originated, nor 
eternal. 11 2. "They treated contemptuously the Virgin 
Mary ;" that is to say, according to the manner of speak- 
ing usual among the Greeks, they refused to adore and 
worship her. They maintained, indeed, that Christ was 
the son of Mary, and was born of her (although they 

tells us, in his Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, that Peter Deodati 
archbishop of Sophia, caused them to abandon their errors, and to return 
to the catholic faith ; but whether the latter part of the account be true or 
false, is more than we shall pretend to determine. 

° Photius, lib. i. contra Manichaeos, p. 17, 56, 65. Petr. Siculus, Hist. 
Manich. p. 43. 

d Photius, 1. c. p. 31, 32.— Petr. Sicul. p. 44.— Cedrenus, 1. c. p. 431. 

' Photius, p. 11. — Petr. Sicul. p. 19. 

f Photius, p. 101.— Petr. Sicul. p. 57. E Photius, p. 12. 

i Photius, lib. ii. contra Manichaeos, p. 147. It is evident, beyond all 
contradiction, that the Paulicians, in imitation of the Oriental philoso- 
phers from whom the Gnostics and Manichaeans derived their origin, con- 
sidered eternal matter as the seat and source of all evil: but they believ- 
ed, at the same time, like many of the Gnostics, that this matter, endued 
from all eternity with life and motion, had produced an active principle, 
which was the fountain of vice, misery, and disorder. This principle, 
according to them, is the author of all material substances, while God is 
the Creator and Father of spirits. These tenets resemble, no doubt, the 
Manichaean doctrine ; yet they differ from it in several points. The 
Paulicians seemed to have emanated from one of the old Gnostic sects, 
and to have been very numerous and diversified ; and, though persecuted 
and oppressed from age to age in the most rigorous manner by many 
emperors, they could never be entirely suppressed, or extirpated. 



204 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



maintained, as appears from the express testimony of 
their adversaries, that the divine Saviour brought with 
him from heaven his human nature, and that Mary, after 
the birth of Christ, had other children by Joseph;) they 
only fell into the sentiments of the Valentinians, and held, 
that Christ passed through the womb of the Virgin, as 
the pure stream of limpid water passes through a con- 
duit, and that Mary did not preserve her virginity to the 
end of her days ; all which assertions the Greeks rejected 
with the utmost antipathy and abhorrence. 3. "They 
refused to celebrate the holy institution of the Lord's 
Supper ;" for, as they imagined many precepts and in- 
junctions of the Gospel to be of a merely figurative and 
parabolical nature, so they understood, by the bread and 
wine which Christ is said to have administered to his dis- 
ciples at his last supper, the divine discourses and exhor- 
tations of the Saviour, which are a spiritual food and 
nourishment to the soul, and fill it with repose, satisfac- 
tion, and delight." 4. " They loaded the cross of Christ 
with contempt and reproach ;'" by which we are only to 

■ The Greeks do not charge the Paulicians with any error concerning 
baptism ; it is, however, certain, that the accounts of that sacred institu- 
tion, which are given in Scripture, were allegorically explained by 
this extravagant sect ; and Photius, in his first book against the Mani- 
chseans, expressly asserts that the Paulicians treated baptism as a mere 
allegorical ceremony, and by the baptismal water understood the Gospel. 



understand, that they refused to follow the absurd and su- 
perstitious practice of the Greeks, who paid to the pre- 
tended wood of the cross a certain sort of religious homage. 
As the Paulicians believed that Christ was clothed with 
an ethereal, impassible, and celestial body, they could by 
no means grant that he was really nailed to the cross, or 
that he expired, in effect, upon that ignominious tree : 
and hence naturally arose that treatment of the cross, of 
which the Greeks accused them. 5. "They rejected, af- 
ter the example of the greatest part of the Gnostics, the 
books of the Old Testament, and looked upon the wri- 
ters of that sacred history as inspired by the Creator of 
this world, and not by the Supreme God." 6. " They 
entirely excluded presbyters and lay-elders from the ad- 
ministration of the church." By this, however, no more 
can be meant, than that they refused to call their doctors 
by the name of presbyters, a name which had its origin 
among the Jews, and was peculiar to that odious people, 
who persecuted Jesus Christ, and attempted, as the Pauli- 
cians speak, to put him to death. b 



i> These six famous errors of the Paulicians I have taken from the 
Manichaan history of Petrus Siculus, with whom Photius and Cedre- 
nus agree, although their accounts of these opinions be less perspicuous 
and distinct. The explanatory remarks that I have added, are the result 
of my own reflections upon the Paulician system, and the doctrine of the 
Greeks. 



THE TENTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events which happened 
to the Church during this Century. 

I. The deplorable state of Christianity in this century, 
arising partly from that astonishing ignorance that gave a 
loose rein both to superstition and immorality, and partly 
from an unhappy concurrence of causes of another kind, 
is unanimously lamented by the various writers, who have 
transmitted to us the history of these miserable times. 
Yet, amidst all this darkness, some gleams of light were 
perceived from time to time, and several occurrences hap- 
pened, which deserve a place in the prosperous annals of 
the church. The Nestorians in Chaldaea extended then- 
spiritual conquests beyond mount Imaus, and introduced 
the Christian religion into Tartary, (properly so called,) 
whose, inhabitants had hitherto lived in their natural state 
of ignorance and ferocity, uncivilized and savage. The 
same successful missionaries spread, by degrees, the know- 
ledge of the Gospel among that most powerful nation of the 
Turks, or Tartars, which went by the name of Karit, and 
bordered on Kathay, or the northern part of China. a The 
laborious industry of this sect, and their zeal for the propa- 
gation of the Christian faith, deserve, no doubt, the high- 
est encomiums ; it must, however, be acknowledged, that 
the doctrine and worship, which they introduced among 
these barbarians, were far from being, in all respects, con- 
formable to the true spirit and genius of the Christian re- 
ligion. 

II. The Prince of that country, whom the Nestorians 
converted to the Christian faith, assumed, if we may give 
credit to the vulgar tradition, the name of John after his 
baptism, to which he added the surname of Presbyter, 
from a principle of modesty. Hence it was, as some learn- 
ed men imagine, that the successors of this monarch re- 
tained these names until the time of Genghiz-Khan, who 
flourished in the fourteenth 11 century, and were each of 
them called Prester John. c But all this has a very fabu- 
lous air ; at least it is advanced without any solid proof; 
it even appears evident, on the contrary, that the famous 
Prester John, who made so much noise in the world, did 
not begin to reign in that part of Asia before the conclu- 
sion of the eleventh century. It is, however, certain, be- 
yond all contradiction, that the monarchs of the nation 

• Assemani Bibliotheca Oriental. Vatic, torn. iii. part ii. p. 482. — Her- 
belot, Bibliotheque Orientale, p. 256. 

i> Dr. Mosheim, and his translator, ought to have said the thirteenth 
century. Edit. 

• See Assemani Biblioth. torn. iii. part ii. p. 282. 

<> The late learned Sigefred Bayer, in his Preface to the Museum Sini- 
cum, p. 145, informed us of his design to give the world an accurate ac- 
count of the Nestorian churches established in Tartary and China, 
drawn from some curious ancient records and monuments, that have not 
been as yet made public. His work was to have been entitled Historia 
Ecclesiarum Sinicarum. et Septentrionalis Asiae ; but death prevented 

No. XVIII. 52 



called Karit, (which makes a large part of the empire of 
the Mogul, and is by some denominated a tribe of the 
Turks, and, by others, of the Tartars,) embraced Chris- 
tianity in this century ; and that a considerable part of 
Tartary, or Asiatic Scythia, lived under the spiritual ju- 
risdiction of bishops who were sent among them by the 
Nestorian pontiff. d 

III. If we turn our eyes to the western world, we shall 
find the Gospel making its way with more or less rapidity 
among the most rude and uncivilized nations. The fa- 
mous arch-pirate Rollo, son of a Norwegian Count, being 
banished from his native land, e had, in the preceding 
century, put himself at the head of a resolute band of 
Normans, and seized one of the maritime provinces of 
France, whence he infested the neighbouring country 
with perpetual incursions and depredations. In 912, this 
valiant chief, with his whole army, embraced the Chris- 
tian faith, on the following occasion. Charles the Simple, 
who wanted both resolution and power to drive this war- 
like and intrepid invader out of his dominions, was obliged 
to have recourse to negotiation. He accordingly offered to 
make over to Rollo a considerable part of his territories, 
on condition that the latter would consent to a peace, es- 
pouse his daughter Gisela/ and embrace Christianity. 
These terms were accepted by Rollo without the least he- 
sitation ; and his army, following the example of their 
leader, professed a religion of which they Avere totally ig- 
norant, e These Norman pirates, as appears from many 
authentic records, were absolutely without religion of any 
kind, and therefore were not restrained, by the power of 
prejudice, from embracing a religion which presented to 
them the most advantageous prospects. They knew no 
distinction between interest and duty, and they estimated 
truth and virtue only by the profits with which they were 
attended. It was from this Rollo, who received at his bap- 
tism the. name of Robert, that the famous line of Nor- 
man dukes derived its origin ; for the province of Bre- 
tagne, and a part of Neustria, which Charles the Simple 
conveyed to his son-in-law by a solemn grant, were from 
this time known by the name of Normandy, h which they 
derived from their new possessors. 

IV. The Christian religion was introduced into Po- 
land, by the zealous efforts of female piety. Dambrow- 
ska, daughter of Boleslaus, duke of Bohemia, persuaded, 

the execution of this interesting plan, and also of several others, which 
this great man had formed, and which would undoubtedly have thrown a 
new light upon the history of the Asiatic Christians. 

Holbergi Historia Danorum Navalis in Scriptis Societat. Scient. 
Hafniens. part iii. p. 357. 

|£jr" r Other writers more politely represent the offer of Gisela as ons 
of the methods that Charles employed to obtain a peace with Rollo. 

*Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 296. — Daniel, Hist, de France, 
torn. ii. p. 587. 

iQr h It was Neustria, and not Bretagne, that received the name of 
Normandy, from the Normans who chose Rollo for their cliief 



206 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



by the force of repeated exhortations, her husband Micis- 
laus, duke of Poland, to abandon paganism ; and, in 965, 
he embraced the Gospel. The account of this agreeable 
event was no sooner brought to Rome, than the pontiff, 
John XIII., sent into Poland vEgidius, bishop of Tuscu- 
lum, attended with a numerous train of ecclesiastics, in 
order to second the pious efforts of the duke and duch- 
ess, who desired, with impatience, the conversion of 
their subjects. The exhortations and endeavours of these 
devout missionaries, who were unacquainted with the lan- 
guage of the people they came to instruct, would have 
been entirely without effect, had they not been accompa- 
nied with the edicts and penal laws, the promises and 
threats of Micislaus, which dejected the courage, and con- 
quered the obstinacy of the reluctant Poles. When there- 
fore the fear of punishment, and the hope of reward, had 
laid the foundations of Christianity in Poland, two na- 
tional archbishops and seven bishops were consecrated to 
the ministry, whose zeal and labours were followed with 
such success, that the whole body of the people abandon- 
ed, by degrees, their ancient superstitions, and made pub- 
lic profession of the religion of Jesus. a It was, indeed, no 
more than an external profession ; for that inward change 
of affections and principles, which the Gospel requires, 
was far from being an object of attention in this barbarous 
age. 

V. The Christian religion was established in Russia by 
means similar to those that had occasioned its propagation 
in Poland ; for we must not lay any stress upon the 
proselytes that were made to Christianity among the Rus- 
sians in the preceding century, since those conversions 
were neither permanent nor solid, and since it appears 
evidently that such of that nation, as, under the reign of 
Basilius the Macedonian, had embraced the doctrine of the 
Greek church, relapsed soon after into the superstition of 
their ancestors. Wlodomir, duke of Russia and Muscovy, 
married, in 961, Anne, sister of Basilius, the second Gre- 
cian emperor of that name ; and this zealous princess, by 
her repeated entreaties and her pious importunity, at length 
persuaded her reluctant spouse to receive the Christian 
faith, and he was accordingly baptised, in 987, assuming 
on that occasion the name of Basilius. The Russians 
spontaneously followed the example of their prince ; we 
have, at least, no account of any compulsion or violence 
being employed in their conversion ; b and this is the true 
date of the entire establishment of Christianity among that 
people. Wlodomir and his duchess were placed in the 
highest order of the Russian saints, and are still worshipped 
at Kiow,( where they were interred,) with the greatest de- 
votion. The Latins, however, paid no such respect to the 

* Duglossi Historia Polonica, lib. ii. p. 91, lib. iii. p. 95, 239. — Regen- 
volscii Historia Eccles. Slavon. lib. ii. cap. i. p. 8. — Henr. Canisii Lec- 
tiones Antique, torn. iii. part i. p. 41. — Solignac, Hist, de Pologne, torn. 
i. p. 71. 

bSee Anton. Pagi Critica in Baron, torn. iv. ad annum 987, p. 55, et 
ad an. 1015, p. 110.— Car. duFresne, Famil. Byzant. p. 143. 

Ditmari, Merseb. Episcopi, Chronic, lib. vh. Caronic. p. 417, torn. i. 
Scriptor Brunsvic. Leibnitii. 

a Pauli Debrezeni Historia Eccles. Reformator. in Ungaria, part i. 
cap. iii. p. 19. 

■ The Hungarians and Transylvanians were at this time known to 
the Grecians by the name of Turks. 

f The Greeks, Germans, Bohemians, and Poles, severally claim the 
honour of haying been the founders of the Christian religion in Hungary; 
and their respective pretensions have introduced not a little obscurity 
into this matter. The Germans allege, that the Christian religion was 



memory of Wlodomir, whom they represented as abso- 
lutely unworthy of saintly honours. 

VI. The Hungarians and Avari had received some faint 
notions of Christianity under the reign of Charlemagne, 
in consequence of the measures that had been taken by 
that zealous prince for the propagation of the Gospel. 
These notions, however, were soon and easily extinguished 
by various circumstances, which took their rise from the 
death of Charlemagne : and it was not before the century 
of which we now write that the Christian religion obtained 
a fixed settlement among these warlike nations. d Toward 
the middle of this century, Bulosudes and Gyula or Gylas, 
two Turkish chiefs, whose governments lay upon the 
banks of the Danube, e made public profession of Chris- 
tianity, and were baptised at Constantinople. The former 
apostatized soon after to the religion of his ancestors, while 
the latter not only persevered stedfastly in his new profes- 
sion, but also showed the most zealous concern for the con- 
version of his subjects, who, in consequence of his express 
order, were instructed in the doctrines and precepts of the 
Gospel by Hierotheus, a learned prelate, by whom he had 
been accompanied in his journey to Constantinople. Sa- 
rolta, the daughter of Gylas, was afterwards given in 
marriage to Geysa, the chief of the Hungarian nation, 
whom she persuaded to embrace the divine religion in 
which she had been educated. The faith, however, of 
this new convert was feeble and unsteady, and he retained 
a strong propensity to the superstition which he had been 
engaged to forsake ; but his apostacy was prevented by 
the pious remonstrances of Adalbert, archbishop of Prague, 
who went into Hungary towards the conclusion of this 
century, and by whom also Stephen, the son of Geysa, 
was baptised with great pomp and solemnity. It was 
to this young prince that the Gospel was principally in- 
debted for its propagation and establishment among the 
Hungarians, whose general conversion was the fruit of his 
zeal for the cause of Christ ; for he perfected what his 
father and grandfather had only begun ; fixed bishops, 
with large revenues, in various places ; erected magnifi- 
cent temples for Divine worship ; and, by the influence of 
instructions, threatenings, rewards, and punishments, 
brought his subjects, almost without exception, to abandon 
the wretched superstition of their idolatrous ancestors. 
These vigorous proceedings, by which Stephen introduced 
the religion of Jesus among the Hungarians, procured 
him the most distinguished honours of saintship in suc- 
ceeding ages. f 

VII. The Christian religion was in a very unsettled 
state among the Danes under the reign of Gormon ; and, 
notwithstanding the protection it received from his queen, 



brought into Hungary by Gisela, sister to their emperor Henry II., who, 
being given in marriage to Stephen, the king of that nation, persuaded 
that prince to embrace the Gospel. The Bohemians tell us, on the other 
hand, that it was by the ministry of Adalbert, archbishop of Prague, 
that Stephen was converted. The Poles affirm, that Geysa, having mar- 
ried a Christian princess of their nation, viz. Adelheid, sister to Micis- 
laus, duke of Poland, was induced by her remonstrances and exhorta- 
tions to make profession of Christianity. In consequence of a careful 
examination of all these pretensions, we have followed the sentiments 
and decisions of the Greek writers, after having diligently compared 
them with the Hungarian historians ; and we are encouraged in this by 
the authority of the learned Gabriel de Juxta Hornad, who, in his Initia 
Religionis Christiana? inter Hungaros Ecclesia? orientali adserta, pub- 
lished in 1740, decides this question in favour of the Greeks. All other 
accounts of the matter are extremely imperfect, and subject to many 
doubts and difficulties. 



Chap. I. 



PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 



207 



who professed it publicly, it was obliged to struggle with 
many difficulties, and to encounter much opposition. The 
face of things changed, indeed, after the death of Gor- 
mon. His son Harald, surnamed Blaatand, being de- 
feated by Otho the Great, in 949, embraced the Gospel, 
and was baptised, together with his consort and his son 
Sueno or Swein, by Adaldagus, archbishop of Hamburg, 
or, as others allege, by Poppon, a pious ecclesiastic, who 
attended the emperor in this expedition. It is probable 
that Harald, educated by his mother Tyra, who was a 
Christian, was not extremely averse to the religion of Je- 
sus ; it appears, however, certain, that his conversion was 
less the effect of his own choice, than of the irresistible 
commands of his victorious enemy ; for Otho, persuaded 
that the Danes would never desist from their hostile in- 
cursions and rapines, while they persevered in the religion 
of their ancestors, which was calculated to nourish a fe- 
rocity of temper, and to animate to military exploits, made 
it the principal condition of the treaty of peace, which he 
concluded with Harald, that he and his subjects should re- 
ceive the Christian faith. 1 On the conversion of this 
prince, Adaldagus and Poppon employed their ministerial 
labours among the Cimbrians and Danes, in order to en- 
gage them to imitate such an illustrious example ; and 
their exhortations were crowned with remarkable success, 
to which the stupendous miracles performed by Poppon 
are said to have contributed in a particular manner. These 
miracles, indeed, were of such a kind, as manifestly shows 
that they derived their origin from human art, and not 
from a divine interposition. 13 As long as Harald lived, he 
used every wise and probable method of confirming his 
subjects in the religion they had embraced. For this pur- 
pose he established bishops in several parts of his do- 
minious, enacted excellent laws, abrogated superstitious 
customs, and imposed severe restraints upon all vicious and 
immoral practices. But, after all these pious efforts, and 
salutary measures, which promised such fair prospects to 
the rising church, his son Sueno, or Swein, apostatized 
from the truth, and, during a certain time, involved the 
Christians in the deepest calamity and distress, and treated 
them with the greatest cruelty and injustice. This perse- 
cuting tyrant felt, however, in his turn, the heavy strokes 
of adversity, which produced a salutary change in his con- 
duct, and happily brought him to a better mind ; for, 
being driven from his kingdom, and obliged to seek his 
safety in a state of exile among the Scots, he embraced 
anew the religion he had abandoned, and, on his restora- 

• Adami Brcm. Hist. lib. ii. cap. ii. iii. p. 16, cap. xv. p. 20, in Linden- 
brogii Scriptoribus rcrum Septentrional. — Alb. Kranzii Wandalia, lib- 
iv. cap. xx. — Ludwigii Reliquiae Manuscriptor. torn. ix. p. 10. — Pontop- 
pidani Annales Ecclesiae Diplomatici, torn. i. p. 59. 

l ' Jo. Adolph. Cyprai Annales Episcopor. Slesvic. cap. xiii. p. 78. — 
Adam Bremens. lib. ii. cap. xxvi. p. 22, cap. xliv. p. 28. — Jo. Stephen. 
ad Saxonem Grammat. p. 207. — Molleri Introduct. ad Historiam Cher- 
sones. Cimbric. part ii. cap. iii. sect. 14. 

Saxon. Gramm. Histor. Dan. lib. x. p. 186. — Pontoppidan. deGestis 
et Vestigiis Danorum extra Daniam, torn. ii. cap. i. sect. 1, 2. 

<! Eric. Pontoppidan. Annales Eccles. Danicae diplomat, torn. i. p. 66. 

• Torfan Ristoria Norvegica, torn. ii. p. 183, 214. 
f Torfaeus, p. 457. 

f^T * Dr. Moshei.n attributes here to Swein the honour which is due 
to his predecessor Olaus Tryg-gueson ; if it can be deemed an honour 
to have promoted a rational and divine religion by compulsion and vio- 
lence, by fire and sword. Olaus, who had a.bjured paganism in England, 
during his youth, in consequence of a warm and pathetic discourse 
which he had heard from a British priest, returned to Norway with a 
firm resolution to propagate Christianity throughout his dominions. For 
this purpose he travelled from one province to another, attended by a 



tion to his dominions, exerted the most ardent and exem- 
plary zeal in the cause of Christianity, which he endea- 
voured to promote to the utmost of his power/ 

VIII. It was in this century, that the first dawn of 
the Gospel arose upon the Norwegians, as Ave learn from 
the most authentic records. The conversion of that peo- 
ple was attempted, in 933, by their monarch, Hagen Adel- 
steen, who had been educated among the English, and 
who employed certain ecclesiastics of that nation to in- 
struct his subjects in the doctrines of Christianity. But 
his pious efforts were rendered fruitless by the brutal ob- 
stinacy with which the Norwegians persevered in their 
ancient prejudices ; and the assiduity and zeal with which 
his successor Harald Graufeldt pursued the same plan of 
reformation, were also without etfect. d The succeeding 
princes, far from being discouraged by these obstacles, 
persisted firmly in their worthy purpose; and Haco, among 
others, yielding to the entreaties of Harald, king of Den- 
mark, to whom he was indebted for the Norwegian crown, 
embraced, himself, the Christian religion, and recommend- 
ed it with the greatest fervour to his subjects, in an as- 
sembly of the people, holden in 945. e This recommen- 
dation, notwithstanding the solemnity and zeal with 
which it was accompanied, made little impression upon 
the minds of this fierce and barbarous people; nor wore 
they entirely gained over by the zealous endeavours of 
Olaus to convert them to Christianity, though the pious 
diligence of that prince, which procured him the honour 
of saintship, was not altogether without effect/ But that 
which gave the finishing stroke to the conversion of the 
Norwegians was their subjection to Sueno, or Swein, king 
of Sweden, who, having defeated their monarch Olaus 
Tryg-gueson, became master of Norway, and obliged its 
inhabitants to abandon the gods of their ancestors, and to 
embrace universally the religion of Jesus.e Among the 
various doctors who were sent to instruct this barbarous 
people, the most eminent, both in merit and authority, 
was Guthebald, an English priest. h From Norway, 
Christianity spread its salutary light through the adjacent 
countries, and was preached, with success, in the Orkney 
islands, which were, at that time, subject to the Norwegian 
kings, and also in Iceland and Old Greenland ; for it is 
evident, from many circumstances and records of un- 
doubted authority, that the greatest part of the inhabi- 
tants of these countries received the Gospel in this century.' 

IX. In Germany the pious exploits of Otho the Great 
contributed, in a signal manner, to promote the interest of 

chosen band of soldiers, and, sword in hand, performed the functions of 
missionary and apostle. His ministry, thus enforced, was followed with 
the desired success throughout all the provinces, except that of Dron- 
theim, which rose in rebellion against him, and attacked Christianity 
with the same kind of arguments that Olaus employed in establishing 
it. This opposition occasioned several bloody battles, which ended, 
however, in the defeat of the rebels, and of the god Thor, their tutelar 
deity, whose statue Olaus dragged from its place, and burned publicly in 
the sight of his worshippers. This event dejected the courage of the 
inhabitants of Drontheim, who submitted to the religion and laws of 
their conqueror. And thus, before the reign of Sueno, at least before the 
defeat of Olaus by that prince, Norway was Christian. See the History 
of Denmark, published in French by M. Mallet, vol. i. p. 52, 53. 

h Chron. Danicum a Ludewigio editum in Reliquiis Manuscriptorum, 
torn. ix. p. 11, 16, 17. 

■ On the subject of the conversion of the inhaoitants of the Orkneys, 
see Torfaei Historia Rerum Orcadens lib. i. p. 22, and, for an account of 
the Icelanders, the reader may consult Amgrim Jonas' Crymogaea, lib. i. 
and Arius' Multis. in Schedis Islandiae; as also Torfaeus, Histor. Nor- 
veg. torn. ii. p. 378, 379, 417 ; and Gabriel Liron's Singularites Histo- 
riques et Literaires, t. i.p. 138. — The same Torfaeus gives a full account 



203 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part L 



Christianity, and to fix it upon solid foundations through- 
out the empire. This truly great prince, whose pious 
magnanimity clothed him with a lustre infinitely superior 
to that which he derived from his imperial dignity, was 
constantly employed in extirpating the remains of the an- 
cient superstitions, and in supporting and confirming the 
infant church, which in several provinces had not yet at- 
tained any considerable degree of consistence and vigour. 
That there might be rulers and pastors to govern the 
church, and to contribute both by their doctrine and exam- 
ple to the reformation and improvement of an unpolished 
and illiterate people, he established bishops in several pla- 
ces, and generously erected and endowed the bishoprics 
of Brandenburg, Havelberg, Meissen, Magdeburg, and 
Nauinberg ; by which excellent establishments the church 
was furnished with eminent doctors from various parts, 
whose instructions were the occasion of raising up new 
labourers in the spiritual harvest, and of thus multiplying 
the ministers of Christ from time to time. It was also 
through the munificence of the same prince, that many 
convents were erected for those who, in conformity with the 
false piety of the times, chose to finish their Christian 
course in the indolent sanctity of a solitary life ; and it 
was by his express order that schools were established in 
almost every city for the education of the youth. All 
this may serve to show us the generosity and zeal of this 
illustrious emperor, whose merit would have surpassed the 
highest encomiums, had his prudence and moderation 
been equal to the fervour of his piety and the uprightness 
of his intentions. But the superstition of his empress, a 
and the deplorable ignorance of the times, deluded this 
good prince into the notion, that he obliged the Deity in 
proportion as he loaded the clergy with riches and honours, 
and that nothing was more proper to draw down upon 
him the divine protection, than the exercise of a bound- 
less liberality to his ministers. In consequence of this idle 
and extravagant fancy, Otho opened the sources of his 
opulence, which flowed into the church like an overgrown 
torrent, so that the bishops, monks, and the religious fra- 
ternities in general, wallowed in wealth and abundance. 
But succeeding ages perceived the unhappy effects of this 
excessive and ill-judged munificence, when the sacred or- 
ders employed this opulence, which they had acquired 
without either merit or labour, in gratifying their passions, 
in waging war against all who opposed their ambitious 
pretensions, and in purchasing the various pleasures of a 
luxurious and effeminate life. 

X. It was no doubtful mark of the progress and 
strength of the Christian cause, that the European kings 
and princes began so early as this century to form the 
project of a holy war against the Mohammedans, who 
were masters of Palestine. They considered it as an in- 
tolerable reproach upon Christians, that the very land in 
which the divine author of their religion had received his 
birth, had exercised his ministry, and made expiation for 
Che sins of mortals, should be abandoned to the enemies of 
the Christian name. They also looked upon it as highly 
just, and suitable to the majesty of the Christian religion, 
to avenge the calamities and injuries, the persecution and 

of the introduction of Christianity into Groenland, in his Histor. Nor- 
veg. torn. ii. p. 374, and also in his Groenlandia Antiqua, c. xvii. p. 137. 

a See the life of the empress, whose name was Adelaide, in the Lec- 
tiones Antiquse of Henry Canisius, torn. iii. 

» This is the twenty-eighth Epistle in the first part of the collection of 



reproach, which its professors had suffered under the Mo- 
hammedan yoke. The bloody signal was accordingly 
given toward the conclusion of this century, by Sylvester 
II. in the first year of his pontificate ; and this signal was 
an epistle, written in the name of the church of Jerusalem, 
to the church universal throughout the world, b in which 
the European powers were solemnly exhorted and entreat- 
ed to succour and deliver the Christians in Palestine. The 
pope's exhortations, however, were without effect, except 
upon the inhabitants of Pisa, who are said to have obey- 
ed the summons with the utmost alacrity, and to have 
prepared themselves immediately for a holy campaign. e 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Calamitous Events that happened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The Christian religion suffered less in this century 
from the cruelty of its enemies, than from the defection 
of its friends. Of all the pagan monarchs, under whose 
government the Christians lived, none behaved to them 
in a hostile manner, or tormented them with the execu- 
tion of compulsive edicts or penal laws, except Gormon 
and Swein, kings of Denmark. Notwithstanding this, 
their affairs were far from being either in a fixed or flou- 
rishing state ; and their situation was full of uncertainty 
and peril, both in the eastern and western provinces. The 
Saracens in Asia and Africa, amidst the intestine divi- 
sions under which they groaned, and the calamities that 
overwhelmed them from different quarters, were extreme- 
ly assiduous in propagating the doctrines of Mohammed ; 
nor were their efforts unsuccessful. Multitudes of Chris- 
tians fell into their snares ; and the Turks, a valiant and 
fierce nation, who inhabited the northern coast of the 
Caspian sea, received then doctrine. The uniformity of 
religion did not, however, produce a solid union of inter- 
est between the Turks and Saracens ; on the contrary, 
their dissensions and quarrels were never more violent 
than from the time that Mohammed became their com- 
mon chief in religious matters. The Persians, whose 
country was a prey to the ambitious usurpations of the 
latter, implored the aid of the former, by whom succours 
were granted with the utmost alacrity and readiness. 
The Turks accordingly fell upon the Saracens in a furi- 
ous manner, drove them out of the whole extent of the 
Persian territories, and afterwards, with incredible rapidi- 
ty and success, invaded, seized, and plundered the other 
provinces that belonged to that people, whose desolation, 
in reality, came on like a whirlwind. Thus the powerful 
empire of the Saracens, which its enemies had for so 
many years attempted in vain to overturn, fell at last by 
the hands of its allies and friends. The Turks accom- 
plished what the Greeks and Romans ineffectually aimed 
at ; they struck suddenly that dreadful blow, which ruin- 
ed at once the affairs of the Saracens in Persia, and then 
deprived them by degrees of their other dominions ; and 
thus the Ottoman empire, which is still an object of ter- 
ror to the Christians, was established upon the ruins of the 
Saracen dominion." 1 



the letters of Sylvester II. published by Du-Chesne, in the third volume 
of his Scriptor. Histor. Franc.' 

c See Muratori, Scriptores Rerum ltalicarum, torn. iii. p. 400. 

a For a more ample account of these revolutions, see the Annaler Tur- 
cici of Leunclavius, and Elmacini Historia Saracenica. 



Chap. II. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



209 



II. In the western provinces, the Christians had much 
to suffer from the hatred and cruelty of those who remain- 
ed under the darkness of paganism. The Normans, 
during a great part of this century, committed, in several 
parts of France, the most barbarous hostilities, and involv- 
ed the Christians, wherever they carried their victorious 
arms, in numberless calamities. The Sarmatians, Scla- 
vonians, Bohemians, and others, who had either conceiv- 
ed an aversion for the Gospel, or were sunk in a stupid 
ignorance of its intrinsic excellence and its immortal bless- 
ings, not only endeavoured to extirpate Christianity out of 
their own territories by the most barbarous efforts of cru- 
elty and violence, but infested the adjacent countries, 
where it was professed, with fire and sword, and left, 
wherever they went, the most dreadful marks of their un- 
relenting fury. The Danes, moreover, did not cease to 
molest the Christians, until they were subdued by Otho 
the Great, and thus, from being the enemies, became the 
friends of the Christian cause. The Hungarians also 
contributed their part to the sufferings of the church, by 
their incursions into several parts of Germany, which they 
turned into scenes of desolation and misery ; while the 
fierce Arabs, by their tyranny in Spain, and their depreda- 
tions in Italyand the neighbouring islands, spread calamity 
and oppression all around them, of which, no doubt, the 
Christians established in those parts had the heaviest portion. 

III. Whoever considers the endless vexations, persecu- 
No. XVIII. 53 



tions, and calamities, which the Christians suffered from 
the nations that continued in their ancient superstitions, 
will easily perceive the reason of that fervent and inex- 
tinguishable zeal, which Christian princes discovered for 
the conversion of those nations, whose impetuous and 
savage fury they experienced from time to time. A prin- 
ciple of self-preservation, and a prudent regard to their 
own safety, as well as a pious zeal for the propagation of 
the Gospel, engaged them to put in practice every method 
that might open the eyes of their barbarous adversaries, 
from a rational and well-grounded hope that the precepts 
of Christianity would mitigate, by degrees, the ferocity of 
these nations, and soften their rugged and intractable tem- 
pers. Hence it was, that Christian kings and emperors 
left no means unemployed to draw these infidels within 
the pale of the church. For this purpose, they proposed 
to their chiefs alliances of marriage, and offered them cer- 
tain districts and territories, with auxiliary troops to main- 
tain them against their enemies, upon condition that they 
would abandon the superstition of their ancestors, which 
tended to nourish their ferocity, and to increase their pas- 
sion for blood and carnage. These offers were attended 
with the desired success, as they induced the infidel chiefs 
not only to lend an ear themselves to the instructions and 
exhortations of the Christian missionaries, but also to 
oblige their subjects and armies to follow their examples 
in this important respect. 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy dur- 
ing this Century. 

I. The deplorable ignorance of this barbarous age, in 
which the drooping arts were totally neglected, and the 
sciences seemed to be on the point of expiring for want of 
encouragement, is unanimously confessed and lamented 
by all the writers who have transmitted to us any ac- 
counts of this period. Nor, indeed, will this fatal revolu- 
tion, in the republic of letters, appear astonishing to such 
as consider, on one hand, the terrible vicissitudes, tumults, 
and wars, that threw all things into confusion both in 
the eastern and western world, and, on the other, the ig- 
nominious stupidity and dissoluteness of those sacred or- 
ders which had been appointed as the guardians of truth 
and learning. Leo, surnamed the philosopher, who as- 
cended the imperial throne of the Greeks toward the 
commencement of this century, was himself an eminent 
lover of learning, and an auspicious and zealous protec- 
tor of such as distinguished themselves in the culture of 
the sciences." This noble and generous disposition ap- 
peared with still greater lustre in his son Constantine Por- 
phyrogeneta, who evinced the greatest ardour for the re- 
vival of the arts and sciences in Greece, b and employed 
what he deemed the most effectual measures for the ac- 
complishment of this excellent purpose. It was with 
this view that he spared no expense in drawing to his 
court, and supporting in his dominions, a variety of learn- 
ed men, each of whom excelled in some of the different 
branches of literature, and in causing the most diligent 
search to be made for the writings of the ancients. With 
this view, also, he became himself an author, and thus 
animated by his example, as well as by his protection, 
men of genius and abilities to enrich the sciences with 
their learned productions. He employed, moreover, a con- 
siderable number of able pens, in making valuable ex- 
tracts from the commentaries and other compositions of 
the ancients ; which extracts were preserved in certain 
places for the benefit and satisfaction of the curious ; and 
thus, by various exertions of liberality and zeal, this 
learned prince restored the arts and sciences to a certain 
degree of life and vigour. 3 But there were few of the 
Greeks who followed this great and illustrious example ; 
nor did any of the succeeding emperors equal these two 
excellent princes in zeal for the advancement of learning, 
or in lending, by protection and encouragement, an aus- 
picious hand to raise, out of obscurity and dejection, neg- 
lected and depressed genius. But (what is still more re- 
markable) Constantine Porphyrogeneta, whom we have 
now been representing as the restorer of letters, and whom 
the Greeks unanimously admire in tins character, is sup- 
posed by some to have done considerable prejudice to the 



* See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Biblioth. Grsec. lib. v. part ii. cap. v. p. 363. 

» Fabricius, lib. v. part ii. cap. v. p. 486. 

HJT ° We have yet remaining the following productions of this 
prince: The Life of the Emperor Basilius ; — a Treatise upon the art of 
Governing, in which he investigates the origin of several nations, treats 
of their power, their progress, their revolutions, and their decline, and 



cause of learning by the very means he employed to 
promote its advancement ; for, by employing learned men 
to extract from the writers of antiquity what they thought 
might contribute to the improvement of the various aits 
and sciences, he gave too much occasion to neglect the 
sources, and flattered the indolence of the effeminate 
Greeks, who confined their studies to these extracts, and 
neglected, in effect, the perusal of the writers from whom 
they were drawn. Hence it unfortunately happened, that 
many of the most celebrated authors of antiquity were 
lost, at this time, through the sloth and negligence of the 
Greeks. 

II. This method, as the event manifestly showed, was 
really detrimental to the progress of true learning and ge- 
nius. And accordingly we find among the Greek writers 
of this century only a small number, who acquired a dis- 
tinguished and shining reputation in the republic of letters; 
so that the fair and engaging prospects which seemed to 
arise in the cause of learning from the munificence and 
zeal of its imperial patrons, vanished in a short time; and 
though the seeds of science were richly sown, the natura. 
expectations of an abundant harvest were unhappily dis- 
appointed. Nor did the cause of philosophy succeed bet- 
ter than that of literature. Philosophers indeed there were ; 
and some of them were not destitute of genius and abilities' 
but not one of them rendered his name immortal by pro- 
ductions that were worthy of being transmitted to posterity, 
A certain number of rhetoricians and grammarians, a few 
poets who were above contempt, and several historians 
who, without deserving the highest encomiums, were not 
totally destitute of merit, were the members that composed, 
at this time, the republic of letters in Greece, whose inha- 
bitants seemed to take pleasure in those kinds of literature 
alone, in which industry, imagination, and memory, are 
concerned. 

III. Egypt, though at this time it groaned under a 
heavy and exasperating yoke of oppression and bondage, 
produced writers, who, in genius and learning, were no- 
wise inferior to the most eminent of the Grecian literati. 
Among the many examples we might mention to prove 
the truth of this assertion, we shall confine ourselves to 
that of Eutychius, bishop of Alexandria, who cultivated 
the sciences of physic and theology with the greatest suc- 
cess, and cast a new light upon them both by his excellent 
writings. The Arabians, during this whole century, pre- 
served that noble passion for the arts and sciences, which 
had been kindled among them in the preceding age; and 
hence their country abounded with physicians, mathema- 
ticians, and philosophers, whose names and characters, 
together with an account of their respective abilities and 
talents, are given by Leo Africanus, and other literary his- 
torians. 

IV. The Latins present to us a spectacle of a very dif- 

gives a series of their princes and rulers ; — a Discourse concerning tha 
Manner of forming a Land Army and Naval Force in Order of Battle; 
Two Books concerning the eastern and western Provinces, which may ba 
considered as an account of the state of the empire in the time of this prince. 
a All this appears evident from the accounts left upon record by Zona- 
ras, in his Annales, torn. iii. 



Chap. I. 



LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



211 



ferent kind. They were almost without exception sunk 
in the most brutish and barbarous ignorance : so that, ac- 
cording to the unanimous accounts of the most credible 
writers, nothing could be more melancboly and deplorable 
than the darkness that reigned in the western world during 
this century, which, with respect to learning and philoso- 
phy at least, may be called the Iron Age of the Latins.* 
Some learned men of modern times have, we confess, ven- 
tured to call this in question : but their doubts are cer- 
tainly without foundation, and the matter of fact is too 
firmly established by unquestionable authorities to lose 
any part of its credit in consequence of the objections they 
allege against it. b It is true, there were public schools 
founded, in most of the European provinces, some of 
which were erected in the monasteries, and the rest in 
those cities where the bishops resided. It is also true, 
that through this dismal night of ignorance there shone 
forth from time to tune, and more especially toward the 
conclusion of this century, some geniuses of a superior 
order, who eyed with ardour the paths of science, and cast 
some rays of light upon the darkness of a barbarous age. 
But they were very few in number, and their extreme 
rarity is a sufficient proof of the infelicity of the times in 
which they appeared. In the seminaries of learning, such 
as they were, the seven liberal arts were taught in the 
most unskilful and miserable manner by the monks, who 
esteemed the arts and sciences no farther than as they 
were subservient to the interests of religion, or, to speak 
more properly, to the views of superstition. 

V. They who were the most learned and judicious 
among the monastic orders, and who were desirous of 
employing usefully a part of their leisure, applied them- 
selves to the composition of annals and histories, which 
savoured of the ignorance and barbarism of the times. 
Such Avere Abo, Luitprand, Wittekind, Fulcuin, Johannes 
Capuanus, Ratherius, Flodoard, Notker, Ethelbert, and 
others, who, though very different from each other in 
their respective degrees of merit, were all ignorant of the 
true nature and rules of historical composition. Several 
of the poets of this age gave evident marks of true genius : 
but they were strangers to the poetic art, which was not 
indeed necessary to satisfy a people utterly destitute of 
elegance and taste. The grammarians and rhetoricians 
of these unhappy times are scarcely worthy of mention ; 
their method of instructing was full of absurdities ; and 
their rules were trivial, and, for the most part, injudicious. 
The same judgment may be formed in general of the 
geometry, arithmetic, astronomy, and music, which were 
more or less taught in the public schools, and of which a 

1 The testimonies that prove die ignorance which prevailed in the 
tenth century, are collected by du^Boulay, in his Historia Acad. Paris, 
torn. i. p. 288; and also by Lud. Ant. Muratori, in his Antiquitat. ItaL 
medii -fevi, torn. iii. p. 831, et torn. ii. p. 141, &c. 

<> The famous Leibnitz, in his preface to the Cod. Juris Nat. et Genti- 
um Diplomat, affirms that more knowledge and learning existed in the 
tenth century, than in the succeeding ages, particularly in the twelfth 
and thirteenth centuries. But this is washing the Ethiopian : it is an ex- 
travagant assertion, and borders upon paradox. We shall be better 
directed in our notions of this matter by Mabillon, in his Praefat. ad Act. 
Bened. Quint. Saee. p. 2; by the authors of the Histoire Literaire de la 
France; and by Le Bceuf's Dissertat. de Statu Literarum in Francia. a 
Carolo M. ad Regem Robertum ; who all agree in acknowledging the 
gross ignorance of this century, though they would engage us to believe 
that its barbarism and darkness were not so hideous as they are common- 
ly represented. There are, indeed, several considerations that render 
the reasons and testimonies even of these writers not a little defective ; 
Lut we agree with them so far as to grant that all learning and know- 



more particular account would be uninstructive and in- 
sipid. 

VI. The philosophy of the Latins extended no farther 
than the single science of logic or dialectics, which they 
looked upon as the sum and substance of all human wis- 
dom. But this logic, which was so highly admired, was 
drawn without the least perspicuity or method from a 
book of Categories, which some have unjustly attributed 
to Augustin, and others to Porphyry. It is true, indeed, 
that the Timseus of Plato, the Topica of Cicero and Aris- 
totle, and the book of the latter concerning interpretation, 
with other compositions of the Greeks and Romans, weie 
in the hands of several of the doctors of this century, as we 
learn from credible accounts ; but the same accounts in- 
form us, that the true sense of these excellent authors was 
scarcely understood by any of those who daily perused 
them. c It will appear, no doubt, surprising, that in such 
an ignorant age such a subtle question as that concerning 
universal ideas should ever have been thought of; true 
however it is, that the famous controversy, whether uni- 
versal ideas belonged to the class of objects or of mere 
names (a controversy which perplexed and bewildered the 
Latin doctors in succeeding times, and gave rise to the 
opposite sects of the Nominalists and Realists,) was started 
for the first time in this centuiy. Accordingly we find, in 
several passages of the writers of this period, the seeds and 
beginnings of this tedious and intricate dispute." 1 

VII. The drooping sciences found an eminent and illus- 
trious patron, toward the conclusion of this century, in the 
learned Gerbert, a native of France, who, upon his eleva 
tion to the pontificate, assumed the title of Sylvester II 
The genius of this famous pontiff was extensive and sub- 
lime, embracing all the branches of literature ; but its 
more peculiar bent was turned toward mathematical stu- 
dies. Mechanics, geometry, astronomy, arithmetic, and 
every other kind of knowledge that had the least affinity 
to these important sciences, were cultivated by this restorer 
of learning with the most ardent zeal, and not without 
success, as his writings abundantly testify; nor did he 
stop here, but employed every method that was proper to 
encourage and animate others to the culture of the liberal 
arts and sciences. The effects of this noble zeal were 
visible in Germany, France, and Italy, both in this and 
in the following century; as by the writings, example, 
and exhortations of Gerbert, many were incited to the 
study of physic, mathematics, and philosophy, and in ge- 
neral to the pursuit of science in all its branches. If, in- 
deed, we compare this learned pontiff with the mathema- 
ticians of modern times, his merit, in that point of view, 

ledge were not absolutely extinguished in Europe at this time, and 
that, in the records of this century, we shall find a few chosen spirits, 
who pierced through the cloud of ignorance that covered die multi- 
tude. 

c Gunzo, Epistol. ad Monachos Augiensis in Ma>tenne's Collect Am- 
pliss. Momimenlor. Veter. torn. iii. p. 304. 

& This appears evident from the following remaikable passage, which 
the reader will find in die 304th page of the work cited in the preceding 
note, and in which die learned Gunzo expresses himself in the following 
manner: " Aristoteles, genus, speciem, dift'erentiam,propriumet accidens, 
subsistere denegavit, quae Platoni subsister.tia persuasit. Aristoteli an 
Platoni magis credendum putatis 1 Magna est utriusque auctoritas. qua- 
tenus vix audeat quis alterum alteri dignitate praeferre." Here we see 
plainly the seeds of discord sown, and the foundation laid for dial knotty 
dispute which puzzled the metaphysical brains of the Latin doctors in 
after times. Gunzo was not adventurous enough to attempt a solution of 
this intricate ouestion, which he leaves undecided ; others were less mo- 
dest, without being more successful. 



212 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part n. 



will almost totally disappear under such a disadvantageous 
comparison ; for his Geometry, though it be easy and per- 
spicuous, is merely elementary and superficial. 11 Yet, such 
as it was, it was marvellous in an age of barbarism and 
darkness, and surpassed the apprehension of those pigmy 
philosophers, whose eyes, under the auspicious direction of 
Gerbert, were just beginning to open upon the light. 
Hence it was, that the geometrical figures, described by 
this mathematical pontiff, were regarded by the monks as 
magical operations, and the pontiff himself was treated as 
a magician and a disciple of Satan. b 

VIII. It was not however to the fecundity of his genius 
alone, that Gerbert was indebted for the knowledge with 
which he now began to enlighten the European provinces ; 
he had derived a part of his erudition, particularly in phy- 
sic, mathematics, and philosophy, from the writings and 
instructions of the Arabians, who were settled in Spain. 
Thither he had repaired in pursuit of knowledge, and had 
spent some time in the seminaries of learning at Cordova 
and Seville, with a view of hearing the Arabian doctors ; c 
and it was, perhaps, by his example, that the Europeans 
were directed and en°;a°;ed to have recourse to this source 
of instruction in after times ; for it is undeniably certain, 
that from the time of Gerbert, such of the Europeans as 
were ambitious of making any considerable progress in 
physic, arithmetic, geometry, or philosophy, entertained 
the most eager and impatient desire of receiving instruc- 
tion either from the academical lessons, or from the wri- 
tings of the Arabian philosophers, who had founded schools 
in several parts of Spain and Italy. Hence it was, that the 
most celebrated productions of these doctors were transla- 
ted into Latin ; their tenets and systems were adopted with 
zeal in the European schools ; and numbers went over to 
Spain and Italy to receive instruction from the mouths of 
these famous teachers, which were supposed to utter no- 
thing but the deepest mysteries of wisdom and knowledge. 
However excessive this veneration for the learned Arabians 
may have been, it must be owned, that all the knowledge, 
whether of physic, astronomy, philosophy, or mathematics, 
which flourished in Europe from the tenth century, was 
originally derived from them : and that the Spanish Sa- 
racens, in a more particular manner, may be looked upon 
as the fathers of European philosophy. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors mid Ministers of the Church, 
and its Form of Govermnent during- this Century. 

I. To those who consider the primitive dignity and the 
solemn nature of the ministerial character, the corruptions 
of the clergy must appear deplorable beyond all expression. 
These corruptions had risen to the most enormous height 
in that dismal period of the church which Ave have now 
before us. Both in the eastern and western provinces, 

* This work was published by Pezius, in his Thesaurus Anecdotorum, 
torn. iii. part ii. p. 7. 

b See the Hist. Liter, de la France, torn. vi. p. 558. — Du Boulay, Hist. 
Acad. Pa-ris. torn. i. p. 314, 319. — Naude, Apologie pour les Grands 
Hommes faussement accuses de la Magie, chap. xix. sect. 4. 

• Du Boulay, torn. i. p. 314. 

g^» i This exemplary prelate, who sold every ecclesiastical benefice 
as soon as it became vacant, had in his stable above 2000 hunting horses, 
which he fed with pig-nuts, pistachios, dates, dried grapes, and figs 
steeped in the. most exquisite wines, to all which he added the richest 
perfumes. On Holy Thursday, as he was celebrating high-mass, his 
groom brought him the joyful news that one of his favourite mares had 



the clergy were, for the most part, a most worthless set of 
men, shamefully illiterate and stupid, ignorant more espe- 
cially in religious matters, equally enslaved to sensuality 
and superstition, and capable of the most abominable and 
flagitious deeds. This dismal degeneracy of the sacred 
order, according to the most credible accounts, principally 
arose from the scandalous examples of those who ought to 
have presented models of good conduct, — namely, the pre- 
tended chiefs and rulers of the universal church, who in- 
dulged themselves in the commission of odious crimes, and 
abandoned themselves to the lawless impulse of the most 
licentious passions without reluctance or remorse ; who 
confounded, in short, all difference between just and un- 
just acts, to satisfy their impious ambition ; and whose 
spiritual empire was such a diversified scene of iniquity 
and violence, as never was exhibited under any of those 
temporal tyrants, who have been the scourges of mankind. 
We may form some notion of the Grecian patriarchs from 
the single example of Theophylact, who, according to the 
testimonies of the most respectable writers, made the most 
impious traffic of ecclesiastical promotions, and expressed 
no sort of care about any thing but his dogs and horses. d 
Degenerate, however, and licentious as these patriarchs 
might be, they were, in general, less profligate and inde- 
cent than the Roman pontiffs. 

II. The history of the popes, who lived in this century, 
is a history of so many monsters, and not of men, and ex- 
hibits a horrible series of the most flagitious, tremendous, 
and complicated crimes, as all writers, even those of the 
Romish communion, unanimously confess. The source 
of these disorders must be sought principally in the cala- 
mities that fell upon the greatest part of Europe, and 
which afflicted Italy in a particular manner, after the ex- 
tinction of the race of Charlemagne. On the death of Be- 
nedict IV., in 903, Leo V. was raised to the pontificate, 
which he enjoyed no longer than forty days, being de- 
throned by Christopher, and cast into prison. Christopher, 
in his turn, was deprived of the pontifical dignity in the 
following year by Sergius III., a Roman presbyter, second- 
ed by the protection and influence of Adalbert, a most 
powerful Tuscan prince, who had a supreme and unli- 
mited direction in all the affairs that were transacted at 
Rome. Anastasius III., and Lando, who, on the death 
of Sergius, in 911, were raised successively to the papal 
dignity, enjoyed it but for a short time, and did nothing 
that could contribute to render their names illustrious. 

III. After the death of Lando, which happened in 914, 
Alberic, e marquis or count of Tuscany, whose opulence 
was prodigious, and whose authority in Rome was despo- 
tic and unlimited, obtained the pontificate for John X., 
archbishop of Ravenna, in compliance with the solicitation 
of Theodora, his mother-in-law, whose lewdness was the 
principle that interested her in this promotion. f This in- 
famous election will not surprise such as know that the 

foaled ; upon which he threw down the liturgy, left the church, and ran 
in raptures to the stable, where having expressed his joy at that grand, 
event, he returned to the altar to finish the divine service, which he had 
left interrupted during his absence. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. livre 
lv. 

frjr ' It was Albert or Adalbert, of whom Dr. Moshe'im here speaks. 
Alberic was grandson to the elder Theodora, by her daughter Marozia, 
who was married to Albert. See Spanheim, Eccles. Hist. Secul. X. p. 
1432. — FLeury, Hist. Eccles. livre liv. The latter historian is of opinion, 
that it was the younger Theodora, the sister of Marozia, who, from an 
amorous principle, raised John to the pontificate. 

g^ i Theodora, mistress of Rome, procured the elevation of John, 



Chap. It. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



213 



laws of Rome were at this time absolutely silent ; that the 
dictates of justice and equity were overpowered and sus- 
pended ; and that all things were carried on in that great 
city by interest or corruption, by violence or fraud. John X., 
though in other respects a scandalous example of iniquity 
and lewdness in the papal chair, acquired a certain degree 
of reputation by his glorious campaign against the Sara- 
cens, whom he drove from the settlement which they had 
made upon the banks of the Garigliano. 1 He did not. 
however, long enjoy his glory ; for the enmity of Marozia, 
daughter of Theodora and wife of Alberic, proved fatal to 
him ; for this inhuman female, having espoused Wido, or 
Guy, marquis of Tuscany, after the death of her first con- 
sort, engaged him to seize the wanton pontiff, who was 
her mother's lover, and to put him to death in the prison 
where he lay confined. This licentious pontiff was suc- 
ceeded by Leo VI., who sat but seven months in the apos- 
tolic chair, which was filled after him by Stephen VII. 
The death of the latter, which happened in 931, presented 
to the ambition of Marozia an object worthy of its grasp ; 
and accordingly she raised to the papal dignity John XL, 
who was the fruit of her lawless amours with one of the 
pretended successors of St. Peter, Sergius III., whose adul- 
terous commerce with that infamous woman gave an in- 
fallible guide to the Romish church. b 

IV. John XI., who was placed at the head of the church 
by the credit and influence of his mother, was pulled down 
from this summit of spiritual grandeur, in 933, by Alberic 
his half-brother, who had conceived the utmost aversion 
against him. His mother Marozia had, after the death of 
Wido, entered anew into the bonds of matrimony with 
Hugo, king of Italy, who, having offended his step-son 
Alberic, felt severely the weight of his resentment, which 
vented its fury upon the whole family ; for Alberic drove 
out of Rome not only Hugo, but also Marozia and her 
son the pontiff, and confined them in prison, where the 
latter ended his days in 936. The four pontiffs, who, in 
their turns, succeeded John XI., and filled the papal chair 
until the year 956, were Leo VII., Stephen VIII., Mari- 
nus II., and Agapet, whose characters were much better 
than that of their predecessor, and whose government, at 
least, was not attended with those tumults and revolutions 
that had so often shaken the pontifical throne, and banish- 
ed from Rome the inestimable blessings of peace and con- 
cord. On the death of Agapet, which happened in 956, 
Alberic II., who to the dignity of Roman consid joined a 
degree of authority and opulence which nothing could re- 
sist, raised to the pontificate his son Octavian, who was yet 
in the early bloom of youth, and destitute, besides, of every 
quality that was requisite for discharging the duties of that 
high and important office. This unworthy pontiff assu- 
med the name of John XII., and thus introduced the cus- 
tom that has since been adopted by all his successors in 

that she might continue the licentious commerce in which she had lived 
with that carnal ecclesiastic for many years before. 

fJjT' 1 In the original we have Montem Garilianum, which is, un- 
doubtedly a mistake, as the Garigliano is a river in die kingdom of Na- 
ples, and not a mountain. 

* The character and conduct of Marozia are acknowleged to have 
been most infamous by the geaeral testimony both of ancient and modern 
historians, who affirm, with one voice, that John XI. was the fruit of her 
commerce with Sergius III. Eccard alone (in his Origines Guelphicae, 
torn. i. lib. iii.) has ventured to clear her from this reproach, and to assert, 
that Sergius, before his elevation to the pontificate, was her lawful and 
first husband. The attempt, however, is highly extravagant, if not im- 
prudent, to pretend to acquit, without the least testimony or proof of her 

No. XVIII. 54 



the see of Rome, of assuming another name upon the ac 
quisition of the pontificate. 

V. The fate of John XII. was as unhappy as his pro- 
motion had been scandalous. Unable to bear the oppres- 
sive yoke of Berenger II., king of Italy, he sent ambassa- 
dors, in 960, to Otho the Great, urging him to march into 
Italy at the head of a powerful army, to deliver the church 
and tire people from the tyranny under which they groaned. 
To these entreaties the perplexed pontiff added a solemn 
promise, that, if the German monarch would come to his 
assistance, he would array him with the purple and the 
other ensigns of sovereignty, and proclaim him emperor 
of the Romans. Otho received this embassy with plea- 
sure, marched into Italy at the head of a large body of 
troops, and was accordingly saluted by John with the pro- 
mised title. The pontiff, however, soon perceiving that 
he had acted with too much precipitation, repented of the 
step he had taken, and, though he had sworn allegiance 
to the emperor, as his lawful sovereign, in the most solemn 
manner, he broke his oath, and joined with Adalbert, the 
son of Berenger. against Otho. This revolt was not left 
unpunished. The emperor returned to Rome in 963 ; 
called a council, before which he accused and convicted 
the pope of many crimes : and, after having degraded him 
in the most ignominious manner from his high office, he 
appointed Leo VIII. to fill his place. On Otho's depar- 
ture from Rome, John returned to that city, and in a coun- 
cil, which he assembled in 964, condemned the pontiff 
whom the emperor had elected, and soon after died in a 
miserable and violent manner. After his death the Ro- 
mans chose Benedict V., bishop of Rome, in opposition to 
Leo ; but the emperor annulled this election, restored Leo 
to the papal chair, and carried Benedict to Hamburg, where 
he died in exile. c 

VI. The prelates who governed the see of Rome from 
Leo Vin., who died in 965, to Gerbert, or Sylvester n., 
who was raised to the pontificate toward the conclusion of 
this century, were more happy in their administration, as 
well as more decent in then conduct, than their infamous 
predecessors ; yet none of them acted in so exemplary a 
manner as to deserve the applause that is due to eminent 
virtue. John XIII., who was raised to the pontificate, in 
965, by the authority of Otho the Great, was driven out 
of Rome in the beginning of his administration ; but in 
the following year, on the emperor's return to Italy, he was 
restored to his high dignity, in the calm possession of which 
he ended his days in 972. His successor Benedict VI. 
was not so happy. Thrown into prison by Crescentius, 
son of the famous Theodora, in consequence of the hatred 
which the Romans had conceived both against his person 
and government, he was loaded with all sorts of ignominy, 
and was strangled in 974, in the apartment where he lay 
confined. Unfortunately for him, Otho the Great, whose 

innocence, a woman who is known to have been entirely destitute of every 
principle of virtue. 

c In the account I have here given of the pontiffs of this century, I 
have consulted Muratori's Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, as also Baro- 
nius, Peter de Marca, Sigonius de Regno Italiae (with the learned anno- 
tations of Ant. Saxius,) die same Muratori in his Annales Italiae, Pagi, 
and other writers, all of whom had access to the fountain-head, and to 
several ancient manuscripts, not yet published. The narrations I have 
here given, are certainly true upon the whole. It must, however, be con- 
fessed, that many parts of the papal history lie yet in great obscurity, 
and, therefore, require farther illustration ; nor will I deny that a spirit of 
partiality has been extremely detrimental to the history of the pontiffs, 
by corrupting it, and rendering it uncertain in a multitude of places. 



214 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



power and severity had kept the Romans in awe, died in 
973;' and with him expired that order and discipline 
which he had restored in Rome by salutary laws executed 
with impa rtiality and vigour. That event changed the as- 
pect of affairs. Licentiousness and disorder, seditions and 
assassinations, resumed their former sway, and diffused 
their horrors through that miserable city. After the death 
of Benedict, the papal chair was filled by Franco, who as- 
sumed the name of Boniface VII., but enjoyed his dignity 
only for a short time, for scarcely a month had passed after 
his promotion, when he was deposed from his office, ex- 
pelled from the city, and succeeded by Donus II., a who is 
known by no other circumstance than his name. Upon 
his "death, which happened in 975, Benedict VII. was crea- 
ted pontiff; and, during the space of nine years, ruled the 
church without much opposition, and ended his days in 
peace. This peculiar happiness, without doubt, princi- 
pally resulted from the opulence and credit of the family 
to which he belonged ; for he was nearly related to the 
famous Alberic, whose power, or rather despotism, had 
been unlimited in Rome. 

VII. His successor John XIV., who from the bishop- 
ric of Pavia was raised to the pontificate, derived no sup- 
port from his birth, which was obscure ; nor did he con- 
tinue to enjoy the protection of Otho III., to whom he 
owed his promotion. Unsupported as he thus was, ca- 
lamities fell upon him with fury, and misery concluded 
his transitory grandeur ; for Boniface VII., who had 
usurped the papal throne, in 974, and in a little time after 
had been banished from Rome, returned from Constanti- 
nople, (whither he had fled for refuge,) seized the unhap- 
py pontiff, threw him into prison, and afterwards put him 
to death, Thus Boniface resumed the government of the 
church : but his reign was also transitory ; for he died 
about six months after his restoration. b He was succeed- 
ed by John XV., whom some writers call John XVI., be- 
cause, as they allege, there was another John, who ruled 
the church during a period of four months, and whom they 
consequently call John XV. C Leaving it to the reader's 
choice to call that John of whom we speak, the XV th or 
the XVIth of that name, we shall only observe, that he pos- 
sessed the papal dignity from the year 985 to 996 ; that 
his administration was as happy as the troubled state of 
the Roman affairs would permit ; and that the tranquilli- 
ty he enjoyed was not so much the effect of his wisdom 
and prudence, as of his being a Roman by birth, and a 
descendant from noble and illustrious ancestors. It is cer- 
tain, at least, that his successor Gregory V., who was a 
German, and who was elected pontiff by the order of Otho 
III., in 996, met with a quite different treatment ; for 
Crescens, the Roman consul, drove him out of the city, 
and conferred his dignity upon John XVI., formerly 
known by the name of Philagathus. This revolution 
was not, however, permanent in its effects ; for Otho III., 
alarmed by these disturbances at Rome, marched into 
Italy, in 998, at the head of a powerful army ; and, im- 



f~j* * Some writers place Dorms II. before Benedict VI. See the Ta- 
bulae Synopticse Hist. Eccles. by the learned Pfaff. 

jjjf •> Fleury says, eleven months. 

g^j» • Among these authors, is the learned Pfaff: but the Roman 
catholic writers, whom Dr. Mosheim follows with good reason, do not 
reckon, among the number of the pontiffs, that John who governed the 
church of Rome, during the space of four months after the death of Boni- 
face VII., because he was never duly invested, by consecration, with the 
oapal dignity. 



prisoning the new pontiff, whom the soldiers, in the first 
moment of their fury, had maimed and abused in a most 
barbarous manner, he re-instated Gregoiy in his former 
honours. It was on the death of the latter pontiff, which 
happened soon after his restoration, that the same empe- 
ror raised to the papal dignity his preceptor and friend, the 
famous and learned Gerbert, or Sylvester II., whose pro- 
motion was attended with the universal approbation of the 
Roman people. d 

VIII. Amidst these frequent commotions, and even 
amidst the repeated enormities and flagitious crimes of 
those who gave themselves out for Christ's vicegerents 
upon earth, the power and authority of the Roman pon- 
tiffs gradually and imperceptibly increased ; such were the 
effects of that ignorance and superstition which reigned 
without control in these miserable times. Otho the Great 
had indeed published a solemn edict, prohibiting the elec- 
tion of any pontiff without the previous knowledge and 
consent of the emperor ; which decree, as all writers unani- 
mously agree, remained in force from the time of its pub- 
lication to the conclusion of this century. It is also to be 
observed, that the same emperor (and likewise his son and 
grandson, who succeeded him in the empire) maintained, 
without interruption, the right of supremacy over the city 
of Rome, its territory, and its pontiff, as may be clearly 
proved by a multitude of examples. It is, moreover, equal- 
ly certain that the German, French, and Italian bishops, 
who were not ignorant of the nature of their privileges 
and the extent of their jurisdiction, were, during this whole 
century, perpetually upon their guard against every eventu- 
al attempt of the pope for the exclusive assumption of a 
legislative authority in the church. But, notwithstanding 
all this, the bishops of Rome found the means of augment- 
ing their influence, and partly by open violence, partly by 
secret and fraudulent stratagems, encroached, not only 
upon the privileges of the bishops, but also upon the juris- 
diction and rights of kings and emperors." Their ambi- 
tious attempts were seconded and vindicated by the scan- 
dalous adulation of certain mercenary prelates, who ex- 
alted the dignity and prerogatives of, what they called, the 
apostolic see, in the most pompous and extravagant terms. 
Several learned writers have observed, that in this cen- 
tury certain bishops maintained publicly that the popes 
were not only bishops of Rome, but of the whole world, an 
assertion which hitherto none had ventured to make ; f and 
that even among the French clergy it had been affirmed 
by some, that the authority of the bishops, though divine 
in its origin, was conveyed to them by St. Peter, the prince 
of the apostles, s 

IX. The adventurous ambition of the bishops of Rome, 
who left no means unemployed to extend their jurisdic- 
tion, exhibited an example which the inferior prelates fol- 
lowed with the most zealous and indefatigable emulation. 
Several bishops and abbots had begun, even from the time 
that the descendants of Charlemagne sat on the imperial 
throne, to enlarge their prerogatives, and had actually ob 

J The history of the pontiffs of this period is not only extremely bar- 
ren of interesting events, but also obscure, and uncertain in many 
respects. In the accounts I have here given of them, I have followed 
principally Lud. Ant. Muratori's Annates Italiae, and the Conatus 
Chronologico-Historicus de Romanis Pontificibus, which the learned 
Papebrochius prefixed to his Acta Sanctorum Mensis Maii. 

« Several examples of these usurpations may be found in the Histoira 
du Droit Eccles. Francois, torn. i. p. 217, edit, in 8vo. 

t Hist. Lit. de la France, t. vi. p. 98. * The same work, p. 18G. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



215 



tained, for their tenants and their possessions, an immu- 
nity from the jurisdiction of the counts and other magis- 
trates, as also from taxes and imposts of all kinds. But in 
this century they carried their pretensions still farther ; 
aimed at the civil jurisdiction over the cities and territories 
in which they exercised a spiritual dominion, and even 
aspired to the honours and authority of dukes, marquises, 
and counts of the empire. Among the principal circum- 
stances that animated their zeal in the pursuit of these dig- 
nities, we may reckon the perpetual and bitter contests 
concerning jurisdiction and other matters, that reigned be- 
tween the dukes and counts, who were governors of cities, 
and the bishops and abbots, who were their spiritual rulers. 
The latter, therefore, seizing the opportunity that was of- 
fered to them by the superstition of the times, used every 
method that might be effectual to obtain that high rank, 
which had hitherto stood in the way of their ambition ; 
and the emperors and kings to whom they addressed their 
presumptuous requests, generally granted them, either from 
a desire of pacifying the contentions and quarrels that arose 
between civil and military magistrates, or from a devout 
reverence for the sacred order, or with a view to augment 
their own authority, and to confirm their dominion by the 
good services of the bishops, whose influence was very 
great over the minds of the people. Such were the dif- 
ferent motives that engaged princes to enlarge the autho- 
rity and jurisdiction of the clergy ; and hence we see from 
this century downwards so many bishops and abbots in- 
vested with characters, employments, and titles so foreign 
to their spiritual offices and functions, and clothed with the 
honours of dukes, marquises, counts, and viscounts." 

X. Beside the reproach of the grossest ignorance, which 
the Latin clergy in this century so justly deserved, b they 
were also chargeable, in a heinous degree, with two other 
odious vices, even concubinage and simony, which the 
greatest part of the writers of these unhappy times ac- 
knowledge and deplore. As to the former of these vices, it 
was practised too openly to admit any doubt. The priests, 
and what is still more surprising, even the sanctimonious 
monks, fell victims to the triumphant charms of the sex, 
and to the imperious dominion of their carnal lusts ; and, 
entering into the bonds of wedlock, or concubinage, squan- 

• The learned Louis Thomassin, in his book, de Disciplina Ecclesia^ 
reteri et nova, torn. iii. lib. i. cap. xxviii., has collected a multitude of 
examples to prove that the titles and prerogatives of dukes and counts 
were conferred upon certain prelates so early as the ninth century ; and 
some bishops trace even as far back as the eighth century the beginning 
of that princely dominion which they now enjoy. But notwithstand- 
ing all this, if I do not grossly err, there cannot be produced any evi- 
dent and indisputable example of this princely dominion, previous to the j 
tenth century. 

i> Ratherius, speaking of the clergy of Verona in his Itinerarium, 
which is published in the Spicilegium of M. d'Acheri, torn. i. p. 381, ! 
says, thtu ne found many among them who could not even repeat the 
Apostles' Creed. His words are, ' Sciscitatus de fide illorum, inveni 
plurimos neque ipsum sapere Symbolum, qui fuisse creditur Aposto- 
lorum.' 

e That this custom was introduced toward the commencement of this 
century is manifest, from tire testimony of Ordericus Vitalis and other j 
writers, and also from a letter of Mantio, bishop of Chalons in Cham- 
pagne, published by Mabillon, in his Analecta veterum. As to the 
charge brought against the Italian monks, of their spending the treasures 
of the church upon their wives or mistresses, see Hugo's narrative de 
Monasterii Farfensis destructione, in Muratori's Antiq. Ital. medii JEvi 
torn. vi. p. 278. 

* Many infamous and striking examples and proofs of simoniacal 
practice may be found in the work entitled Gallia Christiana, torn. i. p. 
23, 37 ; torn. ii. p. 173, 179. Add to this Abbonis Apologeticum, pub- 
lished at the end of the Codex Canon. Pithaei, p. 398, as also Mabillon's 
Annal. Benedict, tdm. v. 



dered away in a most luxurious manner, with their wives 
and mistresses, the revenues of the church. 1 The other 
vice reigned with an equal degree of impudence and licen- 
tiousness. Elections of bishops and abbots were no lon- 
ger adjusted by the laws of the church ; but kings and 
princes, or their ministers and favourites, either conferred 
these ecclesiastical dignities upon their friends and crea- 
tures, or sold them, without shame, to the highest bid- 
der. d Hence it happened, that the most stupid and flagi- 
tious wretches were frequently advanced to the most im- 
portant stations in the church ; and that, upon several oc- 
casions, even soldiers, civil magistrates, and counts, were 
by a strange metamorphosis converted into bishops and 
abbots. Gregory VII. endeavoured, in the following cen- 
tury, to put a stop to these two growing evils. 

XI. While the monastic orders, among the Greeks and 
Orientals, still maintained an external appearance of reli- 
gion and decency, the Latin monks, toward the commence- 
ment of this century, had so entirely lost sight of all sub- 
ordination and discipline, that the greatest part of them 
knew not even by name the rule of St. Benedict, which 
they were obliged to observe. A noble Frank, whose name 
was Odo, a man as learned and pious as the ignorance 
and superstition of the times would permit, endeavoured 
to remedy this disorder ; nor were his attempts totally un- 
successful. This zealous ecclesiastic being created, in 
927, abbot of Clugni, in the province of Burgundy, on the 
death of Berno, not only obliged the monks to live in a 
rigorous observance of their rules, but also added to their 
discipline a new set of ceremonies, which, notwithstanding 
the air of sanctity that attended them, were, in reality, in- 
significant and trifling, and yet, at the same time, severe 
and burdensome. e This new rule of discipline covered 
its author with glory, and, in a short time, was adopted in 
all the European convents : for the greatest part of the 
ancient monasteries, which had been founded in France 
Germany, Italy, Britain, and Spain, received the rule c* 
the monks of Clugni. to which also the convents, newly 
established, were subjected by their founders ; and thus it 
was, that the Order of Clugni attained that high degree 
of eminence and authority, opulence and dignity, which 
it exhibited to the Christian world in the following century. 

• See Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn. iii. p. 386, and Praf. ad Acta 
Sanct. Ord. Benedict. Sac. V. p. 26. See also the Acta Sanctor. Bened. 
Sa?c. V. p. 66, in which he speaks largely of Berno. the first abbot ol 
Clugni, who laid the foundations of that order, and of Odo, (p. 122,) who 
gave it a new degree of perfection. The learned Helyot, in his Histoire 
des Ordres Religieuses, torn. v. p, 181, has given a complete and elegant 
history of the order of Clugni ; and the subsequent state of that famous 
monastery is described by Martenne, in his Voyage Liter, de deux Be- 
nedict, part i. p. 227. 

' The majority of ecclesiastical historians do not appear to have per- 
ceived the true meaning and force of the word order in its application to 
the Cistertian monks, those of Clugni, and other convents. They ima- 
gine that this term signifies a new monastic institution, as if the Order 
of Clugni imported a new sect of monks never before heard of. But this 
is apparently a great error, into which they fall by confounding the an- 
cient meaning of that term with the sense in which it is used in modern 
times. The word order, when employed by the writers of the tenth cen- 
tury, signified no more at first than a certain form or rule of monastic- 
discipline ; but, from this primitive signification, another (a secondary 
one) was gradually derived: so that by the same word is also understood, 
an association or confederacy of several monasteries, subjected to the 
same rule of discipline under the jurisdiction and inspection of one com- 
mon chief. Hence we conclude, that the Order of Clugni was not a new 
sect of monks, such as were the Carthusian, Dominican, and Franciscan 
Orders ; but signified only, first, that new institution or rule of discipline, 
which Odo had prescribed to the Benedictine monks, who were settled at 
Clugni, and, afterwards, that prodigious multitude of monasteries through- 
out Europe, which received the rule establisneu at Clugni, and wera form- 



216 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part II. 



"XII. The more eminent Greek writers of this century- 
are easily numbered ; among them we find Simeon, high 
treasurer of Constantinople, who, from his giving a new 
and more elegant style to the Lives of the Saints, which 
had been originally composed in a gross and barbarous 
language, was distinguished by the title of Metaphrast, or 
Translator." He did not, however, content himself with 
digesting, polishing, and embellishing the saintly chronicle, 
but went so far as to augment it with a multitude of tri- 
fling fables drawn from the fecundity of his own imagina- 
tion. 

Nicon, an Armenian monk, composed a treatise con- 
cerning the Religion of the Armenians, which is not alto- 
gether contemptible. 

Some place in this century Olympiodorus and (Ecu- 
menius, b who distinguished themselves by those compila- 
tions which were known by the name of Catenae, or 
Chains, and of which we have had occasion to speak 
more than once in the course of this history. But it is 
by no means certain, that these two writers belong to the 
tenth century, and they are placed there only by con- 
jecture. 

It is much more probable, that the learned Suidas, au- 
thor of the celebrated Greek Lexicon, lived in the period 
now before us. 

Among the Arabians, no author acquired a higher re- 
putation than Eutychius, bishop of Alexandria, whose 
Annals, with several other productions of his learned pen, 
are still extant. c 

XIII. The most eminent of the Latin writers of this 
century was Gerbert, or Sylvester II., who has already 
been mentioned with the applause due to his singular 
merit. The other writers of this age were not very emi- 
nent in any respect. 

Odo, who laid the foundations of the celebrated Order 
of Clugni, left several productions in which the grossest 
superstition reigns, and in which it is difficult to perceive 
the smallest marks of true genius or solid judgment. d 

The learned reader will form a different opinion of Ra- 
their, bishop of Verona, whose works, yet extant, afford 
evident proofs of sagacity and judgment, and breathe 
throughout an ardent love of virtue. e 

Atto, bishop of Vercelli, composed a treatise, de pres- 
suris Ecclesiasticis, i. e. concerning the Sufferings and 
Grievances of the Church, which shows in their true 
colours the spirit and complexion of the times. f 

Dunstan, the famous abbot of Glastonbury, and after- 
wards archbishop of Canterbury, composed in favour of 
the monks a book de Co?icordid Regtdarum, i. e. con- 
cerning the Harmony of the Monastic Rules.e 

Elfric, archbishop of Canterbury, acquired a consider- 
able reputation, among the Anglo-Saxons established in 
Britain, by various productions. 11 

Burchard, bishop of Worms, is highly esteemed among 

cd by association into a sort of community, of which the abbot of Clugni 
was the chief. 

* See Leo Allatius, de Simeonum Scriptis, p. 24. — Jo. Bollandus, 
Praf. ad Acta Sanctorum Antwerp, sect. iii. p. 6. 

* For an account of CEcumenius, see Montfaucon's Biblioth. Coisli- 
niana, p. 274. 

e See Jo. Albert. Fabricii Bibliographia Antiquaria, p. 179 — as also 
Eusebii Renaudoti Historia Patriarch. Alexandr. p. 347. 
>> Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. vi. p. 229. 
« Id. ibid. p. 339. « Id. ibid. p. 281. 

3TJ|- « See the ample account that is given of this eminent prelate in 



the canonists on account of his celebrated Decreta, divided 
into twenty books, though a part of the merit of this col- 
lection of canons may be considered as due to Olbert, with 
whose assistance it was composed.! 

Odilo, archbishop of Lyons, k was the author of some 
insipid discourses, and other productions, whose mediocrity 
has almost sunk them in a total oblivion. 

As to the historical writers and annalists who lived in 
this century, their works and abilities have been already 
considered in their proper place. 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church 
during this Century. 

I. The state of religion in this century was such as might 
be expected in times of prevailing ignorance and corrup- 
tion. The most important doctrines of Christianity were 
disfigured and perverted in the most wretched manner ; 
and such as had preserved, in unskilful hands, their primi- 
tive purity, were nevertheless obscured with a multitude 
of vain opinions and idle fancies, so that their intrinsic ex- 
cellence and lustre were little attended to. This will ap- 
pear evident to those who look with the smallest degree 
of attention into the writers of this age. Both Greeks and 
Latins placed the essence and life of religion in the wor- 
ship of images and departed saints ; in seeking with zeal, 
and preserving with a devout care and veneration, the 
sacred relics of holy men and women, and in accumula- 
ting riches upon the priests and monks, whose opulence 
increased with the progress of superstition. Scarcely did 
any Christian dare to approach the throne of God, with- 
out rendering first the saints and images propitious by a 
solemn round of expiatory rites and lustrations. The ar- 
dour with which relics were sought almost surpasses credi 
bility ; it had seized all ranks and orders among the peo- 
ple, and had become a sort of fanaticism and phrensy ; 
and, if the monks are to be believed, the Supreme Being 
interposed, in a special and extraordinary manner, to dis- 
cover, to doting old women, and bareheaded friars, the 
places where the bones or carcases of the saints lay dis- 
persed or interred. The fears of purgatory, of that fire 
which was to destroy the remaining impurities of departed 
souls, were now carried to the greatest height, and far ex- 
ceeded the terrifying apprehensions of infernal torments ; 
for they hoped to avoid the latter easily, by dying enriched 
with the prayers of the clergy, or covered with the merits 
and mediation of the saints, while from the pains of pur- 
gatory they thought there was no exemption. The cler- 
gy, therefore, finding these superstitious terrors admirably 
adapted to increase their authority and to promote theii 
interest, used every method to augment them ; and by 
the most pathetic discourses, accompanied with monstrous 
fables and fictitious miracles, they laboured to establish the 



Collier's Ecclesiastical History of England, vol. i. cent. X. p. 181, 183, &e. 

f^p >> We have a Grammar and a Dictionary composed by this learn- 
ed prelate ; as also an Anglo-Saxon translation of the first books of th« 
Holy Scripture, a History of the Church, and 180 sermons. See Fleury, 
Hist. Eccl. livre lviii. 

i See the Chronicon Wormatiense in Ludwig's Reliquiae Manuscrip- 
torum, torn. h. p. 43. — Histoire Liter, de la France, torn. vii. p. 295. 

fj= k Odilo was abbot of Clugni, and not archbishop of Lyons; for h« 
obstinately refused the latter station, notwithstanding the urgent entrea- 
ties employed both by pontiffs and emperors to engage him to accept it 
See Fleury, Hist. Eccl. livre lix. 



Chap. HL 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



217 



doctrine of purgatory, and also to make it appear that they 
had a mighty influence in that formidable region. 

II. The contests concerning predestination and grace, 
as also concerning the eucharist, that had agitated the 
church in the preceding century, were in this happily re- 
duced to silence. This was the result of the mutual to- 
leration that was practised by the contending parties, who 
as we learn from writers of undoubted credit, left it to each 
other's free choice to retain, or to change their former 
opinions. Besides, the ignorance and stupidity of this de- 
generate age were ill suited to such deep inquiries as these 
contests demanded ; nor was there any great degree of cu- 
riosity among an illiterate multitude to know the opinions 
of the ancient doctors concerning these and other knotty 
points of theology. Thus it happened, that the followers 
of Augustin and Pelagius flourished equally in this cen- 
tury ; and that, if theie were many who maintained the 
corporal presence of the body and blood of Christ in the 
holy sacrament, there were still more who either came to 
no fixed determination upon this point, or declared it pub- 
licly as their opinion, that the Divine Saviour was really 
absent from the eucharistical sacrament, and was received 
only by a certain inward impulse of faith, in a manner 
wholly spiritual. 1 This mutual toleration, as it is easy to 
conclude from what has been already observed, must not 
be attributed either to the wisdom, or virtue of an age, 
which was ahnost totally destitute of both. The truth of 
the matter is, that the divines of this century wanted both 
the capacity and the inclination to attack, or defend any 
doctrine, whose refutation or defence required the smallest 
portion of learning or logic. 

III. That the whole Christian world was covered, at 
this time, with a thick and gloomy veil of superstition, is 
evident from a prodigious number of testimonies and ex- 
amples, which it is needless to mention. Tins horrible 
cloud, which hid almost every ray of truth from the eyes 
of the multitude, furnished the priests and monks with 
many opportunities of propagating absurd and ridiculous 
opinions, which contributed not a little to confirm then- 
credit. Among these opinions, which so frequently dis- 
honoured the Latin church, and produced from time to 
time such violent agitations, none occasioned such a gene- 
ral panic, or such dreadful impressions of terror or dismay, 
as a notion that now prevailed of the immediate approach I 
of the day of judgment. Tbis notion, which took its rise 
from a remarkable passage in the Revelations of St. John, b 
and had been entertained by some doctors in the pre- 

■ It is certain, that the Latin theologians of this century differed much 
m their sentiments about the manner in which the body and blood of 
Christ were present in the eucharist; this is granted by such of the Ro- 
Tian catholic writers as have been ingenuous enough to sacrifice the spirit 
sf party to the love of truth. That the doctrine of transubstantiation, as 
It is commonly called, was unknown to the English in this century, has 
been abundantly proved from the public homilies, by Rapin de Thoyras, 
in his History of England, vol. i. It is, however, to be confessed, on the 
other hand, that this absurd doctrine was already adopted by several 
French and German divines, fjf For a more judicious account of the 
opinions of the Anglo-Saxon church concerning the eucharist, see Collier's 
Ecclesiastical History of Great Britain, vol. i. cent. X. 

fjT b The passage here referred to, is in the twentieth chapter of the Book 
of Revelations, at the 2d, 3d, and 4th verses : " And he took hold of the 
dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him a 
thousand years ; — and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, 
and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till 
the thousand years should be fulfilled ; and after that he must be loosed a 
little season. — And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judg- 
ment was given unto them ; and I saw the souls of them that were be- 
headed for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had 

No. XIX. 55 



ceding century, was advanced publicly by many at thia 
time ; and, spreading itself with an amazing rapidity 
through the European provinces, it threw them into the 
deepest consternation and anguish ; for they imagined 
that St. John had clearly foretold that, after a thousand 
years from the birth of Christ, Satan was to be let loose 
from his prison ; that Antichrist was to come, and the 
conflagration and destruction of the world were to follow 
these great and terrible events. Hence prodigious num- 
bers of people abandoned all their civil connexions and 
their parental relations, and, giving over to the churches 
or monasteries all their lands, treasures, and worldly ef- 
fects, repaired with the utmost precipitation to Palestine, 
where they imagined that Christ would descend from 
heaven to judge the world. Others devoted themselves 
by a solemn and voluntary oath to the service of the 
churches, convents, and priesthood, whose slaves they be- 
came, in the most rigorous sense of that word, performing 
daily their heavy tasks ; and all this from a notion that 
the Supreme Judge would diminish the severity of their 
sentence, and look upon them with a more favourable and 
propitious eye, on account of their having made themselves 
the slaves of his ministers. "When an eclipse of the sun or 
moon happened to be visible, the cities were deserted, and 
their miserable inhabitants fled for refuge to deep caverns, 
and hid themselves among the craggy rocks, and under the 
bending summits of steep mountains. The opulent attempt-* 
ed to bribe the Deity, and the saintly tribe, by rich donations 
conferred upon the sacerdotal and monastic orders, who 
were regarded as the immediate vicegerents of heaven. 
In many places, temples, palaces, and noble edifices, both 
public and private, were suffered to decay, and were even 
deliberately pulled down, from a notion that they were no 
longer of any use, since the final dissolution of all things 
approached. In a word, no language is sufficient to ex- 
press the confusion and despair that tormented the minds 
of miserable mortals upon this occasion. This general 
delusion was, indeed, opposed and combated by the dis- 
cerning few, who endeavoured to dispel these groundless 
teiTors, and to efface the notion from winch they arose, in 
the minds of the people. But their attempts were inef- 
fectual ; nor could the dreadful apprehensions of the su- 
perstitious multitude be entirely removed before the con- 
clusion of this century. Then, when they saw that the 
dreaded period had passed without the arrival of any great 
calamity, they began to understand that St. John had not 
really foretold what they so much feared.' 

not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his 
mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands ; and they lived and reigned 
with Christ a thousand years." 

e Almost all the donations that were made to the church during this 
century, bear evident marks of this groundless panic that, had seized 
all the European nations, as the reasons of these donations are generally 
expressed in the following words : ' Appropinquante mundi termino,' &c. 
i. e. 'The end of the world being now at hand,' &c. Among die many 
undeniable testimonies that we have from ancient records of this univer- 
sal delusion, that was so profitable to the sacerdotal order, we shall con 
fine ourselves to the quotation of one very remarkable passage in die 
Apologelicum of Abbo, abbot of Fleury, adversus Arnulphum, i. e. Ar- 
noul bishop of Orleans : which apology is published by the learned 
Francis Pithou, in the Codex Canonum Ecclesiae Romanae, p. 401. The 
words of Abbo are as follows : " De fine quoque mundi coram populo 
sermonem in ecclcsia Parisiorum adolescentuhis audivi, quod slatim 
finito nhlle annorum numero Andchristv.s adveniret, et non longo post 
tempore universale judicium succederet; cui pradicalioni ex evangeliis, 
ac apocalypsi, et libro Danielis, qua potui virtute restiti. Denique et er- 
rorem, qui de fine mundi inolevit. abbas meus beatee memorial Richardus 
sp.gaci animo propulit, postquam liters* a Lotharicnsibus accepit, quibua 



218 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



IV. The number of the saints, who were looked upon 
as- ministers of the kingdom of heaven, and whose pa- 
tronage was esteemed such an unspeakable blessing, had 
now an extraordinary increase ; and the celestial courts 
were filled with new legions of this species of beings, 
some of which, as we have had formerly occasion to ob- 
serve, had no existence but in the imagination of their de- 
luded clients and worshippers. This multiplication of 
saints may be easily accounted for, when we consider that 
superstition, the source of fear, had risen to such an enor- 
mous height in this age, as rendered the creation of new 
patrons necessary to calm the anxiety of trembling mor- 
tals. Besides, the corruption and impiety that now reign- 
ed with a horrid sway, and the licentiousness and disso- 
lution that had so generally infected all ranks and orders 
of men, rendered the reputation of sanctity very easy to 
be acquired ; for, amidst such a perverse generation, it de- 
manded no great efforts of virtue to be esteemed holy, and 
this, no doubt, contributed to increase considerably the 
number of the celestial advocates. All those, to whom 
nature had given an austere complexion, a gloomy tem- 
per, or enthusiastic imagination, were, in consequence of 
an advantageous comparison with the profligate multitude, 
revered as the favourites of heaven and the friends of God. 

The Roman pontiff, who before this period had pre- 
tended to the right of creating saints by his sole authori- 
* ty, gave, in this century, the first specimen of this spiri- 
tual power ; for in the preceding ages there is no example 
of his having exercised this privilege alone. This speci- 
men was given, in 993, by John XV., who, with all the 
formalities of a solemn canonisation, enrolled Udalric, 
bishop of Augsburg, in the number of the saints, and 
thus conferred upon him a title to the worship and vene- 
ration of Christians. 1 We must not, however, hence 
conclude, that after this period the privilege of canonising 
new saints was vested solely in the pontiffs ; b for there are 
several examples upon record, which prove, that not only 
provincial councils, but also several of the first order 
among the bishops, advanced to the rank of saints such 
as they thought worthy of that high dignity, and conti- 
nued thus to augment the celestial patrons of the church, 
without consulting the pope, until the twelfth century. 1 
Then Alexander HI. abrogated this privilege of the bish- 
ops and councils, and placed canonisation in the num- 
ber of the more important acts of authority, d which the 
sovereign pontiff alone, by a peculiar prerogative, was 
entitled to exercise. 

V. The expositors and commentators, who attempted 
in this century to illustrate and explain the sacred wri- 
tings, were too mean in their abilities, and too unsuccess- 
ful in their undertakings, to deserve more than a slight 
and transient notice ; for it is extremely uncertain, whe- 
ther or no the works of Olympiodorus and (Ecumenius 
are to be considered as the productions of this age. 
Among the Latins, Remi, or Remigius, bishop of Auxerre, 
continued the exposition of the Scriptures, which he had 

me respondere jussit. Nam fama pasne totum mundum impleverat, quod, 
quando Annunciatio Dominica in Parasceve contigisset, absque ullo scru- 
pulo finis saeculi esset. 

■ Franc. Pagi Breviar. Pontif. Roman, torn. ii. p. 259. 

t This absurd opinion has been maintained with warmth by Phil. Bo- 
nanni, in his Numismata Pontif. Romanorum, torn. i. p. 41. 

c See Franc. Pagi Breviar. torn. ii. p. 260; torn. iii. p. 30. — Arm. de 
la Chapelle, Biblioth. Angloise, torn. x. p. 105. — Mabillon, Praefat. ad 
Saec. V. Benedict, p. 53. 



begun in the preceding century ; but his work is highly 
defective in various respects ; for he took very little pains 
in explaining the literal sense of the words, and employ- 
ed the whole force of his fantastic genius in unfolding 
their pretended mystical signification, which he looked 
upon as infinitely more interesting than their plain and 
literal meaning. Besides, his explications are rarely the 
fruit of his own genius and invention, but are, generally 
speaking, mere compilations from ancient commentators. 
As to the Moral Observations of Odo upon the book of 
Job, they are transcribed from a work of Gregory the 
Great, which bears the same title. "We mention no more ; 
if, however, any are desirous of an ample account of those 
who were esteemed the principal commentators in this 
century, they will find it in a book written professedly 
upon this subject by Notkerus Balbulus. 

VI. The science of theology was absolutely abandon- 
ed in this century ; nor did either the Greek or Latin 
church furnish any writer who attempted to explain in 
a regular method the doctrines of Christianity. The 
Greeks were contented with the works of Damascenus, 
and the Latins with those of Augustin and Gregory, who 
were now considered as the greatest doctors that had 
adorned the church. Some added to these the writings 
of venerable Bede and Rabanus Maurus. The moral 
science was still more neglected than that of theology in 
this wretched age, and was reduced to a certain number 
of dry and insipid homilies, and to the lives of the saints, 
which Simeon among the Greeks, and Hubald, Odo, and 
Stephen/ among the Latins, had drawn up with a se- 
ducing eloquence that covered the most impertinent fic- 
tions. Such was the miserable state of morals and theo- 
logy in this century ; in which, we may add, there did 
not appear any defence of the Christian religion against 
its professed enemies. 

VII. The controversies between the Greek and Latin 
churches, were now carried on with less noise and im- 
petuosity than in the preceding century, on account of the 
troubles and calamities of the times ; yet they were not 
entirely reduced to silence.^ The writers therefore who 
affirm, that this unhappy schism was healed, and that the 
contending parties were really reconciled to each other 
for a certain space of time, have grossly mistaken the 
matter ; h though it be, indeed, true that the tumults of 
the times produced now and then a cessation of these 
contests, and occasioned several truces, which insidiously 
concealed the bitterest enmity, and served often as a cover 
to the most treacherous designs. The Greeks were, 
moreover, divided among themselves, and disputed with 
great warmth concerning the lawfulness of repeated 1 mar- 
riages, to which violent contest the cause of Leo, sur- 
named the Philosopher, gave rise. This emperor, having 
buried successively three wives without having had by 
them any male issue, espoused a fourth, whose name was 
Zoe Carbinopsina, and who was born in the obscurity ot 
a mean condition. As marriages contracted for the fourth 

4 These were called the Causae Majores. 

• Moralia in Jobum. ' Bishop of Liege. 

e Mich. Lequien, Dissert, i. Damascenica de Processione Spiritus 
Sancti, seet. xiii. p. 12. — Fred. Spanheim, de perpetua Dissensione Eo- 
clesiae Oriental, et Occidental, part iv. sect. vii. p. 529, torn. ii. op. ■ 

•> Leo Allatius, de perpetua Consensione Ecclesiae Orient, et Occident 
lib. ii. cap. vii. viii. p. 600. 

§Tjj> t Fourth marriages our author undoubtedly means, since second 
and third nuptials were allowed on certain conditions. ' 



Chap. IV. 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



219 



time were pronounced impure and unlawful by the Greek 
canons, Nicolas, the patriarch of Constantinople, suspend- 
ed the emperor, on this occasion, from the communion of 
the church. Leo, incensed at this rigorous, proceeding, 
deprived Nicolas of the patriarchal dignity, and raised 
Euthymius to that high office, who, though he re-admit- 
ted the emperor to the bosom of the church, opposed the 
law which he had resolved to enact in order to render 
fourth marriages lawful. Upon this a schism, attended 
with the bitterest animosities, divided the clergy ; one part 
of which declared for Nicolas, the other for Euthymius. 
Some time after this, Leo died, and was succeeded in the 
empire by Alexander, who deposed Euthymius, and re- 
stored Nicolas to his eminent rank in the church. No 
sooner was this zealous patriarch re-instated in his office, 
than he began to load the memory of the late emperor 
with the bitterest execrations and the most opprobrious 
invectives, and to maintain the unlawfulness of fourth 
marriages with the utmost obstinacy. In order to appease 
these tumults, which portended numberless calamities to 
the state, Constantine Porphyrogeneta convoked an as- 
sembly of the clergy of Constantinople, in 920, in which 
fourth marriages were absolutely prohibited, and marriages 
for the third time were permitted on certain conditions ; 
and thus the public tranquillity was restored. 1 

Several other contests of like moment arose among the 
Greeks during this century ; and they serve to convince 
us of the ignorance that prevailed among that people, and 
of their blind veneration and zeal for the opinions of their 
ancestors. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 

I. In order to have some notion of the load of cere- 
monies under which the Christian religion groaned du- 
ring this superstitious age, we have only to cast an eye 
upon the acts of the various councils which were assem- 
bled in England, Germany, France, and Italy. The 
number of ceremonies increased in proportion to that of 
the saints, which multiplied from day to day ; for each 
new saintly patron had appropriated to his service a new 
festival, a new form of worship, a new round of religious 
rites ; and the clergy, notwithstanding their gross stupid- 
ity in other matters, discovered, in the creation of new 
ceremonies, a marvellous fertility of invention, attended 
with the utmost dexterity and artifice. It is also to be 
observed, that a great part of these new rites derived their 
origin from the various errors which the barbarous na- 
tions had received from their ancestors, and still retained, 
even after their conversion to Christianity. The clergy, 
instead of extirpating these errors, either gave them a 
Christian aspect by inventing certain religious rites to 
cover their deformity, or by explaining them in a forced 
allegorical manner; and thus they were perpetuated in 

* These facts are faithfully collected from Cedrenus, Leunclavius de 
Jure Grsco-Rom. torn. i. p. 104, from Leo the Grammarian, Simeon the 
Treasurer, and other writers of the Byzantine history. 

i> In the year 998. 

* See Mabillon, Acta SS. Ord. Bened. Seec. VI. part i. p. 584, where 
the reader will find the Life of Odilo, with his decree for the institution 
of this festival. 

* Benedict XIV. was artful enough to observe a profound silence with 



the church, and devoutly transmitted from age to age. 
We may also attribute a considerable number of the rites 
and institutions, that dishonoured religion in this century, 
to absurd notions both concerning the Supreme Being and 
departed saints ; for it was imagined that God was like 
the princes and great ones of the earth, who are render- 
ed propitious by costly presents, and are delighted with 
those cringing salutations, and other marks of veneration 
and homage, which they receive from their subjects ; and 
it was believed likewise, that departed spirits were agree- 
ably affected with the same kind of services. 

II. The famous yearly festival that was celebrated in 
remembrance of all departed souls, was instituted by the 
authority of Odilo, abbot of Clugni, and added to the 
Latin calendar toward the conclusion of this century. b 
Before this time, a custom had been introduced in many 
places of offering up prayers on certain days, for the souls 
that were confined in purgatory ; but these prayers were 
made by each religious society, only for its own members, 
friends, and patrons. The pious zeal of Odilo could not 
be confined within such narrow limits ; and he therefore 
extended the benefit of these prayers to all the souls that 
laboured under the pains and trials of purgatory.' To 
this proceeding Odilo was prompted by the exhortations 
of a Sicilian hermit, who pretended to have learned, by 
an immediate revelation from heaven, that the prayers of 
the monks of Clugni would be effectual for the deliver- 
ance of departed spirits from the expiatory flames of a 
middle state. d Accordingly this festival was, at first, cele- 
brated only by the congregation of Clugni ; but, having 
afterwards received the approbation of one of the popes, 
it was, by his order, kept with particular devotion in all 
the Latin churches. 

III. The worship of the Virgin Mary, which, before 
this century, had been carried to a very high degree of 
idolatry, now received new accessions of solemnity and 
superstition. Near the close of this century, a custom 
was introduced among the Latins of celebrating masses, 
and abstaining from flesh, in honour of the blessed Vir- 
gin, every Sabbath-day. After this, what the Latins call- 
ed the minor office was instituted in honour of St. Mary, 
which was, in the following century, confirmed by Urban 
II. in the council of Clermont. There are also to be 
found in this age manifest indications of the institution 
of the rosary and crown of the Virgin, by which her 
worshippers were to reckon the number of prayers that 
they were to offer to this new divinity ; for, though some 
place the invention of the rosary in the thirteenth cen- 
tury, and attribute it to St. Dominic, yet this supposition 
is made without any foundation. 1 The rosary consists 
in fifteen repetitions of the Lord's prayer, and a hundred 
and fifty salutations of the blessed Virgin ; while the 
crown, according to the different opinions of the learned 
concerning the age 'of the blessed Virgin, consists in six or 
seven recitations of the Lord's prayer, and six or seven 
times ten salutations. f 



respect to the superstitious and dishonorable origin of this anniversary 
festival, in his treatise de Festis J. Christi, Maria?, et Sanctorum, lib. iii. 
cap. xxii. p. 671, torn. x. oper., and by his silence he has plainly shown to 
the world what he thought of this absurd festival. This is not th« 
only mark of prudence that is to be found in the works of fhatfnmou* 
pontiff. 

• This is demonstrated by Mabillon, Prsef. ad Acta SS. Ord. BeneA 
Saec. V. p. 58. i In these words — Ave, Maria ! 



220 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part H 



CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The profound ignorance and stupidity, that were 
productive of so many evils in this century, had at least 
this advantage attending them, that they contributed 
much to the tranquillity of the church, and prevented the 
rise of new sects and new commotions of a religious kind. 
But, though no new inventions were broached, the an- 
cient errors still remained. The Nestorians and Mono- 
physites still lived under the Arabian government : they 
were, however, much more rigorously treated than in form- 
er times, and were often persecuted with the utmost in- 
justice and violence. But, as some of them excelled in 
medical knowledge, which was highly esteemed among 
the Arabians, while others rendered themselves acceptable 
to the great, by the dexterous management of their do- 
mestic affairs, as overseers and stewards, all this contri- 
buted to diminish the violence of the storms which arose 
against them from time to time. 

II. The Manichseans or Paulicians, whose errors have 
been already pointed out, gathered considerable strength 
in Thrace under the reign of John Tzimisces. A great 
part of this restless and turbulent sect had been transport- 
ed into that province, by the order of Constantine Copro- 
nymus, so early as the eighth century, to put an end to 
the commotions which they had excited in the east ; but 
a still greater number of them were left behind, especially 
in Syria and the adjacent countries. Hence it was, that 
Theodore, bishop of Antioch, from a pious apprehension of 
the danger to which his flock lay exposed from the neigh- 
bourhood of such pernicious heretics, engaged the empe- 
ror, by his ardent and importunate solicitations, to send a 
new colony of these Manicheeans from Syria to Philippic 
From Thrace they passed into Bulgaria and Sclavonia, 
where they long resided under the jurisdiction of their own 
pontiff, or patriarch. After the council of Basil had com- 
menced its deliberations, these sectaries removed into Italy, 
and thence spreading themselves through the other pro- 
vinces of Europe, they became extremely troublesome to 
the popes on many occasions. 1 " 

III. In the last year of this century arose a certain 
teacher, whose name was Leutard, who lived at Vertus, 
in the diocese of Chalons, and, in a short time, drew after 
him a considerable number of disciples. This new doctor 
could not bear the superstitious worship of images, which 
he is said to have opposed with the utmost vehemence, 
and even to have broken in pieces an image of Christ, 
which he found in a church where he went to perform 

a Jo. Zonaras, Annal. lib. xvii. 

i> It is extremely probable, as we have already had occasion to observe, 
that the remains of this sect are still to be found in'Bulgaria. 



his devotions. He, moreover, exclaimed with the greatest 
warmth against the payment of tithes to the priests, and 
in several other respects showed that he was no cordial 
friend to the sacerdotal order. But that which showed 
evidently that he was a dangerous fanatic, was his affirm- 
ing that in the prophecies of the Old Testament there 
was a manifest mixture of truth and falsehood. Gebouin, 
bishop of Chalons, examined the pretensions which this 
man made to divine inspiration, and exposed his extrava- 
gance to the view of the public, whom he had so artfully 
seduced ; upon which he threw himself into a well, and 
ended his days like many other fanatics/ It is highly pro- 
bable, that this upstart doctor taught many other absurd 
notions beside those which we have now mentioned, and 
that, after his death, his disciples formed a part of the sect 
that was afterwards known in France under the name of 
the Albigenses, and which is said to have adopted the 
Manichaean errors. 

IV. There were yet subsisting some remains of the sect 
of the Arians in several parts of Italy, and particularly in 
the territory of Padua ; but Ratherius, bishop of Verona, 
had a still more enormous heresy to combat in the system 
of the Anthropomorphites, which was revived in 939. In 
the district of Vicenza, a considerable number, not only of 
the illiterate multitude, but also of the sacerdotal order, 
adopted that most absurd and extravagant notion, that 
the Deity was clothed with a human form, and seated, 
like an earthly monarch, upon a throne of gold, and that 
his angelic ministers were men arrayed in white garments, 
and furnished with wings, to render them more expeditious 
in executing their sovereign's orders. This monstrous er- 
ror will appear less astonishing, when we consider that the 
stupid and illiterate multitude had constantly before their 
eyes, in all the churches, the Supreme Being and his an- 
gels represented in pictures and images with the human 
figure. 

The superstition of another set of blinded wretches, 
mentioned also by Ratherius, was yet more unaccountable 
and absurd than that of the Anthropomorphites ; for they 
imagined that, every Monday, mass was performed in 
heaven by St. Michael in the presence of God ; and hence 
on that day, they resorted in crowds to all the churches 
which were dedicated to that highly honoured saint. d It 
is more than probable that the avarice of the priests, who 
officiated in the church of St. Michael, was the real source 
of this extravagant fancy; and that in this, as in many 
other cases, the rapacity of the clergy took advantage of 
the credulity of the people, and made them believe what- 
ever they thought would contribute to augment the opu- 
lence of the church. 

All this is related by Glaber Radulphus, Hist. lib. ii. cap. xi. 
a Ratherii Epist. Synodica in Dacherii Spicilegio Script. Veter. torn, 
ii. p. 294. — Sigeberti Gemblacens. Chron. ad annum 939. 



THE ELEVENTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events which happened to 
. the Church during this Century. 

I. In the preceding century some faint notions of the 
Christian religion, some scattered rays of that divine light 
which it administers to mortals, had been received among 
the Hungarians, Danes, Poles, and Russians ; but the rude 
and savage spirit of those nations, together with their de- 
plorable ignorance and their violent attachment to the 
superstitions of their ancestors, rendered their total con- 
version to Christianity a work of great difficulty, which 
could not be very rapidly accomplished. The zeal, how- 
ever, with which this important work was carried on, did 
great honour to the piety of the princes and governors of 
these unpolished countries, who united their influence 
with the labours of the learned men whom they had in- 
vited into their dominions, to open the eyes of their sub- 
jects upon the truth." In Tartary, b and the adjacent 
countries, the zeal and diligence of the Nestorians gained 
over considerable numbers, almost daily, to the profession 
of Christianity. It appears also evident from a multitude 
of unexceptionable testimonies, that metropolitan prelates, 
with a greater number of inferior bishops under their ju- 
risdiction, were established at this time in the provinces of 
Casgar, Nuacheta, Turkestan, Genda, and Tangut; from 
which we may conclude, that, in this and the following 
century, a prodigious number of Christians lived in those 
very countries which are at present overrun with idolatry, 
or with the Mohammedan errors. All these Christians 
were undoubtedly Nestorians, and lived under the jurisdic- 
tion of the patriarch of that sect, who resided in Chaldeea. 

II. Among the European nations that lay yet grovel- 
ling in their native darkness and superstition, were the 
Sclavonians, the Obotriti, d the Venedi," and the Prussians, 
whose conversion had been attempted, but with little or no 
success, by certain missionaries, from whose piety and zeal 



• For an account of the Poles, Russians, and Hungarians, see Ro- 
mualdi Vita in Actis Sanctor. torn. ii. Februar. 

11 Tartary is taken here in its most comprehensive sense ; for between 
the inhabitants of Tartary, properly so called, and the Calmues, Mogols, 
and the inhabitants of Tangut, there is a manifest difference. 

" Marcus Paul. Venetus de Regionibus Orientalibus, lib. i. cap. 38, 
40, 45, 47, 48, 49, 62, 63, 64, lib. ii. cap. 39.— Euseb. Renaudot, An- 
ciennes Relations des Indes etde la Chine, p. 420. — Assemani Biblioth. 
Orient. Vatican, torn. iii. part ii. p. 502, &c. The successful propaga- 
tion of the Gospel, by the ministry of the Nestorians, in Tartary, China, 
and the neighbouring provinces, is a most important event, and every way 
worthy to employ the researches and the pen of some able writer, well 
acquainted witli oriental history. It must, indeed, be acknowledged, that, 
if tin's subject be important, it is also difficult on many accounts. It was 
attempted, however, notwithstanding its difficulty, by the most learned 
Theoph. Sigefred Bayer, who had collected a great quantity of mate- 
rials relative to this interesting branch of the history of Christianity, 
both from the works that have been published upon this subject, and 
from manuscripts that lie yet concealed in the cabinets of the curious. 
But, unhappily for the republic of letters, the death of that excellent man 

No. XIX. 56 



better fruits might have been expected. Toward the con- 
clusion of the preceding century, Adalbert, bishop of 
Prague, had endeavoured to instil, into the minds of the 
fierce and savage Prussians, the salutary doctrines of the 
Gospel ; but he perished in the fruitless attempt, and re- 
ceived, in 996, from the murdering lance of Siggo, a pagan 
priest, the crown of martyrdom. 1 " Boleslaus, king of Po- 
land, revenged the death of this pious apostle by entering 
into a bloody war with the Prussians ; and he obtained, 
by the force of penal laws and of a victorious army, what 
Adalbert could not effect by exhortation and argument.? 
He dragooned this savage people into the Christian church; 
yet, beside this violent method of conversion, others of a 
more gentle kind were certainly practised by the attendants 
of Boleslaus, who seconded the military arguments of their 
prince by the more persuasive influence of admonition and 
instruction. A certain ecclesiastic of illustrious birth, whose 
name was Boniface, and who was one of the disciples of 
St. Romuald, undertook the conversion of the Prussians, 
and was succeeded in this pious enterprise by Bruno, h who 
set out from Germany with a company of eighteen per- 
sons, who had entered with zeal into the same laudable 
design. These were, however, all barbarously massacred 
by the fierce and cruel Prussians ; and neither the vigorous 
efforts of Boleslaus, nor of the succeeding kings of Poland, 
could engage this rude and inflexible nation to abandon 
totally the idolatry of their ancestors.' 

III. Sicily had been groaning under the dominion of 
the Saracens from the ninth century; nor had the repeated 
attempts of the Greeks and Latins to dispossess them of 
that rich and fertile country, been hitherto crowned with 
the desired success. But in this century the face of affairs 
changed entirely in that island ; for, in 1059, Robert Guis- 
card, who had formed a settlement in Italy, at the head 
of a Norman colony, and was afterwards created duke of 
Apulia, encouraged by the exhortations of pope Nicolas II., 
and seconded by the assistance of his brother Roger, at- 

interrupted his labours, and prevented him from executing a design 
which was worthy of his superior abilities, and his well known zeal foi 
the interests of religion. 

5jt" * The Obotriti were a great and powerful branch of the Vandals, 
whose kings resided in the country of Mecklenburg, extending their do- 
minion along the coasts of the Baltic from the river Pene in Pomerania to 
the duchy of Holstein. 

U*" The Venedi dwelt upon the banks of the Weissel, or Vistula, 
in, what is at present called, the Palatinate of Marienburg. 

f See the Acta Sanctor. ad d. xxii. Aprilis, p. 174. 

' Solignac's Hist, de Pologne, torn. i. p. 133. 

5JT h Fleury differs from Dr. Mosheim in his account of Bruno, in 
two points. First, he maintains, that Boniface and Bruno were one and 
the same person, and here he is manifestly in the right; but he maintains 
farther, that he suffered martyrdom in Russia, which is an evident mis- 
take. It is proper farther to admonish the readerto distinguish carefully 
the Bruno here mentioned, from a monk of the same name, who founded 
the order of the Carthusians. 

i Ant. Pagi Critica in Baronium, torn. iv. ad annum 100S, p. 
97.— Christ. Hartknoch's Eccles. Hist, of Prussia, book i. chap. i. 



222 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1 



tacked with the greatest vigour and intrepidity the Sara- 
cens in Sicily ; nor did the latter chieftain sheathe the vic- 
torious sword before he had rendered himself master of that 
island, and cleared it absolutely of its former tyrants. As 
soon as this great work was accomplished, which was not 
before the year 1090, count Roger not only restored to its 
former glory and lustre the Christian religion, which had 
been almost totally extinguished under the Saracen yoke, 
but also established bishoprics, founded monasteries, erect- 
ed magnificent churches throughout that province, and 
bestowed upon the clergy those immense revenues and 
those distinguished honours which they still enjoy. a It is 
in the privileges conferred upon this valiant chief, that we 
find the origin of that supreme authority in matters of re- 
ligion, which is still vested in the kings of Sicily, within 
the limits of their own territories, and which is known by 
the name of the Sicilian monarchy ; for pope Urban II. is 
said to have granted, in 1097, by a special diploma, to 
Roger and his successors, the title, authority, and preroga- 
tives, of hereditary legates of the apostolic see. The court 
of Rome affirms, that, this diploma is not authentic ; and 
hence warm contentions, about the spiritual supremacy, 
have arisen even in our times between the popes and the 
kings of Sicily. The successors of Roger governed that 
island, under the title of dukes, until the twelfth century, 
when it was erected into a kingdom. b 

IV. The pontiffs, from the time of Sylvester II., had 
been forming plans for extending the limits of the church 
in Asia, and especially for driving the Moslems out of Pa- 
lestine ; but the troubles in which Europe was so long in- 
volved, prevented the execution of these arduous designs. 
Gregory VII., the most enterprising and audacious priest 
that ever sat in the apostolic chair, animated and inflamed 
by the repeated complaints which the Asiatic Christians 
made of the cruelty of the Saracens, resolved to undertake 
in person a holy war for the deliverance of the church ; 
and above fifty thousand men were speedily mustered to 
follow him in this bold expedition. But his quarrel with 
the emperor Henry IV., of which we shall have occasion 
to speak hereafter, and other unforeseen occurrences, obli- 
ged him to relinquish a personal invasion of the holy land. 
The project, however, was renewed toward the conclusion 
of this century, by the enthusiastic zeal of an inhabitant 
of Amiens, who was known by the name of Peter the 
Hermit, and who suggested to Urban II. the means of ac- 
complishing what had been unfortunately suspended. 
This famous hermit, in a journey, which he had made 
through Palestine, in 1093, had observed, with inexpress- 
ible anguish, the vexations and persecutions which the 
Christians, who visited the holy places, suffered from the 
barbarous and tyrannic Saracens. Inflamed therefore 
with a holy indignation and a furious zeal, which he 
looked upon as the effects of a divine impulse, he implored 
the assistance of Simeon, patriarch of Constantinople, and 
also of the pope, but without effect. Far from being dis- 
couraged by this, he renewed his efforts with the utmost 

* See Burigni's Histoire Generate de la Sicile, torn. i. p. 386. 

b See Baronii Liber de Monarchic Sicilian, torn. xi. Annal.; as also 
the Traite de la Monarchic Sicilienne, by M. Du-Pin. 

° Gregorii VII. Epist. lib. ii. 3, in Harduini Concil. torn. vi. 

* This circumstance is mentioned by the abbot Dodechinus, in his 
Continuat. Chronici Mariani Scoti, apud ScriptoresGermanicos Jo. Pis- 
torii, torn. i. p. 402. For an account of Peter, see Du-Fresne's notes upon 
the Alexias of Anna Comnena. 

gj- • This council was the most numerous of any that had been 



vigour, went through all the countries of Europe sounding 
the alarm of a holy war against the infidel nations, and 
exhorting all Christian princes to draw the sword against 
the tyrants of Palestine; nor did he stop here; but, with 
a view to engage the superstitious and ignorant multitude 
in his cause, he carried about with him a letter, which he 
said was written in heaven, and addressed to all true 
Christians, to animate their zeal for the deliverance of 
their brethren, who groaned under the oppressive burthen 
of a Mohammedan yoke. d 

V. When Urban saw the way prepared by the exhor- 
tations of the hermit, who had put the spirits of the peo- 
ple every where in a ferment, and had kindled in their 
breasts a vehement zeal for that holy carnage which the 
church had been so long meditating, he assembled a 
grand and numerous council at Placentia, in 1095, and 
recommended warmly, for the first time, the sacred expe- 
dition against the Saracens. 8 This arduous enterprise 
was far from being approved by the greatest part of this 
numerous assembly, notwithstanding the presence of the 
emperor's legates, who, in their master's name, represented 
most pathetically how necessary it was to set limits to the 
power of the victorious infidels, whose authority and do- 
minion increased from day to day. The pontiffs propo- 
sal was, however, renewed with the same zeal, and with 
the desired success, some time after this, in the council as- 
sembled at Clermont, where Urban was present. The 
pompous and pathetic speech which he delivered on this 
occasion, made a deep and powerful impression upon the 
minds of the French, whose natural character renders 
them much superior to the Italians in encountering diffi- 
culties, facing danger, and attempting the execution of 
the most perilous designs : so that an innumerable mul- 
titude, composed of all ranks and orders in the nation, 
offered themselves as volunteers in this sacred expedition/ 
This numerous host was looked upon as formidable in 
the highest degree, and equal to the most glorious enter- 
prises and exploits, while, in reality, it was no more than 
an unwieldy body without life and vigour, and was weak 
and contemptible in every respect. This will appear suf- 
ficiently evident when we consider that this army was a 
motley assemblage of monks, prostitutes, artists, labourers, 
lazy tradesmen, merchants, boys, girls, slaves, malefactors, 
and profligate debauchees, and that it was principally 
composed of the lowest dregs of the multitude, who were 
animated solely by the prospect of spoil and plunder, and 
hoped to make their fortunes by this holy campaign. 
Every one will perceive how little discipline, counsel, or 
fortitude, were to be expected from such a miserable rab- 
ble. This expedition was distinguished, in the French 
language, by the name of a croisade, and all who em- 
barked in it were called croises, croisards, or cross-bear- 
ers, not only because the end of this holy war was to wrest 
the cross of Christ out of the hands of the infidels, but 
also on account of the consecrated cross of various colours, 
which every soldier wore upon his right shoulder, e 

hitherto assembled, and was, on that account, holden in the open fields. 
There were present at it two hundred bishops, four thousand ecclesias- 
tics, and three hundred thousand laymen. 

( Theod. Ruinart. in Vit. Urbani II. sect, cexxv. p. 224, 229, 240, 
272, &c. torn. iii. op. posthum. Mabilloni et Ruinarti. — Jo. Harduini Con- 
cilia, torn. xi. part ii. p. 172S. — Baron. Annal. Eccles. torn. xi. ad annum 
1095, n. xxxii. p. 648. 

' See Abrah. Bzovius, Continuat. Annal. Baronii, torn. xv. ad annum 
1410, n. ix. p. 322, edit. Colon. — L'Enfant, Histoire du Concile de Pise, 



Chap. I. 



PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 



223 



VI. In consequence of these grand preparations, eight 
hundred thousand men, in separate bodies, and under dif- 
ferent commanders, set out for Constantinople, in 1096, 
that, after receiving both assistance and direction from 
Alexis Comnenius the Grecian emperor, they might pur- 
sue their march into Asia. One of the principal divisions 
of this great body marched under the guidance of Peter 
the Hermit, the author and fomenter of the war, who was 
girded with a rope, and continued to appear with all the 
marks of an austere solitary. The adventurers who com- 
posed this first division committed the most flagitious 
crimes, which so incensed the inhabitants of the countries 
through which they passed, particularly those of Hungary 
and Bulgaria, that they rose up in arms and massacred 
the greatest part of them. A like fate attended several 
other divisions of the same army, who, under the conduct 
of weak and unskilful chiefs, wandered about like an un- 
disciplined band of robbers, plundering the cities that lay 
in their way, and spreading misery and desolation wher- 
ever they came. The armies that were headed by illustri- 
ous commanders, distinguished by their birth and their mi- 
litary endowments, arrived more happily at the capital of 
the Grecian empire. That which was commanded by 
Godfrey of Bouillon, duke of Lorrain, who deserves a 
place among the greatest heroes, whether of ancient or 
modern times, 1 and by his brother Baldwin, was composed 
of eighty thousand well chosen troops, horse and foot, b 
and directed its march through Germany and Hungary. 
Another host, which was headed by Raymond, earl of 
Toulouse, passed through the Sclavonian territories. Ro- 
bert, earl of Flanders, Robert, duke of Normandy, c Hugh, 
brother to Philip I. king of France, embarked their re- 
spective forces in a fleet which was assembled at Brundisi 
and Tarento, whence they were transported to Durazzo, 
or Dyrrhachium, as it was anciently called. These armies 
were followed by Boemond, duke of Apulia and Calabria, 
at the head of a chosen and numerous body of valiant 
Normans. 

VII. This army was the greatest, and, in outward ap- 
pearance, the most formidable, that had been known in 
the memory of man ; and though, before its arrival at 
Constantinople, it was diminished considerably by the 
difficulties and oppositions it had met with on the way, 
yet, such as it was, it made the Grecian emperor tremble, 

torn. ii. lib. v. p. 60. — -The writers who have treated of this holy war 
are mentioned by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in his Lux Evangelii toto Orbe ex- 
oriens, cap. xxx. p. 518. 

* The Benedictine monks have given an ample account of this mag- 
nanimous chief, whose character was a bright assemblage of all Chris- 
tian, civil, and heroic virtues, in their Hist. Lit.de la France, t. viii. p. 598. 

U* b The engaging and illustrious virtues of Godfrey had drawn 
from all parts a prodigious number of volunteers, who were ambitious to 
fight under his standard. The magnitude of this host, however, per- 
plexed the valiant chief, who pn that account, divided it into several bodies, 
and. finding in Peter the Hermit the same ambitious and military spirit 
that had prevailed in him before his retreat from the world, declared him 
the general of the first division, which was detached from the rest, and 
ordered to march immediately to Constantinople. By this measure God- 
frey freed himself from the dregs of that astonishing multitude which 
flocked to his camp. Father Maimbourg;, notwithstanding his immode- 
rate zeal for the holy war, and that fabulous turn which enabled him to 
represent it in thsmost favourable points of view, acknowledges frankly, 
that the first divisions of this prodigious army committed the most abo- 
minable enormities in the countries through which they passed, and that 
there w-as no kind of insolence, injustice, impurity, barbarity, and vio- 
lence, of which they were not guilty. Nothing perhaps in the annals 
of history can equal the flagitious deeds of this infernal rabble. See par- 
ticularly Maimbourg, Histoire des Croisades, torn. i. liv. i. p. 57, 58, 59, 
60, 61, 62, second edit, in 12mo. 



and filled his mind with the most anxious and terrible ap- 
prehensions of some secret design against his dominions. 
His fears, however, were dispelled, when he saw these le- 
gions pass the straits of Gallipolis, and direct their march 
toward Bithynia. d 

The first successful enterprise,' that was formed 
against the infidels, was the siege of Nice, the capital of 
Bithynia, which was taken in 1097 ; thence the victorious 
army proceeded into Syria, and in the following year sub- 
dued Antioch, which, with its fertile territory, was granted, 
by the assembled chiefs, to Boemond, duke of Apulia. 
Edessa fell next into the hands of the victors, and became 
the property of Baldwin, brother to Godfrey of Bouillon. 
The conquest of Jerusalem, which, after a siege of five 
weeks, submitted to their arms in 1099, seemed to crown 
their expedition with the desired success. In this city 
were laid the foundations of a new kingdom, at the head 
of which was placed the famous Godfrey, whom the army 
saluted king of Jerusalem with an unanimous voice. 

But this illustrious hero, whose other eminent qualities 
were adorned with the greatest modesty, refused that high 
title/ though he governed Jerusalem with that valour, 
equity, and prudence, which have rendered his name im- 
mortal. Having chosen a small army to support him in 
his new dignity, he permitted the rest of the troops to re- 
turn into Europe. He did not, however, long enjoy the 
traits of a victory, in which his heroic valour had been so 
gloriously displayed, but died about a year after the con- 
quest of Jerusalem, leaving his dominions to his brother 
Baldwin, prince of Edessa, who assumed the title of king 
■without the least hesitation. 

VIII. If we examine the motives that engaged the 
popes, more particularly Urban II., to kindle this holy war, 
which in its progress and issue was so detrimental to al- 
most all the countries of Europe, we shall probably be per- 
suaded that its origin is to be derived from the corrupt no- 
tions of religion, which prevailed in those barbarous times. 
It was thought inconsistent with the duty and character 
of Christians, to suffer that land which was blessed with, 
the ministry, distinguished by the miracles, and consecra- 
ted by the blood of the Saviour of men, to remain under 
the dominion of his most inveterate enemies. It was also 
deemed a very important branch of true piety to visit the 
holy places in Palestine ; but such peregrinations were 

5jT c Eldest son of "William the Conqueror. 

f^T d Our author, for the sake of brevity, passes over the contests and 
jealousies that subsisted between the chief of the crusade and die Grecian 
emperor. The character of the latter is differently painted by different his- 
torians. The warm defenders of the crusade represent him as a most perfi- 
dious prince, who, under the show of friendship and zeal, aimed at the des- 
truction of Godfrey's army. Others consider him as a wise, prudent politi- 
cian, who, by artifice and stratagem, warded off the danger he had reason 
to apprehend from the formidable legions that passed through his domin- 
ions ; and part of winch, particularly die army commanded by Peter the 
Hermit, ravaged his most fruitful territories in the most barbarous manner, 
and pillaged even die suburbs of the capital of the empire. The truth of 
die matter is, that, if Alexis cannot be vindicated from the charge of per- 
fidy, the holy warriors are, on the other hand, chargeable with many acts 
of brutality and injustice. See Maimbourg, Hist, des Crois. liv. i. et ii. 

f^T • Before the arrival of Godfrey in Asia, the army, or rather rab- 
ble, commanded by Peter the Hermit in such a ridiculous manner as 
might be expected from a wrong-headed monk, received a ruinous defeat 
from the young Soliman. 

f£=r ' All the historians, who have written of this holy war, applaud 
the answer which Godfrey returned to die offer that w-as made him of a 
crown of gold, as a mark of his accession to the throne of Jerusalem : the 
answer was, that " he could not bear the thought of wearing a crown of 
gold in that city, where the King of kings had been crowned with thorns." 
This answer was sublime in the eleventh century. 



224 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part L 



extremely dangerous, while the despotic Saracens were 
in possession of that country. Nor is it to be denied, that 
these motives of a religious kind were accompanied and 
rendered more effectual by an anxious apprehension of 
the growing power of the Turks, who had already subdued 
the greatest part of the Grecian empire, and might soon 
carry into Europe, and more particularly into Italy, their 
victorious arms. 

There are, it must be confessed, several learned men 
who have accounted otherwise for this pious, or rather 
fanatical, expedition. They imagine that the Roman 
pontiffs recommended this sacred campaign with a view 
of augmenting their own authority, and weakening the 
power of the Latin emperors and princes ; and that these 
princes countenanced and encouraged it in hopes of get- 
ting rid, by that measure, of their powerful and warlike 
vassals, and of becoming masters of their lands and pos- 



• The part of this hypothesis, that relates to the views of the Roman 
pontiffs, has been adopted as an undoubted truth, not only by many pro- 
testant historians, but also by several writers of the Romish communion. 
See Bened. Accoltus de bello Sacro in Infideles, lib. i. p. 16. — Basnage, 
Histoire des Eglises Reformees, torn. i. period, v. p. 235. — Vertot, His- 
toire des Chevaliers de Malthe, torn. i. liv. iii. p. 302, 308 ; liv. iv. p. 428. 
— Baillet, Histoire des Demelez de Boniface VIII. avec Philippe le Bel, 
p. 76. — Histoire du Droit Ecclesiastique Francois, torn. i.p. 296, 299. To 
such, however, as consider matters attentively, this hypothesis will appear 
destitute of any solid foundation. Certain it is, that the pontiffs could 
never have either foreseen, or imagined, that so many European princes, 
and such prodigious multitudes of people, would take arms against the 
infidels, and march into Palestine; nor could they be assured before-hand, 
that this expedition would tend to the advancement of their opulence and 
authority ; for all the accessions of influence and wealth, which the 
popes, and the clergy in general, derived from these holy wars, were of 
a much later date than their origin, and were acquired by degrees, rather 
Dy lucky hits, than by deep-laid schemes ; and this alone is sufficient to 
show, that the pontiffs, in forming the plan, and exhorting to the prosecu- 
tion of these wars, had no thoughts of extending thereby the limits of 
their authority. We may add, to this consideration, another of no less 
weight in the matter before us ; and that is, the general opinion which 
prevailed at this time, both among the clergy and the people, that the 
conquest of Palestine would be finished in a short time, in a single cam- 
paign ; that the Divine Providence would interpose, in a miraculous 
manner, to accomplish the ruin of the infidels ; and that, after the taking 
of Jerusalem, the greatest part of the European princes would return 
home with their troops, which last circumstance was by no means favour- 
able to the views which the popes are supposed to have formed of increas- 
ing their opulence and extending their dominion. Of all the conjectures 
that have been entertained upon this subject, the most improbable and 
groundless is that which supposes that Urban II. recommended, with 
such ardour, this expedition into Palestine, with a view of weakening 
the power of the emperor Henry IV. with whom he had a violent dispute 
concerning the investiture of bishops. They who adopt this conjecture, 
must be little acquainted with the history of these times: or at least they 
forget, that the first armies that marched into Palestine against the infi- 
dels, were chiefly composed of Franks and Normans, and that the Ger- 
mans, who were the enemies of Urban II., were, in the beginning, 
extremely averse to this sacred expedition. Many other considerations 
might be added to illustrate this matter, which, for the sake of brevity, I 
pass in silence. 

That part of the hypothesis, which relates to the kings and princes of 
Europe, and supposes that they countenanced the holy war to get rid of 
their powerful vassals, is as groundless as the other, which we have been 
now refuting. It is, indeed, adopted by several eminent writers, such as 
Vertot, (Hist, de Malthe, liv. iii. p. 309,) Boulainvilliers, and others, who 
pretend to a superior and uncommon insight into the policy of these re- 
mote ages. The reasons, however, which these great men employed to 
support their opinion, may be all comprehended in this single argument, 
viz. " Many kings, especially among the Franks, became more opulent 
and powerful, by the number of their vassals who lost their lives and 
fortunes in this holy war ; therefore, these princes not only permitted, 
but warmly countenanced the prosecution of this war from selfish and am- 
bitious principles." The weakness of this conclusion must strike every 
oue at first sight. 

We are wonderfully prone to attribute both to the Roman pontiffs, and 
to the princes of this barbarous age, much more sagacity and cunning 
than tbey really possessed; and we deduce from the events the princi- 
ples and views of the actors, which is a defective and uncertain manner 
of reasoning. With respect to the pontiffs, it appears most probable 
that their immense opulence and authority were acquired, rather by 



sessions. 1 These conjectures, however plausible in ap- 
pearance, are still no more than conjectures. The truth 
seems to be this ; that the pope and the European princes 
were engaged at first in these crusades by a principle of 
superstition only ; but when, in process of time, they 
learned by experience, that these holy wars contributed 
much to increase their opulence and to extend their au- 
thority, by sacrificing their wealthy and powerful rivals, 
new motives were presented to encourage these expedi- 
tions into Palestine, and ambition and avarice seconded 
and enforced the dictates of fanaticism and superstition. 

IX. Without determining any thing concerning the 
justice or injustice 5 of these wars, we may boldly affirm, 
that they were highly prejudicial, both to the cause of re- 
ligion, and to the civil interests of mankind ; and that, in 
Europe more especially, they occasioned innumerable evita 
and calamities, the effects of which are yet perceptible in 

their improving dexterously the opportunities that were offered to them, 
than by the schemes they had formed for extending their domiion, or 
filling their coffers. 

•> I do not pretend to decide the question concerning the lawfulness of 
the crusades ; a question which, when it is considered with attention and 
impartiality, will appear not only extremely difficult, but also highly 
doubtful. It is, however, proper to inform the reader, that in the twelfth and 
thirteenth centuries the justice of this holy war was called in question, 
and warmly disputed among Christians. The Waldenses and Albigenses, 
who were distinguished by the name of Cathari, and Puritans, consider- 
ed these expeditions into Palestine as absolutely unlawful. The reasons 
they alleged were collected and combated by Francis Moneta, a Dominican 
friar of the thirteenth century, in a book entitled Summa contra Catharos et 
Waldenses, lib. v. cap. xiii. p. 531, which was published at Rome by 
Riccini. But neither the objections of the Waldenses, nor the answers of 
Moneta, were at all remarkable for their weight and solidity, as will ap- 
pear evidently from the following examples. The former alleged against 
the holy war, the words of St. Paul, 1 Cor. x. 32. " Give none offence ; 
neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles." By the Gentiles, said they, are 
to be understood the Saracens. And therefore the European Christians 
are to abstain from making war upon the Saracens, lest they give offence 
to the Gentiles. We shall give Moneta's answer to this argument in his 
own words : " We read," says he, " Gen. xii. 7, that God said unto Abra- 
ham, Unto thy seed will I give this land : Now we (Christians who 
dwell in Europe) are the seed of Abraham, as the apostle affirms, Galafe 
iii. 29. Therefore we are heirs of the promise, and the holy land is 
given to us by the covenant as our lawful possession. Hence it appears, 
that it is the duty of civil and temporal rulers to use their most zealous 
efforts to put us in possession of the promised land, while it is, at the 
same time, incumbent upon the church and its ministers to exhort these 
rulers in the most urgent manner to the performance of their duty." A 
rare argument this truly ! but let us hear him out. " The church has 
no design to injure or slaughter the Saracens, nor is such the intention 
of the Christian princes engaged in this war. Yet the blood of the infi- 
dels must of necessity be shed, if they make resistance and oppose the 
victorious arms of the princes. The church of God therefore is entirely 
innocent and without reproach in this matter, and gives no offence to the 
Gentiles, because it does no more, in reality, than maintain its undoubt- 
ed right." Such is the subtle reasoning of Moneta, on which it is not 
necessary to make any reflections. 

fjf Dr. Mosheim seems too modest, and even timorous, in his manner 
of arraigning tire justice of this holy war, which was so absurd in its 
principle, and so abominable in the odious circumstances that attended it. 
His respect, perhaps, for the Teutonic crosses which abound in Germany, 
and are the marks of an order that derives its origin from these fanatical 
expeditions into Palestine, may have occasioned that ambiguity and 
circumspection in his expressions, through which, however, it is easy to 
perceive his disapprobation of the crusades. The holy place profaned 
by the dominion of infidels, was the apparent pretext for this fanatical 
war. What holy place 1 Jerusalem, say the knights errant of Pales- 
tine. But they forget that Jerusalem was a city which, by the conduct 
of its inhabitants and the crucifixion of Christ, had become most odious 
in the eye of God ; that it was visibly loaded with a divine malediction, 
and was the miserable theatre of the most tremendous judgments and ca- 
lamities that ever vrere inflicted upon any nation. Had the case been 
otherwise, we know of no right which Christianity gives its professors 
to seize the territories, and invade the possessions of unbelievers. Had 
the Jews attempted the conquest of Palestine, they would have acted 
conformably w ith their apparent rights, because it was formerly their coun- 
try ; and consistently also with their religious principles, because they 
expected a Messiah who was to bind the kings of the Gentiles in chains, 
and to reduce the whole world under the Jewish yoke. 



Chap. I. 



PROSPEROUS EYENTS. 



225 



our times. The European nations were deprived of the 
greatest part of their inhabitants by these ill-judged expe- 
ditions ; immense sums of money were exported into Asia 
for the support of the war ; and numbers of the most 
powerful aud opulent families either became extinct, or 
were involved in the deepest miseries of poverty and want. 
It could not easily be otherwise, since the heads of the 
most illustrious houses either mortgaged or sold their 
lands and possessions in order to pay the expenses of their 
voyage,* while others imposed such intolerable burthens 
upon their vassals and tenant-, as obliged them to aban- 
don their houses and all their domestic concerns, and to 
enlist themselves, rather through wild despair than reli- 
gious zeaL under the sacred banner of the cross. Hence 
the face of Europe was totally changed, and all things 
were thrown into the utmost confusion. We pass in si- 
lence the various enormities that were occasioned by these 
crusades, the murders, rapes, and robberies of the most 
infernal nature, that were every where committed with im- 
punity by these holy soldiers of God and of Christ, as they 
were impiously called ; nor shall we enter into a detail of 
the new privileges and right-, to which these wars gave 
rise, and which were ofteu attended with the greatest in- 
conveniences. b 

X. These holy wars were not less prejudicial to the 
cause of religion, and the true interests of the Christian 
church, than they were to the temporal concerns of men. 
One of their first and most pernicious effects was the enor- 
mous augmentation of the influence and authority of the 
Roman pontiffs : they also contributed, in various ways, 
to enrich the churches and monasteries with daily acces- 
sions of wealth, and to open new sources of opulence to all 
the sacerdotal orders. For they, who assumed the cross, 
disposed of their possessions as if the}' were at tire point 
of death, on account of the great and innumerable dan- 
gers to which they were to be exposed in their passage to 
the holy land, and the opposition they were to encounter 
there upon their arrival. They therefore, for the most 
part, made their wills before their departure, and left a con- 
siderable part of then possessions to the priests aud monks, 
in order to obtain, by these pious legacies, the favour and 
protection of the Deity. d Many examples of these dona- 

* We find many memorable examples of this in the ancient records. 
Robert, duke of Normandy, mortgaged his duchy to his brother William, 
king of England, to defray the expenses of his voyage to Palestine. See 
the Histor. Major of Matthew Paris, lib. i. p. 24. — Odo, viscount of 
Bourg.es, sold his territory to the king of France. Gallia Christiana Bene- 
dictinorum. torn. ii. p. -15. See. for many examples of this kind. Car. du 
Fresne, Adnot. ad Joinvillii Vitam Luctovici S. p. 52. — Boulainvilliers 
sur rOrigine et les Droits de la Noblesse, in Molet's Memoires de Litera- 
ture et de l'Histoire, torn. ix. part i. p. 68. — Jo. George Cramer, de Juri- 
bus et Prasrogativis Nobilitatis, torn. i. p. 81, 409. From the commence- 
ment therefore of these holy war;, a vast number of estates, belonging 
to the European nobility, were either mortgaged, or totally trans,' it ■ !. 
some to kings and princes, others to priests and monks, and not a few to 
persons of a private condition, who by possessing considerable sums of 
readv monev. were enabled to make advantageous purchases. 

' Such persons as entered into these expeditions, and were distin- 
guished by the badge of the military cross, acquired thereby certain re- 
markable rights, which were extremely prejudicial to the rest of their 
fallow-citizens. H-nce it happened, that when any of these holy sol- 
diers contracted any civil obligations, or entered into conventions of sale, 
purchase, or any such transactions, they were previously required to re- 
nounce all privileges and immunities, which they had obtained, or might 
obtain, in time to come, bv assuming the cross. See Le Bceuf, Memoires 
sor l'Histoire d'Auxerre, Append, torn. ii. p. '292. 

JV ° The translator has here inserted, in the text, the note (r) of the 
original, as it is purely historical, and makes an interesting part of the 
not r.ilinu. 

No. XIX. - 57 



tions are to be found in ancient records. Such of the holy 
soldiers, as had been enframed in suits of law with the 
priests or monks, renounced their pretensions, and sub- 
missively gave up whatever it was that had been the sub- 
ject of debate ; and others, who had seized any of the pos- 
sessions of the churches or convents, or had heard of any 
injury that had been committed against the clergy by the 
remotest of their ancestors, made the most liberal restitu- 
tion, both for their own usurpations and those of their fore- 
fathers, and made ample satisfaction, for the real or pre- 
tended injuries committed against the church, by rich and 
costly donations. e 

Nor were these the only unhappy effects of these holy 
expeditions, considered with respect to their influence up- 
on the state of religion, and the affairs of the Christian 
church ; for, while whole legions of bishops and abbots 
girded the sword to the thigh, and went as generals, vo- 
lunteers; or chaplains, into Palestine, the priests and monks, 
who had lived under their jurisdiction, and were more or 
less awed by their authority, threw off all restraint, led the 
most lawless and profligate lives, and abandoned them- 
selves to all sorts of licentiousness, committing the most 
flagitious and extravagant excesses without reluctance or 
remorse. The monster superstition, which was already 
grown to an enormous size, received new accessions of 
strength and influence from this holy war. and exercised 
with greater vehemence than ever its despotic dominion 
over the minds of the Latins. To the crowd of saints and 
tutelar patrons, whose number was prodigious before this 
period, were now added many fictitious saints of Greek 
and Syrian origin/ hitherto unknown in Europe ; and 
an incredible quantity of relics, the greatest, part of which 
were ridiculous in the highest degree, were imported into 
the European churches. The armies, that returned from 
Asia after the taking of Jerusalem, brought with them a 
vast number of these saintly relics, which they had bought 
at a high price from the crafty Greeks and Syrians, and 
which they considered as the noblest spoils that could crown 
their return from the holy land. These they committed 
to the custody of the clergy in the churches and monas- 
teries, or ordered them to be most carefully preserved in 
their families from one generation to another.s 

* See Plessis. Hist, de Meaux, torn. ii. p. 76, 79, 141. — Gallia Christi- 
ana, torn. ii. p. 138, 139. — Le Bceuf, Append, p. 31. — Du Fresne, Notae 
ad Vitam Ludovici Sancti, p. 52. 

e Du-Fresne, p. 52. 

f The Roman catholic historians acknowledge, that, during the tims 
of the crusades, many saints unknown to the Latins before that period, 
were imported into Europe from Greece and the eastern provinces, and 
were treated with the utmost respect and die most devout veneration. 
Among these new patrons, there were some, whose exploits and even exis- 
tence are called in question. Such, among others, was St. Catharine, 
whom Baronius and Cassander represent as having removed from Syria 
into Europe. See Baronius, ad Martyrol. Roman, p. 728. — George Cas- 
sander, Schol. ad Hymnos Ecclesiae. It is extremely doubtful, whetii r 
this Catharine, who is honoured as die patroness of learned men, ever 
existed. 

' The sacred treasures of musty relics which die French. Germans, 
Britons, and other European nations, preserved formerly with so much 
care, and show even in our times with such pious ostentation, are cer- 
tainly not more ancient than these holy wars, but were dien purchased 
at a high rate from the Greeks and Syrians. These cunning traders in 
; superstition, whose avarice and fraud were excessive, frequently imposed 
| upon die credulity of die simple and ignorant Latins, by the sale of ficti- 
[ tious relics. Richard, king of England, bought in 1191. from the famous 
Saladin, all the relics diaf were to be found in Jerusalem, as appears 
from die testimony of Matthew Paris, who tells us also, that the Domini- 
cans brought from Palestine, a white stone, in which Jesus Christ had 
left the print of his feet. The Genoese pretended to have received from 



226 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1. 



CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Calamitous Events that happened 
to the Church during this Century. 

I. The greatest opposition the Christians met with, in 
this century, was from the Saracens and Turks. To the 
latter, the Christians and Saracens were equally odious, 
and felt equally the fatal consequences of their increasing 
dominion. The Saracens, notwithstanding their bloody 
contests with the Turks, which gave them constant occu- 
pation, and the vigorous, though ineffectual efforts they 
were continually making to set limits to the power of that 
fierce nation, which was daily extending the bounds of its 
empire, persisted in their cruelty toward their Christian 
subjects, whom they robbed, plundered, maimed, or mur- 
dered in the most barbarous manner, and loaded with all 
sorts of injuries and calamities. The Turks, on the other 
hand, not only reduced the Saracen dominion to very nar- 
row bounds, but also seized the richest provinces of the 
Grecian empire, the fertile countries situated upon the 
coasts of the Euxine sea, and subjected them to their yoke, 
while they impoverished and exhausted the rest by per- 
petual incursions, and by the most severe and unmerciful 
exactions. The Greeks were not able to oppose this im- 
petuous torrent of prosperous ambition. Their force was 
weakened by intestine discords, and their treasures were 
exhausted to such a degree as rendered them incapable of 
raising new troops, or of paying the armies they had al- 
ready in their service. 

II. The Saracens in Spain opposed the progress of the 
Gospel in a different, yet still more pernicious way. They 
used all sorts of methods to allure the Christians into the 
profession of the Mohammedan faith. Alliances of mar- 
riage, advantageous contracts, flattering rewards, were em- 
Baldwin, second king of Jerusalem, the very dish in which the paschal 
lamb was served up to Christ and his disciples at the last supper ; though 
this famous dish excites the laughter of even fa'ther Labat, in his Voy- 
ages en Espagne et en Italie, torn. ii. For an account of the prodigious 
quantity of relics, which St. Louis brought from Palestine into France, 
we refer the reader to the life of that prince composed by Joinville, and 
published by Du-Fresne; as also to Plessis, Histoire de PEglise de Meaux, 
torn. i. p. 120 ; and Lancelot, Memoires pour la Vie de l'Abbe de St. 
Cyran, torn. i. p. 175. Christ's handkerchief, which is worshipped at 
Besancon, was brought thither from the holy land. See J. Jaques Chif- 
let, Visontio, part. ii. p. 108; and de Linteis Christi Sepulchralibus, c. 
ix. p. 50. Many other examples of this miserable superstition may be 
seen ir. Anton. Matthaei Analecta veteris iEvi, torn. ii. p. 677.— Jo. Ma- 
billon, Annal. Bened. torn. vi. p. 52 ; and principally Chiflet's Crisis 



ployed to seduce them with too much success ; for great 
numbers fell into these fatal snares, and apostatized from 
the truth ; a and these allurements would have, undoubt- 
edly, still continued to seduce multitudes of Christians from 
the bosom of the church, had not the face of affairs been 
changed in Spain by the victorious arms of the kings of 
Arragon and Castile, and more especially Ferdinand I. ; 
for these princes, whose zeal for Christianity was equal to 
their military courage, defeated the Saracens in several 
battles, and deprived them of a great part of their territo- 
ries and possessions. 11 

The number of those among the Danes, Hungarians, 
and other European nations, who retained their prejudices 
in favour of the idolatrous religion of their ancestors, was 
yet very considerable ; and they persecuted, with the ut- 
most cruelty, the neighbouring nations, and also such of 
their fellow-citizens as had embraced the Gospel. To put 
a stop to this barbarous persecution, Christian princes ex- 
erted their zeal in a terrible manner, proclaiming capital 
punishment against all who persisted in the worship of the 
Pagan deities. This dreadful severity contributed much 
more toward the extirpation of paganism, than the ex- 
hortations and instructions of ignorant missionaries, who 
were unacquainted with the true nature of the Gospel, and 
dishonoured its pure and holy doctrines by their licentious 
lives and superstitious practices. 

The Prussians, Lithuanians, Sclavonians, Obotriti, and 
several other nations, who dwelt in the lower parts of Ger- 
many, and lay still grovelling in the darkness of pagan- 
ism, continued to harass the Christians, who lived in their 
neighbourhood, by perpetual acts of hostility and violence, 
by frequent incursions into their territories, and by putting 
numbers of them to death in the most inhuman man- 
ner. 

Historica de Linteis Christi Sepulchralibus, c. ix. x. p. 50, and also 59, 
where we find the following passage : " Sciendum est, vigente immani 
et barbara Turcorumpersecutione, et imminerite Christiana! religionis in 
oriente naufragio, educta e sacrariis et per Christianos quovis modo re- 
condiiaecclesiarumpignora. — Hisce plane divinis opibus illecti pra aliis, 
sacra Ad\pava qua vi, qua pretio, a detinentibus hac iliac extorserunt." 

"Jo. Henr. Hottingeri Histor. Ecclesiast. Sa:c. XI. §. ii. p. 452; and 
Michael Geddes' History of the Expulsion of the Morescoes out of 
Spain, which is to be found in the Miscellan. Tracts of that Author, torn. i. 

b For an account of these wars between the first Christian kings of 
Spain and the Moslems or Moors, see the Spanish histories of Mariana 
and Ferreras. 

Helmoldi Chron. Slavorum, lib. i. cap. xvl p, 52. — Adami Bremens 
Histor. lib. ii. cap. xxvii. 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
during this Century. 

I. The declining- condition of the Grecian empire was 
fatal to the progress of letters and philosophy. Its glory 
and power diminished from day to day under the insults 
and usurpations of the Turks and Saracens ; and, while 
the empire suffered by these attacks from without, it was 
consumed gradually by the internal pestilence of civil dis- 
cord, by frequent seditions and conspiracies, and by those 
violent revolutions which shook from time to time the im- 
perial throne, and were attended with the sudden fall and 
elevation of those who held the reins of government. 1 
So many foreign invasions, so many internal troubles, 
so many emperors dethroned, deprived the political body 
cf its strength and consistency, broke in upon the public 
order, rendered all things precarious, and, dejecting the 
spirits of the nation, damped the fire of genius, and discou- 
raged the efforts of literary ambition. There were, how- 
ever, some emperors, such as Alexius Comnenus, who 
seemed to cherish and encourage the drooping sciences, and 
whose zeal was seconded by several prelates, who were 
willing to lend a supporting hand to the cause of letters. 
The controversies also that subsisted between the Greeks 
and Latins, impelled the former, amidst all their disad- 
vantages, to a certain degree of application to study, and 
prevented them from abandoning entirely the culture of 
the sciences. And hence it is, that we find among the 
Greeks of this century some waiters, at least, who have 
deserved well of the republic of letters. 

II. We pass in silence the poets, rhetoricians, and phi- 
lologists of this century, who were neither highly eminent 
nor absolutely contemptible. Among the writers of his- 
tory, Leo the grammarian, John Scylizes, Cedrenus, 
and a few others, deserve to be mentioned with some share 
of praise, notwithstanding the palpable partiality with 
which they are chargeable, and tire zeal they discover for 
many of the fabulous records of their nation. But the 
greatest ornament of the republic of letters, at this time, was 
Michael Psellus, a man illustrious in every respect, and 
ieepiy versed in all the various kinds of erudition that were 
known in his age. This great man recommended warmly 
to his countrymen the study of philosophy, and particu- 
larly the system of Aristotle, which he embellished [and il- 
lustrated in several learned and ingenious productions. b 
If we turn our eyes toward the Arabians, we shall find 
that they still retained a high degree of zeal for the cul- 
ture of the sciences ; as appears evidently from the num- 
ber of physicians, mathematicians, and astronomers, who 
nourished among them in this century. 

f^T * The sentence which begins with the words so many foreign, 
and ends with the words literary ambition, is added by the translator to 
vender the connexion with what follows more evident. 

"> Leo Allatius, Diatriba de Psellis, p. 14, edit. Fabricii. 

Elmacini Historia Saracen, p. 281. — Jo. Henr. Hottinger, Histor. 
Eccles. Sa:c. XI. p. 449. 

<i See Muratori, Antiquitates Ital. medii iEvi, torn. iii. p. 871. — Gian- 
none, Historia di Napoli,' vol. ii. 

• Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. vii. at the Introduction. — Du 



III. The arts and sciences seemed, in some measure, 
to revive in the west, among the clergy, at least, anu the 
monastic orders ; they were not indeed cultivated by any 
other set of men ; and the nobility, if we except such of 
them as were designed to fill certain ecclesiastical digni- 
ties, or had voluntarily devoted themselves to a religious 
solitude, treated all sorts of learning and erudition with 
indifference and contempt. The schools of learning flou- 
rished in several parts of Italy about the year 1050 ; and 
of the Italian doctors, who acquired a name by their wri- 
tings, or their academical lectures, several removed after- 
wards into France, and particularly into Normandy, where 
they instructed the youth, who had consecrated themselves 
to the service of the church. d The French also, though 
they acknowledge their obligations to the learned Italians 
who settled in their provinces, exhibit, at the same time, a 
considerable list of their countrymen, who, without any 
foreign succours, cultivated the sciences, and contributed 
not a little to the advancement of letters in this century ; 
they mention also several schools erected in different parts 
of that kingdom, which were in the highest reputation, 
both on account of the fame of their masters, and the mul- 
titude of disciples that resorted to them. 6 And, indeed, 
it is certain beyond all contradiction, that the liberal arts 
and sciences were cultivated in France, which abounded 
with learned men, while the greatest part of Italy lay as 
yet covered with a thick cloud of ignorance and darkness. 
For Robert, king of France, son and successor of Hugh 
Capet, disciple of the famous Gerbert (afterwards Sylves- 
ter II.) and the great protector of the sciences, and friend 
of the learned, reigned from the close of the preceding cen- 
tury to the year 1031/ and exerted upon all occasions the 
most ardent zeal for the restoration of letters ; nor were 
his noble efforts without success. * The provinces of Si- 
cily, Apulia, Calabria, and other southern parts of Italy, 
were indebted, for the introduction of the sciences among 
them, to the Normans, who became their masters, and who 
brought with them from France the knowledge of letters 
to a people benighted in the darkest ignorance. To the 
Normans also was due the restoration of learning in Eng- 
land. William the Conqueror, a prince of uncommon sa- 
gacity and genius, and the great Maecenas of his time, 
upon his accession to the throne of England, in the year 
1066, engaged, by the most alluring solicitations, a consi- 
derable number of learned men, from Normandy, and 
other countries, to settle in his new dominions, and ex 
erted his most zealous endeavours to dispel that savage ig 
norance, which is always a source of innumerable evils. h 
The reception of Christianity had polished and civilized, 
in an extraordinary manner, the rugged minds of the va- 
liant Normans : for those fierce warriors, who, under the 

Boulay, Hist. Academ. Paris, torn. i. p. 355. — Le Bceuf, Diss, sur l'Etat 
des Sciences en France depuis la Mort du Roi Robert, which is published 
among his Dissertations sur FHistoire Ecclesiastique ct Civile de Paris, 
torn. ii. part i. 

3Tjr r Robert succeeded Hugh Capet, and reigned thirty-five years. 

* Daniel, Histoire de la France, torn. iii. p.~58. — Du Boulay, Hist. 
Academ. Paris, torn. i. p. 636, et passim. 

h See Hist. Liter, de la France, torn. viii. p. 171.— "The English,' 
says Matthew Paris, " were so illiterate and ignorant before the unic of 



228 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



darkness of paganism, had manifested the utmost aversion 
to all branches of knowledge and every kind of instruc- 
tion', distinguished themselves, after their conversion, by 
their ardent application to the study of religion and the 
pursuits of learning. 

IY. This vehement desire of knowledge, that increased 
from day to day, and became, at length, the predominant 
passion of the politest European nations, produced many 
happy effects. To it, more particularly, we must attribute [ 
the considerable number of public schools that were opened 
in various places, and the choice of more able and emi- 
nent masters, than those who had formerly presided in the 
seminaries of learning. Toward the conclusion of the 
preceding age, there were no schools in Europe but those 
which belonged to monasteries, or episcopal residences ; nor 
were there any other masters, except the Benedictine 
monks, to instruct the youth hi the principles of sacred 
and profane erudition. But, not long after the commence- 
ment of this century, the face of things was totally 
changed, in a manner the most advantageous to the cause 
of letters. In many, cities of France and Italy, learned 
men, both among the clergy and laity, undertook the 
weighty and important charge of instructing the youth, 
and succeeded much better in this worthy undertaking 
than the monks had done, not only by comprehending in 
their course of instruction more branches of knowledge 
than the monastic doctors were acquainted with, but also 
by teaching in a better method, and with more perspicuity 
and precision, many of the same branches of science, 
which the others had taught before them. The most 
eminent of these new masters were such as had either 
travelled into Spain with a view to study in the schools of 
the Saracens, (which was extremely customary in this age 
among those who were ambitious of a distinguished repu- 
tation for wisdom and knowledge) or had improved their 
stock of erudition and philosophy by a diligent and atten- 
tive perusal of the writings of the Arabians, of which a 
great number were translated into Latin ; for with these 
foreign succours they were enabled to teach philosophy, 
mathematics, physic, astronomy, and the other sciences 
that are connected with them, in a much more learned 
and solid manner than the monks, or such as had received 
their education from them alone. The school of Saler- 
num, in the kingdom of Naples, was renowned above all 
others for the study of physic in this century, and vast 
numbers crowded thither from all the provinces of Europe 
to receive instruction in the art of healing : but the me- 
dical precepts which rendered the doctors of Salernum so 
famous, were all derived from the writings of the Ara- 

William the Conqueror, that a man who understood the principles of 
grammar was universally looked upon as a prodigy of learning. 

* Muratori, Antiq. Ital. torn. iii. p. 935. — Giannone, Hist, di Napoli, 
torn. ii. p. 151. — Freind's History of Physic. — It is well known, that the 
famous precepts of the school of Salernum, for the preservation of health, 
were composed in this century, at the request of the king of England. 

|3r b The trivium was a term invented in the times of barbarism to 
express the three sciences that were first learned in the schools, viz. 
■rrammar, rhetoric, and logic; and the schools in which these sciences 
rdone were taught, were called triviales. The quadrivium comprehend- 
ed the four mathematical sciences, — arithmetic, music, geometry, and 
astronomy. 

e See Bou-Iay, torn. i. p. 408, 511. — This is too likely to become the 
prevailing taste even in our times ; but it is an ancient taste, as we may 
easily perceive, by casting an eye upon the literary history of the 
"leventh century , and to confirm still farther the truth of the vulgar say- 
ing, that there is nothing new under /he sun, we shall quote the follow- 
ing passage from the Metalogieum of John of Salisbury, a writer of no 



bians, or from the schools of the Saracens in Spain and 
Africa. 1 It was also from the schools and writings of the 
Arabian sages, that the absurd and puerile tricks of divi- 
nation, and the custom of foretelling future events from 
the position of the stars, the features of the face, and the 
lines of the hand, derived their origin. These ridiculous 
practices, proceeding from so respectable a source, and 
moreover adapted to satisfy the idle curiosity of impatient 
mortals, were carried on in all the European nations ; and 
in process of time the pretended sciences of aslrology r and 
divination acquired the highest reputation and authority. 

V. The seven liberal arts, as they were now styled, 
were taught in the greatest part of the schools that were 
erected in this century for the education of youth. The 
first stage was grammar, which, was followed by rhetoric 
and logic. When the disciple, having learned these three 
branches, which were generally known by the name of 
trivium, extended his ambition, and was desirous of new 
improvement in the sciences, he was conducted slowty 
through the quadrivium h to the very summit of literary 
fame. But this method of teaching, which had been re- 
ceived in all the western schools, was considerably changed 
toward the latter end of this century ; for, as the science 
of logic, under which metaphysics wer« in part compre- 
hended, received new degrees of perfection from the deep 
meditations and the assiduous industry of certain acute 
thinkers, and was taught with more detail and subtlety 
than in former times, the greatest part of the studious 
youth became so enamoured of this branch of philosophy 
as to abandon grammar, rhetoric, and all the other liberal 
arts, that they might consecrate their whole time to the 
discussion of logical questions, and the pursuit of meta 
physical speculations. Nor was this surprising, when we 
consider, that, according to the opinion which now pre- 
vailed in the republic of letters, a man who was well versed 
in dialectics, i. e. in logical and metaphysical knowledge, 
was reputed sufficiently learned, and was supposed to 
stand in need of no other branches of erudition.' Hence 
arose that contempt of languages and eloquence, of the 
more elegant sciences, and the fine arts, which spread its 
baneful influence through the Latin provinces ; and hence 
that barbarism and pedantic sophistry which dishonoured, 
in succeeding ages, the republic of letters, and deplorably 
corrupted the noble simplicity of true theology, and the 
purest systems of philosophical wisdom. 

VI. The philosophy of the Latins, in this century, was 
absolutely confined within the circle of dialectics, while 
the other philosophical sciences w T ere scarcely known by 
name. d This dialectic, indeed, was miserably dry and 

mean abilities, lib. i. cap. iii. " Poeta;, historiographi habebantur infa- 
mes, et si quis incumbebat laboribus antiquorum, notabatur ut non modo 
asello Arcadia? tardior, sed obtusior plumbo vel lapide, omnibus erat in 
risum. Suis enim, aut magistri sui, quisque incumbebat inventis. — Fie- 
bant ergo summi repente philosophi: nam qui illiteratus aecesserat, fere 
non morabatur in scholis ulterius quam eo currieulo temporis, quo avium 
pulli plumescunt. — Sed quid docebant novi doctores, et qui plus somnio- 
rum quam vigiliarum in scrutinio philosophic consumserant 1 Ecce nova 
fiebant omnia: innovabatur grammatica, immutabatur dialectica. con- 
temnebatur rhetorica, et novas totius quadrivii vias, evacuatis priorum 
regulis, de ipsis philosophic adytis proferebant. Solam convenicntiam 
sive rationcm loquebantur, argumentum sonabat in ore omnium — ac in- 
eptum nimis aut rude et a philosopho alienum, impossibile credebatur 
convenienler et ad rationis normam quicquam dicere aut facere, nisi con- 
venienlice et rationis mentio expressim esset inserta." Many more 
passages of this nature are to be found in this author. 

<i We shall, indeed, find many, in the records of this century, honoured 
with the title of Philosophers. Thus we hear of Manegoldus the phi lo- 



Chap. I. 



LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



229 



barren, as long as it was drawn from no other source than 
the ten categories falsely attributed to St. Augustin, or 
from the explications of the Aristotelian philosophy, com- 
posed by Porphyry and A vermes. These, however, were 
the only guides which the schools had to follow in the be- 
ginning of this century ; nor had the public teachers 
either genius or courage enough to enlarge the system, or 
to improve upon the principles of these dictators in phi- 
losophy, whose authority was treated as infallible, and 
whose productions, for a long time, were regarded as per- 
fect, to the great detriment of true science. But, about 
the year 1050, the face of philosophy began to change, 
and the science of logic assumed a new aspect. This re- 
volution began in France, where several of the books of 
Aristotle had been brought from the schools of the Sara- 
cens in Spain ; and it was effected by a set of men highly 
renowned for their abilities and genius, such as Berenger, 
Roscelinus, Hildebert, and after them by Gilbert de la 
Porree, the famous Abelard, and others. These eminent 
logicians, though they followed the Stagirite as their guide, 
took the liberty to illustrate and model anew his philoso- 
phy, and to extend it far beyond its ancient limits. 

YII. The philosophers of this age, who were most fa- 
mous for their zealous and successful endeavours to im- 
prove the science of logic, and accommodate it to general 
use, were Lanfranc, an Italian by birth, (who was abbot of 
St. Stephen's at Caen, and was thence called by William 
the Conqueror to tbe see of Canterbury,) Anselm his suc- 
cessor, and Odo, whose last promotion was the bishopric 
of Cambray. Lanfuanc was so deeply versed in this science, 
that he was commonly called the Dialectician ; and he 
employed with great dexterity the subtleties of logic in the 
controversy which was carried on between him and the 
learned Berenger, against whom he maintained the real 
presence of Christ's body and blood in the holy sacrament. 
Anselm, in a very learned dialogue, throws much light 
upon the darkness and perplexity in which the science of 
logic had been so long involved ; and, among other things, 
he investigates, with no small sagacitv, the nature of sub- 
stance, and mode or quality, in order to convey more just 
notions of these metaphysical entities than had been hi- 
therto entertained. 1 This great prelate, who shone with a 
distinguished lustre in several branches of literature both 
sacred and profane, was the first of the Latin doctors who 
dispelled the clouds of ignorance and obscurity that hung 
over the important sciences of metaphysics and natural 
theology, as appears from two books of his composition, 

sopher, Adalardus the Philosopher, &c. But we must not attribute to 
that term, when applied to these grammarians, the -sense which it bore 
among the ancient Greeks and Latins, and which it still bears in our 
times. In the style of what we call the middle ages, every man of 
learning, of whatever kind his erudition might be, was called a philoso- 
pher ; and this title was also given to the interpreters of Scripture, 
though that set of men were, generally speaking, destitute of true phi- 
losophy. 

See the Chronicon Salcrnitanum in Muratori's collection Scriptor. 
Rerum Italicar. torn, ii., part ii. cap. cxxiv. p. 265, where we are told, 
lhat in the tenth century, in which the sciences were almost totally extin- 
guished in Italy, there were thirty-two philosophers at Benevento. We 
[earn, however, by what follows, that these philosophers were partly 
grammarians, and pardy persons who were more or less versed in certain 
liberal arts. 

• This dialogue, tU Grammatko, is to be found in the works of An- 
selm, published by father Gerberon, torn. i. p. 143. 

t> Gaunilo's Treatise is to be found in the works of Anselm, with 
the answer of that learned prelate. f^P As Anselm makes such a shi- 
ning figure in the literary history of England, it will not be improper to 
add here a more ample account of his character and writings than that 

No. XX. ' 58 



wherein the truths concerning the Deity, which are dedu- 
cible from the mere light of nature, are enumerated and 
explained with a degree of sagacity which could not well 
be expected from a writer of this century. He was the 
inventor of that famous argument, vulgarly and errone- 
ously attributed to Des-Cartes. which demonstrates the ex- 
istence of God from the idea of an infinitely perfect Being 
naturally implanted in the mind of man, and which is to 
be found, without exception, in the breast of every mortal. 
The solidity of this argument was, indeed, called in ques- 
tion, almost as soon as it was proposed, b) r Gaunilo. a 
French monk, whose objections were answered by Anselm, 
in a treatise professedly written for that purposed Odo, 
the third restorer of logic whom we mentioned above, 
taught that science with the greatest applause, and illus- 
trated it in three learned productions, which have not sur- 
vived the ruins of time. 

VIII. The restoration of logic was immediately followed 
by a vehement dispute between its restorers and patrons, 
concerning the object of that science ; such was the tenn 
employed by the contending parties. This controversy, 
which was long agitated in the schools, was in its nature 
extremely trivial and unimportant : but, considered in its 
consequences, it became a very serious and weighty affair, 
since the disputants on both sides made use of their re- 
spective opinions in explaining the doctrines of religion, 
and reciprocally loaded each other with the most odious 
invectives and the most opprobrious accusations. In one 
point only they were unanimous, acknowledging that 
logic or dialectic had for its essential object the considera- 
tion of universals in their various relations and points of 
comparison, since particular and individual things, being 
liable to change, could not be the objects of a sure ana 
immutable science. But the great question was, whether 
these universals, which came within the sphere of logical 
inquiries, belonged to the class of real things, or to that of 
mere denominations. One set of these subtle disputants 
maintained, that universals were undoubted realities, and 
supported their hypothesis by the authority of Plato, Boe- 
tius, and other ancient sages ; the other affirmed, that they 
were mere words and outward denominations, and plead- 
ed in behalf of their cause the respectable suffrages of Aris- 
totle and Porphyry. The former were called Realists, on 
account of their doctrine, and the latter Nominalists, for 
the same reason. The contending parties were, in pro- 
cess of time, subdivided into various sects, on account of 
the different modes in which many explained the doctrine 



which is given by Dr. Mosheim. His life and manners were without 
reproach, though his spiritual ambition jusdy exposed him to censure. 
His works are divided into three parts. The first contains his dogmati- 
cal tracts, and begins with a discourse concerning the Existence of God, 
the Divine Attributes, and the Trinity. This discourse is called Mono- 
logia, because it is drawn up in the form of a soliloquy. In this first part 
of the works of Anselm, there are many curious researches upon sub- 
jects of a very difficult and mysterious nature, such as the fall of Satan, the 
Reason why God created Man, die doctrine of Original Sin, and the 
Manner of its Communication to Adam's Posterity, the Liberty of the 
Will, and the Consistency of Freedom wilh the Divine Prescience. The 
second and third parts of the writings of this eminent prelate contain his 
practical and devotional performances, such as Homilies, Poems, Players, 
&c. and his Letters, which are divided into four books. 

The titles of these diree treatises are as follow : de Sophista de Com- 
plexionibus, de Re et Elite. The learned Heriman. in his Narratio Re- 
staurationis Abbatiae Sti. Martini Tornacensis. which is published in M. 
D'Acheri's Spicilegium Scriptor. Veter. torn. ii. p. 8^0. speaks of Odo in 
the following honourable manner : <: Cum Odo septem liberalium art ium 
esset peritus, prrecipue tamen in dialcctica eniisebnt, et pro ipsa maxinie 
clericorum frequentia eum expetebat," 



230 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



tliat was the badge and characteristic of their sect. 1 This 
controversy made a prodigious noise in all the schools 
throughout Europe during many succeeding ages, and 
often produced unhappy contentions and animosities be- 
tween philosophers and divines. Some are of opinion, 
that it derived its origin from the disputes between Beren- 
ger and his adversaries, concerning the eucharist ; b a no- 
tion which, though it be advanced without authority, is by 
no means destitute of probability, since the hypothesis of 
the Nominalists might be very successfully employed in 
defending the doctrine of Berenger, concerning the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's supper. 

IX. The Nominalists had for their chief a person 
named John, who, on account of his logical subtlety, was 
surnamed the Sophist, which is the only circumstance we 
know of his history/ His principal disciples were Robert 
of Paris, Roscelin of Compiegne, and Arrioul of Laon, who 
propagated his doctrine with industry and success ; to 
whom we may add, with some probability, Raimbert, the 
master of a famous school at Lisle, who is said, according 
to the quibbling humour of the times, ' to have read nomi- 
nal logic to his disciples, while Odo (whom we have al- 
ready had occasion to mention) instructed his scholars in 
reality.* The most renowned of all the nominal philo- 
sophers of this age was Roscelin : hence many considered 
him as the chief and founder of that sect, and he is still re- 
garded as such by several learned men. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and its Form of Government during this Century. 

I. All the records of this century loudly complain of 
the vices that reigned among the rulers of the church, and, 
in general, among all the sacerdotal orders ; they also de- 
plore that universal decay of piety and discipline, which 
was the consequence of this corruption in a set of men, 
who were bound to support, by their example, their au- 
thority, and their instructions, the sacred interests of reli- 
gion and virtue. The western bishops were no sooner 
elevated to the rank of dukes, counts, and nobles, and en- 
riched with ample territories, than they gave themselves 
up entirely to the dominion of pleasure and ambition, and, 
wholly employed in displaying the magnificence of their 
temporal stations, frequented the courts of princes, accom- 
panied always with a splendid train of attendants and do- 

a The learned Brucker (in his Historia Critica Philosophise, torn. iii. 
p. 904.) gives an ample account of the sect of the Nominalists, and en- 
larges upon the nature and circumstances of this logical contest ; he also 
mentions the various writers, who have made this sect and its doctrine 
the object of their researches. Among these Writers, the principal was 
John Salabert, presbyter in the diocese of Agen, who, in 1651, published 
a treatise entitled Philosophia Nominalium Vindicata. This book, which 
is extremely rare, has been seen by none <5f the authors who have writ- 
ten professedly concerning the sect of the Nominalists. A copy of it, 
taken from the manuscript in the French king's library, was communi- 
cated to me, from which it appears, that Salabert, who was certainly a 
very acute and ingenious logician, employed his labour rather in defend- 
ing the doctrine of the Nominalists, than in giving an accurate account 
of their sect. There are, however, several things to be found in his book, 
which are far from being generally known, even among the learned. 

b Du Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 443. — Ger. du Bois, His- 
tor. Ecclesise Paris, torn. i. 770. 

' This account we have from the unknown author of the Fragmentum 
Historiae Francicse a Roberto Rege ad Mortem Philippi I., which is pub- 
lished in Du Chesne's Scriptores Historian Francicoe, torn. iv. His words 
are as follow: " Tn dialectica hi potentes extiterunt sophistre, Johannes, 
qui artem sophisticam vocalem esse disseruit," &c. — Du Boulay conjec- 
tures that this John the Sophist was the same person with John of 



mestics. e The inferior orders of the clergy were also licen- 
tious in their own way ; few among them preserved any 
remains of piety and virtue, we might add, of decency and 
discretion. While their rulers were wallowing in luxury, 
and basking in the beams of worldly pomp and splendour, 
they were indulging themselves, without the least sense 
of shame, in fraudulent practices, in impure and lascivious 
gratifications, and even in the commission of flagitious 
crimes. The Grecian clergy were less chargeable witb 
these shocking irregularities, as the calamities under which 
their country groaned, imposed a restraint upon their pas- 
sions, and gave a check to their licentiousness. Yet, not- 
withstanding these salutary restraints, there were few ex- 
amples of piety and virtue to be found among them. 

II. The authority and lustre of the Latin church, or, te 
speak more properly, the power and dominion of the Ro- 
man pontiffs, rose in this century to the highest point, 
though they rose by degrees, and had much opposition 
and many difficulties to conquer. In the preceding age 
the pontiffs had acquired a great degree of authority in re- 
ligious affairs, and in every thing that related to the go- 
vernment of the church; and their credit and influence 
increased prodigiously toward the commencement of this 
century. For then they received the pompous titles of 
' masters of the world,' and ' popes,' i. e. universal ' fathers;' 
they presided also every where in the councils by their le- 
gates ; assumed the authority of supreme arbiters in all 
controversies that arose concerning religion or church disci- 
pline ; and maintained the pretended rights of the church 
against the encroachments and usurpations of kings and 
princes. Their authority, however, was confined within 
certain limits ; for, on one hand, it was restrained by so- 
vereign princes, that it might not arrogantly aim at civil 
dominion; and, on the other, it was opposed by the bishops 
themselves, that it might not rise to a spiritual despotism, 
and utterly destroy the liberty and privileges of synods and 
councils/ From the time of Leo IX. the popes employed 
every method which the most artful ambition could sug- 
gest, to remove these limits, and to render their dominion 
both despotic and universal. They not only aspired to 
the character of supreme legislators in the church, to an 
unlimited jurisdiction over all synods and councils, whe- 
ther general or provincial, to the sole distribution of all eccle- 
siastical honours and benefices, as being divinely autho- 
rised and appointed for that purpose ; but they carried their 
insolent pretensions so far as to give themselves out for 

Chartres, surnamed the Deaf, who was first physician to Henry I. king 
of France, and had acquired a great degree of renown by his genius and 
erudition. The same author tells lis, that John had for his master Giral- 
dus of Orleans, who was an incomparable poet, and an excellent rhetori- 
cian : but he advances this without any proof. Mabillon, on the other 
hand, in his Annal. Benedict, torn. v. supposes, that John the Nominalist 
was the same person who made known to Anselm the error of Roscelinus 
concerning the Three Persons in the Godhead. 

<i The passage in the original is: "'Qui dialecticam clericis suis in 
voce legebat, quam Odo in re discipulis legeret." See Herimannus, His- 
tor. Rcstaurationis Monasterii Sti. Martini Tornacens. in D'Acheri's 
Spicileg. Vet. Scriptorum, vol. iii. p. 889. 

e See among other examples of this episcopal grandeur, that of Adal- 
bert, in Adam. Bremens. lib. iii. cap. xxiii. p. 38. lib. iv. cap. xxxv.p. 52. 
that of Gunther, in the Lectiones Antiquas of Canisius. torn. iii. part i. 
p. 185. and that of Manasses, in the Museum Italicum of Mabillon, torn, 
i. p. 114. Add to all these Muratori's Antiq. Ital. medii ./Evi, torn. yi.p. 72. 

f The very learned Launoy, (in his Assertio contra Privilegium Sti. 
Medardi, part ii.) cap. xxxi. op. torn. ii. has given us an accurate account 
of the ecclesiastical laws, and of tne power of the hierarchy, during thit 
century, which ne collected from the letters of pope Gregory VII.; from 
which account it appears, that Gregory, ambitious as ne was, did not 
pretend to a supreme and despotic authority in the church. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



231 



lords of the universe, arbiters of the fate of kingdoms and 
empires, and supreme rulers over the kings and princes of 
the earth. Before Leo IX. no pope was so enormously 
impudent as to claim this unbounded authority, or to as- 
sume the power of transferring territories and provinces 
from their lawful possessors to new masters. This pontiff 
gave the example of such an amazing pretension to his 
holy successors, by granting to the Normans, who had set- 
tled in Italy, the lands and territories which they had al- 
ready usurped, or were employed in forcing out of the 
hands of the Greeks and Saracens. a The ambitious 
views, however, of the aspiring popes were opposed by the 
emperors, the kings of France, by William the Conqueror, 
who was now seated on the throne of England, and was 
the boldest assertor of the rights and privileges of royalty 
against the high claims of the apostolic see, b and also by 
several other princes. Nor did the bishops, particularly 
those of France and Germany, sit tamely silent under the 
papal yoke ; many of them endeavoured to maintain their 
rights and the privileges of the church ; but others, seduced 
by the allurements of interest or the dictates of superstition, 
sacrificed their liberties, and yielded to the pontiffs. Hence 
it happened, that these imperious lords of the church, 
though they did not entirely gain their point, or satisfy to 
the full their raging ambition, yet obtained vast augmen- 
tations of power, and extended their authority from day 
to day. 

III. The see of Rome, after the death of Sylvester II. 
which happened in 1003, was filled successively by John 
XVII., John XVIII., and Sergius IV., whose pontificates 
were not distinguished by any memorable events. It is, 
however, proper to observe, that these three popes were 
ron firmed in the see of Rome by the approbation and au- 
thority of the emperors under whose reigns they were 
elected to that high dignity. Benedict VIII., who was 
raised to the pontificate in 1012, being obliged by his 
competitor Gregory to leave Rome, fled into Germany for 
succour, and threw himself at the feet of Henry II., by 
whom he was reinstated in the apostolic chair, which he 
possessed in peace until the year 1024. It was during 
his pontificate, that those Normans, who make such a 
shining figure in history, came into Italy, and reduced 
several of its richest provinces under their dominion. Be- 
nedict was succeeded by his brother John XIX. who ruled 
the church until the year 1033. The five pontiffs whom 
we have now been mentioning were not chargeable with 
dishonouring their high station by that licentiousness and 
immorality which rendered so many of their successors 
infamous ; their lives were virtuous ; at least their conduct 
was decent. But their examples had little effect upon 



• See Gaufr. Malaterra, Hist. Sicula, lib. i. cap/xiv. p. 553, torn v. 
Scriptor. Ital. Muratori. §j" The translator has here incorporated the 
note (s) of the original into the text. 

i> See Eadmeri Historia Novorum, which is published at the end of 
the works of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury. It is proper to ob- 
serve here, that if it is true on one hand, that "William the Con- 
queror opposed, on many occasions, with the utmost vehemence and zeal, 
the growing power of the Roman pontiffs, and of the aspiring bishops, 
it is no less certain, on the other, that to accomplish his ambitious views, 
he, like many other European princes, had recourse to the influence of 
the pontiffs upon the minds of the multitude, and thereby nourished and 
encouraged the pride and ambition of the court of Rome. For, while 
he was preparing all things for his expedition into England, he sent em- 
bassadors to pope Alexander II. "in order, (as Matthew Paris says, 
Hist. Major, lib. i.) to have his undertaking approved and justified by 
apostolical authority ; and the pope having considered the claims of the 
contending parties, sent a standard to William as the omen of his ap- 



Benedict IX., a most abandoned profligate, and a wretch 
capable of the most horrid crimes, whose flagitious conduct 
drew upon him the just resentment of the Romans, whe 
in 1038, removed him from his station. He was afterwards 
indeed restored, by the emperor Conrad, to the papal chair* 
but, instead of learning circumspection and prudence from 
his former disgrace, he became still more scandalous in his 
life and manners, and so provoked the Roman people by 
his repeated crimes, that they deposed him a second time, 
in 1044, and elected in his place John, bishop of Sabina, 
who assumed the name of Sylvester III. About three 
months after this new revolution, the relatives and adhe- 
rents of Benedict rose up in arms, drove Sylvester out of 
the city, and restored the degraded pontiff to his forfeited 
honours, which, however, he did not long enjoy; for, per- 
ceiving that there was no possibility of appeasing the re- 
sentment of the Romans, he sold the pontificate to John 
Gratian, arch-presbyter of Rome, who took the name of 
Gregory VI. Thus the church had, at the same time, two 
chiefs, Sylvester and Gregory, whose rivalry was the oc- 
casion of much trouble and confusion. This contest was 
terminated, in 1046, in the council holden at Sutri by the 
emperor Henry III., who so ordered matters, that Benedict, 
Gregory, and Sylvester, were declared unworthy of the 
pontificate, and Suidger, bishop of Bamberg, was raised to 
that dignity, which he enjoyed for a short time under the 
title of Clement II. c 

IV. After the death of Clement II., which happened in 
1047, Benedict IX., though twice degraded, aimed anew 
at the papal dignity, and accordingly forced himself into 
St. Peter's chair for the third time. But, in the following 
year, he was obliged to surrender the pontificate to Poppo, 
bishop of Brixen, known by the name of Damasus II., 
whom Henry II. elected pope in Germany, and sent into 
Italy to take possession of that dignity. On the death of 
Damasus, who ruled the see of Rome only three and 
twenty days, the same emperor, in the diet holden at 
Worms, in 1048, appointed Bruno, bishop of Toul, to suc- 
ceed him in the pontificate. This prelate is known in the 
list of the popes by the name of Leo IX. ; and his private 
virtues, as well as his public acts of zeal and piety in the 
government of the church, were deemed meritorious 
enough to entitle him to a place among the saintly order. 
But if we deduct from these pretended virtues his vehe- 
ment zeal for augmenting the opulence and authority of 
the church of Rome, and his laudable severity in correct- 
ing and punishing certain enormous vices, d which were 
common among the clergy during his pontificate, there 
will remain little in the life and administration of this 
pontiff, that could give him any pretension to such a dis- 

proaching royalty." It is highly probable, that the Normans in Italy 
had made the same humble request to Leo IX., and demanded his confirma- 
tion both of the possessions they had acquired, and of those which tliey 
intended to usurp. And when we consider all this, it will not appear so 
surprising that the popes aimed at universal empire, since they were en- 
couraged in their views by the mean submissions and servile homage of 
the European princes. 

c In this compendious account of the popes, I have followed the rela- 
tions of Francis and Anthony Pagi, Papebrock, and also those of Mu- 
ratori, in his Annates Italian, persuaded that the learned and judicious 
reader will justify my treating, with the utmost contempt, what Baronius 
and others have alleged in favour of Gregoiy VI. 

gjT d In several councils which he assembled in Italy, France, and 
Germany, he proposed rigorous laws against simony, sodomy, inces- 
tuous and -adulterous marriages, the custom of carrying arms, (which had 
become general among the clergy,) the apostaey of the monks, who abaa- 
doned their habit and renounced theft profession, &c. 



232 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 11 



tinction. It is at least certain, that many, who industri- 
ously conceal or excuse the numerous infirmities and fail- 
ings of the pontiffs, censure, with the utmost freedom, the 
tetaerity and injustice of the measures he took toward the 
conclusion of his days. Such, among others, was the war 
into which he inconsiderately entered, in 1053, with the 
Normans, whom he was grieved to see in the possession 
of Apulia. His temerity, indeed, was severely punished 
by the issue of this war, from which he derived the bitter- 
est fruits, being taken prisoner by the enemy, and led 
captive to Benevento. Here dismal reflections upon his 
unhappy fate preyed upon his spirits, and threw him into 
a dangerous illness ; so that, after a year's imprisonment, 
he was sent to Rome, where he concluded his days on the 
19th of April, 1054.* 

V. After the death of Leo the papal chair was filled, in 
1055, by Gebhard, bishop of Eichstadt, who assumed the 
name of Victor II., and, after governing the church about 
three years, was succeeded by Stephen IX., brother to 
Godfrey, duke of Lorrain, who died a few months after 
his election. Nothing memorable happened under the ad- 
ministration of these two pontiffs. Gerard, bishop of Flo- 
rence, who obtained the papacy in 1058, and took the 
name of Nicolas II., makes a greater figure in history than 
several of his predecessors. b We pass in silence John, 
bishop of Veletri, who usurped the pontificate, as also the 
title of Benedict X., after the death of Stephen, and who 
was deposed with ignominy, after having possessed about 
nine months the dignity to which he had no other title, 
than what he derived from lawless violence. Nicolas, on 
the removal of this usurper, assembled a council at Rome, 
in 1059, in which, among many salutary laws for healing 
the inveterate disorders that had afflicted the church, one 
remarkable decree was passed for altering the ancient form 
of electing the pontiff. This alteration was intended to 
prevent the tumults and commotions which arose in Rome, 
and the factions which divided Italy, when a new pope 
was to be elected. The same pontiff received the homage 
of the Normans, and solemnly created Robert Guiscard 
duke of Apulia, Calabria, and Sicily, on condition that he 
should observe, as a faithful vassal, an inviolable allegiance 
to the Roman church, and pay an annual tribute in ac- 
knowledgment of his subjection to the apostolic see. By 



1 See the Acta Sanctorum ad d. xix. Aprilis, torn. iii. p. 642. — His- 
toire Literaire do la France, torn. vii. p. 453. — Giannone, Historia di 
Napoli, torn. ii. 

<> Beside the accounts given of Nicolas II. by the writers of the papal 
history, there is a particular and accurate history of this pontiff drawn 
up by the Benedictine monks, in the Histoire Literaire de la France, 
torn. vii. p. 515. 

• See Muratori's Annali d'ltalia, torn. vi. p. 186. — Baronius Annales 
ad anno 1060. 

fOr d It does not appear, that Nicolas was at all solicitous about the 
privileges of the emperor, and his authority in the election of the bishop 
of Rome; for the words of the decree in all the various copies of it are 
to this import : " The cardinals shall first deliberate concerning the elec- 
tion of a pontiff, and the consent of the other clergy and of the people 
shall be required to confirm their choice. The pope shall be chosen out 
of the members that compose the church of Rome, if a proper person 
can be found among them: if not, he shall be elected elsewhere: all this 
without any prejudice to the honour of our dear son Henry, (who is now 
king, and shall be soon emperor, as we have already promised him,) or 
to the honour of his successors on whom the apostolic see shall confer 
personally and successively the same high privilege." Here we see the 
good pontiff manifestly taking advantage of the minority of Henry IV. 
to depreciate and diminish the ancient prerogatives of the imperial crown, 
and to magnify the authority of the papal mitre; for he declares, as a 
personal right granted by the Roman see to each emperor for himself, the 
privilege of confirming the pope's election; whereas it is well known 



what authority Nicolas confirmed the Norman prince m 
the possession of these provinces, is more than we know ; 
certain it is, that he had no sort of property in the lands 
which he granted so liberally to the Normans, who held 
them already by the odious right of conquest. Perhaps 
the lordly pontiff founded this right of cession upon the 
fictitious donation of Constantine, which has been already 
noticed in the course of this history ; or, probably, seduced 
by the artful and ambitious suggestions of Hildebrand, 
who had himself an eye upon the pontificate, and after- 
wards filled it under the adopted name of Gregory VII., 
he imagined that, as Christ's vicegerent, the Roman pon- 
tiff was the king of kings, and had the whole universe for 
his domain. It is well known that Hildebrand had a su- 
preme ascendency over the mind of Nicolas, and that the 
latter neither undertook nor executed any thing without 
his direction. Be that as it may, it was the feudal grant 
made to Guiscard by this pope, that laid the foundation of 
the kingdom of Naples, or of the two Sicilies, and of the 
sovereignty over that kingdom which the Roman pontiffs 
constantly claim, and which the Sicilian monarchs annu- 
ally acknowledge. 

VI. Before the pontificate of Nicolas II., the popes were 
chosen not only by the suffrages of the cardinals, but also 
by those of the whole Roman clergy, the nobility, the bur- 
gesses, and the assembly of the people. An election, in 
which such a confused and jarring multitude was con- 
cerned, could not but produce continual factions, animo- 
sities, and tumults. To prevent these, as far as was pos- 
sible, this artful and provident pontiff had a law passed, 
by which the cardinals, as well presbyters as bishops, were 
empowered, on a vacancy in the see of Rome, to elect a 
new pope, without any prejudice to the ancient privileges 
of the Roman emperors in this important matter. d Nor 
were the rest of the clergy, with the burgesses and people, 
excluded from all participation in this election, since theii 
consent was solemnly demanded, and also esteemed ol 
much weight. e In consequence, however, of this new re- 
gulation, the cardinals acted the principal part in the cre- 
ation of the new pontiff, though they suffered for a long 
time much opposition, both from the sacerdotal orders and 
the Roman citizens, who were constantly either reclaim- 
ing their ancient rights, or abusing the privilege they yet 



that this privilege had been vested in the emperors of Germany during 
many preceding ages. See Fleury, Eccles. Hist. vol. xiii. liv. lx. It is 
proper to observe here, that the cringing and ignoble submission of 
Charles the Bald, who would not accept the title of emperor before it was 
conferred upon him by the pontiff, occasioned, in process of time, that 
absurd notion, that the papal consecration was requisite in order to qua- 
lify the kings of Germany to assume the title of Roman emperors, though, 
without that consecration, these kings had all Italy under their dominion, 
and exercised in every part of it various rights and prerogatives of so- 
vereignty. Hence the kings of Germany were first styled kings of the 
Franks and Lombards, afterwards kings of the Romans until the year 
1508, when Maximilian I. changed the title of king into that of emperor. 
e The decree of Nicolas concerning the election of the pontiff is to be 
found in many authors, and particularly in the Concilia. But, upon 
comparing several copies of this famous decree, I found them in many 
respects very different from each other. In some copies the decree ap- 
pears abridged; in others, it is long and .prolix. In some it seems fa- 
vourable to the rights and privileges of the emperors; in others it ap- 
pears to have, the contrary tendency. The most ample copy is that which 
we find in the Chronicon Farfense in Muratori's Script. Rerum Italica- 
rum, torn. ii. part ii. p. 645, which differs, however, in various circum- 
stances, from that which was published by Hugo Floriacensis, in his 
book de regia Potestate et sacerdotali Dignitate, in Baluzii Miscellaneis, 
torn. iv. p. 62. Notwithstanding the diversity that exists in the copies 
of this famous decree, they all agree in confirming the accounts we have 
given of the plans and pontificate of Nicolas. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



233 



retained of confirming the election of every new pope by 
their approbation and consent. In the following century 
an end was put to all these disputes by Alexander III., 
who was so fortunate as to complete what Nicolas had 
only begun, and who transferred and confined to the col- 
lege of cardinals the right of electing to the apostolic see, 
excluding the nobility, the people, and the rest of the 
clergy, from all concern in this important matter. 1 

It may not be improper here to give some account of 
the origin of the cardinals, b and the nature of their privi- 
leges and functions. Many writers 1 have treated this sub- 
ject in an ample manner, and have shed upon it a profu- 
sion of erudition, which deserves, no doubt, the highest 
applause y but they are, generally speaking, defective in 
perspicuity and precision ; nor do I know of any, who 
have confined themselves to the true state of the question, 
and investigated, in a satisfactory manner, the origin of 
the office of cardinal, and the reasons that occasioned the 
institution of that order of ecclesiastics. Several learned 
men have employed much time and labour in fixing the 
sense of the word cardinal, and in illustrating its mean- 
ing from ancient monuments and records ; but, however 
worthy of a curious philologist these researches may be, 
they contribute little to clear up the point in question, or 
to convey an accurate and satisfactory notion of the true 
origin of the college of cardinals, and the nature of that 
ecclesiastical dignity. It is certain, that the word in ques- 
tion, when applied to persons or things, and more espe- 
cially to the sacred order, was, in the language of the 
middle ages, a term of dubious signification, and was sus- 
ceptible of various senses. It is also well known, that, in 
former times, this title was by no means peculiar to the 
priests and ministers of the church of Rome, but was in 
use in all the Latin churches, and that not only the secu- 
lar clergy, but also the regular, such as abbots, canons, 
and monks, were capable of this denomination, though in 
different senses. But, after the pontificate of Alexander III., 
the common use of the term was gradually diminished, 
and it was confined to such only as were immediately 
concerned in the election of the pope, and had the right of 
suffrage in this weighty matter ; so that, when we inquire 
into the origin of the sacred college at Rome, the question 
is not, who they were, that in the remoter periods of the 
church were distinguished, among the Latins in general, 
or at Rome in particular, from the rest of the clergy, by 
the name of cardinals : nor do we inquire into the proper 
signification of that term, or into the various senses in 
which it was formerly employed. The true state of the 
question is this : who the persons were that Nicolas II. 
comprehended under that denomination, when he vested 
in the Roman cardinals alone the right of electing the 
new pontiff, and excluded from that important privilege 
the rest of the clergy, the nobility, the burgesses, and the 



• See Mabillon, Comm. in Ord. Roman, torn. ii. Musei Italici, p. 114. 
— Constant. Cenni Prasf. ad Concilium Lateran. Stephani iii. p. 18. — 
Franc. Pagi Breviarium Pontif. Romanor. torn. ii. p. 374. 

ITJr b The translator has here incorporated into the text the long and 
important note (c) of the original concerning the cardinals. The cita- 
tions and references only are thrown into the notes. 

• The authors who have written of the name, origin, and rights of 
the cardinals, are enumerated by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in his Bibliogr. 
Antiquar. p. 455. — Casp. Sagittarius, Introd. ad Historiam Ecclesiast. 
cap. xxix. p. 771, et Jo. And. Schmidius in Supplement, p. 644. — 
Christ. Gryphius, Isagoge ad Historiam Sceculi XVII. p. 430. Add to 
these Ludov. Thomassini Disciplina Ecclesia; vetus et nova, toni. i. lib. 
ii. cap. 115, 116, p. 616. and Lud. Ant. Muratori, whose learned disser- 

No. XX. 59 



people? When this is known with certainty, we shall 
have a just notion of the college of cardinals in its rise, 
and shall also perceive the difference existing between the 
first cardinals and those of our times. Now this may easily 
be learned from the edict of Nicolas II. which sets the 
matter in the clearest light. "We have thought proper to 
enact (says the pontiff,) that, on the decease of the bishop 
of the Roman catholic, or universal church, the affair of 
the election be treated principally, and previously to all 
other deliberations, among the cardinal bishops alone, 
who shall afterwards call in to their council the cardinal 
clerks, and require finally the consent of the rest of the 
clergy, and the people, to their election." 11 Here we see that 
the pontiff divides into two classes the persons who were 
to have the right of suffrage in the election of his success- 
ors. By the former we are manifestly to understand the 
seven prelates who belonged to the city and territory of 
Rome, whom Nicolas calls, in the same edict, comprovin- 
ciales episcopi, (an epithet which had been used before 
by Leo I.,) and who had been distinguished by the title 
of cardinal bishops long before the century of which we 
are treating. The words of Nicolas confirm this account 
of the matter, and place it beyond all possibility of contra- 
diction ; for he declares, that by cardinal bishops he un- 
derstands those to whom it belonged to consecrate the 
pontiff elect ; "Since the apostolic see," observes the papal 
legislator, "cannot be under the jurisdiction of any supe- 
rior or metropolitan, 6 the cardinal bishops must necessarily 
supply the place of a metropolitan, and fix the elected 
pontiff on the summit of apostolic exaltation and empire."' 
Now it is well known that the seven bishops of Rome 
above mentioned, had the privilege of consecrating the 
pontiff. 

All these things being duly considered, we shall imme- 
diately perceive the true nature and meaning of the fa- 
mous edict, according to which it is manifest, that, upon 
the death of a pontiff, the cardinal bishops were first to 
deliberate alone with regard to a proper successor, and to 
examine the respective merit of the candidates who might 
pretend to this high dignity, and afterwards to call in the 
cardinal clerks, not only to demand their counsel, but 
also to join Avith them in the election. The word clerk 
here bears the same sense with that of presbyter, and it 
is undeniably certain that the name of cardinal presby- 
ter was given to the ministers of the eight and twenty 
Roman parishes, or principal churches. All the rest of 
the clergy, of whatever order or rank they might be, 
were, together with the people, expressly excluded from 
the right of voting in the election of the pontiff, though 
they were allowed what is called a negative suffrage, and 
their consent was required to what the others had done ; 
from all which it appears that the college of electors, who 
chose the Roman pontiff, and who after this period were 

tation, de Origine Cardinalatus, is published in his Antiq. Ital. medii 
ZEvi, torn. v. 

gjf d The passage of the edict (which we have here translated from 
Hugo Floriacus, in Baluzii Miscel. torn. iv. p. 62.) runs thus in the ori- 
ginal: " Constituimus ut, obeunte hujus Romans universalis ecclesiae 
pontifice, imprimis, cardinales episcopi diligentissima simul considera- 
tione tractantes, mox sibi clericos cardinales adhibcant, sicque reliquus 
clerus etpopulus ad consensum nova; election is accedant." 

Idf* • In the consecration of a new bishop in any province, the me- 
tropolitan always bore the principal part: as therefore there was no me- 
tropolitan to install the pope, cardinal bishops performed that ceremony. 

f Such are the swelling and bombastic terms of the edict : " Quia 
sedes apostolica super se mctropolitanum habere non potest, cardinales 



234 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



called cardinals in a new and unusual acceptation of that 
term, consisted, according to their original establishment 
by Nicolas II., of only two orders, namely, cardinal bish- 
ops, and cardinal clerks or presbyters. a 

It is necessary to observe, before we finish this digres- 
sion, that the famous decree of Nicolas could not obtain 
the force of a law. " It is evident (says Ansehn, bishop 
of Lucca b ) that the edict of Nicolas is, and always has 
been, without the smallest degree of weight or authority. 
But, in affirming this, I have not the least design to cast 
any reflection upon the blessed memory of that pontiff, 
or to derogate from the applause that is due to his vir- 
tues As a man, however, he was fallible, and, 

through the weakness that is inseparable from humanity, 
was liable to be seduced into measures that were incon- 
sistent with equity and justice." It is true, the prelate 
has here principally in view that part of the edict in 
which Nicholas acknowledges and confirms the right of 
the emperors to ratify the election of the Roman pontiff; 
yet what he says is undoubtedly true of the whole edict 
in all its parts. For the seven Palatine judges, who 
were excluded by this decree from the important privilege 
they had formerly enjoyed of voting in the election to the 
apostolic see, complained loudly of the injury that was 
done them ; and, seconded in their complaints by the va- 
rious orders of the clergy, and by the clamours of the army, 
the citizens, and the multitude, they declared their oppo- 
sition to the execution of this edict, and gave much trou- 
ble and uneasiness to the cardinals, who had been con- 
stituted electors by Nicolas. To appease these tumults, 
Alexander III. augmented the college of the electing car- 
dinals, by conferring that dignity upon the prior, or arch- 
presbyter, of St. John Lateran, the arch-presbyters of St. 
Peter and St. Mary the Greater, the abbots of St. Paul 
and St. Laurence without the wall, and lastly, upon the 
seven Palatine judges/ 1 By this dexterous stratagem, the 
higher order of the clergy was defeated, and ceased to op- 
pose the measures of the cardinal electors ; nor, indeed, 
could its opposition be of any significancy, since its chiefs 
and leaders were become members of the sacred college 
instituted by Nicolas. The inferior clergy continued yet 
obstinate; but their opposition was vanquished in the 
same manner, and they were reduced to silence by the 
promotion of their chiefs, the cardinal deacons ; to the dig- 
nity of electors. Who it was (whether Alexander III. or 
some other pontiff) that raised the principal Roman dea- 
cons to the rank of cardinals, is not certain ; but nothing 
is more evident than that the design of this promotion 
was to put an end to the murmurs and complaints of the 
inferior clergy, who highly resented the violation of their 
privileges. 

When the various orders of the clergy were drawn off 

episcopi metropolitan! vice procul-dubio fungantur, qui electum antisti- 
tem ad apostolici culminis apicem provehant." 

1 We must_ therefore take care that we be not misled by the error of 
Onuphr. Panvinius, who affirms,* that the cardinal bishops were not added 
to the college of cardinals before the pontificate of Alexander III. Nor 
are we to listen to the supposition of those writers, who imagine that cer- 
tain deacons were, from the beginning, membersof that college of cardinals 
by whom the popes were elected. There were, indeed, in the Roman 
church, long before the edict of Nicolas, (and there still remain) cardi- 
nal deacons, i. e. superintendents of those churches which have hospitals 
annexed to them, and whose revenues are appropriated to the support of 
the. poor ; but they were evidently excluded from the election of the pope, 
which, by the edict of Nicolas, was to be made by the cardinal bishops 
and clerks alone Hence we find the cardinals plainly distinguished 



from the opposition, it was no difficult matter to silence 
the people, and to exclude them from all part in the elec- 
tion of the pontiff. And accordingly, when, upon the 
death of Alexander III., it was proposed to choose Lu- 
cius III. e as his successor, the consent and approbation of 
the clergy and people, which had hitherto been always 
esteemed necessary to ratify the election, were not even 
demanded, and the affair was transacted by the college of 
cardinals alone, who have continued to maintain that ex- 
clusive and important privilege even to our times. Some 
writers affirm, that Innocent II. had been elected in the 
same manner, by the cardinals alone, without the consent 
of the clergy or the people, several years before the pon- 
tificate of Lucius ; f this may be true, but it is nothing to 
the purpose ; for, as the election of Innocent II. was irre- 
gular, it cannot properly be alleged in the case before us 

VII. From what has been observed in the preceding 
section, we may conclude, that the college of cardinals, 
and the extensive authority and important privileges they 
enjoy at this day, derive their origin from the edict pub- 
lished at the request and under the pontificate of Nicolas 
II. ; that, under the title of cardinals, this pontiff com- 
prehended the seven Roman bishops, who were consider- 
ed as his suffragans, and of whom the bishop of Ostia 
was the chief, as also the eight and twenty ministers, who 
had inspection over the principal Roman churches : and 
that to these were added, in process of time, uwler Alex- 
ander III. and other pontiffs, new members, in order t>> 
appease the resentment of those who looked upon them 
selves as injured by the edict of Nicolas, and also to an 
swer other purposes of ecclesiastical policy. We see, also, 
from an attentive view of this matter, that though the 
high order of purpled prelates, commonly called cardiuals, 
had its rise in the eleventh century, yet it does not seem 
to have acquired the firm and undisputed authority of a 
legal council before the following age, and the pontificate 
of Alexander III. 

VIII. Though Nicolas II. had expressly acknowledged 
and confirmed in his edict the right of the emperor to 
ratify by his consent the election of the pontiff, his eyes 
were no sooner closed, than the Romans, at the instiga- 
tion of Hildebrand, arch-deacon and afterwards bishop of 
Rome, violated this imperial privilege in the most presump- 
tuous manner ; for they not only elected to the pontifi- 
cate Anselm, bishop of Lucca, who assumed the name of 
Alexander II., but also solemnly installed him in that 
high office without consulting the emperor Henry IV. 
or giving him the least information of the matter. Ag 
nes, the mother of the young emperor, no sooner received 
an account of this irregular transaction from the bishops 
of Lombardy, to whom the election of Anselm was ex- 
tremely disagreeable, than she assembled a council . at 

from the deacons in the diploma that was drawn up for the election of 
Gregory VII. 

t Anselm. Luccensis, lib. ii. contra Wibertum Antipapam et sequaces 
ejus, in Canisii Lection. Antiquis. torn. iii. part i. p. 383. 

c These judges were the Primicerii/s, Sccundicerius, Arcariur, Sac- 
cellarius, Protoscriniarius, Primicerius Defensorv.m, el Adminicula- 
tor ; for a particular account of whose respective offices, services, and 
privileges, see Graevius, Du Cange, &c. 

d Cenni Prsef.ad Concil. Lateran. Stephan. iii. p. 19. — Mabillon, Com- 
ment, ad Ord. Roman, p. 115. ex Panvinio. 

g^f" e In the original, instead of Lucius III., we read Victor III., which 
was certainly a mistake of inadvertency in the learned author. 

f See Pagi Breviar. Pontif. Rornanor. torn. ii. p. G15. 

* See Mabillon, Comment, in Ord. Rom. p. 115, torn. ii. Musei ItalicL 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS. CHURCH-GOYERNx\IENT, ETC. 



235 



Basil, and, in order to maintain the authority of her son, [ 
who was yet a minor, caused Cadolaus, bishop of Parma, 
to be created pope, under the title of Honorius II. Hence 
arose a long and furious contest between the rival pon- 
tiffs, who maintained their respective pretensions by the 
force of arms, and presented a scene of bloodshed and 
horror in the church of Christ, which was designed to be 
the centre of charity and peace. In tins violent con- 
tention Alexander triumphed, though he could never 
engage his obstinate adversary to desist from his preten- 
sions. 1 

IX. This contest, indeed, was of little consequence 
when viewed in comparison with the dreadful commo- 
tions which Hildebrand, who succeeded Alexander, and 
assumed the name of Gregory VII., excited both in church 
and state, and nourished and fomented until the end of 
his days. This vehement pontiff, who was a Tuscan, 
bora of mean parents, rose, by various steps, from the ob- 
scure station of a monk of Clugni, to the rank of arch- 
deacon in the Roman church, and, from the time of Leo 
IX., who treated him with peculiar marks of distinction, 
was accustomed to govern the Roman pontiffs by his 
counsels, which had acquired the highest degree of influ- 
ence and authority. In the year 1 073, and on the same 
day that Alexander was interred, he was raised to the 
pontificate by the unanimous suffrages of the cardinals, 
bishops, abbots, monks, and people, without regard to the 
edict of Nicolas II. ; and his election was confirmed by 
the approbation and consent of Henry IV., king of the 
Romans, to whom ambassadors had been sent for that 
purpose. This prince, indeed, had soon reason to repent 
of the consent he had given to an election, which became 
so prejudicial to his own authority and to the interests and 
liberties of the church, and so detrimental, in general, to 
the sovereignty and independence of kingdoms and em- 
pires. b Hildebrand was a man of uncommon genius, 
whose ambition in forming the most arduous projects 
was equalled by his dexterity in bringing them into exe- 
cution. Sagacious, crafty, and intrepid, he suffered no- 
thing to escape his penetration, defeat his stratagems, or 

* Ferdin. Ughelli Italia Sacra, torn. ii. p. 166. — Jo. Jac. Mascovius, 
de Rebus Imperii sub Henrico IV. et V. lib. i. p. 7. — Franc. Pagi Bre- 
viar. Pontificum Roman, t. ii. p. 385. — Muratori, An. d'ltalia, t. vi. p. 214. 

fc The writers who have given the most ample accounts of the life and 
exploits of Gregory VII. are enumerated by Casp. Sagittarius, in his 
Introd. ad Hist. Eeclesiast. torn, i p. 687, and by And. Schmidius, in his 
Supplement, torn. ii. p. 627. — See also the Acta Sanctor. torn. v. Maii 
ad d. xxv. p. 568, and Mabillon, Acta Sanctor. Ordin. Benedicti, Saecul. 
VI. p. 406. Add to these the Life of Gregoiy VII. published at Frank- 
fort in 1710, by Just. Christopher Dithmar, as also the authors who have 
written the history of the contests that arose between the empire and 
the hierarchy of Rome, and of the wars that were occasioned by the dis- 
putes concerning investitures. 

* Dictatus Hildcbrandini. By these are understood twenty-seven 
apothegms, or short sentences, relating to the supreme authority of 
the Roman pontiffs over the universal church and the kingdoms of the 
world, which are to be found in the second book of the Epistles of Gre- 
goiy VII., between the fifty-fifth and fifty-sixth Epistle, under the title of 
Jliclates Papa, i. e. Dictates of the Pope. See Harduini Concilia, torn, 
vi. part i. p. 1304, and the various writers of Ecclesiastical History. 
Baronius, Lupus,* and other historians, who have signalized, upon all 
occasions, their vehement attachment to the Roman pontiffs, maintain, 
that these Dictates were drawn up by Gregory VII. and proposed as 
laws in a certain council ; and hence the protestant writers have ventu- 
red to attribute them to Hildebrand. But the learned John Launoy, Na- 
talis Alexander, Antony t and Francis Pagit, Elias Du-Pin, and oilier 
authors of note, affirm in the most positive manner that these senten- 
ees, or dictates, were a downright forgery imposed upon the world 
under the name of Gregoiy, by some perfidious impostor, who proposed 
thereby to flatter the Roman pontiffs in their ambitious pretensions. As 



daunt his courage : haughty and arrogant beyond all 
measure, obstinate, impetuous, and intractable, he looked 
up to the summit of universal empire with a wishful eye, 
and laboured up the steep ascent with uninterrupted ar- 
dour and invincible perseverance : void of all principle, 
and destitute of every pious and virtuous feeling, he suf- 
fered little restraint in hi3 audacious pursuits, from the 
dictates of religion or the remonstrances of conscience. 
Such was the character of Hildebrand, and his conduct 
was every way suitable to it ; for no sooner did he find 
himself in the papal chair, than he displayed to the world 
the most odious marks of his tyrannic ambition. Xot 
content to enlarge the jurisdiction, and to auginent the 
opulence of the see of Rome, he laboured indefatigably to 
render the universal church subject to the despotic go- 
vernment and the arbitrary power of the pontiff alone, to 
dissolve the jurisdiction which kings and emperors had 
hitherto exercised over the various orders of the clergy, 
and to exclude them from the management or distribution 
of the revenues of the church. The outrageous pontiff 
even went farther, and impiously attempted to subject to 
his jurisdiction the emperors, kings, and princes of the 
earth, and to render their dominions tributary to the see of 
Rome. Such were the pious and apostolic exploits that 
employed the activity of Gregory VII. during his whole 
life, and which rendered his pontificate a continual scene 
of tumult and bloodshed. Were it necessary to bring 
farther proofs of his tyranny and arrogance, his fierce 
impetuosity and boundless ambition, we might appeal 
to those famous sentences, which are generally called, 
after him, the dictates of Hildebrand, and which show, in 
a lively manner, the spirit and character of this restless 
pontiff. 

X. Under the pontificate of Hildebrand, the face of the 
Latin church was entirely changed, its government sub- 
verted, and the most important and valuable of those 
rights and privileges that had been formerly vested in its 
councils, bishops, and sacred colleges, were usurped by the 
greedy pontiff. It is, however, to be observed, that the 
weight of this tyrannic usurpation did not fall equally 

a proof of this assertion, they observe, that while some of these senten- 
ces express indeed in a lively manner the ambitious spirit of Gregory, 
there are others which appeal' entirely opposite to the sentiments of that 
pontiff, as they are delivered in several parts of his Epistles. The 
French writers have important reasons (which it is not necessary tn 
mention here)for affirming that no Roman pontiff ever presumed to speak 
of the papal power and jurisdiction in such arrogant terms as are here 
put into the mouth of Gregory. It may be easily granted, that these 
sentences, in their present form, are not the composition of this famous 
pontiff; for many of them are obscure, and they are all thrown together 
without the least order, method, or connexion, and it is not to be imagi- 
ned, that a man of such genius, as Gregoiy discovered, would have neg- 
lected either perspicuity or precision in describing the authority, and fix- 
ing what he looked upon to be the rights and privileges of the bishops oi 
Rome. But, notwithstanding all this, if we consider the matter of these 
sentences, we shall be entirely persuaded that they belonged originally 
to Hildebrand, since we find the greatest part of them repeated word for 
word in several places in his Epistles, and since such of them as appear 
inconsistent with some passages in these epistles, are not so in reality, 
but may be easily explained in perfect conformity with what the)" are 
said to contradict. The most probable account of die matter seems to 
be this : that some mean author extracted these sentences, partly from 
the extant epistles of Gregory, partly from those that have perished in 
the ruins of time, and published them in the form in which they now ap- 
pear, without judgment or method. 

* Lupus, in his Notre et Dissertationes in Concilia, torn. vi. op. p. 161, 
has given us an ample commentary on the Dictates of Hildebrand, 
which he looks upon as both authentic and sacred. 

+ See Anton. Pagi Critica in Baronium. 

t See Franc. Pagi Breviar. Pontif. Roman, toni. ii. p. 473. 



236 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 11, 



upon all the European provinces ; several of these provin- 
ces, preserved some remains of their ancient liberty and 
independence, in the possession of which a variety of cir- 
cumstances happily concurred to maintain them. 

But, as we insinuated above, the views of Hildebrand 
were not confined to the erection of an absolute and uni- 
versal monarchy in the church; they aimed also at the 
establishment of a civil monarchy equally extensive and 
despotic ; and this aspiring pontiff, after having drawn up 
a system of ecclesiastical laws for the government of the 
church, would have introduced also a new code of political 
laws, had he been permitted to execute the plan he had 
formed. His purpose was to engage, in the bonds of 
fidelity and allegiance to St. Peter, i. e. to the Roman pon- 
tiffs, all the kings and princes of the earth, and to estab- 
lish at Rome an annual assembly of bishops, by whom 
the contests that might arise between kingdoms or sove- 
reign states were to be decided, the rights and pretensions 
of princes to be examined, and the fate of nations and em- 
pires to be determined. This ambitious project met, how- 
ever, with the warmest opposition, particularly from the 
vigilance and resolution of the emperors, and also from 
the British and French monarchs." 

That Hildebrand had formed this audacious plan is un- 
doubtedly evident, both from his own epistles, and also 
from other authentic records of antiquity. The nature of 
the oath which he drew up for the king or emperor of the 
Romans, from whom he demanded a profession of subjec- 
tion and allegiance, b shows abundantly the arrogance of 
his pretensions. But his conduct toward the kingdom of 
France is worthy of particular notice. It is well known, 
that whatever dignity and dominion the popes enjoyed 
were originally derived from the French princes ; and yet 
Hildebrand, or (as we shall hereafter entitle him) Gregory 
VII. pretended that the kingdom was tributary to the see 
of Rome, and commanded his legates to demand yearly, 
in the most solemn manner, the payment of that tribute ; c 
their demands, however, were treated with contempt, and 
the tribute was never either acknowledged or offered. No- 
thing can be more insolent than the language in which 
he addressed himself to Philip I. king of France, to whom 
he recommended an humble and obliging carriage, from 
this consideration, that both his "kingdom and his soul 



5JT a The long note (g) in the original, which contains the ambitious 
exploits of Hildebrand, is inserted in the following paragraph, except 
the citations, which are thrown into notes. 

b See the ninth book of his epistles, Epist. iii. The form of the oath runs 
thus : " Ab hac hora et deinceps fidelis ero per rectam fidem B. Petro 
Apostolo, ejusque vicario Papa? Gregorio .... et quodcunque ipse Papa 
prasceperit sub his videlicet verbis, per veram obedientiam, fideliter, sicut 
oportet Christianum, observabo. Et eo die, quando eum primitus videro, 
fideliter per manus meas miles Sancti Petri et illius efficiar." What is 
this but a formal oath of allegiance ? 

c Epist. lib. viii. ep. xxiii. in Harduin's Concilia, torn. vi. p. 1476. " Di- 
cendumautem est omnibus Gallis et per veram obedientiam praecipiendum, 
ut unaquaaqtte domus saltern unum denarium annuatim solvat Beato Pe- 
tro, si eum recognoscant patrem et pastorem suum more antiquo." Every 
one knows that the demand made with the form, per veram obedientiam, 
was supposed to oblige indispensably. 

4 Lib. vii. epist. xx. in Harduin's Concilia, torn. vi. p. 1468. " Maxi- 
ms enitere ut B. Petrum, in cujus potestate est regnum tuum et anima 
tua, qui te potest in coalo et in terra ligare et absolvere, tibi facias debi- 
torem." 

' Lib. x. ep. vii. " Regnum Hispahiae ab antiquo proprii juris S. Petri 
fuisseetsoli apostolica? sedi ex aequo pertinere." 

f Lib. x. epist. xxviii. 

e See Peter de Marca, Histoire de Beam, liv. iv. p. 331. 

3£jf» h The impost of Peter-pence (so called from its being collected on 
the festival of Si. Peter in Vinculis,) was an ancient tax of a penny on 



were under the dominion of St. Peter (i. e. his vicar the 
Roman pontiff,) who had the power to bind and to loose 
him, both in heaven and upon earth." d Nothing escaped 
his all-grasping ambition ; he pretended that Saxony was 
a fief holden in subjection to the see of Rome, to which 
it had been formerly yielded by Charlemagne as a pious 
offering to St. Peter. He also extended his pretension i 
to the kingdom of Spain, maintaining in one of his letters, 
that it was the property of the apostolic see from the ear- 
liest times of the church, yet acknowledging in another/ 
that the transaction by which the successors of St. Peter 
had acquired this property, had been lost among other 
ancient records. His claims, however, were more respect- 
ed in Spain than they had been in Fiance ; for it is 
proved most evidently by authentic records, that the King 
of Arragon, and Bernard, count of Besalu, gave a favour- 
able answer to the demands of Gregory, and paid him re- 
gularly an annual tribute / and their example was fol- 
lowed by other Spanish princes, as we could show, were 
it necessary, by a variety of arguments. The despotic 
views of this lordly pontiff were attended with less success 
in England, than in any other country. William the 
Conqueror was a prince of great spirit and resolution, ex- 
tremely jealous of his rights, and tenacious of the preroga- 
tives he enjoyed as a sovereign and independent monarch ; 
and accordingly, when Gregory wrote him a letter demand- 
ing the arrears of the Peter-pence^ and at the same time 
summoning him to do homage for the kingdom of Eng- 
land, as a fief of the apostolic see, William granted the 
former, but refused the latter ' with a noble obstinacy, de- 
claring that he held his kingdom of God only, and his 
own sword. Obliged to yield to the obstinacy of the En- 
glish monarch, whose name struck terror into the boldest 
hearts, the restless pontiff addressed his imperious man- 
dates where he imagined they would be received with more 
facility. He wrote circular letters to the most powerful of 
the German princes/ to Geysa, king of Hungary,' and 
Swein, king of Denmark, m soliciting them to make a so- 
lemn grant of their kingdoms and territories to the prince 
of the apostles, and to hold them under the jurisdiction of 
his vicar at Rome, as fiefs of the apostolic see. What suc- 
cess attended his demands upon these princes, we cannot 
say; but certain it is, that in several countries his efforts 



each house, first granted, in 725, by Ina, king of the West Saxons, for the 
establishment and support of an English college at Rome, and afterwards 
extended, in 794, by Offa, over all Mercia and East Anglia. In process 
of time it became a standing and general tax throughout England ; and, 
though it was for some time applied to the support of the English col- 
lege according to its original design, the popes at length found means to 
appropriate it to themselves. It was confirmed by the laws of Canute, 
Edward the Confessor, William the Conqueror, &c and was never to- 
tally abolished till the reign of Henry VIII. 

i The letter of William is extant in the Miscellanea of Baluzius, tom. 
vii. p. 127; as also in Collier's Ecclesiastical History, in the Collection 
of Records, at the end of the first volume, p. 743, No. 12. " Hubertus 
legatus tuus (says the resolute monarch to the audacious pontiff,) admo- 
nuitme, quatenus tibi et successoribus tuis fidelitatem facerem, et de pe- 
cuniae quam antecessors mei ad ecclesiam mittere solebant, melius co- 
gitarem. Unum admisi, alterum non admisi. Fidelitatem facere, nolui 
nee volo," &c." 

k See, in Harduin's Concilia, his famous letter (lib. ix. epist. iii.) to the 
bishop of Padua, exhorting him to engage Welpho, duke of Bavaria, 
and other German princes, to submit themselves and their dominions to 
the apostolic jurisdiction. " Admonere te volumus (says the pontiff) du- 
cem Welphonem, ut fidelitatem B. Petro faciat . . . Ilium enim totum in 
gremio Beati Petri collocare desideramus, et ad ejus servitium specialiter 
provocare ; quam voluntatem si in eo, vel etiam in aliis potentibus viris, 
amore B. Petri ductis, cognoveris, ut perficiant, elabora." 

i Lib. ii. ep. lxx. a Lib. ii. pp. Ii. 



Chap. 1L 



DOCTORS CHURCH-GO YERXMENT. ETC. 



237 



were effectual, and his modest proposals were received with 
•Jie utmost docility and zeal. The son of Demetrius, czar 
of the Russians, set out for Rome, in consequence of the 
pontiffs letter, 1 in order to "obtain, as a gift from St. Peter, 
by the hands of Gregory, after professing his subjection 
and allegiance to the prince of the apostles," the kingdom 
which was to devolve to him upon the death of his father ; 
and his pious request was readily granted by the officious 
pope, who was extremely liberal of what did not belong 
to him. Demetrius Sninimer, duke of Croatia and Dal- 
matia, was raised to the rank and prerogatives of royalty 
by the same pontiff in 1076, and solemnly proclaimed king 
by his legate at Salona, on condition that he should pay 
an annual tribute of two hundred pieces of gold to St. Pe- 
ter at every Easter festival. b This bold step was injurious 
to the authority of the emperors of Constantinople, who, 
before this time, comprehended the province of Croatia 
within the limits of their sovereignty. The kingdom of 
Poland became also the object of Gregory's ambition, and 
a favourable occasion was offered for the execution of his 
iniquitous views; for, when Boleslaus II. had assassina- 
ted Stanislaus, bishop of Cracow, the pontiff not only ex- 
communicated him with all the circumstances of infamy 
that he could invent, but also hurled him from his throne, 
dissolved the oath of allegiance which his subjects had 
taken, and, by an express and imperious edict, prohibited 
the nobles and clergy of Poland from electing a new king 
without the pope's consent/ Many other examples might 
be alleged of the phrenetic ambition of Gregory; but those 
which have been already mentioned are sufficient to ex- 
cite the indignation of every impartial reader. Had the 
success of that pontiff been equal to the extent, of his inso- 
lent views, all the kingdoms of Europe would have been 
at this day tributary to the Roman see, and its princes the 
soldiers or vassals of St. Peter, in the person of his pre- 
tended vicar upon earth. But. though his most important 
projects were ineffectual, many of his attempts were crown- 
ed with a favourable issue ; for, from the time of his pon- 
tificate, the face of Europe underwent a considerable change, 
and the prerogatives of the emperors and other sovereign 

a Lib. ii. ep. lxxiv. 

b See Du Mont, Corps Diplomatique, torn. i. n. S8, p. 53. — Jo. Lucius, 
de Regno Dalmatiae, lib. ii. p. 85. 

Dlugossi Histor. Polon. torn. i. p. 295. 

i The life and exploits of tins heroic princess (who was one of the 
strongest bulwarks of the Roman church against the power of the em- 
perors, and the most tender and obedient of all the spiritual daughters of 
Gregory \ II.) have been written by Bened. Luchinus, Domin. Mellinus, 
Felix Comelorius, and Julius de Puteo, but more amply bv Francis Ma- 
ria of Florence, in his Records concerning the Countess Matilda, writ- 
ten in Italian, and Bened. Bacehinius, in his Hisloria Monasterii Poda- 
nsis. The famous Leibnitz, in his Scriptores Brunsvic. torn. i. p. 
629, and Lnd. Ant. Muratori, in his Scriptores Reram Italic, torn. v. p. 
335, have published, with annotations, the ancient histories of the life of 
Matilda, composed by Donizo, and another writer, whose name is un- 
known, together with the copy of the second act of cession by which that 
princess confirmed her former grant to die church of Rome. We may 
add here, that nothing relating to this extraordinary woman is more 
worthy of perusal, than (lie accounts that we find of her and her second 
husband, in the Origines Guelphicoe, L i. lib. iii. cap. v. et t ii. lib. vi. 

'Many learned men conclude from the very act by wluch this dona- 
lion was confirmed to the see of Rome, that Matilda comprehended in 
the gift only her allodial possessions, and not the territories which she 
held as the fiefs of the empire, such as the marquisate of Tuscany, and 
the duchy of Spoleto. For the words of the act run tints : " Ego Matb.il- 
dis .... dedi et obtuli ecclesiae S. Petri .... omnia mea bona jure pro- 
prietario, tam quae tunc habueram, quam ea quae in antea acquisitura 
eram, sivejure sujeessionis, sive alio quocunque jure ad me perlineanL" 
S.-e the Origines Guelphicae, torn. i. lib. iii. p. -1-18. But it is much to be 
questioned, whether this distinction is so evident as is pretended; for the 
No. XX. 60 



1 princes were much diminished. It was particularly under 
the administration of Gregory, that the emperors were de- 
i prived of the privilege of ratifying, by their consent, the 
j election of the pope ; a privilege of no small importance, 
' which they have never recovered. 

XI. The zeal and activity which Gregory employed in 
extending the jurisdiction of the Roman see, and enriching 
the patrimony of St. Peter, met, in no part of Europe, 
with such remarkable success as in Italy. His intimate 

: familiarity with Matilda, the daughter of Boniface, duke 
! of Tuscany, and the most powerful and opulent pri; 
j in that country, (who found by experience that neither 
ambition nor grace had extinguished the tender passions 
in the heart of Gregory,) contributed much to this success ; 
for he engaged that princess, after the death of her hus- 
band Godfrey, duke of Lorrain, and her mother Beatrix, 
which happened in the years 1076 and 1077, to settle all 
her possessions in Italy and elsewhere upon the church of 
Rome, and thus to appoint St. Peter and his pretended 
vicar the heirs of her immense treasures. This rich do- 
nation was, indeed, considerably invalidated by the second 
| marriage, which Matilda contracted, in 10S9, with "Welph, 
or Guelph, the son of the Duke of Bavaria, not without 
the consent of pope Urban II. She, however, renewed it 
! in a solemn manner in 1102. about seven years after her 
1 separation from her second husband, by which she be- 
' came again sole mistress of her vast possessions^ But, 
j notwithstanding this new act, the popes did not remain in 
I the peaceful possession of this splendid inheritance. It 
j was warmly and powerfully disputed, first by the empe- 
ror Henry Y.. and afterwards by several other princes ; nor 
| were the pontiffs so successful in this contest as to pre- 
j serve the whole inheritance, though, after various strug- 
gles and efforts, the}" remained in the possession of a con- 
siderable part of it, which the}' still enjoy." 

XII. The plan that Gregory had formed for raising.the 
church above all human authority, to a state of perfect su- 
premacy and independence, had many kinds of opposition 
to encounter, but none more difficult to surmount than 
that which arose from the two reigning vices of concul i- 



words ju?-e proprietario, from which it is inferred that Matilda disposed 
of only her allodial possessions in favour of St. Peter, do not, in my 
opinion, relate to the possessions of the testatrix, but to the nature of the 

! gift, and must be interpreted in conjunction with the preceding verbs, 
'■ dedi et obtuli. 1 ' The princess does not say, " dedi omnia bona qua; 

\ jure proprietario possideo et habeo," i. e. " I have granted that part of 
my property which I hold by a supreme and independent right," in 
which case the opinion of the learned men above mentioned would be 
well founded ; but she says, " dedi omnia bona mea ecclesiae jure proprie- 
tario," i. e. " my will is, that the church shall possess as its own pr< 

I the inheritance I have left to it." Besides, the following words mani- 

,i festly show, that the opinion of these learned men is destitute of all 
foundation, since Matilda would not have added, " sivejure successions, 

j sive alio quocunque jure ad me pertineant," i. e. "I grant all nry posses- 
sions, under whatever title I enjoy them, whether by right of succession, 
or by any other right," &c. had she intended to confine her donation to 
her allodial possessions. Certain it is, that in this ample grant she ex- 
cepts no part of her property, but evidently comprehends in it her whole 
substance. If it be objected to this, that the pontiffs never affirmed that 
the fiefs of the empire, which Matilda possessed, were comprehended in 
this grant to their church, and that they only claimed her allodial and in- 
dependent possessions, I answer, by questioning the fact, since many 
circumstances concur to prove, that they claimed the whole substance of 
Matilda, all her possessions without exception, as their undoubted rig] 
But suppose for a moment that the case was otherwise, and that the Ro- 
man church had never made such an universal claim, this would, by no 
means, invalidate the opinion I here maintain, since the question i 
consideration is not, how far the pontiffs may have mode rated thi ir pre- 
tensions to the territories of Matilda, but what is the true and gamine 
sense of the words in which her donation is expressed. 



238 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



nage and simony, that had infected the whole body of the 
European clergy. The pontiffs, from the time of Stephen 
IX., had combated with zeal and vehemence those mon- 
strous vices," but without success, as they had become too 
inveterate and too general to be extirpated without the 
greatest difficulty and the most extraordinary efforts. Ac- 
cordingly Gregory, in the year 1074, which was the se- 
cond of his pontificate, exerted himself with much more 
rigour than his predecessors had done in opposition to the 
rices already mentioned. For this purpose he assembled 
a council at Rome, in which all the laws of the former 
pontiffs against simony were renewed and confirmed, and 
the purchase or sale of ecclesiastical benefices prohibited 
in the strictest and severest manner. It was also decreed 
in the same council, that the sacerdotal order should ab- 
stain from marriage, and that such priests as already had 
wives or concubines, should immediately dismiss them, or 
quit their office. These decrees were accompanied with 
circular letters, written by the pontiff to all the European 
bishops, enjoining the strictest obedience to the decisions 
of this solemn council, under the severest penalties. Gre- 
gory did not stop here, but sent ambassadors into Germa- 
ny to Henry VI., king of the Romans, in order to engage 
that prince to summon a council for the trial and punish- 
ment of such ecclesiastics as had been guilty of simoniacal 
practices. 

a Monstrous vices we may justly call them ; for, though it be true, that, 
in the methods Gregory took to extirpate these vices, he violated not only 
the laws of religion, but also the dictates of natural equity and justice, 
and, under the mask of a pious zeal, committed the most abominable 
enormities, yet it is certain, on the other hand, that these vices produced 
the most unhappy effects both in church and state, and that the suppres- 
sion of them had now become absolutely necessary. There were, indeed, 
among the clergy several men of piety and virtue, who lived in the bonds 
of wedlock, and these Gregory ought to have spared. But there is no 
doubt that a prodigious number of ecclesiastics throughout Europe, not 
only of priests and canons, but also of monks, lived in the bonds of a 
criminal love ; kept, under the title of wives, mistresses whom they dis- 
missed, at pleasure, to enjoy the sweets of a licentious variety ; and not 
only spent, in the most profuse and scandalous manner, the revenues 
and treasures of the churches and convents to which they belonged, but 
even distributed a great part of them among their bastards. As to the 
vice of simony, its general extent and its. pernicious fruits appear evi- 
dently from those records which the Benedictine monks have published in 
several parts of their Gallia Christiana, not to mention a multitude of 
other ancient papers to the same purpose. One or two examples will 
be sufficient to give the reader an idea of this matter. "We find in the 
first volume of the admirable work now mentioned, (in the Append. 
Document, p. 5,) a public act by which Bernard, a viscount, and Froterius 
bishop of Albi, grant, or rather sell, openly to Bernard Aimard and his 
son, the bishopric of Albi, reserving to themselves a considerable part of 
its revenues. This act is followed by another, in which count Pontius 
bequeaths to his wife the same bishopric of Albi in the following terms : 
" Ego Pontius dono tibi dilectss sponsae meas episcopatum Albiensem — 
cum ipsa, ecclesia et cum omni adjacentia sua— et medietatem de episco- 
patu Nemauso, — et medietatem de abbatia Sti. iEgidii — post obitum 
tuum remaneat ipsius alodis ad infantes qui de me erunt creati." — In the 
second volume of the same learned work, (in the Append, p. 173.) there 
is a letter of the clergy of Limoges, beseeching William, count of Aqui- 
taine, not to sell the bishopric, but to give them a pastor, and not a de- 
vourer of the flock. " Rogamus tuam pietatem, ne propter mundale 
lucrum vendas Sti. Stepam locum, quia, si tu vendis episcopalia, ipse 
nostra mandueabit communia. — Mitte nobis ovium custodem, non devo- 
ratorem." Ademar, viscount of Limoges, laments (torn. ii. p. 179,) that 
" he himself had formerly made traffic of the cure of souls by selling 
benefices to simoniacal abbots." The barefaced impudence of the sa- 
cerdotal orders, in buying and selling benefices, exceeded all measure, 
and almost all credibility ; and they carried matters so far as to vindicate 
t that abominable traffic, as may be seen in a remarkable passage in the 
Apologeticum of Abbo, which is added by Pithou to the Codex Can. 
Ecclesia? Romanae ; this passage, which deserves to be quoted, is as fol- 
lows : " Nihil pene ad ecclesiam pertinere videtur, quod ad pretium non 
largiatur, scilicet episcopatus, presbyterutus, diaconatus, et aliqui mi- 
nores gradus, archidiaconatus quoque, decania, prsspositura, thesauri 
cmtodia, baptisterium — et hujusmodi negotiatores subdola. responsione 
solent astruere, non se emere benedictionem, qua percipitur gratia spi- 



XIII. These decrees, which were in part equitable and 
just, and which were, in every respect, conformable with 
the notions of religion that prevailed in this age, were 
looked upon by the people as highly salutary, since they 
rendered a free election, and not a mercenary purchase, 
the way to ecclesiastical promotion, and obliged the priests 
to abstain from marriage, which Avas absurdly considered 
as inconsistent with the sanctity of their office. Yet both 
these decrees were attended with the most deplorable tu- 
mults and dissensions, and were fruitful, in their conse- 
quences, of innumerable calamities. No sooner was the 
law concerning the celibacy of the clergy published, than 
the priests, in the several provinces of Europe, who lived in 
the bonds of marriage with lawful wives, or of lascivious- 
ness with hired concubines, b complained loudly of the se- 
verity of this council, and excited dreadful tumults in the 
greatest part of the European provinces. Many of these 
ecclesiastics, especially the Milanese priests, chose rather to 
abandon their spiritual dignities than their sensual plea- 
sures, and to quit their benefices that they might cleave to 
their wives. They went still farther : for they separated 
themselves entirely from the church of Rome, and brand- 
ed with the infamous name of Paterini,' i. e. Mani- 
chaeans, the pontiff and his adherents, who condemned so 
unjustly the conduct of such priests as entered into the 
bonds of a lawful and virtuous wedlock. The proceedings 

ritus sancti, sed res ecclesiarum vel possessiones episcopi." An acute 
distinction truly ! 

b All the historians who give an account of this century mention the 
tumults excited by such priests as were resolved to continue with their 
wives or concubines. For an account of the seditions which arose in 
Germany, upon this occasion, see Sigonius de Regno Italia?, lib. ix. p. 
557. torn. ii. as also Tengnagel's Collectio Veter. Monument, p. 45, 47, 
54. Those which the priests excited in England, are mentioned by M. 
Paris, in his Hist. Maj. lib. i. The tumults occasioned by the same rea- 
son in the Belgic and Gallic provinces, are described in the Epistola Cle- 
ricorum Cameracensium ad Remenses pro Uxoribus suis, published in 
Mabillon's Annal. Benedictin. torn. v. p. 634; and in the Epistola Novi- 
omagensium Clericorum ad Cameracenses, published in Mabillon's Mu- 
seum Italicum, torn. i. p. 128. Great was the flame which the laws of 
Gregory excited in Italy, and particularly in the province of Milan, of 
which we have an ample relation, given by Arnulph and Landulph, 
two Milanese historians, whose works were published with annotations 
by Muratori, in his Scriptores Rerum Italicarum, torn. iv. p. 36. Both 
these historians maintain, against Gregory and his successors, the cause 
of the injured priests, and the lawfulness of their marriages. 

c Paterinus is one of the names by which the Paulicians or Mani- 
chaeans (who came during this century from Bulgaria into Italy, and 
were also known by the title of Cathari. or Pure) were distinguished 
among the Italians. But, in process of time, the term Paterinus be- 
came a common name for all kinds of heretics, as we might show by 
many examples taken from the writers of the twelfth and thirteenth cen- 
turies. There are various opinions concerning the origin of this word, 
the most probable of which is that which supposes it derived from a cer- 
tain place called Pataria, in which the heretics held their assemblies ; 
and it is well known, that a part of the city of Milan is, to this very day, 
called Patara, or Contrada de Patari. See Annotat. ad Arnulphum 
Mediolanensem in Muratori's Scriptores Rerum Italicar. torn. iv. p. 39 ; 
see also Saxius ad Sigonium de Regno Italia', lib. ix. p. 536. An opinion 
(of which, if I err not, Sigonius was the author) prevailed, that the 
name in question was given to the Milanese priests who separated from 
the church of Rome, and retained their wives in opposition to the laws 
of the pontiffs. But this opinion is without foundation ; and it appears 
evidently from the testimony of Arnulph and other historians, that not 
the married priests, but the faction of the pontiffs, who condemned their 
conjugal bonds, were branded with the opprobrious name of Paterini. 
See Arnulph. lib. iii. c. x. — Anton. Pagi, Grit, in Ann. Bar. torn. iii. ad 
an. 1057, s. iii. Lud. Ant. Muratori Antiq. Ital. medii jEvi, t. v. p. 82, who 
have demonstrated this in the most ample, learned, and satisfactory man- 
ner. Nor need we, indeed, look any where else for the origin of this word. 
It is abundantly known, that the Manichaeans, and their brethren the Pau- 
licians, were extremely averse 'to marriage, which they looked upon as 
an institution invented by the evil principle : they, in consequence, who 
considered the marriages of the clergyas lawful, employed the ignominious 
name of Paterini, to show that the pontiffs, who prohibited these mar. 
riages, were followers of the odious doctrine of the Manichaaiis. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



239 



of Gregory appeared to the wiser part, even of those who 
approved the celibacy of the clergy, unjust and criminal 
in two respects : first, because his severity fell indiscrimi- 
nately, and with equal fury, upon the virtuous husband 
and the licentious rake ; and he dissolved, with a merci- 
less hand, the chastest bonds of wedlock, and thus invol- 
ved husbands and wives, with their tender offspring, in 
disgrace, perplexity, anguish, and want. a The second 
thing criminal in the measures taken by this pontiff was, 
that, instead of chastising the married priests with wisdom 
and moderation, and according to the laws of the ecclesi- 
astical discipline, whose nature is wholly spiritual, he gave 
them over to the civil magistrate, to be punished as diso- 
bedient and unworthy subjects, with the loss of their sub- 
stance, and with the most shocking marks of undeserved 
infamy and disgrace. b 

XIV. This vehement contest excited great tumults and 
divisions, which, however, were gradually calmed by length 
of time, and also by the perseverance of the obstinate pon- 
tiff ; nor did any of the European kings and princes con- 
cern themselves so much about the marriages of the clergy 
as to maintain their cause, and thereby to prolong the con- 
troversy. Bat the troubles which arose from the law that 
regarded the extirpation of simony were not so easily ap- 
peased ; the tumults it occasioned became greater from 
day to day ; the methods of reconciliation more difficult ; 
and it involved both the church and state during several 
years in the deepest calamities, and in the most complicated 
scenes of confusion and distress. Henry IV. received in- 
deed graciously the legates of Gregory, and applauded his 
zeal for the extirpation of simony ; but neither this prince, 
nor the German bishops, would permit these legates to as- 
semble in council in Germany, or to proceed judicially 
against those who, in time past, had been chargeable with 
simoniacal practices. The pontiff, exasperated at this re- 
straint in the execution of his designs, called another 
council to meet at Rome, in 1075, in which he pursued his 
adventurous project with greater impetuosity and vehe- 



* We must always remember that the priests, to whom their wives or 
mistresses were much dearer than the laws of the pontiffs, were not all 
of the same character; nor were such of them as might be justly deem- 
ed criminal, all criminal in the same degree. The better sort of these 
ecclesiastics (among which we may count the Belgic and Milanese 
clergy) desired nothing more than to live after the manner of the Greeks, 
maintaining that it was lawful for a priest, before his consecration, to 
marry one virgin, though a plurality of wives had been justly prohibit- 
ed ; and they grounded this their opinion upon the authority of St. Am- 
brose. See Jo. Petri Puricelli Dissertatio utrum S. Ambrosius Clero 
suo Mediolan, permiserit, ut Virgini semel nubere possent, republished 
by Muratori, in his Scriptores Italic, torn. iv. p. 123. Gregory and his 
successors ought to have dealt more gently with this kind of ecclesiastics 
(as the warmest admirers of the pontiffs acknowledge) than with those 
priests who were either the patrons of concubinage, or who pretended to 
justify their espousing of a plurality of wives. It was also unjust to 
treat, in the same manner, the monks, who, by the nature of (•heir pro- 
fession and vows, were necessarily excluded from the nuptial state ; and 
the priests, who could not bear the thoughts of being torn from the 
chaste partners of their beds, whom they had espoused with virtuous 
sentiments and upright intentions, or from the tender offspring which 
were the fruit of virtuous love. 

>> Thoodorici Verdunensis Epistola ad Gregorium VII. in Martenne's 
Thesaur. Anecdotorum, torn. i. p. 218. — c: Faciem meam in eo vel 
maxime coiifusione perfundunt, quod legem de clericorum incontinentia 
per laicorum insanias cohibenda unquam susceperim — Nee putetis eos 

qui ita sentiunt ecclesiasticorum graduum incontinentiam talibus de- 

fensiombus fovere velle. Honestam conversationem in desiderio liabent, 
nee al iter, quam oportet, ecclesiastical ultionis censuram intentari gau- 
dent." 

* We have extant a great number both of ancient and modern wri- 
ters, who have related the circumstances of this dispute concerning in- 
vestitures, which was begun by Gregory VII., was carried on by him 
and his successors on the one side, and the emperors Henry IV. and V. 



mence than ever ; for he not only excluded from the com- 
munion of the church several German and Italian bishops, 
and certain favourites of Henry, of whose counsels that 
prince was said to make use in the traffic of ecclesiastical 
dignities, but also pronounced, in a formal edict, an " Ana- 
thema against whoever received the investiture of a 
bishopric or abbacy from the hands of a layman, as also 
against those by whom the investiture should be per- 
formed."' 1 This decree alarmed the emperors, kings, and 
princes of Europe, wdio, in consequence of a prevailing 
custom, had the right of conferring the more important 
ecclesiastical dignities, and the government of monasteries 
and convents, of which they disposed in a solemn manner 
by the w T ell known ceremony of the ring, and the staff or 
crosier; which they presented to the candidate on whom 
their choice fell. This solemn investiture was the main 
support of that power of creating bishops and abbots, which 
the European princes claimed as their undoubted right, 
and the occasion of that corrupt commerce called simony, 
in consequence of which, ecclesiastical promotion was sold 
to the highest bidder ; and hence arose the zeal and ar- 
dour of Gregory for the annulment of these investitures, 
that he might extirpate simony on the one hand, and di- 
minish the power of princes in ecclesiastical matters on the 
other. 

A short digression concerning Investitures.' 

It will not be improper to illustrate the custom now 
mentioned of investing bishops and abbots in their re- 
spective dignities by the ceremony of the ring and crosier, 
since this custom has been ill understood by some, and 
imperfectly explained by others. Even the learned cardi- 
nal Norris appears highly defective here ; for though, in 
his History of Investitures/ there are some pertinent hints 
and remarks upon the reasons which engaged Gregory to 
prohibit investitures altogether, yet that learned prelate 
does not seem to have had a complete notion of this im- 
portant matter, since he omits in his history certain points 

on the other, and became a source of innumerable calamities to the 
greatest part of Europe. But few or none of these writers have treated 
this weighty subject with an entire impartiality. They all pleaded 
either the cause of the pontiffs, or that of the emperors, and decided the 
controversy, not by the laws then in being, (which ought, no doubt, to be 
principally consulted,) or by the opinions that generally prevailed at the 
time of this contest, but by laws of their own invention, and by the 
opinions of modern times. The famous Gretser, in his Apologia pro 
Gregorio VII. (which is published in the sixth volume of his works, and 
also separately,) has collected the principal of the ancient writers who 
maintained the cause of the pontiff: in opposition to whom, they who 
defended the cause of Henry IV. are collected by Melchior Goldastus, 
in his Replicatio contra Gretseram et Apologia pro Henrico IV., Hanov. 
1611, 4to. Among the modem writers who have treated this subject, we 
may reckon the Centuriatores Magdeburgenses, Baronius, the German 
and Italian historians, and those who have written the life of the fa- 
mous Matilda. But, besides these, it will be highly proper to consult Jo. 
Schilterus, de Libertate Ecclesire Germanics, lib. iv. p. 481. — Christ. 
Thomasius, Historia Contentionis inter Imperium et Sacerdotium — Hen. 
Meibomius, Lib. de Jure Investiture Episcopalis, torn. iii. Scriptorium 
Rer. Germanic. — Just. Chris. Dithmarus, Historia Belli inter Imperium 
et Sacerdotium, and, above all, the famous cardinal Norris, who far sur- 
passes in point of erudition those whom we have mentioned, and whose 
Istoria delle Investiture delle Dignita Ecclesiastiche, which was pub- 
lished at Mantua, after his death, in 1741, is a most learned work, though 
it be imperfect and probably maimed, and also extremely partial in fa- 
vour of the pontiffs; which is not surprising from the pen of a cardinal. 
See also Jo. Jac. Mascovii Commentarii de Rebus Imperii Germanic! 
sub Henrico IV. et V. 

J Ant. Pagi Critica in Baronium, torn. iii. ad an. 1075 — Hen. Norris, 
Hist. Investiturarum, p. 39. — Christ. Lupus, Scholia et Dissertation, ad 
Concilia, torn. vi. op. p. 39 — 44. 

• Here tlie translator has placed the note (r) of the original in the text, 
under the form of a dissertation. ' Chap. iii. p. 5C. 



240 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part U 



Jrat are necessary to the proper knowledge of it. The 
investiture of bishops and abbots commenced, undoubtedly, 
at that period when the European emperors, kings, and 
princes, made grants to the clergy of certain territories, 
lands, forests, castles, &c. According to the laws of those 
times, (laws which still remain in force,) no persons were 
deemed as lawful possessors of the lands or tenements 
which they derived from the emperors or other princes, be- 
fore they repaired to court, took the oath of allegiance to 
iieir respective sovereigns, as the supreme proprietors, and 
received from their hands a solemn mark, indicating a 
transfer of the property of their respective grants. Such 
was the manner in which the nobility, and those who had 
distinguished themselves by military exploits were con- 
firmed in the possessions which they owed to the liberality 
of their sovereigns. But the custom of investing the 
bishops and abbots with the ring and the crosier, which 
are the ensigns of the sacred function, is of a much more 
recent date, and was then first introduced, when the Euro- 
pean emperors and princes, annulling the elections that 
were made in the church according to the ecclesiastical 
laws which had been from the earliest times established 
for that purpose, assumed to themselves the power of con- 
ferring, on whom they pleased, the bishoprics and abbeys 
that became vacant in their dominions, and even of selling 
them to the highest bidder. This power, then, being once 
usurped by the kings and princes of Europe, they at first 
confirmed the bishops and abbots in their dignities and 
possessions, with the same forms and ceremonies that were 
used in investing the counts, knights, and others, with 
their feudal tenures, even by written contracts, and the 
ceremony of presenting them with a wand or, bough. a 
And this custom of investing the clergy and the laity with 
the same ceremonies would have undoubtedly continued, 
had not the clergy, to whom the right of electing bishops 
and abbots originally belonged, artfully eluded the usurpa- 
tion of the emperors and other princes by the following 
stratagem. When a bishop or abbot died, they who looked 
upon themselves as authorized to fill up the vacancy, 
elected immediately some one of their order in the place 
of the deceased, and were careful to have him consecrated 
without delay. The consecration being thus performed, 
the prince, who had proposed to himself the profit of sell- 
ing the vacant benefice, or the pleasure of conferring it 
upon one of his favourites, was obliged to desist from his 
purpose, and to consent to the election, which the ceremony 
of consecration rendered irrevocable. Many examples of 
the success of this stratagem, which was practised both in 
chapters and monasteries, and which disappointed the li- 

a This appears from a passage in cardinal Humbert's third book, 
adversus Simoniacos, which was composed before Gregory had set on 
foot the dispute concerning investitures, and which is published in Mar- 
tenne's Thesaur. Anecd. torn. v. p. 787. The passage is as follows : 
" Potestas secularis primo ambitiosis ecclesiasticarum Uignitatum vel pos- 
sessionum cupidis favebatprece, dein minis, deinceps verbis concessivis; 
in quibus omnibus cernens sibi contradictorem neminem, nee qui move- 
ret ponnam, vel aperiret os et ganniret, ad majora progreditur, et jam 
sub nomine investiturae dare primo tabellas vel 'qualescumque porrigere 
virgulas, dein baculos. -Q.uod maximum nefas sic inolevit ut id solum 
canonieum credatur, nee quae sit ecclesiastica regula sciatur aut atten- 
datur." 

i> We see this fact confirmed in the following passage in Ebbo's Life 
of Otho, bishop of Bamberg, lib. i. sect. 8, 9, in Actis Sanctor. mensis 
Julii, torn. i. p. 426. " Nee multo post annulus cum virga pastorali Bre- 
rnensis episcopi ad aulam regiam translata est. Eo siquidem tempore 
eeclesia liberam electionem non habebat. . . . sed cum quilibet antistes 
viam universal carnis ingressus fuisset, mox capitanei civitatis illius an- 
nulum ct virgam pastoralem ad Palatium transmittebant, sicque regia 



berality or avarice of several princes, might here be alleged ; 
they abound in the records of the tenth century, to which 
we refer the curious reader. No sooner did the emperors 
and princes perceive this artful management, than they 
turned their attention to the most proper means of render- 
ing it ineffectual, and of preserving the valuable privilege 
they had usurped. For this purpose they ordered, that, 
as soon as a bishop expired, his ring and crosier should be 
transmitted to the prince, to whose jurisdiction his diocese 
was subject ; for it was by the solemn delivery of the ring 
and crosier of the deceased to the new bishop that his 
election was irrevocably confirmed, and this ceremony was 
an essential part of his consecration ; so that, when these 
two badges of the episcopal dignity were in the hands of 
the sovereign, the clergy could not consecrate the person 
whom their suffrages had appointed to fill the vacancy. 
Thus their stratagem was defeated, as every election that 
was not confirmed by the ceremony of consecration might 
be lawfully annulled and rejected ; nor was the bishop 
qualified to exercise any of the episcopal functions before 
the performance of that important ceremony. As soon, 
therefore, as a bishop drew his last breath, the magistrate 
of the city in which he had resided, or the governor of the 
province, seized his ring and crosier, and sent them to 
court. b The emperor or prince conferred the vacant see 
upon the person whom he had chosen, by delivering to him 
these two badges of the episcopal office ; after which the 
new bishop, thus invested by his sovereign, repaired to 
his metropolitan, to whom it belonged to perform the cere- 
mony of consecration, and delivered to him the ring and 
crosier which he had received from his prince, that he 
might receive them again from his hands, and be thus 
doubly confirmed in his sacred function. It appears, 
therefore, from this account, that each new bishop and 
abbot received twice the ring and the crosier ; once from 
the hands of the sovereign, and once from those of the 
metropolitan bishop, by whom they were consecrated. 

It is very uncertain by what prince this custom was 
originally introduced. If we may believe Adam of Bre- 
men, 11 this privilege was exercised by Louis the Debon- 
naire, who, in the ninth century, granted to the new bish- 
ops the use and possession of the episcopal revenues, and 
confirmed this grant by the ceremony now under consi- 
deration. But the accuracy of this historian is liable to 
suspicion ; and it is probable that he attributed to the 
transactions of ancient times the same form that accom- 
panied similar transactions in the eleventh century, in 
which he lived ; for it is certain that, in the ninth centu- 
ry, the greatest part of the European princes made no op- 

auctoritate, communicato cum aulicis consilio, orbatse plebi idoneum con- 
stituebat prgesulem .... Post paucos vero dies rursum annulus et virga 
pastoralis Babenbergensis episcopi domino imperatori transmissa est : 
quo audita, multi nobiles — ad aulam regiam confiuebant, qui alteram 
harum prece vel pretio sibi comparare tentabant." 

* This appears from a variety of ancient records. See particularly 
Humbert, lib. iii. contra Simoniacos, cap. vi. in Martenne's Thesaur 
Anecdot. torn. v. p. 779, in which we find the following passage : " Sit 
encceniatus (i. e. the bishop invested by the emperor) violentus invadit 
clerum, plebem er ordinem prius dominaturus, quam ab eis cognoscatur, 
qureratur, aut petatur. Sic metropolitaiium aggreditur, non ab eo judi- 
candus, sed ipsum judicaturus. — Quid enim sibi jam pertinet aut prodest 
baculum et annulum, quos portat, reddere 1 Numquid quia a laica per- 
sona, dati sunt? Cur redditur quod habetur, nisi ut aut denuo res ecclesi- 
astica sub hac specie jussionis vel donationis vendatur. aut certe ut pra> 
sumptio laica; ordinationis pallietur colore et velamento quodam disci- 
plinae clericalist 

i In his Historia Ecclesiastica, lib. i. cap. xxxn. p. 10, xxxix. p. 12. 
published among the Scriptores Septentrionalcs of Lindenbrogius. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



241 



position to the right of electing the bishops, which was 
both claimed and exercised by the clergy and the people ; 
and consequently, there was then no occasion for the in- 
vestiture mentioned by Adam of Bremen. 1 We there- 
fore choose to adept the supposition of cardinal Humbert, b 
who places the commencement of the custom now under 
consideration in the reign of Otho the Great ; for, though 
this opinion has not the approbation of Louis Thomassin 
and Natalis Alexander, yet these learned men, in then- 
deep researches into the origin of investitures, have ad- 
vanced nothing sufficient to prove it erroneous. We learn 
also from Humbert, 11 that the emperor Henry III., the son 
of Conrad II. was desirous of abrogating these investi- 
tures, though a variety of circumstances concurred to 
prevent the execution of his design ; but he represents 
Henry I., king of France, in a different point of light, 
as a turbulent prince, who turned all things into confu- 
sion, and indulged himself beyond all measure in simo- 
niacal practices ; and he therefore loads him with the bit- 
terest invectives. 

In this method of creating bishops and abbots, by pre- 
senting to them the ring and crosier, there were two 
things that gave particular offence to the Roman pontiffs. 
One was, that by this the ancient right of election was to- 
tally changed, and the power of choosing the rulers of the 
church was usurped by the emperors and other sovereign 
princes, and was confined to them alone. This indeed 
was the most plausible reason of complaint, when we 
consider the religious notions of those times, which were 
by no means favourable to the conduct of the emperors in 
this affair. Another circumstance that grievously dis- 
tressed the pretended vicars of St. Peter, was, to see the 
ring and crosier, the venerable badges of spiritual autho- 
rity and distinction, delivered to the bishop elect by the 
profane hands of unsanctified laymen ; an abuse which 
they looked upon as little better than sacrilege. Hum- 
bert, who, as we previously stated, wrote his book against 
simony before the contest between the emperor and Gre- 
gory had commenced, complains e heavily of this suppo- 
sed profanation, and shudders to think, that the staff 
which denotes the ghostly shepherd, and the ring which 
seals the mysteries of heaven/ deposited in the bosoms of 
the episcopal order, should be polluted by the unhallowed 
touch of a civil magistrate ; and that emperors and 
princes, by presenting them to their favourites, should 
thereby usurp the prerogatives of the church, and exer- 
cise the pastoral authority and power. This complaint 
was entirely consistent, as we have already observed, 
with the opinions of the times in which it was made; for, 
as the ring and crosier were generally esteemed the marks 
and badges of pastoral power and spiritual authority, so 
he who conferred these sacred badges was supposed to con- 
fer and communicate with them the spiritual authority of 
which they were the emblems. 

All these things being duly considered, we shall irame- 

a Add to this the refutation of Adam of Bremen, by Daniel Pape- 
broch, in the Acta Sanctorum, torn. i. Febr. p. 557. 

i> Humbert, lib. iii. contra Simoniacos, cap. vii. p. 780. and cap. xi. p. 
787. 

e See Ludov. Thomassini Disciplina Fxcles. circa Benef. torn. ii. lib. 
ii. p. 431; and Natal. Alexander, Select. Histor. Eccles. Capit. Sxc. XI. 
XII. Diss. iv. p. 725. 

* Lib. iii. cap. vii. 

• See Humbert, lib. iii. contra Simoniac. cap. vi. p. 779, 795. His 
words are, " Q.uid ad laicas pertinet personas sacramenta ecclesiastica 

No. XXI. 61 



diately perceive what it was that rendered Gregory VI T. 
so averse to the pretensions of the emperors, and so zeal- 
ous in depriving them of the privilege they had assumed 
of investing the bishops with the ceremony of the ring 
and crosier. In the first council which he assembled at 
Rome, he made no attempt, indeed, against investitures, 
nor did he aim at any thing farther than the abolition of 
simony, and the restoration of the sacerdotal and monas- 
tic orders to their ancient right of electing their respective 
bishops and abbots. But, when he afterwards found that 
the affair of investiture was inseparably connected with 
the pretensions of the emperors, who seemed to consider 
it as empowering them to dispose of the higher ecclesias- 
tical dignities and benefices, he was persuaded that simo- 
ny could not be extirpated as long as investitures were in 
being : and, therefore, to pluck up the evil by the root, he 
opposed the latter custom with the utmoat vehemence. All 
this shows the true rise of the Avar that was carried on be- 
tween the pontiff and the emperor with such bitterness and 
fury. 

And to understand still more clearly the merits of this 
cause, it will be proper to observe, that it was not investi- 
ture, generally considered, that Gregory opposed with such 
keenness and obstinacy, but that particular species which 
prevailed at this time. He did not pretend to hinder the 
bishops from swearing allegiance to kings and emperors, 
or even from becoming their vassals ; and so far was he 
from prohibiting that kind of investiture which was per- 
formed by a verbal declaration or by a written deed, that, 
on the contrary, he allowed the kings of England and 
France to invest in this manner, and probably consented 
to the use of the sceptre in this ceremony, as did also after 
him Calixtus II. But he could not bear the ceremony of 
investiture that was performed with the ensigns of the sa- 
cerdotal order, much less could he endure the performance 
of the ceremony before the solemn rite of consecration ; 
but what rendered investitures most odious to this pontiff 
was their destroying entirely the free elections of bishops 
and abbots. It is now time to resume the thread of our 
history. 

XV. The severe law that had been enacted against in- 
vestitures, by the influence and authority of Gregory, 
made very little impression upon Henry. He acknow- 
ledged, indeed, that in exposing ecclesiastical benefices to 
sale, he had acted improperly, and he promised amend- 
ment in that respect ; but he remained inflexible against 
all attempts that were made to persuade him to resign his 
power of creating bishops and abbots, and the right of in- 
vestiture, which was intimately connected with this im- 
portant privilege. Had the emperor been seconded by the 
German princes, he might have maintained this refusal 
with dignity and success ; but this was far from being the 
case; a considerable number of these princes, and among 
others the states of Saxony, were the secret or declared 
enemies of Henry; and this furnished Gregory with an 

et pontincalemseu pastoralem gratiam distribuere, camyros scilicet bacu- 
los et annulos, quibus prrecipue perficitur, militat et innititur tota episco- 
pal is consecratio 1 Equidem in eamyi is baculis — designator, qua; eis com- 
mittitur cura pastoralis. — Porro annulus signaculum secretorum cceles- 
tium indicat, praenionens prcedicatores, ut secretam Dei sapicntiam cum 
apostolo dissignent. Quicunqe ergo his duobus aliquem initiant, pro- 
cul-dubio omnem pastoralem auctoritatem hoc proesumendo sibi vendi- 
cant." 

'Humbert mistook the spiritual signification of this holy ring, which 
was the emblem of a nuptial bond between the bishop and his see. 



242 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



opportunity of extending his authority, and executing- his 
ambitious projects. This was by no means neglected ; the 
imperious pontiff took occasion, from the discords that di- 
vided the empire, to insult and depress its chief; he sent, 
by his legates, an insolent message to the emperor at Gos- 
lar, ordering him to repair immediately to Rome, and clear 
himself, before the council that would be assembled there, 
of the various crimes that were laid to his charge. The 
emperor, whose high spirit could not brook such arrogant 
treatment, was filled with the warmest indignation at the 
view of that insolent mandate ; and, in the vehemence of 
his just resentment, convoked without delay a council of 
the German bishops at Worms. In that assembly, Gre- 
gory was charged with several flagitious practices, and de- 
posed from the pontificate, of which he was declared un- 
worthy ; and orders were given for the election of a new 
pontiff. Gregory opposed violence to violence ; for no sooner 
had he received, by the letters and ambassadors of Henry, 
an account of the sentence that had been pronounced 
against him, than, in a fit of vindictive phrensy, he thun- 
dered his anathemas at the head of that prince, excluded 
him both from the communion of the church and from 
the throne of his ancestors, and impiously dissolved the 
oath of allegiance which his subjects had taken, to him as 
their lawful sovereign. Thus war was declared on both 
sides ; and the civil and ecclesiastical powers were divided 
into two great factions, of which one maintained the rights 
of the emperor, while the other seconded the ambitious 
views of the pontiff. No terms are sufficient to express the 
complicated scenes of misery that arose from this deplora- 
ble schism. 

XVI. At the entrance upon this war, the Suabian chiefs, 
with duke Rodoiph at their head, revolted from Henry; 
and the Saxon princes, whose former quarrels with the 
emperor had been lately terminated by their defeat and 
submission,* followed their example. These united powers, 
being solicited by the pope to elect a new emperor, if Henry 
should persist in his disobedience to the orders of the 
church, met at Tribur in 1076, to take counsel together 
concerning a matter of such high importance. The re- 
sult of the deliberation was far from being favourable to 
the emperor ; for they agreed, that the determination of 
the controversy between him and them should be referred 
to the pope, who was to be invited for that purpose to a 
congress at Augsburg in the following year, and that, in 
the mean time, Henry should be suspended from his royal 
dignity, and live in the obscurity of a private station ; to 
which rigorous conditions they also added, that he was to 
forfeit his kingdom, if, within the space of a year, he should 
not be restored to the bosom of the church, and delivered 
from the anathema that lay upon his head. When things 
were come to this desperate extremity, and the faction, 
which was formed against this unfortunate prince, grew 
more formidable from day to day, his friends advised him 
to go into Italy, and implore in person the clemency of the 
pontiff. The emperor yielded to this ignominious counsel, 
without, however, obtaining from his voyage the advan- 
tages he expected. He passed the Alps, amidst the rigour 

f^T a This same Rodoiph had, the year before this revolt, vanquished 
the Saxons, and obliged them to submit to the emperor. Beside the 
Suabian and Saxon chiefs, the dukes of Bavaria and Carinthia, the bi- 
shops of Wurtzburg and Worms, and several other eminent personages, 
were concerned in this revolt. 

"> The ancient and moderm writers of Italian and German history 






of a severe winter, and arrived, in February, 1077, at the 
fortress of Canusium, where the sanctimonious pontiff 
resided at that time with the young Matilda, countess of 
Tuscany, the most powerful patroness of the church, and 
the most tender and affectionate of all the spiritual daugh- 
ters of Gregory. Here the suppliant prince, unmindful of 
his dignity, stood, during three days, in the open air at the 
entrance of this fortress, with his feet bare, his head un- 
covered, and with no other raiment than a wretched piece 
of coarse woollen cloth thrown over his body to cover his 
nakedness. On the fourth day, he was admitted to the 
presence of the lordly pontiff, who with difficulty granted 
him the absolution he demanded ; but, as to his political 
restoration, he refused to determine that point before the 
approaching congress, at which he made Henry promise 
to appear, forbidding him, at the same time, to assume, 
during this interval, the title of king, or to wear the orna- 
ments or exercise the functions of royalty. This oppro- 
brious convention justly excited the indignation of the 
princes and bishops of. Italy, who threatened Henry with 
all sorts of evils, on account of his base and pusillanimous 
conduct, and would undoubtedly have deposed him, had 
not he allayed their resentment by violating the conven- 
tion into which he had been forced to enter with the im- 
perious pontiff, and resuming the title and other marks of 
royalty which he had been obliged to relinquish. On the 
other hand, the confederate princes of Suabia and Saxony 
were no sooner informed of this unexpected change in the 
conduct of Henry, than they assembled at Forcbeim in 
March, 1077, and unanimously elected Rodoiph, duke of 
Suabia, emperor in his place. b 

XVII. This rash step kindled a terrible flame in Ger- 
many and Italy, and involved, for a long time, those un- 
happy lands in the calamities of war. In Italy, the Nor- 
mans, who were masters of the lower parts of that country, 
and the armies of the powerful and valiant Matilda, main- 
tained successfully the cause of Gregory against the Lom- 
bards, who espoused the interests of Henry; while this 
unfortunate prince, with all the forces he could assemble, 
carried on the war in Germany against Rodoiph and the 
confederate princes. Gregory, considering the events of 
war as extremely doubtful, was at first afraid to declare for 
either side, and therefore observed, during a certain time, 
an appearance of neutrality; but encouraged by the battle 
of Fladenheim, in which Henry was defeated by the Sax- 
ons, in 1080, he excommunicated anew that vanquished 
prince, and, sending a crown to the victor Roclolph, de- 
clared him lawful king of the Germans. The injured 
emperor did not suffer this new insult to pass unpunished. 
Seconded by the suffrages of several of the Italian and 
German bishops, he deposed Gregory a second time in a 
council which met at Mentz, and, in a synod that was 
soon after assembled at Brixen, in the province of Tirol, 
he raised to the pontificate Guibert, archbishop of Raven- 
na, who assumed the title of Clement III., when he wan 
consecrated at Rome, in 1084, four years after his election , 

XVIII. This election was soon followed by an occur- 
rence which gave an advantageous turn to the affairs of 

have given ample relations of all these events, though not all with the same 
fidelity and accuracy. In the brief account I have given of the events, I 
have followed the genuine sources, and those writers whose testimonies 
are the most respectable and sure, such as Sigonius, Pagi, Murator.., 
Mascovius, Noms, &c. who, though they differ in some minute circum- 
stances, yet agree in those matters which are of the most importance. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



243 



Henry: this event was a bloody battle fought upon the 
banks of the river Elster, where Rodolph received a mor- 
tal wound, of which he died at Mersburg. The emperor, 
freed from this formidable enemy, marched into Italy, in 
the following year (1081,) with a design to crush Gregory 
and his adherents, whose defeat he imagined would con- 
tribute effectually to put an end to the troubles in Germany. 
Accordingly he made several campaigns, with various suc- 
cess, against the valiant troops of Matilda ; and, after ha- 
ving raised twice the siege of Rome, he resumed with 
alacrity that bold enterprise, and became, in 1084, master 
of the greatest part of that city. His first step after this 
success was to place Guibert in the papal chair : he then 
received the imperial crown from the hands of the new 
pontiff, was saluted emperor by the Roman people, and 
laid close siege to the castle of St. Angelo, whither his de- 
termined enemy, Gregory, had fled for safety. He was, 
however, forced to raise this siege by the valour of Robert 
Guiscard, duke of Apulia and Calabria, who brought Gre- 
gory in triumph to Rome ; but, not thinking him safe 
there, conducted him afterwards to Salernum. Here the 
famous pontiff ended his days in the succeeding year, and 
left Europe involved in those calamities which were the 
fatal effects of his boundless ambition. He was certainly 
a man of extensive abilities, endowed with a most enter- 
prising genius, and an invincible firmness of mind ; but 
it must, at the same time, be acknowledged, that he was 
the most arrogant and audacious pontiff that had hitherto 
filled the papal chair. The Roman church worships him 
as a saint, though it is certain that he was never placed in 
that order by a regular canonization. Paul V., about the 
beginning of the seventeenth century, appointed the 
twenty-fifth day of May, as a festival sacred to the me- 
mory of this pretended saint ; a but the emperors of Ger- 
many, the kings of France, and other European princes, 
have always opposed the celebration of this festival, and 
have thus effectually prevented its becoming universal. 
In our times, the zeal of Benedict XIII. to secure to Gre- 
gory the saintly honours, occasioned a contest, the result 
of which was by no means favourable to his superstitious 
views. b 

XIX. The death of Gregory neither restored peace to 
the church, nor tranquillity to the state; the tumults and 
divisions which he had excited still continued, and they 
were augmented from day to day by the same passions to 
which they owed their origin. Clement III., who was the 
emperor's pontiff, was master of the city of Rome, and was 
acknowledged as pope by a great part of Italy. Henry car- 
ried on the war in Germany against the confederate princes. 
The faction of Gregory, supported by the Normans, chose 
for his successor, in 1086, Dideric, abbot of Mount-Cassin, 
who adopted the title of Victor III., and was consecrated in 
die church of St. Peter, in 1087, when that part of the city 
ivas recovered by the Normans from the dominion of Cle- 

a See the Acta Sanctor. Antwerp, ad d. xxv. Mali, and Mabillon, 
Acta Sanct. Ord. Benedict. Sac. VI. part ii. 

■> The reader will find an ample and curious account of this matter in 
a French book published in Holland, in 1743, under the following title: 
L'Avocatdu Diable, ou Memoires Historiques et Critiques sur la Vieet 
su> la Legende du Pape Gregoire VII. 

• This pontiff died in 1100, as appears evidently from the Chronicon 
Beneventanum, published by Muralori, in his Antiq. Ital. torn. i. p. 262. 
See also Rubei Historia Ravennat. lib. v. p. 307. 

* We find in the Posthumous Works of Mabillon, torn. iii. the Life 
of Urban II. composed by Theod. Ruinart, with much learning and in- 
dustry, but with too little impartiality and fidelity, as we may naturally 



ment. But this new pontiff was of a character quite oppo- 
site to that of Gregory ; he was modest and timorous, and 
also of a mild and gentle disposition ; and finding the papal 
chair beset with factions, and the city of Rome under the 
dominion of his competitor, he retired to his monastery, 
where he soon after ended his days in peace. But, befoie 
his abdication, he held a council at Benevento, where he 
confirmed and renewed the laws that Gregory had enacted 
for the abolition of investitures. 

XX. Otho, monk of Clugni, and bishop of Ostia, was, 
by Victor's recommendation, chosen to succeed him. This 
new pontiff was elected at Terracina, in 1088, and assu- 
med the name of Urban II. Inferior to Gregory in forti- 
tude and resolution, he was, however, his equal in arro- 
gance and pride, and surpassed him greatly in temerity 
and imprudence. 11 The commencement of his pontificate 
had a fair aspect, and success seemed to smile upon his 
undertakings ; but on the emperor's return into Italy, in 
1090, the face of affairs was totally changed ; victory crown- 
ed the arms of that prince, who, by redoubled efforts of 
valour, at length defeated Guelph, duke of Bavaria, and 
the famous Matilda, who were the formidable heads of the 
papal faction. The abominable treachery of his son Con- 
rad, who, yielding to the seduction of his father's enemies, 
revolted against him, and, by the advice and assistance of 
Urban and Matilda, usurped the kingdom of Italy, revived 
the drooping spirits of that faction, who hoped to see the 
laurels of the emperor blasted by this odious and unnatural 
rebellion. The consequences, however, of this event were 
less mischievous to Henry, than his enemies expected. In 
the mean time the troubles of Italy still continued ; nor 
could Urban, with all his efforts, reduce Rome under his 
lordly yoke. Finding all his ambitious measures discon- 
certed, he assembled a council at Placentia, in 1095, where 
he confirmed the laws and the anathemas of Gregory; 
and afterwards undertook a journey into France, where 
he held the famous council of Clermont, and had the plea- 
sure of kindling a new war against the infidel possessors 
of the holy land. In this council, instead of endeavouring 
to terminate the tumults and desolations that the dispute 
concerning investitures had already produced, this un- 
worthy pontiff added fuel to the flame, and so exasperated 
matters by his imprudent and arrogant proceedings, as to 
render an accommodation between the contending parties 
more difficult than ever. Gregory, notwithstanding his 
insolence and ambition, had never carried matters so far 
as to forbid the bishops and the rest of the clergy to take 
the oath of allegiance to their respective sovereigns. This 
rebellious prohibition was reserved for the audacious arro- 
gance of Urban, who published it. as a law in the council 
of Clermont. 6 After this noble expedition, the restless pon- 
tiff returned into Italy, where he made himself master of 
the castle of St. Angelo, and soon after ended his days, in 
1099 ; he was not long survived by his antagonist Clc- 



suppose even from the name of its author, since it is known that no 
monkish writer durst attempt to paint the pontiffs in their true colours. — 
See also, for an account of Urban, the Hist. Lit. de la France, torn. viii. 
p. 514. 

e To the fifteenth canon of this council the following words were added 
'.' JNTe episcopus vel sacerdos regi vel alicui laico in manibus ligiam fide- 
litatem faciat," i. e. "It is enacted, that no bishop or priest shall pro- 
mise upon oath liege obedience to any king or any layman." They are 
entirely in an error, who affirm that Gregory prohibited the bishops from 
taking oaths of allegiance to their respective sovereigns, as cardinal 
Norris has sufficiently demonstrated in his Istoria delie Investiture, 
chap. x. p. 279. 



244 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



ment III. who died in the following year, and thus left 
Raynier (a Benedictine monk, who was chosen successor 
to Urban, and assumed the name of Pascal II.) sole pos- 
sessor of the papal chair at the conclusion of this century. 

XXI. Among the eastern monks in this century, there 
happened nothing worthy of being consigned to the records 
of history, while those of the west were concerned imme- 
diately in transactions of great consequence, and which 
deserve the attention of the curious reader. The western 
monks were remarkable for their attachment to the Ro- 
man pontiffs. This connexion had been long formed, and 
it was originally occasioned by the avarice and violence of 
both bishops and princes, who, under various pretexts, 
were constantly encroaching upon the possessions of the 
monks, and thus obliged them to seek for security against 
these invasions of their property in the protection of the 
popes. This protection was readily granted by the pon- 
tiffs, who seized, with avidity, every occasion of enlarging 
their authority ; and the monks, in return, engaged them- 
selves to pa\r an annual tribute to their ghostly patrons. 
But in this century things were carried still farther ; and 
the pontiffs (more especially Gregory VII. who was eager- 
ly bent upon humbling the bishops, and transferring their 
privileges to the Roman see,) enlarged their jurisdiction 
over the monks at the expense of the episcopal order. 
They advised and exhorted the monks to withdraw them- 
selves and their possessions from the jurisdiction of the 
bishops, and to place both under the inspection and do- 
minion of St. Peter. a Hence, from the time of Gregory, 
the number of monasteries that had received immunities, 
both from the temporal authority of the sovereign, and the 
spiritual jurisdiction of the bishops, increased beyond mea- 
sure throughout Europe ; and the rights of princes, to- 
gether with the interests and privileges of the episcopal 
order, were violated and trampled upon, or rather en- 
grossed, to swell the growing despotism of the all-grasping 
pontiffs. b 

XXII. All the writers of this age complain of the ig- 
norance, licentiousness, frauds, debaucheries, dissensions, 
and enormities, that dishonoured the greatest part of the 
monastic orders, not to mention the numerous marks of 
their profligacy and impiety that have been handed down 
to our times/ However astonished we may be at such 
gross irregularities among a set of men whose destination 
was so sacred, and whose profession was so austere, we 
shall still be more surprised to learn that this degenerate 
order, far from losing aught of their influence and credit 
on account of their licentiousness, were promoted, on the 
contrary, to the highest ecclesiastical dignities, and beheld 
their opulence and authority increasing from day to day. 
Our surprise, indeed, will be diminished, when we con- 
sider the gross ignorance and superstition, and the un- 

* A specimen of this may be seen in the seventh Epistle of Gregory, 
in which he reduces the monks of Redon under the jurisdiction of the 
Roman see, by a mandate conceived in terms that had never been used 
before his time : see Martenne's Thesaur. Anccdot. torn. i. p. 204. We 
may add to this, several similar mandates of' Urban II. and the suc- 
ceeding pontiffs, which are to be found in the collection now cited, and 
in others of that kind. 

t> There is not, perhaps, in Germany, a single instance of this perni- 
cious immunity before the time of Gregory VII. 

• See Jo. Launoi, Assert, in Privileg. S. Medardi, cap. xxvi. sect. vi. 
op. t. iii. part II. p. 499; and Simon, Bibl. Critique, t. iii.cap. xxxii.p. 331. 

d For an account of the astonishing corruption of this age, see Blondel, 
de Formula, regnante Christo, p. 14. — Boulainvilliers, de l'Origine et des 
Droits de la Noblesse, in Mold's Memoires de Literature et d'Histoire, 



bounded licentiousness and corruption of manners, that 
reigned in this century among all ranks and orders of 
men/ 1 Ignorance and corruption pervert the taste and 
judgment even of those who are not void of natural sa- 
gacity, and often prevent their being shocked at the great- 
est inconsistencies. Amidst this general depravation of 
sentiment and conduct, amidst the flagitious crimes that 
were daily perpetrated, not only by the laity, but also by 
the various orders of the clergy, both secular and regular, 
all such as respected the common rules of decency, or pre- 
served in their external demeanour the least appearance of 
piety and virtue, were looked upon as saints of the highest 
rank, and considered as the peculiar favourites of heaven. 
This circumstance was, no doubt, favourable to many of 
the monks who were less profligate than the rest of their 
order, and might contribute more or less to support the 
credit of the whole body. Besides, it often happened, that 
princes, dukes, knights, and generals, whose clays had 
been consumed in debauchery and crimes, and distin- 
guished by nothing but the violent exploits of unbridled 
lust, cruelty, and avarice, felt at the approach of old age, 
or death, the inexpressible anguish of a wounded con- 
science, and the gloomy apprehensions and terrors it ex- 
cites. In this dreadful condition, what was their resource ? 
What were the means by which they hoped to disarm the 
uplifted hand of divine justice, and render me governor of 
the world propitious ? They purchased, at an enormous 
price, the prayers of the monks to screen them from judg- 
ment, and devoted to God and to the saints a large portion 
of the fruits of their rapine, or entered into the monastic 
order, and bequeathed their possessions to their new breth- 
ren. And thus it was that monkery perpetually received 
new accessions of opulence and credit. 

XXIII. The monks of Clugni in France surpassed all 
the other religious orders in the renown they had acquired, 
from a prevailing opinion of their eminent sanctity and 
virtue. Hence their discipline was universally respected, 
and hence also their rules were adopted by the founders of 
new monasteries, and the reformers of those that were in 
a state of decline. These famous monks arose, by de- 
grees, to the highest summit of worldly prosperity, by the 
presents which they received from all quarters ; and their 
power and credit grew, with their opulence, to such a 
height, that, toward the conclusion of this century, they 
were formed into a separate society, which still subsists, 
under the title of the Order, or Congregation of Clugni. e 
And no sooner Ave re they thus established, than they ex- 
tended their spiritual dominion on all sides, reducing, un- 
der their jurisdiction, all the monasteries which they had 
reformed by their counsels. The famous Hugo, sixth ab- 
bot of Clugni, who was in high credit at the court of 
Rome, and had acquired the peculiar protection and esteem 



torn. ix. part i. p. 63. The corruption and violence that reigned with 
impunity in this horrid age, gave occasion to the institutions of chivalry 
or knighthood, in consequence of which, a certain set of equestrian 
heroes undertook the defence of the poor and feeble, and particularly of 
the fair sex, against the insults of powerful oppressors and ravishers. 
This order of knights errant certainly became very useful ir these mi- 
serable times, when the majesty of laws and government had fallen 
into contempt, and when they who bore the titles of sovereigns and ma- 
gistrates, had neither resolution nor power to maintain their authority, 
or to perform the duties of their stations. 

For a particular account of the rapid and monstrous strides which 
the order of Clugni made to opulence and dominion, see Steph. Baluze, 
Miscellan. torn. v. p. 343, and torn. vi. p. 426, as also Mabillon, Annal. 
Benedict, torn. v. 2>assim. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



245 



of several princes, laboured with such success, in extend- 
ing the power and jurisdiction of his order, that, before the 
end of tins century, he saw himself at the head of five- 
and-thirty of the principal monasteries in France, beside a 
considerable number of smaller convents that acknow- 
ledged him as their chief. Many other religious societies, 
though they refused to enter into this new order, and con- 
tinued to choose their respective governors, yet showed 
such respect for the abbot of Clugni, or the Arch- Abbot, 
as he styled himself, that they regarded him as their spi- 
ritual chief. This enormous augmentation of opulence 
and authority was, however, fruitful of many evils ; it in- 
creased the arrogance of these aspiring monks, and con- 
tributed much to the propagation of the several vices that 
dishonoured the religious societies of this licentious and su- 
perstitious age. The monks of Clugni soon degenerated 
from their primitive sanctity, and were distinguished by 
nothing but the peculiarities of their discipline, from the 
rest of the monastic orders. 

XXIV. The example of these monks excited several 
pious men to erect particular monastic fraternities, or con- 
gregations, like that of Clugni, the consequence of which 
was, that the Benedictine order, which had been hitherto 
one great and compact body, was now divided into sepa- 
rate societies, which, though they were subject to one ge- 
neral rule, differed from each other in various circumstan- 
ces, both of their dicipline and manner of living, and rendered 
their division still more conspicuous by reciprocal exertions 
of animosity and hatred. In 1023, Romuald, an Italian 
fanatic, retired to Camaldoli, b on the mount Apennine, and, 
in that solitary retreat, founded the order, or Congregation 
of the Camaldolites, which still remains in a flourishing 
state, particularly in Italy. His followers were distin- 
guished into two classes, the Coenobites and the Eremites. 
Both observed a severe discipline ; but the Coenobites gra- 
dually degenerated from their primitive austerity. Some 
time after this, Gualbert, a native of Florence, founded at 
Val-Ombroso, amidst the Apennines, a congregation of 
Benedictine monks, who quickly propagated their discipline 
in several parts of Italy. d To these two Italian monaste- 
ries we may add that of Hirsauge in Germany/ erected 
by William, an eminent abbot, who had reformed many 
ancient convents, and was the founder of several new es- 
tablishments. It is, however, to be observed, that this mo- 
nastery was rathei a branch of the congregation of Clugni, 
whose laws and manner of living it had adopted, than a 
new fraternity. 

XXV. Toward the conclusion of this century/ Robert, 
abbot of Molesme in Burgundy, having in vain employed 
his most zealous efforts to revive the decaying piety and 
discipline of his convent, and to oblige his monks to ob- 

* Mabillon, Preef. Acta SS. Ord. Bened. Seec. V— Hist. Gen. deBour- 
gogne paries Moines Benedictins, t. i. p. 151, Paris, 1739. — Hist. Liter, 
de la France, t. ix. p. 470. *> Otherwise called Campo-Malduli. 

The writers, who have given any satisfactory accounts of the order 
of the Camaldolites, are enumerated by Jo. Alb. Fabricius in his Biblio- 
theca Lat. medii iEvi, torn. i. p. 895. — Add to these Romualdi Vita, in 
Actis Sanctor. Februar. torn. ii. p. 101, and in Mabillon's Act. Sanctor. 
Ord. Bened. Seec. VI. part i p. 247. — Helyot, Hist, des Ordres, torn. v. 
p. 236.— Mabillon, Annal. Ord. Bened. torn. v. p 261.— Magnoaldi Zei- 
gelbauer, Centifolium Camaldulense, sive Notitia Scriptor. Camaldulen- 
sium, published at Venice in 1750. 

i See the life of Gualbert in Mabillon's Acta Sanctor. Ord. Bened. 
Scec. VI. part ii. p. 273. See also Helyot's Hist des Ordres, torn. v. p. 
298. Many interesting circumstances relating to the history of this 
order have been published. by the learned Lami, in the Delicise Erudito- 
rum, torn. ii. where the ancient laws of the order are enumerated. 

No. XXI. - 62 



serve, with greater exactness, the ride of St. Benedict, re- 
tired, with about twenty monks, who had not been infected 
with the dissolute turn of their brethren, to Citeaux, in the 
diocese of Chalons. In this retreat, which was at that 
time a miserable desert, covered on all sides with bram- 
bles and thorns, but which bears, at present, a quite differ- 
ent aspect, Robert laid the foundations of the famous order, 
or, Congregation of Cistertians, which, like that of Clugni, 
made a most rapid and astonishing progress, was propa- 
gated through the greatest part of Europe in the following 
century, and was not only enriched with the most liberal 
and splendid donations, but also acquired the form and 
privileges of a spiritual republic, and exercised a sort of 
dominion over all the monastic orders.e The great and 
fundamental law of this new fraternity, was the rule of 
St. Benedict, which was to be solemnly and rigorously 
observed ; to this were added several other institutions and 
injunctions, which were designed to maintain the autho- 
rity of this rule, to ensure its observance, and to defend it 
against the dangerous effects of opulence, and those rest- 
less efforts of human corruption which render the best es- 
tablishments imperfect. These injunctions were excessively 
austere, and grievous to nature, but pious and laudable in 
the esteem of a superstitious age. They did not, however, 
secure the sanctity of this holy congregation ; for the se- 
ductive charms of opulence, that corrupted the monks of 
Clugni much sooner than was expected, produced the same 
effect among the Cistertians, whose zeal in the rigorous 
observance of their rule began gradually to diminish, and 
who, in process of time, became as negligent and dissolute 
as the rest of the Benedictines. h 

XXVI. Beside these convents, that were founded upon 
the principles, and might be considered as branches of the 
Benedictine order, several other monastic societies were 
formed, which were distinguished by peculiar laws, and 
by rules of discipline and obedience, which they had drawn 
up for themselves. To many of those gloomjr and fana- 
tical monks, whose austerity was rather the fruit of a bad 
habit of body, than the result of a religious principle, the 
rule of Benedict appeared too mild ; to others it seemed 
incomplete and defective, and not sufficiently accommo- 
dated to the exercise of the various duties we owe to the 
Supreme Being. Hence, Stephen, a nobleman of Auvergne 
(who is called by some Stephen de Muret, from the place 
where he first erected the convent of his order,) obtained 
from Gregory VII., in 1073, the privilege of instituting a 
new species of monastic discipline. His first design was 
to subject his fraternity to the rule of St. Benedict ; but 
he changed his intention, and composed a code which was 
to be their rule of life, piety, and manners. In his laws 
there were many injunctions, that showed the excessive 

• See Mabillon, part ii. p. 716. — Helyot, torn. v. p. 332. 
f In the year 1098. 

g^T B tn about a hundred years after its first establishment, this order 
boasted of 1800 abbeys, and had become so powerful, that it governed 
almost all Europe, both in spirituals and temporals. 

h The principal historian of the Cistertian order, is Ang. Manriques, 
| whose Annales Cistertienses (an ample and learned work) were pub- 
i lished in four volumes folio, at Lyons, in the year 1642. After him we 
j may place Pierre le Nain, whose Essai de l'Histoire de FOrdre des 
i Citeaux, was printed in the year 1696, at Paris, in nine volumes in 8vo. 
The other historians, who have given accounts of this famous order, arc 
| enumerated by Fabricius, in his Biblioth. Latina medii iEvi, torn. i. p. 
1066. Add to these Helyot's Hist, des Ordres, torn. v. p. 341. and Ma- 
billon, who, in the fifth and sixth volumes of his Annales Bencdiciini, 
has given a learned and accurate account of the origin and progress of 
the Cistertians. 



246 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part U. 



austerity of their author. Poverty and obedience were the 
two'great points which he inculcated with the warmest 
zeal, and all his regulations were directed to promote and 
secure them in this new establishment. For this purpose 
it was solemnly enacted that the monks should possess no 
lands beyond the limits of their convent ; that the use of 
flesh should be allowed to none, not even to the sick and 
infirm ; and that none should be permitted to keep cattle, 
that they might not be exposed to the temptation of viola- 
ting their frugal regimen. To these severe precepts many 
others of equal rigour were added ; for this gloomy legisla- 
tor imposed upon his fraternity the solemn observance of 
a profound and uninterrupted silence, and insisted so much 
upon the importance and necessity of solitude, that none 
but a few persons of the highest eminence and authority 
were permitted to pass the threshold of his monastery. 
He prohibited all intercourse with the female sex, and, 
indeed, excluded his order from all the comforts and en- 
joyments of life. His followers were divided into two clas- 
ses; one of which comprehended the clerks, and the other 
what he called the converted brethren. The former were 
totally absorbed in the contemplation of divine things, 
while the latter were charged with the care and adminis- 
tration of whatever related to the concerns and necessities 
of the present life. Such were the principal circumstan- 
ces of the new institution founded by Stephen, which arose 
to the highest pitch of renown in this and the following 
century, and was regarded with the most profound vene- 
ration as long as its laws and discipline were observed : 
but two things contributed to its decline, and at length 
orought on its ruin ; the first was, the violent contest which 
arose between the clerks and the converts, on account of 
the pre-eminence which the latter pretended over the for- 
mer ; and the second was, the gradual diminution of the 
rigour and austerity of Stephen's rule, which was softened 
and mitigated from time to time, both by the heads of the 
order and by the pontiffs. This once famous monastic 
society was distinguished by the title of the Order of Grand- 
montains, as Muret, where they were first established, 
was situated near Grammont, in the province of Limo- 
ges.' 1 

XXVII. In the year 1084, b was instituted the famous 
order of Carthusians, so called from Chartreux, a dismal 

a The origin of this order is related by Bernard Guidon, whose trea- 
tise on that subject is published in the Bibliotheca Manuscriptorum Phil. 
Labbei, torn. ii. p. 275. For an account of the history of this celebrated 
society, see Mabillon, Annal. Bened. torn. v. p. 65, s. p. 99 ; torn. vi. p. 
116 ; and Praef. ad Acta SS. Ord. Bened. Soec. VI. part ii. 340; Helyot, 
torn. vii. p. 409. — Gallia Christ. Monachor. Bened. torn. ii. p. 645. — 
Baluzii, Vitaj Pontif. Avenionens. torn. i. p. 158. et Miscellanea, torn, 
vii. p. 486. — l^rThe life and spiritual exploits of the founder of this or- 
der, are recorded in the Acta Sanctorum, torn. ii. Febr. 

b Some place the institution of this order in 1080, and others in 1086. 

_ ' The learned Fabricius mentions, in his Bibl. Lat. medii iEvi, torn. 
ii. p. 784, several writers who have composed the history of Bruno and 
his order; but his enumeration is incomplete, since there are yet extant 
many histories of the Carthusians, that have escaped his notice. See 
Innocent. Massoni Annales Carthus. published. in 1687; — Petri Orlandi 
Chronicon Carthusianum, and the elegant, though imperfect history of 
the order in question, which is to be found in Helyot's Hist, des Ordres, 
torn. vii. Many important illustrations of the nature and laws of this 
famous society have been published by Mabillon, in his Annales Bene- 
dict, torn. vi. and a particular and accurate account of Bruno has been 
given by the Benedictine monies in their Hist. Liter, de la France, torn. 
IX. It was a current report in ancient times, that the occasion of his re- 
treat was the miraculous restoration of a certain priest to life, who, du- 
ring the performance of the funeral service, raised himself up and said, 

"By the just judgment of God I am damned," and then expired anew. 

This story is looked upon as fabulous by the most respectable writers, 



and wild spot of ground near Grenoble, surrounded with 
barren mountains and craggy rocks. The founder of this 
monastic society, which surpassed all the rest in the ex- 
travagant austerity of its manners and discipline, was Bru- 
no, a native of Cologne, and canon of the cathedral of 
Rheims. This zealous ecclesiastic, who had neither pover 
to reform, nor patience to bear, the dissolute manners of 
his archbishop Manasse, retired from his church with six 
of his companions, and, having obtained the permission 
of Hugh, bishop of Grenoble, fixed his residence in the 
miserable desert already mentioned. 1 He at first adopted 
the rule of St. Benedict, to which he added a considerable 
number of severe and rigorous precepts ; his successors 
however, went still farther, and imposed upon the Cart.hu 
sians new laws, much more intolerable than those of theii 
founder, — laws which inculcated the highest degrees o 
austerity that the most gloomy imagination could invent.* 
Yet it may be affirmed, (and the fact is remarkable,) that 
no monastic society degenerated so little from the severity 
of its primitive institution and discipline as this of the Car- 
thusians. The progress of the order was indeed less rapid 
and its influence less extensive iu the different countries 
of Europe, than the progress and influence of those mo- 
nastic establishments, whose laws were less rigorous, and 
whose manners were less austere. It was a long time be- 
fore the tender sex could be engaged to submit to the 
savage rules of this melancholy institution ; nor had the 
Carthusian order ever reason to boast of a multitude of fe- 
males subjected to its jurisdiction ; it was too forbidding 
to captivate a sex which, though susceptible of the seduc- 
tions of enthusiasm, is of a frame too delicate to support 
the severities of a rigorous self-denial. e 

XXVIII. Toward the conclusion of this century/ the 
order of St. Antony of Vienne, in Dauphine, was insti- 
tuted for the relief and support of such as were seized with 
grievous disorders, and particularly with the disease called 
St. Antony's fire. All who were infected with that pesti- 
lential disorder repaired to a cell built near Vienne by the 
Benedictine monks of Grammont, in which the body of 
St. Antony was said to repose, that, by the prayers and 
intercessions of this eminent saint, they might be miracu- 
lously healed. Gaston, an opident nobleman, and his son 
Guerin, pretended to have experienced, in their complete 



even of the Romish church, especially since it has been refuted by Lau- 
noy, in his treatise de Causa Secessus Brunonis in Desertum. Nor does 
it seem to preserve its credit among the Carthusians, who are more inter- 
ested than others in this pretended miracle. Such of them, at least, as 
affirm it, do it with a good deal of modesty and diffidence. The argu- 
ments on both sides are candidly and accurately enumerated by Cses. 
Egasse du Boulay, in his Histor. Academ. Paris, torn. i. p. 467. 

a See Mabillon, Praf. ad Sa>c. VI. part ii. Actor. SS. Ord. Bened. 

" The Carthusian nuns have not sufficiently attracted the attention ot 
the authors who have written of this famous order ; and several writers 
have even gone so far as to maintain, that there was not in this order a 
single convent of nuns. This notion, however, is highly erroneous, as 
there were formerly several convents of Carthusian virgins, of which, 
indeed, the greatest part have not subsisted to our times. In the yeai 
1368, an extraordinary law was enacted, by which the establishment 
of any more female Carthusian convents was expressly prohibited. 
Hence there remain only five at this day ; four in France, and one at 
Bruges in Flanders. See the Varietes Historiques, Physiques, et Lite- 
raires, torn. i. p. 80, published in 1752. Certain it is, that the rigorous 
discipline of the Carthusians is quite inconsistent with the delicacy and 
tenderness of the female sex ; and, therefore, in the few female convents 
of this order that still subsist; the austerity of that discipline has been 
diminished, as well from necessity as from humanity and wisdom ; it 
was more particularly found necessary to abrogate those severe injunc- 
tions of silence and solitude, that are so little adapted to the known cha- 
racter and genius of the sex. « In the- vear 1095. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



247 



recovery, the marvellous efficacy of the saint's intercession, 
and, in consequence thereof, devoted themselves and their 
possessions, from a principle of pious gratitude, to his 
service, and to the performance of generous and charitable 
offices toward all such as were afflicted with the miseries 
of poverty and sickness. Their example was followed, at 
first, only by eight persons ; their community, however, 
was afterwards considerably augmented. They were not 
bound by particular vows like the other monastic orders, 
but were consecrated, in general, to the service of God, 
and lived under the jurisdiction of the monks of Gram- 
mont. In process of time, growing opulent and powerful 
by the multitude of pious donations which they received 
from all parts, they withdrew themselves from the dominion 
of the Benedictines, propagated their order in various 
countries, and at length obtained, in 1297, from Boniface 
VIII. the dignity and privileges of an independent congre- 
gation, under the rule of St. Augustin. 1 

XXIX. The licentiousness and corruption which had 
mfected all the other ranks and orders of the clergy, were 
also remarkable among the canons, who composed a 
middle sort of order between the monks and secular priests, 
and whose first establishment was in the eighth century. 
In certain provinces of Europe, the canons were corrupt 
in a very high degree, and surpassed, in the profligacy of 
their manners, all the other ecclesiastical and monastic 
orders. Hence several pious and virtuous persons exerted 
their zeal for the reformation of this degenerate body ; 
some pontiffs appeared in this good cause, and more 
especially Nicolas II., who, in a council holden at Rome, 
in 1059, abrogated the ancient rule of the canons, which 
had been drawn up at Aix-la-Chapelle, and substituted 
another in its place. b These laudable attempts were 
attended with considerable success ; and a much better 
rule of discipline was established in almost all the canonical 
orders, than that which had been formerly in use. It was 
\iot, however, possible to regulate them all upon the same 
footing, and to subject them to the same degree of refor- 
mation and discipline ; nor indeed was this necessary. 
Accordingly, a certain number of these canonical colleges 
were erected into communities, the respective members of 
which had one common dwelling, and a common table, 

* See Acta Sanctor. torn, ii. Januarii, p. 160. — Helyot, torn. ii. p. 108. 
■-Gabr. Penot, Histor. Canonicorum regular, lib. ii. cap. 70. — Jo. Erh. 
/£apii Diss, de Eratribus S. Anton. From an account of the present 
state of the principal hospital, or residence of this order where the ab- 
bot remains, see Martenne and Durand, Voyage Liter, de deux Benedie- 
tins de la Congreg. de St. Maur, torn. i. p. 260. 

>> This decree, by which the primitive rule of the canons was changed, 
is published by Mabillon among the papers which serve as- proofs to the 
fourth volume of his Annates Bened. and also in the annals them- 
selves. 

fTjr ° St. Augustin committed to writing no particular rule for his cler- 
gy ; but his manner of ruling them may be learned from several pas- 
sages in his Epistles. 

d See Malfillon, Annal. Bened. torn. iv. p. 586, et Opera Posthuma, 
torn. ii. p. 102, 115. — Helyot, torn. ii. p. 11. — Lud. Thomassini Disciplina 
Ecclesiae circa Beneficia, torn. i. part i. 1. iii. c. xi. p. 657. — Muratori, An- 
tiq. Ital. medii iEvi, torn. v. p. 257. In the Gallia Christiana of the 
Benedictine monks, we find frequent mention made both of this reforma- 
tion of the canons, and also of their division into seculars and regulars. 
The regular canons are much displeased with all the accounts that ren- 
der the origin of their community so recent ; they are extremely ambi- 
tious of appearing with the venerable character of an ancient establish- 
ment, and therefore trace back their rise, through the darkness of remote 
ages, to Christ himself, or, at least, to St. Augustin. But the arguments 
and testimonies, by which they pretend to support this imagined anti- 
quity of their order, are proofs of the weakness of their cause and the 
vanity of their pretensions, and are therefore unworthy of serious refuta- 
tion. It is true, the title of canon is undoubtedly of much more ancient 



which w T as the point chiefly insisted upon by the pontiffs, 
as this alone was sufficient to prevent the canons from 
entering into the bonds of matrimony. It did not, how- 
ever, exclude them from the possession or enjoyment of 
private property ; for they reserved to themselves the right 
of appropriating the fruits and revenues of their benefices, 
and of employing them as they thought expedient. Other 
canonical congregations subjected themselves to a rule of 
life less agreeable and commodious, in consequence of the 
zealous exhortations of Ivo, bishop of Chartres, renouncing 
all their worldly possessions and prospects, all private 
property, and living in a manner that resembled the 
austerity of the monastic orders. Hence arose the well- 
known distinction between the secular and the regular 
canons ; the former of which observed the decree of 
Nicolas II., while the latter, more prone to mortification 
and self-denial, complied with the directions and jurisdic- 
tions of Ivo ; and, as this austere prelate imitated St. Au- 
gustin in the manner of regulating the conduct of his 
clergy, his canons were called, b) r many, " the regular 
canons of St. Augustin." d 

XXX. The most eminent Greek writers in this century, 
were, 

Theophanes Cerameus, i. e. the potter, of whom there 
is yet extant a volume of Homilies, not altogether con- 
temptible ; 

Nilus Doxopatrius, who was remarkable for his know- 
ledge in matters relating to ecclesiastical polity ; 

Nicetas Pectoratus, who was a most strenuous de- 
fender of the religious sentiments and customs of the 
Greek church ; 

Michael Psellus, whose vast progress in various kinds of 
learning and science procured him a most distinguished 
and shining reputation ; 

Michael Cerularius, bishop or patriarch of Constantino- 
ple, who imprudently revived the controversy between the 
Greeks and Latins, which had been for some time happily 
suspended ; 

Simeon, the Younger, author of a book of Medi- 
tations on the Duties of the Christian Life, which is 
yet extant ; 

Theophylact, a Bulgarian, whose illustrations of the 



date than the eleventh century, but not a& applied to a particular order or 
institution ; for at its rise it was used in a very vague general sense, (see 
Claud, de Vert, Explication des Ceremonies de la Messe, torn, i.,) and 
therefore the mere existence of the title proves nothing. At the same 
time, it is evident, beyond all possibility of contradiction, that we find not 
the least mention made of the division of the canons into regular and 
secular before the eleventh century; and it is equally certain that those 
canons who had nothing in common but their dwelling and table, were 
called secular, while those who had divested themselves of all private 
property, and had every thing, without exception, in common with tlieir 
fraternity, were distinguished by the title of regular canons. 

§3r To Dr. Mosheim's account of the canons, it may not be improper 
to add a few words concerning their introduction into England, and their 
progress and establishment among us. The order of regular canons of 
St. Augustin was brought into England by Adelwald, confessor to Hen- 
ry I., who first erected a priory of his order at Nostel in Yorkshire, and 
had influence enough to have the church of Carlisle converted into an 
episcopal see, and given to regular canons, invested with the privilege 
of choosing their bishop. This order was singularly favoured and pro- 
tected by Henry I., who gave them, in the year 1107, the priory of Dun- 
stable ; and by queen Matilda, who erected for them, the year following 
the priory of the Holy Trinity in London, the prior of which was always 
one of the twenty-four aldermen. They increased so prodigiously, that, 
beside the noble priory of. Merton, which was founded for them in the 
year 1117, by Gilbert, an earl of the Norman blood, they had, under the 
reign of Edward I., fifty-three priories, as appears by the catalogue pre- 
sented to that prince, when he obliged all the monasteries to receive his 
protection, and to acknowledge his jurisdiction. 



248 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part II. 



sacred writings were received with universal approbation 
and esteem. 1 

XXXI. The writers who distinguished themselves 
most among- the Latins, were the following : 

Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, eminent for his love of 
letters, and his zeal for the education of youth ; as also 
for various compositions, particularly his epistles ; and 
famous for his excessive and enthusiastic attachment to 
the Virgin Mary ; b 

Humbert, a cardinal of the Roman church, who far 
surpassed all the Latins, both in the vehemence and 
learning which appeared in his controversial writings 
against the Greeks ; c 

Petrus Damianus, who, on account of his genius, 
candour, probity, and various erudition, deserves to be 
ranked among the most learned and estimable writers of 
this century, though he was not altogether untainted 
w r ith the reigning prejudices and defects of the times : cl 

Marianus Scotus, whose Chronicle and other composi- 
tions are yet extant ; 

Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, a man of great 
genius and subtlety, deeply versed in the dialectics of this 
age, and most illustriously distinguished by his profound 
and extraordinary knowledge in theology ; e 

Lanfranc, also archbishop of Canterbury, who acquired 
a high degree of reputation by his Commentary upon 
the Episdes of St. Paul, as also by several other produc- 
tions/ which, considering the age in which he lived, 
discover an uncommon measure of sagacity and 
erudition ;e 

Bruno of Mount-Cassin, and the other famous ecclesi- 
astic of that name, who founded the monastery of the 
Carthusians ; 

Ivo, bishop of Chartres, who was so eminently distin- 
guished by his zeal and activity in maintaining the rights 
and privileges of the church ; 

Hildebert, archbishop of Tours, who was a philosopher 
and a poet, as well as a divine, without being either 
eminent or contemptible in any of these characters ; h but, 
upon the whole, a man of considerable learning and 
capacity ; 

Gregory VII., that imperious and arrogant pontiff, of 
Avhom we have several productions, beside his Letters. 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church 
during this Century. 

I. It is not necessary to draw at full length the hideous 
portrait of the religion of this age. It may easily be 
imagined, that its features were full of deformity, when 
we consider that its guardians w r ere equally destitute of 

• For a more ample account of these Greek writers, the reader may- 
consult the Bibliotheca Grreca of Fabricius. 

b For a farther account of this eminent man, see the Hist. Liter, de la 
France, torn. vii. p. 261. 

See Martenne, Thesaurus Anecdot. torn. v. p. 629. — Hist. Liter, de 
la France, torn. vii. p. 527. 

i See the Acta Sanctor. Febr. torn. iii. p. 406. General Dictionary, 
at the article Damien. — Casim. Oudini Diss, in torn. ii. Comm. de Scrip- 
tor. Eccles. p. 686. 

• See the Hist. Literaire de la France, torn. ix. p. 398. — Rapin Thoy- 
ras, Hist. d'Angleterre, torn. ii. p. 65, 166, de 1 ed. en 4to. — Colonia, 
Hist. Liter, de Lyon, torn. ii. p. 210. — We have already given a more 
ample account of the eminent abilities and learned productions of Anselm. 

jj?- ' Among these productions we may reckon Lanfranc's Letters to 



knowledge and virtue, and that the heads and rulers of 
the Christian church, instead of exhibiting models of 
piety, held forth in their conduct scandalous examples of 
the most flagitious crimes. The people were sunk in the 
grossest superstition, and employed all their zeal in the 
Avorship of images and relics, and in the performance of a 
trifling round of ceremonies, imposed upon them by the 
tyranny of a despotic priesthood. The more learned, it 
is true, retained still some notions of the truth, which, 
however, they obscured and corrupted by a wretched 
mixture of opinions and precepts, of which some were 
ludicrous, others pernicious, and most of them equally 
destitute of truth and utility. There were, no doubt, in 
several places, judicious and pious men, who would have 
willingly lent a supporting hand to the declining cause of 
true religion ; but the violent prejudices of a barbarous 
age rendered all such attempts not only dangerous, but 
even desperate : and those chosen spirits, who had escaped 
the general contagion, lay too much concealed, and had 
therefore too little influence, to combat with success the 
formidable patrons of impiety &*td superstition, who were 
very numerous, in all ranks and orders, from the throne 
to the cottage. 

II. Notwithstanding all this, we find, from the time o. 
Gregory VII., several proofs of the zealous efforts of those 
who are generally called, by the Protestants, the witnesses 
of the truth; by whom are meant such pious and judicious 
Christians as adhered to the pure religion of the Gospel, 
and remained uncorrupted amidst the growth of super- 
stition ; who deplored the miserable state to which Chris- 
tianity was reduced, by the alteration of its divine doc- 
trines, and the vices of its profligate ministers ; who 
opposed, with vigour, the tyrannic ambition, both of the 
lordly pontiff and the aspiring bishops ; and in some 
provinces privately, in others openly, attempted the refor- 
mation of a corrupt and idolatrous church, and of a 
barbarous and superstitious age. This was, indeed, 
bearing witness to the truth in the noblest manner ; and 
it was principally in Italy and France that the marks of 
this heroic piety w r ere exhibited. [Hj 3 Nor is it at all 
surprising that the reigning superstition of the times met 
with this opposition ; it is astonishing, on the contrary, 
that this opposition was not much greater and more 
general, and that millions of Christians suffered themselves 
to be hood-winked with such a tame submission, and 
closed their eyes upon the light with so little reluctance.] 
For, notwithstanding the darkness of the times, and the 
general ignorance of the true religion, that prevailed in 
all ranks and orders, yet the very fragments of the 
Gospel (if we may use that term) which were still read 
and explained to the people, were sufficient, at least, to 
convince the most stupid and illiterate, that the religion, 

pope Alexander II, to Hildebrand, while archdeacon of Rome, and to 
several bishops in England and Normandy; as also a Commentary upon 
the Psalms, a Treatise concerning Confession, an Ecclesiastical Histo 
ry, which is not extant, and a remarkable Dissertation concerning the 
Body and Blood of Christ in the Eucharist. In this last performance, 
Lanfranc endeavours to prove, against Berenger, the reality of a corpora.' 
presence in the eucharist, though it is manifest that this opinion was not 
the docrine of the church of England at the conclusion of the tenth, or 
the commencement of the following century. See Collier's Eccles. His- 
tory of Great Britain, vol. i. p. 260, 263. 

e Hist. Liter, de la France, torn. viii. p. 260. 

i> The Benedictine monks published in folio, at Paris, in tne yeat 
1708, the Works of Hildebert, illustrated bv the observations of Beau- 
gendre. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



249 



which was now imposed upon them, was not the true 
religion of Jesus ; that the discourses, the lives and morals 
of the clergy, were directly opposite to what the divine 
Saviour required of his disciples, and to the rules he had 
laid down for the direction of their conduct ; that the 
pontiffs and bishops abused, in a scandalous manner, their 
power and opulence ; and that the favour of God, and the 
salvation exhibited in his blessed Gospel, were not to be 
obtained by performing a round of external ceremonies, 
by pompous donations to churches and priests, or by 
founding and enriching monasteries, but by real sanctity 
of heart and manners. 

III. It must, indeed, be acknowledged, that they who 
undertook; with such zeal and ardour, the reformation of 
the church, were not, for the most part, equal to this ar- 
duous and important enterprise, and that, by avoiding, 
with more vehemence than circumspection, certain abuses 
and defects, they rushed unhappily into the opposite ex- 
tremes. They all perceived the abominable nature of 
those inventions with which superstition had disfigured 
the religion of Jesus ; but they had also lost sight of the 
true nature and genius of that celestial religion, which 
lay thus disfigured in the hands of a superstitious and 
dissolute priesthood. They were shocked at the absurdi- 
ties of the established worship ; but few of them were 
sufficiently acquainted with the sublime precepts and doc- 
trines of genuine Christianity, to substitute in the place of 
that superstitious worship a rational service. Hence their 
attempts of reformation, even where they were not whol- 
ly unsuccessful, were very imperfect, and produced little 
more than a motley mixture of truth and falsehood, ef 
wisdom and indiscretion ; of which we might allege a 
multitude of examples. Observing, for instance, that the 
corruption and licentiousness of the clergy were, in a great 
measure, occasioned by their excessive opulence and 
their vast possessions, they rashly conceived the highest 
ideas of the salutary effects of indigence, and looked upon 
voluntary poverty as the most eminent and illustrious vir- 
tue of a Christian minister. They had also formed to 
themselves a notion, that the primitive church was to be 
the standing and perpetual model, according to which the 
rites, government, and worship of all Christian churches, 
were to be regulated in all the ages of the world ; and 
that the lives and manners of the holy apostles were to 
be rigorously followed, in every respect, by all the minis- 
ters of Christ. [33=These notions, which were injudi- 
ciously taken up, and blindly entertained, (without any re- 
gard to the difference of times, places, circumstances, and 
characters ; without considering that the provident wis- 
dom of Christ and his apostles left many regulations to 
the prudence and piety of the governors of the church,) 
were productive of many pernicious effects, and threw 
these good reformers, whose zeal was not always accord- 
ing to knowledge, from the extreme of superstition into 
the extreme of enthusiasm.] Many well-meaning per- 
sons, whose intentions were highly laudable, fell into great 
errors in consequence of these ill-grounded notions. Just- 
ly incensed at the conduct of the superstitious multitude, 
who placed the whole of religion in external services, and 

m For an account of Theophylact, see Rich. Simon's Hist. Critique 
des principaux Commentateurs du N. T. ch. xxviii. p. 390. Critique de 
la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, par Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 310, 
where he also speaks largely of Nicetas and CEcumenius. 

§rjr b Otherwise called Berengarius. and famous for the noble opposi- 

No. XXL . 63 



hoped to secure their salvation by the performance of a 
laborious round of unmeaning rites and ceremonies, they 
rashly maintained, that true piety was to be strictly con- 
fined to the inward motions and affections of the soul, 
and to the contemplation of spiritual and divine things. 
In consequence of this specious, yet erroneous principle, 
they treated with the utmost contempt all the external 
parts of religious worship, and even aimed at the total 
suppression of sacraments, churches, religious assem- 
blies of every kind, and Christian ministers of every 
order. 

IV. Of the Greek and Latin writers of this age, many 
employed their learned and pious labours in the exposi- 
tion and illustration of the Scriptures. Among the Latins, 
Bruno wrote a commentary on the Book of Psalms, Lan- 
franc upon the Epistles of St. Paul, Berenger upon the 
Revelations of St. John, Gregory VII. upon the Gospel 
of St. Matthew r , and others upon other parts of the sacred 
writings. But all these expositors, in compliance with 
the prevailing custom of the times, either copied the ex- 
planations of the ancient commentators, or made such 
whimsical applications of certain passages of Scripture, 
both in explaining the doctrines, and inculcating the du- 
ties of religion, that it is often difficult to peruse their 
writings without indignation or disgust. The most emi- 
nent Grecian expositor was Theophylact, a native of 
Bulgaria ; though he also is indebted to the ancients, and 
in a particular manner to St. Chrysostom, for the greatest 
part of his most judicious observations. 1 Nor must we 
pass in silence either the commentary upon the Book of 
Psahns and the Song of Solomon, that was composed by 
the learned Michael Psellus, or the chain of commentaries 
upon the Book of Job, which we owe to the industry of 
Nicetas. 

V. All the Latin doctors, if we except a few Hiberni- 
an divines, who blended, with the beautiful simplicity of 
the Gospel, the perplexing subtleties of an obscure philo- 
sophy, had hitherto derived their system of religion, and 
their explications of divine truth, either from the Scrip- 
tures alone, or from these sacred oracles explained by the 
illustrations, and compared with the theology, of the an- 
cient doctors. But in this century certain writers, and, 
among others, the famous Berenger, b went much farther, 
and employed the rules of logic and the subtleties of meta- 
physical discussion, both in explaining the doctrines of 
Scripture, and in proving the truth of their own particu- 
lar opinions. Hence Lanfranc, the antagonist of Beren- 
ger, and afterwards archbishop of Canterbury, introduced 
into the field of religious controversy the same philoso- 
phical arms, and seemed, in general, desirous of employ- 
ing the dictates of reason to illustrate and confirm the 
truths of religion. His example, in this respect, was fol- 
lowed by Anselm, his disciple and successor in the see of 
Canterbury, a man of a truly metaphysical genius, and 
capable of giving the greatest air of dignity and impor- 
tance to the Jirst philosopher. Such were the begin- 
nings of that philosophical theology, which grew after- 
wards, by degrees, into a cloudy and enormous system, 
and, from the public schools in which it was cultivated, 

tion he made to the doctrine of Transubsfantiation, which Lanfranc so 
absurdly pretended to support upon philosophical principles. The at- 
tempt of the latter to introduce the rules of logic into religious contro- 
versy would have been highly laudable,' had not he perverted tins re- 
spectable science to the defence of the most monstrous absurdities. 



250 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part n. 



acquired the name of scholastic divinity." It is, how- 
ever, necessary to observe, that the eminent divines, who 
first set on foot this new species of theology, and thus 
laudably maintained that most noble and natural connex- 
ion of faith with reason, and of religion with philosophy, 
were much more prudent and moderate than their follow- 
ers, in the use and application of this conciliatory scheme. 
They kept, for the most part, within bounds, and wisely 
reflected upon the limits of reason ; their language was 
clear ; the questions they proposed were instructive and 
interesting ; they avoided all discussions that were only 
proper to satisfy a vain and idle curiosity ; and, in their 
disputes and demonstrations, they made, generally speak- 
ing, a wise and sober use of the rules of logic, and of the 
dictates of philosophy. 15 [Kj'Their followers, on the con- 
trary, ran with a metaphysical phrensy into the greatest 
abuses, and, by the most unjustifiable perversion of a 
wise and excellent method of searching after, and confirm- 
ing truth, they banished evidence from religion, common 
sense from philosophy, and erected a dark and enormous 
mass of pretended science, in which words pa'ssed for ideas, 
and sounds for sense.] 

VI. No sooner was this new method introduced, than 
the Latin doctors began to reduce all the doctrines of re- 
ligion into one permanent and connected system, and to 
treat theology as a science ; an enterprise which had 
hitherto been attempted by none but Taio of Saragossa, 
a writer of the seventh century, and the learned Damas- 
cenus, who flourished among the Greeks in the following 
age. The Latin doctors had hitherto confined their theo- 
logical labours to certain branches of the Christian reli- 
gion, which they illustrated only on certain occasions. 
The first production which looked like a general system 
of theology, was that of the celebrated Anselm ; this, how- 
ever, was surpassed by the complete and universal body 
of divinity, which was composed, toward the conclusion 
of this century, by Hildebert, archbishop of Tours, who 
seems to have been regarded both as the first and the best 
model in this kind of writing, by the innumerable legions 
of system-makers, who arose in succeeding times. This 
earned prelate demonstrated first the doctrines of his sys- 
tem by proofs drawn from the Scriptures, and also from 
the writings of the ancient fathers of the church ; and in 

1 See Chr. August. Heumanni Prefat. ad Tribbechovii Librum de 
Doctoribus Scholasticis, p. 14. The sentiments of the learned, concern- 
ing the first author or inventor of the scholastic divinity, are collected by 
Jo. Franc. Buddeus, in his Isagoge ad Theolog. torn. i. p. 38. 

b We shall here transcribe a passage from the works of Lanfranc, who 
is considered by many as the father of the scholastic system, that the 
reader may see how far the first schoolmen surpassed their disciples and 
followers in wisdom, modesty, and candour. We take this passage from 
that prelate's book concerning the Body and Blood of Christ,* and it is 
as follows: " Testis mihi Deus est et conscientia mea, quia in tractatu 
divinirum literarum nee proponere nee ad propositas respondere cupe- 
rem dialecticas quajstiones, vel earum solutiones. Et si quando materia 
disputandi talis est, ut hujus artis regulis valeat enucleatius explicari, in 
quantum possum, per Kquipollentias propositionum tPgo artem, ne videar 
magis arte, quam veritate sanctorumque patrum auctoritate, confidere." 
Lanfranc here declares, in the most solemn manner, even by an appeal 
to God and his conscience, that he was so far from having the least in- 
clination to propose or to answer logical questions in the course of his 
theological labours, that, on the contrary, when he was forced to have re- 
course to the dialectic science, in order the better to illustrate his subject, 
he concealed the succours he thence derived with all possible care, lest 
iie should seem to place more confidence in the resources of art than in 
the simplicity of truth, and the authority of the holy fathers. These last 
words show plainly the two sources from which the Christian doctors 
had hitherto derived all their tenets, and the arguments by which they 
maintained them, viz. from the Scriptures, which Lanfranc here calls the 
truth, and from the writings of the ancient fathers of the church. To 



this he followed the custom that had prevailed in the pre- 
ceding ages ; but he went yet farther, and answered the 
objections which might be brought against his doctrine, 
by arguments drawn from reason and philosophy : this 
part of his method was entirely new, and peculiar to the 
age in which he lived. d 

VII. The moral writers of this century, who undertook 
to unfold the obligations of Christians, and to delineate the 
nature, the extent, and the various branches of true virtue 
and evangelical obedience, treated this most excellent of 
all sciences in a manner quite unsuitable to its dignity and 
importance. We find sufficient proofs of this in the moral 

| writings of Peter Damian, e and even of the learned Hilde- 
bert/ The moralists of this age generally confined them 
selves to a jejune explication of, what are commonly called, 
the four cardinal virtues, to which they added the ten Com 
mandments, to complete their system. Anselm, the famous 
prelate of Canterbury, surpassed, indeed, all the moral wri- 
ters of his time ; the books which he composed with a de- 
sign to promote practical religion, and more especially his 
Book of Meditations and Prayers, contain many excellent 
remat ks, and some happy thoughts expressed with much 
energy and unction, [slj^ Nor did the mystic divines sa- 
tisfy themselves with penetrating, by ecstatic thought and 
feeling, into the sublime regions of beauty and love ; they 
conceived and brought forth several productions that were 
destined to diffuse the pure delights of union and commu- 
nion through enamoured souls.] Johannes Johannellus, 
a Latin mystic, wrote a treatise concerning Divine Con- 
templation ;e and Simeon the younger, who was a Gre- 
cian sage of the same visionary class, composed several 
discourses upon subjects of a like nature. 

VIII. In the controversial writings of this century, we 
observe the effects of the scholastic method that Berenger 
and Lanfranc had introduced into the study of theology. 
We see divines entering the lists armed with syllogisms 
which they manage awkwardly, and aiming rather to con- 
found their adversaries by the subtleties of logic, than to 
convince them by the power of evidence ; while those who 
were unprovided with this philosophical armour, made a 
still more wretched and despicable figure, fell into the 
grossest and most perverse blunders, and seem to have 
written without either thinking of their subject, or of the 



these two sources of theology and argumentation, a third was addedJn 
this century, even the science of logic, which, however, was on^ 
employed by the managers of controversy to repulse their adversaries', 
who came armed with syllogisms, or to remove difficulties which were, 
drawn from reason and from the nature of things. But, in succeeding 
times, the two former sources were either entirely neglected or sparingly 
employed, and philosophical demonstration (or, at least, something that 
bore that name, )was regarded as a sufficientsupportto the truths of religion. 

This body of divinity, which was the first complete theological sys- 
tem that had been composed among the Latins, is inserted in the works 
of Hildebert, published by Beaugendre, who shows evidently, in his pre- 
face, that Peter Lombard, Pullus, and the other writers of theological 
systems, did no more than servilely follow the traces of Hildebert. 

& It may not be improper to place here a passage whi-.h is taken from 
a treatise written by Anselm, entitled, Cur Deus komo? since this pas- 
sage was respected, by the first scholastic divines, as ar. immutable law 
in theology; " Sicut rectus ordo exigit," says the learned pvelate, "ut 
profunda fidei Christiana; credamus, priusquam ea praesumamu* ratione 
discutere, ita negligentia mihi videtur, si, postquam confirmati sun."s in 
fide, non studemus quod credimus intelligere :" which amounts to this, 
That we must first believe without examination, but must afterwards 
endeavour to understand what we believe. 

e See Petrus Damianus, de Virtutibus. 

' See Hildeberti Philosophia Moralis, et Libellus de IV. Virtutibus 
honestae Vitas. 

« See the Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. viii. p. 48. 
* Cap. vii. p. 236. Op. ed. Luc. Dacherii. 



Chap III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



251 



manner of treating it with success. Damianus, already 
mentioned, defended the truth of Christianity against the 
.lews ; but his success was not equal either to the warmth 
of his zeal, or to the uprightness of his intentions. Sa- 
muel, a convert from Judaism to Christianity, wrote an 
elaborate treatise against those of his nation, which is still 
extant. But the noblest champion that appeared at this 
period in the cause of religion, was the famous Anselm, 
who attacked the enemies of Christianity, and the auda- 
cious contemners of all religion, in an ingenious work," 
which was perhaps, by its depth and acuteness, above the 
comprehension of those whom it was designed to convince 
of their errors, [jt^ For it happened, no doubt, in these 
earlier times, as it frequently does in our days, that many 
gave themselves out for unbelievers, who knew not the 
first principles of reasoning, and whose incredulity was the 
fruit of ignorance and presumption, nourished by licen- 
tiousness and corruption of heart.] 

IX. The famous contest between the Greek and Latin 
churches, which, though not decided, had however been 
suspended for a considerable time, was imprudently re- 
vived, in 1053, by Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Con- 
stantinople, a man of a restless and turbulent spirit, who 
blew the flame of religious discord, and widened the fatal 
breach by new invectives and new accusations. The pre- 
texts that were employed to justify this new rupture, were, 
zeal for the truth, and an anxious concern about the in- 
terests of religion ; but its true causes were the arrogance 
and ambition of the Grecian patriarch and the Roman 
pontiff. The latter was constantly forming the most art- 
ful stratagems to reduce the former under his imperious 
yoke ; and for this purpose, he left no means unemployed 
to gain over to his side the bishops of Alexandria and An- 
tioch, by withdrawing them from the jurisdiction of the see 
of Constantinople. The tumultuous and unhappy state 
of the Grecian empire, was apparently favourable to his 
aspiring views, as the friendship of the Roman pontiff was 
highly useful to the Greeks in their struggles with the Sa- 
racens and the Normans, who were settled in Italy. On 
the other hand, the Grecian pontiff was not only deter- 
mined to refuse obstinately the least mark of submission 
to his haughty rival, but was also laying schemes for ex- 
tending his dominion, and for reducing all the Oriental 
patriarchs under his supreme jurisdiction. Thus the con- 
tending parties were preparing for the field of controversy, 
when Cerularius began the charge by a warm letter writ- 
ten in his own name, and in the name of Leo, bishop of 
Acrida, who was his chief counsellor, to John, Bishop of 
Trani, in Apulia ; in which he publicly accused the La- 
tins of various errors. b Leo IX., who was then in the 
papal chair, answered this letter in a most imperious man- 
ner ; and, not satisfied with showing his high indignation 
by mere words, he assembled a council at Rome, in which 
the Greek churches were solemnly excommunicated/ 

X. Constantine, surnamed Monomachus, who was now 
at the head of the Grecian empire, endeavoured to stifle 

* This work was entitled, Liber adv. insipientem, i.e. The fool refuted. 
b See an account of those errors, sect. xi. 

* These letters of Cerularius and Leo are published in the Annals of 
Baronius, ad annum 1053. — The former is also inserted by Canisius in 
his Lection. Antiq. torn. iii. p. 281, ed. nov. — Leonis Concilia, &c. 

jgjf" d He stood greatly in need of the assistance of the Germans and 
Italians against the Normans, and hoped to obtain it by the good offices 
of the pope, who was in high credit with the emperor Henry III. 

* Beside Baronius and other writers, whose accounts of this period of 



this controversy in its birth, and, for that purpose, desired 
the Roman pontiff to send legates to Constantinople, to 
concert measures for restoring and confirming the tran- 
quillity of the church. Three legates were accordingly 
sent from Rome to that imperial city, who took with them 
letters from Leo IX. not only to the emperor, but also to 
the Grecian pontiff. These legates were cardinal Hum- 
bert, a man of a high and impetuous spirit, Peter, arch- 
bishop of Amalfi, and Frederic, archdeacon and chancellor 
of the church of Rome. The issue of this congress was 
unhappy in the highest degree, notwithstanding the pro- 
pensity which the emperor, for political reasons/ disco- 
vered to the cause of the bishop of Rome. The arrogance 
of Leo IX., and his insolent letters, excited the highest 
indignation in the breast of Cerularius. and produced a 
personal aversion to this audacious pontiff, which inflamed, 
instead of healing, the wounds of the church ; while, on 
the other hand, the Roman legates gave many and evi- 
dent proofs, that the design of their embassy was not to 
restore peace and concord, but to establish among the 
Greeks the supreme authority and the ghostly dominion 
of the Roman pontiff. Thus all hopes of a happy con- 
clusion of these miserable divisions entirely vanished ; and 
the Roman legates, finding their efforts ineffectual to over- 
come the vigorous resistance of Cerularius, very impru- 
dently and insolently excommunicated, in the church of 
St. Sophia, in 1054, the Grecian patriarch, with Leo of 
Acrida, and all their adherents ; and leaving a written act 
of their inhuman imprecations and anathemas upon the 
grand altar of that temple, they shook the dust off their 
feet, and thus departed. This violent step rendered the 
evil incurable, which it was before not only possible, but 
perhaps easy, to remedy. The Grecian patriarch imitated 
the vehemence of the Roman legates, and did from re- 
sentment what they had perpetrated from a principle of 
ambition and arrogance. He excommunicated these le- 
gates with all their adherents and followers in a public 
council, and procured an order of the emperor for burning 
the act of excommunication which they had pronounced 
against the Greeks. 6 These vehement measures were 
followed on both sides by a multitude of controversial 
writings, that were filled with the most bitter and irrita- 
ting invectives, and served no other purpose than to add 
fuel to the flame. 

XI. Cerularius added new accusations to the ancient 
charges adduced by Photius against the Latin churches ; 
of which the principal was, that they used unleavened 
bread in the celebration of the Lord's supper. This ac- 
cusation (such were the times !) was looked upon as a mat- 
ter of the most serious nature, and of the highest conse- 
quence ; it was, therefore, debated between the Greeks and 
Latins with the utmost vehemence, nor did the Grecian and 
Roman pontiffs contend with more fury and bitterness 
about the extent of their power, and the limits of their ju- 
risdiction, than the Greek and Latin churches disputed 
about the use of unleavened bread. The other heads of 

time are generally known, and not always exact, see Mabillon. AnnaL 
Bened. torn. v. lib. lx. ad. an. 1053, et Prajf. ad Sax. VI. Actor. SS. Be- 
nedicti, part ii. p. 1. — Leo Allatius, de libris GrEecor. Ecclesiast. Diss. ii. 
p. 160, ed. Fabricii, et de perpetua Eccles. Orient, et Occident. Consen- 
sione, lib. ii. cap. ix. p. 614. — Mich, le Quien, Oriens Christianus. torn. L 
p. 260, et Diss. Damascena prima, sect. xxxi. p. 16. — Hermanni Historia 
Concertationum de pane azyrno et ferrnentato, p. 59. published at Leipsic 
in the year 1739. — Jo. Bapt. Cotelerius, Monum. Ecdesiae Graeca, torn, 
ii. p. 108. 



I 



252 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



accusation that were brought against the Latins by the 
Grecian pontiff, discovered rather a malignant and con- 
tentious spirit, and a profound ignorance of genuine Chris- 
tianity, than a generous zeal for the cause of truth. He 
complains, for instance, in the heaviest, manner, that the 
Latins did not abstain from the use of blood, and of things 
strangled ; that their monks used to eat lard, and permit- 
ted the use of flesh to such of the brethren as were sick or 
infirm ; that their bishops adorned their fingers with rings, 
as if they were bridegrooms ; that their priests were beard- 
less ; and that in the ceremony of baptism they confined 
themselves to one immersion.* Such were the miserable 
and trifling objects that excited a fatal schism, and kin- 
dled a furious war between the Greeks and Latins, who 
carried their animosities to the greatest lengths, and load- 
ed each other with reciprocal invectives and imprecations. 
The attentive reader will hence form a just idea of the de- 
plorable state of religion both in the eastern and western 
world at this period, and will see, in this dreadful schism, 
the true origin of the various sects that multiplied the dif- 
ferent forms of superstition and error in these unhappy 
times. 

XII. This vehement dispute, which the Greeks had to 
carry on against the Latin church, was nearly followed by 
a fatal division among themselves. Amidst the straits 
and difficulties to which the empire was now reduced by 
the expenses of war, and the calamities of the times, 
Alexias not only employed the treasures of the church, 
in order to answer the exigencies of the state, but ordered 
also the plates of silver, and the figures of that metal 
that adorned the portals of the churches, to be taken down 
and converted into money. This measure excited the 
indignation of Leo, bishop of Chalcedon, a man of austere 
morals, and of an obstinate spirit, who maintained that 
the emperor, in this step, was guilty of sacrilege ; and, to 
prove this charge, he published a treatise, in which he 
affirmed, that in the images of Jesus Christ, and of the 
saints, there resided a certain kind of inherent sanctity, 
that was a proper object of religious worship ; and that, 
therefore, the adoration of Christians ought not to be 
confined to the persons represented by these images, but 
extended also to the images themselves. This new con- 
troversy excited various tumults and seditions among the 
people ; to suppress which, the emperor assembled a 
council at Constantinople, in which the nuestion was 
terminated by the following decisions : " That the images 
of Christ, and of the saints, were to be honoured only with 
a relative worship, 11 which was to be offered, not to the 
substance or matter of which these images were composed, 
but to the form and features of which they bore the 
impression ; that the representations of Christ, and of the 
saints, whether in painting or sculpture, did in no sense 
partake of the nature of the divine Saviour, or of those 
holy men, though they were enriched with a certain 



a See Cerularii Epistola ad Johannem Tranensem in Canisii Lection. 
Antiq. torn. iii. p. 281, where the reader will also find the refutation of 
this letter by cardinal Humbert. — See likewise Cerularii Epistola ad Pe- 
trum Antiochens. in Cotelerii Monumentis Ecclesia Grasc. torn. ii. p. 
138 ; add to these Martenne, Thesaur. Aneodot. torn. v. p. 847. 

b S^croftij? TrpoaKvv5[i£Vj « XarpcvrtKtTts, rhs zin6i'as. 

c An ample account of this whole matter is given by Anna Comnena, 
in her Alexias, lib. v. p. 104, lib. vii. p. 158, edit. Venet. The acts of this 
council, the very mention of which is omitted by several historians of 
considerable note, are published by Montfaucon, in his Bibliotheca 
Coisliniana, p. 103. 



communication of divine grace ; and, lastly, that invoca- 
tion and worship were to be addressed to the saints, only 
as the servants of Christ, and on account of their relation 
to him, as their master." These decisions, absurd and 
superstitious as they were, were not sufficiently so for Leo, 
the idolatrous bishop of Chalcedon, who maintained his 
monstrous system with obstinacy, and was, for that reason, 
sent into banishment. 

XIII. The famous dispute concerning the presence of 
Christ's body and blood in the eucharist was revived about 
the middle of this century in the Latin church. Hitherto 
the disputants on both sides had proposed their jarring 
opinions with the utmost freedom, unrestrained by the 
despotic voice of authority, since no council had given a 
definitive sentence upon this matter, or prescribed a rule 
of faith to terminate all inquiry and debated Hence it 
was, that, in the beginning of this century, Leutheric, 
archbishop of Sens, affirmed, in opposition to the general 
opinion of the times, that none but the sincere and upright 
Christian, none but saints and real believers, received the 
body of Christ in the holy sacrament. This opinion, 
which was broached in 1004, seemed likely to excite com- 
motions among the people ; but these its natural effects 
were happily prevented by the influence of Robert, king 
of France, and the wise counsels of some prudent friends, 
who hindered the fanatical prelate from disseminating this 
whimsical invention. 6 It was not so easy to extinguish 
the zeal, or to stop the mouth of the famous Berenger, 
principal of the public school at Tours, and afterwards 
archbishop of Angers, a man of a most acute and subtle 
genius, and highly renowned both on account of his 
extensive learning, and the exemplary sanctity of his life 
and manners. f This eminent ecclesiastic maintained 
publicly, in 1045, the doctrine of Johannes Scotus ; 
opposed warmly the monstrous opinions of Paschasius 
Radbert, which were adapted to captivate a superstitious 
multitude by exciting their astonishment, and persevered 
with a noble obstinacy in teaching, that the bread and 
wine were not changed into the body and blood of Christ 
in the eucharist, but preserved their natural and essential 
qualities, and were no more than figures and external 
symbols of the body and blood of the divine Saviour. 
This wise and rational doctrine was no sooner published, 
than it was opposed by certain doctors in France and 
Germany. The pontiff Leo IX. attacked it with peculiar 
vehemence and fury, in 1050 ; and, in two councils, one 
assembled at Rome, and the other at Vercelli, had the 
doctrine of Berenger solemnly condemned, and the book 
of Scotus, from which it was drawn, committed to the 
flames. This example was followed by the council of 
Paris, which was summoned in the same year by Henry I, 
and in which Berenger, and his numerous adherents, 
were menaced with all sorts of evils, both spiritual and 
temporal. These threats were executed, in part, against 



& The various opinions concerning the sacrament of the Lord's supper, 
that were embraced during this century, are collected by Martenne from 
an ancient manuscript, and published'in his Voyage Literaire de deux 
Benedictins de la Congregation de S. Maur, torn. ii. p. 126. 

e See Du Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 354. 

t See the Life of Berenger in the Works of Hildebert, archdeacon of 
Mans. p. 1324. — See also Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. viii. p. 
197._Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 304, and the authors men- 
tioned by Fabricius, Biblioth. Lat. medii iEvi, torn. i. p. 570. It is pro- 
bably by an error of the press, that Hildebert is styled archbishop in- 
stead of archdeacon, by Paris, Hist. lib. i. p. 10, edit. Watts. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



253 



this unhappy prelate, whom Henry deprived of all his 
revenues ; but neither threats, nor fines, nor synodical 
decrees, could shake the firmness of his mind, or engage 
him to renounce the doctrine he had embraced. 

XIV. After these proceedings, the controversy was for 
some years happily suspended, and Berenger, whose pa- 
trons were as numerous as his enemies were formidable," 
enjoyed, for a while, the sweets of liberty and peace. His 
enemies, however, after the death of Leo IX. rekindled 
the flame of religious discord, and persuaded his successor 
Victor II. to examine anew the doctrine of Berenger. The 
pontiff complied, and sent his legates to two different 
councils, that were assembled at Tours, in 1054, b for that 
purpose. In one of these councils the famous Hildebrand, 
who was afterwards pontiff under the title of Gregory VII., 
appeared in the character of legate, and opposed the new 
doctrine with the utmost vehemence. Berenger was also 
present at this assembly, and, overpowered with threats, 
rather than convinced by reason and argument, he not 
only abandoned his opinions, but (if we may believe his 
adversaries, to whose testimony we are confined in this 
matter) abjured them solemnly, and, in consequence of this 
humiliating step, made his peace with the church. This 
abjuration, however, was far from being sincere, and the 
docility of Berenger was no more than an act of dissimu- 
lation ; for, soon after this period, he again taught, though 
with more circumspection and prudence, the opinions he 
had formerly professed. That this conduct appears mean 
and dishonest, is indeed evident ; but we are not sufficiently 
acquainted with the transactions of these councils to fix 
precisely the degree of his guilt. 

XV. The account of Berenger's perfidy being brought 
to Nicolas II., the exasperated pontiff summoned him to 
Rome, in 1058, and in the council which he held there 
the following year, so terrified the archdeacon, that he de- 
clared his readiness to embrace and adhere to the doctrines 
which that venerable assembly should think proper to im- 
pose upon his faith. Humbert was accordingly appointed 
unanimously by Nicolas and the council to draw up a con- 
fession of faith for Berenger, who signed it publicly, and 
confirmed his adherence to it by a solemn oath. In this 
confession there was, among other tenets equally absurd, 
the following declaration, that " the bread and wine, after 
consecration, were not only a sacrament, but also the real 
body and blood of Jesus Christ ; and that this body and 
blood were handled by the priests and consumed by the 
faithful, not merely in a sacramental sense, but in reality 
and truth, as other sensible objects are." This doctrine 
was sc monstrously nonsensical, and was such an impu- 
dent insult upon the very first principles of reason, that it 
could have nothing alluring to a man of Berenger's acute 
and philosophical turn ; nor could it become the object of 
his serious belief, as appeared soon after this odious act of 
dissimulation ; for no sooner had he returned into France, 
than, taking refuge in the countenance and protection of 
his ancient patrons, he expressed the utmost detestation and 
abhorrence of the doctrines he had been obliged to profess 
at Rome, abjured them solemnly both in his discourse and 
in his writings, and returned zealously to the profession 



a Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, was his most formidable rival 
and enemy. 

gjT b Other historians mention but one council, and place it in 1055. 

• It is worthy of observation, that Gregory, whose zeal in extending 
the jurisdiction, and exalting the authority of the Roman pontiffs, sur- 

No. XXII. 64 



and defence of his former, which had always been his real 
opinion. Alexander II. employed the seducing influence 
of soft and friendly expostulation to engage Berenger to 
dissemble anew, or, in other words, to return from his pre- 
tended apostacy ; but his remonstrances were ineffectual, 
chiefly because this rebellious son of a superstitious church 
was powerfully supported in the maintenance of his opi- 
nions. Hence the controversy was prolonged, during many 
years, by a multitude of writings on both sides of the ques- 
tion, and the number of Berenger's followers daily in- 
creased. 

XVI. Gregory VII., whose enterprising spirit no dif- 
ficulties or opposition could discourage, was no sooner rais- 
ed to the pontificate than he undertook to terminate this 
important controversy, and, for that purpose, sent an order 
to Berenger, in 1078, to repair to Rome. If we consider 
the natural character of this pontiff, we shall be inclined 
to admit that his conduct in this affair was highly lauda- 
ble, and discovered a degree of impartiality and candour, 
which his proceedings on other occasions gave little reason 
to expect. He seems to have had a high esteem for 
Berenger ; and, in the particular points in which he was 
obliged to oppose him, he did it with all possible mildness, 
and with a tenderness which showed that he acted rather 
from a forced compliance with the clamours of his adversa- 
ries, than from inclination or principle. In the council 
which he held at Rome toward the conclusion of the year 
1078, he permitted Berenger to draw up a new confession 
of his faith, and to renounce that which had been com- 
posed by Humbert, though it had been solemnly approved 
and confirmed by Nicolas II. and a Roman council. The 
sagacious pontiff perceived clearly the absurdity of Hum- 
bert's confession, and therefore revoked it, though it had 
been rendered sacred by papal authority. In consequence 
of this, the persecuted archdeacon made a second declara- 
tion, confirmed by an oath, that he would adhere for the 
future to the following propositions : That " the bread 
deposited upon the altar became, after consecration, the 
true body of Christ, which was born of the Virgin, suffered 
on the cross, and now sits at the right hand of the Father : 
and that the wine placed upon the altar became, after 
consecration, the true blood, which flowed from the side of 
Christ." The pontiff was satisfied with this declaration, 
which was far from producing the same effect upon the 
enemies of Berenger ; they showed that it was ambigu- 
ous, and so it was in reality ; and they insisted that 
Berenger should be obliged not only to sign a declaration 
less vague and equivocal, but should also be required to 
prove his sincerity by the fiery trial. Gregory absolutely 
refused the latter demand, and would have equally refused 
the other, had not his favourable intentions towards Beren- 
ger yielded to the importunate clamours of his enemies 
and persecutors. 

XVII. The pontiff, therefore, granted that part of their 
demand which related to a new declaration ; and in a 
council convoked at Rome, in 1079, procured from the 
members a third confession of faith, less absurd than the 
first, though more harsh than the second ; and to this 
creed Berenger, after reading and subscribing it in the 

passed that of all his predecessors, acknowledged, at least tacitly, by this 
step, that a pope and council might err, and liad erred in effect. How 
otherwise could he allow Berenger to renounce a confession of faith that 
had been solemnly approved and confirmed by Nicolas II. in a Konuui 
council 1 



254 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



midst of the assembly, was obliged to declare his assent 
by a solemn oath. By this assent, he professed to believe, 
*" That the bread and wine, by the mysterious influence 
of the holy prayer, and the words of our Redeemer, were 
substantially changed into the true, proper, and vivifying 
body and blood of Jesus Christ :" and to remove all 
grounds of suspicion, to dispel all doubt about the reality 
of his attachment to this ridiculous system, he added to 
his second confession" a solemn declaration, that " the 
bread and wine, after consecration, were converted into 
the real body and blood of Christ, not only in quality of 
external signs and sacramental representations, but in 
their essential properties, and in substantial reality." No 
sooner had Berenger made this strange declaration, than 
the pontiff redoubled the marks of esteem which he had 
formerly shown him, and sent him back to his country 
loaded with the most honourable testimonies of liberality 
and friendship. The double-minded doctor did not, 
however, think himself bound by this declaration, solemn 
as it was ; and therefore retracted publicly, upon his re- 
turn to his residence, what he had subscribed as his real 
sentiments in the council of Rome, and went even so far 
as to compose an elaborate refutation of the doctrine to 
which he had been engaged to profess his assent. This 
new change excited a warm and vehement controversy, 
in which Lanfranc and Guitmund endeavoured to perplex 
Berenger with their sophistry, and to overwhelm him 
with their invectives. Gregory, to whose papal thunder 
the affronted council looked with impatience, seemed 
neither surprised nor offended at the inconstancy of 
Berenger ; nor did he take any step which could testify 
the smallest mark of resentment against this pretended 
apostate. Hence it appears more than probable, that the 

* Mentioned in the preceding section. 

i> A remarkable treatise of Berenger's composition, which has been 
published by Martenne in his Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. iv. p. 99. 109, will 
contribute to throw a satisfactory light upon this whole affair, and will 
fully unfold the real sentiments of Gregory concerning the eucharist. For 
from this piece it is undoubtedly evident; lstly, That Berenger was es- 
teemed and favoured in a singular manner by Gregory ; 2dly, That this 
pontiff was of the same opinion with Berenger respecting the eucharist ; 
it is certain, at least, that he was for adhering to the words of Scripture 
jn this matter, and was eager in suppressing all curious researches and 
all positive decisions concerning the manner of Christ's presence in the 
noly sacrament. This appears from the following words which he ad- 
dressed to Berenger before the meeting of the last council of Rome, and 
in which he speaks of his design to consult the Virgin Mary upon the 
conduct which it was proper for him to observe in the course of this con- 
troversy: "Ego plane te" (says the pontiff in the 108th page of the 
work, cited in the beginning of this note) "de Christi sacrificio secun- 
dum Scripturas bene sentire non dubito: tamen quia consuetudinis mihi 
est, ad B. Mariam de his qu« movent recurrere — imposui religioso cuidam 
amico — a B. Maria obtinere, ut per eum mihi non taceret, sed verbis 
commendaret, quorsum me de negotio quod in manibus habebam de 
Christi sacrificio reciperem, in quo immotus persisterem." We see here 
plainly, that Gregory expresses a strong propensity to the sentiments 
of Berenger, not, however, without some hesitation concerning the 
manner in which he was to conduct himself, and also concerning 
the precise doctrines, which it was necessary to embrace in relation to 
the presence of Christ in the eucharist. It was this hesitation which led 
him to consult the Virgin Mary, whose answer the pontiff gives in the 
following words : "B. Maria audivit et ad me retulit, nihil de sacrificio 
Christi cogitandum, nihil esse tenendum, nisi quod tenerent authenticse 
Scripture, contra quas Berengarius nihil habebat: Hoc tibi manifestare 
volui, ut securiorem ad nos fiduciam etalacriorem spem habeas." Here 
we see an answer of the Virgin pronouncing, that it was necessary to 
adhere to the express declarations of Scripture concerning the presence 
of Christ in the sacrament; and whether Gregory was fanatic enough to 
confide in this answer as real, or rogue enough to forge it, it is still cer- 
tain, that he confined his belief respecting the point in debate to the lan- 
guage of Scripture, and held that the true body and blood of Christ were 
exhibited in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, though it was neither 
necessary nor expedient to inquire into the nature or manner of this mys- 



second confession had entirely satisfied the pontiff, and 
that the violent imposition of the third was by no means 
agreeable to one who seems to have adopted, in a great 
measure, (if not wholly,) the sentiments of Berenger. b 

XVIII. Amidst the clamours of his incensed adversa- 
ries, Berenger observed a profound silence, and was so pru- 
dent as to return no answer to their bitter and repeated 
invectives. Fatigued with a controversy, in which the 
first principles of reason were so impudently insulted, and 
exhausted by an opposition which he was unable to over- 
come, he abandoned all his worldly concerns, and retired 
to the isle of St. Cosme, in the neighbourhood of Tours, 
where he spent the remainder of his days in fasting, 
prayer, and pious exercises. In the year 1088, death put 
an end to the affliction he suffered in his retirement, from 
a bitter reflection upon the dissimulation he had been 
guilty of at Rome, and to the penitential acts of mortifi- 
cation and austerity, to which he seems to have submitted 
with a view of expiating the enormity of his criminal 
compliance, and the guilt of his perjury. He left in the 
minds of the people a deep impression of his extraordina- 
ry sanctity, and his followers were as numerous as his* 
fame was illustrious. d There have been disputes amonjr 
the learned about the real sentiments of this eminent ma.ii- 
yet, notwithstanding the art which he sometimes used U< 
conceal his opinions, and the ambiguity that is often re 
markable in his expressions, whoever examines with im 
partiality and attention such of his writings as are yet ex- 
tant, will immediately perceive that he looked upon the 
bread and wine in the sacrament as no more than the 
signs or symbols of the body and blood of the divine Sa- 
viour. 6 In this opinion Berenger persevered to the last ; 
nor have we any authentic proof of his having departed 

terious presence. 3dly, It appears manifest, from the treatise already men- 
tioned, that the assembling of the second council, and the imposition of 
another confession of faith upon the conscience of Berenger, were mea- 
sures into which Gregory was forced by the enemies of that ecclesiastic. 
" Dejectus est," says Berenger, speaking of that pontiff, " importunitate 
Paduani scurrse, non episcopi, et Pisani non episcopi, sed antichristi . . . 
ut permitteret calumniatoribus veritatis in posteriori quadragesimali con- 
cilio scriptum a se firmatum in priori mulari." 4thly, We see here the 
true reason why Gregory showed not the smallest mark of resentment 
against Berenger, when, upon his return to his own country, he violated 
the promise by which he had so solemnly bound himself at the last coun- 
cil, and refuted the confession to which he had sworn his assent. For the 
pontiff was very far from adopting the sentiments of those who had 
drawn up or suggested that monstrous confession, and deemed it suffi- 
cient to believe with Berenger, that the body and blood of Jesus Christ 
were exhibited to Christians in the eucharist. Hence he suffered the vio- 
lent adversaries of his persecuted friend to murmur, scribble, bawl, and 
refute, while he himself observed a profound silence, and persisted in his 
resolution to put that unhappy man to no farther trouble. It is, however, 
proper to observe, that, in the same book from which these particulars 
are taken, we find Berenger addressing himself, with the utmost hu- 
mility, to the divine mercy, for the pardon of the crime of dissimulation 
and perjury he had committed at F — /ie, and confessing that the fear of 
death had extorted from him oaths and declarations diametrically oppo- 
site to his real sentiments, and engaged him to subscribe to a set of tenets 
which he abhorred. " Deus omnipotens," says he, " miserere, fons mi- 
sericordiarum, tantum sacrilegium agnoscenti." 

c This will appear evident to such as peruse the treatise of his compo- 
sition, which we have mentioned in the preceding note, as published in 
Martenne's Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. iv. 

d The canons of the cathedral of Tours continue to honour the me- 
mory of Berenger by an annual procession, in which they perform a 
solemn service at his tomb in the isle of St. Cosme. See Moleon, Voya- 
ges Liturgiques, p. 130. 

•Mabillori and other Roman catholic writers, as also a few Lutheran 
divines, are of opinion that Berenger denied only the doctrine of Tran- 
substantiation, while he maintained, at the same time, the real presence 
of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist; and this opinion will, 
indeed, appear plausible to such as consider only the declaration he signed 
in the first council at Rome, to which he was summoned by Gregory 



Chap. HI. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



255 



from it before his death, as some of the Romish -writers 
vainly pretend. 1 

XIX. It is not rare to find, in the history of the church, 
the most trifling objects exciting the warmest and most 
vehement controversies. Such was the dispute that arose 
in France, in 1023, between the priests and monks of 
Limoges, concerning the place that was to be assigned 
in the public liturgy to Martial, the first bishop of that 
diocese. One part}-, headed by Jordan, bishop of Limo- 
ges, were for placing him among the confessors, while 
Hugo, abbot of the monastery of St. Martial, maintained, 
that the prelate in question was to be ranked among the 
apostles, and branded, with the opprobrious and heretical 
title of Ebionites, all such as adhered to the proposal of 
Jordan. This momentous affair was debated, first, in a 
council holden at Poictiers, in 1023, and in another assem- 
bled at Paris the year following ; in which latter it was 
determined that Martial was to be honoured with the title 
of an apostle, and that all who refused him this eminent 
rank were to be considered as Ebionites, who, as is well 
known, confined the number of the apostles to twelve, 
that they might exclude St. Paul from that sacred order. 

I VII. and 'which he never retracted, without comparing this declaration 
with the rest of his writings. On the other hand. Usher. Basnage, and 
almost all the writers of the reformed church, maintain, that the doctrine 
of Berenger was exactly the same with that which Calvin afterwards 
adopted; and I cannot help joining with them in this opinion, when I 
peruse attentively the following words of his Letter to Almannus, pub- 
lished in Martenne's Thesaur. torn. iv. " Constat," says Berenger in ex- 
press terms, :l verum Christi corpus in ipsa mer.sa proponi, sed spiri- 
tualiter interiori homini verum in ea Christi corpus ab his duntaxat, 
qui Christi membra sunt, incorruptum, intaminatum, inattritumque spi- 
ritualiter mandueari." These words demonstrate so clearly, that, by 
the -presence of Christ's body in the eucharist, Berenger meant no more 
than a. spiritual presence, as to dispel all doubt about his real sentiments, 
though, upon other occasions, he concealed these sentiments under du- 
bious expressions, to deceive his adversaries. 

a It is well known what laborious efforts the Roman catholic writers 
have employed to persuade us, that Berenger, before his death, abandon- 
ed the opinion he had so long and so warmly defended, and returned to 
the doctrine of the church of Rome concerning the corporal presence of 
Christ in the eucharist. But when we inquire into the reasons on which 
this assertion is founded, we shall immediately perceive their weakness 
and insufficiency. They allege, in the first place, that Berenger gave 
an account of his doctrine and belief in the council of Bourdeaux, in 
1037; and add to this, that the ancient writers applaud his penitential 
sentiments, and affirm that he died in the catholic faith. In all this, 
However, we see no proof of Berenger's retraction. He adhered, indeed, 
to the confession of faith, which he had subscribed and adopted in the 
first of the two Roman councils, to which he had been summoned by 
Gregory, and wliich that pontiff judged sufficient to clear him from the 
imputation of heresy ; and they who confined their attention to the lite- 
ral sense of the words of that confession, without considering their spi- 
rit. a.i\d the different meanings of which they were susceptible, might 
easily imagine that Berenger's confession was agreeable to the doctrine 
of die church. Gregory, in order to pacify matters, confirmed them in 
this notion ; and though he was well informed of Berenger's having re- 
tracted the confession wliich he had signed in the last Roman council be- 
fore which he appeared, and of his opposing, widi the utmost warmth, 
the opinion he had there so solemnly professed, yet he suffered the in- 
constant doctor to remain unmolested, and thereby tacitly acquitted him 
of the crime and the error that were laid to his charge. 

It is of the utmost importance to observe here, that the Roman church 
had not come in this century, to a fixed determination concerning the na- 
ture and manner of Christ's presence in the eucharist. This appears 
most evidently from the three confessions which Berenger signed by die 
order of three councils ; which confessions differed from each other, not 
only in the terms and the turn of expression, but also in the opinions and 
doctrines they contained. Pope Nicolas II. and the council he assembled 
at Rom», in 1059, obliged him to subscribe, as die true and ordiodox doc- 
trine of the church, the first of these confessions, or that which cardinal 
Humbert had composed. This confession was, however, rejected, not 
only as harsh in point of expression, but also as erroneous and unsound, 
by Gregory and the two Roman councils, which he had expressly sum- 
moned to inquire into that matter ; for, had Humbert's declaration ap- 
peared to die pontiff to be a just expression of the doctrine and sense of 
the church concerning the eucharist, neither he nor the succeeding coun- 



The decree, however, of this council did not produce the 
effects that were expected from it ; for it exasperated, in- 
stead of calming, the zeal and animosity of the contend- 
ing parties, so that this miserable dispute became daily 
more general, and spread like a contagion through all the 
provinces of France. The matter was at length brought 
before the tribunal of the Roman pontiff, John XIX., 
who decided it in favour of the monks, and, in a letter ad- 
dressed to Jordan and the other bishops of the nation, pro- 
nounced Martial worthy of the title and honours of an 
apostle. This decision produced the most substantial and 
permanent effects : for in a council assembled at Limoges, 
in 1029, Jordan declared his acquiescence in the papal 
sentence: in a provincial council at Bourges. two years af- 
ter, Martial was associated to the company of the apostles 
with great solemnity, in consequence of the decision of 
the Roman see ; and about the same time this controver- 
sy was completely and finally terminated in a numerous 
council convoked at Limoges, in which the prayers that 
had been consecrated to the memory of the apostle Mar- 
tial, by the zealous pontiff, were publicly recited. b The 
warm contenders for the apostleship of Martial asserted, 

cils would have permitted other forms of doctrine to be substituted in its 
place. Gregory, as we have already seen, was of opinion, that it was 
highly improper to pry with too much curiosity into the mysteries of the 
eucharist, and diat, laying aside all disputes concerning the manner of 
Christ's presence in that holy institution, it was safest to adhere to the 
plain words of Scripture ; and as Uiis was also die opinion of Berenger, 
and was plainly expressed in his confession of faith, the judicious pontiff 
pronounced him innocent. But a following council departed from this 
equitable sentence of Gregory, who. though with much reluctance, was 
induced to confirm dieir rigorous decision ; and hence arose a third con- 
fession, wliich was extremely different from the two preceding ones. 
We may remark, by the bye, that in this controversy the councils seem 
plainlv to have swayed the pontiffs, since we see the obstinate, the invin- 
cible Gregory, yielding, against his will, to one of diese clamorous as- 
semblies. Berenger had no sooner gotten out of the hands of his ene- 
mies, than he returned to the second confession, which the ponuff had 
approved, and publicly declaimed against that wliich had been imposed 
upon him in die last Roman council before which he had appeared, widi- 
out receiving die least mark of disapprobation from Gregory 7 . From this 
it was natural to conclude, diat although he opposed the decree of that 
council, he adopted the opinion of die pope and of die church. 

In the account which I have here given of this memorable controver- 
sv, I have not only consulted the ancient records relating to diat matter, 
which have been made public, (for several of them lie yet in manuscript 
in die cabinets of die curious.) but have also been assisted by the labours 
of diose among die learned, who have treated that important branch of 
ecclesiastical history in the most accurate and ample manner : such as, 
first, Franc, de Roye's book, published at Angers, in 1656 ; " Ad. Can. 
Ego Berengarius 41. de consecrat. distinct. 2. TJbi vita, hsresis, et pceni- 
tentia Berengarii Andegavensis Archidiaconi, et ad Josephi locum de 
Christo," (a book which is extremely curious, and very little known.) 
Mabillon's Prasf. ad torn. ix. Act. SS. ord. Bened. seu Saec. VI. part ii. p. 
4. et Dissert, de multiplici damnatione. fidei professione et lapsu, which 
is published in his Analecta veteris jEvi, torn. ii. p. 456. De Boulay, His- 
tor. Acad. Paris, torn. i. p. 404. torn. ii. p. 452. The authors of the re- 
formed church, whom I have followed in this controversy', are, arch- 
bishop Usher, de Successione Ecclesiar. Chrisdanar. in occidente, cap. 
vii. sect. 24. p. 195. Basnage, Hist, des Eglises Refomiees, torn. i. p. 
105, and Hist, de l'Eglise, torn. ii. p. 1391. — Cas. Oudin, Dissert, de 
Doctrina et Scriptis Berengarii in Comment, de Scriptor. Ecclesiast. torn, 
ii p. 624. There appears, more or less, a certain spirit of partiality ill 
all these writers ; but diis spirit is particularly notorious among those of 
the church of Rome. 

>> See Boulay, torn. i. p. 372. 101. — J. Longueval. Histoire de l'Eglise 
Gallicanc, torn. vii. p. 188, 1S9, 231. — The Benedictine monks, in their 
Gallia Christiana, torn. ii. Append. Documentor, p. 162, have published 
the letter of Jordan to Pope Benedict VIII. against the Aposdeship of 
Martial. The decrees of die councils of Bourges and Limoges con- 
cerning diis matter are published by Labbe, in his Bibliodi. Isova Ma- 
nuscriptor. torn. ii. p. 766. IVlabillon has given an ample account of Ade- 
mar, a monk of St. Cybar, the first promoter of this ridiculous controver- 
sy, in his Annal. Ord. S. Benedict, torn. iv. p. 318, and, among die ori- 
ginal papers subjoined to diat volume, has published a letter written by 
that monk in favour of die aposdeship of Martial. See also die Histoire 
Literaire de la France, torn. vii. p. 301. 



256 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



that he was one of the seventy disciples of Christ; whence 
they concluded, that he had an equal title with Paul and 
Barnabas to the honour of an apostle. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 

I. The form of public worship, which was established 
at Rome, had not yet been received in all the western 
provinces. This was looked upon by the imperious pon- 
tiffs as an insult upon their authority, and therefore they 
used their utmost efforts to introduce universally the Ro- 
man ceremonies, and to promote a perfect uniformity of 
worship in every part of the Latin world. Gregory VII. 
employed all his diligence, activity, and zeal, in this en- 
terprise, as appears from several passages in his letters ; 
and he alone, perhaps, was equal to the execution of such 
an arduous attempt. The Spaniards had long distin- 
guished themselves above all other nations, by their noble 
and resolute resistance to the despotic attempts of the 
popes upon this occasion ; for they adhered to their ancient 
Gothic liturgy* with great obstinacy, and could not be 
brought to change it for the method of worship established 
at Rome. Alexander II. had indeed proceeded so far, in 
1068, as to persuade the inhabitants of Arragon into his 
measures, b and to conquer the aversion which the Catalo- 
nians had discovered for the Roman worship. But the 
honour of finishing this difficult work, and bringing it to 
perfection, was reserved for Gregory, who, without inter- 
ruption, exhorted, threatened, admonished, and entreated 
Sanchez and Alphonso, the kings of Arragon and Cas- 
tile, until, fatigued with the importunity of this restless 
pontiff, they consented to abolish the Gothic service in 
their churches, and to introduce the Roman in its place. 
Sanchez was the first who complied with the request of 
the pontiff: and, in 1080, his example was followed by 
Alphonso. The methods which the nobles of Castile 
employed to decide the matter were very extraordinary. 
First, they chose two champions, who were to determine 
the controversy by single combat, the one fighting for the 
Roman liturgy, the other for the Gothic. This first trial 
ended in favour of the latter ; for the Gothic hero proved 
victorious. Recourse was next had to the fiery trial for 
the decision of the dispute : the Roman and Gotjiic litur- 
gies were committed to the flames, which, as the story 
goes, consumed the former, while the latter remained un- 
blemished and entire. Thus were the Gothic rites crown- 
ed with a double victory, which, however, was not suffi- 
cient to maintain them against the authority of the pope, 
and the influence of the queen Constantia, who determin- 
ed Alphonso in favour of the Roman service. 

II. The zeal of the Roman pontiffs for introducing 
uniformity of worship into the western churches may be, 
in some measure, justified ; but their not permitting every 
nation to celebrate divine worship in their mother tongue 
was absolutely inexcusable. While,, indeed, the Latin 
language was in general use amongst the western nations, 

a See Mabillon, de Liturgia Gallicana, lib. i. cap. ii. p. 10. — Jo. Bona, 
Res Liturg. lib. i. cap. xi. p. 220, op. — Pet. Lc Brun, Explication des Ce- 
remonies de la Messe, torn. ii. Diss. v. p. 272. 

* Pet. de Marca, Histoire de Beam, liv. ii. cap. ix. 

c Bona, Res Liturg. lib. i. cap. xi. p. 216. — Le Brun, torn. ii. p. 292. — 
Jo. de Perreras, Historia de Espana, torn. iii. 



or at least, was unknown only to a very small number 
there was no reason why it should not be employed in 
the public service of the church. But when the decline 
of the Roman empire drew on by degrees the extinction 
of its language in several places, and its decay in all the 
western provinces, it became just and reasonable that each 
people should serve the Deity in the language they under- 
stood, and which was peculiar to them. This reasoning, 
however evident and striking, had no sort of influence 
upon the Roman pontiffs, who, neither in this nor in the 
following centuries, could be persuaded to change the es- 
tablished custom, but persisted, on the contrary, with the 
most senseless obstinacy, in retaining the use of the Latin 
language in the celebration of divine worship, even when 
it was no longer understood by the people. 3 This strange 
conduct has been variously accounted for by different 
writers, who have tortured their inventions to find out its 
secret reasons, and have imagined many that seem ex- 
tremely improbable and far-fetched. A superstitious and 
extravagant veneration for whatever carried the hoary as- 
pect of a remote antiquity, was undoubtedly the principal 
reason that rendered the pontiffs unwilling to abolish 
the use of the Latin language in the celebration of divine 
worship. The same absurd principle produced a similar 
effect in the eastern churches ; thus the Egyptian Chris- 
tians perform their religious service in the language of the 
ancient Copts, the Jacobites and the Nestorians in the Sy- 
riac, and the Abyssinians in the old Ethiopic, though all 
these languages have been long since obsolete, and are 
consequently unintelligible to the multitudes 

III. It would be tedious to enumerate, in a circumstan- 
tial manner, the new inventions that were imposed upon 
Christians, in this century, under the specious titles of 
piety and zeal, by the superstitious despotism of an impe- 
rious clergy. It is also unnecessary to mention the addi- 
tions that were made to former inventions, the multiplica- 
tion, for example, of the rites and ceremonies that were 
used in the worship of saints, relics, and images, and the 
new directions that were administered to such as under- 
took pilgrimages, or other superstitious services of that na- 
ture. We shall only observe, that during the whole of 
this century, all the European nations were most diligent- 
ly employed in rebuilding, repairing, and adorning their 
churches/ Nor will this appear surprising, when we 
consider, that, in the preceding century, all Europe was 
alarmed with a dismal apprehension that the day of judg- 
ment was at hand, and that the world was approaching to 
its final dissolution ; for, among the other effects of this 
panic terror, the churches and monasteries were suffered 
to fall into ruin, or at least to remain without repair, from 
an idea that they would soon be involved in the general 
fate of all sublunary things. But, when these apprehen- 
sions were removed, affairs immediately assumed a new 
aspect ; the tottering temples were rebuilt ; and the great- 
est zeal, attended with the richest and most liberal dona- 
tions, was employed in restoring the sacred edifices to their 
former lustre, or rather in giving them new degrees o 
magnificence and beauty. 

<' Usserii Historia Dogmatica de Scripturis et Sacris Vernaculis, ab 
Hen. Whartono edita et aucta, Londini, 1690, in 4to. 

e See Euseb. Renaudot, Dissertat. de Lilurgiarum Orientalium origine 
et antiquitate, cap. vi. p. 40. 

f Glab. Rodolph. Hist. lib. iii. cap. iv. in Duchesne's Scriptor. Franc. 
\ torn. iv. p. 217. " Infra millesimum tertio jam fere imminente anno corv 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



257 



CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during tins Century. 

I. The state of the ancient sects, and particularly of 
the Nestorians and Monophysites, who resided in Asia 
and Egypt, under the Mohammedan government, was 
now much the same as it had been in the preceding cen- 
tury, neither extremely prosperous, nor absolutely misera- 
ble. The case of the Manichaeans, or Politicians, whom 
the Grecian emperors had banished from the eastern pro- 
vinces into Bulgaria and Thrace, was much more unhap- 
py on account of the perpetual conflicts they had to sus- 
tain with the Greeks, who persecuted and oppressed them 
with much keenness and animosity. The Greeks, as 
usually happens on the like occasions, laid the blame of 
their violent measures upon the Manichaeans, whom they 
represented as a turbulent, perfidious, and sanguinary 
faction, and as the declared and inveterate enemies of 
the Grecian empire. - This, however, is by no means to 
be received as an impartial state of the case ; at least, it 
appears from many circumstances, that, if the Manichae- 
ans were exasperated against the Greeks, their resent- 
ment was in some measure justified by the violent and 
injurious treatment which they had received from them. 
The Grecian pontiffs and clergy were far from being des- 
titute of the odious spirit of persecution ; and it is certain 
that the emperors, instigated by them, had exhausted the 
patience of the Paulicians by repeated vexations and cru- 
elties, and alienated their affections by inflicting upon them, 
without interruption, a variety of punishments, such as 
banishment, confiscation of goods, and other marks of se- 
verity and violence. 

Alexias Comnenus, who, by his learning, was an orna- 
ment to the imperial sceptre, perceiving that the Mani- 
chaeans were not to be vanquished, without the greatest 
difficulty, by the force of arms, and observing also that 
their numbers increased from day to day both in Thrace 
and in the adjacent provinces, had recourse to the power 
of reason and argument to conquer their obstinacy, and 
spent whole days at Philippopolis, in disputing with the 



tigit in universo pene terrarum orbe, prsecipue tamen in Italia et in 
Galliis, innovari ecclesiarum basilicas." 

* See the Alexias of Anna Comnena. lib. v. p. 105 ; lib. vi. p. 12-t, 
145. 

i> There is an ample and circumstantial account of this controversy be- 
tween the emperor and the Manichaeans in the work mentioned in the 
preceding note, lib. xiv. p. 357. 

See Muratori, Antiquitat. Ital. medii jEvi, torn. v. p. 63. — Limborch, 
Historia Inquisitionis. p. 31. — Riccinii Dissertatio de Catharis, prefixed 
to the Summa B. Monetae contra Catharos. We might also refer, up- 
on this occasion, to Glab. Rodulph. Histor. lib. iii. cap. viii. to Matth. 
Paris, and other ancient writers. Certain Italian authors, and among 
others Riccini, seem unwilling to acknowledge that the Paulicians ar- 
rived first in Italy, and proceeded thence into the other provinces of Eu- 
rope ; and maintain, on the contrary, that their first settlement was in 
France, whence they repaired to Italy. These writers look upon it as 
ignominious to their country, to be considered as the first European na- 
tion which fostered such a pernicious and impious sect in its bosom. Be 
that as it may, their hypothesis is favoured by Peter de Marca himself, 
a Frenchman, who, in his Histoire de Beam, livr. viii. cap. xiv. declares 
it as his opinion, that the Paulicians joined themselves to the Gallic ar- 
mies that returned from the holy war by the province of Bulgaria, and 
were thus conducted into France. But that learned author alleges no 
proof to support this opinion: it appears, on the contrary, from the re- 
cords of the Inquisition of Toulouse, published by Limborch, and from 
other authentic pieces, that the Paulicians settled first in Sicily, Lom- 
bardy, Liguria, and the Milanese, and thence sent many doctors and mis- 
sionaries into France. See. the Codex Tolosanus, passim. We learn 
also from the Code of Toulouse, that the French Paulicians, who were 

No. XXII. 65 



principal doctors of that pernicious sect. Many of them 
yielded to the victorious arguments of this royal disputant, 
and his learned associates ; nor is this to be wondered at, 
since their demonstrations were accompanied and enforced 
by rewards and punishments. Such of the Manichaeans 
as retracted their errors, and returned to the bosom of the 
Greek church, were loaded with gifts, honours, and privi- 
leges, according to their respective stations, while such as 
stood firm against the reasoning of the emperor, were 
inhumanly condemned to perpetual imprisonment. 1 ' 

II. Many of the Paulicians, either from a principle of 
zeal for the propagation of their opinions, or from a desire 
of relieving themselves from the persecution and oppres- 
sion they suffered under the Grecian yoke, retired from 
Bulgaria and Thrace, and formed settlements in other 
countries. Then first migration was into Italy ; whence, 
in process of time, they sent colonies into almost all the 
other provinces of Europe, and formed gradually a con- 
siderable number of religious assemblies, who adhered to 
their doctrine, and were afterwards persecuted with the 
utmost vehemence by the Roman pontiffs. It is difficult 
to fix the precise period when the Paulicians began to 
take refuge in Europe ; it is, however, certain, from the 
most authentic testimonies, that a considerable number 
of that sect were, about the middle of this century, settled 
in Lombardy, Insubria, and principally at Milan, and 
that many of them led a wandering life in France, 
Germany, and other countries, where they captivated the 
esteem and admiration of the multitude, by their sancti- 
monious looks, and the uncommon air of piety, which 
they put on with much affectation. In Italy they were 
called Paterini and Cathari, or rather Gazari, which latter 
appellation the Germans have preserved, with a small 
alteration only, which was~proper to adapt it to the genius 
of their language^ In France they were called Albi- 
genses e from the town of Albi, and Bulgarians because 
they came from Bulgaria, and because the head of their 
sect resided in that country : as also Publicans, which 
was probably a corrupt pronunciation of Paulicians, and 
boni homines, or ' good men,' with several other titles 
and epithets. f 

called Albigenses, had no bishop to consecrate their Anciani, (such was 
the title they gave to their presbyters.) so that such of them as were de- 
sirous of being placed in the order of presbyters, were obliged to repair to 
Italy, in order to their being regularly installed. 

a The title of Paterini, which was given to this sect in Italy, has been 
already explained in the second .chapter of the second part of this cen- 
tury, sect. 13, note [a] As to the term Catharus, it was undoubtedly, 
when applied to the Paulicians, the same with Gazarus, as I have else- 
where demonstrated. See Histor. Orel. Apostol. p. 367. The country 
which bore, in this century, the name of Gazaria, was what we now call 
the Minor Tartary. 

• That the Paulicians were called Albigenses in France, and were a 
sect entirely distinct from the Waldenses and other heretics, appears evi- 
dently from the Codex Inquisitionis Tolosanae. They received this name 
from a town in Aquitaine, called Albigia. or Albi, where their errors 
were condemned in a council which met in 1176. See Chatel's Memoircs 
de l'Histoire de Languedoc, p. 305. It is, therefore, a mistake to con- 
sider the Albigenses as a sect so called from Albi's being the place of 
their birth, their residence, or the seat of their principal assembly, since 
that name was given them for no other reason than their having been 
condemned in a council holden in that town. There were, indeed, seve- 
ral Paulicians among the various sects of dissenters from the church of 
Rome, that inhabited the country about Albi ; and it is also true, that the 
title of Albigenses is usually extended to all tire heretics, of whatever 
sect or denomination they were, who dwelt in those parts. 

< The learned Du Fresne, in his Glossarium Latin, medri iEvi, torn. i. 
p. 1338, has proved, in an ample manner, that the Paulicians were railed 
in France Bulgares, and (by a corrupt pronunciation of thai word.)Bou- 
gres. The same- author, ia his Observations ad Villcharduini Hislo- 



THE TWELFTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events that happened to 
the Church j during this Century. 

I. A considePvAble part of Europe lay yet involved in 
pagan darkness, which reigned more especially in the 
northern provinces. It was, therefore, in these regions of 
gloomy superstition, that the zeal of the missionaries was 
principally exerted in this century ; though their efforts 
were not all equally successful, nor the methods they em- 
ployed for the propagation of the Gospel equally pru- 
dent. Boleslaus, duke of Poland, having conquered the 
Pomeranians, offered them peace, upon condition that 
they would receive the Christian teachers, and permit 
them to exercise their ministry in that vanquished pro- 
vince. This condition was accepted ; and Otho, bishop 
of Bamberg, a man of eminent piety and zeal, was sent, 
in the year 1124, to inculcate and explain the doctrines 
of Christianity, among that superstitious and barbarous 
people. Many were converted to the faith by his minis- 
try, while great numbers stood firm against his most vi- 
gorous efforts, and persisted, with an invincible obstina- 
cy, in the religion of their idolatrous ancestors. Nor was 
this the only mortification which that illustrious prelate 
received, in the execution of his pious enterprise ; for, 
upon his return into Germany, many of those whom he 
had engaged in the profession of Christianity, apostatized 
in his absence, and relapsed into their ancient prejudices : 
this obliged Otho to undertake a second voyage into Po- 
merania, A. D. 1126, in which, after much opposition and 
difficulty, his labours were crowned with a happier issue, 
and contributed much to enlarge the bounds of the rising 
church, and to establish it upon solid foundations. 1 From 
this period, the Christian religion seemed daily to acquire 
new degrees of stability among the Pomeranians, who 
had hitherto refused to permit the settlement of a bishop 
among them. They now received Adalbert, or Albert, in 
that character, who was accordingly the first bishop of 
Pomerania. 

II. Of all the northern princes of this century, none 
appeared with a more distinguished lustre than Walde- 
mar I., king of Denmark, who acquired an immortal name 

" See Henr. Camsii Lectiones Antiquae, torn. iii. part ii. p. 34, where 
we find the life of Otho, who, A. D. 1189, was canonized by Clement 
III. See the Acta Sanctor. Mensis Julii, torn. i. p. 349. Dan. Crameri 
Chronicon Eccles. Pomerania?, lib. i. as also a learned Dissertation con- 
cerning the conversion of the Pomeranians by the ministry of Otho, 
written in the German language, by Christopher Schotgen, and publish- 
ed at Stargard, in the year 1724. Add to these Mabillon, Annal. Bene- 
dict, torn. vi. p. 123, 146, 323. 

b Saxo-Grammaticus, Histor. Danic. lib. xiv. p. 239. — Helmoldus, 
Chron. Selavorum, lib. ii. cap. xii. p. 234, and Henr. Bangertus, ad h. 1. 
— Pontoppidani Annales Ecclesiee Danicre, torn. i. p. 404. 

fTjJr Beside the historians here mentioned by Dr. Mosheim, we refer 
the curious reader to an excellent history of Denmark, written in French, 
by M. Mallet, professor at Copenhagen. In the first volume of this 



by the glorious battles he fought against the pagan na- 
tions, such as the Sclavonians, Venedi, Vandals, and 
others, who either by their incursions or by revolt, drew 
upon them the weight of his victorious arm. He un- 
sheathed his sword, not only for the defence and happi- 
ness of his people, but also for the propagation and ad- 
vancement of Christianity ; and wherever his arms were 
successful, he pulled down the temples and images of the 
gods, destroyed their altars, laid waste their sacred groves, 
and substituted in their place the Christian worship, 
which deserved to be propagated by better means than 
the sword, by the authority of reason, rather than by the 
despotic voice of power. The island of Rugen, which 
lies in the neighbourhood of Pomerania, submitted to the 
victorious arms of Waldemar, A. D. 1168 ; and its fierce 
and savage inhabitants, who were, in reality, no more 
than a band of robbers and pirates, were obliged, by that 
prince, to hear the instructions of the pious and learned 
doctors that followed his army, and to receive the Chris- 
tian worship. This salutary work was brought to per- 
fection by Absalom, archbishop of Lunden, a man of a 
superior genius, and of a most excellent character in eve- 
ry respect, whose eminent merit raised him to the summit 
of power, and engaged Waldemar to place him at the 
head of affairs. b 

III. The Finlanders received the Gospel in the same 
manner in which it had been propagated among the in- 
habitants of the isle of Rugen. They were also a fierce and 
savage people, who lived by plunder, and infested Swe- 
den in a terrible manner by their perpetual incursions, 
until, after many bloody battles, they were totally defeat- 
ed by Eric IX., styled after his death the Saint, and re- 
duced under the Swedish yoke. Historians differ about 
the precise time when this conquest was completed ; c but 
they are all unanimous in their accounts of its effects. 
The Finlanders Were commanded to embrace the religion 
of the conqueror, which the greatest part of them did, 
though with the utmost reluctance. 11 The founder (and 
ruler) of this new church was Henry, archbishop of Up- 
sal, who accompanied the victorious monarch in that 
bloody campaign. This prelate, whose zeal was not suf- 
ficiently tempered with the mild and gentle spirit of the 



history, the ingenious and learned author has given a very interesting 
account of the progress of Christianity in the northern parts of Europe, 
and a particular relation of the exploits of Absalom, who was, at the 
same time, archbishop, general, admiral, and prime minister, and who 
led the victorious Danes to battle, by sea and land, without neglecting 
the cure of souls, or in the least diminishing his pious labours in the 
propagation of the Gospel abroad, and its maintenance and support at 

home. 

'Most writers, with Baronius, place this event in the year 1151- 
Different, however, from this is the chronology of Vastovius and Oern- 
hielmius, the former placing it in 1150, and the latter in 1157. 

i Oernhielmii Histor. Eccles. Gentis Sueeorum, lib. iv. cap. iv. sect. 
13. — Jo. Loccenii Histor. Suecica, lib. iii. p. 76, ed. Francof. — Erlar.di 
Vita Erici Sancti, cap. vii. — Vastovii Vitis Aquilonia, p. 65. 



Chai\ I. 



PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 



261 



religion he taught, treated the new converts with great 
severity, and was assassinated at last, in a cruel manner, 
on account of the heavy penance he imposed upon a per- 
son of great authority, who had been guilty of homicide. 
This melancholy event procured Henry the honours of 
saintship and martyrdom, which were solemnly conferred 
upon him by pope Adrian IV. a 

IV. The propagation of the Gospel among the Livonians 
was attended with much difficulty, and also with horri- 
ble scenes of cruelty and bloodshed. The first missiona- 
ry, who attempted the conversion of that savage people, 
was Mainhard, a regular canon of St. Augustin. in the 
monastery of Segeberg, who, toward the conclusion of 
.nis century, b travelled to Livonia, with a company of 
merchants of Bremen, and improved this opportunity of 
spreading the light of the Gospel in that barbarous re- 
gion of superstition and darkness. The instructions and 
exhortations of this zealous apostle were little attended to, 
and produced little or no effect upon that uncivilized na- 
tion ; whereupon he addressed himself to the Roman 
pontiff, Urban III., who consecrated him bishop of the 
Livonians, and, at the same time, declared a holy war 
against that obstinate people. This war, which was at 
first carried on against the inhabitants of the province of 
Esthonia, was continued with still greater vigour, and 
rendered more general, by Berthold, abbot of Lucca, who 
left lus monastery to share the labours and laurels of 
Mainhard, whom he accordingly succeeded in the see of 
Livonia. The new bishop marched into that province at 
the head of a powerful army which he had raised in Sax- 
ony, preached the Gospel sword in hand, and proved its 
truth by blows instead of arguments. Albeit, canon 
of Bremen, became the third bishop of Livonia, and fol- 
lowed, with a barbarous enthusiasm, the same military 
methods of conversion that had been practised by his pre- 
decessor. He' entered Livonia, A. D. 1198, with a fresh 
body of troops drawn out of Saxony, and, encamping at 
Riga, instituted there, by the direction of pope Innocent 
III., the military order of the knight's sword-bearers, who 
were commissioned to dragoon the Livonians into the 
profession of Christianity, and oblige them by force of 
arms to receive the benefits of baptism. d New legions 
were sent from Germany to second the efforts, and add 
efficacy to the mission of these booted apostles ; and they, 
in concert with the knights sword-bearers, so cruelly op- 
pressed, slaughtered, and tormented this wretched people, 
that, exhausted at length, and unable longer to stand firm 
against the arm of persecution, strengthened still by new 
accessions of power, they abandoned the statues of their 
pagan deities, and substituted in their places the images of 

* Vastovii Vitis Aquilon. seu Vita; Sanctorum Regni Sueogothici, p. 
62. Eric. Benzelii Monumenta Eeclesiae Sueogothieae, part i. p. 33. 

i> In the year 1 18G. 

• Equestris Ordo Militum Ensiferorum. 

* See Hi'iir. Leonardi Schurtzfleischii Historia Ordinis Ensiferorum 
Equitum, "Wittenberg. 1701, 8vo. 

• See the Origines Livonia?, seuChronicon vetus Livonieum, published 
in folio, at Francfort, in the year 1740, by Jo. Daniel Gruberus, and en- 
riched with ample and learned observations and notes, in which the la- 
borious author enumerates all the writers of the Livonian history, and 
corrects their mistakes. 

5j" ' Dr. Mosheim's account of this matter is very different from that 
which is given by Fleury, who asserts, that it was Hartwick, archbishop 
of Bremen, who restored the three ruined sees, and consecrated Viceli- 
nus bishop of Oldenburg ; and that, as he had done this without address- 
ing himself to Henry, the duke seized the tithes of Vicelinus, until a 
reconciliation was ufterwards brought about between the offended prince 

No. XXH. G(5 



[ tit* saints. But, while they received the blessings of the 

* Gospel, they were deprived of all earthly comforts : for 

their lands and possessions were taken from them, w r ith 

the most odious circumstances of cruelty and violence, and 

the knights and bishops divided the spoil.' 

V. None of the northern nations had a more rooted 
aversion to the Christians, or a more obstinate antipathy to 
their religion, than the Sclavonians, a rough and baiba- 
rous people, who inhabited the coast of the Baltic sea. 
This excited the zeal of several neighbouring princes, and 
of a multitude of pious missionaries, who united their ef- 
forts, in order to conquer the prejudices of this people 
and to open their eyes upon the light of the Gospel. 
Henry, duke of Saxony, surnamed the Lion, distinguish 
ed himself in a particular manner, by the ardour which 
he discovered in the execution of this pious design, as wel. 
as by the wise methods he employed to render it success- 
ful. Among other measures that were proper for this 
purpose, he restored from their ruins, and endowed richly 5 ; 
three bishopricks f that had been ravaged and destroyec 
by these barbarians, namely, the bishopricks of Ratzburg 
and Sclrwerin, and that of Oldenburg, which was after- 
wards transplanted to Lubeck. The most eminent of the 
Christian doctors, who attempted the conversion of the 
Sclavonians, was Vicelinus, a native of Hamelen, a man 
of extraordinary merit, who surpassed almost all his con- 
temporaries in genuine piety and solid learning, and who. 
after having presided many years in the society of the 
regular canons of St. Augustin at Falderen, was at length 
consecrated bishop of Oldenburg. This excellent man 
employed the last thirty years of his life, ^ amidst num- 
berless vexations, dangers, and difficulties, in instructing 
the Sclavonians, and exhorting them to comply with the 
invitations of the Gospel of Christ ; and, as his pious la- 
bours were directed by true wisdom, and carried on with 
the most indefatigable industry and zeal, so were they Tit- 
tended with much fruit, even among that fierce and in- 
tractable people. Nor was his ministry among the Scla- 
vonians the only circumstance that redounds to the 
honour of his memory ; the history of his life and ac- 
tions in general furnishes proofs of his piety and zeal, 
sufficient to transmit his name to the latest generations. 11 

VI. It is needless to repeat here the observation we 
have so often had occasion to make upon such conversions 
as these, or to intimate to the reader that tire savage na- 
tions, who were thus dragooned into the church, became 
the disciples of Christ, not so much in reality, as in out- 
ward appearance. [D^They professed, with an inward 
reluctance, a religion which was inculcated by violence 
and bloodshed, which recalled to their remembrance no- 



and the worthy bishop. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. liv. lxix. p. 665, 608. 
edit. Bruxelles. Fleury, in this and other parts of his history, shows, 
that he is but indifferently acquainted with the history of Germany, anil 
has not drawn from the best sources. The authorities which Dr. Mo- 
sheim produces for his account of the affair, are the Origines Guelphicae, 
torn. iii. p. 16, 19, 34, 55. 61, 63, 72, 82. with the celebrated preface nt 
Scheitlius, sect. xiv. p. 41. Ludewig's Reliquiae Manuscriptorum, torn. 
vi. p. 230. Jo. Em. de Westphalen, Monumenta inedita Rerum Cimbri- 
carum et Megapolens. torn. ii. p. 1998. 

e That is. from die year 1124 to the year 1154, in which he died. 

t> There is a particular and ample account of Vicelinus in the Cimbria 
Lrterata of Mollerus, torn ii. p. 910, and in the Res Hamburg, of Lam- 
becius, lib. ii. p. 12. See also upon this subject the. Origines Neomo- 
naster. et Bortlcsholmens. of the most learned and industrious Job. Em. 
de Westphalen. which are published in the .second tome of the Monu- 
menta inedita Cimbrica, p. 2344. and the Preface to this tome, p. 33. 
There is in this work a print of Vicelinus well engraven. 



262 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



thing but scenes of desolation and misery ; and which, 
indeed, when considered in the representations that were 
given of it by the greatest part of the missionaries, was 
but a lew degrees removed from the absurdities of pagan- 
ism.] The pure and rational religion of the Gospel was 
never presented to these unhappy nations in its native 
simplicity ; they were only taught to appease the Deity, 
and to render him propitious, by a senseless round of tri- 
fling ceremonies and bodily exercises, which, in many cir- 
cumstances, resembled the superstitions they were obliged 
to renounce, and might have been easily reconciled with 
them, had it not been that the name and history of 
Christ, the sign of the cross, and some diversity between 
certain rites and ceremonies of the two religions, opposed 
this coalition. Besides, the missionaries, whose zeal for 
imposing the name of Christians upon this people was so 
vehement and even furious, were extremely indulgent in 
all other respects, and opposed their prejudices and vices 
with much gentleness and forbearance. They permitted 
them to retain several rites and observances that were in 
direct opposition to the spirit of Christianity, and to the 
nature of true piety. The truth of the matter seems to 
have been this, that the leading views of these Christian 
heralds, and propagators of the faith, a smaller number 
excepted, were rather turned toward the advancement of 
their own interests, and the confirming and extending 
the dominion of the Roman pontiffs, than toward the true 
conversion of these savage Pagans ; that conversion which 
consists in the removal of ignorance, the correction of er- 
ror, and the reformation of vice. 

VII. A great revolution in Asiatic Tartary, which bor- 
ders upon Cathay, changed the face of things in that dis- 
tant region about the commencement of this century, 
and proved, by its effects, extremely beneficial to the 
Christian cause. Toward the conclusion of the preced- 
ing century, died Koiremkhan, otherwise called Kenkhan, 
the most powerful monarch that was known in the east- 
ern regions of Asia ; and, while that mighty kingdom 
was deprived of its chief, it was invaded with such un- 
common valour and success, by a Nestorian priest, whose 
name was John, that it fell before his victorious arms, and 
acknowledged this warlike and enterprising presbyter as 
its monarch. This was the famous Prester John, (as he 
was called,) whose territory was, for a long time, consi- 
dered by the Europeans as a second paradise, as the seat 
of opulence and complete felicity. As he was a presby- 

a The account I have here given of this famous Presbyter, commonly 
called Prester John, who was, for a long time, considered as the great- 
est and happiest of all earthly monarchs, is what appeared to me the 
most probable among the various relations that have been given of the 
life and adventures of that extraordinary man. This account is more- 
over confirmed by the testimonies of contemporary writers, whose know- 
ledge and impartiality render them worthy of credit; such as William 
of Tripoli, (see Dufresne's Adnot. ad Vitam Ludovici Sti. a Joinvillio 
scriptam, p. 89.) as also a certain bishop of Gabala mentioned by Otto 
Frising. Chronic, lib. vii. cap. xxxii. See also Guillaume Rubruquis, 
Voyage, cap. xviii. p. 36, in the Antiqua in Asiam Itinera, collected by 
father Bergeron, and Alberic in Chronico, ad A. 1165, and 1170, in 
Leibnitzii Accessionibus Historicis, torn. ii. p. 345, 355. It is indeed 
surprising, that such authentic records as these should have escaped the 
observation of the learned, and that so many different opinions should 
nave been advanced concerning Prester John, and the place of his resi- 
dence. But it is too generally the fate of learned men, to overlook those 
accounts that carry the plainest marks of evidence, and, from a passion 
for the marvellous, to plunge into the regions of uncertainty and doubt, 
tn the fifteenth century, John II., king of Portugal, employed Pedro Co- 
villiano in a laborious inquiry into the real situation of the kingdom of 
Prester John. The curious voyager undertook this task, and, for infor- 
mation in the matter, travelled with a few companions into Abyssinia ; 



ter before his elevation to the royal dignity, many con- 
tinued to call him Presbyter John, even when he was 
seated on the throne ; a but his kingly name was Unkhan. 
The high notions which the Greeks and Latins general- 
ly entertained of the grandeur and magnificence of this 
royal presbyter, were principally produced by the letters 
he wrote to the Roman emperor, Frederick I., and to 
Emanuel, emperor of the Greeks, in which, puffed up 
with prosperity, and flushed with success, he vaunted his 
victories over the neighbouring nations that disputed his 
passage to the throne ; described, in the most pompous 
and extravagant terms, the splendour of his riches, the 
grandeur of his state, and the extent of his dominions ; 
and exalted himself far above all other earthly monarchs 
All this was easily believed ; and the Nestorians were 
extremely zealous in confirming the boasts of their vain 
glorious prince. He was succeeded by his son, or, as 
others think, his brother, whose name was David, though, 
in common discourse, he was also called Prester John, as 
his predecessor had been. The reign of David was far 
from being happy, nor did he end his days in peace ; 
Genghiz Khan, the great and warlike emperor of the 
Tartars, invaded his territories toward the conclusion of 
this century, and deprived him both of his life and his do- 
minions. 

VIII. The new kingdom of Jerusalem, which had been 
erected by the holy warriors of France, near the close of 
the preceding century, seemed to flourish considerably at 
the beginning of this, and to rest upon firm and solid 
foundations. This prosperous scene was, however, but 
transitory, and was soon succeeded by the most terrible 
calamities and desolation. For, when the Mohammedans 
saw vast numbers of those who had engaged in this holy 
war returning into Europe, and the Christian chiefs that 
remained in Palestine divided into factions, and every one 
advancing his private interest, without any regard to the 
public good, they resumed their courage, recovered from 
the terror and consternation into which they had been 
thrown by the amazing valour and rapid success of the 
European legions, and, gathering troops and soliciting suc- 
cours from all quarters, they harassed and exhausted the 
Christians by invasions and wars without interruption. 
The Christians, on the other hand, sustained these efforts 
with their usual fortitude, and maintained their ground 
during many years ; but when Atabeck Zenghi, b after 
a long siege, made himself master of the city of Edessa, 

and observing in the emperor of the Abyssinians, or Ethiopians, many 
circumstances that resembled the accounts which, at that time, prevailed 
in Europe concerning Prester John, he persuaded himself that he had 
fulfilled his commission, and found out the residence of that extraordi- 
nary monarch, who was the object of his researches. His opinion 
easily gained credit in Europe, which had not yet emerged out of its igno- 
rance and barbarism. See Morinus, de Sacris Eccles. Ordinationibus, 
part ii. p. 367. But a new light was cast upon this matter in the seven- 
teenth century, by the publication of several pieces, which the industry 
of the curious drew forth from their obscurity, and by which a great 
number of learned men were engaged to abandon the Portuguese opinion, 
and were convinced that Prester John reigned in Asia, though they still 
continued to dispute about the situation of his kingdom, and odier parti- 
cular circumstances. There are, notwithstanding all this, some men of 
the most eminent learning in our times, who maintain, that John was 
emperor of the Abyssinians, and thus prefer the Portuguese opinion, 
though destitute of authentic proofs and testimonies, to the other above 
mentioned, though supported by the strongest evidence, and the most un- 
questionable authorities. See Euseb. Renaudot, Hist. Patriarch. Alex- 
andr. p. 223, 337. Jos. Franc. Lafitau, Hist, des Decouverte? des Portu- 
gais, torn. i. p. 58, and torn. iii. p. 57. Henr. le. Grand, Dis. de Johanne 
Presbytero in Lobo's Voyage d'Abyssinie, tome i. p." 295. 

b Atabeck was a title of honour given by the sultans to the viceroys or 



Chap. I. 



PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 



263 



and threatened Antioch with the same fate, their courage 
began to fail, and a diffidence in their own strength obliged 
them to turn their eyes once more toward Europe. They 
accordingly implored, in the most lamentable strain, the 
assistance of the European princes ; and requested that a 
new army of cross-bearing champions might be sent to 
support their tottering empire in the Holy Land. Their 
entreaties were favourably received by the Roman pontiffs, 
who left no method of persuasion unemployed, that might 
engage the emperor and other Christian princes to under- 
take a new expedition into Palestine. 

IX. This new expedition was not, however, resolved 
upon with such unanimity and precipitation as the former 
had been-; it was the subject of long deliberation, and its 
expediency was keenly debated both in the cabinets of 
princes, and in the assemblies of the clergy and the peo- 
ple. Bernard, the famous abbot of Clairval, a man of 
the boldest resolution and of the greatest authority, put an 
end to those disputes under the pontificate of Eugenius III., 
who had been his disciple, and who was wholly governed 
by his counsels. This eloquent and zealous ecclesiastic 
preached the cross, i. e. the crusade, in France and Ger- 
many, with great ardour and success ; and in the grand 
parliament assembled at Vezelai, A. D. 1146, at which 
Louis VII., king of France, his queen, and a prodigious 
concourse of the principal nobility, were present, Bernard 
recommended this holy expedition with such a persuasive 
power, and declared with such assurance that he had a 
divine commission to foretell its glorious success, that the 
king, the queen, and all the nobles, immediately put on 
the military cross, and prepared themselves for the journey 
into Palestine. Conrad III. emperor of Germany, was, 
for some time, unmoved by the exhortations of Bernard ; 
but he was at length gained over by the urgent solicita- 
tions of the fervent abbot, and followed the example of the 
French monarch. The two princes, each at the head of 
a numerous army, set out for Palestine, to which they 
were to march by different roads. But, before their arri- 
val in the Holy Land, the greatest part of their forces pe- 
rished miserably, some by famine, some by the sword of 
the Mohammedans, some by shipwreck, and a considera- 
ble number by the perfidious cruelty of the Greeks, who 
looked upon the western nations as more to be feared than 
the infidels themselves. Louis VII. left his kingdom A. D. 
1147, and, in the month of March of the following year, 
he arrived at Anuoch, with the wretched remains of his 
army, dejected and exhausted by a series of hardships. 
Conrad set out also in the year 1147, in the month of May ; 
and, in November following, he arrived at Nice, where he 
joined the French army, after having lost the greatest part 
of his own by calamities of various kinds. From Nice, 
the two princes proceeded to Jerusalem, A. D. 1148 ; 
whence they led back into Europe, the year following, the 

lieutenants, whom they intrusted with the government of their pro- 
rinces. The Latin authors, who have written the history of this holy 
war, and of whom Bongarsius has given us a complete list, call this Ata- 
beck Zenghi, Sanguinus. See Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient, at the word 
Atabeck, p. 142. 

a Beside the historians enumerated by Bongarsius, see Mabillon, An- 
nal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 399, 40-1, 407, 417, 451. Jar,. Gervasii, Histoire 
de 1' Abbe Suger, torn. iii. p. 104, 128, 173, 190, 239. This was the fa- 
mous Suger, abbot of St. Denys, who had seconded the exhortations of 
Bernard in favour of the crusade, and whom Louis appointed regent of I 
France during his absence. Vertot, Histoire des Chevaliers de Malte, 
torn. i. p. 86. J oh. Jac. M'ascovius, de Rebus Imperii sub Conrado III. 

srjj* >> Saladin, so called by the western writers, Salaha'ddin by the 



miserable handful of troops, which had survived the dis- 
asters of the expedition. Such was the unhappy issue of 
this second crusade, which was rendered ineffectual by a 
variety of causes, but more particularly by the jealousies 
and divisions that reigned among the Christian chiefs in 
Palestine. Nor was it more ineffectual in Palestine than 
it was detrimental to Europe, by draining the wealth of 
its fairest provinces, and destroying a prodigious num jer 
of its inhabitants. 1 

X. The unhappy issue of this second expedition was 
not, however, sufficient, when considered alone, to render 
the affairs of the Christians in Palestine entirely desperate. 
Had their chiefs and princes relinquished their animosities 
and contentions, and attacked the common enemy with 
their united force, they would have soon repaired their 
losses, and recovered their glory. But this was far from being 
the case. A fatal corruption of sentiments and manners 
reigned among all ranks and orders. Both the people 
and their leaders, and more especially the latter, abandoned 
themselves without reluctance, to all the excesses of am- 
bition, avarice, and injustice ; they indulged themselves 
in the practice of all sorts of vices ; and by their intestine 
quarrels, jealousies, and discords, they weakened their ef- 
forts against the enemies that surrounded them, and con- 
sumed their strength by thus unhappily dividingit. Saladin 
viceroy or rather sultan of Egypt and Syria, b and the most 
valiant chief of whom the Mohammedan annals boast, 
took advantage of these lamentable divisions. He waged 
war against the Christians with the utmost valour and suc- 
cess; took prisoner Guy of Lusignan, king of Jerusalem, 
in a fatal battle fought near Tiberias, A. D. 1187 ; and, 
in the course of the same year, reduced Jerusalem itself 
under his dominion. 1 The carnage and desolation that 
accompanied this dreadful campaign, threw the affairs of 
the Christians in the east into a deplorable condition, and 
left them no glimpse of hope, butwhat arose from the unex- 
pected succours of the European princes. Succours were 
obtained for them by the Roman pontiffs with much diffi- 
culty, in consequence of repeated solicitations and entrea- 
ties. But the event, as we shall soon see, was by no means 
answerable to the deep schemes that were concerted, or to 
the pains that were employed, for the support of the tot- 
tering kingdom of Jerusalem. 

XI. The third expedition was undertaken, A. D. 11S9, 
by Frederic I. surnamed Barbarossa, emperor of Germany, 
who, with a prodigious army, marched through several 
Grecian provinces, where he had innumerable difficullies 
and obstacles to overcome, into Asia Minor, whence, after 
having defeated the sultan of Iconium, he penetrated into 
Syria. His valour and conduct promised successful and glo- 
rious campaigns to the army he commanded, when, by an 
unhappy accident, he lost his life in the river Saleph, d which 
runs through Seleucia. The manner of his death is not 



Orientals, was no longer vizir or viceroy of Egypt, when he undertook 
the siege of Jerusalem, but had usurped the sovereign power in that 
country, and had also added to his dominions, by right of conquest, se- 
veral provinces of Syria. 

c See the Life of Saladin by Bohao'ddin Ebn Sheddad. an Arabian 
writer, whose history of that warlike sultan was published at Leyden in 
the year 1732, by the late celebrated professor Albert Sclvultens, and ac- 
companied with an excellent Latin translation. See also Herbelot, Bib- 
lioth. Orient, at the article Salah-a'ddin, p. 742, and Marigny's Histoire 
des Arabes, tome iv. p. 289. idrBut, above all, see the learned History 
of the Arabians in the modern part of the Universal History. 

3Qr"* Maimbourg, in his Histoire des Croisades, and Marigny, in his 
Hist, du xii me . Sieclc, say, that Frederic perished in the Cydnus, B river 



64 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



known with certainty ; the loss, however, of such an able 
chief dejected the spirits of his troops, so that considerable 
numbers of them returned into Europe. Those who re- 
mained continued the war under the command of Frede- 
ric, son of the deceased emperor ; but the greatest part of 
them perished miserably by a pestilential disorder, which 
raged with extraordinary violence in the camp, and swept 
off vast numbers every day. The new general died of 
this terrible disease, A. D. 1191 ; those who escaped its 
fury were dispersed, and few returned to their own country.' 1 

XII. The example of Frederic Barbarossa was follow- 
ed, in the year 1190, by Philip Augustus, king of France, 
and the lion-hearted Richard, king of England. These 
two monarchs set out from their respective dominions 
with a considerable number of ships of Avar and trans- 
ports ; b arrived in Palestine in the year 1191, each at the 
head of a separate army ; and were pretty successful in 
their first encounters with the infidels. After the reduc- 
tion of the strong city of Acre, or Ptolemais, which had 
been defended by the Moslems with the most obstinate 
valour, the French monarch returned into Europe, in the 
month of July; 1191, leaving, however, a considerable 
part of the army which he had conducted into Palestine. 
After his departure the king of England pushed the war 
with the greatest vigour, gave daily marks of his heroic 
intrepidity and military skill, and not only defeated Sala- 
din in several engagements, but also made himself mas- 
ter of Jaffa and Caesarea. Deserted, however, by the 
French and Italians, and influenced by other motives and 
considerations of the greatest weight, he concluded, A. 
D. 1192, with Saladin, a truce of three years, three 
months, and as many days, and evacuated Palestine with 
his whole army. d Such was the issue of the third expe- 
dition against the infidels, which nearly exhausted Eng- 
land, France, and Germany, both of men and money, 
without bringing any solid advantage, or giving even a fa- 
vourable turn, to the aifairs of the Christians in the Holy 
Land. 

XIII. These bloody wars between the Christians and 
the Mohammedans gave rise to three famous military 
orders, whose office it was to destroy the robbers that in- 
fested the public roads, to harass the Moslems by perpetu- 
al inroads and warlike achievements, to assist the poor 
and sick pilgrims, whom the devotion of the times con- 
ducted to the holy sepulchre, and to perform other ser- 
vices that tended to the general good. e The first order 
was that of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem, who 
derived their name, and particularly that of Hospitalers, 
from an hospital in that city, dedicated to St. John the 
Baptist, in which certain pious and charitable brethren 
were constantly employed in relieving and refreshing with 
necessary supplies the indigent and diseased pilgrims, who 
were daily arriving at Jerusalem. When this city be- 
came the metropolis of a new kingdom, the revenues of 

of Cilicia. But they are easily to be reconciled with our author, since, ac- 
cording to the descriptions given of the Saleph by several learned geo- 
graphers, and among others by Roger the Annalist, it appears that the 
.Saleph and the Cydnus were the same river under different names. 

a See an ample and satisfactory account of this unhappy campaign in 
the Life of Frederic I. written in German by Henry count Bunau p 
278, 293, 309. 

"gjjT b The learned authors of the Modern Universal History affirm 
that Philip arrived in Palestine, with a supply of men, money, &c. on 
board of six ships, whereas Renaudot mentions 100 sail as employed in 
this expedition. The fleet of Richard consisted of 150 large ships, be- 
side galleys, &c. 



the hospital were so highly augmented by the liberality 
of several princes, and the pious donations of such opu- 
lent persons as frequented the holy places, that they far 
surpassed the wants of those whom they were designed 
to cherish and relieve. Hence it was that Raymond du 
Puy, who was the ruler of this charitable house, offered 
to the king of Jerusalem to make war upon the Moham- 
medans at his own expense, seconded by his brethren, 
who served under him in this famous hospital. Baldwin 
II., to whom this proposal was made, readily accepted it. 
and the enterprise was solemnly approved and confirm- 
ed by the authority of the Roman pontiff. Thus was 
the world surprised with the strange transformation of a 
devout fraternity, who had lived remote from the noisa 
and tumult of arms, in the performance of works of 
charity and mercy, into a valiant and hardy band of war- 
riors. The whole order was upon this occasion divided 
into three classes : the first contained the knights, or sol- 
diers of illustrious birth, who were to unsheath their 
swords in the Christian cause ; in the second were com- 
prehended the priests, who were to officiate in the church- 
es that belonged to the order ; and in the third were the 
serving brethren, or the soldiers of low condition. This 
celebrated order gave, upon many occasions, eminent 
proofs of resolution and A^alour, and acquired immense 
opulence by heroic exploits. When Palestine was irreco- 
verably lost, the knights passed into the isle of Cyprus ; 
they afterwards made themselves masters of the isle of 
Rhodes, where they maintained themselves for a long 
time ; but, being finally driven thence by the Turks, they 
received from the emperor Charles V. a grant of the island 
of Malta/ 

XIV. Another order, which was entirely of a military 
nature, was that of the knights templars, so called from 
a palace, adjoining to the temple of Jerusalem, which 
was appropriated to their use for a certain time by Bald- 
win II. The foundations of this order Were laid at Je- 
rusalem, in the year 1118, by Hugues des Pay ens, Geof- 
frey of St. Aldemar, or of St. Amour, as some will have 
it, and seven other persons, whose names are unknown ; 
but it was not before the year 1228 that it acquired a 
proper degree of stability, by being solemnly confirmed 
in the council of Troves, and subjected to a rule of dis- 
cipline drawn up by St. Bernard.? These warlike tem- 
plars were to defend and support the cause of Christianity 
by force of arms, to have inspection over the public roads, 
and to protect the pilgrims, who came to visit Jerusalem, 
against the insults and barbarity of the Moslems. The 
order flourished for some time, and acquired, by the va- 
lour of its knights, immense riches, and an eminent de- 
gree of military renown ; but, as then - prosperity in- 
creased, their vices were multiplied, and their arrogance, 
luxury, and inhuman cruelty, rose at last to such a mon- 
strous height, that their privileges were revoked, and their 

c More commonly known by the name of Joppa. 

d Daniel, Histoire de France, tome iii. p. 426.— Rapin Thoyras, His- 
toire d'Angleterre, tome ii. Regne de Richard Coeur-de-Lion. — Marig- 
ny, Histoire des Arabes, tome iv. p. 285.. 

c The writers, who have given the history of these three orders, are 
enumerated by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Bibliograph. Antiquar. p. 465; but 
his enumeration is not complete. 

f The best and most recent history of this order is that which waa 
composed by Vertot at the request of tire knights of Malta ; it was first 
published at Paris, and afterwards at Amsterdam, in five volumes 8vo, 
in the year 173a. See also Helyot's Hist, des Ordres, tome iii. p. 72. 

« See Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, lorn. vi. p. 159. 



Chap. IL 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



2G5 



order suppressed with the most terrible circumstances of 
infamy and severity, by a decree of the pope and of 
the council of Yienne in Dauphine, as we shall see in the 
history of the fourteenth century." 

XV. The third order resembled the first in this re- 
spect, that, though it was a military institution, the care 
of the poor and relief of the sick were not excluded from 
the services it prescribed. Its members were distinguish- 
ed by the title of Teutonic Knights of St. Mary of Je- 
rusalem ; and as to its rise, we cannot, with any degree 
of certainty, trace it farther back than the year 1190, 
during the siege of Acre, or Ptolemais, though there are 
historians adventurous enough to seek its origin (which 
they place -at Jerusalem) in a more remote period. Du- 
ring the long and tedious siege of Acre, several pious 
and charitable merchants of Bremen and Lubeck, moved 
with compassion at the sight of the miseries which the 
besiegers suffered in the midst of their success, devoted 
themselves entirely to the service of the sick and wound- 
ed soldiers, and erected a kind of hospital, or tent, where 
they gave constant attendance to all such unhappy ob- 
jects as had recourse to their charity. This pious under- 
taking was so agreeable to the German princes, who 
were present at this terrible siege, that they thought pro- 
per to form a fraternity of German knights to bring it to 
perfection. Their resolution was highly approved by 
pope Celestine III., who confirmed the new order by a 
bull issued on the twenty-third of February, A. D. 1192. 
This order was entirely appropriated to the Germans ; 
and even of them none were admitted as members of it. 
but such as were of an illustrious birth; The support of 
Christianity, the defence of the Holy Land, and the re- 
lief of the poor and needy, were the important duties and 
services to which the Teutonic knights devoted them- 
selves by a solemn vow. Austerity and frugality were 
the first characteristics of this rising order, and the eques- 
trian garment, b bread, and water, were the only rewards 
which the knights derived from their generous labours. 
But as, according to the fate of human things, prosperity 
generates corruption, so it happened that this austerity 
was of a short duration, and diminished in proportion as 
the revenues and possessions of the order were augment- 
ed. The Teutonic knights, after their retreat from Pa- 
lestine, made themselves masters of Prussia, Livonia, 
Courland, and Semigallia ; but, in process of time, their 
victorious arms received several checks ; and when the 
light of the reformation arose upon Germany, they 
were deprived of the richest provinces which they possess- 
ed in that country ; though they still retain there a cer- 
tain portion of their ancient territories.' 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning- the calamitous Events that happened 
to the Church during this Century. 

I. The progress of Christianity in the west had dis- 
armed its most inveterate enemies, and deprived them of 

° See Matthew Paris, Histor. Major, p. 56, for an account of the com- 
mencement of this order. See also Putean, Histoirc de l'Ordre Mili- 
tairedes Tcmpliers, which was republished with considerable additions, 
at Brussels, in 4to. in the year 1751 : and Nic. Gurtleri Historia Tem- 
plaiiorum Militum, Amstelodam. 1691, in Rvo. 

b This garment was a white mantle with a black cross. 

See Raymondi DueUii Histor. Ord. Teutonici, published in folio at 
Vienna, in 17'27.— Chronieon Prussia?, by Peter Duf burs', published in 

3No. XXIH. 67 



the power of doing much mischief, though they still en- 
tertained the same aversion to the disciples of Jesus. 
The Jews and Pagans were no longer able to oppose the 
I propagation of the Gospel, or to oppress its ministers. 
Their malignity remained ; but their credit and authority 
were gone. The Jews were accused by the Christians 
of various crimes, whether real or fictitious we shall not 
determine ; but, instead of attacking their accusers, they 
j were content to defend their own lives, and secure their 
I persons, without daring to give vent to their resentment. 
Affairs were in a somewhat different stale in the northern 
provinces. The Pagans were yet numerous there in se- 
veral districts ; and wherever they composed the majori- 
. t\\ they persecuted the Christians with the utmost bar- 
barity, the most unrelenting and merciless fury. d It is 
true, the Christian kings and princes, who lived in the 
neighbourhood of these persecuting barbarians, checked 
! by degrees their impetuous rage, and never ceased to ha- 
rass and weaken them by hostilities and incursions, until 
j at length they subdued them entirely, and deprived them, by 
i force, both of their independence and their superstitions. 

H. The writers of this century complain grievously of 
the inhuman rage with which the Saracens persecuted 
the Christians in the east ; nor can we question the truth 
cf what they relate on the subject of this severe perse- 
cution. But they pass over in silence the principal rea- 
sons that inflamed the resentment of this fierce people, 
and voluntarily forget that the Christians were the ag- 
gressors in this dreadful war. If we consider the matter 
with impartiality and candour, the conduct of the Sara- 
cens, however barbarous it may have been, will not ap- 
pear so surprising, particularly when we reflect on the 
provocations they received. In the first place, they had a 
right, by the laws of war, to repel by force the violent in- 
vasion of their country ; and the Christians could not 
expect, without being chargeable with the most audacious 
impudence, that a people whom they attacked with a for- 
midable army, and whom, in the fury of their misguided 
zeal, they massacred without mercy, should receive in- 
sults with a tame submission, and give up their lives ane!. 
possessions without resistance. It must also be confessed, 
though with sorrow, that the Christians did not content 
themselves with making war upon the Mohammedans 
in order to rescue Jerusalem and the holy sepulchre out 
of their hands, but carried their brutal fury to the great 
! est length, disgraced their cause by the most detestable 
crimes, filled the eastern provinces through which they 
j passed with scenes of horror, and made the Saracens 
j feel the terrible effects of their violence and barbarity 
; wherever their arms were successful. Is it then so sur- 
; prising to see the infidel Saracens committing, by way of 
reprisal, the same barbarities that the holy warriors had 
perpetrated without the least provocation ? Is there any 
thing so new T and so extraordinary in this, that a people 
naturally fierce, and exasperated, moreover, by the cala- 
mities of a religious war, carried on against them in con- 
tradiction to all the dictates of justice and humanity, should 

4to. at Jena, in die year 1679, by Christoph. Hartknoch. — Helyot, Hist, 
des Ordres, tome iii. p. 140. — Chronicon Ordinis Teutonici, in Anton. 
. Matthsei Analectis veteris a;vi, torn. v. p. 621, 658, ed. nov. — Prmlegia 
Ordinis Teutonici in Petr. a Ludewig Reliquiis Manuscriptor. torn. vi. 
p. 43. 

<t Helmold, Chronic. Sclavor. lib. i. cap. xxxiv. p. 88, cap. xxny. p. 89, 
cap. xl. p. 99. — Lindenbrogii Scriptor. Septentrional, p. 195, 196, 201. — 
Petri Lainbccii Res Hamburg, lib. i. p. 23. 



2G6 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



avenge themselves upon the Christians who resided in Pa- 
lestine, as professing the religion which gave occasion to 
the war, and attached, of consequence, to the cause of 
their enemies and invaders 1 

HI. The rapid and amazing victories of the great 
Cenghiz-Khan, emperor of the Tartars, gave an unhap- 
py turn to the affairs of the Christians in the northern 
parts of Asia, near the close of this century. This war- 
like prince, who was by birth a Mogul, and whose mili- 
tary exploits raise him in the list of fame above almost 
all the commanders either of ancient or modern times, 
rendered his name formidable throughout all Asia, whose 
most flourishing dynasties fell successively before his vic- 
torious arms. David, or Unkhan, who, according to 
some, was the son, or as others will have it, the brother, 
but who was certainly the successor, of the famous Pres- 
ter John, and was himself so called in common discourse, 
was the first victim that Genghiz sacrificed to his bound- 
less ambition. He invaded his territory, and put to 
flight his troops in a bloody battle, where David lost, at 

* The Greek, Latin, and Oriental writers, are far from being agreed 
concerning the year in which the emperor of the Tartars attacked and 
defeated Prester John. The greater part of the Latin writers place this 
event in the year 1202, and consequently in the thirteenth century. But 
Marcus Paulus Venetus (in his book de Regionibus Orierrfalibus, lib. i. 
cap. li. lii. liii.) and other historians whose accounts I have followed as 
the most probable, place the defeat of this second Prester John in the 
year 1187. The learned and illustrious Demetrius Cantemir (in his 
Prcef. ad Histor. Imperii Ottomanici, p. 45, torn. i. of the French edition) 



the same time, his kingdom and his life. 1 The princes, 
who governed the Turks, Indians, and the province of 
Cathay, fell, in their turn, before the victorious Tartar, 
and were all either put to death, or rendered tributary ; 
nor did Genghiz stop here, but proceeding into Persia, 
India, and Arabia, he overturned the Saracen dominion 
in those regions, and substituted that of the Tartars in 
its place. b From this period the Christian cause lost much 
of its authority and credit in the provinces that had been 
ruled by Prester John and his successor David, and con- 
tinued to decline and lose ground until it sunk entirely 
under the weight of oppression, and was succeeded in 
some places by the errors of the Mohammedan faith, and 
in others by the superstitions of paganism. We must 
except, however, in this general account, the kingdom of 
Tangut, the chief residence of Prester John, in which his 
posterity, who persevered in the profession of Christianity, 
maintained, for a long time, a certain sort of tributary 
dominion, which exhibited, indeed, but a faint shadow oi 
their former grandeur. 6 



gives an account of this matter different from the two now mentioned, 
and affirms, upon the authority of the Arabian writers, that Genghiz did 
not invade the territories of his neighbours before the year 1214. 

■•See Petit de la Croix, Histoire de Genghiz-Can, p. 120, 121, pub- 
lished in 12mo. at Paris, in the year 1711. — Herbelot, Biblioth. Oriental, 
at the article Genghiz-Khan, p. 378. — Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Va- 
tican, torn. iii. part i. p. 101, and 295. — Jean du Plan Carpin, Voyage en 
Tartarie, ch. v. in the Recueil des Voyages au Nord, tome vii. p. 350. 

c Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. iii. part ii. p. 500. 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER 1. 

Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
during this Century. 

I. Notwithstanding the decline of the Grecian 
empire, the calamities in which it was repeatedly involved, 
and the frequent revolutions and civil wars that consumed 
its strength, and were precipitating its ruin, the arts and 
sciences still flourished in Greece, and covered with glory 
such as cultivated them with assiduity and success. 
This may be ascribed, not only to the liberality of the 
emperors, and to the extraordinary zeal which the family 
of the Comneni discovered for the advancement of learn- 
ing, but also to the provident vigilance of the patriarchs 
of Constantinople, who took all possible measures to pre- 
vent the clergy from falling into ignorance and sloth, 
lest the Greek church should thus be deprived of able 
champions to defend its cause against the Latins. The 
learned and ingenious commentaries of Eustathius, bish- 
op of Thessalonica, upon Homer and Dionysius the 
Geographer, are sufficient to show the diligence and la- 
bour that were employed by men of the first genius in 
the improvement of classical erudition, and in the study 
of antiquity. And if we turn our view toward the vari- 
ous writers who composed in this century the history of 
their own times, such as Cinnamus, Glycas, Zonaras, 
Nicephorus, Briennius, and others, we shall find in their 
productions undoubted marks of learning and genius, as 
well as of a laudable ambition to obtain the esteem and 
approbation of future ages. 

II. Nothing could equal the zeal and enthusiasm with 
which Michael Anchialus, patriarch of Constantinople, 
encouraged the study of philosophy by his munificence, 
and still more by the extraordinary influence of his illus- 
trious example. 11 It seems, however, to have been the 
Aristotelian philosophy that was favoured in such a dis- 
tinguished manner by this eminent prelate ; and it was in 
the illustration and improvement of this profound and 
intricate system that those Greeks who had a philosophical 
turn were principally employed, as appears from several 
remains of ancient erudition, and particularly from the 
commentaries of Eustratius upon the ethics and other 
treatises of the Grecian sage. We are not, however, to 
imagine that the sublime wisdom of Plato was neglected 
in this century, or that his doctrines had fallen into disre- 
pute. It appears, on the contrary, that they were adopted 
by many. Such, more especially, as had imbibed the 
precepts and spirit of the Mystics, preferred them infinitely 
to the Peripatetic philosophy, which they considered as 

■ Theodoras Balsamon, Prref. ad Photii Nomocanonem in Henr. Jus- 
telli Bibliotheca Juris canonici veteris, torn. ii. p. 814. 

t Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 463. — Pasquier, Recherches 
de a France, liv. iii. ch. xxix. — Petri Lambecii Histor. Biblioth. Vin- 
dobfon. lib. ii. cap. v. p. 260. — Histoire Liter, de la France, tome ix. p. 
60—80. 

" Boulay, Hist Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 215. Pocquct de la Livoniere. 
Dissert, sur lAntiquite de TUniversite dAngers, p. 21. published in 
4to. at Angers, 1736. 

<• Histoire Gen. de Languedoc, par les Benedictins, tome ii. p. 517. 
The inhabitants of Bologna pretend that their academy was founded ; 



an endless source of sophistry and presumption, while 
they looked upon the Platonic system as the philosophy 
of reason and piety, of candour and virtue. This diver- 
sity of sentiment produced the famous controversy, wnich 
was managed with such vehemence and erudition among 
the Greeks, concerning the respective merit and excellence 
of the Peripatetic and Platonic doctrines. 

III. In the western world the pursuit of knowledge was 
now carried on with incredible emulation and ardour ; and 
all branches of science were studied with the greatest 
application and industry. This literary enthusiasm was 
encouraged and supported by the influence and liberality 
of some of the European monarchs, and Roman pontiffs, 
who perceived the happy tendency of the sciences to 
soften the savage manners of uncivilized nations, and 
-thereby to administer an additional support to civil govern- 
ment, as well as an ornament to human society. Hence 
learned societies were formed, and colleges established, in 
which the liberal arts and sciences were publicly taught. 
The prodigious concourse of students, who resorted thither 
for instruction, occasioned, in process of time, the enlarge- 
ment of these schools, which had arisen from small 
beginnings, and their erection into universities, as they 
were called, in the succeeding age. The principal cities 
of Europe were adorned with establishments of this kind ; 
but Paris surpassed them all in the number and variety 
of its schools, the merit and reputation of its public 
teachers, and the immense multitude of the studious 
youth that frequented its colleges. And thus was exhi- 
bited in that famous city the model of our present schools 
of learning ; a model indeed defective in several respects, 
but which, in after-times, was corrected and improved, 
and brought gradually to higher degrees of perfection. b 
About the same time the famous school of Angers, in 
which the youth were instructed in various sciences, and 
particularly and principally in the civil law, was founded 
by the zeal and industry of Ulgerius, bishop of that city ; e 
and the college of Montpelier, where law and physic were 
taught with great success, had already acquired a consi- 
derable reputation. 11 The same literary spirit reigned also 
in Italy. The academy of Bologna, whose origin may 
be traced higher than this century, was now in the highest 
renown, and was frequented by great numbers of students, 
and more especially by such as were desirous of being 
instructed in the civil and canon laws. The fame of this 
academy was, in a great measure, established by the 
munificence of the emperor Lotharius II. who took it 
under his protection, and enriched it with new privileges 
and immunities. 6 In the same province flourished also 

in the fifth century by Theodosius II. and they pretend to show the di- 
ploma by which that emperor enriched their city with this valuable es- 
tablishment. But the greatest part of those writers, who have studied 
with attention and impartiality the records of ancient times, maintain, 
that this diploma is a spurious production, and allege weighty arguments 
to prove, that the academy of Bologna is of no older date than the e.eT- 
enili century, and that in the succeeding age, particularly from the Ct.c 
of Lotharius II. it received those improvements that rendered i'. so fa- 
mous throughout all Europe. See Sigonii Historia Bononiensis, B( ;i is 
published, with learned observations, in the works of that ejtci llent at.- 
thor. — ■ Muratori Antiq. Italic, medii vEvi, torn. ii. p. 23, 884, 8^S.— Jw:, 



2G8 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



i.E.T 



II 



the celebrated school of Salernum, where great numbers 
resorted, and which was wholly set apart for the study 
of physic. While this zealous emulation, in advancing 
the cause of learning and philosophy, animated so 
many princes and prelates, and discovered itself in the 
erection of so many academies and schools of learning, the 
Roman pontiff, Alexander III. was seized also with noble 
enthusiasm. In a council holden at Rome, A. D. 1179, 
lie caused a solemn law to be published, for erecting new 
schools in the monasteries and cathedrals, and restoring 
to their primitive lustre those which, through the sloth 
and ignorance of the monks and bishops, had fallen into 
ruin.* But the effect which this law was intended to 
produce was prevented by the growing fame of the newly 
erected academies, to which the youth resorted from all 
parts, and left the episcopal and monastic schools entirely 
empty ; so that they gradually declined, and sunk, at 
last, into a total oblivion. 

IV. Many were the signal advantages that attended 
these literary establishments ; and what is particularly 
worthy of notice, they not only rendered knowledge more 
general by facilitating the means of instruction, but were 
also the occasion of forming a new circle of sciences, 
better digested, and much more comprehensive than that 
which had been hitherto studied by the greatest adepts in 
learning. The whole extent of learning and philosophy, 
before this period, was confined to the seven liberal arts, 
as they were commonly called, of which three were known 
by the name of the trivium, which comprehended gram- 
mar, rhetoric, and logic ; and the other four by the title 
of quadrivium, which included arithmetic, music, geome- 
try, and astronomy. The greatest part of the learned, as 
we have formerly observed, were satisfied with their 
literary acquisitions, when they had made themselves 
masters of the trivium, while such as with an adventu- 
rous flight aspired to the quadrivium, were considered as 
stars of the first magnitude, as the great luminaries of the 
learned world. But in this century the aspect of letters 
underwent a considerable and an advantageous change. 
The liberal arts and sciences were multiplied ; and new 
and unfrequented paths of knowledge were opened to the 
emulation of the studious youth. Theology was placed 
in the number of the sciences ; not that ancient theology 
which had no merit but its simplicity, and which was 
drawn, without the least order or connexion, from divers 
passages of the holy scriptures, and from the opinions and 
inventions of the primitive doctors, but that philosophical 
or scholastic theology which, with the deepest abstraction, 
traced divine truth to its first principles, and thence follow- 
ed it into its various connexions and branches. Nor was 
theology alone added to the ancient circle of sciences ; the 
studies of the learned languages, of the civil and canon 
law, and of physic, b were now brought into high repute. 
Parti ;ular academies were consecrated to the culture of 
each of these sciences, in various places ; and thus it was 

Hen. Bohmeri Prxfat. ad Corpus Juris Canon, p. 9, as also the elegant 
History of the Academy of Bologna written in the German language 
- bv the learned Keufelius, and published at Helmstadt in 8vo. in the year 
1750. 

"■ See B. Bohmeri Jus Eccles. Protestant, torn. iv. p. 705. 

Ij" b The word physica, though, according to its etymology, it denotes 
the study of natural philosophy in general, was, in the twelfth century, 
applied particularly to medicinal studies; and it has also preserved that 
limited sense in the English language. 

e Otherwise called Werner. 



natural to consider them as important branches of erudi- 
tion, and an acquaintance with them as a qualification 
necessary to such as aimed at universal learning. All 
this required a considerable change in the division of th« 
sciences hitherto received ; and this change was accord 
ingly brought about. The seven liberal arts were, by 
degrees, reduced to one general title, and were compre- 
hended under the name of philosophy, to which theology 
jurisprudence, and physic, were added. And hence origi 
nated the four classes of science, or, to use the academic 
phrase, the four faculties which prevailed in the universi- 
ties, in the following century. 

V. A happy and unexpected event restored in Italy the 
lustre and authority of the ancient Roman law, and, at 
the same time, lessened the credit of those systems of 
legislation which had been received for several ages 
past. This event was the discovery of the original 
manuscript of the famous Pandect of Justinian, which 
was found in the ruins of Amalphi, or Melfi, when that 
city was taken by Lotharius II. in 1137, and of which 
that emperor made a present to the inhabitants of Pisa, 
whose fleet had contributed, in a particular manner, to the 
success of the siege. This admirable collection, which 
had been almost buried in oblivion, was no sooner re- 
covered, than the Roman law became the grand object of 
the studies and labours of the learned. In the academy 
of Bologna, colleges were erected expressly for the study 
of the Roman jurisprudence ; and these excellent institu- 
tions were multiplied in several parts of Italy, in process 
of time, and animated other European nations to imitate 
so wise an example. Hence arose a great revolution in 
the public tribunals, and an entire change in their judicial 
proceedings. Hitherto different systems of law had been 
followed in different courts ; and every person of distinc- 
tion, particularly among the Franks, had the liberty of 
choosing that code of law which was to be the rule of his 
conduct. But the Roman law acquired such credit and 
authority, that it superseded, by degrees, all other laws in 
the greatest part of Europe, and was substituted in the 
place of the Salic, Lombard, and Burgundian codes, which 
before this period were in the highest reputation. It is an 
ancient opinion, that Lotharius II. pursuant to the counsels 
and solicitations of Irnerius, c principal professor of the 
Roman law in the academy of Bologna, published an 
edict enjoining the abrogation of all the statutes then in 
force, and substituting in their place the Roman law, by 
which, for the future, all without exception were to modify 
their contracts, terminate their differences, and regulate 
their actions. But this opinion, as many learned men 
have abundantly proved, 4 is far from being supported by 
sufficient evidence. 

VI. No sooner was the civil law placed in the number 
of the sciences, and considered as an important branch of 
academical learning, than the Roman pontiffs, and their 
zealous adherents, judged it not only expedient, but also 

J See Herm. Conringius de Origine Juris Gcnnanici, cap. xxii.—Gui 
do Grandus, Epist. de Pandectis, p. 21, 69, published at Florence, in 4 to 
in 1737. — Henry Brencmann, Historia Pandectar. p. 41. — Lud. Ant 
Muratori, Preef. ad Leges Langobardicas, apud scriptor. rerum Ital 
torn. i. partii. p. 4, &c. Antiq. Ital. medii iEvi, torn. ii. p. 285. Thcr< 
was a warm controversy carried on concerning this matter between 
George Calixtus and Barthol. Nihusius, the latter of whom embraces 
the vulgar opinion concerning the edict of Lotharius, obtained by ths 
solicitations of Irnerius ; of this controversy there is a circumstantial ac- 
count in the Cimbria Literata of Mollerus, torn. iii. p. 142. . 



Chap. I. 



LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



269 



highly necessary, that the canon law should have the 
same privilege. There existed, before this time, certain 
collections of the canons or laws of the church ; but these 
collections were so destitute of order and method, and 
were so defective, both in respect to matter and form, that 
they could not be conveniently explained in the schools, 
or be brought into use as systems of ecclesiastical polity. 
Hence it was, that Gratian, a Benedictine monk, belong- 
ing to the convent of St. Felix and Nabor at Bologna, 
and by birth a Tuscan, composed about the year 1130, 
for the use of the schools, an abridgment, or Epitome of 
Canon Law, drawn from the letters of the pontiffs, the 
decrees of councils, and the writings of the ancient 
doctors. Pope Eugenius III. was extremely pleased with 
this work, which was also received with the highest 
applause by the doctors and professors of Bologna, and 
was unanimously adopted, as the text they were to follow 
in their public lectures. The professors at Paris were the 
first that followed the example of those of Bologna, 
which, in process of time, was imitated by the greatest 
part of the European colleges. But, notwithstanding the 
encomiums bestowed upon this performance, which was 
commonly called the decretal of Gratian, 1 and was en- 
titled, by the author himself, the re-union or coalition of 
the jarring canons, b several most learned and eminent 
writers of the Romish communion acknowledge, that it is 
full of errors and defects. As, however, the main design 
of this abridgment was to support the despotism, and to 
extend the authority of the Roman pontiffs, its innumera- 
ble defects were overlooked, its merits were exaggerated ; 
and, what is still more surprising, it enjoys, at this clay, in 
an age of light and liberty, that high degree of veneration 
and authority, which was inconsiderately, though more 
excusably, lavished upon it in an age of tyranny, super- 
stition, and darkness. 4 

VII. Such among the Latins as were ambitious of 
making a figure in the republic of letters, applied them- 
selves to philosophy with the utmost zeal and diligence. 
Taken in its most extensive and general meaning, that 
study comprehended, according to the method which was 
the most generally received toward the middle of this 
century, four classes : it was divided into theoretical, 
practical, mechanical, and logical. The first class com- 
prised natural theology, mathematics, and natural phi- 
losophy. In the second class were ranked ethics, cecono- 
mics, and politics. The third contained the seven arts 
that are more immediately subservient to (he purposes 
of life, such as navigation, agriculture, hunting, &c. 
The fourth was divided into grammar and composition, 

• Dccretum Gratiana. ^ Concordia Discordantium Canonum. 

• See, among others, Anton. Augustmus, de Emendatione Gratiani, 
published in 8vo. at Arnheim, A. D 1678, with the learned observations 
of Steph, Baluze and Ger. a Maastricht. 

d See Gerhard, a Maastricht, Historia Juris Ecclesiastici, sect. 293, p. 
325. — B. Just. Hen. Bohmer's Jus Eccles. Protestant, torn. i. p. 100, and 
more particularly the learned Preface, with which he enriched the new 
edition of the Canon Law, published at Halle in 4to. in the year 1747. 
See also Alex. Machiavelli Observationes ad Sigonii Histor. Bononien- 
sem, torn. iii. Oper. Sigonii, p. 128. This writer has drawn, from the 
Kalcndarium Archi-Gymnasii Bononiensis, several particularities con- 
cerning Gratian and his work, which were generally unknown, but 
whose truth is also much disputed. What increases the suspicion of 
their being fabulous is, that this famous Kalendar, of which the Bologn- 
ese boast so much, and which they have so often promised to publish in 
crder to dispel the doubts of the learned, has never yet seen the light. 
B asides, in the fragments that have appeared, there are manifest marks 
of unfair dealing. 

• These literary anecdotes I have taken from several writers, particu- 

No. XXIII. 68 



the latter of which was subdivided into rhetoric, dialec- 
tics, and sophistry ; and under the term dialectic was 
comprehended that part of the metaphysic science which 
treats of general notions. This division was almost uni- 
versally adopted. Some, indeed, were inclined to separate 
grammar and mechanics from philosophy ; a separation 
highly condemned by others, who, under the general 
term philosophy, comprehended the whole circle of the 
sciences. e 

VIII. The learned, who taught or who cultivated these 
different branches of study, were divided into various 
factions, which attacked each other with the utmost 
animosity and bitterness. f At this time, three methods of 
teaching philosophy were practised by different doctors. 
The first was the ancient and plain method, which con- 
fined its researches to the philosophical notions of Porphyrv, 
and the dialectic system, commonly attributed to St Au- 
gustine, and in which was laid down this general rule, 
that philosophical inquiries were to be limited to a small 
number of subjects, lest, by their becoming too extensive, 
religion might suffer by a profane mixture of human 
subtlety with its divine wisdom. The second method was 
called the Aristotelian, because it consisted in explications 
of the works of that philosopher,^ several of whose pro- 
ductions, being translated into Latin, were now almost 
every where in the hands of the learned. These transla- 
tions were, indeed, extremely obscure and incorrect, and 
led those who made use of them in their academical 
lectures, into various blunders, and often into such notions 
as were not more absurd than whimsical and singular. 
The third was termed the free method, employed by such 
as were bold enough to search after truth, in the manner 
they thought the most adapted to render their inquiries 
successful, and who followed the bent of their own genius, 
without rejecting, however, the aid of -Aristotle and Plato. 
Laudable as this method was, it became an abundant 
source of sophistry and chicane, by the imprudent 
management of those who employed it ; for these subtle 
doctors, through a wanton indulgence of their metaphy- 
sical fancies, did Mttle more than puzzle their disciples 
with vain questions, and fatigue them with endless dis- 
tinctions and divisions. 11 These different systems, and 
vehement contests, that divided the philosophers, gave to 
many a disgust against philosophy in general, and 
prompted them to desire, with impatience, its banishment 
from the public schools. 

IX. Of all the controversies that divided the philoso- 
phers in this century, there were none carried en with 
greater animosity, and treated with greater subtlety and 

larly from Hugo a St. Victore, Didaseali Libro ii. cap. ii. p. 7. torn. i. 
op. and from the Metalogicum of John of Salisbury. 

f See Godof. de St. Victore, Carmen de Sectis Philosoph. published by 
Le Bceuf, in his Diss, sur l'Histoire Eccle'siast. et Civile de Paris, tome 
ii. p. 254. — Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 562. — Ant. Wood, 
Antiq. Oxoniens. t. i.p. 51. Jo. SarisburiensisMetalog. et Policrat. passim. 

* Rob. de Monte, Append, ad Sigebertum Gemblacens. published by 
d'Aeheri, among the works of Guibert, abbot of Nogent, ad annum 
1128, p. 753. " Jacobus Clericus de Venctia transtulit de Graco in La- 
tinum quosdam libros Aristotelis et commentatus est, scilicet Topiea, An- 
nal priores et posteriores et clenchos ; quamvis antiquior trahslatio super 
eosdem libros haberctur." Thorn. Becket, Epistolar. lib. ii. cp. xciii. p. 
454. edit. Bruxell. 1682, in 4to. "Itero preces, quatenus libros Aristo- 
telis, quos habetis, mihi faciatis exscribi. — Precor etiam itcrata supplica- 
tione quatenus in operibus Aristotelis, ubi difficiliora fuerint, notulas fa- 
ciatis, eo quod interpretem aliquatenus suspectum habeo, quia, licet elo- 
quens fuerit alias, lit sa;pe audivi, minus tamen fuit in gramrnatica in- 
stitutus." 

h See Jo. Sarisburiensis PolicraL p. 434, et Mctalo°;. p. 814, &c. 



270 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



PartIL 



refinement, than the contest of the Dialecticians concern- 
ing universals. The sophistical doctors were wholly 
occupied about the intricate questions relating to genus 
and species, to the solution of which they directed all 
their philosophical efforts, and the whole course of their 
metaphysical studies ; but not all in the same method, nor 
upon the same principles. 1 The two leading sects into 
which they had been divided long before this period, and 
which were distinguished by the titles of Realists and 
Nominalists, not only still subsisted, but were subdivided, 
each into smallen parties and factions, according as the 
two opposite and leading schemes were modified by new 
fancies and inventions. The Nominalists, though they 
had their followers, were nevertheless much inferior to the 
Realists, both with respect to the number of their disciples, 
and to the credit and reputation of their doctrine. A 
third sect arose under the name of Formalists, who pre- 
tended to terminate the controversy, by steering a middle 
cotirse between the jarring systems now mentioned ; but, 
as the hypotheses of these new doctors were most obscure 
and unintelligible, they only perplexed matters more than 
they had hitherto been, and furnished new subjects of 
contention and dispute. b 

Those among the learned, who turned their pursuits to 
more interesting and beneficial branches of science, than 
the intricate and puzzling doctrine of universals, travelled 
into the different countries, where the kinds of knowledge, 
which they wished to cultivate, chiefly flourished. The 
students of physic, astronomy, and mathematics, continu- 
ed to frequent the schools of the Saracens in Spain. 
Many of the learned productions of the Arabians were 
also translated into Latin ; c for the high fame which that 
people had acquired for erudition, together with a desire of 
converting the Spanish Saracens to Christianity, had 
excited many to study their language, and to acquire a 
considerable knowledge of their doctrine. 

a John of Salisbury, a very elegant and ingenious writer of this age, 
censures, with no small degree of wit, the crude and unintelligible spe- 
culations of these sophists, in his book entitled Policraticon, seu deNugis 
Curialium, lib. vii. p. 451. He observes, that more time had been con- 
sumed in resolving the question relating to genus and species, than the 
Caesars had employed in making themselves masters of the whole world ; 
that the riches of Crasus were inferior to the treasures which had been 
exhausted in this controversy ; and that the contending parties, after 
having spent their whole lives upon this single point, had neither been 
so happy as to determine it to their satisfaction, nor to make, in the la- 
byrinths of science where they had been groping, any discovery that 
was worth the pains they had taken. His words are: " veterem paratus 
est solvere quaestionem de generibus et speciebus (he speaks here of a 
certain philosopher) in qua laborans mundus jam senuit, in qua plus 
temporis consumptum est, quam in acquirendo et regendo orbis imperio 
consumpserit Cajsarea domus : plus eftusum pecuniae, quam in omnibus 
divitiis suis possederit Croesus. Haec enim tarn diu multos tenuit, ut 
cum hoc unum tota vita queererent, tandem nee istud nee aliud inveni- 
rent." 

& See the above cited author's Policrat. lib. vii. p. 451, where he gives 
a succinct account of the Formalists, Realists, and Nominalists, in the 
following words: " Sunt qui more mathematicorum formas abstrahunt, 
et ad illas quicquid de universalibus dicitur referunt," Such were the 
Formalists, who applied the doctrine of universal ideas to what the ma- 
thematicians call abstract forms. " Alii discutiunt Intellectus, et eos 
universalium nominibus censeri confirmant." Here we find the Realists 
pointed out, who, under the name of universals, -comprehended all intel- 
lectual powers, qualities, and ideas. " Fueruntet qui voces ipsas genera 
dicerent et species : sed eorum jam explosa sententia est, et facile cum 
auctore suo evanuit. Sunt tamen adhuc, qui deprehenduntur in vestigiis 
eorum, licet erubescant vel auctorem vel scientiam profiteri, solis nomi- 
nibus inhaerer.tes, quod rebus et intellectibus subtrahunt, sermonibus 
ascribunt." This was a sect of the Nominalists, who, ashamed (as this 
author alleges) to profess the exploded doctrine of Roscellinus, which 
placed genus and species in a class of mere words, or simple denomi- 
nations, modified that system by a slight change of expression only, 



CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and its Form of Government during this Century. 

I. Wherever we turn our eyes among the various 
ranks and orders of the clergy, we perceive, in this cen- 
tury, the most flagrant marks of licentiousness and fraud, 
ignorance and luxury, and other vices, whose pernicious 
effects were deeply felt both in church and state. If 
we except a very small number, who retained a sense of 
the sanctity of their vocation, and lamented the corrup- 
tion and degeneracy of their order, it may be said, with 
respect to the rest, that their whole business was to 
satisfy their lusts, to multiply their privileges by grasping 
perpetually at new honours and distinctions, to increase 
their opulence, to diminish the authority and encroach 
upon the privileges of princes and magistrates, and, neg- 
lecting entirely the interests of religion and the cure of 
souls, to live in ease and pleasure, and draw out their days 
in an unmanly and luxurious indolence. This appears 
manifestly from two remarkable treatises of St. Bernard, 
in one of which he exposes the corruption of. .the pontiffs 
and bishops," 3 while he describes in the other the enormous 
crimes of the monastic orders, whose licentiousness he 
chastises with a just severity. e 

II. The pontiffs, who successively ruled the Latin 
church, governed that spiritual and mystical body by the 
maxims of worldly ambition, and thereby fomented the 
warm contest that had arisen between the imperial and 
sacerdotal powers. On the one hand, the popes not only 
maintained the opulence and authority which they had 
already acquired, but extended their views, and laboured 
strenuously to enlarge both, though they had not all equal 
success in this ambitious attempt. The European em- 
perors and princes, on the other hand, alarmed at the 
strides which the pontiffs were making to universal do- 

which did not essentially distinguish their doctrine from that of the ordi- 
nary Nominalists. It appears from all this, that the sect of the Forma- 
lists is of more ancient date than John Duns Scotus, whom many 
learned men consider as its founder. See Jo. Sarisbur. Metalogic. lib. 
ii. cap. xvii. p. 814, where that eminent author describes at large the va- 
rious contests of these three sects, and sums up their differences in the 
following words : "Alius consistit in vocibus, licet haec opinio cum Ros- 
cellino suo fere jam evanuerit; alius sermones intuetur : alius versatui 
in intellectibus," &c. 

e Gerard of Cremona, who was so famous among the Italians for his 
eminent skill in astronomy and physic, undertook a voyage to Toledo, 
where he translated into Latin several Arabian treatises ; see Muratori's 
Antiq. Ital. medii JEvi, torn. iii. p. 936, 937. — Mirmet, a French monk, 
travelled into Spain and Africa, to learn geography among the Saracens. 
See Luc. D'Acherii Spicilegium Scriptor. torn. ix. p. 443, ed. Antiq. — 
Daniel Morlach, an Englishman, who was extremely fond of mathema- 
tical learning, undertook a journey to Toledo, whence he brought into 
his own country a considerable number of Arabian books : Ant. Wood, 
Antiquit. Oxon. torn. i. p. 55. — Peter, abbot of Clugni, surnamed the 
"Venerable, after having sojourned for some time among the Spaniards, 
in order to make himself master of the Arabian language, translated 
into Latin the Koran, and the life of Mohammed: see Mabillon, Annal. 
Bened. torn. vi. lib. Ixxvii. 345. This eminent ecclesiastic, as appears 
from the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, p. 1169, found, upon his arrival in 
Spain, persons of learning from England and other countries, who ap- 
plied themselves with extraordinary assiduity and ardour to the study oi 
astrology. We might multiply the examples of those who travelled in 
quest of science during this century ; but those now alleged are suffi- 
cient for our purpose. 

d In the work entitled, Considerationum Libri V. ad Eugenium Pon- 
tificem. 

e See his defence of the crusades, under the title of Apologia ad Gu- 
liehnum Abbatem ; as also Gerhohus, de corrupto Ecclesiae Statu, in 
Baluzii Miscell. torn. v. p. 63— Gallia Christiana, torn. l. p. 6. App. 
torn. ii. p 265, 273, &c. Boulay's Histor. Acadcm. Paris, torn ii. p. 490, 
690. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC 



271 



minion, used their utmost efforts to disconcert their mea- 
sures, and to check their growing opulence and power. 
These violent dissensions between the empire and the 
priesthood (for so the contending parties were styled in 
this century,) were most unhappy in their effects, which 
were felt throughout all the European provinces. Pascal 
II., who had been raised to the pontificate about the con- 
clusion of the preceding age, seemed now to sit firm and 
secure in the apostolic chair, without the least apprehen- 
sion from the imperial faction, whose affairs had taken an 
unfavourable turn, and who had not the courage to elect 
a new pope of their party in the place of Guibert, who 
died in the year 1100. a 

Unwilling to let pass unimproved the present success 
of the papal faction, Pascal renewed, in a council assem- 
bled at Rome, A. D. 1 102, the decrees of his predecessors 
against investitures, and the excommunications they had 
thundered out against Henry IV., and used his most vi- 
gorous endeavours to raise up on all sides new enemies to 
that unfortunate emperor. Henry opposed, with great 
constancy and resolution, the efforts of this violent pon- 
tiff, and eluded, with much dexterity and vigilance, his 
perfidious stratagems. But his heart, wounded in the 
tenderest part, lost all its firmness and courage, when, in 
the year 1106, an unnatural son, under the impious pre- 
text of religion, took up arms against his person and his 
cause. Henry V. (so was this monster afterwards named) 
seized his father in a most treacherous manner, and 
obliged him to abdicate the empire ; after which the un- 
happy prince retired to Liege, where, deserted by all his 
adherents, he shook off, in 1106, the burthen of life and 
of misery. It has been a matter of dispute, whether it 
was the instigation of the pontiff, or the ambitious and 
impatient thirst of dominion, that engaged Henry V. 
to declare war against his father ; nor is it, perhaps, easy 
to decide this question with a perfect degree of evidence. 
One thing, however, is unquestionably certain, that Pas- 
cal II. not only dissolved, or rather impiously pretended 
to dissolve, the oath of fidelity and obedience that Henry 
had taken to his father, but adopted the cause, and sup- 
ported the interests of this unnatural rebel with the utmost 
zeal, assiduity, and fervour. b 

i III. The revolution that this odious rebellion caused in 
the empire, was, however much less favourable to the 
views of Pascal, than that lordly pontiff expected. Henry 
V. could by no means be persuaded to renounce his right 
of investing the bishops and abbots, though he was wil- 
ling to grant the right of election to the canons and 
monks, as was usual before his time. Upon this the ex- 
asperated pontiff renewed, in the councils of Guastalla and 
Troyes, the decrees that had so often been promulgated 
against investitures ; and the flame broke out with new 
force. It was, indeed, suspended during a few years, by 
the Avars in which Henry was engaged, and which pre- 
vented his bringing the affair to a decision. But nosoon- 

=pj- * Dr. Mosheim's affirmation here must be somewhat modified 
in order to be true ; it is certain that, after the death of Guibert, the im- 
perial party chose in his place a person named Albert, who, indeed, 
was seized and imprisoned on the dav of his election. Theodoric and 
Magnulf were successively chosen after Albert, but could not long; sup- 
port their claims to the pontificate. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. liv. lxv. 
vol. xiv. p. 10. Brussels edition in 8vo. 

» These accounts are drawn from the most authentic sources, and also 
from the eminent writers, whose authority I made use of, and whose 
names I mentioned, in that part of the preceding century which corre- 
sponds with the §ubject here treated. 



er had he made peace with his enemies, and composed the 
tumults that troubled the tranquillity of the empire, than 
he set out for Italy with a formidable army, A. D. 1110, 
in order to put an end to this long and unhappy contest. 
He advanced towards Rome by slow marches, while the 
trembling pontiff, seeing himself destitute of all succour, 
and reduced to the lowest and most defenceless condition, 
proposed the following conditions of peace : That the em- 
peror, on one hand, should renounce the right of investing 
with the ring and crosier; and that the bishops and abbots 
should, on the other hand, resign and give over, to him 
and his successors, all the grants, received from Charle- 
magne, of the rights and privileges that belong to royalty, 
such as the power of raising tribute, coining money, and 
possessing independent lands and territories, with other im- 
munities of a like nature. These conditions were agree- 
able to Henry, who accordingly gave a formal consent to 
them in the year 1111 ; but they were extremely dis- 
pleasing to the Italian and German bishops, who expressed 
their dissent in the strongest terms. Hence a terrible tu- 
mult arose in the church of St. Peter, where the contend- 
ing parties were assembled with their respective followers; 
upon which Henry ordered the pope to be seized, and to be 
confined in the castle of Viterbo. After having remained 
there for some time, the captive pontiff was engaged, by 
the unhappy circumstances of his present condition, to en- 
ter into a new convention, by which he solemnly receded 
from the article of the former treaty that regarded investi- 
tures, and confirmed to the emperor the privilege of inaugu- 
rating the bishops and abbots with the ring and crosier. 
Peace being thus concluded, the vanquished pontiff array- 
ed Henry with the imperial diadem/ 

IV. This transitory peace, which was the fruit of vio- 
lence and necessity, was followed by greater tumults and 
more dreadful wars, than had yet afflicted the church. 
Immediately after the conclusion of this treat}-, Rome was 
filled with the most vehement commotions ; and a loud 
clamour was raised against the pontiff, Avho was accused 
of having violated, in a scandalous manner, the duties and 
dignity of his station, and of having prostituted the ma- 
jesty of the church by his ignominious compliance with the 
demands of the emperor. To appease these commotions, 
Pascal assembled, in the year 1112, a council in the La- 
teran church, and not only confessed, with contrition and 
humility, the fault he had committed in concluding such 
a convention with Henry, but submitted the question to 
the determination of the council, who accordingly took 
that treaty into consideration, arid solemnly annulled it. d 
This step was followed by many events, that gave, for a 
long time, an unfavourable turn to the affairs of the em- 
peror. He was excommunicated in many synods and 
councils, both in France and Germany ; he Avas even 
placed in the black list of heretics, a denomination which 
exposed him to the greatest dangers in those superstitious 
and barbarous times ; e and, to complete his anxiety, he saAV 

c Beside the writers already mentioned, see Mabillon, Annul. Bene- 
dict, torn. v. p. 681, and torn. vi. p. 1, at the particular years to which the 
events here noticed belong. 

d Pascal, upon this occasion, as Gregory VII. had formerly done in 
the case of Berenger, submitted his proceedings and his authority to the 
judgment of a council, to which, of consequence, he acknowledged his 
subordination. That council even condemned his measures, and decla- 
red them scandalous. 

° See Gervaise, Diss, sur l'Heresic des Investitures, which is the 
fourth of the dissertations prefixed to his History of the Abbot Su- 



272 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



the German princes revolting from his authority in several 
places, and taking up arms in the cause of the church. To 
put an end to calamities that thus afflicted the empire on 
all sides, Henry set out a second time for Italy, with a nu- 
merous army, in the year 1116, and arrived, in the fol- 
lowing year, at Rome, where he assembled the consuls, 
senators, and nobles, wliile the fugitive pontiff retired to 
Benevento. Pascal, however, during this forced absence, 
engaged the Normans to come to his assistance ; and, en- 
couraged by the prospect of immediate succour, prepared 
every thing for a vigorous war against the emperor, and 
attempted to make himself master of Rome. But, in the 
midst of these warlike preparations, which drew the at- 
tention of Europe, and portended great and remarkable 
events, the military pontiff yielded to fate, A. D. 1118. 

V. A few days after the death of Pascal, John of Gaieta, 
a Benedictine monk of Mont Cassin, and chancellor of the 
Roman church, was raised to the pontificate under the ti- 
tle of Gelasius II. In opposition to this choice, Henry 
elected to the same dignity Maurice Burdin, archbishop of 
Braga, in Spain," who assumed the denomination of Gre- 
gory VIII. b Upon this, Gelasius, not thinking himself safe 
at Rome, or indeed in Italy, set out for France, and soon af- 
ter died at Clugni. The cardinals, who accompanied him in 
his journey, elected to the papacy, immediately after his 
departure, Guy, archbishop of Vienne, count of Burgundy, 
who was nearly related to the emperor, and is distinguish- 
ed in the list of the Roman pontiffs by the name of Calix- 
tus II. The elevation of this eminent ecclesiastic was, in the 
issue, extremely fortunate both for the church and state. 
Remarkably distinguished by his illustrious birth, and still 
more by his noble and heroic qualities, this magnanimous 
pontiff continued to oppose the emperor with courage and 
success, and to carry on the war both with the sword of 
the spirit, and with the arm of flesh. He made himself 
master of Rome, threw into prison the pontiff who had been 
chosen by the emperor, and fomented the civil commotions 
in Germany. But his fortitude and resolution were tem- 
pered with moderation, and accompanied with a spirit of 
generosity and compliance which differed much from the 
obstinate arrogance of his lordly predecessors. Accordingly, 
lie lent an ear to prudent councils, and was willing to re- 
linquish a part of the demands upon which the former pon- 
tiffs had so vehemently insisted, that he might restore the 
public tranquillity, and satisfy the ardent desires of so many 
nations, who groaned under the dismal effects of these de- 
plorable divisions/ 

It will appear unquestionably evident to every attentive 
and impartial observer of things, that the illiberal and bru- 
tal manners of those who ruled the church were the only 
reason that rendered the dispute concerning investitures 
so violent and cruel, so tedious in its duration, and so un- 
happy in its effects. During the space of fifty-five years, 
the church was governed by monks, who, to the obscu- 
rity of their birth, the asperity of their natural tempers, and 



f~g= * Braga was the metropolis of ancient Galicia, but at present is 
one of the three archbishoprics of Portugal, in the province of Entre 
Duero e Minho. The archbishop of that see claims the title of primate 
of Spain, which is annexed in Spain to the see of Toledo. 

b See Stephani Baluzii Vita Mauritii Burdini, in Miscellaneis, torn, 
iii. p. 471. 

g^ c The paragraph following is the note (')of the original placed in 
the text. 

frjr d The expression is ambiguous; but it signifies that the elections 
of bishops and abbots were to be made by monks and canons as in for- 
mer times. 



the unbounded rapacity of their ambition and avarice, 
joined that inflexible obstinacy which is one of the essen- 
tial characteristics of the monastic order. Hence arose 
those bitter feuds, those furious efforts of ambition and 
vengeance, that dishonoured the church and afflicted the 
state during the course of this controversy. But as soon 
as the papal chair was filled bj r a man of a more dignified 
nature, and of a liberal education, the face of things chang- 
ed entirely, and a prospect of peace arose to the desires and 
hopes of ruined and desolate countries. 

VI. These hopes were not disappointed ; for, after much 
contestation, peace was, at length, concluded between the 
emperor and the pope's legates, at a general diet, holden 
at Worms, A. T). 1122. The conditions were as follow : 

" That for the future the bishops and abbots should be 
chosen by those to whom the right of election belonged ; d 
but that this election should be made in the presence of 
the emperor, or of an ambassador appointed by him for 
that purpose : e 

" That, in case of a dispute among the electors, the de- 
cision of it should be left to the emperor, who was to con- 
sult with the bishops upon that occasion : 

" That the bishop or abbot elect should take an oath of 
allegiance to the emperor, receive from his hand the regalia, 
and do homage for them : 

" That the emperor should no more confer the rega- 
lia by the ceremony of the ring and crosier, which were 
the ensigns of a ghostly dignity, but that of the sceptre, 
which was more proper to invest the person elected in the 
possession of rights and privileges merely temporal."'' 

This convention was solemnly confirmed in the follow- 
ing year in the Lateran council, and remains still in force 
in our times, though the true sense of some of its articles has 
occasioned disputes between the emperors and pontiffs.s 

VII. Calixtus did not long enjoy the fruits of this peace, 
to which he had so much contributed by his prudence and 
moderation. He died in the year 1124, and was succeed- 
ed hj Lambert, bishop of Ostia, who assumed the title of 
Honorius II. and under whose pontificate nothing worthy 
of mention was transacted. His death, which happened 
A. D. 1 130, gave rise to a considerable schism in the church 
of Rome, or rather in the college of cardinals, of whom one 
party elected, to the papal chair, Gregory, a cardinal dea- 
con of St. Angelo, who was distinguished by the name of 
Innocent II., while the other chose, for successor to Hono- 
rius, Peter, the son of Leo, a Roman prince, under the title 
of Anacletus II. The friends of Innocent were far from 
being numerous in Rome, or throughout Italy in general, 
for which reason he judged itexpedient to retire into France, 
where he had many adherents, and where he sojourned 
during the space of two years. His credit was very great 
out of Italy ; for, beside the emperor Lotharius, the kings 
of England, France, and Spain, with other princes, es- 
poused warmly the cause of Innocent, principally by the 
influence of St. Bernard, who was his intimate friend, and 

e From this period the people in Germany were excluded from the 
right of voting in the election of bishops. Sec Pctr. de Marca, de Con- 
cordia sacerdotii et imperii, lib. vi. cap. ii. sect. 9, p. 788, edit. Boh- 
meri. 

f See Muratori, Antiq. Ital. medii Mvi, torn. vi. p. 7G. — Schilterus, de 
Libertate Eccl. Germanic*, lib. iv. cap. iv. p. 545. — Caisar Rasponus, 
de Basilica Lateranensi, lib. iv. p. 295. 

s It was disputed among other things, whether the consecration of 
the bishop elect was to precede or follow the collation of the regalia. 
See Jo. Wilh. Hoffman, ad concordatum Henrici V. et Calisti 11. Vi- 
tembergK, 1739, in 4to. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



273 



whose counsels had the force and authority of laws in al- 
most all the countries of Europe. The patrons of Anacletus 
were fewer in number, and were confined to the kings of 
Sicily and Scotland. His death, in the a year 1138, termina- 
ted the contest, and left Innocent in the entire and undis- 
puted possession of the apostolic chair. The surviving pon- 
tiff presided, in the year 1139, at the second Lateran coun- 
cil, and, about four years after, ended his days in peace." 

VIII. After the death of Innocent the Roman see was 
filled by Guy, cardinal of St. Mark, who ruled the church 
about five months, under the title of Celestine II. If 
his reign was short, it was, however, peaceable, and not 
like that of his successor, Lucius II., whose pontificate 
was disturbed by various tumults and seditions, and who, 
about eleven months after his elevation to the papacy, 
was killed in a riot which he was endeavouring to sup- 
press by his presence and authority. He was succeeded by 
Bernard, a Cistertian monk, and an eminent disciple of the 
famous St. Bernard, abbot of Clairval. This worthy eccle- 
siastic, who is distinguished among the popes by the title of 
Eugenius III., was raised to that high dignity in theyear 
1145, and, during a period of eight years, he was involved 
in the same perils and perplexities that had embittered the 
government of his predecessor. He was often obliged 
to leave Rome, and to save himself by flight from the 
fury of the people ; b and the same reason engaged him 
to retire into France, where he resided for a considerable 
time. At length, exhausted by the opposition he met 
with in supporting what he deemed the prerogatives of 
the papacy, he died in the year 1153. The pontificate 
of his successor, Conrad, bishop of Sabino, who, after his 
elevation to the see of Rome, assumed the title of Anasta- 
sius IV., was less disturbed by civil commotions ; but it 
was not of long duration ; for Anastasius died about a 
year and four months after his election. 

IX. The warm contest between the emperors and the 
popes, which was considered as at an end ever since the 
time of Calixtus II., was unhappily renewed under the 
pontificate of Adrian IV. who was a native of England, 
and whose original name was Nicolas Breakspear. Fre- 
derick I. surnamed Barbarossa, being placed, in 1152, on 
the imperial throne, publicly declared his resolution to 
maintain the dignity and privileges of the Roman empire 
in general, and more particularly to render it respectable 
in Italy : nor was he at all studious to conceal the design 
he had formed of reducing the overgrown power and 
opulence of the pontiff's and clergy within narrower li- 
mits. Adrian perceived the danger that threatened the 
majesty of the church and the authority of the clergy, 
and prepared himself for defending both with vigour and 
constancy. The first occasion of trying their strength 
was offered at the coronation of the emperor at Rome, in 
the year 1155, when the pontiff insisted upon Fredericks 
performing the office of equerry, and holding the stirrup 
to his holiness. This humiliating proposal was at first 
rejected with disdain by the emperor, and was followed by 

* Beside the ordinary writers of the papal history, see Jean de Lannes, 
Histoirs dn Pantifieat du Pape Innocent II. Paris, 1741, in 8vo. 

§3r b There was a party formed in Rome at this time, whose design 
was to restore, the Roman senate to its former privileges, and to its an- 
cient splendour and glory ; and, for this purpose, to reduce the papal re- 
venues and prerogatives to a narrower compass, even to the tithes and 
oblations that were offered to the primitive bishops, and to the spiritual 
government of the church, attended with an utter exclusion from all civil 
jurisdiction over the city of 'Rome. It was this party that produced the 

No. XXIII. 69 



contests of a more momentous nature, relating to the po- 
litical interests of the empire. 

These differences were no sooner reconciled, than new 
disputes, equally important, arose in the year 1158, when 
the emperor, in order to put a stop to the enormous opu- 
lence of the pontiffs, bishops, and monks, which increased 
from day to day, enacted a law to prevent the trans- 
ferring of fiefs without the knowledge or consent of the 
superior, or lord, in whose name they were holden, c and 
turned the whole force of his arms to reduce the little re- 
publics of Italy under his dominion. An open rupture 
between the emperor and the pontiff, was expected as the 
inevitable consequence of such vigorous measures, when 
the death of Adrian, which happened on the first of Sep- 
tember, 1159, suspended the storm. d 

X. In the election of a new pontiff, the cardinals were 
divided into two factions. The more numerous and 
powerful of the two parties raised to the pontificate, Row- 
land, bishop of Sienna, who assumed the name of Alex- 
ander III., while the rest of the conclave elected to that 
high dignity Octavian, cardinal of St. Cecilia, known by 
the title of Victor IV. The latter was patronised by the 
emperor, to whom Alexander was extremely disagreeable 
on several accounts. The council of Pavia, which was 
i assembled by the emperor in the year 1160, adopted his 
sentiments, and pronounced in favour of Victor, who 
j thus became triumphant in Germany and Italy ; so that 
France alone was left open to Alexander, who accord- 
ingly fled thither from Rome for safety and protection. 
Amidst the tumults and commotions which this schism 
occasioned, Victor died at Lucca, hi the year 1164; but 
his place was immediately filled by the emperor, at whose 
desire Guy, cardinal of St. Calixtus, was elected pontiff 
under the title of Pascal III. and acknowledged in that 
character by the German princes assembled in the year 
1167, at the diet of Wurtzburg. In the mean time 
Alexander recovered his spirits, and, returning into Italy, 
maintained his cause with uncommon resolution and vi- 
gour, and not without some promising hopes of success. 
He held at Rome, in the year 1167, the Lateran council, 
in which he solemnly deposed the emperor, (whom he 
had, upon several occasions before this period, publicly 
loaded with anathemas and execrations.) dissolved the 
oath of allegiance which his subjects had taken to him as 
their lawful sovereign, and encouraged and exhorted them 
to rebel against his authority, and to shake off his yoke. 
But, soon after this audacious proceeding, Frederick made 
himself master of Rome ; upon which the insolent pon- 
tiff fled to Benevento, and left the apostolic chair to Pas- 
cal, his competitor. 

XL The affairs of Alexander seemed, soon after, to 
take a more prosperous turn, when (the greatest part of 
the imperial army being consumed by a pestilential dis- 
order) the emperor was forced to abandon Italy, and when 
the death of Pascal, which happened in the year 1168, 
delivered him from a powerful and formidable rival. 

feuds and seditions to which Dr. Mosheim has an eye ill this eighth 
section. 

c This prohibition cf transferring the possession of fiefs from one to 
another, without the consent of tile sovereign, or supreme lord, under 
whom they were holden, together with other laws of a like nature, 
formed the first effectual barrier that was opposed to the enormous and 
growing opulence and authority of the clergy. See Muratori, Antiq. 
Ital. medii JEv\. torn. vi. p. 239. 

d See the accurate and circumstantial account of this whole affair that 



274 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



But this fair prospect soon vanished ; for the imperial fac- 
tion elected to the pontificate John, abbot of Strum, un- 
der the title of Calixtus III., whom Frederick, notwith- 
standing his absence in Germany, and the various wars 
and disputes in which he was involved, supported to the 
utmost of his power. When peace was in some mea- 
sure restored to the empire, Frederick marched into Italy, 
A. D. 1174, to chastise the perfidy of the states and cities 
that had revolted during his absence, and seized the first 
opportunity of throwing off his yoke. Had this expe- 
dition been crowned with the expected success, Alexander 
would, undoubtedly, have been obliged to desist from his 
pretensions, and to yield the papal chair to Calixtus. But 
the event came*; far short of the hopes which this grand 
expedition had excited ; and the emperor, after having, 
during the space of three years, been alternately defeated 
and victorious, was at length so fatigued with the hard- 
ships he had suffered, and so dejected at a view of the 
difficulties he had yet to overcome, that, in the year 1177. 
he concluded a treaty of peace at Venice with Alexander, 

is given by the illustrious and learned count Bunau, in his history of 
Frederick I. written in German, p. 45, 49, 73, 99, 105, &c. 

* All the circumstances of these conventions are accurately related 
by count Bunau, in this History of Frederick I. p. 115 — 242. — See also 
Fortunati Olmi Istoria della Venuta a Venitia occultamente nel A. 1 177, 
di Papa Alessandro III. Venet. 1629, in 4to. — Muratori, Antiq. Italicre 
medii iEvi, torn. iv. p. 2, 9. — Origines Guelphicae, torn. ii. p. 379. — Acta 
Sanctorum, torn. i. April, p. 46, in Vita Hugonis abbatis Bona?-Vallis, 
et torn. ii. April, in Vita Galdini Mediolanensis, p. 596, two famous 
ecclesiastics, who were employed as ambassadors and arbiters in the 
treaty of peace here mentioned. 

b Psalm xci. 13. 

c See Bunau's Life of Frederick I. p. 242. — Heumanni Poeciles. torn, 
iii. lib. i. p. 145. — Bibliotheque Italique, torn. vi. p. 5, as also the authors 
mentioned by Caspar Sagittarius, in his Introduct. in Histor. Eccles. 
torn. i. p. 630, torn. ii. 

d See Matth. Paris, Histor. Major, p. 82, 83, 101, 114.— Dav. Wilkins, 
Concilia Magn* Britannia;, torn. i. p. 434. 

fj" Henry II. had formed the wise project of bringing the clergy un- 
der the jurisdiction of the civil courts, on account of the scandalous abuse 
they had made of their immunities, and the crimes which the ecclesias- 
tical tribunals let pass with impunity. The Constitutions of Clarendon, 
which consisted of sixteen articles, were drawn up for this purpose : 
and, as they are proper to give the reader a just idea of the prerogatives 
and privileges that were claimed equally by the king and the clergy, 
and which occasioned of consequence such warm debates between state 
and church, it will not be altogether useless to transcribe them at length. 

I. When any difference relating to the right of patronage arises be- 
tween the laity, or between the clergy and laity, the controversy is to be 
tried and ended in the King's Court. 

II. Those churches which are fees of the crown, cannot be granted 
away in perpetuity without the king's consent. 

III. When the clergy are charged with any misdemeanour, and sum- 
moned by the justiciary, they shall be obliged to make their appearance 
in his court, and plead to such parts of the indictment as shall be put to 
them ; and likewise to answer such articles in the ecclesiastical courts 
as they shall be prosecuted for by that jurisdiction ; always provided, 
that the king's justiciary shall send an officer to inspect the proceedings 
of the Court Christian. And in case any clerk is convicted, or pleads 
guilty, he is to forfeit the privilege of his character, and to be protected 
by the church no longer. 

IV. No archbishops, bishops, or parsons, are allowed to depart from 
the kingdom, without a license from the crown; and provided they 
have leave to travel, they shall give security, not to act or solicit any 
thing during their passage, stay, or return, to the prejudice of the king 
or kingdom. 

V. When any of the laity are prosecuted in the ecclesiastical courts, 
the charge ought to be proved before the bishop by legal and reputable 
witnesses; and the course of the process is to be so managed, that the 
archdeacon may not lose any part of his right, or the profits accruing 
to his office : and if any offenders seem to have been screened from pro- 
secution upon the score either of favour or quality, the sheriff, at the 
bishop's instance, shall order twelve sufficient men of the neighbourhood 
to make oath before the bishop, that they will discover the truth accord- 
ing to the best of their knowledge. 

VI. Excommunicated persons shall not be obliged to make oath, or 
give security to continue upon the place where they live, but only to 
abide by the judgment of the church in order to their absolution. 



and a truce with the rest of his enemies. a Some writers 
affirm, that, upon this occasion, the haughty pontiff 
trod upon the neck of the suppliant emperor, while he 
kissed his foot, repeating at the same time those words of 
the royal Psalmist : " Thou shalt tread upon the lion 
and adder : the young lion and the dragon shalt thou 
trample under feet."" The greatest part, however, o/ 
modern authors have called this event in question, and 
consider it as utterly destitute of authority and unworthy 
of credit. 

XII. Alexander III., who was rendered so famous by 
his long and successful contest with Frederick L, was also 
engaged in a warm dispute with Henry II., king of Eng- 
land, which was occasioned by the arrogance of Thomas 
Becket, archbishop of Canterbury. In the council of 
Clarendon, which that prince held in the year 1164, seve- 
ral laws were enacted, by which the king's power and ju- 
risdiction over the clergy were accurately explained, and 
the rights and privileges of the bishops and priests re- 
duced within narrower bounds. d Becket refused obedi- 

VII. No person that holds in chief of the king, or any of his barons, 
shall be excommunicated, nor any of their estates put under an interdict, 
before application be made to the king, provided he be in the kingdom ; 
and if his highness be out of Ergland, the justiciary must be acquainted 
with the dispute, in order to make satisfaction : and thus what belongs 
to the cognisance of the king's court, must be tried there; and that which 
belongs to the Court Christian, must be remitted to that jurisdiction. 

VIII. In case of appeals in ecclesiastical causes, the first step is to 
be made from the archdeacon to the bishop, and from the bishop to the 
archbishop ; and, if the archbishop fails to do justice, recourse may be 
had to the king, by whose order the controversy is to be finally decided in 
the archbishop's court. Neither shall it be lawful for either of the par- 
ties to move for any farther remedy without leave from the crown. 

IX. When a difference happens to arise between any clergyman and 
layman concerning a tenement, and the clerk pretends that it is holden 
by frank Almoine*, and the layman pleads it a lay-fee, the tenure;shall 
be tried by the inquiry and verdict of twelve sufficient men of the neigh- 
bourhood, summoned according to the custom of the realm. And, if 
the tenement or thing in controversy shall be found frank Almoine, the 
dispute concerning it shall be tried m the ecclesiastical court. But if it 
is brought in a lay-fee, the suit shall be followed in the king's courts, 
unless both the plaintiff and defendant hold the tenement in question of 
the same bishop ; in which case the cause shall be tried in the court ot 
such bishop or baron, with this farther proviso, that he who is seised of 
the thing in controversy, shall not be disseised during the suit, (pendente 
lite,) upon the ground of the verdict above mentioned. 

X. With regard to one who holds of the king in any city, castle, or 
borough, or resides upon any of the demesne lands of the crown, in case 
he is cited by the archdeacon or bishop to answer for any misbehaviour 
belonging to their cognisance; if he refuses to obey their summons, and 
to stand to the sentence of the court, it shall be lawful for the ordinary 
to put him under an interdict, but not to excommunicate him, till the 
king's principal officer of the town shall be pre-acquainted with the case, 
in order to enjoin him to make satisfaction to the church. And if such 
officer or magistrate shall fail in his duty, he shall be fined by the king's 
judges. And then the bishop may exert his discipline on the refractory 
person as he thinks fit. 

XI. All archbishops, bishops, and ecclesiastical persons, who hold 
of the king in chief, and by the tenure of a barony, are for that reason 
obliged to appear before the king's justices and ministers, to answer the 
duties of their tenure, and to observe all the usages and customs of the 
realm ; and, like other barons, are bound to be present at trials in the 
king's court, till sentence is to be pronounced for the losing of life or 
limbs. 

XII. When any archbishopric, bishopric, abbey, or priory, of royal 
foundation, become vacant, the king is to make seisure ; from which time 
all the profits and issues are to be paid into the exchequer, as if they were 
the demesne lands of the crown. And when it is determined that the va- 
cancy shall be filled up, the king is to summon the most considerable 
persons of the chapter to court, and the election is to be made in the 
chapel royal, with the consent of our sovereign lord the king, and by 
the advice of such persons of the government, as his highness shall 
think fit to consult ; at which time, the person elected shall, before his 
consecration, be obliged to do homage and fealty to the king, as his liege 
lord ; which homage shall be performed in the usual form, with a clause 
saving the privilege of his order. 

XIII. If any of the temporal barons, or great men. shall encroach 
* i. e. A tenure by divine service, as Britton explains it. 



Chap, II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



275 



ence to these laws, which he deemed prejudicial to the 
divine rights of the church in general, and to the prero- 
gatives of the Roman pontiffs in particular. Upon this 
there arose a violent debate between the resolute monarch 
and the rebellious prelate, which obliged the latter to retire 
into France, where Alexander was at that time in a kind 
of exile. This pontiff and the king of France interposed 
their good offices in order to compose these differences, in 
which they succeeded so far, after much trouble and dif- 
ficulty, as to encourage Becket to return to. England, 
where he was re-instated in his forfeited dignity. Butj 
the generous and indulgent proceedings of his sovereign 
towards him, were not sufficient to subdue his arrogant 
and rebellious obstinacy in maintaining what he called 
the privileges of the church ; nor could he be induced by 
iny means to comply with the views and measures of 
Henry. The consequences of this inflexible resistance 
were fatal to the haughty prelate ; for he was, soon after 
his return into England, assassinated before the altar, 
while he was at vespers in his cathedral, by four persons, 
who certainly did not commit this act of violence without 
the' king's knowledge and connivance. 1 This event 
produced warm debates between the king of England 
and the Roman pontiff, who gained his point so far as to 
make the suppliant monarch undergo a severe course of 
penance, in order to expiate a crime of which he was 
considered as the principal promoter, while the murdered 
prelate, in 1173, was solemnly enrolled in the highest rank 
of saints and martyrs. b 

XIII. It was not only by force of arms, but also by 
uninterrupted efforts of dexterity and artifice, by wise 
counsels and prudent laws, that Alexander III. maintain- 

upon the rights or property of any archbishop, bishop, or archdeacon, 
and refuse to make satisfaction for wrong done by themselves, or their 
tenants, the king shall do justice to the party aggrieved. And if any 
person shall disseise the king of any part of his lands, or trespass upon 
his prerogative, the archbishops, bishops, and deacons, shall call him to 
an account, and oblige him to make the crown restitution; i. e. " They 
were to excommunicate such disseisers and injurious persons, in case 
they proved refractory and incorrigible." 

XIV. The goods and chattels of those who lie under forfeitures of 
felony or treason are not to be detained in any church or church-yard, 
to secure them against seisure and justice, because such goods are the 
king's property, whether they are lodged within the precincts of a church 
or without it. 

XV. All actions, and pleas of debts, though particularly solemn in 
the circumstances of the contract, shall be tried in the king's courts. 

XVI. The sons of copy-holders are not to be ordained without the 
consent of the lord of the manor where they were born. 

Such were the articles of the constitutions of Clarendon, against the 
greatest part of which the pope protested. They were signed by the 
English clergy, and also by Becket. The latter, however, repented of 
what he had done, and retiring from court, suspended himself from 
his office in the church for about forty days, till he received absolution 
from Alexander, who was then at Sens. His aversion to these articles 
manifested itself by an open rebellion against his sovereign, in which 
he iiscovered his true character, as a most daring, turbulent, vindictive, 
and arrogant priest, whose ministry was solely employed in extending 
the despotic dominion of Rome, and whose fixed purpose was to aggran- 
dize the church upon the ruins of the state. See Collier's Ecclesiastical 
History, vol. i. xiith century. Rapin de Thoyras, in the reign of 
Henry II. 

i^T " This assertion is in our opinion by much too strong. It can 
only be founded upon certain indiscreet and passionate expressions, 
which the intolerable insolence and phrenetic obstinacy of Becket drew 
from Henry in an unguarded moment, when, after having received new 
afh'onts, notwithstanding the reconciliation he had effected with so much 
trouble and condescension, he expressed himself to this purpose : ' Am 
I not unhappy, that, among the numbers who arc attached to my inte- 
rests, and employed in my service, there is no one possessed of spirit 
enough to resent the affronts which I am constantly receiving from a 
miserable priest V Th se words, indeed, were not pronounced in vain. 
Four gentlemen of the court, Whose names were Fitz-TJrse, Tracy, Brito, 



ed the pretended rights of the church, and extended the 
authority of the Roman pontiffs. For, in the third Late- 
ran Council, holden at Rome, in 1179, the following de- 
crees, among many others upon different subjects, were 
passed by his advice and authority. 1st, In order to put 
an end to the confusion and dissensions which so often 
accompanied the election of the Roman pontiffs, it was 
determined that the right of election should be vested 
in the cardinals alone, and that the person, in whose 
favour two thirds of the college of cardinals voted, should 
be considered as the lawful pontiff. This law is still in 
force ; it was therefore from the time of Alexander that 
the election of the pope acquired that form which it still 
retains, and by which, not only the people, but also the 
Roman clergy, are excluded from all share in the honour 
of conferring that important dignity. 2dly, A spiritual 
war was declared against the heretics, whose numbers, 
increasing considerably about this time, created much dis- 
turbance in the church in general, and infested, in a more 
particular manner, several provinces in France, which 
groaned under the fatal dissensions that accompanied the 
propagation of their errors/ 3dly, The right of recom- 
mending and nominating to the .saintly order was also 
taken away from councils and bishops, and canonization 
was ranked among the greater and more important 
causes, the cognisance of which belonged to the pontiff 
alone. d We must not forget to add, that the power of 
erecting new kingdoms, which had been claimed by the 
pontiffs from the time of Gregory VII., was not only as- 
sumed, but also exercised by Alexander in a remarkable 
instance ; for, in the year 1179, he conferred the title of 
king, with the ensigns of royalty, upon Alphonso I., 

and Morville, murdered Becket in his chapel, and thus performed, in a 
licentious and criminal manner, an action which the laws might have 
commanded with justice. But it is extremely remarkable, that, after the 
murder, the assassins were afraid they had gone too far, and durst not 
return to the king's court, which was then in Normandy ; but retired 
at first to Knaresborough in Yorkshire, which belonged to Morville, 
whence they repaired to Rome for absolution, and being admitted to 
penance by Alexander, were sent by that pontiff to Jerusalem, and 
passed the remainder of their lives upon the Black Mountain in the se- 
verest acts of austerity and mortification. All this does not look as if 
the king had been deliberately concerned in this murder, or had expressly 
consented to it. On the contrary, various circumstances concur to prove 
that Henry was entirely innocent of this murder. Mr. Hume mentions 
particularly one, which is worthy of our notice. The king, suspccling 
the design of the four gentlemen above mentioned, by some menacing 
expressions they had dropped, " despatched (says Mr. Hume) a mes- 
" senger after them, ordering them to attempt nothing against the person 
" of the primate. But these orders came too late." See his History of 
England, vol. i. p. 294; Rapin Thoyras. Histoire d'Angleterre; Collier's 
Ecclesiastical History of England. The works to which Dr. Mosheim 
refers for an account of this matter, arc as follow : Guliel. Stephanida; 
Historia Thoma; Cantuariensis apud Scriptores rerun) Anglicarum, pub- 
lished in folio at London by Sparke, in the year 1723. — Christ. Lupi 
Epistolae et Vita Thoma; Cantuar. — Epistola; Alexandri III. Ludovici 
VII. Henrici II. in hac causa, ex M. S. Vaticano, Bruxelles, 1682, 2 
vols. 4to. — Natalis Alexandri Select. Histor. Eccles. Capita, Seec XII. 
Diss. x. p. 833. — Thoma; Stapletoni Tres Thomae, sen res gesta; Thomie 
Apostoli, S. Thoma; Cantuariensis, et Thoma; Mori. Colonia;, 1612, in 
8vo. 

b Boulay, Histor. Academ. Paris, torn. ii. p. 328, etde Die Festo ejus, 
p. 397. — Doni. Colonia, Hist. Lit. de la Ville de Lyon, torn. ii. p. 249. 

c See Natalis Alexander, Select. Histor. Eccles. Capit. Swc. XII. Diss. 
ix. p. 819, where he treats particularly of this council. — See also torn, 
vi. part ii. Conciliorum Harduini, p. 1671. 

I2r Dr. Mosheim, as also Spanheim and Fleury, call this the 3d 
Lateran council, whereas other historians mention eight preceding 
councils holden in the Lateran church, viz. those of the years CM, 864, 
1105, 1112, 1116, 1123, 1139, 1167. Our author has also attributed, to 
this council of 1179, decrees that probably belonged to a later period. 

d See what has been observed already, under the xth century, concern- 
ing the election of the popes, and the canonization of saints. 



276 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



duke of Portugal, who, under the pontificate of Lucius 
II., had rendered his province tributary to the Roman 
see.* 

XIV. Upon the death of Alexander, Ubald, bishop of 
Ostia, otherwise known by the name of Lucius III., was 
raised to the pontificate, A. D. 1181, by the suffrages of 
the cardinals alone, in consequence of the law mentioned 
in the preceding section. The administration of this 
new pontiff was embittered by violent tumults and sedi- 
tions ; for he was twice driven out of the city by the Ro- 
mans, who could not bear a pope that was elected in op- 
position to the ancient custom, without the knowledge 
and consent of the clergy and the people. In the midst 
of these troubles he died at Verona in the year 1185, and 
was succeeded by Hubert Crivelli, bishop of Milan, who 
assumed the title of Urban III., and who, without having 
transacted any thing worthy of mention during his short 
pontificate, died of grief in the year 1187, upon hearing 
that Saladin had made himself master of Jerusalem. 
The pontificate of his successor Albert," whose papal de- 
nomination was Gregory VIII., exhibited a still more 
striking instance of the fragility of human grandeur ; for 
this pontiff yielded to fate about two months after his ele- 
vation. He was succeeded by Paul, bishop of Preneste, 
who filled the papal chair above three years under the 
iitle of Clement III., and died in 1191, without having 
distinguished his ecclesiastical reign by any memorable 
achievement, if we except his zeal for draining Europe of 
its treasures and inhabitants by the publication of new 
crusades. Celestine III. makes a more shining figure in 
history than the pontiffs we have been now mentioning ; 
for he thundered his excommunications against the em- 
peror Henry VI., and Leopold, duke of Austria, on ac- 
count of their having seized and imprisoned Richard I., 
king of England, as he was returning from the Holy 
Land : he also subjected to the same malediction Alphon- 
so X., king of Gailicia and Leon, on account of an in- 
cestuous marriage into which that prince had entered ; 
and commanded Philip Augustus, king of France, to re- 
admit to the conjugal state and honours Ingelburga his 
queen, whom he had divorced for reasons unknown ; 
though this order, indeed, produced little effect. d But the 
most illustrious and resolute pontiff that filled the papal 
chair during this century, and whose exploits made the 
greatest noise in Europe, was Lotharius, count of Segni, 
cardinal deacon, otherwise known by the name of Inno- 
cent III. The arduous undertakings and bold achieve- 
ments of this eminent pontiff, who was placed at the head 
of the church in the year 1198, belong to the history of 
the following century. 

XV. If, from the series of pontiffs that ruled the church 
in this century, we descend to the other ecclesiastical 
orders, such as the bishops, priests, and deacons, very 



» Baronius, Annal. ad. A. 1179. — Innocentii III. Epistolae Lib. ep. 
xlix. p. 54, torn. i. ed. Baluz. 

g^f Alphonso had been declared, by hi? victorious army, king of 
Portugal, rn the year 1136, in the midst of the glorious exploits he had 
performed in the war against the Moors; so that Alexander did no more 
llian confirm this title by an arrogant bull, in which he treats that excel- 
lent prince as his vassal. 

'° This prelate, before his elevation to the papacy, was bishop of Be- 
nevento, and chancellor of the Roman church. 

c Whose name was Hyacinth, a native of Rome, and a cardinal 
deacon. 

fjj* d It was in consequence of the vigorous and terrible proceedings 
of Innocent III. that the re-union between Philip and Ingelburga was 



unpleasing objects will be exhibited to our view. The 
unanimous voice of the historians of this age, the laws 
and decrees of synods and councils, loudly declare the 
gross ignorance, odious frauds, and flagitious crimes, that 
reigned among the different ranks and orders of the clergy 
now mentioned. It is not therefore at all surprising, thai 
the monks, whose rules of discipline obliged them to a 
regular method of living, and placed them out of the way 
of many temptations to licentiousness, and occasions ol 
sinning, to which the episcopal and sacerdotal orders were 
exposed, were in higher estimation than these were. The 
j^n of corruption became, however, so general, that it 
reached at last even the convents ; and the monks, who 
were gaining with the most ardent efforts the summit of 
ecclesiastical power and authority, and who beheld both 
the secular clerks and the regular canons with aversion 
and contempt, e began, in many places, to degenerate from 
that sanctity of manners, and that exact obedience to 
their rules of discipline, by which they had t been formerly 
distinguished, and to exhibit to the people scandalous 
examples of immorality and vice. f The Benedictines of 
Clugni, who undoubtedly surpassed, in regularity of con- 
duct and purity of manners, all the monastic orders who 
lived under their rule, maintained their integrity for a long 
time, amidst the general decay of piety and virtue : but 
they were at length carried away with the torrent. Se- 
duced by the examples of their abbot Pontius, and 
corrupted by the treasures that were poured daily into 
their convent by the liberality of the opulent and pious, 
they fell from their primitive austerity, and following the 
dissolute examples of the other Benedictines, they ' gave 
themselves up to pleasure, and dwelt carelessly .'e Several 
of the succeeding abbots endeavoured to remedy this dis- 
order, and to recover the declining reputation of their 
convent ; but their efforts were much less successful than 
they expected, nor could the monks of Clugni ever be 
brought back to their primitive sanctity and virtue. 11 

XVI. The Cistertian Order, which was much inferior 
to the monks of Clugni, both with respect to the antiquity 
of its institution, and the possessions and revenues of its 
convent, far surpassed them in external regularity of life 
and manners, and in a striking air of innocence and 
sanctity. Hence its members acquired that high degree 
of reputation and authority which the order of Clugni 
had formerly enjoyed ; and the fraternity increased daily 
in number, credit, and o k ..ilence. The famous St. Ber- 
nard, abbot of Clan* 7-1 whose influence throughout 
Europe was incredible, wiiose word was a law, and whose 
counsels were regarded by kings and princes as so many 
orders to which the most respectful obedience was due, 
was the person who contributed most to enrich and 
aggrandize the Cistertian order. Hence he is justly con- 
sidered as its second parent and founder ; and hence the 

accomplished. See L'Histoire de France, par TAbb6 Velly, torn. iii. 
p. 367. 

e See Ruperti Epistola in Martenne's Thesaur. Anecd. torn. i. p. 285. 
This writer prefers the monks to the apostles. 

f See Bernard! Considerationes ad. Eugenium, lib. iii. cap. iv. — See 
also the Speculum Stultorum, or Brunellus, a poem, composed by Nigel 
Wireker, an English bard of no mean reputation, who lived about the 
middle of the xiith century. In this poem, of which several editions 
have been published, the different orders of monks are severely censured ; 
the Carthusians alone have escaped the keen and virulent satire of this 
witty writer. s Isaiah, xlvii. 8. 

h See Martenne's Amplissima Collectio Monumentor. Voter, torn. ix. 
p. 1119. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



277 



Cistertians, not only in France, but also in Germany and 
other countries, were distinguished by the title of Bernar- 
dine monks. 1 A hundred and sixty religious communi- 
ties derived their origin, or their rules of discipline, from 
this illustrious abbot ; and he left, at his death, seven 
hundred monks in the monastery of Clairval. The 
church abounded with bishops and archbishops who had 
been formed and prepared for the ministry by his instruc- 
tions ; and he also reckoned, among the number of his 
disciples, Eugenius III. one of the best and wisest of the 
Roman pontiffs. 

XVII. The growing prosperity of the Cistertian Order 
excited the envy and jealousy of the monks of Clugni, 
and, after several dissensions of less consequence, produced 
at length an open rupture, a declared war, between these 
opulent and powerful monasteries. They both followed 
the rule of St. Benedict, though they differed in their habit, 
and in certain laws, which the Cistertians more especially 
had added to that rule. The monks of Clugni accused 
the Cistertians of affecting an extravagant austerity in 
their manners and discipline ; while the Cistertians, on 
the other hand, charged them, upon very good grounds, 
with having degenerated from their former sanctity and 
regularity of conduct. St. Bernard, who was the oracle 
and protector of. the Cistertians, wrote, in the year 1 127, 
an apology for his own conduct with respect to the divi- 
sion that subsisted between the two convents, and inveigh- 
ed, with a just but not intemperate severity, against the 
vices that corrupted the monks of Clugni. b This charge 
was answered, though with uncommon moderation and 
candour, by Peter Mauricius, abbot of Clugni ; and hence 
arose a controversy in form, which spread from day to 
day its baneful influence, and excited disturbances in 
several provinces of Europe/ It was, however, followed 
by a much more vehement and bitter contest concerning 
an exemption from the payment of tithes, granted among 
other privileges and immunities to the Cistertians, A. D. 
1132, by Innocent II. A considerable part of the lands 
which the Cistertians possessed, and to which the pontiff 
granted this exemption, were subject to the monks of 
Clugni, who consequently suffered by this act of liberality, 
and disputed the matter, not only with the Cistertians, 
but with the pope himself. This keen dispute was, in 
some measure, terminated in the year 1155 ; but in what 
manner, or upon what conditions, we do not precisely 
know. d 

XVIII. The regular canons, who had been formed into 
a fixed and permanent order in the preceding century, 
employed their time in a much more useful and exemplary 



* See Jo. Mabillon, Annal. Ord. Benedict, torn. vi. passim, in Vita Sti. 
Bernardi, which he has prefixed to his edition of the works of that saint. — 
See also the Annales Cistercienses, by Manriquez, torn. ii. and iii. 

fj* b This apology, as it is called, of St. Bernard, is well worth the 
attention of the curious reader, as it exhibits a true and lively picture 
of monastic opulence and luxury, and shows how the religious orders 
in general lived in this century. The famous abbot, in this performance, 
accuses the monks of Clugni of luxury and intemperance at their table, 
of superfluity and magnificence in their dress, their bed-chambers, their 
furniture, equipage, and buildings. He points out the pride and vanity 
of the abbots, who looked much more like the governors of provinces, 
than the spiritual fathers of humble and holy communities, whose ori- 
ginal profession it was, to be crucified and dead to the interests and plea- 
sures, the pomps and vanities of the present world. He declares, with 
a pious concern, that he knew several abbots, each of whom had more 
than sixty horses in his stable, and such a prodigious variety of wines 
in his cellar, that it was scarcely possible to taste the half of them at a 
single entertainment. See Fleury, Hist. Ecclesiastique, liv. lxxvii. torn, 
xiv. p. 351, edit. Bruxelles. 

No. XXIV. 70 



manner than the monastic drones, who passed their days 
in luxury and sloth. They kept public schools for the 
instruction of youth, and exercised a variety of ecclesias- 
tical functions, which rendered them extremely useful to 
the church. e Hence they rose daily in credit and reputa- 
tion, received many rich and noble donations from several 
persons, whose opulence and piety rendered them able 
and willing to distinguish merit, and were also often put 
in possession of the revenues of the monks, whose disso- 
lute lives occasioned, from time to time, the suppression of 
their convents. This, as might we'll be expected, infla- 
med the rage of the monastic orders against the regular 
canons, whom they attacked with the greatest fur) 7 , and 
loaded with the. bitterest invectives. The canons, in their 
turn, were far from being backward in making reprisals ; 
they exclaimed, on the contrary, against the monks with 
the utmost vehemence ; enumerated their vices both in 
discourses and in writings, and insisted upon their being 
confined to their monasteries, sequestered from human 
society, and excluded from all ecclesiastical honours and 
functions. Hence arose, between the monks and canons, 
a long and warm contest for pre-eminence ; in which both 
parties carried their pretensions too high, and exceeded the 
bounds of decency and moderation. f The champions, 
who espoused the interest of the monks, were the famous 
P.eter Abelard, Hugh of Amiens, Rupert of Duytz ; while 
the cause of the canons was defended by Philip Har- 
vengius, a learned abbot, and several other men of genius 
and abilities.^ The effects and remains of this ancient 
controversy are yet visible in our times. 

XIX. A new society of religious Benedictines arose 
about the commencement of this century, whose principal 
monastery was erected in a barren and solitary place, called 
Fontevraud, between Angers and Tours ; whence the 
order derived its name. Robert of Arbrisseiles, its founder, 
who had been first a hermit, and afterwards a monk, 
prescribed to his religious of both sexes the rule of St. 
Benedict, amplified, however, by the addition of several 
new laws, which were extremely singular and excessively 
severe. Among other singularities that distinguished this 
institution, one was, that the several monasteries which 
Robert had built, within one and the same inclosure. for 
his monks and nuns, were all subjected to the authority 
and government of one abbess ; in justification of which 
measure, the example of Christ was alleged, who recom- 
mended St. John to the Virgin Mary, and imposed it as 
an order upon that beloved disciple, to be obedient to her 
as to his own mother. h This new order, like all other 
novelties of that kind, gained immediately a high degree 

c See S. Bernardi Apologia in Oper. torn. i. p. 523—533. The apo- 
logy of Peter, abbot of Chigni, surnamed the venerable, which is pub- 
lished among his Epistles, lib. i. ep. 28, in the Bibliotheca Cluniacensis, 
torn. i. p. 657 — 695. See also the Dialogus inter Cluniacensem, et Cister- 
ciensem published by Martenne, in his Thesaur. Anecd. torn. v. p. 1573 — 
1613. Compare with all these Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 80, 
and Manriquez, Annal. Cisterc. torn. i. p. 28. 

d See Manriquez, Annal. Cistercienses, torn. i. p. 232. — Mabillon, 
Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 212, 479, and prsefat. ad Opera S. Bernardi 
— Jo. de Lannes, Histoire du Pontificat d'Innocent II. p. 68 — 79. — Jo. 
Nic. Hertii Diss, de exemptione Cisterc. a decimis. 

e See the Histoire Literaire de la France, torn. ix. p. 112. 

f See Lamberti Epistola in Martenne's Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. i. p. 329. 

s Abelardi Opera, p. 228. Paris, 1616, in 4to. — Martenne's Thesaur. 
Anecdot. torn. v. p. 970— -975, 1614, et Amplissima ejusdem Collectio, torn. 
ix. p. 971— 972.— Phil. Harvengii Opera, p, 385. Duaci 1621, in folio. 

h See the Works of Abelard, p. 48, whose testimony in this matter 
is confirmed by the present state and constitution of this famous order ; 
though Mabillon, from an excessive partiality in favour of the Bene- 



278 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part U. 



of credit : the singularity of its discipline, its form, and its 
laws, engaged multitudes to embrace it ; and thus the 
labours of its founder were crowned with remarkable 
success. [DS 3 B ut the association of vigorous monks and 
tender virgins, in the same community, was an imprudent 
measure, and could not but be attended with many 
inconveniences. However that may be, Robert continued 
his pious labours, and the odour of his sanctity perfumed 
all the places where he exercised his ministry.] He was, 
indeed, suspected by some, of too great an intimacy with 
his female disciples ; and it was rumored, that in order to 
try his virtue, by opposing it to the strongest temptations, 
he exposed it to an inevitable defeat by the manner in 
which he conversed with these holy virgins. It was 
affirmed, that their commerce was softened by something 
more tender than divine love ; against which charge his 
disciples have used their most zealous endeavours to de- 
fend their master. 1 

XX. Norbert, a German nobleman, who took holy 
orders, and was afterwards archbishop of Magdeburg, 
employed his most strenuous efforts to restore to its primi- 
tive severity the discipline of the regular canons, which 
was extremely relaxed in some places, and almost totally 
abolished in others. This eminent reformer founded, in 
the year 1121, the Order of Premontre in Picardy, whose 
fame spread throughout Europe with an amazing rapidity, 
and whose opulence, in a short space of time, became 
excessive and enormous, b in consequence of the high 
esteem which the monks of this community had acquired 
by the gravity of their manners, and their assiduous 
application to the liberal arts and sciences. But their 
overgrown prosperity was the source of their ruin ; it soon 
diminished their zeal for the exercises of devotion, ex- 
tinguished their thirst after useful knowledge, and thus 
gradually plunged them into all kinds of vice. The rule 
which they followed was that of St. Augustin, with some 
slight alterations, and an addition of certain severe laws, 

dictines, has endeavoured to diminish its credit in his Annal. Benedict, 
torn. v. p. 423. For an account of Robert and his order, see the Acta 
Sanctor. torn. iii. Februar. p. 593. — Dion. Sammarthani Gallia Christi- 
ana, torn. ii. p. 1311. — Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Fontevraud. — 
Helyot, Hist, des Ordres, torn. vi. p. 83. — The present state of this mo- 
nastery is described by Moleon, in his Voyages Liturgiques, p. 108, 
and by Martenne, in the second part of his Voyage Literaire de deux 
Benedictins. 

a See the letters of Geoffry, abbot of Vendome, and of Marbod, 
bishop of Rennes ; in which Robert is accused of lying in the same bed 
with the nuns. How the grave abbot was defended against tills accusa- 
tion by the members of his order, may be seen in Mainferme's Clypeus 
Nascentis Ordinis Fontebraldensis, published in 8vo. at Paris in the 
year 1G84 ; and also by another production of the same author, entitled, ' 
Dissertationes in Epistolam contra Robertum de Arbrissello, Salmurii, 
1682, in 8vo. Bayle's account of this famous abbot, in which there is 
such an admirable mixture of wit, sense, and malice, has been also at- 
tacked by several writers ; see, among other works, the vth and vith 
tomes of Mabillon's Annals, and the Dissertation Apologetique pour le 
bienheureux Robert dArbrisselles sur ce qu'en a dit M. Bayle, Anvers 
1701, in8vo. 

gjT In the year 1177, some nuns of this order were brought into 
England at the desire of Henry II. who gave them the monastery of 
Ambresbury, in Wiltshire. They had two other houses here ; one at Eton, 
the other at Westwood, in Worcestershire. 

=£a» b The religious of this order were at first so poor, that they had 
nothing they could call their own, but a single ass, which served to carry 
the wood they cut down every morning, and sent to Laon in order to 
purchase bread. But in a short time they received so many donations, 
and built so many monasteries, that thirty years after the foundation of 
this order, they had above a hundred abbeys in France and Germany. 
In process of time, the order increased so prodigiously, that it had mo- 
nasteries in all parts of Christendom, amounting to 1000 abbeys, 300 
provostships, a vast number of priories, and 500 nunneries. But this 



whose authority, however, did not long survive their 
austere founder. c 

XXI. About the middle of this century, a Calabrian, 
whose name was Berthold, set out with a few companions 
for mount Carmel, and, upon the very spot where the 
prophet Elias is said to have disappeared, built an humble 
cottage, with an adjoining chapel, in which he led a life 
of solitude, austerity, and labour. This little colony 
subsisted, and the places of those that died were more 
than filled by new-comers ; so that it was, at length, d 
erected into a monastic community by Albert, patriarch 
of Jerusalem. This austere prelate drew up, for the new 
monks, a rule of discipline, which was afterwards con- 
firmed by the authority of the Roman pontiffs, who 
modified and altered it in several respects, and, among 
other corrections, mitigated its excessive rigour. e Such 
was the origin of the famous Order of Carmelites, or. as they 
are commonly called, the Order of our Lady of Mount Car- 
mel, which was afterwards transplanted from Syria into 
Europe, and obtained the principal rank among the mendi- 
cant or begging orders. It is true, the Carmelites reject, with 
the highest indignation, an origin so recent and obscure, and 
affirm to this very day, that the prophet Elias was the pa- 
rent and founder of their ancient community. f Very few, 
however, have been engaged to adopt this fabulous and 
chimerical account of the establishment, except the mem- 
bers of the order ; and many Roman Catholic writers 
have treated their pretensions to such a remote antiquity 
with the utmost contempt.? [n3= And scarcely, indeed, 
can any thing be more ridiculous than the circumstantial 
narrations of the occasion, origin, founder, and revolutions 
of this famous order, which we find in several ecclesiastical 
authors, whose zeal for this fraternity has rendered them 
capable of adopting without reluctance, or, at least, of 
reciting without shame, the most puerile and glaring 
absurdities. They tell us that Elias was introduced into 
the state of monachism by the ministry of angels ; that 

number is now greatly diminished. Besides what they lost in Protes- 
tant countries, of 65 abbeys, that they had in Italy, there is not one now 
remaining. 

c See Helyot, Hist, des Ordres, torn. ii. p. 156. — Chrysost. Vander 
Sterre, Vita S. Norberti Prremonstratensium Patriarchal; published in 
8vo. at Antwerp, in 1656. — Louis Hughes, Vie de S. Norbert, Luxemb. 
1704, in 4to. — Add to these, notwithstanding his partiality, Jo. Launoy, 
Inquisit. in Privilegia Ordin. Prasmonstrat. cap. i. ii. Oper. torn. iii. pari 
i. p. 448. For an account of the present state of the Order of Premontre, 
see Martenne's Voyage Literaire de deux Benedictins, torn. ii. p. 59. 

fdr The Prasmonstratenses, or monks of Premontre, vulgarly called 
White Canons, came first into England in the year 1046. Their first 
monastery, called New House, was built in Lincolnshire, by Peter de 
Saulia, and dedicated to St. Martial. In the reign of Edward I. the 
order in question had 27 monasteries in England. 

a In the year 1205. 

e I have here principally followed Dan. Papebroch, an accurate writer, 
and one who is always careful to produce sufficient testimonies of the 
truth of his narrations. See the Acta Sanctor. Antwerp. Mense April, 
torn. iii. p. 774 — 802. It is well known, that an accusation was brought 
against this learned Jesuit, before the tribunal of the pope, by the Car- 
melites, on account of his having called in question the dignity and 
high antiquity of their order. We have in Helyot's Hist, des Ordres 
(torn; i. p. 282) an account of this long and tedious contest, which was 
so far determined, or at least suspended, in the year 1698, by Innocent 
XII. that silence was imposed upon the contending parties. 

f The most concise and accurate of all the Carmelite writers, who 
have treated this matter, is Thomas Aquinas, a French monk, in his 
Dissertatio Histor. Theol. in qua Palriarchatus Ordinis Carmelitarum 
Prophelae Elias vindicator, published in 8vo. at Paris in the year 1632. 
The modern writers who have maintained the cause of the Carmelites 
against Papebroch, are extremely prolix and tiresome. 

s See Harduini Opera Posthum. p. 652. — Labat, Voyage en Espagne 
et Italie, t. iii. p. 87. — Courayer, Examen des Defauts Theol. t. i. p. 455. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



279 



his first disciples were Jonah, Micah, and also Obadiah, 
whose wife, in order to shake off an importunate crowd 
of lovers, who fluttered about her at the court of Ahab 
after the departure of her husband, bound herself by a 
vow of chastity, received the veil from the hands of father 
Elias, and thus became the first abbess of the Carmelite 
order. They enter into a minute detail of the circum- 
stances that relate to the rules of discipline which were 
drawn up for this community, the habit which distinguish- 
ed its members, and the various alterations which were 
successively introduced into their rule of discipline. They 
observe, that among- other marks which were used to 
distinguish the Carmelites from the seculars, the tonsure 
was one ; that this mark of distinction exposed them, 
indeed, to the mockeries of a profane multitude ; and that 
this furnishes the true explication of the term bald-head, 
which the children addressed, by way of reproach, to 
Elisha as he was on his way to Carmel. 1 They also 
affirm, that Pythagoras was a member of this ancient 
order ; that he drew all his wisdom from Mount Carmel, 
and had several conversations with the prophet Daniel at 
Babylon, upon the subject of the Trinity. They even go 
farther into the region of fable, and assert, that the Virgin 
Mary, and Jesus himself, assumed the habit and profession 
of Carmelites ; and they load this fiction with a heap of 
absurd circumstances, which it is impossible to read with- 
out the highest astonishment. 11 

XXII. To this brief account of the religious orders, it will 
not be amiss to add a list of the principal Greek and Latin 
writers who flourished in this century. The most emi- 
nent among the Greeks were those that follow : 

Philippus Solitarius, whose Dioptra, or controversy be- 
tween the soul and the body, is sufficiently known ; 

Eustratius, who maintained the cause of the Greek 
church against the Latins with great learning and spirit, 
and who wrote commentaries on certain books of Aristotle ; 

Euthymius Zigabenus, who by his anti-heretical Panop- 
ly, together with his commentaries upon several parts of 
the sacred writings, acquired a place among the principal 
authors of this century; 

Johannes Zonaras, whose Annals, with several other pro- 
ductions of his learned pen, are still extant ; 

Michael Glycas, who also applied himself to historical 
composition, as well as to other branches of learning ; d 

' See 2 Kings ii. 23. 

gjp b For an ample account of all the absurd inventions here hinted at, 
see a very remarkable work, entitled, " Ordres Monastiques, Histoire 
extraite de tous les Auteurs qui ont conserve a la Posterite ce qu'il y a tie 
plus curieux dans chaque Ordre, enrichie d'un tres grand nombre de 
passages des memes Auteurs, pour servir de demonstration que ce qu'on 
y avance est egalement veritable et curieux." This work, which was first 
printed at Paris in 1751, under the title of Berlin, and which was suppress- 
ed almost as soon as it appeared, is written with great wit, eloquence, and 
learning : and all the narrations it contains are confirmed by citations 
from the most eminent authors, who have given accounts of the religious 
orders. The author's view seems to have been to expose the monks of 
every denomination to the laughter of his readers; and it is very re- 
markable, that, in the execution of his purpose, he has drawn his mate- 
rials from the gravest writers, and from the most zealous defenders of 
monachism. If he has embellished his subject, it is by the vivacity of 
his manner, and the witty elegance of his style, and not by imputing to 
the monastic communities any practices which their most serious histo- 
rians omit or disavow. The authors of the Bibliotheque des Sciences et 
des Beaux Arts, at the Hague, have given several interesting extracts 
from this work in the 2d, 3d, 4th, and 5th volumes of that literary 
journal. 

gjpThe Carmelites came into England in the year 1240, and erected 
a vast number of monasteries in that kingdom. See Broughton's His- 
torical Library, vol. i. p. 208. 



Constantius Harmenopulus, whose commentaries on the 
civil and canon laws are deservedly esteemed ; 

Andronicus Camaterus, who wrote with great warmth 
and vehemence against the Latins and Armenians ; 

Eustathius, bishop of Thessalonica, the most learned of 
the Greeks in this century, and the celebrated commenta- 
tor upon the Iliad ; 

Theodoras Balsamon, who employed great diligence, 
erudition, and labour, in explaining and digesting the civil 
and ecclesiastical laws of the Greeks. e 

XXIII. The most eminent among the Latin writers 
were, 

Bernard, abbot of Clairval, from whom the Cistertian 
monks (as has been already observed) derived the title of 
Bernardins ; a man who was not destitute of genius and 
taste, and w T hose judgment, in many respects, was just and 
penetrating ; but who, on the other hand, discovered in 
his conduct many marks of superstition and weakness, 
and what is still worse, concealed the lust of dominion 
under the mask of piety, and made no scruple of loading 
with false accusations, such as had the misfortune to in- 
cur his displeasure ; f 

Innocent III. bishop of Rome, whose epistles and other 
productions contribute to illustrate the religious sentiments, 
as also the discipline and morals, that prevailed in this 
century ;e 

Anselm of Laon, a man of a subtle genius, and deeply 
versed in logical disquisition ; 

Abelard, the disciple of Anselm, and most famous in 
this century, on account of the elegance of his wit, the ex- 
tent of his erudition, the power of his rhetoric, and the 
severity of his fate ; h 

Geoffry of Vendome, whose Epistles a*nd Dissertations 
are yet extant ; 

Rupert of Duytz, the most eminent, perhaps, of all the 
scriptural expositors who flourished among the Latins 
during this century, a man of a sound judgment and an 
elegant taste ;* 

Hugh of St. Victor, a man distinguished by the fecundi- 
ty of his genius, who treated of all the branches of sacred 
and profane erudition that were known in his time, and 
composed several dissertations that are not destitute of 
merit ; k 

Richard of St. Victor, who was at the head of the Mys- 



c See Rich. Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Eccles. 
par M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 318, 324. 

i Other historians place Glycas in the fifteenth century. See Larni 
Dissertatio de Glyca, which is prefixed to the first volume of his Delicias 
Virorum eruditorum. 

e See the Bibliotheca Grseca of Fabricius. 

f The learned Mabillon has given a splendid edition of the works of 
St. Bernard, and has not only, in his preface, made many excellent obser- 
vations upon the life and history of this famous abbot, but has also sub- 
joined to his works the accounts that have been given, by the ancient wri- 
ters, of his life and actions. 

e The Epistles of Innocent III. were published at Paris, in two large 
volumes in folio, by Baluze, in the year 1682. 

i> See Bayle's Dictionary, at the articles Abelard and Paraclet. — Ger- 
vais, Vie de Pierre Abeillard, Abbe de Ruys, et d'Heloise, published at 
Paris in two volumes 8vo., in the year 1728. The works of this famous 
and unfortunate monk were published at Paris in 1616, in one volume 
4to., by Franc. Amboise. Another edition, much more ample, might be 
given, since there are a great number of the productions of Abelard tliat 
have never yet seen the light. 

i See Mabillon, Annal. Bened. torn. vi. p. 19, 42, 144, 168, 261, 280, 
296. He gives an ample account of Rupert, and of the disputes in 
which he was involved. 

k See Gallia Christiana, torn. vii. p. 661. The works of this learned 
man were published at Rouen, in three folio volumes, in the year 164HL 



280 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



tics in this century, and whose treatise, entitled, The Mys- 
tical Ark, which contains, as it were, the marrow of that 
kind of theology, was received with the greatest avidity, 
and applauded by the fanatics of the times ; a 

Honorius of Autun, b no mean philosopher, and tolerably 
versed in theological learning ; 

Gratian, a learned monk, who reduced the canon law 
into a new and regular form, in his vast compilation of the 
decisions of the ancient and modern councils, the decre- 
tals of the pontiffs, the capitularies of the kings Of France, 
&c. ; 

William of Rheims, the author of several productions, 
calculated to excite pious sentiments, and contribute to the 
progress of practical religion ; 

Peter Lombard, who was commonly called, in France, 
Master of the Sentences, because he had composed a work 
so entitled, which was a collection of opinions and sen- 
tences relative to the various branches of theology, extract- 
ed from the Latin doctors, and reduced into a sort of sys- 
tem ;° 

Gilbert de la Porree," 1 a subtle dialectician, and a learn- 
ed divine, who is, however, said to have adopted several 
erroneous sentiments concerning the Divine Essence, the 
Incarnation, and the Trinity ; c 

William of Auxerre, who acquired a considerable re- 
putation by his Theological System ; f 

Peter of Blois,e whose epistles and other productions 
may yet be read with profit ; 

John of Salisbury, a man of great learning and true 
genius, whose philosophical and theological knowledge 
was adorned with a lively wit and a flowing eloquence, as 
appears in his Metalogicus, and his book de Nugis Curia- 
lium ; ■* 

Petrus Comestor, author of an Abridgment of the Old 
and New Testament, which was used in the schools for 
the instruction of the youth, and called (probabty from that 
circumstance) Historia Scholastica. 

A more ample account of the names and characters of 
the Latin writers may be found in those authors who have 
professedly treated of that branch of literature. 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church 
during this Century. 

I. When we consider the multitude of causes which 
united their influence in obscuring the lustre of genuine 
Christianity, and corrupting it by a profane mixture of the 
inventions of superstitious and designing men with its 
pure and sublime doctrines, it will appear surprising, that 
the religion of Jesus was not totally extinguished. All 
orders contributed, though in different ways, to corrupt the 
native purity of true religion. The popes led the way ; they 
would not suffer any doctrines to prevail that had the small- 
See, for a farther account of him, Derlangii Dissert, de Hugone a S. 
Victore, Helmstadt, 1746, in4to., and Martenne's Voyage Literaire, torn. 
li. p. 91, 92. 

■ Gallia Christiana, torn. vii. p. 669. 

* Such is the place to which Honorius is said to have belonged. But 
Le Bceuf proves him to have been a German, in his Dissert, sur l'Hist. 
Francoise, torn. i. p. 254. 

c Gallia Christiana, torn. vii. p. 68. 

a Called, in Latin, Gilbertus Porretanus. 

gjf e He held, among other things, this trifling and sophistical propo- 
sition, that the divine essence and attributes are not God ; a proposition 



est tendency to diminish their despotic authority; but obli- 
ged the public teachers to interpret the precepts of Christi- 
anity in such a manner, as to render them subservient to the 
support of papal dominion and tyranny. This order was so 
much the more terrible, as those who refused to comply 
with it, and to force the words of scripture into significa- 
tions totally opposite to the intentions of its divine author 
(such, in a word, as had the courage to place the authori- 
ty of the Gospel above that of the Roman pontiffs, and to 
consider it as the supreme rule of their conduct,) were 
answered with the formidable arguments of fire and sword, 
and received death in the most cruel forms, as the fruit of 
their sincerity and resolution. The priests and monks 
contributed, in their way, to disfigure the beautiful sim- 
plicity of religion ; and, rinding it their interest to keep 
the people in the grossest ignorance and darkness, dazzled 
their feeble eyes with the ludicrous pomp of a gaudy 
worship, and led them to place the whole of religion in 
vain ceremonies, bodily austerities and exercises, and par- 
ticularly in a blind and stupid veneration for the clergy. 
The scholastic doctors, who considered the decisions of 
the ancients, and the precepts of the Dialecticians, as the 
great rule and criterion of truth, instead of explaining the 
doctrines of the Gospel, undermined them by degrees, and 
sunk divine truth in the ruins of a captious philosophy ; 
while the Mystics, running into the opposite extreme, 
maintained that the souls of the truly pious were incapable 
of any spontaneous motions, and could only be moved by 
a divine impulse ; and thus not only set limits to the pre- 
tensions of reason, but excluded it entirely from religion 
and morality, if they did not in some measure deny its 
very existence. 

II. The consequences of all this were superstition and 
ignorance, which were substituted for true religion, and 
reigned over the multitude with an universal sway. 
Relics, which were for the most part fictitious, or at least 
uncertain, attracted more powerfully the confidence of the 
people, than the merits of Christ, and were supposed by 
many to be more effectual, than the prayers offered to 
heaven, through the mediation and intercession of that 
divine Redeemer. 11 The opulent, whose circumstances 
enabled them either to erect new temples, or to repair and 
embellish the old, were considered as the happiest of all 
mortals, and as the most intimate friends of the Most High ; 
whilst they, whom poverty rendered incapable of such 
pompous acts of liberality, contributed to the multiplication 
of religious edifices by their bodily labours, cheerfully 
performed the services in which beasts of burthen are 
usually employed, (such as carrying stones and drawing 
wagons,) and expected to obtain eternal salvation by 
these voluntary and painful efforts of misguided zeal.' 
The saints had a greater number of worshippers than 
the Supreme Being and the Saviour of mankind ; nor 
did these superstitious worshippers trouble their heads 

that was every way proper to exercise the quibbling spirit of the scho- 
lastic writers. 

f Le Bceuf, Dissert, sur la Somme Theologique de Guillaume d Aux- 
erre, in Molat's Continuation des Memoires d'Histoire et de Literature, 
torn. iii. part ii. p. 317. g Petrus Blesensis. 

b See Guibert de Novigento, de Pignoribus (so were relics called) 
Sanctorum, in his Works published by d'Acheri, p. 327, where he attacks, 
with judgment and dexterity, the' superstition of these miserable times. 

■ See Haymon's Treatise concerning this custom, published by Ma- 
billon, at the end of the sixth tome of his Annal. Benedict. See also 
those Annates, p. 392. 



Chap. fll. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



281 



about that knotty question, which occasioned much debate 
and many laborious disquisitions in succeeding times, viz. 
How tbe inhabitants of heaven came to the knowledge of 
the prayers and supplications that were addressed to them 
from the earth I This question wa3 prevented in this 
century by an opinion, which the Christians had received 
from their pagan ancestors, that the inhabitants of heaven 
descended often from above, and frequented the places in 
which they had formerly taken pleasure during their 
residence upon earth. 1 To finish the horrid portrait of 
superstition, we shall only observe, that the stupid creduli- 
ty of the people in this century went so far, that when any 
persons, either through the phrensy of a disordered imagi- 
nation, or. with an intention of deceiving, published the 
dreams or visions, which they fancied or pretended they 
had from above, the multitude resorted to the new oracle, 
and respected its decisions as the commands of God, who 
in this way was pleased, as they imagined, to communi- 
cate counsel, instruction, and the knowledge of his will to 
men. This appears (to mention no other examples) from 
the extraordinary reputation which the two famous pro- 
phetesses Hildegard, abbess of Bingen, and Elizabeth of 
Schonauge, obtained in Germany. b 

III. The general prevalence of ignorance and super- 
stition was dexterously, yet basely improved, by the rulers 
of the church, to fill their coffers, and to drain the purses 
of the deluded multitude : indeed, each rank and order of 
the clergy had a peculiar method of fleecing the people. 
The bishops, when they wanted money for their private 
pleasures, or for the exigencies of the church, granted to 
their flock the power of purchasing the remission of the 
penalties imposed upon transgressors, by a sum of money, 
which was to be applied to certain religious purposes ; or, 
in other words, they published indulgences, which became 
an inexhaustible source of opulence to the episcopal orders, 
and enabled them, as is well known, to form and execute 
the most difficult schemes for the enlargement of their 
authority, and to erect a multitude of sacred edifices, which 
augmented considerably the external pomp and splendour 
of the church/ The abbots and monks, who were not 
qualified to grant indulgences, had recourse to other 
methods of enriching their convents. They earned about 
the country the carcases and relics of the saints in solemn 
procession, and permitted the multitude to behold, touch, 
and embrace, at fixed prices, these sacred and lucrative 
remains. The monastic orders often gained as much by 
this raree-show, as the bishops did by their indulgences. 11 

IV. When the Roman pontiffs cast an eye upon the 
immense treasures that the inferior rulers of the church 
were accumulating by the sale of indulgences, they 
thought proper to limit the power of the bishops in 

* As a proof that this assertion is not without foundation, we shall 
transcribe the following remarkable passage of the life of St. Altnian, 
bishop of Padua, as it stands in Seb. Tengnagel's Collect. Vet. Mo- 
numentor. p. 41. "Vos licet, sancti Domini, somno vestro requiescatis 
. . . haud tamen crediderim, spiritus vestros deesse locis quae viventes 
tanta devotione construxistis et dilexistis. Credo vos adesse cunctis il- 
lic degenlibus, astare videlicet orantibus, succurrere laborantibus, et vota 
singulorum in conspectu divina; majestatis promovere." 

b See Mabillon, Annates Benedict, torn. vi. p. 431, 529, 554. 

e Stephanus Obazinensis in Baluzii Miscellan. torn. iv. p. 130. — Ma- 
billon, Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 535, &c. 

d We find in the records of this century innumerable examples of this 
method of extorting contributions from the multitude. See the Chroni- 
con Centulense in d Acherii Spicilegio Veter. Scriptor. torn. ii. p. 354. — 
Vita Stae. Romania?, ibid. p. 137.— Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. 
p. 332, 644. — Acta Sanctor.' Mensis Maii, torn. vii. p. 533. where we 

No. XXIV. 71 



remitting the penalties imposed upon transgressors, and 
assumed, almost entirely, this profitable traffick to them- 
selves. In consequence of this new measure, the court of 
Rome became the general magazine of indulgences ; and 
the pontiffs, when either the wants of the church, the 
emptiness of their coffers, or the demon of avarice, 
prompted them to look out for new subsidies, published 
not only a general, but also a complete, or what they called 
a plenary remission of the temporal pains and penalties, 
annexed by the church to certain transgressions. They 
went still farther ; and not only remitted the penalties 
which the civil and ecclesiastical laws had enacted against 
transgressors, but audaciously usurped the authority which 
belongs to God alone, and impiously pretended to abolish 
even the punishments which are reserved in a future state 
for the workers of iniquity ; a step which the bishops, with 
all their avarice and presumption, had never once ven- 
tured to take. e 

The pontiffs first employed this pretended prerogative 
in promoting the holy war, and shed abroad their in- 
dulgences, though with a certain degree of moderation, in 
order to encourage the European princes to form new 
expeditions for the conquest of Palestine ; but, in process 
of time, the charm of indulgence was practised upon 
various occasions of much less consequence, and merely 
with a view to base lucre. f Their introduction, among 
other things, destroyed the credit and authority of the 
ancient canonical and ecclesiastical discipline of penance, 
and occasioned the removal and suppression of the peni- 
tentials,s by which the reins were let loose to every kind 
of vice. Such proceedings stood much in need of a 
plausible defence ; but this was impossible. To vindicate 
in an authoritative manner these scandalous measures of 
the pontiff's, an absurd and even monstrous doctrine was 
now invented, which was modified and embellished by 
St. Thomas in the succeeding century, and which con- 
tained, among others, the following enormities : " That 
there actually existed an immense treasure of merit, com- 
posed of the pious deeds, and virtuous actions, which the 
saints had performed beyond what was necessary for their 
own salvation, h and which were therefore applicable to the 
benefit of others ; that the guardian and dispenser of this 
precious treasure was the Roman pontiff; and that con- 
sequently he was empowered to assign, to such as he 
deemed proper objects, a portion of this inexhaustible 
source of merit, suitable to their respective guilt, and 
sufficient to deliver them from the punishment due to their 
crimes." It is a most deplorable mark of the power of 
superstition, that a doctrine, so absurd in its nature, and 
so pernicious in its effects, should yet be retained and 
defended in the church of Rome.' 

have an account of a long journey made by the relics of St. Marculus. 
Mabillon, Acta Sanctorum Ordinis Benedictini, torn. vi. p. 519, 520; 
torn. ii. p. 732. 

•Morinus, de administratione Sacramenti Poenitentiae. lib.x.cap. xx. 
xxi. xxii. p. 7C8. — Rich. Simon, Biblioth. Critique, torn. iii. cap. xxxiii. 
p. 371. — Mabillon, Praefatio ad Acta Sanctorum Sasc. V. Acta Sancto- 
rum Benedictini, p. 54, not to speak of the protestant writers, whom I 
designedly pass over. 

f Muratori, Antiq. Italic, medii JEvi, torn. v. p. 7G1. — Franc. Paji.Bre- 
viar. Rom. Pontif. torn. ii. p. 60. — Theod. Ruinarti Vita Urbam II. p. 
231. torn. iii. Op. Posthum. 

Ifjlr 6 The Penitential was a book, in which the desrecs and kinds of 
penance, that were annexed to different crimes, were registered. 

3pT h These works are known by the name of Works of Superero- 
gation. 

§£j=> i For a satisfactory and ample account of the enormous doctrine 



282 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



V. Nothing was more common in this century than ex- 
positors and interpreters of the sacred writings ; but nothing 
was so rare, as to find, in that class of authors, the qualifi- 
cations that are essentially required in a good commenta- 
tor. Few of these expositors, were attentive to search after 
the true signification of the words employed by the sacred 
writers, or to investigate the precise sense in which they 
were used ; and these few were destitute of the succours 
which such researches demand. The Greek and Latin 
commentators, blinded by their enthusiastic love of anti- 
quity, and their implicit veneration for the doctors of the 
early ages of the church, drew from their writings, without 
discernment or choice, a heap of passages, which they 
were pleased to consider as illustrations of the holy scrip- 
tures. Such were the commentaries of Euthymius Ziga- 
benus, an eminent expositor among the Greeks, upon the 
Psalms, the Gospels, and Epistles ; though it must, at the 
same time, be acknowledged, that this writer follows, in 
some places, the dictates of his own judgment, and gives, 
upon certain occasions, proofs of penetration and genius. 
Among the Latins, we might give several examples of the 
injudicious manner of expounding the divine word that 
prevailed in this century, such as the Lucubrations of Peter 
Lombard, Gilbert de la Porree, and the famous Abelard, 
upon the Psalms of David, and the Epistles of St. Paul. 
Nor do those Latin commentators who expounded the 
whole of the sacred writings, and who are placed at the 
head of the expositors of this age, (such as Gilbert, bishop 
of London, surnamed the Universal, on account of the 
vast extent of his erudition,* and Hervey, b a most studious 
Benedictine monk,) deserve a higher place in our esteem, 
than the authors before mentioned. The writers that merit 
the preference among the Latins are Rupert of Duytz, and 
Anselm of Laon ; the former of whom expounded several 
books of scripture, and the latter composed, or rather com- 
piled, a glossary upon the sacred writings. As to those 
doctors who were not carried away by an enthusiastical 
veneration for the ancients, who had courage enough to 
try their own talents, and to follow the dictates of their 
cwn sagacity, they were chargeable with defects of another 
kind ; for, disregarding and overlooking the beautiful sim- 
plicity of divine truth, they were perpetually bent on the 
search of all sorts of mysteries in the sacred writings, and 
Avere constantly on the scent after some hidden meaning 
in the plainest expressions of scripture. The Mystics ex- 
celled peculiarly in this manner of expounding ; and, by 
their violent explications, forced the word of God into a 
conformity with their visionary doctrines, their enthusias- 
tic feelings, and the system of discipline which they had 
drawn from the excursions of their irregular fancies. Nor 
were the commentators, who pretended to logic and philo- 
sophy, and who, in effect, had applied themselves to these 
profound sciences, free from the contagion of mysticism in 
their explications of scripture. That they followed the 

of indulgences, see a very learned and judicious work, entitled, Lettres 
sur les Jubiles, published in the year 1751, in three volumes, 8vo. by the 
Rev. Mr. Chais, minister of the French church at the Hague, on occa- 
sion of the universal Jubilee celebrated at Rome in the preceding year, 
by the order of Benedict XIV. In the second volume of this excellent 
work, which we shall have frequent occasion to consult in the course of 
this history, a clear account and a satisfactory refutation of the doctrine 
may be found, with the history Of that monstrous practice from its origin 
to the present times. 

"For an account of this prelate, see Le Boeuf, Memoires concernant 
l'Histoire d'Auxerre, torn. ii. p. 486. 

•> An ample account of this learned Benedictine is to be found in Gabr. 



example of those fanatics may be seen by the Allegorical 
Exposition which Hugh of St. Victor gave of the Old and 
New Testament, by the Mystical Ark of Richard of St. 
Victor, and by the Mystical Commentaries of Guibert, ab- 
bot of Nogent, on Obadiah, Hosea, and Amos ; c not to 
mention several other writers, who seem to have been 
animated by the same spirit. 

VI. The most eminent teachers of theology resided at 
Paris, which city was, from this time forward, frequented 
by students of divinity from all parts of Europe, who re-- 
sorted thither in crowds, to receive instruction from these 
celebrated masters. The French divines were divided into 
different sects. The first of these sects, who were distin- 
guished by the title of the Ancient Theologists, explained 
the doctrines of religion, in a plain and simple manner, by 
passages drawn from the holy scriptures, from the decrees 
of councils, and the writings of the ancient doctors, and 
very rarely made use of the succours of reason or philoso- 
phy in their theological lectures. In this class we place 
St. Bernard, Peter surnamed the Chanter, Walter of St. 
Victor, and other theologians, who declared an open and 
bitter war against the philosophical divines. The doctors, 
who were- afterwards known by the name of positive and 
sententiary teachers of religion, were not, in all respects, 
different from these now mentioned. Imitating the ex- 
amples of Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, Lanfranc, 
Hildebert, and other doctors of the preceding century, they 
taught and confirmed their system of theology, principally 
by collecting the decisions of the inspired writers, and the 
opinions of the ancients. At the same time they were far 
from rejecting the succours of reason, and the discussions 
of philosophy, to which they more especially had recourse, 
when difficulties were to be solved, and adversaries to be 
refuted, but, in the application of which, all did not dis- 
cover the same degree of moderation and prudence. Hugh 
of St. Victor is supposed to have been the first writer of 
this century, who taught in this manner the doctrines of 
Christianity, digested into a regular system. His exam- 
ple was followed by many ; but no one acquired such a 
shining reputation by his labours, in this branch of sacred 
erudition, as Peter, bishop of Paris, surnamed Lombard, 
from the country which gave him birth. The four books 
of Sentences of this eminent prelate, which appeared ixi 
the year 1162, d were not only received with general ap 
plause, but acquired also such a high degree of authority, 
as induced the most learned doctors in all places to em- 
ploy their labours in illustrating and expounding them. 
Scarcely was there any divine of note that did not under- 
take this popular task, except Henry of Ghent, and a few 
others ; e so that Lombard, who was commonly called Mas- 
ter of the Sentences, on account of the famous work now 
mentioned, became truly a classic author in divinity/ 

VII. The followers of Lombard, who were called Sen- 
tentiarii, though their manner of teaching was defective 



Liron's Singularites Historiques et Literaires, torn. iii. p. 29. — See also 
Mabillon, Annales Benedict, torn. vi. p. 477, 719. 

c The. Prologus in Abdiam was published by Mabillon, in his Annales 
Benedict, torn. vi. p. 637. 

<i Erpoldi Lindenbrogii Scriptores Rerum Septentrionalium, p. 250. 

• A list of the commentators who laboured in explaining the Sentences 
of Lombard, is given by Anton. Possevinus, in his Biblioth. Selecta, 
torn. i. lib. iii. cap. xiv. p. 242. . 

fj= f The Book of Sentences, which rendered the name of Peter Lom- 
bard so illustrious, was a compilation of sentences and passages drawn 
from the fathers, whose manifold contradictions this eminent prelate en- 
deavoured to reconcile. His work may be considered as a complete 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



283 



in some respects, and not altogether exempt from vain | 
and trivial questions, were always attentive to avoid en- 
tering too far into the subtleties of the Dialecticians, nor j 
did they presumptuously attempt to submit the divine 
truths of the Gospel to the uncertain and obscure principles 
of a refined and intricate logic, which was rather founded 
on the excursions of fancy than on the true nature of things. 
They had for contemporaries anothersetof theologians, who 
were far from imitating their moderation and prudence 
in this respect ; a set of subtle doctors, who taught the j 
plain and simple truths of Christianity, in the obscure j 
terms, and with the perplexing distinctions used by the 
Dialecticians, and explained, or rather darkened with their 
unintelligible jargon, the sublime precepts of that wisdom 
which emanates from above. This method of teaching 
theology, which was afterwards called the scholastic sys- 
tem, because it was in general use in the schools, had for 
its author Peter Abelard, a man of the most subtle genius, 
whose public lectures in philosophy and divinity had raised 
him to the highest summit of literary renown, and who 
was successively canon of Paris, and monk and abbot of 
Ruys." The fame he acquired by this new method en- 
gaged many ambitious divines to adopt it ; and, in a short 
space of time, the followers of Abelard multiplied prodi- 
giously, not only in France, but also in England and Italy. 
Thus was the pure and peaceable wisdom of the Gospel 
perverted into a science of mere sophistry and chicane ; 
for these subtle doctors never explained or illustrated any 
subject, but, on the contrary, darkened and disfigured the 
plainest expressions, and the most evident truths, by their 
laboured and useless distinctions, fatigued both themselves 
and others with unintelligible solutions of abstruse and 
frivolous questions, and, through a rage for disputing, 
maintained with equal vehemence and ardour the opposite 
sides of the most serious and momentous questions. 1 * 

VIII. From this period, therefore, an important distinc- 
tion was made between the Christian doctors, who were 
divided into two classes. In the first class were placed 
those, who were called by the various names of biblici, i. e. 
bible-doctors, dogmatici, and positivi, i. e. didactic divines, 
and also veteres, or ancients ; and in the second were 
ranged the scholastics, who were also distinguished by the 
titles of Sententiarii, after the Master of the Sentences, and 
Novij to express their recent origin. The former expound- 
ed, though in a wretched manner, the sacred writings in 
their public schools, illustrated the doctrines of Christianity, 

body of divinity. It consists of four books, each of which is subdivided 
into various chapters and sections. In the first he treats of the Trinity, 
and the Divine Attributes ; in the second, of the Creation in general, of 
the Origin of Angels, the Formation and Fall of Man, of Grace and Free 
Will, of Original Sin and Actual Transgression; in the third, of the In- 
carnation and Perfections of Jesus Christ, of Faith, Hope, and Charity, 
of the Gifts of the Spirit, and the Commandments of God. The Sacra- 
ments, the Resurrection, the Last Judgment, and the State of die Right- 
eous in Heaven, are the subjects treated in the fourth and last book of 
this celebrated work, which was the wonder of the twelfth century, but 
is little more than an object of contempt in ours. 

a Abelard acknowledges this himself, Epist. i. cap. ix. p. 20. Oper. — 
See also Launoy, de Scholis Caroli M. p. 67, cap. lix. torn. iv. op. 
part i. 

b Caes. Egasse de Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 201, 583. — 
Anton. Wood, Antiquit. Oxoniens. torn. i. p. 58. — Launoy, de varia 
Aristotelis Fortuna in Acad. Paris, cap. iii. p. 187, edit. Elswichii, Vi- 
tem. 1720, in 8vo. 

• See Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 657. 

* The Book of Sentences seemed to be at this time in much greater re- 
pute than the Holy Scriptures ; and the compilations of Peter Lombard I 
were preferred to the doctrines and precepts of Jesus Christ. This ap- 
pears evident from the following remarkable passage in Roger Bacon's 



without deriving any succours from reason or philosophy, 
and confirmed their opinions by the united testimonies of 
Scripture and Tradition. The latter expounded, instead 
of the Bible, the famous Book of Sentences ; reduced, un- 
der the province of their subtle philosophy, whatever the 
Gospel proposed as an object of faith, or a rule of practice ; 
and peiplexed and obscured its divine doctrines and pre- 
cepts by a multitude of vain questions and idle specula- 
tions. 1 The method of the scholastics exhibited a pom- 
pous aspect of learning, and these disputants seemed to 
surpass their adversaries in sagacity and genius ; hence 
they excited the admiration of the studious youth, who 
flocked to their schools in multitudes, while the biblici or 
doctors of the sacred page, as they were also called, had 
the mortification to see their auditories unfrequented, and 
almost deserted. d The scholastic theology continued in 
high repute in all the European colleges until the time of 
Luther. 

IX. It must, however, be observed, that these metaphy- 
sical divines had many difficulties to encounter, and 
much opposition to overcome, before they could obtain 
that boundless authority in the European schools, which 
they so long enjoyed. They were attacked from different 
quarters ; on the one hand, by the ancient divines, or bi- 
ble doctors ; on the other by the mystics, who considered 
true wisdom and knowledge as unattainable by study or 
reasoning, and as the fruit of mere contemplation, inward 
feeling, and a passive acquiescence in divine influences. 
Thus that ancient conflict between faith and reason, 
that had formerly divided the Latin doctors, and had been 
for many years hushed in silence, was now unhappily 
revived, and produced various tumults, and bitter dissen- 
sions. The patrons of the ancient theology, who at- 
tacked the schoolmen, were Guibert, abbot of Nogent, e 
Peter, abbot of Moustier-la-Cella, f Peter the Chanter,? and 
principally Walter of St. Victor. 11 The mystics also sent 
forth into the field of controversy, upon this occasion, 
their ablest and most violent champions, such as Joachim, 
abbot of Flori, Richard of St. Victor, who loaded with 
invectives the scholastic divines, and more especially 
Lombard, though he was, undoubtedly, the most candid 
and modest doctor of that subtle tribe. These dissensions 
and contests, whose deplorable effects augmented from 
day to day, engaged pope Alexander III. to interpose his 
authority, in order to restore tranquillity and concord in 
the church. For this purpose he convoked a solemn 

Op. Maj. ad Clementem IV. Pontif Rom. published in 1733 at London 
by Sam. Jebb, from the original MS. " Baccalaureus qui legit textum 
(scripturae) succumbit lectori sententiarum, et ubique in omnibus hono- 
ratur et praefertur : nam ille, qui legit sententias, habet principalem ho- 
ram les:endi secundum suam voluntatem, habet et socium et cameram 
apud rcligiosos : scd qui legit Bibliam, caret his, et mendicat horam le- 
gendi secundum quod placet lectori sententiarum: et qui legit summas, 
disputat ubique et pro magistro habetur ; reliquus qui textum leeit, non 
potest disputare, sicut fuit hoc anno Bononia?, et in multis aliis locis. quod 
est absurdum: manifestum est igitur, quod textus illius facultatis (sc. 
Theologieae) subjicitur uni sumrnas magistrali." Such was now the au- 
thority of the scholastic theology, as appears from the words of Bacon, 
who lived in the following century, and in whose writings there are 
many things highly worthy of the attention of die curious. 

• In his Tropologia in Oseam, p. 203, op. 

'Opuscul. p. 277, 396, edit. Benedict. 

» In his Verbum Abbreviat. cap. iii. p. 6, 7, published at Mons in the 
year 1639, in 4to. by George Galopin. 

k In his Libri IV. contra Gtuatuor Francise Labyrindios et novos Hae- 
reticos. He called Abelard, Gilbert de la Porree, Lombard, and Peter 
of Poictiers, who were the principal scholastic divines of this century, 
the four Labyrinths of Fiance. For an account of this work, which is 
yet in manuscript, see Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 619, 659. 



284 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



and numerous assembly of the clergy in the year 1164, a 
in which the licentious rage of religious disputation was 
condemned ; and another in 1179, in which some parti- 
cular errors of Peter Lombard were pointed out and cen- 
sured. 6 

X. But of all the adversaries that assailed the scholas- 
tic divines in this century, no one was so formidable as 
the famous St. Bernard, whose zeal was ardent beyond 
all expression, and whose influence and authority were 
equal to his zeal. And, accordingly, we find this illus- 
trious abbot combating the Dialecticians, not only in his 
writings and his conversation, but also by his deeds ; arm- 
ing against them synods and councils, the decrees of 
the church, and the laws of the slate. The renowned 
Abelard, who was as much superior to St. Bernard in sa- 
gacity and erudition, as he was his inferior in credit and 
authority, was one of the first who felt, by a bitter expe- 
rience, the aversion of the lordly abbot to the scholastic 
doctors : for, in the year 1121, he was called before the 
council of Soissons, and before that of Sens in 1140 ; in 
both of which assemblies he was accused by St. Bernard 
of the most pernicious errors, and was finally condemned 
as an egregious heretic. The charge brought against 
this subtle and learned monk was, that he had notori- 
ously corrupted the doctrine of the Trinity, blasphemed 
against the majesty of the Holy Ghost, entertained un- 
worthy and false conceptions of the person and offices of 
Christ, and the union of the two natures in him ; denied 
the necessity of the divine grace to render us virtuous ; 
and, in a word, that his doctrines struck at the fundamen- 
tal principles of all religion. It must be confessed, by 
those who are acquainted with the writings of Abelard, 
that he expressed himself in a very singular and incon- 
gruous manner upon several points of theology ; d and 
this, indeed, is one of the inconveniences to which sub- 
tle refinements upon mysterious doctrines frequently 
lead. But it is certain, on the other hand, that St. Ber- 
nard, who had much more genius than logic, misunder- 
stood some of the opinions of Abelard, and wilfully per- 
verted others : for the zeal of this good abbot too rarely 
permitted him to consult in his decisions the dictates of 
impartial equity ; and hence it was, that he almost al- 
ways applauded beyond measure, and censured without 
mercy. e 

XI. Abelard was not the only scholastic divine who 
paid dearly for his metaphysical refinement upon the doc- 
trines of the Gospel, and whose logic exposed him to the 
unrelenting fury of persecution ; Gilbert de la Porree, 
bishop of Poictiers, who had taught theology and philo- 
sophy at Paris, and in other places, with the highest ap- 
plause, met with the same fate. Unfortunately for him, 
Arnold and Calo, two of his archdeacons, who had been 

* Ant. Pagi,. Critic, in Baronium, torn. iv. ad A. 1164, p. 614, 615. 
tMatth. Paris. Histor. Major, p. 115.— Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris. 

torn. ii. p. 402. 

c See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Abelard.-^-Gervais, Vie d' Abe- 
lard et d'Heloise. — Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 63, 84, 395. — 
Martenne, Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn. v. p. 1139. 

f^= <i He affirmed, for example, among other things equally unintelli- 
gible and extravagant, that the names, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
were improper terms, and were only used to express the fulness of the 
sovereign good; that the Father was the plenitude of power, the Son a 
certain power, and the Holy Ghost no power at all ; that the Holy Ghost 
was the soul of the world ; with other crude fancies of a like nature, min- 
gled, however, with bold truths. 

• See Gervais, Vie d' Abelard, torn. ii. p. 162. — Le Clerc, Biblioth. 



educated in the principles of the ancient theology, heard 
him one day disputing, with more subtlety than was meet, 
of the divine nature. Alarmed at the novelty of his doc- 
trine, they brought a charge of blasphemy against him 
before pope Eugenius III., who was at that time in 
France ; and, to give weight to their accusation, they 
engaged St. Bernard in their cause. The zealous abbot 
treated the matter with his usual vehemence, and op- 
posed Gilbert with the utmost severity and bitterness, first 
in the council of Paris, A. D. 1147, and afterwards in 
that which was assembled at Rheims in the following 
year. In the latter council the accused bishop, in order 
to put an end to the dispute, offered to submit his opinions 
to the judgment of the assembly, and of the Roman 
pontiff, by whom they were condemned. The errors 
attributed to Gilbert were the fruits of an excessive sub- 
tlety, and of an extravagant passion for reducing the doc- 
trines of Christianity under the empire of metaphysics 
and dialectics. He distinguished the divine essence from 
the Deity, the properties of the three divine persons from 
the persons themselves, not in reality, but by abstrac- 
tion, in statu rationis, as the metaphysicians speak ; and, 
in consequence of these distinctions, he denied the incar- 
nation of the divine nature. To these he added other 
opinions, derived from the same source, which were rather 
vain, fanciful, and adapted to excite surprise by their 
novelty, than glaringly false, or really pernicious. These 
refined notions were far above the comprehension of good 
St. Bernard, who was by no means accustomed to such 
profound disquisitions, to such intricate researches/ 

XII. The important science of morality was not now 
in a very flourishing state, as may be easily imagined 
when we consider the genius and spirit of that philoso- 
phy, which, in this century, reduced all the other sciences 
under its dominion, and of which we have given some 
account in the preceding sections. The only moral wri- 
ter among the Greeks, worthy of mention, is Philip, sur- 
named the Solitary, whose book, entitled Dioptra, which 
consists of a dialogue between the body and the soul, 
is composed with judgment and elegance, and contains 
many remarks proper to nourish pious and virtuous senti- 
ments. 

The Latin moralists of this age may be divided into 
two classes, the scholastics and mystics. The former 
discoursed about virtue, as they did about truth, in the 
most unfeeling jargon, and generally subjoined their arid 
system of morals to what they called their didactic the- 
ology. The latter treated the duties of morality in a 
quite different manner ; their language was tender, per- 
suasive, and affecting, and their sentiments were often 
beautiful and sublime ; but they taught in a confused 
and irregular manner, without method or precision, and 

Ancienne et Moderne, torn. ix. p. 352. — Dionys. Petav. Dogmata Theo- 
log. torn. i. lib. v. cap. vi. p. 217, as also the works of Bernard, passim. 
Abelard, who, notwithstanding all his crude notions, was a man of true 
genius, was undoubtedly worthy of a better fate than that which fell to 
his lot, and of a more enlightened age than that in which he lived. Af- 
ter passing through the furnace of persecution, and having suffered af- 
flictions of various kinds, of which he has transmitted the history to pos- 
terity, he retired to the monastery of Clugni, where he ended his days ill 
the year 1142. 

f See Du Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 223, 232. — Mabillon, 
Annal. Benedictin. torn. vi. p. 343, 415, 433. — Gallia Christiana Bene- 
dictin. torn. ii. p. 1175. — Matth. Paris, Histor. Major, p. 56. — Petavii 
Dogmata Theologica, torn. i. lib. i. cap. viii. — Longueval Histoire de 
l'Eglise Gallicane, torn. ix. p. 147. 



Chap. III. 



DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



285 



frequently mixed the dross of Platonism with the pure 
treasures of celestial truth. 

We might also- place in the class of moral writers the 
greatest part of the commentators and expositors of this 
century, who, laying aside all attention to the significa- 
tion of the words used by the sacred writers, and scarcely 
ever attempting to illustrate the truths which they reveal, 
or the events which they relate, turned, by forced and 
allegorical explications, every passage of scripture to prac- 
tical uses, and drew lessons of morality from every quar- 
ter. We could produce many instances of this way of 
commenting, beside Guibert's Moral Observations on the 
Book of Job, the Prophecy of Amos, and the Lamenta- 
tions of- Jeremiah. 

XIII. Both Greeks and Latins were seized with that 
enthusiastic passion for dialectical researches, which raged 
in this century, and were thus rendered extremely fond 
of captious questions and theological contests ; and, at 
the same time, the love of controversy seduced them 
from the paths that lead to truth, and involved them in 
labyrinths of uncertainty and error. The discovery of 
truth was not. indeed, the great object they had in view ; 
their principal aim was to perplex and embarrass their ad- 
versaries, and overwhelm them with an enormous heap 
of fine-spun distinctions, an impetuous torrent of words 
without meaning, a long list of formidable authorities, 
and a specious train of fallacious consequences, embellish- 
ed with railings and invectives. The principal polemic 
writers among the Greeks were Constantinus Harmeno- 
pulus, and Euthymius Zigabenus. The former pub- 
lished a short treatise de Sectis Hczreticoriim, i. e. con- 
cerning the Sects of Heretics. The latter, in a long and 
laboured work, entitled Panoplia, attacked- all the here- 
sies and errors that troubled the church ; but, not to men- 
tion the extreme levity and credulity of this writer, his 
mode of disputation was highly defective, and all his ar- 
guments, according to the wretched method that now 
prevailed, were drawn from the writings of the ancient 
doctors, whose authority supplied the place of evidence. 
Both these authors were sharply censured in a satirical 
poem composed by Zonaras. The Latin writers were 
also employed in various branches of religious controver- 
sy. Honorius of Autun wrote against certain heresies ; 
and Abelard combated them all. The Jews, whose cre- 
dit, was now extremely low, and whose circumstances 
were miserable in every respect, were refuted by Gilbert 
de Castilione, Odo, Peter Alfonsus, Rupert of Duytz, Pe- 
ter Mauritius, Richard of St. Victor, and Peter of Blois, 
according to the logic of the times, while Euthymius and 
several other divines directed their polemic force against 
the Saracens. 

XIV That contest between the Greeks and Latins, 
the subject of which has been already mentioned, was 
still carried on by both parties with the greatest obstinacy 
and vehemence. The Grecian champions were Euthy- 
mius, Nicetas, and others of less renown ; while the 
cause of the Latins was vigorously maintained by An- 
selm, bishop of Havelberg, and Hugo Etherianus, who 
eminently distinguished themselves by their erudition in 
this famous controversy. 1 Many attempts were made, 
both at Rome and Constantinople, to reconcile these dif- 
ferences, and heal these divisions : and this union was 



*• See L.eo Allat. de peipet Consen. Ec. Ori. etOccid. 

No. XXI V. 72 



lib. ii. c. xi. p. G44. 



solicited, in a particular manner, by the emperors of the 
Comnene family, who expected to draw great advantage 
from the friendship and alliance of the Latins, toward 
the support of the Grecian empire, which was at this time 
in a declining, and almost in a desperate condition. But 
as the Latins aimed at nothing less than a despotic su- 
premacy over the Greek church, and as, on the other 
hand, the Grecian bishops could by no means be induced 
to yield an implicit obedience to the Roman pontiff", or to 
condemn the measures and proceedings of their ancestors, 
the negotiations, undertaken for the restoration of peace, 
widened the breach instead of healing it ; and the terms 
proposed on both sides, but especially by the Latins, exas- 
perated, instead of calming, the resentments and animosi- 
ties of the contending parties. 

XV. Many controversies of inferior moment were car- 
ried on among the Greeks, who were extremely fond of 
disputing, and were scarcely ever without debates upon 
religious matters. We shall not enter into a circumstan- 
tial narration of these theological contests, which would 
fatigue rather than amuse or instruct ; but shall con- 
fine ourselves to a brief mention of those which made 
the greatest noise in the empire. Under the reign of 
Emanuel Comnenus, whose extensive learning was ac- 
companied with an excessive curiosity, several theological 
controversies were carried on, in which he himself bore a 
principal part, and which fomented such discords and 
animosities among a people already exhausted and de- 
jected by intestine tumults, as threatened their destruc- 
tion. The first question that exercised the metaphysical 
talent of this over-curious emperor and his subtle doctors, 
was this : — in what sense was it, or might it be, affirmed, 
that an incarnate God was at the same time the offerer 
and the oblation ? When this knotty question had been 
long debated, and the emperor had maintained, for a 
considerable time, that solution of it which was contrary 
to the opinion generally received, he yielded at length, 
and embraced the popular notion of that unintelligible 
subject. The consequence of this step was, that many 
men of eminent abilities and great credit, who had dif- 
fered from the doctrine of the church upon this article, 
were deprived of their honours and employments. b 
What the emperor's opinion of this matter was we are 
not satisfactorily informed ; and we are equally ignorant 
of the sentiments adopted by the church in this question. 
It is highly probable that Emanuel, followed by certain 
learned doctors, differed from the opinions generally re- 
ceived among the Greeks concerning the Lord's sup- 
per, and the oblation or sacrifice of Christ in that hoi}' 
ordinance. 

XVI. Some years after this, a still more warm contest 
arose concerning the sense of these words of Christ. John 
xiv. 28. ' For my Father is greater than I,' and divided 
the Greeks into the most bitter and deplorable factions. 
To the ancient explications of that important passage new 
illustrations were now added ; and the emperor himself, 
who, from an indifferent prince, had become a wretched 
divine, published an exposition of that remarkable text, 
which he obtruded as the only true sense of the words, 
upon a council assembled for that purpose, and was 
desirous of having received as a rule of faith by all the 
Grecian clergy. He maintained that the words in question 

•> Nicetas Choniates, Annal. lib. vii. sect 5. 



286 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



related to the flesh that was hidden in Christ, and that 
was passible, i. e. subject to suffering, 1 and not only- 
ordered this decision to be engraven on tables of stone in 
the principal church of Constantinople, but also published 
an edict, in which capital punishments were denounced 
against all such as should presume to oppose this explica- 
tion, or teach any doctrine repugnant to it. b This edict, 
however, expired with the emperor by whom it was 
issued ; and Andronicus, upon his accession to the imperial 
throne, prohibited all those contests concerning speculative 
points of theology, that arose from an irregular and wanton 
curiosity, and suppressed, in a more particular manner, all 
inquiry into the subject now mentioned, by enacting the 
severest penalties against such as should in any way 
contribute to revive this disputes 

XVII. The same theological emperor troubled the 
church with another controversy concerning the God of 
Mohammed. The Greek catechisms pronounced an ana- 
thema against the Deity worshipped by that false prophet, 
whom they represented as a solid and spherical Being f 
for so they translated the Arabian word elsemed, which 
is applied in the Koran to the Supreme Being, and which 
indeed is susceptible of that sense, though it also signifies 
eternal.' The emperor ordered this anathema to be 
effaced in the catechism of the Greek church, on account 
of the high offence it gave to those Mohammedans, who 
had either been already converted to Christianity, or were 
disposed to embrace that divine religion, and who were 
extremely shocked at such an insult offered to the name 
of God, with whatever restrictions and conditions it might 
be attended. The Christian doctors, on the other hand, 
opposed with resolution and vehemence this imperial 
order. They observed, that the anathema, pronounced in 
the catechism, had no relation to the nature of God in 
general, or to the true God in particular ; and that, on the 
contrary, it was solely directed against the error of Moham- 
med, against that phantom of a divinity which he had 
imagined ; for that impostor pretended that the Deity 
could neither be engendered nor engender, whereas the 
Christians adore God the Father. After the bitterest 
disputes concerning this abstruse subject, and various 
efforts to reconcile the contending parties, the bishops 
assembled in council consented, though with the utmost 
difficulty, to transfer the imprecation of the catechism from 
the God of Mohammed to the pseudo-prophet himself, his 
doctrine, and his sect. f 

XVIII. The spirit of controversy raged among the 
Lai ins, as well as among the Greeks; and various 
sentiments concerning the sacrament of the Lord's supper 
were propagated, not only in the schools, but also in the 
writings of the learned ; for, though all the doctors of the 
church were now exceedingly desirous of being looked 
upon as enemies to the system of Berenger,.yet many of 
them, and among others s Rupert of Duytz, differed very 
little from the sentiments of that great man ; at least it is 
certain, that the famous controversy, which had arisen in 

* Kara ri)v iv avroi ktibttiv ko.\ TaBnTiiv capKa. 

b Nicetas CVioniates, Annal. lib. vii. sect. 6, p. 113. 
Nicetas in Andronico, lib. ii. sect. 5, p. 175. 

Reland, de Religione Mohammedica, lib. ii. sect. 3, p. 142. 
'Nicet. Chron. Annates, lib. vii. p. 113 — 116. 
' Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 30. 

* See the Epistle of Mengoz, published by Martenne, in his Thesaur. 



the church concerning the opinions of Berenger, had still 
left the manner of Christ's presence in the eucharist 
undetermined. 

Rupert had also religious contests of another nature 
with Anselm, bishop of Laon, William of Champeaux, 
and their disciples, who maintained their doctrine when 
they were no more. The divine will and the divine 
omnipotence were the subjects of this controversy ; and 
the question debated was, " Whether God really tvilled, 
and actually produced, all things that exist, or whether 
there are certain things whose existence he merely 
i permits, and whose production, instead of being the 
effect of his will, was contrary to it ?" The affirmative 
of the latter part of this question was maintained by Rupert, 
while his adversaries affirmed that all things were the 
effects, not only of the divine power, but also of the divine 
will. This learned abbot was also accused of having 
taught that the angels were formed out of darkness ; that 
Christ did not administer his body to Judas, in the last 
supper ; and several other doctrines, 11 contrary to the 
received opinions of the church. 

XIX. These and other controversies of a more private 
kind, which made little noise in the world, were succeeded, 
about the year 1140, by one of a more public nature, con- 
cerning what was called the Immaculate Conception of 
the Virgin Mary. 1 Certain churches in Prance began, 
about that time, to celebrate the festival consecrated to this 
pretended conception, which the English had observed 
before this period in consequence of the exhortations of 
Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, as some authors report. 
The church of Lyons was one of the first that adopted 
this new festival, which no sooner came to the knowledge 
of St. Bernard, than he severely censured the canons on 
I account of this innovation, and opposed the Immaculate 
Conception of the Virgin with the greatest vigour, as it 
: supposed her being honoured with a privilege which 
' belonged to Christ alone. Upon this a warm contest arose ; 
| some siding with the canons of Lyons, and adopting the 
I new festival, while others adhered to the sentiments of St.- 
I Bernard. 11 The controversy, however, notwithstanding 
! the zeal of the contending parties, was carried on, during 
j this century, with a certain degree of decency and 
moderation. But, in subsequent times, when the Domini- 
cans were established in the academy of Paris, the costest 
was renewed with the greatest vehemence, and the same 
subject was debated, on both sides, with the utmost 
animosity and contention of mind. The Dominicans 
declared for St. Bernard, while the academy patronised 
the canons of Lyons, and adopted the new festival. 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 

I. The rites and ceremonies used in divine worship, 
both public and private, were now greatly augmented 



Anecdotor. torn. i. p. 290. — Jo. Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 19, 
42, 1G8, 261. 

f3=pi The defenders of the Immaculate Conception maintained, that 
the Virgin Mary was conceived in the womb of her mother with the 
same purity that is attributed to Christ's conception in her womb. 

fc Sti. Bernardi Epistola 174. — Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p 
135. — Mabillon, Annal. Bened. torn. vi. p. 327. — Dom. Colonia, Hist. 
Lit. de la yillede Lyon, torn. ii. p. 233. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



287 



among the Greeks ; and the same superstitious passion for 
the introduction of new observances, discovered itself in 
all the eastern churches. The Grecian, Nestorian, and 
Jacobite pontiffs, who were in any degree remarkable for 
their credit or ambition, were desirous of transmitting their 
names to posterity by the invention of some new rite, or 
by the introduction of some striking change into the 
method of worship that had hitherto prevailed. This was, 
indeed, almost the only way left to distinguish themselves 
in an age when, a due sense of the excellence of genuine 
religion and substantial piety being almost totally lost, the 
whole care and attention of an ostentatious clergy, and 
a superstitious multitude, were employed upon the round 
of external ceremonies and observances substituted in their 
place. Thus some attempted, though in vain, to render 
their names immortal, by introducing a new method of 
reading or reciting the praj'ers of the church ; others 
changed the church music ; some tortured their inventions 
to find out some new mark of veneration, that might be 
offered to the relics and images of the saints ; while several 
ecclesiastics did not disdain to employ their time, with the 
most serious assiduity, in embellishing the garments of the 
clergy, and in forming the motions and postures they 
were to observe, and the looks they were to assume, in 
the celebration of divine worship. 

II. We may learn from the book de Diyinis Officiis, 
composed by the famous Rupert, or Robert, of Duytz, 
what were the rites in use among the Latins during 
this century, as also the reasons on which they were 
founded. According to the plan we follow, we cannot 
here enlarge upon the additions that were made to the 
doctrinal part of religion. We shall therefore only 
observe, that the enthusiastic veneration for the Virgin 
Mary, which had been hitherto carried to such an excessive 
height, increased now instead of diminishing, since her 
dignity was at this time considerably augmented by the 
new fiction or invention relating to her immaculate 
conception ; for, though St. Bernard and others opposed 
with vigour this chimerical notion, yet their efforts were 
counteracted by the superstitious fury of the deluded 
multitude, whose judgment prevailed over the counsels 
of the wise ; so that, about the year 1138, there was a 
solemn festival instituted in honour of this pretended 
conception, though we neither know by whose authority 
it was established, nor in what place it was first celebrated. 1 

CHAPTER Y. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The Greek and eastern churches were infested 
with fanatics of different kinds, who gave them much 
trouble, and engaged them in the most warm and violent 
contests. Some of these fanatics professed to believe in 
a double trinity, rejected wedlock, abstained from flesh, 
treated with the utmost contempt the sacraments of 
baptism and the Lord's supper, as also all the various 



• Mabil. An. Benedict, t. vi. p. 327, 412.— Gallia Christ, t. i. p. 1198. 

* Euthymii Triumph, de SectaMassalianorum,-in Jac. Tollii Insigni- 
dus Itineris Italici. p. 106 — 125. 

f^r c Massalians and Euchites are denominations that signify the 
same thing, and denote, one in the Hebrew, and the oilier in the Greek 
language, persons who pray. A sect, under this denomination, arose du- 
ring the reign of the emperor Constantius, about the year 361, founded 
by certain monks of Mesopotamia, who dedicated themselves wholly to 



branches of external worship ; placed the essence of 
religion in internal prayer alone, and maintained, as it 
is said, that an evil being, or genius, dwelt in the breast 
of every mortal, and could be thence expelled by no other 
method than by perpetual supplications to the Supreme 
Being. The founder of this enthusiastical sect is said 
to have been a person called Lucopetrus. His chief 
disciple was named Tychicus, who corrupted, by false 
and fanatical interpretations, several books of the sacred 
writings, and particularly the Gospel according to St. 
Matthew. b It is well known, that enthusiasts of this 
kind, who were rather wrong headed than vicious, lived 
among the Greeks and Syrians, especially among the 
monks, for many ages before this period, and also in this 
century. The accounts, indeed, that have been given 
of them, are not in all respects to be depended upon ; 
and there are several circumstances, which render it 
extremely probable, that many persons of eminent piety, 
and zeal for genuine Christianity, were confounded by 
the Greeks with these enthusiasts, and ranked in the 
list of heretics, merely on account of their opposing the 
vicious practices and the insolent tyranny of the priest- 
hood, and their treating with derision that motley spectacle 
of superstition which was supported by public authority. 
In Greece, and in all the eastern provinces, these fanatics 
were distinguished by the general and invidious appella- 
tion of Massalians or Euchitesf as the Latins com- 
prehended all the adversaries of the Roman Pontiff under 
the general terms of Waldens.es and Albigenses. It is, 
however, necessary to observe, that the names above 
mentioned were very vague and ambiguous in the way 
they were applied by the Greeks and the Orientals, who 
made use of them to characterise, without distinction, all 
such as complained of the multitude of useless ceremonies, 
and of the vices of the clerg}*, without any regard to the 
difference that existed between such persons in point of 
principles and morals. In short, the righteous and the 
profligate, the wise and the foolish, were equall)' com- 
prehended under the name of Massalians, whenever they 
opposed the raging superstition of the times, or considered 
true and genuine piety as the essence of the Christian 
character. 

II. From the sect now mentioned, that of the Bogo- 
miles is said to have proceeded, whose founder Basilius. a 
monk by profession, was committed to the flames at Con- 
stantinople, under the reign of Alexius Comnenus. after 
all attempts to make him renounce his errors had proved 
ineffectual. By the accounts we have of this unhappy 
man, and of the errors he taught, it appears sufficiently 
evident, that his doctrine resembled, in a striking manner, 
the religious system of the ancient Gnostics and Mani- 
chseans ; though, at the same time, the Greeks may have 
falsified his tenets in some respects. Basilius maintained, 
that the world and all animal bodies were formed, not by 
the Deity, but by an evil demon, who had been cast down 
from heaven by the Supreme Being; whence he conclu- 
ded, that the body was no more than the prison of the im- 

prayer, and held many of the doctrines attributed by Mosheim to the 
Massalians of the twelfth century. See August, de Haeres. cap. lvii. and 
Theod. Hceret. Fab. lib. iv. Epiphanius speaks of another sort of Mas- 
salians still more ancient, who were mere Gentiles, acknowledged sevt ral 
gods, yet adored only one whom they called Almighty, and had orato- 
ries in which they assembled to pray ajid sing hymns. This resem- 
blance between the Massalians and the Essenes, induced Scaliger to 
think that Epiphanius confounded the former with the latter. 



288 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



mortal spirit, and that it was, therefore, to be enervated by 
fasting, contemplation, and other exercises, that so the soul 
might be gradually restored to its primitive liberty ; for 
this purpose also wedlock was to be avoided, with many 
other circumstances which we have often had occasion to 
explain and repeat in the course of this history. It was 
in consequence of the same principles, that this unfortu- 
nate enthusiast denied the reality of Christ's body, (which, 
like the Gnostics and Manicheeans, he considered only as 
a phantom,) rejected the law of Moses, and maintained 
that the body, upon its separation by death, returned to 
the malignant mass of matter, without either the prospect 
or possibility of a future resurrection to life and felicity. 
We have so many examples of fanatics of this kind in the 
records of ancient times, and also in the history of this cen- 
tury, that it is by no means to be wondered, that some one 
of them, more enterprising than the rest, should found a 
sect among the Greeks. The name of this sect was taken 
from the divine mercy, which its members are said to have 
incessantly implored ; for the word bogomilus, in the 
Moesian language, signifies calling out for mercy from 
above. 3 - 

III. The Latin sects were yet more numerous than 
those of the Greeks ; and this will not appear at all sur- 
prising to such as consider the state of religion in the great- 
est part of the European provinces. As the prevalence of 
superstition, the vices of the clergy, the luxury and indo- 
lence, of the pontiffs and bishops, the encouragement of 
impiety by the traffic of indulgences, increased from day 
to day, several pious, though weak men, who had the true 
religion of Christ at heart, easily perceived that it was in 
a most declining and miserable state, and therefore at- 
tempted a reformation in the church, in order to restore 
Christianity to its primitive purity and lustre. But the 
knowledge of these good men did not equal their zeal ; 
nor were their abilities in any proportion to the grandeur 
of their undertakings. The greater part of them were 
destitute both of learning and judgment, and, being invol- 
ved in the general ignorance of the times, very imperfectly 
understood the holy scriptures, whence Christianity was 
derived, and by which alone the abuses that had been 
mingled with it could be reformed. In a word, few of 
these well-meaning Christians were equal to an attempt 
so difficult and arduous as an universal reformation ; and 
the consequence of this was, that while they avoided the 
reigning abuses, they fell into others that were as little 
consistent with the genius of true religion, and carried the spi- 
rit of censure and reformation to such an excessive length, 
that it degenerated often into the various extravagances of 
enthusiasm, and engendered a number of new sects, that 
became a new dishonour to the Christian cause. 

IV. Among the sects that troubled the Latin church 
during this century, the principal place is due to the Ca- 
thari or Catharists, whom we have already had occasion 
to mention. 13 This numerous faction, leaving their first 
residence, which was in Bulgaria, spread themselves 
throughout almost all the European provinces, where they 

"See the Alexias of Anna Comnena, lib. xv. p. 384, edit. Venet. — 
Zcmara Annates, lib. xviii. p. 336. Jo. Christ. Wolf. Historia Bogomi- 
Iprura, published at Wittenberg, in 1712. — Sam. Andres Diss, de Bogo- 
milis in Jo. Voigtii Bibliotheca Historian Ha?resiolo£;icse, torn, i. part ii. 
p. 121. Chr. Aug. HeumanniDissertat. de Bogomilis. 

bSee Cent.. III. Part II. Ch.«V. sect, xviii. ; but principally, for the 
Catharists here mentioned, see Cent. XI. Part II. Ch. V. sect. ii. 

° See the account given of this unhappy and persecuted sect by Charles 



occasioned much tumult and disorder ; but their fate was 
unhappy ; for, wherever they were found, they were put 
to death with the most unrelenting cruelty. Their reli- 
gion resembled the doctrine of the Manicheeans and Gnos- 
tics, on which account they commonly received the de- 
nomination of the former, though they differed in many 
respects from the genuine and primitive Manicheeans. 
They all indeed agreed in the following points of doctrine, 
viz. That matter was the source of all evil ; that the crea- 
tor of this world was a being distinct from the Supreme 
Deity ; that Christ was neither clothed with a real body, 
nor could be properly said to have been born, or to have 
seen death ; that human bodies were the production of the 
evil principle, and were extinguished without the prospect of 
a new life ; and that baptism and the Lord's Supper were 
useless institutions, destitute of all efficacy and power. 
They exhorted all who embraced their doctrine to a ri- 
gorous abstinence from animal food, wine, and wedlock, 
and recommended to them in the most pathetic terms the 
most severe acts of austerity and mortification. They 
moreover treated with the utmost contempt all the books 
of the Old Testament, but expressed a high degree of ve- 
neration for the New, particularly for the four Gospels ; 
and, to pass over many other peculiarities in their doctrine, 
they maintained, that human souls, endued with reason ,were 
shut up by an unhappy fate in the dungeons of mortal 
bodies, from which they could only be delivered by fasting, 
mortification, and continence of every kind. d 

V. These principles and tenets, though they were 
adopted and professed by the whole sect, were variously 
interpreted and modified by different doctors. Hence the 
Catharists were divided into various sects, which, however, 
on account of the general persecution in which they were 
involved, treated each other with candour and forbearance, 
disputed with moderation, and were thus careful not to 
augment their common calamity by intestine feuds and 
animosities. Out of these factions arose two leading and 
principal sects of the Catharists, which were distinguished 
from the rest by the number of their respective followers, 
and the importance of their differences. The one, bor- 
rowing hints from the Manichsean system, maintained the 
doctrine of two eternal Beings, from whom all things 
are derived, the God of light, who was also the father of 
Jesus Christ, and the principle of darkness, whom they 
considered as the author of the material world. The other 
believed in one eternal principle, the father of Christ, and 
the Supreme God, by whom also they held that the frst 
matter was created; but they added to this, that the evil 
being, after his rebellion against God and his fall from 
heaven, arranged this original matter according to his fan- 
cy, and divided it into four elements, for the production of 
this visible world. The former maintained, that Christ, 
clothed with a celestial body, descended into the womb oi 
the Virgin, and derived no part of his substance from her ; 
while the latter taught, that he first assumed a real body 
in the womb of Mary, though not from her. 6 The sect 
which held the doctrine of two principles, derived the name 



Plessis d'Argentre, in his Collectio Judiciorum de novis Erroribus, torn 
i. in which, however, several circumstances are omitted. 

a Beside the works which will be soon mentioned, see the Disputatio 
inter Catholicum et Paterinum, published by Martenne, in his Thesaur. 
Anecdotor. torn. v. p 1703. as also Bonacursi Manifestatio Hairesis Ca- 
tharorum, in d'Acheri's Spicileg. torn. i. p. 208. 

e See Bern. Moneta, Summa adversus Catharos et Valdenses, publish- 
ed at Rome in the year 1743, by Thorn. August. Riccini, who prefixed 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



2»9 



Albanenses from the place where their spiritual ruler 
resided ; and this sect was subdivided into two, of which 
one took the name of Balazinansa, bishop of Verona, and 
the other that of John de Lugio, bishop of Bergamo. The 
sect which adhered to the doctrine of one eternal principle 
was also subdivided into the congregation of Baioli, the 
capilal town of the province, and that of Concoregio, or 
Concorezzo. The Albigenses, who were settled in France, 
belonged to the church or congregation of Baioli." 

VI. In the internal constitution of the church that was 
founded by this sect, there were many rules and principles 
of a singular nature, which we pass over in silence, as 
they would oblige us to enter into a detail inconsistent 
with our~ intended brevity. The government of this 
church was administered by bishops ; and each of these 
had two vicars, of whom one was called the elder son, 
and the other the younger, while the rest of the clergy 
and doctors were comprehended under the general deno- 
mination of deacons. b The veneration, which the people 
had for the clergy in general, and more especially for the 
bishops and their spiritual sons, was carried to a height 
that almost exceeds credibility. The discipline observed 
by this sect was so excessively rigid and austere, that it 
was practicable only by a certain number of robust and 
determined fanatics. But that such as were not able 
to undergo this discipline might not, on that account, be 
lost to the cause, it was thought necessary, in imitation of 
the ancient Manichaeans, to divide this sect into two 
classes, one of which was distinguished by the title of the 
consolati, (comforted,) while the other received only the 
denomination of confederates. The former gave them- 
selves out for persons of consummate wisdom and extra- 
ordinary piety, lived in perpetual celibacy, and led a life 
of the severest mortification and abstinence, without 
allowing themselves the enjoyment of any worldly com- 
fort. The latter, if we except a few particular rules which 
they observed, lived like the rest of mankind, but at the 
same time were obliged by a solemn agreement they had 
made with the church, and which, in Italian, they called 
la cojtvenenza, to enter before their death, in their last 
moments, if not sooner, into the class of the comforted, 
and to receive the consolamentum, or form of inaugura- 
tion^ which they were introduced into thatfanatical order. c 

VII. A much more rational sect was that which was 
founded about the year 1110, in Languedoc and Provence, 
by Peter de Bruys, who made the most laudable attempts 
to reform the abuses and to remove the superstitions that 
disfigured the beautiful simplicity of the Gospel; but, 
after having engaged in his cause a great number of 
followers, during a laborious ministry of twenty years, he 
was burned at St. Giles', in the year 1130, by an enraged 



to it a dissertation concerning the Cathari, 'that is by no means worthy 
of the highest encomiums. Moneta was no mean writer for the time in 
which he lived. See lib. i. p. 2. et 5. lib. ii. p. 247, &c. 

• Raineri Sachoni Summa de Catharis et Leonistis, in Martenne's 
Thesaur. Anecdot. torn. v. p. 1761, 1768. — Peregrinus Priscianus in 
Muratorii Antiq. Ital. medii JEvi, torn. v. p. 93, who exhibits, in a sort 
of table, these different sects, but erroneously places the Albigenses, 
who were a branch of the Baiolenses, in the place of the Albanenses : 
this, perhaps, may be an error of the press. The opinions of these Baio- 
lenses or Bagnolenses, may be seen in the Codex Inquisitionis Tolosa- 
nae, which Limborch published with his History of the Inquisition. The 
uccount, however, which we have in this history (Book i. ch. viii.) of the 
opinions of the Albigenses, is by no means accurate. A great variety 
of causes have contributed to involve in darkness and perplexity the dis- 
tinctive characters of these different sects, whose respective systems we 
cannot enlarge upon at present. 

No. XXV. - 73 



populace, instigated by the clergy, whose traffic was in 
danger from the enterprising spirit of this reformer. The 
whole system of doctrine, which this unhappy martyr 
whose zeal was not without a considerable mixture of 
fanaticism, taught to the Petrobrussians, his disciples, is 
not known ; it is however certain, that the five following 
tenets made a part of his system : 1. That no persons 
were to be baptized before they had the full use of thei. 
reason ; 2. that it was an idle superstition to build 
churches for the service of God, who will accept a sincere 
worship wherever it is offered ; and that therefore such 
churches as had already been erected were to be destroy- 
ed ; 3. that the crucifixes, as instruments of superstition, 
deserved the same fate ; 4. that the real body and blood 
of Christ were not exhibited in the eucharist, but were 
merely represented in that holy ordinance by figures and 
symbols ; 5. and lastly, that the oblations, prayers, and 
good works of the living, coidd in no respect be advanta- 
geous to the dead. d 

VIII. This innovator was succeeded by another, who 
was an Italian by birth, and whose name was Henry, the 
founder and parent of the sect called Henricia/is. It 
was, no doubt, a rare thing to see a person, who was at 
the same time monk and hermit, undertaking to reform 
the superstitions of the times ; yet such was the case of 
Henry, who, leaving Lausanne, a city in Switzerland, 
travelled to Mans, and being banished thence, removed 
successively to Poictiers, Bourdeaux, and the neighbouring 
places, and at length to Toulouse in the year 1147, 
exercising his ministerial function with the utmost 
applause from the people, and declaiming with vehemence 
and fervour against the vices of the clergy, and the super- 
stitions they had introduced into the Christian church. 
At Toulouse he was warmly opposed by St. Bernard, by 
whose influence he was overpowered, notwithstanding his 
popularity, and obliged to save himself by flight. But 
being seized by a prelate in his retreat, he was carried be- 
fore pope Eugenius III., w T ho presided in person at a 
council then assembled at Rheims, and who, in conse- 
quence of the accusations brought against Henry, commit- 
ted him, in the year 1148, to a close prison, where he soon 
ended his days. e We have no satisfactory account of the 
doctrines of this reformer. We merely know that he 
rejected the baptism of infants, censured with severity 
the corrupt and licentious manners of the clergy, treated 
the festivals and ceremonies of the church with the utmost 
contempt, and held clandestine assemblies, in which he 
explained and inculcated the novelties he taught. Several 
writers affirm, that he was the disciple of Peter de Bruys ; 
but I cannot see upon what evidence or authority this 
assertion is grounded/ 

b See Sachoni Summa de Catharis, p. 1766. 

For a farther account of this sect, see the writers mentioned before, 
and particularly the Codex Inquisitionis Tolosanse. 

<i See Petri Venerab. Lib. contra Petrobrussianos in Bibliotheca Cluni- 
ensi, p. 1117. — Mabillon, Annal. Benedict, torn. iv. p. 346. — Basnage, 
Histoire des Eglises Reformces, period IV. p. 140. 

e Gesta Episcoporum Ceiiomanens. in Mabillon, Analect. veter. JEvi, 
p. 315. — Gaufridi Epistola in lib. vi. Vita Sti. Bernard], torn. ii. Op. 
Bernard, p. 1207. — Matth. Paris. Histor. Maj. p. 71. — Mabillon, Praet. 
ad Opera Sernardi, sect. vi. et Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 316, 420. 434. 

f That Henry was the disciple of Peter de Bruys is not at all proba- 
ble; since, not to insist upon other reasons, the latter could not bear the 
sight of a cross, and in all likelihood owed his death to the multitude of 
crucifixes which he had committed to the flames ; whereas the former, 
when he entered into any city, appeared with a cross in his hand, which 
he bore as a standard, to attract the veneration of the people. See Ma- 
billon, Analecta, p. 316. 



290 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 11 



" IX. While the Henricians were propagating their 
doctrines in France, an illiterate man, called Tanquelin, 
or Tanquelm, arose in Brabant about the year 1115, 
excited the most deplorable commotions at Antwerp, and 
drew after him a most numerous sect. If the accounts 
given of this heresiarch by his adversaries may be at all 
depended upon, he must either have been a monstrous 
impostor, or an outrageous madman. For he walked in 
public with the greatest solemnity, pretended to be God, 
or, at least, the Son of God, ordered daughters to be 
ravished in presence of their mothers, and committed 
himself the greatest disorders. Such are the enormities 
that are attributed to Tanquelm ; but they are absolutely 
incredible, and cannot be true. a What seems most 
worthy of credit in this matter is, that this new teacher 
had imbibed the opinions and spirit of the Mystics ; that 
he treated with contempt the external worship of God. 
the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, and the rite cf 
baptism ; and held clandestine assemblies to propagate 
more effectually his visionary notions. But as, beside all 
this, he inveighed against the clergy, like the other here- 
tics already mentioned, and declaimed against their vices 
with vehemence and intrepidity, it is probable that these 
blasphemies were falsely charged upon him by a vindic- 
tive priesthood. Be that as it may, the fate of Tanquelm 
was unhappy ; for he was assassinated by an ecclesiastic 
in a cruel manner. His sect, however, did not perish 
with him, but acquired strength and vigour under the 
ministry of his disciples, until it was at length extinguish- 
ed by the famous St. Norbert, the founder of the order of 
Pra;monstratenses, or Premontres. b 

X. In Italy, Arnold of Brescia, a disciple of Abelard, 
and a man of extensive erudition and remarkable austerity, 
but of a turbulent and impetuous spirit, excited new 
troubles and commotions both in church and state. He 
was, indeed, condemned in the Lateran council, A. D. 
1 139, by Innocent II., and obliged to retire into Switzer- 
land ; but, upon the death of that pontiff, he returned 
into Italy, and raised at Rome, during the pontificate of 
Eugenius III., several tumults and seditions among the 
people, who changed, by his instigation, the government 
of the city, and insulted the persons of the clergy in the 
most disorderly manner. He fell however at last a victim 
to the vengeance of his enemies ; for, after various turns 
of fortune, he was seized, in the year 1155, by a prefect of 
the city, by whom he was crucified, and afterwards 
burned to ashes. This unhappy man seems not to have 
adopted any doctrines inconsistent with the spirit of true 
religion ; and the principles upon which he acted were 
chiefly reprehensible from their being carried too far, 
applied without discernment or discretion, and executed 
with a degree of vehemence which was both imprudent 
and criminal. Having perceived the discords and ani- 



•Epist. Trajectens. Eccles. ad Fred. Epis. de Tanchelmo, in Seb. 
Tengnagelii Col. Vet. Mon. p. 368. Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. 
p. 98. — Argentre, Collec. Judicior. de novis Error, t. i. p. 10. 

o Louis Hugo, Vie de S. Norbert, liv. ii. p. 126. — Chrys. Vander- 
Sterre, Vita S. Norberti, cap. xxxvi. p. 164, et Polyc. de Hertogh, ad il- 
lam Annotation es, p. 387. 

e See Otto Frising. de Gestis Frederici I. lib. ii. cap. xx. — S. Bernard- 
us, Epist. 195, 196, torn. i. p. 187.— Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. 
p. 157. — Muratori, Droits de l'Empire sur l'Etat Ecclesiastique, p. 137. 
— Henr. de Bunau, Vita Frederici I. p. 41. — Chauffepied, Nouveau Dic- 
tion. Hist. Crit. torn. i. p. 482. 

* They were called Leonists from Leona, the ancient name of Lyons, 
where their sect took its rise. The more eminent persons of that sect 
manifested their progress toward perfection by the simplicity and mean- 



mosities, the calamities and disorders, that sprang from 
the overgrown opulence of the pontiffs and bishops, he 
was persuaded that the interests of the church and the 
happiness of nations in general required, that the clergy 
should be divested of all their worldly possessions, of all 
their temporal rights and prerogatives. He, therefore, 
publicly maintained, that the treasures and revenues of 
popes, bishops, and monasteries, ought to be resigned and 
transferred to the supreme rulers of each state, and that 
nothing was to be left to the ministers of the gospel but a 
spiritual authority and a subsistence drawn from tithes, 
and from the voluntary oblations and contributions of the 
people. This violent reformer, in whose character and 
manners there were several points worthy of esteem, 
drew after him a great number of disciples, who derived 
from him the denomination of Arnoldists, and, in suc- 
ceeding times, evinced the spirit and intrepidity of their 
leader, as often as any opportunities of reforming the 
church seemed to be offered to their zeal. 

XI. Of all the sects that arose in this century, not one 
was more distinguished by the reputation it acquired, by 
the multitude of its votaries, and the testimony which its 
bitterest enemies bore to the probity and innocence of its 
members, than that of the Waldenses, so called from their 
parent and founder Peter Waldus. This sect was known 
by different denominations. From the place where it 
first appeared, its members were called The poor men of 
Lyons, d or Lyonists, and, from the wooden shoes which 
its doctors wore, and a certain mark that was imprinted 
upon these shoes, they were called Insabbataii, or Sab- 
batati.' The origin of this famous sect was as follows : 
Peter, an opulent merchant of Lyons, surnamed Val~ 
densis, or Validisius, from Vanx, or Waldum, a town 
in the marquisate of Lyons, being extremely zealous for 
the advancement of true piety and Christian knowledge, 
employed a certain priest/ about the year 1160, in trans- 
lating from Latin into French the Four Gospels, with 
other books of Holy Scripture, and the most remarkable 
sentences of the ancient doctors, which were so highly 
esteemed in this century. But no sooner had he perused 
these sacred books with a proper degree of attention, than 
he perceived that the religion, which was now taught in 
the Roman church, differed totally from that which was 
originally inculcated by Christ and his apostles. Shocked 
at this glaring contradiction between the doctrines of the 
pontiffs and the truths of the Gospel, and animated with 
a pious zeal for promoting his own salvation, and that oi 
others, he abandoned his mercantile vocation, distributed 
his riches among the poor,? and forming an association 
with other pious men, who had adopted his sentiments 
and his turn of devotion, he began, in the year 1180, to 
assume the quality of a public teacher, and to instruct the 
multitude in the doctrines and precepts of Christianity. 



ness of their external appearance. Hence, among other things, they 
wore wooden shoes, which in the French language are termed sabots, and 
had imprinted on these shoes the sign of the cross, to distinguish them- 
selves from otner Christians; and it was on these accounts that they ac- 
quired the denomination of sabbatati and insabbataii. See Du Fresne, 
Glossarium Latin, medii JEvi, vi. voce' Sabbatati. Nicol. Eumerici Di- 
■recforium Inquisitorum, Part III. N. 112, &c. 

" See Steph. de Borbone, de septem donis Spirilus Sancti, in Echard 
and Gluetif, Bibliotheca Scriptor. Dor.iinicanor. torn. i. p. 192 — Anonym. 
Tractatio de Hajresi Pauperurr. de Lugduno, in Martenne's Thesaur. 
Anecdotor. torn. v. p. 1777. 

f This priest was called Stephanus de Evisa. 

Mt was on this account that the Waldenses were called JRauvres 4i 
Lyons, or Poor Men of Lyons. 



Chap. Y. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



291 



The archbishop of Lyons, and the other rulers of the 
church in that province, opposed, with vigour, this new 
doctor in the exercise of his ministry. But their opposi- 
tion was unsuccessful ; for the purity and simplicity of 
that religion which these good men tyught, the spotless 
innocence that shone forth in their lives and actions, and 
the noble contempt of riches and honours manifested in 
the whole of their conduct and conversation, appeared so 
engaging to all such as had any sense of true piety, that 
the number of their disciples and followers increased from 
day to day.* They accordingly formed religious assem- 
blies, first in France, and afterwards in Lombardy, whence 
they propagated their sect through the other provinces of. 
Europe with incredible rapidity, and with such invincible 
fortitude, that neither fire nor sword, nor the most cruel 
inventions of merciless persecution, could damp their zeal, 
or entirely ruin their cause. b 

XII. The attempts of Peter Waldus and his followers 
Avere neither employed nor intended to introduce new 
doctrines into the church, nor to propose new articles of 
faith to Christians. All they aimed at was, to reduce the 
form of ecclesiastical government, and the lives and 
manners both of the clergy and people, to that amiable 
simplicity, and that primitive sanctity, which had charac- 
terised the apostolic ages, and which appear so strongly 
recommended in the precepts and injunctions of the di- 
vine author of our holy religion. In consequence of this 
design, they complained that the Roman church had 
degenerated, under Constantine the Great, from its pri- 
mitive purity and sanctity. They denied the supremacy 
of the Roman pontiff, and maintained that the rulers and 
ministers of the church were obliged, by their vocation, 
to imitate the poverty of the apostles, and to procure for 
themselves a subsistence by the work of their hands. 
They considered every Christian, as in a certain measure 
qualified and authorised to instruct, exhort, and confirm 
the brethren in their Christian course, and demanded 
the restoration of the ancient penitential discipline of the 

* Certain writers give different accounts of the origin of the Walden- 
ses, and suppose they were so called from the valleys in which they had 
resided for many ages before the birth of Peter Waldus. But these wri- 
ters have no authority to support this assertion ; and, beside this, they 
are amply refuted by the best historians. I do not mean to deny, that 
there were in the valleys of Piedmont, long before this period, a set of 
men who differed widely from the opinions adopted and inculcated by the 
church of Rome, and whose doctrine resembled, In many respects, that 
of the Waldenses ; all that I maintain is, that these inhabitants of the 
valleys above mentioned are to be carefully distinguished from the Wal- 
denses, who, according to the unanimous voice of history, were origin- 
ally inhabitants of Lyons, and derived their name from Peter Waldus, 
their founder and chief. f^= We may venture to affirm the contraiy, 
with the learned Beza and other writers of note; for it seems evident 
from the best records, that Waldus derived his name from the true Val- 
denses of Piedmont, whose doctrine he adopted, and who were known 
by the names of Vaudois and Valdenses, before he or his immediate fol- 
lowers existed. If the Valdenses had derived their name from any emi- 
nent teacher, it would probably have been from Valdo, who was remark- 
able for the purity of his doctrine in the IXth century, and was the con- 
temporary and chief counsellor of Berengarius. But the truth is, that 
they derived their name from their valleys in Piedmont, which in their 
language are called Vaux ; hence Vaudois, their true name; hence Pe- 
ter, or (as others call him) John of Lyons, was called in Latin, Valdus, 
because he had adopted their doctrine ; and hence the term Valdenses 
and Waldenses used by those who write in English or Latin, in the 
place of Vaudois. The bloody inquisitor Reinerus Sacco, who exerted 
such a furious zeal for the destruction of the Waldenses, lived but about 
SO years after Valdus of Lyons, and must therefore be supposed to have 
known whether he was the real founder of the Valdenses or Leonists; 
and yet it is remarkable that he speaks of the Leonists (mentioned by 
Dr. Mosheim, in this section, as synonymous with Waldenses) as a sect 
that had flourished above 500 years, and even mentions authors of note, 
who make their antiquity remount to the apostolic age. See the account 



church, i. e. the expiation of transgressions by prayer, 
fasting, and alms, which the new-invented doctrine of in- 
dulgences had nearly abolished. They at the same 
time affirmed, that every pious Christian was qualified 
and entitled to prescribe to penitents the kind and degree 
of satisfaction or expiation that their transgressions re- 
quired ; that confession made to a priest was by no means 
necessary, since the humble offender might acknowledge 
his sins "and testify his repentance to any true believer 
and might expect from such the counsels and admonitions 
that his case and circumstances demanded. They main- 
tained, that the power of delivering sinners from the 
guilt and punishment of their offences belonged to God 
alone ; and that indulgences, in consequence, were the 
criminal inventions of sordid avarice. They looked upon 
i .the prayers, and other ceremonies that were instituted 
in behalf of the dead, as vain, useless, and absurd, and 
denied the existence of departed souls in an intermedi- 
ate state of purification, affirming, that they were imme- 
diately, upon their separation from the body, received into 
heaven, or sent down to hell. These and other tenets 
of a like nature composed the system of doctrine propa- 
gated by the Waldenses. Their rules of practice were 
extremely austere ; for they adopted, as the model of their 
moral discipline, the sermon of Christ on the mount, 
which they interpreted and explained in the most rigorous 
and literal manner, and consequently prohibited and con- 
demned in their society ail wars, and suits of law, all at- 
tempts toward the acquisition of wealth, the infliction of 
capital punishments, self-defence against unjust violence, 
and oaths of all kinds. 

XIII. The government of the church was committed, 
by the Waldenses, to bishops, d presbyters, and deacons ; 
for they acknowledged that these three orders were insti- 
tuted by Christ himself. But they deemed it absolutely 
necessary, that all these orders should resemble exactly 
the apostles of the divine Saviour, and be, like them, 
illiterate, poor, destitute of all worldly possessions, and 

given of Sacco's book by the Jesuit Gretser, in the Bibliotheca Patrum. 
I know not upon what principle Dr. Mosheim maintains, that the inha- 
bitants of the valleys of Piedmont are to be carefully distinguished from 
the Waldenses ; and I am persuaded, that whoever will be at the pains 
to read attentively the 2d, 25th, 20th. and 27th chapters of the first book 
of Leger's Histoire Generale des Eglises Vaudoises, will find this dis- 
tinction entirely groundless. — When the Papists ask us, where our reli- 
gion was before Luther, we generally answer, in (he Bible ; and we an- 
swer well. But to gratify their taste for tradition and human authority, 
we may add to this answer, and in the valleys of Piedmont. 

b See the following ancient writers, who have given accounts of the 
sect in question; namely, Sachoni Summa contra Valdenses. — Monetae 
Summa contra Catharos et Valdenses, published by Riccini. — Tr. de 
Haeresi Pauperum de Lugduno, published by Martenue, in his Thesaur. 
Anecdot. torn. v. p. 1777. — Pilichdorfius contra Valdenses, t. xxv. B. 
Max. Patr. — Add tc these authors, Jo. Paul Perrin, Histoire des Vau- 
dois, published at Geneva, in 1619. Jo. Leger, Hbtoire Generale des 
Eglises Vaudoises, liv. i. ch. xiv. p. 156. — Usher, dr. successionc Eccle- 
siarum Occidentis, cap. viii. p. 209. — Jac. Basnage, Histoire des Eglises 
Reformees, torn. i. period IV. p. 329. — Thorn. Aagutit. Riccini, Dissertat. 
de Valdensibus, prefixed to his edition of the Summa Monetss, p. 3G. — 
Boulay, Histor. Acad. Pans, torn. ii. p. 292. 

c See the Codex Inquisitionis Tolosana;, published by Limborch, as 
also the Summa Monetae contra Valdenses, and the other writers of the 
Waldensian history. Though these writers are not all equally accurate, 
nor perfectly agreed about the number of doctrines that entered into the 
system of this sect, yet they are nearly unanimous in acknowledging the 
sincere piety and exemplary conduct of the Waldenses, and show plainly 
enough that their intention was not to oppose the doctrines which were 
universally received among Christians, but only to revive the piety and 
manners of the primitive "times, rnd to combat the vices of the clergy, 
and the abuses that had been introduced into the worship and discipline 
of the church. 

* The bishops were also called majorales or elders. 



>92 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



furnished with some laborious trade or vocation, in order 
to gain by constant industry their daily subsistence.* 
The laity were divided into two classes ; one of which 
contained the perfect, and the other the imperfect Chris- 
tians. The former spontaneously divested themselves of 
all worldly possessions, manifested their extreme poverty 
in the wretchedness of their apparel, and emaciated their 
bodies by frequent fasting. The latter were less austere, 
and approached the method of living generally received, 
though they abstained, like the graver jsort of anabap- 
tists in later times, from all appearance of pomp and lux- 
ury. It is, however, to be observed, that the Walden- 
ses were not without their intestine divisions. Such as 
resided in Italy differed considerably in their opinions from 
those who dwelt in France and the other European coun- 
tries. The former considered the church of Rome as 
the church of Christ, though much corrupted and sadly 
disfigured ; they also acknowledged the validity of its se- 
ven sacraments, and solemnly declared that they would 
ever continue in communion with it, provided that they 
might be allowed to live as they thought proper, without 
molestation or restraint. The latter affirmed, on the con- 
trary, that the church of Rome had apostatised from 
Christ, was deprived of the Holy Spirit, and was, in rea- 
lity, the whore of Babylon mentioned in the Revelations 
of' St. John. b 

XIV. Beside these famous sects, which made a great 
noise in the world, and drew after them multitudes from 
the bosom of a corrupt and superstitious church, there 
were religious factions of less importance, which arose 
in Italy, and more especially in France, though they seem 
to have expired soon after their birth. c In Lorn bard y, 
which was the principal residence of the Italian heretics, 
there sprang up a singular sect, known (for what reason 
I cannot tell) by the denomination of Pasaginians, and 
also by that of the circumcised. Like the other sects 
already mentioned, they had the utmost aversion to 
the dominion and discipline of the church of Rome ; 
but they were, at the same time, distinguished by two 
religious tenets, which were peculiar to themselves. The 
first was a notion, that the observance of the law of Mo- 
ses, in every thing except the offering of sacrifices, was 
obligatory upon Christians ; in consequence of which they 
circumcised their followers, abstained from those meats, 
the use of which was prohibited under the Mosaic eco- 
nomy, and celebrated the Jewish Sabbath. The second 
tenet that distinguished this sect was advanced in oppo- 
sition to the doctrine of three persons in the divine na- 
ture ; for the Pasaginians maintained that Christ was no 
more than the first, and purest creature of God ; nor will 
their adoption of this opinion seem very surprising, if we 
consider the prodigious number of Arians that were scat- 
tered throughout Italy long before this period. d 

XV A sect of fanatics, called Caputiati, from a sin- 
gular kind of cap that was the badge of their faction, in- 
fested the province of Burgundy, the diocese of Auxerre, 

"The greatest part of the Waldenses gained their livelihood by weaving; 
hence the whole sect, in some places, were called the sect of iveavers. 

b Monetae Surnma contra Catharos et Valdenses, p. 406, &c. They 
seem to have been also divided in their sentiments concerning the pos- 
session of worldly goods, as appears from the accounts of Stephanus de 
Borbonc, apud Echardi Script. Dominican, torn. i. This writer divides, 
the "Waldenses into two classes, the poor men of Lyons, and the poor 
men of Lombardy. The former rejected and prohibited all sorts of 
possessions; the latter looked upon worldly possessions as lawful. 
This distinction is confirmed by several passages of other ancient authors. 



and several other parts of France, in all which places they 
excited much disturbance among the people. They wore 
upon their caps a leaden image of the Virgin Mary ; and 
they declared publicly, that their purpose was to level all 
distinctions, to abrogate magistracy, to remove all subor- 
dination among mankind, and to restore that primitive li- 
berty, that natural equality, which were the inestimable 
privileges of the first mortals. Hugo, bishop of Auxerre, 
attacked these disturbers of human society in the proper 
manner, employing against them the force of arms, instead 
of argu me nts. e 

The sect of the ajjostolics, whom St. Bernard opposed 
with such bitterness and fury, and who were so called, as 
that zealous abbot himself acknowledged, because they 
professed to exhibit, in their lives and manners, the piety 
and virtues of the holy apostles, were very different from 
the audacious heretics now mentioned. They were a 
clownish set of men, of the lowest birth, who gained their 
subsistence by bodily labour ; yet, as soon as they formed 
themselves into a sect, they drew after them a multitude 
of adherents of all ranks and orders. Their religious doc- 
trine, as St. Bernard confesses, was free from error, and 
their lives and manners were irreproachable and exem- 
plary : but they were reprehensible on account of the follow- 
ing peculiarities : 1. They held it unlawful to take an oath ; 
2. They suffered their hair and their beards to grow to 
an enormous length, so that their aspect was inexpressibly 
extravagant and savage ; 3. They preferred celibacy to 
wedlock, and called themselves the chaste brethren and 
sisters ; notwithstanding which, 4. Each man had a spi- 
ritual sister with him, after the manner of the apostles, 
with whom he lived in a domestic relation, lying in the 
same chamber with her, though not in the same bed. f 

XVI. In the council assembled at Rheims, in the year 
1148, in which pope Eugenius III. presided, a gentleman 
of the province of Bretagne, whose name was Eon, and 
whose brain was undoubtedly disordered, was condemned 
for pretending to be the Son of God. Having heard, in 
the form that Avas used for exorcising malignant spirits, 
these words pronounced, per Earn, qui venturus est ju- 
dicare vivos et mortuos, he concluded, from the resem- 
blance between the word Eum and his name, that he was 
the person who was to come and judge both the quick 
and the dead. This poor man should rather have been 
delivered over to the physicians than placed in the list of 
heretics. He ended his days in a miserable prison, and 
left a considerable number of followers and adherents, 
whom persecution and death in the most dreadful forms 
could not persuade to abandon his cause, or to renounce 
an absurdity, which one would think could never have 
gained credit, but in a receptacle of lunatics.^ This 
remarkable example is sufficient to show, not only the 
astonishing credulity of the stupid multitude, but also 
how far even the rulers of the church were destitute oi 
judgment, and unacquainted with true and genuine reli- 
gion. 

c For an account of these obscure sects, see Stephanus de Borbone 
apud Echardi Script. Dominican, torn. i. 

a See F. Bonacursi Manifestatio hasresis Catharorum, in d'Acheri's 
Spicileg. Veter. Scriptor. torn. i. p. 211. Gerard. Bergamensis contra 
Catharos et Pasagios, in Lud. Anton. Muratorii Antiq. Italic, medii 
iEvi, tom. v. p. 151. 

c Jacques Le Breuf, Memoires sur l'Histoire d Auxerre, t. i. p. 317. 

( Sti. Bern. Serm. lxv. in Canticum, t. iv. op. p. 1495, ed. Mabill. 

*Matth. Paris, Hist. Moj. p. 68, — Guil. Neubrigensis, Hist. Rerum 
Angli. lib. i. p. 50. — Eoulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, tom. ii. p. 241. 



THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events that happened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. Though the successors of Genghiz-Khan, the power- 
ful emperor of the Tartars, or rather of the Mogols, had 
carried their victorious arms through a great part of Asia, 
and, having reduced China, India, and Persia, under their 
yoke, had involved in many calamities and sufferings the 
Christian assemblies which were established in those van- 
quished lands/ yet we learn from the best accounts, and 
the most respectable authorities, that in China, and in the 
northern parts of Asia, the Nestorians continued to have a 
flourishing church, and a great number of adherents. The 
emperors of the Tartars and Mogols had no great aversion 
to the Christian religion. It even appears from authentic 
records, that several kings and grandees of those nations 
had either been instructed in the doctrines of the Gospel 
by their ancestors, or were converted to Christianity by the 
ministry and exhortations of the Nestorians. b But the reli- 
gion of Mohammed, which was so calculated to flatter the 
passions of men, gradually infected these noble converts, 
opposed with success the progress of the Gospel, and at 
length so effectually triumphed over it, that not the least 
remains of Christianity were to be perceived in the courts 
of those eastern princes. 

II. The Tartars having made an incursion into Europe, 
in the year 1241, and having laid waste, with the most 
unrelenting and savage barbarity, Hungary, Poland, Sile- 
sia, and the adjacent countries, the Roman pontiffs thought 
it incumbent upon them to endeavour to calm the fury, 
and soften the ferocity, of these new and formidable ene- 
mies. For this purpose, in 1245, Innocent IV. sent an 
embassy to the Tartars, which consisted of Dominican 
and Franciscan friars. In 1274, Abaca, the emperor of 
that fierce nation, sent ambassadors to the council of Ly- 
ons, which was holden under the pontificate of Gregory 
X. d About four years after this, pope Nicolas III. paid 
the same compliment to Coblai, emperor of the whole 
Tartar nation, to whom he sent a solemn embassy of 
Franciscan monks, with a view to render that prince pro- 
pitious to the Christian cause. The last expedition of this 
kind that we shall mention at present, was that of Johan- 
nes a Monte Corvino, who, in 12S9, was sent with other 
ecclesiastics to the same emperor, by Nicolas IV., and who 

* Gregor. Abulfaraj. Historia Dynastiar. p. 281, edit. Pocock. 

' See Marc. Paul. Venet. de Regionibus Oriental, lib. i. c. iv. lib. ii. c. 
vi. — Ilaytho the Armenian's Histor. Oriental, cap. xix. p. 35, cap. xxiii. 
p. 39, cap. xxiv. — Jos. Sim. Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatic, torn. iii. 
part ii. See particularly the Ecclesiastical History of the Tartars, pub- 
lished in Latin at Helmstadt, in 1741, under my auspices and inspec- 
tion. 

•See "Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. p. 11G, 149, 179, 256. 

d Wadding, torn. iv. p. 35. torn. v. p. 128. See particularly an accu- 
mte and ample account of the negotiations between the pontiffs and the 

No. XXV. ■ 74 



carried letters to the Nestorians from that zealous pontiff. 
This mission was far from being useless, since those spi- 
ritual ambassadors converted many of the Tartars to 
Christianity, engaged considerable numbers of the Nesto- 
rians to adopt the doctrine and discipline of the church of 
Rome, and erected churches in various parts of Tartary 
and China. In order to accelerate the propagation of the 
Gospel among these darkened nations, Johannes a Monte 
Corvino translated the New Testament and the Psalms 
of David into the language of the Tartars. e 

III. The Roman pontiffs employed their most zealous 
and assiduous efforts in the support of the Christian cause 
in Palestine, which was now in a most declining, or rather 
in a desperate state. They had learned, by a delightful 
experience, how much these Asiatic wars, undertaken from 
a principle, or at least carried on under a pretext of reli- 
gion, had contributed to fill their coffers, augment their 
authority, and cover them with glory ; and therefore they 
had nothing more at heart than the renewal and prolon- 
gation of these sacred expeditions/ Innocent III. there- 
fore, sounded the charge, but the greatest part of the Eu- 
ropean princes and nations were deaf to the voice of the 
holy trumpet. At length, however, after many unsuc- 
cessful attempts in different countries, a bod}' of French 
nobles entered into an alliance with the republic of Venice, 
and set sail for the east with an army that was far from 
being formidable. The event of this new expedition was 
by no means answerable to the expectations of the pontiff. 
The French and Venetians, instead of steering their course 
toward Palestine, sailed directly for Constantinople, and, 
in 1203, took that imperial city by storm, with a design 
of restoring to the throne Isaac Angelus, who implored 
their succour against the violence of his brother Alexius, 
the usurper of the empire. In the following year a dread- 
ful sedition was raised at Constantinople, in which the 
emperor Isaac was put to death, and his son, the young 
Alexius, was strangled by Alexius Ducas, the ringleader 
of this furious faction. s The account of this atrocity no 
sooner came to the ears of the chiefs of the crusade, than 
they made themselves masters of Constantinople for the 
second time, dethroned and drove from the city the tyrant 
Ducas, and elected Baldwin, count of Flanders, emperor 
of the Greeks. This proceeding was a source of new 
! divisions ; for, about two years after this, the Greeks re- 
solved to set up, in opposition to this Latin emperor, one 

Tartars, in the Historia Ecclesiastica Tartarorum, already mentioned. 

•Odor. Raynaldus, Annal. Ecclesiastic, torn. xiv. ad annum 1278, 
sect. 17, and ad a n n u m 1 289, sect. 59. — Pierre Bergeron, Trakfe des Tar- 
tares, chap. xi. See also the writers mentioned in the Historia Ecclesi- 
astica Tartarorum. 

fThis is remarked by the writers of the twelfth century, who soon 
perceived the avaricious and despotic views of the pontiffs, in the en- 
couragement they gave to the crusades. See Matth. Paris, Hist. Major 

f3r ' The learned authors of die Universal History call this ringlead- 
er, by mistake, John Ducas. 



294 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part I. 



of their own nation, and elected, for that purpose, Theo- 
dore Lascaris, who chose Nice in Bithynia for the place 
of his imperial residence. From this period until the year 
1281, two emperors reigned over the Greeks; one of their 
own nation, who resided at Nice ; and the other of Latin 
or French extraction, who lived at Constantinople, the an- 
cient metropolis of the empire. But, in the year 1261, the 
face of things was changed by the Grecian emperor, Mi- 
chael Pakeologus, who, by the valour and stratagems of his 
general, Caesar Alexius, became master of Constantinople, 
and forced the Latin emperor to abandon that city, and 
save himself by flight into Italy. Thus fell the empire of 
the Franks at Constantinople, after a duration of fifty-seven 
years. 1 

IV. Another sacred expedition was undertaken in 1217, 
under the pontificate of Honorius III,, by the confederate 
arms of Italy and Germany. The allied army was com- 
manded in chief by Andrew, king of Hungary, who was 
joined by Leopold, duke of Austria, Louis of Bavaria, and 
several other princes. After the lapse of a few months, 
Andrew returned into Europe. The remaining chiefs 
carried on the war with vigour, and, in 1220, made them- 
selves masters of Damietta, the strongest city in Egypt ; 
but their prosperity was of a short duration; for, in the 
following year, their fleet was totally ruined by that of the 
Saracens, their provisions were cut off, and their army re- 
duced to the greatest difficulties. This irreparable loss, 
being followed by that of Damietta, blasted ail their hopes, 
and removed the flattering prospects which their success- 
ful beginnings had presented to their expectations. b 

V. The legates and missionaries of the court of Rome 
still continued to animate the languishing zeal of the 
European princes in behalf of the Christian cause in 
Palestine, and to revive the spirit of crusading, which so 
man}'' calamities and disasters had almost totally ex- 
tinguished. At length, in consequence of their lively 
remonstrances, a new army was raised, and a new 
expedition undertaken, which excited great expectations, 
and drew the attention of Europe so much the more, as 
it was generally believed that this army was to be com- 
manded by the emperor Frederic II. That prince had, 
indeed, obliged himself by a solemn promise, made to the 
Roman pontiff, to undertake the direction of this enterprise: 
and what added a new degree of force to this engagement, 
and seemed to render the violation of it impossible, was 
the marriage that he had contracted, in 1223, with Jolanda, 
daughter of John, count of Brienne, and king of Jerusa- 
lem; by which alliance that kingdom was to be added to 
his European dominions. Notwithstanding these induce- 



* See, for a full account of this empire, Du Fresne, Histoire de l'Em- 
pire de Constantinople sous les Empereurs Francois ; in the former part 
of which we find the Histoire de la Conquete de la Ville de Constantino- 
ple par les Francois, written by Godfrey de Ville-Harduin, one of the 
French chiefs concerned in the expedition. This work makes a part of 
the Byzantine history. See also Claude Fontenay, Histoh-e de l'Eglise 
Gallicane, torn. x. Guntheri Monachi Histor. capta a Latinis Constan- 
tinopoleos, in Henr. Canisii Lect. Antiq. torn. iv. — Innocentii III. Epis- 
tol. a. Baluzio edit. 

*> See Jac. de Vitriaco, Hist. Orient, et Marinus Sanutus, Secret, fidel. 
Crucis inter Bongar. de sacris bellis Script, seu Gesta Dei per Francos. 

-Jjj> c This papal excommunication, which was drawn up in the most 
outrageous and indecent language, was so far from exciting Frederic to 
accelerate his departure for Palestine, that it produced no effect upon him 
at all, and was,. on the contrary, received with the utmost contempt. He 
defended himself by his ambassador at Rome, and showed that the rea- 
sons of his delay were solid and just, and not mere pretexts, as the pope 
had pretended. At the same time, he wrote a remarkable letter to Hen- 



ments, he postponed his voyage under various pretences, 
and did not set out until the year 1228, when, after having 
been excommunicated on account of his delay, by the 
incensed pontiff Gregory IX, C he followed with a small 
train of attendants the troops, who expected, with the 
most anxious impatience, his arrival in Palestine. No 
sooner did he land in that disputed kingdom, than, instead 
of carrying on the war with vigour, he turned all his 
thoughts toward peace, and, without consulting the other 
princes and chiefs of the crusade, concluded, in 1229, a 
treaty of peace, or rather a truce of ten years, with Malec- 
al-Camel, sultan of Egypt. The principal article of tb is 
treaty was, that Frederic should be put in possession of 
the city and kingdom of Jerusalem. This condition was 
immediately executed ; and the emperor, entering the city 
with great pomp, accompanied by a numerous train, 
placed the crown upon his head with his own hands ; 
and, having thus settled affairs in Palestine, he returned 
without delay into Italy, to appease the discords and com- 
motions which the vindictive and ambitious pontiff had ex- 
cited in his absence. Notwithstanding all the reproaches 
that were cast upon the emperor by the pope and his 
creatures, this expedition was, in reality, the most success- 
ful of any that had been undertaken against the infidels. d 
VI. The expeditions that followed this were less' impor- 
tant, and also less successful. In 1239, Theobald VI., e 
count of Champagne and king of Navarre, set out from 
Marseilles for the Holy Land, accompanied by several 
French and German princes, as did also, in the following 
5 r ear, Richard, earl of Cornwall, brother to Hem^y III., 
king of England. The issue of these two expeditions by 
no means corresponded Avith the preparations which were 
made to render them successful. The former failed 
through the influence of the emperoiV ambassadors in 
Palestine, who renewed the truce with the Moslems ; 
while on the other hand, a considerable body of Christians 
were defeated at Gaza, and such as escaped the carnage 
returned into Europe. This fatal event was piincipally 
occasioned by the discord that reigned between the 
templars and the knights of St. John of Jerusalem. 
Hence it came to pass,, that the arrival of Richard, which 
had been industriously retarded by Gregoiy, and which 
had revived, in some degree, the hopes of the vanquished, 
was ineffectual to repair their losses ; and all that this 
prince could do, was to enter, with the consent of the 
allies, into a truce, upon as good conditions as the declining 
state of their affairs would admit. This truce was accord 
ingly concluded with the sultan of Egypt in 1241 ; after 
which Richard immediately set sail for Europe.s 

ry III. king of England, in which he complained of the insatiable ava- 
rice, the boundless ambition, the perfidious and hypocritical proceeding! 
of the Roman .pontiffs. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. liv. lxxix. torn. xvi. 

d See the writers who have composed the history of the holy wars, ano 
of the life and exploits of Frederic II. See also Muratori's Aunales Ital 
and the various authors of the Germanic History. 

iQr e Dr. Mosheim calls him, By a mistake, Theobald V., unless wt 
attribute this fault to an error of the press. 

§TJ= f This was Frederic II. who had a great party in Palestine, and 
did not act in concert with the clergy and the creatures of his bittei 
enemy, Gregory IX. ; from which division the Christian cause suf- 
fered much. 

e All these circumstances are accurately related and illustrated by th< 
learned George Christ. Gebaureus, in his Historia Ricardi Imperatoris, 
lib. i. p. 34.— It appears, however, by the Epstolae Petri de Vineis, tha« 
Richard was created, by Frederic, his lord lieutenant of the kingdom ot 
Jerusalem; and this furnishes a probable reason why Gregory used all 
possible means to retard Richard's voyage. 



Chap. I. 



PROSPEROUS EVENTS. 



295 



VII. The affairs of the Christians in the east daily 
declined. Intestine discords and ill-conducted expeditions 
had reduced them almost to extremities, when Louis IX., 
king of France, who was canonised after his death, and 
is still worshipped with the utmost devotion, attempted 
their restoration. It was in consequence of a vow, which 
this prince had made in the year 124S, when he was 
seized with a dangerous illuess, that he undertook this 
arduous task ; and, in the execution of it, he set sail for 
Egvpt with a formidable army and a numerous fleet, from 
a notion that the conquest of this province would enable 
him to carry on the war in Syria and Palestine with 
greater facility and success. The first attempts of the 
zealous monarch were crowned with victory ; for Damietta, 
that famous Egyptian city, yielded to his arms ; but the 
smiling prospect was soon changed, and the progress of 
the war presented one uniform scene of calamity and 
desolation. The united horrors of famine and pestilence 
overwhelmed the royal army, whose provisions were cut off 
by the Mohammedans, in 1250 ; Robert, earl of Artois, 
the king's brother, having surprised the Saracen army, 
and, through an excess of valour, pursued them too far, 
was slain in the engagement ; and, a few days after, 
Louis, two of his brothers, 1 and the greatest part of his 
army, were made prisoners in a bloody action, after a bold 
and obstinate resistance. This valiant monarch, who was 
endowed with true greatness of mind, and who was 
extremely pious, though after the manner that prevailed 
in this age of superstition and darkness, was ransomed at 
an immense price ; b and, after having spent about four 
years in Palestine, returned into France, in 1254, with a 
handful of men. 1 the miserable remains of his formidable 
army. 

VIII. No calamities could deject the courage or damp 
the invincible spirit of Louis ; nor did he look upon his 
vow as fulfilled by what he had already done in Palestine. 
He therefore resolved upon a new expedition, fitted out a 
formidable fleet, with which he set sail for Africa, ac- 
companied by a splendid train of princes and nobles, and 
proposed to begin in that part of the world his operations 
against the infidels, that he might either convert them to 
the Christian faith, or draw from their treasures the means 
of carrying on more effectually the war in Asia. Imme- 
diately after his arrival upon the African coast, he made 
himself master of the fort of Carthage ; but this success 
was soon followed by a fatal change in his affairs. A 
pestilential disease broke out in the fleet, in the harbour of 
Tunis, carried off the greatest part of the army, and seized, 
at length, the monarch himself, who fell a victim to its 
rage, on the 25th of August, 1270. d Louis was the last 
of the European princes that embarked in the holy war : 
the dangers and difficulties, the calamities and disorders. 

§5° " Alphonsus. earl of Poictiers, and Charles, earl of Anjou. 

Or" b The ransom, which, together with the restoration of Damietta. 
die king was obliged to pay for his liberty, was 800,000 gold bezants, 
and not 80.000, as Collier erroneously reckons. This sum, which was 
equal then to 500,000 livres of French money, would, in our days, amount 
to the value of 4,000,000 of livres, that is, to about 170,000/. sterling. 

' Of 2.S00 illustrious knights, who set out with Louis from France, 
there remained about 100 when he sailed from Palestine. See Join- 
ville's Hist, de S. Louis. 

a Among the various histories that deserve to be consulted for a more 
ample account of this last crusade, the principal place is due to the Hist, 
de S. Louis IX. du noni, Roy de France, ecrite par Jean Sr. de Joinville, 
enrichie de nouvelles Dissertations et Observations Historiques, par 
Charles du Fresne, Paris, 1688. See also Filleau de la Chaise, Histoire 



and the enormous expenses that accompanied each crusade, 

; disgusted the most zealous, and discouraged the most in- 
trepid promoters of these fanatical expeditions. In conse- 

, quence of this, the Latin empire in the east declined apace, 
notwithstanding the efforts of the Roman pontiffs to main- 

; tain and support it ; and in the year 1291, after the 
taking of Ptolemais by the Mohammedans, it was entirely 
overthrown. 6 It is natural to inquire into the true causes 
that contributed to this unhappy revolution in Palestine ; 

;! and these causes are evident. We must not seek for them 
either in the counsels or in the valour of the infidels, but 
in the dissensions that reigned in the Christian armies, in 

l! the profligate lives of those who called themselves the 
champions of the cross, and in the ignorance, obstinacy, 
avarice, and insolence, of the pope's legates. 

LX. Christianity had not yet tamed the ferocity, or 

, conquered the pagan superstitions and prejudices, that 
still prevailed in some of the western provinces. Among 

■ others, the Prussians, a fierce and savage nation, retained 
' the idolatrous worship of their ancestors with the most 

■ obstinate perseverance ; nor did the arguments and 
exhortations employed by the ecclesiastics, who were sent 
from time to time to convert them, produce the least effect 
upon their stubborn and intractable spirits. The brutish 

| firmness of these pagans induced Conrad, duke of Masovia, 
1 to have recourse to more forcible methods than reason and 
i argument, in order to effect their conversion. For this 
purpose, he addressed himself, in the year 1230, to the 
i knights of the Teutonic order of St. Mary, (who, after 
;j their expulsion from Palestine, had settled at Venice,) and 
I engaged them, by pompous promises, to undertake the 
jj conquest and conversion of the Prussians. The knights 
I accordingly arrived in Prussia, under the command of 
I Herman de Saltza, and, after a most cruel and obstinate 
war of fifty years with that resolute people, obliged them 
to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Teutonic order, and 
to embrace the Christian faith. f After having established 
Christianity, and fixed their own dominion in Prussia, 
these booted apostles made several incursions into the 
neighbouring countries, and particularly into Lithuania, 
where they pillaged, burned, massacred, and ruined all 
before them, until they forced the inhabitants of that 
miserable province to profess a feigned submission to the 
Gospel, or rather to the furious and unrelenting mission- 
aries, by whom it was propagated in a manner so contrary 
to its divine maxims, and to the benevolent spirit of its 
celestial author.' 

X. In Spain the cause of the Gospel gained "ground. 
The kings of Castile, Leon. Navarre, and Arragon, waged 
perpetual war with the Saracen princes, who held still 
under their dominion the kingdoms of Valencia, Grana- 
da, and Murcia, together with the province of Andalu 

de S. Louis. Paris, 1G58, 2 vols. 8vo. — Menconis Chronicon, in Ant.Mat- 
thaei Analect..veteris iEvi, torn. iii. — Luc. Wadding, Annales Minorum, 
torn. iv. — Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. — Pierre Claude Fontenay, 
ii Histoire de TEglise Gallicane, torn. xi. 

6 Ant Matthiei Analeeta veteris iEvi, torn. v. — Jac. Echardi Scriptor. 
jj Dominican, torn. i. — Imola in Danlcro, in Muratorii Antiq. Itaiicae me- 
: dii JEvi. torn. i. 

f See Matthaei Analeda vet. iEvi. torn. iii. p. 18. torn. v. p. 6S4 — 689.-- 
I Chronicon Prussia; by Peter of Duisburg. — Hartknock's History of the 
: Prussian Church, written in the German language, book i. chap, i., ana 
: Antiq. Prussia?, Diss. xiv. — Baluzii MisceJl. torn. vii. — Wadding's An- 
; nales Minor, torn. iv. — Hist, de Polognepar Soiignac, torn. ii. 

* Beside the authors mentioned in the preceding note, see Ludwig's Re- 
I liquise Manuscriptorum omnis iEvi, torn. i. 



296 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1 



sia; and this war was carried on with such success, that 
the Saracen dominion declined apace, and was daily re- 
duced within narrower bounds, while the limits of the 
church were extended on every side. The princes who 
chiefly contributed to this happy revolution were Ferdi- 
nand, king of Leon and Castile, who, after his death, ob- 
tained a place in the kalendar, his father Alphonso IX., 
king of Leon, and James I., of Arragon. a The last, 
more especially, distinguished himself eminently by his 
fervent zeal for the advancement of Christianity ; for no 
sooner had he made himself master of Valencia, in the 
year 1236, than he employed, with the greatest pains and 
assiduity, every possible method of converting to the 
faith his Arabian subjects, whose expulsion would have 
been an irreparable loss to his kingdom. For this pur- 
pose he ordered the Dominicans, of whose ministry he 
principally made use in this salutary work, to learn the 
Arabic tongue ; and he founded public schools at Major- 
ca and Barcelona, in which a considerable number of 
youths were educated in a manner that might enable them 
to preach the Gospel in that language. When these pi- 
ous efforts were found to be ineffectual, pope Clement IV. 
exhorted the king to drive the Mohammedans out of Spain. 
The obsequious prince attempted to follow the counsel of 
the inconsiderate pontiff; in the execution of which, how- 
ever, he met with great difficulty, from the opposition of 
the Spanish nobles on one hand, and from the obstinacy 
of the Moors on the other. b 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the calamitous Events that happened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The accounts we have already given of the Tar- 
tarian conquests, and of the unhappy issue of the cru- 
sades, will be sufficient to suggest a lively idea of the me- 
lancholy condition to which the Christians were reduced 
in Asia ; and, if the Saracens had been infected with the 
same odious spirit of persecution that possessed the cru- 
sards, there would not perhaps have remained a single 
Christian in that part of the world. But, though these 
infidels were chargeable with various crimes, and had fre- 
quently treated the Christians in a rigorous and injuri- 
ous manner, they looked with horror upon those scenes 
of persecution, which the Latins exhibited as the exploits 
of heroic piety, and considered it as the highest and most 
atrocious mark of injustice and cruelty, to force unhappy 
men, by fire and sword, to abandon their religious princi- 

• See Joh. Fen-eras, History of Spain, vol. iv. 

>>See Geddes' History of the Expulsion of the Morescoes, in his Mis- 
cellaneous Tracts, vol. i. 

A certain tribe called Derusi, or Drusi, who inhabit the recesses of 
the mounts Liban and Anti-Liban, pretend to a descent from the ancient 
Franks, who were once masters of Palestine. This derivation is, in- 
deed, doubtful. It is however certain, that there still .remain in these 
countries descendants of those whom the holy war led from Europe into 
Palestine, though they do very little honour to their ancestors, and have 
nothing; of Christians but the name. 

<i See Sti. Thomae Surnma contra Gentes, and Bprnardi Monetae Sum- 
ma contra Catharos et Waldenses. The latter writer, in the work now 
mentioned, combats, with great spirit, those enemies of Christianity 
who appeared in his time. In the fourth chapter of the fifth book, p. 
416, he disputes, in an ample and copious manner, against those who 
affirmed, that the soul perished with the body ; refutes, in the eleventh 
chapter, p. 477, those Aristotelian philosophers, who held, that the world 
had existed from all eternity, av.d would never have an end : and, in the 
fifteenth chapter, p. 554, he attacks those, who, despising the authority 
of the sacred writings, ;)eny the existence of huhian liberty, and main- 



ples, or to put them to death merely because they refused 
to change their opinions. After the destruction of the 
kingdom of Jerusalem, many of the Latins remained 
still in Syria, and, retiring into the dark and solitary re- 
cesses of mount Libanus, lived there in a savage man- 
ner, and lost, by degrees, all sense of religion and hu- 
manity, as appears from the conduct and characters of 
their descendants, who still inhabit the same uncultivated 
wilds, and who seem almost entirely destitute of all know 
ledge of God and religion. 

II. The Latin writers of this age complain in many 
places of the growth of infidelity, of daring and licen- 
tious writers, some of whom publicly attacked the doc- 
trines of Christianity, while others went so far as atheis- 
tically to call in question the perfections and government 
of the Supreme Being. These complaints, however they 
might have been exaggerated in some respects, were yet 
far from being entirely destitute of foundation ; and the 
superstition of the age was too naturally adapted to 
create a number of infidels and libertines, among men 
who had more capacity than judgment, more wit than so- 
lidity. Persons of this character, when they fixed their 
attention only upon that absurd system of religion, which 
the Roman pontiffs and their dependants exhibited as the 
true religion of Christ, and maintained by the odious in- 
fluence of bloody persecution, were, for want of the 
means of being better instructed, unhappily induced to 
consider the Christian religion as a fable, invented and 
propagated by greedy and ambitious priests, in order to 
fill their coffers, and to render their authority respectable. 
The philosophy of Aristotle, which flourished in all the 
European schools, and was looked upon as the very es- 
sence of right reason, contributed much to support this 
delusion, and to nourish a proud and presumptuous spirit 
of infidelity. This quibbling and intricate philosophy 
led many to reject some of the most evident and impor- 
tant doctrines both of natural and revealed religion, such 
as the doctrine of a divine providence governing the uni- 
verse, the immortality of the soul, the scriptural account 
of the origin of the world, and various points of less mo- 
ment. Not only were these doctrines rejected, but the 
most pernicious errors were industriously propagated 
in opposition to them, by a set of Aristotelians, who 
were extremely active in gaining proselytes to their impi- 
ous jargon. d 

III. If the accusations brought against Frederic II. by 
pope Gregory IX. deserve any credit, that prince may be 
ranked among the most inveterate and malignant ene- 

tain, that all things, and even the crimes of the wicked, are the effects of 
an absolute and irresistible necessity. Add to these authors, Tempier's 
Indiculus Errorum, qui a nonnullis Magistris Lutetije publice privatim- 
que docebantur, Anno 1277, in Bibliotheca Patrum Maxima, torn. xxv. 
p. 233; as also Boulay's Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 433, and Gerard 
du Bois' Hist. Eccles. Paris, torn. ii. p. 501. The tenets of these doctors 
will, no doubt, appear of a surprising nature; for they taught, "that 
there was only one intellect among all the human race ; that all things 
were subject to absolute fate or necessity ; that the universe was not go- 
verned by a divine providence ; that the world was eternal and the soul 
mortal:" and they maintained these and the like monstrous errors, by 
arguments drawn from the philosophy of Aristotle. But, at the same 
time, to avoid the just resentment of the people, they held up, as a buck- 
ler against their adversaries, that most dangerous and pernicious distinc- 
tion between theological and philosophical truth, which has been since 
used, with the most cunning and bad faith, by the more recent Aristote- 
lians of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. "These things," say they, 
(as we leai-n from Tempier, who was bishop of Paris,) " are true in philo ■ 
sophy, but not according to the catholic faith." Vera sunt haec secundum 
philosophiam, non secundum fidem catholicam. 



Chap. II. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



297 



mies of the Christian religion, since he was charged by 
the pontiff with having said, that the world had been de- 
ceived by three impostors, Moses, Christ, and Moham- 
med. 1 This charge was answered by a solemn and pub- 
he profession of his faith, which the emperor addressed 
to all the kings and princes of Europe, to whom also had 
been addressed the accusation brought against him. The 
charge, however, was founded upon the testimony of 
Henry Raspon, landgrave of Thuringia, who declared 
that he had heard the emperor pronounce the abominable 
blasphemy above mentioned. b It is, after all, difficult to 
decide with sufficient evidence upon this point. Frede- 
ric, who was extremely passionate and imprudent, may, 

* Matthew Paris, Historia Major, pag. 408, 439. — Petr. de Vineis 
Epistolarum, lib. i. 

b Herm. Gigantis Flores Temporum, p. 126. — Chr. Fred. Ayrmann, 
Sylloge Anecdotor. torn. i. p. 639. 

c See Casim. Oudini Comment, de Seriptoribus Ecclesiasticis, torn. iii. 
p. 66. — Alb. Henr. de Sallengre, Memoires d'Histoire et de Literature, 
torn. i. part i. p. 366. 

gjT d The book entided Liber de iii. Impostoribus, sive Tractatus de 
Vanitate Religionum, is really a book which had no existence at die time 
that the most noise was made about it, and was spoken of by multitudes 
before it had been seen by any one person. Its supposed existence was 
probably owing to an impious saying of Simon Tournay, doctor of di- 
vinity in the university of Paris in the thirteenth century, which amounts 
to this : " That the Jews were seduced out of dieir senses by Moses, 
the Christians by Jesus, and the Gentiles by Mohammed." This, or 
some expressions of a similar kind, were imputed to the emperor Frede- 
ric, and other persons, perhaps without any real foundation ; and the 
imaginary book to which they have given rise, has been attributed by 
different authors to Frederic, to his chancellor Peter de Vineis, to Al- 
phonso, king of Castile, to Boccace, Poggio, the Aretins, Pomponace, 



perhaps, in a fit of rage, have suffered some such expres- 
sion as this to escape his reflection ; and this is rendered 
probable by the company he frequented, and the number 
of learned Aristotelians who were always about his per- 
son, and might suggest matter enough for such impious 
expressions, as that now under consideration. It was this 
affair that gave occasion, in after-times, to the invention 
of that fabulous account/ which supposes the detestable 
book concerning the three impostors to have been com- 
posed by the emperor himself, or by Peter de Yineis, a 
native of Capua, a man of great credit and authority, 
whom that prince d had chosen for his prime minister, and 
in whom he placed the highest confidence. 

Maehiavel, Erasmus, Ochinus, Servetus, Rabelais, Giordano Bruno, 
Campanella, and many others. In a word, the book was long spoken of 
before any such work existed ; but the rumour that was spread abroad en- 
couraged some profligate traders in licentiousness to compose, or rather 
compile, a bundle of miserable rhapsodies, under die famous title of die 
Three Impostors, in order to impose upon such as are fond of these pre- 
tended rarities. Accordingly, the Spaccio dc-lla Beslia Triomphante of 
Giordano Bruno, and a wretched piece of Impiety called the Spirit of 
Spinoza, were die ground-work of materials from which diese hireling 
compilers, by modifying some passages, and adding odiers, drew die 
book which now passes under the name of the Three Impostors, of 
which I have seen two copies in manuscript, but no printed edition. See 
La Monnoye's Dissertation sur le Livre des Trois Imposteurs, publish- 
ed at Amsterdam in 1715, at die end of die fourth volume of the Mena- 
giana. See also an answer to diis Dissertation, which was impudendy 
exposed to die public eye, in 1716, from die press of Scheurleer at the 
Hague, and which contains a fabulous story of the origin of the book in 
question. Whoever is desirous of a more ample and a very curious ac- 
count of diis matter, will find it in the late Prosper Marchand's Dictio- 
naire Historique, vol. ii. at the article Imposteurs. 



No. XXV. 



75 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the state of Learning and Philosophy 
during this Century. 

I. The Greeks, amidst the dreadful calamities, dis- 
cords, and revolutions, that distracted and perplexed their 
unhappy country, had neither that spirit, nor that leisure, 
which are necessary for the culture of the arts and sci- 
ences. Yet, under all these disadvantages, they retained 
a certain portion of their former spirit, and did not entire- 
ly abandon the cause of learning and philosophy, as ap- 
pears from the writers that arose among them during this 
century. Their best historians were Nicetas Choniates, 
Georgius Acropolita, Gregorius Pachymeres, and Joel, 
whose Chronology is yet extant. We learn from the 
writings of Gregory Pachymeres, and Nicephorus Blem- 
mida, that the Peripatetic philosophy was not without 
its admirers among the Greeks, though the Platonic was 
most in vogue. The greatest part of the Grecian philo- 
sophers, following the example of the later Platonists, 
whose works were the subject of their constant meditation, 
were inclined to reduce the wisdom of Plato and the sub- 
tleties of the Stagirite into one system, and to reconcile, 
as well as they could, their jarring principles. It is not 
necessary to exhibit a list of those authors, who wrote the 
lives and discourses of the saints, or distinguished them- 
selves in the controversy with the Latin church, or of 
those who employed their learned labours in illustrating 
the canon law of the Greeks. The principal Syrian 
writer, which this century produced, was Gregory Abul- 
Faraj, primate of the Jacobites, a man of true genius and 
universal learning, who was a judicious divine, an eminent 
historian, and a good philosopher. 3 George Elmacin, 
who composed the history of the Saracens, was also a wri- 
ter of no mean reputation. 

II. The sciences carried a fairer aspect in the western 
world, where every branch of erudition was cultivated 
with assiduity and zeal, and, in consequence, flourished 
with increasing vigour. The European princes had 
learned, by a happy experience, how much learning and 
the arts contribute to the grandeur and happiness of a 
nation ; and therefore they invited into their dominions 
learned men from all parts of the world, nourished the 
arts in their bosoms, excited the youth to the love of let- 
ters, by crowning their progress with the most noble re- 
wards, and encouraged every effort of genius, by confer- 
ring, upon such as excelled, the most honourable distinc- 

* See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Abulpharage ; as also Jos. 
Simon. Assemani Bibliotheca Orientalis, Vatican, torn. ii. caput xlii. 
u. 244. 

gjf Abulpharagius, or Abul-Faraj, was a native of Malatia, a city in 
Armenia, near the source of the river Euphrates, and acquired a vast 
reputation in the east, on account of his extensive erudition. He com- 
posed an Abridgment of Universal History, from the beginning of the 
world to his own times, which he divided into ten parts, or dynasties. 
The first comprehends the history of the ancient patriarchs from Adam 
to Moses. The second, that of Joshua and the other judges of Israel. 
The third, fourth, fifth, and sixth, contain the history of the kings of Is- 
rael, of the Chaldean princes, of the Persian Magi, and of the Grecian 
monarchs. The seventh relates to the Roman history ; the eighth to that 
of the Greek emperors of Constantinople. In the ninth he treats of the 
Arabian princes ; and in the tenth of the Moguls. He is more to be de- 



tions. Among these patrons and protectors of learning, 
the emperor, Frederic II., and Alphonso X., king of 
Leon and Castile (two princes as much distinguished by 
their own learning, as by the encouragement they grant- 
ed to men of genius,) acquired the highest renown, and 
rendered their names immortal. The former founded 
the academy of Naples, had the works of Aristotle trans- 
lated into Latin, assembled about his person all the 
learned men whom he could engage by his munificence 
to repair to his court, and gave other undoubted proofs of 
his zeal for the advancement of the arts and sciences. b 
The latter obtained an illustrious and permanent renown 
by several learned productions, but more especially by his 
famous Astronomical tables. In consequence then of 
the protection that was given to the sciences in this cen- 
tury, academies were erected almost in every city ; pecu- 
liar privileges of various kinds w r ere granted to the youth 
that frequented them ; and these learned societies ac- 
quired, at length, the form of political bodies ; that is to 
say, they were invested with a certain jurisdiction, and 
were governed by their own laws and statutes. 

III. In the public schools or academies that were found- 
ed at Padua, Modena, Naples, Capua, Toulouse, Sala- 
manca, Lyons, and Cologne, the whole circle of science 
was not taught, as in our times. The application of the 
youth, and the labours of their instructors, were limited to 
certain branches of learning ; and thus the course of 
academical education remained imperfect. The academy 
of Paris, which surpassed all the rest, both with respect to 
the number and abilities of its professors, and the multi- 
tude of students by whom it was frequented, was the first 
learned society which extended the sphere of education, 
received all the sciences into its bosom, and appointed 
masters for every branch of erudition. Hence it was 
distinguished, before any other academy, with the title of 
an university, to denote its embracing the whole body of 
science ; and, in process of time, other schools of learning 
were ambitious of forming themselves upon the same 
model, and of being honoured with the same title. In 
this famous university, the doctors were divided into four 
colleges or classes, according to the branches of learning 
they professed ; and these classes were called, in after- 
times, faculties. In each of these faculties, a doctor was 
chosen by the suffrages of his colleagues, to preside during 
a fixed period in the society ; and the title of dean was 
given to those who successively filled that eminent office. 11 
The head of the university, whose inspection and juris- 

pended upon in his history of the Saracens and Tartars, than in his ac- 
counts of other nations. The learned Dr. Edward Pocock translated 
this work into Latin, and published his translation in 1663-4, with a sup- 
plement, which carries on the history of the oriental princes, whera 
Abul-Faraj left it. The same learned translator had obliged the public, 
in 1650, with an abridgment of the ninth dynasty, under the following 
title : " Specimen Historise Arabum, sive Gregorii Abulfaragii Mala- 
tiensis de Origine et Moribus Arabum suceincta Narratio." 

b Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 115. Gianhone, Historia di 
Napoli, torn. ii. p. 497. Add to these the observations of Jo. Alb. Fab- 
ricius, Biblioth. Latin, medii JEvi, torn. ii. p. 618. 

e Nic. Antonii Bibliotheca vetus Hispan. lib. viii. c. v. p. 217. Jo. de 
Ferreras, Histoire d'Espagne, torn. iv. p. 347. 

a This arrangement was executed about the year 1260. See Du Bou- 
lay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. o. 557, 564. 



Chap. I. 



LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



299 



diction extended to all branches of that learned body, was 
dignified with the name of chancellor ; and that high 
and honourable place was filled by the bishop of Paris, to 
whom an assistant was afterwards joined, who shared the 
administration with him, and was invested with an 
extensive authority. 11 The college set apart for the study 
of divinity was first erected and endowed, in the year 
1250, by an opulent and pious man, whose name was 
Robert de Sorbonne, (a particular friend and favourite of 
St. Louis.) whose name was adopted, and is still retained 
by that theological society. b 

IV. Such as were desirous of being chosen professors in 
any of the faculties or colleges of this university were 
obliged to submit to a long and tedious course of probation, 
and to suffer the strictest examinations, and to give, during 
several years, undoubted proofs of their learning and 
capacity, before they were received in the character of 
public teachers. This severe discipline was called the 
academical course ; and it was wisely designed to prevent 
the number of professors from multiplying beyond mea- 
sure, and also to prevent such as were destitute of erudi- 
tion and abilities from assuming an office, which was 
justly looked upon as of high importance. They who 
had satisfied all the demands of this academical law, and 
had gone through the formidable trial with applause, 
were solemnly invested with the dignity of professors, and 
were saluted masters with a certain round of ceremonies, 
that were used in the societies of illiterate tradesmen, 
when their company was augmented by a new candidate. 
This vulgar custom had been introduced, in the preceding 
century, by the professors of law in the academy of 
Bologna ; and, in this century, it was transmitted to that 
of Paris, where it was first practised by the divinity- 
colleges, and afterwards by the professors of physic and 
of the liberal arts. In this account of the trial and 
installation of the professors of Paris, we may perceive 
the origin of what we now call academical degrees, which, 
like all other human institutions, have miserably degene- 
rated from the wise ends for which they were at first 
appointed, and grow more insignificant from clay to day. c 

V. These public institutions, consecrated to the ad- 
vancement of learning, were attended with remarkable 
success ; but that branch of erudition, which we call 
humanity or polite literature, derived less advantage from 
them than the other sciences. The industrious youth 
either applied themselves entirely to the study of the civil 

a See Henn. Conringii Antiquitates Academics, a work, however, sus- 
ceptible of considerable improvements. The important work mentioned 
in the preceding note, and which is divided into six volumes, deserves 
to be principally consulted in this point, as well as in all others that re- 
late to the history and government of the university of Paris; add to 
this, Claud. Hemersei Liber de Academia Parisiensi, qualis primo fuit in 
insula et episcoporum scholis, Lutet. 1637, in 4to. 

b See Du Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 223. - Du Fresne's 
Annotations upon the Life of St. Louis, written by Joinville, p. 36. 

° Beside the writers above mentioned, see Jo. Chr. Itterus, de Gradi- 
bus Acadcmicis. — Just. Hen. Bohiner, Praf. ad Jus Canonicum, p. 14. — 
Ant. Wood, Antiquit. Oxoniens. torn. i. p. 24. — Boulay, Histor. Acad. 
Paris, torn. ii. p. 256, 682, &c. 

<• Botllay, His 1 :. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 265, where there is an epistle 
of Innocent III., who seems to take this matter seriously to heart. — Ant. 
Wood, Antiq. Oxon. torn. i. p. 124. — Imola in Dantem, in Muratori's 
Antiquit. Ital, niedii JEvi, torn. i. p. 1262. 

"See Hist.de l'Acad. des Inscript. etdes Belles Lettres, t xvi. p. 255. 

( Jo. Wolff, Lectiones Memorabil. torn. i. p 430. 

« Called in Latin, Alanus ab Insulis. 

» See the Histoire de l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Let- 
tres, torn. xvi. p. 243, which also gives an ample account of William of 
Nangis, page 292 



and canon laws, which was a sure path to preferment, or 
employed their labours in philosophical researches, in 
order to the attainment of a shining reputation, and of 
the applause that was lavished upon such as were endow- 
ed with a subtle and metaphysical genius. Hence arose 
the bitter complaints of die pontiffs and other bishops, of 
the neglect and decline of the liberal arts and sciences ; 
and hence also the zealous, but unsuccessful efforts they 
used to turn the youth from jurisprudence and philosophy, 
to the study of humanity and phiioiogy. d Notwithstand- 
ing all this, the thirteenth century produced several 
writers, who were very far from being contemptible, such 
as William Brito, e Walter Mapes/ Matthew of Yendosme, 
Alain de l'lsle.s Guntherus, James of Vitri, and several 
others, who wrote with ease, and were not altogether des- 
titute of elegance. Among the historians, the first place 
is due to Matthew Paris, a writer of the highest merit, 
both in point of knowledge and prudence, to whom we 
may add Roderic Ximenes, Rigord, h Vincent of Beauvais, 
Robert of St. Marino, 5 Martinus, a native of Poland, 
Gervase of Tilbury, k Conrad of Lichtenau, and William 
Nangius, whose names are worthy of being preserved 
from oblivion. The writers who have laboured to trans- 
mit to posterity the lives and exploits of the saints, have 
rather related the superstitions and miseries of the times, 
than the actions of those holy men. Among these 
biographers, James of Vitri, mentioned above, makes the 
greatest figure ; he also composed a History of the Lom- 
bards, that is full of insipid and trifling stories.' 

VI. Roger Bacon,™ John Balbi, and Robert Capito, 
with other learned men, whose number, however, was 
inconsiderable, applied themselves to the study of Greek 
literature. The Hebrew language and theology Avere 
much less cultivated ; though it appears that Bacon and 
Capito, already mentioned, and Raymond Martin, author 
of an excellent treatise, entitled, Pugio Fidei Christiana*, 
or. The Dagger of the Christian Faith, were extremely 
well versed in that species of erudition. Many of the 
Spaniards, and more particularly the Dominican friars, 
made themselves masters of the Arabian learning ai.d 
language, as the kings of Spain had charged the latter 
with the instruction and conversion of the Jews and 
Saracens who resided in their dominions." As to the 
Latin grammarians, the best of them were extremely 
barbarous and insipid, and equally destitute of taste and 
knowledge. To be convinced of this, we have only to 

i See Le Boeuf, Memoires pour l'Histoire d'Auxerre, torn. ii. p. 490, 
where there is also a learned account of Vincent of Beauvais. p. 494. 

53r k Gervase of Tilbury was nephew to Henrv II., king of England, 
and was in high credit with the emperor Otho IV., to whom he dedica- 
ted a description of the world and a Chronicle, both of which he had him- 
self composed. He wrote also a History of England, and one of the 
Holy Land, with several treatises upon different subjects. 

i See Schelhornii Amoenitates Litcrariae, torn. xi. p. 324. 

§j= m This illustrious Franciscan, in point of genius and universal 
learning, was one of the greatest ornaments of the British nation, end, 
in general, of the republic of letters. The astonishing discoveries he 
made in astronomy, chemistry, optics, and mathematics, made him pass 
for a magician in the ignorant and superstitious times in which he lived, 
while his profound knowledge in philosophy, theology, and the Greek 
and Oriental languages, procured him, with more justice, the title of the 
admirable or wonderful doctor. Among other discoveries, he is said to 
have made that of the composition and force of gunpowder, which lie 
describes clearly in one of his letters; and he proposed much the same 
correction of the calendar, which was executed about 300 yars after by 
Gregory III. He composed an extraordinary number of books, of which 
a list may be seen in the General Dictionary. 

n See Rich. Simon's Lettres Choisies, torn', iii. p. 112, and Nic. Antonu 
Bibliotheca vetus Hispanica. 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part II. 



cast an eye upon the productions of Alexander de Villa 
Dei, who was looked upon as the most eminent of them 
all, and whose works were read in almost all the schools 
from this period until the sixteenth century. This pe- 
dantic Franciscan composed, in the year 1240, what he 
called a Doctrinale, in Leonine verse, full of the most 
wretched quibbles, and in which the rules of grammar 
and criticism are delivered with the greatest confusion 
and obscurity, or, rather, are covered with impenetrable 
darkness. 

VII. The various systems of philosophy that were in 
vogue before this century, lost their credit by degrees, and 
submitted Co the triumphant doctrine of Aristotle, which 
erected a new and despotic empire in the republic of 
letters, and reduced the whole ideal w T orid under its lordly 
dominion. Several of the works of this philosopher, and 
more especially his metaphysical productions, had been, so 
early as the beginning of this century, translated into 
Latin at Paris, and were from that time explained to the 
youth in the public schools. 1 But when it appeared, that 
Almeric b had drawn from these books his erroneous 
sentiments concerning the divine nature, they were pro- 
hibited and condemned as pernicious and pestilential, by 
a public decree of the council of Sens, in the year 1209. c 
The logic of Aristotle, however, recovered its credit some 
years after this, and was publicly taught in the university 
of Paris in the year 1215 ; but the natural philosophy 
and metaphysics of that great man were still under the 
sentence of condemnation. 11 It was reserved for the 
emperor Frederic II. to restore the Stagirite to his former 
glory, which this prince effected by employing a number 
of learned men, whom he had chosen with the greatest 
attention and care, e and who were profoundly versed in 
the knowledge of the languages, to translate into Latin, 
from the Greek and Arabic, certain books of Aristotle, 
and of other ancient sages. This translation, which was 
recommended, in a particular manner, to the academy of 
Bologna by the learned emperor, raised the credit of Aris- 
totle to the greatest height, and gave him an irresistible 
and despotic authority in all the European schools. This 



"Franc. Patricii Discussiones Peripatetics, torn. i. lib. xi. p. 145. Jo. 
Lav.noius de varia Aristot. fortuna in Acad. Parisiensi, cap. i. p. 127, ed. 
Elswich. It is commonly reported, that the books of Aristotle here men- 
tioned, were translated from Arabic into Latin. But we are told posi- 
tively, that these books were brought from Constantinople, and transla- 
ted from Greek into Latin. See Rirrord's work de gestis Philippi regis 
Franc, ad annum 1209, in Andr. Chesnii Scrip. Hist. Franc, p. 119. 

5Jr t Almeric, or Amauri, does not seem to have entertained any 
enormous errors. He held, that every Christian was obliged to believe 
himself a member of Jesus Christ, and attached, perhaps, some extrava- 
gant and fanatical ideas to that opinion ; but his followers fell into more 
pernicious notions, and adopted the most odious tenets, maintaining, that 
the power of the Father continued no longer than the Mosaic dispensa- 
tion ; that the empire of the Son extended only to the thirteenth century ; 
and that then the reign of the Holy Ghost commenced, when all sacra- 
ments and external worship were to be abolished, and the salvation of 
Christians was to be accomplished merely by internal acts of illumi- 
nating grace: Their morals also were as infamous as their doctrine was 
absurd ; and, under the name of charity, they comprehended and com- 
mitted the most criminal acts of impurity and licentiousness. 

|3r e Dr. Mosheim has fallen here into two slight mistakes. It was 
at Paris, and not at Sens, and in the year 1210, and not 1209, that the 
metaphysical books of Aristotle were condemned to the flames. The 
works quoted here by our author, are those of Launoy, de varia Aristo- 
jelis fortuna in Acad. Paris, cap. iv. p. 195, and Syllabus ration um qui- 
uus Durandi causa defenditur, torn. i. op. 

a Nat. Alexander, Select. Histor. Ecclesiast. Capita, torn. viii. cap. iii. 
sect. 7, page 76. 

e Petr. de Vineis, Epist. lib. iii. ep. lxvii. p. 503. This epistle is ad- 
dressed " ad magistros et scholares Bononienses ;" i. e. " to the masters 
and scholars of die academy of Bologna :" but it is more than probable, 



authority was still farther augmented by the translations 
which were made of some of the books of the Grecian 
sage by several Latin interpreters, such as Michael Scot, 
Philip of Tripoli, William Fleming, and others ; though 
these men were quite unequal to the task they undertook, 
and had neither such knowledge of the languages, nor 
such an acquaintance with philosophy, as were necessary 
to the successful execution of such a difficult enterprise. f 

VIII. The Aristotelian philosophy received the very 
last addition that could be made to its authority and lustre, 
when the Dominican and Franciscan friars adopted its 
tenets, taught it in their schools, and illustrated it in their 
writings. These two mendicant orders were looked upon 
as the chief depositories of all learning, both human and 
divine ; and were followed, with the utmost eagerness 
and assiduity, by all such as were ambitious of being dis- 
tinguished from the multitude by superior knowledge. 
Alexander Hales, an English Franciscan, who taught 
philosophy at Paris, and acquired, by the strength of his 
metaphysical genius, the title of the Irrefragable Doctor,^ 
and Albert the Great, a German of the Dominican order, 
and bishop of Ratisbon, a man of great abilities, and an 
universal dictator at this time, 1 " were the first eminent 
writers who illustrated, in their learned productions, the 
Aristotelian system. But it was the disciple of Albert, 
Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor, and the great 
luminary of the scholastic world, that contributed most to 
the glory of the Stagirite,' by inculcating, illustrating, and 
enforcing his doctrines, both in his lectures and in his 
writings ; and principally by engaging one of his learned 
colleagues to give, under his inspection, a new 7 translation 
of the works of the Grecian sage, which far surpassed 
the former version in exactness, perspicuity, and elegance. k 
By these means the philosophy of Aristotle, notwithstand- 
ing the hostile efforts of several divines, and even of the 
Roman pontiffs themselves, who beheld its progress with 
an unfriendly eye, triumphed in all the Latin schools, and 
absorbed all the other systems that had flourished before 
this literary revolution. 

IX. There were, however, at this time in Europe se- 

that the emperor sent letters upon this occasion to the other European 
schools. It is a common opinion, that this learned prince had all the 
works of Aristotle, that were then extant, translated into Latin about 
the year 1220 ; but this cannot be deduced from the letter above mention- 
ed, or from any other sufficient testimony that we know of. 

f See Wood's account of tire interpreters of Aristotle, in his Antiqui- 
tat. Oxon. torn. i. p. 119 ; as also Jebb's preface to the 0[ us Majus of the 
famous Roger Bacon, published at London in folio, in the year 1733. 
We shall give here the opinion which Bacon had of the translators oi 
Aristotle, in die words of that great man, who expresses his c-iitempt of 
these wretched interpreters in the following manner : " Si hat> N rem po- 
testatem supra libros Aristotelis, (Latine conversos,) ego facere*\ omnes 
cremari,quia non est nisi temporis amissio studere in illis, etcausi erroris 
et multiplicatio ignorantia?, ultra id quod valet explicari." 

* See Wadding's Annales Minorum, torn. iii. p. 233. Du tf.iulay, 
Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 200, G73. 

k Jo. Alb. Fabricii Biblioth. Latina medii iEvi, torn. i. p. 113. 

i The Dominicans maintain, that this Angelic Doctor was the J *". 1 ole 
of Albert the Great, and their opinion seems to be founded in truth. Soe 
Antoine Touron, Vie de St. Thomas, p. 99. The Franciscans, l.owe- 
v^r, maintain as obstinately, that Alexander Hales was the master ot 
Thomas. See Wadding's Annales Minorum, torn. iii. p. 133. • 

k It has been believed by many, that William de Moerbeka, a native 
of Flanders, of the Dominican order, and archbishop of Corindi, was 
the author of the new Latin translation of the works of Aristotle, which 
was carried on and finished under the auspicious inspection of Thomas 
Aquinas. See J. Echard, Scriptores Dominican, torn. i. p. 388, 469. Ca- 
sim. Oudinus, Coram, de Scriptor. Eccles. torn. iii. p. 468. Jo. Frarn, 
Foppens, Bibliotheca Belgica, torn. i. p. 416. Others, however, suppose, 
though indeed with less evidence, that this translation was composed by 
Henry Kosbein, who was also a Dominican. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



301 



veral persons of superior genius and penetration, who, 
notwithstanding their respect for Aristotle, considered the 
method of treating philosophy, which his writings had in- 
troduced, as dry, inelegant, and fit only to confine and 
damp the efforts of the mind in the pursuit of truth ; and 
who, consequently, were desirous of enlarging the sphere 
of science by new researches and discoveries. 1 At the head 
of these noble adventurers Ave may justly place Roger Ba- 
con, a Franciscan friar of the English nation, known by 
the appellation of the admirable doctor, who was re- 
nowned on account of his most important discoveries, and 
who, in natural philosophy, mathematics, chemistry, the 
mechanic arts, and the learned languages, soared far be- 
yond the genius of the times. b With him we may asso- 
ciate Arnold of Villa Nova, whose place of nativity is fixed 
by some in France, by others in Spain, and who acquired 
a shining reputation by his knowledge in chemistry, poetry, 
philosophy, languages, and physic; as also Peter d'Abano, 
a physician of Padua, who was surnamed the Reconciler, 
from a book which he wrote in the hope of terminating 
the dissensions and contests that reigned among the phi- 
losophers and physicians, d and who was profoundly versed 
in the sciences of philosophy, astronomy, physic, and ma- 
thematics.' It must, however, be observed, to the eternal 
dishonour of the age, that the only fruits which these great 
men derived from their learned labours, and their noble, 
as w r ell as successful efforts for the advancement of the 
arts and sciences, were the furious clamours of an enraged 
and superstitious multitude, who looked upon them as he- 
retics and magicians, and thirsted so eagerly after their 
blood, that they escaped with difficulty the hands of the 
public executioner. Bacon w r as confined many years in 
a comfortless prison ; and the other two were, after their 
death, brought before the tribunal of the inquisition, and 
declared worthy of being committed to the flames for the 
novelties they had introduced into the republic of letters. 
X. The state of theology, and the method of teaching 
and representing the doctrines of Christianity that now 
prevailed, shall be mentioned in their place. The civil 
and canon laws held the first rank in the circle of the scien- 
ces, and were studied with peculiar zeal and application 
by almost all who were ambitious of literary glory. But 
these sciences, notwithstanding the assiduity with which 
they were cultivated, were far from being then brought to 
any tolerable degree of perfection. They were disfigured 

* Bacon's contempt of the learning that was in vogue in his time may 
be seen in the following passage, quoted by Jebb, in his preface to the 
Opus Majus of that great man: "Nunquam fuit tanta apparentia sapi- 
entiae, nee tantum exercitium studii in tot facultatibus, in tot regionibus, 
sicutjam a quadraginta annis: ubique enim doctores sunt dispersi .... 
in omni civitate, et in omni castro, et in omni burgo, pracipue per duos 
ordines studentes (he means the Franciscans and Dominicans, who were 
almost the only religious orders that distinguished themselves by an ap- 
plication to study) quod non aecidit, nisi a quadraginta annis aut circi- 
ier, cum tamen nunquam fuit tanta ignorantia, tantus error . . . Vulgus 
studentium languet et asininat circa mala translata (by these wretched 
versions he understands the works of Aristotle, which were most misera- 
bly translated by ignorant bunglers) et tempus et studium amittit in om- 
nibus et expensas. Apparentia quidem sola tenet eos, et non curant quid 
sciant, sed quid videantur scire coram multitudine insensata." Thus, 
according to Bacon, in the midst of the most specious appearance of 
science, the greatest ignorance and the grossest errors reigned almost 
universally. 

b That Bacon deserves this high rank in the learned world appears 
evidently from his book entided Opus Majus, which was dedicated to 
pope Clement IV., and which Jebb published at London in 1733, from a 
manuscript that still exists in the university of Dublin, enriching it with 
a learned preface and a considerable number of judicious observations. 
The other works of Bacon, which are very numerous. Lie for the most 

No. XXVI. 76 



1 by the jargon that reigned in the schools, and were cor- 
rupted and rendered intricate by a multitude of trivial com- 
mentaries that were intended to illustrate and explain 
them. Some employed their labours in collecting the let- 
ters of the Roman pontiffs, which are commonly known 
under the title of Decretals/ and which were deemed a 
very important branch of ecclesiastical law. Raimond of 
Pennafort, a native of Barcelona, was the most famous of 
all these compilers, and acquired a considerable reputation 
by his collection of the Decretals in five books, which he 
undertook at the desire of Gregory IX., and which has 
been since honoured with the name of that pontiff, who 
ordered it to be added to the Decretals of Gratian, and to 
be read in all the European colleges.? Toward the con- 
clusion of this century, Boniface VIII. caused a new col- 
lection to be made, which was entitled, The Sixth Book 
of Decretals, because it was added to the five already 
mentioned. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and its Form of Government, during this Century. 

I. Both the Greek and Latin writers, provoked beyond 
measure by the flagitious lives of their spiritual rulers and 
instructors, complain loudly of their licentious manners, 
and load them with the severest reproaches ; nor will these 
complaints and reproaches appear excessive to such as are 
acquainted with the history of this corrupt and supersti- 
tious age. h Several eminent men attempted to stem this 
torrent of licentiousness, which from the heads of the 
church had carried its pernicious streams through all the 
members ; but their power and influence were unequal to 
such a difficult and arduous enterprise. The Grecian em- 
perors were prevented from executing any project of this 
kind by the infelicity of the times, and the various cala- 
mities and tumults, which not only reigned in their do- 
minions, but even shook their thrones, Avhile the power 
and opulence of the Roman pontiffs, and the superstition 
of the age, prevented the Latins from accomplishing, or 
even attempting, a reformation in the church. 

II. In the history of the popes, we meet with a lively 
and horrible picture of the complicated crimes that disho- 
noured the ministers of the church, who were peculiarly 
required, by their sacred office, to exhibit to the world dis- 
part concealed in the libraries of the curious. For a farther account ot 
this eminent man, see Wood's Antiq. Oxon. torn. i. p. 136. — Wadding, 
Annal. Minor, t. iv. p. 161, t. v. p. 51. — Thom. Gale, ad Jambliehum de 
Mysteriis iEgyptior. p. 255. — General Hist, and Crit. Dictionary. 

c See Nic. Antonii Biblioth. vetus Hispan. torn. ii. lib. ix. c. i. — Pierre 
Joseph, Vie d'Amaud de Ville-neuve, Aix, 1719. — Niceron, Memoires 
des Hommes illustres, torn, xxxiv. — Nicol. Eymerici Dircctorium In- 
quisitorum, pag. 282, where, among other things, we have an account 
of his errors. 

J This book was entitled, Conciliator Differentiaruni Philosophorum 
et Medicorum. 

e There is a very accurate account of this philosopher given by Joh. 
Maria Mazzuchelli, Notizie Storiche e Critiche intorno alia Vita di Pi- 
etro d'Abano, in Angeli Calogene Opus. Scicntifici e Philologici, t. xiii. 

f See Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. 

6 Ger. a Maestricht, Historia juris Ecclesiastici, sect. 353. — Jo. Chif- 
flet, de Juris utriusque Architectis, cap. vi. — Echard et Gtuctif, Scriptor. 
Dominican, t. i. — Acta Sanctor. Antwerp, t. i. Januarii ad d. vii. 

' See the remarkable letter of pope Gregory IX. to the archbishop ot 
Bourges, which was written in 1227, with a design to reprove and re- 
form the vices which had infected all the various orders of the clergy, 
and which is published by Dion. Sammarthanus, in his Gallia Chris- 
tiana, torn. ii. in Append. — See also Du Fresne, Annotat in Vitam 
Ludovici Sti. 



302 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part II. 



tmguished models of piety and virtue. Such members of 
the sacerdotal order as were advanced to places of autho- 
rity in the church, behaved rather like tyrants than rulers, 
and showed manifestly, in all their conduct, that they 
aimed at an absolute and unlimited dominion. The 
popes, more especially, inculcated this pernicious maxim, 
'• That the bishop of Rome is the supreme lord of the uni- 
verse, and that neither princes nor bishops, civil governors 
nor ecclesiastical rulers, have any lawful power in church 
or state, but what they derive from him." This extrava- 
gant maxim, which was considered as the sum and sub- 
stance of papal jurisprudence, the pontiffs obstinately main- 
tained, and left no means unemployed, that perfidy or vio- 
lence could suggest, to give it the force of an universal 
law. It was in consequence of this arrogant pretension, 
that they not only claimed the right of disposing of eccle- 
siastical benefices, as the}'' are commonly called, but also 
of conferring civil dominion, and of dethroning kings and 
emperors, according to their good pleasure. It is true, this 
maxim was far from being universally adopted ; many 
placed the authority of councils above that of the pontiffs, 
and such of the European kings and princes as were not 
ingloriously blinded and enslaved by the superstition of 
the times, asserted their rights with dignity and success, 
excluded the pontiffs from all concern in their civil trans- 
actions, and even reserved to themselves the supremacy 
over the churches that were established in their dominions. 1 
In thus opposing the haughty pretensions of the lordly pon- 
tiffs, it was, indeed, necessary to proceed with mildness, 
caution, and prudence, on account of the influence which 
those spiritual tyrants had usurped over the minds of the 
people, and the poAver they had of alarming princes, by 
exciting their subjects to rebellion. 

III. In order to establish their authority, both in civil 
and ecclesiastical matters, upon the firmest foundations, 
the Roman pontiffs assumed to themselves the power of 
disposing of the various offices of the church, whether of a 
higher or more subordinate nature, and of creating bishops, 
abbots, and canons, according to their fancy. Thus we 
see the heads of the church, who formerly disputed with 
such ardour against the emperors in favour of the free 
election of bishops and abbots, overturning now all the 
laws that related to the election of these spiritual rulers, 
reserving for themselves the revenues of the richest bene- 
fices, conferring vacant places upon their clients and their 
creatures, and often deposing bishops who had been duly 
and lawfully elected, and substituting others for them with 
a high hand. b The hypocritical pretexts for all these ar- 
bitrary proceedings were an ardent zeal for the welfare of 
the church, and an anxious concern, lest devouring here- 
tics should get a footing among the flock of Christ/ The 
first pontiff who usurped such an extravagant extent of 
authority, was Innocent III., whose example was followed 
by Honorius III., Gregory IX., and several of their succes- 
sors. But it was keenly opposed by the bishops, who had 

'Asa specimen of this, the reader may peruse the letters of Innocent 
HI. and the emperor Otho IV., which have been collected by the learned 
George Christ. Gebauer, in his history of the emperor Richard, written 
in German. Other princes, and more especially the kings of England 
and France, displayed, in the defence of their rights and privileges, the 
same zeal that animated Otho. 

t> Many examples of this may be taken from the history of this cen- 
tury. See Steph. Baluzii Miscellan. torn. vii. — Gallia Christiana torn. 
i. Append.— Wadding, Aniial. Minor, in Diplomat. — Wood, Antiquit. 
Oxon. torn. i. 

• See the Epistle of Innocent IV. in Baluz. Miscellan. torn, vii 



hitherto enjoyed the privilege of nominating to the smal- 
ler benefices, and still more effectually by the kings of Eng- 
land and France, who employed the force of warm remon- 
strances and vigorous edicts to stop the progress of this new 
jurisprudence. 11 Louis IX. king of France, now the tute- 
lar saint of that nation, distinguished himself by his noble 
opposition to these papal encroachments. In 1268, before 
he set out for the Holy Land, he secured the rights of the 
Gallican church against the insidious attempts of the popes, 
by that famous edict, known in France by the name of 
the pragmatic sanction.'' This resolute and prudent 
measure rendered the pontiffs more cautious and slow in 
their proceedings, but did not deter them from the prose- 
cution of their purpose. For Boniface VIII. maintained, 
in the most express and impudent terms, that the univer- 
sal church was under the dominion of the pontiffs, and 
that princes and lay patrons, councils and chapters, had 
no more power in spiritual things, than what they derived 
from Christ's vicar upon earth. 

IV. The legates, whom the pontiffs sent into the pro- 
vinces, to represent their persons, and execute their orders, 
imitated perfectly the avarice and insolence of their mas- 
ters. They violated the privileges of the chapters ; dis- 
posed of the smaller, and sometimes of the more impor- 
tant ecclesiastical benefices, in favour of such as had 
gained them by bribes, or the like considerations ; f extort- 
ed money from the people, by the vilest and most iniqui- 
tous means ; seduced the unwary by forged letters and 
other stratagems of that nature ; excited tumults among 
the multitude, and were, themselves, the ringleaders of 
the most furious and rebellious factions ; carried on, in 
the most scandalous manner, the impious traffic of relics 
and indulgences, and distinguished themselves by seve- 
ral acts of profligacy still more heinous than the practices 
now mentioned. Hence we find the writers of this age 
complaining unanimously of the flagitious conduct and 
the enormous crimes of the pope's legates.^ We even 
see pope Alexander IV. enacting, in 1256, a severe law 
against the avarice and frauds of these corrupt ministers, 11 
which, however, they easily evaded, by their friends and 
their credit at the court of Rome. 

V. From the ninth century to this period, the wealth 
and revenues of the pontiffs had not received any consi- 
derable augmentation ; but at this time they were vastly 
increased under Innocent III., and Nicolas III., partly by 
the events of war, and partly by the munificence of kings 
and emperors. Innocent, as soon as he was seated in 
the papal chair, reduced under his jurisdiction the pre- 
fect of Rome, who had hitherto been considered as sub- 
ject to the emperor, to whom he had taken an oath of 
allegiance in entering upon his office. He also seized 
the territories of Ancona, Spoleto, and Assisi, the town of 
Montebello, and various cities and fortresses which had, 
according to him, been unjustly alienated from the patri- 
mony of St. Peter. i On the other hand, Frederic II., 



d Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. iv. ' Boulay, torn. iii. 

f See Baluzii Miscellanea, torn. vii. 

s See that judicious and excellent writer Matth. Paris, in his Historia 
Major, p. 3i3, 316, 549, and particularly p. 637, where we find the fol- 
lowing remarkable words: " Semper solent legati, et omnes nuncii pa- 
pales, regna qua; ingrediuntur depauperare, vel aliquo modo perturbare." 
See also Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 659. 

h This edict is published by Lami, in his Deliciae Eruditoram, torn, 
ii. page 300. 

■ See Franc. Pagi, Breviar. Romanor. Pontif torn. iii. p. 161.— Mura- 
tori, Antiq. Ital. torn. i. p. 323. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



303 



who was extremely desirous that the pope should espouse 
his quarrel with Otho IV., loaded the Roman see with 
the richest marks of his munificence and liberality, and 
not only made a noble present in valuable lands to the 
pope's brother, 1 but also permitted Richard, count of Fun- 
di, to bequeath all his possessions to the Roman see, b and 
confirmed the immense donation that had formerly been 
made to it by the opulent Matilda. Such was the pro- 
gress that Innocent III. made, during his pontificate, in 
augmenting the splendour and wealth of the church. 
Nicolas III. followed bis example with the warmest emu- 
lation, and, in 1278, gave a remarkable proof of his ar- 
rogance and obstinacy, in refusing to crown the emperor 
Rodolphus. I. before he had acknowledged and confirm- 
ed, by a solemn treaty, all the pretensions of the Roman 
see, of which, if some were plausible, many were alto- 
gether groundless, or, at least, extremely dubious. This 
agreement, to which all the Italian princes subject to the 
emperor were obliged to accede, was no sooner concluded, 
than Nicolas reduced under his temporal dominion seve- 
ral territories in Italy, that had formerly been annexed 
to the imperial crown, particularly Romania and Bologna. 
It was therefore under these two pontiffs that the see of 
Rome arrived, partly by force, and partly by artifice, at 
that high degree of grandeur and opulence, which it yet 
maintains in ourtimes. c 

VI. Innocent III., who remained at the head of the 
church until the year 1216, followed the steps of Gregory 
VII., and not only usurped the despotic government of 
the church, but also claimed the empire of the world, and 
entertained the extravagant idea of subjecting all the 
kings and princes of the earth to his lordly sceptre. He 
was a man of learning and application ; but his cruelty, 
avarice, and arrogance, d clouded the lustre of any good 
qualities which his panegyrists have thought proper to 

.attribute to him. In Asia and Europe, he disposed of 
crowns and sceptres with the most wanton ambition. In 
Asia, he gave a king to the Armenians : in Europe, he 
usurped the same exorbitant privilege in 1204, and con- 
ferred the regal dignity upon Primislaus, duke of Bohe- 
mia. 5 The same year, he sent to Johannicius, duke of 
Bulgaria and Wallachia an extraordinary legate, who, 
in the name of the pontiff, invested that prince with the 
ensigns and honours of royalty, while, with his own 
hand, he crowned Peter II., of Arragon, who had ren- 
dered his dominions subject and tributary to the church, 
and saluted him publicly at Rome, with the title of 
king. f We omit many other examples of this phrenetic 
pretension to universal empire, which might be produced 
from the letters of this arrogant pontiff, and many other 
acts of despotism, which Europe beheld with astonishment, 
but also, to its eternal reproach, with the ignominious si- 
lence of a passive obedience. 

VII. The ambition of this pope was not satisfied with 



* This brother of the pontiff was called Richard. See, for an account 
of this transaction, Muratori : s fifth volume, p. 652. 

* Odor. Raynaldus, Continuat. Annal. Baronii, ad annum 1212. 

c Raynaldus ad annum 1278. The papal grandeur and opulence, 
however, were seriously impaired by the fury of the French revolution, 
and, although the success of the allied powers replaced the pontiff on his 
throne, his power is now at a low ebb. — Edit. 

d See Matth. Paris. Hist. Maj. 

gjf e Other historians affirm, that the emperor Philip was die poten- 
tate who conferred the royal dignity upon Primislaus, in order to 
strengthen his party against Otho. 

' Murat. Ant. Ital. medii iEvi, t. vi. J. de Ferreras, Hist. d'Espagne,t. iv. 



the distribution and government of these petty kingdoms. 
He extended his views farther, and resolved to render the 
power and majesty of the Roman see formidable to the 
greatest European kings, and even to the haughty em- 
perors themselves. When the empire of Germany was 
disputed, about the commencement of this century, be- 
tween Philip, duke of Suabia, and Otho IV. third son of 
Henry the Lion, he espoused at first the cause of Otho, 
thundered out his excommunications against Philip, and 
on the death of the latter (which happened in 1209.) 
placed the imperial diadem upon the head of his adver- 
sary. But, as Otho was by no means disposed to submit 
to this pontiff's nod, or to satisfy to the full his ambitious 
desires, he incurred his lordly indignation ; and Inno- 
cent, declaring him, by a solemn excommunication, un- 
worthy of the empire, raised in his place Frederic II. his 
pupil, the son of Henry VI. and king of the two Sicilies, 
to the imperial throne, in 1212.? The same pontiff ex- 
communicated Philip Augustus, king of France, for hav- 
ing dissolved his marriage with Ingelburga a princess of 
Denmark, and espoused another in her place ; nor did he 
cease to pursue this monarch with his anathemas, until 
he engaged him to receive the divorced queen, and to re- 
store her to her lost dignity. 11 

VIII. But of all the European princes, none felt, in so 
dishonourable and severe a manner, the despotic fury of 
this insolent pontiff, as John, surnamed Sans-Terre, or 
Lackland, king of England. This prince vigorously 
opposed the measures of Innocent, who had ordered the 
monks .of Canterbury to choose Stephen Langton (a Ro- 
man cardinal of English descent) archbishop of that see, 
notwithstanding the election of John de Grey to that 
high dignity, which had been regularly made by the con- 
vent, and had been confirmed by royal authority.! The 
pope after having consecrated Langton at Viterbo, wrote 
a soothing letter in his favour to the king, accompanied 
with four rings, and a mystical comment upon the pre- 
cious stones with which they were enriched. But this 
present was not sufficient to avert the just indignation of 
the offended monarch, and he sent troops to drive out of 
the kingdom the monks of Canterbury, who had been 
engaged by the pope's menaces to receive Langton as 
their archbishop. He also declared to the pontiff, that, 
if he persisted in imposing a prelate upon the see of Can- 
terbury, in opposition to a regular election already made, 
the consequences of such presumptuous obstinacy would, 
in the issue, prove fatal to the papal authority in Eng- 
land. Innocent was so far from being terrified by this 
menacing remonstrance, that, in 1208, he sent orders to 
the bishops of London, Worcester, and Ely, to lay the 
kingdom under an interdict, in case of the monarch's re- 
fusal to yield, and to receive Langton. John, alarmed 
at this terrible menace, and unwilling to break entirely 
with the pope, declared his readiness to confirm the elec- 

*A11 this is amply illustrated in the Orig. Guelphicaj, torn. iii. 
lib. vii. 

k Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. — Daniel, Histoire de la France, 
torn. iii. — Gerard du Bois, Histor. Eccles. Paris, torn. ii. 

Jjfi Dr. Mosheim passes lightly over this rupture between king John 
and Innocent III. mentioning in a few lines die interdict under which 
England was laid by that pontiff, the excommunication of the king's 
person, and the impious act by which the English were declared to be 
absolved from their allegiance. The translator, however, tliouglit diis 
event of too great importance to be treated with such brevity, and has 
therefore, taken the liberty to enlarge considerably diis eighth section, 
which contains only twelve lines in the original. 



304 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



tion made at Rome ; but in the act that was drawn up 
for this purpose, he wisely inserted a clause to prevent 
any interpretation of this compliance, that might be pre- 
judicial to his rights, dignity, and prerogative. This ex- 
ception was rejected, and the interdict was proclaimed. A 
stop was immediately put to divine service ; the churches 
were shut in every parish ; all the sacraments were sus- 
pended except that of baptism ; the dead were buried in 
the highways without the usual rites or any funeral so- 
lemnity. But, notwithstanding this interdict, the Cister- 
tian order continued to perform divine service ; and seve- 
ral learned and respectable divines, among whom were the 
bishops of Winchester and Norwich, protested against the 
injustice of the pope's proceedings. 

The interdict not producing the effects that were ex- 
pected from it, the pontiff proceeded to a still farther de- 
gree of severity and presumption, and denounced a sen- 
tence of excommunication against the person of the 
English monarch. This sentence, which was issued in 
1209, was followed about two years after by a bull, ab- 
solving all his subjects from their oath of allegiance, and 
ordering all persons to avoid him, on pain of excommu- 
nication. But it was in 1212, that Innocent carried his 
impious tyranny to the most enormous length, when, 
assembling a council of cardinals and prelates, he de- 
posed John, declared the throne of England vacant, and 
authorized Philip Augustus, king of France, to execute 
this sentence, undertake the conquest of England, and 
unite that kingdom to his dominions for ever. He, 
at the same time, published another bull, exhorting all 
Christian princes to contribute whatever was in their pow- 
er to the success of this expedition, and promising, to such 
as would assist Philip in this grand enterprise, the same 
indulgences that were granted to those who carried arms 
against the infidels in Palestine. The French monarch 
entered into the views of the pontiff, and made im- 
mense preparations for the invasion of England. John, 
on the other hand, assembled his forces, and was putting 
himself in a posture of defence, when Pandulf, the pope's 
legate, arrived at Dover, and proposed a conference in 
order to prevent the approaching rupture, and to avert 
the storm. This artful legate terrified the king-, who met 
him at that town, with an exaggerated account of the 
armament of Philip on the one hand, and of the disaf- 
fection of the English on the other ; and persuaded him 
that there was no possible way left of saving his domi- 
nions from the formidable arms of the French king, but 
that of putting them under the protection of the Roman 
see. John, finding himself in such a perplexing situa- 
tion, and full of diffidence both in the nobles of his 
court and in the officers of his army, complied with this 
dishonourable proposal, did homage to Innocent, resigned 
his crown to the legate, and then received it as a present 
from the see of Rome, to which he rendered his king- 
doms tributary, and swore fealty as a vassal and feudato- 
ry. 1 In the act by which he lesigned, thus scandalous- 
ly, his kingdoms to the papal jurisdiction, he declared 
that he had neither been compelled to this measure by 
fear nor by force ; but that it was his own voluntary deed, 
performed by the advice, and with the consent, of the 

a For a full account of this shameful ceremony, see Matthew Paris, 
Historia Major; Boulay's Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. and Rapin's His- 
toire d'Angleterre, torn. ii. 



barons of his kingdom. He obliged himself and his heirs 
to pay an annual sum of seven hundred marks for Eng- 
land, and three hundred for Ireland, in acknowledgment 
of the pope's supremacy and jurisdiction ; and consented 
that he or such of his successors as should refuse to 
pay the submission now stipulated, to the see of Rome, 
should forfeit all right to the British crown. b " This 
shameful ceremony was performed (says a modern histo- 
rian c ) on Ascension-day, in the house of the Templars 
at Dover, in the midst of a great concourse of people, 
who beheld it with confusion and indignation. John, in 
doing homage to the pope, presented a sum of money to 
his representative, which the proud legate trampled un- 
der his feet, as a mark of the king's dependance. Eve- 
ry spectator glowed with resentment, and the arch- 
bishop of Dublin exclaimed aloud against such intolera- 
ble insolence. Pandulf, not satisfied with this mortifying 
act of superiority, kept the crown and sceptre five whole 
days, and then restored them as a special favour of the 
Roman see. John was despised before this extraordina- 
ry resignation ; but now he was looked upon as a con- 
temptible wretch, unworthy to sit upon a throne, while he 
himself seemed altogether insensible of his disgrace." 

IX. Innocent III. was succeeded in the pontificate by 
Cencio Savelli, who, assuming the title of Honorius III., 
ruled the church above ten years, and whose govern- 
ment, though not signalized by such audacious exploits 
as those of his predecessor, disclosed an ardent zeal for 
maintaining the pretensions, and supporting the despot- 
ism, of the Roman see. It was in consequence of this 
zeal that the new pontiff opposed the measures, and 
drew upon himself the indignation of Frederic II. that 
magnanimous prince, on whose head he himself had 
placed, in 1220, the imperial crown. This spirited prince, 
following the steps of his illustrious grandfather, had 
formed the resolution of confirming the authority, and 
extending the jurisdiction of the emperors in Italy, of 
depressing the small states of Lombardy, and reducing to 
narrower limits the immense credit and opulence of the 
pontiffs and bishops ; and it was with a view to the exe- 
cution of these grand projects, that he deferred the exe- 
cution of the solemn vow, by which he had engaged him- 
self to lead a formidable army against the infidels of 
Palestine. The pontiff, on the other hand, urged with 
importunity the emperor's departure ; encouraged, anima- 
ted, and strengthened, by secret succours, the Italian states 
that opposed his pretensions ; and resisted the progress of 
his power by all the obstacles which the most fertile in- 
vention could suggest. These contests, however, had 
not yet brought on an open rupture. 

X. In 1227, Hugolin, bishop of Ostia, whose advanced 
age had not extinguished the fire of his ambition, or di- 
minished the firmness and obstinacy of his spirit, was 
raised to the pontificate, assumed the title of Gregory IX., 
and kindled the feuds and dissensions, that had already 
secretly subsisted between the church and the empire, into 
an open and violent flame. No sooner was he placed 
in the papal chair, than, in defiance of justice and order 
he excommunicated the emperor for delaying his expe- 
dition against the Saracens to another year, though the 

Ifjr b Cadet a jure rcgni, is the expression used in the charter of re- 
signation, which may be seen at length in the Historia Major of Mat- 
thew Paris. ° Dr. Smollet. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



305 



postponement manifestly arose from a fit of sickness, 
which seized that prince when he was ready to embark 
for Palestine. In 1228, Frederic at last set out, and ar- 
rived in the Holy Land ; but, instead of carrying on the 
war with vigour, as we have already had occasion to ob- 
serve, he entered into a truce with Saladin, and contented 
himself with the recovery of Jerusalem. The pretend- 
ed vicar of Christ, forgetting (or rather unwilling to per- 
suade himself ) that his master's "kingdom was not of 
this world," made war upon the emperor in Apulia du- 
ring his absence, 11 and used his utmost efforts to arm 
against him all the European powers. Frederic, having 
eceived information of these perfidious and violent pro- 
ceedings, returned into Europe, in 1229, defeated the pa- 
pal army, retook the places he had lost in Sicily and in 
Italy, and, in the succeeding year, made his peace with 
the pontiff, from whom he received a public and so- 
lemn absolution. This peace, however, was not of long 
duration ; for the emperor could not tamely bear the in- 
solent proceedings aud the imperious temper of Gregory. 
He therefore broke all measures with that headstrong 
pontiff, distressed the states of Lombardy that were in 
alliance with the see of Rome, seized the island of Sar- 
dinia, (which Gregoty regarded as a part of his spiritual 
patrimony,) and erected it into a kingdom for his son En- 
tius. These, with other steps that were equally provo- 
king to the pope's avarice and ambition, drew the thun- 
der of the Vatican anew upon the emperor's head. Fre- 
deric was publicly excommunicated in 1239, with all the 
circumstances of severity that vindictive rage could in- 
vent, and was charged with the most flagitious crimes, 
and the most impious blasphemies, by the exasperated 
pontiff, who sent a copy of this terrible accusation to all 
the courts of Europe. The emperor, on the other hand, 
defended his injured reputation by solemn declarations in 
writing, while, by his victorious arms, he avenged him- 
self of his adversaries, maintained his ground, and re- 
duced the pontiff to the greatest difficulties. To extri- 
cate himself from these perplexities, the latter convened, 
in 1240, a general council at Rome, with a view of depo- 
sing Frederic by the unanimous suffrages of the cardinals 
and prelates who were to compose that assembly. But 
the emperor disconcerted that audacious project by de- 
feating, in 1241, a Genoese fleet, on board of which the 
greatest part of the^e prelates were embarked, and by 
seizing, with all their treasures, the reverend fathers, who 
were all committed to close confinement. This disap- 
pointment, attended with others which gave an unhappy 
turn to his affairs, and blasted his most promising expec- 
tations, dejected and consumed the despairing pontiff, and 
apparently contributed to the conclusion of his days, which 
happened soon after this remarkable event. b 

XI. Geoffry, bishop of Milan, who succeeded Gregory 
IX., under the title of Celestine IV., died before his con- 

gjf* Under the feeble reign of Henry III. the pope drew immense i 
sums out of England for the support of this impious war, and carried 
his audacious avarice so far, as to demand a fifth pan of the ecclesiasti- 
cal revenues of the whole kingdom. 

i> Beside the original and authentic writers collected by Muratori, in 
his Scriptores rerum Italicarum, and the German and Italian historians, 
few or none of whom are absolutely free from partiality in their accounts 
of these unhappy contests between the empire and the papacy, see Pe- 
tras de Vineis, Epistol. lib. i. and Matthew Paris, in his Historia Major. ' 
Add to these Raynaldi A'nnal. — Muratori, Annal. Italiae, torn. vii. ct ; 
Antiquit. Italic, medii iEvi, torn. iv. p. 325, 517. It must, however, be ob- | 

No. XXVI. 77 



secration, and after a vacancy of tw r enty months, the 
apostolic chair was filled by Sinibald, one of the counts 
of Fieschi, who was raised to the pontificate in 1243. 
assumed the denomination of Innocent IV., and yielded 
to none of his predecessors in arrogance and fury. c His 
elevation, however, offered at first a prospect cf peace, as 
he had formerly been attached to the interests of the 
emperor ; and accordingly the conferences were opened, 
and a reconciliation was proposed ; but the terms offered 
by the new pope were too imperious and extravagant, not 
to be rejected with indignation. d Hence it was that 
Innocent, not thinking himself safe in any part of Italy, 
set out from Genoa, the place of his birth, for Lyons, in 
1244, and assembling there a council in the following 
year, deposed Frederic, in presence of its members, though 
not with their approbation, and declared the imperial 
throne vacant. e This unjust and insolent decree was 
regarded with such veneration, and looked upon as so 
weighty by the German princes, seduced and blinded by 
the superstition of the times, that they proceeded instantly 
to a new election, and raised first, Henry, landgrave of 
Thuringia, and, after his death, "William, count of Holland, 
to the head of the empire. Frederic, whose firm and 
heroic spirit supported without dejection these cruel 
vicissitudes, continued to carry on the war in Italy, until a 
violent dysentery put an end to his life, on the 13th of 
December, 1250. On the death of his formidable and 
magnanimous adversary, Innocent returned into Italy/ 
hoping now to enjoy with security the fruits of his 
ambition. It was principally from this period, that the 
two famous factions, called Guelphs and Guibellines, of 
which the latter espoused the cause of the emperors, and 
the former that of the pontiffs, involved all the Italian 
states in the most calamitous dissensions, though their 
origin is much earlier than this century. e 

XII. Raynald, count of Segni and bishop of Ostia, waa 
raised to the pontificate after the death of Innocent, in the 
year 1254, and is distinguished in the list of the popes by 
the name of Alexander IV. During the six years and 
five months that he governed the see of Rome, his time 
was less employed in civil affairs, than in regulating the 
internal state of the church, if we except the measures ho 
took for the destruction of Conradin, grandscn of Frederic 
II. and for composing the tumults that had so long pre- 
vailed in Italy. The mendicant friars, in particular, 
and among them the Dominicans and Franciscans, were 
much favoured by this pontiff, and received several marks 
of his peculiar bounty. 

He was succeeded in the Roman see. A. D. 1261, by 
Urban IV. a native of Troves, of obscure birth, who, 
before his elevation to the pontificate, was patriarch of 
Jerusalem, and after that period was more distinguished 
by his institution of the Festival of the Body of Christ, 
than by any other circumstance in the course of his reign. 

served, thai this branch of history stands yet in need of farther illustration. 

c See the Hist. Maj. of Matthew Paris, ad annum 1254. 

frtf-J These preliminary conditions were, 1st, That the emperor should 
give up entirely to tue church the inheritance which was left to it by Ma- 
tilda; and, 2uly, That he would oblige himself to submit to whalevet 
terms the pope should think fit to propose, as conditions of peace. 

e This assembly is placed in the list of cccumenical or genual coun- 
cils ; but it is not acknowledged as such by the Gailican church. 

'Besid» the writers already mentioned, see Nicol. de Curbio, Vit. In- 
nooentii IV. in P.aluzii Miscellan. torn. vii. 

e See Murat. Diss, de Guelph. et Guibel. in his Ant. Ital. mcd.JEv. uiv. 



306 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



He had. indeed, formed several important projects ; but 
their execution was prevented by his death, which hap- 
pened in 1264, after a short reign of three years. His 
successor, Guy Fulcodi, or Clement IV. a native of France, 
and bishop of Sabino, who was raised to the see of Rome 
in 1265, did not enjoy much longer that high dignity. 
His name, however, makes a greater figure in history, 
and was rendered famous in many respects, and more 
especially by his conferring of the kingdom of Naples 
upon Charles of Anjou. brother to Louis IX. king of 
France. The consequences of this donation, and the 
melancholy fate of Conraciin, the last descendant of 
Frederic II., (who, after an unfortunate battle fought 
against Charles, was publicly beheaded by the barbarous 
victor, if not by the counsel, yet certainly with the consent, 
of the Roman pontiff,) are w 7 ell known to such as have 
the smallest acquaintance with the history of these 
unhappy times. 

XIII. Upon the death of Clement IV. , a there arose 
warm and vehement contests among the cardinals con- 
cerning the election of a new pontiff. These debates, 
which kept the Roman see vacant during the space of 
almost three years, were at length terminated in favour of 
Theobald, a native of Placentia, and archbishop of Liege, 
who was raised to the pontificate in 1271, and assumed 
the title of Gregory X. b This devout ecclesiastic was in 
the Holy Land when he received the news of his election ; 
and, as he had been an eye-witness of the miserable con- 
dition of the Christians in that country, he had nothing 
so much at heart, as the desire of contributing to their 
relief. Hence it was, that, immediately after his consecra- 
tion, he summoned a council at Lyons, in 1274, in which 
the relief and maintenance of the Christians in Palestine, 
and the re-union of the Greek and Latin churches, were 
the tw r o points that were to come principally under 
deliberation. This assembly is acknowledged as the 
fourteenth general council, and is rendered particularly 
remarkable by the new regulations that were introduced 
into the manner of electing the Roman pontiff, and more 
especially by the famous law, which is still in force, and 
by which it was enacted, that the cardinal electors should 
be shut up in the conclave during the vacancy of the 
pontificate. With respect to the character and sentiments 
of the new pope we shall only observe, that, though he 
seemed to be actuated by a milder spirit than many of his 
predecessors, he inculcated, without the least hesitation, 
the odious maxim of Gregory VII., which declared the 
bishop of Rome lord of the world, and, in a more particular 
manner, of the Roman empire. It was in consequence 
of this presumptuous system, that, in 1271, he wrote an 
imperious and threatening letter to the German princes; 
in which, deaf to the pretensions and remonstrances of 
Alphonso, king of Castiky he ordered them to elect an 
emperor without delay, assuring them, that, if they did 
not do it immediately, he would do it for them. This 
letter produced the intended effect ; an electoral diet was as- 



" Which happened in November, 1268. 

b For records of this election, see Wadding, Annal. Minor, t. iv. p. 330. 

I jT e Alphonso, king of Castile, had been elected emperor in 1256, by 
the archbishop of Treves, the duke of Saxony, the margrave of Bran- 
denburg, and the king of Bohemia, in opposition to Richard, earl of 
Cornwall, who was at the same time raised to the same dignity by the 
archbishops of Mentr. and Cologne, the count Palatine of the Ithh -., 
arid the duke of Bnvuria. 



sembled at Franckfort, and Rodolphus, count of Hapsburg, 
was raised to the imperial throne. 

XIV. Gregory X. was succeeded, in 1276, by Peter of 
Tarentaise, of the Dominican order, and bishop of Ostia, 
who assumed the name of Innocent V., and died about 
four months after his election. Ottoboni, a native of 
Genoa, and cardinal of St. Adrian, was chosen in his 
place, took the title of Adrian V., d and, after having ruled 

I the church during five weeks, was succeeded by Peter 
, Julian, bishop of Tusculum, who enjoyed that high 
'dignity about eight months, and is distinguished in the 
papal list by the name of John XXI.' The see of Rome 
continued vacant for about six months after the death of 
the last-mentioned pontiff, but was at length filled, in 
November, 1277, by John Caietan, of the family of Ursini, 
cardinal of St. Nicolas, whose name he adopted for his 
papal title. This famous pontiff (as has been already 
observed) augmented greatly both the opulence and 
authority of the bishops of Rome, and had formed vast 
projects, which his undaunted courage and his remarkable 
activity would have enabled him, in all probability, to 
execute with success, had not death blasted his hopes, and 
disconcerted his ambitious schemes. 

XV. He was succeeded, in 1281, about six months 
after his departure from this life, by Simon de Brie, who 
adopted the name of Martin IV., and was not inferior to 
Nicolas III. in ambition, arrogance, and constancy of 
mind, of which he gave several proofs during his pontifi- 
cate. Michael Palseologus, the Grecian emperor, was one 

I of the first princes whom this audacious priest solemnly 
i excommunicated ; and the pretext was, that he had 
! broken the peace concluded between the Greek and Latin 
Churches, at the council of Lyons/ The same insult was 
committed against Peter, king of Arragon, whom Martin 
not only excluded from the bosom of the church, but also 
deposed from his throne, on account of his attempt upon 
Sicily, and made a grant of his kingdom, fiefs, and posses- 
sions, to Charles, son of Philip the Bold,s king of 
France. It was during the execution of such daring 
enterprises as these, and while he was meditating still 
greater things for the glory of the Roman hierarchy, 
that a sudden death, in 1285, obliged him to leave 
his schemes unfinished. They were, however, prosecu- 
ted with great spirit by his successor, James Savelli, who 
chose the denomination of Honorius IV., but was also 
stopped short in the midst of his career, in 1287, 
having ruled the church only two years. Jerome d Ascoli, 
bishop of Palestrina, who was raised to the pontificate in 
1288, and is known by the denomination of Nicolas IV., 
distinguished himself, during the four years that he re- 
mained at the head of the church, by his assiduous 
application both to ecclesiastical and political affairs. 
Sometimes we see the disputes of sovereign powers left to 
his arbitration, and terminated by his decision ; at other 
times, we find him maintaining the pretensions and 
privileges of the church with the most resolute zeal and 

fj» J We read, in the Latin, Adrian VI., which is more probably an 
error of the press, than a fault of the author. 

fj- • In the original, Dr. Mosheim observes, that these three succes- 
sors of Gregory were elected and carried off by death in 127G ; but here 
he has fallen into a slight mistake; for John XXI. died on the 16th 
of May, 1277. 

' This council had been holden under the pontificate of Gregory X. 

* Philippe le Hardi, as he is called ly the French. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS. CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



307 



the most obstinate perseverance ; and occasionally we see 
him employing, with the utmost assiduity, every probable 
method of propagating the Gospel among the Tartars and 
other eastern nations. But the object, which, of all others, 
occupied most the thoughts of this vigilant and zealous 
pontiff, was the desperate state of the Christians in Pales- 
tine, who were now reduced to an extremity of misery 
and weakness. His laborious efforts were therefore 
employed for the restoration of their former grandeur ; 
they were however employed in vain ; and his death, 
which happened in 1292, disconcerted all the projects he 
had formed for that purpose. 

XVI. The death of this pontiff was followed by a va- 
cancy of two years in the see of Rome, in consequence 
of the disputes which arose among the cardinals about 
the election of a new pope. These disputes were at length 
terminated, and the contending parties united their suffra- 
ges in favour of Peter, surnamed De Murrone, from a 
mountain where he had hitherto lived in the deepest so- 
litude, and with the utmost austerity. This venerable old 
man, who was in high renown on account of the remark- 
able sanctity of his life and conversation, was raised to the 
pontificate, in 1294, and assumed the name of Celestine V. 
But the austerity of his manners, being a tacit reproach 
upon the corruption of the Roman court, and more espe- 
cially upon the luxury of the cardinals, rendered him ex- 
tremely disagreeable to a degenerate and licentious clergy ; 
and this dislike was so heightened by the whole course of 
his administration, (which showed that he had more at 
heart the reformation and purity of the church, than the 
increase of its opulence and the propagation of its autho- 
rity,) that he was almost universally considered as un- 
worthy of the pontificate. Hence it was, that several of 
the cardinals, and particularly Benedict Caietan, advised 
him to abdicate the papacy, which he had accepted with 
such reluctance; and they had the pleasure of seeing their 
advice followed with the utmost docility. The good man 
resigned his dignity in the fourth month after his election, 
and died in 1296, in the castle of Fumone, where his ty- 
rannic and suspicious successor kept him in captivity, that 
lie might not be engaged, by the solicitations of his friends, 
to attempt the recovery of his abdicated honours. His me- 
mory was precious to the virtuous part of the church, 
and he was elevated to the rank of a saint by Clement V. 
It was from him that the branch of the Benedictine order, 
called Celestines, yet subsisting in France and Italy, deri- 
ved its origin. 1 

XVII. Benedict Caietan, who had persuaded the good 
pontiff now mentioned to resign his place, succeeded him 
in it, in 1294, with the name of Boniface VIII. We may 
say, with truth, of this unworthy prelate, that he was born 
to be a plague both to church and state, a disturber of the 
repose of nations, and that his attempts to extend and 
confirm the despotism of the Roman pontiffs, were carried 
to a length that approached to phrensy. As soon as he 
entered upon his new dignity, he claimed a supreme and 
irresistible dominion over all the powers of the earth, both 
spiritual and temporal, terrified kingdoms and empires 

• Helyot, Histoire des Ordres, torn. vi. p. 180. 

|5" b The reasons which they allege for disputing the title of Boni- 
face to the pontificate were, that the resignation of Celestine was not ca- 
nonical, and that it was brought about by fraudulent means. 

c There is a history of this pontiff written by Jo. Rubens, a Benedic- 
tine monk, whose work, which is entided Bonifacius VIII. e Familia 



with the thunder of his bulls, called princes and sove- 
reign states before his tribunal to decide their quarrels, aug- 
mented the papal jurisprudence with a new body of laws, 
entitled the Sixth Book of the Decretals, declared war 
against the illustrious family of Colonna, who disputed 
his title to the pontificate ; b in a word, exhibited to the 
church, and to Europe, a lively image of the tyrannical ad- 
ministration of Gregory VII., whom he perhaps surpassed 
in arrogance. This was the pontiff who, in 1300, insti- 
tuted the famous jubilee, which, since that time, has been 
regularly celebrated in the Roman church at fixed periods. 
But the consideration of this institution, which was so fa- 
vourable to the progress of licentiousness and corruption, 
as also the other exploits of Boniface, and his deplorable 
end, belong to the history of the following century. d 

XVIII. In the Lateral! council that was holden in 1215, 
a decree had passed, by the advice of Innocent III., to 
prevent the introduction of new religions, by which were 
meant new monastic institutions. This decree, however, 
seemed to be very little respected, either by that pontiff or 
his successors, since several religious orders, hitherto un- 
known in the Christian world, were not only tolerated, 
but were distinguished by peculiar marks of approbation 
and favour, and enriched with various privileges and pre- 
rogatives. Nor will this tacit abrogation of the decree of 
Innocent appear at all surprising to such as consider the 
state of the church in this century; for, not to mention 
many enormities that contributed to the suspension of this 
decree, we shall only observe, that the enemies of Chris- 
tianity, and the heretical sects, increased daily every where ; 
and, on the other hand, the secular clergy were more at- 
tentive to their worldly advantages than to the interests of 
the church, and spent in mirth and jollity the opulence 
with which the piety of their ancestors had enriched that 
sacred body. The monastic orders also had almost all 
degenerated from their primitive sanctity, and, exhibiting 
the most offensive examples of licentiousness and vice to 
public view, rendered by their flagitious lives the cause of 
heresy triumphant, instead of retarding its progress. All 
these things being considered, it was thought necessary 
to encourage the establishment of new monastic societies, 
who, by the sanctity of their manners, might attract the 
esteem and veneration of the people, and diminish the in- 
dignation which the tyranny and ambition of the pontiffs 
had so generally excited ; and who, by their diligence and 
address, their discourses and their arguments, their power 
and arms, when these violent means were required, might 
discover, persecute, convert and vanquish, the growing 
tribe of heretics. 

XIX. Of the religious societies that arose in this cen- 
tury, some are now entirely suppressed, while others con- 
tinue to flourish, and are in high repute. Among the 
former Ave may reckon the Hicniiliati^ (a title expressive 
of great humility and self-abasement.) whose origin may 

i be traced to a much earlier period than the present cen- 
j tury, though their order was confirmed and new-modelled 
j by Innocent III., who subjected it to the rule of St. Bene- 
; diet. These humble monks became so shocking] v licen- 

Caietanorum principum Romanus pontiles, was published at Rome in 

the year 1651. 

d In this account of the popes, I have chiefly followed Daniel Pape- 
! brodi, Francis Pagi. and Muratori, in his Annates Italix, consulting nl 
j the same time the original sources collected by the last mentioned author 
| iii his Rerum Italicarum Scriptores. 



308 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 11. 



tious in process of time, that, in 1571, pope Pius V. was 
obliged to dissolve their society. 1 We may also place, in 
thelist of suppressed fraternities, the Jacobins, who were 
erected into a religious order by Innocent III., b and who, 
in this very century, not long after the council of Lyons, 
were deprived of their charter ; and also the Valli-Scho- 
lares, or Scholars of the Valley, so called from their being 
instituted by the scholares, i. e. the four professors of divi- 
nity in the university of Paris, and from a deep vale in 
the province of Champagne, in which they assembled 
and fixed their residence in 1234.° This society, whose 
foundation was laid about the commencement of this cen- 
tury, was formerly governed by the rule of St. Augus- 
tin, but is now incorporated into the order of the Regular 
Canons of St. Genevieve. To the same class we may 
refer the order of the blessed Virgin Mary the mother of 
Christ, which had its commencement in 1266, and was 
suppressed in 1274 ; d the Knights of Faith and Charity, 
who undertook to disperse the bands of robbers that in- 
fested the public roads in France, and who were favoured 
with the peculiar protection and approbation of Gregory 
IX ;• the Hermits of St. William, duke of Aquitaine ; f not 
to mention the Brethren of the Sack, the Bethlehemites, 
and some orders of inferior note, that started up in this 
century, which, of all others, was the most remarkable for 
the number and variety of monastic establishments, that 
date their origin from it.e 

XX. Among the convents that were founded in this 
century, and still subsist, the principal place is due to that 
of the Servites, i. e. the Servants of the blessed Virgin, 
whose order was first instituted, A. D. 1233, in Tuscany, 
by seven Florentine merchants, and afterwards made a 
great progress under the government of Philip Benizi, its 
chief. This order, though subjected to the rule of St. Au- 
gustin, was erected in commemoration of the most holy 
widowhood of the blessed Virgin ; for which reason its 
monks wear a black habit, h and observe several rules un- 
known to other monasteries. The prodigious number of 
Christians, that were made prisoners by the Mohamme- 
dans in Palestine, gave rise, toward the conclusion of the 
12th century, to the institution of the order named the 
Fraternity of the Trinity, which, in the following age, re- 
ceived a still greater degree of stability, under the ponti- 
ficate of Honorius III. and also of Clement IV. The 
founders of this institution were John de Math a and Felix 
de Valois, two pious men who led an austere and solitary 
life at Cerfroy, in the diocese of Meaux. The monks of 
this society are called the Brethren of the Holy Trinity, 
because all their churches are solemnly dedicated to that 
profound mystery ; they are also styled Mathurins, from 

» Helyot His.des Ord. t. vi. p. 152. •> Mat. Paris. His. Maj. p. 161. 

c Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 15. — Acta Sanct. Mens. Feb- 
ruar. torn. ii. p. 482. 

<i Dion. Sammarthani Gallia Christiana, torn. i. p. 653. 

• Gallia Christ, torn. i. Append, p. 165. — Martenne, Voyage Liter, de 
deux Benedictins, torn. ii. 

f Jo. Bolandi de ordine Eremitar. S. Gulielmi Com. in actis SS. Feb- I 
ruar. torn. ii. p. 472. 

*Matth. Paris, Hist. Major, p. 815, edit. Walts, where, speaking of 
the prodigious number of convents, founded in England during this cen- 
tury, he expresseth himself thus : " Tot jam apparuerunt ordines in An- 
glia, ut ordinum confusio videretur inordinata." 

i> Beside the ordinary writers of monastic history, see Pauli Floren- 
tine Dialog, de Origine Ordinis Servorum, in Lamii Delic. Eruditorum, 
torn. i. pag. 1—48. 

g^T' Broughton and some other writers make a distinction between 
the Order of the Redemption of Captives, and the Fraternity of the Holy 



having a monastery at Paris, erected in a place where is 
a chapel consecrated to St. Mathurin, and Brethren of the 
Redemption of Captives,' because the grand design of their 
institution was to find out means for restoring liberty to 
the Christian captives in the Holy Land, in which cha- 
ritable work they were obliged to employ a third part of 
their revenue. Their manner of life was, at first, extremely 
abstemious and austere ; but its austerity has been from 
time to time considerably mitigated by the indulgence and 
lenity of the pontiffs. 11 

XXI. The religious society that surpassed all the rest 
in purity of manners, extent of fame, number of privileges, 
and multitude of members, was that of the Mendicant or 
begging friars, whose order was first established in this 
century, and who, by the tenour of their institution, were 
to remain entirely destitute of all fixed revenues and 
possessions. The present state and circumstances of the 
church rendered the establishment of such an order 
absolutely necessary. The monastic orders, who wallow- 
ed in opulence, were, by the corrupting influence of their 
ample possessions, lulled in a luxurious indolence. They 
lost sight of all their religious obligations, trampled upon 
the authority of their superiors, suffered heresy to triumph 
unrestrained, and the sectaries to form various assemblies ; 
in short, they were incapable of promoting the true 
interests of the church, and abandoned themselves, without 
either shame or remorse, to all sorts of crimes. On the 
other hand, the enemies of the church, the sects which 
had left its communion, followed certain austere rules oi 
life and conduct, which formed a strong contrast between 
them and the religious orders, and contributed to render 
the licentiousness of the latter still more offensive and 
shocking to the people. These sects maintained, that 
voluntary poverty was the leading and essential quality 
in a servant of Christ ; obliged their doctors to imitate the 
simplicity of the apostles ; reproached the church with its 
overgrown opulence, and the vices and corruptions of the 
clergy, that flowed thence as from their natural source ; 
and, by their commendation of poverty and contempt of 
riches, acquired a high degree of respect, and gained a 
prodigious ascendency over the minds of the multitude. 
All this rendered it absolutely necessary to introduce into 
the church a set of men, who, by the austerity of their 
manners, their contempt of riches, and the external 
gravity and sanctity of their conduct and maxims, might 
resemble those doctors who had gained such reputation to 
the heretical sects, and who might rise so far above the 
allurements of worldly profit and pleasure, as not to be 
seduced, by the promises or threats of kings and princes, 
from the performance of the duties which they owed to 

Trinity. They allege, that the latter order was instituted at Rome by 
St. Philip Neri, in 1549, about 350 years after the first establishment of 
the former; and that the monks who composed it, were obliged by their 
vow to take care of the pilgrims who resorted from all parts of the world 
to Rome, to visit the tombs of St. Peter and St. Paul. 

i Beside Helyot and the other writers of monastic history, see Touis- 
saint de Plessis, Hist de l'Eglise de Meaux, torn. i. p. 172, and 566. Bou- 
lay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. ii. p. 523. Ant. Wood, Antiq. Oxon. torn. i. 
p. 133. In the ancient records, this society is frequently styled the Or- 
der of Asses, on account of the prohibition of the use of horses, which 
made apart of their rule, and which obliged the mendicant monks to ride 
upon asses. See Car. du Fresne's Notes upon Joinville's Life of St. 
Louis, p. 81. But at present, through the indulgence of the Roman pon- 
tiffs, they are permitted to make use of horses when they find them neces- 
sary. An order of the same kind was instituted in Spain, in 122S. by 
Paul Nolasco, under the title of the Order of St. Mary, for the Redcmp. 
tion of Captives. See the Acta Sanctorum, Jaivuar. torn. ii. p. 980. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



309 



the church, or from persevering in their subordination to 
the Roman pontiffs. Innocent III. was the first of the 
popes who perceived the necessity of instituting such an 
order ; and accordingly he treated such monastic societies 
as made a profession of poverty, with the most distinguish- 
ing marks of his protection and favour. These associa- 
tions were also encouraged and patronised by the succeed- 
ing pontiffs, when experience had demonstrated their 
public and extensive utility. But when it became gene- 
rally known, that they had such a peculiar place in the 
esteem and protection of the rulers of the church, their 
number grew to such an enormous and unwieldy multi- 
tude, and swarmed so prodigiously in all the European 
provinces, that they became a burthen, not only to the 
people, but to the church itself. 

XXII. The great inconvenience that arose from the 
excessive multiplication of the mendicant orders, was 
remedied by Gregory X., in 1272, in a general council 
which he assembled at Lyons ; for here all the religious 
orders, that had sprung up after the council holden at 
Rome in 1215, under the pontificate of Innocent III., were 
suppressed, and the "extravagant multitude of mendi- 
cants," as Gregory called them, were reduced to a smaller 
number, and confined to the four following societies, or 
denominations, viz. the Dominicans, the Franciscans, the 
Carmelites, and the Hermits of St. Augustin. 1 The 
Carmelite order, which had been instituted in Palestine 
during the preceding century, was, in this, transplanted 
into Europe, and, in 1226, was favoured by pope Hono- 
rius III. with a place among the monastic societies, which 
enjoyed the protection and approbation of the church. 
The Hermits of St. Augustin had for their founder 
Alexander IV., b who, observing that the hermits were 
divided into several societies, some of which followed the 
maxims of the famous William, others the rule of St. 
Augustin, while others again were distinguished by diffe- 
rent denominations, formed the judicious project of uniting 
them all into one religious order, and subjecting them to 
the same rule of discipline, even that which bears the 
name of St. Augustin. This project was put in execution 
in the year 1256. 

XXIII. As the pontiffs allowed to these four Mendicant 
orders the liberty of travelling wherever they thought 
proper, of conversing with persons of all ranks, of instruct- 
ing the youth and the multitude wherever they went ; — 
and as these monks exhibited, in their outward appearance 
and manner of life, more striking marks of gravity and 
holiness, than were observable in the other monastic 
societies, — they arose as it were at once to the very summit 
of fame, and were regarded with the utmost esteem and 
veneration in all the countries of Europe. The enthusi- 
astic attachment to these sanctimonious beggars w r ent so 
far, that, as we learn from the most authentic records, 
several cities were divided, or cantoned out, into four parts, 
with a view to these four orders ; the first part was assigned 
to the Dominicans, the second to the Franciscans, the 
third to the Carmelites, and the fourth to the Augustinians. 
The people were unwilling to receive the sacraments from 
any other hands than those of the Mendicants, to whose 

• Concil. Lugd. II. A. 1274. Can. xxiii. in Jo. Harduini Conciliis, torn, 
vii. p. 715. " Importuna peientium inhiatio Religionum (so were the re- 
ligious orders entitled) multipiicationem extorsit, return etiam aliquorum 
prajsumptuosa temeritas diversorum ordinum, pnecipue mendicantium 

. . efFraenatam multitudinem adinvenit . . . Hinc ordines Mendicantes 

No. XXVI. 78 



churches they crowded to perform their devotions, while 
living, and were extremely desirous to deposit there also 
their remains after death ; all which occasioned grievous 
complaints among the ordinary priests, who, being entrust- 
ed with the cure of souls, considered themselves as the 
spiritual guides of the multitude. Nor did the influence 
and credit of the Mendicants end here ; for we find in the 
history of this and of the succeeding ages, that they were 
employed, not only in spiritual concerns, but also in 
temporal and political affairs of the greatest consequence, 
in composing the differences of princes, concluding trea- 
ties of peace, concerting alliances, presiding in cabinet- 
councils, governing courts, levying taxes, and in ether 
occupations, not merely remote from, but absolutely in- 
consistent with, the monastic character and profession. 

XXIV. We must not however imagine, that all the 
Mendicant friars attained the same degree of reputation 
and authority ; for the power of the Dominicans and 
Franciscans surpassed greatly that of the other two orders, 
and rendered them remarkably conspicuous in the eyes of 
the world. During three centuries, these two fraternities 
governed, with an almost universal and absolute sway, 
both state and church, filled the highest posts ecclesiastical 
and civil, taught in the universities and churches with an 
authority before which all opposition was silent, and 
maintained the pretended majesty and prerogatives of the 
Roman pontiffs against kings, princes, bishops, and here- 
tics, with incredible ardour and equal success. The Domi- 
nicans and Franciscans were, before the Reformation, 
what the Jesuits became after that happy and glorious 
event, — the very soul of the hierarchy, the engines of the 
state, the secret springs of all the motions of both, and 
the authors or directors of every great and important 
event both in the religious and political world. Dominic, 
a Spaniard by birth, a native of Calaroga, descendant of 
the illustrious house of Guzman, and regular canon of 
Osma, a man of a fiery and impetuous temper, and 
vehemently exasperated by the commotions and contests 
which the heretics of different denominations had excited 
in the church, set out for France with a few companions, 
in order to combat the sectaries who had multiplied in 
that kingdom. This enterprise he executed with the 
greatest vigour, and, we may add, fury, attacking the 
Albigenses and the other enemies of the church with the 
power of eloquence, the force of arms, the subtlety of 
controversial writings, and the terrors of the inquisition, 
which owed its form to this violent and sanguinary priest. 
Passing thence into Italy, he was honoured by the Roman 
pontiffs Innocent III. and Honorius III. with the most 
distinguished marks of their protection and favour ; and, 
after many labours in the cause of the church, obtained 
from them the privilege of erecting a new fraternity, 
whose principal objects were the extirpation of error and 
the destruction of heretics. The first rule which he 
adopted for this society was that of the Canons of St. 
Augustin, to which he added several austere precepts and 
observances. But he afterwards changed the discipline of 
the canons for that of the monks ; and, holding a chapter 
of the order at Bologna in 1220, he obliged the brethren 

post dictum concilium (i. e. the Lateran council of 1215) adinventos . . . 
perpetual prohibitioni subjicimus." 

>> This edict of pope Alexander IV. is to be found in the Bullarium 
Rornnnum. torn. i. p. 110. — See also Acta Sanctor Mens. Feb. torn, iu 
p. 472. 



310 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



to take a vow of absolute poverty, and to abandon all 
their revenues and possessions. He did not live long 
enough .o see the consequences of this reformation ; for 
he died in the following year at Bologna. a His monks 
were, at first, distinguished by the denomination of preach- 
ing friars, because public instruction was the main end 
of their institution ; but, in honour of him, they were 
afterwards called Dominicans. b [113 s Just before his death, 
Dominic sent Gilbert de Fresnoy with twelve of the 
brethren into England, where they founded their first 
monastery at Oxford, in 1221, and, soon after, another at 
London. In 1276, the mayor and aldermen of London 
gave them two whole streets near the river Thames, 
where they erected a very commodious convent, whence 
that place still bears the name of Black-Friars ; for so the 
Dominicans were called in England.] 

XXV. Francis, the founder of the celebrated order that 
bears his name, was the son of a merchant of Assisi,- in 
the proWnce of Umbria, and led, in his youth, a most 
debauched and dissolute life. Upon his recovery from a 
severe fit of sickness, which was the consequence and 
punishment of his licentious conduct, he changed his 
method of living, and, as extremes are natural to men of 
warm imaginations, fell into an extravagant kind of de- 
votion, that looked less like religion than alienation of 
mind. Some time after this, c he happened to be in a 
church, where he heard that passage of the Scripture 
repeated, in which Christ addresses his apostles in the 
following manner : " Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor 
brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither 
two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves ; for the workman 
is worthy of his meat." d This produced a powerful effect 
upon his mind, made him consider a voluntary and abso- 
lute poverty as the essence of the Gospel and the soul of 
-eligion, and prescribe this poverty as a sacred rule both 

himself and to the few 7 who followed him. Such was 
the commencement of the famous Franciscan order, 
whose chief was undoubtedly a pious and well-meaning 
man, though grossly ignorant, and manifestly weakened 
in his intellect by the disorder from which he had recently 
recovered. Nevertheless the new society, which appeared 
to Innocent III. extremely adapted to the present state of 
the church, and proper to restore its declining credit, was 
solemnly approved and confirmed by Honorius III., in 

a See Jac. Echard and duetif in Scriptoribus Ord. Dominic, torn. i. p. 
84. — Acta Sanctor. April, torn. iii. p. 872. — Nicol. Jansenii Vita S. Do- 
minici. Add to these the long list of writers mentioned by Fabricius, in 
his Bibliotheca Lat. med. iEvi, torn. ii. p. 137. and also Antomi Bre- 
mondi Bullarium Ordinis Dominicani. 

b The Dominicans are called Fratres Majores in several of the an- 
cient records : see Ant. Matlhaei Analecta vet. iEvi. t. ii. p. 172. This 
appellation, however, by which the Dominicans were set in opposition 
to the Franciscans, who called themselves Fratres Minores, was rather 
a term of derision than a real name. — In France the Dominicans were 
called Jacobins, from the Rue de St. Jaques, where 'their first convent 
was erected at Paris. c In 1208. d Matthew x. 9, 10. 

• They were called Fratricelli by the Italians, Freres Mineurs by 
the French, and Fratres Minores by the Latin writers. 

i Bonaventura wrote a life of St. Francis, which has passed through 
several editions. But the most ample and circumstantial accounts of this 
extraordinary man are given by Luke Wadding, in the first volume of 
his Annal. Ord. Min. a work which contains a complete history of the 
Franciscan order, confirmed by a great number of authentic records, and 
the best edition of which is that published at Rome in 1731, and the fol- 
lowing years, in eighteen volumes in folio, by Joseph Maria Fonseca ab 
Ebora. It is to the same Wadding that we are obliged for the Opuscula 
Sti. Francisci, and the Bibliotheca Ordinis Minorum, the former of 
which appeared at Antwerp in 1G23, and the latter at Rome in 1650. 
l'he other writers, who have given accounts of the Franciscan order, 



1223, and had already made a considerable progress when 
its devout founder, in 1226, was called from this life. 
Francis, through an excessive humility, would not suffer 
the monks of his order to be called Fratres, i. e. brethren 
or friars, but Fraterculi, i. e. little brethren or friars 
minors, c by which denomination they continue to be dis- 
tinguished/ [rO 3 The Franciscans came into England 
in the reign of Henry III., and their first establishment 
was at. Canterbury.] 

XXVI. These two orders restored the church from that 
declining condition in which it had been languishing for 
many years, by the zeal and activity with which they 
set themselves to discover and extirpate heretics, to under- 
take various negotiations and embassies for the interest of 
the hierarchy, and to confirm the wavering multitude in 
an implicit obedience to the Roman pontiffs. These 
spiritual rulers, on the other hand, sensible of their obliga- 
tions to the new monks, which, no doubt, were very great, 
not only engaged them in the most important affairs, and 
raised them to the most eminent stations in the church, 
but also accumulated upon them employments and 
privileges, which, if they enriched them on the one hand, 
could not fail to render them odious on the other,* and to 
excite the envy and complaints of other ecclesiastics. 
Such (among many other extraordinary prerogatives) was 
the permission they received from the pontiffs, of preach- 
ing to the multitude, hearing confessions, and pronouncing 
absolution, without any license from the bishops, and 
even without consulting them ; to which Ave may add the 
treasure of ample and extensive indulgences, whose dis- 
tribution was committed by the popes to the Franciscans, 
as a means of subsistence, and a rich indemnification for 
their voluntary poverty. 11 These acts of liberality and 
marks of protection, lavished upon the Dominican and 
Franciscan friars with such an ill-judged profusion, as 
they overturned the ancient discipline of the church, and 
were a manifest encroachment upon the rights of the first 
and second orders of the ecclesiastical rulers, produced the 
most unhappy and bitter dissensions between the Mendi- 
cant orders and the bishops. And these dissensions, 
extending their contagious influence beyond the limits of 
the church, excited in all the European provinces, and 
even in the city of Rome,* under the very eyes of the 
pontiffs, the most dreadful disturbances and tumults. 

arc mentioned by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Lat. medii iEvi, 
torn. ii. p. 573. 

1 The popes were so infatuated with the Franciscans, that those 
whom they could not employ more honourably in their civil negotiations 
or domestic affairs, they made their publicans, beadles, &c. See, for a 
confirmation of this, the following passages in the Histor. Major of Mat- 
thew Paris : ' Fratres Minores et Praedicatores (says he) invitos, ut cre- 
dimus, jam suos fecit dominus papa, non sine ordinis eorum lresione et 
scandalo, teloniarios et bedellos,' p. 634. — ' Npn cessavit papa pecuniam 
aggregare, faciens de Fratribus Praedicatoribus, et Minoribus, etiam in- 
vitis, non jam piscatoribus hominum, sed nummorum,' p. 639. — ' Erant 
Minores et Prasdicatores magnatum consiliatores et nuntii, etiam domini 
papae secretarii ; nimis in hoc gratiam sibi secularem comparantes ;' ad 
an. 1236, p. 354. — 'Facti sunt eo tempore Praedioatores et Minores regum 
consiliarii et nuntii speciales, ut sicut quondam mollibus induti in domi- 
bus regum erant, ita tunc qui vilibus vestiebantur in domibus, camens, 
etpalatiis essent principum ;' ad an. 1239, p. 465. 

h See Baluzii Miscellan. torn. iv. p. 490, torn. vii. p. 392.— It is well 
known, that no religious order had the distribution of so many and such 
ample indulgences as the Franciscans. Nor could these good friars 
live and multiply as they did, without some source of profit, since, by 
their institution, they were to be destitute of revenues and possessions of 
every kind. It was therefore in the place of fixed revenues, that such 
lucrative indulgences were put into their hands. 

i Baluzii Miscellan. torn. vii. p. 441. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



311 



The measures taken by the popes to appease these tumults 
were various, but ineffectual, because their principal view 
was to support the cause of their faithful servants and 
creatures, the Mendicant friars, and to maintain them in 
the possession of their honours and advantages. 1 

XXVII. Among all the controversies which were main- 
tained by the Mendicants, whether against the bishops, 
abbots, schools, or other religious orders, that was the most 
famous which arose in 122S, between the Dominicans and 
the university of Paris, and was prolonged, with various 
success, until the year 1259. The Dominicans claimed, 
as their unquestionable right, two theological classes in 
that celebrated university : one of these had been taken 
from them, and an academical law had passed, importing 
that no religious order should have what the Dominicans 
demanded. The latter, however, persisted obstinately in 
reclaiming the professorship they had lost ; while the 
doctors of the university, perceiving the restless and con- 
tentious spirit that animated their efforts, excluded them 
from their society, and formed themselves into a separate 
body. This measure was considered as a declaration of 
war ; and, accordingly, the most vehement commotions 
arose between the contending parties. The debate was 
brought before the tribunal of the Roman pontiff, in 1255; 
and the decision, as might have been expected, was in 
favour of the monks. Alexander IV. ordered the university 
of Paris not only to restore the Dominicans to their 
former place in that learned society, but moreover to make 
a grant to them of as many classes or professorships as 
they should think proper to demand. This unjust and 
despotic sentence was opposed by the university with the 
utmost vigour ; and thus the contest was renewed with 
double fury. But the magistrates of Paris were, at length, 
so terrified and overwhelmed with the thundering edicts 
and formidable mandates of the exasperated pontiff, that, 
in 1259. they yielded to superior force, and satisfied the 
demands not only of the Dominican, but also of the Fran- 
ciscan order, in obedience to the pope, and to the extent of 
his commands. 11 Hence arose that secret enmity and 
silent ill-will, wdiich prevailed so long between the uni- 
versity and the Mendicant orders, especially the Domini- 
cans. 

XXVin. In this famous debate none pleaded the 
cause of the university with greater spirit, or asserted its 
rights with greater zeal and activity, than Guillaume de 
St. Amour, doctor of the Sorbonne, a man of true genius, 
worthy to have lived in better times, and capable of adorn- 
ing a more enlightened age. This vigorous and able 
champion attacked the whole Mendicant tribe in various 
treatises with the greatest vehemence, and more especiallv 
in a book "concerning the perils of the latter times." 1 



*See Jo. Launoii Explicata Ecclesiae Traditio circa Canonem, Omnis 
utriusque Sexus, torn. i. part i. op. p. 247. — Rich. SLmon, Critique de la 
Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, par M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 326. 
— L'Enfant. Histoire du Concile de Pise, torn. i. p. 310, torn. ii. p. 8. — 
Ecliardi Scriptores Dominican i, torn. i. p. 404. The circumstances of 
these flaming contests are mentioned by all the writers, both of this and 
the following centuries. 

b See Cks. Egass. du Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. 138, 240, 
&c. — Jo. Cordesii, or (to mention him by the name he assumed) Jo. Ali- 
tophih Pnef. Histor. et Apologetica ad Opera Gulielmi de S. Amore. — 
Antoine Touron. Vie de S. Thomas, p. 134.— Wadding, Annal. Minor. 
torn. iii. p. 247, 366. torn. iv. p. 14, 52. 106, 263.— Matth. Paris, Histor. 
Major, ad an. 1223. — Nangis Chronicon, apud d'Acherii Spicilegium, 
torn. iii. p. 38. ' '2 Timothy, iii. 1. 

d The doctors of the university of Paris profess still a high respect for 
Ihe memory of St. Amour, esteem his book, and deny obstinately that he 



He boldly maintained, that their discipline was in direct 
opposition to the precepts of the Gospel; and that, in 
confirming and approving it, the popes had been guilty 
of temerity, and the church was become chaigeable with 
error. "What gave occasion to the remarkable title of this 
celebrated work, was the author's being entirely persuaded 
that the prophecy of St. Paul, relating to the " perilous 
times that were to come in the last days,' :c was fulfilled 
in the .establishment of the Mendicant friars. This 
notion St. Amour maintained in the warmest manner, 
and proved it. principally from the book called the Ever- 
lasting Gospel, which was publicly explained by the Do- 
minicans and Franciscans, and of which we shall have 
occasion to speak more fully hereafter. The fury and 
resentment of the Mendicants were therefore kindled in a 
peculiar manner against this formidable adversary, whom 
they persecuted without interruption, until, in 1256, the 
pope ordered his book to be publicly burned, and banished 
its author out of France, lest he should excite the Sorbonne 
to renew their opposition to these spiritual beggars. St. 
Amour submitted to the papal edict, and retired into hi? 
native province of Franche-Comte ; but, under the ponti- 
ficate of Clement IV., he returned to Paris, where he illus- 
trated the tenets of his famous book in a more extensive 
work, and died esteemed and regretted by all, except the 
Mendicants. d 

XXIX. While the pontiffs accumulated upon the 
Mendicants the most honourable distinctions, and the most 
valuable privileges which they had to bestow, they ex- 
posed them still more and more to the envy and hatred of 
the rest of the clergy ; and this hatred was considerably 
increased b) 7 the audacious arrogance that discovered it- 
self every where in the conduct of these supercilious 
orders. They had the presumption to declare publicly, 
that they had a divine impulse and commission to illus- 
trate and maintain the religion of Jesus ; they treated 
with the utmost insolence and contempt all ranks and 
orders of the priesthood ; they affirmed, without a blush, 
that the true method of obtaining salvation was revealed 
to them alone, proclaimed with ostentation the superior 
efficacy and virtue of their indulgences, and vaunted, 
beyond measure, their interests at the court of Heaven, 
and their familiar connexions with the Supreme Being, 
the Virgin Mary, and the saints in glory. By these 
impious wiles, they so deluded and captivated the misera- 
ble and blinded multitude, that they Avould not entrust 
any others but the Mendicants with the care of their souls, 
their spiritual and eternal coucerns. e We may give, as a 
specimen of these notorious frauds, the ridiculous fable, 
which the Carmelites impose upon the credulous, relating 
to Simon Stockius, the general of their order, who died 

was ever placed in the list of heretics. The Dominicans, on the con- 
trary, consider him as a heretic of the first magnitude, if we may use 
that expression. Such of his works as could be found were publishes 
in 1632, at Paris, (though the title bears Constantia:.) by Cordesius, 
who has introduced them by a long and learned preface, in which he de- 
fends the reputation and orthodoxy of St. Amour in a triumphant man- 
ner. This learned editor, to avoid the resentment and fury of the Men- 
dicants, concealed his real name, and assumed that of Jo. Alitophilus. 
This did not, however, save his book from the vengeance of these friars, 
who obtained from Louis XIII. in 1633, an edict for its suppression, 
which Touron, a Dominican friar, has published in his Vie de St. T/w- 
mas. — For a farther account of the life of this famous doctor, see Wad- 
ding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. p. 366. — Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn, 
iii. p. 266. — Nat. Alex. Hist. Eccles. saec. Xlll. cep. iii. art. vii. p. 95. — 
Rich. Simon, Critique de la Biblioth. Eccles. de M. Du-Pin, t i. p. 343. 
• See Matth. Paris, ad an. 1246, Histor. Maj. 



312 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part II 



about the beginning of this century. To this ecclesiastic, 
they tell us that the Virgin Mary appeared, and gave him 
a solemn promise, that the souls of such as left the world 
with the Carmelite cloak or scapulary upon their shoul- 
ders, should be infallibly preserved from eternal damna- 
tion." And here let it be observed to the astonishment 
of all, in whom the power of superstition has not extin- 
guished the plainest dictates of common sense, that this 
ridiculous and impious fiction found patrons and defen- 
ders even among the pontiffs." 

XXX. It is however certain, that the Mendicant or- 
ders, though they were considered as the main pillars of 
the hierarchy, and the principal supports of the papal au- 
thority, involved the pontiffs, after the death of Dominic 
and Francis, in many perplexities and troubles, which 
were no sooner dispelled, than they were unhappily re- 
newed ; and thus the church was often reduced to a state 
of imminent danger. These tumults and perplexities 
began with the contests between the Dominicans and 
Franciscans about pre-eminence, in which these humble 
monks mutually indulged themselves in the bitterest 
invectives and the severest accusations both in their wri- 
tings and their discourses, and opposed each other's inte- 
rests with all the fury of disappointed ambition. Many 
schemes were formed, and various measures were em- 
ployed, for terminating these scandalous dissensions ; but 
the root of the evil still remained, and the flame was 
rather covered than extinguished. Beside this, the Fran- 
ciscans were early divided among themselves, and split 
into several factions, which gathered strength and consis- 
tence from day to day, and not only disturbed the tran- 
quillity of the church, but struck at the supreme jurisdiction 
and prerogatives of the Roman pontiffs. And whoever 
considers with attention the series of events that happened 
""n the Latin church from this remarkable period, will be 

ally convinced that the Mendicant orders (whether 
through imprudence or design we shall not determine) 
gave some very severe blows to the authority of the church 
of Rome, and excited in the minds of the people those 
ardent desires of a reformation, which produced, in after- 
times, such substantial and such glorious effects. 

XXXI. The occasion of these intestine divisions among 
the Franciscans, was a dispute about the precise mean- 
ing of their rule. Their founder and chief had made 
absolute poverty one of their indispensable obligations. 
The religious orders before his time were so constituted, 
that, though no single monk had any personal property, 
the whole community, considered as one collective body, 
had possessions and revenues, from which every member 
drew the means of his subsistence. But the austere chief 
of the Franciscans absolutely prohibited both separate 
and collective property to the monks of his order, not 
permitting either the individual or the community to pos- 

• See Jo. Launoii Lib. de Viso Stockii, oper. torn. ii. part ii. p. 379. — 
Aria Sanctor. torn. iii. Mensis Mail ad diem xvi. — Theoph. Rainaudi 
Scapulare Marianum, torn. vii. op. p. 614. 

b Benedict XIV., notwithstanding his pretended freedom from super- 
stition and priestly fraud, deigned to appear among the supporters of this 
gross fiction, though he defeiided it with his usual air of prudence and 
jimidity, in his book de Festis B. Maiiae Virg. lib. ii. cap. vi. p. 472, t. 
X. op. edit. Rom. 

« See the Alcoran des Cordeliers, torn. i. p. 256, 266, &c. Luc. Wad- 
ding, Annales Minor, torn, iii; p. 380. 

d The words of the rule itself relating to this point are as follow : 
'Fratres sibi nihil approprient, nee domum, nee locum, nee aliquam rem 



sess funds, revenues, or any worldly goods. d This in- 
junction appeared so severe to several of the friars-minors, 
that they took the liberty to dispense with it as soon as 
their founder was dead ; and in this they were seconded 
by pope Gregory IX., who, in 1231 , published an inter- 
pretation of this rule, which considerably mitigated its 
excessive rigour. e But this mitigation was far from being 
agreeable to all the Franciscans ; it shocked the austere 
monks of that order, those particularly who were called 
the Spirituals,' whose melancholy temper rendered them 
fond of every thing harsh and gloomy, and whose 
fanatical spirit hurried them always into extremes. 
Hence arose a warm debate, which Innocent IV. decided, 
in 1245, in favour of those who were inclined to mitigate 
the severity of the rule in question. By his decree it was 
enacted, that the Franciscan friars should be permitted to 
possess certain places, habitations, chattels, books, &c. 
and to make use of them, but that the property of all 
these things should reside in St. Peter or the Roman 
church; so that without the pope's consent they might 
neither be sold, bartered, nor transferred, under any pre- 
text whatever. This edict was considered by the gloomy 
part of the order as a most pernicious depravation of their 
holy rule, and was, consequently, opposed and rejected by 
them with indignation. Hence many of these spiritual 
malcontents retired into the woods and deserts, while others 
were apprehended by Crescentius, the general of the so- 
ciety, and sent into exiled 

XXXII. A change, however, arose in their favour, in 
1247, when John of Parma was chosen general of the 
order. This famous ecclesiastic, who was zealously at- 
tached to the sentiments of the spiritual members, recalled 
them from their exile, and inculcated upon all his monks 
a strict and unlimited obedience to the very letter of the 
rule that had been drawn up by St. Francis. h By this 
reform, he brought b?ck the order to its primitive state ; 
and the only reward he obtained for his zealous labours, 
was to be accused as a rebellious heretic at the tribunal of 
pope Alexander IV., in consequence of which he was 
obliged to resign his post. He had also the mortification 
to see the monks who adhered to his sentiments thrown 
into prison, which unhappy lot he himself escaped with 
great difficulty. 1 His successor, the famous Bonaventura, 
who was one of the most eminent scholastic divines of 
this century, proposed steering a middle course between 
the contending factions, having nothing so much at heart 
as to prevent an open schism. Nevertheless, the measures 
he took to reconcile the jarring parties, and to maintain a 
spirit of union in the order, were not attended with the 
degree of success which he expected from them ; nor 
w T ere they sufficient to hinder the less austere part of the 
Franciscans from soliciting and obtaining, in 1257, from 
Alexander IV. a solemn renewal of the mild interpretation 



sed, sicut peregr'tii et advenas in hoc saeculo, in paupertate et humilitate 
famulantes Domino, vaoant pro eleemosyna confidenter . . . . (i. e. let 

them be sturdy beggars) Haic est ilia celsitudo aitissim« pavi- 

pertatis qu» vos c urrisirnos meos fratres ha;redes et rcges regni crelorum 
instituit." 

e The bull was puoAsned by Emmanuel Roderic in his Collectio Pri- 
vilegiorum regularium Mendicantium, et non Mendicantium, torn. i. 

fLuc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. p. 99: they -were also called 
Zelatores, and Casarians from 'heir chief Caesarius. 

e Luc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. iv. 

i> Luc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iii. 

i Wadding, torn. iv. • . 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



313 



which Innocent IV. had given of the rule of their founder." 
On the otiier hand, those who adhered to the sentiments 
of John of Parma maintained their cause with such 
success, that, in an assembly of the order holden in 1260, 
the explication of Innocent was abrogated and annulled, 
especially in those points wherein it differed from that 
which had been formerly given by Gregory IX. b 

XXXIII. This dispute concerning the true sense of 
the rule of St. Francis was followed by another of equal 
moment, which produced new and unhappy divisions 
among the monks of that order. About the commence- 
ment of this century, there were handed about in Italy 
several pretended prophecies of the famous Joachim, abbot 
of Sora in Calabria, whom the multitude revered as a 
person divinely inspired, and equal to the most illustrious 
prophets of ancient times. The greatest part of these 
predictions were contained in a work entitled the Ever- 
lasting Gospel, which was also usually called the Book of 
Joachim. d This Joachim, (whether a real or fictitious 
person we shall not pretend to determine,) among many 
other future events, foretold the destruction of the church 
of Rome, whose corruptions he censured with the great- 
est severity, and the promulgation of a new and more 
perfect Gospel in the age of the Holy Ghost, by a set 
of poor and austere ministers, whom God w T as to raise 

* This edict of Alexander IV. is published by Wadding, Annal. Mill, 
t. iv. among the Records. 

b The interpretation of Gregory mitigated the rule of St. Francis ; but 
that of Innocent went much farther, and seemed to destroy its funda- 
mental principles. See Wadding, Annales Minor, torn. iv. The lament- 
able divisions that reigned among the monks of this famous order, are 
described, in an accurate and lively manner, by Bonaventura himself, in 
a letter, which is extant in the work now cited. 

JjT e The resemblance between the words Sora and Flora, has pro- 
bably led Dr. Mosheim here into a slight mistake. Sora is not in Cala- 
bria, but in the province of Capua. It must therefore have been Flora, 
that our author intended to write, as Spanheim, Fleury, and other eccle- 
siastical historians, have done. 

<i The Merlin of the English, the Malichi of the Irish, and Nostrada- 
mus of the French, those pretended soothsayers, who, under the illusory 
or feigned persuasion of a divine impulse, sang in uncouth verse the fu- 
ture revolutions of church and state, are just what we may suppose the 
Joachim of the Italians to have been. Many predictions of this latter 
were formerly handed about, and are still to be seen: they have passed 
through various editions, and have been illustrated by the lucubrations 
of several commentators. It is not to be doubted that Joachim was the 
author of some predictions, and that he, in a particular manner, foretold 
the reformation of the church, of which he might easily see the absolute 
necessity. It is however certain that the greatest part of the predictions 
and writings, which were formerly attributed to him, were composed by 
others ; and this we may affirm even of the Everlasting Gospel, the 
work undoubtedly of some obscure, silly, and visionary author, who 
thought proper to adorn his reveries with the celebrated name of Joa- 
chim, in order to gain them credit, and to render them more agreeable to 
the multitude. The title of this senseless production is taken from Re- 
velations, xiv. 6, and it contained three books; the first was entitled, Li- 
ber Concordia Veritotis, i. e. the Book of the Harmony of Truth ; the 
second, Apocalijpsis Nova, or the New Revelation; and the third, Psah 
terium decern Chordarum, i. e. the Ten-stringed Harp. This account 
was taken from a manuscript of that work in the library of the Sor- 
bonne, by Jac. Echard, who has published it in his Scriptores Domi- 
nican, torn. i. 

• This is acknowledged even by Wadding, notwithstanding his par- 
tiality in favour of the spiritual or austere Franciscans. See his An- 
nal. Minor, torn. iv. p. 3 — 6. 

'Revel, xiv. 6. ' And I saw another angel fly in the midst, of lieaven, 
having the Everlasting Gospel to preach unto tliem that dwell on the 
earth. See on this subject Baluzii Miscellan. torn. i. p. 2-21, 235. — 
Echardi Scriptor. Dominic, torn. i. p. 202. — Codex Inquisit. Tolosanaj a 
Limborchio edit. p. 301. 

e As the accounts given of this book, by ancient and modern writers, 
are not sufficiently accurate, it may not be improper to offer here some 
observations that may correct their mistakes. 1. They almost all con- 
found the Everlasting Gospel, or the Gospel of the Holy Ghost, (for so it 
is also called, as we are told by Guil. de St. Amour, in his book de Pe- 
riculis noviss. Temporum.) with the Introduction to the Everlasting 

No. XXVII. 79 



up and employ for that purpose. For he divided the 
world into three ages, with reference to the three dis- 
pensations of religion. The two imperfect ages, — namely, 
the age of the Old Testament, which was that of the 
Father, and the age of the New, which was under the 
administration of the Son, — had according to the pre 
dictions of this fanatic, already expired, and the third 
age, that of the Holy Ghost, had commenctd. The 
Spiritual, i. e. the austere Franciscans, who were, for 
the most part, well-meaning but wrong-headed enthusiasts, 
not only swallowed down, with the most voracious and 
implicit credulity, the prophecies and doctrines which 
were attributed to Joachim, but applied those predictions 
to themselves, and to the rule of discipline established by 
their holy founder St. Francis;' for they maintained, 
that he delivered to mankind the true Gospel, and that 
he was the angel whom St. John saw flying in the midst 
of heaven/ 

XXXIV. When the intestine divisions among the 
Franciscans were at the greatest height, one of t he Spiri- 
tual friars, whose name was Gerard, undertook the expli- 
cation of the Everlasting Gospel ascribed to Joachim, in 
a book which appeared, in 1250, under the title of Introduc- 
tion to the Everlasting Gospel.? In this book, the fanati- 
cal monk, among other enormities, as insipid as impious, 

Gospel. But these two productions must be carefully distinguished from 
each other. The Everlasting Gospel was attributed to the abbot Joa- 
chim, and it consisted of three books, as has been already observed. But 
the Introduction to this Gospel was the work of a Franciscan monk, 
who explained the obscure predictions of the pretended Gospel, and ap- 
plied them to his order. The Everlasting Gospel was neither complain- 
ed of by the university of Paris, nor condemned by the Roman pontiff, 
Alexander IV.; but the Introduction was complained of, condemned, 
and burned, as appears evidently from the letters of the above mentioned 
pontiff, which are to be seen in Boulay's Histor. Academ. Paris, torn. 
I lii. p. 292. The former consisted, as productions of that nature gene- 
rally do, of ambiguous predictions and intricate riddles, and was conse- 
quently despised or neglected; but the latter was dangerous in many re- 
spects. 2. It is farther to be observed, that the ancient writers are not 
agreed concerning the author of this Introduction. They are unani- 
mous in attributing it to one of the mendicant friars ; but the votaries of 
St. Francis maintain, that the author was a Dominican, while the Do- 
minican party affirm as obstinately, that he was a Franciscan. The 
greatest part of the learned, however, are of opinion, that the author of 
the infamous work in question was John of Parma, general of the Fran- 
ciscans, who is known to have been most warmly attached to the spi- 
ritual faction of that order, and to have maintained the sentiments of 
the abbot Joachim with an excessive zeal. See Wadding, (Annal. Mi- 
nor, torn, iv.) who endeavours to defend him against this accusation, 
though without success. (See also the Acta Sanctorum, torn. iii. Mar- 
tii, p. 157; for John of Parma, though he preferred the Gospel of St. 
Francis to that of Christ, has, nevertheless, obtained a place, among the 
saints.) The learned Echard is of a different opinion, and has proved, 
(in his Scriptor. Dominican, torn. i. p. 202,) from the curious manu- 
scripts yet preserved in the Sorbonne, relating to the Everlasting Gospel, 
that Gerard, a Franciscan friar, was the author of the infamous Intro- 
duction to that book. This Gerard, indeed, was the intimate friend and 
companion to John of Parma, and not only maintained, with the great- 
est obstinacy, the cause of the spirituals, but also embrncrd all the sen 
timents that were attributed to the abbot Joachim, with such an ardent 
zeal, that he chose to remain 18 years in prison, rather than to abandon 
them. See AV adding, torn. 4. Those Franciscans who were called cb- 
servanles, i. e. vigilant, from their professing a more rigid observance of 
the rule of their founder than was practised by the rest of their order, 
place Gerard among the saints of the first rank, and impudently affirm, 
that ho was not only endowed with the gift of prophecy, but also with 
the power of working miracles. See Wadding, torn. iii. p. 213. It is to 
be observed, 3dly, That whoever may have been the writer of this de- 
testable book, the whole mendicant order, in the judgment of the greatest 
part of the historians of this age, shared the guilt of its composition and 
publication, more especially the Dominicans and Franciscans, who are 
supposed to have fallen upon this impious method of deluding the multi- 
tude into a high notion of their sanctity, in order to establish Lheir do- 
minion, and to extend their authority beyond all bounds. This opinion, 
however, is ill-founded, notwithstanding the numbers by which it has 
been adopted. The Franciscans alone are chargeable with the guilt of 



314 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



inculcated the following detestable doctrine : " That St. 
Fmncb, who was the angel mentioned in the Revelations 
xiv. 6, had promulgated to the world the true and ever- 
lasting gospel of God ; that the gospel of Christ was to be 
abrogated in the year 1260, and to give place to this new 
and everlasting gospel, which was to be substituted in its 
room : and that the ministers of this great reformation 
were to be humble and bare-footed friars, destitute of all 
worldly emoluments." 11 When this strange book was 
published at Paris in 1254, it excited in the doctors of the 
church, and indeed in all good men, the most lively 
feelings of horror and indignation against the mendicant 
friars, who had already, by other parts of their conduct, 
incurred the displeasure of the public. This general 
ferment engaged pope Alexander IV., though much 
against his will, to order the suppression of this absurd 
book in 1255 ; he, however, took care to have this order 
executed with the greatest possible mildness, lest it should 
hurt, the reputation of the mendicants, and open the eyes 
of the superstitious multitude. But the doctors of the 
university of Paris, not being satisfied with these gentle 
and timorous proceedings, repeated without interruption 
their accusation and complaints, until the extravagant 
and obnoxious production was publicly committed to the 
flames. b 

XXXV. The intestine flame of discord, which had 
raged among the Franciscans, and was smothered, though 
not extinguished, by the prudent management of Bona- 
ventura, broke out anew with redoubled fury after the 
death of that pacific doctor. Those Franciscan monks 
who were fond of opulence and ease, renewed their com- 
plaints against, the rule of their founder as unreasona- 
ble and unjust, demanding what it was absolutely be- 
yond the power of man to perform. Their complaints, 
however, were without effect ; and their schemes were 
disconcerted by pope Nicolas III., who leaned to the side 
of the austere Franciscans, and who, in 1279, published 
that famous constitution which confirmed the rule of 
St. Francis, and contained an accurate and elaborate 
explication of the maxims it recommended, and the du- 
ties it prescribed/ By this edict he renewed that part of 
the rule, which prohibited all kinds of property among 
the Franciscans, every thing that bore the least resem- 
blance to a legal possession, or a fixed domain ; but he 
granted to them, at the same time, the use of things ne- 
cessary, such as houses, books, and ether conveniences 

this horrid production, as appears most evidently 'rom the fragments of 
the book itself, which yet remain ; but we are obliged in justice to ob- 
serve farther, that this guilt does not lie upon all the Franciscans, but 
only on the spiritual faction. Perhaps we might go still farther, and 
allege, that the charge ought not to be extended even to all the mem- 
bers of this faction, but to such alone as placed an idle and enthusiastic 
confidence in Joachim, and gave credit to all his pretended prophecies. 
These observation? are necessary to the true understanding of what has 
been said concerning the Everlasting Gospel by tlie following learned 
men: Jo. Andr. Schmidius, Dissertat. Helmst. 1700. — Usserius, de Suc- 
sessione Ecclesiar. Occident, c. ix. sect. 20. — Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris. 
Lorn. iii. p. 292. — Natal. Alexander, Histor. Eccles. sa2C XIII. artic. iv. — 
Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iv. — Upon the whole it may be affirmed, 
that the book under consideration is not, as the greatest part of the learn- 
ed have imagined, a monument of the arrogance of the mendicant orders 
in general, but rather a proof of the impious fanaticism and extravagance 
of a small number of Franciscans. 

* See Guil. de St. Amour de Periculis noviss. Tempor. who ODserves 
that the book under consideration was not indeed published before the 
year 1254, but that the opinions contained in it had an earlier origin, 
and v/ere propagated even in the year 1200. Several of the ancient 
writers have giver, large extracts from this infamous book. See Henri. 
Conieri Chronicon, in Eccardi Corpore Histor. medii JE-vi, torn. ii. p. 



of that nature, the property of which, in conformity with 
the appointment of Innocent IV., was to reside in the 
church of Rome. Nor did the provident pontiff stop 
here ; but prohibited, under the severest penalties, all pri- 
vate explications of this new law, lest they should excite 
disputes, and furnish new matter of contention ; and re- 
served the power of interpreting it to himself and his suc- 
cessors a lone. d 

XXXVI- However disposed Nicolas was to satisfy the 
spiritual and austere part of the Franciscan order, which 
had now become numerous both in Italy and France, 
and particularly in the province of Narbonne, the con- 
stitution above mentioned was far from producing that 
effect. The monks of that gloomy faction, who resided 
in Italy, received the papal edict with a swJlen and dis- 
contented silence. Their brethren in France, and more 
especially in the southern parts of that kingdom, where 
the inhabitants are of a warm and sanguine complexion, 
testified, in an open and tumultuous manner, the disap- 
probation of this new constitution ; and having at their 
head a famous Franciscan, whose name was Pierre Jean 
d'Olive, they excited new dissensions and troubles in the 

j order. e Pierre was a native of Serignan in Langue- 
doc, who had acquired a shining reputation by his wri- 

i tings, and whose eminent sanctity and learning drew af- 
ter him a great number of followers ; nor is it to be de- 
nied, that there were many important truths and wise 

I maxims in the instructions he delivered. One of the 
great objects of which he never lost sight in his writings, 
was the corruption of the church of Rome, which he 
censured with extraordinary freedom and severity, in a 
work entitled Postilla, or a Commentary on the Revela- 
tions, affirming boldly, that this church was represented 
by the ' whore of Babylon, the mother of harlots,' whom 
St. John beheld sitting upon a scarlet-coloured beast, full 
of names of blasphemy, having seven heads, and ten 
horns/ It is however to be observed, that this severe 
censor of a corrupt church, was himself a most supersti- 
tious fanatic in several respects, having imbibed the 
greatest part of those monstrous opinions, which the Spiri- 
tuals pretended to have received from the abbot Joachim ; 
to which he added an impious and extravagant veneration 
for St. Francis, whom he considered as entirely trans- 
formed into the person of Christ.^ In the debate con- 
cerning the sense of the rule of this famous chief, he 
seemed to adhere to neither of the contending parties ; 

850. — Chronicon Egmondanum. in Ant. Matthcei Analectis veteris iEvi, 
torn. ii. p. 517. — Ricobaldus apud Eccardi Corp. torn. i. p. 1215. — But 
between these extracts there is a great difference, which seem.'; to have 
arisen from this, that some drew their citations from the Everlasting 
Gospel of Joachim, while others drew theirs from the Intrcduction of 
Gerard, not sufficiently distinguishing one work from the other. 

t See Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 299. — Jordani Chronicon 
in Muratorii Antiq. Ital. torn. iv. p. 998. 

Some affirm, that this constitution was issued by Tricolas IV. ; but 
their opinion is refuted by Wadding, in his Annal. Mm. torn. v. 

d This constitution is yet extant in the Jus. Canon, lib. vi. Decretal 
Tit. xii. c. iii. p. 1028. edit. Bohm. and is vulgarly called the Corstitu 
tion Exiit, from its beginning with that word. 

• In some ancient records, this ring-leader is called Petrus Biterrensis, 
i. e. Peter of Beziers, because he resided for a long time in tlie convent 
of Beziers, where he performed the functions of a public teacher. By 
others, he is named Petrus de Serignano, from the place of his nativity 
This remark is so much the more necessary, as some authors have taken 
these three denominations for, three distinct persons. 

'Revelations, xvii. 3, 5. 

e Totum Christo configuratum. See the Litera Magistrorum, de Pos- 
tilla. Fratris P. Joh. Olivi, in Baluzii Miscellan. torn. i. p. 213. — Wad- 
ding, Annales Minor, torn. v. p 51. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GO VERNME.iT, ETC. 



315 



for he allowed to his followers the bare use of the neces- 
saries of life ; and being called upon, at different times, 
by the authority of his superiors, to declare his senti- 
ments upon this head, he professed his assent to the in- 
terpretation that had been given of the rule in question 
bv Nicolas III. He leaned, nevertheless, to the side of 
those austere and spiritual Franciscans, who not only op- 
posed the introduction of property among the individuals 
of the order, but also maintained, that the whole com- 
munity, considered collectively, was likewise to be ex- 
cluded from possessions of every kind. Great was his 
zeal for these gloomy Franciscans, and he defended their 
cause with warmth ; tt hence he is looked vipon as the chief 
of that faction, which disputed so often, and so vehement- 
ly, with the Roman pontiffs, in favour of the renuncia- 
tion of property, in consequence of the institution of St. 
Francis. b 

XXXVII. The credit and authority of Pierre d'Olive, j 
whom the multitude considered, not only as a man of 
unblemished sanctity, but also as a prophet sent from 
above, added new force and vigour to the Spirituals, and 
encouraged them to renew the combat with redoubled 
fury. But the prudence of the heads of the order pre- 
vented, for some time, the pernicious effects of these vio- 
lent efforts, and so over -ruled the impetuous motions of 
this enthusiastic faction, that a sort of equality was pre- 
served between the contending parties. But the promo- 
tion of Matthew of Aqua Sparta, who was elected gene- 
ral of the order in 12S7, put an end to these prudential 
measures, and changed entirely the face of affairs. This 
new chief suffered the ancient discipline of the Francis- 
cans to dwindle away to nothing, indulged his monks 
in abandoning even the very appearance of poverty, and 
thus drew upon himself not only the indignation and 
rage ©f the austere part of the spiritual Franciscans, but 
also the disapprobation of the more moderate members of 
that party. Hence arose various tumults and seditions, 
first in the marquisate of Ancona, and afterwards in 
France, which the new general endeavoured to suppress 
by imprisonment, exile, and corporal punishments ; but, 
finding all these means ineffectual, he resigned his place 
in 1289. c His successor, Raymond Goffredi, employed 
his utmost efforts to appease these troubles. For this 
purpose he recalled the banished friars, set at liberty those 
who had been thrown into prison, and put out of the 
way several of the austere Franciscans, who had been 
the principal encouragers of these unhappy divisions, by 
sending them into Armenia in the character of missiona- 
ries. But the disorder was too far gone to be easily re- 
medied. The more moderate Franciscans, who had a 
relish for the sweets of property and opulence, accused 

1 The real sentiments of Pierre d'Olive will be best discovered in the 
last discourse he pronounced, which is yet extant in Bmilay's Histor. 
Acad. Par.s. torn. iii. p. 535, and in Wadding's Annal. Min. t. v. p. 378. 

b For an account of this famous friar, see not only the common mo- 
nastic historians, such as Raynaldus, Alexander, and Oudinus, but also 
the following: Baluzii Miscel. torn. i. p. 213. and his Vit. Pontif. Ave- 
nkn. torn. ii. p. 752. Car. Plessis d'Argentre, Collectio Judiciorum de 
noTis Ecclesire Erroribus, torn. i. p. 226. — Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn, 
v. p. 52, 108, 121, 140, 236, and more especially, p. 378, where he makes 
an unsuccessful attempt to justify this enthusiast. — Boulay, Hist. Acad. 
Paris, torn. iii. p. 535. — Schelhornii Amoenitates Literariae, torn. ix. p. 
678. Histnire Generale de Lunguedoc, par les Moines Benedictins, torn. 
iv. p. 91, 179, 182. The bones of Pierre d'Olive were taken up by 
the order of pope John XXII. and burned publicly with his writings, 
in the year 1325. . 



the new general of a partial attachment to the Spirituals, 
whom he treated with peculiar affection and respect, and 
therefore employed their whole credit to procure his 
dismission from office, which, with much difficulty, they 
at length effected, under the pontificate of Boniface VII f. 
On the other hand, the more rigid part of the spiritua 
faction renounced all fellowship, even with such of their 
own party as discovered a pacific and reconciling spirit ; 
and, forming themselves into a separate body, protested 
publicly against the interpretation which Nicolas III. 
had given of the rule of St. Francis. Thus, from the 
year 1290, the affairs of the Franciscans carried a dismal 
aspect, and portended nothing but seditions and schisms 
in an order which had been so famous for its pretended 
disinterestedness and humility. d 

XXXVIII. In the year 1294, a certain number of 
Italian Franciscans, of the spiritual party, addressed them- 
selves to Celestin V. for permission to form a separate 
order, in which they might not only profess, but also ob- 
serve, in the strictest manner, that austere rule of absolute 
poverty, which St. Francis had prescribed to his followers. 
The good pontiff, Avho, before his elevation to the supre- 
macy of the church, had led a solitary and austere life,' 
and was fond of every thing that looked like mortification 
and self-denial, granted with the utmost facility the request 
of these friars, and placed, at the head of the new order, 
a monk, whose name was Libcratus, and who was one of 
the greatest self-tormentors of all the monastic tribe/ 
Soon after this, Celestin, finding himself unfit for the 
duties of his high and important office, resigned the pon- 
tificate, in which he was succeeded by Boniface VIII. 
who annulled all the acts of his predecessor, and sup- 
pressed, among other institutions, the new order, which 
had assumed the title of the Celestin Hermits of St. 
Frcmcis.z This disgrace was, as it were, the signal 
which drew upon them the most furious attacks of their 
enemies. The worldly-minded Franciscans persecuted 
them with the most unrelenting bitterness, accused them 
of various crimes, and even cast upon them the odious 
reproach of Manicheism. Hence many of these unhappy 
fanatics retired into Achaia, whence they passed into a 
small island, where they imagined themselves secure from 
the rage of their adversaries, and at liberty to indulge 
themselves in all the austerities of that miserable life, 
which they looked upon as the perfection of holiness 
here below. But no retreat was sufficient to screen them 
from the vigilance and fury of their cruel persecutors, 
who left no means unemployed to perpetuate their mise- 
ries. In the mean time, the branch of the spiritual Fran- 
ciscans that remained in Italy, continued to observe the 
rigorous laws of their primitive institution in spite of 

c Wadding, Annales Min. torn. v. p. 210, 235. 

a Idem opus, t. v. p. 108, 121, 110, and more especially p. 235, 236 

irjjp e This pope, whose name was Peter Mueron, had retired very 
young to a solitary mountain, in order to devote himself entirely to pray- 
er and mortification. The fame of his piety brought many to see him 
from a principle of curiosity, several of whom renounced t!;e world, and 
became the companions of his solitude. With these lie formed a kind 
of community, in 1251, which was approved by Urban IV. in 1261, and 
erected into a distinct order, called the Hermits of St. Damien. On his 
assumption of (lie pontifical name of Celestin V., his order, which must 
not be confounded with the new Franciscan Celestin Hermits, took the 
title of Celestins. 

(Wadding, Annales, torn. v. p. 324, 338. 

« Wadding. Annales, torn. vi. — Bullarium Magnum, Contin. III. IV. 
p. 108. 



316 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



Boniface VIII., who used his utmost efforts to conquer 
their obstinacy. They erected societies of their order, 
first in the kingdom of Naples, afterwards in the Milanese, 
and in the marquisate of Ancona ; and, at length spread- 
ing themselves through the greatest part of Europe, they 
continued in the most violent state of war with the church 
of Rome, until the Reformation changed the face of 
things. In these conflicts they underwent trials and 
sufferings of every kind, and multitudes of them perished 
in the flames, as miserable victims to the infernal fury of 
the Inquisition. 11 

XXXIX. Toward the conclusion of this century arose 
in Italy the enthusiastic sect of the Fratricelli and Bizochi, 
which, in Germany and France, received the denomina- 
tion of Beghards. They were condemned by Boniface 
VIII, 1 ' and by several of his successors ; and the inquisi- 
tors were ordered by these despotic pontiffs to persecute 
them until they were extirpated, which commission they 
executed with their usual barbarity. The Fratricelli, or 
Little Brethren, were Franciscan monks, who separated 
themselves from the grand community of St. Francis, 
with an intention of obeying the laws of their parent 
and founder in a more strict and rigorous manner than 

° The writers that serve generally as guides in this part of the histo- 
ry of the church, and whom I have been obliged to consult upon the di- 
visions of the Franciscans, (whose history, as will soon appear, is pecu- 
liarly interesting and important,) are far from meriting the encomiums 
which are due to perspicuity and exactness. This part of the ecclesias- 
tical history of what is called the Middle Age, has not hitherto been ac- 
curately illustrated by any writer, though it be, every way, worthy of 
the labours of the learned, and of the attention of Christians. Its prin- 
cipal merit consists herein, that it exhibits striking examples of piety 
and learning struggling against the power of superstition and ignorance, 
and against that spiritual tyranny of which they were the principal sup- 
ports. And it may be observed, that these rebellious Franciscans, 
though fanatical and superstitious in several respects, deserve an emi- 
nent rank among those who prepared the way for the reformation in 
Europe, and who excited, in the minds of the people, a just aversion to 
the church of Rome. Raynaldus, Bzovius, Spondanus, in their Annals, 
Eymericus,in his Directorium Inquisitorum, and Natalis Alexander, in his 
Ecclesiastical History, relate the revolutions that happened in the Fran-, 
ciscan order, and in the church in general, during this period; but their 
accounts are neither so accurate, nor so ample, as the importance of the 
events deserved. And as it is from these authors that the protestant histo- 
rians have drawn their materials, we need not be surprised at the defects 
with which the latterabound. Wadding, who merits high encomiums asa 
laborious and learned writer, is yet an uncertain guide, when he treats of 
the matters now underconsideration. His attachment to oneparty, and his 
fear of the others, subject him to restraints, that prevent his declaring the 
truth with a noble freedom. He shades his picture with dexterity. He con- 
ceals, dissembles, excuses, acknowledges, and denies, with such a timo- 
rous prudence and caution, that the truth could not but suffer consider- 
ably under his pen. He appears to have been attached to the rigid 
Franciscans, and yet had not the courage to declare openly, that they 
had been injured by the pontiffs. He saw, on the other hand, the tu- 
mults and perplexities in which these rigid Franciscans had involved 
the church of Rome, and the strokes which they had aimed, with no 
small success, at the majesty of the pontiffs : but he has taken all ima- 
ginable pains to throw such a shade upon this part of their conduct, as 
conceals its violence from the view of his readers. Such then being the 
characters of the writers who have handed down to us the history of the 
church in this important period, I could not follow any one of them as a 
sure, or constant guide in all the events they relate, -the judgments they 
form, or the characters they describe. I have not, however, been desti- 
tute, of a clue to conduct me through the various windings of this intri- 
cate labyrinth. The testimonies of ancient authors, with several manu- 
scripts that have never yet been published, such as the Diplomas of the 
pontiffs and emperors, the Acts of the Inquisition, and other records of 
that kind, are the authentic sources from which I have drawn my ac- 
counts of many things that have been very imperfectly represented by 
other historians. 

b See Trithemius, An. Hirsaug. t. ii. p. 74, though this author is defec- 
tive in several respects, and more especially in his accounts of the origin 
and sentiments of the Fratricelli. It is also to be observed, that he confounds, 
through the whole of his history, the sects and orders of this century one 
with another, in the most ignorant and unskilful manner. See rather Du 
Boulay, His. Acad. Paris, t. iii. p. 541, where the edict published in 1297, 



they were observed by the other F rand-cans, and who, 
accordingly, renounced every kind of possession and 
property both common and personal, and begged from 
door to door their daily subsistence. They alleged that 
neither Christ nor his apostles had any possessions, either 
personal or in common ; and that they were the models, 
whom St. Francis commanded his followers to imitate. 
After the example also of their austere founder, they went 
about clothed with sordid garments, or rather with loath- 
some rags, declaimed against the corruption of the church 
of Rome, and the vices of the pontiffs and bishops, 
foretold the reformation of the church and the restoration 
of the true Gospel, by the genuine followers of St. Francis, 
and declared their assent to almost all the doctrines, 
which were published under the name of the abbot 
Joachim. They esteemed and respected Celestin V., 
because, as has been already observed, he was, in some 
measure, the founder of their society, by permitting them 
to erect themselves into a separate order. But they 
refused to acknowledge, as true and lawful heads of the 
church, his successor Boniface and the subsequent pontiffs, 
who opposed the Fratricelli, and persecuted their order. d 
XL. As the Franciscan order acknowledged, for its 



by Boniface VIII. against the Bizochi or Beghards, is inserted; as also 
Jordani Chronicon, in Muratorii Antiq. Italian, torn. iv. p. 1020. 

• The Fratricelli resembled the Spirituals in many of their maxims 
and observances : they, however, were a distinct body, and differed from 
them in various respects. The Spirituals, for instance, continued to hold 
communion with the rest of the Franciscans, from whom they differed 
in points of considerable moment, nor did they ever pretend to erect 
themselves into a particular and distinct order ; the Fratricelli, on the 
contrary, renounced all communion with the Franciscans, and, withdraw- 
ing their obedience from the superiors of that society, chose for them- 
selves a new chief, under whom they formed a new and separate order. 
The Spirituals did not absolutely oppose their order's possessing certain 
goods jointly and in common, provided they renounced all property m 
these goods, and confined their pretensions to the mere use of them; 
whereas the Fratricelli rejected every kind of possession, whether per- 
sonal or in common, and embraced that absolute poverty and want which 
St. Francis had prescribed in his Rule and in his last Testament. We 
omit the mention of less important differences. 

<t The accounts of the Fratricelli, that are given by ancient and mo- 
dern writers, even by those who pretend to the greatest exactness, are 
extremely confused and uncertain. Trithemius, in his Annal. Hirsaug. 
torn. ii. p. 74, affirms, that they derived their origin from Tanchelinus, 
and thus ignorantiy confounds them with the Catharists and other sects 
that arose in those times. The Franciscans leave no means unemploy- 
ed to clear themselves from all relation to this society, and to demon- 
strate that such a pestilential and impious sect, as that of the Fratricelli, 
did not derive their origin from the order of St. Francis. In consequence 
of this, they deny that the Fratricelli professed the Franciscan rule; and 
maintain, on the contrary, that the society which was distinguished by 
this title was a heap of rabble, composed of persons of all kinds and all 
religions, whom Herman Pongilup, toward the conclusion of this cen- 
tury, assembled at Ferrara, and erected into a distinct, order. Sec Wad- 
ding's Annal. Minor, torn. vi. p. 279. This author employs all his elo- 
quence to defend his order from the infamous reproach of having given 
rise to that of the Fratricelli ; but his efforts are vain ; for he acknow- 
ledges, and even proves by unquestionable authorities, that this hated sect 
professed and observed, in the most rigorous manner, the rule of St. 
Francis; and nevertheless, he denies that they were Franciscans; by 
which he means, and indeed can only mean, that they were not such 
Franciscans as those who lived in subjection to the general of the order, 
and adopted the interpretation which the popes had given of the rule of 
their founder. All Wadding's boasted demonstration, therefore, comes 
to no more than this, that the Fratricelli were Franciscans who separated 
themselves from the grand order of St. Francis, and rejected the au- 
thority of the general of that order, and the laws and interpretations, 
together with the jurisdiction of the pontiffs ; and this no mortal ever 
took into his head to deny. Hermannus, or (as he is called by many) 
Armannus Pongilup, whom Wadding and others consider as the. parent 
of the Fratricelli, lived in (his century at Ferrara, in the highest reputa- 
tion for his extraordinary piety; and when he died, in 12G9, he was in- 
terred with the greatest pomp and magnificence in the principal church 
of that city. His memory was, for along time, honoured with a degree 
of veneration equal to that which is paid to the most illustrious saints , 
and it was supposed that the Supreme Being bore testimony to his emi- 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



317 



companions and associates, a set of men, who observed 
the third rule that was prescribed by St. Francis, and 
were therefore commonly called Tertiaries ; a so likewise 
the order of the Fratricelli, who were desirous of being 
considered as the only genuine followers of St. Francis, 
had a great number of Tertiaries attached to their cause. 

nent sanctity by various miracles. But, as Pongilup had been suspect- 
ed of heresy by the Inquisitors of Heretical Depravity, on account of 
the peculiar austerity of his life, which resembled that of the Catharists, 
they made, even after his death, such an exact and scrupulous inquiry 
into his maxims and morals, that, many years after he was laid low in 
the grave, his impiety was detected and published to the world. Hence 
it was, that, in 1300, his tomb was destroyed ; his bones were dug up, 
and burned by the order of Boniface VIII., and the multitude effectually 
cured of the enthusiastic veneration they had for his memory. The ju- 
dicial acts of- this remarkable event are recorded by Muratori, in his 
Antiqnit. Italic, medii JEvi, torn. v. p. 93 — 147, and it appears evidently 
from them, that those learned men, who consider Pongilup as the foun- 
der of the order of the Fratricelli, have fallen into a gross error. So 
far was he from being the founder of this sect, that he was dead before 
it was in existence. The truth is, that this famous enthusiast was a 
Catharist, infected with Paulician or Manichean principles, and a mem- 
ber of the sect entitled bagnolisls, from a town of that name in Provence, 
where they resided. Some modern writers, indeed, have seen so far into 
the truth, as to perceive that the Fratricelli were a separate branch of 
the rigid and austere Franciscans; but they err in this, that they consi- 
der them as the same sect with the Beghards or Beguins, under a dif- 
ferent denomination. Such is the opinion adopted by Limborch, (in his 
Hist. Inquisit. lib. i. cap. xix.) who seems to have been very little ac- 
quainted with the matters now under consideration ; by Baluze, in his 
Miscellan. torn. i. p. 195, and Vit. Pontif. Avenionens. torn. i. p. 509 ; 
by Beausobre, in his Dissertation concerning the Adamites, subjoined 
to the History of the Wars of the Hussites, p. 380; and by Wadding, 
in his Annal. Minor, torn. v. p. 376. But, notwithstanding the autho- 
rities of these learned men, it is certain, as we shall show in its place, 
that there was a real difference between the Fratricelli and the Beghards, 
not indeed with respect to their opinions, but in their rule of discipline 
and their manner of life. 

The principal cause of the errors that have obscured the history of 
the Fratricelli, is the ambiguity in the denomination of their order. Fra- 
PriceUus or Fraterculus (Little Brother) was an Italian nick-name, or 
term of derision, that was applied in this century to all those who, with- 
out belonging to any of the religious orders, effected a monkish air in 
their clothing, their carriage, and their manner of living, and assumed 
a sanctimonious aspect of piety and devotion. See Villani, Istorie Flo- 
rentine, lib. viii. c. 8-1. — Imola in Dantem, p. 1121, in Muratori's Antiq. 
Ital. torn. i. And as there were many vagabonds of this kind during 
this century, it happened that the general term of Fratricelli was ap- 
plied to them all, though they differed considerably from one another in 
their opinions and in their methods of living. Thus the Catharists, the 
Waldenses, the Apostles, and many other sects who had invented new 
opinions in religion, were marked with this denomination by the multi- 
tude; while the writers of foreign nations, unacquainted with this ludi- 
crous application of the word, were puzzled in their inquiries after the 
sect of the Fratricelli, (who had given so much trouble to the Roman 
pontiffs,) were even led into the grossest mistakes, and imagined, at one 
time, that this order was that of the Catharists ; at another, that it was 
the sect of the Waldenses, &c. But, in order to have distinct ideas of 
this matter, it must be considered that the word Fraterculus, or Little 
Brother, bore a quite different sense from the ludicrous one now men- 
tioned, when it was applied to the austere part of the Franciscans, who 
maintained the necessity of observing, in the strictest manner, the rule 
of their founder. Instead of being a nick-name, or a term of derision 
when applied to them, it was an honourable denomination in which they 
delighted, and which they preferred infinitely to all other titles. "The 
import of Fratricelli corresponds with Friars-Minors; and every one 
knows, that the latter appellation was adopted by the Franciscans, as an 
expression of their extraordinary humility and modesty. In assuming 
this title, therefore, these monks did not, properly speaking, assume a 
new name, but only translated the ancient name of their order into the 
Italian language ; for those whom the Latins called Fratres Minores, 
the Italians called Fratricelli. Of the many proofs we might draw 
from the best authors in favour of this account of the matter, we 
shall only allege, one, from the Life of Thorn. Aquinas, by Gulielmus 
ds Thoco in Actis Sanctor. Martii, torn. i. cap. ii. sect. xxi. "Destruxit 
(says that biographer) or tertium pestiferum pravitatis crrorem S. Tho- 
mas - - - cujus sectatores simul et inventores se naniinant fraterculos de 
vita paupere, ut etiam sub hoc humilitatis sophistico nomine simplieium 
corda seducant — contra quern errorem pestiferum Johannes papa XXII. 
mirandam edidit decretalem." 

Now this very Decretal of John XXII. against the Fratricelli, which 
Thoco calls admirable, is, to mention no other testimonies, a sufficient 
and satisfactory proof of what I have affirmed in relation to that sect. 
No. XX VII. 80 



These half-monks were called, in Italy, Bizochi and 
Bocasoti ; in France, Beguins ; and in Germany 
Begwards, or Beghards, which last was the denomina 
tion by which they were commonly known in almost all 
places." They differed from the Fratricelli, not in their 
opinions and doctrines, but only in their manner of living. 

In this act (which is to be seen in the Extravagantia Job. XXII. Corp. 
Juris Canon, torn. ii. p. 1112, edit. Bohmer) the pontiff' expresses him- 
self thus : " Nonnulli profana? multitudinis viri, qui vulgariter Fratri- 
celli seu Fratres de paupere vita, Bizochi, sive Beguini, nuncupantur in 

partibus Italia;, in insula Sicilian publice mendicare solent." He 

afterwards divides the Fratricelli into monks and tertiaries, or (which 
amounts to the same thing, as we shall show in its place) into Fratri- 
celli and Beguins. With respect to the Fratricelli, properly so called, 
he expresses himself thus: " Plurimi regulam seu ordinem Fratrum 

Minorum se profiteri ad literam conservare confingunt, praUender.tes 

se a sanctae memorice Ctclestino PapaCtuinto, praxlecessore nostro, hujus 
status seu vitae privilegium habuisse. Quod tamen etsi ostenderent, 
non valeret, cum Bonifacius papa octavus ex certis causis rationabilibus 

omnia ab ipso Ccelestirio concessa viribus penitus evacuavtrit." 

Here he describes clearly those Fratricelli, who, separating themselves 
from the Franciscans with a view to observe more strictly the rule of St. 
Francis, were erected into a distinct order by Celestin V. And in the 
following passage he characterises, with the same perspicuity, the Bizo- 
chi and Beguins, who entitled themselves of the third order of the peni- 
tents of St. Francis: "Nonnulli ex ipsis asserentes se esse de tertio or- 
dine bead Francisci pcenitentium vocato, pra;dictum statum et ritum 
eorum sub velamine talis nominis satagunt palliare." 

* Beside two very austere rules drawn up by St. Francis, the one for 
the Friars-Minors, and the other for the Poor Sisters, called Clarisses, 
from St. Clara their founder, this famous chief drew up a third, whose 
demands were less rigorous, for such as, without abandoning their world- 
ly affairs or resigning their possessions, were disposed to enter with 
certain restrictions into the Franciscan order, and desirous of enjoying 
the privileges annexed to it. This rule prescribed fasting, continence, 
hours of devotion and prayer, mean and dirty apparel, gravity of man- 
ners, and things of that nature ; but neither prohibited contracting mar- 
riage, accumulating wealth, filling civil employments, nor attending to 
worldly affairs. All the Franciscan historians have given accounts of 
this third rule, more especially Wadding, Annal. Min. torn. ii. — Helyot 
Hist, des Ordres, torn. vii. They who professed this third rule, were 
called Friars of the Penance of Christ, and sometimes also, on account 
of the meanness of their garments, Brethren of the Sack ; but they 
were more generally known by the denomination of Tertiaries. The 
greatest part of the religious orders of the church of Rome imitated this 
institution of St. Francis, as soon as they perceived the various advan- 
tages that were deducible from it. And hence, at this day, these orders 
continue to have their Tertiaries. 

b The Tertiaries that were connected with the order of the Fratricelli, 
arose about the year 1296, in the marquisate of Ancona and the neiah- 
bouring countries, and were called Bizochi, as we learn from the edict 
issued against them, in 1297, by Boniface VIII., and published by Du 
Boulay, in his Historia, Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 5-11. They are men- 
tioned under the same title by John XXII. in the bull already cited. 
Add to all these authorities, that of the learned Du-Fresne, who, in his 
Glossar. Latinit. media;, observes, that this denomination is derived from 
Bizuchus, which signifies in French line Besace, i. e. a sack ox wallet, 
such as beggars in general, and these holy beggars in particular, were 
accustomed to carry about with them. The term Bitcasctus, (or Voca- 
solus, as Du-Boulay writes it,) has without doubt the same origin, and 
bears the same signification. It is used by Jordan, in his Chronicle, from 
which we shall cite a remarkable passage in the following note. The 
denominations of Beghards and Bcgv ins, given to the Tei tiaries in France 
and Italy, are very frequently met with in the ecclesiastical history of 
the middle ages. The accounts, however, which both ancient and mo- 
dern writers generally give of these famous names, are so uncertain, 
and so different from each other, that we need not be surprised to find 
the history of the Beghards and Beguins involved in greater perplexity 
and darkness, than any other part of the ecclesiastical annals of the 
period now mentioned. It is therefore my present object to remove this 
perplexity, and dispel this darkness as far as that can be done in the 
short space to which I am confined, and to disclose the true origin of 
these denominations. 

The words Beg hard or Beggehard, Begutta, Beghinvs, and Bcghivd, 
which only differ in their terminations, have all one and the same sense. 
The German and Belgic nations wrote Beghard and Beguile, which 
terminations are extremely common in the language of the ancient Ger- 
mans. But the French substituted the Latin termination for the German, 
and changed Beghard into Beghinus and Beghi-ia; so that those who 
in Holland and Germany were called Beghard and Beguile, were de- 
nominated, in France, Bcghini and Btghince. Even in Germany and 
Holland, the Latin termination was gradually introduced instead of the 
German, particularly in the feminine term Btgutta, of which change 



:u8 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



The Fratricelli were real monks, subjected to the rule of 
St., Francis; while the Bizochi or Beguins, if we except 
their sordid habit, and certain observances and maxims, 
which they followed in consequence of the injunctions of 
the famous saint above mentioned, lived after the man- 
ner of other men, and were therefore considered in no 
other light, than as seculars and laymen. 1 It is, however, 
to be observed, that the Bizochi were divided into two 
lasses, which derived their respective denominations of 
perfect and imperfect, from the different degrees of 
austerity that they discovered in their manner of living. 

we might allege several probable reasons, if this were the proper place 
for disquisitions of that nature. There are many different opinions con- 
cerning the origin and signification of these terms, which it would be 
too tedious to mention, and still more so to refute. Besides, I have done 
this in a large work concerning the Beghards, wherein I have traced 
out, with the utmost pains and labour, (from records, the greatest part 
of which had never before seen the light,) the history of all the sects to 
whom these names have been given, and have, at the same time, detect- 
ed the errors into which many learned men have fallen, in treating this 
part of the history of the church. At present, therefore, setting aside 
many opinions and conjectures, I shall confine myself to a brief inquiry 
into the true origin and signification of these words. They are undoubt- 
edly derived from the old German word beggen or beggeren, which sig- 
nifies to seek any thing with importunity, zeal, and earnestness. In join- 
ing to this word the syllable hard, which is the termination of many 
German words, we have the term Beggehard, which is applicable to a 
person who asks any thing with ardour and importunity; and, therefore, 
common mendicants, in the ancient German language, were called 
Beghard, from which the English word beggar is manifestly derived. 
Begu.Ua signifies a female beggar. — When Christianity was introduced 
into Germany, the word beggen, or beggeren, was used in a religious 
sense, and expressed the act of devout and fervent prayer to the Su- 
preme Being. Accordingly, we find, in the Gothic translation of the 
Four Gospels attributed to Ulphilas, the word beggen employed to ex- 
press the duty of the earnest and fervent prayer. Hence, when any per- 
son distinguished himself from others by the frequency and fervour of 
his devotional service, he was called a Beghard, i. e. a devout man; 
and the denomination of Begutla was given in the same sense, to wo- 
men of uncommon piety. And as they who distinguished themselves 
from others by the frequency of their prayers, flius assumed a more 
striking air of external devotion than the rest of their fellow-Christians, 
all those who were ambitious of appearing more religious and devout 
than their neighbours, were called Beghardi or Beguttce. 

The observations we have hitherto made with respect to the origin 
and signification of the words in question, will serve as a clue to res- 
cue the attentive reader from that labyrinth of difficulties in which the 
subject has been involved. They will also enable him to account for 
the prodigious multitudes of Beghards and Beguins that sprang up in 
Europe in the thirteenth century, and will show him how it happened, 
that these denominations were given to above 30 sects or orders, which 
differed widely from each other in their opinions, discipline, and manner 
of living. The original signification of the word Beghard, (or Beggert, 
as it was pronounced by the common people,) was importunate beggar. 
Therefore, when the people saw certain persons, not only embracing 
with resignation, but also with the most voluntary choice, and under a 
pretext of devotion, the horrors of absolute poverty, begging their daily 
bread from door to door, and renouncing all their worldly possessions 
and occupations, they called all such persons Beghards, or, if they were 
woman, Beguiles, without considering the variety of opinions and 
maxims by which they were distinguished. The sect called Apostles, 
the rigid Franciscans, the brethren of the free spirit (of whom we shall 
speak hereafter,) all embraced this sordid state of beggary; and though 
among these orders there was not only a wide difference, but even the 
greatest opposition, the Germans called them indiscriminately Beghards, 
from the miserable state which they had all embraced. Nor is this to 
be wondered at ; the character which they possessed in common was 
striking, while the sentiments and maxims that divided them escaped 
the observation of the multitude. 

But the word Beghard acquired a second, and anew signification, in 
this century, being employed, as we have already observed, to signify 
a person who prayed with uncommon frequency, and who distinguished 
himself from those about him by an extraordinary appearance of piety. 
The force of this term, in its new signification, is the same with that of 
the word Methodist, which is at present the denomination of a certain 
sect of fanatics in Great- Britain. Such, therefore, as departed from the 
manner of living that was usual among their fellow-citizens, and distin- 
guished themselves by the gravity of their aspect and the austerity of 
(heir manners, were comprehended under the general denomination of 
Beghards and Beguttes in Germany, and of Beguins and Beguines in 
France. These terms, as we could show by many examples, compre- 



The perfect lived upon alms, abstained from wedlock, and 
had no fixed habitations. The imperfect, on the contrary 
had their houses, wives, and possessions, and were en- 
gaged, like the rest of their fellow-citizens, in the various 
affairs of life. 1 " 

XLI. We must not confound these Beguins and 
Beguines, who derived their origin from an austere 
branch of the Franciscan order, with the German and 
Belgic Beguines, who crept out of their obscurity in this 
century, and multiplied prodigiously in a very short 
time. c Their origin was of earlier date than this century ; 



hended at first even the monks and nuns ; but, in process of time, they 
were confined to those who formed a sort of intermediate order between 
the monks and citizens, and who resembled the former in the manner of 
living, without assuming their name or contracting their obligations. 
The Tertiaries, therefore, or half-monks of the Dominican, Franciscan, 
and, in general, of all the religious orders, were called Beghards ; for 
though, as lay-citizens, they belonged to the body politic, yet they dis- 
tinguished themselves by their monkish dispositions, and their profession 
of extraordinary piety and sanctity of manners. The fraternity of 
weavers, the Brethren of St. Alexius, the followers of Gerard the Great, 
in a word, all who pretended to an uncommon degree of sanctity and 
devotion, were called Beghards, although they procured the necessaries 
of life by honest industry, without having recourse to the sordid trade 
of begging. 

The denominations, therefore, of Beghards, Beguttes, Beguins, and 
Beguines, are rather honourable than otherwise, when we consider their 
origin ; and they are mentioned as such, in several records and deeds of 
this century, whose authority is most respectable, particularly in the Tes- 
tament of St. Louis, king of France. But, in the sequel, these terms 
lost gradually, as the case often happens, their primitive signification, 
and became marks of infamy and derision. For, among these religious 
beggars and these sanctimonious pretenders to extraordinary piety, there 
were many, whose piety was nothing more than the most senseless su- 
perstition ; many, also, whose austere devotion was accompanied with 
opinions of a corrupt nature, entirely opposite to the doctrine of die 
church ; and (what was still more horrible) many artful hypocrites, who, 
under the mask of religion, concealed the most abominable principles, 
and committed the most enormous crimes. These were the fools and 
knaves who brought the denomination of Beghard into disrepute, and 
rendered it both ridiculous and infamous ; so that it was only employed 
to signify idiots, heretics, or hypocrites. The denomination of Lollards, 
of which sect we shall soon have occasion to speak, met with the same 
fate, and was rendered contemptible by the persons who masked their 
iniquity under that specious title. 

a See the Acta Inquis. Tolos. published by Limborch, p. 298, 302, &c. 
Among the various passages of ancient writers, which tend to illustrate 
the history of the Fratricelli and Beguins, I shall quote only one, which 
is to be found in Jordan's Chronicon, published by Muratori, in his 
Antiq. Ital. medii JEvi, torn. iv. p. 1020, and confirms almost every thing 
we have said upon that head; anno 1294. " Petrus de Macerata et 
Petrus de Forosempronio apostata; fuerunt ordinis Minorum et hseretici. 
His petentibus eremitice vivere, ut regulam B. Francisci ad literam 
servare possent; quibus plures Apostatae adhoeserunt, qui statum com- 
munitatis damnabant et declarationes regulre, et vocabant se Fratres S. 
Francisci (he ought to have said Frdtricellos) Saeculares, (i.e. the Ter- 
tiaries, who were the friends and associates of the Fratricelli, without 
quitting, however, their secular state, or entering into the monastic or- 
der;) Saeculares autem vocarunt Bizocios aut Fratricellos vel Bocasotos." 
Jordan, however, errs in affirming, that the Saeculares were called Fra- 
tricelli; for the latter name belonged only to the true monks of St. Fran- 
cis, and not to the Tertiaries. The other circumstances of this account 
are exact, and show that the more austere professors of the Franciscan 
rule were divided into two classes, namely, friars and seculars, and that 
the latter were called Bizochi. " Ii dogmatizabant, quod nuilus sum- 
mus pontifex regulam B. Francisci declarare potuit. ilei.l, quod ange- 
lus abstulit a Nicolao tertio papatus auctoritatem . . . Et quod ipsi soli 
sunt in via Dei et vera ecclesia," &c. 

t This division is mentioned, or supposed by several authors, and 
more especially in the Acta Inquisit. Tolosanee, p. 303, &c. 

° In the seventeenth century, there was a great debate carried on in 
the Netherlands on this subject. In the course of this controversy it was 
proved, by the most authentic and unexceptionable records and diplomas, 
that, so early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries, there had been 
several societies of Beguines established in Holland and Flanders. It 
is true, that no more than three of these authentic acts were produced; 
the first was drawn up in 10G5, the second in 1129, the third in 1151 ; and 
they were all three drawn up at Vilvorden by the Beguines. See Aub. 
Miraeus, Opera Diplomatico-historica, torn. ii. c. xxvi. p. 94S, and torn, 
iii. p. G23.— Erycius Puteanus, de. Beghinarum apud Belgas Instituto. 
This treatise of Puteanus is to be found with another of the same au- 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



31 d 



but it was only now that they acquired a name, and made 
a noise in the world. Their primitive establishment \va=. 
undoubtedly, the effect of virtuous dispositions and upright 
intentions. A certain number of pious women, both 
virgins and widows, in order to maintain their integrity, 
and preserve their principles from the contagion of a 
vicious and corrupt age. formed themselves into societies, 
each of which had a fixed place of residence, and lived 
under the inspection and government of a female head. 
Here they divided their time between exercises of devotion, 
and works of honest industry, reserving to themselves the 
liberty of entering into the state of matrimony, as also of 
quitting the convent, whenever they thought proper. And 
as all those among the female sex. who made extraordina- 
ry professions of piety and devotion, were distinguished by 
the title of Beguines, i. e. persons who were uncommonly 
assiduous in prayer.) that title was given to the women of 
whom we are now speaking. 1 The first regular society 
of this kind that we read of, was formed at Nivelle in 
Brabant, in 1226 ; b and it was followed by so many 
institutions of a like nature in France. Germany. Holland. 
and Flanders, that, toward the middle of the thirteenth 
century, there was scarcely a city of any note, that had 
not its beguinage, or vineyard, as it was sometimes 
called in conformity to the style of the Song of Songs.' 
All these female societies were not governed by the same 
laws ; but, in the greatest part of them, the hours that 
were not devoted to prayer, meditation, or other religious 
exercises, were employed in weaving, embroidering, and 
other manual labours. The poor, sick, and disabled 
Beguines, were supported by the pious liberality of such 
opulent persons as were friends to the order. 

XLIl. This female institution was soon imitated in 
Flanders by the other sex ; and considerable numbers of 
unmarried men, both bachelors and widowers, formed 
themselves into communities of the same kind with those 
of the Beguines, under the inspection and government of 
a certain chief, and with the same religious views and 
purposes ; reserving to themselves, however, the liberty of 
returning to their former mode of life. d These pious 
persons were, in the style of this age, called Beghards, 
and (by a corruption of that term usual among the 
Flemish and Dutch) Bogards ; from others they received 
the denomination of Lollards : in France they were dis- 
tinguished at first by that of Boris Valets, or Bons 
Garcons, and afterwards by that of Beguins : they 

thor, and upon the same subject, in a -work entitled Josephi Geldolplii a 
Ryckel Vita S. Beggs, cum Adnotationibus, p. 65 — 2-27. Duaci, 1631. 
.Now, though we grant that those writers have not fallen into an error 
who place the rise of the Beguines in the twelfth or thirteenth century, 
yet the small number of authentic records, which they have to produce 
in favour of their antiquity, is an incontestable proof of the obscurity in 
which they lay concealed before the time in which these authors placed 
their origin, and may render it almost probable, that the only convent of 
Beguines, that existed before the thirteenth century, wasthatof Vilvorden. 
* All the Begharls and Beguines that yet remiin in the Netherlands, 
where their convents have almost entirely changed their ancient and primi- 
tive form, affirm unanimously, that both their name and institution de- 
rive their origin from St. Begghe, duchess of Brabant, and daughter of 
Pepin, mayor of th a palace of the king of Austrasia, who lived in the 
seventh century. This lady, therefore, they consider as their patroness, 
and honour her as a kind of tutelar divinity with the deepest sentiments 
of veneration and respect. See Jos. Geld. a. Ryckel, Vit S. Beggce. a 
work of great bulk and little merit, and full of the most silly and in- 
sipid fables. — Those who are not well-wishers to the cause of the Be- 
guines, adopt a quite different account of their origin, which they de- 
duce from Lambert le Begue, a priest and native of Liege, who lived in 
the twelfth century, and was much esteemed for his eminent piety. The 
Larned Peter Coens, canon of Antwerp, has defended this opinion with 



were also styled the Fraternity of Weavers, from the 
trade which the greatest part of them exercised. The 
first Beghard society seems to have been that which was 
established at Antwerp in 1228 ; and this establishment 
was followed by many similar associations in Germany, 
France, Holland, and Flanders, though, after all then- 
success, their congregations were less numerous than those 
of the Beguines/ It is worthy of observation, that the 
Roman pontiffs never honoured the societies of the 
Beghards and Beguines with their solemn or explicit 
approbation, or confirmed their establishments by the seal 
of their authority. They, however, granted them a full 
toleration, and even defended them often against the 
stratagems and violence of their enemies, who were many 
in number. This appears by the edicts in favour of the 
Beghards, which the pontiffs granted in compliance with 
the solicitations of many illustrious personages, who 
wished well to that society. It did not. however, continue 
always to flourish. The greatest part cf the convents, 
both of the Besrhards and Beguines, are now either 
demolished, or converted to other uses. In Flanders, 
indeed, a considerable number of the latter still subsist, 
but few of the former are to be found in any country. 

XLIII. After the accounts hitherto given of the rulers 
of the church, and of the religious orders that were 
instituted or became famous during this century, it will 
not be improper to conclude this chapter, by mentioning 
briefly the Greek and Eatin writers, who. during the 
same period, acquired fame by their learned productions. 
The most eminent among the Greeks were, 

Nicetas Acominatus, who composed a work, entitled the 
History and Treasure of the Orthodox Faith ; 

Germanus, the Grecian patriarch, of whom we have yet 
extant, among other productions of less note, a Book against 
the Latins, and an Exposition of the Greek Liturgy ; 

Theodorus Lascaris. who left behind him several 
treatises upon various subjects of a religious nature, and 
who also entered the lists against the Latins, which was 
the reigning passion among such of the Greeks as were 
endowed with tolerable parts, and were desirous of show- 
ing their zeal for the honour of their nation : 

Nicephorus Blemmida, who employed his talents in the 
salutary work of healing the divisions between the Greeks 
and Latins ; 

Arsenius, whose Synopsis of the Canon Law of the 
Greeks is far from being contemptible : 

more erudition than any other writer, in his Disquisitio Historica de 
Origine Beghir_irum et Beghinagiorum in Belgio. Leod. 1672. 

T^p b Other historians sav, in 1207. 

r See Matth. Paris, Histo'r. Major, ad An. 1243 and 1250, p. 540, 696. 
— Thomas Cantipratensis in Bono L niversali de Apibus, lib. ii. cap. li. 
— Pet. de Herenthal, in his Annals, from which we have a very remark- 
able passage cited by Jos. Geld, a Ryckel, in his Observationes ad Yi- 
tam, S. Bessa. sect, exevi. The origin and charters of the convents 
of Beguines, that were founded during this and the following century 
in Holland and Flanders, are treated in an ample manner by Aub Mi- 
ranis, in his Opera Historico-diplomatica, John Bapt. Gramma} e, iu 
his Antiquitates Belgica, Anton. Sanders, in his Brabar.tia et Flandria 
illustrata, and by other writers of the Beleic history. 

i Matth. Paris, Hist. Major, ad An. 1253. 

* See Ryckelii Vita S. Beggee, p. 635. — Ant. Sanderi Flandria Il- 
lustrata. lib. iii. c. xvi. Jo. Bapt. Grammaye's Antiquit. Fland. p. 22. — 
Aub. Miraei Opera Diplom. Hist torn. iii. c. dxviii. — Helyot, Hist, des 
Ordres, torn. vh.p. 248, who is nevertheless chargeable with many errors. 
— Gerardus Antoninus, Pater Minister (so the head of the order Is callt d 
in our times) Beghardorum Antwerpiensium. in Epistola ad Ryckiuia 
de Beghardorum origine et fatis, in Ryckelii Vita S. Begga:, p. 48!). 
This author, indeed, from a spirit of partiality to his order, conceals the 
truth designedly in various places. 



320 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Part II. 



Georgius Acropolita, who acquired a high degree of 
renown, not only by his historical writings, but also by 
the transactions and negotiations in which he was em- 
ployed by the emperor Michael ; 

Johannas Beccus or Veccus, who involved himself in 
much trouble, and excited the odium of many, by defend- 
ing the cause of the Latins against his own nation with 
too much zeal ; 

George Metochita, and ConstantineMeliteniota,who era- 
7 oyed, without success, their most earnest efforts to bring 
about a reconciliation between the Greeks and Latins ; 

George Pachymeres, who acquired reputation by his 
commentary upon Dionysius, the pretended chief of the 
mystics, and by a history which he composed of his own 
time ; and, 

George the Cyprian, whose hatred of the Latins, and 
warm opposition to Veccus above-mentioned, rendered 
him more famous than all his other productions. 11 

XLIV. The prodigious number of Latin writers that 
appeared in this century, renders it impossible for us to 
mention them all ; we shall therefore confine our account 
to those among them, who were the most eminent, and 
whose theological writings demand most frequently our 
notice in the course of this history. Such were, 

Joachim, abbot of Flora in Calabria, who was a man 
of mean parts and of a weak judgment, full of enthusias- 
tic and visionary notions, but was esteemed for his piety 
and supposed knowledge, and was even considered, during 
his life and after his death, by the miserable and blinded 
multitude, as a prophet sent from above. The pretended 
prophecies of this silly fanatic are abundantly known, and 
have been frequently published ; b 

Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, who wrote 
commentaries upon the greatest part of the books of 
Scripture ; c 

Francis, the founder of the famous society of Friars- 
minors, or Franciscans, whose writings were designed to 
touch the heart, and excite pious and devout sentiments, 
but discover little genius, and less judgment. 

Alan de l'lsle, a logician, who made no mean figure 
among the disputatious tribe ; who applied himself also 
to the study of chemistry, and published several moral 
discourses, in which are many wise and useful exhorta- 
tions and precepts; 11 

Jacobus de Vitriaco, who acquired a name by his 
Oriental History ; and Jacobus de Voragine, whose 
History of the Lombards' 1 was received with applause. 

The writers of this century, who obtained the greatest 

1 For a more ample account of all these writers, the reader may con- 
sult the Bibliotheca Grasca of Fabricius. 

b The life of Joachim was written in Italian by Gregory di Lauro, and 
published at Naples in ltj60. The first edition of his prophecies appear- 
ed at Venice, in 1517; and it was followed by several new editions, to 
satisfy the curiosity of the populace, great and small. 

Jj" c Langton was a learned and polite author for the age in which 
he lived. To him we are indebted for the division of the Bible into 
chapters. He wrote commentaries upon all the books of the Old Tes- 
tament, and upon St. Paul's Epistles. 

J Several of the name of Alan lived in this century, who have been 
strangely confounded, both by ancient and modern writers. See Jaq. le 
Bceuf, Memoircs sur l'Hist. d'Auxerre, torn. i. and Dissert, sur l'Hist. 
Civil, et Eccles. de Paris, torn. ii. 

« Jac. Echardi Scriptor. Domin. t. i. — Bollandi Prref. ad Acta Sanetor. 

t For an account of Albert, see Echard. Script. Dom. torn. i. — For an 
account of Thomas Aquinas, who was called the Angel of the Scholas- 
tics among other splendid titles, see the Acta Sanctorum, torn. i. and 
Ant. Touron, Vie de St. Thomas, Paris, 1737. — We have also a cir- 
cumstantial relation of whatever concerns the life, writings, and ex- 



renown on account of their laborious researches in what 
was called philosophical or dialectical theology, were 
Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventura, 
who respectively possessed an inquisitive turn of mind, 
and a sublime and penetrating genius, accompanied with 
an uncommon talent of exploring the most hidden truths, 
and treating with facility the most abstruse subjects, 
though they are all chargeable with errors and reveries 
that do little honour to their memories/ The other 
writers, who trod the same intricate paths of metaphysical 
divinity, were many in number, and several of them w r ere 
justly admired, though much inferior in renown to the 
celebrated triumvirate now mentioned ; such were Alex- 
ander Hales, the interpreter of Aristotle, William of Paris.* 
Robert Capito, h Thomas Cantipratensis, John of Peckham, 
William Durand, Roger Bacon, i Richard Middleton, Giles 
de Columna, Armand de Bello-Visu, and several others. 

Hugo de St. Caro gained much applause by his Con- 
cordance of the Hoby Bible. 1 ' 

Guillaume de St. Amour carried on with great spirit 
and resolution, but with little success, a literary and 
theological war against those friars who looked upon 
begging as a mark of sanctity. 

Humbert de Romanis drew up a system of rules and 
precepts, with a view of subjecting to a better regulation 
the lives and manners of the monastic orders. 

William Perald arose in this century to a high degree 
of literary renown, in consequence of a system of morals he 
published under the title of Summa Virtutum et Vitiorum.i 

Raymond Martin yet survives the oblivion that has 
covered many of his contemporaries ; and his Pugio Fidei, 
or Sword of Faith, which he drew against the Jews and 
Saracens, has escaped the ruins of time. 

John of Paris deserves an eminent rank among the glo- 
rious defenders of truth, liberty, and justice, since he main- 
tained the authority of the civil powers, and the majesty 
of kings and princes, against the ambitious stratagems 
and usurpations of the Roman pontiffs, and declared openly 
his opposition to the opinion that was commonly adopted 
with respect to the sacrament of the Lord's supper, and 
the presence of Christ in that holy ordinance." 1 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church, 
daring this Century. 
I. However numerous and deplorable were the cor- 
ruptions and superstitious abuses which had hitherto 

reigned in the church, and deformed the beautiful simpli- 

— +• — ■ 

ploits of Bonaventura, the tutelar saint of the Lyonnois, in France, in 
the two following books, viz. Colonia's Histoire Literaire de la Villede 
Lyon, torn. ii. and the Histoire de la Vie et du Culte de S. Bcnaven- 
ture, par un Reliarieux Cordelier. 

e See the Gallia Christiana, published by the Benedictines, torn. vii. 

h Anthony Wood has given an ample account of Robert Capito, in 
his Antiquitat. Oxoniens. torn. i. 

f^> i We are surprised to find Roger Bacon thrust here into a crowd 
of vulgar literati, since that great man, whose astonishing genius and 
universal learning have already been noticed, was in every respect su- 
perior to Albert and Bonaventura, two of the heroes of Dr. Mosheim'i 
triumvirate. 

f^> k Hugo de St. Caro, or St. Cher, composed also a very learned 
collection of the various readings of the Hebrew, Greek, and Latin 
manuscripts of the Bible. This work, which he entitled Correctoriuin 
Biblia;, is preserved in manuscript in the Sorbonne Library. We must 
not forget to observe also, that his Concordance is the first that ever was 
compiled. 

i See Colonia, Histoire Literaire de la Ville de Lyon, torn. n. p. 322. 

■ We may learn his opinion concerning the eucharist from his trea- 



Chap. Ill 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



321 



city of the Gospel, they were nevertheless increased in 
this century, instead of being reformed ; and the religion 
of Christ continued to suffer under the growing tyranny 
of fanaticism and superstition. The progress of reason 
tnd of truth was retarded among the Greeks and Orien- 
tals, by their immoderate aversion to the Latins, their 
blind admiration of whatever bore the stamp of antiquity, 
the indolence of their bishops, the stupidity of their clergy, 
and the calamities of the times. Among the Latins, many 
concurring causes united to augment the darkness of that 
cloud which had already been cast over the divine lustre 
of genuine Christianity. On the one hand, the Roman 
pontiffs could not bear the thought of any thing that might 
have even -the remotest tendency to diminish their autho- 
rity, or to encroach upon their prerogatives ; and there- 
fore they laboured assiduously to keep the multitude in the 
dark, and to blast every attempt that was made toward a 
reformation in the doctrine or discipline of the church. 
On the other hand, the school divines, among whom the 
Dominican and Franciscan monks made the greatest 
figure on account of their unintelligible jargon and subtlety, 
shed perplexity and darkness over the plain truths of re- 
ligion by their intricate distinctions and endless divisions, 
and by that cavilling, quibbling, disputatious spirit, which 
is the mortal enemy both of truth and virtue. It is true 
that these scholastic doctors were not all equally charge- 
able with corrupting the truth ; the most enormous and 
criminal corrupters of Christianity were those who led the 
multitude into the two following abominable errors : that 
it was in the power of man to perform, if he wished, a 
more perfect obedience than God required ; and that the 
whole of religion consisted in an external air of gravity, 
and in certain composed bodily gestures. 

II. It will be easy to confirm this general account of 
the state of religion by particular facts. In the fourth La- 
teran council, convoked by Innocent III., in 1215, and at 
which an extraordinary number of ecclesiastics were as- 
sembled, a that imperious pontiff, without deigning to con- 
sult any body, published no less than seventy laws or 
decrees, by which not only the authority of the popes and 
the power of the clergy were confirmed and extended, but 
also new doctrines, or articles of faith, were imposed 
upon Christians. Hitherto the opinions of the Christian 
doctors, concerning the manner in which the body and 
blood of Christ were present in the eucharist, were ex- 
tremely different ; nor had the church determined, by any 
dear and positive decree, the sentiment that was to be 
embraced in relation to that important matter. It was re- 
served for Innocent to put an end to the liberty, which 
every Christian had hitherto enjoyed, of interpreting this 
presence in the manner he thought most agreeable to the 
declarations of Scripture, and to decide in favour of the 
most absurd and monstrous doctrine that the phrensy of 
superstition was capable of inventing. This audacious 
pontiff pronounced the opinion, which is embraced at this 
day in the church of Rome with regard to that point, to 
be the only true and orthodox account of the matter ; and 
he had the honour of introducing and establishing the 

tise entitled Determinatio de S. Ccena, published at London, by the 
learned Dr. Allix, in 168u\— See also Eehardi Scriptor. Dominican, 
torn. i. p. 501. — Baluzii Vitae Pontif. Avenionens. torn. i. 

53T * At this council there were present 412 bishops, 800 abbots and 
priors, beside the ambassadors of almost all the European princes. 

«i See Edm. Albertinus, de Eucharistia, lib. iii. p. 9T2. 

No. XX VII. SI 



use of the term Transubstantiation, which was hitherto 
absolutely unknown. b The same pontiff placed, by his 
own authority, among the duties prescribed by the divine 
laws, that of auricular confession to a priest ; a confes- 
sion that implied not only a general acknowledgment, but 
also a particular enumeration of the sins and follies of the 
penitent. Before this period several doctors, indeed, looked 
upon this kind of confession as a duty inculcated by di- 
vine authority; but this opinion was not publicly received 
as the doctrine of the church ; for, though the confession 
of sin was justly deemed an essential duty, yet it was left 
to every Christian's choice, to make the confession men- 
tally to the Supreme Being, or to express it in words to a 
spiritual confidant and director. These two laws, which, 
by the authority of Innocent, were received as laws of 
God, and consequently adopted as laws of the church, oc- 
casioned a multitude of new injunctions and rites, of which 
not even the smallest traces are to be found in the sacred 
writings, or in the apostolic and primitive ages ; and which 
weremuchmoreadaptedto establishand extend the reign of 
superstition, than to open the eyes of the blinded multitude 
upon the enormous abuses of which it had been the source 
III. There is nothing that will contribute more to con 
vince us of the miserable state of religion in this century, 
and of the phrensy that prevailed in the devotion of these, 
unhappy times, than the rise of the sect called Flagellan- 
tes, or Whippers, which sprang up in Italy, in 1260, and 
thence diffused itself through almost all the countries of 
Europe. The societies that embraced this new discipline, 
presented the most hideous and shocking spectacle that 
can well be conceived ; multitudes, composed of persona 
of both sexes, and of all ranks and ages, ran through the 
public places of the most populous cities, and also through 
the fields and deserts, with whips in their hands, lashing 
their naked bodies with astonishing severity, filling the 
air with their wild shrieks, and beholding the firmament 
with an air of distraction, ferocity, and horror ; and all this 
with a view to obtain the divine mercy for themselves and 
others, by their voluntary mortification and penance. d 
This method of appeasing the Deity was perfectly con- 
formable to the notions of religion that generally prevailed 
in this century ; nor did these fanatical Flagellators do 
any thing more, in this extravagant discipline, than prac- 
tise the lessons which they had received from the monks, 
especially from the mendicant fanatics. Hence they at- 
tracted the esteem and veneration, not only of the popu- 
lace, but also of their rulers, and were honoured and revered 
by all ranks and orders, on account of their extraordinary 
sanctity and virtue. Their sect, however, did not always 
continue in the same high degree of credit and reputation , 
for. though the primitive whippets were exemplary in point 
of morals, yet their societies were augmented, as might na- 
turally be expected, by a turbulent and furious rabble, 
many of whom were infected with the most ridiculous and 
even impious opinions. Hence both the emperors and 
pontiffs thought proper to put an end to this religious 
phrensy, by declaring all devout flagellation contrary to 
the divine law, and prejudicial to the soul's eternal interests. 

c See the book of the learned Daille, concerning Auricular Confession. 

«• Christ. Sehotgenii Historia Flagellantium. — Jaques Boileau, His- 
toire des Flagellans, chap. ix. We have also a lively picture of this 
fanatical discipline of the Whippers, exhibited in Martennc's Voyage 
Literaire de deux Benedictins, torn ii. with which the reader may 
compare Muratori's Autiq. Ital. medn iEvi, torn. vi. 



32a 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



Att 



. IV". The Christian interpreters and commentators of this 
century differ very little from those of the preceding times. 
The greatest part of them pretended to draw from the 
depths of truth, (or rather of their imaginations,) what they 
called the internal juice and marrow of the Scriptures, 
i. e. their hidden and mysterious sense ; and this they did 
with so little dexterity, so little plausibility and invention, 
that the greater part of their explications must appear in- 
sipid and nauseous to such as are not entirely destitute of 
judgment and taste. If our readers be desirous of a proof 
of the justice of this censure, or curious to try the extent 
of their patience, they have only to peruse the explications 
that have been given by Archbishop Langton, Hugh de 
St. Cher, and Antony of Padua, of the various books of 
the Old and New Testament. The mystic doctors carried 
this visionary method of interpreting Scripture to the great- 
est height, and displayed the most laborious industry, or 
rather the most egregious folly, in searching for mysteries, 
where reason and common sense could find nothing but 
plain and evident truths. They were too penetrating 
and quick-sighted not to perceive clearly in the holy 
scriptures all those doctrines that were agreeable to their 
idle and fantastic system. Nor were their adversaries, the 
schoolmen, entirely averse to this arbitrary and fanciful 
manner of interpretation, though their principal industry 
was employed rather in collecting the explications given 
by the ancient doctors, than in inventing new ones, as ap- 
pears from the writings of Alexander Hales, William Alver- 
nus, and Thomas Aquinas himself. We must not, however, 
omit observing, that the scholastic doctors in general, and 
more especially these now mentioned, had recourse often 
to the subtleties of logic and metaphysics, to assist them in 
their explications of the sacred writings. To facilitate the 
study and interpretation of these divine books, Hugh de 
St. Cher composed his Concordance," and the Dominicans, 
under the eye of their supreme chief, the learned Jordan, 
gave a new edition of the Latin translation of the Bible, 
carefully revised and corrected from the ancient copies. b 
The Greeks contributed nothing that deserves attention 
toward the illustration of the Scriptures ; the greatest part 
of which were expounded with great learning by Gregory 
Abulpharaj, that celebrated Syrian, whose erudition was 
famous throughout the east, and whom we have already 
had occasion to mention. 

V. Systems of theology and ethics were multiplied ex- 
ceedingly in this century ; and of those writers, who treated 
of the divine perfections and worship and of the practical 
rules of virtue and obedience, the number is too great to 
permit specification. All such as were endowed with any 
considerable degree of genius and eloquence, employed 
their labours upon these noble branches of sacred science, 
more especially the academical and public teachers, among 
whom the Dominicans and Franciscans held the most 
eminent rank. It is, indeed, unnecessary to mention the 
names, or enumerate the productions of these doctors, since 
whoever is acquainted with the characters and writings of 
Albert the Great, and Thomas Aquinas, will know every 
thing that is worthy of note in the rest, who were no more 



*■ Echardi Scriptor. Orel. Pra'dicator. torn. i. p. 194. 

*> Rich. Simon, Crit. de la Bib. des Aut. Ecc. par M. Du-Pin,t. i.p. 341. 

Jos. Sim. Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 177. 
a See Jo. Launoii Traditio Ecclesfe circa Simoniam, p. 290. 
See Natalis Alexander, Histor. Eccles. Sasc. xiii. p. 391. — Echard 
and Ciuetif, Scriptor. Ordin. Prajdicaior. Ssec. xiii. torn. i. p. 293. — Ant. 
TfcJ'on, Vie de St. Thomas, p. G04. 



than their echoes. The latter of these truly great men, 
commonly called the Angel of the Schools, or the Angelic 
Doctor, sat unrivalled at the head of the divines of this 
century, and deservedly obtained the principal place among 
those who digested the doctrines of Christianity into a re- 
gular system, and illustrated and explained them in a scien- 
tific manner. For no sooner had his system, or sum of 
theology and morals, seen the light, than it was received 
almost universally with the highest applause, placed in 
the same rank with Lombard's famous Book of Senten- 
ces, and admitted as the standard of truth, and the great 
rule according to which the public teachers formed their 
plans of instruction, and the youth their methods of study: 
Some writers, indeed, have denied that Thomas was the 
author of the celebrated system that bears his name ; d but 
the reasons which they allege in support of this notion are 
destitute of evidence and solidity. e 

VI. The greatest part of these doctors followed Aristotle 
as their model, and made use of the logical and metaphy- 
sical principles of that subtle philosopher, in illustrating 
the doctrines of Christianity, and removing the difficulties 
with which some of them were attended. In their 
philosophical explications of the more sublime truths of 
that divine religion, they followed the hypothesis of the 
Realists,' which sect, in this century, was much more 
numerous and flourishing than that of the Nominalists, 
on account of the lustre and credit it derived from the 
authority of Thomas Aquinas and Albert, its learned and 
venerable patrons. Yet, notwithstanding all the subtlety 
and penetration of these irrefragable, seraphic, and angelic 
doctors, as they were usually styled, they often appeared 
wiser in their own conceit, than they were in reality, and 
frequently did little more than involve in greater obscurity 
the doctrines which they pretended to place in the clearest 
light. For, not to mention the ridiculous oddity of many 
of their expressions, the hideous barbarity of their style, 
and their extravagant and presumptuous desire of prying 
into matters that infinitely surpass the comprehension of 
short-sighted mortals, they were chargeable with defects 
in their manner of reasoning, which every true philosopher 
will, of ail others, be most careful to avoid. For they 
neither defined their terms accurately, (and hence arose 
innumerable disputes merely about words,) nor did they 
divide their subjects with perspicuity and precision ; and 
hence they generally treated it in a confused and un- 
satisfactory manner. The great Angelic Doctor himself, 
notwithstanding his boasted method, was defective in these 
respects ; his definitions are often vague, or obscure, and 
his plans or divisions, though full of art, are frequently 
destitute of clearness and proportion. 

VII. The method of investigating divine tmth by 
reason and philosophy remarkably prevailed, and was 
followed with such ardour, that the number of those who, 
in conformity with the example of the ancient doctors, 
drew their systems of theology from the holy scriptures 
and the writings of the fathers, and who acquired on that 
account the name of Biblicists,' diminished from day to 
day. It is true, indeed, that several persons of eminent 



f In the oriffinal we find Positivi in the margin, which is manifestly a 
fault ; since the Positivi were quite opposite, in their method of teach- 
ing, to the schoolmen, and were the same with the Biblici mentioned in 
the following section. See above, Cent. xii. Part ii. Ch. iii. sect. viii. 

g^r e In the margin of the original, instead of Biblicists, which we 
find in the text, Dr. Mosheim has written Seiitentiarii, which is un- 
doubtedly an oversight. The Sententiarii, or followers of Peter Lorn- 



Chap. III. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



323 



piety," and even some of the Roman pontiffs,* exhorted 
with great seriousness and warmth the scholastic divines, 
and more especially those of the university of Paris, to 
change their method of teaching theology, and (relinquish- 
ing their philosophical abstraction and subtlety) to deduce 
the sublime science of salvation from the holy scriptures 
with that purity and simplicity with which it was deliver- 
ed by the inspired writers. But these admonitions and 
exhortations were without effect ; the evil was too in- 
veterate to admit a speedy remedy, and the passion for 
logic and metaphysics had become so general and so 
violent, that neither remonstrances nor arguments could 
check its presumption or allay its ardour. In justice how- 



ever to the scholastic doctors, it. is necessarv 



to observe, 



that they did not neglect the dictates of the Gospel or the 
authority of tradition, though it is sufficiently proved, by 
what they drew from these two sources, that they had 
studied neither with much attention or application of 
mind. c And it is moreover certain, that, in process of 
time, they committed to others the care of consulting the 
sources now mentioned, and reserved to themselves the 
much-respected province of philosophy, and the intricate 
mazes of dialectical chicane. And, indeed, independent 
of their philosophical vanity, we may assign another 
reason for this method of proceeding, drawn from the 
nature of their profession, and the circumstances in which 
they were placed. For the greatest part of these subtle 
doctors were Dominican or Franciscan friars ; and, as the 
monks of these orders had no possessions, not even libra- 
ries, and led, besides, wandering and itinerant lives, such 
of them as were ambitious of literary fame, and of the 
honours of authorship, were, for the most part, obliged to 
draw their materials from their own genius and memory, 
being destitute of all other succours. 

"V III. The opinions which these philosophical divines 
instilled into the minds of the youth, appeared to the 
votaries of the ancient fathers highly dangerous and even 
pernicious ; and hence they used their utmost efforts to 
stop the progress of these opinions, and to diminish the 
credit and influence of their authors. Nor was their 
opposition at all ill-grounded ; for the subtle doctors of 
the school not only explained the mysteries of religion in 
a manner conformable to the principles of their pre- 
sumptuous logic, and modified them according to the 
dictates of their imperfect reason, but also promoted the 
most impious sentiments and tenets concerning the Su- 
preme Being, the material world, the origin of the 
universe, and the nature of the soul. And when it was 
objected to these sentiments and tenets, that they were in 
direct contradiction to the genius of Christianity, and to 
the express doctrines of Scripture, these scholastic quib- 
blers had recourse, for a reply, or rather for a method of 
escape, to that perfidious distinction which has been fre- 
quently employed by modern deists, — that these tenets 



bard, who is considered as die father of the scholastic philosophy, are 
•o be placed in the same class with the philosophical divines, mentioned 
n the preceding section, and were very different from the Biblici, both 
;n their manner of thinking and teaching. 

"See Du Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. p. 9, 129, ISO.— Ant. 
Wood, Antiq. Oxoniens. torn. i. p. 91. 

b See the famous epistle of Gregory IX. to the professors in the uni- 
versity of Paris, published in Du Boulay 's Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iii. 
The pontiff concludes that remarkable epistle with the following words: 
" Mandamus et stride praecipimus, quatenus sine fermento mundanae 
•cientiae doceatis theologicam puritatem, non adulterantes verbum Dei 
l>hnosophorum figmentis . . . sed, contend terminis a patribus institutis, 



were philosophically true, and conformable to right reason, 
but that they were, indeed, theologically false, and con- 
trary to the orthodox faith. This produced an open war 
between the Biblicists and the scholastic doctors ; which 
was carried on with great warmth throughout the whole 
course of this century, particularly in the universities ot 
Oxford and Paris, where we find the former loading the 
latter with the heaviest reproaches in their public acts 
and in their polemic writings, and accusing them of cor- 
rupting the doctrines of the Gospel, both in their public 
lessons, and in their private discoursed Even St. Thomas 
himself was accused of holding opinions contrary to the 
truth ; his orthodoxy, at least, was looked upon as 
extremely dubious by many of the Parisian doctors. e He 
accordingly saw a formidable scene of opposition arising 
against him, but had the good fortune to ward off the 
storm, and to escape untouched. Others, whose authority 
was less extensive, and whose names were less respect- 
able, were treated with greater severity. The living were 
obliged to confess publicly their errors ; and the memories 
of the dead, who had persevered in them to the last, were 
branded with infamy. 

IX. But the most formidable adversaries the scholastic 
doctors had to encounter were the Mystics, who, rejecting 
every thing that bore the least resemblance to argumen- 
tation or dispute about matters of doctrine and opinion, 
confined their endeavours to the advancement of inward 
piety, and the propagation of devout and tender feelings, 
and thus acquired the highest degree of popularity. The 
people, who are much more affected with what touches 
their passions, than with what is only addressed to their 
reason, were attached to the Mystics in the warmest 
manner ; and this gave such weight to the reproaches 
and invectives Avhich the}* threw out against the school- 
men, that the latter thought it more prudent to disarm 
these favourites of the multitude by mild and submissive 
measures, than to return their reproaches with indigna- 
tion and bitterness. They accordingly set themselves to 
flatter the Mystics, and not only extolled their sentimental 
! system, but employed their pens in illustrating and 
. defending it ; they even associated it with the scholastic 
! philosophy, though they were as different from each other 
as any two things could be. It is well known that Bona- 
| ventura, Albert the Great, Robert Capito, and Thomas 
| Aquinas, contributed to this reconciliation between mysli- 
! cism and dialectics by their learned labours, and even 
! went so far as to write commentaries upon Dionysius, the 
chief of the Mystics, whom these subtle doctors probably 
looked upon with a secret, contempt. 

X Both the schoolmen and Mystics of this century 

treated, in their writings, of the obligations of morality, 

the duties of the Christian fife, and of the means that 

; were most adapted to preserve or deliver the soul from the 

! servitude and contagion of vice ; but their methods of 

: mentes auditonun vestrorum fructu crelestis eloquii saginetis, ut hauri- 
ant de fontibus Salvatoris. : ' 

c Faydit, Alteration du Dogme Theologique par la Philosophic 
1 d'Aristote, p. 2S9. — Richard Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque des 
; Auteurs Eccles. par M. Du-Pin. torn. i. p. 170. 

<i See Matth. Paris, Histor. Major, p. 541. — Boulav, Hist. Acad. 
, Paris, torn. iii. p. 397, 430, &c 

* See J. Launoy, Histor. Gymnas. Navarreni, part iii. lib. iii. chap. 

! cxvi. torn. iv. op. part i. p. 485. — Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. 

p. 204. — Petri Zorni Opuscula Sacra, torn. i. p. 445. — R. Simon, Lew 

tres Choisies, torn. ii. p.2GG. — Echardi Scriptor. Ordin. Praedieator. torn. 

i. p. 435. 



324 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



handling these important subjects were, as may be easily 
conceived, entirely different. We may form an idea of 
mystical morality from the observations of George. Pachy- 
meres, upon the Writings of Dionysius, and from the 
Spiritual Institutes, or Abridgment of Mystic Theology, 
composed by Humbert de Romanis, of which productions 
the former was written in Greek, and the second in Latin. 
As to the scholastic moralists, they were principally 
employed in defining the nature of virtue and vice in 
general, and the characters of the various virtues and 
vices in particular ; and hence a prodigious number 
of sums, or systematic collections of virtues and vices, 
appeared in this century. The schoolmen divided 
the virtues into two classes. The first comprehended 
the moral virtues, which differ, in no respect, from 
those which Aristotle recommended to his disciples. The 
second contained the theological virtues, which, in con- 
sequence of what St. Paul says, (1 Corinth, xiii. 13,) 
they made to consist in faith, hope, and charity. In 
explaining and illustrating the nature of the virtues 
comprehended in these two classes, they seemed rather 
to have in view the pleasures of disputing, than the 
design of instructing ; and they exhausted all their 
subtlety in resolving difficulties which were of their 
own creation. Thomas Aquinas shone forth as a star 
of the first magnitude, though, like the others, he was 
often covered with impenetrable fogs. The second part 
of his famous sum was wholly employed in laying down 
the principles of morality, and in deducing and illustrating 
the various duties that result from them ; and this part 
of his learned labour has had the honour and misfortune 
of passing through the hands of a truly prodigious num- 
ber of commentators. 

XI. It is absolutely necessary to observe here, that the 
moral writers of this and the following centuries must be 
read with the utmost caution, and with a perpetual at- 
tention to this circumstance, that, though they employ 
the same terms that we find in the sacred writings, yet 
they use them in a quite different sense from that which 
they really bear in these divine books. They speak of 
justice, charity, faith, and holiness ; but, from the man- 
ner in which these virtues are illustrated by those quib- 
bling sophists, they differ much from the amiable and 
sublime duties, which Christ and his disciples inculcated 
under the same denominations. A single example will 
be sufficient to render this evident beyond contradiction. 
A pious and holy man, according to the sense annexed 
by our Saviour to these terms, is one who consecrates 
his affections and actions to the service of the Supreme 
Being, and accounts it his highest honour and felicity, as 
well as his indispensable duty, to obey his laws. But, 
in the style of the moral writers of this age, that person 
was pious and holy, who deprived himself of his pos- 
sessions to enrich the priesthood, to build churches, and 
found monasteries, and whose faith and obedience were 
bo implicitly enslaved to the imperious dictates of the Ro- 
man pont.ifls, that he believed and acted without exami- 
nation, as these lordly directors thought proper to pre- 

* Echard and Quetif apud Scriptores Ordinis Prsedicator. torn. i. 
sect. xiii. 

' Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Martini. — Pauli Colomesii His- 
pania Orient, p. 20!). 

* Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Delect. Argumentorum et Scrjptor. pro veritate 
Relig. Christian, p. 270. 



scribe. Nor were the ideas which these vriters enter- 
tained concerning justice, at all conformaole to the na- 
ture of that virtue, as it is described in the holy scrip- 
tures, since in tneir opinion it was lawful to injure, 
revile, torment, persecute, and even put to death, a he- 
retic, i. e. any person who refused to obey blindly the 
decrees of the pontiffs, or to believe all the absurdi- 
ties which they imposed upon the credulity of the mul- 
titude. 

XII. The writers of controversy in this century were 
more numerous than respectable. Nicetas Acominatus, 
who made a considerable figure among the Greeks, at- 
tacked ail the different sects in his work entitled The 
Treasure of the Orthodox Faith ; but he combated after 
the Grecian manner, and defended the cause which he 
had espoused, rather by the decrees of councils and the 
decisions of the fathers, than by the dictates of reason 
and the authority of Scripture. Raymond of Pennafort 
was one of the first among the Latins, who abandoned 
the unchristian method of converting infidels by the force 
of arms and the terrors of capital punishments, and whe 
undertook to vanquish the Jews and Saracens by reason 
and argument. 1 This engaged in the same controversy 
a considerable number of able disputants, who were ac 
quainted with the Hebrew and Arabic languages ; among 
whom Raymond Martini, the celebrated author of the 
Sword of Faith, b is unquestionably entitled to the first 
rank. Thomas Aquinas also appeared with dignity among 
the Christian champions ; and his book against the Gen- 
tiles' is far from being contemptible : nor ought we ta 
omit mentioning a learned book of Alan de l'lsle, which 
was designed to refute the objections both of Jews anG 
Pagans. 11 The writers, who handled other (more parti 
cular) branches of theological controversy, were far infe- 
rior to those now mentioned in genius and abilities ; and 
their works seemed less calculated to promote the truth, 
than to render their adversaries odious. 

XIII. The grand controversy between the Greek and 
Latin church, was still carried on ; and all the efforts 
that were made, during this century, to bring it to a con- 
clusion, proved ineffectual. Gregory IX. employed the 
ministry of the Franciscan monks to bring about an ac- 
commodation with the Greeks, and pursued with zeal 
this laudable purpose from the year 1232, to the end of 
his pontificate, but without the least appearance of suc- 
cess. 6 Innocent IV. embarked in the same undertaking, 
in 1247, and with that view sent John of Parma, with 
other Franciscan friars, to Nice ; while the Grecian pon- 
tiff came in person to Rome, and was declared legate 
of the apostolic see. f But these previous acts of mutual 
civility and respect, which excited the hopes of such as 
longed for the conclusion of these violent discords, did 
not terminate in the reconciliation that was expected. 
New incidents arose to blast the influence of these salu- 
tary measures, and the flame of dissension gained new 
vigour. Under the pontificate of Urban IV., however, the 
aspect of things changed for the better, and the negotia- 
tions for peace were renewed with such success, as pro- 



■i Liber contra T-^dssos et Paganos. 

• See Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. ii. p. 279, 296; and Echard, 
Scriptor. Ordin. Prajdicator. torn. i. p. 103, 911.— Add to these Matth 
Paris, Histor. Major, p. 386. 

f See Baluzii Miscellan. torn. vii. p. 370, 388, 393, 497.— Wadding 
Annal. Minor, torn. iii. and iv. 



Chap. IV. 



RITES AND CEREMONIES. 



325 



mised a speedy conclusion of these unhappy divisions ; 
for Michael Pafceologus had no sooner driven the Latins 
out of Constantinople, than he sent ambassadors to Rome 
to declare his pacific intentions, that thus he might es- 
tablish his disputed dominion, and gain over the Roman 
pontiff to his side. 1 But during the course of these ne- 
gotiations, Urban's death left matters unfinished, and 
suspended once more the hopes and expectations of the 
public. Under the pontificate of Gregory X., proposals 
of peace were again made by the same emperor, who, 
after much opposition from his own clergy, sent ambas- 
sadors to the council of Lyons in the year 1274 ; b and 
these deputies, with the solemn consent of John Veccus, 
patriarch of Constantinople, and several Greek bishops, 
publicly agreed to the terms of accommodation proposed 
by the pontiff. This re-union, however, was not dura- 
ble ; for the situation of affairs in Greece and Italy be- 
ing changed some years after this convention, in such a 
manner as to deliver the former from all apprehensions 
of a Latin invasion, Andronicus, the son of Michael, as- 
sembled a council at Constantinople, in the palace of Bla- 
chernse, A. D. 1284, in which, by a solemn decree, this 
ignominious treaty was annulled, and the famous Veccus, 
by whose persuasion and authority it had been concluded, 
was sent into exile. d This resolute measure, as may well 
be imagined, rendered the divisions more violent than they 
had been before the treaty was signed ; and it was also 
followed by an open schism, and by the most unhappy 
discords among the Grecian clergy. 

XIV. We pass over several controversies of a more 
private kind, and of inferior moment, which have nothing 
in their nature or circumstances to claim the attention of 
the curious ; but we must not forget to observe that the 
grand dispute concerning the eucharist was still conti- 
nued in this century, not only in France, but also in some 
other countries ; for, though Innocent III. had, in the 
Lateran council of the year 1215, presumptuouly placed 
transubstantiation among the avowed and regular doc- 
trines of the Latin church, yet the authority of this de- 
cree was called in question by many, and several divines 
maintained the probability of the opinions that were op- 
posed to that monstrous doctrine. Those indeed who, 
adopting the sentiments of Berenger, considered the bread 
and wine in no other light than as signs or symbols of 
the body and blood of Christ, did not venture either to 
defend or profess this opinion in a public manner ; while 
many thought it sufficient to acknowledge what was 
termed a real presence, though they explained the man- 
ner of this presence quite otherwise than the doctrine of 

* Wadding, "torn. iv. p. 181, 201, 223, 269, 303. 

>>See Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iv. p. 343, 371. torn. v. p. 9, 29, 
62. — Colonia, Hist. Liter, de la Ville de Lyon, torn. ii. p. 284. 

* Joseph (not Veccus) was patriarch of Constantinople, when this 
treaty was concluded. The former had bound himself by a solemn 
oath never to consent to a reconciliation between the Greek and Latin 
churches ; for which reason the emperor, when he sent his ambassadors 
to Lyons, proposed to Joseph the following alternative : that, if they 
succeeded in bringing about an accommodation, he should renounce his 
patriarchal dignity ; but if they failed in their attempt, he was to remain 
patriarch, being advised, at the same time, to retire to a convent, until 
the matter was decided. The ambassadors were successful : Joseph 
was deposed, and Veccus elected in his place; when, and not before, 
the latter ratified the treaty in question by his solemn consent to the ig- 
nominious article of supremacy and pre-eminence, which it confirmed to 
the Roman pontiff. 

* Leo Allatius, de perpetua Consensione Eccles. Orient, et Occident 
lib. i. c. xv. xvi. p. 727. — Fred. Spanheim de Perpet. Disscnsione 
Gicecor. et Latin, torn. ii. op. p. 188, &c. 

No. XXVIII. 82 



Innocent had defined it." Among these, John, surnamed 
Pungens Asinus, a subtle doctor of the university of Pa- 
ris, acquired an eminent and distinguished name, and 
without incurring the censure of his superiors, substituted 
consubstantiation for transubstantiation toward the con- 
clusion of this century. 

CHAPTER IV 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Christian Church during' this Century. 

I. It would be endless to enumerate the additions that 
were made in this century to the external part of divine 
worship, in order to increase its pomp and render it more 
striking. These additions were produced in part by the 
public edicts of the Roman pontiffs, and partly by the 
private injunctions of the sacerdotal and monastic orders, 
who shared the veneration which was excited in the 
multitude by the splendour and magnificence of this re- 
ligious spectacle. Instead of mentioning these additions, 
we shall only observe in general, that religion had now 
become a sort of a raree-show in the hands of the rulers 
of the church, who, to render its impressions more deep 
and lasting, thought proper to exhibit it in a striking 
manner to the external senses. For this purpose, at sta- 
ted times, and especially upon the principal festivals, the 
miraculous dispensations of the divine wisdom in favour 
of the church, and the more remarkable events in the 
Christian history, were represented under allegorical figures 
and images, or rather in a kind of mimic show.s But 
these scenic representations, in which there was a mot- 
ley mixture of mirth and gravity, these tragi-comical 
spectacles, though they amused and affected in a certain 
manner the gazing populace, were highly detrimental, 
instead of being useful to the cause of religion; they de- 
graded its dignity, and furnished abundant matter of 
laughter to its enemies. 

II. It will not appear surprising that the bread, conse- 
crated in the sacrament of the Lord's supper, became 
the object of religious worship ; for this was the natural 
consequence of the monstrous doctrine of transubstan- 
tiation. But the effects of that impious and ridiculous 
doctrine did not end here ; it produced a series of ceremo- 
nies and institutions, still used in the church of Rome, 
in honour of that deified bread, as they blasphemously 
call it. Hence arose those rich and splendid receptacles 
which were formed for the residence of God under this 
new shape, h and the lamps and other precious orna- 
ments that were designed to beautify this habitation of 



• Pet. Allix. Prref. ad F. Johannis Determinat. de Sacramento Aitaris, 
published at London in 1686. 

f The book of this celebrated doctor was published by the learned 
Allix above mentioned. See Baluzii Vita Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 
576. — D' Achei ii Spicileg. Veter. Scriptor. torn. iii. p. 58. — Echardi Scrip- 
tores Dominic, torn. i. p. 561. 

* It is probable that this licentious custom of exhibiting mimic repre- 
sentations of religious objects derived its origin from the Mendicant 
friars. 

Jjf >> This blasphemous language, which Dr. Mosheim is obliged to 
use in representing the absurdities of the doctrine of transubstantiation, 
is nothing in comparison with the impious figures that were used by the 
abettors of that monstrous tenet, to accommodate it, in some measure, to 
the capacities of the multitude. We need not wonder, that the Pagans 
metamorphosed their Jupiter into a bull, a swan, and other such figures, 
when we see the rulers of the Christian church transforming the Son of 
God into a piece of bread; a transformation so vile, and (even were it 
not vile) so useless, that it is inconceivable how it could enter into the 
head of any mortal, and equally so, how the bishops of Rome could con- 



326 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



the Deity ; and hence the custom that still prevails of car- 
rying about this divine bread in solemn pomp through 
the public streets, when it is to be administered to sick 
or dying persons, with many other ceremonies of a like 
nature, which are dishonourable to religion, and oppro- 
brious to humanity. But that which gave the finishing 
touch to this heap of absurdities, and displayed supersti- 
tion in its highest extravagance, was the institution of 
the celebrated annual Festival of the Holy Sacrament, 
or, as it is sometimes called, of the Body of Christ ; the 
origin of which was as follows : a certain devout woman, 
whose name was Juliana, and who lived at Liege, de- 
clared that she had received a revelation from heaven, 
intimating to her, that it was the will of God, that a pe- 
culiar festival should be annually observed in honour of 
the holy sacrament, or rather of the real presence of 
Christ's body in that sacred institution. Few gave at- 
tention or credit to this pretended vision, the circumstan- 
ces of which were extremely equivocal and absurd,* and 
which would have come to nothing, had it not been sup- 
ported by Robert, bishop of Liege, who, in 1246, pub- 
lished an order for the celebration of this festival through- 
out the province, notwithstanding the opposition which 
he knew would be made to a proposal founded only 
on an idle dream. After the death of Juliana, one of 
her friends and companions, whose name was Eve, adopt- 
ed her cause with uncommon zeal, and had sufficient 
credit with Urban IV. to engage him to publish, in 1264, 
a solemn edict, by which the festival in question was 
imposed upon all the Christian churches. This edict, 
however, did not produce its full effect, on account of the 
death of the pontiff, which happened soon after its publi- 
cation ; so that the festival in question was not univer- 
sally celebrated in the Latin churches before the pontifi- 
cate of Clement V., b who, in the council which he held 
at Vienne in Dauphine, in 1311, confirmed the edict of 
Urban, and thus, in spite of all opposition, established a 
festival, which contributed more to render the doctrine of 
transubstantiation agreeable to the people, than the decree 
of the Lateran council under Innocent III., or than all the 
exhortations of his lordly successors. 

tide so far in the credulity of the people as to risk their authority by 
propagating such a doctrine. 

f^T " This fanatical woman declared, that as often as she addressed 
herself to God, or to the saints in prayer, she saw the full moon with a 
small defect or breach in it; and that, having long studied to find out 
the signification of this strange appearance, she was inwardly informed 
by the Spirit, that the moon signified the church, and that the defect or 
breach was the want of an annual festival in honour of the holy sacra- 
ment. 

>> See Barthol. Fisen, Origo prima Festi Corporis Christi ex Viso 
Sancta; Virgini Juliana; oblato, published at Liege in 1619. — Dallaeus, 
de Gultus religiosi objecto, p. 287.— Acta Sanctor. April, torn. i. p. 437, 
903. — And above all Benedict XIV. Pont. Max. de Festis Christi et 
Mariae, lib. i. c. xiii. p. 300. torn. x. op. 

f3r ° These testimonies worthy of credit have never been produced by 
'he Romish writers, unless we rank, in that class, that of an old man, 
who had completed his 107th year, and who, being brought before Boni- 
face, declared (if we may believe the abbe Fleury) that his father, who 
was a common labourer, had assisted at the celebration of a jubilee, a 
hundred years before that time. See Fleury's Hist. Eccles. toward the 
end of the twelfth century. It is, however, a very unaccountable thing, 
if the institution of the jubilee year was not the invention of Boniface, 
that there should be neither in the acts of councils, nor in the records of 
history or writings of the learned, any trace or the least mention of its 
celebration before the year 1300. This, and other reasons of an irresist- 
ible evidence, have persuaded some Roman catholic writers to consider 
the institution of the jubilee year, as the invention of this pontiff, who, 
to render it more respectable, pretended that it was of a much earlier 
date. See Ghilen. et Victorell. apud Philippi Bonanni Numism. Pontif. 
Rom. torn. i. p. 22, 23. 



III. About the conclusion of this century, Boniface 
VIII. added, to the public rites and ceremonies of the 
church, the famous jubilee, which is still celebrated at 
Rome, at a stated period, with the utmost profusion of 
pomp and magnificence. In 1299, a rumour was propa- 
gated among the inhabitants of that city, importing that 
all such as should visit, within the limits of the following 
year, the church of St. Peter, should obtain the remission 
of all their sins, and that this privilege was to be annexed 
to the performance of the same service once in every 
period of one hundred years. Boniface no sooner heard 
of this, than he ordered strict inquiry to be made concern- 
ing the author and the foundation of this report ; and 
the result of the inquiry was answerable to his views ; for 
he was assured, by many testimonies worthy of credit/ 
(say the Roman-catholic historians) that, from the remotest 
antiquity, this important privilege of remission and indul- 
gence was to be obtained by the service above mentioned. 
No sooner had the pontiff received this information, than 
he addressed to all Christians an epistolary mandate, in 
which he enacted it as a solemn law of the church, that 
those who, in every hundredth or jubilee year, should 
confess their sins, and visit, with sentiments of contrition 
and repentance, the churches of St. Peter and St. Paid at 
Rome, should obtain thereby the entire remission of their 
various offences.* 1 The successors of Boniface were not 
satisfied with adding a multitude of new rites and inven- 
tions, by way of ornaments, to this superstitious institu- 
tion ; but, finding by experience that it added to the lustre, 
and augmented the revenues of the Roman church, they 
rendered its return more frequent, and fixed its celebration 
to every five-and-twentieth year. e 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. We have no account of any new sects that arose 
among the Greeks during this century. Those of the 
Nestorians and Jacobites, established in the remoter regions 
of the east, Avho equalled the Greeks in their aversion to 



d So the matter is related by James Caietan, cardinal of St. George, 
and nephew to Boniface, in his Relatio de Centesimo seu Jubilaeo anno, 
which is published in his Magna Bibliotheca Vet. Patrum, torn. vi. p. 
42G, and in the Bibliotheca Maxima Patrum, torn. xxv. p. 267. Nor is 
there any reason to believe that this account is erroneous and false, or 
that Boniface acted the part of an impostor from a principle of avarice 
upon this occasion. 

|3r N. B. It is not without astonishment, that we hear Dr. Mosheim 
deciding in this manner with respect to the good faith of Boniface, and 
the relation of his nephew. The character of that wicked and ambi- 
tious pontiff is well known, and the relation of the cardinal of St. 
George has been proved to be the most ridiculous, fabulous, motley piece 
of stuff, that ever usurped the title of an historical record. See the excel- 
lent. Lettres de M. Chais sur les Jubiles, torn. i. p. 53. 

e The various writers who have treated of the institution of the Ro- 
man Jubilee, are enumerated by Jo. Albert Fabricius in his Bibliogr. An- 
tiquar. p. 316. Among the authors that may be added to this list, there 
is one whom we think it necessary to mention particularly, viz. the Re- 
verend Charles Chais, whose Lettres Historiques et Dogmatiques sur 
les Jubiles et les Indulgences, were published in 1751. 

f^> These letters of Mr. Chais (Minister of the Frerfeh church at the 
Hague, and well known in the republic of letters) contain the most full 
aiuf accurate account that has been ever given of the institution of the 
Jubilee, and of the rise, progress, abuses, end enormities, of the 
infamous traffic of indulgences. This account is judiciously collected 
from the best authors of antiquity, and from several curious re- 
cords that, have escaped the researches of other writers; it is also in- 
terspersed with curious, and sometimes ludicrous anecdotes, that render 
the work equally productive of entertainment and instruction. In the first 
volume of these letters, the learned author lays open die nature and origin 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



327 



the rites and jurisdiction of the Latin church, were fre- 
quently solicited, by the Franciscan and Dominican papal 
missionaries, to receive the Roman yoke. In 1246, Inno- 
cent IV. used his utmost efforts to bring both these sects 
under his dominion ; and, in 1278, terms of accommoda- 
tion were proposed by Nicolas IV. to the Nestorians, and 
particularly to that branch of the sect which resided in 
the northern parts of Asia. a The leading men, both 
among the Nestorians and Jacobites, seemed to give ear 
to the proposals that were made to them, and to wish for 
a reconciliation with the church of Rome ; but the pros- 
pect of peace soon vanished, aud a variety of causes 
concurred to prolong the rupture. 

II. During the whole course of this century, the Roman 
pontiffs carried on the most barbarous and inhuman per- 
secution against those whom they branded with the 
denomination of heretics ; i. e. against all those who 
called their pretended authority and jurisdiction in ques- 
tion, or taught doctrines different from those which were 
adopted and propagated by the church of Rome. For 
the sects of the Cathari, Waldenses, Petrobrussians, &x. 
gathered strength from day to day, spread imperceptibly 
throughout, all Europe, assembled numerous congregations 
hi Italy, France, Spain, and German}', and formed by 
degrees such a powerful party as rendered them formida- 
ble to the pontiff's, and menaced the papal jurisdiction with 
a fatal revolution. To the ancient sects new factions 
were added, which, though they differed from each other 
in various respects, unanimously agreed in this point : 
" That the public and established religion was a motley 
system of errors and superstition, and that the dominion 
which the popes had usurped over Christians, as also the 
authority they exercised in religious matters, were unlaw- 
ful and tyrannical." Such were the notions propagated 
by the sectaries, who refuted the superstitions and impos- 
tures of the times by arguments drawn from the holy 
scriptures, and whose declamations against the power, the 
opulence, and the vices of the pontiffs and clergy, were 
extremely agreeable to many princes and civil magistrates, 
who groaned under the usurpations of the sacred order. 
The pontiffs, therefore, considered themselves as obliged 
to have recourse to new and extraordinary methods of 
defeating and subduing enemies, who, both by their 
number and their rank, were every way proper to fill 
them with terror. 



of the institution of the jubilee; he proves it to have been a human in- 
vention, which owed its rise to the avarice and ambition of the popes, 
and its credit to the ignorance and superstition of the people, and whose 
celebration was absolutely unknown before the thirteenth century, which 
is the true date of its origin. He takes notice of the various changes 
it underwent with respect to the time of its celebration, the various co- 
lours with which the ambitious pontiffs covered it in order to render it re- 
spectable and alluring in the eyes of the multitude ; and exposes these 
delusions by many convincing arguments, whose gravity is seasoned 
with an agreeable and temperate mixture of decent raillery. He proves, II 
with the utmost evidence, that the papal jubilee is an imitation of the 
Secular Games, which were celebrated with such pomp in pagan Rome. II 
He points out the gross contradictions that reign in the bulls "of the dif- 
ferent popes, with respect to the nature of this institution, and the time 
of its celebration. Nor does he pass over in silence the infamous traffic 
of indulgences, the worldly pomp and splendour, the crimes, debauch- 
cries, and disorders of every kind, that were observable at the re- 
turn of each jubilee year. He lays also before the reader an historical 
view of all the jubilees that were celebrated from the pontificate of Bo- 
niface VIII. in the year 1300, to that of Benedict XIV. in 1750, with an 
entertaining account of the most remarkable adventures that happened 
among the pilgrims who repaired to Rome on these occasions. The se- 
cond and third volumes of 'these interesting letters treat of the indulgen- 
ces that are administered in the church of Rome. The reader wilt "find 



III. Of these dissenters from the church of Rome, the. 
number was no where greater than in Narbonne Gaul, b 
and the countries adjacent, where they were received and 
protected, in a singular manner, by Raymond VI. earl of 
Toulouse, and other persons of the highest distinction ; 
and where the bishops, either through humanity or indo- 
lence, were so negligent and remiss in the prosecution of 
heretics, that the latter, laying aside all their fears, formed 
settlements, and multiplied greatly from day to day. 
Innocent III. was soon informed of all these proceedings ; 
and, about the commencement of this century, he sent 
legates extraordinary into the southern provinces of France 
to do what the bishops had left undone, and to extirpate 
heresy, in all its various forms and modifications, without 
being at all scrupulous in the adoption of such methods 
as might seem necessary to effect this salutary purpose. 
The persons charged with this commission were Rainier, c 
a Cistertian monk, and Pierre de Castelnau, d archdeacon 
of Maguelone, who became also afterwards a Cistertian 
friar. These eminent missionaries were followed by 
several others, among whom was the famous Spaniard, 
Dominic, founder of the order of preachers, who, returning 
from Rome in 1206, met with these delegates, embarked 
in their cause, and laboured both by his exhortations and 
actions in the extirpation of heresy. These spirited cham- 
pions, who engaged in this expedition upon the sole autho- 
rity of the pope, without either asking the advice or de- 
manding the succours of the bishops, and who inflicted 
capital punishment upon such of the heretics as they 
could not convert by reason and argument, were distin- 
guished in common discourse by the tide of Inquisitors ; 
and from them the formidable and odious tribunal, called 
the Inquisition, derived its origin. 

IV. When this new set of heresy-hunters' had execu- 
ted their commission, and purged the provinces to which 
they were sent of the greatest part, of the enemies of the 
Roman faith, the pontiffs were so sensible of their excel- 
lent services, that they established missionaries of a like 
nature, or, in other words, placed Inquisitors in almost 
every city, whose inhabitants had the misfortune to be 
suspected of heresy, notwithstanding the reluctance which 
the people showed to this new institution, and the violence 
with which they frequently expelled, and sometimes mas- 
sacred, these bloody officers of the popish hierarchy. The 
council convoked at Toulouse, in 1229, by Romanus, 

here their nature and origin explained, the doctrine of the Roman 
catholic divines relating to them stated and refuted, the history of this 
impious traffick accurately laid down, audits enormities and pernicious 
effects circumstantially exposed, with learning, perspicuity, and can- 
dour. 

'Odor. Raynaldus, Annal. Eccles. torn. xiii. ad Annum 1247. sect. 
xxxii. et torn. xv. ad A. 1303. sect. xxii. et ad A. 1304, sect, xxiii. — 
Matth. Paris, Hist. Major, p. 372. 

t> That part of Prance, which, in ancient times, was termed Nar- 
bonne Gaul, comprehended the provinces of Savoy, Dauphine, Provence, 
and Languedoc. 

fj* c Instead of Rainier, other historians mention one Raoul, or 
Ralph, as the associate of Pierre de Castclnau. See Fleury's Histoire 
Eccles. liv. lxxvi. sect. xii. 

d The greatest part of the Roman writers consider Pierre de Castel- 
nau as the first inquisitor. It will appear hereafter in what sense tins 
assertion may be admitted. For an account of this legate, see die Acta 
Sanctor. torn. i. Martii, p. 411. 

5jT c The term of heresy-hunters, for which the translator is respon- 
sible, will not seem absurd, when it is known, that the missionaries who 
were sent into the provinces of France to extirpate heresy, and the in- 
quisitors who succeeded them, were bound by an oath, not only to seek 
for the heretics in towns, houses, cellars, and other lurking-places, but 
also in woods, caves, Selds, &c. 



328 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



cardinal of St. Angelo, and pope's legate, went still farther, 
and erected in every city a set or society of inquisitors, 
consisting- of one priest and three laymen.' 1 This 
institution was, however, superseded in 1233 by Gregory 
lX., who intrusted the Dominicans, or preaching friars, 
with the important commission of discovering and bring- 
ing to judgment the heretics who were lurking in France, 
and in a formal epistle discharged the bishops from the 
burthen of that painful office. b Immediately after this*, 
the bishop of Tournay, who was the pope's legate in 
France, began to execute this new resolution, by appoint- 
ing Pierre Cellan, and Guillaume Arnaud, inquisitors of 
heretical pravity at Toulouse, and afterwards proceeded 
in every city, where the Dominicans had a monastery, to 
constitute officers of the same nature, selected from the 
monks of that celebrated order. 1 Fiom this period we 
are to date the commencement of the dreadful tribunal 
of the inquisition, which in this and the following ages 
subdued such a prodigious multitude of heretics, part of 
whom were converted to the church by terror, and the rest 
committed to the flames without mercy. For the Domi- 
nicans erected, first at Toulouse and afterwards at Carca- 
sone and other places, a tremendous court, before which 
were summoned not only heretics, and persons suspected 
of heresy, but likewise all who were accused of magic, 
sorcery, Judaism, witchcraft, and other crimes of a spiri- 
tual kind. This tribunal, in process of time, was erected 
in other countries of Europe, though not every where 
with the same success." 1 

V. The method of proceeding in this court of inquisi- 
tion was at first simple, and almost in every respect simi- 
lar to that which was observed in the ordinary courts of 
justice.' But this simplicity was gradually changed by 
the Dominicans, to whom experience suggested several 
new methods of augmenting the pomp and majesty of 
their spiritual tribunal, and who made such alterations in 



* See Harduini Concilia, torn. vii. p. 175. 

t> Bern. Guido in Chronico Pontif. apud Jac. Echardum, Scriptor. 
Praedicator. torn. i. p. 88. — Percini Historia Inquisit. Tolosanae, subjoined 
to his Historia Conventus Frat. Pradicat. Tolosae, 1693. — Histoire Ge- 
nerate de Languedoc, torn. iii. p. 394. 

c Echard and Percinus, loc. citat. 

& The accounts which we have here given of the rise of the Inqui- 
sition, though founded upon the most unexceptionable testimonies and 
the most authentic records, are yet very different from those that are to 
be found in most authors. Some learned men tell us, that the Tribunal 
of the Inquisition was the invention of St. Dominic, and was first 
erected by him in the city of Toulouse ; that he, of consequence, was 
the first, inquisitor; that the year of its institution is indeed uncertain; 
but that it %vas undoubtedly confirmed in a solemn manner by Innocent 
HI. in the Lateran council of 1215. See Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in his Lux 
Evangclii toti Orbi exoriens, p. 569. — Phil. Limborchi Historia Inquisit. 
lib. i. c. x. and the other writers mentioned by Fabricius. I will not 
affirm, that the writers, who give this account of the matter, have ad- 
vanced all this without authority ; but this I will venture to say, that 
the authors, whom they have taken for their guides, are not of the first 
rate in point of merit and credibility. Limborch, whose History of 
the Inquisition is looked upon as a most important and capital work, is 
generally followed by modern writers in their accounts of that odious 
tribunal. But, however laudable that historian may have been in point 
of fidelity and diligence, it is certain that he was little acquainted with 
the ecclesiastical history of the middle ages ; that he drew his materials, 
not from the true and original sources, but from writers of a second class, 
and thus has fallen, in the course of his history, into various mistakes. 
His account of the origin of the inquisition is undoubtedly false; nor 
does that which is given by many other writers approach nearer to the 
truth. The circumstances of this account, which I have mentioned in 
the beginning of this note, are more especially destitute of all founda- 
tion. Many of the Dominicans, who, in our times, have presided in 
the court of inquisition, and have extolled the sanctity of that pious 
institution, deny, at the same time, that Dominic was its founder, as 
also that he was the first inquisitor, or that he was an inquisitor at all. 



the process, that the manner of taking cognisance of 
heretical causes became totally different from that which 
was usual in civil affairs. These friars were, to say the 
truth, entirely ignorant of judicial matters ; nor were they 
acquainted with the proceedings of any other tribunal, 
than that which w T as called, in the Roman church, the 
Tribunal of penance. It was therefore from this, that 
they modelled the new court of Liquisition, as far as a 
resemblance was possible ; and hence arose that strange 
system of inquisitorial law, which, in many respects, is so 
contrary to the common feelings of humanity, and the 
plainest dictates of equity and justice. This is the impor- 
tant circumstance by which we are enabled to account for 
the absurd and iniquitous proceedings of the inquisitors, 
against persons who are accused of holding, what they 
call, heretical opinions. 

VI. That nothing might be wanting to render this spi- 
ritual court formidable and tremendous, the Roman pon- 
tiff's persuaded the European princes, artd more especially 
the emperor Frederic II., and Louis IX. king of France, 
not only to enact the most barbarous laws against heretics, 
and to commit to the flames, on pretence of public justice, 
those who were pronounced such by the inquisitors, but 
also to maintain the latter in their office, and grant them 
their protection in the most open and solemn manner. 
The edicts to this purpose issued by Frederic II. are well 
known ; edicts fit only to excite horror, and which ren- 
dered the most illustrious piety and virtue incapable of 
saving from the most cruel death such as had the misfor- 
tune to be disagreeable to the inquisitors. 1 ' These execra- 
ble laws were not, however, sufficient to restrain the just 
indignation of the people against these inhuman judges, 
whose barbarity was accompanied with superstition and 
arrogance, with a spirit of suspicion and perfidy, and even 
with temerity and imprudence. Accordingly they were 
insulted by the multitude in many places, were driven in 

They go still farther, and affirm, that the court of inquisition was not 
erected during the life of St. Dominic. Nor is all this advanced incon- 
siderately, as every impartial inquirer into the proofs they allege will 
easily perceive. Nevertheless, the question, whether or not St. Dominic 
was an inquisitor, seems to be merely a dispute about words, and 
depends entirely upon the different significations of which the term 
inquisitor is susceptible. That word, according to its original mean- 
ing, signified a person invested with the commission and authority of 
the pope to extirpate heresy and oppose its abettors, but not clothed with 
any judicial power. But it soon acquired a different meaning, and 
signified a person appointed by the pontiff to proceed judicially against 
heretics and such as were suspected of heresy, to pronounce sentence 
according to their respective cases, and to deliver over to the secular arm 
such as persisted obstinately in their errors. In the latter sense Dominic 
was not an inquisitor, since it is well known that there were no papal 
judges of this nature before the pontificate of Gregory IX. ; but he 
was undoubtedly an inquisitor in the sense originally attached to that 
term. 

c The records, published by the Benedictines in their Histoire Gener. 
de Languedoc, torn. iii. p. 371, show the simplicity that reigned in the 
proceedings of the inquisition at its first institution. 

f The laws of the emperor Frederic, in relation to the inquisitors, 
may be seen in Limborch's History of the Inquisition, as also in the 
Epistles of Pierre de Vignes, and in Bzovius, Raynaldus, &c. The 
edict of St. Louis, in favour of these spiritual judges, is generally 
known under the title of Cupientes ; for so it is called by the French 
lawyers, on account of its beginning with that word. It was issued in 
1229, as the Benedictine monks have proved sufficiently in their Hist. 
Generale de Languedoc, torn. iii. It is also published Dy Catelius, in 
his Histor. Comit. Tolosanor. and by many other authors. This edict 
is as severe and inhuman, to the full, as the laws of Frederic II. ; for a 
great part of the sanctity of good king Louis consisted in his furious 
and implacable aversion to heretics, against whom he judged it more ex- 
pedient to employ the influence of racks and gibbets, than the power of 
reason and argument. See D.a Freoie, Vita Ludovici a JoiEv^llio 
scripta. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



329 



an ignominious manner out of some cities, and were put 
to death in others ; and Conrad of Marpurg, the first Ger- 
man inquisitor, who derived his commission from Gregory 
IX., was one of the many victims that were sacrificed upon 
this occasion to the vengeance of the public, 1 which his 
incredible barbarities had raised to a dreadful degree of ve- 
hemence and fury. b 

VII. When Innocent III., perceived that the labours of 
the inquisitors were not immediately attended with such 
abundant fruits as he had fondly expected, he addressed 
himself, in 1207, to Philip Augustus, king of France, and 
to the leading men of that nation, urging them, by the al- 
luring promise of the most ample indulgences, to extirpate 
all, whom he thought proper to call heretics, by fire and 
sword. c This exhortation was repeated, with new acces- 
sions of fervour and earnestness, in the following year,when 
Pierre de Castelnau, the legate of this pontiff, and his in- 
quisitor in France, was put to death by the patrons of the 
heretics." 1 Not long after this, the Cistertian monks, in the 
name of this pope, proclaimed a crusade against the here- 
tics throughout France ; and a storm seemed to be gather- 
ing against them on all sides. Raymond VI., earl of 
Toulouse, in whose territories Castelnau had been mas- 
sacred, was solemnly excommunicated, and, to deliver 
himself from this ecclesiastical malediction, changed sides, 
and embarked in the crusade now mentioned. In 1209, 
a formidable army of cross-bearers commenced against the 
heretics (who were comprehended under the general de- 
nomination of Albigenses') an open war, which they car- 
ried on with the utmost exertions of cruelty, though with 
various success, for several years. The chief director of 
this war was Arnald, abbot of the Cistertians, and legate 
of the Roman pontiff ; and the commander in chief of the 
troops employed in this noble expedition was Simon, earl 
of Montfort. Raymond, who, consulting his safety rather 
than his conscience, had engaged in the crusade against 
the heretics, was now obliged to attack their persecutors. 
For Simon, who had embarked in this war, not so much 
from a principle of zeal for religion, or of aversion to the 
heretics, as from a desire of augmenting his fortune, cast 
a greedy eye upon the territories of Raymond, and his 
selfish views were seconded and accomplished by the court 
of Rome. After many battles, sieges, and a multitude of 
other exploits, conducted with the most intrepid courage 
and the most abominable barbarity, he received from the 

* The life of this furious and celebrated inquisitor was composed 
from the most authentic records, and also from several valuable manu- 
scripts, by the learned John Herman Schminckius. See also Wadding-, 
An. Minor, t. ii. p. 151, 355, and Echard, Scrip. Dominican, t i. p. 487. 

13" * The abbe Fleury acknowledges the brutal barbarity of this 
unrelenting inquisitor, who, under the pretext of heresy, not only com- 
mitted to the flames a prodigious number of nobles, clerks, monks, 
hermits, and lay-persons of all ranks, but moreover caused them to be 
put to death on the very day when they were accused, without appeal. 
See Fleury : s Hist. Eccles. liv. lxxx. 

e Innocentii Tertii Epistola?, lib. x. epist. 49. 

* Tnnoc. Epist. lib. xi. p. 26. — Acta Sanctor. Mart. torn. i. p. 411. 

* Tins term is used in two senses, of which one is general, and the 
other more confined. In its more general and extensive sense it com- 
prehends all the various kinds of heretics who resided at that t;r.:e in 
Narbonne Gaul, i. e. in the southern parts of France. This appears 
from the following passage of Petrus Sainensis, who, in the dedication 
of his History of the Albigenses to Innocent III. expresses himself 
thus : " Tolosani et aliarum civitatum et castrorum ha?retici, et defensores 
eorum, generalitcr Albigenses vocantur." The same author divides after- 
wards the Albigenses into various sects, (cap. ii. p. 3, and 8.) of whicli he 
considers that of theWaldenses as the least pernicious. 'MalierantWal- 
denses, sed comparatione aliorum haereticorum longe minus perversi.' It 
was not, however, from the city of Albisria, or Albi, that the French here- 

No. XXVIII. 83 



hands of Innocent, at the Lateran council, A. D. 1215. 
the county of Toulouse, and the other lands belonging 
to the obnoxious earl, as a reward for his zeal in support- 
ing the cause of God and of the church. About three 
years after this, he lost his life at the siege of Toulouse. 
Raymond, his valiant adversary, died in 1222. 

VIII. Thus were the two chiefs of this deplorable war 
taken off the scene ; but this removal was far from extin- 
guishing the infernal flame of persecution on the side of 
the pontiffs, or calming the restless spirit of faction on that 
of the pretended heretics. Raymond VII., earl of Toulouse, 
and Amalric, earl of Montfort. succeeded their fathers at 
the head of the contending parties, and carried on the war 
with the utmost vehemence, and with such various suc- 
cess as rendered the issue for some time doubtful. The 
former seemed at first more powerful than his adversary ; 
and pope Honorius III., alarmed at the vigorous opposi- 
tion he made to the orthodox legions, engaged Louis VULL, 
king of France, by the most pompous promises, to march 
in person with a formidable army against the enemies of 
the church. The obsequious monarch listened to the so- 
licitations of the lordly pontiff, and embarked with a con- 
siderable military force in the cause of the church, but did 
not live to reap the fruits of his zeal. His engagements, 
however, with the court of Rome, and his furious designs 
against the heretics, were executed with the greatest ala- 
crity and vigour by his son and successor Louis the Saint ; 
so that Raymond, pressed on all sides, was obliged, in 1229, 
to make peace upon the most disadvantageous terms, even 
by making a cession of the greatest part of his territories 
to the French monarch, after having sacrificed a consider- 
able portion of them, as a peace-offering to the church of 
Rome/ This treaty gave a mortal blow to the cause of 
heresy, and dispersed the champions that had appeared 
in its defence : the inquisition was established at Toulouse, 
and the heretics were not only exposed to the pious cruel- 
ties of Louis, but, what was still more shocking, Raymond 
himself, who had formerly been their patron, became their 
persecutor, and treated them upon all occasions with the 
most inhuman severity. It is true, this prince broke the 
engagements into which he had entered by the treaty 
above-mentioned, and renewed the war against Louis and 
the inquisitors, who abused, in the most odious manner, 
their victory and the power they had acquired. But this 
new effort, in favour of the heretics, was attended with 

tics were comprehended under the general title of Albigenses, but from 
another circumstance, namely, that the greatest part of Narbonne Gaul 
was, in this century, called Albigesium, as the Benedictine monks have 
clearly demonstrated in their Histoire Generale de Languedoc, torn. iii. 
The term Albigenses, in its more confined sense, was used to denote 
those heretics who inclined toward the Manicha'an system, and who 
were otherwise known by the denominations of Catharists, Publicans 
or Paulicians, and Bulgarians. This appears evidently from many in 
contestable authorities, and more especially from the Codex Inquisitionis 
Tolosanse, (published by Limborch, in his History of the Inquisition.) 
in which the Albigenses are carefully distinguished from the other sects 
that made a noise in this century. 

53* ' It was in consequence of this treaty (of which the articles 
were drawn up at Maux, and afterwards confirmed at Paris, in presence 
of Louis) that the university of Toulouse was founded, Raymond hav- 
ing bound himself thereby to pay the sum of 4000 silver marcs, toward 
the support of two professors of divinity, two of canon law, two of 
grammar, and six of the liberal arts, during the space of ten years. 
We must also observe, that what Dr. Mosheim says of the cession that 
Raymond made of his lands is not sufficiently clear and accurate. 
These lands were not to be transferred till after his «*eath, and they 
were to be transferred to the brother of Louis IX. who, according to 
the treaty, was to espouse the daughter of Raymond. See Fleury'i 
Hist. Eccles. iiv. lxxix. sect. 50. 



330 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 11 



little or no effect, and the unfortunate earl of Toulouse, 
the' last representative of that noble and powerful famity, 
dejected and exhausted by the losses he had sustained, 
and the perplexities in which he was involved, died, in 
1249, without male issue. And thus ended a civil war, 
of which religion had been partly the cause, and partly 
the pretext, and which, in its consequences, was highly 
profitable both to the kings of France and to the Roman 
pontiffs. 1 

IX. The severity which the court of Rome employed 
in the extirpation of heresy, and the formidable arguments 
of fire and sword, racks and gibbets, with which the popes 
and their creatures reasoned against the enemies of the 
church, were not sufficient to prevent the rise of new and 
pernicious sects in different countries. Many of these sects 
were inconsiderable in themselves, and transitory in their 
duration, while some of them made a noise in the world, 
and were suppressed with difficulty. Among the latter we 
may reckon that of the Brethren and Sisters of the free 
spirit, which about this time gained ground secretly and al- 
most imperceptibly in Italy, France, and Germany, and 
seduced into its bosom multitudes of persons of both sexes, 
by the striking appearance of piety that was observed in 
the conduct of the members who composed it. How far 
the councils of this century proceeded against the new sect, 
we cannot say with certainty, because we have upon re- 
cord only a few of the decrees that were issued upon that 
occasion. Perhaps the obscurity of the rising faction screen- 
ed it, in a great measure, from public view. But this was 
not the case in the following age ; the Brethren and Sis- 
ters above-mentioned issued from their retreats in propor- 
tion as their numbers increased : they drew upon them 
the eyes of the world, and particularly those of the inqui- 
sitors, who committed to the flames such of these unhappy 
enthusiasts as fell into their hands ; while the councils, 
holden in Germany and other countries, loaded them with 
excommunications and damnatory edicts. 

This sect took its denomination from the words of St. 
Paul, b and maintained that the true children of God were 
invested with the privilege of a full and perfect freedom 
from the jurisdiction of the law.'- They were called, by 
the Germans and Flemish, Beghards and Beguttes, 
names which, as we have seen already, were usually 

* Many writers, both ancient and modern, have related the circum- 
stances of this religious war, carried on against the earls of Toulouse 
and their confederates, and also against the heretics, whose cause they 
maintained. But the historians, whom I have consulted on this sub- 
ject, have not treated it with that impartiality which is so essential to 
the merit of historic writing. The protestant writers, among whom 
Basnage deserves an eminent rank, are too favourable to Raymond and 
the Albigenses ; the Roman catholic historians lean with still more 
partiality to the other side. Of the latter, the most recent are Benedict, 
a Dominican monk, author of the Histoire des Albigeois, des Vaudois, 
etdes Barbets, published at Paris in 1691, and J. Bapt. L'Anglois, a 
Jesuit, who composed the Histoire des Croisades contre les Albigeois, 
published at Rouen in 1703, to which we must add Jo. Jac. Percini 
MonumentaConventus Tolosani Ordinis Fratrum Praedicator. in quibus 
Historia hujus Conventus distribuitur, et refertur totius Albigensium 
facti narratio, Tolosae, 1693. These writers, are chargeable with the 
greatest partiality and injustice for the reproaches and calumnies they 
throw out so liberally against the Raymonds and the Albigenses, while 
Ihey disguise, with a perfidious dexterity, the barbarity of Simon of 
Montfort, and the ambitious views of extending their dominions that 
engaged the kings of France to enter into this war. The most ample 
and accurate account of this expedition against the heretics is that 
which is given by the learned Benedictines Claude le Vic and Joseph 
Vaissette, in their Histoire Generale de Languedoc, torn. iii. in which, 
however, there arc several omissions, which render that valuable work 
defective. 

t Romans, viii. 2, 14. 



given to those who made an extraordinary profession of 
piety and devotion. They received from others the 
reproachful denomination of Bicorni, i. e. Idiots. In 
France, they were known by the appellation of Beguins 
and Beguines, while the multitude distinguished them by 
that of Turlupins, the origin and reason of which title I 
have not been able to learn. d Nothing carried a more 
shocking air of lunacy and distraction than their external 
aspect and manners. They ran from place to place 
clothed in the most singular and fantastic apparel, and 
begged their bread with wild shouts and clamours, reject- 
ing with horror every kind of industry and labour, as an 
obstacle to divine contemplation, and to the ascent of the 
soul toward the Father of spirits. In all their excursions 
they were followed by women, called Sisters, with whom 
they lived in the most intimate familiarity. e They dis 
tributed, among the people, books which contained the 
substance of their doctrines ; held nocturnal assemblies in 
places remote from public view ; and seduced many from 
frequenting the ordinary institutions of divine worship. 

X. These brethren, who gloried in the freedom which 
they pretended to have obtained, through the spirit, 
from the dominion and obligation of the law, adopted a 
certain rigid and fantastic system of rr^'stic theology, built 
upon pretended philosophical principles, which bore a 
striking resemblance to the impious doctrines of the 
Pantheists. They held, " That all things flowed by 
emanation from God, and were finally to return to their 
divine source ; that rational souls were so many portions 
of the Supreme Deity, and that the universe, considered 
as one great whole, was God : that every man, by the 
power of contemplation, and by calling off his mind from 
sensible and terrestrial objects, might be united to the 
Deity in an inexplicable manner, and become one with 
the Source and Parent of all things ; and that they, who, 
by long and assiduous meditation, had plunged them- 
selves, as it were, into the abyss of the Divinity, acquired 
a most glorious and sublime liberty, and were not only 
delivered from the violence of sinful lusts, but even from 
the common instincts of nature." From these and the 
like doctrines, the brethren drew this impious and horrid 
conclusion, " That the person who had ascended to God 
in this manner, and was absorbed by contemplation in 

c The accounts here given of these wretched fanatics are, for the 
most part, taken from authentic records, which have not been yet pub- 
lished, from the decrees of synods and councils holden in France and 
Germany, from the diplomas of the Roman pontiffs, the sentences 
pronounced by the inquisitors, and other sources of information tc 
which I have had access. I have also a collection of extracts from 
certain books of these enthusiasts, and more especially from that which 
treated of the Nine Spiritual Rocks, and which was in the highest 
esteem among the free brethren, who considered it as a treasure of 
divine wisdom and doctrine. As I cannot here expose these records to 
the examination of the curious reader, I beg leave to refer him to a long 
and ample edict issued out against those brethren by Henry I. arch 
bishop of Cologne, and published in the StatutaColoniensia, anno 1554. 
This edict is, in every respect, cor,ib:mable to those published on the 
same occasion at Mentz, Asch^rfenburg, Paderborn, Bez.iers, Treves, 
and other places. 

a Many have written of the Turlupins, but none with accuracy and 
precision. See Beausohre's Dissertation sur les Adamites, part ii. p. 
384, where that learned author has fallen into several errors, as usually 
happens to him when he treats subjects of this kind. I know not the 
origin of the word Turlupin ; but I am able to demonstrate, by the most 
anthentic records, that the persons so called, who were burned at Paris 
and in other parts of France, were no other than the Brethren of the 
free spirit, who were condemned by the Roman pontiffs, and also by 
various councils. 

' Hence they were styled, in Germany, Schwestrioncs. as appears by 
the decrees of several councils. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



331 



the abyss of Deity, became thus a part of the Godhead, I 
commenced God, was the So?i of God in the same sense 
and manner in which Christ was, and was thereby raised to 
a glorious independence, and freed from the obligation of 
all laws human and divine." It was in consequence of 
all this, that they treated with contempt the ordinances of 
the Gospel, and every external act of religious worship, 
looking upon prayer, fasting, baptism, and the sacrament 
of the Lord's supper, as the first elements of piety adapted 
to the state and capacity of children, and as of no sort of 
use to the perfect man, whom long meditation had raised 
above all external things, and carried into the bosom and 
essence of the Deity.* 

XI. Among these fanatics there were several persons 
of eminent probity, who had entered into this sect with 
the most upright intentions, and who extended that liberty 
of the spirit, which they looked upon as the privilege of 
true believers, no farther than to an exemption from the 
duties of external worship, and an immunity from the 
positive laws of the church. The whole of religion was 
placed by this class of men in internal devotion, and they 
treated with the utmost contempt the rules of monastic 
discipline, and all other external rites and institutions, as 
infinitely beneath the attention of the ■perfect. Nor 
were their exhortations and examples without effect ; for, 
about the middle of this century, they persuaded a con- 
siderable number of monks and devout persons, in Suabia, 
" to live without any rule, and to serve God in the liberty 
of the spirit, which was the most acceptable service that 
could be presented to the Deity." b The inquisitors, how r - 
ever, stopped these poor enthusiasts in the midst of their 
career, and committed several of them to the flames, in 
which they expired, not only with the most unclouded 
serenity, but even with the most triumphant feelings of 
cheerfulness and joy. 

But we find among these Brethren of the free spirit 
another class of fanatics very different from these now 
mentioned, and much more extravagant, whose system of 
religion was as dangerous as it was ridiculous and absurd, 
since it opened a door to the most licentious manners. 



* It may not be improper to introduce a certain number of sentences, 
translated faithfully from several of the more secret books of these 
heretics. The following will be sufficient to give the curious reader a 
full idea of their impiety. 

" Every pious and good man is the only begotten Son of God, whom 
God engendered from all eternity : (for these heretics maintained, that 
what the Scriptures taught concerning the distinction of three persons 
in -the divine nature, is by no means to be understood literally, and 
Jierefore explained it according to the principles of their mystical and 
fantastic system.) 

" All created things are non-entities, or nothing: I do not say that 
they are small or minute, but that they are absolutely nothing. 

" There is in the soul of man something that is neither created 
nor susceptible of creation, and that is, rationality, or the power of 
reasoning. 

" God is neither good, nor better, nor best : whosoever therefore calls 
the Deity good, speaks as foolishly as he who calls an object black 
which he knows to be white. 

" God still engenders his only begotten son, and begets still the same 
son, whom he had begotten from eternity : for every operation of the 
Deity is uniform and one; and therefore he engenders his son without 
any division. 

" What the Scriptures say concerning Christ is true of every good, 
cf every divine man: and every quality of the divine nature belongs 
equally o every person whose piety is genuine and sincere." 

To these horrid passages we may add the following sentences, in 
which John bishop of Strasbourg (in an edict he published against the 
Brethren of the free spirit, in 1317) discovers farther the blasphemous 
doctrine of this impious seot. ' Deus (say these heretics) est formaliter 
omne quod est. Quilibet homo perfectus est Christus per naturam. Homo 
perfectus est Liberia toturn, nee tenetur ad servandum prsecepta ecclesice 



These wretched enthusiasts maintained, that, by continual 
contemplation, it was possible to eradicate all the instincts 
of nature out of the heaven-born mind, and to introduce 
into the soul a certain divine stupor, and holy apathy, 
which they looked upon as the great characteristics of 
Christian perfection. The persons who adopted these 
sentiments took strange liberties in consequence of theii 
pretended sanctity, and showed, indeed, by their conduct, 
that thej r had little regard to external appearances ; for 
they held their secret assemblies in a state of nudity, and 
lay in the same beds with their spiritual sisters, or, in- 
discriminately, with other women, without the smallest 
scruple or hesitation. This shocking violation of decency 
was a consequence of their pernicious system. They 
looked upon decency and modesty as marks of inward 
corruption, as the characters of a soul that was still under 
the dominion of the sensual, animal, and lascivious spirit, 
and that was not, as yet, re-united to the divine nature, 
its centre and source. And they considered, as at a fatal 
distance from the Diety, all such as either felt the carnal 
suggestions of nature, or were penetrated with warm 
emotions at the view or approach of persons of a different 
sex, or were incapable of vanquishing and suppressing the 
rising fervour of lust and intemperance. 

There -were, moreover, in this fanatical troop, certain 
enthusiasts, who far surpassed in impiety the two classes 
we have been now mentioning, who abused the system 
and doctrines of the sect, so as to draw from them an 
apology for all kinds of wickedness, and who audaciously 
maintained, that the divine man, or the believer, who 
was intimately united to God, could not sin, let his con- 
duct be ever so horrible and atrocious. This execrable 
doctrine was not, indeed, explained in the same manner 
by all the Brethren of the free spirit who were so out- 
rageous to adopt it. Some held that the motions and 
actions of the body had no relation at all to the soul, 
which, by its union with God, was blended with the 
divine nature : others fell into a notion infinitely injurious 
to the Supreme Being, and maintained that the propensi- 
ties and passions that arose in the soul of the divine man 



data a Deo. Multa sunt poetica in Evangelio, quae non sunt vera ; et 
homines credere magis debent conceptibus ex anima sua Deo juncta 
profectis, quam Evangelio,' &c. 

t See Mart. Crusius, Annal. Suevicorum, part iii. lib. ii. cap. xiv. ad 
annum 1261. — This author has taken his materials from Felix Faber, 
an impartial writer. 

e Certain writers, whose principal zeal is employed in the defence 
of these heretics, and who have accustomed themselves to entertain a 
high idea of the sanctity of all those who, in the middle ages, separated 
themselves from the communion of the church of Rome, suspect the in- 
quisitors of having attributed falsely these impious doctrines to the Bre- 
thren of the free spirit, with a view to blacken these pious men, and to 
render them odious. But this suspicion is entirely groundless ; and the 
account of this matter, which we have given in the text, is conformable 
to the strictest truth. The inquisitors have been less fabulous in their 
accusations of these heretics, than many are apt to imagine. The v ac- 
knowledge that the Beghards, though destitute of shame, w-ere not in 
general chargeable with a breach of the duties of chastity and absti- 
nence. They were indeed of opinion, that the firmness of mind, and 
insensibility of heart, which rendered them proof against female 
charms, and deaf to the voice of nature, were privileges granted to I hem 
I by the devil ; for they adopted the opinion of honest Nieder, (Forniicar. 
! lib. iii. cap. v.) and affirmed that it was in the power of that evil spirit 
I to render men cold, and to extinguish the warm and lascivious solicita- 
I tions of nature ; and that Satan wrought this miracle upon his friends 
I and adherents, in order to procure them a high reputation for sanctity, 
and make them appear superior in virtue to the rest of mankind. " Cre- 
do (saith Nieder, who was both a Dominican and an inquisitor) quos- 
dam ex eis doemonis opera afTectos fuisse, ne moverentur ad naturalea 

actus incontinent^ Facilhmum enim est daemonibus infrigi- 

dare." 



332 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IJ 



after his union with the Deity, were the propensities and 
affections of God himself, and were therefore, notwith- 
standing their apparent deformity and opposition to the 
law, holy and good, since the Supreme Being is infinitely 
exalted above all law and all obligation." It is necessary 
to observe, before we leave this subject, that llagitious and 
impious impostors mingled themselves sometimes with 
this sect, and took the name of Beghards, that by a feigned 
piety they might impose upon the multitude, and deceive 
the simple into their snares. b 

XII. The famous Amalric, professor of logic and theo- 
logy at Paris, whose bones were dug up and publicly 
burned in 1209, (although he had abjired his errors 
before his death,) and a considerable number of whose 
disciples and followers were committed to the flames on 
account of their absurd and pernicious doctrine, was 
undoubtedly of the same way of thinking with the sect 
whose opinions we have been now considering ; c for, 
though the writers of this barbarous age have given very 
different and confused accounts of his opinions, and even 
attributed some doctrines to him which he never main- 
tained, it is nevertheless certain, that he taught, that all 
things were the parts of one substance, or, in other words, 
that the universe was God, and that not only the forms 
of all things, but also their matter or substance, proceed 
from the Deity, and must return to the source from which 
they were deiived. d From these absurd and blasphemous 

* This account will be confirmed by the following passage, which is 
faithfully translated from the famous book of the Nine Rocks, written 
originally in German : " Moreover the divine man operates and engen- 
ders whatever the Deity operates and engenders : for in God he pro- 
duced and formed the heavens and the earth. He is also the father of 
the eternal word. Neither could God produce any thing without this 
divine man, who is therefore obliged to render his will conformable to 
the will of God, that whatever may be agreeable to the Deity, may be 
agreeable to him also. If therefore it be die will of God that I should 
commit sin, my will must be the same, and I must not even desire to 
abstain from sin. This is true contrition. And although a man, who 
is well and truly united to God, may have committed a thousand mortal 
sins, he ought not to wish that he had not committed them: he should 
even be ready to die a thousand deaths rather than omit one of these 
mortal sins." Hence arose the accusation brought by the inquisitors 
against this impious sect, whom they reproach with maintaining that 
the " sin of a man united to God, is not sin, since God works in him 
and with him whatever he does." Henry Suso, a Dominican monk, 
and one of the most celebrated Mystic writers, composed, in the follow- 
ing century, another book concerning the Nine Rocks, which is to be 
found in the edition of his works published by Laurence Surius. But 
this book is entirely different from that which was in such high esteem 
among the Beghards, though it bears the same title. The latter is of 
much older date, and was in vogue in Germany, among the Brethren 
of the free spirit, long before Suso was born. There fell some time ago 
into my hands an ancient manuscript, composed in Alsace during the 
fifteenth century, containing an account of various revelations and vi- 
sions of that age. In this manuscript I found a piece entitled, Dccla- 
ratio Religiosi cujusdam super Revelatione Carthusiano cuidam de Ec- 
clesias per gladium reformatione, Leodii in anno 1453 facta ; and, al- 
most in the beginning of this declaration, I met with the following pas- 
sage relating to the book of the Nine Rocks : " Homo quidam devotis- 
simus, licet laicus, librum de novem Rupibus conscripsit a Deo compul- 
sus, ubi multa ad prasens pertinentia continentur de Ecclesias renova- 
tione et praevia gravi persecutione." These Nine Rocks signified, ac- 
cording to the fanatical doctrine of this wrong-headed sect, the different 
steps by which the divine man ascended to the Deity. 

b The founder of this famous sect, the place of its origin, and the 
time of its first appearance, are not known with certainty. I have in 
my possession eighty-nine Sentences of the Beghards, vulgarly called 
Schwestriones, but who style themselves Brethren of the sect of the 
free spirit and of voluntary poverty, with a refutation of the said sen- 
tences, written at Worms toward the conclusion of this century by one 
of the inquisitors. The 79th sentence runs thus : " To say that the 
truth is in Rhetia, is to fall into the heresy of Donatus, who said that 
God was in Africa, and not elsewhere." From these words it appears 
evident, that Rhetia was the country where the church of the Brethren 
of the free spirit was fixed and established, and that from this province 
they passed into Germany. I am not, however, of opinion, that this 



principles he deduced that chimerical system of fanatical 
devotion, which we have already exposed to the view of 
the reader, pretended to demonstrate the possibility of 
incorporating or translating the human nature into the 
divine, and rejected all kinds of external worship, as 
insignificant and useless. The disciples of this enthusiast 
were men of exemplary piety, were distinguished by the 
gravity and austerity of their lives and manners, and 
suffered death in the most dreadful forms with the utmost 
resolution and constancy. David of Dinant, a Parisian 
doctor, was one of the most eminent among these ; and 
he usually expressed the fundamental principle of his 
master in the following proposition ; " God is the primary 
matter or substance of all things." He composed a work 
entitled Quatemarii, with several other productions, 
which were chiefly designed to affect and gain the multi- 
tude ; but he was at length obliged to save himself by 
flight. e The bishops, assembled in council at Paris, in 
1209, considered the philosophy of Aristotle as the source 
of these impious doctrines, and, on that account, prohibit- 
ed all persons from reading or explaining, either in public 
or private, the metaphysical and other productions of the 
Grecian sage. f 

XIII. If we may depend upon the accounts given by 
certain writers, Amalric and his followers received with 
the utmost docility and faith the predictions, attributed to 
Joachim, abbot of Flora, concerning the reformation that 

sect had its origin in that province ; but am rather inclined to think, 
that Italy was its country, and that, being driven thence, it took refuge 
in Rhetia. Nor is it at all improbable, that Italy, which saw so many 
religious factions arise in its bosom, was also the nursing mother of this 
blasphemous sect. We shall be almost fully confirmed in this opinion, 
when we consider that, in a long letter from Clement V. to Rainier bi- 
shop of Cremona, (published by Odor. Raynaldus, Annal. torn. xv. an. 
1311,) the zealous pontiff exhorts that prelate to suppress and extirpate, 
with all his power, the sect of the Brethren of the free spirit, who were 
settled in several parts of Italy, and particularly in the province of Spo- 
leto and the countries adjacent. Such are the terms of the pontiff's let- 
ter : " In nonnullis Italia; partibus, tam Spoletanae provinciae, quam cir- 
cumjacentium regionum." 

c This did not escape the notice of the enemies of the Beghards or 
Brethren of the free spirit in Germany, much less that of the inquisitors, 
who, in their Refutation of the 89 sentences of the Beghards, mentioned 
in the preceding note, express themselves thus : (sent. 68.) " Dicere 
quod omnis creatura est Deus, hseresis Alexandri* est, qui dixit, mate- 
riam primam et Deum et hominem, hoc est mentes, esse in substantia, 
quod postea quidam, David de Dinanto sequutus est, qui temporibus 
nostris de hac haeresi de Francia fugatus est, et punitus fuisset, si de- 
prehensus fuisset." 

53f d The account given by Fleury, in his Ecclesiastical History, of 
the opinions of Amalric, is very different from that which is here given 
by Dr. Mosheim. The former observes, that Amalric, or Amauri, 
taught that ' every Christian was obliged to believe himself a member of 
Jesus Christ, and that without this belief none could be saved;' and he 
observes also, that his disciples introduced errors still more pernicious, 
such as the following : " That the power of the Father had continued 
only during the Mosaic dispensation, that of the Son 1200 years after 
his entrance upon earth, and that, in the thirteenth century, the age of 
the Holy Spirit commenced, in which the sacraments and all external 
worship were to be abolished ; that there would be no resurrection ; that 
heaven and hell were mere fictions ;" and many more sentiments of that 
nature, which, as the learned Spanheim imagines, were falsely imputed 
to Amalric, in order to render his memory odious, because he had op- 
posed the worship of saints and images. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. li- 
vre lxxvi. sect. lix.-Dr. Mosheim considered Amalric as a Pantheist ; and 
many men of eminent learning are of this opinion. See. among others, 
Joh. Gerson apud Jac. Thomasium, and also Brucker's Hist. Philc- 
soph. torn. iii. p. 688. 

• See Martenne's Thesaur. Anecd. torn. iv. p. 163, where there is an 
account of the heresies for which several priests were burned at Paris 
in 1209. — Natal. Alexander, Hist. Eccl. Sa:c. xiii. cap. iii. art. ii. p. 76. 
— Du Bois, Hist. Eccl. Paris, t, ii. p. 244. — Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, 
t. iii. p. 24, 48, 53. — Jac. Thomasius.de Exustione Mundi Stoica, p. 199, 

( Launoy, de varia Aristot. fortuna in Acad. Paris, p. 127. 

* The person here mentioned is Alexander, the Epicurean, of whom 
Plutarch speaks in his Symposium. 



Chap, V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



333 



was soon to b* brought about in the church by the 
power of the s* ord, — the approaching Age of the Holy 
Ghost, that was to succeed those of the Father and the 
Son. — and other things of that nature, which raised the 
lopes and occupied the thoughts of the Spiritual Fran- 
ciscans. Whether these accounts may be depended 
lpon or not. we shall not determine. To us they ap- 
pear extremely doubtful. It is, however, true, that cer- 
.ain persons were so far deluded by these pretended pro- 
phecies, as to form new sects with a view to their ac- 
complishment, and to declare war against the established 
;hurch, its system of doctrine, and its forms of worship. 
Among other fanatical sectaries, there arose one of a 
most extraordinary kind, a Bohemian woman, named 
Wilhelmioa, who resiled in the territory of Milan. This 
delirious and wrong-headed woman, having studied with 
attention the predictions concerning the age of the Holy 
Ghost, was so extravagant as to persuade herself, and 
(what is still more amazing) had sufficient influence 
to persuade others, that the Holy Ghost had become in- 
carnate in her person, for the salvation of a great part of | 
mankind. According to her doctrine, ' ; None could be 
saved by the blood of Jesus, but true and pious Chris- 
tians ; while the Jews, Saracens, and unworthy Chris- 
tians, were to obtain salvation through the Holy Spirit 
which dwelt in her ; and, in consequence thereof, all that 
had happened to Christ, during his appearance upon 
earth in the human nature, was to be exactly renewed in 
her person, or rather in that of the Holy Ghost which 
was united to her."' This mad woman died at Milan, 
in 1281, in the most fragrant odour of sanctity ; and her 
memory was not only holden in the highest veneration 
by her numerous followers and the ignorant multitude, 
but was also honoured with religious worship both in 
public and in private. Her sect was at length discovered 
by the curious eye of persecution, in 1300, and fell under 
the cognisance of the inquisitors, who destroyed the mag- 
nificent monument that had been erected to her honour, 
ordered her bones to be committed to the flames, and in 
the same fire cunsumed the leaders of this wretched fac- 
tion, among whom were persons of both sexes." 

XIY. It was upon predictions similar to those men- 
tioned in the preceding section, that the sect of the Apos- 
tles founded its discipline. The members of this sect 
made little or no alteration in the doctrinal part of the 
public religion ; what they principally aimed at, was, to 
introduce among Christians the simplicity of the primi- 
tive times, and more especially the manner of life that 
was observed by the apostles. Gerard Sagarelli, the 
founder of this sect, obliged his followers to go from place 
to place as the apostles did, to wander about clothed in 
white, with long beards, dishevelled hair, and bare heads, 
accompanied with women whom they called their Sis- 
ters. Thev were also obliged to renounce all kinds of 



» The Milanese historians, such as Bernardinus Corius, and others, 
have related the adventures of this odd woman; but their accounts 
*re very different from those given by the learned Muratori, in his 
Antiq. Italica medii JEvi, torn, v., and which he has drawn from the 
judicial proceedings of the court, where the extraordinary case of this 
female fanatic was examined. We are informed by the same excellent 
author, that a learned writer, name Puricelli, composed a history of 
WilheJmina. and of her sect 

» This unhappy man was Durned alive at Parma, in 1300. 

* 1 composed in the German language an accurate history of this 
famous sect, which is very little known in our times ; and I have ir. 

No. XXYIIL. 84 



property and possessions, and to preach in public the ne- 
cessity of repentance, while in their more private assem- 
blies they declared the approaching destruction of the 
corrupt church of Rome, and the establishment of a purer 
semce, and a more glorious church, which, according to 
the prophecies of the abbot Joachim, would certainly 
arise from its ruins. No sooner was the ill-fated leader 
of this faction committed to the flames.' than he was suc- 
ceeded in that character by a bold and enterprising fa 
natic, named Dulcinus. a native of Novara ; who pub 
lished his predictions with more courage, and maintained 
them with more zeal, than his predecessor had done, and 
who did not hesitate to declare that, in a short time, 
pope Boniface VIII.. the corrupt priests, and the licentiou 
monks, were to perish by the hand of the emperor Fre- 
deric III., son of Peter, king of Arragon. and that a new 
and most holy pontiff was to be raised to the head of 
the church. These visionary predictions were, no doubt, 
drawn from the dreams of Joachim, who is said to have 
declared, among other things, that an emperor called 
Frederic III., was to bring to perfection what Frederic II. 
had left unfinished. Be that as it may, Dulcinus ap- 
peared with intrepid assurance at the head of the apos- 
tles ; and acting, not only in the character of a prophet, 
but also in that of a general, he assembled an army to 
maintain his cause, and perhaps to accomplish, at least 
in part, his predictions. He was opposed by Rayne- 
rius, bishop of Yercelli, who defended the interests of the 
Roman pontiff, and carried on. above two years, a most 
sanguinary and dreadful war against this chief of the 
apostles. The issue of this contest was fatal to the lat- 
ter, who. after several battles fought with obstinate cou- 
rage, was at length taken prisoner, and put to death at 
Yercelli in a most barbarous manner, in 1307, togethei 
with Margaret, whom he had chosen for his spiritual sis 
ter, according to the custom of his sect. The terrible 
end of Dulcinus was not immediately followed by the 
extinction of his sect, which still subsisted in France, Ger 
many, and other countries, and stood firm against the most 
vehement efforts of its enemies, until the beginning of the 
loth century, when, under the pontificate of Boniface 
IX., it was totally extirpated. 1 — 

XY. This famous Joachim, abbot of Flora, whose fa- 
natical predictions turned the heads of so many well- 
meaning people, and excited them to attempt reforming 
the church by the sword, and to declare open Avar against 
the Roman pontiffs, did not fall under the suspicion of 
heresy on account of these predictions, but in consequence 
of a new explication he had given of the doctrine of a 
Trinity of persons in the Godhead. He had in an ela- 
borate work attacked very warmly Peter Lomba.d, the 
master of the sentences, on account of the distinction 
which this writer had made between the divine essence 
and the three persons in the Godhead ; for Joachim 

my hands materials, that will furnish an interesting addition to that 
history. That this sect subsisted in Germany, and in some other coun- 
tries, until the pontificate of Boniface IX., is evident from the Chro- 
nicle of Herman Cornerus, published by Jo. George Echard, in his 
Corpus Historicum medii JEy\, torn, ii., and may be sufficiently de 
monstrated by other authentic testimonies. In 140*2. a certain member 
of this apostolic sect, whose name was "William, or Wilhelmus, was 
burned alive at Lubec. The Germans, who were accustomed to distin- 
guish by the name of Beghards all those who pretended to extraordinary 
piety, and sought, by poverty and begging, an eminent reputation loi 
sanctity and virtue, gave this title also to the sect of the ApustUs. 



334 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part \ I. 



looked upon this doctrine as introducing a fourth object, 
even an essence, into the Trinity. But the good man 
was too little versed in metaphysical matters, to carry on 
a controversy of such a subtle nature ; and he was be- 
trayed by his ignorance so far as to advance inconside- 
rately the most rash and most exceptionable tenets. For 
he denied that there was any thing, or any essence, that 
belonged in common to the three persons in the Trinity, 
or was jointly possessed by them ; by which doctrine 
the substantial union, among the three persons, was ta- 
ken away, and the union of the Father, Son, and Holy 
Ghost, was reduced from a natural, simple, and nume- 
rical unity, to a moral one only ; that is, to such an 
unity as reigns in the counsels and opinions of different 

* See Dan. Papebrochius, Disquis. Histor. de Florensi Ordine, Pro- 
phetiis, Doctrina, B. Joachimi, in Actis Sanctorum, Maii, torn. vi. p. 
486, which contains the life of Joachim, written by Syllanseus, and 



persons, who embrace the same notions, and think and 
act with one accord. This explication of the Trinity 
was looked upon by many as very little different from the. 
Arian system ; and therefore pope Innocent III. pro- 
nounced, in 1215, in the Lateran council, a damnatory 
sentence against the doctrine of Joachim ; not extending, 
however, to the person or fame of the abbot himself. Not- 
withstanding this papal sentence, Joachim has at this 
day a considerable number of adherents and defenders, 
more especially among those Franciscans who are called 
Observants. Some of these maintain that the book of 
this abbot was corrupted and interpolated by his enemies, 
while the rest are of opinion that his doctrine was not tho- 
roughly understood by those who opposed it. a 

several other pieces of consequence. See also Natal. Alexander, Hist. 
Eccles. sffic. xiii. dis. ii. p. 331. — Luc. "Wadding, Annal. Minor. 
torn. iv. 



THE FOURTEENTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events that happened to the 
Church during this Century. 

I. Several attempts were made by the princes of the 
west, at the instigation of the Roman pontiffs, to renew 
the war in Palestine against the Turks and Saracens, 
and to deliver the whole province of Syria from the op- 
pressive yoke of those despotic infidels. The succession 
of pontiffs that resided in Avignon, evinced the greatest 
zeal for the renovation of this religious war, and left no 
artifice, no methods of persuasion unemployed, that could 
have the least tendency to engage the kings of England 
and France in an expedition to the Holy Land. But 
their success was not answerable to their zeal ; and, not- 
withstanding the powerful influence of their exhortations 
and remonstrances, something still happened to prevent 
their producing the desired effect. Clement V. urged the 
renewal of this holy war with the greatest ardour in the 
years 1307 and 1308, and set apart a very large sum of 
money for prosecuting it with alacrity and vigour." John 
XXII. ordered ten ships to be fitted out in 1319, to trans- 
port an army of pious adventurers into Palestine, b and 
had recourse to the power of superstition, that is, to the 
influence of indulgences, for raising the funds necessary 
to the support of this great enterprise. These indulgences 
he offered to such as contributed generously to the war, 
and appointed legates to administer them in all the Euro- 
pean countries that were subject to his spiritual jurisdic- 
tion. But, under this fair show of piety and zeal, John 
is supposed to have covered the most selfish and grovelling 
views ; .and we find Louis of Bavaria, who was at that 
time emperor, and several other princes, complaining loud- 
ly that this pontiff made use of the holy war as a pretext 
to disguise his avarice and ambition ; c and indeed the 
character of this pope was of such a stamp as tended to 
accredit such complaints. Under the pontificate of Bene- 
dict XII., a formidable army was raised, in 1330, by Philip 
de Valois, king of France, with a view, as was said, to 
attempt the deliverance of the Christians in Palestine ; d 
but, when he was ready to embark his troops, the appre- 
hension of an invasion from England obliged him to lay 
aside this weighty enterprise. In 1345, Clement VI., at 
the request of the Venetians, engaged, by the persuasive 
power of indulgences, a prodigious number of adventurers 
to embark for Smyrna, where they composed a numerous 
army under the command of Guido, or Guy, dauphin of 

* Baluzii Vitae Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 15, 594 ; torn. ii. p. 55, 
374, &c. Ant. Matthasi Analecta veteris iEvi, torn. ii. p. 577. 

*> Baluzii Vibe Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 125; torn. ii. p. 515. 

• Baluzius,tom. i.p. 175, 786. Matthsei Analecta vet. iEvi, torn, ii p. 595. 

* Baluzius, torn. i. p. 200. 

• Fragme.nta Histor. Romans, in Murator. Antiq. Ital. medii ./Evi, 
torn, til, p. 368. 



Vienne ; but the want of provisions soon obliged thi3 
army to return with the general into Europe.' This dis- 
appointment did not, however, damp the spirits of the 
restless pontiffs ; for another formidable army was assem- 
bled in 1 363, in consequence of the zealous exhortations 
of Urban V., and was to be employed in a new expedition 
against the infidels, with John, king of France, at its 
head ; but the unexpected death of that prince blasted the 
hopes that many had entertained from this grand project, 
and occasioned the dispersion of that numerous body 
which had repaired to his standard/ 

II. The missionaries who had been sent by the Roman 
pontiffs into China, Tartary, and the adjacent countries, 
in the preceding century, found their labours crowned 
with the desired success, and established a great number 
of Christian churches among those unenlightened nations. 
In 1307, Clement V. erected Cambalu (which at that 
time was the celebrated metropolis of Cathay, and is, 
undoubtedly, the same with Pekin, the capital city at 
present of the Chinese empire,) into an archbishopric, 
which he conferred upon John de Monte Corvino, an 
Italian friar who had been employed in propagating the 
Gospel in that country for many years. The same pontiff 
sent soon after, to assist this prelate in his pious labours, 
seven other prelates of the Franciscan order.e John 
XXII. exerted in this good cause the same zeal which 
had distinguished the pontificate of his predecessors. On 
the death of John de Monte Corvino, in 1333, he sent 
Nicolas of Bentra to fill the vacant archbishopric of Cam- 
balu, and charged him with letters to the emperor of the 
Tartars, who, at that time, was in possession of the 
Chinese dominions. In 1338, Benedict XII. sent new 
legates and missionaries into Tartary and China, in con- 
sequence of a solemn embassy' 1 with which he was 
honoured at Avignon from the khan of the Tartars. 
During the time that the princes of the latter nation main- 
tained themselves in the empire of China, the Christian 
religion flourished in those vast regions ; and both Latins 
and Nestorians not only made a public profession of their 
faith, but also propagated it, without any apprehension of 
danger, through the northern provinces of Asia. 

III. There remained in this century scarcely any Euro- 
pean prince unconverted to Christianity, if we except 
Jagellon, duke of Lithuania, who continued in the dark- 
ness of paganism, and worshipped the gods of his idola- 
trous ancestors, until 1386, when he embraced the Chris- 
tian faith, received in baptism the name of Ladislaus, and 

i Baluzii Vita; Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 366, 368, 371, 401. 

' "Wadding, Annal. Ordin. Minor, torn. vi. ad an. 1305, sect. xii. p. 
69. ad an. 1307, p. 91, 368; torn. vii. p. 53, 221 ; torn. viii. p. 235.— J. 
S. Asseman. Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. iii. sect. ii. p. 521.- -J. 
Echard, Scriptor. Pradicator. torn. i. p. 537. — Acta Sanctor. torn, i Ja- 
nuarii, p. 984. — Mosheim, Historia Ecclcs. Tartar. 

i> Baluzii Vit* Pontificum Avenionensium, torn. L p. 242. 



336 



EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1. 



persuaded his subjects to open their eyes upon the divine 
light of the Gospel. We shall not pretend to justify the 
purity of the motives that first engaged this prince to re- 
nounce the religion of his fathers, as they were accom- 
panied, at least, with views of policy, interest, and ambi- 
tion. On the death of Louis, king of Poland, which 
happened in 1382, Jagellon was named among the com- 
petitors who aspired to the vacant throne ; and, as he was 
rich and powerful prince, the Poles beheld his pretensions 
nd efforts with a favourable eye. His religion was the 
only obstacle to the accomplishment of his views. Hed- 
wige, the youngest daughter of the deceased monarch, 
who, by a decree of the senate, was declared heiress of 
the kingdom, was as little disposed to espouse, as the Poles 
were to obey, a Pagan ; and hence Jagellon was obliged 
to make superstition yield to royalty. 11 On the other hand, 
the Teutonic knights and crusaders extirpated by fire and 
sword all the remains of paganism that were to be found 
in Prussia and Livonia, and effected, by force, what persua- 
sion alone ought to have produced. 

We find also in the annals of this century many instan- 
ces of Jews converted to the Christian faith. The cruel 
persecutions they suffered in several parts of Europe, par- 
ticularly in France and Germany, vanquished their obsti- 
nacy, and bent their intractable spirits under the yoke of 
the Gospel. The reports' 1 (whether false or true, we shall 
not determine) that had been industriously spread abroad, 
of their poisoning the public fountains, of their killing 
infants and drinking their blood, of their profaning, in 
the most impious and blasphemous manner, the conse- 
crated wafers that were used in the celebration of the 
eucharist, with other accusations equally enormous, ex- 
cited every where the resentment of the magistrates and 
the fury of the people, and brought the most terrible 
sufferings, that unrelenting vengeance could invent, upon 
that wretched and devoted nation. 

IV. The Saracens still maintained a considerable foot- 
ing in Spain. The kingdoms of Granada and Murcia, 
with the province of Andalusia, were subject to their 
dominion ; and they carried on a perpetual war with the 
kings of Castile, Arragon, and Navarre, in which, how- 
ever, they were not always victorious. The African 
princes, and particularly the emperors of Morocco, became 
their auxiliaries against the Christians. On the other 
hand, the Roman pontiffs left no means unemployed to 
excite the Christians to unite their forces against the 
Moslems, and to drive them out of the Spanish territories ; 
presents, exhortations, promises, — in short, all allurements 
that religion, superstition, or avarice, could render power- 
ful, — were made subservient to the execution of this 

a Odor. Raynaldus, Annal. Eccles. ad an. 1386, sect. iv. Wadding-, 
Annal. Minor, torn. ix. p. 71. — Solignae, Histoire de Pologne, torn. iii. 
p. 241 . 

fj»i> It seems more than probable that these reports were insidious- 
ly forged out of animosity against the Jews, who had long been the 
peculiar objects of general odium. This will appear still more evi- 
dently to have been the case, when we consider that the popes Gregory 
IX. and Innocent IV., published, in the thirteenth century, declara- 
tions calculated to destroy the effect of several calumnies which had 
!>°.en invented and dispersed to the disadvantage of the Jews; and in the 
fourteenth century, we find Benedict XII. and Clement VI. giving 
similar proofs of their equity toward an injured people. We find, 
in history, circular letters of the dukes of Milan and Venice, and impe- 
rial edicts of Frederic III. and Charles V., to the same purpose; and 
all these circumstances materially detract from the credibility of the re- 
ports mertioned by Dr. Mosheim. 

• See J de Ferreras, Histoire d'Espagne, torn. iv. v. yi. — Fragments 



arduous project. The Christians, accordingly, united 
their counsels and efforts for this end ; ar u though for 
some time the difficulty of the enterprise rendered their 
progress inconsiderable, yet even in this century their 
affairs wore a promising aspect, and gave them reason to 
hope that they might one day triumph over their enemies, 
and become sole possessors of the Spanish dominions. 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the calamitous Events that happened to the 
Church during this Century. 

I. The Turks and Tartars, who extended their domi- 
nions in Asia with an amazing rapidity, and directed their 
arms against the Greeks, as well as against the Saracens, 
destroyed wherever they went the fruits that had sprung 
up in such a rich abundance from the labours of the 
Christian missionaries, extirpated the religion of Jesus in 
several provinces and cities where it had flourished, and 
substituted the impostures of Mohammed in its place. 
Many of the Tartars had formerly professed the Gospel, 
and still more had tolerated the exercise of that divine 
religion ; but, from the beginning of this century, things 
put on a new face ; and that fierce nation renounced 
every other religious doctrine, except that of the Koran. 
Even Timur-Bec, commonly called Tamerlane, their 
mighty emperor, embraced the doctrine of Mohammed, 
though under a form different from that which was adopted 
by the Tartars in general." 1 This formidable warrior, 
after having subdued the greatest part of Asia, having 
triumphed over Bajazet (or Bayezid) emperor of the Turks, 
and even filled Europe with terror at the approach of his 
victorious arms, made use of his authority to force multi- 
tudes of Christians to apostatise from their holy faith. 
To the dictates of authority he added the compulsive 
power of violence and persecution, and treated the disciples 
of Christ with the utmost barbarity. Persuaded, as we 
learn from the most credible writers of his life and actions, 
that it was incumbent upon the true followers of Moham- 
med to persecute the Christians, and that the most ample 
and glorious rewards were reserved for such as Avere most 
instrumental in converting them to the religion of that 
supposed prophet/ he employed the most inhuman acts 
of severity to vanquish the. magnanimous constancy of 
such as persevered in their attachment to the Christian 
religion, of whom some suffered death in the most barba- 
rous forms, while others were condemned to perpetual 
slavery/ 

II. In those parts of Asia, which are inhabited by the 
Chinese, Tartars, Moguls, and other nations still lesa 

Histor. Romans, in Muratorii Antiq. Ital. medii iEvi, torn. iii. p. 319, 
in which, however, there is a considerable mixture of falsehood with 
truth. — Baluzii Miscellan. torn. ii. p. 2G7. 

■J This great Tamerlane, whose name seemed to strike terror even 
when he was no more, adhered to the sect of the Sonnites, and pro- 
fessed the greatest enmity against their adversaries, the Shiites. See 
Petit Croix, Histoire de Timur-Bec, torn. ii. p. 151; torn. iii. p. 228. 
It is, however, extremely doubtful, what was, in reality, the religion 
of Tamerlane, though he professed the Mohammedan faith. See Mo- 
sheim, Hist. Eccles. Tartaror. p. 124. 

e Petit de la Croix, Histoire de Timur-Bec, torn. ii. p. 329 ; torn. ii ; 
p. 137, 243, &c. 

i Many instances of this we find in the History of Timur-Bec, writ- 
ten by a Persian named Sherefeddin ; published at Delft, in 1723. — 
See also Herbelot, Biblioth. Oriental, at the article Timor, p. 877.— 
[The work of Sherefeddin is the same with that of M. de la Croix 
who only professed himself, in this instance, a translator. Edit.] 



Chap. IL 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



337 



known, the Christian religion not only lost ground, but 
seemed to be totally extirpated. It is, at least, certain, 
that we have no account of any members of the Latin 
church residing in those countries, later than the year 
1370 ; nor could we ever learn the fate of the Franciscan 
missionaries sent thither from Rome. We have, indeed, 
6ome records, from which it would appear that there were 
Nestorians residing in China so far down as the sixteenth 
century ; a but these records are not so clear as to remove 

• Nicol. Trigautius, de Christ. Exped. apud Sinas, lib. i.e. xi. — Jos. Sim. 

No. XXIX. 85 



all doubt. However that may be, the abolition of Christi- 
anity in those remote parts of the world may, without 
hesitation, be imputed to the wars that were carried on by 
the Tartars against the Chinese and other Asiatic na- 
tions ; for, in 1369, the last emperor of the race of 
Genghiz-Khan was driven out of China, and his throne 
filled by the Mim family, who, by a solemn law, re- 
fused to all foreigners the privilege of entering that 
country. 

Assemani Bib. Orien. Vatic, t. iii. — Du Halde, Descrip. de la Chine, t i, 



PART II. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the State of Letters and Philosophy 
during this Century. 

I. The Greeks, though dejected by the foreign and in- 
testine calamities in which they were involved, were far 
from withdrawing their attention and zeal from the cause 
of literature, as is evident from the great number of learned 
men who flourished among them during this period. In 
this honourable class we may reckon Nicephorus Gregoras, 
Manuel Chrysoloras,Maximus Planudes, and many others, 
who, by their indefatigable application to the study of histo- 
ry, antiquities, and the belles lettres, acquired considerable 
reputation. Omitting the mention of writers of inferior 
note, we may observe, that Theodorus Metochita, John 
Cantacuzenus, and Nicephorus Gregoras, applied them- 
selves to the composition of history, though with different 
success. Nor ought we to pass over in silence Nicephorus 
Callistus, who compiled an ecclesiastical history, which, 
notwithstanding its being debased with idle stories and 
evident marks of superstition, is highly useful on account 
of its illustration of many important facts. 

II. As no sage of this century had the presumption to 
set up for a leader in philosophy, such of the Greeks as 
had a taste for philosophical researches adhered to Aristotle, 
as their conductor and guide ; but we may learn from the 
tracts of Theodorus Metochita in what, manner they ex- 
plained the principles and tenets of the Stagirite. Plato 
also had his followers, especially among those who were 
fond of mysticism, which had for many ages been holden 
in the highest veneration by the Greeks. In the sublime 
sciences of mathematics and astronomy, Nicolas Cabasilas 
surpassed all his contemporaries. Balaam adopted the sen- 
timents and precepts of the Stoics with respect to the obli- 
gations of morality and the duties of life, and digested 
them into a work which is known by the title of Ethica 
ex Stoicism 

III. In all the Latin provinces, schemes were carried 
into execution with considerable success, for promoting the 
study of letters, improving taste, and dispelling the pedantic 
spirit of the times. This laudable disposition gave rise to 
the erection of many schools and academies, at Cologne, 
Orleans, Cahors, Perusia, Florence, and Pisa, in which all 
the liberal arts and sciences, distributed into the same 
classes that still subsist in those places, were taught with 
assiduity and zeal. Opulent persons founded and amply 
endowed particular colleges, in the public universities, in 
which, beside the monks, young men of riarrow circum- 
stances were educated in all the branches of literature. 
Libraries were also collected, and men of learning anima- 
ted to aspire to fame and glory, by the prospect of honoura- 
ble rewards. It must be acknowledged, indeed, that the 
advantages arising to the church and state, from so many 

a Henrici Canisii Lectiones Antiquae, torn. iv. p. 405. 

i See Ant. Wood, Antiq. Oxoniens. torn. i. p. 156, 159. 

e See Humph. Hotly, de Graecis illustribus, Linguae Graecae Litera- 
rumque humaniorum Instauratoribus, lib. i. — Calogera, Opusculi Scien- 
tific], torn. xxv. p. 258. 

* Hody. lib i. p. 10. — Calogera, p. 348. — and more especially Christ. 



professors and learned men, did not wholly answer the 
expense and care bestowed on this undertaking by men 
of rank and fortune ; yet we are by no means to conclude, 
as many have rashly done, that all the doctors of this age, 
who rose gradually from the lower to the higher and more 
honourable stations, were only distinguished by their 
stupidity and ignorance. 

IV. Clement V., who was now raised to the pontificate, 
ordered the Hebrew and other Oriental languages to be 
taught in the public schools, that the church might never 
want a sufficient number of missionaries properly qualified 
to dispute with the Jews and Mohammedans, and to 
diffuse the divine light of the Gospel throughout the east; b 
in consequence of which appointment, some eminent pro- 
ficients in these tongues, and especially in the Hebrew r , 
flourished during this age. The Greek language, which 
hitherto had been much neglected, was now revived, and 
taught with general applause, first by Leontius Pilatus, a 
Calabrian, who wrote a commentary upon Homer, and a 
few others, but afterwards, with far greater success and 
reputation, by Manuel Chrysoloras, d a native of Constanti- 
nople. Nor were there wanting some extraordinary geni- 
uses, who, b}' their zeal and application, contributed to the 
restoration of the ancient and genuine eloquence of the 
Latins, among whom the excellent and justly renowned 
Petrarch held the first place, e and Dante Alighieri tht 
second. Full of this worthy design, they both acted aa 
if they had received an extraordinary commission to pro- 
mote the reign of true taste and the progress of polite 
learning ; and their success was answerable to the gene- 
rous ambition that animated their efforts ; for they had 
many followers and admirers, not only among their coun- 
trymen, but also among the French and Germans. 

V. The writings of this age furnish us with a long list 
of grammarians, historians, lawyers, and physicians, o* 
whom it would be easy to speak more particularly ; but, 
as such a detail is unnecessary, it will be sufficient to 
inform our readers, that there were few of this multitude, 
whose labours were strikingly useful to society. Great 
numbers applied themselves to the study of the civil and 
canon laws, because it was the readiest way to preferment 
both in church and state. Such as have any tolerable 
acquaintance with history, cannot be entirely strangers to 
the fame of Bartolus, Baldus, Andreas, and other doctors 
of laws in this century, who reflected honour on the uni- 
versities of Italy. But, after all, it is certain that the 
jurisprudence of this age was a most intricate, disagreeable 
study, unenlivened either by history or style, and destitute 
of every allurement that could recommend it to a man of 
genius. As for the mathematics, they were cultivated by 
many ; yet, if we except Thomas Bradwardine, the acute 
and learned archbishop of Canterbury, there were few who 
acquired any degree of reputation by this kind of study. 

Fred. Borner's Lib. de Graecis Literarum Grsecarum in Italia Instaurat. 
• See Jac. Phil Thomasini "Vita Petrarchae in Jo. Ger. Meuschen Vit. 
claror. Viror. torn. iv. who, in his preface, enumerates all the other 
writers of his life. Of the celebrated poet Dante, several have treated, 
particularly his translator Benvenuto of Imola, from whom Muratori 
has borrowed large extracts in his Antiquit. Ital. medii jEvi, tom.i. 



Chap. I. 



LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



339 



VI. The vast number of philosophers, who rather disgra- 
ced than adorned this century, looked upon Aristotle as 
their infallible oracle and guide, though they stripped him 
of all those excellences that really belonged to him, and 
were incapable of entering into the true spiritof his writings. 
So great was the authority of the peripatetic philosophy, 
that, in order to diffuse the knowledge of it as widely as 
possible, even kings and emperors ordered the works of 
Aristotle to be translated into the native language of their 
respective dominions. Among the most eminent of this 
class was Charles V. king of Prance, who ordered all the 
writings of the ancients, and especially those of Aristotle, 
to be translated into French by Nicolas Oresme. a Those, 
however, who professed themselves philosophers, instead 
of being animated by the love of truth, were inflamed by 
a rage of disputation, which led them to perplex and 
deform the pure, simple doctrines of reason and religion, 
by a multitude of idle subtleties, trifling questions, and ri- 
diculous distinctions'. It is needless to enlarge either on the 
barbarity of their phraseology, in which they supposed the 
chief strength of their art consisted, or on that utter aversion 
to every branch of polite learning, in which they foolishly 
gloried. Those who wish to be acquainted with their 
methods of argumentation, and whatever else relates to 
this wrangling tribe, need only consult John Scotus, or 
Walter Burleeus. But, though they all followed one com- 
mon track, there were several points on which they differed 
among themselves. 

VII. The old disputes between the Realists and Nomi- 
nalists, which had lain dormant a long time, were now 
revived, with an ardour seemingly inextinguishable, by an 
English Franciscan .of the severe order, named William 
Occam, who was a follower of the great Scotus, and a 
doctor of divinity at Paris. The Greeks and Persians 
never fought against each other with more hatred and 
fury, than these two discordant sects, whose angry dispu- 
tations subsisted without any abatement, till the appearance 
of Luther, who soon obliged the scholastic divines to 
terminate their mutual wranglings, and to listen to terms 
of accommodation. The Realists despised their antago- 
nists as philosophers of a recent date, branding them with 
the name of Moderns, while, through a great mistake, 
they ascribed a very high antiquity to the tenets of their 
own party. The Nominalists, on the other hand, inveigh- 
ed against them as a set of doting visionaries, who, despi- 
sing substantia] matters, were pursuing mere shadows. 
The Nominalists had the most eloquent, acute, and subtle 
doctors of Paris for their leaders, among whom, beside 
Occam, the famous John Buridan b was very eminent ; 
the Realists, nevertheless, through the countenance given 
them by successive popes, prevailed ; for, when Occam 
had joined the party of the Franciscan monks, who stre- 
nuously opposed John XXII., that pope himself, and his 
successors, left no means untried to extirpate the philoso- 
phy of the Nominalists, which was deemed highly preju- 
dicial to the interests of the church : c and hence it was, 

a Launoy, Hist. Gymnas. Navarr. torn. iv. op. part i. p. 504. — Boulay, 
Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. p. 379. — Le Boeuf, Dissert, sur l'Hist. 
Eccles. et Civile de Par. torn. iii. p. 456. 

b Rob. Gaguin wrote a particular account of this famous man, as we 
learn from Launoy, in his Historia Gymnasii Navarreni, torn. iv. op. 
part i. p. 722. See also Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. p. 282, 
307, 341, &c. • Steph. Baluzii Miscel. torn. iv. p. 532. 

i Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. p. 257 ; torn. v. p. 708. — Car. 
Pless. d'Argentre, Collectio judiciorum de novis erroribus, &c. 



that, in 1339, the university of Paris, by a public edict, 
solemnly condemned and prohibited the philosophy of 
Occam, which was that of the Nominalists. d But, as it 
is natural for men to love and pursue what is forbidden, 
the consequence was, that the party of the Nominalists 
flourished more than ever. 

VIII. Among the philosophers of these times, there 
were many who with their philosophy mingled astrology, 
i. e. the art of telling fortunes by the aspect of the heavens 
and the influence of the stars ; and, notwithstanding the 
obvious folly and absurdity of this pretended science, both 
the higher and lower ranks were fond of it even to dis- 
traction. Yet, in spite of all this popular prejudice in 
favour of their art, these astrological philosophers, to avoid 
being impeached of witchcraft, and to keep themselves out 
of the hands of the inquisitors, were obliged to behave 
with great circumspection. The neglect of this caution 
was remarkably fatal to Ceccus Asculanus, a famous peri- 
patetic philosopher, astrologer, and mathematician, who 
first acted as physician to pope John XXII. and afterwards 
to Charles Sineterra, duke of Calabria. This unfortunate 
man, having performed some experiments in mechanics, 
that seemed miraculous to the vulgar, and having also 
offended many, and among the rest his master, by giving 
out some predictions, which were said to have been fulfilled, 
was universally supposed to deal with infernal spirits, and 
was committed to the flames, in 1.327, by the inquisitors 
of Florence. 11 There is yet extant his commentary upon 
the Sphere of John de Sacrobosco, otherwise named Ho- 
lywood, which shows him to have been deeply tainted 
with superstition. f 

IX. Raymond Lully was the author of a new and singu- 
lar kind of philosophy, which he endeavoured to illustrate 
and defend by his voluminous writings. He was a native 
of Majorca, and admirable for the extent and fecundity of 
his genius ; but was, at the same time, a strange com 
pound of reason and folly. Being full of zeal for the 
propagation of the Gospel, and having performed many 
voyages, and undergone various hardships to promote it, 
he was slain at Bugia, in Africa, in 1315, by the Moham- 
edans whom he was attempting to convert. The Fran 
ciscans, to whose third order it is said he belonged, exto 
him to the skies, and have taken great pains to persuade 
several popes to canonise him ; while many, on the con 
trary, and especially the Dominicans, inveigh bitterly 
against him, calling him a wild and visionary chemist, a 
hot-headed fanatic and heretic, a magician, and a mere 
compiler from the works of the more learned Moslems. 
The popes entertained different opinions of him ; some 
regarding him as a harmless pious man, while others pro- 
nounced him a vile heretic. But whoever peruses the 
writings of Lully without prejudice, will not be biassed by 
either of these parties. It is at least certain, that he would 
have been a great man, had the warmth and fertility of 
his imagination been tempered with a sour.d judg- 
ments 



Paul Ant. Appianus wrote a defence of this unhappy man, whi< h is 
inserted in Domen. Bernini Storia di tutte 1' Heresie, torn. iii. sect. xiv. 
cap. iii. p. 210. We have also a farther account of him by Giov. Maria 
Crescimbeni, Commentari della volgar Poesia, vol. ii. part ii. lib. iii. 
cap. xiv. 

' Gabr. Naudaius, Apologie pour les grands homnics qui ont etc 
soupconnez de Magie, p. 270. 

8 See John Salzinger's Preface to Raymond Lully's works, which 
John William, elector Palatine, caused to be collected at a great expense, 



340 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



CHAPTER n. 

Concerning the Doctors and Government of the 
Church during this Century. 

I. The governors of the church in this period, from 
the highest to the lowest orders, were addicted to vices 
peculiarly dishonourable to their sacred character. We 
shall say nothing of the Grecian and Oriental clergy, 
who lived, for the most part, under a rigid, severe, and 
oppressive government, though they deserve their part in 
this heavy and ignominious charge. But, with regard to 
the Latins, our silence would be inexcusable, since the 
flagrant abuses that prevailed among them were attended 
with consequences equally pernicious to the interests of 
religion and the well-being of civil society. It is, however, 
necessary to observe, that there were, even in these degene- 
rate times, some pious and worthy men, who ardently 
longed for a reformation of the church, both in its head 
and members, as they used to express themselves.* To 
prevent the accomplishment of these laudable desires, 
many circumstances concurred ; such as the exhorbitant 
power of the popes, so confirmed by length of time that it 
seemed immoveable, and the excessive superstition that 
enslaved the minds of the generality, together with the 
wretched ignorance and barbarity of the age, by which 
every spark of truth was stifled, as it were, in its very 
birth. Yet, firm and lasting as the dominion of the 
Roman pontiffs seemed to be, it was gradually under- 
mined and weakened, partly by the pride and rashness 
of the popes themselves, and partly by unexpected events. 

II. This important change may be dated from the 
quarrel which arose between Boniface VIII., who filled the 
papal throne about the beginning of this century, and 
Philip the Fair, king of France. This prince, who was 
endowed with a bold and enterprising spirit, soon con- 
vinced Europe, that it was possible to set bounds to the 
overgrown arrogance of the bishop of Rome, although 
many crowned heads had attempted it without success. 
Boniface sent Philip the haughtiest letters imaginable, in 
which he asserted, that the king of France, and all other 
kings and princes, were obliged, by a divine command, to 
submit to the authority of the popes, as well in all political 
and civil matters, as in those of a religious nature. The 
king answered him with great spirit, and in terms 
expressive of the utmost contempt. The pope rejoined 
with more arrogance than ever ; and, in that famous bull 
{unam sanctum) which he published about this time, 
asserted that Jesus Christ had granted a twofold power to 
his church, or, in other words, the spiritual and temporal 
swords ; that he had subjected the whole human race to 
the authority of the Roman pontiff, and that all who 
dared to dispute it, were to be deemed heretics, and ex- 
cluded from all possibility of salvation. b The king, on the 
other hand, in an assembly of the peers of his kingdom, 
hoi den in 1303, ordered William de Nogaret, a celebrated 



and to be published in 1720. Luc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. iv. 
p. 421 ; torn. v. p. 157, 310; torn. vi. p. 229. Concerning the famous 
invention of Lully, see the Polyhistor of Dan. George MorhofF, lib. ii. 
cap. v. p. 352. 

" Matt. Flacius, Catalog, testium "Witatis, lib. xiii. p. 1697. Jo. 
Laur oius, de varia Fortuna. Aristotelis p. 217. Jo. Henr. Hottinger, 
Historia Eccles. SEec. xiv. p. 754. 

b This bull is yet extant in the Corpus Juris Canon. Extravagant. 
Comrnun. lib. i. tit. de majoritate et obedientia. 

« Of this distinguished man, who was the most intrepid and inveterate 



lawyer, to draw up an accusation against the pope, in 
which he publicly charged him with heresy, simony, and 
other vices and crimes, demanding, at the same time, the 
convocation of an oecumenical council, for the speedy 
deposition of such an execrable pontiff. The pope, in his 
turn, passed a sentence of excommunication, in that very 
year, against the king and all his adherents. 

III. Philip, shortly after he received his sentence, held 
an assembly of the states of the kingdom, where he again 
employed some persons of the highest rank and reputa- 
tion to sit in judgment upon the pope, and appeal to a 
general council. After this, he sent William de Nogaret 
with some others into Italy, to excite a sedition, to seize the 
pope's person, and then to convey him to Lyons, where 
the king was determined to hold the above-mentioned 
council. Nogaret, being a resolute active man, soon drew 
over to his assistance the powerful Colonna family, (then 
at variance with the pope,) levied a, small army, seized 
Boniface, who lived in apparent security at Anagni, and 
treated him in the most shocking manner, carrying his 
resentment so far as to wound him on the head by a blow 
with his iron gauntlet. The inhabitants of Anagni 
rescued him out of the hands of this fierce and implacable 
enemy, and conducted him to Rome, where he died soon 
after of an illness occasioned by the rage and anguish 
into which these insults had thrown him. d 

IV. Benedict XL, who succeeded him, and whose name, 
before his accession to the papal chair, was Nicolas 
Boccacini, learned prudence by this fatal example, and 
.pursued more moderate and gentle measures. He repeal- 
ed, of his own accord, the sentence of excommunication 
which his predecessor had thundered out against the king 
of France and his dominions ; but never could be prevail- 
ed upon to absolve Nogaret of his treason against the 
spiritual majesty of the pontificate. Nogaret, on the other 
hand, set a small value upon the papal absolution, and 
prosecuted, with his usual vigour and intrepidity, in the 
Roman court, the accusation that he had formerly adduced 
against Boniface ; and, in the name of his royal master, 
insisted, that the memory of that pontiff should be brand- 
ed with a notorious mark of infamy. During these 
transactions, Benedict died, A. D. 1304 ; upon which 
Philip, by his artful intrigues in the conclave, obtained 
the see of Rome for Bertrand de Got, archbishop of Bour- 
deaux, who was accordingly elected to that high dignify, 
on the 5th of June, 1305. This step was so much the 
more necessary, as the breach between the king and the 
court of Rome was not yet entirely healed, and (Nogaret 
not being absolved) might easily be renewed. Besides, 
the French monarch, inflamed with the desire of revenge, 
insisted upon the formal condemnation of Boniface by the 
court of Rome, the abolition of the order of Templars, 
and other concessions of great importance, which he could 
not reasonably expect from an Italian pontiff. Hence he 
looked upon a French pope, in whose zeal and compliance 

enemy the popes ever had before Luther, no writers have given us a 
more copious account than the Benedictine monks, Hist. Generate de 
Lano-uedoc torn. iii. p. 114,117. Philip made him chancellor of France 
for his resolute opposition to the pope. 

d See the Acta inter Bonifacium VIII. Bened. XI. Clement. V. et 
Philippum Pulchrum, published in 1614 by Peter Puteanus. — Adr. 
Baillet, Hist, des Demelez du Pape Boniface VIII. avec Philippe le Bel. 

Jo. Rubeus, in Bonifacio, cap. xvi. p. 137. The other writers on this 

subject are mentioned by Baillet, in his Preface, p. 9.— See also Boulay 
Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



341 



he could confide, as necessary to the execution of his 
designs. Bertrand assumed the name of Clement V., and, 
at the king's request, remained in France, and removed 
the papal residence to Avignon, where it continued during 
the space of seventy years. This period, the Italians call, 
by way of dension, the Babylonish captivity . a 

V. There is no doubt, that the continued residence of 
the popes in France greatly impaired the authority of 
the Roman see. For. during the absence of the pontiffs 
from Rome, the faction of the Ghibellines, their inveterate 
enemies, rose to a greater height than ever ; and they not 
only invaded and ravaged St. Peter's patrimony, but even 
attacked the papal authority by their writings. This 
caused many cities to revolt from the popes : even Rome 
itself was the grand source and fomenter of cabals, tumults, 
and civil wars ; insomuch, that the laws and decrees sent 
thither from France were publicly treated with contempt 
by the populace, as well as by the nobles. b The in- 
fluence of this example was propagated from Italy through 
most parts of Europe ; it being evident, from a vast num- 
ber of instances, that the Europeans in general were far 
from paying so much regard to the decrees and thunders 
of the Gallic popes, as they did to those of Rome. This 
gave rise to various seditions against the pontiffs, which 
they could not entirely crush, even with the aid of the 
inquisitors, who exerted themselves with the most barbar- 
ous fury. 

VI. The French pontiffs, finding that they could draw 
only small revenues from their Italian dominions, which 
were now torn in pieces by faction and ravaged by sedi- 
tion, were obliged to contrive new methods of accumulating 
wealth. For this purpose, they not only sold indulgences 
to the people, more frequently than they had formerly 
done, whereby they made themselves extremely odious to 
several potentates, but also disposed publicly of scandalous 
licences, of all sorts, at an excessive price. John XXII. 
was remarkably shrewd and zealous in promoting this 
abominable traffick ; for, though he was not the first in- 
ventor of the taxes and rules of the apostolical chancery, 
the Romish writers acknowledge that he enlarged and 
rendered them more extensively profitable to the holy 
treasury. 1 It is certain, that the origin of the tribute paid 
to the popes under the name of Annates, a tax which is 
generally affirmed to have been first imposed by him, is 
of a much earlier date. d Beside the abuses now mention- 
ed, these Gallic popes, having abolished the right of 
election, arrogated to themselves a power of conferring all 
the offices of the church, whether great or small, accord- 
ing to their fancy, by which they soon amassed prodigious 
wealth. It was also under their government that reserves, 
provisions, expectatives, and other impositions of the like 
odious nature, which had seldom (if ever) been heard of 

1 For an account of the French popes, consult chiefly Vita Pontif. 
Avenionensium, published by Baluze in 1693. The reader may also 
peruse, but it must be with the utmost caution, LonguevaFs History of 
the Gallican Church, and the continuation of that work. — See more 
especially torn. xii. This Jesuit, and his successors, have shown great 
industry and eloquence in the composition of this history ; but they, for 
the most part, artfully conceal the vices and enormities of the Roman 
pontiffs. 

t See Baluze, Pontif. Avenion. torn. ii. p. 290, 301, 309. — Muratori, 
Antiq. Ital. torn. iii. p. 397, 401, &c. — Giannone, Historia di Napoli, t. iii. 

• Jo. Ciampinus, de Vice-Cancellario Ecclesiae Rom. p. 39. — Chais, 
Lettres sur les Jubiles, torn-, ii. p. 673. 

•i Bern, van Espen, Jus Eccles. universale, torn. ii. n. 876. — Boulay, 
Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. p. 911— Ant. Wood. Amiquit. Oxon. torn. 

No. XXIX. 86 



before, became familiar to the public ear, and filled all 
Europe with bitter complaints. e These complaints ex 
ceeded all bounds, when some of these pontiffs, particular- 
ly John XXII., Clement VI., and Gregory XL, openly 
declared that they had reserved to themselves all churches 
and parishes within their jurisdiction, and were deter- 
mined, in consequence of that sovereign authority and 
plenitude of power which Christ had conferred upon 
them, his vicars, to provide for them, and dispose of them 
without exception/ It was by these and other mean and 
selfish contrivances, which had no other end than the 
acquisition of riches, that these inconsiderate and rapacious 
pontiffs excited a general hatred against the Roman see, 
and thereby greatly weakened the papal empire, which 
had been visibly upon the decline from the time of 
Boniface. 

VII. Clement V. was a mere creature of Philip the 
Fair, and was absolutely directed and governed by that 
prince as long as he lived. William de Nogafet, the 
implacable enemy of the late pontiff, although he was 
under a sentence of excommunication, had the boldness 
to prosecute his master's cause, and his own, against 
Boniface, even in the pope's court ; an instance of as- 
surance not easy to be paralleled. Philip insisted, that 
the dead body of Boniface should be dug up and publicly 
burned ; but Clement averted this infamy by his advice 
and intreaties, promising implicit obedience to the king in 
every thing else. In order therefore to keep his word, he 
was obliged to abrogate the laws enacted by Boniface, to 
grant the king a bounty of five years' tithes, fully to 
absolve Nogaret of all his crimes, on condition of his 
submitting to a light penance, (which, however, he never 
performed,) to restore the citizens of Anagni to their 
reputation and honour, and to call a general council at 
Vienne, in 1311, in order to condemn the Templars, on 
whose destruction Philip was most ardently bent. Iu 
this council every thing was determined as the king 
thought proper ; for Clement, terrified by the melancholy 
fate of Boniface, durst not venture to oppose this intrepid 
and obstinate monarch.' 

VIII. Upon Clement's death, which happened in 1314, 
fierce contentions arose in the conclave about choosing a 
successor, the French cardinals insisting upon a French, 
and those of Italy demanding an Italian pope. After a 
contest, which continued two years, the French party 
prevailed, and, in 1316, elected James d'Euse, (a native 
of Cahors, and cardinal bishop of Porto,) who assumed 
the name of John XXII. He had a tolerable share of 
learning, but was crafty, proud, weak, imprudent, and 
covetous, which is allowed even by those writers who, in 
other respects, speak well of him. He is deservedly cen 

sured on account of his temerity, and the ill success 

. ___ 

i. p. 213— Guil. Franc. Berthier, Diss, sur les Annates, torn. xii. Hist, 
de 1' Eglise Gallic. 

e Steph. Baluzii Miscellan. torn. iii. p. 479, 518. — Ejus Vit. Pontif 
Avenion. torn. ii. p. 60, 74, 154. — Gallia Christiana Behedictinor. torn, 
i. Append, p. 13.— Wood, Antiquit. Oxon. torn. i. p. 148, 201.— Boulay, 
Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. p. 411. 

f Baluzii Pontif. Avenion. torn. ii. p. 873. torn. i. p. 285, 311, 681. — 
Ant. Matthaei Analecta vet. JEvi, torn. v. p. 249. — Gallia Christiana, 
torn. i. p. 69, 1208. — Histoire du Droit Eccles. Francois, torn. ii. 
p. 129. 

' Beside the common writers already cited, see Guil. Fran. Berthier, 
Discours sur le Pontificat de Clement V. torn. xiii. Hist. Eccles. Gal- 
lic. — Colonia, Hist. Liter, de Lyon, torn. i. p. 340 — Gallia Christiana, 
torn. i. ii. 



342 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



that attended him, through his own imprudence, in many 
of his enterprises ; but he is more especially blamed for 
that calamitous and unhappy war into which he entered 
against Louis of Bavaria. This powerful priuce dispu- 
ted the imperial throne of Germany with Frederic, duke 
of Austria ; and they had been both chosen to that 
high dignity, in 1314, by their respective partisans among 
the electors and princes of the empire. John took it for 
granted, that the decision of this contest came under his 
spiritual jurisdiction. But, in 1322, the duke of Bava- 
ria, having vanquished his competitor by force of arms, 
assumed the administration of the empire without asking 
the pope's approbation, and would by no means allow, 
that the dispute, already determined by the sword, should 
be again decided by the pontiff's judgment. John in- 
terpreted this refusal as a heinous insult upon his autho- 
rity, and, by an edict issued in 1324. pretended to de- 
prive the emperor of his crown. But this impotent re- 
sentment was very little regarded ; and he was even ac- 
cused of heresy by Louis, who, at the same time, appealed 
to a general council. Highly exasperated by these and 
other deserved affronts, the pontiff presumed, in 1327, 
to declare the imperial throne vacant a second time, and 
even to publish a sentence of excommunication against 
the chief of the empire. This new mark of papal ar- 
rogance was severely resented by Louis, who, in 1328, 
published an edict at Rome, by which John was declared 
unworthy of the pontificate, deposed from that dignity, 
and succeeded in it by one of his bitterest enemies, Peter 
de Corbieri, a Franciscan monk, who assumed the name 
of Nicolas V., and crowned the emperor at Rome, in a 
solemn and public manner. But, in 1330, this imperial 
pope voluntarily abdicated the chair of St. Peter, and 
surrendered himself to John, who kept him in close con- 
finement at Avignon for the rest of his life. Thus ended 
the contest between the duke of Bavaria and John XXII., 
both of whom, notwithstanding their efforts to dethrone 
each other, continued in the possession of their respective 
dignities. 3 

IX. The numerous tribes of the Fratricelli, Beghards, 
and Spiritual Franciscans, adhered to the party of Louis. 
Supported by his patronage, and dispersed through the 
greatest part of Europe, they boldly attacked the reigning 
pontiff, as an enemy to the true religion, and loaded 
him with the heaviest accusations, and the bitterest invec- 
tives, both in their writings and in their ordinary conver- 
sation. These attacks did not greatly affect the pontiff, 
as they were made only by private persons, by a set of 
obscure monks, who, in many respects, were unworthy 
of his notice ; but, toward the conclusion of his life, he 

* The particulars of this violent quarrel may be learned from the 
Records published by Steph. Baluze in his Vit. Pontif. Avenion. torn. 
ii. p. 512. — Edm. Martenne, Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn. ii. p. 641. — 
Jo. Georg. Herwart, in Ludovico Imperatore defenso contra Bzovium, 
et Christ. Gewold. in Apologia pro Ludovico Bavaro, against the 
same Bzovius, who, in the Annals he had published, basely aspersed 
the memory of the emperor. See also Wadding, in Annalib. Minor, 
torn. vii. p. 77, 106, &c. Whoever attentively peruses the history of 
this war, will perceive that Louis of Bavaria followed the example 
of Philip the Fair, king of France. As Philip brought an accusation 
of heresy against Boniface, so did Louis with respect to John XXII. 
The French monarch made use of Nogaret and other accusers 
against one pontiff: Louis employed Occam and the Franciscans, in 
that quality against the other. Each insisted upon the convocation of 
a general council, and the deposition of an obnoxious pontiff. I omit 
other circumstances that might be alleged to render the parallel more 
striking. 



incurred the disapprobation and censures of almost the 
whole Catholic church : for, in 1331, and the succeeding 
year, he asserted, in some public discourses, that the souls 
of the faithful, in their intermediate state, were permit- 
ted to behold Christ as man, but not the face of God, or 
the divine nature, before their re-union with the body at 
the last day. This doctrine highly offended Philip VL, 
king of France, was opposed by the pope's friends as 
well as by his enemies, and condemned in 1333 by the 
divines of Paris. This favourite tenet of the pope was 
thus severely treated, because it seemed highly prejudi- 
cial to the felicity of happy spirits in their unembodied 
state ; otherwise the point might have been yielded to a 
man of his positive temper, without any material conse- 
quence. Alarmed by these vigorous proceedings, he im- 
mediately offered something by way of excuse for having 
espoused this opinion ; and afterwards, in 1334, when 
he was at the point of death, though he did not entirely 
renounce, he in some measure softened it, by saying he 
believed that the unembodied souls of the righteous ' be- 
held the divine essence as far as their separate state and 
condition would permit.' b This declaration did not sa- 
tisfy his adversaries : hence his successor, Benedict XII., 
after many disputes about it, put an end to this contro- 
versy by an unanimous resolution of the Parisian doc- 
tors, ordering it to be received as an article of faith, that 
the souls of the blessed, during their intermediate state, 
were capable of contemplating, fully and perfectly, the 
divine nature. Benedict's publishing of this resolution 
could be in no way injurious to the memory of John ; 
for, when the latter lay upon his death-bed, he submitted 
his opinion to the judgment of the church, that he might 
not be deemed a heretic after his decease." 1 

X. John dying in 1334, new contentions arose hi the 
conclave between the French and Italian cardinals, about 
the election of a pope ; but toward the end of the year 
they chose James Fournier, a Frenchman, and cardinal 
of St. Prisca, who took the name of Benedict XII. The 
writers of these times represent him as a man of great 
probity, who was not chargeable with that avarice, or 
that ambition, which had dishonoured so many of his 
predecessors. 6 He put an end to the papal quarrel with 
the emperor Louis ; and though he did not restore him 
to the communion of the church, because prevented, as 
it is said, by the king of France, yet he did not attempt 
any thing against him. He carefully attended to the 
grievances of the church, redressed them as far as was 
in his power, endeavoured to reform the fundamental 
laws of the monastic societies, whether of the mendicant, 
or more opulent orders ; and died in 1342, while he was 

b See Steph. Baluzii Vit. Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 175, 182, 197, 
221, 786, &c. — Luc. DAcherii Spicil. Scriptor. Veter. torn. i. p. 760, 
ec j. ve t. — Jo. Launoii Historia Gymnas. Navarreni, part i. cap. vii. p. 
319. torn. iv. part i. op. — Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. p. 235, 
250. — Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. vi. p. 371 ; torn vii. p. 145. — Echard, 
Scriptor. Pradicator. torn. i. p. 599, 608. 

c Baluzii Vit. Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 197, 216, 221. 

f^= <i All the heretical fancies of this pope about the Beatific Vision 
were nothing in comparison with a vile and most enormous practica. 
heresy, that was found in his coffers after his death, viz. five and 
twenty millions of florins, of which there were eighteen in specie, and 
the rest in plate, jewels, crowns, mitres, and other precious baubles, 
which he had squeezed out of the people and the inferior clergy during 
his pontificate. See Fleury, Hist. Eccles. liv. xciv. sect, xxxix. 

See the Fragmenta Histor. Roman, in Muratorii Antiquit. Ital. 
torn. iii. p. 275. — Baluzii Vit. Pont, Avenion. torn. i. p. 205, 218, &c.~ 
Boulay, Hist. Acad. Par. torn. iv. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



343 



devising the most noble schemes for promoting a yet 
more extensive reformation. In short, if we overlook 
his superstition, the prevailing blemish of this barbarous 
age, it must be allowed that he was a man of integrity 
and merit. 

XI. He was succeeded by a man of a very different 
disposition, Clement VI., a native of France, whose name 
was Peter Roger, and who was cardinal of St. Nereus 
and St. Achilles, before his elevation to the pontificate. 
Not to insist upon the most unexceptionable parts of this 
pontiff's conduct, we shall only observe, that he trod 
faithfully in the steps of John XXII. in providing for 
vacant churches and bishopricks, by reserving to him- 
self the disposal of them, which showed his sordid and 
insatiable avarice ; that he conferred ecclesiastical digni- 
ties and benefices of the highest consequence upon stran- 
gers and Italians, which drew upon him the warm dis- 
pleasure of the kings of England and France ; and last- 
ly, that by renewing the dissensions that had formerly 
subsisted between Louis of Bavaria and the Roman see, 
he exposed his excessive vanity and ambition in the most 
odious colours. In 1343, he assailed the emperor with 
his thundering edicts ; and when he heard that they were 
treated by that prince with the utmost contempt, his 
rage was augmented, and he not only threw out new 
maledictions, and published new sentences of excommu- 
nication against him, in 1346, but also excited the Ger- 
man princes to elect Henry VII., son of Charles IV., em- 
peror in his place. This violent measure would infallibly 
have occasioned a civil war in Germany, had it not been 
prevented by the death of Louis, in 1347. Clement sur- 
vived him above five years, and died near the close of the 
year 1352, famous for nothing but his excessive zeal for 
extending the papal authority, and for his having added 
Avignon, which he purchased of Joan, queen of Naples, 
to the patrimony of St. Peter. 

XII. His successor, Innocent VI., whose name was Ste- 
phen Albert, was much more remarkable for integrity and 
moderation He was a Frenchman, and before his election 
had been bishop of Ostia. He died in 1362, after hav- 
ing governed the church for almost ten years. His 
greatest blemish was, that he promoted his relatives with 
an excessive partiality ; but, in other respects, he was a 
man of merit, and a great encourager of pious and learned 
men. He kept the monks closely to their duty, carefully 
abstained from reserving churches, and, by many good 
actions, acquired a great and deserved reputation. He was 
succeeded by William Grimoard, abbot of St. Victor at 
Marseilles, who took the name of Urban V., and was en- 
tirely free from all the grosser vices, if we except those 
which cannot easily be separated from the papal dignity. 
This pope, being prevailed on by the entreaties of the Ro- 
mans, returned to Rome in 1367 ; but, in 1370. he re- 
visited Avignon, to reconcile the differences that had arisen 
between the kings of England and France, and died there 
in the same year. 



* See Colucii Salutati Epistolae, written in the name of the Floren- 
tines, part i. See also the preface to the second part. 

*> See Longueval, Hist, de l'Eglise Gallicane, torn. xiv. p. 159, 192. 

* See the acts and documents in Boulay, Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. 
p. 463 —Luc. "Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. ix. p. 12.— Steph. Baluze, 
Vit. Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 442, 998.— Acta. Sanctor. torn. i. April. 
p 728. • y 

* An account of this dissension may be seen in Pierre du Puy, His- 
toire Generale du Schisme qui a et6 en l'Eglise depuis l'an. 1378 jusqu' 



XIII. He was succeeded by Peter Roger, a French ec- 
clesiastic of illustrious descent, who assumed the name of 
Gregory XL, a man who, though inferior to his predeces- 
sors in virtue, far exceeded them in courage and audacity. 
In his time, Italy in general, and the city of Rome in par- 
ticular, were distressed with most outrageous and formida- 
ble tumults. The Florentines carried on with success a 
terrible war against the ecclesiastical state ; a upon winch, 
Gregory, in hopes of quieting the disorders of Italy, and 
also of recovering the cities and territories which had been 
taken from St. Peter's patrimony, transferred the papal 
seat, in 1376, from Avignon to Rome. To this he was in 
a great measure determined by the advice of Catharine, 
a virgin of Sens, who, in this credulous age, was thought 
to be inspired with the spirit of prophecy, and made a 
journey to Avignon on purpose to persuade him to take 
this step. b It was not, however, long before Gregory re- 
pented that he had followed her advice ; for, by the long 
absence of the popes from Italy, their authority was redu- 
ced to so low an ebb, that the Romans and Florentines 
made no scruple to insult him with the grossest abuse, 
which made him resolve to return to Avignon ; but, before 
he could execute his determination, he was taken off* by 
death, in 1378. 

XIV. After the death of Gregory XL, the cardinals were 
assembled to consult about choosing a successor, when the 
people of Rome, unwilling that the vacant dignity should 
be conferred on a Frenchman, approached the conclave in 
a tumultuous manner, and with great clamours, accom- 
panied with outrageous menaces, insisted that an Italian 
should be advanced to the popedom. The cardinals, ter- 
rified by this uproar, immediately proclaimed Bartholo- 
mew Pregnano, who was a Neapolitan, and archbishop o. 
Bari, and assumed the name of Urban VI. This new pon- 
tiff", b} r his impolite behaviour, injudicious severity, and in- 
tolerable arrogance, had entailed upon himself the odium o. 
people of all ranks, and especially of the leading cardinals. 
These latter, therefore, tired of his insolence, withdrew from 
Rome to Anagni, and thence to Fondi, where they elected 
to the pontificate Robert, count of Geneva, (who took the 
name of Clement VII.,) and declared at the same time, 
that the election of Urban was nothing more than a mere 
ceremony, which they had found themselves obliged to 
perform, in order to calm the turbulent rage of the popu- 
lace. Which of these two we ought to consider as having 
been the true and lawful pope, is to this day, a doubtful 
point ; nor will the records and writings, alleged by the 
contending parties, enable us to adjust that point with cer- 
tainty. Urban remained at Rome : Clement went to 
Avignon. His cause was espoused by France, Spain, 
Scotland, Sicily, and Cyprus, while all the rest of Europe 
acknowledged Urban as the true vicar of Christ. 

XV. Thus the union of the Latin church under one 
head, was destroyed at the death of Gregory XL, and was 
succeeded by that deplorable dissension, commonly known 
by the name of the great xcestern schism. d This dis- 

en l'an. 1428, which, as we are informed in the preface, was compiled 
from the royal records of France, and is entirely worthy of credit 
Nor should we wholly reject Louis Maimbouro-'s Histoire du grand 
Schisme d'Occident, though in general it be deeply tainted with the 
leaven of party spirit. Many documents are to be met with in Boulay's 
Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. iv. and v. ; and also in Martcnne's Thesuur. 
Anecdotor. torn. ii. I always pass over the common writers upon 
this subject, such as Alexander Raynald, Bzovius, Spoudauus, and 
Du-Pin. 



344 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part U. 



sension was fomented with such dreadful success, and 
arose to such a shameful height, that, for fifty years, the 
church had two or three different heads at the same time ; 
each of the contending popes forming plots, and thunder- 
ing out anathemas against their competitors. The dis- 
tress and calamity of these times are beyond all power of 
description ; for, not to insist upon the perpetual conten- 
tions and wars between the factions of the several popes, 
by which multitudes lost their fortunes and lives, all sense 
of religion was extinguished in most places, and profligacy 
rose to a most scandalous excess. The clergy, while they 
vehemently contended which of the reigning popes ought 
to be deemed the true successor of Christ, were so exces- 
sively corrupt, as to be no longer studious to keep up even 
an appearance of religion or decency : and, in consequence 
of all this, many plain well-meaning people, who conclud- 
ed that no one could partake of eternal life, unless united 
with the vicar of Christ, were overwhelmed with doubt, 
and plunged into the deepest mental distress. 1 Neverthe- 
less, these abuses were, by their consequences, greatly con- 
ducive both to the civil and religious interests of mankind ; 
for, by these dissensions, the papal power received an in- 
curable wound ; and kings and princes, who had formerly 
been the slaves of the lordly pontiffs, now became their 
judges and masters ; and many of the least stupid among 
the people had the courage to disregard and despise the 
popes, on account of their odious disputes about dominion, 
to commit their salvation to God alone, and to admit it as 
a maxim, that the prosperity of the church might be main- 
tained, and the interests of religion secured and promoted, 
without a visible head, crowned with a spiritual supremacy. 

XVI. The Italian cardinals, attached to the interests 
of Urban VI., on the death of that pope, in 1389, set up 
for his successor Peter Thomacelli, a Neapolitan, who took 
the name of Boniface IX. ; and Clement VII., dying in 
1394, the French cardinals raised to the pontificate Peter 
de Luna, a Spaniard, who assumed the name of Benedict 
XIII. During these transactions, various methods were 
proposed and attempted for healing this melancholy breach 
in the church. Kings and princes, bishops and divines, 
appeared with zeal in this salutary project. It was gene- 
rally thought that the best course to be taken was, what 
they then styled, the Method of Cession : but neither of 
the popes could be prevailed on, either by entreaties or 
threats, to give up the pontificate. The Gallican church, 
highly incensed at this obstinacy, renounced solemnly, in 
a council holden at Paris, in 1397, all subjection and obe- 
dience to both pontiffs ; and, on the publication of this re- 
solution, in 1398, Benedict was, by the express orders of 
Charles VI., detained prisoner in his palace at Avignon. b 

XVII. Some of the popes, particularly Benedict XII., 
were perfectly acquainted with the prevailing vices and 
scandalous conduct of the greatest part of the monks, 
which they zealously endeavoured to rectify and remove; 
but the disorder was too inveterate to be easily cured, or 
effectually remedied. The Mendicants, and more espe- 
cially the Dominicans and Franciscans, were at the head 

* Of the mischievous consequences of this schism, we have a full 
account in the Histoire du Droit public Eccles. Francois, torn. ii. p. 166, 
193,202. 

i> Beside the common historians, and Longueval's Histoire de 
l'Eglise Gallicane, t. xiv. see the acts of this council in Boulay's Hist. t. iv. 

* See Wood's Antiquit. Oxon. torn. i. p. 150, 196, &c. 

* See Wood, torn. i. p. 181; torn. ii. p. 61. — Baluzii Vitae Por.tif 



of the monastic orders, and had, indeed, become the heads 
of the church: so extensive was the influence they had ac- 
quired, that all matters of importance, both in the court of 
Rome, and in the cabinets of princes, were carried on under 
their supreme and absolute direction. The multitude had 
such a high notion of the sanctity of these sturdy beggars, 
and of their credit with the Supreme Being, that great 
numbers of both sexes, some in health, others in a state 
of infirmity, others at the point of death, earnestly desired 
to be admitted into the Mendicant order, which they looked 
upon as a sure and infallible method of rendering Heaven 
propitious. Many made it an essential part of their last 
wills, that their carcasses, after death, should be wrapped 
in ragged Dominican or Franciscan habits, and interred 
among the Mendicants ; for, amidst the barbarous super- 
stition and wretched ignorance of this age, the generality 
of people believed that they might readily obtain mercy 
from Christ at the day of judgment, if they should appear 
before his tribunal associated with the Mendicant friars. 

XVIII. The high esteem attached to the Mendicant 
orders, and the great authority which they had acquired, 
only served to render them still more odious to such as 
had hitherto been their enemies, and to draw upon them 
new marks of jealousy and hatred from the higher and 
lower clergy, the monastic societies, and the public uni- 
versities. So general was this odium, that in almost every 
province and university of Europe, bishops, clergy, and 
doctors, were warmly engaged in opposition to the Domi- 
nicans and Franciscans, who employed the power and 
authority they had received from the popes, in undermin 
ing the ancient discipline of the church, and assuming tt 
themselves a certain superintendence in religious matters. 
In England, the university of Oxford made a resolute 
stand against the encroachments of the Dominicans, while 
Richard, archbishop of Armagh, Henry Cromp, Norris, 
and others, attacked all the Mendicant orders with great 
vehemence and severity. d But Richard, whose animosity 
was much keener against them than that of their other 
antagonists, went to the court of Innocent VI., in 1356, 
and vindicated the cause of the church against them wit! 
the greatest fervour, both in his writings and discourse, until 
the year 1360, in which he died. e They had also many 
opponents in France, who, together with the univeisity o t 
Paris, were secretly engaged in contriving means to over 
turn their exorbitant power : but John de Polliac set him- 
self openly against them, publicly denying the validity ol 
the absolution granted by the Dominicans and Francis- 
cans to those who confessed to them, maintaining that the 
popes were disabled from granting them a power of abso- 
lution by the authority of the canon entitled Omnis utri- 
usque sexus, and proving from these premises, that all 
those who would be sure of their salvation, ought k> con- 
fess their sins to the priests of their respective parishes, 
even though they had been absolved by the monk*. They 
suffered little or nothing, however, from the efforts of these 
numerous adversaries, being resolutely protected against 
all opposition, whether open or secret, by the popes, who 

Avenion. torn. i. p. 338, 950.— Boulay, tom. iv. p. 336.— "Wadding, torn, 
viii. p. 126. 

e See Simon's Lettres Choisies, tom. i. p. 164. I have in my pos- 
session a manuscript treatise of Bartholomew de Brisac, entitled, 
" Solutiones oppositae Ricardi, Armachani episcopi, propositionibus 
contra Mendicantes in curia Romana coram Pontince et cardinalibus 
factis, anno 1360." 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS. CHURCH-GOVERNMENT. ETC. 



345 



regarded them as their best friends and most effectual sup- 
ports. Accordingly, John XXII.. by an extraordinary 
decree, in 1321. condemned the opinions of John de 
Polliac. 1 

XIX. But. among all the enemies of the Mendicant 
orders, no one has been transmitted to posterity with more 
exalted encomiums on the one hand, or black calumnies 
on the other, than John Wickliff, an Enghsh doctor, pro- 
fessor of divinity at Oxford, and afterwards rector of Lut- 
terworth : who. according to the testimony of the writers 
of these times, was a man of an enterprising genius, and 
extraordinary learning. In 1360. animated by the ex- 
ample of Richard, archbishop of Armagh, he defended 
the statutes and privileges of the university of Oxford, 
against all the orders of the Mendicants, and had the cou- 
rage to throw out some slight reproofs against the popes, 
their principal patrons, which no true Briton ever imputed 
to him as a crime. After this, in 1367. he was deprived 
of the wardenship of Canterbury Hall, in the university of 
Oxford, by Simon Langham. archbishop of (Vuteroui \ . 
who substituted a monk in his place ; upon which he ap- 
pealed to pope Urban Y.. who confirmed the sentence of 
the primate against him, on account of the freedom with 
which he had inveighed against the monastic orders. 

_ bly exasperated at this treatment, he threw off all re- 
straint, and not onlv attacked all the monks, and their 
scandalous irregularities, but even the pontifical power it- 
self and other ecclesiastical abuses, both in his sera 
and writings. He proceeded to yet greater lengths, and. 
detesting the wretched superstition of the times, refuted. 
with great acuteness and spirit, the absurd notions that 
were general]}" received in religious matters, and not only 
exhorted the laity to study the Scriptures, but also t: 
lated into English these divine books, in order to render 
the perusal of them more general. Though neither the 
doctrine of "Wickliff was void of error, nor his life without 
reproach, vet it must be allowed, that the changes he at- 
tempted to introduce, both in the faith and discipline of 
the church, were, in many respects, wise, useful, and sa- 
lutary. : 

XX. The monks, whom Wickliff had principally ex- 
asperated, commenced a violent prosecution against him 
at the court of Gregory XL. who, in 1377. ordered Simon 
Sudbury, archbishop of Canterbury, to take cognisance of 
the affair in a council convoked at London. Imminent 
as this danger evidemly was. "Wickliff escaped it, by the 
interest of the duke of Lancaster, and some other peers, 
who had a high regard for him : and soon after the death 

Launoius, de Canone Omnis utriusque Sexus, torn. L part L 
op. P- "271. t>?7 &c — Bakizii Til Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. et i; 

m. i. — D'Aeberii Spicil. Scriptor. Veter. torn. L — Mar- 
tenne. Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn, i. 

k A work of his was published at Leipsic and Frankfort, in 1753. 
entitled. Dialogorum Libri quatuor, which, though it does not contain all 
flje branches of his doctrine, yet shows sufficiently the spirit of the man. 
and bis way of thinking in general 

53f ■ In the original, Pr ! I . says, that, of eighteen ar 

lmputed U Wiek :: -; condemned as heresies, and fifteen as 

errors. This contradiction, which we have taken the liberty to 
in the text, is an oversight of the learned author, who appears to have 
confounded the eighteen heresies and errors that were enumerated and 
re:\:;e~: by William Woodford, ::. a letter U Ai odd archbishot :' 
Canterbury ...re propositions that had been condemned 

oy ht£ predecessor Courtenay at London, of which ten were pronounced 
biretical, and thirteen erroneous. See the very curious collection of 
rr.eres, entitled. Fasciculus rerum expetendarum et fugiendarum Orthuini 
Uii, published first at Cologne by the compiler, in 1335, and after- 
wkrds at London in 1690, with" an additional volume of ancient pieces 

No. XXIX. 87 



of Gregory, the fatal schism of the Romish church com- 
menced, during which there was one pope at Rome, and 
another at Avignon : so that of course the controversy lay 
dormant a long time. The process against ~V\ ickliff was 
afterwards revived, however, by William de Courtenay, 
archbishop of Canterbury, in 1385. and was carried on 
with great vehemence in two councils holden at London 
and Oxford. The event was. that of the twenty-three 
opinions, for which Wickliff had been prosecuted by the 
monks, ten were condemned as heresies, and thirteen as 
errors. 1 He himself, however, returned in safety to Lutter- 
worth, where he died peaceably in 1387. The kuter 
attack was much more dangerous than the former ; but 
by what means he got safely through it, whether by the 
interest of the court, or by denying or abjuring his opinions, 
is to this day a secret. 4 He left many followers in England, 
and other countries, who were styled Wicklifhtes and 
Lollards, which last was a term of popular reproach 
translated from the Flemish tongue into English. Wkere- 
ever they could be found, they were terribly persecuted by 
the inquisitors, and other instruments of papal vengeance. 
In the council of Constance, in 1415, the memory and 
opinions of Wickliff were condemned by a solemn decree : 
and. about thirteen years after, his bones were dug up, 
and publicly burned. 

XXI. Although the Mendicants were thus vigorously 
attacked on all sides, by such a considerable number of 
ingenious and learned adversaries, they could not be per- 
suaded to abate any thing of their excessive pride, to set 
bounds to their superstition, or to desist from imposing 
upon the multitude, but were as diligent as ever in propa- 
gating opinions highly detrimental to religion in general, 
and particularly injurious to the majesty of the Supreme 
Being. The Franciscans, forgetting, in their enthusiastic 
phrensy, the veneration which they owed to the Sen of 
God, and animated with a mad zeal for advancing the 
glory of their order and its founder, impiously maintained, 
that the latter was a second Christ, in all respects similar 
to the first, and that their institution, doctrine, and disci- 
pline, were the true Gospel of Jesus. Yet, shocking as 
these foolish and impious pretensions were, the popes were 
not ashamed to patronise and encourage them by their 
letters and mandates, in which they made no scruple to 
assert, that the absurd fable of the stigmas, or five wounds 
impressed upon Francis by Christ himself, on mount 
Alveruus, was worthy of credit, because matter of un- 
doubted fact. 5 Xor was this all : for they not only per- 
mitted to be published, without any mark of their disappro- 



and fragments, by the learned Mr. Edward Brown. The letter of 
Woodford is at full length in the first volume of this collection. 

a We have a full and complete History of the Life and Stiff:. . : 
of John Wickliff, published at London, in 17 - 20, by Mr. John L: - 
who also published, in 1731, Wickliff's English translation of the TXew 
Te;".rnent from the Latin version called the Vulgate. This trans!atie>n 
is enriched with a learned preface by the editor, in which he a _ 
upon the life, actions, and sufferings, of that eminent reformer. The 
-. relative to the controversies which were occasioned bv the doc- 
trines of Wickliff. are to be found in the learned wcrk of Wiikins, 
entitled, Concilia Magna Britannia et Hibern. torn. lii. p. 116. 156. — 
so Boulay's Hist. lorn. iv. and Wood's Antiq. torn. i. 

■ The story of the nwrfe or stigmas, impressed on Francis, is well 
known, as are also the letters of the Roman pontiffs, which enjoin the 
belief of it and which Wadding has collected with greal 
published in his Annales Minorum, torn. viii. and ix. The Domini- 
cans formerly made a public jest of this riduculous fable ; but, I 
awed into silence by the papal bulls, thev are now obliged to deride it 
in secret, while the Franciscans, on the o'.her hand, c; : 
gate it with the most fervent zeal. That St Francis had upon his body 



346 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



bation, but approved, and even recommended, an impious 
pieee, stuffed with tales yet more improbable and ridiculous 
than either of the above-mentioned fictions, and entitled, 
The Book of the Conformities of St. Francis with Jesus 
Christ, which was composed, in 1385, by Bartholomew 
Albizi, a Franciscan of Pisa, with the applause of his 
order. This infamous tract, in which the Son of God is 
put upon a level with a wretched mortal, is an eternal 
monument of the outrageous enthusiasm and abominable 
arrogance of the Franciscan order, and also of the exces- 
sive imprudence of the pontiffs who extolled and recom- 
mended it. a 

XXII. The Franciscans, who adhered to the genuine 
and austere rule of their founder, and opposed the popes 
who attempted to mitigate the severity of its injunctions, 
were not in the least wiser than those of the order, who 
acknowledged the jurisdiction and respected the decisions 
of the Roman pontiffs. By those antipapal Franciscans 
I mean the Fratricelli, or Minorites, and the Tertiaries of 
that order, otherwise called Beghards, together with the 
Spirituals, who resided principally in France, and em- 
braced the opinions of Pierre d'Olive. These monastic 
factions were turbulent and seditious beyond expression ; 
they gave incredible vexation to the popes, and for a long 
time disturbed, wherever they appeared, the tranquillity 
both of church and state. About the beginning of this 
century, b the less austere Franciscans were outrageous in 
their resentment against the Fratricelli, who had deserted 
their communion ; c upon which such of the latter as had 
the good fortune to escape the fury of their persecutors, 
retired into France, in 1307, and associated themselves 
with the Spirituals, or followers of Pierre d'Olive, in Pro- 
vence, who had also abandoned the society. Soon after 
this, the whole Franciscan order in France, Italy, and 
other countries, formed two parties. Those who embraced 
the severe discipline and absolute poverty of St. Francis, 
were called Spirituals ; such as insisted upon mitigating 
the austere injunctions of their founder, were styled the 
Brethren of the Community. The latter, being far more 
numerous and powerful, exerted themselves to the utmost, 
to oppress the former, whose faction was still weak, and, 
as it were, in its infancy ; yet they cheerfully submitted 
to these hardships, rather than return to the society of 
those who had deserted the rules of their master. Pope 
Clement V., having drawn the leaders of these two par- 
ties to his court, took great pains to compose these dissen- 

the marks or impressions of the five great wounds of Christ, is not to be 
doubted, since this is a fact proved by a great number of unexceptiona- 
ble witnesses. But, as he was a most superstitious and fanatical mortal, 
it is undoubtedly evident that he imprinted on himself these holy wounds, 
that he might resemble Christ, and bear about on his body a perpetual 
memorial of the Redeemer's sufferings. It was customary in these 
times, for such as were willing to be thought more pious than others, to 
imprint upon their bodies marks of this kind, that, having thus continu- 
ally before them a lively representation of the death of Christ, they 
might preserve a becoming sense of it in their minds. The words of 
St. Paul (Galat. vi. 17,) were sufficient to confirm in this wretched de- 
lusion an ignorant and superstitious age, in which the Scriptures were 
neither studied nor understood. A long list of these stigmatised 
fanatics might be extracted from the Acta Sanctorum, and other re- 
cords of this and the following century : nor is this ancient piece of 
superstition entirely abolished, even in our times. Be that as it may, 
the Franciscan monks, having found these marks upon the dead body of 
their founder, took this occasion of making him appear to the world as 
honoured by Heaven above the rest of mortals, and invented, for this 
purpose, the story of Christ's having miraculously transferred his 
wounds to him. 

* For an account of Albizi and his book, see Wadding, torn. ix. p. 



sions ; nevertheless, his pacific scheme advanced bul 
slowly, on account of the inflexible obstinacy of each sect, 
and the great number of their mutual accusations. In 
the mean while, the Spirituals of Tuscany, instead of 
waiting for the decision of his holiness, chose a president 
and inferior officers ; while those of France, being in the 
neighbourhood of Avignon, patiently expected the papal 
determination. 11 

XXIII. After many deliberations, Clement, in a general 
council at Vienne in Dauphine, (where he issued the 
famous bull, 6 Exivi de paradiso,) proposed an expedient 
for healing the breach between the jarring parties, by wise 
concessions on both sides. He gave up many points to 
the Spirituals, or rigid Franciscans, enjoining upon the 
whole order the profession of absolute poverty, according 
to their primitive rule, and the solemn renunciation of all 
property, whether common or personal, confining them to 
what was necessary for their immediate subsistence, and 
allowing them, even for that, a very scanty pittance. He, 
however, on the other hand, permitted the Franciscans, 
who lived in places where it was extremely difficult to 
procure by begging the necessaries of life, to erect grana- 
ries and store-houses, where they might deposit a part of 
their alms as a stock, in case of want ; and ordered that 
all such repositories should be under the inspection and 
management of overseers and store-keepers, who were to 
determine what quantity of provisions should be laid up 
in them. And, finally, in order to satisfy the Brethren oJ 
the Community, he condemned some opinions of Pierre 
d'Olive/ These proceedings silenced the monastic com- 
motions in France ; but the Tuscan and Italian Spirituals 
were so exceedingly perverse and obstinate, that they 
could not be brought to consent to any method of re- 
conciliation. At length, in 1313, many of them, not 
thinking themselves safe in Italy, went into Sicily, where 
they met with a friendly reception from Frederic, the 
nobility, and bishops.? 

XXIV. Upon the death of Clement V. the tumult, which 
had been appeased by his authority, revived in France 
with as much fury as ever. For, in 1314, a hundred and 
twenty of the Spirituals made a violent attack upon the 
Brethren of the Community, drove them out of the con- 
vents of Narbonne and Beziers by force of arms, and 
inflamed the quarrel in a yet higher degree, by relinquish- 
ing their ancient habits, and assuming such as were short, 
close, and mean. They were soon joined by a considera- 

158. — Fabricii Biblioth. Lat. medii ./Evi, torn. i. p. 131. — Schelhornii 
Amcen. Liter, torn. iii. p. 160. — Bayle's Dictionary, at the article 
j Francois, and the Nouveau Dictionnaire Hist. Crit. at the article Albizi. 
Erasmus Albert made several extracts from this book, and published 
them under the title of the Koran of the Franciscans, which was fre- 
quently printed in Latin, German, and French. 

f^ The conformities between Christ and St. Francis, are only car- 
ried to forty, in the book of Albizi : but they are multiplied to 4000, by 
a Spanish monk of the order of Observants, in a work published, in 
1651, under the following title, Prodigiosum Naturae et Gratise Porten- 
tum. The conformities mentioned by Pedro de Alva Astorga, the 
austere author of this most ridiculous book, are whimsical beyond ex- 
pression. See the Bibl. des Sciences et des Beaux Arts, t. iv. p. 318. 

b In 1306 and 1307. ° Wadding, t. vi. ad an. 1307. 

& Wadding, torn. iv. ad an. 1310, p. 217. — Eccardi Corpus Histor. 
medii iEvi, torn. i. p. 1480. — Boulay, torn. iv. p. 129.— Eccardi Scrip- 
tor. Prasdicator. torn. i. 

e This bull is inserted in the Jus Canonicum inter Clementinas, tit 
xi de verbor. signif. torn. ii. p. 1095, edit. Bohmeri. 

f Wadding, torn. vi. p. 194, 197, 199. 

e Wadding, torn. vi. p. 213, 214. — Boulay, torn. iv. p. 152, 165. — Ar- 
gentre, Collectio judicior. de novis error, torn. i. p. 392. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



347 



ble number from other provinces ; and the citizens of 
Narbonne, where Olive was interred, enlisted themselves 
in the party. John XXII., who was raised to the ponti- 
ficate hi the year 1317, took great pains to heal this new 
disorder. The first thing he did for this purpose, was to 
publish a special bull, by which he ordered the abolition 
of the Fratricelli or Minorites, and their Tertiaries, whether 
Beguines or Beghards, who formed a body distinct from 
the Spirituals. 1 In the next place, he admonished the 
king of Sicily to expel all the Spirituals who had taken 
refuge in his dominions, b and then ordered the French 
Spirituals to appear at Avignon, where he exhorted them 
to return to their duty, and as the first step to it, to lay aside 
the short, close habits, with the small hoods. The great- 
est part of them obeyed ; but Fr. Bernard Delitiosi, who 
was the head of the faction, and twenty-four of the 
brethren, boldly refused to submit to the injunction. In 
vindication of their conduct, they alleged that the rules 
prescribed by St. Francis, were the same with the Gospel 
of Jesus Christ ; that the popes therefore had no authority 
to alter them ; that the pontiffs had acted sinfidly in per- 
mitting the Franciscans to have granaries and storehouses; 
and that they added to their guilt in not allowing those 
habits to be worn that were enjoined by St. Francis. 
John, highly exasperated by this opposition, gave -orders 
that these obstinate brethren should be proceeded against 
as heretics. And surely nothing could make them appear 
viler heretics in the papal eye, than their venturing thus 
audaciously to oppose the authority and majesty of the 
Roman see. As for Delitiosi, who is sometimes called 
Delli Consi, he was imprisoned, and died in his confine- 
ment. Four of his adherents were condemned to the 
flames, in 1318, at Marseilles ; c and this horrible sentence 
was accordingly executed without mercy. 

XXV. Thus these unhappy friars, and many more of 
their fraternity, who were afterwards cut off by this cruel 
persecution, suffered merely for their contempt of the de- 
cisions of the pontiffs, and for maintaining that the insti- 
tute of St. Francis, their founder, which they imagined 
he had established under the direction of an immediate 
inspiration, was the very Gospel of Christ, and therefore 
ought not to be altered by the pope's authority. The 
controversy, considered in itself, was rather ridiculous than 
important, since it did not affect religion in the least, but 
turned wholly on these two points, the form of the habits 
to be worn by the Franciscan order, and their granaries 
and store-houses. The Brethren of the Community, or 
the less rigid Franciscans, wore long, loose, and good 
habits, with ample hoods ; but the Spirituals went in short, 
scanty, and very coarse ones, which they asserted to be 
precisely the dress enjoined by the institute of St. Francis, 
and what therefore no power upon earth had a right to 
alter. And whereas the former, immediately after the 
harvest and vintage, were accustomed to lay up a stock of 
corn and wine in their granaries and cellars, the latter 

* This law is called Sanc.ta Romana, &c. and is to be found among 
the Extravagantes Johannis XXII. tit. vii. de religiosis domibus, torn. 
ii. Jur. Canon, p. 1112. •> Wadding, torn. vi. p. 265. 

* Baluze, Vitae Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 116 ; torn. ii. p. 341, et 
Miscellan. torn. i. p. 195, 272. Wadding, torn. vi. p. 267. Martenne, 
Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn. v. p. 175.- Martinus Fuldensis, in Eccardi 
Corpore Histor. medii JEvi, torn. i. p. 1725, et Herm. Cornerus, ibid, 
torn. ii. p. 981. Histoire generate de Languedoc, torn. iv. p. 179. Ar- 
gentre, Collectio Judicior. de novis errorib. torn. i. p. 294. 

& It may be seen in the Jtfs Canon, among the Extravag. communes 
de verbor. signif. See also Wadding, torn. vi. 



resolutely opposed this practice, as entirely repugnant to 
that profession of absolute poverty which had been embra- 
ced by the Fratricelli or Minorites. In order to pr_t an 
end to these broils, the pope, in this very year, published 
a long mandatory letter, in which he ordered the contend- 
ing parties to submit their disputes, upon the two points 
above-mentioned, to the decision of their superiors. 4 

XXVI. The effects of this letter, and of other de- 
crees, were prevented by the unseasonable and impious 
severity of John, whose cruelty was condemned and de- 
tested even by his adherents. For the Spiritual Francis- 
cans and their votaries, being highly exasperated at the 
cruel death of their brethren, maintained, that John, by 
procuring the destruction of these holy men, had rendered 
himself utterly unworthy of the papal dignity and was 
the true Antichrist. They moreover revered their four 
brethren, who were burned at Marseilles, as so many mar- 
tyrs, paying religious veneration to their bones and ashes ; 
and inveighed yet more vehemently than ever against 
long habits, large hoods, granaries, and store-houses. The 
inquisitors, on the other hand, having, by the pope's order 
apprehended as many of these people as they could find 
condemned them to the flames, and sacrificed them with- 
out mercy to papal resentment and fury : so that from 
this time a vast number of those zealous defenders of the 
institute of St. Francis, viz. the Minorites, Beghards, and 
Spirituals, were most barbarously put to death, not only 
in France, but also in Italy, Spain, and Germany." 

XXVH. This dreadful flame continued to spread till it 
invaded the whole Franciscan order, which, in 1321, had 
revived the old contentions concerning the poverty of 
Christ and his apostles. A certain Beguin, or monk of 
the third order of St. Francis, who was apprehended this 
year at Narbonne, taught, among other things, " That 
neither Christ nor his apostles ever possessed any thing, 
whether in common or personally, by right of property or 
dominion." John de Belna, an inquisitor of the Domini- 
can order, pronounced this opinion erroneous ; but Beren- 
garius Taloni, a Franciscan, maintained it to be orthodox, 
and perfectly consonant to the bull, Exiit qui semi n at, 
of Nicolas III. The judgment of the former was appro- 
ved by the Dominicans ; the determination of the latter 
was adhered to by the Franciscans. At length the matter 
was brought before the pope, who prudently endeavoured 
to put an end to the dispute. With this view he called 
into his council Ubertinus de Casalis, the patron of the 
Spirituals, and a person of great weight and reputation. 
This eminent monk gave captious, subtle and equivocal 
answers to the questions that were proposed to him. The 
pontiff, however, and the cardinals, persuaded that his 
decisions, however ambiguous, might contribute to termi- 
nate the quarrel, acquiesced in them, seconded them with 
their authority, and, at the same time, enjoined silence and 
moderation on the contending parties.' 

XXVIII. But the Dominicans and Franciscans were 

• Beside many other pieces that serve to illustrate the intricate history 
of this persecution, I have in my possession a treatise, entitled, Mar- 
tyrologium Spiritualium et Fratricelloruni, which was delivered to the 
tribunal of the inquisition at Carcassone, A. D. 1454. It contains the 
names of 113 persons of both sexes, who, from the yearl318 to the. time of 
Innocent VI., were committed to the flames in France and Italy, for their 
inflexible attachment to the poverty of St. Francis. I reckon that from 
these and other records, published and unpublished, we may make out a 
list of two thousand martyrs of this kind. See Codex Inquis. Tolosana?. 

» Wadding, torn. vi. p.'361. Baluzii Miscellan. torn. l. p. 307. Ger. 
du Bois, Histor. Eccles. Paris, p. 611.. 



348 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1L 



so exceedingly exasperated against each other, that they 
could by no means be brought to conform themselves to 
this order. The pope, perceiving this, permitted them to 
renew the controversy in 1322 ; and he himself proposed 
to some of the most celebrated divines of the age, and es- 
pecially to those of Paris, the determination of this point, 
namely, " Whether those were to be deemed heretics, who 
maintained that Jesus Christ, and his apostles, had no 
common or personal property in any thing they possessed?" 
The Franciscans, who held an assembly in that year at 
Perugia, having gained intelligence of this proceeding, de- 
creed that those who held this tenet were not heretics, but 
maintained an opinion that was holy and orthodox, and 
perfectly agreeable to the decisions and mandates of the 
popes. They also sent a deputy to Avignon, to defend 
this unanimous determination of their whole order against 
all opponents whatever. The person whom they com- 
missioned for this purpose was F. Bonagratia, of Bergamo, 
who also went by the name, of Boncortese, a one of their 
fraternity, and a man famous for his extensive learning. 
John, being highly incensed at this step, issued a decree, 
wherein he espoused an opinion diametrically opposite to 
that of the Franciscans, and declared them to be heretics, 
for obstinately maintaining " that Christ and his apostles 
had no common or personal property in what they pos- 
sessed, nor a power of selling or alienating any part of it." 
Soon after, he proceeded yet farther, and, in another con- 
stitution, exposed the weakness and inefficacy of those ar- 
guments, commonly reduced from a bull of Nicolas III., 
concerning the property of the Franciscan possessions be- 
ing transferred to the church of Rome, whereby the monks 
were supposed to be deprived of what we call right, and 
were only allowed the simple use of what was necessary 
for their immediate support. In order to confute this 
plea, he showed that it was absolutely impossible to sepa- 
rate right and property from the lawful use of such 
things as were immediately consumed by that, use. He 
also solemnly renounced all property in the Franciscan 
effects, which had been reserved to the church of Rome by 
former popes, their churches and some other things ex- 
cepted. And whereas the revenues of the order had been 
hitherto received and administered by procurators, on the 
part of the Roman church, he dismissed these officers, and 
abolished all the decrees and constitutions of his predeces- 
sors relating to this affair. b 

XXIX. By this method of proceeding, the dexterous 
pontiff entirely destroyed that boasted expropriation,wh\ch 
was the main bulwark of the Franciscan order, and which 
its founder had esteemed the distinguishing glory of the 
society. It was therefore natural, that these measures 
should determine the Franciscans to an obstinate resist- 
ance. And such indeed was the effect they produced : 
for, in 1323, they sent their brother Bonagratia in the 
quality of legate to the papal court, where he vigorously 

"• I insert this caution, because I have observed that some eminent 
writers, by not attending to this circumstance, have taken these two 
names for two different persons. 

b These constitutions are recorded in the Corpus Juris Canonici, and 
also among the Extravagantes, tit. xiv. de verbor. signific. cap. ii. iii. 
p. 1121. For an account of the transaction itself, the reader should 
chiefly consult that impartial writer, Alvarus Pelagius, de Planctu Ec- 
clesiee, lib. ii. cap. 60. as also Wadding, torn. vi. p. 394. Both these 
authors blame pope John. 

° Wadding, torn. vii. p. 2, 22. — Alvar. Pelagius, de Planctu Eccle- 
si<z, lib. ii. p. 167. — Trithemius, Annal. Hirsaug. torn. ii. p. 157. — 



and openly opposed the recent constitution of John, boldly 
affirming, that it was contrary to human as well as divine 
law. c The pope, on the other hand, highly exasperated 
against this audacious defender of the Franciscan poverty, 
threw him into prison, and ordained, by a new edict, that 
all who maintained that Christ, and his apostles, had no 
common or special property in any of their possessions, 
should be deemed heretics, and corrupters of the true re- 
ligion. 11 Finding, however, that the Franciscans were not 
terrified in the least by this decree, he published another 
yet more flaming constitution, about, the end of the year 
1324, in which he confirmed his former edicts, and pro- 
nounced that tenet concerning the expropriation of Christ 
and his apostles, ' a pestilential, erroneous, damnable, and 
blasphemous doctrine, hostile to the catholic faith,' and de- 
clared all such as adhered to it, obstinate heretics, and re- 
bels against the church. e In consequence of this merci- 
less decree, great numbers of those who persisted in as- 
serting that Christ and his apostles were exactly such 
mendicants as Francis would have his brethren to be, 
were apprehended by the Dominican inquisitors, who were 
implacable enemies of the Franciscans, and committed to 
the flames. The histories of France and Spain, Italy and 
Germany, during this and the following century, abound 
with instances of this atrocious cruelty. 

XXX. The zealous pontiff pursued this affair with 
great warmth for several years ; and, as this contest 
seemed to have taken its rise from the books of Pierre 
d'Olive, he branded with infamy, in 1325, the Postilla 
and other writings of that author, as pernicious and 
heretical/ The next step he took, was to summon to 
Avignon, some of the more learned and eminent brethren 
of the Franciscan order, of whose writings and eloquence 
he was particularly apprehensive, and to detain them at 
his court : and then, to arm himself against the resent- 
ment and indignation of this exasperated society, and to 
prevent their attempting any thing to his prejudice, he 
kept a strict guard over them in all places, by means of 
his friends the Dominicans. Michael of Cesena, who re- 
sided in Italy, and was the head of the order, could not 
easily dissemble the hatred he had conceived against the 
pope, who therefore ordered him to repair to Avignon, in 
1327, and there deprived him of his office. s But, prudent 
as this rigorous measure might appear at first sight, it 
served only to inflame the enraged Franciscans more 
than ever, and to confirm them in their attachment to the 
scheme of absolute poverty. For no sooner did the bitter 
and well-known contest, between John XXII. and Louis 
of Bavaria, break out, than the principal champions of the 
Franciscan cause, such as Marsilius of Padua, and John 
of Genoa, fled to the emperor, and under his protection 
published the most virulent pieces imaginable, in which 
they not only attacked John personally, but also levelled 
their satire at the power and authority of the popes in 

Theod. de Niem, in Eccardi Corpore Histor. med. Mvi, t. vii. p. 1491. 

i Wadding, torn. vii. p. 36. — Contin. de Nangis, in D'Acherii Spici- 
legio, torn. iii. p. 83. — Boulay, torn. iv. p. 205. — Benedictinor. Gallia 
Christiana, torn. ii. p. 1515. 

• This constitution, and the two former already mentioned, are pub- 
lished among the Extravagantes, tit. xiv. de verbor. signif. Wadding, 
(t. vii. p. 36,) vigorously opposed this last ; which is rather extraordinary 
in a man so immo'derately attached to the cause of the popes as he was. 

f Wadding, torn. vii. p. 47. — Eccardi Corpus Histor. medii Mvi, 
torn. i. p. 592, and 1491. 

e Wadding, torn. vii. p. 69, 74. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



34S 



general. 1 This example was soon followed by others, 
particularly by Michael of Cesena, and William Occam, 
who excelled most men of his time in subtlety and acute- 
ness of genius, and also by F. Bonagratia of Bergamo. 
They made their escape by sea from Avignon, in 1328, 
went first to the emperor, who was at that time in Italy, 
and thence proceeded to Munich. They were soon 
joined by many others, such as Berengarius, Francis de 
Esculo, and Henry de Halem, who were highly and 
deservedly esteemed, on account of their eminent parts 
and extensive learning." All these learned fugitives 
defended the institute of their founder in long and labour- 
ed treatises, in which they reduced the papal dignity and 
authority within a very narrow compass, and loaded the 
pontiffs with reproaches and invectives. Occam surpassed 
them all in the keenness and spirit of his satire; and 
hence his Dialogues, together with his other productions, 
which were perused with avidity, and transmitted to 
succeeding generations, gave a very severe blow to the 
ambition and majesty of the Roman pontiffs. 

XXXI. On the other hand, Louis, to express his 
gratitude to these his defenders, not only made the cause 
of the Franciscans his own, but also adopted their favour- 
ite sentiment concerning the poverty of Christ and his 
apostles ; for, among the heresies and errors of which he 
publicly accused John, and for which he deprived him of 
the pontificate, the principal and most pernicious one, in 
the opinion of the emperor, was his maintaining that the 
poverty of Christ did not exclude all right and property 
in what he used as a subsistence. The Fratricelli, 
Beghards, Beguines, and Spirituals, then at variance with 
the pope, were effectually protected by the emperor, in 
Germany, against the attempts of the inquisitors ; so that, 
during his reign, that country was over-run with shoals 
of Mendicant friars. There was scarcely a province or 
city in the empire that did not abound with Beghards 
and Beguines ; that is, monks and nuns who professed 
the third rule of St. Francis, and placed the chief excel- 
lence of the Christian life in a voluntary and absolute 
poverty. d The Dominicans, on the other hand, as ene- 
mies to the Franciscans, and friends to the pope, were 
treated with great severity by his imperial majesty, who 
banished them with ignominy out of several cities. e 

XXXII. The rage of the contending parties subsided 
greatly from the year 1329. The pope ordered a diet of 
the Franciscans to be holden in that year at Paris, where, 
by means of Cardinal Bertrand, who was president of the 
assembly, and by the efforts of the Parisian doctors, who 
were attached to his interests, he so far softened the 
resentment of the greatest part of the brethren, that they 
ceased to defend the conduct of Michael of Cesena and 
his associates, and permitted another president, Gerard 
Odo, to be substituted in his room. They also ac- 
knowledged John to be a true and lawful pope ; and 
then terminated the dispute concerning the poverty of 

* Luc. D'Acherii Spicilcgium, torn. iii. p. 85. Bullar. Roman, torn. vi. 
p. 167. Martenne, Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn. ii. p. 695, 704. Boulay, 
torn. iv. p. 216. There is a very noted piece on this subject written by 
Marsilius of Padua, who was professor at Vienna, and entitled, De- 
fensor Pacis pro Ludovico Bavaro adversus usurpatam Romani Pontifi- 
cis jurisdictionem. 

t> Wadding, torn. vii. p. 81. — Martenne, Thesaur. Anecdotor. torn, 
iii. p. 749, 757. — Trithemii Annal. Hirsaug. torn. ii. p. 167. — Boulay, 
torn iv. p. 217. — Eccardi Corpus Histor. torn. ii. p. 1034. — Baluzii Mis- 
cellun. torn. i. p. 293, 315. — The reader may also consult those writers 
who have compiled indexes and collections of Ecclesiastical historians. 

No. XXX. . 88 



Christ in such an ambiguous manner, that the constitu- 
tions and edicts of Nicolas III. and John XXII., however 
contradictory, maintained their authority. f But, not- 
withstanding these pacific and mutual concessions, there 
were great numbers of the Franciscans in Germany. 
Spain, and Italy, who would by no means consent to this 
reconciliation. After the death of John, Benedict XII. 
and Clement VI. took great pains to close the breach, and 
showed some clemency and tenderness toward such of the 
order as thought the institute of their founder more sacred 
than the papal bulls. This lenity had some good effects. 
Many who had withdrawn themselves from the society, 
were hereby induced to return to it, in which number 
were Francis de Esculo and others, who had been some 
of John's most inveterate enemies.? Even those who 
could not be prevailed on to return to their order, ceased 
to insult the popes, observed the rules of their founder in a 
quiet and inoffensive manner, and would have no sort of 
connexion with those Fratricelli and Tertiaries in Italy, 
Spain, and Germany, who condemned the papal au- 
thority.", 

XXXIII. The German Franciscans, who were pro- 
tected by the emperor Louis, held out their opposition 
much longer than any of the rest. But, in 1347, their 
impirial patron being dead, the halcyon days of the 
Spirituals, as also of their associates the Beghards or 
Tertiaries, were at an end in Germany. For Charles IV., 
who, by the interest of the pope, had been declared king 
of the Romans in 1345, was ready, in his turn, to gratify 
the desires of the court of Rome, and accordingly supported, 
both by his edicts and by his arms, the inquisitors who 
wen. sent by the Roman pontiff against his enemies, and 
suff( red them to apprehend and put to death all obnoxi- 
ous individuals who came within their reach. These 
ministers of papal vengeance acted chiefly in the districts 
of Magdeburg and Bremen, Thuringia, Saxony, and 
Hesse, where they extirpated all the Beghards and 
Be§ uines, or Tertiaries, the associates of those Franciscans, 
wh) held that Christ and his apostles had no property in 
anj thing. These severe measures were approved by 
Chirks IV., who then resided at Lucca, whence, in 1369, 
he issued several edicts, commanding all the German 
priuces to extirpate out of their dominions the Beghards 
and Beguines, or, as he himself interpreted the names, 
the voluntary beggars,' as enemies of the church, and 
of the Roman empire, and to assist the inquisitors in their 
proceedings against them. By another edict, published 
not long after, he gave the houses of the Beghards to the 
tribunal of the inquisition, ordering them to be converted 
into prisons for heretics ; and, at the same time, ordered 
all the effects of the Beguines to be publicly sold, and the 
profits thence arising, to be equally divided among the 
inquisitors, the magistrates, and the poor of those towns 
and cities where such sale should take place. k The 
Beghards, being reduced to great distress, by this and 

See Processus Ludovici contra Johannem, an. 1328, d. 12. Dec. da- 
tus, in Baluzii Miscellaneis, t. ii. p. 522, and also his Appellatio, p. 494. 

d I have many pieces upon this subject that were never published. 

e Mart. Diefenbach, de mortis genere, quo Henricus VII. obiit, p. 145, 
and others. — Eccardi Corpus Hist. t. i. p. 2103. — Boulay, t. iv. p. 220. 

f Wadding, torn. vii. p. 94. — D'Acherii Spicilegium, torn. iii. p. 91. 

g Argentre, Collectio Judicior. de novis erroribus, torn. i. p. 343 — 
Boulay, torn. iv. p. 281. — Wadding, torn. vii. p. 313. 

i> Wadding, torn. vii. p. 116, 126. — Argentre, torn. i. p. 343, &c. 

i Called, in the German language, die icilgen Armen. 

* I have in my possession this edict, with other laws of Charles IV. 



350 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



other mandates of the emperor, and by the constitutions 
of the popes, sought a refuge in those provinces of Switz- 
erland that border upon the Rhine, and also in Holland, 
Brabant, and various parts of Germany. 1 But the edicts 
and mandates of the emperor, together with the papal 
bulls and inquisitors, harassed them in their most distant 
retreats ; and, during the reign of Charles IV., all 
Germany (except the provinces bordering upon Switzer- 
land) was thoroughly purged of the Beghards, or rebellious 
Franciscans, both perfect and imperfect. 

XXXIV. But no edicts, bulls, or inquisitors, could en- 
tirely pluck up the roots of this inveterate discord ; for so 
ardently were many of the brethren bent upon observing, 
in the most perfect and rigorous manner, the institute of 
St. Francis, that numbers were to be found in all places, 
who either withstood the president of the society, or at 
least obeyed him with reluctance. At once, therefore, to 
satisfy both the lax and the rigid party, after various 
methods had been tried to no purpose, a division of the 
order was agreed to. Accordingly, in 1368, the president 
consented that Paulutius Fulginas, the chief of the more 
rigid Franciscans in Italy, together with his associates, 
who were numerous, should live separately from the rest 
of the brethren, according to the rules and customs they 
had adopted, and follow the institutes of their founder, in 
the strictest and most rigorous manner. The Spirituals 
and the followers of Pierre d'Olive, whose scattered re- 
mains were yet observable in several places, joined them- 
selves gradually and imperceptibly to this party. And, 
as the number of those who were fond of the severe 
discipline continually increased in many provinces, the 
popes thought proper to approve that institute, and to give 
it the solemn sanction of their authority. In consequence 
of this, the Franciscan order was divided into two large 
bodies, namely, the Conventual Brethren, and the Brethren 
of the regular observance. Those who neglected the 
strict sense of the expressions in which the institute of 
their founder was conceived, and adopted the modifications 
given of them by the pontiffs, were called by the former 
name ; and the council of Constance conferred the latter 

enacted on this occasion, as also many of the papal constitutions, and 
other records which illustrate this affair, and which undoubtedly deserve 
to see the light. It is certain that Charles himself, in his edicts and 
mandates, clearly characterizes those people, whom he there styles 
Beghards and Beguines, as Franciscan Tertiaries, belonging to that 
party of the order then at variance with the pope. " They are (to use 
the emperor's own words, in his edict of the 18th of June, 1369) a perni- 
cious sect, who pretend to a sacrilegious and heretical poverty, and who 
are under a vow, that they neither ought to have, nor will have, any 
property, whether special or common, in the goods they use ;" (this is 
the poverty of the Franciscan institute, which John XXII. so strenu- 
ously opposed) " which they extend even to their wretched habits." — 
For so the spirituals and their associates used to do. 

11 See Odor. Raynaldus, Annal. Eccles. ad an. 1372, sect, xxxiv. 
See also the books of Felix Malleolus, written in the following century 
against the Beghards of Switzerland. 

fc See Wadding, torn. viii. ix. 

° In the year 1668. 

i Helyot, Hist, des Ordres, torn. iii. p. 411. — Pagi Breriav. Pontif. torn, 
iv. p. 189. — Bonanni, and others, who have compiled histories of the 
religious orders. 

e Many writers have given us copious accounts concerning the sect 
and name of the Lollards ; yet none of them can be commended for 
their fidelity, diligence, or accuracy, on this head. This I can confident- 
ly assert, because I have carefully and expressly inquired into whatever 
relates to the Lollards, and from the most authentic records concerning 
them, both published and unpublished, have collected copious materials 
from which their true history may be compiled. Most of the German 
writers, as well as those of other countries, affirm, that the Lollards 
were a particular sect, who differed from the church of Rome in many 
religious points ; and that Walter Lolhard, who was burned in this 



upon those who chose to be determined by the words of 
the institute itself, rather than by any explications of it. b 
But the Fratricelli and the Beghards absolutely rejected 
this reconciliation, and persisted in disturbing the peace of 
the church during this and the following century, in the 
marquisate of Ancona, and in other districts. 

XXXV. This century gave rise to other religious so- 
cieties, some of which did not long subsist, and the rest 
never became famous. John Colombini, a nobleman of 
Sienna, founded in 1367, the order of the Apostolic clerks, 
who, because they frequently pronounced the name of Je- 
sus, were afterwards called Jesuates. This institution 
was confirmed by Urban V., in the following year, and 
subsisted till the seventeenth century, when it was abo- 
lished by Clement IX. c The brethren belonging to it 
professed poverty, and adhered to the institute of St. Au- 
gustin. They were not, however, admitted to holy orders, 
but assisted the poor by their prayers and other pious of- 
fices, and prepared medicines for them, which they dis- 
tributed gratis.* But these statutes were in a mannei 
abrogated when Clement dissolved the order. 

XXXVI. Soon after the commencement of this cen- 
tury, the famous sect of the Cellite Brethren and Sisters 
arose at Antwerp ; they were also styled the Alexian Bre- 
thren and Sisters, because St. Alexius was their patron; 
and they were named Cellites, from the cells in which 
they were accustomed to live. As the clergy of this age 
took little care of the sick and dying, and deserted such 
as were infected with those pestilential disorders which were 
then very frequent, some compassionate and pious persons 
at Antwerp formed themselves into a society for the per- 
formance of these religious offices, which the sacerdotal 
orders so shamefully neglected. In the prosecution of this 
agreement, they visited and comforted the sick, assisted 
the dying with their prayers and exhortations, took care 
of the interment of those who were cut off by the plague, 
and on that account forsaken by the terrified clergy, and 
committed them to the grave with a solemn funeral dirge. 
It was with reference to this last office, that the com- 
mon people gave them the name of Lollards. e The ex- 
century at Cologne, was their founder. How so many learned men 
came to adopt this opinion, is beyond my comprehension. They indeed 
refer to Jo. Trithemius as the author of this opinion : yet it is certain, 
that no such account of these people is to be found in his writings. I 
shall therefore endeavour, with all possible brevity, to throw all the 
light I can upon this matter, that they who are fond of ecclesiastical 
history may have a just notion of it. 

The term Lollhard, or Lullhard, (or, as the ancient Germans wrote 
it, Lollert, Lullerl,) is compounded of the old German word lullen, 
lollen, lallen, and the well-known termination hard. Lollen, or lullen, 
signifies to sing with a low voice. It is yet used in the same sense 
among the English, who say, lull asleep, which signifies to sing any 
one into a slumber with a sweet indistinct voice. See Franc. Junii 
Etymologicon Anglicanum. The word is also used in the same sense 
among the Flemings, Swedes, and other nations, as appears by their 
respective dictionaries. Among the Germans, both the sense and 
pronunciation of it have undergone some alteration ; for they say, lallen, 
which signifies to pronounce indistinctly, or stammer. Lolhard, there- 
fore, is a singer, or one who frequently sings. For, as the word beggen, 
which universally signifies to request any thing fervently, is applied to 
devotional requests or prayers, and, in the stricter sense in which it is 
used by the Germans, denotes praying fervently to God ; in the same 
manner the word lollen, or lullen, is transferred from a common to a 
sacred song, and signifies, in its most limited sense, to sing a hymn. 
Lolhard, therefore, in the vulgar tongue of the ancient Germans, de- 
notes a person who is continually praising God with a song, or singing 
hymns to his honour. Hpcsemius, a canon of Liege, has well appre- 
hended and expressed the force of this word in his Gesta Pontificum 
Leodiensium, lib. i. cap. xxxi. in Jo. Chapeauvilli Gestis Pontificum 
Tungrensium et Leodiensium, torn. ii. p. 350. " In the same year," 
(1309,) says he, " certain strolling hypocrites, who were called Lollards, 



Chap. IT. 



DOCTORS. CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



351 



ample of these good people had such an extensive influ- 
ence, that in a little time societies of the same kind, con- 
sisting both of men and women, were formed in most parts 
of Germany and Flanders, and were supported, parti}' by 
their manual labours, and partly by the charitable dona- 
tions of pious persons. The magistrates and inhabitants 
of the towns, where these brethren and sisters resided, 
gave them peculiar marks of favour and protection on ac- 
count of their great usefulness to the sick and needy. But 
the clergy, whose reputation was not a little hurt by them, 
and the Mendicant friars, who found their profits dimi- 
nished by the growing credit of these strangers, persecuted 
them vehemently, and accused them to the popes of many 
vices and intolerable errors. Hence it was. that the word 
Lollard, which originally carried a good meaning, became 
a term of reproach, to denote a person who, under the 
mask of extraordinary piety, concealed either pernicious 
sentiments or enormous vices. But the magistrates, by 
their recommendations and testimonials, supported the 
Lollards against their malignant rivals, and obtaiued se- 
veral papal constitutions, by which their institute was con- 
firmed, and their persons, exempted from the cognisance 
of the inquisitors, were subjected entirely to the jurisdic- 
tion of the bishops. But, as these measures were insuf- 
ficient to secure them from molestation, Charles, duke of 
Burgundy, in 1472, obtained a solemn bull from pope Six- 
tus IV., ordering that the Cellites, or Lollards, should be 
ranked among the religious orders, and delivered from the 
jurisdiction of the bishops ; and. in 1506, Julius H. granted 
them yet greater privileges. Many societies of this kind 
are yet subsisting at Cologne, and in the cities of Flan- 



or praisers of God. deceived some •women of quality in Hainault and 
Brabant." Because those who praised God generally did it in verse, to 
praise God,, in the Latin style of the middle ages, meant to sing to him ; 
and such as were frequendy employed in acts of adoration, were called 
religious singers ; and, as prayers and hymns are regarded as a certain 
external sign of piety toward God, those who aspired to a more than 
ordinary degree of piety and religion, and for that purpose were more 
frequently occupied in singing hymns than others, were, in the popular 
language, called LoUhards. Hereupon this word acquired the same 
meaning with the term Beghard, which denoted a person remarkable for 
piety ; for in all the old records, from the eleventh century, these two words 
are synonymous : so that all who were styled Beghards are also called 
Lollards, which may be proved to a demonstration from many authors. 

The Brethren of the free spirit, of whom we b*va already given a 
large account, are by some styled Beghards, by others Lollards. The 
followers of Gerard Groote, or Priests of the community, are frequently 
called Lollard Brethren. The good man Walter, who was burned at 
Cologne, and whom so many learned men have unadvisedly represent- 
ed as the founder of the sect of the Lollards, is by some called a Beg- 
hard, by others a Lollard, and by some a Minorite. The Franciscan 
Tertiaries, who were remarkable for their prayers and other pious ex- 
ercises, were frequently called Lollards; and the Cellite Brethren, or 
Alexians, whose piety was very exemplary, no sooner appeared in 
Flanders, about the beginning of this century, than the people gave 
them the title of Lollards. A particular reason indeed p or their being 
distinguished by this name was, that tliev were public singers, who 
made it their business to inter the bodies of those who died o ihe plague, 
and sang a dirge over them in a mournful and indistinct vow: as they 
carried them to the grave. Among the many testimonies tha. might be 
alleged to prove this, we shall confine ourselves to die words of Jo. 
Bapt. Gramaye, a man erninendy skiUed in die history of his country, 
in his work entitled Antwerpia, lib. ii. " The Alexians," says he, 
" who constantly employed themselves about funerals, had their rise at 
Antwerp ; at which place, about die year 1300, some honest pious lay- 
men formed a society. On account of their extraordinary temperance 
and modesty, they were styled Matemanni, (or Mederatists,) and also 
Lollards, from their attendance on funeral obsequies. From their cells, 
they were, named Cellite brethren." To the same purpose is the follow- 
ing passage in his work entitled Lovanium : " The Alexians, who 
were wholly engaged in taking care of funerals, now began to appear. 
They were laymen, who, having wholly devoted tiiemselves to works 
of mercy, were named Lollards and Materuanni. They made it their 



ders, though they have evidently departed from their an- 
cient rules.* 

XXXVII. Among the Greek writers of this century, 
the following were the most eminent : 

Nicephorus Callistus, whose Ecclesiastical History we 
have already mentioned ; 

Matthew Blastares, who illustrated and explained the 
canon law of the Greeks ; 

Balaam, who was a very zealous champion in behalf 
of the Grecian cause against the Latins ; 

Gregory Acindynus, an inveterate enemy of the Pala- 
mites ; 

John Cantacuzenus, famous for his history of his own 
time, and his confutation of the Mohammedan law ; 

Nicephorus Gregoras, who compiled the Byzantine his- 
tory, and left some other monuments of his genius to pos- 
terity ; 

Theophanes, bishop of Nice, a laborious defender of the 
truth of Christianity against the Jews, and the rest of it3 
enemies; 

Nilus Cabasilas, Nilus Rhodius, and Nilus Damyla, 
who most warmly maintained the cause of their nation 
against the Latin writers; 

Philotheus, several of whose tracts are yet extant, and 
seem well adapted to excite a devotional temper and spirit ; 

Gregory Palamas. of whom more will be said hereafter. 

XXXVlH. From the prodisious number of the Latin 
writers of this century, we shall only select the most fa- 
mous. Among the scholastic doctors, who blended phi- 
losophy with divinity, John Duns Scotus, a Franciscan, 
and the great antagonist of Thomas, held the first rank ; 



sole business to take care of all such as were sick, or out of their senses. 
These they attended both privately and publicly, and buried the dead." 
The same learned author tells tiius, that he transcribed some of diese 
particulars from an old diary written in Flemish rhyme. Hence we 
find in the Annals of Holland and Utrecht, in Ant. Matthaei Analect. 
vet. j£vi, torn. i. p. 431, the following words: "Die Lollardrjes die 
brochten de dooden by een, i. e. the Lollards who collected the dead 
bodies ;" which passage is thus paraphrased by Matthseus : " The 
managers of funerals, and carriers of the dead, of whom there was a 
fixed company, were a set of mean, worthless creatures, who usually 
spoke in a canting mournful tone, as if bewailing the dead ; and hence 
it came to pass, tiiat a street in Utrecht, in which most of these people 
lived, was called the Loller street" The same reason that changed 
the word Beghard from its primitive meaning, contributed also to give, 
in process of time, a different signification to that of Lollard, even to 
its being assumed by persons that dishonoured it; for, among those 
Lollards who made such extraordinary pretences to piety and religion, 
and spent the greatest part of their time in meditation, prayer, and the 
like acts of piety, there were many abominable hypocrites, who enter- 
tained the most ridiculous opinions, and concealed the most enormous 
vices, under the specious mask of dus extraordinary profession. But 
it was chiefly after the rise of the Alexians, or Cellites, that die name 
Lollard became infamous. For the priests and monks, being invete- 
rately exasperated against these good men, propagated injurious suspi- 
cions of diem, and endeavoured to persuade the people, that, innocent 
and beneficent as the Lollards seemed to be, tiiey were in reality die 
contrary, being tainted with the most pernicious sentiments of a reli- 
gious kind, and secredy addicted to all sorts of vices. Thus by 
degrees it came to pass, that any person, who covered heresies or 
crimes under the appearance of piety, was called a Lollard. Hence it 
is certain, this was not a name to denote any one particular sect, but 
was formerly common to all persons and all sects, who were supposed 
to be guilty of impiety toward God and the church, under an external 
profes-ion of extraordinary piety. 

a Beside many odiers, whom it is unnecessary to mention here, see 
.Egid. Gelenius, de admiranda sacra et civili magnitudine urbis 
Coloniae, lib. iii. Syntagm. Ii. p. 534, 59S. — Jo. Bapt. Gramaye. in 
Antiquit. Belg. — Anton. Sanderus, in Brabantia et Flandria illustrat — 
Aub. Mirseus, in Operibus Diplomatico-Historieis, and many other 
writers of this period in various places of their works. I may add, 
that the Lollards are by many called die Xolfrruder, from nolle*, au 
ancient German word. 



352 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



and, though not entitled to any praise for his candour and 
ingenuity^ was by no means inferior to any of his con- 
temporaries in acuteness and subtlety of genius.* 

After him, the most celebrated writers of this class were 
Durand of St. Portian, who combated the commonly re- 
ceived doctrine of the divine co-operation with the human 
will, b Antonius Andreas, Herveeus Natalis, Francis May- 
ronius, Thomas Bradwardine, an acute, ingenious man,' 
Peter Aureolus, John Bacon, William Occam, Walter Bur- 
leeus, Peter de Alliaco, Thomas of Strasburg, and Gregory 
de Rimini. d 

Among the Mystic divines, Jo. Tauler and Jo. Ruys- 
brock, though not entirely free from errors, were eminent 
for their wisdom and integrity ; 

Nicolas Lyranus, or de Lyra, acquired great reputation 
by his Compendious Exposition of the whole Bible ; 

Rayner of* Pisa is celebrated for his Summary of Theo- 
logy, and Astesanus for his Summary of Cases of Con- 
science. 

CHAPTER III. 

Concerning the Doctrine of the Christian Church 
during this Century. 

I. All those who are well acquainted with the history 
of these times, must acknowledge, that religion, either as 
it was taught in the schools, or inculcated upon the peo- 
ple as the rule of their conduct, was so extremely adul- 
terated and deformed, that there was not a single branch 
of the Christian doctrine, which retained its primitive lus- 
tre and beauty. Hence it may easily be imagined, that 
the Waldenses and others, who ardently wished for a re- 
formation of the church, and had separated themselves 
from the jurisdiction of the bishop of Rome, though every 
where exposed to the fury of the inquisitors and monks, 
yet increased from day to day, and baffled all the attempts 
that were made for their extirpation. Many of these poor 
people, having observed, that great numbers of their party 
perished by the flames and other punishments, fled out of 
Italy, France, and Germany, into Bohemia, and the ad- 
jacent countries, where they afterwards associated with 
the Hussites, and other separatists from the church of 
Rome. 

II. Nicolas Lyranus deservedly holds the first rank 
among the commentators on the Scriptures, having ex- 
plained them in a manner far superior to the prevailing 
taste and spirit of his age. He was a perfect master of 
the Hebrew language, but not well versed in the Greek, 
and was therefore much happier in his exposition of the 
Old Testament, than in that of the New. 6 All the other 
divines, who applied themselves to this kind of writing, 
were servile imitators of their predecessors. They either 
culled choice sentences from the writings of the more 

■ The very laborious and learned Wadding favoured the public with 
an accurate edition of the works of Scotus, printed at Lyons, 1639, in 
twelve volumes folio. See "Wood, Antiq. .Oxon. torn. i. — Wadding, 
Annul. Minor, fratr. tom. vi. — Boulay, torn. iv. 

b See Launoy's treatise, entitled, Syllabus rationum, quibus Durandi 
causa defenditur; also Gallia Christ, tom. ii. 

Rich. Simon, Lettres Choisies, tom. iv. p. 232 ; and Critique de la 
Biblioth. des Auteurs Ecclesiast. par M. Du-Pin, tom. i. p. 360. Steph. 
Souciet, in Observationibus ad h. 1. p. 703. — Nouv. Diet. Hist, et Crit. 
tom. ii. p. 500. He was archbishop of Canterbury. 

& For a full account of all these persons, see Histoire de l'Eglise 
Gallicane, tom. xiv. 

• Rich. Simon, Histoire des principaux Commentateurs du N. T. p. 



ancient doctors ; or, departing from the obvious meaning 
of the words, they tortured the sacred writers to accommo- 
date them to senses that were mysterious and abstruse. 
They who are desirous of being acquainted with this art, 
may have recourse to Vitalis a Furno, in his Moral Mirror 
of the Scriptures/ or to Ludolphus of Saxony, in his 
Psalter Spiritualized. e The philosophers, who commented 
upon the sacred writings, sometimes proposed subtle 
questions, drawn from what was called, in this century, 
Internal Science, and solved them in a dexterous and 
artful manner. 

HI. The greatest part of the doctors of this century, 
both Greek and Latin, followed the rules of the peripatetic 
philosophy, in expounding and teaching the doctrines of 
religion ; and the Greeks, from their commerce with the 
Latins, seemed to have acquired some knowledge of those 
methods of instruction which were used in the western 
schools. Even to this day, the Greeks read, in their own 
tongue, the works of Thomas, and other capital writers 
of the scholastic class, which in this age were translated 
and introduced into the Greek church by Demetrius 
Cydonius and others. h Prodigious numbers among the 
Latins were fond of this subtle method, in which John 
Scotus, Durand of St. Portian, and William Occam, 
peculiarly excelled. Some few had recourse to the deci- 
sions of Scripture and tradition in explaining divine truths, 
but they were overborne by the immense tribe of logicians, 
who carried all before them. 

IV. This superiority of the schoolmen did not, how- 
ever, prevent some wise and pious men among the Mystics, 
and in other sects, from severely censuring this presump- 
tuous method of bringing before the tribunal of philosophy 
matters of pure revelation. Many, as it appears, were 
bold enough to oppose the reigning passion, and to recall 
the youth designed for the ministry, to the study of the 
Scriptures, and the writings of the ancient fathers. This 
proceeding kindled the flame of discord almost every 
where ; but this flame raged with peculiar violence in 
some of the more famous universities, especially in those 
of Paris and Oxford, where many sharp disputes were 
continually carried on against the philosophical divines by 
those of the biblical party, who, though greatly inferior to 
their antagonists in point of number, were sometimes 
victorious. For the philosophical legions, chiefly tutored 
by Dominicans and Franciscans, were often extremely 
rash in their manner of disputing ; they denned and ex- 
plained the principal doctrines of revealed religion in such 
a way, as really tended to overturn them, and fell into 
opinions that were evidently absurd and impious. Hence 
it came to pass, that some of them were compelled to 
abjure their errors, others to seek their safety in flight ; 
some had their writings publicly burned, and others were 
thrown into prison.! However, when these commotions 

447, and Critique de la Biblioth. des Auteurs Eccles. par M. Du-Pin, 
tom. i. p. 352. — Wadding, tom. v. p. 264. 

f Speculum Morale totius Scripturae. 

s Psalterium juxta spiritualem Sensum. 

h Rich. Simon, Creance de l'Eglise Orientale sur la Transubstantia- 
tion, p. 166. 

i See Boulay, tom. iv. — In 1340, several opinions of the schoolmen, 
concerning the Trinity and other doctrines, were condemned, p. 266. — 
In 1347, M. Jo. de Mercuria and Nic. de Ultricuria were obliged to 
adjure their errors, p. 298, 308. — In 1348, one Simon was convicted oi 
some horrible errors, p. 322. — The same fate, in 1354, befell Guido of 
the Augustine order, p. 329. In 1362, the like happened to one Louis 
p. 374, to Jo. de Calore, p. 377 ; in 1365, to Dion. Soullechat, p. 382. 



Chap. III. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



353 



were quelled, most of them returned, though with pru- 
dence and caution, to their former way of thinking, per- 
plexed their adversaries by various contrivances, and de- 
prived them of their reputation, their profits, and many 
of their followers. 

V. It is remarkable, that the scholastic doctors, or 
philosophical theologists, far from agreeing among them- 
selves, were furiously engaged in disputations with each ' 
other concerning many points. The flame of their con- 
troversy was, in this century, supplied with copious acces- 
sions of fuel, by John Duns Scotus, a learned friar already 
mentioned, who, animated against the Dominicans by a 
warm spirit of jealousy, had attacked and attempted to 
disprove several doctrines of Thomas Aquinas. Upon 
this, the Dominicans, taking the alarm, united from all 
quarters to defend their favourite doctor, whom they justly 
considered as the leader of the scholastics, while the Fran- 
ciscans espoused with ardour the cause of Scotus, whom 
they looked upon as a divine sage sent down from heaven 
to enlighten bewildered and erring mortals. Thus these 
powerful and flourishing orders were again divided ; and 
hence originated the two famous sects, the Scotists and 
Thomists, which, to this day, dispute the field of contro- 
versy in the Latin schools. The chief points about which 
they disagree are, the nature of the divine co-operation 
with the human will, the measure of divine grace that is 
necessary to salvation, the unity of form in man, or per- 
sonal identity, and other abstruse and minute questions, 
the enumeration of which is foreign to our purpose. We 
shall only observe, that what contributed most to exalt the 
reputation of Scotus, and to cover him with glory, was 
his demonstration and defence of what was called the 
Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary against the 
Dominicans, who entertained different notions of that 
point. - 

VI. A prodigious number of the people, denominated 
Mystics, resided, and propagated their tenets, in almost 
every part of Europe. There were, undoubtedly, among 
them many persons of eminent piety, who endeavoured 
to wean men from an excessive attachment to the external 
part of religion, and to form them to the love of God, and 
the practice of genuine virtue. Such, among others, 
were Taulerus, Ruysbrockius, Suso, and Gerard of 
Zutphen, b who, it must be allowed, have left many 
writings that are exceedingly well calculated to excite 
pious dispositions in the minds of their readers, though 
want of judgment, and a propensity to indulge enthusiastic 
visions, are failings common to them all. But there were 
also some senseless fanatics belonging to this party, who 
ran from one place to another, recommending a most 
unaccountable extinction of all the rational faculties, 
whereby they idly imagined the human mind would be 
transfused into the divine essence, and thus led their pro- 
selytes into a foolish kind of piety, that in too many cases 
bordered nearly upon licentiousness. The religious phrensy 
of these enthusiasts rose to such a height, as rendered 
them detestable to the sober sort of Mystics, who charged 
their followers to have no connexions with them/ 

VII. It is needless to say much concerning those who 

Oxford also had its share in transactions of this nature. See Ant- 
Wood, torn. i. p. 153, 183. 

* See Wadding, torn. vi. p. 52. 

' Concerning these authors, see Petr. Poiret, Biblioth. Mysticorum, 
and Godofr. Arnold, Historia et Descriptio Theol. Mystics. Of 

No. XXX. 89 



applied themselves to the study of morality, as their spirit 
is nearly of the same kind with that of the authors whom 
we have already noticed ; though it may be proper to 
mention two circumstances, by which the reader may 
ascertain the true state of this science. The first is, that 
about this time, more writers than in any former century 
made it their business to collect and solve, what they sty- 
led, Cases of Conscience ; by which Astesanus, an Italian, 
Monaldus, and Bartholomew of St. Concordia, acquired 
a reputation superior to that of any of their contemporaries. 
This kind of writing was of a piece with the education 
then received in the schools, since it taught people to 
quibble and wrangle, instead of forming them to a sound 
faith and a suitable practice. A second thing worthy of 
notice is, that moral duties were explained, and their prac- 
tice enforced, by allegories and comparisons of a new and 
whimsical kind, even by examples drawn from (he natures, 
properties, and actions of the brute creation. These 
writers began, for instance, by explaining the nature and 
qualities of some particular animal, and then applied their 
description to human life and manners, to characterize the 
virtues and vices of moral agents. The most remarkable 
productions of this sort are Nieder's Formicarius, a treatise 
concerning Bees by Thomas Brabantinus, dissertations 
upon Beasts by Hugh of St. Victor, and a tract by Tho- 
mas Whalley, entitled, The Nature of Brute Animals 
moralized. 

VIII. The defenders of Christianity in this age were, 
in general, unequal to the glorious cause they undertook 
to support ; nor do their writings discover any striking 
marks of genius, dexterity, perspicuity, or candour. Some 
productions, indeed, appeared from time to time, that were 
not altogether unworthy of notice. The learned Brad- 
wardine, an English divine, advanced many pertinent and 
ingenious remarks, tending to confirm the truth of Christi- 
anity, in a Book upon Providence. The work, entitled, 
Collyrium Fidei contra Hsereticos, or, the " Eye-salve of 
Faith against the Heretics," shows, that its author, Alvaro 
Pelagio, was a well-meaning and judicious man, though 
he has by no means exhausted the subject in this perform- 
ance. Nicolas de Lyra wrote against the Jews, as did 
also Porchetus Salvaticus, whose treatise, entitled, " The 
Triumph of Faith," is chiefly borrowed from the writings 
of Raymond Martin. Both these writers are much inferior 
to Theophanes, whose " Book against the Jews, and his 
Harmony between the Old and New Testament," contain 
many observations that are by no means contemptible. 

IX. During this century, there were some promising 
appearances of a reconciliation between the Greeks and 
Latins. For the former, apprehending that they might 
want assistance to set bounds to the power of the Turks, 
which about this time was continually increasing, often 
pretended a willingness to submit to the Latin canons. 
Accordingly, in 1339, Andronicus the Younger sent 
Balaam as his ambassador into the west, to desire a recon- 
ciliation in his name. In 1349, another Grecian mbassy 
was sent to Clement VI. for the same purpose, and, in 
1356, a third was despatched upon a like errand to Inno- 
cent VI. Nor was this all ; for, in 1367, the Grecian 

Taulerus and Suso, Echard treats expressly in his Scriptor. Pr.Tdicat. 
torn. i. p. 653, 677. See also Acta Sanctor. Januar. torn. ii. p. 652. 

° Joh. Ruysbrockius inveighed bitterly against them, as appears 
from his Works, published by Laur. Surius, p. 50, 378, and also from 
his treatise de vera Contemplationc, cap. xviii. p. 608. 



354 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 11. 



patriarch arrived at Rome, in order to negotiate this im- 
portant matter, and was followed, in 1369, by the emperor 
himself, John Pakeologus, who, in order to conciliate the 
friendship and good-will of the Latins, published a con- 
fession of his faith, which was agreeable to the sentiments 
of the Roman pontiff. But, notwithstanding these pru- 
dent and pacific measures, the major part of the Greeks 
could not be persuaded by any means to drop the contro- 
versy, or to be reconciled to the church of Rome, though 
several of them, from views of interest or ambition, ex- 
pressed a readiness to submit to its demands ; so that this 
whole century was spent partly in furious debates, and 
partly in fruitless negotiations. 11 

X. In 1384, a furious controversy arose at Paris, be- 
tween the university and the Dominican order. The 
author of it was John de Montesono, a native of Arragon, 
a Dominican friar and professor of divinity, who, in pursu- 
ance of the decisions and doctrine of his order, publicly 
denied that the blessed Virgin Mary was conceived with- 
out any stain of original sin ; and moreover asserted, that 
all who believed the immaculate Conception were enemies 
of the true faith. The quarrel occasioned by this pro- 
ceeding would certainly have been soon compromised, had 
not John, in a public discourse delivered in 1387, revived 
this opinion with more violence than ever. For this rea- 
son the college of divines, and afterwards the whole 
university, condemned this, and some other tenets of 
Montesonus. For it may be proper to inform the reader, 
that the university of Paris, principally induced thereto 
by the discourses of John Duns Scotus, had, from the 
beginning almost of this century, publicly adopted the 
doctrine of the sinless conception of the holy Virgin. b 
Upon this, the Dominicans, with their champion John de 
Montesono, appealed from the sentence of the university 
to pope Clement VII. at Avignon, and clamorously affirm- 
ed that St. Thomas himself was condemned by the judg- 
ment passed upon their brother; But, before the pope 
could decide the affair, the accused friar fled from the court 
of Avignon, went over to the party of Urban VI.. who 
resided at Rome, and, during his absence, was excommu- 
nicated. Whether the pope approved the sentence of the 
university of Paris, we cannot say. The Dominicans, 
however, deny that he did, and affirm, that the professor 
was condemned purely on account of his flight ; c though 
there are many others who assert, that his opinion was 
also condemned ; and, as the Dominicans would not 
acknowledge the validity of the academic sentence, they 
were expelled in 1389, and were not restored to their 
ancient honours in the university before the year 1404. d 

CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning- the Rites and Ceremonies used in the 
Church during this Century. 

I. We must confine ourselves to a general and super- 
ficial view of the alterations which Were introduced into 
the ritual of the church during this century, since it can- 



■ See Henr. Canisii Leetiones Antiquae, torn. iv. p. 360. — Leo 
Allatius, de perpetua consensione eecles. Orient, et Occident, lib. ii. cap. 
xvi. xvii. p. 782.— Wadding, torn. viii. p. 29, 40, 107,201,289. Baluze, 
Vita; Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 348, 380, 403, 772. 

i> See Wadding's Annals, torn. vi. 

* See Jac. Echardi Scriptor. Prsedicator. torn. i. p. 691. 

<» Boulay, torn. iv. p. 599, 618 638.— Baluzii Vit. Pout. Av. torn. i. p. 



not reasonably be expected that we should insist largely 
upon this subject within the narrow limits of such a work 
as this. A principal circumstance that strikes us here, is 
the change that was made in the time of celebrating the 
jubilee. In 1350, Clement VI., in compliance with the 
request of the people of Rome, enacted that the jubilee, 
which Boniface VIII. had ordered to be celebrated in every 
hundredth year, should be celebrated twice in every cen- 
tury. 6 In favour of this alteration he might have assign- 
ed a very plausible pretext, since it is well known that the 
Jews, whom the Roman pontiffs were always ready to 
imitate in whatever related to pomp and majesty, celebra- 
ted this sacred solemnity in every fiftieth year. But Urban 
VI., Sixtus VI., and other popes, who ordered a more fre- 
quent celebration of this salutary and profitable institution, 
would have had more difficulty in attempting to satisfy 
those who might have demanded sufficient reasons to 
justify this inconstancy. 

II. Innocent V. instituted festivals, sacred to the memory 
of the lance with which our Saviour's side was pierced, of 
the nails that fastened him to the cross, and the crown of 
thorns he wore at his death. f This, though evidently 
absurd, may be deemed pardonable upon the whole, if we 
consider the gross ignorance and stupidity of the times. 
But nothing can excuse the impious fanaticism and super- 
stition of Benedict XII., who, by appointing a festival in 
honour of the marks of Christ's wounds, which, the Fran- 
ciscans tell us, were imprinted upon the body of their 
chief and founder by a miraculous interposition of the 
divine power, gave credit to that grossly ridiculous and 
blasphemous fable. John XXII., beside the sanction he 
gave to many other superstitions, ordered Christians to 
add to their prayers those words with which the angel 
Gabriel saluted the Virgin Mary. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Divisions and Heresies that troubled 
the Church during this Century. 

I. During some part of this century, the Hesychasts, 
or, as the Latins call them, the Q.uietists, gave great trou- 
ble to the Greek church. To assign the true source of it, 
we must observe that Barlaam, or Balaam, a native of Ca- 
labria, who was a monk of St. Basil, and afterwards bishop 
of Gierace in Calabria, made a progress through Greece 
to inspect the behaviour of the monks, among whom he 
found many things highly reprehensible. He was more 
especially offended at the Hesychasts of mount Athos, 
in Thessaly, who were the same with the Mystics, or 
more perfect monks, and who, by a long course of intense 
contemplation, endeavoured to arrive at a tranquillity of 
mind entirely free from tumult and perturbation. These 
Quietists, in compliance with an ancient opinion of their 
principal doctors, (who imagined that there was a celestial 
light concealed in the deepest recesses of the mind,) used 
to sit in a solitary corner, during a certain portion of every 
day, with their eyes eagerly and immoveably fixed upon 

521 ; torn. ii. p. 992. — Argentre, Collectio judicior. de novis errorib. 
torn i. p. 61. — Jac. de Longueval, Hist, de l'Eglise Gallicane, torn. xiv. 
p. 347. 

• Baluze, torn. i. p. 247, 287, 312, 887.— Mura tori, Antiquit Ital 
torn. iii. p. 344, 481. 

f See Jo. Henr. a Seelen, Diss, de festo Lancese et Clavorum Christi. 
—Baluzii Miscell. torn. i. et Vit Pontif. torn. i. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



355 



the middle region of the belly, or navel ; and boasted, that 
while they remained in this posture, ihey found, in effect, 
a divine light beaming forth from the soul, which diffused 
through their hearts inexpressible sensations of pleasure 
and delight. 1 To such as inquired what kind of light this 
was, they replied, by way of illustration, that it was the 
glory of God, the same celestial radiance that surrounded 
Christ during his transfiguration on the mount. Balaam, 
entirely unacquainted with the customs and manners of 
the Mystics, looked upon all this as highly absurd and 
fanatical, and therefore styled the monks who adhered to 
this institution, Massalians and Euchites, b anu also gave 
them the new name of Umbilicani. On the other hand, 
Gregory Palamas, archbishop of Thessalonica, defended 
the cause of these monks against Balaam. d 

II. In order to put an end to this dissension, a council 
was convoked at Constantinople, in 1341, in which the 
emperor himself, Andronicus the younger, and the patri- 
arch, presided. Here Palamas and the monks triumphed 
over Balaam, who was condemned by the council ; where- 
upon he left Greece, and returned to Italy. Not long after 
this, another monk, named Gregory Aciudynus, renewed 
the controversy, and, in opposition to the opinion main- 
tained by Palamas, denied that God dwelt in an eternal 
light distinct from his essence, as also that such a light was 
beheld by the disciples on mount Tabor. This dispute 
was now no longer concerning the monks, but turned 
upon the light seen at mount Tabor, and also upon the 
nature and residence of the Deit3 r . Nevertheless, he was 
condemned as a follower of Balaam, in another council 
holden at Constantinople. Many assemblies were con- 
vened about this affair ; but the most remarkable of them 
all, was that of the year 1351, in which the Balaamites 
•and their adherents received such a fatal wound, in con- 
sequence of the severe decrees enacted against them, that 
\hey were forced to yield, and leave the victory to Pala- 
mas. This prelate maintained, that God was encircled, 
as it were, with an eternal light, which might be styled 
his energy or operation, and was distinct from his nature 
and essence ; and that he favoured the three disciples with 
a view of ihis light upon mount Tabor. Hence he con- 
cluded that this divine operation was really different from 
the substance of the Deity ; and farther, that no being 

* "We have no reason to be surprised at, and much less to disbelieve, 
this account For it is a fundamental rule with all those people in the 
eastern world, whether Christians, Mohammedans, or Pagans, (who 
maintain the necessity of abstracting the mind from the body, in order 
to hold communion with God, which is exactly the same tiling with the 
contemplative and mystic life among the Latins,) that the eyes must be 
steadily fixed every day for some hours upon some particular object; 
and that he who complies with this precept will be thrown into an ec- 
stasy, in which, being united to God, he will see wonderful things, and 
be entertained with ineffable delights. See what is said of the Siamese 
monks and Mystics by Engelb. Kaempfer, in his History of Japan, torn, 
i. and also of diose of India, in the Voyages of Bernier, torn. ii. Indeed, 
I can easily admit, that they who continue long in the above-mentioned 
posture, will imagine they behold many things which no man in his 
6enses ever behelcl or thought of; for certainly the combinations they 
form of the unconnected notions that arise to their fancy while their 
minds are in this odd and unnatural state, must be most singular and 
whimsical ; so much the more, as the rule itself, which prescribes the 
contemplation of a certain object as the means of arriving at a vision 
of the Deity, absolutely forbids all use of the faculty of reason during 
that ecstatic and sublime interval. This total suspension of reason and 
reflection, during the period of contemplation, was not, however, peculiar 
to the eastern Gtuietists ; the Latin Mystics observed the same rule, and 
inculcated it upon their djsciples. On a due examination of the subject, 
we may safely conclude, that the many surprising visions, of which 
ths&e fanatics boast, are fables utterly destitute of reason and prolja- 



could partake of the divine substance or essence, but that 
finite natures might possess a share of his divine light, or 
operation. The Balaamites, on the contrary, denied these 
positions, affirming, that the properties and operations of 
the Deity were not different from his essence, and that 
there was really no difference between the attributes and 
essence of God, considered in themselves, but only in our 
conceptions of them, and reasonings upon them." 

III. In the Latin church the inquisitors, those active 
ministers and executioners of papal justice, extended their 
vigilance to every quarter, and most industriously hunted 
out the remains of those sects who opposed the religion of 
Rome, even the Waldenses. the Catharists, the Apostolists, 
and others ; so that the history of these times abounds 
with numberless instances of persons who were burned or 
otherwise barbarously destroyed, by those unrelenting in- 
struments of superstitious vengeance. But none of these 
enemies of the church gave the inquisitors and bishops s» 
much employment of this sanguinary kind, as the Bre- 
thren and Sisters of the free spirit, who went under the 
common name of Beghards and Beguines in Germany 
and the Netherlands, and were differently denominated in 
other provinces. For, as this sort of people professed an 
uncommon and sublime species of devotion, endeavouring 
to call off men's minds from the external and sensible 
parts of religion, and to win them over to the inward and 
spiritual worship of God, they were greatly esteemed by 
many plain, well-meaning persons, whose piety and sim- 
plicity were deceived by a profession so seducing ; and thus 
they made many converts to their opinions. It was on 
this account that such numbers of this turn and disposi- 
tion perished in the flames of persecution during this cen- 
tury in Italy, France, and Germany. 

IV. This sect was most numerous in the cities of Ger- 
many that lay upon the Rhine, especially at Cologne; 
which circumstance induced Henry I., archbishop of that 
diocese, to publish a severe edict against them, A. D. 1306 ; r 
an example that was soon followed by the bishops of 
Mentz, Treves, Worms, and Strasburg." And as there 
were some subtle acute men belonging to this party, that 
eminently keen logician, John Duns Scotus, h was sent 
to Cologne, in 1308, to dispute against them, and to van- 
quish them by dint of syllogism. In 1310, the famous 

bility. But this is not the proper place for enlarging upon prodigies of 
this nature. 

U" •> The Massalians (so called from a Hebrew word which signi- 
fies prayer, and Euchites from a Greek word of the same signification) 
formed themselves into a sect, diu'ing the fourth century, in the reign 
of Constantius. Their tenets resembled those of the Quietists in seve- 
ral respects. 

c Ofupa\6\pvj(Oi. 

<• For an account of these two famous men, Balaam and Gregory 
Palamas, see, in preference to all other writers, Jo. Alb. Fabricius, P>ib- 
lioth. Graeca, torn. x. p. 427, and 454. 

* See Jo. Cantacuzenus, Hist. lib. ii. cap. xxxix. p. 263, and the ob- 
servations of Gregor. Pontanus ; also Nicephorus Gregoras, Hist. 
Byzant. lib. xi. cap. x. p. 277, and in many other places. But these two 
writers disagree in several circumstances. Many materials relative to 
this controversy are yet unpublished (see Montfaucon, Biblioth. Coiu- 
liniana, p. 150, 174, 404.) Nor have we ever been favoured with an ac- 
curate and well-digested history of it. In the mean time, the reader 
may consult Leo Allatius, de perpetua consensione Orient, et Occid. 
Eccles. lib. ii. cap. xxii. p. 824.— Henr. Canisii Lectiones Antique, 
torn. iv. p. 361— Dion Petavius, Dogmat. Theol. torn. i. lib. i. cap. 
xii. — Steph. de Altimura, Panoplia contra Schisma Graecor. p. 381, &c 

f See Statuta Coloniensia, published in 1554. 

* Johannes, apud Scriptores rerun) Moguntinar. torn. iiL p. 298 — 
Martenne. Thesaur. Ane^dotor. torn. iv. p. 250. 

b Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. vi. p. 108. 



356 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II 



Margaret Poretta, who made such a shining figure in this 
sect, was committed to the flames at Paris with one of the 
brethren. She had undertaken to demonstrate in an elabo- 
rate treatise, " That the soul, when absorbed in the love 
of God, is free from the restraint of every law, and may 
freely gratify all it's natural appetites, without contracting 
any guilt." a Pope Clement V., exasperated by this and 
other instances of the pernicious fanaticism that prevailed 
among this sect, published in a general council at Vienne, 
A. D. 1311, a special constitution against the Beghards 
and Beguines of Germany ; and though the edict only 
mentions imperfectly the opinions of this sect, yet, by the 
numeration of them, we may easily perceive that the Mys- 
tic brethren and sisters of the free spirit are the persons 
principally intended. b Clement, in the same council, issued 
another constitution, by which he suppressed another and 
a very different sort of Beguines, who had hitherto been 
.considered as a lawful and regular society, and lived in 
fixed habitations appropriated to their order, but were now 
corrupted by the fanatics above mentioned ; for the Bre- 
thren and Sisters of the free spirit had insinuated them- 
selves into the greatest part of the convents of the Be- 
guines, where they inculcated with great success their 
mysterious and sublime system of religion to these simple 
women ; and these credulous females were no sooner initia- 
ted into this brilliant and chimerical system, than they were 
captivated with its delusive charms, and babbled, in the 
most absurd and impious manner, concerning the true 
worship of the Deity. d 

V. The Brethren of the free spirit, oppressed by so 
many severe edicts and constitutions, formed the intention 
of removing from Upper Germany into the lower parts of 
the empire ; and this scheme was so far put in execution, 
that Westphalia was the only province which refused ad- 
mission to these dispersed fanatics, and was free from their 
disturbances. This tranquillity was produced by the pro- 
vident measures of Henry, archbishop of Cologne, who, 
having called a council, in 1322, seriously admonished 
the bishops of his province of the approaching danger, and 
thus excited them to exert their utmost vigilance to pre- 
vent any of these people from coming into Westphalia. 
About the same time the Beghards 6 upon the Rhine lost 
their chief leader and champion, Walter, a Dutchman of 
remarkable eloquence, and famous for his writings, who 
came from Mentz to Cologne, where he was apprehended 
and burned/ The death of this person was highly de- 

a Luc. d'Acherii Spicil. veter. Scriptor. torn. iii. p. 63. — J. Bale, de 
Scriptor. Britan. Centur. iv. n. 88. p. 367. 

t It is extant in the Corpus Juris Canon, inter Clementinas, lib. v. tit. 
iii. de Haereticis, cap. iii. p. 1088. 

c In Jure Canonico inter Clementinas, lib. iii. tit. xi. de religiosis 
domibus, cap. i. p. 1075, edit. Bohmer. 

<J For this reason, in the German records of this century, we often 
find a distinction of the Beguines into those of the right and approved 
class, and those of the sublime and free spirit; the former of whom 
adhered to the public religion, while the latter were corrupted by the 
opinions of the Mystics. 

f^r" By Beghards, here, Dr. Mosheim means particularly the 
Brethren of the Free Spirit, who frequently passed under this denomi- 
nation. 

i Jo. Trithemii Annal. Hirsaug torn, ii: p. 155. — Schaten, Annal. 
Paderborn. torn. ii. p. 250. — This is that famous Walter, whom so many 
ecclesiastical historians have represented as the founder of the sect of 
the Lollards, and as an eminent martyr to their cause. Learned men 
conclude all this, and more, from the following words of Trithemius; 
'That same Walter Lohareus, (so it stands in my copy, though I fancy 
it ought to have been Lolkardus, especially as Trithemius, according to 
the custom of his time, frequently uses this word when treating of the 



trimental to the affairs of the Brethren of the free spirit : 
it did not, however, ruin their cause, or extirpate their sect. 
For it not only appears from innumerable testimonies, that, 
for a long time afterwards, they held their private assem- 
blies at Cologne, and in many other parts of Germany, 
but also that they had several men among them of high 
rank and great learning, of which number Henry Aycai- 
dus, or Eccard, a Saxon, was the most famous. He was 
a Dominican, and also the superior of that order in Saxo- 
ny ; a man of a subtle genius, and one who had acquitted 
himself with reputation as professor of divinity at Paris. e 
In 1330, pope John XXIL, endeavoured to suppress this 
obstinate sect by a new and severe constitution, in which 
the errors of the sect of the free spirit are marked out in 
a more distinct and accurate manner than in the Clemen- 
tina. 11 But this attempt was fruitless ; the disorder con 
tinued, and was combated both by the inquisitors and 
bishops in most parts of Europe to the end of this century. 
VI. The Clementina, or constitution of the council 
of Yienne against the Beguines, or the female societies 
that lived together in fixed habitations, under a common 
rule of pious discipline and virtuous industry, gave rise to 
a persecution of these people, which lasted till the refor- 
mation by Luther, and ruined the cause both of the Be- 
guines and Beghards in many places. For though the 
pope, in his last constitution, had permitted pious women 
to live as nuns in a state of celibacy, with or without 
taking the vow, and refused a toleration only to such 
of them as were corrupted with the opinions of the 
Brethren of the free spirit, yet the vast number of ene- 
mies which the Beguines and Beghards had, partly 
among the mechanics, especially the weavers, and partly 
among the priests and monks, took a handle from the 
Clementina to molest them in their houses, to seize and 
destroy their goods, and offer them many other insults. 
John XXIL afforded some relief under these oppressions, 
in 1324, by means of a special constitution, in which he 
gave a favourable explication of the Clementina, and 
ordered that the persons, goods, and habitations, of the 
innocent Beguines, should be preserved from every kind 
of violence and insult ; — an example of clemency and 
moderation which was afterwards followed by other 
popes. On the other hand, the Beguines, in hopes of 
disappointing more effectually the malicious attempts of 
their enemies, and avoiding their snares, embraced in 
many places the third rule of St. Francis, and of the 

sects that dissented from the church,) a native of Holland, was not well 
versed in the Latin tongue.' I say, from this short passage, learned 
men have concluded that Walters surname was Lolhard ; whence, as 
from its founder and master, they supposed his sect derived the name of 
Lollards. But it is very evident, not only from this, but from other 
passages of Trithemius, that Lolhard was no surname, but merely a 
term of reproach applied to all heretics who concealed the poison of 
error under the appearance of piety. Trithemius, speaking of the very 
same man, in a preceding passage, calls him, 'the head of the Fratricelli, 
or Minorites;' but these terms were very extensive, including people of 
various sects. This Walter embraced the opinions of the Mystics, and 
was the principal doctor among those Brethren of the free spirit, who 
lived on the banks of the Rhine. 

e See Echardi Scriptor. Praedicator. torn. i. p. 507.— Odor. Raynal- 
dus, Annal. torn. xv. ad an. 1329. sect, lxx p. 389. 

fc This new constitution was never published entire. It began with 
the words, ' in agro Dominico ;' and was inscribed thus, contra singu- 
laria, dubia, suspecta, et temeraria, qua Beghardi et Beghina predi- 
cant et observant.' We are favoured with a summary of it by Herm. 
Cornerus in Eccardi Corp. Histor. medii iEvi, torn. ii. p. 1TJ35. It is 
also mentioned by Paul Langius, in Chronico Citizensi, apad Jo. Pis- 
torii Scriptores rerum German, torn. i. p. 1200. 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



357 



Augustines. Yet all these measures in their favour 
30uli not prevsiit the loss both of their reputation and 
substance; for from this time they were oppressed in 
several provinces by the magistrates, the clergy, and the 
monks, who had cast a greedy eye upon their treasures, 
and were extremely eager to divide the spoil." 

VII. Some years before the middle of this century, 
while Germany and many other parts of Europe were 
distressed with various calamities, the Flagellants, a sect 
forgotten almost every where, and especially in Ger- 
many, made their appearance anew, and, rambling 
through many provinces, occasioned great disturbances. 
These new Flagellants, whose enthusiasm infected every 
tank, sect, and age, were much worse than the old ones. 
They not only supposed that God might be prevailed 
upon to show mercy to those who underwent voluntary 
punishments, but propagated other tenets highly inju- 
rious to religion. They held, among other things, 
" That flagellation was of equal virtue with baptism, and 
the other sacraments : that it would procure from God 
the forgiveness of all sins, without the merits of Jesus 
Christ : that the old law of Christ was soon to be abolish- 
ed, and that a new law, enjoining the baptism of blood, 
to be administered by whipping, was to be substituted in 
its place," with other tenets more or less enormous than 
these ; whereupon Clement VII. thundered out anathe- 
mas against these sectaries, many of whom were com- 
mitted to the flames by the inhuman inquisitors. It was, 
however, found as difficult to extirpate them, as it had 
been to suppress the other sects of wandering fanatics." 

VIII. Directly the reverse of this melancholy sect 
was the merry one of the Dancers, which, in 1373, 
arose at Aix-la-Chapelle, whence it spread through the 
district of Liege, Hainault, and other parts of the Nether- 
lands. It was customary among these fanatics, for per- 
sons of both sexes, publicly as well as in private, sudden- 
ly to begin dancing, and, holding each other's hands, to 
continue their motions with extraordinary violence, till, 
being almost suffocated, they fell down breathless to- 
gether ; and they affirmed, that, during these intervals of 
vehement agitation, they were favoured with wonderful 
visions. Like the Flagellants, they wandered about 
from place to place, had recourse to begging for their 
subsistence, treated with the utmost contempt both the 
priesthood and the public rites and worship of the church, 
and held secret assemblies. Such was the nature of this 
new phrensy, which the ignorant clergy of this age look- 
ed upon as the work of evil demons, who possessed, as 
they thought, this dancing tribe. Accordingly, the 
priests of Liege endeavoured to cast out the devils which 
rendered these fanatics so merry, by singing hymns and 
applying fumigations of incense ; and they gravely tell 
us, that the evil spirit was entirely vanquished by these 
powerful charms. 

IX. The most heinous and abominable tribe of here- 

m I have collected a great number of particulars relating to this long 
persecution of the Beguines. But the most copious of all the writers 
who have published any thing upon this subject (especially if we con- 
3idei his account of the persecution at Basil, and of Mulbergius, the 
most inveterate enemy of the Beguines,) is Christian Wurstisen, or 
TJrstisius, in his Chronicon Basiliense, written in German, lib. iv. cap. 
ix p. 201, published at Basil, 1580. There are now in my hands, and 
also in many libraries, manuscript tracts of this celebrated Mulbergius, 
written against the Beguines in the following century. 

b See Baluzii Vit. Pontif. Avenion. torn. i. p. 160, 31G, and Misccllan. 

No. XXX. 90 



tics that infected this century, (if the enormities with 
which they stand charged be true,) were the Knigtits 
Templars, who had been established in Palestine about 
two hundred years before this period, and who were re- 
presented as enemies and deriders of all religion. Their 
principal accuser indeed was a person whose testimony 
ought not to be admitted without caution. This was 
Philip the Fair, an avaricious, vindictive, and turbulent 
prince, who loudly complained to Clement V. of their 
opinions and conduct. The pope, though at first unwil- 
ling to proceed against them, was under a necessity of 
complying with the king's desire ; so that, in 1307, on 
an appointed day, and for some time afterwards, all the 
knights, who were dispersed throughout Europe, and not 
in the least apprehensive of any impending evil, were 
seized and imprisoned. Such as refused to confess the 
enormities of which they were accused, were put to death ; 
and those who, by tortures and promises, were induced to 
acknowledge the truth of what was laid to their charge, 
obtained their liberty. In 1311, the whole order was 
extinguished by the council of Vienne. Of the rich 
revenues they possessed, a part was bestowed upon other 
orders, especially on the knights of St. John, and the 
rest corfiscated to the ^respective treasuries of the sovereign 
princes in whose dominions their possessions lay. 

X. The Knights Templars, if their judges be worthy 
of credit, were a set of men who insulted the majesty of 
God, turned into derision the Gospel of Christ, and 
trampled upon the obligation of all laws, human and 
divine. For it is affirmed, that candidates, upon their 
admission to this order, were commanded to spit, as a 
mark of contempt, upon an image of Christ; and that, 
after admission, they were bound to worship either a cat, 
or a wooden head covered with gold. It is farther affirm- 
ed, that, among them, the odious and unnatural act of 
sodomy was a matter of obligation ; that they committed 
to the flames the unhappy fruit of their lawless amours ; 
and added, to these, other crimes too horrible to be men- 
tioned, or even imagined. It will, indeed, be readily 
allowed, that in this order, as in all the other religious 
societies of this age, there were shocking examples of 
impiety and wickedness ; but that the Templars in 
general were thus enormously corrupt, is so far from 
being proved, that the contrary may be concluded even 
from the acts and records, yet extant, of the tribunals 
before which they were tried and examined. If to this 
we add, that some of the accusations advanced against 
them, flatly contradict each other, and that many mem- 
bers of this unfortunate order solemnly avowed their inno- 
cence, while languishing under the severest tortures, and 
even with their dying breath, it would seem probable, that 
Philip set on foot this bloody tragedy, with a view of 
gratifying his avarice, and glutting his resentment against 
the Templars, d and especially against their grand master, 
who had highly offended him. 

torn. i. p. 50. — Matthaei Analecta vet. iEvi, torn. i. ill. iv. — Herm. 

Gygis Plores Tempor. p. 139. 

° Baluz. torn. i. p. 485. — Matth. Analecta, torn. i. p. 51, where we 
find the following passage in the Belgic Chronicle, winch gives but an 
obscure account of the sect in question : A. 1374. Giiigen de Dancers, 
and then in Latin, Gens, impacata cadit, criiciata salvat. The French 
convulsionists, (or prophets,) who. in our age, were remarkable for the 
vehemence and variety of their agitations, greatly resembled these bre- 
thren and sister dancers. 

* See the Acts annexed to Putean's Histoire de la Condemnation de» 



THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. 



PART I. 

THE EXTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the prosperous Events that happened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. The new subjects, that were added to the kingdom 
of Christ in this century, were altogether unworthy of that 
sublime title, unless we prostitute it by applying it to those 
who made an external and insincere profession of Christi- 
anity. Ferdinand, surnamed the Catholic, by the conquest 
of Granada, in the year 1492, entirely overturned the 
dominion of the Moors or Saracens in Spain. Some time 
after this happy revolution, he issued a sentence of banish- 
ment against a prodigious multitude of Jews, who, to 
avoid the execution of this severe decree, dissembled their 
sentiments, and feigned an assent to the Gospel ; a and it 
is well known that, to this very day, there are both in 
Spain and Portugal a great number of that dispersed and 
wretched people, who wear the outward mask of Christi- 
anity, to secure them against the rage of persecution, and 
to advance their worldly interests. The myriads of 
Saracens, that remained in Spain after the dissolution of 
their government, were at first solicited by exhortations 
and entreaties to embrace the Gospel. When these 
gentle methods proved ineffectual to bring about their 
conversion, the famous Ximenes, archhishop of Toledo, 

nd prime minister of the kingdom, judged it expedient to 
try the force of the secular arm, in order to accomplish that 
salutary purpose. But even this rigorous measure was 
without the desired effect : the greatest part of the Mo- 
hammedans persisted, with astonishing obstinacy, in their 
fervent attachment to their voluptuous prophet. b 

II. The light of the Gospel was also carried in this 
century among the Samogetse [in Poland] and the 
neighbouring nations, but with less fruit than was ex- 
pected. Toward the conclusion of this age, the Portu- 
guese, who cultivated with ardour and success the art of 
navigation, had penetrated as far as Ethiopia and the 
Indies. In 1492, Christopher Columbus, by discovering 
the islands of Hispaniola, Cuba, and Jamaica, opened a 
passage into America ; d and, after him, Americus Vesputius, 
a citizen of Florence, landed on the continent of that vast 
region. e The new Argonauts, who thus discovered na- 

Templiers, and other writings of his relating to the history of France, 
published at Paris, in 1654. The most valuable edition of the history- 
appeared at Brussels in 1751, enlarged by the addition of a great number 
of documents, by which every diligent and impartial reader will be 
convinced that the Templars were greatly injured. See also Nicolai 
Gurtleri Historia Templariorum. If the reader has an opportunity, he 
would do well to consult Steph. Baluzius, Vit. Pondf. Avenion. torn. i. 
p. 8, 11, &c. Ger. du Bois, Hist. Eccles. Paris, torn. ii. p. 540. The 
principal cause of Philip's indelible hatred against the Templars, was, 
that in his quarrel with Boniface VIII. the knights espoused the cause 
of the pope, and furnished him with money to carry on the war; an 
offence which the king could never pardon. 

* J. de Ferreras, Hist. Generale d'Espagne, torn. viii. p. 123, 132, &c. 

k Esprit Flechier, Histoire du Cardinal Ximenes, p. 89. — Geddes' 



tions hitherto unknown to the inhabitants of Europe, 
deemed it their duty to enlighten them with the knowledge 
of the truth. The first attempt of this pious nature was 
made by the Portuguese among those Africans who in- 
habited the kingdom of Congo, and who, with their 
monarch, were suddenly converted to the Romish faith, in 
1491. f But what must we think of a conversion effected 
with such astonishing rapidity, and of a people who at 
once, without hesitation, abandoned their inveterate preju- 
dices 1 Has not such a conversion, a ridiculous or rather 
an afflictive aspect? After this religious revolution in 
Africa, Alexander VI. gave a rare specimen of papal pre- 
sumption, in dividing America between the Portuguese 
and Spaniards, but showed at the same time his zeal for 
the propagation of the Gospel, by the ardour with which 
he recommended, to these two nations, the instruction 
and conversion of the Americans, both in the isles and on 
the continent of that immense region.e In consequence of 
this exhortation of the pontiff, a great number of Fran- 
ciscans and Dominicans were sent into those countries, to 
enlighten the darkness of their inhabitants ; and the 
success of the mission is abundantly known. h 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the calamitous Events that happened to 
the Church during this Century. 

I. In the vast regions of the eastern world Christianity 
daily lost ground ; and the Moslems, whether Turks or 
Tartars, united their barbarous efforts to extinguish its 
bright and salutary lustre. Asiatic Tartary, Mogolestan, 
Tangut, and the adjacent provinces, where the religion of 
Jesus had long flourished, were now become the dismal 
seats of superstition, which reigned among the people 
under the vilest forms. Nor in these immense tracts of 
land were there at this time any traces of Christianity 
visible, except in China, where the Nestorians still pre- 
served some scattered remains of their former glory, and 
appeared like a faint and dying ;aper in the midst of a 
dark and gloomy firmament. That some Nestorian 
churches were still subsisting in these regions of darkness, 

History of the Expulsion of the Morescoes, in his Miscellaneous 
Tracts, torn. i. 

Jo. Henry Hottinger, Hist. Ecclesiast. skc. XV. p. 856. 

d See Charlevoix, Histoire de l'lsle de St. Domingue, torn. i. p. 64. 

e See the Life of Americus Vesputius, written in Italian by the learn- 
ed Angelo Maria Bandini. 

f Labat, Relation de l'Europe Occidental, torn. ii. p. 366.— Jos. 
Franc. Lafitau, Histoire des Decouvertes des Portugais dans le ricu- 
veau Monde, torn. i. p. 72. 

s See the Bull itself, in the Bullarium Romanum, torn. i. p. 466. 

h See Thorn. Maria Mamachius, Orig. et Amiquitat. Christian, torn, 
ii. p. 326, where we have an account of the gradual introduction of the 
Christian religion into America.— See also Wadding, Annal. Minor, 
torn. xv. p. 10. 



Chap. II. 



CALAMITOUS EVENTS. 



359 



is undoubtedly certain ; for in this century the Nestorian 
pontiff, in Chaldea, sent missionaries into Cathay and 
China, who were empowered to exercise the authority of 
bishops over the Christian assemblies, which lay concealed 
in the remoter provinces of those great empires." It is, 
at the same time, almost equally certain, that even these 
assemblies did not survive this century. 

II. The ruin of the Grecian empire was a new source 
of calamities to the Christian church in a considerable 
part of Europe and Asia. When the Turks, conducted 
by Mohammed II., an able prince and a formidable war- 
rior, had made themselves masters of Constantinople, in 
1453, the cause of Christianity received a blow, from 
which it • has not yet recovered. Its adherents in these 
parts had no resources left, which could enable them to 
maintain it against the perpetual insults of their fierce and 
incensed victors ; nor could they stem that torrent of 
barbarism and ignorance which rushed in with the 
triumphant arms of the Moslem prince, and overspread 

• This circumstance was communicated to the author in a letter from 
the learned Mr. Theophilus Sigefred Bayer, one of the greatest adepts 
in eastern history and antiquities, that this or any other age has pro- 
duced. 

f3r k In this account Dr. Mosheim has followed the Turkish writers. 
And indeed their account, is much more probable than that of the Latin 



Greece with a fatal rapidity. The Turks took one part 
of Constantinople by force of arms ; the other surrendered 
upon terms. b Hence, in the former division, the public 
profession of the Gospel was prohibited, and every vestige 
of Christianity effaced ; while the inhabitants of the latter 
were permitted to retain their churches and monasteries 
during the whole course of this century, and to worship 
God according to the precepts of the Gospel, and the 
dictates of their consciences. This valuable liberty was, 
indeed, considerably diminished in the reign of Selim I., 
and the Christian worship was loaded with severe and 
despotic restrictions/ The outward form of the Christian 
church was not, indeed, either changed or destroyed by 
the Turks ; but its lustre was eclipsed, its strength was 
undermined, and it was gradually attenuated to a mere 
shadow under their tyrannic empire. Pope Pius II. wrote 
a warm and urgent letter to Mohammed II. to persuade 
that prince to profess the Gospel ; but this letter is equally 
destitute of piety and prudence. d 



and Greek historians, who suppose that the whole city was taken by 
force, and not by capitulation. The Turkish relation diminishes th« 
glory of the conquest, and therefore probably would not have been 
adopted, had it not been true. 

Demet. Cantemir, Histoire de l'Empire Ottoman t i. 11, 46, 54. 

<J Dictionnaire Hist, et Critique de Bayle. 



part n. 

THE INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



CHAPTER I. 

Joncerning the state of Letters and Philosophy 
during - this Century. 

I. The Grecian and Oriental Muses languished under 
th despotic yoke of the Mohammedans ; their voices 
were mute, and their harps unstrung. The republic of 
letters had a quite different aspect in the Latin world, 
where the liberal arts and sciences were cultivated with 
zeal and spirit, under the most auspicious encouragement, 
and recovered their ancient lustre and glory. Several of 
the popes became their zealous patrons and protectors, 
among whom Nicolas V. deserves an eminent and dis- 
tinguished rank ; the munificence and authority of kings 
and princes were also nobly exerted in this excellent 
ce. use, and animated men of learning and genius to dis- 
play their talents. The illustrious family of the Medici in 
Italy," Alphonso VI. king of Naples, and the other 
Neapolitan monarchs of the house of Arragon, b acquired 
immortal renown by their love of letters, their liberality to 
the learned, and their ardent zeal for the advancement of 
science. Under their auspices, or in consequence of their 
example, many academies were founded in Germany, 
France, and Italy, libraries were collected at a pro- 
digious expense, and honours and rewards were lavished 
on the studious youth, to animate their industry by the 
views of interest and the desire of glory. To all these 
happy circumstances, in favour of the sciences, was 
now added an admirable discovery, which contributed, 
as much as any thing else, to their propagation, I mean 
the art of Printing, (first with wooden, and afterwards 
with metal types,) which was invented about the year 
1440, at Mentz, by John Guttemberg. By the aid of 
this incomparable art, the productions of the most emi- 
nent Greek and Latin writers, which had lain concealed, 
before this interesting period, in the libraries of the 
monks, were now spread abroad with facility, and 
perused by many, who could never have had access to 
them under their primitive form." The perusal of these 
noble compositions purified the taste, excited the emulation 

• We have a full account of the obligations of the republic of letters 
to the family of Medici, in a valuable work of Joseph Bianchini de 
Prato, dei gran Duchi di Toscana della rcale Casa de' Medici, Protet- 
tori delle Lettere e delle Belle Arti, Ragionamenti Historici, published 
at Venice, in 1741. 

i> See Giannone, Historia di Napoli, torn iii. — Anton. Panormitani 
Dicta et Facta memorabilia Alphonsi I. denuo edita a Jo. Ger. Meus- 
chenio, in Vit. Erud. Viror. torn. ii. 

|[j3> ° Dr. Mosheim decides here, that Guttemberg of Mentz was the 
inventor of the art of printing ; but this notion is opposed with zeal by 
several men of learning. Of the many treatises that. have been pub- 
lished on this subject, not one is composed with greater erudition and 
judgment than that of professor Schoepflin, of Strasbourg, in which the 
learned author undertakes to prove that the art of printing, by the means 
of letters engraven on plates of wood, was invented at Haerlem, by 
Coster ; that the method of printing, by moveable types, was the dis- 
covery of John Guttemberg, a discovery made during his residence at 
Strasbourg ; and that the still more perfect manner of printing with 
types of metal cast m a mould, was the contrivance of John Schoeffer, 
and was first practised at Mentz. This learned work, in which the 
author examines the opinions of Marchand, Fournier, and other wri- 
ters, was published in 17C0, under the following title : Jo. Danielis 
Sehoepflim Consil. Reg. ae Francioe His. Vindiciae Typographical,* &c. 

•i Mich. Maittaire, Annales Typographici. — Prosp. Marchand, His- 
toire de l'Imprimerie. 



of men of genius, and animated them with a noble am 
bition of excelling in the same way. d 

II. The ruin of the Grecian empire contributed greatly 
to the propagation and advancement of learning in the 
west. For, after the reduction of Constantinople, the 
most eminent of the Greek literati passed into Italy, and 
were thence dispersed into the other countries of Europe, 
where, to gain subsistence, these venerable exiles instruct- 
ed the youth in Grecian erudition, and propagated 
throughout the western world the love of learning, and a 
true and elegant taste for the sciences. Hence it was, 
that every distinguished city and university possessed one 
or more of these learned Greeks, who formed the studious 
youth to literary pursuits." But they received no where 
such encouraging marks of protection and esteem as in 
Italy, where they were honoured in a singular manner in 
various cities, and were more especially distinguished by 
the family of Medici, whose liberality to the learned 
seemed to have no bounds. It was consequently in Italy 
that these ingenious fugitives were most numerous ; and 
hence that country became, in some measure, the centra 
of the arts and sciences, and the general rendezvous of 
all who were ambitious of literary glory. f 

III. The learned men who adorned at this time the 
various provinces of Italy, were principally employed in 
publishing accurate and elegant editions of the Greek and 
Latin classics, in illustrating these authors with useful 
commentaries, in studying them as their models, both in 
poetry and prose, and in throwing light upon the precious 
remains of antiquity, that were discovered from day to 
day. In all these branches of literature, many arrived at 
such degrees of excellence, as it is almost impossible to 
surpass, and extremely difficult to equal. Nor were the 
other languages and sciences neglected. In the universi- 
ty of Paris there was now a public professor, not only of 
the Greek, but also of the Hebrew tongue ;s and in Spain 
and Italy the study of that language, and of Oriental 
learning and antiquities in general, was pursued with the 
greatest success. 11 John Reuchlin, otherwise called Cap- 
nion, and Trithemius, who had made an extraordinary 



• Jo. Henr. Maii Vita Reuchlini, p. 11, 19, 28, 152, 165.— Casp. 
Barthius ad Statium, torn. ii. p. 1008. — Boulay, torn. v. p. 692. 

f For a farther account of this interesting period of the histoiy of 
learning, the reader may consult the learned work of Humphry Hody, 
de Grsecis illustribus Literarum Grascarum in Italia Instauratoribus, to 
which may be added, Battier's Oration on the same subject, published 
in the Museum Helveticum, torn. iv. 

e R. Simon, Critique de la Bibl. Eccles. par M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 
502. Boulay, Histor. Paris, torn. v. p. 852. 

i> Pauli Colomesii Italia Orientalis, et Hispania Orientalis. 

15= * So this note stands in the first edition of this History, in 4to. 
Since that time, the learned and ingenious Mr. Gerard Meerman, pen- 
sionary of Rotterdam, has published his laborious and interesting ac- 
count of the origin and invention of the art of printing, under the fol- 
lowing title, " Origines Typographic, " — a work which sets this mat- 
ter in its true light, by making certain distinctions unknown to the wri- 
ters who treated this subject before him. According to the hypothesis 
of this writer, (an hypothesis supported by irresistible proofs,) Laurence 
Coster, of Haerlem, invented the moveable wooden types; — Genfleisch 
and Guttemberg carved metallic types at Mentz, which, though superior 
to the former, were still imperfect, because often unequal ; -Schoeffer 
perfected the invention at Strasbourg, by casting the types in an iron 
mould, or matrix, engraven with a puncheon. Thus the question is de 
cided. Coster was evidently the inventor of printing ; the others im 
proved the art, or rendered it more perfect. 

/ 



Chap. I. 



LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



361 



progress, both in the study of the languages and of the 
sciences, were the restorers of solid learning among the 
Germans. 1 Latin poetry Avas revived by Antony of 
Palermo, who excited a spirit of emulation among the 
favourites of the Muses, and had many followers in that 
sublime art; b while Cyriac of Ancona, by his own example, 
introduced a taste for coins, medals, inscriptions, gems, 
and other precious monuments of antiquity, of which he 
himself made a large collection in Italy. 

IV. It is not necessary to give here a peculiar and 
minute account of the other branches of literature that 
flourished in this century ; nevertheless, the state of philoso- 
phy deserves a moment's attention. Before the arrival of 
the Greeks in Italy, Aristotle reigned there without a rival, 
and captivated, as it were by a sort of enchantment, all 
without exception, whose genius led them to philosophical 
inquiries. The veneration that was shown him, de- 
generated into a foolish and extravagant enthusiasm ; 
the encomiums with which he was loaded, surpassed the 
bounds of decency ; and many carried matters so far as to 
compare him with the respectable precursor of the Messiah. d 
This violent passion for the Stagirite was however abated, 
or rather was rendered less general, by the influence 
which the Grecian sages, and particularly Gemistius 
Pletho, acquired among the Latins, many of whom they 
persuaded to abandon the contentious and subtle doctrine 
of the Peripatetics, and to substitute in its place the mild 
and divine wisdom of Plato. It was in the year 1439, 
about the time of the famous council of Florence, that 
this revolution happened in the empire of philosophy. 
Several illustrious personages among the Latins, charmed 
with the sublime sentiments and doctrines of Plato, 
propagated them among the studious youth, and particu- 
larly among those of a certain rank and figure. The 
most eminent patron of this divine philosophy, as it was 
termed by its votaries, was Cosmo de' Medici, who had no 
sooner heard the lectures of Pletho, than he formed the 
design of founding a Platonic academy at Florence. For 
this purpose, he ordered Marsilius Ficinus, the son of his 
first physician, to be carefully instructed in the doctrines 
of the Athenian sage, and, in general, in the language 
and philology of the Greeks, that he might translate into 
Latin the productions of the most renowned Platonists. 
Ficinus answered well the expectations, and executed the 
intentions of his illustrious patron, by translating succes- 
sively into the Latin language, the celebrated works of 
Hermes Trismegistus, Plotinus, and Plato. The same 
excellent prince encouraged by his munificence, and 
animated by his protection, many learned men, such as 
Ambrose of Camaldoli, Leonardo Bruno, Poggio, and 
others, to undertake works of a like nature, that the Latin 
literature might be enriched with translations of the best 
Greek writers. The consequence of all this was, that two 



* R. Simon, Lettres Choisies, torn. i. p. 262; torn. iv. p. 131, 140. 
b Dictionnaire Hist, et Critique de Bayle. 

• See the Itinerarium of Cyriac, published at Florence in 1742, by 
Mehus, from the original manuscript, together with a preface, annota- 
tions, and several letters of that learned man, who may be considered 
5.s the first antiquary that appeared in Europe. — See also the Epistles of 
Leonardo Aretino, torn. ii. lib. ix. p. 149. 

<■ See Christ. August. Heumanni Acta Philosophorum, torn. iii. 
p. 345. 

Boivin, dans l'Histcnre de l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles 
Lettres, torn. iv. p. 381. — Launoy, de varia Fortuna Aristotelis, p. 225. 

Leo Allatius, de Georgiis, p. 391 . — La Croze, Entretiens sur divers 

No. XXXI. 91 



philosophical sects arose hi Italy, who debated for a long 
time (with the warmest animosity in a multitude of learn- 
ed and contentious productions) this important question, 
which was the greatest philosopher, Aristotle or Plato. e 

V. Between these opposite factions, some eminent men, 
among both Greeks and Latins, thought proper to steer a 
middle course. To this class belonged Johannes Picus 
de Mirandola, Bessarion, Hermolaus Barbarus, and others 
of less renown, who, indeed, considered Plato as the su- 
preme oracle of philosophy, but would by no means sutler 
Aristotle to be treated with indifference or contempt, and 
who proposed to reconcile the jarring doctrines of these 
two famous Grecian sages, and to combine them into one 
system. These moderate philosophers, both in their 
manner of teaching, and in the opinions they adopted, 
followed the modern Platonic school, of which Ammonius 
was the original founder/ This sect Avas, for a long 
time, regarded with the utmost veneration, particularly 
among the Mystics ; while the scholastic doctors, and all 
such as Avere infected Avith the itch of disputing, favoured 
the Peripatetics. But, after all, these reconciling Platonists 
were chargeable Avith many errors and follies ; they fell 
into the most childish superstitions, and followed, without 
either reflection or restraint, the extravagant dictates of 
their wanton imaginations. 

VI. Their system of philosophy was, however, much 
less pernicious than that of the Aristotelians, their adversa- 
ries, who still maintained their superiority in Italy, and 
instructed the youth in all the public schools of learning. 
For these subtle doctors, and more especially the folloAV 
ers of Averroes, (who maintained that all the human race 
Avere animated by one common soul.) imperceptibly sapped 
the foundations both of natural and revealed religion, and 
entertained sentiments very little, if at all, different from 
that impious pantheistical system, which confounds the 
Deity with the universe, and merely acknowledges one 
self-existent being, composed of infinite matter and infinite 
intelligence. Among this class of sophists, the most 
eminent was Peter Pomponace, a native of Mantua, a 
man of a crafty turn, and an arrogant, enterprising spirit, 
who, notwithstanding the pernicious tendency of his 
writings (many of Avhich are yet extant) to undermine 
the principles, and corrupt the doctrines of religion,? was 
almost universally followed by the professors of philosophy 
in the Italian academies. These intricate doctors did not, 
however, escape the notice of the inquisitors, who, alarm- 
ed both by the rapid progress and dangerous tendency of 
their metaphysical notions, took cognisance of them, and 
called the Aristotelians to give an account of their princi- 
ples. The latter, tempering their courage with craft, had 
recourse to a mean and perfidious stratagem to extricate 
themselves from this embarrassing trial. They pretended 
to establish a Avide distinction between philosophical and 

Sujets, p. 384.— Joseph Bianchini, dei Gran Duclii di Toscana. — Bruck- 
eri Historia Critica Philosophic, torn. it. 

!^T It was not only the respective merit of these twe philosophers, 
considered in that point of light, that was debated in this controversy ; 
the principal question was, which system was most conformable to the 
doctrines of Christianity ■? And here the Platonic certainly deserved the 
preference, as was abundantly proved by Pletho and others. It is 
well known, that many ofthe opinions of Aristotle lead directly to atheism. 

f See Bessarion's Letter in the Hisloire de l'Academie des Inscrip- 
tions, torn. v. p. 456. — Thomasius, de Syncretismo Peripatetico, in ejus 
Orationibus, p. 340. 

« See the very learned Brucker's Hist. Crit. Philosophise,:, rv. p. 158. 



362 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. i 



theological truth ; and maintaining that their sentiments 
wpre philosophically true, and conformable to right 
reason, they allowed them to be deemed theologically 
false, and contrary to the declarations of the Gospel. 
This miserable and impudent subterfuge was condemned 
and prohibited in the following century, by Leo X. in a 
council which he held at the Lateran. 

VII. The Realists and Nominalists continued their dis- 
putes in France and Germany with more vigour and ani- 
mosity than ever ; and, finding that reason and argument 
were feeble weapons, they had recourse to mutual invec- 
tives and accusations, penal laws, and even to the force of 
arms ; a strange method, surely, of deciding a metaphy- 
sical question ! The contest was not only warm, but was 
very general in its extent ; for it infected, almost without 
exception, the French and German colleges. In most 
places, however, the Realists maintained a manifest supe- 
riority over the Nominalists, to whom they also gave the 
appellation of Terminists. a While the famous Gerson 
and the most eminent of his disciples were living, the No- 
minalists were in high esteem and credit in the university 
of Paris. But, on the death of these powerful and respect- 
able patrons, the scene was changed to their disadvantage. 
In 1473, Louis XL, by the instigation of his confessor the 
bishop of Avranches, issued a severe edict against the doc- 
trines of the Nominalists, and ordered all their writings to 
be seized, and secured in a sort of imprisonment, that they 
might not be perused by the people. b But the same mo- 
narch mitigated this edict in the following year, and per- 
mitted some of the books of that sect to be delivered from 
their confinement. In 1481, he went much farther ; 
for he not only granted a full liberty to the Nomi- 
nalists and their writings, but also restored that philosophi- 
cal sect to its former authority and lustre in the univer- 
sity. 3 

CHAPTER II. 

Concerning the Doctors and Ministers of the Church, 
and its Forms of Government, during this Century. 

I. The most eminent writers of this century unani- 
mously lament the miserable condition to which the Chris- 
lian church was reduced by the corruption of its ministers, 
and which seemed to portend nothing less than its total 
ruin, if Providence should not interpose, by extraordinary 
means, for its deliverance and preservation. The vices 
that reigned among the Roman pontiffs, and, indeed, 
among all the ecclesiastical orders, were so flagrant, that 
the complaints of these good men did not appear at all 
exaggerated, or their apprehensions ill-founded ; nor had 
any of the corrupt advocates of the clergy the courage to 
call them to an account for the sharpness of their censures 
and of their complaints. The rulers of .the church, who 
lived in luxurious indolence, and in the infamous practice 
of all kinds of vice, were even obliged to hear with a placid 
countenance, and even to commend, these bold censors, 
who declaimed against the degeneracy of the church, declar- 

» See Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophies, torn iii. p. 904. — Jo. 
Salaberti Philosophia Nominalium Vindicata, cap. i. — Baluzii Miscel- 
lan. t. iv. p. 531. — Argentre, Coll. Docum. de nov. Errct t. i. p. 220. 

>■ Naude's Additions a l'Histoire de Louis XI. p. 203. — Du Boulay, 
Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. v. p. 678, 705. — Launoy's Histor. Gymnas. 
Navar. t. iv. op. part i. p. 201, 378. ° Boulay, t. v. p. 710. 

■i The proofs of this we find in Salabert's Philosophia Nominal, vin- 
dicata, cap. i. — See also Boulay, torn. v. 



ed that there was scarcely any thing sound either in its visi- 
ble head or in its members, and demanded the aid of the se- 
cular arm, and the destroyingsword, to lop off the parts that 
were infected with this grievous and deplorable contagion. 
Affairs, in short, were brought to such a pass, that those 
were deemed the best Christians, and the most useful mem- 
bers of society, who, braving the terrors of persecution, 
and triumphing over the fear of man, inveighed with the 
greatest freedom and fervour against the court of Rome, its 
lordly pontiff, and the whole tribe of his followers and 
votaries. 

II. At the commencement of this century, the Latin 
church was divided into two great factions, and was go- 
verned by two contending pontiffs, Boniface IX. who re- 
mained at Rome, and Benedict XIII. who resided at Avi- 
gnon. Upon the death of the former, the cardinals of his 
party raised to the pontificate, in 1404, Cosmc de Meliorati, 
who assumed the name of Innocent VII. e , and held that 
high dignity during the short space of two years only. After 
his decease, Angelo Corrario, a Venetian cardinal, was 
chosen in his room, and ruled the Roman faction under 
the title of Gregory XII. A plan of reconciliation was 
however formed, and the contending pontiffs bound them- 
selves, each by an oath, to make a voluntary renunciation 
of the papal chair, if that step should be deemed necessary 
to promote the peace and welfare of the church ; but both 
of them scandalously violated this solemn obligation. 
Benedict, besieged in Avignon by the king of France, in 
1408, saved himself by flight, retiring first into Catalonia, 
his native country, and afterwards to Perpignan. Hence 
eight or nine of the cardinals, who adhered to his cause, 
seeing themselves deserted by their pope, went over to the 
other side, and, joining publicly with the cardinals who 
supported Gregory, they agreed to assemble a council at 
Pisa on the 25th of March, 1409, in order to heal the divi- 
sions and factions that had so long rent the papal empire. 
This council, however, which was designed to close the 
wounds of the church, had an effect quite contrary to that 
which was generally expected, and only served to open a 
new breach, and to excite new divisions. Its proceedings, 
indeed, were vigorous, and its measures were accompanied 
with a just severity. A heavy sentence of condemnation 
was pronounced, on the 5th day of June, against the con- 
tending pontiffs, who were declared guilty of heresy, per- 
jury, and contumacy, unworthy of the smallest tokens of 
honour or respect, and separated ipso facto from the com • 
munion of the church. This step was followed by the 
election of one pontiff in their place. The election took 
place on the 25th of June, and fell upon Peter of Candia, 
known in the papal list by the name of Alexander V., f 
but all the decrees and proceedings of this famous council 
were treated with contempt by the condemned pontiffs, 
who continued to enjoy the privileges and to perform the 
functions of the papacy, as if no attempts had been made 
to remove them from that dignity'. Benedict held a coun- 
cil at Perpignan ; and Gregory assembled one near Aqui- 
leia. The latter, however, apprehending the resentment 

Beside the ordinary w.«rs, vt';< l«vf. given us an account of the 
transactions that happened under the pontificate of Innocent VII., see 
Leon. Aretin. Epistol. lib. i. ep. iv. v. et Colluc. Salutat. Epistol. lib. ii. 
— We have also an account of the pontificate of Gregory, in the Epis- 
tles of the same Aretin, and in Jo. Lami, Delic. Eruditorum, torn. i. 

f See L'Enfant Histoire, du Concile de Pise. — F. Pagi, Breviar. Pon- 
tif. Romanorum, torn, iv.— and Bossuet, Defensio Decreti Gallicani de 
Potestate Ecclesiastica, torn. ii. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



363 



of the Venetians," made his escape in a clandestine man- 
ner from the territory of Aquileia, arrived at Caieta, where 
he threw himself upon the protection of Ladislaus, king 
of Naples, and, in 1412, fled thence to Rimini. 

III. Thus was the Christian church divided into three 
great factions, and its government violently carried on by 
three contending chiefs, who loaded each other with reci- 
procal maledictions, calumnies, and excommunications. 
Alexander V., who had been elected pontiff at the council 
of Pisa, died at Bologna in 1410 ; and the sixteen cardi- 
nals, who attended him in that city, immediately filled up 
the vacancy, by choosing, as his successor, Balthasar Cossa, 
a Neapolitan, destitute of all principles both of religion 
and probity, who assumed the title of John XXIII. The 
duration of this schism in the papacy was a source of many 
calamities, and became daily more detrimental both to the 
civil and religious interests of those nations among whom 
the flame raged. Hence it was that the emperor Sigismund, 
the king of France, and several other princes, employed 
all their zeal and activity, and spared neither labour nor 
expense, in restoring the tranquillity of the church, and 
uniting it again under one spiritual head. On the other 
hand, the pontiffs could not be persuaded by any means 
to prefer the peace of the church to the gratification of 
their ambition ; so that no other method of accommodating 
this weighty matter remained, than the assembling of a 
general council, in which the controversy might be exa- 
mined, and terminated by the judgment and decision of 
the universal church. This council was accordingly con- 
voked at Constance, in 1414, by John XXIII. who was 
engaged in this measure by the entreaties of Sigismund, 
and also from an expectation, that the decrees of this grand 
assembly would be favourable to his interests. He appeared 
with a great number of cardinals and bishops, at this 
famous council, which was also honoured with the presence 
of the emperor, of many German princes, and of the am- 
bassadors of all the European states, whose monarchs or 
regents could not be personally present at the decision of 
this important controversy. 11 

IV. The great object of this assembly was the healing 
of the schism that had so long rent the papacy : and this 
purpose was happily accomplished. It was solemnly de- 
clared, in the fourth and fifth sessions of this council, by 
two decrees, that the Roman pontiff was inferior and sub- 
ject to a general assembly of the universal church ; and 
the same decrees vindicated and maintained, in the most 
effectual manner, the authority of councils. This vi- 
gorous proceeding prepared the way for the degradation 
of John, who, during the twelfth session, was unani- 
mously deposed from the pontificate, 11 on account of seve- 
ral flagitious crimes that were laid to his charge, and more 
especially for the scandalous violation of a solemn engage- 



Jjf a He had olfended the Venetians by deposing their patriarch, 
Antony Panciarini, and putting Antony du Pont, the bishop of Con- 
cordia, in his place. 

>> The acts of this famous council were published in six volumes in 
folio, at Frankfort, in 1700, by Herman von der Hardt This collec- 
tion, however, is imperfect, notwithstanding the pains that it cost the 
laborious editor. Many of the acts are omitted, and a great number of 
pieces are introduced which by no means deserve a place. The history 
of the same council by L'Enfant, is composed with great accuracy and 
elegance ; but the supplement that was given to it by Bourgeois de 
Chastenet, a French lawyer, is a performance of little merit ; it is en- 
titled, ' Nouvelle Histoire du Concile de Constance, ou l'on fait voir 
combien la France a contribue a l'extinction du Schisme.' 

For an account of these two famous decrees, which set such wise 
limits to the supremacy of the pontiffs, see Natalis Alexand. Hist EccL 



ment which he had taken about the beginning of the 
council, to resign the papal chair, if that measure should ap- 
pear necessary to the peace of the church ; which engage- 
ment he broke some weeks after by a clandestine flight. 
In the same year (1415,) Gregory sent Charles de Mala- 
testa to the council to make, in his name, a solemn and 
voluntary resignation of the pontificate. About two years 
after this, Benedict was deposed by a solemn resolution of 
the council,' and Otto de Colonna raised, by the unani- 
mous suffrages of the cardinals, to the high dignity of 
head of the church, which he ruled under the title of Mar- 
tin V. Benedict, who still resided at Perpignan, was far 
from being disposed to submit either to the decree of the 
council which deposed him, or to the determination of the 
cardinals with respect to his successor. On the contrary, 
he persisted until the day of his death, which happened 
in the year 1423, in assuming the title, the prerogatives, 
and the authority of the papacy. And when this obsti- 
nate man was dead, a certain Spaniard, named Giles 
Munoz, was chosen pope in his place by two cardinals, 
under the patronage of Alphonso, king of Sicily, and 
adopted the title of Clement VIII. ; but this sorry pontiff, 
in 1429, was persuaded to resign his pretensions, and to 
leave the government of the church to Martin V. 

V. If, from the measures that were taken in this 
council to check the lordly arrogance of the Roman pon- 
tiffs, we turn our eyes to the proceedings against those 
who were called heretics, we shall observe in this new 
scene nothing worthy of applause, but several things, on 
the contrary, that can only excite our indignation, and 
which no pretext, no consideration, can render excusable. 
Before the meeting of this council, great commotions had 
been excited in several parts of Europe, and more espe- 
cially in Bohemia, by contests on religious subjects. One 
of the persons that gave occasion to these disputes was 
John Huss, who lived at Prague in the highest reputa- 
tion, both on account of the sanctity of his manners, and 
the purity of his doctrine, who was distinguished by his 
uncommon erudition and eloquence, and performed, at 
the same time, the functions of professor of divinity in 
the university, and of ordinary pastor in the church of 
that famous city. f This eminent ecclesiastic declaimed 
with vehemence against the vices that had corrupted the 
clergy of all denominations ; nor was he singular in this 
respect ; for such remonstrances had become very com- 
mon, and were generally approved b) 7 the wise and the 
good. Huss, however, went still farther ; and, from the year 
1408, used his most zealous endeavours to withdraw the 
university of Prague from the jurisdiction of Gregory 
XII., whom the kingdom of Bohemia had hitherto ac- 
knowledged as the true and lawful head of the church. 
The archbishop of Prague, and the clergy in general, 

ssec. XV. Diss. iv. — Bossuet, Defens. Sentential Cleri Gallican. de Po- 
test Ecclesiast torn. ii. — L'Enfant, Dissert. Historique et Apologetique 
pour Jean Gerson et le Concile de Constance, which is subjoined to his 
history of that council. 

i On the 29th of May, 1415. 

' On the 26th of July, 1417. 

fjf ' A Bohemian Jesuit, who was far from being favourable to John 
Huss, and who had the best opportunity of being acquainted with his 
real character, describes him thus : " He was more subtle than elo- 
quent ; but the gravity and austerity of his manners, his frugal and ex- 
emplary life, his pale and meagre countenance, his sweetness of tem- 
per, and his uncommon affability toward persons of all ranks and con- 
ditions, from the highest to the lowest, were much more persuasive 
than any eloquence could be." See Bohuslaus Balbinus, Epitom. Hist 
Rer. Bohem. lib. iv. cap. v. p. 431. 



364 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part IL 



who were warmly attached to the interests of Gregory, 
were greatly exasperated at these proceedings. Hence 
arose a violent quarrel between the incensed prelate and 
the zealous reformer, which the latter inflamed and aug- 
mented, from day to day, by his warm exclamations 
against the conduct of the court of Rome, and the cor- 
ruptions that prevailed among the sacerdotal order. 

VI. Such were the circumstances that first excited tbe 
resentment of the clergy against John Huss. This re- 
sentment, however, might have been easily calmed, and 
perhaps totally extinguished, if new incidents of a more 
important kind had not arisen to keep up the flame and 
increase its fury. In the first place, he adopted the 
philosophical opinions of the Realists, and showed his 
warm attachment to their cause, in the manner that was 
usual in this barbarous age, even by persecuting, to the 
utmost of his power, their adversaries, the Nominalists, 
whose number was great, and whose influence was con- 
siderable in the university of Prague." He also multi- 
plied the number of his enemies, in 1408, by procuring, 
through his great credit, a sentence in favour of the Bo- 
hemians, who disputed with the Germans concerning the 
number of suffrages to which their respective nations 
were entitled in all points that were carried by election in 
the university. That the nature of this contest may be 
better understood, it will be proper to observe, that this 
famous university was divided, by its founder Charles 
IV., into four nations, namely, the Bohemians, Bava- 
rians, Poles, and Saxons ; of which, according to the 
original laws of the institution, the first had three suf- 
frages, and the other three, who were comprehended 
under the title of the German nation, only one. This 
arrangement, however, had not only been altered by 
custom, but was entirely inverted in favour of the Germans, 
who were vastly superior to the Bohemians in number, 
and assumed to themselves the three suffrages which 
originally belonged to the latter. Huss, therefore, whether 
animated by a principle of patriotism, or by an aversion 
to the Nominalists, who were peculiarly favoured by the 
Germans, raised his voice against this abuse, and employ- 
ed, with success, the extraordinary credit, he had obtained 
at court, by his flowing and masculine eloquence, in 
depriving the Germans of the privilege they had usurped, 
and in reducing their three suffrages to one. The issue 
of this long and tedious contest 11 was so offensive to the 
Germans, that a prodigious number of them, with John 
Hoffman, the rector of the university, at their head, c re- 
tired from Prague, and repaired to Leipsic, where Frede- 
ric the Wise, elector of Saxony, erected for them, in 1409, 
that academic institution which still subsists in a flourish- 
ing state. This event contributed greatly to render Huss 
odious to many, and, by the consequences that followed 



* See the Literae Nominalium ad Regem Franciae Ludovicum VI., in 
Baluzii Miscellan. torn. iv. p. 534, where we read the following pas- 
sage : " Legimus Nominates expulsos de Bohemia eo tempore, quo ha- 
retici voluerunt Bohemicumregnumsuis hajr'esibus inficere. — Gluum dicti 
haeretici non possent disputando superare, impetraverunt ab Abbisseslao 
( Wenceslao) principe Bohemia, ut gubernarentur studia Pragensia ritu 
Parisiensium ; quo edicto coacti sunt supradicti Nominales Pragam ci- 
vitatsm relinquere, et se transtulerunt ad Lipzicam civitatem, et ibidem 
erexerunt universitatem solemnissimam." 

=TJr !> Wenceslaus, king of Bohemia, who was bribed by both of the 
contending parties, protracted instead of abridging this dispute, and 
used to say with a smile, that he had found a good goose, which laid 
every day a considerable number of gold andsilver eggs. This was play- 
ing upon the word Huss, which, in the German language, signifies a. goose. 



it, was certainly instrumental in bringing on his ruin ; 
for no sooner had the Germans retired from Prague, than 
he began not only to inveigh with greater freedom than 
he had formerly done against the vices and corruptions 
of the clergy, but even went so far as to recommend, in 
an open and public manner, the writings and opinions 
of the famous Wickliffe, whose new doctrines had ahead} 
made such a noise in England. Hence an accusation 
was brought against him, in 1410, before the tribunal 
of John XXII., by whom he was solemnly expelled from 
the communion of the church. He treated, indeed, this 
excommunication with the utmost contempt, and, both 
in his conversation and his writings, exposed the disor- 
ders that preyed upon the vitals of the church, and the 
vices that dishonoured the conduct of its ministers ; d and 
the fortitude and zeal which he discovered on this occa- 
sion were almost universally applauded. 

VII. This eminent man, whose piety was truly fervent 
and sincere, though his zeal, perhaps, was rather too vio- 
lent, and his prudence not always equally circumspect, 
was summoned to appear before the council of Constance. 
Obedient to this order, and thinking himself secured from 
the rage of his enemies, by the safe conduct which had 
been granted to him by the emperor Sigismund, both for 
his journey to Constance, his residence in that city, and 
his return to his own country, John Huss appeared before 
the assembled , churchmen, to demonstrate his innocence, 
and to prove that the charge of his having deserted the 
church of Rome was entirely groundless. And it may be 
affirmed with truth, that his religious opinions, at least in 
matters of importance, were conformable to the established 
doctrine of the church in this age. e He declaimed, indeed, 
with extraordinary vehemence against the Roman pontiffs, 
the bishops and monks : but this freedom was deemed 
lawful in these times, and it was used every day in the 
council of Constance, where the tyranny of the court of 
Rome, and the corruption of the sacerdotal and monastic 
orders, were censured with the utmost severity. The 
enemies, however, of this good man, who were very 
numerous, coloured the accusation that was brought 
against him with such artifice and success, that, by the 
most scandalous breach of public faith, he was thrown 
into prison, declared a heretic, because he refused to obey 
the order of the council, which commanded him to plead 
guilty against the dictates of his conscience, and was ! 
burned alive on the 6th of July, 1415 ; which dreadful 
punishment he endured with unparalleled magnanimity 
and resignation, expressing in his last moments the noblest 
feelings of love to God, and the most, triumphant hope of < 
the accomplishment of those transporting promises with 
which the Gospel fortifies the true Christian at the ap- 
proach of eternity. The same unhappy fate was borne 

ffjf ° Historians differ much in their accounts of the number of Ger- 
mans that retired from the university of Prague upon this occasion. 
iEneas Sylvius reckons 5000 ; Trithemius and others 2000. Dubra- 
vius 24,000; Lupatius 44,000; Lauda (a contemporary writer) 36,000. 

4 See Laur. Byzinii Diarium Belli Hussitici, in Ludewig's Reliquiae : 
Manuscriptorum, torn. vi. p. 127. 

3r_jf> • Tt was observed in the preceding section, that John Huss adopt- 
ed with zeal, and openly recommended the writings and opinions of 
Wickliffe ; but this must be understood of the writings snd opinions of 
that great man in relation .to the papal hierarchy, the despotism of the 
court of Rome, and the corruption of the clergy ; for, in other respects, 
it is certain that he adhered to the most superstitious doctrines of the 
church, as appears from various passages in two sermons which he had 
prepared for the council of Constance. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC 



365 



with the same pious fortitude and constancy of mind by 
Jerome of Prague, the intimate companion of John Huss, 
who appeared at this council with the generous design of 
supporting and seconding his persecuted friend. Terrified 
by the prospect of a cruel death, Jerome at first appeared 
willing to submit to the orders of the council, and to 
abandon the tenets and opinions which it had condemned 
in his writings. Tin's submission, however, was not 
attended with tbe advantages he expected from it ; nor 
did it deliver him from the close and severe confinement 
in which he was kept. He therefore resumed his fortitude ; 
professed anew, with an heroic constancy, the opinions 
which he had deserted for a while from a principle of 
fear : and maintained them in the flames, in which he 
expired on the 30th of 3Iay, 1416/ 

Many learned men have endeavoured to investigate the 
reasons that occasioned the pronouncing of such a cruel 
sentence agaiust Huss and his associate ; and, as no ade- 
quate reasons for such a severe proceeding can be found, 
either in the life or opinions of that good man, they con- 
clude that he fell a victim to the rage and injustice of his 
unrelenting enemies. And indeed this conclusion is both 
natural and well-grounded ; nor will it be difficult to show 
how it came to pass, that the reverend fathers of the coun- 
cil were so eagerly bent upon burning, as a heretic, a man 
who neither deserved such an injurious title, nor such a 
dreadful fate. In the first place, John Huss had excited, 
both by his discourses and by his writings, great commo- 
tions in Bohemia, and had rendered the clergy of all 
ranks and orders extremely odious in the eyes of the 
people. The bishops, therefore, together with the sacer- 
dotal and monastic orders, were very sensible that their 
honours and advantages, their credit and authority, were 
in the greatest danger of being annihilated, if this reformer 
should return to his country, and continue to write and 
declaim against the clergy with the same freedom which 
he had formerly exercised. Hence the}" left no means un- 
emploved to accomplish his ruin ; they laboured night 
and day, formed plots, bribed men in power ; they used, 
in short, every method that could have any tendency to 
rid them of such a formidable adversary. b It may be ob- 
served, secondly, that in the council there were many men 
of great influence and weight, who looked upon them- 
selves as personally offended by him, and demanded his 
life as the only sacrifice that coidd satisfy their vengeance. 
Huss, as has been already mentioned, was not only at- 

|2r * The translator has here inserted into the text the long- note * of 
the original, which relates to the circumstances that precipitated the ruin 
of these two eminent reformers ; and he has thrown the citations therein 
contained into several notes. 

t> The bribery and corruption that were employed in bringing about 
the ruin of John Huss. are manifest from the following remarkable pas- 
sages of the Diarium Hussiticum of Laur. Byzinius : "Clems per- 
versus, praecipue in regno Bohemia et marehionatu Moravia?, con- 
demnationem ipsius (Hussi) contributione pecuniarum et modis aliis 
diversis procuravit, et ad ipsius consensit interitum." " Clerus perver- 
sus regni Bohemia? et marchionatus Moravia?, et praecipue episcopi, 
ibbates, canonici, plebani, et religiosi, ipsius fideles ac salutiferas ad- 
Tnonitiones, adhortationes, ipsorum pompam, simoniam, avariliam, 
fornicationem, vitaeque detestandae abominationem detegentes, ferre non 
valendo, pecuniarum contributiones ad ipsius extinctionem faciendo 
orocurarunt" 

See Baluzii Miscell. torn. iv. p. 534, in which we find the following 
oassage: " Suscitavit Deus doctores catholicos, Petrum de Alliaco; 
Johannem de Gcrsono, et alios quam plures doctissimos homines 
Nominates, qui, convocati ad concilium Constantiense, ad quod citati 
fuerunt hxretici, et nominatim Hieronymus et Johannes— dictos hsere- 
ticos per quadrasrinta dies disputando superaverunt." 

No. XXXI. . 92 



tached to the party of the Realists, but was peculiarly se- 
vere in his opposition to their adversaries. And now he 
was so unhappy, as to be brought before a tribunal which 
was principally composed of the Nominalists, with the 
famous John Gerson at their head, who was the zealous 
patron of that faction, and the mortal enemy of Huss. 
Nothing could equal the vindictive pleasure the Nominal- 
ists felt from an event that put this unfortunate prisoner 
in their power, and gave them an opportunity of satisfying 
their vengeance to tbe full ; and accordingly, in their letter 
to Louis, king of France/ they do not pretend to deny 
that Huss fell a victim to the resentment of their sect, which 
is also confirmed by the history of the council. The ani- 
mosities that always reigned between the Realists and 
Nominalists, were at this time carried to the greatest ex- 
cess imaginable. Upon every occasion that offered; they 
accused each other of heresy and impiety, and constantly 
had recourse to corporal punishments to decide the dispute. 
The Nominalists procured the death of Huss, who was a 
Realist : and the Realists, on the other hand, obtained, in 
1479, the condemnation of John of Weael, who was at- 
tached to the opposite party. d These contending sects 
carried their blind fury so fax as to charge each other with 
the sin against the Holy Ghost.' and exhibited the most 
miserable spectacle of inhuman bigotry to the Christian 
world. The aversion which John Huss, and Jerome, 
his companion, had against the Germans, was a third 
circumstance that contributed to determine their unhappy 
fate. This aversion they declared publicly at Prague, on 
all occasions, both by their words and actions ; nor were 
they at any pains to conceal it even in the council of Con- 
stance, where they accused them of presumption and des- 
potism in the strongest terms. f The Germans, on the other 
hand, remembering the affront they had received in the 
university of Prague, by the means of John Huss, burned 
with resentment and rage both against him and his un- 
fortunate friend ; and, as their influence and authority 
were very great in the council, there is no doubt that they 
employed them, with the utmost zeal, against these two 
formidable adversaries. Besides, John Hoffman, the fa- 
mous rector of the university, whom Huss had been the 
occasion of expelling from that city, together with the 
Germans, and who in consequence thereof became his 
most virulent enemy, was consecrated bishop of Misnia, in 
1413, and held in this council the most illustrious rank 
among the delegates of the German church. This cir- 

a See the Examen Magistrate et Theologicale Mag. Joh. de Wesalia, 
in Ortuini Gratii Fasciculo rerum expetend. et fugiendar. Colon. 1535. 

e In the Examen mentioned in the preceding note, we find the fol- 
lowing striking passage, which may show us the extravagant length to 
which the disputes between the Nominalists and Realists were now car- 
ried: " Q.uis nisi ipse diabolus seminavit illam zizaniam inter philoso- 
phos et inter theologos, ut tanta sit di*ssensio, eliam animorum. inter 
diversa opinantes"? Adeo ut si univers'alia quisquam realia negaverit, 
existimetur in Spiritum Sanctum peccavisse; into summo et maximo 
peccato plenus creditur contra Deum, contra Christianam reiigionem, 
contra justitiam, contra omnem politiam, graviter deliquisse. ITnde 
haec ccecitas mentis nisi a diabolo, qui phantasias nostras illudit V We 
see by this passage, that the Realists charged their adversaries (whose 
only crime was the absurdity of calling universal ideas mere denomi- 
nations') with sin against die Holy Ghost, with transgression agains' 
God, and against the Christian religion, and with a violation of all the 
laws of justice and civil polity. 

t See Theod. de Niem, Invectiva in Joh. XXIII., in Hardtii Actis 
Concilii Constant, torn. ii. p. 450. " Improperabat etiam in publico Ala- 
mannis, dicendo, quod essent praesumptuosi. et vellent ubique per orbem 

dominari Sicque factum fuisset saepe in Bohemia, ubi volentes etiam 

dominari Alamanni violenter exinde repulsi et male tr \ctati fuisscnu" 



366 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part n 



cumstance was also most unfavourable to Huss, and was, 
without doubt, ultimately detrimental to his cause. 

The circumstances now mentioned, as contributing to 
the unhappy fate of this good man, are, as we see, all 
drawn from the resentment and prejudices of his enemies, 
and have not the least colour of equity. It must, however, 
be confessed, that there appeared one mark of heresy in 
the conduct of this reformer, which, according to the no- 
ions that prevailed in this century, might expose him to 
condemnation with some shadow of reason and justice ; 
I mean, his inflexible obstinacy, which the church of 
Rome always considered as a grievous heresy, even in 
those whose errors were of little moment. We must con- 
sider this man, as called before a council, which was sup- 
posed to represent the universal church, to confess his 
faults and to abjure his errors. This he obstinately refused 
to do, unless he was previously convicted of error ; here, 
therefore, he resisted the authority of the catholic church, 
demanded a rational proof of the justice of the sentence it 
had pronounced against him, and intimated, with sufficient 
plainness, that he looked upon the church as fallible. All 
this certainly was most enormously criminal and intole- 
rably heretical, according to the general opinion of the 
times ; for it became a dutiful son of the church to re- 
nounce his eye-sight, and to submit his own judgment and 
will, without any exception or reservation, to the judgment 
and will of that holy mother, under a firm belief and en- 
tire persuasion of the infallibility of all her decisions. This 
ghostly mother had, for many ages past, followed, when- 
ever her unerring perfection and authority were called in 
question, the rule which Pliny observed in his conduct 
toward the Christians : " When they persevered, (says he, 
in his letter to Trajan,) I put my threats into execution, 
from a persuasion that, whatever their confessions might 
be, their audacious and invincible obstinacy deserved an 
exemplary punishment." 11 

VIII. Before sentence had been pronounced against 
John Huss and Jerome of Prague, the famous Wickliffe, 
whose opinions they were supposed to adopt, and who 
was long since dead, was called from his rest before this 
spiritual tribunal ; and his memory was solemnly branded 
with infamy by a decree of the council. On the 4th day of 
May, in 1415, many propositions, invidiously culled out 
of his writings, were examined and condemned, and an 
order was issued to commit all his works, together with 
his bones, to the flames. On the 14th of June following, 
the assembled fathers passed the famous decree, which 
took the cup from the laity in the celebration of the 
eucharist ; ordered " that the Lord's supper should be re- 
ceived by them only in one kind, i. e. the bread" and 
rigorously prohibited the communion in both kinds. 
This decree was occasioned by complaints that had been 
made of the conduct of Jacobellus de Misa, curate of the 
parish of St. Michael at Prague, who. about a year before, 
liad been persuaded by Peter of Dresden, to administer 
the Lord's supper in both kinds, and was followed in this 
by several churches. 15 The council, being informed of 



* Plin. Epist. lib. x. ep. 97. " Perseverantes duci jussi. Ncque enim 
dubilabam, qualecumque esset quod faterentur, pervicaciam certe et in- 
flexibilem obstinationem debere puniri." i> Byzinii Diar. Huss. p. 124. 

gjp ° Some historians have erroneously represented Petit as a law- 
yer. See Dr. Smollet's History of England. 

<• This appears manifestly from the very discourse of Petit, which 
the reader may see in L'Enfant's History of the Council of Pisa, torn. 



this matter by a Bohemian bishop, thought proper to 
oppose with vigour the progress of this heresy ; and 
therefore they enacted the statute, which ordered " the 
communion to be administered to the laity only in one 
kind," and which obtained the force and authority of a 
law in the church of Rome. 

IX. In the same year, the opinion of John Petit, a 
doctor of divinity at Paris, who maintained, that every 
individual had an undoubted right to take away the life 
of a tyrant, was brought before the council, and was con- 
demned as an odious and detestable heresy ; but both the 
name and person of the author were spared, on account 
of the powerful patrons, under whose protection he had 
defended that pernicious doctrine. John, duke of Burgun- 
dy, had, in 1407, employed a band of ruffians to assassi- 
nate Louis duke of Orleans, only brother of Charles VI. 
king of France. While the whole city was in ah uproar 
in consequence of this horrible deed, Petit vindicated it in 
a public oration, in presence of the dauphin and the other 
princes of the blood, affirming, that the duke had done a 
laudable action, and that it was lawful to put a tyrant to 
death, "in any wajr, either by violence or fraud, without 
any form of law or justice, and i even in opposition to the 
most solemn contracts and oaths of fidelity and allegiance." 
It is, however, to be observed, that by tyrants, this doctor 
did not mean the supreme rulers of nations, but those 
powerful and insolent subjects, who abused their opulence 
and credit to bring about measures that tended to the dis- 
honour of their sovereign and the ruin of their country." 1 
The university of Paris pronounced a severe and rigor- 
ous sentence against the author of this pernicious opinion ; 
and the council of Constance, after much deliberation and 
debate, condemned the opinion without mentioning the 
author. This determination, though modified with the 
utmost clemency and mildness, was not ratified by the 
new pontiff Martin V.. who dreaded too much the formida- 
ble power of the duke of Burgundy, to confirm a sentence 
which he knew would be displeasing to that ambitious 
prince. e 

X. After these and other transactions of a like nature, 
it was now time to take into consideration a point of great- 
er importance than had yet been proposed, even the refor- 
mation of the church in its head and in its members, by 
setting bound to the despotism and corruption of the 
Roman pontiffs, and to the luxury and immorality o' 
licentious ecclesiastics. It was particularly with a view ta 
this important object, that the eyes of all Europe were 
fixed upon the council, from a general persuasion of the 
necessity of this reformation, and an ardent desire of see- 
ing it happily brought into execution. Nor did the assem- 
bled fathers deny, that this reformation was the principal 
end of their meeting. Yet this salutary work had so 
many obstacles in the passions and interests of those very 
persons by whom it was to be effected, that little could be 
expected, and still less was done. The cardinals and 
dignified clergy, whose interest it was that the church 
should remain in its corrupt and disordered state, employ- 

ii. p. 303.* See also August. Leyseri Diss. qua. Memoriam Joh. Bur- 
gundi et Doctrinam Joh. Parvi de Casde per Duellium vindicat. 

" Boulay, torn. v. — Argentre, Collectio Judicior. de novis Erroribus, 
torn. i. part ii. — Gersonis Opera, edited by M. Du-Pin, torn, v.— 
Bayle's Diction, torn. iii. 

ffjr * See also the same author's History of the Council of Con 
stance, book iii. sect. xix. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



367 



ed all their eloquence and art to prevent its reformation ; 
and observed, among other artful pretexts, that a work of 
such high moment and importance could not be undertaken 
with any prospect of success, until a new pontiff should be 
elected. And, what was still more shocking, Martin V. 
was no sooner raised to that high dignity, than he employed 
his authority to elude and frustrate every effort that was 
made to set this salutary work on foot, and made it appear 
most evidently, by the laws he enacted, that nothing was 
more foreign from his intention than the reformation of 
the clergy, and the restoration of the church to its primitive 
purity. Thus this famous council, after sitting three years 
and six months, was dissolved, on the 22d day of April, 
141 S, without having effected its chief ostensible object ; 
and the members postponed to a future assembly of the 
same kind, which was to be summoned five years after 
this period, that pious design of purifying a corrupt church, 
which had been so long the object of the expectations and 
desires of all good Christians. 

XL Not merely five years, but almost thirteen, elapsed 
without the promised meeting. The remonstrances, how- 
ever, of those whose zeal for the reformation of the church 
interested them in this event, prevailed at length over the 
pretexts and stratagems which were employed to put it 
off from time to time ; and Martin summoned a council 
to meet at Pavia, whence it was removed to Sienna, and 
thence to Basil. The pontiff did not five to be a witness 
of the proceedings of this assembly, being carried off by a 
sudden death on the 21st day of February, 1431, just 
about the time when the council was to meet. He was 
immediately succeeded by Gabriel Condolmerio, a native of 
Venice, and bishop of Sienna, who is known in the papal 
list by the title of Eugenius IV. This pontiff approved 
all the measures of his predecessor, in relation to the 
assembling of the council of Basil, which was accordingly 
opened on the 23d of July, 1431, under the superin- 
tendence of Cardinal Julian Cesarini, who performed the 
functions of president in the place of Eugenius. 

The two grand points, proposed to the deliberation of 
this famous council, were, the union of the Grerk and 
Latin churches, and the reformation of the church univer- 
sal, both in its head and in its members, according to the 
resolution that had been taken in the late council ; for 
that the Roman pontiff, or the head of the church, and 
the bishops, priests, and monks, who were looked upon as 
its members, had become excessively corrupt, and that, to j 
use the expression of the prophet in a similar case, the I 
' whole head was sick and the whole heart faint,' 
were matters of fact too striking to escape the knowledge 
of the obscurest individual. On the other hand, as it 
appeared by the very form of the council,* by its method 

fjj* " By the form of the council, Dr. Mosheim undoubtedly means 
the division of the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, abbots, &c. into four 
equal classes, without any regard to the nation or province by which ] 
they were sent. This prudent arrangement prevented the cabals and 
intrigues of the Italians, whose bishops were much more numerous 
than those of other nations, and who, by their number, might have had 
it in their power to retard or defeat the laudable purpose which the coun- 
cil had in view, had things been otherwise ordered. 

i> The history of this grand and memorable council is yet a desidera- 
tum. The learned Stephen Baluze, (as we find in the Histoire de 
l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres, torn. vi. p. 544,) and 
after him M. L'Enfant, promised the world a history of this council ; but 
neither of these valuable writers performed that promise* The acts 
of this famous assembly were collected with incredible industry, in a 
great number of volumes, from various archives and libraries, at the 



of proceeding, and by the first decrees that were enacted 
by its authority, that the assembled fathers were in 
earnest, and firmly resolved to answer the end and 
purpose of their meeting, Eugenius was much alarmed at 
the prospect of a reformation, which he feared above all 
things ; and beholding with terror the zeal and designs 
of these spiritual physicians, he twice attempted the dis- 
solution of the council. These repeated attempts were 
vigorously opposed by the members, who proved by 
the decrees of the late assembly, and by other argu- 
ments equally conclusive, that the council was superior in 
point of authority to the Roman pontiff. This controver- 
sy was terminated in November, 1433, by the silence and 
concessions of the pope, who, in the following month, 
wrote a letter from Rome, expressing his approbation of 
the council, and his acknowledgment of its authority. b 

XII. These preliminary measures being finished, the 
council proceeded with zeal and activity to the accomplish- 
ment of the important purposes for which it was assembled 
The pope's legates were admitted as members, but not 
before they had declared, upon oath, that they would 
submit to the decrees that should be enacted in it, and 
more particularly that they would adhere to the laws of 
the council of Constance, in relation to the supremacy of 
general councils, and the subordination of the pontiffs tc 
their authority and jurisdiction. These very laws, which 
the popes beheld with such aversion and horror, were 
solemnly renewed by the assembly in 1434 ; and in the 
following year, the Annates (as they were called) were 
publicly abolished, notwithstanding the opposition that 
was made to this measure by the legates of the Roman 
see. On the 25th of March, 1436, a confession of faith 
was read, which every pontiff was to subscribe on the 
day of his election; it was voted that the number of 
cardinals should be reduced to twenty-four ; and the papal 
impositions, called Expectatives, Reservations, and Pro- 
visions, were annulled. These measures, with others of 
a like nature, provoked Eugenius in the highest degree, 
and induced him to form the intention, either of removing 
this troublesome and enterprising council into Italy, or of 
setting up a new assembly in opposition to it, which 
might fix bounds to its zeal for the reformation of the 
church. Accordingly, on the 7th of Maj r , 1437, the 
assembled fathers having, on account of the Greeks, come 
to a resolution of holding the new council at Basil, Avig- 
non, or some city in the duchy of Savoy, the intractable 
pontiff opposed this motion, and maintained that it should 
be transferred into Italy. Each of the contending parties 
persevered, with the utmost obstinacy, in the resolution 
they had taken ; and this occasioned a warm and violent 
contest between the pope and the council. The latter 

expense of Rodolphus Augustus, duke of Brunswick, by the very 
learned and laborious Herman von der Hardt. They are preserved, as 
we are informed, in the library at Hanover; and they certainly deserve 
to be drawn from their retreat, and published to the world. In the mean 
time, the curious may consult the abridgment of the acts of this coun- 
cil, published at Paris, in 1512, of which I have made use in this 
history, as also the following authors : iEnea; Sylvii Lib. duo do Con- 
cilio Basiliensi. — Edm. Richerius, Histor. Concilior. General, lib.iii. cap. 
1. — Henr. Canisii Lcctiones Antiquae, torn. iv. p. 447. 

jgjf * Dr. Mosheim has here fallen into an error; for L'Enfant did in 
reality perform his promise, and composed the History of the Council 
of Basil, which he blended with his history of the war of die Hussiics, 
on account of the connexion between these subjects, and also because 
his advanced age prevented his indulging himself in the hope of being 
able to give, separately, a complete lustory of the council of Basil. 



368 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



summoned Eugenius to appear at Basil, in order to give 
an- account of his conduct ; but the pontiff, instead of 
complying with the requisition, issued a decree, by which 
he pretended to dissolve the council, and to assemble 
another at Ferrara. This decree, indeed, was treated with 
the utmost contempt by the council, which, with the con- 
sent of the emperor, the king of France, and several other 
princes, continued its deliberations, and pronounced a 
sentence of contumacy against the rebellious pontiff, for 
having refused to obey its order. 

XIII. In the year 1438, Eugenius in person opened the 
council, which he had summoned to meet at Ferrara, and 
at the second session thundered out an excommunication 
against the fathers assembled at Basil. The principal 
business that was now to be transacted, was the proposed 
reconciliation between the Greek and Latin churches ; 
and, in order to bring this salutary and important design 
to a happy issue, the emperor John Palsologus, the 
Grecian patriarch Josephus, with the most eminent bishops 
and doctors among the Greeks, arrived in Italy, and 
appeared at Ferrara. The extremity to which the Greeks 
were reduced by the Turks, and the pleasing hope, that 
their reconciliation with the Roman pontiff would con- 
tribute to engage the Latins in their cause, seem to have 
animated, in a particular manner, their zeal in this 
negociation. Be that as it may, there was little done at 
Ferrara, where matters were carried on too slowly, to 
afford any prospect of an end of their dissensions : but the 
negociations were more successful at Florence, whither 
Eugenius removed the council about the beginning of the 
year 1439, on account of the plague that broke out at 
Ferrara. On the other hand, the council of Basil, exas- 
perated by the imperious proceedings of Eugenius, deposed 
him from the papacy on the 25th of June, 1439 ; which 
vigorous measure was not approved by the European 
kings and princes. It may be easily conceived what an 
impression this step made upon the affronted pontiff; he 
lost all patience ; and devoted, for the second time, to hell 
and damnation, the members of the obnoxious council by 
a solemn and most severe edict, in which also he declared 
all their acts null, and all their proceedings unlawful. 
This new peal of papal thunder was held in derision by 
the council of Basil, whose members, persisting in their 
purpose, elected another pontiff, and raised to that high 
dignity Amadeus, duke of Savoy, who then lived in the 
most profound solitude at a charming retreat, called 
Ripaille, upon the borders of the Leman Lake, and who is 
known in the papal list by the name of Felix V. 

XIV. This election was the occasion of the revival of 
that deplorable schism, which had formerly rent the 
church, and which had been terminated with so much 
difficulty, and after so many vain and fruitless efforts, at 
the council of Constance. The new breach was even 
more lamentable than the former one, as the flame was 
kindled not only between rival pontiffs, but also between 
the contending councils of Basil and Florence. The 
greatest part of the church submitted to the jurisdiction, 
and adopted the cause of Eugenius ; while Felix was 

a The history of this council, and of the frauds and stratagems that 
were practised in it, was composed by that learned Grecian, Sylvester 
Sgyropulus, whose work was published at the Hague, in 1C60, with a 
Latin translation, a preliminary Discourse, and ample notes, by the 
learned Robert Creighton, a native of Great Britain. This history was 
refuted by Leo Allatius, in a work entitled, Excrcitationes in Creightoni 



acknowledged, as lawful pontiff, by a great number of 
universities, and, among others, by that of Paris, as also 
in several kingdoms and provinces. The council of Basil 
continued to deliberate, to enact laws, and publish edicts, 
until the year 1443, notwithstanding the efforts of Euge- 
nius and his adherents to put a stop to their proceedings. 
And, though in that year the members of the council 
retired to their respective places of abode, yet they declared 
publicly that the council was not dissolved. 

In the mean time, the council of Florence, with Euge- 
nius at its head, was chiefly employed in reconciling the 
differences between the Greeks and Latins ; which 
weighty business was committed to the prudence, zeal, 
and piety, of a select number of eminent men on both 
sides. The most distinguished among those whom the 
Greeks chose for this purpose was the learned Bessarion, 
who was afterwards raised to the dignity of cardinal in the 
Romish church. This great man, engaged and seduced by 
the splendid presents and promises of the Latin pontiff, 
employed the whole extent of his authority, and the power 
of his eloquence, and even had recourse to promises and 
threats, to persuade the Greeks to accept the conditions of 
peace that were proposed by Eugenius. These conditions 
required their consent to the following points : — " That the 
Holy Spirit proceeded from the Son, as well as from the 
Father ; that departed souls were purified in the infernal 
regions, by a certain kind of fire, before their admission to 
the presence and vision of the Deity ; — that unleavened 
bread might be used in the administration of the Lord's 
supper;" — and lastly, which was the principal thing insisted 
upon by the Latins, that ' the Roman pontiff was the su- 
preme judge, the true head of the universal church.' Such 
were the terms of peace to which all the Greeks were obliged 
to accede, except Mark of Ephesus, whom neither entreaties 
nor rewards could move from his purpose, or engage to sub- 
mit to a reconciliation founded upon such conditions. And 
indeed this reconciliation, which had been brought about 
by various stratagems, was much more specious than solid, 
and had by no means stability sufficient to insure its 
duration. We find, accordingly, that the Grecian deputies 
had no sooner returned to Constantinople, than they 
declared publicly, that all things had been carried on at 
Florence by artifice and fraud, and renewed the schism, 
which had been so imperfectly healed. The council put 
an end to its deliberations on the 26th of April, 1442, a 
without having executed any of the designs that were 
proposed by it, in a satisfactory manner ; for, beside the 
affair of the Greeks, they proposed bringing the Arme- 
nians, Jacobites, and more particularly the Abyssinians, 
into the bosom of the Romish church ; but this project 
was attended with as little success as the other. 

XV. Eugenius IV., who had been the occasion of the 
new schism in the see of Rome, died in February, 1447, 
and was succeeded, in a few weeks, by Thomas de Sar- 
zano, bishop of Bologna, who filled the pontificate under 
the denomination of Nicolas V. This eminent prelate had, 
in point of merit, the best pretensions possible to the papal 
throne. He was distinguished by his erudition and ge- 

Apparatum, Versionem, et Notas ad Historiam Concilii Florentini 
scriptam a Sgyropulo, Romse, 1674, See the same author's Perpetua 
Consensio Ecclesise Oriental, et Occident, p. 875, as also Mabillon, 
Museum Italicum, torn. i. p. 243.— Spanheim, de perpetua Dissensione 
Eccles. Orient, et Occident, torn.- ii. op. p. 491.— Hermann, Historia 
concertat. de Pane azymo, part ii. c. v. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOVERNMENT, ETC. 



369 



nius ; he was a zealous patron and protector of learned 
men ; and, what was still more laudable, he was remarka- 
ble for his moderation, and for the meek and pacific spirit 
that discovered itself in all his conduct and actions. Un- 
der this pontificate, the European princes, and more es- 
pecially the king of France, exerted their warmest en- 
deavours to restore tranquillity and union to the Latin 
church ; and then efforts were crowned with the desired 
success. For, in 1449, Felix V., resigned the papal chair, 
and returned to his delightful hermitage at Ripaille, while 
the fathers of the Council of Basil, assembled at Lausanne,* 
ratified his voluntary abdication, and, by a solemn decree, 
ordered the universal church to submit to the jurisdiction 
of Nicolas as their lawful pontiff. On the other hand, 
Nicolas proclaimed this treaty of peace with great pomp 
on the ] 8th of June, in the same year, and set the seal of 
his approbation and authority to the acts and decrees of 
the council. This pontiff distinguished himself in a very 
extraordinary manner, by his love of learning, and by his 
ardent zeal for the propagation of the liberal arts and sci- 
ences, which he promoted, with great success, by the en- 
couragement he granted to the learned Greeks, who emi- 
grated from Constantinople into Italy. b The principal 
occasion of his death was the fatal revolution that threw 
this capital of the Grecian empire into the hands of the 
Turks ; this melancholy event preyed upon his spirits, 
and hastened his death, which happened on the 24th of 
March, 1455. 

XVI. His successor Alphonso Borgia, who was a native 
of Spain, and is known in the papal list by the denomina- 
tion of Calixtus III., was remarkable for nothing but his 
zeal in animating the Christian princes to make war upon 
the Turks ; his reign also was short, for he died in 1458. 
iEneas Sylvius Piccolomini, who succeeded him in the 
pontificate in that same year, under the title of Pius II., 
rendered his name much more illustrious, not only by his 
extensive genius, and the important transactions that were 
carried on during his administration, but also by the va- 

■ This abdication was made on the 9th of April, 1449, and was 
ratified on the 16th. 

t> See Dom. Georgii Vita Nicolai V. ad fidem veterum Monumen- 
torum ; to which is added a treatise, entitled, Disquisitio de Nicolai V. 
erga Literas et Literatos Viros Patrocinio, published at Rome, in 1742. 

g^= ' There was a famous edict, entitled, The Pragmatic Sanction, 
issued by Louis IX., who, though he is honoured with a place in the 
Kalendar, was yet a zealous assertor of the liberty and privileges of 
the Gallican church, against the despotic encroachments and pretensions 
of the Roman pontiffs. It was against their tyrannical proceedings, 
and intolerable extortions, that this edict was chiefly levelled ; and 
though some creatures of the court of Rome have thrown out insinua- 
tions of its being a spurious production, yet the contrary is evident 
from its having been registered, as the authentic edict of that pious 
monarch, by the parliament of Paris, in 1461, by the states of the king- 
dom assembled at Tours in 1483, and by the university of Paris, in 
1491. — See, for a farther account of this edict, tire excellent History of 
France, (beg^un by the abbe Velly, and continued by M. Villaret,) vol. 
vi. p. 57. ' 

The edict which Dr. Mosheim has in view here, is the Pragmatic 
Sanction that was drawn up at Bourges, in 1438, by Charles VII. king 
of France, with the consent of the most eminent prelates and grandees 
of the nation, who were assembled at that place. This edict (which 
was absolutely necessary in order to deliver the French clergy from the 
vexations they suffered from the encroachments of the popes, ever since 
the latter had fixed their residence at Avignon) consisted of twenty- 
three articles, in which, among other salutary regulations, tire elections 
to vacant benefices were restored to their ancient purity and freedom,* 
the annates and other pecuniaiy pretensions and encroachments of the 
pontiffs abolished, and the authority of a general council declared supe- 
rior to that of the pope. . This edict was drawn up in concert with the 
fathers of the council of Basil, and the articles were taken from the 
decrees of that council, though they were admitted by the Gallican 

No. XXXI. 93 



rious and useful productions with which he enriched the 
republic of letters. The lustre of his fame was, indeed, 
tarnished by a scandalous proof which he gave of his fickle- 
ness and inconstancy, or rather perhaps of his bad faith ; 
for, after having vigorously defended, against the pontiffs, 
the dignity and prerogatives of general councils, and main- 
tained, with peculiar boldness and obstinacy, the cause of 
the council of Basil against Eugenius IV., he ignomini- 
ously renounced these principles upon his accession to the 
pontificate, and acted in direct opposition to them during 
the whole course of his administration. Thus, in 1460, he 
denied publicly that the pope was subordinate to a general 
council, and even prohibited all appeals to such a council 
under the severest penalties. In the following year he 
obtained from Louis XL, king of France, the abrogation 
of the Pragmatic Sanction, which favoured, in a parti- 
cular manner, the pretensions of the general councils to 
supremacy in the church. But the most egregious in- 
stance of impudence and perfidy that he exhibited to the 
world was in 1463, when he publicly retracted all that he 
had written in favour of the council of Basil, and declared 
without either shame or hesitation, that, as iEneas Syl- 
vius, he was a damnable heretic, but that, as Pius II., he 
was an orthodox pontiff. This indecorous declaration was 
the last circumstance, worthy of notice, that happened 
during his pontificate ; for he died in July, 1464. d 

XVII. Paul II., a Venetian by birth, whose name was 
Peter Barbo, was raised to the head of the church in 1464, 
and died in 1471. His administration was distinguished 
by some measures, which, if we consider the genius of the 
times, were worthy of praise ; though it must at the same 
time be confessed, that he did many things which were 
evidently inexcusable, (not to mention his reducing the 
jubilee circle to twenty-five years, and thus accelerating 
the return of that most absurd and superstitious ceremony ;) 
so that his reputation became at least dubious in after- 
times, and was viewed in different lights by different per- 
sons. 6 The following popes, Sixtus IV., and Innocent 



church with certain modifications, which the nature of the times and 
the manners of the nation rendered expedient. Such then was the 
Pragmatic Sanction, which Pius II. engaged Louis XI. (who received 
upon that occasion, for himself and his successors, the title of Most 
Christian) to abolish by a solemn declaration ; the full execution of 
which was, however, prevented by the noble stand made by the univer- 
sity of Paris in favour of the edict. The king also, perceiving that he 
had been deluded into this declaration by the treacherous insinuations of 
Geoffry, bishop of Arras, (whom the pope had bribed with a cardinal's 
cap, and large promises of a more lucrative kind,) took no sort of pains 
to have it executed, but published, on the contrary, new edicts against 
the pecuniary pretensions and extortions of the court of Rome; so that 
in reality the Pragmatic Sanction was not abolished before the adjust- 
ment of the Concordat or agreement, which was transacted between 
Francis I. and Leo X. in 1517, and was forced upon the French na- 
tion in opposition to the united efforts of the clergy, the university, die 
parliament, and the people. See, for a farther account of this matter, 
Du Clos, Histoire de Louis XI. vol. i. p. 115 — 132. 

* Beside the writers of ecclesiastical history, see Nouveau Diction. 
Histor. et Critique, torn. ii. at the article Enee Sylvius. 

e Paul II. has had the good fortune to find, in one of the most emi- 
nent and learned men of this age, (the famous cardinal Quirini,) a zeal- 
ous apologist. See, among die productions of that illustrious prelate, 
the piece entitled, " Pauli II. Vita, ex Codice Anglica; Bibliodiecai 
desumpta, praemissis ipsius Vindiciis adversus Platinam aliosque ob- 
trectatores, Roma;, 1740." 

fdr* That is to say, these elections were wrested out of the hands 
of die popes, who had usurped diem ; and, by the new edict, every 
church had the privilege of choosing its bishop, and every monastery 
its abbot or prior. By the Concordat, or agreement, between Francis I. 
and Leo X., (which was substituted in the place of the Pragmatic 
Sanction,) the nomination of the bishoprics in France, and die collation 
of certain benefices of the higher class, were vested in the kings of 



J70 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



VIII. , whose names were Francis Albescola and John 
Baptist Cibo, were neither remarkable for their virtues 
nor their vices. The former died in 1484, and the latter 
in 1492. Filled with the most terrible apprehensions of 
the danger that threatened Europe in general, and Italy 
in particular, from the growing power of the Turks, both 
these pontiffs attempted to put themselves in a posture of 
defence, and warmly exhorted the European princes to 
check the progress of that warlike people ; but many ob- 
stacles arose, which rendered their exhortations ineffectual. 
The other undertakings that were projected or carried on, 
during their continuance at the head of the church, are 
not of sufficient importance to require particular notice. 

XVIII. In the series of pontiffs that ruled the church 
during this century, the last, in order of time, was Alex- 
ander VI., a Spaniard by birth, whose name was Roderic 
Borgia. The life and actions of this man show, that there 
was a Nero among the popes, as well as among the em- 
perors. The crimes and enormities, that history has im- 
puted to this papal Nero, evidently prove him to have been 
not only destitute of all religious and virtuous principles, 
but even regardless of decency, and hardened against the 
very feeling of shame ; and, though, the malignity of his 
enemies may have forged false accusations against him, 
and, in some instances, exaggerated the horror of his real 
crimes, yet we have upon record an authentic list of 
undoubted facts, which, both by their number and their 
atrocity, are sufficient to render the name and memory 
of Alexander VI. odious and detestable, in the opinion 
even of such as have the smallest tincture of virtuous 
principles and feelings. An inordinate affection for his 
children was the principal source from which proceeded 
a great part of the crimes he committed. He had four 
sons by a concubine with whom he had lived many 
years ; among whom was the infamous Ceesar Borgia. A 
daughter, named Lucretia, was likewise among the fruits 
of this unlawful commerce. The tenderness of the pon- 
tiff for his spurious offspring was excessive beyond all ex- 
pression ; his only aim was to load them with riches and 
honours ; and, in the execution of this purpose, he tram 
pled with contempt upon every obstacle, which the demands 
of justice, the dictates of reason, and the remonstrances of 
religion, threw in his way." Thus he persisted in his pro- 
fligate career until the year 1503, when the poison, which 
he and his son Csesar had mingled for others who stood 
in the way of their avarice and ambition, cut short, by a 
happy mistake, his own days. b 

XIX. The monastic societies, as we learn from a 
multitude of authentic records, and from the testimonies 
of the best writers, were, at this time, so many herds of 
lazy, illiterate, profligate, and licentious Epicureans, whose 
views in life were confined to opulence, idleness, and 
pleasure. The rich monks, particularly those of the Be- 
nedictine and Augustine orders, perverted their revenues 
to the gratification of their lusts ; and renouncing, in their 

France. An ample and satisfactory account of this convention may 
be seen in bishop Burnet's excellent History of the Reformation, vol. iii. 
and in a book entitled, Histoire du Droit public Ecclesiastique Fran- 
cois, published in 1737. 

" The life of this execrable tyrant was written in English by Mr. 
Alexander Gordon; but the same subject has been treated with greater 
moderation by the ingenious and learned author of the Histoire du 
Droit Publ. Eccles. Francois, to which work are subjoined the lives of 
Alexander VI. and Leo X. 

<> Such ia the account which the best historians have given of the 



conduct, all regard to their respective rules of discipline, 
drew upon themselves great popular odium by their sensu- 
ality and licentiousness/ This was matter of affliction 
to many wise and good men, especially in France and 
Germany, who formed the pious design of stemming the 
torrent of monkish luxury, and excited a spirit of refor- 
mation among that degenerate order. d Among the Ger- 
man reformers, who undertook the restoration of virtue 
and temperance in the monasteries, Nicolas de Mazen, an 
Austrian abbot, and Nicolas Dunkelspuhl, professor at 
Vienna, held the first rank. They attempted, with un- 
paralleled zeal and assiduity, the reformation of the Be- 
nedictines throughout Germany, and succeeded so far as 
to restore, at least, a certain air of decency and virtue in 
the conventual establishments of Suabia, Franconia, and 
Bavaria. 3 The reformation of the same order was at- 
tempted in France by many, and particularly by Guy 
Juvenal, a learned man, whose writings, upon that and 
on other subjects, were received with applause/ It is, 
however, certain, that the majority of the monks, both in 
France and elsewhere, resisted, with obstinacy, the salu- 
tary attempts of these spiritual pl^sicians, and returned 
their zeal with the Avorst treatment that it was possible to 
show them. 

XX. While the opulent monks exhibited to the world 
scandalous examples of luxury, ignorance, indolence, and 
licentiousness, accompanied with a barbarous aversion to 
every thing that carried the remotest aspect of science, the 
Mendicants, and more especially the Dominicans and 
Franciscans, were chargeable with irregularities of ano- 
ther kind. Beside their arrogance, which was excessive, 
a quarrelsome and litigious spirit, an ambitious desire of 
encroaching upon the rights and privileges of others, an 
insatiable zeal for the propagation of superstition, and the 
itch of disputing and of starting absurd and intricate ques- 
tions of a religious kind, prevailed among them, and drew 
upon them justly the displeasure and indignation of many* 
It was this wrangling spirit that seriously protracted the 
controversies which had subsisted so long between them 
and the bishops, and, indeed, the whole sacerdotal order ; 
and it was their vain curiosity, and their inordinate passion 
for novelty, that made the divines, in the greatest part of 
the European colleges, complain of the dangerous and 
destructive errors which they had introduced into religion. 
These complaints were repeated, without interruption, in 
all the provinces where the Mendicants had any crecht ; 
and the same complaints were often presented to *he 
court of Rome, where they exercised sufficiently both the 
patience and subtlety of the pope and his ministers. 1 i a 
different pontiffs who ruled the church during this century, 
were differently affected toward the Mendicants ; some 
patronised them, others opposed them : and this circum- 
stance frequently changed the aspect of affairs, and, foi a 
long time, rendered the decision of the contest dubious.s 
The persecution that was carried on against the Begu!ns 

death of Alexander VI. Notwithstanding these authorities, Voltaire 
has pretended to prove that this pontiff died a natural death. 

See Martin Senging, Tuitiones Ordinis S. Benedicti, seu Oratio in 
Concilio Basiliensi, an. 1433, contra vitia Benedict. recit-ita, in Btrn, 
Pezii Bib. Ascetica, t. viii. d See Leibnitii Praef. ad t. ii. Scrpt. Brans. 

For an account of these reformers, see Martin Kropf. tJibliothec^ 
Mellicensis, seu de Vitis et Scrip. Benedict. Mellicens. p ' <3,163, 20'*. 

f See Liron's Singularites Historiques et Literaires, torn. iii. p. 49. 

b See Launoy, Lib. de Canone Utriusque Sexus, op. u»«>. i. pan . ■; 
Boulay, torn, v.— Ant Wood, torn. i. 



Chap. II. 



DOCTORS, CHURCH-GOYERNMENT, ETC. 



371 



became also an occasion of increasing the odium that had 
been cast upon the begging monks, and was extremely 
prejudicial to their interests. For the Beguins and Lol- 
lards, to escape the fury of their inveterate enemies, the 
bishops and others, frequently took refuge in the third 
order of the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians, 
hoping that, in the patronage and protection of these nu- 
merous and powerful societies, they might find a secure 
retreat from the calamities that oppressed them. Nor 
were their hopes entirely disappointed ; but the storm that 
hitherto pursued them, fell upon their new patrons and 
protectors, the Mendicants ; who, by affording a refuge 
to a sect so odious to the clergy, drew upon themselves 
the indignation of that sacred order, and were thereby 
involved in various difficulties and perplexities. 11 

XXI. The more austere and rebellious Franciscans, 
who, separating themselves from the church, renounced 
their allegiance to the Roman pontiffs, and were distin- 
guished by the appellation of Fratricelli or Minorites, 
continued, with their Tertiaries, the Beghards, to carry on 
an open war against the court of Rome. Their head- 
quarters were in Italy, in the marquisate of Ancona and 
the neighbouring countries ; for it was there that their 
leader and chief ruler resided. They were persecuted, 
about the middle of this century, with the greatest severi- 
ty, by pope Nicolas V.. who employed every method he 
could devise to vanquish their obstinacy, sending for that 
purpose successively against them the Franciscan monks, 
armed hosts, and civil magistrates, and committing to the 
flames many of those who remained unmoved by all these 
means of conversion. b This heavy persecution was car- 
ried on by the succeeding pontiffs, and by none with 
greater bitterness and vehemence than by Paul II., though 
it is said, that this pope chose rather to conquer the head- 
strong and stubborn perseverance of this sect by imprison- 
ment and exile, than by fire and sword. The Fratri- 
celli, on the other hand, animated by the protection of 
several persons of great influence, who became then pa- 
trons on account of the striking appearance of sanctity 
which they exhibited, had recourse to violence, and went 
so far as to put to death some of the inquisitors, among 
whom Angelo of Camaldoli fell a victim to their ven- 
geance. 4 Nor were the commotions raised by this trou- 
blesome sect confined to Italy ; other countries felt the 
effects of their petulant zeal ; and Bohemia and Silesia 
(where they preached with warmth their favourite doctrine, 
" that the true imitation of Christ consisted in beggary 
and extreme poverty") became the theatres of the spiritual 
war. e The king of Bohemia was well affected to these 
fanatics, granted them his protection, and was on that 
account excommunicated by Paul II. f In France, their 
affairs were far from being prosperous ; such of them as 

a See the history of the preceding century. 

•> Mauritius Sartius, de Antiqua Picentum civitate Cupromontana, in 
Angeli Calogerae Raccolta di Opusculi Scientifici, torn, xxxix. where 
we have several extracts from the manuscript dialogue of Jacobus de 
Ilarchia against the Fratricelli. 

e Ang. Mar. Q.uirini Vita Pauli II. p. 78. — Jo. Targionius, Prxf. ad 
claror. Venetor. Epistolas ad Magliabechium, torn. i. p. 43, where we 
have an account of the books that were written against the Fratricelli 
by Nicholas Palmerius and others under tire pontificate of Paul II. and 
which are yet in manuscript. 

4 See the Acta Sanctor. torn. ii. Maii, p. 356. 

"Jo. Georgii Schelhornii Acta Historica Eccles. part i. 

f auirini Vita Pauli II. p. 73. 

« I have in manuscript the acts or decrees of the inquisition against 



fell into the hands of the inquisitors, were committed to 
the flames,? and they were eagerly searched after in the 
province of Toulouse and the adjacent countries, where 
great numbers of them lay concealed, and endeavoured 
to escape the vigilance of their enemies ; while several 
of their scattered parties removed to England and Ireland. 11 
Even the dreadful series of calamities and persecutions 
that harassed this miserable sect did not entirely extin- 
guish it ; for it subsisted to the time of the reformation in 
Germany, when its remaining votaries adopted the cause, 
and embraced the doctrines and discipline of Luther. 

XXII. Of the religious fraternities that were founded 
in this century, not one deserves a more honourable 
mention than the Brethren and Clerks of the common 
life, (as they called themselves,) who lived under the rule 
of St. Augustine, and were eminently useful in promoting 
the cause of religion, learning, and virtue. This society 
had been formed in the preceding age by Gerard Groote, 
a native of Deventer,* remarkable for his fervent piety 
and extensive erudition ; it was not, however, before the 
present century, that it received a proper degree of con- 
sistence, and, having obtained the approbation of the 
council of Constance, flourished in Holland, the Lower 
Germany, and the adjacent provinces. It was divided 
into two classes, the Lettered Brethren or Clerks, and 
the Illiterate, who, though they occupied separate habita- 
tions, lived in the firmest bonds of fraternal union. The 
Clerks applied themselves with exemplary zeal and 
assiduity to the study of polite literature, and to the 
education of youth. They composed learned works for 
the instruction of their contemporaries, and erected schools 
and seminaries of learning wherever they went. The 
Illiterate Brethren, on the other hand, were employed in 
manual labour, and exercised with success the mechanic 
arts. No religious vows restrained the members of either 
class ; yet they had all things in common, and this 
community was the great bond of their union. The 
Sisters of this virtuous society lived much in the same 
manner, and employed the hours, that were not conse- 
crated to prayer and reading, in the education of young 
females, and in branches of industry suitable to their 
sex. The schools, that were erected by the clerks of 
this fraternity, acquired a great and illustrious reputa- 
tion in this century. From them issued those immortal 
restorers of learning and taste which gave a new face 
to the republic of letters in Germany and Holland, such 
as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Alexander Hegius, John 
Murmelius, and several others. 11 But the institution of 
the order of Jesuits seemed to diminish the credit of these 
excellent schools, which, from that period, began to de- 
cline. It ought to be added, that the Brethren of the 
common life, however encouraged by the public, were 

John Gudulchi de Castellione and Francis d'Archata, both of them Fra- 
tricelli, who were burned in France, in 1454. 

•> Wood's Antiq. Oxoniens. torn. i. p. 232. 

I The life of this famous Dutchman, Gerard Groote, was written by 
Thomas a Kempis, and is to be found in his works. It stands at the 
head of the lives of eleven of his contemporaries, composed by this emi- 
nent writer. 

k Accounts of this order have been given by Aub. Mirseus, in his 
Chronicon, ad an. 1384, and by Helyot, in his Histoire desOrdres, torn, 
iii. But, in that which I have here given, there are some circumstances 
taken from ancient records not yet published. I have in my possession 
several manuscripts, which furnish materials for a much more clear and 
circumstantial account of the institution and progress of this order, than 
can be derived from the books that have hitherto appeared on that subject. 



372 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part Tt. 



exposed to the insults and opposition of the cierg} and 
monks, who had a strong aversion to every thing that bore 
the remotest aspect of learning or taste. 1 

XXIII. Of the Greeks, who acquired fame by their 
learned productions, the most eminent were, 

Simeon of Thessalonica, the author of several treatises, 
and, among others, of a book against the heresies that 
had troubled the church ; to which we may add his wri- 
tings against the Latins, which are yet extant ; b 

Josephus Bryennius, who wrote a book concerning the 
Trinity, and another against the Latins ; 

Macarius Macres, whose animosity against the Latins 
was carried to the greatest height ; 

George Phranza, whose historical talent makes a figure 
in the compilation of the Byzantine historians ; 

Marcus Ephesius, who was an obstinate enemy to the 
council of Florence ; c 

Cardinal Bessarion, the illustrious protector and sup- 
porter of the Platonic school, a man of unparalleled genius 
and erudition ; but much hated by the Greeks, because 
he seemed to lean to the party of the Latins, and proposed 
an union of the two nations to the prejudice of the former ; d 

George Scholarius, otherwise called Gennadius, who 
wrote against the Latins, especially against the council of 
Florence, with greater learning, candour, and perspicuity, 
than the rest of his countrymen displayed ; e 

George Gemistius Pletho, a man of eminent learning, 
who excited many of the Italians to the study, not only 
of the Platonic philosophy in particular, but of Grecian 
literature in general • 

George of Trapesond, who translated several of the 
most eminent Grecian authors into Latin, and supported 
the cause of the Latins against the Greeks by his dexterous 
and eloquent pen ; 

George Codinus, of whom we have yet remaining 
several productions relating to the Byzantine history. 

XXIV. The tribe of Latin writers that adorned or dis- 
honoured this century, cannot easily be numbered. We 
shall therefore confine ourselves to the enumeration of 
those who wrote upon theological points ; and even of 
these we shall only mention the most eminent. At their 
head we may justly place John Gerson, chancellor of the 
university of Paris, the most illustrious ornament that this 
age could boast of, a man of the greatest influence and 
authority, whom the council of Constance looked upon as 
its oracle, the lovers of liberty as their patron, and whose 
memory is yet precious to such among the French, as are 
zealous for the maintenance of their privileges against 
papal despotism/ This excellent man published a con- 
siderable number of treatises that were admirably adapted 

a We read frequently, in the records of this century, of schools erected 
by the Lollards, and sometimes by the Beghards, at Deventer, Bruns- 
wick, Koningsberg, and Munster, and many other places. Now these 
Lollards were the clerks of the common life, who, on account of their 
virtue, industry, and learning, which rendered them very useful in the 
education of youth, were invited by the magistrates of several cities to 
reside among them. 

b Jo. Alb. Fabricius, Bibl. Grsec. vol. xiv. p. 49. — Rich. Simon, Cri- 
tique de la Bibliotheque Eccles. par M. Du-Pin, torn. i. p. 400. 

Rich. Simon, torn. i. p. 431. 

i For an account of Bessarion and the other learned men here men- 
tioned, see Bornerus and Hody, in their histories of the restoration of 
letters in Italy, by the Greeks who took refuge there, after the taking of 
Constantinople; add to these the Bibliotheca Graeca of Fabricius. 

• Rich. Simon, Croyance de l'Eglise Orientale sur la Transubstanti- 
ation, p. 87. 

' See Du-Pin's Gersoniana, prefixed to the edition of the works of 



to reform the corruptions of a superstitious worship, to 
excite a spirit of genuine piety, and to heal the wounds of 
a divided church ; though, in some respects, he does not 
seem to have thoroughly understood the demands and 
injunctions of the Gospel. The most eminent among the 
other theological writers were, 

Nicolas de Clemangis, a man of uncommon candour 
and integrity, who, in the most eloquent and affecting 
strains, lamented the calamities of the times and the un 
happy state of the Christian church ;s 

Alphonsus Tostatus, bishop of Avila, who loaded the 
Scriptures with unwieldy and voluminous commentaries, 
and also composed other works, in which there is a great 
mixture of good and bad ; 

Ambrose of Camaldoli, who acquired a high degree of 
reputation by his profound knowledge of the Greek lan- 
guage, and his uncommon acquaintance with Grecian 
literature, as also by the zeal and industry he discovered 
in his attempts to effectuate a reconciliation between the 
Greeks and Latins ; 

Nicolas de Cusa, a man of vast erudition, and no mean 
genius, though not famed for the solidity of his judgment, 
as may appear from a work of his, entitled, " Conjectures 
concerning the last Day ;" h 

John Nieder, whose writings are very proper to give us 
an accurate notion of the manners and spirit of the age 
in which he lived, and whose journeys and transactions 
have rendered him famous ; 

John Capistran, who was in .high esteem at the court 
of Rome on account of the ardour and vehemence with 
which he defended the jurisdiction and majesty of the pon- 
tiffs against all their enemies and opposers ;« 

John Wesselus and Jerome Savanarola, who may 
justly be placed among the wisest and worthiest men of 
this age. The former, who was a native of Groningen, 
and on account of his extraordinary penetration and 
sagacity was called the Light of the World, propagated 
several of those doctrines, which Luther afterwards incul- 
cated with greater evidence and energy, and animadverted 
with freedom and candour upon the corruptions of the 
Romish church. k The latter was a Dominican and a 
native of Ferrara, remarkable for piety, eloquence, and 
learning ; who touched the sores of the church with a 
heavier hand, and inveighed against the pontiffs with 
greater severity. For this freedom he severely suffered. 
He was committed to the flames at Florence in 1498, and 
bore his fate with the most triumphant fortitude and 
serenity of mind ;' 

Alphonsus Spina, who wrote a book against the Jews 
and Saracens, which he called Fortalitium Fidei. 

Gerson, which we owe to that laborious author, and which appeared at 
Antwerp in five volumes folio, in 1706. See also Jo. Launoii Historia 
Gymnasii Regii Navarreni, part iii. lib. ii. cap. i. p. 514, torn. iv. p. i. 
op. — Herm. von der Hardt, Acta Concil. Constant, torn. i. part iv. 

e See Launoii Hist, part iii. lib. ii. cap. iii. — Longueval, Hist, de 
l'Eglise Gallicane, torn. xiv. p. 436. — The works of Clemangis were 
published by Lydius at Leyden, with a glossary, in 1631. 

i> Bayle, Reponse aux Questions d'un Provincial, torn. ii. cap. cxvii. 

i L'Enfant's Histoire de la Guerre des Hussites, torn. ii. Wadding, 
Annales Minorum, torn. ix. 

k Jo. Henr. Maii Vita Reuchlini, p. 156. 

i Jo. Franc. Buddei Parerga Historico-Theologica. The life of 
Savanarola was written by J. Francis Picus, and published at Paris, 
with various annotations, letters, and original pieces, by Gluetif, in 1674. 
The same editor published also the Spiritual and Ascetic Epistles of 
Savanarola, translated from the Italian into Latin. See Echard, Scrip- 
tor. Praedicator. torn. i. p. 884. 



Chap. Hi. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



37S 



To all these we must join the whole tribe of the 
scholastic writers, whose chief ornaments were, John 
Capreolus, John de Turrecremata, Antoninus of Florence, 
Dionysius a Ryckel, Henry Gorcomius, Gabriel Biel, 
Stephen Brulifer, and others. The most remarkable 
among the Mystics were, Yincent Ferrerius, Henry 
Harphius, Laurence Justinianus, Bernardine of Sienna, 
and Thomas a Kempis, who shone among these with a 
superior lustre, and to whom the famous book, concerning 
the imitation of Christ, is commonly attributed. 1 

CHAPTER IH. 

Concerning the State of Religion, and the Doctrine 
of the Church, during this Century. 

I. The state of religion had become so corrupt among 
the Latins, that it was utterly destitute of any thing that 
could attract the esteem of the truly virtuous and judicious 
part of mankind. This is a fact, which even those in- 
dividuals whose prejudices render them unwilling to ac- 
knowledge it, will never presume to deny. Among the 
Greeks and Orientals, religion had scarcely a better as- 
pect than among the Latins ; at least, if the difference 
was in their favour, it was far from being considerable. 
The worship of the Deity consisted in a round of frivolous 
and insipid ceremonies. The discourses of those who in- 
structed the people in public, were not only destitute of 
sense, judgment, and spirit, but even of piety and devo- 
tion, and were in reality nothing more than a motley 
mixture of the grossest fictions and the most extravagant 
inventions. The reputation of Christian knowledge and 
piety was easily acquired ; it was lavished upon those who 
professed a profound veneration for the sacred order, and 
their spiritual head the Roman pontiff, who studied to 
render the saints (i. e. the clergy, their ministers) propi- 
tious by frequent and rich donations, who were exact and 
regular in the observance of the stated ceremonies of the 
church, and who had wealth enough to pay the fines 
which the papal quaestors had annexed to the commission 
of all the different degrees of transgression ; or, in other 
words, to purchase indulgences. Such were the ingre- 
dients of ordinary piety ; but persons who added to these 
a certain degree of austerity and bodily mortification were 
placed in the highest order of worthies, and considered as 
•.he peculiar favourites of Heaven. On the other hand, the 
number of those who were studious to acquire a just no- 
tion of religion, to investigate the true sense of the sacred 
writings, and to model their fives and manners after the 
precepts and example of the divine Saviour, was extreme- 
ly small ; and such had much difficulty in escaping the 
flames, at a time when virtue and sense were deemed 
heretical. 

II. This miserable state of affairs, this enormous per- 
version of religion and morality, throughout almost all 
the western provinces, were observed and deplored by 
many wise and good men, who all endeavoured, though 
in different waj's, to stem the torrent of superstition, and 



* The late abbe Lenglet du Fresnoy promised the world a demonstra- 
tion that this work, whose true author has been so much disputed among 
the learned, was originally written in French by a person named Gersen, 
or Gerson, and only translated into Latin by Thomas a, Kempis. See 
Granetus in Launoianis, part ii. torn. iv. part ii. op. p. 414. The history 
of this celebrated production is given by Vincentius Thuillicrius, in die 
^pera Posthuma Mabilloni et Ruinarti, torn. iii. p. 54. 

No. XXXII. 94 



to reform a corrupt church. In England and Scotland, 
the disciples of Wickliffe, whom the multitude had stig- 
matized with the odious title of Lollards, continued to in- 
veigh against the despotic laws of the pontiffs, and the 
licentious manners of the clergy. b The YValdenses, 
though persecuted and oppressed on all sides, raised their 
voices even in the remote valleys and lurking-places 
whither they were driven by the violence of their ene- 
mies, and called aloud for succour to the expiring cause 
of religion and virtue. Even in Italy, many, and among 
others the famous Savanarola, had the courage to declare, 
that Rome was become the image of Babylon ; and this 
notion was soon adopted by multitudes of all ranks and 
conditions. But the greatest part of the clergy and monks, 
persuaded that their honours, influence, and riches, would 
diminish in proportion to the increase of knowledge among 
the people, and would receive inexpressible detriment from 
the downfall of superstition, vigorously opposed every thing 
that had the remotest aspect of a reformation, and impo- 
sed silence upon these importunate censors by the formi 
dable authority of fire and sword. 

IH. The religious dissensions that had been excited in 
Bohemia by the ministry of John Huss and his disciple 
Jacobellus de Misa, were doubly inflamed by the deplo- 
rable fate of Huss and Jerome of Prague, and broke out 
into an open war, which was carried on with unparalleled 
barbarity. The followers of Huss, who pleaded for the 
administration of the cup to the laity in the holy sacra- 
ment, being persecuted and oppressed in various ways 
by the emissaries and ministers of the court of Rome, re- 
tired to a steep and high mountain in the district of Be- 
chin, in which they held their religious meetings, and 
administered the sacrament of the Lord's supper under 
both kinds. This mountain they called Tabor, from the 
tents which they at first erected there for their habitation ; 
and in process of time they raised a considerable fortifica- 
tion for its defence, and adorned it with a well-built and 
regular city. Forming more grand and important pro- 
jects, the)' chose for their chiefs Nicolas of Hussinetz, and 
the famous John Ziska, a Bohemian knight, a man ol 
the most undaunted courage and resolution ; and propo- 
sed, under the standards of these violent leaders, to re- 
venge the death of Huss and Jerome upon the creatures 
of the Roman pontiff, and obtain a liberty of worshipping 
God in a more rational manner than that which was pre- 
scribed by the church of Rome. After the death of Ni- 
colas, which happened in 1420, Ziska commanded alone 
this warlike body, and had the satisfaction to see his army 
daily increase. During the first tumults of this war, 
which were no more than a prelude to calamities of a 
much more dreadful kind, Wenceslaus, long of Bohemia, 
resigned his breath in the year 1419. c 

IV. The emperor Sigismund, who succeeded him on 
the throne of Bohemia, employed not only edicts and re- 
monstrances, but also the terror of penal laws and the 
force of arms, to put an end to these lamentable divisions ; 
and great numbers of the Hussites perished, by his orders, 

i> See Wilkins, Concilia Magnae Bvitann. et Hibem. torn. iv. — Wood, 
Antiq. Oxon. torn. i. 

§pr • This prince had no sooner begun to execute the decrees of the 
council of Constance against the Hussites, than the inhabitants of Prague 
took fire at the proceeding, raised a tumult, murdered the magistrates who 
published the order, and committed other outrages, which filled the court 
of Wenceslaus with consternation, and so affected that pusillanimous 



374 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part 1/ 



in the most barbarous manner. The Bohemians, irrita- 
ted by these inhuman proceedings, threw off his despotic 
yoke in 1420, and, with Ziska at their head, made war 
against their sovereign. This famous leader, though de- 
prived of his sight, discovered, in every step he took, such 
an admirable mixture of prudence and intrepidity, that 
his name became a terror to his enemies. Upon his 
death, which happened in 1424, the majority of the Hus- 
sites chose for their general Procopius Rasa, a man also 
of undaunted courage and resolution, who maintained 
their cause, and carried on the war with spirit and suc- 
cess. The acts of barbarity, committed on both sides, 
were shocking and terrible beyond expression ; for, not- 
withstanding the irreconcilable opposition that existed 
between the religious sentiments of the contending par- 
ties, both agreed in this one horrible point, that it was in- 
nocent and lawful to persecute and extirpate with fire and 
sword the enemies of the true religion ; and such they 
appeared to be in each other's eyes. The Bohemians 
maintained, that Huss had been unjustly put to death at 
Constance, and consequently revenged, with the utmost 
fury, the injury which he had suffered. They acknow- 
ledged it, nevertheless, as an incontestable principle, that 
heretics deserved capital punishment ; but they denied 
obstinately that Huss was a heretic. This pernicious 
maxim, then, was the source of that cruelty which dis- 
graced both parties in this dreadful war ; and it is, per- 
haps, difficult to determine, which of the two carried this 
cruelty to the greatest height. 

V. All those who undertook to avenge the death of the 
Bohemian martyr, set out upon the same principles ; and, 
at the commencement of the war, they seemed to agree 
both in their religious sentiments, and in their demands 
upon the church and government from which they had 
withdrawn themselves. But, as their numbers increased, 
their union diminished ; and their army being prodi- 
giously augmented by a confluence of strangers from all 
quarters, a great dissension arose among them, which, in 
1420, came to an open rupture, and divided this multi- 
tude into two great factions, which were distinguished by 
the titles of Calixtines and Taborites. The former, who 
were so called from their insisting upon the use of the 
chalice, or cup, in the celebration of the eucharist, were 
mild in their proceedings, and modest in their demands, 
and showed no disposition to overturn the ancient system 
of church-government, or to make any considerable 
changes in the religion which was publicly received. 
All that they required, may be comprehended under the 
four articles which follow. They demanded, first, that 
the word of God should be explained to the people in a 
plain and perspicuous manner, without the mixture of 
superstitious comments or inventions ; secondly, that the 
sacrament of the Lord's supper should be administered in 



monarch, that he was seized with an apoplexy, of which he died in a 
few days. 

■ Byzinii Diarium Hussiticum, p. 130. 

t From the following opinions and maxims of the Taborites, which 
may be seen in the Diarium Hussiticum of Byzinius, we may form a 
just idea of their detestable barbarity : "Omnes legis Christi adversarii 
debent puniri septem plagis novissimis, ad quarum executionem fideles 
sunt provocandi. — In isto tempore ultionis Christus in sua humilitate et 
miseratione non est imitandus ad ipsos peccatores, sed in zelo et furore 
et justa retributione. — In hoc tempore ultionis, quilibet fidelis, etiam 
presbyter, quantumcunque spiritualis, est maledictus, qui gladium suum 
corporalem prohibet a sanguine adversariorum legis Christi, sed debet 
eaanus suas lavare in eorum sanguine et sanctificare." From men, who 



both kinds ; thirdly, that the clergy, instead of employing 
all their attention and zeal in the acquisition of riches 
and power, should turn their thoughts to objects more 
suitable to their profession, and-be ambitious of living and 
acting as became the successors of the holy apostles ; and, 
fourthly, that transgressions of a more heinous kind, or 
mortal sins, should be punished in a manner suitable to 
their enormity. In this great faction, however, there were 
some subordinate sects, who were divided upon several 
points. The administration of the Lord's supper was 
one occasion of dispute ; Jacobellus de Misa, who had 
first proposed the celebration of that ordinance under both 
kinds, was of opinion, that infants bad a right to partake 
of it, and this opinion was adopted by many ; while 
others maintained the contrary doctrine, and confined the 
privilege in question to persons of riper years.* 

VI. The demands of the Taborites, who derived their 
name from a mountain well known in sacred history 
were much more ample. They not only insisted upon 
reducing the religion of Jesus to its primitive simplicity, 
but required also, that the system of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment shovdd be reformed in the same manner, the au- 
thority of the pope destroyed, the form of divine worship 
changed : they demanded, in a word, the erection of a 
new church, a new hierarchy, in which Christ alone 
should reign, and all things should be carried on by a 
divine impulse. In maintaining these extravagant de- 
mands, the principal doctors of this sect (such as Martin 
Loquis, a Moravian, and his followers) went so far as to 
flatter themselves with the chimerical notion, that Christ 
would descend upon earth, armed with fire and sword, to 
extirpate heresy, and purify the church from its multipli- 
ed corruptions. These fantastical dreams they propaga- 
ted in different countries, and taught them even in a pub- 
lic manner with unparalleled confidence and presumption. 
It is this enthusiastic class of the Hussites alone, that we 
are to look upon as accountable for all those abominable 
acts of violence, rapine, desolation, and murder, which 
are too indiscriminately laid to the charge of the Hussites 
in general, and of their two leaders Ziska and Procopius 
in particular. b It must indeed be acknowledged, that a 
great number of the Hussites had imbibed the most bar- 
barous sentiments with respect to the obligation of execu- 
ting vengeance upon their enemies, against whom they 
breathed nothing but bloodshed and fury, without any 
mixture of humanity or compassion. 

VII. In the year 1433, the council of Basil endeavour- 
ed to put an end to this dreadful war, and for that purpose 
invited the Bohemians to the assembly. The Bohemians, 
accepting this invitation, sent ambassadors, and among 
others Procopius their leader, to represent them in that 
council. But, after many warm debates, these messengers 
of peace returned without having effected any thing that 



adopted such horrid and detestable maxims, what could be expected but 
the most abominable acts of injustice and cruelty 1 For an account of 
this dreadful and calamitous war, the reader may consult (beside the an- 
cient writers, such as Sylvius, Theobaldus, Cochlaeus, and others) L'En- 
fant's Histoire de la Guerre des Hussites, published at Amsterdam in 
1731. To this history it will, however, be advisable to add the Diarium 
Belli Hussitici of Byzinius, a book worthy of the highest esteem, on 
account of the candour and impartiality with which it is composed, and 
which Mr. L'Enfant does not seem to have consulted. This valuable 
production was published, though incomplete, in the sixth volume of 
the Reliquiae Manuscriptorum of the Very learned John Peter Ludwig. 
See also Beausobre's Supplement to the Histoire de la Guerre des 
Hussites, Lausanne, 1745. 



Chap. III. 



THE DOCTRINE OF THE CHURCH. 



375 



might even prepare the way for a reconciliation so long 
and so ardently desired. The Calixtines were not averse 
„o peace ; but no methods of persuasion could engage the 
Taborites to yield. This matter, however, was transacted 
with more success by iEneas Sylvius and others, whom 
the council sent into Bohemia to renew the conferences ; 
for these new legates, by allowing to the Calixtines the 
use of the cup in the holy sacrament, satisfied them in 
the point which they had chiefly at heart, and thus recon- 
ciled them with the Roman pontiff. But the Taborites 
adhered inflexibly to their first principles ; and neither 
the artifice nor the eloquence of Sylvius, nor the threats, 
sufferings, and persecutions to which their cause exposed 
them, could vanquish their obstinate pen-severance. From 
this period, indeed, they began to review their religious 
tenets, and their ecclesiastical discipline, with a view of 
rendering them more perfect. This review, as it was 
executed with great prudence and impartiality, produced 
a very good effect, and gave a rational aspect to the religion 
of these sectaries, who withdrew themselves from the war, 
abandoned the doctrines, which, upon serious examina- 
tion, they found to be inconsistent with the spirit and 
genius of the Gospel, and banished from their communion 
all persons whose disordered brains, or licentious man- 
ners, might expose them to reproach. 1 The Taborites, 
thus new-modelled, were the same with those Bohemian 
Brethren (or Picards, i. e. Beghards, as their adversaries 
ailed them) who joined Luther and his successors at 
the reformation, and of whom there are at this day many 
of the descendants and followers in Poland and other 
countries. 

VIII. Among the greatest part of the interpreters of 
Scripture that lived in this century, we find nothing wor- 
thy of applause, if we except their zeal and their good 
.ntentions. Such of them as aimed at something higher 
than the character of mere compilers, and ventured to 
draw their explications from their own sense of things, did 
i ittle more than amuse, or rather delude, their readers, 
with mystical and allegorical fancies. At the head of this 
class we may place Alphonsus Tostatus, bishop of Avila, 
whose voluminous commentaries upon the sacred writings 
exhibit nothing remarkable but their enormous bulk. 
Laurentius Valla is entitled to a more favourable judgment; 
and his small collection of Critical and Grammatical 
Annotations upon the New Testament is far from being 
destitute of merit, since it pointed out to succeeding authors 
the true method of removing the difficulties that some- 
times present themselves to such as study with attention 
the divine oracles. It is proper to observe here, that these 
sacred books were, in almost all the kingdoms and states 
of Europe, translated into the language of each nation, 
particularly in Germany, Italy, France, and Britain. 
This circumstance naturally excited the expectations of a 
considerable change in the state of religion, and made the 
thinking few hope, that the doctrine of the church would 
be soon reformed by the light that could not but arise from 
consulting the genuine sources of divine truth. 

IX. The schools of divinity made a miserable figure in 

" See Adriani Regenvolscii Historia Eccles. provincial-. Sclavonicar. 
lib. ii. cap. viii. p. 165. — Joach. Camerurii Histonca Narratio de Fratrum 
Ecclesiis in Bohemia, Moravia, et Polonia.— Jo. Lasitii Historia 
Fratrum Bohemicorum, which I possess in manuscript, and of which the 
eighth book was published at Amsterdam, in 1649. 

• Rich, Simon. Lettres Choisies, torn. ii. p. 269, and Critique de la 



this century. They were filled with teachers, who loaded 
their memory, and that of their disciples, with unintelligi- 
ble distinctions and unmeaning sounds, that they might 
thus dispute and discourse, with an appearance of method, 
upon matters which they did not understand. There 
were now few remaining, of those who proved and illus- 
trated the doctrines of religion by the positive declarations 
of the holy scriptures, and the sentiments of the ancient 
fathers, and who, with all their defects, were much supe- 
rior to the vain and obscure pedants of whom we have 
been speaking. The senseless jargon of the latter did Hot 
escape the just and heavy censure of some learned and 
judicious persons, who considered their methods of teach- 
ing as highly detrimental to the interests of true religion, 
and to the advancement of genuine and solid piety. Ac- 
cordingly, various plans were formed by different indivi- 
duals, some of which had for their object the abolition of 
this method, others its reformation, while, in the mean 
time, the enemies of the schoolmen increased from day to 
day. The Mystics, of whom we shall have occasion to 
speak more largely hereafter, were ardently bent upon 
banishing entirely this scholastic theology out of the 
Christian church. Others, who seemed disposed to act 
with greater moderation, did not insist upon its total sup- 
pression, but were of opinion, that it was necessary to 
reform it, by abolishing all vain and useless subjects of 
debate, by restraining the rage of disputing that had 
infected the seminaries of theology, and by seasoning the 
subtlety of the schoolmen with a happy temperature of 
mystic sensibility and simplicity. This opinion was 
adopted by the famous Gerson, who laboured with the 
utmost zeal and assiduity in correcting and reforming the 
disorders and abuses which the scholastic divines had in- 
troduced into the seminaries, 15 as also by Savanarola,Petrus 
de Alliaco, and Nicolas Cusanus, whose treatise concern- 
ing Learned Ignorance is still extant. 

X. The litigious herd of schoolmen found a new class 
of enemies equally keen, in the restorers of eloquence and 
letters, who were not all, however, of the same opinion 
witli respect to the manner of treating these solemn quib- 
blers. Some of them covered the scholastic doctrine with 
ridicule, loaded it "with invectives, and demanded its sup- 
pression, as a most trifling and absurd system, that was 
highly detrimental to the culture and improvement of the 
mind, and could only prevent the growth of genius and 
true science. Others looked upon this system as support- 
able, and only proposed illustrating and polishing it by 
the powers of eloquence, thus to render it more intelligible 
and elegant. Of this class was Paulus Cortesius, who 
wrote, with this view, a commentary on the Book of 
Proverbs, in which, as we learn from himself, he forms a 
happy union between eloquence and theology, and clothes 
the principal intricacies of scholastic divinity with the 
graces of an agreeable and perspicuous style. After all, 
the scholastic theology, supported by the extraordinary 
credit and authority of the Dominicans and Franciscans, 
maintained its ground against its various opposers ; noi 
could these two religious orders, who excelled in that 

Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique de M. Du-Pin, torn i. p. 491. — Thomasil 
Origines Histor. Philos. p. 56, and principally Gersonis Methodus The- 
ologiam studendi, in Launoii Historia Gymnas. Navarreni, ten. iv. op. 
part i. p. 330. 

° This work was published at Rome in 1512, and at Fasil in 
1513. 



376 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



litigious Kind of learning, bear the thought of losing the 
glory they had acquired by quibbling and disputing in 
the pompous jargon of the schools. 

XI. This vain philosophy, however, grew daily more 
contemptible in the esteem of the judicious and the wise ; 
while the Mystics gathered strength, and saw their friends 
and advocates multiply on all sides. Among these there 
were some men of distinguished merit, who are chargeable 
with few of the errors and extravagances that were 
mingled with the discipline and doctrine of that famous 
sect, such as Thomas a Kempis, (the author of the 
Germanic theology, so highly commended by Luther,) 
Laurentius Justinianus, Savanarola, and others. There 
are, on the other hand, some writers of this sect, such as 
Vincentius Ferrerius, Henricus Harphius, and Bernard of 
Sienna, in whose productions we must carefully separate 
certain notions which were the effects of a warm and 
irregular fancy, as also the visions of Dionysius, whom 
the Mystics consider as their chief, from the noble precepts 
of divine wisdom with which they are mingled. The 
Mystics were defended against their adversaries, the 
Dialecticians, partly by the Platonists, who were in general 
highly esteemed, and partly by some, even of the most 
eminent scholastic doctors. The former considered Diony- 
sius as a person whose sentiments had been formed and 
nourished by the study of Platonism, and wrote commen- 
taries upon his writings ; of which we have an eminent 
example in Marcilius Ficinus. whose name adds a lustre 
to the Platonic school. The latter attempted a certain 
sort of association between the scholastic theology and 
that of the Mystics ; and in this class were John Ger- 
son, Nicolas Cusanus, Dionysius the Carthusian, and 
others. 

XII. The controversy with the enemies of Christianity 
was carried on with much more vigour in this than in the 
preceding sges ; and several learned and eminent men 
seemed now to exert themselves with peculiar industry and 
zeal in demonstrating the truth of that divine religion, and 
defending it against the various objections of its adversa- 
ries. This appears from the learned book of Marcilius 
Ficinus concerning the Truth of Christianity, Savanarola's 
Triumph of the Cross, the Natural Theology of Raymond 
de Sabunde, and other productions of a like nature. The 
Jews were refuted by Perezius and Jerome de St. Foi, 
the Saracens by Johannes de Turrecremata ; and both 
these classes of unbelievers were opposed by Alphonso de 
Spina, in the Fortress of Faith. Nor were these pious 
labours in the defence of the Gospel at all unseasonable 
or superfluous : on the contrary, the state of things at this 
time rendered them necessary. For, on the one hand, the 
Aristotelian philosophers in Italy seemed, in their public 
instructions, to strike at the foundations of all religion ; 
and, on the other hand, the senseless subtleties and quar- 
rels of the schoolmen, who modelled religion according to 
their extravagant fancies, tended to bring it into contempt. 
Add to all this, that the Jews and Saracens lived in many 
places promiscuously with the Christians, who were there- 
fore obliged, by the proximity of the enemy, to defend 
themselves with the utmost assiduity and zeal. 

XIII. We have already taken notice of the fruitless at- 



* Luc. Wadding, Annal. Minor, torn. viii. p. 58.— Jac. Echardi 
Scriptor. Praedicator. torn. i. p. 650. 



tempts which were made to heal the unhappy divisions 
of the Greek and Latin churches. After the council of 
Florence, and the violation of the treaty of pacification by 
the Greeks, Nicolas V. exhorted and entreated them again 
to turn their thoughts towards the restoration of peace and 
concord. But his exhortations were without effect ; and 
in about the space of three years after the writing of this 
last letter, Constantinople was besieged and taken by the 
Turks. And from that fatal period to the present time, the 
Roman pontiffs, in all their attempts to bring about a re- 
conciliation, have always found the Grecian patriarchs 
more obstinate and intractable than they were when their 
empire was in a flourishing state. Nor is this circumstance 
so difficult to be accounted for, when all things are pro- 
perly considered. This obstinacy was the effect of a rooted 
aversion to the Latins and their pontiffs, that acquired, from 
day to day, new degrees of strength and bitterness in the 
hearts of the Greeks ; an aversion, produced and nourished 
by a persuasion, that the calamities which they suffered 
under the Turkish yoke might have been easily removed, 
if the western princes and the Roman pontiffs had not re- 
fused to succour them against their haughty tyrants. And 
accordingly, when the Greek writers deplore the calami- 
ties that fell upon their devoted country, their complaints 
are always mingled with heavy accusations against the 
Latins, whose cruel insensibility to their unhappy situa- 
tion they paint in the strongest and most odious colours. 
XIV. We pass over in silence many trifling controver- 
sies among the Latins, which have no claim to the atten- 
tion of our readers. But we must not omit mentioning the 
revival of that famous dispute concerning the kind of wor- 
ship that was to be paid to the blood of Christ, which was 
first kindled at Barcelona, in 1351, between the Franciscans 
and Dominicans, and had been left undecided by Clement 
VI. 1 This controversy was renewed at Brixen, in 1462, by 
James a Marchia, a celebrated Franciscan, who main- 
tained publicly, in one of his sermons, that the blood 
which Christ sbed upon the cross, did not belong to the 
divine nature, and of consequence was not to be consi- 
dered as an object of divine and immediate worship. The 
Dominicans rejected this doctrine, and adopted with such 
zeal the opposite side of the question, that James of Brixen, 
who performed the office of inquisitor, called the Francis- 
can before his tribunal, and accused him of heresy. Pope 
Pius II., having made several ineffectual attempts to sup- 
press this controversy, was at last persuaded to submit the 
affair to the examination and judgment of a select num- 
ber of able divines. But many obstacles arose to prevent 
a final decision, among which we may reckon, as the 
principal, the influence and authority of the contending 
orders, each of which had embarked with zeal in the cause 
of their respective champions. Hence, after much alterca- 
tion and chicane, the pontiff thought proper to impose si- 
lence on both the parties in this miserable dispute, in 1464 ; 
declaring, at the same time, that " both sides of the ques- 
tion might be lawfully maintained until Christ's vicar upon 
earth should find leisure and opportunity for examining 
the matter, and determining on which side the truth lay." 
This leisure and opportunity have not yet been offered 
to the pontiffs. b 

t "Wadding, Anal. Minor, torn. xiii. p. 206. — Nat. Alexander, Hist. 
Eccles. Saec. XV. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



377 



CHAPTER IV. 

Concerning the Rites and Ceremonies that were used 
in the Church during this Century. 

I. The state of religious ceremonies among the Greeks 
may be learned from the book of Simeon of Thessalonica, 
concerning Rites and Heresies, 1 from which it appears, 
that the substance of religion was lost among that people ; 
that a splendid shadow of pomp and vanity was substi- 
tuted in its place by the rulers of the church; and that 
all the branches of divine worship were ordered in such a 
manner as to strike the imaginations, and captivate the 
senses of the multitude. They pretended, indeed, to allege 
several reasons for multiplying, as they did, the external 
rites and institutions of religion, and throwing over the 
whole of divine worship such a pompous garb of worldly 
splendour. But in these reasons, and in all their explica- 
tions of this gaudy ritual, subtlety and invention are more 
apparent than truth or good sense. The origin of these 
multiplied rites, that cast a cloud over the native beauty 
and lustre of religion, is often obscure, and frequently dis- 
honourable ; and such as, by force of ill-applied genius 
and invention, have endeavoured to derive honour to these 
ceremonies from the circumstances that gave occasion to 
them, have failed egregiously in this desperate attempt. 
The deceit is too palpable to seduce any mind that is void 
of prejudice, and capable of attention. 

II. Though the more rational and judicious of the Ro- 
man pontiffs complained of the multiplicity of ceremonies, 
festivals, temples, and the like, and did not seem unwilling 
to have this enormous mass diminished, they nevertheless 
distinguished, every one his own pontificate, by some new 
institution, and thought it their duty to perpetuate their 
fame by some new edict of this nature. Thus Calixtus 
III., to immortalize the remembrance of the deliverance of 
Belgrade from the powerful arms of Mohammed II., who 
had been obliged to raise the siege of that city, ordered, 
in 1456, the festival in honour of the transfiguration of 
Christ (which had been celebrated in some places by pri- 
vate authority before this period) to be religiously observed 
throughout the western world. And Sixtus IV., in 1476, 
granted indulgences, by a particular edict, to all those who 
should devoutly celebrate an annual festival in honour of 
the immaculate conception of the blessed Virgin, with 
respect to which none of the Roman pontiffs before him 
had thought proper to make any express declaration, or 
any positive appointment. 11 The other additions that 
were made to the Roman ritual, relating to the worship 
of the Virgin Mary, public and private prayers, the traffic 
of indulgences, and other things of that nature, are of 
too little importance to deserve an exact and circumstantial 
enumeration. We need not such a particular detail to 
convince us, that in this century religion was reduced to 
mere show, to a show composed of pompous absurdities 
and splendid trifles. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Heresies, Sects, and Divisions, that 
troubled the Church during this Century. 
I. Neither the severe edicts of pontiffs and emperors, 
nor the barbarity and vigilance of unrelenting inquisitors, 

• J. A. Fabricius has given an account of the contents of this book in 
Lis Biblioth. Graeca, vol. xiv. 

i> See Volaterrani Comment. Urbani, lib. viii. p. 289. — iEneas Sylvius 

No. XXXII. 95 



could extirpate the remains of the ancient heresies, or 
prevent the rise of new sects. We have already seen the 
Franciscan order at open war with the church of Rome. 
In Bosnia, and the adjacent countries, the Manichseans 
or Paulicians, who were the same with the sect named 
Catharists in Italy, propagated their doctrines with confi- 
dence, and held their religious assemblies with impunity. 
It is true, indeed, that the great protector of the Mani- 
chsans, Stephen Thomascus, king of Bosnia, abjured 
their errors, received baptism by the ministry of John Car- 
vaial, a Roman cardinal, and, in consequence thereof, ex- 
pelled those heretics from his dominions. But it is also 
certain, that he afterwards changed his mind ; and it is 
well known, that, toward the conclusion of this century, 
the Manichaeans inhabited Bosnia, Servia, and the neigh- 
bouring provinces. The Waldenses also still subsisted in 
several European provinces, more especially in Pomerania, 
Brandenburg, the district of Magdeburgh, and Thuringia, 
where they had a considerable number of friends and fol- 
lowers. It appears, however, from authentic records not 
yet published, that a great part of the adherents of this 
unfortunate sect, in the countries now mentioned, were dis- 
covered by the inquisitors, and delivered over by them to 
the civil magistrates, who committed them to the flames. 
H. The Brethren and Sisters of the free spirit (who 
were called in Germany Beghards or Schwestriones, and 
in France Turlupins, and whose distinctive character was 
a species of mysticism that bordered upon phrensy) wan- 
dered about in a secret and disguised manner in various 
parts of France, Germany, and Flanders, and particularly 
in Suabia and Switzerland, where they spread the conta- 
gion of their enthusiasm, and caught the unwary in their 
snares. The search, however, that was made after them, 
was so strict and well conducted, that few of the teachers 
and chiefs of this fanatical sect escaped the hands of the 
inquisitors. When the war between the Hussites and 
the votaries of Rome broke out in Bohemia, in 1418, a 
troop of these fanatics, headed by a person whose name 
was John, repaired thither and held secret assemblies, first 
at Prague, and afterwards in different places, whence they 
at length retired to a certain island, where they were less 
exposed to the notice of their enemies. It was, as we have 
already had occasion to observe, one of the leading principles 
of this sect, that the tender instincts of nature, with that 
bashfulness and modesty which generally accompany them, 
were evident marks of inherent corruption, and showed, 
that the mind was not sufficiently purified or rendered con- 
formable to the divine nature, whence it derived its origin. 
And they alone were deemed perfect by these fanatics, and 
supposed to be united to the Supreme Being, who could 
behold without any emotion, the naked bodies of the sex 
to which they did not belong, and who, in imitation of 
what was practised before the fall by our first parents, went 
entirely naked, and conversed familiarly in this manner 
with males and females, without feeling any of the tender 
propensities of nature. Hence it was that the Beghards 
(whom the Bohemians, by a change in the pronunciation 
of that word, called Picards,) when they came into their 
religious assemblies, and were present at the celebration of 
divine worship, appeared without any veil or coveringwhat- 
p, v er. They had also constantly in their mouths a maxim, 

de Statu Europas sub Frederico III. cap. x. in Freheri Scriptor. Rerum 
Germanicar. torn. ii. p. 104. 

'Felix Malleolus (whose German name is Hammcrkin) in his 



378 



INTERNAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Part II. 



which, indeed, was very suitable to the genius of the reli- 
gion they professed ; namely, ' that they were not free 
(i. e. sufficiently extricated from the shackles of the body) 
who made use of garments, particularly such garments as 
covered the thighs and the parts adjacent.' These tenets 
could not but cast a deserved reproach upon this absurd sect ; 
and though in their religious assemblies nothing passed 
that was contrary to the rules of virtue, yet they were uni- 
versally suspected of the most scandalous incontinence, 
and of the most lascivious practices. Ziska, the austere 
general of the Hussites, gave credit to these suspicions, 
and to the rumours they occasioned; and, falling upon this 
miserable sect in 1421, he put some to the sword, and con- 
demned the rest to the flames, which dreadful punishment 
they sustained with the most cheerful fortitude, and also 
with a contempt of death that was peculiar to their sect, 
and which they possessed in a degree that seems to sur- 
pass credibility. a Among the various titles by which these 
extravagant enthusiasts were distinguished, that of Adam- 
ite was one; and it was given them on account of their 
being so studious to imitate the state of innocence in which 
the first man was created. The ignominious term of Beg- 
hards, or Picards, at first peculiar to the small sect of 
which we now treat, was afterwards applied to the Hussites, 
and to all the Bohemians who opposed the tyranny of the 
Romish church. All these were called by their enemies, 
and indeed by the multitude in general, Picard friars. 
III. A new sect, which made a great noise, and infected 
the multitude with the contagion of its enthusiasm, arose 
about the beginning of this century. A priest whose name 
is not known, descended from the Alps, b arrayed in a white 
garment, and accompanied with a prodigious number of 
persons of both sexes, who after the example of their chief, 
were also clothed in white linen, whence they were distin- 
guished by the name of Fratres Albati, i. e. White Bre- 
thren. This enthusiastic multitude went in a kind of 
procession through several provinces, following a cross, 
which their leader held erected like a standard, and, by the 
striking appearance of their sanctity and devotion, capti- 
vated to such a degree the minds of the people wherever 
they went, that persons of all ranks and orders flocked in 
crowds to augment their number. The new chief exhort- 
ed his followers to appease the anger of an incensed Deity, 

account of the Lollards, subjoined to his book contra validos Mendi- 
cantes, i. e. against the sturdy Beggars, has given us a list, though a 
very imperfect one, of the Beghards who were committed to the flames 
in Switzerland and the adjacent countries, during this century. This 
author, in his books against the Beghards and Lollards, has (either 
through design, or by a mistake founded on the ambiguity of the terms) 
confounded three, different classes of persons, who were usually known 
by the appellations of Beghards and Lollards ; as, 1st, the Tertiaries, or 
third order of the more austere Franciscans ; 2dly, the Brethren of the 
free spirit; and, 3dly, the Cellite or Alexian friars. Many writers 
have fallen into the same error. 

* See the Historia Fratrum Bohemorum. MS. lib. ii. sect, lxxvi. by 
Lasitius, who proves, in a satisfactory and circumstantial manner, that 
the Hussites and the Bohemian Brethren were entirely distinct from these 
Picards, and had nothing in common with them. The other authors who 
have written upon this subject are honourably mentioned by Isaac ie 
Beausobre in his Dissertation sur les Adamites de Boheme, subjoined to 
L'Enfant's Hisloire de la Guerre des Hussites. This learned author 
has taken great pains to justify the Picards, or Bohemian Adamites, 
whom he supposes to have been the same with the Waldenses, and a 
set of men eminent for their piety, whom their enemies loaded with the 
most groundless accusations. But this is manifestly endeavouring to wash 
the Ethiopian white ; for it may be demonstrated, by the most unexcep- 
tionable and authentic records, that the account I have given of the mat- 
ter is true. The researches I have made, and the knowledge they have 
procured me of the civil, and religious history of these times, entitle me 



emaciated his body by voluntary acts of mortification and 
penance, endeavoured to persuade the Christian nations to 
renew the war against the infidels in Palestine, and pre- 
tended, that he was favoured with divine visions, which in- 
structed him in the will and in the secrets of Heaven. 
Boniface IX. apprehending that this enthusiast or impostor 
concealed insidious and ambitious views, c ordered him to 
be seized and committed to the flames ; upon w T hich his 
followers were dispersed, and his sect entirely extinguished. 
Whether a punishment so severe was inflicted with reason 
and justice, is a point that has been debated, and yet re- 
mains uncertain ; for several writers of great credit and 
authority maintain the innocence of the sectary, while 
others assert that he was convicted of the most enormous 
crimes. 4 

IV. In the year 1411, a sect was discovered in the Ne- 
therlands, and more especially at Brussels, which owed its 
origin to an illiterate man, whose name was iEgidius Cantor, 
and to William of Hildenissen, a Carmelite monk ; and 
whose members were distinguished by the title of Men of 
Understanding. There were many things reprehensible 
in the doctrine of this sect, which seemed to be chiefly de- 
rived from the theology of the Mystics. For they pretended 
to be honoured with celestial visions ; denied that any could 
arrive at a perfect knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, with- 
out the extraordinary succours of a divine illumination ; 
declared the approach of a new revelation from heaven, 
more complete and perfect than the Gospel of Christ ; 
maintained, that the resurrection was already accomplished 
in the person of Jesus, and that no other resurrection was 
to be expected ; affirmed, that the inward man was not 
defiled by the outward actions, whatever they were; that 
the pains of hell were to have an end, and that not only 
all mankind, but even the devils themselves, were to re- 
turn to God, and be made partakers of eternal felicity. 
This sect seems to have been a branch of that of the Bre- 
thi-en and Sisters of the free spirit ; since they declared, 
that a new dispensation of grace and of spiritual liberty 
was to be promulgated to mortals by the Holy Ghost. L 
must however be acknowledged, on the other hand, that 
their absurdities were mingled with several opinions, which 
showed, that they were not totally void of understanding ; 
for they maintained, among other things, " 1st, That 

perhaps to more credit in such a point as this, than the laborious author 
from whom I differ, who was not profoundly acquainted with die history of 
the middle ages, and was by no means exempt from prejudice and parti ality. 

3Tjf" i> Theodoric de Niem tells us, that the sect came from Scotland, 
and that its leader gave himself out for the prophet Elias. Sigonius and 
Platina inform us, that this enthusiast came from France ; that he had 
white apparel, carried in his aspect the greatest modesty, and seduced 
prodigious numbers of people of both sexes, and of all ages ; that his 
followers, (called penitents!) among whom were several cardinals and 
priests, were clothed in white linen down to their heels, with caps, which 
covered their whole faces, except their eyes ; that they went in troops 
of ten, twenty, and forty thousand persons, from one city to another, 
calling out for mercy, and singing hymns ; that wherever they came they 
were received with great hospitality, and made innumerable proselytes ; 
that they fasted, or lived upon bread and water, during the time of theif 
pilgrimage, which continued generally nine or ten days. See Annal. 
Mediol. ap. Muratori. — Niem, lib. ii. cap. xvi. 

§Qf c What Dr. Mosheim hints but obscurely here, is explained by 
Sigonius and Platina, who tell us, that the pilgrims, mentioned in the 
preceding note, stopped at Viterbo, and that Boniface, fearing that the 
priest who headed them might endeavour by their assistance to seize the 
pontificate, sent a body of troops thither, who apprehended the false 
prophet, and carried him to Rome, where he was burned. 

d See L'Enfant, Hist, du Concile de Pise, torn. i. p. 102.— Poggi, 
His. Florentina, lib. iii. p. 122. — Marc. Anton. Sabellicusin Enneadibus 
RhapsodircHis.Ennead.ix. lib. ix: t. ii. op. p. 839, pub. at Basil in 1560. , 



Chap. V. 



DIVISIONS AND HERESIES. 



379 



Christ alone had merited eternal life and felicity for the 
human race, and that therefore men could not acquire 
this inestimable privilege by their own actions alone ; 
2dly, That the priests, to whom the people confessed 
their transgressions, had not the power of absolving them, 
but that it was Christ alone in whom this authority was 
vested; and 3dly, That voluntary penance and mortifica- 
tion were not necessary to salvation." These propositions, 
however, and some others, were declared heretical by Peter 
d'Ailly, bishop of Cambray, who obliged William of Hil- 
denissen to abjure them, a and opposed with the greatest 
vehemence and success the progress of this sect. 

V. The sect of the Flagellantes, or Whippers, continued 
to excite commotions in Germany, more especially in 
Thuringia and the Lower Saxony ; but these fanatics 
were very different from the ancient heretics of the same 
name, who ran wildly in troops through various provinces. 

* See the records of this transaction in Steph. Baiuz. Miscellan. torn, 
ii. p. 277. 

i> Excerpta Monachi Pernensis, in Jo. Burch. Menkenii Scriptor. 
Rerum Germanicar. torn. ii. p. 1521. — Chron. Monaster, in Anton. Mat- 
thaei Analect. vet. iEvi, torn. v. p. 71. — Chron. Magdeb. in Meibomii 
Scriptor. Rerum German, torn. ii. p. 362. — From sixteen articles of faith 
adopted by this sect,' which were committed to writing by a certain in- 
quisitor of Brandenburg in the year 1411, and which Conrad Schmidt 
is said to have taken from the papers of Walkenried, we may derive a 
tolerable idea of their doctrine, of which the substance is as follows : — 



The new "Whippers rejected not only the sacraments, but 
also every branch of external worship, and placed their 
only hopes of salvation in faith and flagellation ; to which 
they added some strange doctrines concerning the evil 
spirit, and other matters, wdiich are not explained in his- 
tory with sufficient perspicuity. The person that appeared 
at the head of this sect in Thuringia was Conrad Schmidt; 
and he was committed to the flames, with many of hi3 
followers, b in 1414, by Schonefeld, who was, at that time, 
inquisitor in Germany, and rendered his name famous by 
his industry and zeal in the extirpation of heresy. Nicolas 
Schaden suffered at Q.uedlinburgh for his attachment to 
this sect; and, though Berthold Schade, who was seized at 
Halberstadt in 1481, escaped death, as appears most proba- 
ble, by abjuring their doctrine, 1 we find in the records of 
these unhappy times a numerous list of the Flagellantes, 
whom the German inquisitors devoted to the flames. 

" That the opinions adopted by the Roman church, with respect to the 
efficacy of the sacraments, the flames of purgatory, praying for the 
dead, and several other points, are entirely false and groundless; and 
that the person who believes what is contained in the Apostles' Creed, 
repeats frequently the Lord's prayer and the Ave Maria, and at certain 
times lashes his body severely, as a voluntary punishment for the trans- 
gressions he has committed, shall obtain eternal salvation." 

c See the account of this matter, which is given by the learned Jo. 
Ernest Kappius, in his Relat. de rebus Theologicis Antiquis et Novis, 
an. 1747, p. 475. 



AN 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY; 



BOOK THE FOURTH, 



CONTAINING THE 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH 



FROM 



THE BEGINNING OF THE REFORMATION BY LUTHER 



TO 



THE PRESENT TIMES. 



INTRODUCTION. 



I. The order and method, that have been followed in 
tne former part of this work, cannot be continued, without 
the greatest inconvenience, in this fourth book, which re- 
lates to the modern history of the church. From the 
commencement of the sixteenth century, the face of reli- 
gion was remarkably changed ; the divisions, that had 
formerly perplexed the church, increased considerably ; 
and Uie Christian societies, that relinquished the establish- 
ed forms of divine worship, and erected themselves into 
separate assemblies, upon principles different from those 
of the Roman hierarchy, rapidly multiplied. This cir- 
cumstance renders it impossible to present in one connect- 
ed series, or, as it were, in one continued tablature, the 
events, vicissitudes, and revolutions, which happened in 
the church, divided its members, and enfeebled the domi- 
nion of its tyrants. From the period on which we now 
enter, the bond of union among Christians, that had been 
formed by a blind obedience to the Roman pontiff, was in 
almost every country, either dissolved, or at least re- 
laxed ; and consequently this period of our history must 
be divided into a multitude of branches, into as many 
parts, as there were famous sects that arose in this cen- 
tury. 

II. It is however proper to observe here, that many of 
the events, which distinguished this century, had a mani- 
fest relation to the church in general, and not to any 
Christian society in particular ; and, as these events de- 
serve to be mentioned separately, on account of their 
remarkable tendency to throw a light upon the state of 
Christianity in general, as well as upon the history of each 
Christian society, we shall divide this fourth book into 
wo main and principal parts, of which the one will con- 
tain the General and the other the Particular History 
of the Christian Religion. 



III. To the General History belong all those events 
which relate to the state of Christianity, considered in 
itself and in its utmost extent, to the Christian church 
viewed in the general, and abstracted from the miserable 
and multiplied divisions into which it was rent by the pas- 
sions of men. Under this head we shall take notice of 
the advancement and progress of Christianity in general, 
without any regard to the particular sects that were thus 
instrumental in promoting its interests : nor shall we 
omit the consideration of certain doctrines, rites, and 
institutions, which appeared worthy of admission to all, or 
at least to the greatest part of the Christian sects, and 
which consequently produced, in various countries, im- 
provements or changes of greater or less importance. 

IV. In the Particular History of this century, we 
propose reviewing, in their proper order, the various sects 
into which the church was divided. This part of our 
work, for the sake of method and precision, we shall sub- 
divide into two. In the first we shall comprehend what 
relates to the more ancient Christian sects, both in the 
eastern and western hemispheres ; while the second will 
be confined to the history of those more modern societies, 
the date of whose origin is posterior to the Reformation 
in Germany. In the accounts that are here to be given 
of the circumstances, fate, and doctrines of each sect, the 
method laid down in the introduction to this work shall 
be rigorously observed, as far as is possible, since it seems 
best calculated to lead us to an accurate knowledge of 
the nature, progress, and tenets of every Christian society, 
that arose in those times of discord. 

V. The most momentous event that distinguished the 
church after the fifteenth century, and we may add, the 
most glorious of all the revolutions that happened in the 
state of Christianity since the time of its divine and im • 



384 



INTRODUCTION. 



mortal Founder, was that happy change introduced into 
religion, which is known by the title of the Blessed 
Reformation. This grand revolution, which arose in 
Saxony from small beginnings, not only spread itself 
with the utmost rapidity through all the European pro- 
vinces, but also extended its efficacy to the most distant 
parts of the globe, and may be justly considered as the 
main spring which has moved the nations from that 
illustrious period, and occasioned the greatest part both of 
those civil and religious revolutions that fill the annals of 
history down to our times. The face of Europe was, in 
a more especial manner, changed by this great event. 



The present age feels yet, in a sensible manner, and ages 
to come will continue to perceive, the inestimable advan- 
tages produced by it, and the inconveniences of which it 
has been the innocent occasion. The history, therefore, 
of such an important revolution, from which so many 
others have derived their origin, and whose relations and 
connexions are so extensive and so general, demands a 
peculiar degree of attention, and has an unquestionable 
right to a distinguished place in such a work as this. 
We now proceed to give a compendious view of the mo- 
dern history of the Christian church, according to the 
intimated plan and method. 



THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. 



SECTION I. 

THE HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



I. The History of the Reformation is too ample and 
extensive to be comprehended, without seme degree of 
confusion, in the uninterrupted narrative of one Section : 
we shall therefore divide it into Four Parts. 

The first will contain an account of the state of 
Christianity before the commencement of the Reforma- 
tion; 

The second will give the history of the Refonnation 
from its beginning until the date of the Confession of 
Augsburg ; 

The third will exhibit a view of the same history, 
from this latter period to the commencement of the war 
of Smalcald ; and 

The fourth will carry it down to the peace that was 
concluded with the advocates of the Reformation in the 
3"ear 1555." This division is natural ; it arises sponta- 
neously from the events themselves. 

CHAPTER I. 

Concerning the State of the Christia7i Church before 
the Reformation. 

I. About the commencement of this century, the 
Roman pontiffs lived in the utmost tranquillity ; nor had 
they, as things seemed to be situated, the least reason to 
apprehend any opposition to their pretensions, or rebellion 
against their authority ; since those dreadful commotions, 
which had been excited in the preceding ages by the 
Waldenses, Albigenses, and Beghards, and more recently 
by the Bohemians, were entirely suppressed, and had 
yielded to the united powers of counsel and the sword. 
Such of the "Waldenses as yet remained, lived contented 
under the difficulties of extreme poverty in the valleys of 
Piedmont, and proposed to themselves no higher earthly 
felicity, than that of leaving to their descendants that 
wretched and obscure corner of Europe, which separates 
the- Alps from the Pyrenean mountains ; while the hand- 
ful of Bohemians, that survived the ruin of their faction, 
and still persevered in their opposition to the Roman yoke, 
had neither strength nor knowledge adequate to any 
new attempt, and therefore, instead of inspiring terror, 
became objects of contempt. 

II. We must not, however, conclude from this apparent 
tranquillity and security of the pontiffs and their adhe- 
rents, that their measures were applauded, or that their 

1 The writers of the history of the Reformation, of every rank and 
order, are enumerated by the very learned Philip Fred. Hane (who 
himself deserves a most eminent rank in this class.) in his Historia 
Sacroruni a Luthero emendatoruin, part i. and by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in 
his Cenlifolium Lutheranum, part ii. cap. clxxxvii. The greatest part, 
or at least the most eminent, of this list of authors must be consulted 
by such as desire a farther confirmation or illustration of the matters 
which 1 propose to relate briefly in the course of this history. The 
illustrious names of Sleidan and Seckendorff. and others, who have 
distinguished themselves in this kind of erudition, are too well known 

No. XXXIII. 97 



chains were worn without reluctance ; for not only pri- 
vate persons, but also the most powerful princes and 
sovereign states, exclaimed loudly against the despotic 
dominion of the pontiffs, the fraud, violence, avarice, and 
injustice that prevailed in their counsels, the arrogance, 
tyranny, and extortion of their legates, the unbridled 
licentiousness and enormous crimes of the clergy and 
monks of all denominations, the inordinate severity and 
partiality of the Roman laws ; and demanded publicly, 
as their ancestors had done before them, a reformation 
of the church, in its head and in its members, and a gene- 
ral council to accomplish that necessary and happy pur 
pose. b But these complaints and demands were not 
carried so far as to produce any good effect, since they 
came from persons who did not entertain the least doubt 
about the supreme authority of the pope in religious mat- 
ters, and who, of consequence, instead of attempting, 
themselves, to bring about that reformation which was 
; so ardently desired, remained entirely inactive, and look- 
; ed for redress to the court of Rome, or to a general coun- 
i cil. As long as the authority of the pontiff was deemed 
sacred, and his jurisdiction supreme, there could be no 
reason to expect any considerable reformation either of 
the corruptions of the church or of the manners of the 
clergy. 

HI. If any thing seemed proper to destroy the gloomy 
empire of superstition, and to alarm the security of the 
lordly pontiffs, it was the restoration of learning in 
Europe, and the number of men of genius that suddenly 
arose, under the benign influence of that auspicious 
revolution. But even this new scene was insufficient to 
terrify the lords of the church, or to make them appre- 
hend the decline of their power. It is true, that this 
happy revolution in the republic of letters dispelled the 
gloom of ignorance, and kindled in the minds of many 
: the love of truth and of sacred liberty. It is also certain 
that many of these great men, such as Erasmus and 
others, pointed the delicacy of their wit, or levelled the 
fury of their indignation, at the superstitions of the times, 
the corruptions of the priesthood, the abuses that reigned 
| in the court of Rome, and the brutish manners of the 
monastic orders. But this was \\v\ sufficient since nor.e 
had the courage to strike at the root of the evil, to attack 
the papal jurisdiction and statutes, which were absurdh, 
yet artfully, sanctified by the title of caiton-lau; or to 
i . 

j to render it necessary to recommend their works to the perusal of the 
curious reader. 

t These complaints and accusations have been largely enumerated 

. by several writers. See. anion? many others, Val. Ern. Loescherus, in 
Actis et Documents Reformationis, torn. i. cap. v. ix. et Ern. Salom. 

I Cyprian. Praefat ad Wilk. Ern. Tenzelii Historiam Reformat pub- 
lished at Leipsic in 1717. — The grievances -complained of by the Ger- 

I mans in particular, are amply mentioned by J. F. Georgius in his 
Gravamina lmperator. et Nationis German, adversus Sedem Romanam, 

I cap. vii. Nor du the wisrr and nore learned among the modern Ro- 



386 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. 1 



call in question the ancient and most pernicious opinion, 
that Christ had established a vicegerent at Rome, clothed 
with his supreme and unlimited authority. Entrenched 
within these strong holds, the pontiffs looked upon their 
own authority and the peace of the church as beyond 
the reach of danger, and treated with indifference the 
threats and invectives of their enemies. Armed with 
power to punish, and abundantly furnished with the 
means of rewarding in the most alluring manner, they 
were ready, on every commotion, to crush the obstinate, 
and to gain over the mercenary to their cause ; and this 
indeed could not but contribute considerably to the sta- 
bility of their dominion. 

IV. Hence it was, that the bishops of Rome lived in 
the utmost security and ease, and, being free from appre- 
hensions and cares of every kind, followed without re- 
luctance, and gratified without any limitation or restraint, 
the various demands of their lusts and passions. Alex- 
ander VI., whom humanity disowns, and who is rather 
to be considered as a monster than as a man, whose 
deeds excite horror, and whose enormities place him on 
a level with the most execrable tyrants of ancient times, 
stained the commencement of this century by the most 
atrocious crimes. The world was delivered from this 
papal fiend in the year 1503, by the poisonous draught 
which he had prepared for others, as is generally believed, 
though there are historians who attribute his death to 
sickness and old age." He Avas succeeded in the ponti- 
ficate by Pius "111., who, in less than a month, was 
deprived' by death of that high dignity. The vacant 
chair was obtained, by fraud and bribery, by Julian de la 
Rovere, who assumed the denomination of Julius II. 

V. To the odious list of vices with which Julius II. 
dishonoured the pontificate, we may add the most savage 
ferocity, the most audacious arrogance, the most despotic 
vehemence of temper, and the most extravagant and 
phrenetic passion for war and bloodshed. He began his 
military enterprises by entering into a war with the 
Venetians, after having strengthened his cause by an 
alliance with the emperor and the king of France. b He 
afterwards laid siege to Ferrara, and at length turned 
his arms against his former ally, the French monarch, 
in conjunction with the Venetians, Spaniards, and Swiss, 
whom he had drawn into this war, and engaged in his 
cause by an offensive league. His whole pontificate, in 
short, was one continued scene of military tumult ; nor 
did he suffer Europe to enjoy a moment's tranquillity as 
long as he lived. We may easily imagine the miserable 
condition of the church under a vicar of Christ, who 
lived in camps, amidst the din of arms, and who was 
ambitious of no other fame than that which arose from 
battles won and cities desolated. Under such a pontiff 
ail things must have gone to ruin ; the laws must have 
been subverted, the discipline of the church destroyed, 
and the genuine lustre of true religion entirely effaced. 

r.ianists pretend to deny that the church and clergy, before the time 
of Luther, were corrupt in a very high degree. 

" See. Cent. XV. part ii. chap. ii. sect, xviii. note ". 

>> See Du Bos, Histoire de la Ligue de Cambray. 

c See B. Christ. Sigismund. Liebii Commentatio de Nummis Ludo- 
vici XII., Epigraphe, 'Perdam Babylonis nomen,' insignibus, Leipsic, 
1717. — See also Thes. Epis. Crozianus, torn, i. — Colonia, His. Liter, de 
•a Ville de Lyon, torn. ii. — The authenticity and occasion of this medal 
have been much disputed, and, as is well known, have afforcj-i matter 
of keen debate. >> Harduini Concil. t. ix. p.1559. 



VI. Nevertheless, from this dreadful cloud that hung 
over Europe, some rays of light seemed to break forth, 
that promised a better state of things, and gave some 
reason to expect that reformation in the church which 
was so generally and so ardently desired. Louis XII., 
king of France, provoked by the insults he had received 
from this arrogant pontiff, meditated revenge, and even 
caused a medal to be stricken with a menacing inscrip- 
tion, expressing his resolution to overturn the power of 
Rome, which was represented on this coin by the title of 
Babylon. Several cardinals also, encouraged by the 
protection of this monarch and the emperor Maximilian 
I., assembled, in 1511, a council at Pisa, with an intention 
to set bounds to the tyranny of this furious pontiff, and 
to correct and reform the errors and corruptions of a 
superstitious church. Julius, on the other hand, relying 
on his own strength, and on the power of his allies, be- 
held these threatening appearances without the least 
concern, and even treated them with mockery and laugh- 
ter. He did not, however, neglect the methods of render- 
ing ineffectual the efforts of his enemies, that prudence 
dictated, and therefore gave orders for a council to meet 
in the Lateran palace in 1512, d in which the decrees of 
the council of Pisa were condemned and annulled in the 
most injurious and insulting terms. This condemnation 
would, undoubtedly, have been followed by the most dire 
and formidable anathemas against Louis and other prin- 
ces, had not death carried off this audacious pontiff in 
1512, in the midst of his ambitious and vindictive 
projects. 

VII. He was succeeded, in 1513, by Leo X., of the 
family of Medicis, who, though of a milder disposition 
than his predecessor, was equally indifferent about the 
interests of religion and the advancement of true piety. 
He was a protector of men of learning, and was himself 
learned, as far as the darkness of the age would admit. 
His time was divided between conversation with men of 
letters and pleasure, though it must be observed, that the 
greatest part of it was consecrated to the latter. He had 
an invincible aversion to whatever was accompanied 
with solicitude and care, and discovered the greatest 
impatience under events of that nature. He was re- 
markable for his prodigality, luxury, and imprudence, 
and has even been charged with impiety, if not atheism 
He did not, however, lose sight of the grand object which 
the generality of his predecessors had so much at heart, — 
that of promoting and advancing the opulence and gran- 
deur of the Roman see ; for he took the utmost care that 
nothing should be transacted in the Lateran council, 
(which Julius had assembled and left sitting,) that had 
the least tendency to favour the reformation of the church ; 
and, in a conference which he had with Francis I., king 
of France, at Bologna, he engaged that monarch to 
abrogate the Pragmatic Sanction/ which had been so 
long odious to the popes, and to substitute in its place 

• We have mentioned this Pragmatic Sanction, Cent. XV. part 11- 
chap. ii. sect. xvi. note c , and given there some account of its nature 
and design. This important edict is published at large in the eighth 
volume of the Concilia Harduini, as is the Concordat in the r.inth 
volume, and in Leibnitz' Mantissa Codicis Diplomat, part i. ii. The 
history of these two pieces is given in an ample and accurate r.anner 
by Bishop Burnet, in his History of the Reformation, vol. iii. — See also, 
on the same subject, Boulay's Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. vi. — Du Clos 
Histoire de Louis XI. — Histoire du Droit Ecclesiastique Francois, torn 
i. Diss ix. — Menagiana, torn. iii. 



Chap. T. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



387 



another body of laws, more advantageous to the papacy; 
which he accordingly imposed upon his subjects under 
the title of the Concordat, but not without their utmost 
indignation and reluctance. 11 

Till. The raging thirst of dominion that inflamed 
these pontiffs, and their arrogant endeavours to crush and 
oppress all who came within the reach of their power, 
were accompanied with the most insatiable avarice. All 
the provinces of Europe were, in a maimer, drained to 
enrich these spiritual tyrants, who were perpetually gap- 
ing after new accessions of wealth, in order to augment 
the number of their friends and the stability of their do- 
minion. And, indeed, according to the notions common- 
ly entertained, the rulers of the church seemed, from the 
nature of their character, to have a fair pretence for de- 
manding a sort of tribute from their flock : for none can 
deny to the supreme governors of any state (and such 
was" tire character assumed by the popes) the privilege of 
levying tribute from those over whom they bear rule. 
But, as the name of tribute obviously tended to alarm the 
jealousy and excite the indignation of the civil magistrate, 
the pontiffs were too cunning to employ it. and had re- 
course to various stratagems and contrivances to rob the 
subject without shocking the sovereign, and to levy taxes 
under the specious mask of religion. Among these con- 
trivances, the distribution of indulgences, which enabled 
the wealthy to purchase impunity for their crimes by cer- 
tain sums applied to religious uses, held an eminent rank. 
This traffic was renewed whenever the coffers of the 
church were exhausted. On these occasions, indulgences 
were warmly recommended to the ignorant multitude un- 
der some new and specious, yet fallacious pretext, and 
were greedily sought, to the great detriment both of indi- 
viduals and of the community. 

IX. Notwithstanding the veneration and homage that 
were paid to the Roman pontiffs, they were far from being | 
universally reputed infallible in their decisions, or unlimit- 
ed in their authority. The wiser part of the German, j 
French. Flemish, and British nations, considered them as j 
liable to error, and bounded by law. The councils of j 
Constance and Basil had contributed extremely to rectify j 
the notions of the people in that respect ; and from that ' 
period all Christians, except the superstitious monks and I 
parasites of Rome, were persuaded that the pope was 
subordinate to a general council, that his decrees were j 
not infallible, and that the council had a right to depose 

§3r * The king went in person to the parliament to offer the Concordat 
to be registered; and letters patent were made out. requiring all the 
judges and courts of justice to observe this act, and see it executed. 
The parliament, after deliberating a month upon this important matter, 
concluded not to register the Concordat, but to observe still the Pragma- 
tic Sanction, unless the new edict should be received and established in 
as great an assembly as that was, which published the other in the 
reign of Charles VII.; and when by violence and force they were 
obliged to publish the Concordat, they joined to this publication a 
solemn protest, and an appeal from the pope to the next general coun- 
cil; into both which measures the university and the clergy entered 
with the greatest alacrity and zeal. But royal and papal despotism at 
length prevailed. 

The chancellor Du-Prat, who was principally concerned in promo- 
ting the Concordat, has been generally regarded as an enemy to the 
liberties of the Gallican church. The illustrious and learned president 
Henault has not, however, hesitated to defend his memory against this 
accusation, and to justify the Concordat as an equitable contract and as a 
measure attended with less inconvenience than the Pragmatic Sanction. 
He observes, that by the king's being invested, by the Concordat, with the 
privilege of nominating to the bishoprics and vacant benefices of the 
first class, many corruptions and abuses were prevented, which arose 
from the simoniacal practices that prevailed almost every where, while, 



him, whenever he was convicted of gross errors or enor- 
mous crimes. Thus were the people, in some measure, 
prepared for the reformation of the church ; and hence 
arose that ardent desire, that earnest expectation of a gene- 
ral council, which filled the minds of the wisest and best 
Christians in this century. Hence also the frequent appeals 
which were made to this approaching council, when the 
court of Rome issued any new edict, or made any new 
attempt repugnant to the dictates of piety and justice. 

X. The licentious examples of the pontiffs were zeal- 
ously imitated in the lives and manners of the subordi- 
nate rulers and ministers of the church. The greatest 
part of the bishops and canons passed their days in disso- 
lute mirth and luxury, and squandered away, in the gra- 
tification of their lusts and passions, the wealth that had 
been set apart for religious and charitable purposes. Nor 
were they less tyrannical than voluptuous ; for the most 
despotic 'princes never treated their vassals with more ri- 
gour and severity, than these spiritual rulers employed to- 
ward all who were under their jurisdiction. The decline 
of virtue among the clergy was attended with the loss of 
the public esteem ; and the most considerable part of that 
once respected body became, by their sloth and avarice, 
their voluptuousness and impurity, their ignorance and le- 
vity, contemptible and infamous, not only in the eyes of 
the wise and good, but also in the general judgment of the 
multitude. b Nor could the case be otherwise as matters 
were now constituted ; for, as all the offices and dignities 
of the church had become venal, the way of preferment 
was inaccessible to merit, and the -wicked and licentious 
were rendered capable of rising to the highest ecclesiasti- 
cal honours. 

XI. The prodigious swarms of monks that overspread 
Europe were justly considered as burthens to society, and 
occasioned frequent murmurs and complaints. Neverthe- 
less, such was the genius of the asre. of an ajre that was 
emerging from the thickest gloom of ignorance, and was 
suspended, as it were, in a dubious situation between dark- 
ness and light, that these monastic drones would have re- 
mained undisturbed, had they taken the least pains to 
preserve any remains even of the external air of decency 
and religion, that used to distinguish them in former times. 
But the Benedictine and other monkish fraternities, who 
were invested with the privilege of possessing certain lands 
and revenue 2 , broke through all restraint, made the worst 
possible use of their opulence, and, forgetful of the gravity 
1 — 

according to the Pragmatic Sanction, every church chose its bishop, and 
. every monastery its abbot. He observes, moreover, that this nomination 
: was the natural right of the crown, as the most considerable part of the 
, great benefices had been created by the kings of France; and he insists 
particularly on this consideration, that the right which Christian commu- 
nities have to choose their leaders, cannot be exercised by such large bodies 
; without much confusion and many inconveniences: and that the subjects, 
by entrusting their sovereign with the government of the slate, invest him, 
ipso fucln, with an authority over the church, which is a part of the 
state, and its noblest branch. See Henault's Abrege Chronologique de 
l'Histoire de France, in the particular remarks that are placed at the 
end of the reign of Louis XIV. 

The most specious objection that was made to the Concordat was 
this: that, in return for the nomination to the vacant benefices, the ki-<j 
granted to the popes the an/nates, or first-fruits, which had so long been 
complained of as an intolerable grievance. There is. however, no men- 
tion of this equivalent in the Concordat: and it was by a papal bull 
that succeeded this compact, that the pontiffs claimed the payment of the 
first-fruits, of which they had put themselves in possession in 1316, and 
which had been suspended by the Pragmatic Sanction. 

i> See Cornelii Aurelii Gaudani Apocalypsis, seu Visio Mirabilia 
super miserabili Statu Matris Ecclesite, in Casp. Burmanni Analect 
Hist, de Hadriano VI. p. 245, printed at Utrecht in 1707. 



3S8 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. I. 



of- their character and of the laws of their order, rushed 
headlong into the shameless practice of vice in all its va- 
rious kinds and degrees. On the other hand, the Mendi- 
cant orders, and especially those who followed the rides of 
St. Dominic and St. Francis, though they were not car- 
ried away with the torrent of licentiousness that was over- 
whelming the church, lost their credit in a different way ; 
for their rustic impudence, their ridiculous superstitions, 
their ignorance, cruelty, and brutish manners, tended to 
alienate from them the minds of the people, and gradu- 
ally diminished their reputation. They had the most bar- 
barous aversion to the arts and sciences, and expressed a 
like abhorrence of certain eminent and learned men, who, 
being eagerly desirous of opening the paths of science to 
the pursuit of the studious youth, recommended the cul- 
ture of the mind, and attacked the barbarism of the age 
in their writings and in their discourse. This is suffi- 
ciently evident from what happened to Rcuchlinus, Eras- 
mus, and other learned men. 



§3r * This most impious fraud is recorded at length by Ruchat, at the 
end of the sixth volume of his Histoire de la Reformation en Suisse ; 
and also by Hottinger, in his Histor. Eccles. Helvet. torn. i. There is 
also a compendious, but distinct, narration of this infernal stratagem, in 
bishop Burnet's Travels through France, Italy, Germany, and Swit- 
zerland. The stratagem in question was the consequence of a rivalry 
between the Franciscans and Dominicans, and more especially of their 
controversy concerning the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary. 
The former maintained that she was born without the blemish of ori- 
ginal sin; the latter asserted the contrary. The doctrine of the Fran- 
ciscans, in an age of darkness and superstition, could not but be popu- 
lar; and hence the Dominicans lost ground from day to day. To sup- 
port the credit of their order, they resolved, at a chapter holden at 
VVimpfen in 1501, to have recourse to fictitious visions and dreams, in 
which the people at that time had an easy faith ; and they determined 
to make Bern the scene of their operations. A person named Jetzer, 
who was extremely simple, and much inclined to austerities, and who 
had taken their habit as a lay-brother, was chosen as the instrument of 
the delusions they were contriving. One of the four Dominicans, who 
had undertaken the management of this plot, conveyed himself secretly 
into Jetzer's cell, and about midnight appeared to him in a horrid figure, 
surrounded with howling dogs, and seeming to blow fire from his 
nostrils, by the means of a box of combustibles which he held near his 
mouth. In this frightful form he approached Jetzer's bed, told him that 
he was the ghost of a Dominican, who had been killed at Paris, as a judg- 
ment of Heaven for laying aside his monastic habit; that he was con- 
demned to purgatory for this crime; adding, at the same timey that, by 
nis means, he might be rescued from his misery, which was beyond ex- 
pression. This story, accompanied with horrible cries and howlings, 
terribly alarmed poor Jetzer, and engaged him to promise to do all that 
was in his power to deliver the Dominican from his torment. Upon this 
the impostor told him, that nothing but the most extraordinary mortifi- 
cations, such as the discipline of the whip, performed during eight days 
by the whole monastery, and Jetzer's lying prostrate in the form of one 
crucified in the chapel during mass, could contribute to his deliverance. 
He added, that the performance of these mortifications would draw down 
upon Jetzer the peculiar protection of the Blessed Virgin ; and con- 
cluded by saving, that he would appear to him again, accompanied with 
two other spirits. Morning was no sooner come, than Jetzer gave an 
account of this apparition to the rest of the convent, who unanimously 
advised him to undergo the discipline that was enjoined him ; and every 
one consented to bear his share of the task imposed. The deluded 
simpleton obeyed, and was admired as a saint by the multitudes that 
crowded about the convent, while the four friars who managed the im- 
posture, magnified, in the most pompous manner, the miracle of this ap- 
parition, in their sermons and in their conversation. • The night after, 
the apparition was renewed with the addition of two friars, dressed 
like devils; and Jetzer's faith was augmented by hearing from the 
spectre all the secrets of his life and thoughts, which the impostors had 
learned from his confessor. In this and some subsequent scenes, the 
impostor talked much of the Dominican order, which he said was pe- 
culiarly dear to the blessed Virgin ; he added, that the Virgin knew 
herself to be conceived in original sin ; that the doctors who taught the 
contrary were in purgatory ; that the blessed Virgin abhorred the Fran- 
ciscans for making her equal with her son ; and that, the town of Bern 
would be destroyed for harbouring such plagues within its walls. In 
one of these apparitions, Jetzer imagined that the voice of the spectre 
resembled that of the prior of the convent, and this was not a mistake; but, 
not suspecting a fraud, he gave little attention to this. The prior ap- 
peared in various forms, sometimes in that of St. Barbara, at others in 



XII. Among all the monastic orders, none enjoyed a 
higher degree of power and authority than the Dominican 
friars, Avhose credit Avas great, and whose influence Avas 
very widely extended. This will not appear surprising, 
Avhcn Ave consider that they filled very eminent stations in 
the church, presided every Avhere over the terrible tribunal 
of the inquisition, and had the care of souls, Avith the func- 
tion of confessors, in all the courts of Europe; a circum- 
stance which, in those times of ignorance and superstition, 
manifestly tended to put most of the European princes in 
their power. But, notAvithstanding all this credit and au- 
thority, the Dominicans had their enemies ; and about 
this time their influence began to decline. SeA r eral marks 
of perfidy, that appeared in the measures they employed 
to extend their authority, justly exposed them to the pub- 
lic indignation. Nothing- could be more infamous than 
the frauds they practised to accomplish (heir purposes, as 
maybe seen, among other examples, by the tragedy Avhich 
they acted at Bern in 1509. a They Avere perpetually em- 

that of St. Bernard ; at length he assumed that of the Virgin Mary, and, 
for that purpose, clothed himself in the habits that were employed to 
adorn her statue on the great festivals ; the little images, that on these 
days are set on the altars, were used for angels, which, being tied to a 
cord that passed through a pulley over Jetzer's head, rose up and down, 
and danced about the pretended virgin to increase the delusion. The 
Virgin, thus equipped, addressed a long discourse to Jetzer, in which, 
among other things, she told him that she was conceived in original sin, 
though she had remained but a short time under that blemish. She gave 
him, as a miraculous proof of her presence, a host, or consecrated wafer, 
which turned from white to red in a moment ; and after various visits, 
in which the greatest enormities were transacted, the Virgin-prior told 
Jetzer, that she would give him the most affecting and undoubted marks 
of her Son's love, by imprinting on him the five wounds that pierced 
Jesus on the cross, as she had done before to St. Lucia and St. Catharine. 
Accordingly, she took his hand by force, and struck a large nail through 
it, which threw the poor dupe into the greatest torment. The next night 
this masculine virgin brought, as she pretended, some of the linen, in 
which Christ had been buried, to soften the wound, and gave Jetzer a 
soporific draught, which had in it the blood of an unbaptized child, some 
grains of incense and of consecrated salt, some quicksilver, the hairs ot 
the eye-brows of a child, all which, with some stupifying and poisonous 
ingredients, were mingled by the prior with magic ceremonies, and a 
solemn dedication of himself to the devil in hope of his succour. This 
draught threw the poor wretch into a sort of lethargy, during which the 
monks imprinted on his body the other four wounds of Christ in such a 
manner that he felt no pain. When he awoke, he found, to his unspeak- 
able joy, these impressions on his bod) - , and came at last to fancy him- 
self a representative of Christ in the various parts of his passion. He 
was, in this state, exposed to the admiring multitude on the principal 
altar of the convent, to the great mortification of the Franciscans. The 
Dominicans gave him some other draughts, that threw him into convul- 
sions, which were followed by a voice conveyed through a pipe into the 
mouths of two images, one of Mary, the other of the child Jesus; the 
former of which had tears painted upon its cheeks in a lively manner. 
The little Jesus asked his mother, by means of this voice, (which was 
that of the prior.) why she wept; and she answered, that her tears were 
occasioned by the impious manner in which the Franciscans attributed 
to. her the honour that was due to him, in saying that she was conceived 
and born without sin. 

The apparitions, false prodigies, and abominable stratagems of these 
Dominicans, were repeated every night; and the matter was at length so 
grossly over-acted, that, simple as Jetzer was, he at last discovered it, 
and had almost killed the prior, who appeared to him one night in the 
form of the Virgin with a crown on her head. The Dominicans, fear- 
ing, by this discovery, to lose the fruits of their imposture, thought the 
best method would be to own the whole matter to Jetzer, and to engage 
him, by the most seducing promises of opulence and glory, to carry on 
the delusion. He was persuaded, or at least appeared to be so. But the 
Dominicans, suspecting that he was not entirely gained over, resolved 
to poison him. His constitution was so vigorous, that though they gave 
him poison five times, he was not destroyed by it. One day they sent 
him a loaf prepared with some spices, which growing green in a day 
or tAvo, he threw a piece of it to a wolf's whelps that were in the 
monastery, and it killed them immediately. At another time they poi- 
soned the host; but as he vomited it soon after he had taken it, he escaped 
once more. In short, there were no means of securing him, which the 
most detestable impiety and barbarity could invent, that they did not 
put in practice, till, finding at last an opportunity of getting out of the 
convent, he threw himself into the'hands of the magistrates, to whom 



Chaf. I. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



389 



ployed in stigmatizing', with the opprobious mark of he- 
resy, numbers of learned and pious men, in encroaching 
upon the rights and property of others to augment their 
possessions, and in contriving the most iniquitous snares 
and stratagems for the destruction of their adversaries ; a 
and they were the principal counsellors by whose instiga- 
tion and advice Leo X. was determined to that most rash 
and imprudent measure, even the public condemnation of 
Luther. 

XIII. The principal places in the public schools of 
learning were filled very frequently by monks of the men- 
dicant orders. This unhappy circumstance prevented 
their emerging from that ignorance and darkness which 
had so long enveloped them ; and it also rendered them 
inaccessible to that auspicious light of improved science, 
whose salutary beams had already been felt in several of 
the European countries. The instructors of youth, dig- 
nified with the venerable titles of artists, grammarians, 
philosophers, and dialecticians, loaded the memories of 
their laborious pupils with a certain quantity of barbarous 
terms, arid and senseless distinctions, and scholastic pre- 
cepts, delivered in the most inelegant style ; and all such 
as could repeat this jargon with readiness and rapidity, 
were considered as men of uncommon eloquence and eru- 
dition. The whole body of the philosophers extolled Aris- 
totle beyond measure, while scarcely any studied him, and 
none understood him : for what was now exhibited, as the 
philosophy of that celebrated sage, was really nothing 
more than a confused and motley heap of obscure notions, 
sentences, and divisions, which even the public doctors and 
heads of schools were unable to comprehend ; and if, 
among these thorns of scholastic wisdom, there was any 
tiling that had the appearance of fruit, it was crushed and 
blasted by the furious wranglings and disputes of the 
Scotists and Thomists, the Realists and Nominalists, 
whose clamours and contentions were unhappily heard in 
all the European colleges. 

XIV. The wretched and senseless manner of teaching 
theology in this century, may be learned from many books 
yet extant, which were written by the divines of that pe- i 
riod, and which, in reality, have no other merit than their 
enormous bulk. There were very few expositors of the 
Scriptures during this century ; and scarcely any of the 
Christian doctors had a critical acquaintance with the sa- 1 
cred oracles. This kind of knowledge was so rare, that. 
when Luther arose, there could not be found, even in the 
university of Paris, which was regarded as the first and ! 
most famous of all the public schools of learning, a single i 
person qualified to dispute with him, or oppose his doctrine | 
upon a scriptural foundation. Any commentators, that 
were at this time to be found, were such as, laying aside 
all attention to the true meaning and force of the words 
of Scripture, which their profound ignorance of the origi- 
nal languages and of the rules of criticism rendered them 
incapable of investigating, gave a loose to their vain and 
irregular fancies, in the pursuit of mysterious significations. 
The greatest part of the public teachers belonged to the 

lie made a full discovery of this infernal plot. This intelligence being; 
sent to Rome, commissaries were ordered to examine the affair; and the 
whole imposture bein? fully proved, the four friars were solemnly de- 
jrraded from their priesthood, and were burned alive, on the last day of 
May, 1509. Jetzer died some time after at Constance, having poisoned 
himself, as was believed by some. Had his life been taken away be- 
fore he had found an opportunity of making the discovery already 
mentioned, this execrable and horrid plot, which, in many of its circum- : 

No. XXXIII. 98 



classes of divines, already mentioned under the titles of 
Positivi and Sententiarii, who were extremely fond, the 
former of loading their accounts, both of the truths and 
precepts of religion, with multiplied quotations and autho- 
rities from the writings of the ancient doctors : the latter 
of explaining the doctrines of the Gospel by the rules of a 
subtile and intricate philosophy. 

XV. It must at the same time be observed, that the 
divines of this century disputed with great freedom upon 
religious subjects, even upon those which were looked up- 
on as most essential to salvation. There were several 
points of doctrine, which had not yet been determined by 
the authority of the church ; nor did the pontiffs, without 
some very urgent reason, restrain the right of private 
judgment, or force the consciences of men. except in those 
cases where doctrines were adopted that seemed detriment- 
al to the supremacy of the apostolic see, or to the tempo- 
ral interests of the sacerdotal and monastic orders. Hence 
it is, that we could mention many Christian doctors before 
Luther, who inculcated not only with impunity, but even 
with applause, the very same tenets that afterwards drew 
upon him such heavy accusations and such bitter re- 
proaches ; and it is beyond all doubt, that this great re- 
former might have propagated these opinions without any 
danger of molestation, had he not pointed his warm re- 
monstrances against the opulence of Rome, the overgrown 
fortunes of the bishops, the majesty of the pontiffs, and 
the towering ambition of the Dominicans. 

XVI. The public worship of the Deity was now no 
more than a pompous round of external ceremonies, the 
greatest part of which were insignificant and senseless, 
and much more adapted to dazzle the eyes than to touch 
the heart. Of those who were at all qualified to administer 
public instruction to the people, the number was not very 
considerable ; and their discourses, which contained little 
beside fictitious reports of miracles and prodigies, insipid 
fables, wretched quibbles, and illiterate jargon, deceived 
instead of instructing the multitude. Several of these 
sermons are yet extant, which it is impossible to read 
without the highest indignation and contempt. Those 
who, on account of their gravity of manners, or their 
supposed superiority in point of wisdom and knowledge, 
held the most distinguished rank among these vain de- 
claimers, had a common-place set of subjects allotted tc 
them, on which they were constantly exercising the force 
of their lungs and the power of then eloquence. These 
subjects were, the authority of the holy mother church, 
and the obligation of obedience to her decisions ; the vir- 
tues and merits of the saints, and their credit in the court 
of heaven ; the dignity, glory, and love of the blessed Vir- 
gin ; the efficacy of relics ; the duty of adorning churches, 
and endowing monasteries ; the necessity of good works 
(as that phrase was then understood) to salvation ; the in- 
tolerable burnings of purgatory, and the utility of indul- 
gences. Such were the topics that employed the zeal and 
labours of the most eminent doctors of tins century ; and 
they were, indeed, the only subjects that could tend to fill 

stances, was conducted with art, would have been handed down to pos- 
terity as a stupendous miracle. This is a very brief account of the 
matter; such as are desirous of a more circumstantial relation of this 
famous imposture, may consult the authors mentioned in the beginning 
of tliis note. 

* See Bilib. Pirkheimeri Epistola ad Hadrianum Pontif. Maxim, de 
Dominicanorum flagitiis, in operibus ejus. p. 372, This letter is also to 
be found in Gerdesii Intr. ad Hist. Renov. Evangel, t. i. p. 170. Append. 



390 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. 1. 



the coffers of the good old mother church, and advance 
her temporal interests. Ministers who would have taken 
it into their heads to inculcate the doctrines and precepts 
of the Gospel, to exhibit the example of its divine author, 
and the efficacy of his mediation, as the most powerful 
motives to righteousness and virtue, and to represent the 
love of God and mankind as the great duties of the Chris- 
tian life, would have been very unprofitable servants to 
the church and to the papacy, however they might have 
promoted the cause of virtue and the salvation of souls. 

XVII. From this state of affairs we may draw conclu- 
sions respecting the true causes of that incredible ignorance 
in religious matters, which reigned in all countries, and 
among all ranks and orders of men ; an ignorance accom- 
panied with the vilest forms of superstition, and the great- 
est corruption of manners. The clergy were far from show- 
ing the least disposition to enlighten the ignorance, or to 
check the superstition of the times ; which, indeed, they 
even nourished and promoted, as conducive to their safety, 
and favourable to their interests. Nor was there more zeal 
shown in stemming the torrent of immorality and licenti- 
ousness, than in dispelling the clouds of superstition and 
ignorance ; for the prudence of the church had easily fore- 
seen, that the traffic of indulgences could not but suffer 
from a diminution of the crimes and vices of mankind, 
and that, in proportion as virtue gained an ascendency 
upon the manners of the multitude, the profits arising 
from expiations, satisfactions, and the like ecclesiastical 
contrivances, would necessarily decrease. 

XVIII. Such was the dismal condition of the church. 
Its corruption was complete, and the abuses which its 
rulers permitted had reached the greatest height of enor- 
mity. Proportioned to the greatness of this corruption was 
the impatient ardour with which all, who were endowed 
with any tolerable portion of solid learning, genuine piety, 
or even good sense, desired to see the church reformed and 
purged from these shocking abuses ; and the number of 
those who were affected in this manner was very consi- 
derable in all parts of the western world. The greatest 
part of them, indeed, were perhaps over-moderate in their 
demands. They did not extend their views to a change 
in the form of ecclesiastical government, a suppression of 
those doctrines, which, however absurd, had acquired a 
high degree of credit by their antiquity, or even to an 
abrogation of those rites and ceremonies, which had been 
multiplied in such an extravagant manner, to the great 
detriment of true religion and rational piety. All they 
aimed at was, to set limits to the overgrown power of the 
pontiffs, reform the corrupt manners of the clergy, and 
prevent the frauds that were too commonly practised by 
that order of men ; to dispel the ignorance and correct the 
errors of the blinded multitude, and to deliver them from 
the heavy and insupportable burthens which were im- 
posed upon them under religious pretexts. But as it was 
impossible to obtain any of these salutary purposes with- 
out the suppression of various absurd and impious opinions, 
from which the grievances complained of sprang, or, in- 
deed, without a general reformation of the religion that 
was publicly professed, this was supposed to be ardently, 
though silently wished for, by all those who openly de- 
manded the ' reformation of the church in its head and 
in its members.' 

XIX. If any sparks of real piety subsisted under this 



despotic empire of superstition, they were only to be found 
among the Mystics ; for this sect, renouncing the subtlety 
of the schools, the vain contentions of the learned, and all 
the acts and ceremonies of external worship, exhorted their 
followers to aim at nothing but internal sanctity of heart, 
and communion with God, the centre and source of holi- 
ness and perfection. Hence they were loved and respect- 
ed by many persons, who had a serious sense of relic-ion 
and a devotional frame of mind. Yet, as they were not 
entirely free from the reigning superstitions, but associ- 
ated many vulgar errors with their practical precepts and 
directions ; — and as their excessive passion for contempla- 
tion led them into chimerical notions, and sometimes into 
a degree of fanaticism that approached to madness — more 
effectual succours than theirs were necessary to combat 
the inveterate errors of the times, and to bring about the 
reformation that was expected with such impatience. 

CHAPTER II. 

The History of the Refor?nation, from its Commence- 
ment to the Confession of Augsburg. 

I. While the Roman pontiff slumbered in security at 
the head of the church, and saw nothing throughout the 
vast extent of his dominion but tranquillity and submis- 
sion ; and while the worthy and pious professors of ge- 
nuine Christianity almost despaired of seeing that refor- 
mation on which their most ardent desires and expecta- 
tions Avere bent ; an obscure and inconsiderable person 
suddenly offered himself to public view in the year 1517, 
and laid the foundation of this long-expected change, by 
opposing, with undaunted resolution, his single force to 
the torrent of papal ambition and despotism. This extra- 
ordinary man was Martin Luther, a native of Eisleberj 
in Saxony, a monk of the Augustinian Eremites, (one of 
the Mendicant orders,) and, at the same time, professor ol 
divinity in the university which had been elected at Wit- 
tenberg, a few years before this period, by Frederic the 
Wise. The papal chair was, al that time, filled by Leo X. ; 
Maximilian I., a prince of the house of Austria, was king 
of the Romans dnd emperor ol Gernian)^ ; and Frederic, 
already mentioned, was elector of Saxony. The bold ef- 
forts of this new adversary of the pontiffs were honoured 
with the applause of many ; but few or none entertained 
confident hopes of his success. It seemed scarcely possi- 
ble that tins puny David could hurt a Goliah, whom so 
many heroes had opposed in vain. 

II. The qualities or talents that distinguished Luther 
were not of a common or ordinary kind. His genius was 
truly great and unparalleled ; his memory vast and tena- 
cious ; his patience in supporting trials, difficulties, and 
labour, incredible ; his magnanimity invincible, and un 
shaken by the vicissitudes of human affairs ; and his 
learning most extensive, considering the age in which he 
lived. All this will be acknowledged, even by his ene- 
mies, at least by such of them as are not totally blinded 
by a spirit of partiality and faction. He was deeply versed 
in the theology and philosophy that were in vogue in the 
schools during this century, and he taught them both with 
great reputation and success in the university of Witten- 
berg. As a philosopher, he embraced the doctrine of the 
Nominalists, which Avas the system adopted by his order ; 
while, in divinity, he followed chiefly the sentiments of 



Chap. II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



391 



Augustin ; but in both he preferred the decisions of Scrip- 
ture, and the dictates of right reason, to the authority and 
opinions of fallible men. It would be equally rash and 
absurd to represent this great man as exempt from error, 
and free from infirmities and defects ; yet, if we except 
the contagious effects of the age in which he lived, and 
of the religion in which he had been brought up, we shall 
perhaps find few points of his character that render him 
liable to reproach. a 

III. The first opportunity that this great man had of 
unfolding, to the view of a blinded and deluded age, the 
truth which struck his astonished sight, was offered by a 
Dominican, whose name was John Tetzel. h This bold 
and enterprising monk had been chosen on account of his 
uncommon impudence, by Albeit, archbishop of Mentz 
and Magdeburg, to preach and proclaim, in Germany, 
those famous indulgences of Leo X., which administered 
the remission of all sins, past, present, and to come, how- 



' The writers who have given a circumstantial account of Luther and 
his transactions, are accurately enumerated by Jo. Alb. Fabricius, in his 
Centifolium Lutheranum. 

<> The historians who have particularly mentioned Tetzel, and his 
odious methods of deluding the multitude, are enumerated in the work 
quoted in the preceding note, part i. p. 47 ; part ii. p. 530. — What is 
said of this vile deceiver by Echard and Guetif, (Scriptores Ordin. 
Preedicator. torn, ii.) discovers the blindest zeal and the meanest par- 
tiality. 

fjr e In describing the efficacy of these indulgences, Tetzel said, 
among other enormities, that " even had any one ravished the mother of 
God, he (Tetzel) had wherewithal to efface his guilt." He also boasted 
that " he had saved more souls from hell by these indulgences, than St. 
Peter had converted to Christianity by his preaching." 

§£=T d Dr. Mosheim has taken no notice of the calumnies invented 
and propagated by some late authors, in order to make Luther's zealous 
opposition to die publication of indulgences appear to be the effect of 
selfish and ignoble motives. It may not, therefore, be improper to set 
that point in a true light ; not that the cause of the reformation (which 
must stand by its own intrinsic dignity, and is in no way affected by the 
views or characters of its instruments) can derive any strength from this 
inquiry ; but as it may tend to vindicate the personal character of a man, 
who has done eminent service to the cause of religion. 

Mr. Hume, in his history of the reign of Henry VIII., has thought 
proper to repeat what the enemies of the reformation, and some of its 
dubious or ill-informed friends, have advanced, with respect to the motives 
that engaged Luther to oppose the doctrine of indulgences. This ele- 
gant historian affirms, that the " Augustin friars had usually been em- 
ployed in Saxony to preach indulgences, and from this trust had derived 
both profit and consideration ; that Arcemboldi gave this occupation to 
the Dominicans ; that Martin Luther, an Augustin friar, professor in 
the university of Wittenberg, resenting the affront put upon his ordei; 
began to preach against the abuses that were committed in the sale of 
indulgences, and being provoked by opposition, proceeded even to decry 
indulgences themselves." It is to be wished, that Mr. Hume's candour 
had engaged him to examine this accusation better, before he had ven- 
tured to repeat it. In the first place, it is not true, that the Augustin 
friars had been usually employed in Saxony to preach indulgences. It 
is well known, that the commission had been offered alternately, and 
sometimes jointly, to all the Mendicants, whether Augustin friars, Do- 
minicans, Franciscans, or Carmelites. From the year 1229, that lucra- 
tive commission was principally entrusted to the Dominicans ; * and in 
the records which relate to indulgences, we rarely meet with the name 
of an Augustin friar, and not a single act by which it appears, that the 
Roman pontiff ever named the friars of that order to the office under 
consideration. More particularly it is remarkable, that for half a century 
before Luther, (i. e. from 1450 to 1517,) during which period indulgen- 
ces were sold with the most scandalous marks of avaricious extortion 
and impudence, we scarcely find an Augustin friar mentioned as being 
employed in that service ; if we except a monk named Baluzius, who was 
no more than an underling of the papal quaestor Raymond Peraldus ; so 
far is it from being true, that the Augustin monks were exclusively, or 
even usually, engaged in that service. t Mr. Hume has built his 
assertion upon the sole authority of a single expression of Paul Sarpi, 
which has been abundantly refuted by De Priero, Pallavicini, and 
Graweson, the mortal enemies of Luther. — But it may be alleged, that, 
even supposing it was not usual to employ the Augustin friars alone in 
the propagation of indulgences, yet Luther might be offended at seeing 
such an important commission given to the Dominicans exclusively, and 
that, consequently, this was his motive in opposing the propagation of 



ever enormous their nature, to those who were rich enough 
to purchase them. The frontless monk executed this ini- 
quitous commission not only with matchless insolence, in- 
decency, and fraud, but even carried his impiety so far as 
to derogate from the all-sufficient power and influence of 
the merits of Christ. At this, Luther, unable to repress 
his just indignation, raised his warning voice, and in 
ninety-five propositions, (maintained publicly at Witten- 
berg, on the 30th of September, 1517,) censured the ex- 
travagant extortion of these quaestors, and plainly pointed 
out the pontiff as a partaker of their guilt, since he suf- 
fered the people to be seduced, by such delusions, from 
placing their principal confidence in Christ, the only proper 
object of their trust. This was the commencement and 
foundation of that memorable rupture and revolution in 
the church, which humbled the grandeur of the lordly 
pontiffs, and eclipsed so great a part of their glory. d 
IV. This debate between Luther and Tetzel was, at 



indulgences. To show the injustice of this allegation, I observe, second- 
ly, that, in the time of Luther, the preaching of indulgences had become 
very odious and unpopular ; and it is therefore far from being probable, 
that Luther would have been solicitous about obtaining such a commis- 
sion, either for himself or for his order. The princes of Europe, with 
many bishops, and multitudes of learned and pious men, had opened 
their eyes upon the turpitude of this infamous traffick ; and even the 
Franciscans and Dominicans, toward the conclusion of the fifteenth 
century, opposed it publicly, both in their discourses and in their wri- 
tings X The very commission, which is supposed to have excited the 
envy of Luther, was offered by Leo to the general of the Franciscans, 
and was refused both by him and his order,! who gave it over entirely 
to Albert, bishop of Mentz and Magdeburg. Is it then to be imagined, 
that either Luther, or the other Augustin friars, aspired after a commis- 
sion of which the Franciscans were ashamed'? Besides, it is a mistake 
to affirm, that this office was given to the Dominicans in general ; for it 
was given to Tetzel alone, an individual member of that order, who had 
been notorious for his extortion, profligacy, and barbarity. 

But that neither resentment nor envy were the motives that led Luther 
to oppose the doctrine and publication of indulgences, will appear with 
the utmost evidence, if we consider, in the third place, that he was never 
accused of any such motives, either in the edicts of the pontiffs of his 
time, or amidst the other reproaches of the contemporary writers, who 
defended the cause of Rome, and who were generally very prodigal of 
their invectives and calumnies. All the contemporary adversaries of 
Luther are absolutely silent on this head. From the year 1517 to 1546, 
when the dispute about indulgences was carried on with the greatest 
Warmth and animosity, not one writer ever ventured to reproach Luther 
with these ignoble motives of opposition now under consideration. I 
speak not of Erasmus, Sleidan, De Thou, Guicciardini, and others, 
whose testimony might be perhaps suspected of partiality in his favour; 
but I speak of Caietan, Hoogstrat, De Priero, Emser, and even the in- 
famous John Tetzel, whom Luther opposed with such vehemence and 
bitterness. Even Cochlreus was silent on this head during the life of 
Luther, though, after the death of that great reformer, he broached the 
calumny I am here refuting. But such was the scandalous character of 
this man, who was notorious for fraud, calumny, lying, and their sister 
vices, II that Pallavicini, Bossuet, and other enemies of Luther, were 
ashamed to make use either of his name or testimony. Now may it not 
be fairly presumed, that the contemporaries of Luther were better judges 
of his character, and of the principles from which he acted, than those 
who lived in after-times 1 Can it be imagined, that motives to action, 
which escaped their prying eyes, should have discovered themselves to 
us who live at such a distance of time from the scene of action, to M. 
Bossuet, to Mr. Hume, and to other abettors of this ill-contrived and 
foolish story. Either there are no rules of moral evidence, or Mr. 
Hume's assertion is entirely groundless. 

I might add many other considerations to show the unreasonableness 
of supposing that Luther exposed himself to the rage of the pontiff, to 
the persecutions of an exasperated clergy, to the severity of such a po- 
tent and despotic prince as Charles V., and to the risk of death itself, 
from a principle of avarice and ambition. But I have said enough to 
satisfy every candid mind. 

* See Weismanni Memorabilia Historian Sacrre N. T. p. 1051, 1115. 

t See Harpii Dissertat. de Nonnullis Indulgentiarum (Sic. XIV. et 
XV.) durestoribus, p. 3S4, 387. 

t See Walch. op. Lutheri, torn. xv. p. 114, 2S3 ; 312, 349.— Seckendorf. 
Hist. Lutheran ismi, lib. i. sect. vi. p. 13. 

§ See Walch. loc. cit. p. 371. 

I! Sleidan de Statu Rel. et Reip. in Dedic. EpisU ad August. Electorem. 



392 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. 1 



first, a matter of no great moment, and might have been 
determined with the utmost facility, had Leo been disposed 
to follow the healing method which common prudence 
must have naturally pointed out on such an occasion ; for, 
after all. this was no more than the private dispute of two 
monks, concerning the extent of the pope's power with 
respect to the remission of sin. Luther confessed that the 
Roman pontiff was invested with the power cf remitting 
the human punishments denounced against transgressors, 
i. e. the punishments ordained by the church, and its visi- 
ble head, the bishop of Rome ; but he strenuously denied 
that his power extended to the remission of the divine 
punishments allotted to offenders, either in the present or 
in a future state ; affirming, on the contrary, that these 
punishments could only be removed by the merits of Christ, 
or by voluntary acts of mortification and penance, under- 
taken and performed by the transgressor. The doctrine of 
Tetzel was directly opposite to the sentiments of Luther ; 
for that senseless and designing monk asserted, that all 
punishments, present and future, human and divine, were 
submitted to the authority of the pope, and came within 
the reach of his absolving power. This matter had often 
been debated before the present period ; but the popes had 
always been prudent enough to leave it undecided. These 
debates, however, being sometimes treated with neglect, 
and at others carried on without wisdom, the seeds of dis- 
cord imperceptibly gained new accessions of strength and 
vigour, and from small beginnings produced, at length, 
events of the most momentous nature. 

V. The sentiments of Luther were received with ap- 
plause by the greatest part of German)-, which had long 
groaned under the avarice of the pontiffs, and the extor- 
tions of their tax-gatherers, and had murmured grievously 
against the various stratagems that were daily put in prac- 
tice, with the most shameless impudence, to fleece the rich, 
and to grind the faces of the poor. But the votaries of 
Rome were filled with horror, when they were informed 
of the opinions propagated by the .Saxon reformer ; more 
especially the Dominicans, who looked upon their order as 
insulted and attacked in the person of Tetzel. The alarm 
of controversy was therefore sounded, and Tetzel himself 
appeared immediately in the field against Luther, whose 
sentiments he pretended to refute in two academical dis- 
courses, which he pronounced on occasion of his promotion 
to the degree of doctor in divinity. In the year following 
(1511) two famous Dominicans, Sylvester de Priero and 
Hoogstrat, the former a native of Italy, and the latter a 
German, rose up also against the adventurous reformer, 
and attacked him at Cologne with the utmost vehemence 
and ardour. Their example was soon followed by another 
formidable champion, named Eckius, a celebrated profes- 
sor of divinity at Ingolstadt, and one of the most zealous 
supporters of the Dominican order. Luther stood firm 
against these united adversaries, and was neither van- 
quished by their arguments, nor daunted by their talents 
and reputation ; but answered their objections, and refu- 
ted their reasonings with the greatest strength of evidence, 

• There is an ample account of this cardinal given by Gluetif and 
Echard, Scriptor. Ordin. Praedicator. torn. ii. 

<> The imperious and imprudent manner in which Caietan behaved 
toward Luther was highly disapproved, even at the court of Rome, as 
appears, among other testimonies, from Paolo Sarpi's History of the 
Council of Trent, book i. p. 22. The conduct of Caietan is defended 
by Echard, but with little prudence and less argument. The truth is, 



and a becoming spirit of resolution and perseverance. At 
the same time, he addressed letters, in the most submissive 
and respectful terms, to the pope, and to several of the 
bishops, showing them the uprightness of his intentions, 
as well as the justice of his cause, and declaring his rea- 
diness to change his sentiments, as soon as he should s£e 
them fairly proved to be erroneous. 

VI. At first, Leo beheld this controversy with indiffer- 
ence and contempt ; but, being informed by the emperor 
Maximilian not only of its importance, but also of the 
fatal divisions it was likely to produce in Germany, he 
summoned Luther to appear before him at Rome, and 
there to plead the cause which he had undertaken to 
maintain. This papal citation was superseded by Fre- 
deric the "Wise, elector of Saxony, who pretended, that 
the cause of Luther belonged to the jurisdiction of a 
German tribunal, and that it was to be decided by the 
ecclesiastical laws of the empire. The pontiff yielded 
to the remonstrances of this prudent and magnani- 
mous prince, and ordered Luther to justify his inten- 
tions and doctrines before cardinal Caietan, Avho was at 
this time legate at the diet of Augsburg. In this first 
step the court of Rome gave a specimen of that temerity 
and imprudence with which all its negotiations, in this 
weighty affair, were afterwards conducted ; foi, instead of 
reconciling, nothing could tend more to inflame the dis- 
pute than the choice of Caietan, a Dominican, and, con 
sequently, the declared enemy of Luther and friend of 
Tetzel, as judge and arbitrator in this nice and perilous 
controversy. 

VII. Luther, however, repaired to Augsburg in Octo- 
ber, 1518, and conferred, at three meetings, with Caietan 
himself, * concerning the points in debate. But had he 
even been disposed to yield to the court of Rome, this im- 
perious legate was, of all others, the most unfit person to 
be employed in procuring from him any act or mark of 
submission. The high spirit of Luther was not to be 
tamed by the arrogant dictates of mere authority ; such, 
however, were the only methods of persuasion adopted by 
the haughty cardinal. He, in an overbearing tone, de- 
sired Luther to renounce his opinions, without even at 
tempting to prove them erroneous, and insisted, with im- 
portunity, on his confessing humbly his fault, and sub- 
mitting respectfully to the judgment of the Roman pon- 
tiff. b The Saxon reformer could not think of yielding 
to terms so unreasonable in themselves, and so despotic- 
ally proposed ; so that the conferences were absolutely 
without effect. Luther, finding his adversary and judge 
inaccessible to reason and argument, suddenly left Augs- 
burg, after having appealed from the pope's present deci- 
sion to that which he should pronounce when better in- 
formed ; and, in this step, he seemed yet to respect the 
dignity and authority of the bishop of Rome. c Leo, on 
the other hand, let loose the reins to ambition and des- 
potism, and carried things to extremities ; for he published 
an edict, commanding his spiritual subjects to acknow- 
ledge his power of delivering from all the punishments 

that the court of Rome, and its unthinking sovereign, were not less cul- 
pable than Caietan in the whole of this transaction, since they might 
easily foresee, that a Dominican, legate was of all others the most unlike- 
ly to'lreat Luther with moderation and impartiality, and consequently 
the most improper to reconcile matters. 

e SeeB. Ch.Fr.B6rner.Diss.de Coll- Luth.cum Caietano, Leips. 1722. 
VaI.Ern. Losch. Act. et Doc. Ref. t. ii. c. xi.p. 435, op. Luth, t.xxiv.p.409 



Chap. II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



393 



due to sin and transgression. As soon as Luther received 
information of this inconsiderate and violent measure, he 
perceived, plainly, that it would lie impossible for him to 
bring the court of Rome to any reasonable terms ; he 
therefore repaired to Wittenberg, and appealed from the 
pontiff to a general council. 

Till. In the mean time the pope became sensible of his 
imprudence in entrusting Caietau with such a commission. , 
and therefore resolved to employ a man of more candour 
and impartiality, and better acquainted with business, in 
order to suppress the rebellion of Luther, and to engage 
that reformer to submission and obedience. This new 
legate was Charles Miltitz, a Saxon knight, who belong- 
ed" to the court of Leo, and whose laic character exposed 
him less to the prejudices which arise from a spirit of party, 
than if he had been clothed with the splendid purple, or 
the monastic frock. He was also a person of great pru- 
dence, penetration, and dexterity, and every way qualified 
for the execution of such a nice and critical commission 
as this was. Leo sent him into Saxony to present to 
Frederic the golden consecrated rose, (which the pontiffs 
are accustomed to bestow, as a peculiar mark of distinc- 
tion, on those princes for whom they have, or think pro- 
per to profess, an uncommon friendship and esteem,) and 
to treat with Luther, not only about finishing his contro- 
versy with Tetzel, but also with regard to the methods of 
bringing about a reconciliation between him and the court 
of Rome. Nor. indeed, were the negotiations of this pru- 
dent minister entirely unsuccessful : for, in his first con- 
ference with Luther, at Altenburg, in 1519, he carried 
matters so far as to persuade him to write a submissive 
letter to Leo, promising to observe a profound silence upon 
the points in debate, provided that the same obligation 
should be imposed upon his adversaries. This same year, 
in the month of October, Miltitz had a second conference 
with Luther in the castle of Liebenwerd, and a thud, the 
year following, at Lichtenberg." These meetings, which 
were reciprocally conducted with moderation and decency, 
gave great hopes of an approaching reconciliation : nor 
were these hopes altogether ill-founded. b But the violent 
proceedings of the enemies of Luther, and the arrogant 
spirit, as well as unaccountable imprudence, of the court 
of Rome, blasted these fair expectations, and rekindled the 
flames of discord. 

IX. C It is sufficient barely to mention the measures taken 
by Caietan to draw Luther anew under the papal yoke, 
because these were, indeed, nothing more than the wild 
suggestions of superstition and tyranny, maintained and 
avowed with the most shameless impudence. A man 
who began by commanding the reformer to renounce his 
errors, and to believe, upon the dictates of mere authority, 
that "one drop of Christ's blood being sufficient to redeem 
the whole human race, the remaining quantity, which 
was shed in the garden and on the cross, was left as a 



* See Borneri Dissert. The records relating to the embassy of Miltitz. 
were first published by Cyprianus, in Addit ad Tenzelii H'istor. Refor- 
mat, torn. i. ii., — as also by Loscherus, in his Acta Reformat, torn. ii. c. 
xvi. and torn. iii. cap. ii. 

^ i> In 1519, Leo wrote to Luther in the softest and most pacific terms. 
From this remarkable letter, (which was published in l'A-2. by Losche- 
rus, in a German work entitled Unsehuld Nachricht,) it appears that at 
the court of Rome, they looked upon a reconciliation between Luther 
and the pontiff as certain and near at hand. 

O* ■ This whole ninth section is added to Dr. Mosheim's work by 
the translator, who thought that this part of Luther's history deserved to 

No. XXXIII. 99 



legacy to the church, to be a treasure whence indulgences 
were "to be drawn and administered by the Roman pon- 
tiffs ;" ' such a man was not to be reasoned with. But Mil- 
titz proceeded in quite another manner, and his conferen- 
ces with the Saxon reformer are worthy of attention. He 
was ordered, indeed, to demand of the elector, that he 
would either oblige Luther to renounce the doctrines he 
had hitherto maintained, or that he would withdraw from 
him his protection and favour. But, perceiving that he 
was received by the elector with a degree of coldness that 
bordered upon contempt, and that Luther's credit and 
cause were too far advanced to be destroyed by the efforts 
of mere authority, he had recourse to gentler methods. He 
loaded Tetzel with the bitterest reproaches, on account of 
the irregular and superstitious means he had employed for 
promoting the sale of indulgences, and attributed to this 
miserable wretch all the abuses that Luther had com- 
plained of. Tetzel, en the other hand, burthened with the 
iniquities of Rome, tormented with a consciousness of his 
own injustice and extortions, stung with the opprobrious 
censures of the new legate, and seeing himself equally 
despised and abhorred by both parties, died of grief and 
despair. 6 This incendiary being sacrificed as a victim to 
cover the Roman pontifffrom reproach, Miltitz entered into 
a particular conversation with Luther at Altenburg. and, 
without pretending to justify thescandaloustraffick inques- 
tion, required only, that he would acknowledge the four 
following points : " 1st, That the people had been seduced 
by false notions of indulgences : 2dly, That he (Lu- 
ther) had been the cause of that seduction, by representing 
indulgences as much more heinous than they really were : 
3dlv, That the odious conduct of Tetzel alone had given 
occasion to these representations : and. 4thly, That, though 
the avarice of Albert, archbishop of Mentz, had set on 
Tetzel, this rapacious tax-gatherer had far exceeded the 
bounds of his commission.'' These proposals were ac- 
companied with many soothing words, with pompous en- 
comiums on Luther's character, capacity, and talents, and 
with the softest and most pathetic expostulations in favour 
of union and concord in an afflicted and divided church ; 
all which Miltitz combined with the greatest dexterity and 
address, in order to touch and disarm the reformer. Nor 
were his mild and insinuating methods of negotiating 
without effect : and it was upon this occasion that Luther 
made submissions which showed that his views were not. 
as yet. very extensive, his former prejudices entirely ex- 
pelled, or his reforming principles steadily fixed ; for he 
not only offered to observe a profound silence for the future 
with respect to indulgences, provided that the same condi- 
tion should be imposed on his adversaries : he went much 
farther ; he proposed writing an humble and submissive 
letter to the pope, acknowledging that he had carried his 
zeal and animosity too far: and such a letter he wrote 
soon after the conference at Altenburg. f He even consent- 



be related in a more circumstantial manner, than it is in the original. 

f^» J Such, among others still more absurd, were the expressions of 
Caietan. which he borrowed from one of the Decretals of Clement VI. 
called (and that justly for more than one reason) JSxtraragants. 

gjT • Luther was so affected by the agonies of despair under which 
Tetzel laboured, that he wrote to him a pathetic letter of consolation, 
which, however, produced no effect. His infamy was perpetuated by a 
picture placed in die church of Pirna, in which he is represented sitting 
on an ass and selling indulgences. 

fS> t This lettcr'was dated the 13th of March, 1519. about two 
months after that conference. 



394 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. I. 



ed to publish a circular letter, exhorting all his disciples 
andfollowers to reverence and obey the dictates of the holy 
Roman church. He declared that his only intention, in 
the writings he had composed, was to brand with infamy 
those emissaries who abused his authority, and employ- 
ed its protection as a mask to cover their abominable and 
impious frauds. It is true, indeed, that amidst those weak 
submissions which the impartial demands of historical 
truth oblige us to relate, there was, properly speaking, no 
retraction of his former tenets, nor the smallest degree of 
respect shown to the infamous traffick of indulgences. 
Nevertheless, the pretended majesty of the Roman 
church, and the authority of the Roman pontiff, were 
treated by Luther in this transaction, and in his letter to 
Leo, in a manner that could not naturally have been ex- 
pected from a man who had already appealed from the 
pope to a general council. 

Had the pope been so prudent as to accept the sub- 
mission of Luther, he would have almost nipped in the 
bud the cause of the reformation, or would, at least, 
have considerably retarded its growth and progress. When 
he had gained over the head, the members would, with 
greater facility, have been reduced to obedience. But 
the flaming and excessive zeal of some inconsiderate 
bigots renewed (happily for the truth) the divisions, 
which were so near being healed, and, by animating 
both Luther and his followers to inspect more closely the 
enormities that prevailed in the papal hierarchy, pro- 
moted the principles, and augmented the spirit, which 
ultimately produced the blessed a reformation. 

X. One of the circumstances that contributed princi- 
pally, at least by its consequences, to render the embassy 
of Miltitz ineffectual for the restoration of peace, was a 
famous controversy of an incidental nature that was car- 
ried on at Leipsic, for some weeks successively, in 1519. b 
Eckius, the celebrated theologian, happened to differ 
widely from Carlostadt, the colleague and companion of 
Luther, in his sentiments concerning free will. The re- 
sult of this variety in opinion was easy to be foreseen. 
The military genius of our ancestors had so far infected 
the schools of learning, that differences in points of reli- 
gion and literature, when they grew to a certain degree 
of warmth and animosity, were decided, like the quar- 

5jf * See, for an ample account of Luther's conferences with Miltitz, 
the incomparable work of Seckendorff, entitled Commentar. Histor. 
Apologet. de Lutheranismo, sive de Reformatione Religionis, &c. in 
which the facts relating to Luther and the Reformation are deduced from 
the most valuable and authentic manuscripts and records, contained in 
the library of Saxe-Gotha, and in other learned and princely collections: 
and in which the frauds and falsehoods of Maimbourg's History of 
Lutheranism are fully detected and refuted. — As to Miltitz, his fate was 
unhappy. His moderation (which nothing but the blind zeal of some 
furious monks could have prevented from being eminently serviceable to 
the cause of Rome) was represented by Eckius, as something worse 
than indifference about the success of his commission; and, after several 
marks of neglect received from the pontiff, he had the misfortune to lose 
his life in parsing the Rhine, at Mentz. 

b These disputes commenced on the 27th of June, and ended on the 
15th of July. 

g^» <= This controversy turned upon liberty, considered not in a phi- 
losophical, but in a theological sense. It was rather a dispute concerning 
vmver than concerning liberty. _ Carlostadt maintained, that, since the 
fall of man, our natural liberty is not strong enough to conduct us to 
what is good, without the intervention of divine grace. Eckius asserted, 
on the contrary, that our natural liberty co-operates with divine grace, and 
that it is in the power of man to consent to the divine impulse, or to resist 
it. The former attributed all to God ; the latter divided the merit of virtue 
betweer God and the creature. The modern Lutherans have almost uni- 
versally abandoned the sentiments of Carlostadt. 



rels of valiant knights, by a single combat. Some fa- 
mous university was pitched upon as the field of battle, 
while the rector and professors beheld the contest, and 
proclaimed the victory. Eckius, therefore, in compliance 
with the spirit of this fighting age, challenged Carlostadt, 
and even Luther himself, against whom he had already 
drawn his pen, to try the force of his theological arms. 
The challenge was accepted, the day appointed, and tha 
three champions, appeared in the field. The first con- 
flict was between Carlostadt and Eckius, respecting the 
powers and freedom of the human will; it was carried 
on in the castle of Pleissenburg, before a numerous and 
splendid auditory, and was followed by a dispute between 
Luther and Eckius concerning the authority and supre- 
macy of the Roman pontiff. This latter controversy, 
which the present situation of affairs rendered singular- 
ly nice and critical, was left undecided. Hoffman, at 
that time rector of the university of Leipsic, and who had 
been also appointed judge of the arguments alleged on 
both sides, refused to declare to whom the victory belong- 
ed, so that the decision of the case was referred to the 
universities of Paris and Erfurt. d In the mean time, 
one of the immediate effects of this dispute was a visible 
increase of the bitterness and enmity which Eckius had 
conceived against Luther; for from this very period he 
breathed nothing but fury against the reformer/ whom 
he marked out as a victim to his vengeance, without con- 
sidering, that the measures he took for the destruction o l 
Luther, must have a most pernicious influence upon the 
cause of the pontiff, by fomenting the present divisions, 
and thus contributing to the progress of the reformation, 
as was really the case. f 

XI. Among the spectators of this ecclesiastical combat, 
was Philip Melancthon, at that time professor of Greek 
at Wittenberg, who had not yet been involved in these 
divisions, (for the mildness of his temper, and his elegant 
taste for polite literature, rendered him averse from dis- 
putes of this nature.) though he was the intimate friend 
of Luther, and approved his design of delivering the pure 
and primitive science of theology from the darkness and 
subtlety of scholastic jargon. s As this eminent man was 
one of those whom the dispute with Eckius convinced of 
the excellence of Luther's cause ; as he Avas, moreover, 



d There is an ample account of this dispute at Leipsic, given by 
Loscherus, in his Acta et Documenta Refonnationis. 

f^T ' This was one proof that the issue of the controversy was not 
in his favour. The victor, in any combat, is generally too full of satis- 
faction and self-complacency, to feel the emotions of fury and vengeance, 
which seldom arise but from disappointment and defeat. There is even 
an insolent kind of clemency that arises from an eminent and palpable 
superiority. This indeed Eckius had no opportunity of exercising. — 
Luther demonstrated, in this conference, that the church of Rome, in 
the earlier ages, had never been acknowledged as superior to other 
churches ; and he combated the pretensions of that church and its bishop, 
from the testimony of Scripture, the authority of the fathers, and the 
best ecclesiastical historians, and even from the decrees of the council of 
Nice ; while all the arguments of Eckius were derived from the spu- 
rious and insipid Decretals, which were scarcely of 400 years' standing. 
See Seckendorff's History of Lutheranism. 

§Tlr ' It may be observed here, that, before Luther's attack upon the 
store-house of indulgences, Eckius was his intimate friend. The latter 
must certainly have been uncommonly unworthy, since even the mild 
and gentle Melancthon represents him as an inhuman persecutor, a so- 
phist" and a knave, who maintained doctrines contrary to his belief, and 
against his conscience. See the' learned Dr. Jortin's Life of Erasmus, vol. 
ii. p. 713 ; also Vitus' account of the death of Eckius in Seckendorff, lib. 
iii. p. 468. 

e See Melancthon's letter concerning the conference at Leipsic, in 
Loscherus' Acta et Documenta Reformationis, torn, iii 



Ohap. II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



395 



one of the illustrious and respectable instruments of the 
Reformation ; it may not be improper to give some ac- 
count of the talents and virtues that rendered his name 
immortal. His greatest enemies have borne testimony 
to his merit. They have been forced to acknowledge, 
that the annals of antiquity exhibit very few worthies 
that may be compared with him, whether we consider the 
extent of his knowledge in things human and divine, 
the fertility and elegance of his genius, the facility and 
quickness of his comprehension, or the uninterrupted in- 
dustry that attended his learned and theological labours. 
He rendered to philosophy and the liberal arts the same 
eminent service that Luther had done to religion, by 
purging them from the dross' with which they had been 
corrupted, and by recommending them, in a powerful 
and persuasive manner, to the study of ths Germans. He 
had tbe rare talent of discerning truth in its most intri- 
cate connexions and combinations, of comprehending at 
once the most abstract notions, and expressing them with 
the utmost ease and perspicuity. And he applied this 
happy talent in religious disquisitions with such unparal- 
leled success, that it may safely be affirmed, tbat the 
cause of true Christianity derived from the learning and 
genius of Melancthon more signal advantages, and a 
more effectual support, than it received from any of the 
other doctors of the age. His love of peace and concord, 
which partly arose from the sweetness of his natural tem- 
per, made him desire with ardour that a reformation might 
be effected without producing a schism in the church, and 
that the external communion of the contending parties 
might be preserved uninterrupted and entire. This spirit 
of mildness and charity, carried perhaps too far, led him 
sometimes to make concessions that were neither con- 
sistent with prudence, nor advantageous to the cause in 
which he was engaged. It is however certain, that he 
gave no quarter to those more dangerous and momentous 
errors that reigned in the church of Rome, but maintain- 
ed on the contrary that their extirpation was essentially 
necessary, in order to the restoration of true religion. In 
the natural complexion of this great man there was some- 
thing soft, timid, and yielding. Hence originated a cer- 
tain diffidence of himself, that not only made him examine 
things with the greatest attention and care, before he re- 
solved upon any measure, but also filled him with uneasy 
apprehensions where there was no danger, and made him 
fear even things that, in reality, could never happen. And 

fjp a By this, no doubt, Dr. Mosheim means the credulity this great 
man discovered with respect to prodigies and dreams, and his having 
been somewhat addicted to the pretended science of astrology. See 
Schelhornii Amoenit. Hist. Eccles. et Lit. vol. ii. p. 609. 

•> We have a life of Melancthon, written by Joachim Camerarius; 
but a more accurate account of this illustrious reformer, composed by a 
prudent, impartial, and well-informed biographer, as also a complete 
collection of his works, would be an inestimable present to the republic 
of letters. 

fjp ° The translator has added, to the portrait of Zuingle, the quality 
of heroic intrepidity, because it was a predominant and remarkable 
part of the character of this illustrious reformer, whose learning and 
fortitude, tempered by the greatest moderation, rendered him, perhaps 
beyond comparison, the brightest ornament of the protestant cause. 

f3f*<* Our learned historian does not seem to acknowledge this with 
pleasure, as the Germans and Swiss contend for the honour of having 
given the first overtures toward the reformation. If, however, truth has 
obliged him to make this acknowledgment, he has accompanied it with 
some modifications which are more artful than accurate. He says, that 
Zuingle " had perceived some rays of the truth before Luther came to 
nn open rupture," &c. to make us imagine that Luther might have seen 
the, truth long before that rupture happened, and consequently as soon 
as Zuingle. But it is well known, that the latter, from his early years, 



yet, on the other hand, when the hour of real danger ap- 
proached, when things bore a formidable *. spect, and the 
cause of religion was in imminent peril, then this timo- 
rous man was at once converted into an intrepid hero, 
looked danger in the face with unshaken constancy, and 
opposed his adversaries with invincible fortitude. All this 
shows, that the force of truth and the power of principle 
had diminished the weaknesses and defects of Melancthon's 
natural character, without entirely removing them. Had 
his fortitude been more uniform and steady, his desire of 
reconciling all interests and pleasing all parties less vehe- 
ment and excessive, his triumph over the superstitions im- 
bibed in his infancy more complete," he must deservedly 
have been considered as one of the greatest among men." 
XII. While the credit and authority of the pontiff were 
thus upon the decline in Germany, they received a mor- 
tal wound in Switzerland from Ulric Zuingle, a canon 
of Zurich, whose extensive learning and uncommon sa- 
gacity were accompanied with the most heroic intrepidity 
and resolution/ It must even be acknowledged, d that 
this eminent man had perceived some rays of the truth 
before Luther came to an open rupture with the church of 
Rome. He was, however, afterwards still farther ani- 
mated by the example, and instructed by the writings of 
the Saxon reformer ; and thus his zeal for the good cause 
acquired new strength and vigour ; for he not only ex- 
plained the sacred writings in his public discourses to the 
people/ but also gave, in 1519, a signal proof of his 
courage, by opposing, with the greatest resolution and suc- 
cess, the ministry of a certain Italian monk, named Ber- 
nardine Samson, who was carrying on, in Switzerland, 
the impious traffick of indulgences with the same impu- 
dence that Tetzel had done in Germany/ This was the 
first remarkable event that prepared the way for the re- 
formation among the Helvetic cantons. In process of 
time, Zuingle pursued with steadiness and resolution the 
design that he had begun with such courage and success ; 
and some other learned men, educated in Germany, acting 
with zeal as his colleagues, succeeded so far in removing 
the credulity of a deluded people, that the pope's supremacy 
was rejected and denied in the greatest part of Swit- 
zerland. It is indeed to be observed, that he did not al- 
ways use the same methods of conversion that were em- 
ployed by Luther ; nor, upon particular occasions, did he 
discountenance the use of violent measures against such 
as adhered with obstinacy to the superstitions of their an- 



had been shocked at several of the superstitious practices of the church 
of Rome; that, so early as the year 151(i,* he had begun to explain the 
Scriptures to the people, and to censure, though with great prudence and 
moderation, the errors of a corrupt church ; and that he had very noble 
and extensive ideas of a general reformation, at the very time that Lu- 
ther retained almost the whole system of popery, indulgences excepted. 
Luther proceeded very slowly to exempt himself from those prejudices 
of education, which Zuingle, by the force of an adventurous genius, 
and an uncommon degree of knowledge and penetration, easily shook oft". 

f^r e This again is inaccurate. It appears from the preceding note, 
and from the most authentic records, that Zuingle had explained the 
Scriptures to the people, and called in question the authority and supre- 
macy of the pope, before the name of Luther was known in Switzer- 
land. Besides, instead of receiving instruction from the German re- 
former, he was much his superior in learning, capacity, and judgment, 
and was much fitter to be his master than his disciple, as the four vo- 
lumes in folio which we have of his works abundantly testify. • 

' See Jo. Henr. Hottingeri Hist. Eccles. Helvet torn. ii. lib. vi. — 
Ruchart, Histoire de la Reformation en Suisse, torn. i. liv. i. — Gerdcs, 
Histor. Renovati Evangelii, torn. ii. 

* Ruchart, Hist, de la Reformation en Suisse, Zuinglii op. torn. i. p. 
7. Nouveau Diction, vol. iv. p. 86G. Durand, Hist, du xvi. Siecle, torn. 
ii. p. 8, &c. Jurieu, Apologie pour les Reformatcurs, &c. partie i. p. 119. 



396 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. I. 



cestors. He is also said to have attributed, to the civil ma- 
gistrate, such an extensive power in ecclesiastical affairs, 
as is quite inconsistent with the essence and genius of re- 
ligion. But, upon the whole, even envy itself must ac- 
knowledge, that his intentions were upright, and his de- 
signs worthy of high approbation. 

XIII. In the mean time, the religious dissensions in Ger- 
many increased, instead of diminishing ; for, while Miltitz 
was treating with Luther in such a mild and prudent man- 
ner as offered the fairest prospect of 'an approaching accom- 
modation, Eckius, inflamed with resentment and fury on 
account of his defeat, repaired with the utmost precipita- 
tion to Rome, to accomplish, as he imagined, the ruin of 
the bold reformer. There, entering into a league with the 
Dominicans, who were still in high credit at the papal court, 
and more especially with their two zealous patrons, De 
Priero and Caietan, he earnestly entreated Leo to level the 
thunder of his anathemas at the head of the delinquent, 
and to exclude him from the communion of the church. 
The Dominicans, desirous of revenging the affront which, 
in their opinion, their whole order had received by Luther's 
treatment of their brother Tetzel and their patron Caietan, 
seconded the furious efforts of Eckius ; and the pontiff, 
overcome by the importunity of these pernicious counsel- 
lors, imprudently issued* a bull on the 15th of June, 1520, 
in which forty-one pretended heresies, extracted from the 
writings of Luther, were solemnly condemned, his works 
ordered to be publicly burned, and in which he was 
again summoned, on pain of excommunication, to con- 
fess and retract his pretended errors within the space of 
sixty days, and to throw himself upon the clemency of the 
pontiff. 

XIV. As soon as the account of this rash sentence was 
communicated to Luther, he thought it was high time to 
consult both his present defence and his future security ; 
and the first step he took for this purpose, was the renewal 
of his appeal from the sentence of the pontiff, to the more 
respectable decision of a general council. But as he fore- 
saw that this appeal would be treated with contempt, and 
that, when the time prescribed for his recantation should 
have elapsed, the thunder of excommunication would be 
levelled at bis devoted head, he judged it prudent to with- 
draw himself voluntarily from the communion of the 
church of Rome, before he was obliged to leave it by force ; 
and thus to render this new bull of ejection a blow in the 
air, an exercise of authority without any object to act upon. 
At the same time, he resolved to execute this wise determi- 
nation in a public manner, that his voluntary retreat from 
the communion of a corrupt and superstitious church 
might be universally known, before the lordly pontiff had 
prepared his ghostly thunder. With this view, on the 10th 
of December, 1520, he had a pile of wood erected without 
the walls of the city;'" and. there, in presence of a prodi- 

■ The wisest and best part of the Roman catholics acknowledge, that 
Leo was chargeable with the most culpable imprudence in this rash 
and violent method of proceeding. See a Dissertation of the learned 
John Frederic Mayer, de Pontificis Leonis X. processum adveisus 
Lutheran) improbantibus, which is part of a work published at Ham- 
burg, in 1698, under this singular title: Ecclesia Romana Reforma- 
lionis Lutherans patrona et cliens. There were several wise and 
thinking persons at this time, about the pontiff, who declared openly, 
without the least ceremony, their disapprobation of the violent counsels 
of Eckius and the Dominicans, and gave it as their opinion, that it was 
both prudent and just to wait for the issue of the conferences of Miltitz 
with Luther, before such forcible measures should be employed. 

fc Of Wittenberg. 



gious multitude of people of all ranks and orders, he com- 
mitted to the flames both the bull that had been published 
against him, and the decretals and canons relating to the 
pope's supreme jurisdiction. By this he declared to the 
world, that he was no longer a subject of the pontiff, and 
that, consequently, the sentence of excommunication 
against him, which was daily expected from Rome, was 
entirely superfluous and insignificant; for the man who 
publicly commits to the flames the code that contains the 
laws of his sovereign, shows thereby that he has no longer 
any respect for his government, nor any intention of submit- 
ting to his authority : and the man who voluntarily with- 
draws himself from a society, cannot, with any appearance of 
reason or common sense, be afterwards forcibly and autho- 
ritatively excluded from it. It is not improbable, that Lu- 
ther was directed, in this critical measure, by persons well 
skilled in the law, who are generally dexterous in furnish- 
ing a perplexed client with nice distinctions and plausible 
evasions. Be that as it may, he separated himself only 
from the church of Rome, which considers the pope as in- 
fallible, and not from the church considered in a more ex- 
tensive sense; for he submitted to the decision of the 
universal church, when that decision should be given in a 
general council lawfully assembled. When this judicious 
distinction is considered, it will not appear at all surprising, 
that many, even of the Roman Catholics, who weighed mat- 
ters with a certain degree of impartiality and wisdom, and 
were zealous for the maintenance of the liberties of Ger- 
many, justified this bold resolution of Luther. In less 
than a month after he had taken this noble and important 
step, a second bull was issued against him, on the 6th of 
January, 1521, by which he was expelled from the com- 
munion of the church, for having insulted the majesty and 
disowned the supremacy of the pope. d 

XV. Such iniquitous laws, enacted against the person 
and doctrine of Luther, produced an effect different from 
what was expected by the imperious pontiff. Instead of 
intimidating this bold reformer, they led him to form the 
project of founding a church upon principles opposite to 
those of Rome, and to establish, in it, a system of doctrine 
and ecclesiastical discipline agreeable to the spirit and pre- 
cepts of the Gospel of truth. This, indeed, was the only 
resource left to him ; for, to submit to the orders of a 
cruel and insolent enemy, would have been the greatest 
degree of imprudence imaginable ; and to embrace, anew, 
errors which he had rejected with a just indignation, and 
exposed with the clearest evidence, would have disco- 
vered a want of integrity and principle, worthy only of 
the most abandoned profligate. From this time, therefore, 
he applied himself to the pursuit of the truth with increased 
assiduity and fervour ; nor did he only review Avith atten- 
tion, and confirm by new arguments, what he had hitherto 
taught, but went far beyond it, and made vigorous attacks 

gif c This judicious distinction has not been sufficiently attended to; 
and the Romanists, some through artifice, others through ignorancw, 
have confounded the papacy with the catholic church, though they are, 
in reality, two different things. The papacy, indeed, by the ambitious 
dexterity of the Roman pontiffs, incorporated itself by degrees into the 
church ; but it was a preposterous supplement, and was really as foreign 
to its genuine constitution, as a new citadel, erected by a successful 
usurper, would be to an ancient city. Luther set out and acted upon 
this distinction ; he went out of the citadel, but he intended to remain 
in the city, and, like a good patriot, hoped to reform its corrupted go- 
vernment. 

a Both these bulls are to be found in the Bullarium Romanurn, and 
also in the learned PfafTs Histor. Theol. Literal-. 



Chap. II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



397 



upon the principal fortress of popery, the power and juris- 
diction of the Roman pontiff, which he overturned from 
its very foundation. In this noble undertaking he was 
seconded by many learned and pious men, in various parts 
of Europe ; by those professors of the university of Wit- 
tenberg, who had adopted his principles ; and in a more 
especial manner by the celebrated Melancthon ; and, as 
the fame of Luther's wisdom and Melancthon's learning 
had filled that academy with an incredible number of stu- 
dents, who flocked to it from all parts, this happy circum- 
stance propagated the principles of the Reformation with 
an amazing rapidity through all the countries of Europe." 
XVI. Not long after the commencement of these divi- 
sions, Maximilian I. had resigned his breath ; and his 
grandson, Charles I. of Spain and V. of Austria, had suc- 
ceeded him in the empire in 1519. Leo seized this new 
occasion of venting and executing his vengeance, by put- 
ting the new emperor in mind of his character as ' advo- 
cate and defender of the church,' and demanding the ex- 
emplary punishment of Luther, who had rebelled against 
its sacred laws and institutions. On the other hand, Fre- 
deric the Wise employed his credit with Charles to prevent 
the publication of any unjust edict against this reformer, 
and to have his cause tried by the canons of the Germa- 
nic church, and the laws of the empire. This request 
was so much the more likely to be granted, as Charles was 
under much greater obligations to Frederic than to any 
other of the German princes ; for it was chiefly by his 
zealous and important services that he had been raised to 
the empire, in opposition to the pretensions of such a for- 
midable rival as Francis I. king of France. The empe- 
ror was sensible of his obligations to the worthy elector, 
and was disposed to satisfy his demands. That, however, 
he might do this without displeasing the Roman pontiff, 
he resolved that Luther should be called before the council 
which was to be assembled at Worms in 1521, and that 
his cause should be there publicly heard, before any defi- 
nitive sentence should be pronounced against him. It 
.nay perhaps appear strange, and even inconsistent with 
the laws of the church, that a cause of a religious nature 
should be examined and decided in the public diet. But 
it must be considered that these diets, in which the arch- 
bishops, bishops, and even some abbots, had their places, 

" There is a particular account of the rapid progress of the reforma- 
tion in Germany, given by the learned Daniel Gerdes, professor at 
Gron'mgen, in his His tori a renovati Evangelii. 

f^=_ b This sentence, which was dated the 8th of May, 1521, was 
excessively severe ; and Charles, whether through sincere zeal or poli- 
tical cunning, showed himself in this affair an ardent abettor of the 
papal authority ; for in this edict the pope Ls declared the only true 
judge of the controversy, in which he was evidently a party concerned ; 
Luther is declared a member cut off from the church, a schismatic, a 
notorious and obstinate heretic ;' ' the severest punishments are de- 
nounced against those who shall receive, entertain, maintain, or coun- 
tenance him, either by acts of hospitality, by conversation or writing; 
and all his disciples, adherents, and followers, are involved in the same 
condemnation. This edict was, however, received with the highest 
disapprobation by all wise and thinking persons, 1st, because Luther 
had been condemned without being heard, at Rome, by the college of 
cardinals, and afterwards at Worms, where, without any discussion or 
refutation of his doctrine, he was only despotically ordered to abandon 
and renounce it; 2dly, because Charles V., as emperor, had not a right 
to give an authoritative sentence against the doctrine of Luther, or to 
take for granted the infallibility of tiie Roman pontiff, before these mat- 
ters were discussed and decided by a general council ; and, 3dly, be- 
cause a considerable number of the German princes, who were imme- 
diately interested in this affair, such as the electors of Cologne, Saxony, 
and the Palatinate, and other sovereign princes, had neither been pre- 
sent at the diet, nor examined and approved the edict; and. therefore, 

No. XXXIV. 100 



as well as the princes of the empire, were not only political 
assemblies, but also provincial councils for Germany, to 
whose jurisdiction, by the ancient canon law, such causes 
as that of Luther properly belonged. 

XVII. Luther, therefore, appeared at W r orms, secured 
against the violence of his enemies by a safe-conduct from 
the emperor, and, on the 17th of April, pleaded his cause 
before that grand assembly with the utmost resolution and 
presence of mind. Menaces and entreaties were alter- 
nately employed to conquer the firmness of his purpose, 
to engage him to renounce the propositions he had hither- 
to maintained, and to bend him to a submission to the Ro- 
man pontiff. But lie opposed all these attempts with a 
noble obstinacy, and peremptorily declared that he would 
never abandon his opinions, or change his conduct, unless 
he should be convinced by the word of God, or the dictates 
of right reason, that his opinions were erroneous, and his 
conduct unlawful. When therefore neither promises nor 
threats could shake the constancy of this magnanimous 
reformer, he obtained, indeed, from the emperor, the liberty 
of returning unmolested to his home : but, after his de- 
parture from the diet, he was condemned by the unanimous 
suffrages both of the emperor and the princes, and was 
declared an enemy to the holy Roman empire. b Frede- 
ric, who saw the storm rising against Luther, used the best 
precautions to secure him from its violence. For this pur- 
pose he sent three or four persons in whom he could con- 
fide, to meet him on his return from the diet, in order to 
conduct him to a place of safety. These emissaries, dis- 
guised by masks, executed their commission with the ut- 
most secrecy and success. Meeting with Luther near 
Eisenach, they seized him, and carried him into the castie 
of Wartenberg ; nor, as some have imagined upon proba- 
ble grounds, was this done without the knowledge of his 
imperial majesty. In this retreat, which he called his 
Patmos, the reformer lay concealed for ten months, and 
employed this involuntary leisure in compositions that were 
afterwards very useful to the world. 

XVIII. His active spirit could not, however, long bear 
this confinement ; he therefore left his Patmos in March, 
1522, without the consent or even the knowledge of his 
patron and protector Frederic, and repaired to Wittenberg. 
One of the principal motives that engaged him to take this 

at best, it could only have force in the territories belonging to the house 
of Austria, and to such of the princes as had given their consent to its 
publication. But, after all. this edict produced scarcely any effect, not 
only for the reasons now mentioned, but also because Charles, whose 
presence, authority, and zeal, were necessary to render it respectable, 
was involved in other affairs of a civil nature which he had more at 
heart. Obliged to pass successively into Flanders, England, and Spain, 
to quell the seditions of his subjects, and to form new alliances against 
his great enemy and rival Francis, he lost sight of the edict, while it 
was treated with the highest indignation or the utmost contempt by all 
who had any regard for the liberties of the empire and the rights of the 
Germanic church. 

f£jf* c This precaution of the humane and excellent elector being 
put in execution, on the 3d of May, five days before the solemn publica- 
tion of the edict of Worms, the pope missed his blow; and the adversa- 
ries of Luther became doubly odious to the people in Germany, who, 
unacquainted with the scheme of Frederic, and not knowing what was 
become of their favourite reformer, imagined that he was imprisoned, or 
perhaps destroyed, by the emissaries of Rome. In the mean time, 
Luther lived in peace and quiet in the castle of Wartenberg, where he 
translated a great part of the New Testament into the German lan- 
guage, and wrote frequent letters to his trusty friends and intimates to 
comfort them under his absence. Nor was his confinement lure in- 
consistent with amusement and relaxation; for he. frequently enjoyed 
the pleasure of hunting in company with his keepers, passing for u 
country gentleman, under the appellation of Yovnkcr George. 



398 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



;ect. 



bold step, was the information he had received of the in- 
considerate conduct of Carlostadt, and some other friends 
of the Reformation, who had already excited tumults in 
Saxony, and were acting in a manner equally prejudicial 
to the tranquillity of the state, and the true interests of the 
church. Carlostadt, professor at Wittenberg, was a man 
of considerable learning, who had pierced the veil, with 
which papal artifice and superstition had covered the truth, 
and, at the instigation of Eckius, had been excluded with 
Luther from the communion of the church. His zeal, 
however, was intemperate ; his plans were laid with teme- 
rity, and executed without moderation. During Luther's 
absence, he threw down and broke the images of the saints 
that were placed in the churches, and instead of restrain- 
ing the vehemence of a fanatical multitude, who had al- 
ready begun in some places to abuse the precious liberty 
that was dawning upon them, he encouraged their ill- 
timed violence, and led them on to sedition and mutiny. 
Luther opposed the impetuosity of this imprudent reformer 
with the utmost fortitude and dignity, and wisely exhort- 
ed him and his adherents to eradicate error from the minds 
of the people, before they made war upon its external en- 
signs in the churches and public places ; since, the for- 
mer being once removed, the latter must fall of course, 3 
and since the destruction of the latter alone could be at- 
tended with no lasting fruits. To these prudent admoni- 
tions this excellent reformer added the influence of ex- 
ample, by applying himself, with redoubled industry and 
zeal, to his German translation of the Holy Scriptures, 
which he carried on with expedition and success, b with 
the assistance of some learned and pious men whom he 
consulted in this important undertaking. The event 
abundantly showed the wisdom of Luther's advice ; for 
the different parts of this translation, being successively 
and gradually spread abroad among the people, produced 
svidden and almost incredible effects, and extirpated, root 
and branch, the erroneous principles and superstitious doc- 
trines of the church of Rome from the minds of a prodi- 
gious number of persons. 

XIX. During these transactions, Leo died, and was 

f^T If we cast an eye upon the conduct of Luther, in this first scene 
of his trials, we shall find a true spirit of rational zeal, generous probity, 
and Christian fortitude, animating this reformer. In his behaviour, be- 
fore and at the diet of Worms, we observe these qualities shining with 
*< peculiar lustre, and tempered, notwithstanding the warmth of his 
complexion, with an unexpected degree of moderation and decent respect 
both for his civil and ecclesiastical superiors. When some of his friends, 
informed of the violent designs of the Roman court, and alarmed by the 
bull that had been published against him by the rash pontiff, advised 
him not to expose his person at the diet, notwithstanding the imperial 
safe-conduct, (which, in a similar case, had not been sufficient to pro- 
tect John Huss and Jerome of Prague from the perfidy and cruelty of 
their enemies.) he answered with his usual intrepidity, that " were he 
obliged to encounter at Worms as many devils as there were tiles upon 
the houses of that city, this would not deter him from his fixed purpose 
of appearing there ; that fear, in his case, could be only a suggestion of 
Satan, who apprehended the approaching ruin of his kingdom, and who 
was willing to avoid a public defeat before such a grand assembly." 
The fire and obstinacy that appeared in this answer seemed to prognos- 
ticate much warmth and vehemence in his conduct at the assembly. 
But it was quite otherwise. He exposed with decency and dignity the 
superstitious doctrines and practices of the church of Rome, and the 
grievances that arose from the over-grown power of its pontiff, and the 
abuse that was made of it. He acknowledged the writings with which 
he was charged, and offered, both with moderation and humility, to de- 
fend their contents. He desired the pope's legates and their adherents 
to hear him,, to inform him, to reason with him ; and solemnly offered, 
in presence of the assembled princes and bishops, to renounce his 
doctrines, if they were, shown to be erroneous. But to all these 
expostulations he received no other answer, than the despotic dic- 



succeeded in the pontificate by Adrian VI., a native of 
Utrecht. This pope, who had formerly been preceptor to 
Charles V., and who owed his new dignity to the good offices 
of that prince, was a man of probity and candour, who 
acknowledged ingenuously that the church laboured un- 
der the most fatal disorders, and declared his willingness 
to apply the remedies that should be judged the most 
adapted to heal them. c He began his pontificate by send- 
ing a legate to the diet, which was assembled at Nurem- 
berg in 1522. Francis Cheregato, the person who Avas 
intrusted with this commission, had positive orders to de- 
mand the speedy and vigorous execution of the sentence 
that had been pronounced against Luther and his followers 
at the diet of Worms ; but, at the same time, he was au- 
thorised to declare that the pontiff was ready to remove 
the abuses and grievances that had armed such a formi- 
dable enemy against the see of Rome. The princes of 
the empire, encouraged by this declaration, and also by 
the absence of the emperor, who at this time resided in 
Spain, seized this opportunity of proposing the convoca- 
tion of a general council in Germany, in order to deli- 
berate upon the proper methods of bringing about a uni- 
versal reformation of the church. They exhibited, at the 
same time, a hundred articles, containing the heaviest 
complaints of the injurious treatment which the Germans 
had hitherto received from the court of Rome, and, by a 
public law, prohibited all innovation in religious matters, 
until a general council should decide what ought to be 
done in an affair of such high importance/ As long as the 
German princes were unacquainted with, or inattentive to, 
the measures that were taken in Saxony for founding a 
new church in direct opposition to that of Rome, they were 
zealously unanimous in their endeavours to set bounds to 
the papal authority and jurisdiction, which they all looked 
upon as overgrown and enormous ; nor were they at all 
offended at Luther's contest with the pontiff, which they 
considered as a dispute of a private and personal nature. 
XX. The good pope Adrian did not long enjoy the 
pleasure of sitting at the head of the church. He died in 
1523, and was succeeded by Clement VII., a man of a 

tates of mere authority, attended with injurious and provoking language 

f£j= * Dr. Mosheim's account of this matter is perhaps more advan- 
tageous to Luther than the rigorous demands of historical impartiality 
will admit : at least the defects of the great reformer are here shaded 
with art. It is evident from several passages in the writings of Luther, 
that he was by no means averse to the use of images, but that, on the 
contrary, he looked upon them as adapted to excite and animate the de- 
votion of the people. But, perhaps, the true reason of his displeasure 
at the proceedings of Carlostadt, was, that he could not bear to see. ano- 
ther crowned with the glory of executing a plan which he had formed 
and that he was ambitious of appearing the principal, if not the only, 
conductor of this great work. This is not a mere conjecture. Luther 
himself has not taken the least pains to conceal this instance of his 
ambition : and it appears evidently in several of his letters. On the 
other hand, it must be owned, that Carlostadt was rash, violent, and 
prone to enthusiasm, as appears by the connexions he formed after- 
wards with the fanatical anabaptists, headed by Munzer. His contest 
with Luther about the eucharist, in which he manifestly maintained the 
truth, shall be mentioned in its proper place. 

i> Of this German translation of the Bible, which contributed more 
than all other causes, taken together, to strengthen the foundations of 
the Lutheran church, we have an interesting history composed by Jo 
Fred. Mayer, and published at Hamburg in 1701. A more ample on? 
was expected from the labours of the learned J. Melchior Kraft; but hi.' 
death disappointed the hopes of the learned. See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Cen 
tifolium Lutheranum, part. i. p: 147, and part. ii. p. 617. 

c See Caspar. Burmanni Adrianus VI. sive Analecta Historica df 
Adriano VI. Papa Romano, published at Utrecht in 1727. 

<< See Jac. Fred. Georgii Gravamina Germanorum adversus Sedem 
Romanam, lib; ii. p. 327. 



Chap. II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



399 



reserved character, and prone to artifice." This pontiff 
sent to the imperial diet at Nuremberg, in 1524, a cardi- 
nal legate, named Campeggio, whose orders, with respect 
to the affairs of Luther, breathed nothing but severity and 
violence, and who inveighed against the lenity of the 
German princes in delaying the execution of the decree 
of Worms, while he carefully avoided the smallest men- 
tion of Adrians promise of reforming the corruptions of 
a superstitious church. The emperor seconded the de- 
mands of Campeggio, by the orders he sent to his minis- 
ter to insist upon the execution of the decree. The princes 
of the empire, tired out by these importunities and remon- 
strances, changed in appearance the law they had passed, 
but confirmed it in reality ; for, while they promised to 
observe the edict, as far as it was possible, they renewed 
their demand of a general council, and left all other dis- 
puted points to be examined and decided at the diet that 
was soon to be assembled at Spire. The pope's legate, 
on the other hand, perceiving by these proceedings, that 
the German princes in general were no enemies to the 
Reformation, retired to Ratisbon, with the bishops and 
those princes who adhered to the cause of Rome, and there 
drew from them a new declaration, by which they enga- 
ged themselves to execute the edict with rigour in their re- 
spective dominions. 

XXI. While the efforts of Luther toward the reforma- 
uon of the church were so far successful, and almost all 
.he nations seemed disposed to open their eyes upon the 
light, two unhappy occurrences, one of a foreign, and the 
other of a domestic nature, contributed greatiy to retard 
.he progress of this salutary and glorious work. The 
domestic, or internal incident, was a controversy concern- 
.ng the manner in which the body and blood of Christ 
were present in the eucharist, that arose among those 
whom the pope had publicly excluded from the commu- 
nion of the church, and unhappily produced among the 
friends of the good cause the most deplorable animosities 
and divisions. Luther and his followers, though they 
had rejected the monstrous doctrine of the church of Rome 
with respect to transubstantiation, or the change of the 
bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, were 
nevertheless of opinion, that the partakers of the Lord's 
supper received, with the bread and wine, the real body 
and blood of Christ. This, in their judgment, was a 
mystery, which they did not pretend to explain. b Car- 
lostadt, who was Luther's colleague, understood the mat- 
ter otherwise ; and his doctrine, which was afterwards 
more fully illustrated and confirmed by Zuingle, amount- 
ed to this : " That the body and blood of Christ were not 
really present in the eucharist ; and that the bread and 
wine were no more than external signs, or symbols, de- 
signed to excite in the minds of Christians the remem- 

' See Jac. Zeigleri Historia Clementis VII. in Jo. Georgii Schel- 
liornii Amcenit. Histor. Eccles. torn. ii. p. 210. 

f^f >> Luther was not so modest as Dr. Mosheim here represents 
him. He pretended to explain his doctrine of the real presence, absurd 
and contradictory as it was, and uttered much senseless jargon or. this 
subject. As in a red-hot iron, said he, two distinct substances, namely, 
iron and fire, are united, so is the body of Christ joined with the bread 
in the eucharist. I mention this miserable comparison to show into 
what absurdities the towering pride of system will often betray men of 
de>:p sense and true genius. 

• See Val. F.rn. Loscheri Historia Motuum inter Lutheranos et Re- 
formatos, part i. lib. ii. cap. i — See, on the other side of the question, 
Scultet's Annales Evangelii, published by Vonder Hardt in his Historia 
Liter. Reformat. ; also Rud. Hospinianus, and other reformed writers, 
who have treated of the origin and progress of this dispute. f^* It 



brance of the sufferings and death of the divine Saviour, 
and of the benefits which arise from it." c This opinion was 
embraced by all the friends of the Reformation in Swit- 
zerland, and by a considerable number of its votaries in 
Germany. On the other hand, Luther maintained las 
doctrine, in relation to this point, with the utmost obsti- 
nacy ; and hence arose, in 1524, a tedious and vehement 
controversy, which, notwithstanding the zealous endea- 
vours that were used to reconcile the contending parties, 
terminated, at length, in a mischievous division between 
ihose who had embarked together in the sacred cause of 
religion and liberty. 

XXII. To these intestine divisions were added the 
horrors of a civil war, which was the fatal effect of op- 
pression on the one hand, and of enthusiasm on the other, 
and, by its unhappy consequences, proved prejudicial to 
the cause and progress of the Reformation. In 1525, a 
prodigious multitude of seditious fanatics suddenly arose, 
like a whirlwind, in different parts of Germany, took arms, 
united their forces, waged war against the laws, the ma- 
gistrates, and the empire in general, ravaged the country 
with fire and sword, and exhibited daily the most horrid 
spectacles of unrelenting barbarity. The greatest part of 
this furious and formidable mob was composed of pea- 
sants and vassals, who groaned under heavy burthens, 
and declared they were no longer able to bear the despotic 
severity of their chiefs ; and hence this sedition Avas called 
the Rustic war, or the war of the peasants." 1 But it is also 
certain, that this motley crowd was intermixed with num- 
bers, who joined in this sedition from different motives, 
some being impelled by the suggestions of enthusiasm, 
and others by the profligate and odious views of rapine 
and plunder, of repairing fortunes ruined by extravagant 
and dissolute living. At the first breaking out of this war, 
it seemed to have been kindled only by civil and political 
views ; and agreeable to this is the general tenour of the 
Declarations and Manifestoes that were published by 
these rioters. The claims they made in these papers re- 
lated to nothing farther than the diminution of the tasks 
imposed upon the peasants, and to their obtaining a greater 
measure of liberty than they had hitherto enjoyed. Re- 
ligion seemed to be out of the question ; at least, it was 
not the object of deliberation or debate. But no sooner 
had the enthusiast Munzer e put himself at the head of this 
outrageous rabble, than the face of things changed entirely ; 
and, by the instigation of this man, who had deceived 
numbers before this time by his pretended visions and in- 
spirations, the civil commotions in Saxony and Thuringia 
were soon directed toward a new object, and were turned 
into a religious war. The sentiments, however, of this 
seditious and dissolute multitude were greatly divided, 
and their demands were very different. One part of their 

appears from this representation (which is a just one) of the sentiments 
of Zuingle concerning the holy sacrament of the Lord's supper, that 
they were the same with those maintained by bishop Hoadly, in his 
Plain Account of the Nature and Design of the Sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper. 

d These kinds of wars or commotions, arising from the impatience 
of the peasants, under the heavy burthens that were imposed on them, 
were very common long before the time of Luther. Hence the author 
of the Danish Chronicle (published by the learned Ludewis in his Re- 
liq. MStorum) calls these insurrections a common evil. This will not 
appear surprising to such as consider, that, in most places, the condition 
of the peasants was much more intolerable and grievous before tin- Re- 
formation, than it is in our times; and that the tyranny and cruelty of 
the nobility, before that happy period, were excessive and insupport- 
able, • Or Minister, as some call him. 



400 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. I. 



number pleaded for an exemption from all laws, a licen- 
tious immunity from every sort of government ; another, 
less outrageous and extravagant, confined their demands 
to a diminution of the taxes they were forced to pay, and 
of burthens under which they groaned ; a another insisted 
upon a new form of religious doctrine, government, and 
worship, upon the establishment of a pure and unspotted 
church, and to add weight to this requisition, pretended, 
that it was suggested by the Holy Ghost, with which 
they were divinely and miraculously inspired ; while a 
very considerable proportion of this furious rabble were 
without any distinct view or fixed purpose, and, being in- 
fected with the contagious spirit of sedition, and exaspe- 
rated by the severity of their magistrates and rulers, went 
on headlong without reflection or foresight into every act 
of violence and cruelty which rebellion and enthusiasm 
could suggest : so that, if it cannot be denied that many 
of these rioters perversely misunderstood the doctrine of 
Luther concerningOhristian liberty, and thence took oc- 
casion to commit the disorders that rendered them so justly 
odious, yet it would be a most absurd instance of partiality 
and injustice to charge that doctrine with the blame of 
those extravagant outrages which arose only from the 
manifest abuse of it. Luther himself, indeed, sufficiently 
defended both his principles and his cause against any 
such imputations, by the books he wrote against the riot- 
ous sect, and the advice he addressed to the princes of the 
empire to take arms against them. Accordingly, in 1525, 
the turbulent malcontents were defeated in a pitched bat- 
tle fought at Mulhausen ; and Munzer, their ringleader, 
was put to death. 6 

X XIII. While this fanatical insurrection raged in Ger- 
many, Frederic the Wise, elector of Saxony, departed this 
life. This excellent prince, whose character was distin- 
guished by an uncommon degree of prudence and mode- 
ration, had, during his life, been a sort of mediator between 
the Roman pontiff and the reformer of Wittenberg, and 
had always entertained the pleasing hope of restoring 
peace in the church, and of so reconciling the contending 
parties as to prevent a separation either in point of ecclesi- 
astical jurisdiction or religious communion. Hence it was, 
that while he made no opposition to Luther's design of 
reforming a corrupt and superstitious church, but rather 
encouraged him in the execution of this pious purpose, 
yet he was at no pains to introduce any change into the 
churches which were established in his own dominions, 
or to subject them to his jurisdiction. The elector John, 
his brother and successor, acted in a very different man- 
ner. Convinced of the truth of Luther's doctrine, and 
persuaded, that it must lose ground and be soon suppress- 
ed if the despotic authority of the Roman pontiff remained 
undisputed and entire, he, without hesitation or delay, as- 
sumed to himself that supremacy in ecclesiastical matters 
which every lawful sovereign may claim as his natural 
right, and founded and established a church in his domi- 
nions, very different from the church of Rome, in doctrine, 
discipline, and government. To bring this new and hap- 
py establishment to as great a degree of perfection as was 
possible, this resolute and active prince ordered a body of 
laws, relating to the form of ecclesiastical government, 

B These burthens were the duties of vassalage or feudal services, 
which, in many respects, were truly grievous. 

" " Petri Gnodalii Historia de Seditione repentina Vulgi. praecipue 



the method of public worship, the rank, offices, and reve- 
nues of the priesthood, and other matters of that nature, 
to be drawn up by Luther and Melancthon, and promul- 
gated by heralds throughout his dominions in 1527. He 
also took care that all the churches should be supplied 
with pious and learned ministers, and that such of the 
clergy as dishonoured religion by their bad morals, or 
were incapable, from their want of talents, of promoting 
its influence, should be removed from the sacred function. 
The illustrious example of this elector was followed by 
all the princes and states of Germany that were unfriend- 
ly to the papal supremacy and jurisdiction ; a^d similar 
forms of worship, discipline, and government, were thus 
introduced into all the churches which dissented from 
that of Rome. Thus may the elector John be considered 
as the second parent and founder of the Lutheran church, 
which he alone rendered a complete and independent body, 
distinct from the superstitious church of Rome, and fenced 
about with salutary laws, with a wise and well-balanced 
constitution. But as the best blessings may, through the 
influence of human corruption, become the innocent occa- 
sions of great inconveniences, such particularly was the 
fate of those wise and vigorous measures which this 
elector took for the reformation of the church ; for, from 
that time the religious differences between the German 
princes, which had been hitherto kept within the bounds 
of moderation, broke out into a violent and lasu'ng flame. 
The prudence, or rather timidity, of Frederic *he Wise, 
who avoided every resolute measure that might tend to 
kindle the fire of discord, had preserved a sort of external 
union and concord among these princes, notwithstanding 
their differences in opinion. But as soon as his successor 
by the open and undisguised steps he took, made it gla 
ringly evident, that he designed to withdraw the churches- 
in his dominions from the jurisdiction of Rome, and to 
reform the doctrine, discipline, and worship that had been 
hitherto established, then indeed the scene changed. The 
union, which was more specious than solid, and which 
was far from being well cemented, was suddenly dissolv- 
ed : the spirits were heated and divided, and an open rup- 
ture ensued among the German princes, of whom one 
party embraced the Reformation, while the other adhered 
to the superstitions of their forefathers. 

XXIV. Affairs being reduced to this violent and trou- 
bled state, the patrons of popery gave intimations that 
were far from being ambiguous, of their intention to make 
war upon the Lutheran party, and to suppress by force 
the doctrines which they were incapable of overturning 
by argument ; and this design would certainly have 
been put in execution, had not the troubles of Europe dis- 
concerted their measures. The Lutherans, informed of 
these hostile intentions, began to deliberate upon the most 
effectual methods of defending themselves against super- 
stition armed with violence, and formed the plan of a confe- 
deracy that might answer this prudent purpose. In the 
mean time the diet, assembled at Spire in 1 526, at which 
Ferdinand, the emperor's brother, presided, ended in a 
manner more favourable to the friends of the Reformation, 
than they could naturally expect. The emperor's ambas- 
sadors at this diet were ordered to use their most earnest 

Rusticorum, anno 1525, tempore verno per universam fere Germaniam 
exorta, Basil, 1570."' — See also B. Tenzelii Histor. Reform, torn. ii. p 
331, and the observations of Ernest Cyprian upon that work. 



Chap. II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



401 



endeavours for the suppression of all farther disputes con- 
cerning religion, and to insist upon the rigorous execution 
of the edict of Worms. The greatest part of the German 
princes strongly opposed this motion, declaring; that they 
could not execute that sentence, nor come to an> determi- 
nation with respect to the doctrines by which it had been 
occasioned, before the whole matter should be submitted to 
the cognizance of a general council lawfully assembled ; 
alleging farther, that the decision of controversies of this 
nature belonged properly to such a council, and to it alone. 
This opinion, after long and warm debates, was adopted 
by a great majority, and, at length, consented to by the 
whole assembly ; for it was unanimously agreed to pre- 
sent a solemn address to the emperor, beseeching him to 
assemble, without delay, a free and general council : and 
it was also agreed, that, in the mean time, the princes 
and states of the empire should, in their respective domi- 
nions, be at liberty to manage ecclesiastical matters in the 
manner which they might deem the most expedient, yet 
so as to be able to give to God and to the emperor an ac- 
count of their administration, when it should be demand- 
ed of them. 

XXV. Nothing could be more favourable to those who 
had the cause of pure and genuine Christianity at heart, 
than a resolution of this nature. For the emperor was, at 
vhis time, so entirely taken up in regulating the troubled 
state of his dominions in France, Spain, and Italy, which 
exhibited, from day to day, new scenes of perplexity, that, 
for some years, it was not in his power to turn his atten- 
tion to the affairs of Germany in general, and still less to 
the state of religion in particular, which was beset with 
difficulties that, to a reflecting politician like Charles, must 
nave appeared peculiarly critical and dangerous. Besides, 
nad he really possessed leisure to form, or power to execute, 
a plan that might terminate, in favour of the Roman pon- 
tiff, the religious disputes which prevailed in Germany, it 
is evident that the inclination was wanting, and that 
Clement VII., Avho now sat in the papal chair, had no- 
thing to expect from the good offices of Charles ; for this 
pontiff, after the defeat of Francis at the battle of Pavia, 
filled with uneasy apprehensions of the growing power of 
the emperor in Italy, entered into a confederacy with the 
French and the Venetians against that prince. This mea- 
sure inflamed the resentment and indignation of Charles 
to such a degree, that he abolished the papal authority in 
his Spanish dominions, made war upon the pope, laid 
siege to Rome in 1527, blocked up Clement in the castle 
of St. Angelo, and exposed him to the most severe and 
contumelious treatment. These critical events, together 
with the liberty granted by the diet of Spire, were pru- 
dently and industriously improved, by the friends of the 
Reformation, to the advantage of their cause, and to the 
augmentation of their number. Several princes, whom 
the fear of persecution and punishment had hitherto pre- 
sented from lending a hand to the good work, being deli- 
vered now from their restraint, publicly renounced the su- 
perstition of Rome, and introduced among their subjects 
the same forms of religious worship, and the same system 



§3r a The resolution of the first diet of Spire, which had been taken 
unanimously, -,vas revoked in the second, and another substituted in its 
place by a plurality of voices, which, as several of the princes then 
present observed, could not give to any decree the force of a law through- 
oat the empire. 

No. XXXIV. 101 



of doctrine, that had been received in Saxony. Others, 
though placed in such circumstances as discouraged them 
from acting in an open manner against the interests of the 
pope, were far from manifesting any intention of opposing 
those who withdrew the people from his despotic yoke ; 
nor did they molest the private assemblies of those who 
had separated themselves from the church of Rome. And 
all the Germans who, before the resolutions of the diet of 
Spire, had rejected the papal discipline and doctrine, were 
now, in consequence of the liberty they enjoyed by these 
resolutions, wholly employed in bringing their schemes 
and plans to a certain degree of consistency, and in adding 
vigour and firmness to the glorious cause in which they 
were engaged. In the mean time, Luther and his fellow- 
labourers, particularly those who were with him at Wit- 
tenberg, by their writings, their instructions, their admo- 
nitions and counsels, inspired the timorous with fortitude, 
dispelled the doubts of the ignorant, fixed the principles 
and resolution of the floating and inconstant, and ani- 
mated all the friends of genuine Christianity with a spirit 
suitable to the grandeur of their undertaking. 

XXVI. But the tranquillity and liberty they enjoyed, m 
consequence of the resolutions taken in the first diet of 
Spire, were not of long duration. They were interrupted 
by a new diet assembled, in 1529, in the same place, by 
the emperor, after he had appeased the commotions and 
troubles which had employed his attention in several parts 
of Europe, and concluded a treaty of peace with Clement. 
This prince, having now, in a great measure, shaken off 
the burthen that had for some time overwhelmed him, 
had leisure to direct the affairs of the church ; and this 
the reformers soon felt by a disagreeable experience. For 
the power, which had been granted by the former diet to 
every prince, of managing ecclesiastical matters as he 
thought proper, until the meeting of a general council, 
was now revoked by a majority of votes, and not only so, 
but every change was declared unlawful that should be 
introduced into the doctrine, discipline, or worship of the 
established religion, before the determination of the ap- 
proaching council was known. 1 This decree was justly 
considered as iniquitous and intolerable by the elector of 
Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse, and such other members 
of the diet, as were persuaded of the necessity of a refor- 
mation in the church. Nor was any one so simple, or so 
little acquainted with the politics of Rome, as to look up- 
on the promise of assembling speedily a general council, 
in any other light, than as an artifice to quiet the minds 
of the people ; since it was easy to perceive, that a lawful 
council, free from the despotic influence of Rome, was the 
very last thing that a pope would grant in such a critical 
state of affairs. Therefore, when the princes and mem- 
bers now mentioned found that all their arguments and 
remonstrances against this unjust decree made no im- 
pression upon Ferdinand, b or upon the abettors of the 
ancient superstitions, (whom the pope's legate animated 
by his presence and exhortations,) they entered a solemn 
protest against this decree, on the 19th of April, and ap- 
pealed to the emperor and to a future council. Hence 

|^ b As the emperor was at Barcelona, while this diet was held at 
Spire, his brother Ferdinand was president, in his place. 

ij= c The princes of the empire, who entered this protest, and are 
consequently to be considered as the first protestanl princes, were John, 
elector of Saxony, George, elector of Brandenburg, for Frunconia, 



402 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. 1. 



arose the denomination of Protestants, given from this 
period to those who renounce the superstitious communion 
of the church of Rome. 

XXVII. The dissenting princes, who were the pro- 
tectors and heads of the reformed churches, had no sooner 
entered their protest, than they sent proper persons to the 
emperor, who was then upon his passage from Spain to 
Italy, to acquaint him with their proceedings in this affair. 
The ministers employed in this commission, executed 
the orders they had received with the greatest resolution 
and presence of mind, and behaved with the spirit and 
firmness of the princes, whose sentiments and conduct 
they were sent to justify and explain. The emperor, 
whose pride was wounded by this fortitude in persons that 
dared to oppose his designs, ordered the ambassadors to be 
apprehended, and detained for several days. Intelligence 
of this violent step was soon brought to the protestant 
princes, and made them conclude that their personal 
safety, and the success of their cause, depended entirely 
upon their courage and concord, the one animated, and 
the other cemented by a solemn confederacy. They, 
therefore, held several meetings at Nuremberg, Smalcald, 
and other places, in order to deliberate upon the means of 
forming such a powerful league as might enable them to 
repel the violence of their enemies. * But so different 
were their opinions and views of things, that they could 
come to no satisfactory conclusion. 

XXVIII. Among the incidents that promoted animo- 
sity and discord between the friends of the Reformation, 
and prevented that union which was so much to be de- 
sired among persons embarked in the same good cause, 
the principal one was the dispute that had arisen between 
the divines of Saxony and Switzerland, concerning the 
manner of Christ's presence in the eucharist. To ter- 
minate this controversy, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, in- 
vited, in 1529, to a conference at Marpurg, Luther and 
Zuingle, with some of the most eminent doctors who ad- 
hered to the respective parties of these contending chiefs. 
This expedient, which was designed by that truly mag- 
nanimous prince, not so much to end the matter by keen 
debate, as to accommodate differences by the conciliatory 
spirit of charity and prudence, was not attended with the 
salutary fruits that were expected from it. The divines 
that were assembled for this pacific purpose disputed, du- 
ring four days, in presence of the landgrave. The prin- 
cipal champions in these debates were Luther, who at- 
tacked (Ecolampadius, and Melancthon, who disputed 
against Zuingle ; and the controversy turned upon seve- 
ral points of theology, in relation to which the Swiss doc- 
tors were supposed to entertain erroneous sentiments. For 
Zuingle was accused of heresy, not only on account of his 
explication of the nature and design of the Lord's Supper, 
but also in consequence of the false notions which he was 
supposed to have adopted, relating to the divinity of Christ, 
the efficacy of the divine word, original sin, and some 
other parts of the Christian doctrine. ' This illustrious re- 
former cleared himself, however, from the greatest part of 

Ernest and Francis, dukes of Lunenburg, the landgrave of Hesse, and 
the prince of Anlialt. These princes were supported by thirteen impe- 
rial towns, viz. Strasburg, Ulm, Nuremberg, Constance, Rottingen, 
Windsheim, Memmingen, Nordlingen, Lindaw, Kempten, Heilbron, 
Weissenburg, and St. Gall. 

* See the history of the confession of Augsburg, written in German 
by the learned Christ. Aug. Salig, torn. i. book ii. ch. i. p. 128, and 
more especially an important work by Dr. Joachim Muller, entitled 



these accusations, with the most triumphant evidence, and 
in such a manner as appeared entirely satisfactory, even 
to Luther himself. The dissension concerning the man- 
ner of Christ's presence in the eucharist still remained ; 
nor could either of the contending parties be persuaded to 
abandon, or even to modify, their opinion of that matter. b 
The only advantage, therefore, that resulted from this 
conference, was, that the jarring doctors formed a sort ol 
truce, by agreeing to a mutual toleration of their respect- 
ive sentiments, and leaving the cure of their divisions to 
the disposal of Providence, and the effect of time, which 
sometimes cools the rage of party. 

XXIX. The ministers of the churches which had em- 
braced the sentiments of Luther, were preparing a new 
embassy to the emperor, when an account was received 
of the intention of that prince to come into Germany, 
with a view of terminating, in the approaching diet at 
Augsburg, the religious disputes which had produced such 
animosities and divisions in the empire. Charles, though 
long absent from Germany, and engaged in affairs that 
left him little leisure for theological disquisitions, was ne- 
vertheless attentive to these disputes, and foresaw their 
consequences. He had also, to his own deliberate reflec- 
tions upon these disputes, added the counsels of men of 
wisdom, sagacity, and experience, and was thus, at cer- 
tain seasons, rendered more cool in his proceedings, and 
more moderate and impartial in his opinion both of the 
contending parties and of the merits of the cause. He 
therefore, in an interview with the pope at Bologna, in- 
sisted, in the most serious and urgent manner, upon the 
necessity of assembling a general council. His remon- 
strances and expostulations could not, however, move Cle- 
ment, who maintained with zeal the papal prerogatives, 
imputed to the emperor an ill-judged clemencjr, and al- 
leged that it was the duty of that prince to support the 
church, and to execute speedy vengeance upon the obsti- 
nate heretical faction, who dared to call in question the 
authority of Rome and its pontiff. The imperial poten- 
tate was as little affected by this haughty discourse, as 
the pope had been by his wise remonstrances, and looked 
upon it as a most iniquitous thing, a measure also in direct 
opposition to the laws of the empire, to condemn, unheard, 
and to destroy, without any evidence of their demerit, a 
set of men, who had always approved themselves good 
citizens, and had in various respects deserved well of their 
country. Hitherto, indeed, it was not easy for Charles to 
form a clear idea of the matters in debate, since no regu- 
lar system had yet been composed of the doctrines em- 
braced by Luther and his followers, by which their real 
opinions, and the true causes of their opposition to the 
Roman pontiff, might be known with certainty. As, there- 
fore, it was impossible, without some declaration of this 
nature, to examine with accuracy, or decide with equity, 
a matter of such high importance as that which gave rise 
to the divisions between the votaries of Rome and the 
friends of the Reformation, the elector of Saxony ordered 
Luther, and other eminent divines, to commit to writing, 

Historie von der Evangelischen Stande Protestation gegen den Speyer- 
schen Reichs-Abscheid von 1529, Appellation, &c. published at Jena 
in 1705. 

i» Val. Em. Loscheri Historia Motuum inter Lutheranos et Reforma- 
tos, torn. i. lib. i. cap. vi. p. 143. — Henr. Bullingeri Historia Colloquii 
Marpurgensis, in Jo. Com - . Fuesslin's Beytragen zur Schweizer Re- 
format. Geschichte, torn. iii. — Abr. Sculteti Annal. Reformat, ad an- 
num 1529. — Rudolphi Hospiniani Histor. Sacramentor. part. ii. 



Chap. II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



403 



the chief articles of their religious system, and the princi- 
pal points in which they differed from the church of Rome. 
Luther, in compliance with this order, delivered to the 
elector, at Torgaw, the seventeen articles which had been 
drawn up and voted in the conference at Sultzbach in 
1529 ; and hence they were called the articles of Tor- 
gaw." Though these articles were deemed by Luther a 
sufficient declaration of the sentiments of the reformers, 
yet it was judged proper to enlarge them ; and, by a ju- 
dicious detail, to give perspicuity to the arguments, and 
thereby strength to the cause. It was this consideration 
that engaged the protestant princes, assembled at Coburg 
and Augsburg, to employ Melancthon in extending these 
articles, in which important work he showed a due regard 
to the counsels of Luther, and expressed his sentiments 
and doctrine with the greatest elegance and perspicuity. 
And thus came forth to public view the famous confession 
of Augsburg, which did such honour to the acute judg- 
ment and the eloquent pen of Melancthon. 

XXX. During these transactions in Germany, the 
dawn of truth arose upon other nations. The light of 
the reformation spread itself far and wide ; and almost 
all the European states welcomed its salutary beams, and 
exulted in the prospect of an approaching deliverance 
from the yoke of superstition and spiritual despotism. 
Some of the most considerable provinces of Europe had 
already broken their chains, and openly withdrawn them- 
selves from the discipline of Rome and the jurisdiction of 
its pontiff. And thus it appears that Clement was not im- 
pelled by a false alarm to demand of the emperor the speedy 
extirpation of the reformers, since he had the strongest rea- 
sons to apprehend the destruction of his spiritual empire. 
The reformed religion was propagated in Sweden, soon 
after Luther's rupture with Rome, by one of his disciples, 
whose name was Olaus Petri, and who was the first he- 
rald of religious liberty in that kingdom. The zealous 
efforts of this missionary were powerfully seconded by 
that valiant and public-spirited prince, Gustavus Yasa 
Ericson, whom the Swedes had raised to the throne in the 
place of Christiern, king of Denmark, whose horrid bar- 
barity lost him the sceptre that he had perfidiously usurp- 
ed. This generous and patriotic hero had been in exile 
and in prison, while the brutal usurper, now mentioned, 
was involving his country in desolation and misery ; but, 
having escaped from his confinement, and taken refuge 

"See Chr. Aug. Heumanni Diss, do Lenitate Augustanre Confess, in 
Syllogc Dissert. Theological-, torn. i. p. 14. — Jo. Joach. Muller's Histo- 
ria Protestationis ; and the other writers who have treated, either of 
the Reformation in general, or of the confession of Augsburg in parti- 
cular. 

|Qr b This incomparable model of princes gave many proofs of his 
wisdom and moderation. Once, while he was absent from Stockholm, 
a great number of German anabaptists, probably the riotous disciples 
of Munzer, arrived in that city, carried their fanalicism to extremities, 
and pulled down with fury the images and other ornaments of the 
churches, while the Lutherans dissembled their sentiments of this riot 
in expectation that the storm would turn to their advantage. But Gus- 
tavus no sooner returned to Stockholm, than he ordered the leaders of 
these fanatics to be seized and punished, and assailed the Lutherans 
with bitter reproaches for not having opposed them in time. 

Jjf c It is very remarkable, and shows the equity and candour of 
Gustavus in the most striking point of light, that while he ordered Olaus 
Petri to publish his literal translation of the sacred writings, he gave 
permission at the same time to the archbishop of Upsal, to prepare ano- 
ther version suited to the doctrine of the church of Rome ; that, by a 
careful comparison of both translations with the original, an easier ac- 
cess might be opened to the truth. The bishops at first opposed this 
order, but were at length obliged to submit. 

=0* d It was no wonder, indeed, that the bishops opposed warmly 



at Lubeck, he was there instructed in the principles of 
the Reformation, and looked upon the doctrine of Luther, 
not only as agreeable to the genius and spirit of the Gos- 
pel, but also as favourable to the temporal state and poli- 
tical constitution of the Swedish dominions. The pru- 
dence, however, of this excellent prince was equal to his 
zeal, and always accompanied it : and, as the religious 
opinions of the Swedes were in a fluctuating state, and 
their minds divided between their ancient superstitions, 
recommended by custom, and the doctrine of Luther, 
which attracted their assent by the power of convic- 
tion and truth, Gustavus wisely avoided all vehemence 
and precipitation in spreading the new doctrine, and pro- 
ceeded in this important undertaking with circumspec- 
tion, and by degrees, in a manner suitable to the princi- 
ples of the reformation, which are diametrically opposite 
to compulsion and violence. b Accordingly, the first ob- 
ject of his attention was the instruction of his people in 
the sacred doctrines of the Scriptures, for which purpose 
he invited into his dominions several learned Germans, 
and spread abroad through the kingdom Petri's Swedish 
translation of the Bible. c Some time after this, in 1526, 
he appointed a conference, at Upsal, between this emi- 
nent reformer and Peter Gallius, a zealous defender of the 
ancient superstition, in which these two champions were 
to plead publicly in behalf of their respective opinions, 
that it might thus be seen on which side the truth lay. 
The dispute, in which Olaus obtained a signal victory, 
contributed much to confirm Gustavus in his persuasion 
of the truth of Luther's doctrine, and to promote its pro- 
gress in Sweden. In the following year, another event 
gave the finishing stroke to its propagation and success ; 
and this was the assembly of the states at Westeraas, where 
the king recommended the doctrine of the reformers with 
such zeal, wisdom, and piety, that, after warm debates 
fomented by the clergy in general, and much opposition 
on the part of the bishops in particular, it was voted that 
the plan of reformation proposed by Luther should have 
free admittance among the Swedes. d This resolution 
was principally owing to the firmness and magnanimity 
of Gustavus, who declared publicly, that he would lay 
down his sceptre, and retire from his kingdom, rather than 
rule a people enslaved to the orders and authority of the 
pope, and more controlled by the tyranny of 1 heir bishops, 
than by the laws of their monarch. e Thus the papal em- 

the proposal of Gustavus, since there was no country in Europe where 
that order and the clergy in general drew greater temporal advantages 
from the superstition of the times than in Sweden and Denmark. Most 
of the bishops had revenues superior to those of the sovereign; they 
possessed castles and fortresses that rendered them independent of the 
crown, enabled them to excite commotions in the kingdom, and gave 
them a degree of power that was dangerous to the state. They lived 
in the most dissolute luxury and overgrown opulence, while many of 
the nobles were in misery and want. The resolution formed bv the 
states assembled at Westeraas, did not so much tend to regulate points 
of doctrine, as to reform the discipline of the church, to reduce the opu- 
lence and authority of the bishops within proper bounds, to restore to 
the impoverished nobility the lands and possessions which their super- 
stitious ancestors had given to an all-devouring clergy, to exclude the 
prelates from the senate, to take from them their castles, and things of 
that nature. It was however resolved, at the same time, that the church 
should be provided with able pastors, who should explain the pure word 
of God to the people in their native tongue ; and tnat no ecclesiastical 
preferments should be granted without the king's permission. This 
was a tacit and gentle method of promoting the Reformation. 

• Bazii Inventarium Eccles. Sueco-Gothor. published at Lincoping 
in 1()42. Scultcti Annales Evangelii Renovati, in Von-der-Hardt's 
Histor. Liter. Reformat, part v. p. 83, and 110. Raynal, Anecdotes Hist. 
Politiques et Mililaives, torn. i. part ii. 



404 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. I. 



pire in Sweden was overturned, and the king acted thence- 
forward as head of the church. 

XXXI. The light of the reformation was also received 
in Denmark, in consequence of the ardent desire disco- 
vered by Christian or Christiern II. of having his subjects 
instructed in the principles and doctrines of Luther. This 
monarch, whose savage and infernal cruelty (either the 
effect of natural temper, or of bad counsels) rendered his 
name odious and his memory execrable, was nevertheless 
desirous of delivering his dominions from the superstition 
and tyranny of Rome. For this purpose, in 1520, he 
sent for Martin Reinard, one of the disciples of Carlostadt, 
out of Saxony, and appointed him professor of divinity at 
Copenhagen ; and after his death, which happened in the 
following year, he invited Carlostadt himself to fill that 
important place, which he accepted indeed, but, after a 
short residence in Denmark, returned into Germany. 
These disappointments did not abate the reforming spirit 
of the Danish monarch, who used his utmost endeavours, 
though in vain, to engage Luther to visit his dominions, 
and took several steps that tended to the diminution, and, 
indeed, to the suppression of the jurisdiction, exercised 
over his subjects by the Roman pontiff. 

It is, however, proper to observe, that in all these pro- 
ceedings, Christiern was animated by no other motive 
than that of ambition. It was the prospect of extending 
his authority, and not a zeal for the advancement of true 
religion, that gave life and vigour to his reformative pro- 
jects. 

His very actions, independently of what may be con- 
cluded from his known character, evidently show, that 
he protected the religion of Luther with no other view 
:han to rise by it to supremacy, both in church and state, 
and to find a pretext for depriving the bishops of that 
overgrown authority, and those ample possessions which 
they had gradually usurped," and which he wished to 
appropriate to himself. A revolution produced by his 
avarice, tyrannjr, and cruelty, prevented the execution of 
this bold enterprise. The states of the kingdom, being 
exasperated, some by his schemes for destroying the li- 
berty of Denmark, others by his attempts to abolish the 
superstition of their ancestors, b and all by his savage and 
barbarous treatment of those who dared to oppose his ava- 
rice or ambition, formed a conspiracy against him in 1523, 
by which he was deposed and banished from his domi- 
nions, and his uncle Frederic, duke of Holstein, placed 
on the Danish throne. 

XXXII. This prince conducted matters with much 
more equity, prudence, and moderation, than his prede- 

* See Jo. Gramii Diss, de Reformatione Danias a Christierno tentata, 
in the third volume of the Scriptor. Societ. Scientiarum Hafniens, p. 
1—90. r 

>> See, for a confirmation of this part of the accusation, a curious 
piece, containing the reasons that induced the states of Denmark to re- 
nounce their allegiance to Christiern. This piece is to be found in the 
fifth volume of Ludewig's compilatior entitled, Reliquiae Manuscripto- 
rum, in which the states of Denmark express .their displeasure at the 
royal favour shown to the Lutherans, m the following terms : " Luthe- 
rans hseretis pullulatores, contra jus pietatemque, in regnum nostrum 
catholicum introduxit; doctorem Carolostadium, fortissimum Lutheri 
athletam, enutrivit." 

' See Jo. Molleri Cimbria Literata, torn. ii. p. 886. — Christ. Olivarii 
Vita Pauli Eli;e, p. 108. — Erici Pontoppidani Annales Ecclesia: DanicEe, 
torn. iii. p. 139. 

fjT d It w.as farther provided by this edict, that no person should be 
molested on account of his religion ; that a royal protection should be 
granted to the Lutherans to defend them from the insults and malignity 



cessor had done. He permitted the protestant doctors to 
preach publicly the opinions of Luther, but did not ven- 
ture so far as to change the established government and 
discipline of the church. He contributed, hoAvever, great- 
ly to the progress of the reformation, by his successful 
attempts in favour of religious liberty, in the assembly 
of the states holden at Odensee in 1527; for it was here 
that he procured the publication of that famous edict, which 
declared every subject of Denmark free, either to adhere 
to the tenets of the church of Rome, or to embrace the 
doctrine of Luther. 11 Encouraged by this resolution, the 
protestant divines exercised the functions of their minis- 
try with such zeal and success, that the greatest part of 
the Danes opened their eyes upen the auspicious beams 
of sacred liberty, and abandoned gradually both the doc- 
trines and jurisdiction of the church of Rome. But the ho- 
nour of finishing this glorious work, of destroying entirely 
the reign of superstition, and breaking asunder the bonds 
of papal tyranny, was reserved for Christiern III., a prince 
equally distinguished by his piety and prudence. He be- 
gan by suppressing the despotic authority of the bishops, 
and by restoring to their lawful owners a great part of the 
wealth and possessions which the church had acquired by 
the artful stratagems of the crafty and designing clergy 
This step was followed by a wise and well-judged settle- 
ment of religious doctrine, discipline, and worship, through- 
out the kingdom, according to a plan laid doAvn by Bu- 
genhagius, whom the king had invited from Wittenberg 
to perform that arduous task, for which his eminent piety, 
learning, and moderation, rendered him peculiarly proper. 
The assembly of the states at Odensee, in 1539, gave a 
solemn sanction to all these transactions ; and thus the 
work of the reformation was brought to perfection in 
Denmark. e 

XXXIII. It is however to be observed, that, in the 
history of the reformation of Sweden and Denmark, we 
must carefully distinguish between the reformation of re- 
ligious opinions, and that of the episcopal order ; for, 
though these two things may appear to be closely con- 
nected, yet, in reality, they are so far distinct, that one 
might have been completely transacted without the other. 
A reform of doctrine might have been effected, without 
diminishing the authority of the bishops, or suppressing 
their order ; and, on the other hand, the opulence and 
power of the bishops might have been reduced within 
proper bounds, without introducing any change into the 
system of doctrine that had been so long established, and 
which was generally received/ In the measures taken 
in these northern kingdoms, for the reformation of a cor- 



of their enemies ; and that ecclesiastics, of whatever rank or order, 
should be permitted to enter into the married state, and to fix their re- 
sidence wherever they thought proper, without any regard to monaste- 
ries, or other religious societies. 

e See a German work of the learned Eric Pontoppidan, entitled, A 
Compendious View of the History of the Reformation in Denmark ; as 
also the Annales Ecclesia Danicre, of the same author, torn. ii. jii. — 
See also the work of Henry Muhl, de Reformat. Religionis in vicinis 
Dania? Regionibus et potissimum in Cimbria, in ejus Dissertationibus 
Historieo-Theologicis. 

f^> f This observation is not worthy of Dr. Mosheim's sagacity 
The strong connexion between superstitious ignorance among the peo- 
ple, and influence and power in their spiritual rulers, is too evident to 
stand in need of any proof. A good clergy will, or ought to have an 
influence, in consequence of a 'respectable office, adorned with learning, 
piety, and morals ; but the power of a licentious and despotic clergy 
can be only supported by the blind and superstitious credulity of their 
flock. 



Chap. II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



405 



nipt doctrine and a superstitious discipline, there was no- 
thing that deserved the smallest censure : neither fraud 
nor violence were employed for this purpose ; on the con- 
trary, all things were conducted with wisdom and mode- 
ration, in a manner suitable to the dictates of equity and 
the spirit of Christianity. The same judgment cannot 
easily be pronounced with respect to the methods of pro- 
ceeding in the reformation of the clergy, and more espe- 
cially of the episcopal order. For here, certainly, violence 
was used, and the bishops were deprived of their honours, 
privileges, and possessions, without their consent ; indeed, 
notwithstanding the greatest struggles and the warmest 
opposition. 1 The truth is, that so far as the reformation 
in Sweden and Denmark regarded the privileges and 
possessions of the bishops, it was rather a matter of poli- 
tical expediency than of religious obligation ; for a change 
here had become so necessary, that, had Luther and his 
doctrine never appeared in the world, it must have been 
nevertheless attempted by a wise legislator ; for the bi- 
shops, by a variety of perfidious stratagems, had gotten 
into then hands such enormous treasures, such ample pos- 
sessions, so many castles and fortified towns, and had as- 
sumed such an unlimited and despotic authority, that 
they were in a condition to give law to the sovereign him- 
self, to rule the nation as they thought proper, and, in 
effect, they already abused their power so far as to appro- 
priate to themselves a considerable part of the royal pa- 
trimony, and of the public revenues of the kingdom. 
Such, "therefore, was the critical state of these northern 
kingdoms, in the time of Luther, that it became abso- 
lutely necessary, either to degrade the bishops from that 
rank which they dishonoured, and to deprive them of 
the greatest part of those possessions and prerogatives 
which they had so unjustly acquired and so licentiously 
abused, or to see, tamely, royalty rendered contemptible 
by its weakness, the sovereign deprived of the means of 
protecting and succouring his people, and the state ex- 
posed to rebellion, misery, and ruin. 

XXXIV. The kingdom of France was not inacces- 
sible to the light of the Reformation. Margaret queen of 
Navarre, sister to Francis I., the implacable enemy and 
perpetual rival of Charles Y., was inclined to favour the 
new doctrine, which delivered pure and genuine Christi- 
anity from a great part of the superstitions under which 
it had so long lain disguised. The auspicious patronage 
of this illustrious princess encouraged several pious and 

§£lp * What does Dr. Mosheim mean here 1 Did ever an usurper 
give up his unjust possessions without reluctance 1 Does rapine con- 
stitute a right, when it is maintained by force 1 Is it unlawful to use 
violence against extortioners 1 The question here is, whether the 
bishops deserved the severe treatment they received from Christiern 
III. ; and our author seems to answer this question in the affirmative, 
and to declare this treatment both just and necessary, in the follow- 
ing part of this section. Cerlain it is, that the bishops were treated 
with great severity, deposed from their sees, imprisoned on account of 
their resistance ; all the church lands, towns, and fortresses, were an- 
nexed to the crown, and the temporal power of the clergy abolished. 
It is also certain, that Luther himself looked upon these measures as 
violent and excessive, and even wrote a letter to Christiern, exhorting 
him to use the clergy with more lenity. It is therefore proper to de- 
cide widi moderation on this subject, and to grant, that, if the insolence 
and licentiousness of the clergy were enormous, the resentment of the 
Danish monarch may have been excessive. Nor indeed was his poli- 
tical prudence here so great as Dr. Mosheim seems to represent it; for 
the equipoise of government was hurt, by a total suppression of the 
power of the bishops. The nobility acquired by this a prodigious de- 
gree of influence, and the crown lost an order, which, under proper re- 
gulations, might have been rendered one of the strongest supports of its 

No. XXXIV. 102 



learned men, whose religious sentiments were the sam« 
with her's, to propagate the principles of the Reformation 
in France, and even to erect several protestant churches 
in that kingdom. It is manifest from the most authentic 
records, that, so early as the year 1523, there were, in se- 
veral of the provinces of that country, multitudes of per- 
sons, who had conceived the utmost disgust to the doc- 
trine and tyranny of Rome ; and among these were ma- 
ny persons of rank and dignity, and even some of the 
episcopal order. As their numbers increased from day to 
day, and troubles and commotions were excited in seve- 
ral places on account of religious differences, the authority 
of the monarch and the cruelty of his officers intervened, 
to support the doctrine of Rome, by the edge of the sword 
and the terrors of the gibbet : and on this occasion many 
persons, eminent for their piety and virtue, were put to 
death with the most unrelenting barbarity. b Although 
this cruelty, instead of retarding, accelerated the progress 
of the Reformation, yet, in the reign of Francis, the re- 
storers of genuine Christianity were not always equally 
successful and happy. Their situation was extremely 
uncertain, and it was perpetually changing. Sometimes 
the}' seemed to enjoy the auspicious shade of royal pro- 
tection ; at others they groaned under the weight of per- 
secution, and at certain seasons they were forgotten, 
which oblivion rendered then condition tolerable. Fran- 
cis, who had either no religion at all, or, at best, no fixed 
and consistent system of religious principles, conducted 
himself toward the protestants in such a manner as an- 
swered his private and personal views, or as reasons of 
policy and the public interest seemed to require. When 
it became necessary to engage in his cause the German 
protestants, in order to foment sedition and rebellion 
against his mortal enemy Charles V., he treated the pro- 
testants in France with the utmost equity, humanity, and 
gentleness ; but, so soon as he had gained his point, and 
had no more occasion for their services, he threw off the 
mask, and appeared to them in the aspect of an implaca- 
ble and persecuting tyrant. 1 

About this time the famous Calvin, upon whose cha- 
racter, talents, and religious exploits, we shall have occa- 
sion to dwell more amply in the course of this history, 
began to draw the attention of the public, but more espe- 
cially of the queen of Navarre. He was born at No3 r on in 
Picardy, on the 10th of July, 1509, and was bred to the 
law, d in which, as well as in all the other branches of lite- 
prerogative. But disquisitions of this nature are foreign to our purpose. 
It is only proper to observe, that, in die room of the bishops, Christiern 
created an order of men, with the denomination of Superintendants, 
who performed the spiritual part of the episcopal office without the least 
shadow of temporal authority. 

b See Beza, Histoire des Eglises Reformees de France, torn. i. — 
Benoit, Histoire de TEdit de Nantes, liv. i. — Christ. Aug. Salig. Histor. 
August. Confessionis, vol. ii. 

3Qf • The inconsistency and contradiction that were visible in the 
conduct of Francis I. may be attributed to various causes. At one time, 
we see him resolved to invite Melancthon into France, probably with 
a view to please his sister the queen of Navarre, whom he loved tender- 
ly, and who had strongly imbibed the principles of the protestants. At 
another time, we behold him exercising the most infernal cruelty to- 
ward the friends of the Reformation, and hear him making that mad 
declaration, that, " if he thought the blood in his ami was tainte.1 with 
the Lutheran heresy, he would order it to be cutoff; and that he would 
not spare even his own children, if thev entertained sentiments contrary 
to those of the catholic church." See Flor. de Remond, Hist de la 
Naissance et du Profiles de l'Heresie. 

f^» i He was originally designed for the church, and had actually 
obtained a benefice; but the lighfthat broke in upon his religious sen- 



a06 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. 1 



rature, then known, his studies were attended with the 
most rapid and amazing success. Having acquired the 
knowledge of religion, by a diligent perusal of the holy 
scriptures, he began early to perceive the necessity of re- 
forming the established system of doctrine and worship. 
His zeal exposed him to various perils ; and the connex- 
ions he had formed with the friends of the Reformation, 
whom Francis was frequently committing to the flames, 
placed him more than once in imminent danger, from 
which he was delivered by the good offices of the ex- 
cellent queen of Navarre. To escape the impending 
storm, he retired to Basil, where he published his Chris- 
tian Institutions ; and prefixed to them that famous 
dedication to Francis, which has attra-cted the admi- 
ration of succeeding ages, and which was designed to sof- 
ten the unrelenting fury of that prince against the pro- 
testants. a 

XXXV. The instances of an opposition to the doctrine 
and discipline of Rome, in the other European states, were 
few in number, before the diet of Augsburg, and were too 
faint, imperfect, and ambiguous, to make much noise in the 
world. It, however, appears from the most authentic testi- 
monies, that, even before that period, the doctrine of Luther 
had made a considerable, though perhaps a secret, progress 
in Spain, Hungary, Bohemia, Britain, Poland, and the 
Netherlands, and had, in all these countries, many friends, 
of whom several repaired to Wittenberg, to improve their 
knowledge and enlarge their views under such an emi- 
nent master. Some of these countries openly broke asun- 
der the chains of superstition, and withdrew themselves, 
in a public and constitutional manner, from the jurisdic- 
tion of the Roman pontiff. In others, a prodigious num- 
ber of families received the light of the blessed Reforma- 
tion ; rejected the doctrines and authority of Rome ; and 
notwithstanding the calamities and persecutions they 
have suffered on account of their sentiments, under the 
sceptre of bigotry and superstition, continue still in the 
profession of the pure doctrines of Christianity ; while in 
other, still more unhappy, lands, the most barbarous tor- 
tures, the most infernal spirit of cruelty, together with 
penal laws adapted to strike terror into the firmest minds, 
have extinguished, almost totally, the light of religious 
truth. It is, indeed, certain, and the Roman catholics 
themselves acknowledge it without hesitation, that the 
papal doctrines, jurisdiction, and authority, would have 
fallen into ruin in all parts of the world, had not the 
force of the secular arm been employed to support this 
tottering edifice, and fire and sword been let loose upon 
those who were assailing it only with reason and argu- 
ment. 

timents, as well as the preference given by his father to the profession 
of the law, induced him to give up his ecclesiastic vocation, which he 
afterwards resumed in a purer church. 

fpT * This paragraph relating to Calvin, is added to Dr. Mosheim's 
text by the translator, who was surprised to find, in a History of the 
Reformation, such late mention made of one of its most distinguished 
and remarkable instruments ; a man whose extensive genius, flowing 
eloquence, immense learning, extraordinary penetration, indefatigable 
industry, and fervent piety, placed him at the head of the Reformers ; 
all of whom he surpassed, at least, in learning and parts, as he also did 
the greater part of them in obstinacy, asperity, and turbulence. 

>> There is a very voluminous history of the diet, which was publish- 
ed in 1577, at Frankfort, on the Oder, by the laborious George Celestine. 
The history of the Confession of Augsburg was composed in Latin by 
David Chytrseus, and more recently in German, by Ern. Solum. Cy- 
prian and Christopher Aug. Salig. The performance of the latter is 
rather, indeed, a history of the Reformation in general, than of the Con- 



CHAPTER III. 

The History of the Reformation, from the Time when 
the Confession of Augsburg was presented to Charles 
V., until the Commencement of the War which suc- 
ceeded the League of Smalcald. 

I. The diet was opened at Augsburg on the 20th day of 
June, 1530 ; and, as it was unanimously agreed, that the 
affairs of religion should be discussed before the delibera- 
tions relating to the intended war with the Turks, the 
protestant members of this great assembly received from 
the emperor a formal permission to present to the diet an 
account of their religious principles and tenets. In con- 
sequence of this, Christian Bayer, chancellor of Saxony 
read, in the German language, in presence of the emperoi 
and the assembled princes, the famous confession which 
has been since distinguished by the denomination of the 
Confession of Augsburg. The princes heard it with the 
deepest attention and recollection of mind; it confirmed 
some in the principles they had embraced, surprised others ; 
and many, who, before this time, had little or no idea of 
the religious sentiments of Luther, were now not only con- 
vinced of their innocence, but were, moreover, delighted 
with their purity and simplicity. The copies of this con- 
fession, which, after being read, were delivered to the em- 
peror, were signed and subscribed by John, elector of 
Saxony, by four princes of the empire, namely, George, 
marquis of Brandenburg ; Ernest, duke of Lunenburg ; 
Philip, landgrave of Hesse; Wolfgang, prince of Anhalt ; 
and by the imperial cities of Nuremberg and Reutlingen ; 
who all thereby solemnly declared their assent to the doc- 
trines contained in it. b 

II. The tenor and contents of the confession of Augs- 
burg are well known ; at least, by all who have the small- 
est acquaintance with ecclesiastical history ; since that con- 
fession was adopted by the whole body of the protestants 
as the rule of their faith. The style that reigns in it is 
plain, elegant, grave, and perspicuous, such as becomes 
the nature of the subject, and such as might be expected 
from the admirable pen of Melancthon. The matter was, 
undoubtedly, supplied by Luther, who, during the diet, 
resided at Coburg, a town in the neighbourhood of Augs- 
burg; and even the form it received from the eloquent 
pen of his colleague, was authorized by his approbation 
and advice. This confession contains twenty-eight chap- 
ters, of which the greatest part c are employed in repre- 
senting, with perspicuity and truth, the religious opinions 
of the protestants, and the rest in pointing out the errors 
and abuses that occasioned their separation from the 
church of Rome. d 



fession of Augsburg in particular. That of Cyprian is more concis* 
and elegant, and is confirmed by original pieces which are equally au- 
thentic and curious. 

" Twenty-one chapters were so employed: the other seven contained 
a detail of the errors and superstitions of the Romish church. 

f^- i It is proper to observe here, that, while the Lutherans present- 
ed their confession to the diet, another excellent remonstrance of the 
same nature was addressed to this august assembly by the cities of 
Strasburg, Constance, Memmingen, and Lindaw, which had rejected 
the errors and jurisdiction of Rome, but did not enter into the Lutheran 
league, because they had adopted the opinions of Zuingle in relation to 
the eucharist. The declaration of these four towns (called for that rea- 
son the Tetrapolitan Confession) was drawn up by the excellent Mar- 
tin Bucer, and was considered as a master-piece of reasoning and elo- 
quence, not only by the protestants, but even by several of the Roman 
catholics ; and among others by M. Du-Pin. Zuingle also sent to this 
diet a private confession of his religious opinions. It is, however, re- 



Chap. III. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



407 



III. The creatures of the Roman pontiff, who were pre- 
sent at this diet, employed John Faber, afterwards bishop 
of Yienne in Dauphine, together with Eckius, and another 
doctor named Cochlaeus, to draw up a refutation of this 
famous confession. This pretended refutation having 
been read publicly in the assembly, the emperor required 
of the protestant members that they would acquiesce in 
it, and put an end to their religious debates by an unli- 
mited submission to the doctrines and opinions contained 
in this answer. But this demand was far from being 
complied with. The protestants declared, on the con- 
trary, that they were by no means satisfied with the re- 
ply of their adversaries, and earnestly desired a copy of 
it, that they might demonstrate more fully its extreme in- 
sufficiency and weakness. This reasonable request was 
refused by the emperor, who, on this occasion, as well as 
on several others, showed more regard to the importunity 
of the pope's legate and his party, than to the demands of 
equity, candour, and justice. He even interposed his su- 
preme authority to suspend any farther proceeding in this 
matter, and solemnly prohibited the publication of any 
new writings or declarations that might contribute to 
lengthen out these religious debates. This, however, did 
not reduce the protestants to silence. The divines of that 
community, who had been present at the diet, endeavour- 
ed to recollect the arguments and objections employed by 
Faber, and again had recourse to the pen of Melancthon, 
who refuted them in an ample and satisfactory manner, 
in a learned piece that was presented to the emperor, but 
which that prince refused to receive. This answer was 
afterwards enlarged by Melancthon, when he had ob- 
tained a copy of Faber's reply, and was published in 1531, 
with the other pieces that related to the doctrine and dis- 
cipline of the Lutheran church, under the title of ' A De- 
fence of the Confession of Augsburg.' 

IV. There were only three ways left of bringing to a 
conclusion these religious differences, which it was, in 
reality, most difficult to reconcile. The first and the most 
rational method was to grant, to those who refused to 
submit to the doctrine and jurisdiction of Rome, the liber- 
ty of following their private judgment in matters of a re- 
ligious nature, and the privilege of serving God accord- 
ing to the dictates of their consciences, with a proviso 
that the public tranquillity should not be disturbed. The 
second, aud, at the same time, the shortest and most ini- 
quitous expedient, was to end these dissensions by mili- 
tary apostles, who, sword in hand, should force the pro- 
testants to return to the bosom of the church, and to 
court the papal yoke, which they had so magnanimously 
thrown off. Some thought of a middle way, which was 
equally remote from the difficulties that attended the two 
methods now mentioned, and proposed that a reconcilia- 
tion should be made upon fair, candid, and equitable 
terms, by engaging each of the contending parties to tem- 
per their zeal with moderation, to abate reciprocally the 
rigour of their pretensions, and remit some of their re- 
diet a private confession of his religious opinions. It is, however, re- 
markable, that though Bucer composed a separate remonstrance, his 
name appears among the subscribers at Smalcald, in 1537, to the con- 
fession of Augsburg, and to Melancthon's defence of it. 

fjf* * As in the confession of Augsburg there were three sorts of ar- 
ticles; one sort orthodox, and adopted by both sides ; another that con- 
sisted of certain propositions, which the papal party considered as am- 
biguous and obscure; and a third, in which the doctrine of Luther was 
•ntirely opposite to that of Rome ; this gave some reason to hope, that 



spective claims. The first method, which seemed agree 
able to the dictates of reason, charity, aud justice, was 
highly approved by several wise and good men, on both 
sides ; but it was ill-suited to the arrogant ambition of the 
pontiff, and the superstitious ignorance of the times, which 
beheld with horror whatever tended to introduce the 
sweets of religious liberty, or the exercise of private judg- 
ment. The second method, being violent and inhuman, 
was more agreeable to the spirit and sentiments of the 
age, and was peculiarly suited to the despotic genius and 
sanguinary zeal of the court of Rome : but the emperor 
had sufficient prudence and equity to induce him to reject 
it ; and it appeared shocking to those who were not lost 
to all sentiments of justice or moderation. The third ex- 
pedient was therefore most generally approved : it was pe- 
culiarly agreeable to all who were zealous for the inter- 
ests and tranquillity of the empire ; nor did the pope seem 
to look upon it either with aversion or contempt. Hence 
various conferences ensued between persons of eminence, 
piety, and learning, who were chosen for that purpose 
from both sides ; and nothing was omitted that might 
have the least tendency to calm the animosity, heal the 
divisions, and unite the hearts of the contending parties ; * 
but all endeavours proved fruitless, since the difference 01 
opinion Avas too considerable and too important to admit 
a reconciliation. It was in these conferences that the spirit 
and character of Melancthon appeared in their true and 
genuine colours ; and it was here that the votaries of 
Rome exhausted their efforts to gain over to their party 
this pillar of the Reformation, whose abilities and virtues 
added such a lustre to the protestant cause. This humane 
and gentle spirit was apt to sink into a kind of yielding 
softness under the influence of mild and generous treat- 
ment. And, accordingly, while his adversaries soothed 
him with fair words and flattering promises, he seemed to 
melt as they spoke, and, in some measure, to comply with 
their demands ; but, when they so far forgot themselves 
as to make use of imperious language and menacing 
terms, then did he appear in a very different point of light ; 
then a spirit of intrepidity, ardour, and independence, ani- 
mated all his words and actions, and he looked down with 
contempt on the threats of power, the frowns of fortune, 
and the fear of death. The truth is, that, in this great 
and good man, a soft and yielding temper was joined with 
the most inviolable fidelity, and the most invincible at- 
tachment to the truth. 

V. As this method of terminating the religious debates 
between the friends of liberty and the votaries of Rome, 
proved ineffectual, the latter had recourse to other mea- 
sures, which were suited to the iniquity of the times, 
though they were disavowed by the dictates of reason and 
the precepts of the Gospel. These measures were, the 
force of the secular arm, and the authority of imperial 
edicts. On the 19th day of November, a severe decree 
was issued, by the express order of the emperor, during 
the absence of the Hessian and Saxon princes, who were 

by the means of certain concessions and modifications, conducted mu- 
tually by a spirit of candour and charity, matters might at last be ac- 
commodated. For this purpose, select persons were apppointed to carry 
on this salutary work, at first seven from each party, consisting of prin- 
ces, lawyers, and divines ; which number was afterwards reduced to 
three. As Luther's obstinate, stubborn, and violent temper, remkred 
him unfit for healing divisions, he was not employed in these conferen- 
ces ; but he was constantly consulted by the Protestant party, and it 
was with a view to this that he resided at Ceburg. 



408 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. I. 



the chief supporters of the protestant cause ; and, in this 
decree, every thing was manifestly calculated to deject the 
friends of religious liberty, if we except a faint and dubi- 
ous promise of engaging the pope to assemble (in about six 
months after the separation of the diet) a general council. 
The dignity and excellence of the papal religion are ex- 
tolled, beyond measure, in this partial decree ; new de- 
grees of severity and force were added to the edbt of 
Worms ; the changes that had been introduced into the 
doctrine and discipline of the protestant churches, were se- 
verely censured ; and a solemn order was addressed to the 
princes, states, and cities, that had thrown off the papal 
yoke, to return to their duty and their allegiance to Rome, 
on pain of incurring the indignation and vengeance of the 
emperor, as the patron and protector of the church." 

VI. No sooner were the elector of Saxony and the con- 
federate princes informed of this deplorable issue of the 
diet, than they assembled in order to deliberate upon the 
measures that were proper to be taken on this critical oc- 
casion. In 1530, and the following year, they met, first 
at Smalcald, afterwards at Frankfort, and formed a so- 
lemn alliance, with the intention of defending vigorously 
their religion and liberties against the dangers and en- 
croachments with which they were menaced by the edict 
of Augsburg, without attempting, however, any thing 
positively offensive against the votaries of Rome. Into 
this confederacy they invited the kings of England, 
France, and Denmark, with several other- republics and 
states, and left no means unemployed that might tend 
to corroborate and cement this important alliance. b 
Amidst these intrigues and preparations, which portend- 
ed an approaching rupture, the electors of Mentz and of 
the Palatinate offered their mediation, and endeavoured 
to reconcile the contending princes. With respect to the 
-vmperor, various reasons united to turn his views towards 
eace. For, on the one hand, he stood in need of suc- 
cours against the Turks, which the protestant princes re- 
fused to grant while the edicts of Worms and Augsburg 
remained in force ; and, on the other, the election of his 
brother Ferdinand to the dignity of king of the Romans, 
which had been concluded by a majority of votes, at the 
diet of Cologne in 1531, was contested by the same 



fjf" * To give the greater degree of weight to this edict, it was re- 
solved, that no judge who refused to approve and subscribe its contents, 
should be admitted into the imperial chamber of Spire, which was the 
supreme court in Germany. The emperor also, and the popish princes, 
engaged themselves to employ their united forces in order to maintain 
its authority, and to promote its execution. 

Jjj" •> Luther, who at first seemed averse to this confederacy, from 
an apprehension of the calamities and troubles it might produce, at 
length perceived its necessity, and consented to it; but, uncharitably, 
as well as imprudently, refused to comprehend in it the followers of 
Zuingle among the Swiss, together with the German states or cities, 
which had adopted the sentiments and confession of Bucer. And yet 
we find that the cities of Ulm and Augsburg had embraced the Refor- 
mation on the principles of Zuingle. In the invitation addressed to 
Henry VIII., whom the associated princes were willing to declare the 
head and protector of their league, the following points were expressly 
stipulated among several others: viz. That the king should encourage, 
promote, and maintain the true doctrine of Christ, as it was contained 
in the confession of Augsburg, and defend the same at the next general 
council ; — that he should not agree to any council summoned by the 
bishop of Home, but protest against it, and neither submit to its decrees, 
nor suffer them to be respected in his dominions ; — that he should never 
allow the pontiff to have any pre-eminence or jurisdiction in his domi- 
nions ; — that he should advance 100.000 crowns for the use of the con- 
federacy, and double that sum if it should appear to be necessaiy ; all 
which articles the confederate princes were obliged equally to observe 
on their parts. To these demands the king Miswered, immediately, in 



princes as contrary to the fundamental laws of the em- 
pire. 

VII. In this troubled state of affairs, many projects ol 
reconciliation were proposed ; and, after various negoti- 
ations, a treaty of peace was concluded at Nuremberg, in 
1532, between the emperor and the protestant princes, 
on the following conditions : that the latter should fur- 
nish a subsidy for carrying on the war against theTurks, 
and acknowledge Ferdinand as lawful king of the Ro 
mans ; and that the emperor should annul the edicts ol 
Worms and Augsburg, and allow the Lutherans the free 
and unmolested exercise of their religious doctrine and 
discipline, until a rule of faith should be fixed, either in 
the free general council that was to be assembled in the 
space of six months, or in a diet of the empire. The ap 
prehension of an approaching rupture was scarcely re 
moved by this agreement, when John, elector of Saxony 
died, and was succeeded by his son John Frederic, a prince 
of invincible fortitude and magnanimity, whose reign, 
however, was little better than a continued scene of dis- 
appointments and calamities. 

VIII. The religious truce, concluded at Nuremberg, 
inspired with new vigour and resolution all the friends 
of the reformation. It gave strength to the feeble, and 
perseverance to the bold. Encouraged by it, those whe 
had been hitherto only secret enemies to the Roman pon 
tiff, now spurned his yoke publicly, and refused to sub 
mit to his imperious jurisdiction. This appears from the 
various cities and provinces in Germany, which, about 
this time, boldly enlisted themselves under the religioue 
standard of Luther. On the other hand, as all hopes 
of terminating the religious debates that divided Europe 
were founded in the meeting of a general and indepen- 
dent council, so solemnly promised, Charles renewed hi? 
earnest request to Clement, that he would hasten an event 
that was expected and desired with so much impatience. 
The pontiff, whom the history of past councils filled with 
the most uneasy and discouraging apprehensions, endea- 
voured to retard what he could not, with any decency, 
absolutely refuse/ He formed innumerable pretexts to 
put off the evil day ; and his whole conduct evidently 
showed, that he was more desirous of having these reli 



a manner that was not satisfactory. He declared, that he would mair 
tain and promote the true doctrine of Christ ; but, at the same time, a 
the true ground of that doctrine lay only in the Holy Scriptures, h 
would not accept, at any one's hand, what should be his faith, or that, 
of his kingdoms, and therefore desired they would send over learne*' 
men to confer with him, in order to promote a religious union betweer 
him and the confederates. He moreover declared himself of their opi- 
nion with respect to the meeting of a free general council, and promiser 
to join with them, in all such councils, for the defence of the true doc- 
trine ; but thought the regulation of the ceremonial part of religion, be 
ing a matter of indifference, ought to be left to the choice of each sove- 
reign for his own dominions. After this, he gave them a second an- 
swer more full and satisfactory ; but, upon the fall of Anne Boleyn, 
this negotiation proved abortive. On the one hand, the king grew cold, 
when he perceived that the confederates could no longer be of service to 
him in supporting the validity of his man-iage; and, on the other, the 
German princes were sensible that they could never succeed with Henry, 
unless they would allow him an absolute dictatorship in matters of re- 
ligion. 

li» ° Beside the fear of seeing his authority diminished by a gene- 
ral council, another reason engaged Clement to avoid an assembly of 
that nature ; for, being conscious of the illegitimacy of his birth, as 
Father Paul observes, he had ground to fear that the Colonnas, or his 
other enemies, might plead this circumstance before the council, as a 
reason for his exclusion from the pontificate, since it might be well 
questioned whether nbastard could be a pope, though it is known, from 
many instances, that a. profligate may. 



ClIAP. III. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



409 



gicnib di(Terer«*ss decided by the force of arms, than by the 
powet of argument. He indeed, in 1533, made a proposal 
by his legate, to assemble a council at Mantua, Placentia, 
or Bologna ; but the protestants refused their consent to 
the nomination of an Italian council, and insisted, that 
a controversy, which had its rise in the heart of Germany, 
should be decided within the limits of the empire. The 
pope, by his usual artifices, eluded his own promise, dis- 
appointed their expectations, and was cut off by death, in 
1534, in the midst of his stratagems. 1 

IX. His successor Paul III. seemed to show less reluc- 
tance to the convocation of a general council, and even 
appeared disposed to comply with the desire of the em- 
peror in that respect. Accordingly, in 1535, he expressed 
his inclination to convoke one at Mantua ; and, in the fol- 
lowing year, he actually sent circular letters for that purpose 
through all the kingdoms and states under his jurisdiction. 11 
The protestants, on the other hand, fully persuaded, that, 
in such a council, all things would be carried by the vo- 
taries of Rome, and nothing concluded but what might 
be agreeable to the sentiments and ambition of the pon- 
tiff, assembled at Smalcald in 1537 ; and there they pro- 
tested solemnly against such a partial and corrupt coun- 
cil as that which was convoked by Paul, but, at the same 
time, had a new summary of their doctrine drawn up by 
Luther, in order to present it to the assembled bishops, if 
it should be required of them. This summary, which 
was distinguished by the title of the Articles of Smal- 
cald, is generally joined with the creeds and confessions 
of the Lutheran church. 

X. During these transactions, two remarkable events 
aappened, of which the one was most detrimental to the 
iause of religion in general, to that of the Reformation 
m particular, and produced, in Germany, civil tumults 
ind commotions of the most horrid kind ; while the 
other was more salutary in its consequences and effects, 
a,nd struck at the very root of the papal authority and domi- 
nion. The former event was a new sedition, excited by 
ti fanatical and outrageous mob of the Anabaptists ; and 
the latter, the rupture between Henry VIII. and the Ro- 
man pontiff, whose jurisdiction and spiritual supremacy 
were publicly renounced by that rough and resolute mo- 
narch. 

in 1533, there came to Munster, a city in Westphalia, 
a certain number of Anabaptists, who surpassed the rest 
of thfit fanatical tribe in the extravagance of their pro- 

'■ Src an ample account of every thing relative to this council in Fa- 
ther PajviI's History of the Council of Trent, book i. 

|Tjf" v This council was summoned by Paul III. to assemble- at Man- 
tua, on XiSe £3d of May, 1537, but several obstacles prevented its meet- 
ing. Fisderic, dnke of Mantua, was not much inclined to receive at 
once so many guests, bome of whom might be very turbulent, into the 
place of hi's resideic*. 

gjj- c That is, in a council assembled by the authority of the pope 
alone, and that also in Italy ; two circumstances that must have greatly 
contributed to give Faul ait tuidne inlaenc.e in that assembly. The 
protestants rnaintainec', fhixt the en peror .ind the other Christian prin- 
ces of Europe, had a right to be autnari'.aiivchj concerned in calling a 
general council ; so much the more, as the pontiff was evidently one of 
the parties in the present debate. 

* This fanatical establishment U»;y distinguhl ed by 'he title of the 
New Jerusalem. 

• Hermanni Hamelmanni Hiotoria Eccle.s. reru.ti Fvangelii per in- 
feriorem Saxoniam et Westphal. part ii. — Dc Pih.ti., SpciriKii Histo- 
riae Anabapt. c. x. xi. xii. 

£jf This sect was, in process of time, consjderably re'brmed by the 
ministry of two Friselanders, Ubbo and Mennon, who puvined it from 
the enthusiastic, seditious, and atrocious principles of iti) ilrst founders, 
as willjbe seen in the progress of this history. 

No. XXXV. 103 



ceedings, the phrensy of their disordered brains, and the 
madness of their pretensions and projects. They gave 
themselves out for the messengers of Heaven, invested 
with a divine commission to lay the foundations of a new 
government, a holy and spiritual empire, and to destroy 
and overturn all temporal rule and authority, all human 
and political institutions. Having turned all things into 
confusion and uproar at Munster by this seditious and 
extravagant declaration, they began to erect a new re- 
public,' 1 conformable to their absurd and chimerical notions 
of religion, and committed the administration of it to John 
Bockholt, a tailor by profession, and a native of Leyden. 
Their reign, however, was of a short duration ; for, in 
1535, the city was besieged, and taken by the bishop of 
Munster, assisted by other German princes ; this fanatical 
king and his wrong-headed associates were put to death 
in the most terrible and ignominious manner, and the 
new hierarchy destroyed with its furious and extravagant 
founders. This outrageous conduct of a handful of Ana- 
baptists drew upon the whole body heavy marks of dis- 
pleasure from the greatest part of the European princes. 
The severest laws were enacted against them for the se- 
cond time, in consequence of which the innocent and the 
guilty were involved in the same terrible fate, and prodi- 
gious numbers were devoted to death in the most dreadful 
forms. e 

XI. The pillars of papal despotism were at this time 
shaken in England, by an event, which, at first, did not 
seem to promise such important consequences. Henry 
VIII., a prince who, in vices and in abilities, was surpass- 
ed by none who swayed the sceptre in this age, and who, 
in the beginning of these religious troubles, had opposed 
the doctrine and views of Luther with the utmost vehe- 
mence, was the principal agent in this great revolution. f 
Bound in the chains of matrimony to Catharine of Arra- 
gon, aunt to Charles V., but at the same time captivated 
by the charms of an illustrious virgin, whose name was 
Anne Boleyn, he ardently desired to be divorced from the 
former, that he might render lawful his passion for the 
latter.^ For this purpose, he addressed himself to Clement 
VII. in order to obtain a dissolution of his marriage with 
Catharine, alleging, that a principle of religion restrained 
him from enjoying any longer the sweets of connubial 
love with that princess, as she had been previously mar- 
ried to his elder brother Arthur, and as it was repugnant 
to the divine law to contract wedlock with a brother's 

J^T f Among the various portraits that have been given by histori- 
ans of Henry VIII., there is not one that equals the masterly one drawn 
by Mr. Hume. This great painter, whose colouring, in oilier subjects, 
is sometimes more artful than accurate, has caught from nature the 
striking lines of Henry's motley character, and thrown them into a 
composition, in which they appear with the greatest truth, set out with 
all the powers of expression. - 

13r B From Dr. Mosheim's manner of expressing himself, an unin- 
formed reader might be led to conclude, that the charms of Anne Boleyn 
were the only motive that engaged Henry to dissolve his marriage with 
Catharine. But this representation of the matter is not accurate. The 
king had entertained scruples concerning the legitimacy of (hat marriage, 
before his acquaintance with the beautiful and unfortunate Anne. Con- 
versant in the writings of Thomas Aquinas and other schoolmen, who 
looked upon the Levitical law as of moral and permanent obligation, 
and attentive to the remonstrances of the bishops, who declared his mar- 
riage unlawful, he was filled with anxious doubts, which had made him 
break off all conjugal commerce with the queen, before his afleclions nad 
been engaged by any other. This appears by cardinal Wolsey s pro- 
posing a marriage between his majesty and the sister of Francis I., 
which that pliant courtier would never have done, had he known that 
the king's affections were otherwise engaged. After all, it is very pos- 
sible, that the age and infirmities of Catharine, together vith the bloom- 



410 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. I. 



widow. The pope was greatly perplexed upon this occa- 
sion, by the apprehension of incurring the indignation of 
ihe emperor, if his decision should be favourable to Henry ; 
and therefore he contrived various pretexts to evade a po- 
sitive answer, and exhausted all his policy and artifice to 
cajole and deceive the English monarch. Tired with the 
pretexts, apologies, vain promises, and tardy proceedings 
of the pontiff, Henry had recourse, for the accomplishment 
of his purposes, to an expedient which was suggested by 
the famous Thomas Cranmer, who was a secret friend 
to Luther and his cause, and who was afterwards raised 
to the see of Canterbury. This expedient was, to demand 
the opinions of the most learned European universities 
concerning the subject of his scruples. The result of 
this measure was favourable to his views. The greatest 
part of the universities declared the marriage with a bro- 
ther's widow unlawful. Catharine was consequently di- 
vorced ; Anne was conducted by a formal marriage into 
Jie royal bed, notwithstanding the remonstrances of Cle- 
ment ; and the English nation delivered from the tyranny 
of Rome, by Henry's renouncing the jurisdiction and su- 
premacy of its imperious pontiff. Soon after this, the king 
was declared by the parliament and people supreme head, 
on earth, of the church of England ; the monasteries were 
suppressed, and their revenues applied to other purposes ; 
and the power and authority of the pope were abrogated 
and entirely overturned.* 

XII. It is however carefully to be observed here, that 
Henry's subversion of the papal authority in England 
was not productive of much benefit, either to the friends 
or to the cause of the reformation ; for the same monarch, 
who had so resolutely withdrawn himself frorn the do- 
minion of Rome, yet superstitiously retained the greatest 
part of its errors, with its imperious and persecuting spi- 
rit. He still adhered to several of the most monstrous 
doctrines of popery, and frequently presented the terrors 
of death to those who differed from him in their religious 
sentiments. Besides, he considered the title of Head of 
the English Church, as if it transferred to him the enor- 
mous power which had been claimed, and indeed usurped, 
by the Roman pontiffs ; and, in consequence of this inter- 
pretation of his title, he looked upon himself as master 
of the religious sentiments of his subjects, and as autho- 
rized to prescribe modes of faith according to his fancy. 
Hence it came to pass, that, during the life and reign of 
this prince, the face of religion was constantly changing, 
and thus resembled the capricious and unsteady charac- 
ter of its new chief. The prudence, learning, and acti- 
vity of archbishop Cranmer, who was the favourite of the 
king, and the friend of the Reformation, counteracted, 
however, in many instances, the humour and vehemence 
of this inconstant and turbulent monarch. The pious 

.ng charms of Anne Boleyn, tended much to animate Henry's remorse, 
and to render his conscience more scrupulous. See Burnet's History 
of the Reformation, and Hume's History of Great Britain. 

°- Beside the full and accurate account of this and other important 
events, that may be found in bishop Burnet's exceliot History of the 
Reformation of the Church of England, the curious reader will do well 
to consult the records of this memorable revolution in Wilkins' Concil. 
Magna Britannise et Hibernia;, torn. iii. — Raynal's Anecdotes Histo- 
nques, Politiirues, et Militaires, torn. i. — Gen. Dictionary at the article 
Boleyn. 

b Beside Burnet's History of the Reformation, see Neal's History of 
ihe Puritans, vol. i. 

• See Jo. And. Roederi Libellus de ColloquioWormatiensi. Norimb. 
1744. * See Jo. Erdmanni Bieckii Triplex Interim, cap. i. 

f3r * It is "roper to observe here, that having summoned successive- 



productions and wise counsels of that venerable prelate 
diminished daily the influence of the ancient supersti- 
tions, dispelled by degrees the mists of ignorance that 
blinded the people in favour of popery, and considerably 
increased the number of those who wished well to the 
Reformation. 1, 

XIII. After the meeting of the council of Mantua 
was prevented, various measures were taken, and many 
schemes proposed, by the emperor on the one hand, and 
the protestant princes on the other, for the restoration of 
concord and union, both civil and religious. But these 
measures and projects were unattended with any solid 
or salutary fruit, and were generally disconcerted by the 
intrigues and artifice of the court of Rome, whose legates 
and creatures were always lying in wait to blow the flame 
of discord in all those councils which seemed unfavoura- 
ble to the ambition of its pontiffs. In 1541, the emperor, 
regardless of the pope's authority, appointed a conference 
at Worms, on the subject of religion, between persons o« 
piety and learning chosen from each party. It was here 
that Melancthon and Eckius disputed for three days. 6 
This conference was, for certain reasons, removed to the 
diet holden at Ratisbon in the same year, in which the 
principal subject of deliberation was a memorial, presented 
by a person unknown, containing a project of peace, with 
the terms of accommodation that were proper to termi- 
nate these religious differences/ 1 This conference, how- 
ever, produced no other effect, than a mutual agreement 
of the contending parties to refer the decision of their pre- 
tensions and debates to a general council ; or, if the meet 
ing of such a council should be prevented by any un 
foreseen obstacles, to the next German diet. 

XI v . This resolution was rendered ineffectual by the 
period of perplexity and trouble that succeeded the diet 
of Ratisbon, and by various incidents that widened the 
breach, and delayed the deliberations which were de- 
signed to heal it. It is true, the pontiff ordered his legate 
to declare in the diet, which was assembled at Spire in 
1542, that he would, according to the promise he had al- 
ready made, assemble a general council, and that Trent 
should be the place of its meeting, if the diet had no ob- 
jection to that city. Ferdinand, king of the Romans, and 
the princes who adhered to the papal cause, gave their 
consent to this proposal ; while the protestant members 
of the diet objected both to a council summoned by the 
papal authority alone, and also to the place appointed for 
its meeting, and demanded a free and lawful council, 
which should not be influenced by the dictates, or awed 
by the proximity of the pontiff. This protestation pro- 
duced no effect ; Paul persisted in his purpose, and issued 
his circular letters for the convocation of the council,' 
with the approbation of the emperor ; while this prince 

ly a council at Mantua, Vicenza, and Venice, without any effect, (for 
the council did not meet,) this pontiff thought it necessary to show the 
protestants that he was not averse to every kind of reformation ; and 
therefore appointed four cardinals and five other persons eminent for 
their learning, to draw up a plan for the reformation of the church in 
general, and of the church of Rome in particular, well knowing, by the 
spirit which reigned in the conclave,' that the project would come to 
nothing. A plan, however, was drawn up by the persons appointed 
for that purpose. The reformation proposed in this plan was indeed 
extremely superficial and partial; yet it contained some particulars, 
which scarcely could have been expec'.ed from the pens of those who 
composed it. They complained, for instance, of the pride and igno- 
rance of Che bishops, and proposed that none should receive orders but 
learned and pious men ; and that, therefore, care should be taken to 
have proper masters to instruct the youth. They condemned transla- 



CHAP.rv 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



411 



endeavoured, at the diet of "Worms, in 1545, to persuade 
the protestants to consent to the meeting of this council 
at Trent. But they were fixed in their resolution, and 
the efforts of Charles were vain ; upon which the em- 
peroi, who had hitherto disapproved the violent measures 
which were incessantly suggested by the court of Rome, 
departed from his usuai prudence and moderation, and, 
listening to the sanguinary counsels of Paul, formed, in 
conjunction with that artful pontiff, the design of termi- 
nating religious debates by the force of arms. The land- 
grave of Hesse, and the elector of Saxony, the chief pro- 
tectors of the protestant cause, were no sooner informed 
of this, than they took the proper measures to prevent 
themselves from being surprised and overwhelmed by a 
superior force, and, accordingly, raised an army for their 
defence. While this terrible storm was rising. Luther, 
whose aversion to all violence in matters of religion was 
well known, and who recommended prayer and patience 
as the only arms worthy of those who had the cause of ge- 
nuine Christianity at heart, was removed by Providence 
from this scene of tumult, and from the calamities that 
threatened his country. He died in peace, on the ISth 
of February, 1546, at Eisleben, the place of his birth. 

CHAPTER IY 

Tlie History of the Reformation from the Commence- 
ment of the War of Smalcald, to the famous Paci- 
fication, commonly called the Peace of Religion, con- 
cluded at Augsburg. 

I. Charles and the pontiff had determined upon the 
ruin of all who should dare to oppose the council of Trent. 
The meeting of that assembly was to serve as a signal 
for their taking arms ; and accordingly, its deliberations 
were scarcely begun, in 1546. when the protestants per- 
ceived undoubted marks of the approaching storm, and 
of a formidable union of their chief adversaries to over- 
whelm and crush them by a sudden blow. There had 
been, it is true, a new conference in this very year, at the 
diet of Ratisbon, between some eminent doctors of both 
parties, with a view to the accommodation of their reli- 
gious differences ; but it appeared sufficiently, both from 
the nature of this dispute, the manner in which it was 
carried on, and its issue and result, that the matters in 
debate would sooner or later be decided in the field of bat- 
tle. In the mean time, the fathers, assembled in the 
council of Trent, promulgated their decrees ; while the 
protestant princes in the diet protested against their au- 



thority, and were, in consequence of this conduct, pro- 
scribed by the emperor, who raised an army to reduce 
them to obedience. 

II. The elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse 
led their forces into Bavaria against the emperor, and can- 
nonaded his camp at Ingolstadt with great spirit. It was 
supposed that this would bring the two armies to a ge- 
neral action ; but several circumstances prevented a bat- 
tle, which was expected by most of the confederates, and, 
probably, would have been advantageous to their cause. 
Among these we may reckon, principally, the perfidy of 
Maurice, duke of Saxony, who, seduced by the promises 
of the emperor, and by his own ambition and avarice, 
invaded the electoral dominions of his uncle John Fre- 
deric, while that worthy prince was maintaining against 
the emperor the sacred cause of religion and liberty. Add 
to this the divisions that were fomented by the dissimula- 
tion of the emperor among the confederate princes, the 
failure of Fiance in furnishing the subsidy that had been 
promised by its monarch, and some incidents of less mo- 
ment. All these things so discouraged the heads of the 
protestant party, (hat their troops were soon dispersed, 
and the electoi of Saxony directed his march homewards. 
But he was pursued by the emperor, who made several 
forced marches, with a view of subduing his enemy, be- 
fore he should have time to recover his vigour ; in which 
design he was assisted by the ill-grounded security of the 
elector, and, as there is too much reason to think, by the 
treachery 7 of his officers. The two armies drew up in or- 
der of battle near Muhlberg on the Elbe, on the 24th of 
April, 1547, and, after a fierce conflict, that of the elector, 
being inferior in number, was entirely defeated, and him- 
self made prisoner. Philip, landgrave of Hesse, the other 
chief of the protestants, was persuaded by the entreaties 
: of his son-in-law, Maurice, now declared elector of Sax- 
j ony, a tj throw himself upon the mercy of the emperor, 
and to implore his pardon. To this he consented, rely- 
ing on the promise of Charles for obtaining forgiveness, 
I and being restored to liberty ; but, notwithstanding these 
, expectations, he was unjustly detained prisoner by a scan- 
dalous violation of the most solemn convention. It is said, 
that the emperor retracted his promise, and deluded this 
unhappy prince by the ambiguity of two German words, 
which resemble each other : b but this point of history 
; has not been hitherto so far cleared up, as to enable us to 
judge with certainty of the confinement of this prince, 
and the real causes to which it may be ascribed. 1 

III. This revolution seemed to threaten ruin to the pro- 



tions from one benefice to another, slants of reservation, non-residence, 
and pluralities. They proposed that some convents should be abolish- 
ed ; that the liberty of the press should be restrained and limited : that 
the colloquies of Erasmus should be suppressed ; that no ecclesiastic 
should enjoy a benefice out of his own country ; that no cardinal should 
have a bishopric ; that the questors of St. Antony, and several other 
saints, should be abolished ; and (which was the best of all their pro- 
posals) that the effects and personal estate of ecclesiastics should be 
given to the poor. They concluded with complaining of die prodigious 
number of indigent and ragged priests that frequented St. Peter's church ; 
and declared, that it was a great scandal to see the prostitutes lodged so 
magnificently at Rome, and riding through the streets on fine mules, 
while die cardinals and other ecclesiastics accompanied them in a most 
courteous and familiar manner. The several articles of this plan of re- 
formation (which Luther and Sturmius of Strasburg turned into ridicule, 
and which indeed left unredressed the most intoferable grievances of 
which the protestants complained) were published at Antwerp in or 
about the year 15*J9, with the answer of Cochlreus to the objections of 
Sturmius. They are likewise prefixed to the History of the Council of 
Trent, by Crahrc, and were afterwards published at Paris in 1612. 



JjT =■ In the room of John Frederic, whom he had so basely be- 
trayed. 

gjT b There is scarcely in history an instance of such mean, perfi- 
dious, and despotic behaviour, as that of the emperor to the landgrave 
in die case now before us. After having received in public the humble 
submissions of diat unhappy prince, made upon his knees, in the most 
respectful and affecting terms, and after having set him at liberty by a 
solemn treaty, he ordered him to be again arrested, without alleging 
any reason, or even any pretext, and kept him for several years in a 
close and severe confinement "When Maurice remonstrated to the em- 
peror against this new imprisonment, Charles answered, that he had 
never promised that the landgrave should not be imprisoned anew, but 
only that he should be exempted from perpetual imprisonment ; and, to 
support diis assertion, he produced the treaty, in which his ministers, 
in order to elude the true meaning of the accommodation, had perfidi- 
ously foisted in conger gefangnis. which signifies a perpetual prison, 
instead of einiger gefangnis, which means any prison. This point, 
however, is contested bv some historians. 

See a German work entided, Benj. Grosch Vertheidigung der 
Evangelischen Kirche gegen Gottfr. Arnold. 



412 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. L 



?estant cause, and to crown the efforts of the pontiff with 
the -most triumphant success. In the diet of Augsburg, 
which was assembled soon after, with an imperial army 
at hand to promote union and despatch, the emperor re- 
quired of tne protestants, that they would leave the deci- 
sion of these religious contests to the wisdom of the coun- 
cil that was to meet at Trent. The greatest part of the 
members consented to this proposal ; and, among others, 
Maurice, the new elector of Saxony, who owed both his 
electorate and his dominions to the emperor, and who 
was ardently desirous of obtaining the liberty of his fa- 
ther-in-law the landgrave of Hesse. This general sub- 
mission to the will of Charles, did not, however, produce 
the fruits that were expected from such a solemn and al- 
most universal approbation of the council of Trent. A 
plague, which manifested itself (or was said to do so) in 
that city, induced the greatest part of the assembled fa- 
thers to retire to Bologna, and thereby the council was, 
in effect, dissolved ; nor could all the entreaties and re- 
monstrances of the emperor prevail upon the pope to re- 
assemble it without delay. While affairs were in this si- 
tuation, and the prospect of seeing a council assembled 
was obscured, the emperor judged it necessary, during 
this interval, to devise some method of maintaining 
peace in religious matters, until the decision, so long ex- 
pected, should be finally obtained. It was with this view 
that he ordered Julius Pflugius, bishop of Naumburg, 
Michael Sidonius, a creature of the pontiff, and John 
Agricola, a native of Eisleben, to draw up a formulary, 
which might serve as a rule of faith and worship to both 
parties, until a council should begin to act. As this was 
only a temporary appointment, and had not the force of a 
permanent or perpetual institution, the rule in question 
was called the Interim.*- 

IV. This temporary rule of faith and discipline, though 
it was extremely favourable to the interests and preten- 
sions of the court of Rome, had yet the fate to which 
schemes of reconciliation are often exposed ; it pleased 
neither party, but was equally offensive to the followers 
of Luther and to the Roman pontiff. It was, however, 
promulgated with solemnity, by the emperor, at the diet 
of Augsburg ; and the elector of Mentz, without even 
deigning to ask the opinions of the assembled princes and 
states, rose with an air of authority, and, as if he had been 
commissioned to represent the whole diet, gave a formal 
and public approbation to this famous Interim,.' Thus 
were many princes of the empire, whose silence, though 
it proceeded from want of courage, was interpreted as the 



fj" * This project of Charles was formed, partly to vent his resent- 
ment against the pope, and partly to answer other purposes of a more 
political kind. Be that as it may, the Formula ad Interim, or tempo- 
rary rule of faith and worship here mentioned, contained all the essen- 
tial doctrines of the church of Rome, though considerably softened and 
mitigated by the moderate, prudent, and artful term's in which they 
were expressed ; terms quite different from those that were employed, 
before and after this period, by the council of Trent. There was even 
an affected ambiguity in many expressions, which rendered them sus- 
ceptible of different senses, applicable to the sentiments of both commu- 
nions, and therefore disagreeable to both. The Interim was composed 
with that fraudulent, specious, and seducing dexterity, which in after- 
times appeared in the deceitful exposition of the Catholic faith, by M. 
Bossuet, bishop of Meaux; and it was almost equally rejected by the 
Protestants and Roman Catholics. The cup was allowed, by this im- 
oerial creed, to the protestants in the administration of the Lord's sup- 
per, and priests and clerks were permitted by it to enter into the married 
state. These grants were, however, accompanied with the two follow- 
ing conditions : " 1. That every one should be at liberty to use the cup, 
or to abstain from it, and to choose a state of marriage, or a state of , 



mark of a tacit consent, engaged against their will to re- 
ceive this book as a body of ecclesiastical law. The majcf 
part of those, who had the resolution to dispute the autho- 
rity of this imperial creed, were obliged to submit to it 
by the force of arms ; and hence arose deplorable scenes 
of violence and bloodshed, which involved the empire in 
the greatest calamities. Maurice, elector of Saxony, who 
for some time, had affected to be neutral, and neither de 
clared himself for those who rejected, nor for those who 
had adopted the formulary, assembled, in 154S, the Saxon 
nobility and clergy, with Melancthon at the head of the 
latter, and, in several conferences at Leipsic and other 
places, took counsel concerning what was to be done in 
this critical affair. The deliberations, on this occasion, 
were long and tedious, and their result was ambiguous ; 
for Melancthon, whose opinion was respected as a law by 
the reformed doctors, fearing the emperor on the one hand, 
and attentive to the sentiments of his sovereign on the 
other, pronounced a sort of conciliatory sentence, which, 
he hoped, would be offensive to no party. He gave 
it as his opinion, that the whole of the book called Interim 
could not, by any means, be adopted by the friends of the 
| Reformation ; but he declared, at the same time, that he 
saw no reason, why this book might not be approved, 
adopted, and received, as an authoritative rule, in things 
that did not relate to the essential parts of religion, or in 
points which might be considered as accessory or indif- 
ferent.* This decision, instead of pacifying matters, pro- 
duced, on the contrary, new divisions, and formed, among 
the followers of Luther, a schism which placed the cause 
of the Reformation in the most perilous and critical cir- 
cumstances, and might have contributed either to ruin it 
entirely, or to retard considerably its progress, hid the 
pope and the emperor been dexterous enough to make 
the proper use of these divisions, and to seize the favour- 
able occasion that was presented to them, of turning the 
force of the protestants against themselves. 

V. Amidst these contests Paul III. was obliged to quit 
this life in the year 1549, and was succeeded, in the fol- 
lowing year, by Julius III., who, yielding to the repeated 
and importunate solicitations of the emperor, consented to 
convoke a council at Trent. Accordingly, in the diet of 
Aug'sburg, which was again holden under the formidable 
artillery of an imperial army, Charles laid this matter be- 
fore the states and princes of the empire. The majority 
of the princes gave their consent to the convocation of this 
council, to which also the elector Maurice submitted upon 
certain conditions. d The emperor then concluded the diet 

celibacy, as he should judge most fit or convenient : 2. That these grants 
should remain in force no longer than the happy period when a general 
council should terminate all religious differences." This second condi- 
tion tended to produce the greatest disorder and confusion in case the 
future council should think proper to enjoin celibacy on the clergy, and 
declare, as it did in effect, their marriage unchristian and unlawful. 

b See Jo. Erdm. Bieck, Triplex Interim. — Lue. Osianders Cent. XVI. 
Histor. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. lxviii. p. 425. — For an account of the authors 
and editions of the book called Interim,, see Die Danische Biblioth. part 
v. and vi. 

fjf- e By things indifferent, Melancthon understood particularly 
the ceremonies of the popish worship, which, superstitious as they were, 
that reformer, yielding to the softness and flexibility of his natural tem- 
per, treated with a singular and excessive indulgence upon this oc- 
casion. 

gjf" 4 Maurice (who was desirous of regaining the esteem of the pro- 
testants of Saxony, which he had lost by his perfidious behaviour to the 
late elector John Frederic, his benefactor and friend) gave his consent 
to the renewal of the council of Trent on the following conditions: — 
1st. That the points of doctrine, which had been already decided there, 



Chap. IV. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



413 



in 1551, desiring the assembled princes and states to pre- 
pare all things for the approaching council, and promising 
that he would use his most zealous endeavours to promote 
moderation and harmony, impartiality and charity, in the 
deliberations and transactions of that assembly. When 
the diet broke up, the protestants took the steps they 
judged most prudent to prepare themselves for what was 
to happen. The Saxons employed the pen of Melanc- 
thon, and the Wirtembergers that of Brentius, to draw 
up confessions of their faith, which were to be laid before 
the new council. Beside the ambassadors of the duke 
of Wirtemberg, several doctors of that city repaired to 
Trent. The Saxon divines, with Melancthon at their 
head, set out also for that place, but proceeded in their 
journey no farther than Nuremberg. They had received 
secret orders to stop there ; for Maurice had no intention 
of submitting to the emperor's views : on the contrary, 
he hoped to reduce that prince to a compliance with his 
own projects. He therefore yielded in appearance, that he 
might carry his point, and thus command in reality. 

VI. The real views of Charles, amidst the divisions and 
troubles in Germany, (which he fomented by negotiations 
that carried the outward aspect of a reconciling spirit,) will 
appear evidently to such as consider attentively the nature 
of the times, and compare the transactions of this prince, 
one with another. Relying on the extent of his power, 
and the success that frequently accompanied his enterprises, 
with a degree of confidence that was highly imprudent, 
he proposed to turn these religious commotions and dis- 
sensions to the confirmation and increase of his dominion 
in Germany, and, by sowing the seeds of discord among 
the princes of the empire,- to weaken their power, and 
thereby the more easily to encroach upon their rights and 
privileges. On the other hand, ardently desirous of re- 
ducing within narrower limitsthe jurisdiction and dominion 
of the Roman pontiffs, that they might not set bounds to 
his ambition, or prevent the execution of his aspiring views, 
he flattered himself that this would be the natural effect 
of the approaching council. He was confirmed in this 
pleasing hope, by reflecting on what had happened in 
the assemblies of Constance and of Basil, in which the 
lust of papal ambition had been opposed with spirit, 
and restrained within certain limits. He also persuaded 
himself, that, by the dexterity of his agents, and the num- 
ber of the Spanish and German bishops devoted to his 
interests, he should be able to influence and direct the 
deliberations of the council in such a manner, as to 
make its decisions answer his expectations, and contribute 
effectually to the accomplishment of his views. Such 
were the specious dreams of ambition that filled the ima- 
gination of this restless prince ; but his views and pro- 



should be examined and discussed anew ; 2dly, That this examination 
should be made in presence of the protestant divines, or their deputies ; 
3dly, That the Saxon protestants should have a liberty of voting, as 
well as of deliberating, in the council ; and, 4thly, That the pope should 
not pretend to preside in that assembly, either in person or by his le- 
gates. This declaration was read in the diet, and the elector's deputies 
insisted upon its being registered, which the archbishop of Mentz, how- 
ever, obstinately refused. 

ftjf * As this treaty is deemed by the German protestants the basis 
of their religious liberty, it will not be amiss to insert here some of its 
principal articles. By the three first articles it was stipulated, that 
Maurice and the confederates should lay down their arms, and should 
lend their troops to Ferdinand to defend Germany against the Turks, 
and that the landgrave of Hesse should be set at liberty. By the fourth 
it was agreed that the rule of faith, called Interim, should be considered 
as null and void ; that the contending parties should enjoy the free and 

No. XXXV. 101 



jects were disconcerted by that very individual, that sup- 
posed friend, who had been one of the principal instru- 
ments of the violence and oppression which he had exer- 
cised against the protestant princes, and of the injury he 
had done to the protestant cause. 

VII. The most considerable princes, not only of Ger- 
many, but even of all Europe, had, for a long time, ad- 
dressed to the emperor their united entreaties for the deli- 
verance of Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and John Frederic, 
elector of Saxony, from their confinement ; and Maurice 
had solicited, with peculiar warmth and assiduity, the li- 
berty of the former, who was his father-in-law. But all 
these solicitations produced no effect. Perceiving at length 
that he was duped by the emperor, and also convinced 
that this ambitious monarch w 7 as forming insidious designs 
upon the liberties of Germany, and the jurisdiction of its 
princes, the elector entered, with the utmost secrecy and 
expedition, into an alliance with the king of France and 
several of the German princes, for the maintenance of the 
rights and liberties of the empire. Encouraged by this 
respectable confederacy, the active Saxon led a powerful 
army against the emperor in 1552, with such astonishing 
valour and rapidity, that he surprised Charles atlnspruck- 
where he lay with a small force in the utmost security. 
and without the least apprehension of danger. This un- 
foreseen event alarmed and dejected the emperor to such 
a degree, that he was willing to make peace on almost 
any conditions ; and, consequently, he not only conclud- 
ed, at Passau, the famous treaty of pacification with the 
protestants, a but also promised to assemble, within the 
space of six months, a diet, in which all the tumults and 
dissensions that had been occasioned by a diversity of sen- 
timent in religious matters should be entirely removed. 
Thus did the same prince, who stands foremost in the 
list of those that oppressed the protestants, and reduced 
their affairs to extremities, restore their expiring hopes, 
support and render triumphant their desperate cause, and 
procure for them that bulwark of peace and of liberty 
which still remains. Maurice, however, did not live to 
see this happy issue of his glorious expedition ; for he 
lost his life in the following year, by a wound received at 
the battle of Siverhausen, while he was fighting against 
Albert of Brandenburg. b 

VIII. The troubles of Germany, with several other in- 
cidents, rendered it impossible to assemble the diet, which 
the emperor had promised at the pacification of Passau, 
so soon as the period mentioned in the articles of that 
treaty. This famous diet met, however, at Augsburg, in 
1555, was opened by Ferdinand in the name of the em- 
peror, and terminated those deplorable scenes of bloodshed 
desolation, and discord, that had so long afflicted both 

undisturbed exercise of their religion, until a diet should be assembled 
to determine amicably the present disputes (which diet was to meet in 
the space of six months); and that this religious liberty should continue 
always, if it should be found impossible to come to an uniformity in 
doctrine and worship. It was also resolved, that all those who had 
suffered banishment, or any other calamity, on account of their having 
been concerned in the league or war of Smalcald, should be reinstated 
in their privileges, possessions, and employments ; that the Imperial 
chamber at Spire should be open to the protestants as well as to the 
catholics ; and that there should be always a certain number of the 
Lutheran persuasion in that high court. 

£-jf >> Albert, marquis of Brandenburg, after the pacification of Pas- 
sau, to which he refused to subscribe, continued •.''e war against the 
Roman catholics ; and afterwards committed sucli ravages in die em- 
pire, that a confederacy was formed against him, nt the nead of which 
Maurice was placed. 



414 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. 1. 



church and state, by that religious peace (as it is com- 
monly called) which secured to the protestants the free ex- 
ercise of their religion, and established this inestimable 
liberty upon the firmest foundations ; for, after various 
debates, the following memorable acts were passed, on the 
25th of September ; that the protestants who followed the 
confession of Augsburgh, should be for the future consi- 
dered as entirely exempt from the jurisdiction of the Ro- 
i lan pontiff, and from the authority and superintendence 
of the bishops ; that they were left at perfect liberty to 
enact laws for themselves, relating to their religious sen- 
timents, discipline, and worship ; that all the inhabitants 
of the German empire should be allowed to judge for 
themselves in religious matters, and to join themselves to 
that church whose doctrine and worship they thought 
the purest, and the most consonant to the spirit of true 
Christianity ; and that all those who should injure or per- 
secute any person under religious pretexts, and on ac- 
count of opinions and belief, should be declared and pro- 
ceeded against as public enemies of the empire, invaders 
of its liberty, and disturbers of its peace. a The difficul- 
ties that were to be surmounted before this equitable deci- 
sion could be procured, the tedious deliberations, the warm 
debates, the violent animosities, and bloody wars, that were 
necessary to engage the greatest part of the German states 
to consent to conditions so agreeable to the dictates of right 
reason, as well as to the sacred injunctions of the Gospel, 
show us, in a shocking and glaring point of light, the ig- 
norance and superstition of these miserable times, and 
stand upon record, as one of the most evident proofs of 
the necessity of religious reform. 

IX. During these transactions in Germany, the friends 
of genuine Christianity in England deplored the gloomy 
reign of superstition, and the almost total extinction of 
true religion ; and, seeing before their eyes the cause of 
popery maintained by the terrors of bloody persecution, 
and daily victims brought to the stake, to expiate the pre- 
tended crime of preferring the dictates of the Gospel to 
the despotic laws of Rome, they deemed the Germans 
happy, in having thrown off the yoke of an imperious 
and superstitious church. Henry VIIL, whose personal 
vices, and whose arbitrary and capricious conduct, had 
greatly retarded the progress of the Reformation, was 
now no more. He died in 1547, and was succeeded by 
his only son, Edward VI. This amiable prince, whose 
early youth was crowned with that wisdom, sagacity, and 
virtue, that would have done honour to advanced years, 
gave new spirit and vigour to the protestant cause, and 
was its brightest ornament, as well as its most effectual 
support. He encouraged learned and pious men of fo- 
reign countries to settle in England, and addressed a 
particular invitation to Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius, 
whose moderation added a lustre to their other virtues, 

1 Jo. Schilteri Liber de Pace Religiosa. — Christ. Lehmanni Acta 
Publica et Originalia de Pace Religiosa. 

* This prelate was the less entitled to compassion, as, when in power, 
he followed the execrable example of the Romanists, by committing to 
the flames, against the will of the young king, two supposed heretics, 
two unfortunate foreigners, whom, one would think, every humane 
Briton would have spared, and whose destruction nothing could justi- 
fy. KvUT. 

JlT b It will not be improper to insert here the character of this famous 
Scottish reformer, as it is drawn by the spirited, accurate, and impartial 
pen of Dr. Robertson, in his History of Scotland, book vi. " Zeal in- 
trepidity, disinterestedness, (says that incomparable writer,) were vir- 
tues wiuch he possessed in an eminent degree. He was acquainted, 



that, by the ministry and laoours of these eminent men. 
in concert with those of the friends of the reformation in 
England, he might purge his dominions from the vile 
fictions of popery, and establish the pure doctrines of 
Christianit) r in their place. For this purpose he issued 
the wisest orders for the restoration of true religion ; but 
his reign was too short to accomplish fully such a glorious 
purpose. In 1553, he was taken from his loving and 
afflicted subjects, whose sorrow was inexpressible, and 
suited to their loss. His sister Mary, (the daughter of 
Catharine of Arragon, from whom Henry had been sepa- 
rated by the famous divorce,) a furious bigot to the church 
of Rome, and a princess whose natural character, like the 
spirit of her religion, was despotic and cruel, succeeded 
him on the English throne, and imposed anew the arbi- 
trary laws and the tyrannical yoke of Rome upon her 
reluctant subjects. Nor were the methods she employed, 
in the cause of superstition, better than the cause itself, 
or tempered by any sentiments of equity or compassion. 
Barbarous tortures, and death in the most shocking forms, 
awaited those who opposed her will, or made the least 
stand against the restoration of popery, And, among 
many other victims, the learned and pious Cranmer, 
archbishop of Canterbury, who had been one of the most 
illustrious instruments of the Reformation in England, 
fell a sacrifice to her fury.* This odious scene of perse- 
cution was happily concluded, in 1558, by the death of the 
queen, who left no issue ; and, as soon as her successor, 
the lady Elizabeth, ascended the throne, all things as- 
sumed a new and a pleasing aspect. This illustrious prin- 
cess, whose sentiments, counsels, and projects, breathed a 
spirit superior to the natural softness and delicacy of her 
sex, exerted this vigorous and manly spirit in the defence 
of oppressed conscience and expiring liberty, broke anew 
the despotic yoke of papal authority and superstition, and 
delivering her people from the bondage of Rome, esta- 
blished that form of religious doctrine and ecclesiastical 
government which England still enjoys. This religious 
establishment differs, in some respects, from the plan 
formed by those whom Edward VI. had employed for 
promoting the cause of the reformation, and approaches 
nearer to the rites and discipline of former times, though 
it is widely different from, and in the most important 
points entirely opposite to, the principles of the Roman 
hierarchy. 

X. The seeds of the reformation were very early sown 
in Scotland, by several noblemen of that nation, who had 
resided in Germany during the Religious disputes that 
divided the empire. But the power of the Roman pontiff, 
supported and seconded by inhuman laws and barbarous 
executions, choked, for many years, these tender seeds, 
and prevented their taking root.. The first and most 
eminent opposer of the papal jurisdiction was John Knox, b 

too, with the learning cultivated in that age, and excelled in that species 
of eloquence which is calculated to rouse and to inflame. His maxims, 
however, were often too severe, and the impetuosity of his temper ex- 
cessive. Rigid and uncomplying himself, he showed no indulgence to 
the infirmities of others. Regardless of the distinctions of rank and 
character, he uttered his admonitions with an acrimony and vehemence, 
more apt to irritate than to reclaim ; and this often betrayed him into 
indecent and undutiful expressions with respect to the queen's person 
and conduct. Those very qualities, however, which now render his 
character less amiable, fitted him to be the instrument of Providence for 
advancing the reformation among a fierce people, and enabled him to 
face dangers, and to surmount opposition, from which a person of a 
more gentle spirit would have been apt to shrink back. By an unwearir 



Chap. IV. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



415 



a disciple uf Calvin, whose eloquence was persuasive, 
and whose fortitude was invincible.* This resolute 
reformer set out from Geneva for Scotland, in 1559, 
and, in a very short time, inspired the people, hy his pri- 
vate exhortations and his public discourses, Avith such a 
violent aversion to the superstitions of Rome, that the 
greatest part of the Scottish nation abandoned them en- 
tirely, and aimed at nothing less than the total extirpation 
of popery." From this period to the present times, the 
doctrine, worship, and discipline that had been established 
at Geneva by the ministry of Calvin, have been main- 
tained in Scotland with invincible obstinacy and zeal ; 
and every attempt to introduce into that kingdom the 
rites and government of the church of England, has 
proved impotent and unsuccessful. 6 

XI. The cause of the reformation underwent, in 
Ireland, the same vicissitudes and revolutions that had 
attended it in England. When Henry VIII., after the abo- 
lition of the papal authority, was declared ' supreme head, 
upon earth, of the church of England,' George Brown, a 



monk of the Augustine order, whom that monarch had 
created, in 1535, archbishop of Dublin, began to act with 
the utmost vigour in consequence of this change in the 
hierarchy. He purged the churches of his diocese from 
; superstition in all its various forms, pulled down images, 
i destroyed relics, abolished absurd and idolatrous rites, and 
! by the influence as well as authority which he possessed 
in Ireland, caused the king's supremacy to be acknow- 
ledged by that nation. d Henry showed soon after, that 
this supremacy was not a vain title; for he banished the 
monks out of that kingdom, confiscated their revenues, 
and secularized or suppressed their convents. In the 
reign of Edward VI. farther progress was made in the 
removal of popish superstitions, by the zealous labours of 
archbishop Brown, and the auspicious encouragement 
he granted to all who exerted themselves in the cause of 
the reformation. But the death of this excellent prince, 
and the accession of his sister to the throne, changed the 
face of affairs in Ireland, e as it had done in England. 
Mary pursued with fire and sword, and all the marks 



ed application to study and to business, as well as by the frequency and 
fervour of his public discourses, he had worn out a constitution natural- 
ly strong. During a lingering illness, he discovered the utmost forti- 
tude, and met the approaches of death with a magnanimity inseparable 
from his character. He was constantly employed in acts of devotion, 
and comforted himself with those prospects of immortality, which not 
only preserve good men from desponding, but fill them with exultation 
in their last moments." 

f^" * The earl of Morton, who was present at his funeral, pronoun- 
3ed his eulogium in a few words, the more honourable for Knox, as 
they came from one whom he had often censured with peculiar severity : 
" There lies he who never feared the face of man." 

•> Sec Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. — Calderwood's History 
of Scotland's Reformation. — Georg. Buchanani Rerum Scoticar. Hist. — 
Melvil's Memoirs, vol. i. 

|Qf ° The indignation of the people, which had been excited by the 
vies of the clergy, was soon transferred to their persons, and settled at 
last, by a transition not unusual, upon the offices they enjoyed ; and 
thus the effects of the reformation extended, not only to the doctrine, but 
also to the government of the popish church. But in Germany, Eng- 
land, and the northern kingdoms," its operations were checked by the 
power and policy of their princes, and episcopal hierarchy (which ap- 
pears to be the most conformable to the practice of the church, since 
Christianity became the established religion of the Roman empire) was 
still continued in these countries, under certain limitations. The eccle- 
siastical government was in a great measure borrowed from the civil ; 
and the dioceses and jurisdiction of patriarchs, archbishops, and bish- 
ops, corresponded with the division and constitution of the empire. In 
Switzerland and the Low Countries, the nature and spirit of a republi- 
can policy gave fuller scope to the reformers ; and thus all pre-eminence 
of order in the church was destroyed, and that form of ecclesiastical go- 
vernment established, which has been since called Presbyterian. The 
situation of the primitive church (oppressed by continued persecutions, 
and obliged by its sufferings to be contented with a form of government 
extremely simple, and with a parity of rank for want of ambition to 
propose, or power to support, a subordination) suggested, without doubt, 
the idea of this latter system ; though it would be unfair to allege this 
consideration as a victorious argument in favour of Presbyterianism, 
because a change of circumstances will sometimes justify a change in 
the methods and plans of government. Be that as it may, the church 
of Geneva, which received the decisions of Calvin with an amazing 
docility, restored this presbyterian or republican form of ecclesiastical 
policy ; Knox studied, admired, and recommended it to his countrymen, 
and he was seconded by many of the Scottish nobles, of whom some 
hated the persons, while many others coveted the wealth of die dignified 
clergy. But, in introducing this system, that reformer did not deem it 
expedient to depart altogether from the ancient form; for, instead of 
bishops, he proposed the establishment of ten superintendants, to in- 
spect the lives and doctrines of the other clergy, and preside in the in- 
ferior judicatories of the church, without pretending to claim either a 
scat in parliament, or the revenues and dignity of the former bishops. 
This proposal was drawn up, and presented to a convention of estates 
in 15lil ; and what it contained, in relation to ecclesiastical jurisdiction 
and discipline, would have easily obtained the sanction of that assembly, 
had not a design to recover the patrimony of the church, in order to \ 
npply it to the advancement of religion and learning, been insinuated in ' 
it. After this, at certain periods, the name of bisiiop was revived, but ! 
without the prerogatives, jurisdiction, or revenues, that were formerly I 



appropriated to that order. They were made subject to the general as- 
semblies of the clergy, and their power was gradually diminished, until 
their name and order were abolished at the revolution in 1G88, when 
presbyterianism was established in Scotland by the laws of the state. 
See Robertson's History of Scotland. 

5^= a The learned and pious primate Usher, in his Memoirs of the 
Ecclesiastical Affairs of Ireland, speaks of archbishop Brown in the 
following manner : " George Brown was a man of a cheerful counte- 
nance, in his acts and deeds plain down-right ; to the poor merciful and 
compassionate, pitying the suite and condition of the souls of the people, 
and advising them, when lie was provincial of the Augustine order in 
England, to make their application solely to Christ ; which advice com- 
ing to the ears of Henry VIII., he became a favourite, and was made 
archbishop of Dublin. Within five years after he enjoyed that see, he 
caused all superstitious relics and images to be removed out of the two 
cathedrals in Dublin, and out of all the churches in his diocese ; and 
caused the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and the Creed, to 
be placed in gilded frames about the altars. He was the first that turn- 
ed from the Romish religion of the clergy here in Ireland, to embrace 
the reformation of the church of England." See a very curious pam- 
phlet in the fifih volume of the Harleian Miscellany, entitled Historical 
Collections of the Church of Ireland. 

|3r " Here Dr. Mosheim has fallen into a mistake, by not distin- 
guishing between the designs of the queen, which were indeed cruel, 
and their execution, which was happily and providentially prevented. 
This appears from a very singular and comical adventure, of which 
the account, as it has been copied from the papers of Richard, earl of 
Cork, and is to be found among the manuscripts of Sir James Ware, is 
as follows : 

" Queen Mary, having dealt severely with the protestants in Eng- 
land, about the latter end of her reign signed a commission to take the 
same course with them in Ireland ; and, to execute the same with great- 
er force, she nominates Dr. Cole one of the commissioners. This doc- 
tor coming with the commission to Chester on his journey, the mayor 
'< of that city, hearing that her majesty was sending a messenger into 
' Ireland, and he being a churchman, waited on the doctor, who, in dis- 
i course with the mayor, taketh out of a cloak-bag a leather box, saying 
unto him, ' Here is a commission that shall lash the heretics of Ireland,^ 
(calling the protestants by that title.) The good woman of the house, 
being well affected to the protestant religion, and also having a brother 
named John Edmonds, of the same, then a citizen in Dublin, was much 
troubled at the doctor's words ; but watching her convenient time, while 
the mayor took his leave, and the doctor complimented him down the 
stairs, she opens the box, takes the commission out, and places in lieu 
thereof a sheet of paper, with a pack of cards wrapped up therein, die 
knave of clubs being placed uppermost. The doctor coming up to 
his chamber, suspecting nothing of what had been done, put up the box 
. as formerly. The next day, going to the water-side, wind and weather 
serving him, he sails towards Ireland, and landed on the 7th of October, 
; 155S, at Dublin. Then coming to the casde, the lord Fitz-Walter, be- 
ing lord-deputy, sent for him to come before him and the privy council; 
1 who, coming in, after he made a speech relating upon what account lie 
came over, presents the box unto the lord-deputy, whocausing it tobe open- 
ed, that the secretary mightread the commission, there was nothing save a 
pack of cards with theknave of clubs uppermost; which not only start- 
led the lord-deputy and council, but the doctor, who assured them he had 
a commission, but knew not how it was gone. Then the lord deputy 
made answer, ' Let us have another commission, and we will shuffle tlia 



416 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



Sect. L 



of unrelenting vengeance, the promoters of a pure and 
rational religion, and deprived Brown and other protestant 
bishops of their dignities in the church. But the reign of 
Elizabeth gave a new and a deadly blow to popery, which 
was recovering its force, and arming itself anew with the 
authority of the throne ; and the Irish were obliged again 
to submit to the form of worship and discipline established 
in England." 

XII. The reformation had not been long established in 
Britain, when seven of the Netherland provinces, united 
by a respectable confederacy, renounced their spiritual 
allegiance to the Roman pontiff. Philip II. king of 
Spain, apprehending the danger to which the religion of 
Rome was exposed from that spirit of liberty and inde- 
pendence which reigned among the inhabitants of the 
Low- Countries, took the most violent measures to dispel 
it. For this purpose he augmented the number of the 
bishops, enacted the most severe and barbarous laws 
against all innovators in matters of religion, and erected 
that unjust and inhuman tribunal of the inquisition, 
which would intimidate and tame, as he thought, the 
manly spirit of an oppressed and persecuted people. But 
his measures, in this respect, were as unsuccessful as 
they were absurd ; his furious and intemperate zeal for 
the superstitions of Rome accelerated their destruction ; 
and the papal authority, which had only been in a criti- 
cal state, was reduced to a desperate one, by the very steps 
that were designed to support it. The nobility formed 
themselves into an association, in 1566, with a view to 
procure the repeal of these tyrannical edicts ; and, when 
their solicitations and requests were treated with con- 
tempt, they resolved to obtain, by force, what they hoped 
to have gained from clemency and justice. They ad- 
dressed themselves to a free and an abused people, spurn- 
ed the authority of a cruel yoke, and, with an impetuosi- 
ty and vehemence that were perhaps excessive, trampled 
upon whatever was deemed sacred or respectable by the 
church of Rome. b To quell these tumults, a powerful 
army was sent from Spain, under the command of the 
duke of Alva, whose horrid barbarity and sanguinary 
proceedings kindled that long and bloody war from 
which the powerful republic of the United Provinces 
derived its origin, consistence, and grandeur. It was 
the heroic conduct of William of Nassau, prince of 

cards in the mean 'while.' The doctor, being troubled in his mind, 
went away, and returned into England; and coming to the court, obtain- 
ed another commission ; but staying for a wind on the water-side, news 
came to him that the queen was dead; and thus God preserved the pro- 
testants of Ireland." 

Clueen Elizabeth was so delighted with this story, which was related 
to her by Lord Fitz-Walter on his return to England, that she sent for 
Elizabeth Edmonds, and gave her a pension of forty pounds during her 
life. See Cox, Hibernia Anglicana, or History of Ireland, vol. ii. — 
Harleian Miscellany, vol. v. 

a See the Life of Dr. George Brown, Archbishop of Dublin, publish- 
ed at London in 1681, and reprinted in the Harleian Miscellany. 

5pT >j Di\ Mosheim seems here to distinguish too little between the 
spirit of the nobility and that of the multitude. Nothing was more tem- 
perate and decent than the conduct of the former ; and nothing could be 
more tumultuous and irregular than the behaviour of the latter. While 
the multitude destroyed churches, pulled down monasteries, broke the 
images used in public worship, abused the officers of the inquisition, and 
committed a thousand enormities, the effects of furious resentment and 
brutish rage, the nobility and opulent citizens kept within the bounds of 
moderation and prudence. Though justly exasperated against a despo- 
tic and cruel government, they dreaded the consequences of popular tu- 
mults as the. greatest of misfortunes. Many of them even united their 
counsels and forces with those of the governess, (the duchess of Parma,) 
to restrain the seditious and turbulent spirit of the people. The prince 
of Orange and count Egmont (whose memories will live forever in the , ; 



Orange, seconded by the succours of England and 
France, that delivered this state from the Spanish yoke ; 
and no sooner was this deliverance obtained, than the 
reformed religion, as it was professed in Switzerland, 
was established in the United Provinces ; c and, at the 
same time, an universal toleration was granted to those 
whose religious sentiments were of a different nature, 
whether they retained the faith of Rome, or embraced 
the reformation in another form, d provided that they 
made no attempts against the authority of the govern- 
ment, or the tranquillity of the public." 

XIII. The reformation made a considerable progress 
in Spain and Italy, soon after the rupttire between Luther 
and the Roman pontiff. In all the provinces of Italy, but 
more especially in the territories of Venice, Tuscany, and 
Naples, the religion of Rome lost ground, and great num- 
bers of persons, of all ranks and orders, expressed an 
aversion to the papal yoke. This gave rise to violent 
and dangerous commotions in the kingdom of Naples in 
1536, of which the principal authors were Bernardo 
Ochino and Peter Martyr, who, in their public discourses 
from the pulpit, exhausted all the force of their irresisti- 
ble eloquence in exposing the enormity of the reigning 
superstition. These tumults were appeased with much 
difficulty by the united efforts of Charles Y. and his vice- 
roy don Pedro de Toledo/ In several places the popes 
put a stop to the progress of the reformation, by letting 
loose, upon the pretended heretics, their bloody inquisi- 
tors, who spread the marks of their usual barbarity 
through the greatest part of Italy. These formidable 
ministers of superstition put such a number of supposed 
heretics to death, and perpetrated, on the friends of reli- 
gious liberty, such horrid acts of cruelty and oppression, 
that most of the reformists consulted their safety by a 
voluntary exile, while others returned to the religion of 
Rome, at least in external appearance. But the terrors 
of the inquisition, which frightened back into the pro- 
fession of popery many protestants in other parts of Italy, 
could not penetrate into the kingdom of Naples ; nor 
could either the authority or entreaties of the Roman 
pontiffs engage the Neapolitans to admit within their 
territories either a court of inquisition, or even visiting 
inquisitors, s 

The eyes of many persons in Spain were opened upon 

grateful remembrance of the Dutch nation, and be dear to all the lo- 
vers of heroic patriotism and sacred liberty throughout the world) sig- 
nalized their moderation upon this occasion, and were the chief instru- 
ments of the repose that ensued. Their opposition to the government 
proceeded from the dictates of humanity and justice, and not from a 
spirit of licentiousness and rebellion ; and their merit and respectability 
had secured to them such influence and authority among the people, that, 
had the imperious court of Spain condescended to make any reasonablf 
concessions, the public tranquillity might have been restored, and the 
affections of the people entirely regained. See Le Clerc, Histoire des 
Pro v. Un. 

° In the year 1573. 

gj" i It is necessary to distinguish between the toleration that was 
granted to the Roman catholics, and that which the Anabaptists, Lu. 
therans, and other protestant sects, enjoyed. They were all indiscri- 
minately excluded from the civil employments of the state; but though 
they were equally allowed the exercise of their religion, the latter were 
permitted to enjoy their religious worship in a more open and public 
manner than the former, from whom the churches were taken, and whose 
religious assemblies were confined to private conventicles, which had nc 
external resemblance to the edifices usually set apart for divine worship. 

c See a farther account of this affair in Gerard Brandt's History of 
the Reformation in the Nethei lands. 

f See Giannone, Historia di Napoli, torn. iv. — Vita Galeacii in Museo 
Helvetico, torn. ii. ... 

gj- c It was an attempt to introduce a Roman inquisitor into the city 



Chap. IT. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. 



417 



the truth, not only by the spirit of inquiry, which the 
controversies between Luther and Rome had excited in 
Europe, but even by the efforts of those divines whom 
Charles V. had brought with him into Germany, to com- 
bat the pretended heresy of the reformers ; for these Span- 
ish doctors imbibed this heresy instead of refuting it, and 
propagated it more or less, on their return home, as evi- 
dently appears from several circumstances.* But the in- 
quisition, which could not gain any footing in the king- 
dom of Naples, reigned triumphant in Spain ; and by 
racks, gibbets, stakes, and other formidable instruments 
of its method of persuading, soon terrified the people back 
into popery, and suppressed the vehement desire they had 
of changing a superstitious worship for a rational religion. b 
XIV. I shall not enter into a contest with those writers, 
whatever their secret intentions may be, who observe, that 
many unjustifiable proceedings may be imputed to some 
of the most eminent promoters of this great change in the 
state of religion. For every impartial and attentive ob- 
server of the rise and progress of this reformation will in- 
genuously acknowledge, that wisdom and prudence did 
not always attend the transactions of those who were 
concerned in the glorious cause ; that manjr things were 
done with violence, temerity, and precipitation ; and, what 
is still worse, that several of the principal agenfs in this 
great revolution were actuated more by the impulse of pas- 

of Naples, that, properly speaking, produced the tumult and sedition 
which Dr. Mosheim attributes in this section to the pulpit discourses of 
Ocluno and Martyr ; for these famous preachers, particularly the for- 
mer, taught the doctrines of the reformation with great art, prudence, 
and caution, and secretly converted many, without giving public offence. 
The emperor himself, who heard him at Naples, declared that " he 
preached with such spirit and devotion as might almost make the very 
stones weep." After Ochino's departure from Naples, the disciples he 
had formed gave private instructions to others, among whom were some 
eminent ecclesiastics and persons of distinction, who began to form con- 
gregations and conventicles. This awakened the jealousy of the viceroy 
Toledo, who published a severe edict against heretical books, ordered 
some productions of Melancthon and Erasmus to be publicly burned, 
looked with a suspicious eye on all kinds of literature, suppressed se- 
veral academies, which had been erected about this time by the nobility 
for the advancement of learning ; and, having received orders from the 
emperor to introduce the inquisition, desired pope Paul III. to send from 
Rome to Naples a deputy of that formidable tribunal. It was this that 
excited the people to take up arms in order to defend themselves against 
this branch of spiritual tyranny, which the Neapolitans never were 
patient enough to suffer, and which, on many occasions, they had op- 
posed with vigour and success. Hostilities ensued, which were follow- 
ed by an accommodation and a general pardon ; while the emperor and 
viceroy, by this resolute opposition, were deterred from their design of 
introducing this despotic tribunal into the kingdom of Naples. Several 
Mher attempts were afterwards made, during the reigns of Philip II., 
III., IV., and Charles II. to establish the inquisition in Naples ; but, by 
the jealousy and vigilance of the people, they all proved ineffectual. At 

No. XXXVI. 105 



sion and views of interest, than by a zeal for the advance- 
ment of true religion. But, on the other hand, the wise 
and candid observer of human affairs will own, as a most 
evident and incontestable truth, that many things which, 
when stripped of the circumstances and motives that at- 
tended them, appear to us, at this time, as real crimes, will 
be deprived of their enormity, and even acquire the aspect 
of noble deeds, if they be considered in one point of view 
with the times and places in which they were transacted, 
and with the frauds and crimes of the Roman pontiffs and 
their creatures, by which the} 7 were occasioned. But, after 
all, in defending the cause of the reformation, we are un- 
der no obligation to defend, in every respect, the moral 
characters of its promoters and instruments. These two 
objects are entirely distinct. The most just and excellent 
cause may be promoted with 1ow t views, and from sinister 
motives, without losing its nature, or ceasing to be just 
and excellent. 

The true state of the question is, whether the opposition 
of Luther and other reformers to the Roman pontiff arose 
from just and solid reasons; and this question is entirely 
independent of the virtues or vices of particular persons. 11 
Let many of these individuals be supposed as odious as, 
or still more detestable than, they are represented by their 
adversaries, provided that the cause which they supported 
be allowed to have been just and good. 

length the emperor Charles VI., early in the eighteenth oentury, pub- 
lished an edict, expressly prohibiting all causes, relating to the holy 
faith, from being tried by any persons except the archbishop and bishops as 
ordinaries. See Giannone, lib. xxxii. and the Modern Univ. History- 

g3p * This appears from the unhappy end of all the ecclesiastics who 
had attended Charles, and followed him into his retirement. No sooner 
was that monarch dead, than they were seized by order of the court of 
inquisition, and were afterwards committed to the flames, or sent to death 
in other forms equally terrible. Such was the fate of Augustin Casal, 
the emperor's preacher ; of Constantine Pontius, his confessor ; of the 
learned Egidius, whom he had nominated to the bishopric of Tonosa; 
of Bartholomew de Caranza, a Dominican, who had been confessor to 
king Philip and queen Mary, with above twenty more of less note. All 
this gave reason to presume that Charles died a protestant. Certain it 
is, that he knew well the corruptions and frauds of the church of Rome, 
and the grounds and reasons of the protestant faith, though business, 
ambition, interest, and the prejudices of education, may have blinded 
him for a while, until leisure, retirement, the absence of worldly temp- 
tations, and the approach of death, removed the veil, and led him to 
wise and serious reflections. See Burnet's History of the Reformation. 

i> See Geddes' Spanish Protestant Marlyrology, in his Miscellaneous 
Tracts, torn. i. 

c The translator has here added some paragraphs, to render more 
perspicuous the important observation of the learned author; and the 
continuator takes the opportunity of remarking, as an excuse for the 
intemperance and vehemence of Luther, that the mildness of a Melanc- 
thon, and the timidity of an Erasmus, would never have produced ths 
desired reformation. 



SECTION II. 

THE GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



I. The Spaniards and Portuguese, if we may give 
credit to their historians, exerted themselves, with the 
greatest vigour and success, in the propagation of the Gos- 
pel among the darkened nations ; a and it must, indeed, be 
allowed, that they communicated some notions, such as 
they were, of the Christian religion to the inhabitants of 
America, to those parts of Africa where they carried their 
arms, and to the islands and maritime provinces of Asia, 
which they reduced under their dominion. It is also true, 
that considerable numbers of these savage people, who 
had hitherto lived, either under the bondage of the most 
extravagant superstitions, or in a total ignorance of any 
object of religious worship, embraced, at least in outward 
appearance, the doctrines of the Gospel. But when we 
reflect on the methods of conversion which were employ- 
ed by the Spanish missionaries among these wretched na- 
tions, on the barbarous laws and inhuman tortures that 
were used to force them into the profession of Christianity ; 
when it is considered, farther, that the denomination of a 
Christian was conferred upon every poor wretch who dis- 
covered a blind and excessive veneration for his stupid in- 
structors, and who could by certain gestures, and the repe- 
tition of a little jargon, perform a few superstitious rites and 
ceremonies ; then, instead of rejoicing at, we shall be tempt- 
ed to lament, such a propagation of the Gospel, and to be- 
hold the labours of such miserable apostles with indignation 
and contempt. Such is the judgment passed upon these 
missionaries, not only by those whom the church of Rome 
placed in the list of heretics, but also by many of the most 
pious and eminent of her own doctors, in France, Germany, 
Spain, and Italy. 

II. When the pontiffs saw their ambition checked by 
the progress of the Reformation, which deprived them 
of a great part of their spiritual dominion in Europe, 
they turned their lordly views toward the other parts of 
the globe, and became more solicitous than ever about the 
propagation of the Gospel among the nations that were 
yet involved in the darkness of paganism. This they 
considered as the best method of making amends for the 
loss they had sustained in Europe, and the most specious 
pretext for assuming to themselves, with some appearance 
of justice, the title of heads or parents of the universal 
church. The famous society, which, in 1540, took the 
denomination of Jesuits ; or the Company of Jesus, seem- 

* See Lafitau's Histoire des Decouvertes et Conquetes des Povtugais 
dans le nouveau Monde, torn. iii. p. 420. All the relations given by 
this eloquent writer (who was afterwards created bishop of Sisteron) 
are taken from the Portuguese historians. — The other writers who have 
thrown light upon this part of ecclesiastical history, are enumerated by 
Fabricius, in his Lux Salutar. Evangelii toti Orbi exoriens. 

|t3r b When the fanatic Ignatius first solicited the confirmation of his 
order by pope Paul III., the learned and worthy cardinal Guidiccioni 
opposed his request with great vehemence. .But this opposition was 
vanquished by the dexterity of Ignatius, who changing the articles of 
his institution, in which he had promised obedience to the pope with 
certain restrictions, turned it in such a manner as to bind his order by a 
solemn vow of implicit, blind, and unlimited submission and obe- 
dience to the Roman pontiff. This change produced the desired effect, 
and made the popes look upon the Jesuits as the chief support of their 
authority. Hence arose the zeal which Rome has ever shown for that 
order. It is remarkable, that Ignatius and his company, in the very 
same charter in which they declared their implicit and blind allegiance 



ed every way proper to assist the court of Rome in the exe 
cution of this extensive design. And accordingly, from 
their rise, this peculiar charge was given to them, that 
they should form a certain number of their order for the 
propagation of Christianity among the unenlightened na- 
tions, and that these missionaries should be at the abso- 
lute disposal of the pope, and always ready, at a moment's 
warning, to repair to whatever pail of the world he should 
fix for the exercise of their ministry. b The many histo- 
ries and relations which mention the labours, perils, and 
exploits of that prodigious multitude of Jesuits, who were 
employed in the conversion of the African, American, and 
Indian infidels, abundantly show, with what fidelity and 
zeal the members of this society executed the orders of 
the successive pontiffs. 11 And their labours would have un- 
doubtedly crowned them with immortal glory, had it not 
appeared evident, from the most authentic records, that 
the greatest part of these new apostles had more in view 
the promotion of the ambitious views of Rome, and the 
advancement of the interests of their own society, than 
the propagation of the Christian religion, or the honour 
of its divine author. d It may also be affirmed, from records 
of the highest credit and authority, that the inquisition 
erected by the Jesuits at Goa, and the penal laws, whose 
terrors they employed so freely in the propagation of the 
Gospel, contributed much more than their arguments and 
exhortations, which were but sparingly used, to engage 
the Indians to embrace Christianity.' The converting 
zeal of the Franciscans and Dominicans, which had, for 
a long time, been not only cooled, but almost totally ex- 
tinguished, was animated anew by the example of the 
Jesuits; and several other religious orders, that slumbered 
in their cells, were roused from their lethargy, if not by 
a principle of envy, at least by a spirit of emulation. 

III. Of all the Jesuits who distinguished themselves 
by their zealous and laborious attempts to extend the limits 
of the church, none acquired a more shining reputation 
than Francis Xavier, who is commonly called the Apos- 
tle of the Indies/ An undaunted resolution, and no small 
degree of genius and sagacity, rendered this famous mis- 
sionary one of the most proper persons that could be em- 
ployed in such an arduous task. Accordingly, in 1522, 
he set sail for the Portuguese settlements in India, and, 
in a short time, spread the knowledge of the Christian re- 

to the court of Rome, promised a like implicit and unlimited allegiance 
to the general of their society, notwithstanding the impossibility of ser- 
ving two absolute masters, whose commands might be often contradic- 
tory. See Histoire des Religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus, printed at 
Utrecht in 1741. 

' See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Lux Evangelii toti Orbi exoriens, cap. xxxn. 
p. 550. 

a B. Christ. Eberh. Weismanni Oratio de Virtutibus et Vitiis Mis- 
sion. Roman, in Orat. ejus Academ. 

See the Hist, de la Compagnie de Jesus, torn. n. 

f The late king of Portugal, in 1747, obtained for Xavier, or rather 
for his memory, the title of Protector of the Indies, from Benedict XIV. 
See the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses des Missions Etrangeres, torn. 
xliii. The body of this sainted missionary lies interred at Goa, where 
it is worshipped with the highest marks of devotion. There is also a 
magnificent church at Cotati dedicated to Xavier, to whom the inhabi- 
tants of that Portuguese settlement pay the most devout tribute of vene- 
ration and worship. 



Sect. II. 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



419 



ligion, or, to speak more properly, of the Romish system, 
over a great part of the continent, and in several of the 
islands of that remote region. Thence, in 1529, he pass- 
ed into Japan, and laid there, with amazing rapidity, the 
foundations of the famous church, which flourished during 
bo many years in that vast empire. His indefatigable 
zeal prompted him to attempt the conversion of the Chi- 
nese ; and with this view he embarked for that extensive 
and powerful kingdom, in sight of which he ended his 
days, in 1552.* After his death, other members of his 
insinuating order penetrated into Cbina. Of these mis- 
sionaries the chief was Matthew Ricci, an Italian, who, by 
his skill in the mathematics, became so acceptable to the 
Chinese nobility, and even to their emperor, that he ob- 
tained, both for himself and his associates, the liberty of 
explaining to the people the doctrines of the Gospel. b He 
may, therefore, be considered as the parent and founder 
of the Christian churches, which, though often dispersed, 
and tossed to and fro by the storms of persecution, still 
subsist in China. 

IV. The jurisdiction and territories of those princes, 
who first, threw off the papal yoke, being confined within 
the limits of Europe, the churches that were under 
their protection could contribute little to the propaga- 
tion of the Gospel in those distant regions of which we 
have been speaking. It is, however, recorded in history, 
that, in 1556, fourteen protestant missionaries were sent 
from Geneva to convert the Americans/ though it is not 
well known who was the promoter of this pious design, or 
with what success it was carried into execution. The En- 
glish also, who, toward the conclusion of this century, sent 
colonies into the northern parts of America, transplanted 
with them the reformed religion, which they themselves 
professed ; and, as their possessions were extended and mul- 
tiplied from time to time, their religion also made a con- 
siderable progress among that rough and uncivilized peo- 
ple. We learn, moreover, that about this time the Swedes 
exerted their religious zeal in converting to Christianity 
many of the inhabitants of Finland and Lapland, of whom 
a considerable number had hitherto retained the impious 
and extravagant superstitions of their pagan ancestors. 

V. It does not appear, from authentic records, that the 
sword of persecution was drawn against the Gospel, or 
any public opposition made to the progress of Christianity 
during this century ; and it would betray a great igno- 
rance, both of the situation, opinions, and maxims of the 
Turks, to imagine, that the war they waged against the 
Christians was carried on upon religious principles, or 
with a view to maintain and promote the doctrines of 
Mohammed. On the other hand, it is certain, that there 
lay concealed, in different parts of Europe, not a few per- 
sons who entertained a virulent enmity against religion 
in general, and, in a more especial manner, against the 
religion of the Gospel : and who, both in their writings 
and in private conversation, sowed the seeds of impiety 
and error, and instilled their odious principles into weak, 
unsteady, and credulous minds. In this pernicious and 

' See the writers enumerated by Fabricius, in his Lux Evangelii, &c. 
cap. xxxix. p. 677. Add to these Lafitau's Histoire des Decouvertes des 
Portugais dans le nouveau Monde, torn. iii. iv. — Histoire de la com- 
pagnie de Jesus, torn. i. 

fc J. B. Du-Halde, Description de 1'Empire de la Chine, torn. iii. 

• It appears, however, that before the arrival of Ricci in China, some 
of the Dominicans had already been there, though to little purpose. See 
Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, torn. iii. 



unhappy class are generally placed some of the Peripa- 
tetic philosophers, who adorned Italy by their erudition, 
and particularly Pomponatius ; several French wits and 
philosophers, such as Bodin, Rabelais, Montagne, Bona- 
venture des Perieres, Dolet, Charron ; some Italians, at 
whose head appears Leo X., followed by Bembo, Politian, 
Jordano Bruno, Ochino ; and a few Germans, such as 
Theophrastus Paracelsus, Nicolas Taurellus, and others.* 
It is even reported, that, in certain provinces of France 
and Italy, schools were erected, whence 'whole swarms of 
these impious doctors soon issued to deceive the simple 
and unwary. This accusation will not be wholly reject- 
ed by such as are acquainted with the spirit and genius 
of these times ; nor can it be said with truth, that all the 
persons charged with this heavy reproach were entirely 
guiltless. It is nevertheless certain, on the other hand, 
that, upon an accurate and impartial examination of this 
matter, the accusation brought against many of them will 
appear to be entirely groundless ; and that, with respect 
to several who may deserve censure in a certain degree, 
their errors are less pernicious and criminal, than they are 
uncharitably or rashly represented to be. 

VI. It is, at the same time, evident, that, in this century, 
the arts and sciences were carried to a degree of perfection 
unknown to preceding ages ; and, from this happy reno- 
vation of learning, the European churches derived the 
most signal and inestimable advantages, which they also 
transmitted to the most remote nations. The benign in- 
fluence of true science, and its tendency to improve both 
the form of religion and the institutions of civil policy, were 
perceived by many of the states and princes of Europe : 
hence large sums were expended, and great zeal and in- 
dustry employed, in promoting the progress of knowledge, 
by founding and encouraging literary societies, by protect- 
ing and exciting a spirit of emulation among men of ge- 
nius, and by annexing distinguished honours and advanta- 
ges to the culture of the sciences. And it is particularly 
worthy of observation, that this was the period, when the 
wise and salutary law, which excludes ignorant and illi- 
terate persons from the sacred functions of the ministry, 
acquired, at length, that force which it still retains in the 
greatest part of the Christian world. There still remained, 
however, some seeds of that ancient discord between reli- 
gion and philosophy, which had been sown and fomented 
by ignorance and fanaticism ; and there were found, both 
among the friends and enemies of the reformation, several 
well-meaning, but inconsiderate men, who, in spite of 
common sense, maintained, with more vehemence and 
animosity than ever, that vital religion and piety could 
never flourish without being totally separated from learn- 
ing and science, and nourished by the holy simplicity that 
reigned in the primitive ages of the church. 

VII. The first rank in the literary world was now en- 
joyed by those who consecrated their studious hours, and 
their critical sagacity, to the publication, correction, and 
illustration, of the most famous Greek and Latin authors 
of ancient times, to the study of antiquity and the langua- 

* Picteti Oratio de Trophseis Christi, in Orat. ejus, p. 570. There is 
no doubt that the divines here mentioned were those whom the illus- 
trious admiral Coligni invited into France, when, in 1555, he had form- 
ed the project of sending a colony of Protestants into Brazil and other 
provinces of America. See Charlevoix, Histoire de la Nouvelle France, 
torn. i. 

• See Reimanni Historia Atheismi et Atheorum. — Jo. Franc. Buddeus, 
Theses de Atheismo st Superstitione. — Dictionnaire de Baylc. 



420 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



Sect. II 



ges, and to the culture of eloquence and poetry. We see 
by the productions of this age (which yet remain, and con- 
tinue to excite the admiration of the learned,) that in all 
the provinces of Europe these branches of literature were 
cultivated with a kind of enthusiasm, by such as were most 
distinguished by their taste and genius ; and, what is still 
more extraordinary, (and perhaps not a little extravagant,) 
the welfare of the church, and the prosperity of the state, 
were supposed to depend upon the improvement of these 
branches of erudition, which were considered as the very 
essence of true and solid knowledge. If such encomiums 
were swelled beyond the bounds of truth and wisdom by 
enthusiastical philologists, it is nevertheless certain, that 
the species of learning here under consideration, was of 
the highest importance, as it opened the way that led to 
the treasures of solid wisdom, to the improvement of ge- 
nius, and thus undoubtedly contributed, in a great measure, 
to deliver both reason and religion from the prepossessions 
of ignorance and the servitude of superstition. 1 And, 
therefore, we ought not to be surprised, when we meet 
with persons who exaggerate the merit, and dwell beyond 
measure on the praises of those who were our first guides 
from the regions of darkness and error, into the luminous 
paths of evidence and truth. 

VIII. Though the lovers of philology and the belles 
lettres were much superior in number to those who turn- 
ed their principal views to the study of philosophy, yet the 
latter were far from being contemptible either in point of 
number or capacity. The philosophers were divided into 
two classes : some were wholly absorbed in contemplation, 
while others were employed in the investigation of truth, 
and endeavoured by experience, as well as by reasoning, 
to trace out the laws and operations of nature. The former 
were subdivided into two sects, one of which followed cer- 



3£JT a Many vehement debates have been carried on concerning the 
respective merit of literature and philosophy ; but these debates are al- 
most as absurd as a comparison that should be made between the means 
and the end, the instrument and its effect. Literature is the key by 
which we often open the treasures of wisdom, both human and divine. 
But, as the sordid miser absurdly converts the means into an end, and 
acquires a passion for the shining metal, considered abstractedly from 
the purposes which it was calculated to serve, so the pedantic philologist 
erects literature into an independent science, and contemns the divine 
treasures of philosophy, which it was designed both to discover and to 
illustrate. Hence arose that wretched tribe of " word-catchers that live 
on syllables," (as Pope, I think, happily expresses their tasteless pursuits.) 
who made the republic of letters groan under their commentaries, anno- 
tations, various readings, etc., and who forget that an acquaintance with 
language was intended to lead us to the improvement of the mind and 
to the knowledge of things. 

53r b Cardan was a man of a bold, irregular, enterprising genius, who 
by a wild imagination, was led into the study of astrology and magic, 
by which he excited the astonishment and attracted the veneration of the 
multitude, while his real merit as a philosopher was little known. He 
was accused of atheism, but seems much rather chargeable with super- 
stition. His life and character seem to have formed an amazing mix- 
ture of wisdom and folly ; and nothing can give a more unfavourable 
idea of his temper and principles, than the hideous portrait he has drawn 
of himself in his book De Genituris. His knowledge of physic and of 
mathematics was considerable, and his notions of natural philosophy 
may be seen in his famous book De Subtilitate et Veritate Rerum, in 
which some important truths and discoveries are mixed with the most 
fanatical visions, and the most extravagant and delirious effusions of 
mystical folly. See the ample and judicious account that has been 
given of the character and philosophy of this writer (whose voyage to 
Britain is well known) by the learned Brucker, in his Historia Critica 
Philosophiae, torn. iv. 

§Qr " This philosopher, less known than the former, was born in 1508, 
at Cosenza, in the kingdom of Naples, and was the restorer of the phi- 
losophy formerly taught by Parmenides, upon whose principles he built 
a new system, or at least, a system which appeared new, by the elegant 
connexion which he gave to its various parts, and the arguments used 
to maintain and support it against the philosophy of Aristotle. It was 



tain leaders, while the other, unrestrained by the dictates 
of authority, struck out a new way for themselves, follow- 
ing freely their own inventions. Those who submitted 
to the direction of philosophical guides, enlisted themselves 
under the standard of Aristotle, or that of Plato, who con- 
tinued still to have many admirers, especially in Italy. — 
Nor were the followers of Aristotle agreed among them- 
selves ; they all acknowledged the Stagirite as their chief, 
but they followed him through very different paths. Some 
were for retaining the ancient method of proceeding in 
philosophical pursuits, which their doctors falsely called 
the Peripatetic system. Others pleaded for the pure and 
unmixed philosophy of Aristotle, and recommended his 
writings as the source of wisdom, and as the system which 
was most adapted, when properly illustrated and explain- 
ed, to the instruction of youth. A third sort of Aristote- 
lians, who differed equally from these now mentioned, 
and of whom the celebrated Melancthon was the chief, 
pursued another method. They extracted the marrow 
out of the lucubrations of the Grecian sage, illustrated it 
by the aids of genuine literature and the rules of good 
criticism, and corrected it by the dictates of right reason 
and the doctrines and principles of true religion. 

Of those who struck out a path to themselves in the 
regions of philosophy, without any regard to that which 
had been opened by ancient sages, and pursued by their 
followers, Cardan, b Telesius, c and Campanella, d deserv- 
edly hold the first rank, as they were undoubtedly men 
of superior genius, though too much addicted to the sug- 
gestions and visions of an irregular fancy. To these may 
be added Peter Ramus, that ingenious French philosopher, 
who, by attempting to substitute, in the place of Aristotle's 
logic, a method of reasoning more adapted to the use of 
rhetoric and the improvement of eloquence, excited such 

the vague and uncertain method of reasoning which the Stagirite had 
introduced into natural philosophy, that engaged Telesius to compose 
his famous book De Principiis Rerum Naturalium. In this work, after ha- 
ving refuted the visionary principles of the Aristotelian philosophy, he 
substitutes in their place such as are immediately derived from the tes- 
timony of the senses, even heat and cold, from which, like Parmenides, 
he deduces the nature, origin, qualities, and changes, of all material be- 
ings. To these two principles he adds a third, namely, matter ; and on 
these three he builds with some dexterity his physical system, for a part 
of which he seems also to have been indebted to a book of Plutarch, 
De Primo Frigido. It will be entertaining to the philosophical reader, 
to compare this work of Telesius with lord Bacon's physical account of 
the story of Cupid and Ccelus, in his book de Principiis et Origini- 
bus, &c. 

|3= i Campanella, a native of Calabria, made a great noise in the 
seventeenth century, by his innovations in philosophy. Shocked at the 
atheism and absurdities of the Aristotelian system, he early acquired a 
contempt of it, and turned his pursuits toward something more solid, 
perusing the writings of all the ancient sages, and comparing them with 
the great volume of nature, to see whether the pretended copies resem- 
bled the original. The sufferings that this man endured are almost in- 
credible ; but they were said to be inflicted on him in consequence of 
the treasonable practices which were imputed to him, partly against the 
court of Spain, and partly against the kingdom of Naples, which (it 
was supposed) he had formed the design of delivering into the hands of 
the Turks. He was freed from his prison and tortures by the interpo- 
sition of pope Urban VIII., who gave him particular marks of his fa- 
vour and esteem, and, finding that he was not safe at Rome, had him 
conveyed to Paris, where he was honoured with the protection of Louis 
XIII. and cardinal Richelieu, and ended his days in peace. As to the 
writings and philosophy of this great man, they are tinged, indeed, 
with the colour of the times, and bear, in many places, the marks of a 
chimerical and undisciplined imagination ; but, among a few visionary 
notions, they contain a great number of important truths. He under- 
took an entire reformation of philosophy, but was unequal to the task. 
For an account of his principles of logic, ethics, and natural philoso- 
phy, see Brucker's Hist. Critica Philosophic, torn. iv. He was accused 
of atheism, but unjustly ; he was also accused of suggesting cruel 
measures against the protestants, and not without reason. 



Sect. II. 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



421 



a terrible uproar in the Gallic schools. Nor must we omit 
here the mention of Theophrastus Paracelsus, who, by an 
assiduous observation of nature, by a great number of ex- 
periments indefatigably repeated, and by applying the pe- 
netrating force of fire 1 to discover the first principles or 
elements of bodies, endeavoured to throw new light and 
evidence on the important science of natural philosophy. 
As the researches of this industrious inquirer into nature 
excited the admiration of all, his example was conse- 
quently followed by many ; and hence arose a new sect 
of philosophers, who assumed the denomination of The- 
asophists, b and who, placing little confidence in the de- 
cisions of human reason, or the efforts of speculation, 
attributed all to divine illumination and repeated ex- 
perience. 

IX. This revolution in philosophy and literature, toge- 
ther with the spirit of emulation that animated the differ- 
ent sects or classes into which the learned men of this age 
were divided, produced many happy effects of various 
kinds. It, in a more particular manner, brought into dis- 
repute, though it could not at once utterly eradicate, that 
intricate, barbarous, and insipid method of teaching the- 
ology, which had hitherto prevailed in all the schools and 
pulpits of Christendom. The sacred writings, which, in 
the preceding ages, had been either entirely neglected, or 
very absurdly explained, were now much more consulted 
and respected in the debates and writings of the Christian 
doctors than they had formerly been ; the sense and lan- 
guage of the inspired writers were more carefully studied 
and more accurately developed ; the doctrines and pre- 
cepts of religion taught in a more methodical manner, 
and with greater connexion and perspicuity ; and that 
dr5 r , barren, and vapid language, which the ancient 
schoolmen affected so much in their theological compo- 
sitions, was wholly exploded by the wiser part of the di- 
vines of this century. It must not, however, be imagined, 
that this reformation of the schools was so perfect, as to 
leave no room for hnprovement in succeeding ages ; this, 
indeed, was far from being the case. Much imperfection 
yet remained in the method of treating theology ; and 
many things, which had great need of a correcting hand, 
were left untouched. It would, nevertheless, be either an 
instance of ingratitude, or a mark of great ignorance, to 
deny to this age the honour of having begun what was 
afterwards more happily finished, and of having laid the 

ffjT * The principal merit of Paracelsus consisted in inventing, or at 
least restoring from oblivion and darkness, the important science of 
chemistry, giving it a regular form, reducing it into a connected system, 
and applying it most successfully to the art of healing, which was the 
peculiar profession of this philosopher, whose friends and enemies have 
drawn him in the falsest colours. His application to the study of ma- 
gic, of which he treats in the tenth volume of his works, under the de- 

No. XXXVI. 106 



foundations of that striking superiority, which the divines 
of succeeding ages obtained over those of ancient times. 

X. The improvements, which have been now men- 
tioned, as proceeding from the restoration of letters and 
philosophy, not only extended to the method of convey- 
ing theological instruction, but also purified the science of 
theology itself. For the true nature, genius, and design 
of the Christian religion, which even the most learned and 
pious doctors of antiquity had but imperfectly compre- 
hended, were now unfolded with evidence and precision, 
and drawn, like truth, from an abyss in which they had 
hitherto lain concealed. It is true, the influence of error 
was far from being totally suppressed, and many false 
and absurd doctrines are still maintained and propagated 
in the Christian world. But it may nevertheless be af- 
firmed, that the Christian societies, whose errors at this 
day are the most numerous and extravagant, have much 
less absurd and perverse notions of the nature and design 
of the Gospel, and the duties and obligations of its vota- 
ries, than were entertained by those doctors of antiquity, 
who ruled the church with an absolute authority, and 
were considered as the chief oracles of theology. It may 
farther be observed, that the reformation contributed much 
to soften and civilize the manners of many nations, who, 
before that happy period, were sunk in the most savage 
stupidity, and carried the most rude and insocial aspect. 
It must indeed be confessed, that a variety of circum- 
stances, not immediately connected with religion, com- 
bined to produce that lenity of character, and that milder 
temperature of manners, maxims, and actions, which gra- 
dually appeared in the greatest part of the European na- 
tions, after the period that was signalized by the reforma- 
tive exertions of Luther. It is nevertheless evident, be- 
yond all contradiction, that the disputes concerning re- 
ligion, and the accurate and rational inquiries into the 
doctrines and duties of Christianity to which those dis- 
putes gave rise, had a great tendency to eradicate from 
the minds of men the ferocity that had been so long nou- 
rished by the barbarous suggestions of unmanly super- 
stition. It is also certain, that at the very dawn of this 
happy revolution in the state of Christianity, and even 
before its salutary effects were manifested in all their ex- 
tent, pure religion had many sincere and fervent votaries, 
though they were concealed from public view by the mul- 
titudes of fanatics with which they were surrounded. 



nomination of the Sagacious Philosophy, is a circumstance dishonour- 
able to his memory, and nothing can discover a more total absence of 
common sense and reasoning than his discourses on that subject As to 
his philosophical system, it is so obscure, and so contradictory, that wo 
shall not pretend to delineate it here. 

i> See, for an ample account of the lives, transactions, and systems of 
these philosophers, Brucker's Historia Critica Philosophise. 



SECTION III. 
THE PARTICULAR HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



PART I. 

THE HISTORY OF THE ANCIENT CHURCHES. 



CHAPTER I. 

History of the Roman or Latin Church. 

I. The Roman or Latin church is a system of govern- 
ment, whose jurisdiction extends over a great part of the 
known world, though its authority has been circum- 
scribed within narrower limits since the happy revolution 
that, in many countries, delivered Christianity from the 
yoke of superstition and spiritual tyranny. This sys- 
tem of ecclesiastical policy, extensive as it is, is under the 
direction of the bishop of Rome alone, who, by virtue of 
a sort of hereditary succession, claims the authority, pre- 
rogatives, and rights, of St. Peter, the supposed prince of 
the apostles, and gives himself out for the supreme head 
of the universal church, the vicegerent of Christ upon 
earth. This lordly ruler of the church is, at this time, 
elected to his high office, by the chosen members of the 
Roman clergy, who bear the ancient denomination of 
cardinals. Of these, six are bishops, within the precincts 
of Rome ; fifty are ministers of the Roman churches, and 
are called priests or presbyters ; and fourteen are inspec- 
tors of the hospitals and charitable foundations, and are 
called deacons. These cardinals (while the papal chair 
is vacant, and they are employed in the choice of a suc- 
cessor to the deceased pontiff) are closely confined in a 
sort of prison, called the Conclave, that they may thus 
be induced to bring this difficult matter to a speedy con- 
clusion. No person, except one who is an Italian by 
descent, and who has already obtained a place in the col- 
lege of cardinals, is capable of being raised to the supre- 

* See J. F. Mayer's Comment, de Electione Pontif. Romani, pub- 
lished at Hamburg in 1691. The ceremonies observed in the election 
and installation are amply described by Meuschen, in a work published 
at Frankfort in 1732, under the following title, Ceremoniale Electionis 
et Coronationis Pontificis Romani. 

|j» i> The great obstacle that prevents several cardinals from aspiring 
to the pontificate, is what they call at Rome, il peccato originale, or origi- 
nal sin. This mark of exclusion belongs to those who are born sub- 
jects of some crown or republic which are beyond the bounds of Italy, 
or are upon a footing of jealousy with the court of Rome. Those also who 
were made cardinals by the nomination of the kings of France or Spain, 
or their adherents, are also included in this imputation of original sin, 
which excludes from the papal chair. The accidental circumstances 
that excludes certain cardinals from the pontificate, are their being born 
princes or independent sovereigns, or their declaring themselves openly 
in favour of certain courts, or their family's being toanumerous, or their 
morals being irregular. Even youth, and a good complexion and figure, 
are considered as obstacles. But all these maxims and rules vary and 
change according to the inconstant and precarious impulse of policy and 
faction. 

For an account of the different methods of electing the pope, whether 
Dy compromise, inspiration, scrutiny, or access, (by which last is meant 
a second election, employed when the other methods fail,) see Aymon's 
Tableau de la Cour de Rome. 

§3r * These congregations are as follow : I. The congregation of 
the pope, instituted first by Sixtus V. to prepare the matters that were to 
De brought before the consistory, at which the pontiff is always present. 
Hence this is called the Consistorial Congregation, and in it are treated 
all affairs relative to the erection of bishoprics and cathedral churches, 



macy of the church : nor have all the Italian cardinals 
the privilege of aspiring to this high office. 1 Some are 
rendered incapable of filling the papal chair by the place 
of their birth, others by the manner of their life, and a few 
by other reasons.* It is also to be observed, that the em- 
peror and the kings of France and Spain have acquired, 
either expressly by stipulation, or imperceptibly through 
custom, the privilege of excluding, from the number ol 
the candidates for this high office, such as they dislike or 
think proper to oppose. Hence it often happens, that, in 
the numerous college of cardinals, a very small number 
are permitted, upon a vacancy, to aspire to the papacy ; 
the greatest part being generally prevented by their birth, 
their characters, their circumstances, and by the force of 
political intrigues, from flattering themselves with the 
pleasing hope of ascending that towering summit of ec- 
clesiastical power and dominion. 

II. It must not be imagined that the personal power 
and authority of the Roman pontiff are circumscribed by 
no limits, since it is well known, that in all his decisions 
relating to. the government of the church, he previously 
consults the brethren, i. e. the cardinals, who compose 
his ministry or privy council. In matters of religious 
controversy and doctrine, he is even obliged to ask the 
advice and opinion of eminent divines, in order to secure 
his pretended infallibility from the suggestions of error. 
Besides this, all affairs that are not of the highest mo- 
ment and importance, are divided into classes according 
to their respective nature, and left to the management of 
certain colleges, called Congregations,' in every one 

the re-union or suppression of episcopal fees, the alienation of church 
goods, and the taxes and annates that are imposed upon all benefices in 
the pope's gift. The cardinal dean presides in this assembly. II. The 
congregation of the Inquisition, or (as it is otherwise called) of the Holy 
Office, instituted by Paul III., which takes cognizance of heresies, 
apostacy, magic, and profane writings. The office of Grand Inquisitor, 
which encroached upon the prerogatives of the pontiff, has been long 
suppressed, or rather distributed among the cardinals who belong to 
this congregation, and whose decisions come under the supreme cogni- 
zance of his holiness. III. The congregation for the propagation of the 
Roman catholic faith, founded under the pontificate of Gregory XV. 
composed of eighteen cardinals, one of the secretaries of state, a proto- 
notary, a secretary of the inquisition, and other members of less rank. 
Here it is that the deliberations are carried on, which relate to the ex- 
tirpation of heresy, the appointment of missionaries, &c. This congre- 
gation has built a most beautiful and magnificent palace in one of the 
most agreeable situations that could be chosen at Rome, where proselytes 
to popery from foreign countries are lodged and nourished gratis, in a 
manner suitable to their rank and condition, and instructed in those 
branches of knowledge to which the bent of their genius points. The 
prelates, curates, and vicars also, who are obliged, without any fault of 
theirs, to abandon the places of their residence, are entertained charitably 
in this noble edifice in a manner proportioned to their station in the 
church. IV. The congregation designed to explain the decisions of the 
council of Trent. V. The congregation of the Index, whose principal 
business is to examine manuscripts and books that are designed for pub- 
lication, to decide whether the people may be permitted to read them, to 
correct those books whose errors are not numerous, and which contain 
useful and salutary truths, to condemn those whose principles are here- 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



423 



of which, one or more cardinals preside. 1 The decisions 
of these societies are generally approved by the pontiff, 
who has not a right, without alleging the most weighty 
and evident reasons, to reverse what they pronounce to 
be just and expedient. This form of ecclesiastical 
government is, doubtless, a check to the authority of the 
pope ; and hence it is, that many things are transacted 
at Rome in a manner that is in direct opposition to the 
sentiments of its spiritual ruler. This may serve to 
show us, that those persons are little acquainted with the 
nature and limits of the papal hierarchy, who pretend, 
that all the iniquitous proceedings of the court of Rome, 
the calamities it has occasioned, the contentions, re- 
bellions, and tumults it has excited, are entirely imputa- 
ble to the pontiff himself." 

III. The power of the pope hath excited debates even 
among those who are under the papal hierarchy ; and 
the spiritual subjects of this pretended head of the 
church, are very far from agreeing with respect to the 
extent of his authority and jurisdiction. Hence it hap- 
pens, that this authority and dominion are not the same 
in all places, having a larger scope in some provinces, 
and being reduced within narrower bounds in others. If, 
indeed, we consider only the pretensions of the pontiff, 
we shall find that his power is unlimited and supreme ; 
for there are no prerogatives that can flatter ambition, 
which he does not claim for himself and his court. He 
not only pretends, that the whole power and majesty of 
the church reside in his person, and are transmitted, in 
certain portions, from him to the inferior bishops, but 
moreover asserts the absolute infallibility of all decisions 
and decrees which he pronounces from his lordly tribu- 
nal. These arrogant pretensions are, however, opposed 
by many, and chiefly by the French, who expressly 
maintain, that every bishop receives immediately from 
Christ himself a portion of that spiritual power which is 
imparted to the church ; that the collective sum, or whole 

tical and pernicious, and to grant to certain individuals the peculiar pri- 
vilege of perusing heretical books. This congregation, which is some- 
times held in the presence of the pope, but generally in the palace of the 
cardinal-president, has a more extensive jurisdiction than that of the in- 
quisition, as it not only takes cognizance of books that contain doctrines 
contrary to the Roman catholic faith, but of those also which concern 
the duties of morality, the discipline of the church, and the interests of 
society. Its name is derived from the alphabetical tables, or indexes of 
heretical books and authors, Tt4iich have been composed by its appoint- 
ment. VI. The congregation for maintaining the rights and immuni- 
ties of the clergy, and of the knights of Malta. This congregation was 
formed by Urban VIII, to decide the disputes, and remove the difficul- 
ties and inconveniences that arose from the trials of ecclesiastics, before 
princes, or other lay-judges. VII. The congregations relating to the 
bishops and regular clergy, instituted by Sixtus V. to decide the debates 
which arise between the bishops and their diocesans, and to compose 
all differences that occur among the monastic orders. VIII. The con- 
gregation appointed by Gregory XIV. for examining the capacity and 
learning of the bishops. IX. Another for inquiring into their lives and 
morals. X. A third, for obliging them to reside in their dioceses, or to 
dispense them from that obligation. XI. The congregation for sup- 
pressing monasteries, i. e. such whose revenues are exhausted, and who 
thereby become a charge upon the public. XII. The congregation of 
the Apostolic Visitation, which names the visitors, who perform the du- 
ties and visitations of the churches and convents within the district of 
Rome. XIII. The congregation of relics, authorized to examine the 
marks, and to augment the number of these instruments of superstition. 

XIV. The congregation of indulgences, designed to examine the cases 
of those who have recourse to this method of quieting the conscience. 

XV. The congregation of rites, which Sixtus V. appointed to regulate 
and invent the religious ceremonies that are to be observed in the wor- 
ship of each new saint that is added to the calendar. 

These are the congregations of cardinals, set apart for administering 
the spiritual affairs of the church ; and they are undoubtedly, in some 
respects, a check upon the power of the pontiff, enormous as it may be. 



of this power, is lodged in the aggregate body of its pas- 
tors, or (which is the same thing) in a general council 
lawfully assembled ; and that the pontiff, considered per- 
sonally, and as distinct from the church, is liable to error. 
This complicated and important controversy may be 
easily brought within narrower bounds, and may be re- 
duced to the following plain question ; — ' Is the Roman 
pontiff, properly speaking, the Legislator of the church, 
or, is he no more than the Guardian and Depository of 
the laws enacted by Christ and the church V There is 
no prospect of seeing this question decided, or the debates 
terminated to which it has given rise, since the contend- 
ing parties do not even agree about the proper and law- 
ful judge of this important controversy. Some great 
revolution alone can effect the decision of this matter. 

IV. The church of Rome lost much of its ancient 
splendour and majesty, as soon as Luther, and the 
other luminaries of the reformation, had exhibited to the 
view of the European nations the Christian religion 
restored, at least to a considerable part of its native purity, 
and delivered from many of the superstitions under which 
it had lain so long disfigured. Among the most opulent 
states of Europe, several withdrew entirely from the ju- 
risdiction of Rome ; in others, certain provinces threw off 
the yoke of papal tyranny ; and, upon the whole, this 
defection produced a striking diminution both of the 
wealth and power of the Roman pontiffs. It must also 
be observed, that even the kings, princes, and sovereign 
states, who adhered to the religion of Rome, yet changed 
their sentiments with respect to the claims and preten- 
sions of its bishop. If they were not persuaded by the 
writings of the protestants to renounce the superstitions 
of popery, yet they received most useful instructions 
from them in other matters of very great moment. They 
drew from these writings important discoveries of the 
groundless claims and unlawful usurpations of the Ro- 
man pontiffs, and came, at length, to perceive, that, if the 

There are six more, which relate to the temporal government of the pa- 
pal territories. In these congregations, all things are transacted which 
relate to the execution of public justice in civil or criminal matters, the 
levying of taxes, the providing of the cities and each of the provinces 
with good governors, the relieving of those who are unjustly oppressed 
by subordinate magistrates, the coinage, the care of the rivers, aque- 
ducts, bridges, roads, churches, and public edifices. 

a The court of Rome is very particularly and accurately described by 
Aymon (who had been, before his conversion to the protestant religion, 
domestic chaplain to Innocent XI.) in a book entitled Tableau de la 
Cour de Rome. See also Relation de la Cour de Rome, et des Cere- 
monies qui s'y observent, which Father Labat translated into French 
from the Italian of Jerome Limadoro, and subjoined to his Voyages en 
Espagne et Italie, torn. viii. — For an account of the Roman congrega- 
tions, &c. see Doroth. Ascian. de Montibus Pietatis Romanis, p. 510, 
as also Hunold. Plettenberg, Notitia Tribunalium et Congregationum 
Curia; Romanre. 

t> Hence arises that important distinction, frequently employed by the 
French and other nations in their debates with the pope; I mean the 
distinction between his holiness and the court of Rome. The latter is 
often loaded with the bitterest reproaches and the heaviest accusations, 
while the former is spared, and in some measure excused. Nor is this 
distinction by any means groundless, since the cardinals and congrega- 
tions, whose rights and privileges are deemed sacred, undertake and ex- 
ecute many projects without the knowledge, and sometimes against the 
will and consent, of the pontiff himself. 

• The arguments employed by the pontiff's creatures in defence of 
his unlimited authority, may be seen in the words of Bellarmine and 
other writers, of which a voluminous collection has been made by Roc- 
caberti ; and what is not a little extraordinary, a French writer, named 
Petitdier, appeared in defence of the pope's pretensions, in a book pub- 
lished at Luxemburg, in 1724, sur 1' Autorite et 1' Infallibilitc des Papes. 
The sentiments of the Gallican church, and the. arguments by which it 
opposes the pretensions of Rome, may be «een in the writings of Richer 
and Launoy. 



424 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



Sect. Ill 



Jurisdiction and authority of Rome should continue the 
same as before the rise of Luther, the rights of temporal 
princes, and the majesty of civil government, would, 
sooner or later, be absorbed in the gulph of papal avarice 
and ambition. Hence it was, that most of the sovereign 
states of Europe, partly by secret and prudent measures, 
partly by public negociations and remonstrances, set 
bounds to the daring ambition of Rome, which aimed at 
nothing less than universal dominion both in ecclesiasti- 
cal and civil affairs ; nor did the pontiff think it either 
safe or expedient to have recourse to the ancient arms of 
the church, war and excommunication, in order to repel 
these attacks upon his authority. Even those very king- 
doms, which acknowledged the Roman pontiff as the 
lawgiver of the church, and an infallible guide, confined 
his power of enacting laws within narrow limits. 

V. In this declining state of their affairs, it was natural 
for the humble pontiffs to look about for some method of 
repairing their losses ; and, for this purpose, they exerted 
much more zeal and industry, than had been shown by 
their predecessors, in extending the limits of their spiritual 
dominion beyond Europe, and left no means unemployed 
of gaining proselytes and adherents in the Indies and in 
Africa, both among the pagan nations and the Christian 
sects. The Jesuits, as we have already had occasion to 
observe, were the first missionaries who were employed 
for this purpose in those distant parts of the world; but 
able men, selected from the other monastic orders, were 
afterwards entrusted with this arduous undertaking. If, 
however, we except the exploits of Francis Xavier and 
his companions in India, China, and Japan, of which 
notice has been already taken, there were no great mat- 
ters effected in this century ; as, generally speaking, the 
persons who were appointed to execute this grand project, 
were not endowed with that experience and dexterity 
which it necessarily required, and entered upon the work 
with more zeal than prudence and knowledge. 

The Portuguese had, in the preceding century, opened 
a passage into the country of the Abyssinians, who pro- 
fessed the doctrine, and observed the religious rites of the 
Monophysites ; and hence arose a favourable occasion of 
reducing that people under the papal yoke. Accordingly 
John Bermudez was sent into Ethiopia for this purpose ; 
and, that he might appear with a certain degree of digni- 
ty, he was invested with the title of Patriarch of the Abys- 
sinians. The same important commission was afterwards 
given to Ignatius Loyola, and the companions of his la- 
bours ;■» and, at the commencement of their undertaking, 
several circumstances, and particularly a war with a neigh- 
bouring prince, which the Abyssinian monarch was desirous 
of terminating by the powerful succours of the Portuguese, 
seemed to promise them a successful and happy minis try. 

13? • tt is certainly by mistake that Dr. Mosheim mentions Loyola 
as having made a voyage into Abyssinia. Jesuits were sent at differ- 
ent periods to that country, and with little success ; but their founder was 
never there in person. 

k See Ludolfi Histor. Ethiopica et Comm.— Geddes, Church History 
of Ethiopia, p. 120. — Le Grand, Dissertation de la Conversation des 
Abyssins, which is to be found in theVoyageHistoriqued'AbyssinieduR. 
P. Jerome Lobo. — La Croze, Hist, du Christianisme en Ethiopie, liv. ii. 

c Franc. Sacchini, Histor. Societat. Jesu. pars ii. lib. v. — Euseb. Re- 
naudot, Historia Patriarchal - . Alexandrin. p. 611. — Hist, de la Com- 
pagnie de Jesus, torn. iii. 

13" <i This patriarch offered to send one of his bishops to the council 
of Trent, in order to get rid of the importunity of these Jesuits ; but he 
positively refused to send any of his young students to be educated 
among their order, and declared plainly, that he owed no obedience or 



But the event did not answer this fond expectation ; and, in 
some time, it appeared plainly, that the Abyssinians stood 
too firm in the faith of their ancestors, to be easily engaged 
to abandon and forsake it ; so that, toward the conclusion 
of this century, the Jesuits had almost lost all hopes of 
succeeding in their attempts. b 

VI. The Egyptians, or Copts, who were closely con- 
nected with the Abyssinians in their religious sentiments, 
and also in their external forms of worship, became the 
next objects of Rome's ambitious zeal ; and, in 1562, 
Christopher Roderic, a Jesuit of note, was sent, by the 
express order of pope Pius IV., to propagate the cause of 
popery among that people. This ecclesiastic, notwith- 
standing the rich presents and ingenious arguments by 
which he attempted to change the sentiments and shake 
the constancy of Gabriel, who was at that time patriarch 
of Alexandria, returned to Rome with no other effect of his 
embassy, than fair words and a few compliments. d It is, 
however, true, that, in 1594, during the pontificate of 
Clement VIII., an envoy from another patriarch of Alex- 
andria, whose name was also Gabriel, appeared at Rome 
and this circumstance was considered as a subject of tri- 
umph and boasting by the creatures of the pope.' But 
the more candid and sensible, even among the Roman 
catholics, looked upon this embassy, and not without rea- 
son, as a stratagem of the Jesuits to persuade the Abys- 
sinians (who were so prone to follow the example of their 
brethren of Alexandria) to join themselves to the com- 
munion of Rome, and submit to the authority and juris- 
diction of its pontiff. f It is at least certain, that we do not 
subsequently find the smallest token of a propensity in the 
Copts to embrace the doctrine or discipline of Rome. 

Many years before this period, a considerable sect of the 
Armenians had been accustomed to treat the pope with 
particular marks of veneration and respect, without de- 
parting, however, from the religious doctrine, discipline, or 
worship of their ancestors. Of this a farther account 
shall be given in the history of the Eastern Churches : it 
may, however, be proper to observe here, that the attach- 
ment of this sect to the pontiff was greatly increased, and 
his votaries were considerably multiplied, by the zeal of 
Serapion, an opulent man, who was entirely devoted to 
the court of Rome, and who, by engaging himself to 
discharge the debts under which the Armenians groaned, 
obtained, in 1593, the title and dignity of Patriarch, 
though there were already two patriarchs at the head of 
the Armenian church. He did not, however, long enjoy 
this dignity ; for, soon after his promotion, he was sent 
into exile by the Persian monarch, at the desire of those 
Armenians who adhered to the ecclesiastical discipline of 
their ancestors ; and thus the boasting and exultation of 
the Romans suddenly subsided, and their hopes vanished.? 



submission to the bishop of Rome, who had no more dignity or authority 
than any other prelate, except within the bounds of his own diocese. 
See Histoire des Religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus, torn. ii. 

• The transactions of this embassy, adorned with an ample and pom- 
pous preface, are subjoined to the sixth vol. of the Ann. Eccl. of Baronius, 

f Renaudot, in his Hist. Patriarch. Alexandrin., endeavours to main- 
tain the credit and importance of this mission, of which Baronius has 
given such a pompous account. He is, however, in an error when he 
asserts, that father Simon, relying upon the fallacious testimony of 
George Douza, was the only person who ever considered this embassy 
as a stratagem, since it is evident, that Thomas a Jesu, a Carmelite, in 
his treatise de Conversione omnium Gentium procuranda, has consider- 
ed it in the same light, as well as several other writers. See Geddes, 
Church History of Ethiopia. 

e See Nouv. Mem. des Mis. dela Com. de Jesus dansle Levant, t.iij. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



425 



TIL The ambitious views of the Roman pontiffs sow- 
ed the pestilential seeds of animosity and discord among 
all the eastern churches ; and the Nestorian Christians, 
who are also known by the denomination of Chaldeans, 
felt early the effects of their imperious counsels. In 1551, 
a warm dispute arose among that people about the crea- 
tion of a new patriarch, Simeon Barmamas being pro- 
posed by one party, and Sulaka earnestly desired by the 
other. The latter, to support his pretensions the more 
effectually, repaired to Rome, and was consecrated patri- 
arch, in 1553, by pope Julius III., whose jurisdiction he 
had acknowledged, and to whose commands he had pro- 
mised unlimited submission and obedience. Julius gave 
the name of John to the new Chaldean patriarch, and, 
upon his return to his own country, sent with him several 
persons, skilled in the Syriac language, to assist him in 
establishing and extending the papal empire among the 
Nestorians. From this time that unhappy people were 
divided into two factions, and were often involved in the 
greatest dangers and difficulties by the jarring sentiments 
and perpetual quarrels of their patriarchs. a 

The Nestorians, or as they are more commonly called, 
the Christians of St. Thomas, who inhabited a part of the 
coast of India, suffered much from the methods employed 
by the Portuguese to engage them to embrace the doc- 
trine and discipline of the church of Rome, and to aban- 
don the religion of their ancestors, which was much more 
simple and infinitely less absurd." The finishing stroke 
was put to the violence and brutality of these attempts by 
don Alexis de Menezes, bishop of Goa, Avho, about the 
conclusion of this century, calling the Jesuits to his 
assistance, obliged this unhappy and reluctant people to 
embrace the religion of Rome, and to acknowledge the 
pope's supreme jurisdiction ; against both of which acts 
they had always expressed the utmost abhorrence. 
These violent counsels and arrogant proceedings of 
Menezes, and his associates, were condemned by such of 
the Roman catholics as were most remarkable for their 
equity and wisdom. 

VIII. The greatest part of the first legates and mis- 
sionaries of the court of Rome treated with much severity 
and injustice the Christians whom they were desirous of 
gaining over to their communion. For they not only 
required that these Christians should renounce the par- 
ticular opinions that separated them from the Greek and 
Latin churches, and that they should acknowledge the 
pontiff as Christ's sole vicegerent upon earth : their de- 
mands went still farther ; they opposed some opinions 
that were at least worthy of toleration, and others which 
were highly agreeable to the dictates both of reason and 
Scripture ; they insisted upon the suppression and aboli- 
tion of several customs, rites, and institutions, which had 
been handed down from successive ancestors, and which 
were perfectly innocent in their nature and tendency ; in 
a word, they would be satisfied with nothing less than an 
entire and minute conformity of the religious rites and 
opinions of the people, with the doctrine and worship of 
the church of Rome. The papal court, however, rendered 
wise by experience, perceived, at length, that this man- 
ner of proceeding was highly imprudent, and very un- 

■ Jos. Sim. Assemani, Bib. Orient. Clementino-Vaticana, t. iii. pars ii. 

Cjr b ' For an account of the doctrines and worship of these, and the 

other eastern Christian*, see the following chapter ; as also two learned 

No. XXXVI. 107 



likely to extend the limits of the papal empire in the 
East. It was therefore determined to treat with more 
artifice and moderation a matter of such moment and 
importance, and the missionaries were, consequentl)'', 
ordered to change the plan of their operations, and con- 
fine their views to the two following points ; namely, the 
subjection of these Christians to the jurisdiction of the 
pope, and their renouncing, or at least professing to re- 
nounce, the opinions that had been condemned in the 
general councils of the church. In all other matters, the 
Roman envoys were commanded to allow a perfect tole- 
ration, and to let the people remain unmolested in follow- 
ing the sentiments, and observing the institutions, which 
they had derived from their ancestors. To give the 
greater credit and plausibility to this new method of con- 
version, certain learned doctors of the church endeavoured 
to demonstrate, that the religious tenets of Rome, when 
explained according to the simplicity of truth, and not 
by the subtilties and definitions of the schools, differed 
very little from the opinions received in the Greek and 
the other eastern churches. But this demonstration was 
very far from being satisfactory, and it discovered less of 
an ingenuous spirit, than a disposition to gain proselytes 
by all sorts of means, and at all events. Be that as it 
may, the cause of Rome received much more advantage 
from this plan of moderation, than it had derived from 
the severity of its former counsels, though much less than 
the authors of this reconciling plan fondly expected. 

IX. While the pontiffs were using their utmost efforts 
to extend their dominion abroad, they did not neglect 
the means that were proper to strengthen and maintain 
it at home. On the contrary, from the dawn of the 
reformation, they began to redouble their diligence in 
defending the internal form and constitution of their 
church against the dexterity and force of its adversaries. 
They could no more have recourse to the expedient of 
crusades, by which they had so often diminished the 
power and influence of their enemies. The revolutions 
which had happened in the affairs of Rome, and in the 
state of Europe, rendered any such method of subduing 
heretics visionary and impracticable. Other methods 
were, therefore, to be found out, and all the resources of 
prudence were to be exhausted in support of a declining 
church. Hence the laws and proceedings of the inqui- 
sition were revised and corrected in those countries where 
that formidable court was permitted to exert its dreadful 
power. Colleges and schools of learning were erected 
in various places, in which the studious youth were 
trained up, by perpetual exercise, in the art of disputing, 
that thus they might wield, with more dexterity and suc- 
cess, the arms of controversy against the enemies of 
Rome. The circulation of such books as were supposed 
to have a pernicious tendency, was either entirely pre- 
vented, or at least much obstructed, by certain lists or 
indexes, composed by men of learning and sagacity, and 
published by authority, in which these books were 
marked with a note of infamy, and their perusal prohi- 
bited, though with certain restrictions. The pursuit of 
knowledge was earnestly recommended to the clergy, 
and honourable marks of distinction, as well as ample 



books of La Croze ; one entitled, Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, 
and the other, Histoire du Christianisme en Ethiopie. 
e La Croze, Hist du Christ, des Indes, Jiv. ii. p. 88. 



426 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



Sect. TIL 



rewards, were bestowed on those who made the most re- 
markable progress in the cultivation of letters. And, to 
enlarge no farther on this head, the youth, in general, 
were more carefully instructed in the principles and pre- 
cepts of their religion, than they had formerly been. 
Thus it happens, that signal advantages are frequently 
derived from what are looked upon as the greatest evils, 
and much wisdom and improvement are daily acquired 
in the school of opposition and adversity. It is more 
than probable, that the church of Rome would never 
have been enriched with the acquisitions we have now 
been mentioning, had it continued in that state of un- 
interrupted ease and undisputed authority, which nourish 
a spirit of indolence and luxury, and had not the pretend- 
ed heretics attacked its territories, trampled upon its juris- 
diction, and eclipsed a great part of its ancient majesty 
and splendour. 

X. The monastic orders and religious societies have 
been always considered by the Roman pontiffs as the 
principal support of their authority and dominion. It is 
chiefly by them that they rule the church, maintain 
their influence on the minds of the people, and augment 
the number of their votaries. And, indeed, various 
causes contribute to render the connexion between the 
pontiff and these religious communities much more inti- 
mate, than that which subsists between him and the 
other clergy, of whatever rank or order we may suppose 
them to be. It was therefore judged necessary, when 
the success of Luther and the progress of the reforma- 
tion had effaced such a considerable part of the majesty 
of Rome, to found some new religious fraternity, that 
should, in a particular manner, be devoted to the inter- 
ests of the Roman pontiff, and the very express end of 
whose institution should be to renew the vigour of a de- 
clining hierarchy, to heal the deep wound it had received, 
to preserve those parts of the papal dominions that 
remained yet entire, and to augment them by new ac- 
cessions. This was so much the more necessary, as the 
two famous Mendicant societies, 11 by whose ministry the 
popes had chiefly governed, during many ages, with 
success and glory, had now lost, on several accounts, a 
considerable part of their influence and authority, and 
were thereby less capable of serving the church with 
efficacy and vigour than they had formerly been. What 
the pontiff sought in this declining state of his affairs, 
was found in that famous and most powerful society, 

fTJr * These two orders were the Franciscans and the Domini- 
cans. 

idr b The Spanish name of the founder of this order was Don Inigo 
de Guipuscoa. 

c The writers who have given the most particular and circumstantial 
accounts of the order of the Jesuits, are enumerated by Christoph. Aug. 
Salig, in his Historia August. Confessionis, torn. ii. p. 73. 

d Many Jesuits have written the life of this extraordinary man : but 
the greatest part of these biographers seem more intent upon advancing 
the glory of their founder, than solicitous about the truth and fidelity of 
their relations ; and hence the most common events, and the most trivial 
actions that concern Ignatius, are converted into prodigies and miracles. 
The history of this enterprising fanatic has been composed with equal 
truth and ingenuity, though seasoned with a very large portion of wit 
and pleasantry, by a French writer, who calls himself Hercules Rasiel 
de Solve.* This work, which is divided into two volumes, is entitled, 
Histoire de l'admirable Don Inigo de Guipuscoa, Chevalier de la 
Vierge, et Fondateur de la Monarchic des Inighistes. 

• Not only the Protestants, but also a great number of the more 
learned and judicious Roman catholics, have unanimously denied, that 
Ignatius Loyola had either learning sufficient to compose the writings 
of which he is said to be the author, or genius enough to form the soci- 



which, from the name of Jesus, derived the appellation 
of Jesuits, while its members were styled by their en- 
emies Loyolites from Loyola, and sometimes Inighists,* 
from the Spanish name of their founder. c This zealot 
was Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish knight, who, from an 
illiterate soldier, became an unparalleled fanatic ; a fan- 
atic, indeed, of a fertile and enterprising genius, d who, 
after having passed through various scenes of life, re. 
paired to Rome, and, being there directed by the prudent 
counsels of persons much wiser than himself, was ren- 
dered capable of instituting such an order as the state 
of the church at that time essentially required.' 

XI. The Jesuits hold a middle rank between the monks 
and the secular clerks, and, with respect to the nature of 
their institute, approach nearer to the regular canons than 
to any other order ; for, though they resemble the monks 
in this, that they live separate from the multitude, and are 
bound by religious vows, yet they are exempt from stated 
hours of worship, and other numerous and burthensome 
services, which lie heavy upon the monastic orders, that 
they may have more time to employ in the education of 
youth, in directing the consciences of the faithful, in edi- 
fying the church by their pious and learned productions, 
and in transacting other matters that relate to the pros- 
perity of the papal hierarchy. Their whole order is di- 
vided into three classes. The first comprehends the pro- 
fessed members, who live in what are called the profess- 
ed houses ; the second contains the scholars, who in. 
struct the youth in the colleges ; and to the third belong 
the novices, who live in the houses of probation. 1. The 
professed members, beside the three ordinary vows of po- 
verty, chastity, and obedience, common to all the monas- 
tic tribes, are obliged to take a fourth, by which they so- 
lemnly bind themselves to go without deliberation or de- 
lay wherever the pope shall think fit to send them ; they 
are also a kind of Mendicants, being without any fixed 
subsistence, and living upon the liberality of pious and 
well-disposed persons. The other Jesuits, and more parti- 
cularly the scholars, possess large revenues, and are oblig - 
ed, in case of urgent necessity, to contribute to the sup- 
port of the professed members. The latter, who are few 
in number, in comparison with the other classes, are, in 
general, men of prudence and learning, deeply skilled in 
the affairs of the world, and dexterous in transacting all 
kinds of business from long experience, added to their 
natural penetration and sagacity ; in a word, they are 

ety of which he is considered as the founder. They maintain, on the 
contrary, that he was no more than a flexible instrument in the hands 
of able and ingenious men, who made use of his fortitude and fanaticism 
to answer their purposes ; and that persons much more learned than he, 
were employed to compose the writings which bear his name. See 
Geddes' Miscellaneous Tracts, vol. iii. — The greatest part of his works 
are supposed to have proceeded from the pen of his secretary John de 
Palanco ; see La Croze, Histoire du Christianisme en Ethiopie, p. 55, 
271. The Benedictines affirm, that his book of Spiritual Exercises is 
copied from the work of a Spanish Benedictine monk, whose name was 
Cisneros (see La Vie de M. de la Croze par Jordan ;) and the consti- 
tutions of the society were probably the work of Lainez and Salmeron, 
two learned men who were among its first members. See Histoire des 
Religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus, torn. i. 

g3f f Other writers add a fourth class, consisting of the spirihial and 
temporal co-adjutors, who assist the professed members, and perform the 
same functions, without being bound by any more than the three simplt 
vows; though, after a long and approved exercise of their employment, 
the spiritual coadjutors are admitted to the fourth vow, and thus becom* 
professed members. 

f^- * This is a feigned name ; the real author was Le Vier, an inge- 
nious bookseller, who lived formerly at the Hague. 



Part 1. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



427 



ihe true and perfect Jesuits. The rest have, indeed, the 
tide, but are rather the companions and assistants of the 
Jesuits, than real members of that mysterious order ; and 
it is only in a very vague and general sense, that the de- 
nomination of Jesuits can be applied to them. What is 
still more remarkable, the secrets of the society are not 
revealed even to all the professed members. It is only a 
small number of this class, whom old age has enriched 
with thorough experience, and whom long trial has de- 
clared to be worthy of such an important trust, that are 
instructed in the mysteries of the order. 

XII. The church and court of Rome, since the remark- 
able period when so many kingdoms and provinces with- 
drew from- their jurisdiction, have derived more influence 
and support from the labours of this single order than from 
all their other emissaries and ministers, and all the various 
exertions of their power and opulence. It was this famous 
company which, spreading itself with an astonishing rapi- 
dity over the greatest part of the habitable world, confirmed 
the wavering nations in the faith of Rome, restrained the 
progress of the rising sects, gained over a prodigious num- 
ber of Pagans in the most barbarous and remote parts of 
the globe to the profession of popery, and attacked the 
pretended heretics of all denominations ; appearing almost 
alone in the field of controversy, sustaining with fortitude 
and resolution the whole burthen of this religious Avar, 
and far surpassing the champions of antiquity, both in 
the subtlety of their reasonings, and the eloquence of 
their discourses. Nor was this all ; for, by the affected 
softness and complying spirit which reigned in their con- 
versation and manners, by their consummate skill and 
prudence in civil transactions, by their acquaintance 
with the arts and sciences, and a variety of other quali- 
ties and accomplishments, they insinuated themselves 
into the peculiar favour and protection of statesmen, per- 
sons of the first distinction, and even of crowned heads. 
Nor did any thing contribute more to give them a gene- 
ral ascendancy, than the cunning and dexterity with 
which they relaxed and modified their system of morali- 
ty, accommodating it artfully to the propensities of man- 
kind, and depriving it, on certain occasions, of the 
severity that rendered it burthensome to the sensual and 
voluptuous. By this they supplanted, in the palaces of 
the great, and in the courts of princes, the Dominicans 

■ Before this order was instituted, the Dominicans alone directed the 
consciences of all the European kings and princes ; and it was by the 
Jesuits that the Dominicans were deprived of a privilege so precious 
to spiritual ambition. See Peyrat's Antiquites de la Chapelle de 
France. 

b See the Histoire des Religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus, torn. iii. 
p. 48, &c. — Boulay, Hist. Academ. Paris, torn. vi. p. 559 — 648 — as well 
as almost all the writers (but more particularly the Jansenists,) who 
have given accounts of the sixteenth century. 

c The character and spirit of the Jesuits were admirably described, 
and their transactions and fate foretold, with a sagacity almost prophetic, 
so early as the year 1551, in a sermon preached in Christ Church, Dub- 
lin, by Dr. George Brown, archbishop of that see; a copy of which 
was given to Sir James Ware, and may be found in the Harleian Mis- 
cellany, vol. v. p. 566. The remarkable passage relating to that order, 
is as follows : " There are a new fraternity of late sprung up, who call 
themselves Jesuits, which will deceive many, who are much after the 
Scribes' and Pharisees' manner. Amongst the Jews they shall strive 
to abolish the truth, and shall come very near to do it. For these sorts will 
turn themselves into several forms ; with the heathens a heathenist, 
with the atheist an atheist, with the Jews a Jew, with the Reformers a 
Refonnade, purposely to know your intentions, your minds, your hearts, 
and your inclinations, and thereby bring you at last to be like the fool 
that said in his heart, ' There was no God.' These shall spread over 
the wl.ole world, shall be admitted into the councils of princes, and they 



and other rigid doctors, who formerly held there the 
tribunal of confession and the direction of consciences ; 
and engrossed to themselves an exclusive and irresistible 
influence in those retreats of royal grandeur, whence 
issue the counsels that govern mankind. 1 An order of 
this nature could not but be highly adapted to promote 
the interests of the court of Rome ; and this, indeed, 
was its great end, and the leading purpose of which it 
never lost sight, employing every where its utmost vigi- 
lance and art to support the authority of the pontiffs, 
and to save them from the contempt, of which they must 
have been naturally apprehensive, in consequence of a 
revolution that opened the eyes of a great part of man- 
kind. 

All these circumstances placed the order of Jesuits in 
a conspicuous point of light. Their capacity, their influ- 
ence, and their zeal for the papacy, had a very advanta- 
geous retrospect upon themselves, as it swelled the sources 
of their opulence, and procured to their society an uncom- 
mon, and indeed an excessive degree of respect and ven- 
eration. But it is also true, that these signal honours and 
advantages exposed them, at the same tiifTe, to the envy 
of other religious orders; that their enemies multiplied 
from day to day ; and that they were often involved in 
the greatest perplexities and perils. Monks, courtiers, 
civil magistrates, public schools, united their efforts to 
crush this rising fabric of ambition and policy ; and a 
prodigious number of books were published to prove, that 
nothing could be more detrimental to the interests of reli- 
gion, and the well-being of society, than the institution 
of the Jesuits. In France, Poland, and other countries, 
they were declared public enemies to their country, traitors, 
and parricides, and were even banished with ignominy. b 
But the prudence, or rather the craft and artifice, of the 
disciples of Loyola, calmed this storm of opposition, and, 
by gentle and imperceptible methods, restored the credit 
and authority of their order, delivered it from the perils 
with which it had been threatened, and even put it in a 
state of defence against the future attempts of its adversa- 
ries. 

XIII. The pontiffs of this century, after Alexander VI., 
were Pius III., Julius II., d Leo X., Adrian VI., whose 
characters and transactions have been already noticed ; 
Clement VII., of the house of Medici ; Paul III., e of the 

never the wiser ; charming of them, yea, making your princes reveal 
their hearts and the secrets therein, and yet they not perceive it; 
which will happen from falling from the law of God, by neglect of ful- 
filling the law of God, and by winking at their sins ; yet, in the end, 
God, to justify his law, shall suddenly cut off this society, even by the 
hands of those who have most succoured them, and made use of them ; 
so that, at the end, they shall become odious to all nations. They shall 
be worse than Jews, having no resting-place upon earth ; and then shall 
a Jew have more favour than a Jesuit." — This singular passage, I had 
almost said prediction, seems to be accomplished in part, by the present 
suppression of the Jesuits in France, (I write this note in the year 1762,) 
and by the great indignation which the perfidious stratagems, iniquitous 
avarice, and ambitious views of that society, have excited among all or- 
ders of the French nation, from the throne to the cottage. 

i£jf* * It was from a foolish ambition of resembling Caesar, (a very 
singular model for a Christian pontiff,) that this pope, whose name was 
Rovere, assumed the denomination of Julius II. It may indeed be said, 
that Caesar was sovereign pontiff, (pontifex rnaximus,') and that the 
bishop of Rome enjoyed the same dignity, though with some change in 
the title. 

The sentiments and character of Paul III. have given rise to much 
debate, even in our time, especially between the late cardinal Quirini, 
and Keisling, Schelhorn, and some other writers. The cardinal has used 
his utmost efforts to defend the probity and merit of this pontiff, while 
the two learned men above mentioned represent him as a perfidious po- 



428 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



Sect. lit 



illustrious family of Farnese, Julius III.,* whose name 
was John Maria Giocci ; Marcellus II. ; Paul IV., b whose 
name, before his elevation to the pontificate, was John 
Peter Caraffa ; Pius IV., who was ambitious of being 
looked upon as a branch of the house of Medici, and who 
had been known, before his promotion, by the name of 
John Angelo de Medicis ; Pius V., a Dominican, called 
Michael Ghisleri, a man of an austere and melancholy 
turn of mind, by which, and other similar qualities, he 
obtained a place in the calendar ; Gregory XIII., who 
was previously known by the name of Hugo Buoncom- 
pagno; c Sixtus V., otherwise named Felix Peretti di 
Montalto, who, in pride, magnificence, intrepidity, and 
strength of mind, and in other great virtues and vices, far 
surpassed all his predecessors ; Urban VII., Gregory XIV., 
Innocent IX., the shortness of whose reigns prevented 
them from acquiring reputation, or incurring reproach. 

Among these pontiffs there were better and worse ; d but 
they were all men of decent and even exemplary charac- 
ters, when compared with the greatest part of those who 
governed the church before the reformation. For the 
number of adversaries, both foreign and domestic, that 
arose to set limits to the despotism of Rome, and to call 
in question the authority and jurisdiction of its pontiff, 
rendered the college of cardinals, and the Roman nobility, 
more cautious and circumspect in the choice of a spiritual 
ruler ; nor did they dare, in these critical circumstances 
of opposition and danger, to entrust such an important 
dignity to any ecclesiastic, whose bare-faced licentiousness, 
shameless arrogance, or inconsiderate youth, might render 
him peculiarly obnoxious to reproach, and furnish new 
matter of censure to their adversaries. It is also worthy 
of observation, that from this period of opposition, occasion- 
ed by the ministry of the Reformers, the pontiffs have 
never pretended to such an exclusive authority, as they 
had formerly usurped ; nor could they, indeed, make good 
such pretensions, were they so presumptuous as to avow 
them. They claim, therefore, no longer a power of de- 
ciding, by their single authority, matters of the highest 
moment and importance ; but, for the most part, pro- 
nounce according to the sentiments that prevail in the col- 
lege of cardinals, and in the different congregations, 
which are entrusted with their respective parts in the 
government of the church ; and they rarely venture to 
excite serious divisions in foreign states, to arm subjects 



litician, whose predominant qualities were dissimulation and fraud. 
See Q.uirini's work de Gestis Pauli III. Farnesii. §£jr Among the res 
gesta of Paul III. were two bastards, whose offspring, Farnese and 
Sforza, were made cardinals in their infancy. See Keislingii Epist. de 
Gestis Pauli III. — Schelhorn Amcenitates His. Eccles. et Liter. But 
the licentious exploits of this pope do not end here. He was reproach- 
ed, in a book published before his death under the name of Ochino, with 
having poisoned his mother and his nephew, with having ravished a 
young virgin at Ancona, with an incestuous and adulterous commerce 
with his daughter Constantia, who died of poison administered by him, 
to prevent any interruption in his odious amours. It is said, in the same 
book, that, being caught in bed with his niece, Laura Farnese, who was 
the wife of Nic. Gluercei, he received from this incensed husband a stab 
of a dagger, of which he bore the marks to his death. See Sleidan's Com- 
ment, de Statu Relig. et Reipublicae, Carolo Quinto Ca;sare, lib. xxi. 

f^T * This was the worthy pontiff, who was scarcely seated in the 
papal chair, when he bestowed the cardinal's hat on the keeper of his 
monkeys, a boy chosen from among the lowest of the populace, and 
who was also the infamous object of his unnatural pleasures. See 
Thuan. lib. vi. et xv.— Hoffin. His. Eccl. t. v. p. 572 — and more especially 
Sleidan's Histor. lib. xxi. — When Julius was reproached by the cardinals 
for introducing such an unworthy member into the sacred college, a per- 
son who had neither learning, nor virtue, nor merit of any kind, he impu- 
dently replied by asking them, " What virtue or merit they had found 



against their rulers, or to level the thunder of their excom- 
munications at the heads of princes. All such proceedings, 
which were formerly so frequent at the court of Rome, 
have been in a great measure suspended, in consequence 
of the gradual decline of that ignorance and superstition 
which prescribed a blind obedience to the pontiff, and of 
the new degrees of power and authority that monarchs 
and other civil rulers have gained by the revolutions that 
have shaken the papal throne. In a word, imperious neces- 
sity has produced prudence and moderation even at Rome. 

XIV. That part of the body of the clergy, which was 
more peculiarly devoted to the pope, seemed to undergo 
no change during this century. As to the bishops, it is 
certain that they made several zealous attempts, and some 
even in the council of Trent, for the recovery of the an- 
cient rights and privileges, of which they had been forci- 
bly deprived by the pontiffs. They were even persuaded 
that his holiness might be lawfully obliged to acknow- 
ledge, that the episcopal dignity was of divine original, 
and that the bishops received their authority immediately 
from Christ himself. e But all these attempts were suc- 
cessfully opposed by the artifice and dexterity of the court 
of Rome, which did not cease to propagate and enforce 
this despotic maxim : " That the bishops are *no more 
than the legates or ministers of Christ's vicar ; and that 
the authority which they exercise is entirely derived from 
the munificence and favour of the apostolic see : " a 
maxim, however, that several bishops, and more especi- 
ally those of France, treated with little respect. Some 
advantages, however, and those not inconsiderable, were 
obtained for the clergy at the expense of the pontiffs ; for 
those reservations, provisions, exemptions, and expecta- 
tives, (as they are termed by the Roman lawyers,) which 
before the Reformation had excited such heavy and bit- 
ter complaints throughout Europe, and exhibited the 
clearest proofs of papal avarice and tyranny, were now 
almost totally suppressed. 

XV. Among the subjects of deliberation in the council 
of Trent, the reformation of the lives and manners of the 
clergy, and the suppression of the scandalous vices that 
had too long reigned in that order, were not forgotten ; 
and several wise and prudent laws were enacted with a 
view to that important object. But those who had the 
cause of virtue at heart, complained (and the reason of 
such complaint still subsists) that these laws were no more 



in him, that could induce them to place him (Julius) in the papal chair V 

fjf b Nothing could exceed the arrogance and ambition of this vio- 
lent and impetuous pontiff, as appears from his treatment of Queen Eli- 
zabeth. See Burnet's History of the Reformation. — It was he who, by 
a bull, pretended to raise Ireland to the privilege and quality of an in- 
dependent kingdom ; and it was he also who first instituted the Index 
of prohibited books, mentioned above, in the first note, sect. iii. 

? See Jo. Petr. Maffei Annales Gregorii XIII. 

<s Pius V. and Sixtus V. made a much greater figure in the annals of 
fame, than the other pontiffs here mentioned ; the former on account of 
his excessive severity against heretics, and the famous bull In Cana 
Domini, which is read publicly at Rome every year on the Festival of 
the Holy Sacrament; and the latter, in consequence of many services 
rendered to the church, and numberless attempts, carried on with spirit, 
fortitude, generosity, and perseverance, to promote its glory, and main- 
tain its authority. — Several modern writers employed their pens in de- 
scribing the life and actions of Pius V. as soon as they saw him ca- 
nonised, in 1712, by Clement XI. Of the bull to which we have allud- 
ed, and the tumults it occasioned, there is an ample account in Gian- 
none's Historia di Napoli, vol. iv. The life of Sixtus V. was written 
by Gregorio Leti, and the ' work has been translated intto several 
languages ; it is, however, a very indifferent performance, and the rela> 
tions which it contains are, in many places, inacurate and unfaithful. 

• See Paolo Sarpi'* History of the Council of Trent. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



429 



than feeble precepts, without any avenging arm to main- 
tain their authority ; and that they were transgressed, 
with impunity, by the clergy of all ranks, and particu- 
larly by those who filled the highest stations and digni- 
ties of the church. In reality, if we cast our eyes upon 
the Romish clergy, even in the present time, these com- 
plaints will appear as well founded now, as they were in 
the sixteenth century. In Germany, as is notorious to 
daily observation, the bishops, if we except their habit, 
their title, and a few ceremonies that distinguish them, 
have nothing in their manner of living that is, in the least, 
adapted to point out the nature of their sacred office. In 
other countries, a great part of the episcopal order, un- 
molested by the remonstrances or reproofs of the Roman 
pontiff, pass their days amidst the pleasures and cabals of 
courts, and appear rather the slaves of temporal princes, 
than the servants of Him whose kingdom is not of this 
world. They court glory ; they aspire after riches, while 
very few employ their time and labours in edifying the 
people, or in promoting among them the vital spirit of 
practical religion and substantial virtue ; and (what is still 
more deplorable) those bishops, who, sensible of the sanc- 
tity of their character and the duties of their office, distin- 
guish themselves by their zeal in the cause of virtue and 
good morals, are frequently exposed to the malicious ef- 
forts of envy, often loaded with false accusations, and in- 
volved in perplexities of various kinds. It may, indeed, 
be partly in consequence of the examples they have re- 
ceived, and still too often receive, from the heads of the 
church, that so many of the bishops live dissolved in the 
arms of luxury, or toiling in the service of ambition. 
Many of them, perhaps, would have been more attentive 
to their vocation, and more exemplary in their manners, 
if they had not been corrupted by the models exhibited 
to them by the bishops of Rome, and if they had not con- 
stantly before their eyes a splendid succession of popes 
and cardinals, remarkable only for their luxury and ava- 
rice, their arrogance and vindictive spirit, their voluptuotxs- 
ness and vanity. 

Those ecclesiastics who go under the denomination of 
canons, continue, almost every where, their ancient course 
of life, and consume, in a manner far remote from piety 
and virtue, the treasures which the religious zeal and li- 
berality of their ancestors had consecrated to the uses of 
the church and the relief of the poor. 

It must not, however, be imagined, that all the other 
orders of the clergy are at liberty to follow such corrupt 
models, or, indeed, that their inclinations and reigning 
habits tend toward such a loose and voluptuous manner 
of living : for it is certain, that the Reformation had a 
manifest influence even upon the Roman catholic clergy, 
by rendering them, at least, more circumspect and cau- 



fTJr a The dispute that arose among the Franciscans by Innocent 
the Fourth's relaxing so far their institute as to allow property and pos- 
sessions in their community, produced a division of the order into two 
classes, of which the more considerable, who adopted the papal 
relaxation, were denominated Conventuals, and the other, who re- 
jected it, Brethren of the Observance. The latter professed to observe 
and follow rigorously the primitive laws and institute of their foun- 
der. 

Id" b The Brethren of the Observance, mentioned in the preceding 
note, had degenerated, in process of time, from their primitive self-de- 
nial ; and hence arose the reforming spirit that animated Bassi. 

See Luc. Waddingi Annales Ordinis Minorum, torn. xvi. — He- 
lyot, Histoire des Ordres Monastiques, torn. vii. ch. xxiv. and, above 
all, Zach. Boverii Annales Cupucinoruni. 

No. XXXVII. 108 



tious in their external conduct, that they might be thus less 
obnoxious to the censures of their adversaries ; and it is 
accordingly well known, that since that period the clergy 
of the inferior orders have been more attentive than they 
formerly were to the rules of outward decency, and have 
given less offence by open and scandalous vices and 
excesses. 

XVI. The same observation holds good with respect 
to the monastic orders. There are, indeed, several things, 
worthy of the severest animadversion, chargeable upon 
many of the heads and rulers of these societies ; nor are 
these societies themselves entirely exempt from that in- 
dolence, intemperance, ignorance, artifice, discord, and 
voluptuousness, which were formerly the common and 
reigning vices in the monastic retreats. It would be, ne- 
vertheless, an instance of great partiality and injustice to 
deny, that in many countries the manner of living, among 
these religious orders, has been considerably reformed, se- 
vere rules have been employed to restrain licentiousness, 
and much pains taken to conceal, at least, such vestiges 
of ancient corruption and irregularity as may yet remain. 
In some places, the austerity of the ancient rules of dis- 
cipline, which had been so shamefully relaxed, was re- 
stored by several zealous patrons of monastic devotion ; 
while others, animated with the same zeal, instituted new 
communities, in order to promote, as they piously ima- 
gined, a spirit of religion, and thus to contribute to the 
well-being of the church. 

Of this latter number was Matthew de Bassi, a native 
of Italy, the extent of whose capacity was much inferior 
to the goodness of his intentions. He was a Franciscan 
of the rigid class, a one of those who were zealous in ob- 
serving rigorously the primitive rules of their institution. 
This honest enthusiast seriously persuaded himself, that 
he was divinely inspired with the zeal which impelled 
him to restore the rules of the Franciscan order to their 
primitive austerity ; and, looking upon this violent and 
irresistible impulse as a celestial commission, attended 
with sufficient authority, he commenced this work of mo- 
nastic reformation with the most devout assiduity and 
ardour. b His enterprise was honoured, in 1525, with the 
solemn approbation of Clement VII. ; and this was the ori- 
gin of the order of Capuchins. The vows of this order im- 
plied the greatest contempt of the world and its enjoy- 
ments, and the most profound humility, accompanied with 
the most austere and sullen gravity of external aspect ; c 
and its reputation and success excited, in the other Francis- 
cans, the most bitter feelings of indignation and envy. d The 
Capuchins were so called from the sharp-pointed capuche, 
or cowl, 6 which they added to the ordinary Franciscan 
habit, and which is supposed to have been used by St. 
Francis himself. f 

§Qr * One of the circumstances that exasperated most the Francis- 
cans, was the innovation made in their habit by the. Capuchins. What- 
ever was the cause of their choler, true it is, that their provincial perse- 
cuted the new monks, and obliged them to fly from place to place, un- 
til they at last took refuge in the palace of the duke of Camerino, by 
whose credit they were received under the obedience of the Conven- 
tuals, in the quality of hermits minors, in 1527. The next yew the 
pope approved this union, and confirmed to them the privilege of 
wearing the square capuche; and thus the order was established 
in 1528: 

0» ° I know not on what authority the learned Michael Geddes 
attributes the erection and denomination of this order to one Francis 
Puchine. 

' See Du Fresne, Glossarium Latinitat. medii JEvi, torn. ii. 



430 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



Sect. IIJL 



Another branch of the Franciscan order formed a new 
community, under the denomination of Recollets in France, 
Reformed Franciscans in Italy, and Barefooted Francis- 
cans in Spain ; these were erected into a separate order, 
with their respective laws and rules of discipline, in 1532, 
by the authority of Clement VII. They differed from 
the other Franciscans in this only, that they professed to 
follow, with greater zeal and exactness, the austere insti- 
ute of their common founder and chief; whence they 
were sometimes called Friars Minors of the strict obser- 
vance. 11 

St. Theresa, a Spanish lady of an illustrious family, 
undertook the difficult task of reforming the Carmelite 
order, b which had departed much from its primitive sanctity, 
and of restoring its neglected and violated laws to their origi- 
nal credit and authority. Her associate, in this arduous 
attempt, was Juan de Santa-Cruz ; and her enterprise 
was not wholly unsuccessful, although the greater part 
of the Carmelites opposed her aims. Hence the order 
was, during a period of ten years, divided into two branches, 
of which one followed a milder rule of discipline, while 
the other embraced an institute of the most severe and 
self-denying kind. c But, as these different rales of life 
among the members of the same community were a per- 
petual source of animosity and discord, the more austere, 
or bare-footed Carmelites, were separated from the others, 
and formed into a distinct body, in 1580, by Gregory XIII. 
at the particular desire of Philip II. king of Spain. This 
separation was confirmed, in 1587, by SixtusV. and com- 
pleted, in 1593, by Clement VIII. who allowed the bare- 
footed Carmelites to have their own chief, : or general. 
But. after having withdrawn themselves from the others, 
these austere friars quarrelled among themselves, and in 
a few years their dissensions grew to an intolerable height : 
hence they were divided anew, by the last-mentioned pon- 
tiff, into two communities, each of which had its gover- 
nor or general." 1 

XVII. Of all the new orders instituted in this century, 
the most eminent, beyond all doubt, was that of the Je- 
suits, which we have already had occasion to mention, in 
speaking of the chief pillars of the church of Rome, and 
the principal supports of the declining authority of its 
pontiffs. Compared with this aspiring and formidable 
society, all the other religious orders appear inconsiderable 
and obscure. The Reformation, among the other changes 
which it occasioned, even in the Romish church, by ex- 
citing the circumspection and emulation of those who 
still remained addicted to popery, gave rise to various com- 
munities, which were all comprehended under the gene- 
ral denomination of Regular Clerks ; and as all these 
communities were, according to their own solemn decla- 
rations, formed with a design of imitating that sanctity 
of manners, and reviving that spirit of piety and virtue, 
which had distinguished the sacred order in the primitive 
times, this was a plain, though tacit confession of the 
present corruption of the clergy, and consequently of the 
indispensable necessity of the reformation. 

* See the Annales of Wadding, torn. xvi. — Helyot, Histoire des 
Ordres Monast. torn. vii. ch. xviii. 

•> Otherwise called the White-Friars. 

J^jr" • The former, who were the Carmelites of the ancient obser- 
vance, were called the moderate or mitigated, while the latter, who were 
of the strict observance, were distinguished by the denomination of 
aare-footed Carmelites. 



The first society of these regular clerks arose in 1524, 
under the denomination of Theatins, which they derived 
from their principal founder John Peter Caraffa, (then 
bishop of Theate, or Chieti, in the kingdom of Naples, 
and afterwards pope, under the title of Paul IV.,) who 
was assisted in this pious undertaking by Caietan, or Gae- 
tan, and other devout associates. These monks, being 
by their vows destitute of all possessions and revenues, 
and even precluded from the resource of begging, sub- 
sist entirely upon the voluntary liberality of pious persons. 
They are called by their profession and institute to revive 
a spirit of devotion, to purify and reform the eloquence 
of the pulpit, to assist the sick and the dying by their 
spiritual instructions and counsels, and to combat heretics 
of all denominations with zeal and assiduity.' There 
are also some female convents established under the rule 
and title of this order. 

This establishment was followed by that of the Regu- 
lar Clerks of St. Paul, so called from their having cho- 
sen that apostle for their patron ; though they are more 
commonly known under the denomination of Barna- 
bites, from the church of St. Barnabas, at Milan, which 
was bestowed upon them in 1545. This order, which 
was approved in 1532 by Clement VII., and confirm- 
ed about three years after by Paul III., was originally 
founded by Antonio Mavia Zacharias of Cremona, and 
Bartholemew Ferrari, and Ant. Morigia, noblemen of 
Milan. Its members were at first obliged to live after the 
manner of the Theatins, renouncing all worldly goods 
and possessions, and depending upon the spontaneous do- 
nations of the liberal for their daily subsistence. But 
they soon became weary of this precarious method of living 
from hand to mouth, and therefore took the liberty, in 
process of time, of securing to their community certain 
possessions and stated revenues. Their principal func- 
tion is to go from place to place, like the apostles, in order 
to convert sinners, and bring back transgressors into the 
paths of repentance and obedience. f 

The Regular Clerks of St. Maieul, who are also called 
the fathers of Somasquo, from the place where their com- 
munity was first established, and which was also the resi- 
dence of their founder, were erected into a distinct society 
by Jerome iEmiliani, a noble Venetian, and were after- 
wards successively confirmed, in the years 1540 and 1543, 
by the Roman pontiffs Paul III. and Pius IV.e Their 
chief occupation was to instruct the ignorant, and parti- 
cularly young persons, in the principles and precepts of 
the Christian religion, and to procure assistance for those 
who were reduced to the unhappy condition of orphans. 
The same important ministry was committed to the 
Fathers of the Christian doctrine in France and Italy. 
The order that bore this title in France was instituted by 
Caesar de Bus, and confirmed in 1597 by Clement VIII., 
while that which is known in Italy under the same de- 
nomination, derived its origin from Mark Cusani, a Mila- 
nese knight, and was established by the approbation and 
authority of Pius V. and Gregory XIII. 



t Helyot, Histoire des Ordres, torn. i. ch. xlvii. p. 340, 

' Helyot, torn. iv. ch. xii. 

t Helyot, torn. iv. ch. xvi. p. 100. — In the same volume of his in- 
comparable history, this learned author gives a most accurate, ample, 
and interesting account of the other religious orders, which are here, for 
the sake of brevity, barely mentioned. 

* Acta Sanctor. Februar. torn. ii. p. 217. 



Part 1. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



431 



XVIII. It would be an endless, and, indeed, an un- 
piofitable labour to enumerate particularly the prodigious 
multitude of less considerable orders and religious associa- 
tions, that were instituted in Germany and other coun- 
tries, from an apprehension of the pretended heretics, 
who disturbed by their innovations the peace, or rather 
the lethargy, of the church ; for certainly no age produced 
such a swarm of monks, and such a number of convents, 
as that in which Luther and other reformers opposed the 
divine light and power of the Gospel to ignorance, super- 
stition, and papal tyranny. We therefore pass over in si- 
lence these less important establishments, of which many 
have been long buried in oblivion, because they were 
erected on unstable foundations, while numbers were 
suppressed by the wisdom of certain pontiffs, who con- 
sidered the multitude of these communities rather as 
prejudicial than advantageous to the church. Nor can 
we take particular notice of the female convents, or nun- 
neries, among which the Ursulines shone forth with a 
superior lustre both in point of number and dignity. — 
The Priests of the Oratory, /ounded in Italy by Philip 
Neri, a native of Florence, and publicly honoured with the 
protection of Gregory XIII. in 1577, must, however, be 
excepted from this general silence, on account of the emi- 
nent figure they made in the republic of letters. It was 
this community that produced Baronius, Raynaldus, and 
Ladurchius, who hold so high a rank among the ecclesi- 
astical historians of the sixteenth and following centuries ; 
and there are still to be found in it men of considerable 
erudition and capacity. The name of this religious soci- 
ety was derived from an apartment, accommodated in the 
form of an Oratory f or cabinet for devotion, which St. 
Philip Neri built at Florence for himself, and in which, 
for many years, he held spiritual conferences with his 
more intimate companions. b 

XIX. It is too evident to admit the least dispute, that 
all kinds of erudition, whether sacred or profane, were 
held in much higher esteem in the western world since 
the time of Luther, than they had been before that auspi- 
cious period. The Jesuits, more especially, boast, and 
perhaps not without reason, that their society contributed 
more, at least in this century, to the culture of the lan- 
guages, the improvement of the arts, and the advance- 
ment of true science, than all the rest of the religious or- 
ders. It is certain that the directors of schools and acade- 
mies, either through indolence or design, persisted obsti- 
nately in their ancient method of teaching, though that 
method was intricate and disagreeable in many respects ; 
nor would they suffer themselves to be better informed, or 
permit the least change in their uncouth and disgusting 
systems. The monks were not more remarkable than 
the academic teachers for their compliance with the grow- 
ing taste for polished literature, nor did they seem at all 
disposed to admit, into the retreats of their gloomy cloisters, 
a more solid and elegant method of instruction than they 
had been formerly accustomed to. These facts furnish a 

* Helyot, tom. viii. ch. iv. p. 12. 

|£1r b He was peculiarly assisted in these conferences by Baronius, 
author of the Ecclesiastical Annals, who also succeeded him as general 
of the order, and whose annals, on account of his imperfect knowledge 
ef the Greek language, are remarkably full of gross faults, misrepresen- 
tations, and blunders. 

5jT * The learned Isaac Casaubon undertook a refutation of the An- 
nals of Baronius, in an excellent work, entitled, Exercitationes, &c. and 
though he carried it no farther down than the 34th year of tha Christian ' 



rational account of the surprising variety that appears in 
the style and manner of the writers of this age, of whom 
several express their sentiments with elegance, perspicuity, 
and order, while the diction and style of a great number 
of their contemporaries are barbarous, perplexed, obscure, 
and insipid. 

Caesar Baronius, already mentioned, undertook to throw 
light on the history of religion by his annals of the Chris- 
tian church ; but this pretended light was scarcely any 
thing better than perplexity and darkness.' His exam- 
ple, however, excited many to enterprises of the same na- 
ture. The attempts of the persons whom the Roman- 
ists called heretics, rendered indeed such enterprises ne- 
cessary : for these heretics, with the learned Flacius and 
Chemnitz at their head, d demonstrated with the utmost 
evidence, that not only the declarations of Scripture, but 
also the testimony of ancient history and the records of 
the primitive church, were in direct opposition both to the 
doctrines and pretensions of the church of Rome. This 
was wounding popery with its own arms, and attacking 
it in its pretended strong-holds. It was, therefore, incum- 
bent upon the friends of Rome to employ, while it was 
time, their most zealous efforts in maintaining the credit 
of those ancient fables, on which the greatest part of the 
papal authority reposed, as its only foundation and sup- 
port. 

XX. Several men of genius in France and Italy, who 
have been already mentioned with the esteem that is due 
to their valuable labours, e vised their most zealous endea- 
vours to reform the barbarous philosophy of the times. 
But the excessive attachment, of the scholastic doctors to 
the Aristotelian philosophy on one hand, and, on the 
other, the timorous prudence of many weak-minded per- 
sons, who were apprehensive that the liberty of striking 
out new discoveries and ways of thinking might be pre- 
judicial to the church, and open a new source of division 
and discord, crushed all these generous efforts. The throne 
of the Stagirite remained therefore unshaken ; and his 
philosoph}^ whose very obscurity afforded a certain gloomy 
kind of pleasure, and flattered the pride of such as were im- 
plicitly supposed to understand it, reigned unrivalled in the 
schools and monasteries. It even acquired new credit and 
authority from the Jesuits, who taught it in their colleges, 
and made use of it in their writings and disputes. By 
this, however, these artful ecclesiastics showed evidently, 
that the captious jargon and subtleties of that intricate 
philosophy were much more adapted to puzzle heretics, 
and to give the popish doctors at least the appearance of 
carrying on the controversy with success, than the plain 
and obvious method of disputing, which is pointed out by 
the genuine dictates of right reason. 

XXI. The church of Rome produced in this century, 
a prodigious number of theological writers. The most 
eminent of these, in point of reputation and merit, were 
the following : Thomas de Vio, otherwise named cardi- 
nal Caietan, Eckius, Cochkeus, Emser, Surius, Hosius, 

aera, yet he pointed out a prodigious number of palpable, and (many of 
them) shameful errors, into which the Romish annalist has fallen during 
that short space. Even the Roman-catholic literati acknowledge the in- 
accuracies and faults of Baronius; hence many learned men, such as 
Pagi, Noris, and Tillemont, employed themselves in ihe task of correc- 
tion ; and accordingly a new edition of the work, with their emendations, 
appeared at Lucca. 

<< The former in the Centurise Magdeburgenses ; the latter in his Exa- 
men Concilii Tridentini. « Sea above, Sect. II. 



432 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



Sect. HI. 



Faber, Sadolet, Pighius, Vatable, Canus, D'Espence, Ca- 
ranza, Maldonatus, Turrianus, Arias Montanus, Catha- 
nnus, Reginald Pole, Sixtus Senensis, Cassander, Paya 
d'Andrada, Baius, Pamelius, and others. 1 

XXII. The religion of Rome, which the pontiffs are 
so desirous of imposing upon the faith of all that bear 
the Christian name, is derived, according to the unani- 
mous accounts of its doctors, from two sources, the writ- 
i3n word of God, and the unwritten ; or, in other words, 
from Scripture and tradition. But, as the most eminent 
divines of that church are far from being agreed concern- 
ing the persons who are authorized to interpret the decla- 
rations of these two oracles, and to determine their sense ; 
so it may be asserted, with truth, that there is, as yet, no 
possibility of knowing with certainty what are the real 
doctrines of the church of Rome, or where, in that com- 
munion, the judge of religious controversy is to be found. 
It is true, the court of Rome, and all who favour the 
despotic pretensions of its pontiff, maintain, that he alone, 
who governs the church as Christ's vicegerent, is author- 
ized to explain and determine the sense of Scripture and 
tradition in matters pertaining to salvation, and that, in 
consequence, a devout and unlimited obedience is due to 
his decisions. To give weight to this opinion, Pius IV. 
formed the plan of a council, which was afterwards in- 
stituted and confirmed by Sixtus V., and called the Con- 
gregation for interpreting the decrees of the Council of 
Trent. This congregation was authorized to examine 
and decide, in the name of the pope, all matters of small 
moment relating to ecclesiastical discipline, while every 
debate of importance, and particularly all disquisitions 
concerning points of faith and doctrine, were left to the 
decision of the pontiff alone, as the great oracle of the 
church. b Notwithstanding all this, it was impossible to 
persuade the wiser part of the Roman-catholic body to 
acknowledge this exclusive authority in their head. And 
accordingly, the greatest part of the Gallican church, 
and a considerable number of very learned men of the 
popish religion in other countries, think very differently 
from the court of Rome on this subject. They maintain, 
that all bishops and doctors have a right to consult the 
sacred fountains of Scripture and tradition, and to draw 
thence the rules of faith and manners for. themselves and 
their flock ; and that all difficult points and debates of 
consequence are to be referred to the cognizance and de- 
cision of general councils. Such is the difference of 
opinion (with respect to the adjustment of doctrine and 
controversy) that still divides the church of Rome ; and, 
as no judge has been (and perhaps none can be) found 
to compose it, we may reasonably despair of seeing the 
religion of Rome acquire a permanent, stable, and deter- 
minate form. 

XXIII. The council of Trent was assembled, as was 
pretended, to correct, illustrate, and fix with perspicuity, 
the doctrine of the church, to restore the vigour of its dis- 
cipline, and to reform the lives of its. ministers. But, in 
the opinion of those who examine things with impartial- 
ity, this assembly, instead of reforming ancient abuses, 

a For an ample account of the literary characters, rank, and writings 
of these learned men, and of several others whose names are here omit- 
ted, see Louis EI. Du-Pin, Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, 
torn. xiv. and xvi. 

i> See Aymon, Tableau de la Cour de Rome, part v. chap. iv. 
Id* Hence it was, that the approbation of Innocent XI. was refused 



rather gave rise to new enormities ; and many transac- 
tions of this council have excited the just complaints of 
the wisest men in both communions. They complain 
that many of the opinions of the scholastic doctors on 
intricate points (that had formerly been left undecided, 
and had been wisely permitted as subjects of free debate) 
were, by this council, absurdly adopted as articles of faith, 
were recommended as such, and even imposed with vio- 
lence upon the consciences of the people, under pain of 
excommunication. They complain of the ambiguity 
that prevails in the decrees and declarations of that coun- 
cil, by which the disputes and dissensions that had for- 
merly rent the church, instead of being removed by clear 
definitions and wise and temperate decisions, were ren- 
dered, on the contrary, more perplexed and intricate, and 
were, in reality, propagated and multiplied, instead of 
being suppressed or diminished. Nor were these the 
only reasons of complaint ; for it must have been afflict- 
ing to those who had the cause of true religion and 
Christian liberty at heart, to see all things decided, in that 
assembly, according to tbe despotic will of the pope, with- 
out any regard to the dictates of truth, or the authority of 
Scripture, its genuine and authentic source, and to see 
the assembled fathers reduced to silence by the arrogance 
of the Roman legates, and deprived of that influence and 
credit which might have rendered them capable of heal- 
ing the wounds of the church. It was moreover a griev- 
ance justly to be complained of, that the few wise and 
pious regulations that were made in that council, were 
never supported by the authority of the church, but were 
suffered to degenerate into a mere lifeless form, or shadow 
of law, which was treated with indifference, and trans- 
gressed with impunity. To sum up all in one short sen- 
tence, the most candid and impartial observers of things 
consider the council of Trent as an assembly that was 
more attentive to what might maintain the despotic au- 
thority of the pontiff, than solicitous about entering into 
the measures that were necessary to promote the good of 
the church. It will not, therefore, appear surprising, 
that certain doctors of the Romish church, instead of sub- 
mitting to the decisions of the council of Trent as an 
ultimate rule of faith, maintain, that these decisions are 
to be explained by the dictates of Scripture and the lan- 
guage of tradition : nor, when all these things are duly 
considered, shall we have reason to wonder, that this 
council has not throughout the same degree of credit and 
authority, even in those countries which profess the Ro- 
man-catholic religion. 

Some countries, indeed, such as Germany, Poland, and 
Italy, have adopted implicitly and absolutely the decrees 
of this assembly, without the smallest restriction of any 
kind. But in other regions it has been received and 
acknowledged on certain conditions, which modify not a 
little its pretended authority. Among the latter we may 
reckon the Spanish dominions, which disputed, during 
many years, the authority of this council, and acknow- 
ledged it at length only so far as it could be adopted with- 
out any prejudice to the rights and prerogatives of the 



to the artful and insidious work of Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, entitled, 
' An Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholic Church,' until the au- 
thor had suppressed the first edition of that work, and made corrections 
and alterations in the second. 

f3|r c The translator has here inserted in the text the note [hj of tha 
original, and has thrown the citations it contains into different notes. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



43 



king of Spain. 11 In other countries, such as France b 
and Hungary, it never has been solemnly received, or 
publicly acknowledged. It is true, indeed, that, in the 
former of these kingdoms, such decrees of Trent as re- 
late to points of religious doctrine, have, tacitly and 
imperceptibly, through the power of custom, acquired the 
force and authority of rules of faith ; but those which 
regard external discipline, spiritual power, and ecclesiasti- 
cal government, have been constantly rejected, both in a 
public and private manner, as inconsistent with the au- 
thority and prerogatives of the throne, and prejudicial to 
the rights and liberties of the Gallican church. d 

XXIV. Notwithstanding all this, such as are desirous 
of forming some notion of the religion of Rome, will do 
well to consult the decrees of the council of Trent, toge- 
ther with the compendious confession of faith, which was 
drawn up by the order of Pius IV. Those, however, 
who expect to derive, from these sources, a clear, complete, 
and perfect knowledge of the Romish faith, will be greatly 
disappointed. To evince the truth of this assertion, it 
might be observed, as has been already hinted, that both 
in the decrees of Trent, and in this papal confession, 
many things are expressed, desig n edly, in a vague and am- 
biguous manner, on account of the intestine divisions and 
warm debates that then reigned in the church. Another 
singular circumstance might also be added, that several 
tenets are omitted in both, which no Roman catholic is 
allowed to deny, or even to call in question. But, waving 
both these considerations, let it only be observed, that in 
these decrees and in this confession several doctrines and 
rules of worship are inculcated in a much more rational 
and decent manner, than that in which they appear in 
the daily service of the church, and in the public practice 
of its members.' Hence we may conclude, that the justest 
notion of the doctrine of Rome is not to be derived so 
much from the terms used in the decrees of that council, 
as from the real signification of these terms, which must 
be drawn from the customs, institutions, and observances, 
that prevail in the Romish church. Add, to all this, ano- 
ther consideration, which is, that, in the bulls issued out 
from the papal throne in these latter times, certain doc- 
trines which were obscurely proposed in the council of 
Trent, have been explained with sufficient perspicuity, and 
avowed without either hesitation or reserve. Of this Cle- 
ment XI. gave a notorious example, in the famous bull 
called Unigenitus, which was an enterprise as audacious 
as it proved unsuccessful. 

* See Giannone, Historia di Napoli, vol. iv. 

<> See Hect. Godofr. Masii Diss, de Contemptu Concilii Tridentini 
in Gallia ; and also the excellent discourse which Dr. Courayer has an- 
nexed to his French translation of Father Paul's History of the Coun- 
cil of Trent. 

e See Lorand. Samuelof, Vita Andr. Dudithii. 

d See Du-Pin, Biblioth. des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, torn. xv. p. 380. 

f3° For what relates to the literary history of the council of Trent, 
to the historians who have transmitted accounts of it, and other circum- 
stances of that nature, see Jo. Chr. Kocheri Bibliotheca Theol. Symbo- 
licre, and Salig's History of the Council of Trent, in German. 

f3f e This is true, in a more especial manner, with respect to the ca- 
nons of the council of Trent, relating to the doctrine of purgatory, the 
invocation of saints, the worship of images and relics. The terms em- 
ployed in these canons are artfully chosen, so as to avoid the imputation 
of idolatry, in the philosophical sense of that word ; for, in the scriptu- 
ral sense, they cannot avoid it, as all use of images in religious wor- 
ship is expressly forbidden in various parts of the sacred writings. But 
this circumspection does not appear in the worship of the Roman 
Catholics, which is notoriously idolatrous in both senses of that 
word. 

§T^- ' If we consult the canons of the council of Trent we shall find 

No. XXXVII. 109 



XXV. As soon as the popes perceived the remarkable 
detriment which their authority had suffered from the ac 
curate interpretations of the Scriptures that had been 
given by the learned, and from the perusal of these di 
vine oracles, which were now very frequently consulted by 
the people, they left no methods unemployed that might, 
discourage the culture of this most important branch 
of sacred erudition. While the tide of resentment ran 
high, they forgot themselves in the most unaccountable 
manner. They permitted their champions to indulge 
themselves openly in reflections injurious to the dignity 
of the sacred writings, and by an excess of blasphemy 
almost incredible (if the passions of men did not render 
them capable of the greatest enormities) to declare pub- 
licly, that the edicts of the pontiffs, and the records of 
oral tradition, were superior, in point of authority, to the 
express language, of the Scriptures. As it was im- 
possible, however, to bring the sacred writings wholly 
into disrepute, they took the most effectual methods in 
their power to render them obscure and useless. For 
this purpose the ancient Latin translation of the Bible, 
commonly called the Vulgate, though it abounds with in- 
numerable gross errors, and, in a great number of places, 
exhibits the most shocking barbarity of style, and the 
most impenetrable obscurity with respect to the sense of 
the inspired writers, was declared, by a solemn decree 
of the council of Trent, an authentic, i. e. a faithful, ac- 
curate, and perfect f translation, and was consequently re- 
commended as a production beyond the reach of criticism 
or censure. It was easy to foresee that such a declaration 
was calculated only to keep the people in ignorance, and 
to veil from their understandings the true meaning of the 
sacred writings. In the same council, farther steps were 
taken to execute, with success, the designs of Rome. A 
severe and intolerable law was enacted, with respect to 
all interpreters and expositors of the Scriptures, by which 
they were forbidden to explain the sense of these divine 
books, in matters relating to faith and practice, in such a 
manner as to make them speak a different language from 
that of the church and the ancient doctors. s The same 
law farther declared, that the church alone (i. e. its ruler) 
had the right of determining the true meaning and sig- 
nification of Scripture. To fill up the measure of these 
tyrannical and iniquitous proceedings, the' church persist- 
ed obstinately in affirming, though not always with the 
same impudence and plainness of speech, that the Scrip- 
tures were not composed for the use of the multitude, but 

that the word authentic is there explained in terms less positive and 
offensive than those used by Dr. Mosheim. Nor is it strictly true, that 
the Vulgate was declared by this council to be a production beyond the 
reach of criticism or censure, since, as we learn from Fra. Paolo, it was 
determined that this version should be corrected, and a new edition of it 
published by persons appointed for that purpose.* There was, indeed, 
something highly ridiculous in the proceedings of tire council in rela- 
tion to this point; for, if the natural order of things had been observed, 
the revisal and correction of the Vulgate, would have preceded the pom- 
pous approbation with which the council honoured, and, as it were, conse- 
crated that ancient version. For how, with any shadow of good sense, 
could the assembled fathers set the seal of their approbation to a work 
which they acknowledged to stand in need of correction, and that be- 
fore they knew whether or not the correction would answer their views, 
and merit their approbation 1 

§3= ' It is remarkable, that this prohibition extends even to such inter- 
pretations as were not designed for public view : "Etiamsi lvujusmoui 
interpretationes nullo unquam tempore in lucem edenda; forent." Ses- 
sio 4ta. tit. cap. ii. 

* See Father Paul's History of the Council of Trent, book ii. part liii. 
and Dr. Courayer's French translation of this Histoiy, vol i. p. 884, 
note 29. 



434 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



Sect. Ill, 



only for that of their spiritual teachers ; and, in conse- 
quence, ordered these divine records to be taken from the 
people in all places where it was allowed to execute its 
imperious demands. 1 

XXVI. These circumstances had a visible influence 
upon the spirit and productions of the commentators and 
expositors of Scripture, which the example of Lather and 
his followers had rendered, through emulation, extremely 
numerous. The popish doctors, who vied with the pro- 
testants in this branch of sacred erudition, were insipid, 
timorous, servilely attached to the glory and interests of 
the court of Rome, and betrayed, in their explications, 
all the marks of slavish dependence and constraint. 
They seem to have been in constant apprehension that 
some expressions might escape from their pens that sa- 
voured of opinions different from what were commonly 
received ; they appeal every moment to the declarations 
and authority of the holy fathers, as they usually style 
them ; nor do they appear to have so much consulted 
the real doctrines taught by the sacred writers, as the lan- 
guage and sentiments which the church of Rome has 
taken the liberty to put into their mouths. Several of 
these commentators rack their imaginations in order to 
force out of each passage of Scripture the four kinds of 
significations, called Literal, Allegorical, Topological, 
and Anagogical, which ignorance and superstition had 
first invented, and afterwards held so sacred, in the expli- 
cation of the inspired writings. Nor was their attach- 
ment to this manner of interpretation unskilfully mana- 
ged, since it enabled them to make the sacred writers speak 
the language that was favourable to the views of the 
church, and to draw out of the Bible, with the help of a 
little subtlety, whatever doctrine they wished to impose 
upon the credulity of the multitude. 

It must, however, be acknowledged, that, beside these 
miserable commentators whose efforts dishonour the 
church, there were some in its communion, who had wis- 
dom enough to despise such senseless methods of interpre- 
tation, and who; avoiding all mysterious significations and 
fancies, followed the plain, natural, and literal sense of the 
expressions used in the holy Scriptures. In this class the 
most eminent were, Erasmus of Rotterdam, who transla- 
ted into Latin, with an elegant and faithful simplicity, the 
books of the New Testament, and explained them with 
judgment in a paraphrase which is deservedly esteemed ; 
cardinal Caietan, who disputed with Luther at Augsburg, 
and who gave a brief, but judicious exposition of almost 
all the books of the Old and New Testament ; Francis 
Titelman, Isidorus Clarius, and John Maidonat, beside 
Benedict Justinian, who acquired no mean reputation by 
his commentaries on the Epistles of St. Paul. To these 

a The pupal emissaries were not suffered to execute this despotic or- 
der in all countries that acknowledged the jurisdiction of the church of 
Rome. The French and some other nations have the Bible in their 
mother-tongue, in which they peruse it, though much against the will of 
the pope's creatures. 

t> See Simon's Hist. Critique du Vieux etdii Nouv. Testament. 

c SeeBaillet's Vie d'Edmurid Richer, p. 9, 10. 

a See Du-Boulay's account of the reformation of the theological facul- 
ty at Paris, in his Hist. Acad. Paris, torn. vi. In this reform the bache- 
lors of divinity, called Scnlentiarii and Biblici, are particularly distin- 
guished ; and (what is extremely remarkable) the Augustine monks, 
who were Luther's fraternity, are ordered to furnish the college of di- 
vinity once a year with a scriptural bachelor (Baccalaureum Biblicum 
prasentare ;) whence we may conclude, that the monks of the Augus- 
tine order were much more conversant in the study of the Scriptures 



may be added Gagny, D'Espence, and other expositors." 
but these eminent men, whose example was so adapted to 
excite emulation, had very few followers ; and, in a short 
time, their influence was gone, and their labours were for 
gotten ; for, toward the conclusion of this century, Edmund 
Richer, that strenuous opposer of the encroachments made 
by the pontiffs on the liberties of the Gallican church, 
was the only doctor in the university of Paris who follow- 
ed the literal sense and the plain and natural signification of 
the words of Scripture, while all the other commentators 
and interpreters, imitating the pernicious example of se- 
veral ancient expositors, were always racking their brains 
for mysterious and sublime significations, where none 
such either were, or could be, designed by the sacred wri- 
ters. 

XXVII. The seminaries of learning were filled, before 
the Relormalion, with that subtle kind of theological doc- 
tors, coin moidy known under the denomination of school- 
men; s ■) that even at Paris, which was considered as the 
principal seat of sacred erudition, no doctors were to be 
found who were capable of disputing with the protestant 
divines in the method they generally pursued, which was 
that of pioving the doctrines they maintained by argu- 
ments dra tvn from the Scriptures and the writings of the 
fathers. This uncommon scarcity of didactic and scrip- 
tural divines produced much confusion and perplexity, on 
many occasions, even in the council of Trent, where the 
scholastic doctors fatigued some, and almost turned the 
heads of others, by examining and explaining the doc- 
trines that were there proposed, according to the intricate 
and ambiguous rules of their captious philosophy. Hence 
it became absolutely necessary to reform the methods of 
proceeding in theological disquisitions, and to restore to its 
former credit that practice which drew the truths of reli- 
gion more fiom the dictates of the sacred writings, and 
from the sentiments of the ancient doctors, than from the 
uncertain suggestions of human reason, and the ingenious 
conjectures of philosophy. 11 It was, however, impossible 
to deprive entirely the scholastic divines of the ascendan- 
cy which they had acquired in the seminaries of learning, 
and had so long maintained almost without opposition ; 
for, after having been threatened with a diminution of 
their authority, they seemed to resume new vigour from 
the time that the Jesuits adopted their philosophy, and made 
use of their subtle dialectic, as a more effectual armour 
against the attacks of the heretics, than either the language 
of Scripture, or the authority of the fathers. And, indeed, 
the scholastic jargon was every way proper to answer the 
purposes of a set of men, who found it necessary to puzzle 
and perplex, where they could neither refute with perspi- 
cuity, nor prove with evidence. Thus they artfully con- 

than any of the other monastic societies which then existed. But this 
rcademical'law deserves to be quoted here at length, so much the more, 
as Du-Eoulay's History is in few hands. It is as follows : " Augusti- 
nenses quolibet anno Biblicum praBsentabunt, secundum statutum foL 
21, quod sequitur: Q.uilibet ordo Mendicantium et Collegium S. Ber- 
nardi habeant quolibet anno Biblicum qui legat ordinarie, alioqui pri- 
ventur pro illo anno Baccalaureo sententiario." It appears by this law, 
that each mendicant order was, by a decree of the theological faculty, 
obliged to furnish, yearly, a scriptural bachelor; (such was Luther ;) and 
yet we see, that, in the reformation already mentioned, this obligation is 
imposed upon none but the Augustine monks. We may therefore presume 
that the Dominicans, Franciscans, and the other mendicants, had en- 
tirely neglected the study of the Scriptures, and consequently had 
among them no scriptural bachelors; and that the Augustine monks 
alone were in a condition to satisfy the demands of the theological faculty. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



435 



cealed their defeat, and retreated, in the dazzled eyes of the 
multitude, with the appearance of victory. 1 

The Mystics lost almost all their credit in the church 
of Rome after the Reformation, partly on account of the 
favourable reception they found among the protestants, 
and partly in consequence of their pacific system, which, 
giving them an aversion to controversy in general, ren- 
dered them little disposed to defend the papal cause 
against its numeious and formidable adversaries. These 
enthusiasts, however, were, in some measure, tolerated, 
and allowed to indulge themselves in their philosophical 
speculations, on certain conditions, which obliged them 
to abstain from censuring either the laws or the corrup- 
tions of the church, and from declaiming, with their usual 
freedom and vehemence, against the vanity of external 
worship, and the dissensions of jarring and contentious 
divines. 

• XXVIII. There was no successful attempt made, in 
this century, to correct or improve the practical or moral 
system of doctrine that was followed in the church of 
Rome ; nor, indeed, could any one make such an at- 
tempt without drawing upon himself the displeasure, and 
perhaps the fury, of the papal hierarchy ; for, in reality, 
such a project of reformation seemed in no wise conducive 
to the Interests of the church, as these interests were 
understood by its ambitious and rapacious rulers ; and it 
is undoubtedly certain, that many doctrines and regula- 
tions, on which the power, opulence, and grandeur of that 
church essentially depended, would have run the risk 
of falling into discredit and contempt, if the pure and 
rational system of morality, contained in the Gospel, had 
been exhibited in its native beauty and simplicity, to the 
view and perusal of all Christians without distinction. 
Little or no zeal was therefore exerted in amending or 
improving - the doctrines that immediately relate to prac- 
tice. On the contrary, many persons of eminent piety 
and integrity, in the communion of Rome, have griev- 
ously complained (with what justice shall be shown in 
its proper place, b ) that, as soon as the Jesuits had gained 
an ascendancy in the courts of princes, and in the schools 
of learning, the cause of virtue began visibly to decline. 
It has been alleged, more particular^, that this artful 
order employed all the force of subtle distinctions to sap 
the foundations of morality, and, in process of time, 
opened a door to all sorts of licentiousness and iniquity, 
by the loose and dissolute rules of conduct which they 
propagated as far as their influence extended. This 
poisonous doctrine spread, indeed, its contagion, in a la- 
lent manner, during the sixteenth century ; but, in the 
following age, its abettors ventured to expose some speci- 
mens of its turpitude to public view, and thus gave occa- 
sion to great commotions in several parts of Europe. 

All the moral writers of the church, in this century, 
may be distinguished into three classes, the Schonlmeti, 
the Dogmatists," and the jMijstks. The first explained, 
or rather obscured, the virtues and duties of the Christian 
life, by knotty distinctions and unintelligible forms of 
speech, and buried them under an enormous load of argu- 
ments and demonstrations : the second illustrated them 
from the declarations of Scripture and the opinions of the 

Tjf a The translator lias added the two last sentences of this para- 
graph, to illustrate more fully the sense of the author. 
|£lr* b See cent. xvii. secf. ii. part i. chap. i. sect xxxiv. 
£3r • The reader will easily perceive, by the short account of these 



ancient doctors ; while the third placed the whole of mo- 
rality in the tranquillity of a mind withdrawn from all 
sensible objects, and habitually employed in the contem- 
plation of the divine nature. 

XXIX. The number of combatants brought by the 
pontiffs into the field of controversy, during this century, 
was prodigious, and their glaring defects are abundantly 
known. It may be said, with truth, of the greater part 
of them, that, like many warriors of another class, they 
generally lost sight of all considerations, except those of 
victory and plunder. The disputants, whom the order 
of Jesuits sent forth in great numbers against the adver- 
saries of the church of Rome, surpassed all the rest in 
subtlety, impudence, and invective. The principal lead- 
er and champion of the polemic tribe was Robert Bellar- 
mine, a Jesuit, and a member of the college of cardinals, 
who treated, in several bulky volumes, of all the contro- 
versies that subsisted between the protestants and the 
church of Rome, and whose merit as a writer consisted, 
principally, in clearness of style, and a certain copious- 
ness of argument, which showed a rich and fruitful 
imagination. This eminent defender of the church of 
Rome arose about the conclusion of this century, and, 
on his first appearance, all the force and attacks of the 
most illustrious protestant doctors were turned against 
him alone. His candour and plain dealing exposed him, 
however, to the censures of several divines of his own 
communion ; for he collected, with diligence, the reasons 
and objections of his adversaries, and proposed them, for 
the most part, in their full force, with integrity and ex- 
actness. Had he been less remarkable for his fidelity - and 
industry ; had he taken care to select the weakest argu- 
ments of his antagonists, and to render them still weak- 
er, by proposing them in an imperfect and unfaithful 
light, his fame would have been much greater among the 
friends of Rome than it actually is. d 

XXX. If we turn our view to the internal state of the 
church of Rome, and consider the respective sentiments, 
opinions, and manners of its different members, we shall 
find that, notwithstanding its boasted unity of faith, and 
its ostentatious pretensions to harmony and concord, it 
was, in the sixteenth century, and is, at this day, divided 
and distracted with dissensions and contests of various 
kinds. The Franciscans and the Dominicans contend 
with vehemence about several points of doctrine and dis- 
cipline. The Scotists and Thomists are at eternal war. 
The bishops have never ceased disputing with the pope 
(and with the congregations that he has instituted to 
maintain his pretensions) upon the origin and precise 
limits of his authority and jurisdiction. The French 
and Flemings, with the inhabitants of other countries, 
openly oppose the pontiff on many occasions, and refuse 
to acknowledge his supreme and unlimited dominion in 
the church ; while, on the other hand, he still continues 
to encroach upon their privileges, sometimes with violence 
and resolution, when he can do so with impunity, at 
other times with circumspection and prudence, when 
vigorous measures appear dangerous or unnecessary. 
The Jesuits, who, on their first appearance, had formed 
the project of diminishing the credit and influence of al! 

three classes, given by Dr. Mosheim, that the word Dogmatist must not 
be taken in that magisterial sense which it bears in modern language. 

* See Mayer's Ecloga de fide Baronii et Bellarmini ipsis Pontificiis 
dubia, published at Amsterdam in IG'JS. 



436 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



Sect. III. 



the ether religious orders, used their warmest endeavours 
to share with the Benedictine and other monasteries, 
which were richly endowed, a part of their opulence ; 
and their endeavours were crowned with success. Thus 
they drew upon their society the indignation and ven- 
geance of the other religious communities, and armed 
against it the monks of every other denomination ; and, 
in a more especial manner, the Benedictines and Domini- 
cans, who surpassed all its enemies in the keenness and 
bitterness of their resentment. The rage of the Bene- 
dictines is animated by reflecting on the possessions of 
which they have been deprived, while the Dominicans 
contend for the honour of their order, the privileges an- 
nexed to it, and the religious tenets by which it is distin- 
guished. Nor are the theological colleges and seminaries 
of learning more exempt from the flame of controversy 
than the clerical and monastic orders : on the contrary, 
debates concerning almost all the doctrines of Christian- 
ity are multiplied in them, and conducted with little mo- 
deration. It is true, indeed, that all these contests are 
tempered and managed, by the prudence and authority 
of the pontiffs, in such a manner as to prevent their being 
carried to an excessive height, to a length that might prove 
fatal to the church, by destroying that phantom of exter- 
nal unity which is the source of its consistence as an eccle- 
siastical body : I say, tempered and managed ; for, 
to heal entirely these divisions, and calm these animosities, 
however it may be judged an undertaking worthy of one 
who calls himself the Vicar of Christ, is, nevertheless, a 
work beyond his power, and contrary to his intention. 

XXXI. Beside these debates of inferior moment, which 
made only a slight breach in the tranquillity and union 
of the Romish church, there arose, after the period in 
which the council of Trent was assembled, controversies 
of much greater importance, which deservedly attracted 
the attention of Christians of all denominations. These 
controversies were set on foot by the Jesuits, and from 
small beginnings have increased gradually, and gathered 
strength ; so that the flame they produced has been trans- 
mitted even to our times, and continues, at this very day, 
to divide the members of the church in a manner that 
does not a little endanger its stability. While the pon- 
tiffs foment, perhaps, instead of endeavouring to extin- 
guish, the less momentous disputes mentioned above, they 
observe a different conduct with respect to those now un- 
der consideration. The most zealous efforts of artifice 
and authority are constantly employed to calm the con- 
tending parties (since it appears impossible to unite and 
reconcile them.) and to diminish the violence of commo- 
tion, which they can scarcely ever hope entirely to sup- 
press. All their exertions, however, have hitherto been 
ineffectual. They have not been able to calm the agi- 
tation and vehemence with which these .debates are car- 
ried on, or to inspire any sentiments of moderation and 
mutual forbearance into minds, which are less animated 
by the love of truth, than by the spirit of faction. 

XXXII. Whoever will look with attention and impar- 
tiality into these controversies may easily perceive that 
there are two parties in the Romish church, whose no- 
tions with respect both to doctrine and discipline are ex- 
tremely different. The Jesuits, considered as a body," 

5jT e The Jesuits are here taken in the general and collective sense 
of that denomination, because there are several individuals of that order, 



maintain with the greatest zeal and obstinacy, the ancient 
system of doctrine and manners, which pervaded the 
church before the rise of Luther, and which, though ab- 
surd and ill-digested, the zealots have constantly consi- 
dered as highly favourable to the views of Rome, and the 
grandeur of its pontiffs. These sagacious ecclesiastics, 
whose peculiar office it is to watch for the security and 
defence of the papal throne, are fully persuaded that the 
authority of the pontiffs, the opulence, pomp, and gran- 
deur of the clergy, depend entirely upon the preservation 
of the ancient forms of doctrine ; and that every project 
which tends either to remove these forms, or even to cor- 
rect them, must be, in the highest degree, detrimental to 
what they call the interests of the church, and gradually 
bring on its ruin. On the other hand, there are within 
the pale of the Romish church, especially since the dawn 
of the reformation, many pious and well-meaning men, 
whose eyes have been opened, by the perusal of the in- 
spired and primitive writers, upon the corruptions and de- 
fects of the received forms of doctrine and discipline. 
Comparing the dictates of primitive Christianity with the 
vulgar system of popery, they have found the latter full 
of enormities, and have always been desirous of a reform 
(though indeed a partial one, according to their particular 
fancies,) that thus the church may be purified from those 
unhappy abuses which have given rise to such mischiev 
ous divisions, and still draw upon it the censures and re- 
proaches of the heretics. 

From these opposite ways of thinking, arose naturally 
the warmest contentions and debates, between the Jesuits 
and many doctors of the church. These debates may be 
reduced under the six following heads. 

The first subject of debate concerns the limits and ex- 
tent of the papal power and jurisdiction. The Jesuits, 
with their numerous tribe of followers and dependents, 
maintain, that the pontiff' is infallible ; that he is the only 
visible source of that universal and unlimited power which 
Christ has granted to the church ; that all bishops and 
subordinate rulers derive from him alone the authority 
and jurisdiction with which they are invested; that he is 
not bound by any laws of the church, nor by any decrees 
of the councils that compose it ; that he alone is the su- 
preme legislator of that sacred community, and that it is 
in the highest degree criminal to oppose or disobey his 
edicts and commands. Such are the strange sentiments 
of the Jesuits ; but they are very far from being univer- 
sally adopted ; for other members of the church hold, on 
the contrary, that the pope is liable to error ; that his 
authority is inferior to that of a general council ; that he 
is bound to obey the commands of the church, and its laws, 
as they are enacted in the councils that represent it ; that 
these councils have a right to depose him from the papal 
chair, when he abuses, in a flagrant manner, the dignity 
and prerogatives with which he is intrusted ; and that, in 
consequence of these principles, the bishops and inferioi 
rulers and doctors derive the authority that is annexed to 
their respective dignities, not from the pontiff, but from 
Christ himself. 

XXXIII. The extent and prerogatives of the chinch 
form the second subject of debate. The Jesuits and theii 
adherents stretch out its borders far and wide. They not 



whose sentiments differ from those which generally prevail in their 
community. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



437 



only comprehend, within its large circuit, many who live 
separate from the communion of Rome, a but even extend 
the inheritance of eternal salvation to nations that have 
not the least knowledge of the Christian religion, or of its 
divine Author, and consider as tine members of the church 
open transgressors, who outwardly profess its doctrines. 
But the adversaries of the Jesuits reduce within narrower 
limits the kingdom of Christ, and not only exclude from 
all hope of salvation those who are not within the pale of 
the church of Rome, but also those who, though they live 
within its external communion, yet dishonour their profes- 
sion by a vicious and profligate course of life. The Jesuits 
moreover (not to mention differences of less moment) as- 
sert, that the church can never pronounce an erroneous or 
unjust decision, either relating to matters of fact, or points 
of doctrine ; b while the adverse party declare, that, in 
judging of matters of fact, it is not secured against all 
possibility of erring. 

XXXIV. In the third class of controversies, that divide 
the church, are comprehended the debates relating to 
the nature, efficacy, and necessity of divine grace, together 
with those which concern original sin, the natural power 
of man to obey the laws of God, and the nature and foun- 
dation of those eternal decrees that have for their object 
the salvation of men. The Dominicans, Augustinians, 
and Jansenists, with several other doctors of the church, 
adopt the following propositions: that the impulse of 
divine grace cannot be opposed or resisted ; that there are 
no remains of purity or goodness in human nature since 
its fall ; that the eternal decrees of God, relating to the 
salvation of men, are neither founded upon, nor attended 
with, any condition whatsoever ; that God wills the sal- 
vation of all mankind : and they hold several other tenets 
connected with these. The Jesuits maintain, on the con- 
trary, that the natural dominion of sin in the human 
mind, and the hidden corruption it has produced in our 
internal frame, are less general and dreadful than they are 
represented by the doctors now mentioned ; that hu- 
man nature is far from being deprived of all power of 
doing good; that the succours of grace are administered 
to all mankind in a measure sufficient to lead them to 
eternal life and salvation ; that the operations of grace of- 
fer no violence to the faculties and powers of nature, and 
therefore may be resisted ; and that God from all eternity 
has appointed everlasting rewards and punishments, as 
the portion of men in a future world, not by an absolute, 
arbitrary, and unconditional decree, but in consequence of 
that divine and unlimited preseience, by which he fore- 
saw the actions, merit, and character, of every individual. 

f^r a They were accused at Spoleto, in 1653, of having maintained, 
in their public instructions, the probability of the salvation of many 
heretics. See Le Clerc, Biblioth. Univers. et Historique, torn. xiv. 

Jjf *> This distinction, with respect to the objects of infallibility, 
chiefly arose from the followinj historical circumstance. Pope Inno- 
cent X. condemned five propositions, drawn from the famous book of 
Jansenius, entitled Augustinus ; and this condemnation occasioned the 
two following questions : 1st, Whether these propositions were errone- 
ous ] This was the question de jure, i. e. as the translator has render- 
ed it, respecting doctrine. 2d, Whether these propositions were really 
taught by Jansenius 1 This was the question de facto, i. e. relating to 
the matter of fact. The church was supposed, by some, infallible only 
in deciding questions of die former kind. 

* No author has given a more accurate, precise, and clear enumera- 
tion of the objections that have been made to the moral doctrine of the 
Jesuits, and the reproaches which have been cast on their rules of life ; 
and no one at the same time has defended their cause with more art and 
dexterity than the eloquent and ingenious Gabriel Daniel (a famous mem- 

No. XXXVII. 110 



XXXV. The fourth head, in this division of the con 
troversies that destroy the pretended unity of the church. 
contains various subjects of debate, relative to doctrines of 
morality and rules of practice, which it would be both 
tedious and foreign from our purpose to enumerate in a 
circumstantial manner, though it may not be improper to 
touch lightly the first principles of this endless contro- 
versy. 

The Jesuits and their followers have inculcated a Very 
strange doctrine with respect to the motives that deter- 
mine the moral conduct and actions of men. They re- 
present it as a matter of perfect indifference from what mo- 
tives men obey the laws of God, provided that these laws 
be really obeyed ; and maintain, that the service of those 
who obey from the fear of punishment is as agreeable to 
the Deity, as are those actions which proceed from a prin- 
ciple of love to him and to his laws. This decision ex- 
cites the horror of the greatest part of the doctors of the 
Roman church, who affirm, that no acts of obedience, 
when they do not proceed from the love of God, can be 
acceptable to that pure and holy Being. Nor is the doc- 
trine of the Jesuits only chargeable with the corrupt tenets 
already mentioned. They maintain farther, that a man 
never sms, properly speaking, but when he transgresses a 
divine law that is fully known to him, which is present 
to his mind while he acts, and of which he understands 
the true meaning and intent. And they hence conclude, 
that, in strict justice, the conduct of that transgressor can- 
not be looked upon as criminal, who is either ignorant of 
the law, or is in doubt about its true signification, or loses 
sight of it, through forgetfulness, at the time that he vio- 
lates it. From these propositions they deduce the famous 
doctrines of probability and philosophical sin, which have 
cast an eternal reproach upon the schools of the Jesuits-* 1 
Their adversaries behold these pernicious tenets with lie 
utmost abhorrence, and assert that neither ignorance, nor 
forgetfulness of the law, nor the doubts that may be en- 
tertained with respect to its signification, will be admitted 
as sufficient to justify transgressors before the tribunal of 
God. This contest, about the main and fundamental 
points of morality, has given rise to a great variety of de- 
bates concerning the duties we owe to God, our neigh 
bour, and ourselves ; and has produced two sects of moral 
teachers, whose animosities and divisions have miserably 
rent the Romish church in all parts of the world, and in- 
volved it in the greatest perplexities. 

XXXVI. The administration of the sacraments, espe- 
cially those of penance and the eucharist, forms the fifth 
subject of controversy. The Jesuits and many other doc- 

ber of their order,) in a piece, entitled, Entretiens de Cleandre et tTEu- 
doxe. This dialogue was intended as an answer to the celebrated Pro- 
vincial Letters of Pascal, which did more real prejudice to the socieiv 
of the Jesuits than many would imagine, and exposed their loose and 
perfidious system of morals with the greatest fidelity and perspicuity, 
embellished by the most exquisite strokes of humour and irony. Father 
Daniel, in the piece above mentioned, treats with great acuteness the 
famous doctrine of probability, die method of directing our intentions, 
equivocation and mental reservation, sins of ignorance and oblivion; 
and it must be acknowledged, that, if the cause and pretensions of the 
Jesuits were susceptible of defence or plausibility, diey have found ii« 
this writer an able and dexterous champion. 

|£j= * The doctrine of probability consists in this : ' That an opinion 
or precept may be followed widi a good conscience, when it is inculca- 
ted by four, or three, or two, or even by one doctor of considerable re- 
putation, even though it be contrary to the- judgment of the person who 
follows it, and even of him diat recommends it.' This doctrine render- 
ed die Jesuits capable of accommodating themselves to all the differeht 



438 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



Sect. Ill 



tors are of opinion, that the salutary effects of the sacra- 
ments are produced by their intrinsic virtue and imme- 
diate operation* upon the mind at the time when they are 
administered, and that consequently it requires little pre- 
paration to receive them to edification and comfort ; nor 
do they think that God requires a mind adorned with in- 
ward purity, and a heart animated with divine love, in 
order to the obtaining of the ends and purposes of these 
religious institutions. And hence it is, that, according to 
their doctrine, the priests are empowered to give immedi- 
ate absolution to all such as confess their transgressions 
and crimes, and afterwards to admit them to the use of 
the sacraments. But such sentiments are rejected with 
indignation by all those, of the Romish communion who 
have the progress of vital and practical religion truly at 
heart. These look upon it as the duty of the clergy to 
use the greatest diligence and assiduity in examining the 
characters, tempers, and actions of those who demand ab- 
solution and the use of the sacraments, before they grant 
their requests ; since, in their sense of things, the real be- 
nefits of these institutions can extend to those only whose 
hearts are carefully purged from the corruptions of ini- 
quity, and filled with that divine love which 'casteth out 
fear.' Hence arose that famous dispute concerning 
a frequent approach to the holy communion, which was 
carried on with such warmth in the last (the seventeenth) 
century, between the Jesuits and the Jansenists, with 
Arnauld b at the head of the latter, and has been renewed 
in our times by the Jesuit Pichon, who thereby incurred 
the indignation of the greatest part of the French Bi- 
shops. The frequent celebration of the Lord's supper is 
one of the main duties, which the Jesuits recommend with 
peculiar earnestness to all who are under their spiritual 
direction, representing it as the most certain and infalli- 
ble method of appeasing the Deity, and obtaining from 
him the entire remission of their sins and transgressions. 
This manner of proceeding the Jansenists censure with 
their usual severity ; and it is also condemned by many 
other learned and pious doctors of the Romish commu- 
nion, who reject the intrinsic virtue and efficient operation 
which are attributed to the sacraments, and wisely main- 
tain, that the sacrament of the Lord's supper can be pro- 
fitable to those only whose minds are prepared, by faith, 
repentance, and the love of God, for that solemn service. 

passions of men, and to persons of all tempers and characters, from the 
most austere to the most licentious. Philosophical sin (according to the 
Jesuits' doctrine) is an action, or course of actions, repugnant to the dic- 
tates of reason, and yet not offensive to the Deity. See a more particu- 
lar account of these two odious doctrines in the following part of this 
work, cent. xvii. sect. ii. part i. chap. i. sect. xxxv. and in the author's 
and translator's notes. 

?jr a This is the only expression that occurred to the translator, as 
proper to render the true sense of that phrase of the scholastic divines, 
who say, that the sacraments produce their effect .opere operate*. The 
Jesuits and Dominicans maintain that the sacraments have in them- 
selves an instrumental and efficient power, by virtue of which they 
work in the soul (independently of its previous preparation or propen- 
sities) a disposition to receive the divine grace ; and this is what is 
commonly called the opus operatum of the sacraments. Thus, accord- 
ing to their doctrine, neither knowledge, wisdom, humility, faith, nor 
devotion, are necessary to the efficacy of the sacraments, whose victo- 
rious energy nothing but a mortal sin can resist. See Dr. Courayer's 
Translation of Paul Sarpi's History of the Council of Trent. 

fc Amauld published, on this occasion, his famous book concerning 
the practice of communicating frequently. The French tide is, ' Traite 
de la frequente Communion.' 

• See Journal Universel, torn. xiii. xv. xvi. 

J The account here given of the more momentous controversies that 
tlivide the church of Rome, may be confirmed, illustrated and enlarged, 



XXXVII. The sixth (or last) controversy turns upon 
the proper method of instructing Christians in the truths 
and precepts of religion. Some of the Romish doctors, 
who have the progress of religion truly at heart, deem 
it expedient and even necessary to sow the seeds of di- 
vine truth in the mind, in the tender and flexible state 
of infancy, when it is most susceptive of good impressions 
and to give it, by degrees, according to the measure of its 
capacity, a full and accurate knowledge of the doctrines 
and duties of religion. Others, who have a greater zeal 
for the interests of the church than the improvement of its 
members, recommend a devout ignorance to such as sub- 
mit to their direction, and think a Christian sufficiently 
instructed when he has learned to yield a blind and 
unlimited obedience to the orders of the church. The 
former are of opinion, that nothing can be so profitable 
and instructive to Christians as the study of the Scrip- 
tures, and consequently judge it highly expedient that 
they should be translated into the vulgar tongue of each 
country. The latter exclude the people from the satis- 
faction of consulting the sacred oracles of truth, and look 
upon all vernacular translations of the Bible as danger- 
ous, and even of a pernicious tendency. They accord- 
ingly maintain, that it ought only to be published in a 
learned language to prevent its instructions from becom- 
ing familiar to the multitude. The former compose pi- 
ous and instructive books to nourish a spirit of devotion 
in the minds of Christians, to enlighten their ignorance, 
and dispel their errors ; they illustrate and explain the 
public prayers and the solemn acts of religion in the lan- 
guage of the people, and exhort all, who attend to their 
instructions, to peruse constantly these pious productions, 
in order to improve their knowledge, purify their affec- 
tions, and learn the method of worshipping the Deity in a 
rational and acceptable manner. All this, however, is 
highly displeasing to the latter kind of doctors, who are 
always apprehensive, that the blind obedience and impli- 
cit submission of the people will diminish in proportion as 
their views are enlarged, and their knowledge increased. d 

XXXVIII. All the controversies that have been here 
mentioned did not break out at the same time. The dis- 
putes concerning divine grace, the natural power of man 
to perform good actions, original sin, and predestination, 
which have been ranged under the third class, were pub- 

by consulting a multitude of books published in the last and present 
centuries, especially in France and Flanders, by Jansenists, Domini- 
cans, Jesuits, and others. All the productions, in which the doctrine 
and precepts of the Jesuits, and the other creatures of the pontiff, are 
opposed and refuted, are enumerated by Dominic Colonia, a French 
Jesuit, in a work published in 1735, under the following title : " Biblio- 
theque Janseniste, ou Catalogue Alphabctique des principaux livres 
Jansenistes, on suspects de Jansenisme, avecdes notes critiques." This 
writer is led into many absurdities by his extravagant attachment to the 
pope, and to the cause and tenets of his order. His book, however, is 
of use in pointing out the various controversies that perplex and divide 
the church. It was condemned by pope Benedict XIV. but was repub- 
lished in a new form, with some change in the title, and a great en- 
largement of its contents. This new edition appeared at Antwerp in 
1752, under the following title : " Dictionaire des livres Jansenistes, ou 
qui favorisent le Jansenisme, a Anvers, chez J. B. Verdussen." And 
it must be acknowledged, that it is extremely useful, in showing the in- 
testine divisions of the church, the particular contests that divide its doc- 
tors, the religious tenets of the Jesuits, and the numerous productions 
that relate to the six heads of controversy here mentioned. It must be 
observed, at the same time, that this work abounds with the most ma- 
lignant invectives against many persons of eminent learning and piety, 
and with the most notorious instances of partiality and injustice* 

§^f * See a particular account of this learned and scandalous work in 
the " Bibliotheque des Sciences ctdes Beaux Arts," printed at the Hague. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



43W 



dcly carried on in the century of which we are now writ- 
ino - . The others were conducted with more secrecy and 
reserve, and did not come forth to public view before the 
following age. Nor will this appear at all surprising to 
those who consider that the controversies concerning grace 
and free-will, which had been set in motion by Luther, 
were neither accurately examined, nor peremptorily de- 
cided m the church of Rome, but were rather artfully 
suspended and hushed into silence. The sentiments of 
Luther were indeed condemned ; but no fixed and per- 
spicuous rule of faith, with respect to these disputed points, 
was substituted in their place. The decisions of St. Augus- 
tin were solemnly approved ; but the points of dissimili- 
tude, between these decisions and the sentiments of Lu- 
ther, were never clearly explained. This fatal contro- 
versy originated in the zeal of Michael Baius, a doctor in 
the university of Louvain, equally remarkable on account 
of the warmth of his piety and the extent of his learning. 
This eminent divine, like the other followers of Augustan, 
had an invincible aversion to that contentious, subtle, and 
intricate manner of teaching theology, which had long pre- 
vailed in the schools ; and under the auspicious name of 
that famous prelate, who was his admired guide, he had 
the courage or temerity to condemn and censure, in an open 
and public manner, the tenets commonly received in the 
church, in relation to the natural powers of man and the 
merit of good works. This bold step drew upon Baius 
the indignation of some of his academical colleagues, and 
the heavy censures of several Franciscan monks. Whe- 
ther the Jesuits immediately joined in this opposition, and 
may be reckoned among the first accusers of Baius, is a 
point unknown, or uncertain ; but it is unquestionably 
evident, that, even at the rise of this controversy, they 
abhorred the principal tenets of Baius, which he had ta- 
ken from Augustin, and adopted as his own. In 1567, 
this doctor was accused at the court of Rome ; and seventy- 
six propositions, drawn from his writings, were condemn- 
ed by Pius V. in a circular letter expressly composed for 
that purpose. This condemnation, however, was issued 
in an artful and insidious manner, without any mention 
of the name of the author ; for the fatal consequences 
that had arisen from the rash and inconsiderate measures 
employed by the court of Rome against Luther, were too 
fresh in the remembrance of the prudent pontiff to per- 
mit his falling into new blunders of the same nature. 
The thunder of excommunication was therefore sup- 
pressed by the dictates of prudence, and the person and 
functions of Baius were spared, while his tenets were cen- 
sured. About thirteen years after this transaction, Gre- 
gory XIII. complied so far with the importunate solicita- 
tions of a Jesuit, named Francis Tolet, as to reinforce the 
sentence of Pius V. by a new condemnation of the opinions 
of the Flemish doctor. Baius submitted to this new sen- 
tence, either from an apprehension that it would be fol- 
lowed by more severe proceedings in case of resistance, 

• See, for an account of the disputes relating to Baius, the works of 
that author, published at Cologne in 1696, particularly the second part, 
or appendix, entitled, " Baiana, seu scripta, qua? controversias spectant 
occasione Sententiarum Baii exortas." See also Bayle's Diet., in which 
there is an ample and circumstantial account of these disputes ; — Du- 
Pin, Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiastiques, torn. xvi. — Histoire de 
la Compagnie de Jesus, torn. iii. 

b This is demonstrated, fully by an anonymous writer in a piece en- 
titled, " Dissertation sur les Bulles contre Baius, ou Ton montre quclles 
ne Bont pas recues par l'Eglise," published at Utrecht in 1737. 



or, which is more probable, on account of the ambiguity 
of the papal edict, and the vague and confused manner 
in which the obnoxious propositions were therein express- 
ed. But his example, in this respect, was not followed 
by the other doctors who had formed their theological 
system upon that of Augustin ; a and, even at this day, 
many divines of the Romish communion, and particu- 
larly the Jansenists. declare openly that Baius was un- 
justly treated, and that the two edicts of Pius and Gre- 
gory are absolutely destitute of all authority, and have 
never been received as laws of the church. b 

XXXIX. Be that as it mai T , it is at least certain, that 
the doctrine of Augustin, with respect to the nature 
and operations of divine grace, lost none of its credit in 
consequence of these edicts, but was embraced and pro- 
pagated, with the same zeal as formerly, throughout all 
the Belgic provinces, and more especially in the two flou- 
rishing universities of Lou vain andDouay. This appear- 
j ed very soon after, when two Jesuits, named Lessius and 
Hamelius, ventured to represent the doctrine of predesti- 
nation in a manner different from that in which it ap- 
pears in the writings of Augustin ; for the sentiments of 
these Jesuits Avere publicly condemned by the doctors of 
Louvain in 1587", and by those of Douay in the following 
year. The bishops of the Low Countries were disposed to 
follow the example of these two universities, and had al- 
ready deliberated about assembling a provincial council 
for this purpose, when pope Sixtus V. suspended the pro- 
ceedings by the interposition of his authority, and declar- 
ed, that the cognisance and decision of religious controver- 
sies belonged only to the vicar of Christ, residing at Rome. 
But this politic vicar, whose sagacity, prudence, and know- 
lege of men and things, never failed him in transactions 
of this nature, wisely avoided making use of the privilege 
he claimed with such confidence, that he might not in- 
flame the divisions and animosities which already sub- 
sisted. And, accordingly, in 1588, this contest was fin- 
ished, and the storm allayed in such a manner, that the 
contending parties were left in the quiet possession of their 
respective opinions, and solemnly prohibited from disput- 
ing, either in public or in private, upon the intricate points 
that had excited their divisions. Had the succeeding pon- 
tiffs, instead of assuming the character of judges in this am- 
biguous and difficult controversy, imitated the prudence of 
Sixtus, and imposed silence on the litigious doctors, who 
renewed afterwards the debates concerning divine grace, 
the tranquillity and unity of the church would not have 
been interrupted by such violent divisions as rage at pre- 
sent in its bosom. c 

XL. The church had scarcely perceived the fruits of 
that calm, which the prudence of Sixtus had restored, 
by suppressing, instead of deciding the late controversies, 
when new commotions, of the same nature, but of a much 
more terrible aspect, arose to disturb its tranquillity. 
These were occasioned by the Jesuit Molina, d professor 

See Apologie Historique des deux Censures de Louvain et de Dou- 
ay, par M. Gery. The famous Pasquier Gluesnel was the author of this 
apology, if we may give credit to the writer of a book entitled. " Cate- 
chismc Historique ct Dogmatique sur les Contestations de 1 Eglise,' 
torn. i. See an account of this controversy in the il Memoires pour ser- 
vir a l'Histoire des Controversies dans l'Eglise Romaine sur la Predes- 
tination et sur la Grace." This curious piece is to be found in the four- 
teenth tome of Le Clerc's Bibliotheque Uliiverselle Historique. 

a From the name of this Spanish doctor proceeded the well-known 
denomination of Molinists, by which those Roman Catholics axe dis- 



440 



HISTORY OF THE ROMAN OR LATIN CHURCH. 



Sect. ill. 



of divinity in the university of Ebora in Portugal, who. 
in 1588, published a book to show that the operations of 
divine grace were entirely consistent with the freedom of 
human will," and who introduced a new kind of hypo- 
thesis, to remove the difficulties attending the doctrines of 
predestination and liberty, and to reconcile the jarring 
opinions of Augustinians, Thomists, Semi-Pelagians, and 
other contentious divines. b This attempt of the subtle 
Spanish doctor was so offensive to the Dominicans, who 
followed St. Thomas as their theological guide, that they 
sounded throughout Spain and Portugal the alarm of 
heresy, and accused the Jesuits of endeavouring to renew 
the errors of Pelagius. This alarm was followed by great 
commotions, and all things seemed to prognosticate a 
general flame, when Clement VIII., in 1594, imposed 
silence on the contending parties, promising that he him- 
self would examine with care and diligence every thing 
relating to this new debate, in order to decide it in such a 
manner as might tend to promote the cause of truth, and 
the peace of the church. 

XLI. The pontiff was persuaded that these gentle re- 
medies would soon remove the disease, and that, through 
length of time, these heats and animosities would un- 
doubtedly subside. But the event was far from being 
answerable to such pleasing hopes. The Dominicans, 
who had long fostered a deep-rooted and invincible hatred 
against the Jesuits, having now an opportunity of vent- 
ing their indignation, exhausted their furious zeal against 
the doctrine of Molina, notwithstanding the pacific in- 
junctions of the papal edict. They incessantly fatigued 
Philip II. of Spain, and pope Clement VIII., with their 
importunate clamours, until at length the latter found 
himself under a necessity of assembling at Rome a sort of 
council for the decision of this controversy. And thus 
commenced, about the^beginning of the year 1598, those 
famous deliberations concerning the contest of the Jesuits 
and Dominicans, which took place in what was called 
the congregation de auxiliis, or of aids. This congre- 
gation was so denominated on account of the principal 
point in debate, which was the efficacy of the aids and suc- 
cours of divine grace ; and its consultations were directed 
by Louis Madrusi, bishop of Trent, and one of the college 
of cardinals, who sat as president in this assembly, which 
was composed besides of three bishops and seven divines 



tinguished, who seem to incline to the doctrines of grace and free-will, 
maintained in opposition to those of Augustine. Many, however, who 
differ widely from the sentiments of Molina, are unjustly ranked in the 
class of Molinists. 

* The title of this famous book is as follows : " Liberi Arbitrii Concor- 
dia cum Gratia? donis, divina Prrescientia, Providentia., Praedestinatione, 
et Reprobatione, Auctore Lud. Molina." This book was first publish- 
ed at Lisbon, in 1588; afterwards, with additions, at Antwerp, Lyons, 
Venice, and other places, in 1505. A third edition, still farther aug- 
mented, appeared at Antwerp in 1609. 

|3r b Molina affirmed, that the decree of predestination to eternal 
glory was founded upon a previous knowledge and consideration of the 
merits of the elect; that the grace, from whose operation these merits 
are derived, is not efficacious by its own intrinsic power only, but also 
by the consent of our own will, and because it 'is administered in those 
circumstances in which the Deity, by that branch of his knowledge 
which is called Scientia Media, foresees that it will be efficacious. The 
kind of prescience denominated in the schools Scieniia Media, is that 
fore-knowledge of future contingencies, that arises from an acquaintance 
with the nature and faculties of rational beings, the circumstances in 
which they shall be placed, the objects that shall be presented to them, 
and the influence that these circumstances and objects must have on 
their actions. 

The history and transactions of this Congregation are related and 
illustrated by several writers of different complexions, by Jesuits, Do- 



chosen out of so many different orders. The remaining 
part of this century was wholly employed by these spiri- 
tual judges in hearing and weighing the arguments alleg- 
ed in favour of their respective opinions by the contending 
parties. The Dominicans maintained, with the greatest 
obstinacy, the doctrine of their patron St. Thomas, as 
alone conformable to truth. The Jesuits, on the other 
hand, though they did not adopt the religious tenets of 
Molina, thought the honour of their order concerned in this 
controversy, on account of the opposition so publicly made 
to one of its members, and consequently used their ut- 
most endeavours to have the Spanish doctor acquitted of 
the charge of Pelagianism, and declared free from any 
errors of moment. In this they acted according to the 
true monastic spirit, which leads, each order to resent the 
affronts that are offered to any of its members, as if they 
had been cast upon the whole community, and to main 
tain, at all adventures, the cause of every individual 
monk, as if the interests of the whole society were involved 
in it. 

XLII. Notwithstanding the zealous attempts that were 
made, by several persons of eminent piety, to restore the 
institutions of public worship to their primitive simplicity 
a multitude of vain and useless ceremonies still remained 
in the church ; nor did the pontiffs judge it proper to di- 
minish that pomp and show, which gave the ministers ol 
religion a great, though ill-acquired, influence on the 
minds of the people. Beside these ceremonies, many 
popular customs and inventions, which were multiplied 
by the clergy, and were either entirely absurd or grossly 
superstitious, called loudly for redress ; and, indeed, the 
council of Trent seemed disposed to correct these abuses, 
and prevent their further growth. But this good design 
was never carried into execution ; it was abandoned; 
either through the corrupt prudence of the pope and clergy ; 
who looked upon every check given to superstition as an 
attempt to diminish their authority, or through their cri- 
minal negligence about every thing that tended to pro- 
mote the true interests of religion. Hence it happens 
that in those countries where there are few protes- 
tants, and consequently where the church of Rome is in 
no danger of losing its credit and influence from the prox- 
imity and attempts of these pretended heretics, supersti- 
tion reigns with unlimited extravagance and absurdity. 

minicans, and Jansenists. Hyacinth Serri, a Dominican, published, 
under the feigned name of Augustin le Blanc, in 1700, at Louvain, a 
work with this title: Historia Congregationum de auxiliis Gratiae divi- 
nse; which was answered by another history of these debates, compo- 
sed by Liv. de Meyer, a Jesuit, who assumed the name of Theod. Eleu- 
therius, in order to remain concealed from public view, and whose book 
is entitled, Historia Controversarium de Gratiae divinee Auxiliis. The 
Dominicans also published the Acta Congregationum et Disputationum, 
qua; Coram Clemente VIII. et Paulo V. de Auxiliis divinas Gratia; 
sunt celebrate, a work composed by Thomas de Lemos, a subtle monk 
of their order, who, in this very congregation, had defended with grea: 
applause the glory of St. Thomas against the Jesuits. Amidst these 
jarring accounts, a man must be endowed with a supernatural sagacity 
to come to the truth ; for acts are opposed to acts, testimony to testimony, 
and narration to narration. It is therefore a matter of doubt, which the 
court of Rome favoured most on this occasion, the Jesuits or the Domini- 
cans, and which of these two parties ' defended their cause with the 
greatest dexterity and success. There is also a history of these de- 
bates written in French, which was published at. Louvain in 1702, un- 
der the following title : Histoire des Congregations de Auxiliis, par un 
Docteur de la Faculte de Theologie de Paris. This historian, though 
he be neither destitute of learning nor of elegance, being nevertheless 
a flaming Jansenist, discovers throughout his enmity against the Jesuits, 
and relates all things in a manner that favours the cause of the Domini- 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURl'HES. 



441 



Such is the case in Italy. Spain, and Portugal, where the 
feeble glimmerings of Christianity, that yet remain, are 
overwhelmed and obscured by an enormous multitude of 
ridiculous ceremonies, and absurd, fantastic, and unac- 
countable rites ; so that a person who arrives in any one 
of these countries, after having passed among other nations 
even of the Romish communion, is immediately struck 
with the change, and thinks himself transported into the 
thickest darkness, into the most gloomy retreats of super- 
stition. a Nor, indeed, are even those nations whom the 
neighbourhood of the protestants, and a more free and 
liberal turn of mind, have rendered somewhat less absurd, 
entirely exempt from the dominion of superstition, and 
the solemn fooleries that always attend it ; for the religion 
of Rome, in its best form, and in those places where its 
external worship is the least shocking, is certainly loaded 
with rites and observances that are highly offensive to 
sound reason. If, from this general view of things, we 
descend to a more circumstantial consideration of the in- 
numerable abuses that are established in the discipline of 
that church ; if we attend to the pious, or rather impious, 
frauds which, in many places, are imposed with impuni- 
ty upon the deluded multitude ; if we pass in review the 
corruption of the clergy, the ignorance of the people, the 
devout farces that are acted in the ceremonies of public 
worship, and the insipid jargon and trifling rhetoric that 
prevails in the discourses of the Romish preachers ; if we 
weigh ail these things maturely, we shall find, that they 
have little regard to impartiality and truth, who pretend 
that, since the council of Trent, the religion and worship 
of the Roman church have been every where corrected 
and amended. 

CHAPTER II. 

The History of the Greek and Eastern Churches. 

I. The Christian society that goes under the general 
denomination of the eastern church, is dispersed through- 
out Europe, Asia, and Africa, and may be divided into 
three distinct communities. The first is that of the Greek 
Christians, who agree, in all points of doctrine and wor- 
ship, with the patriarch residing at Constantinople, and 
-eject the pretended supremacy of the Roman pontiff. 
The second comprehends those Christians who differ 
equally from the Roman pontiff and the Grecian patri- 
arch, in their religious opinions and institutions, and 

■ It is well known that the French, who travel into Italy, employ the 
whole force of their wit and raillery in rendering ridiculous the mon- 
strous superstition of the Italians. The Italians, in their turn, look up- 
on the French that visit their country as totally destitute of all princi- 
ples of religion. This is evidently the case, as we learn from the testi- 
mony of many writers, and particularly from that of Father Labat, in 
his Voyages en Italie et en Espagne. This agreeable Dominican lets 
no opportunity escape of censuring and exposing the superstition of the 
Spaniards and Italians ; nor does he pretend to deny that his country- 
men, and even he himself, passed for impious libertines in the opinion 
of those bigots. 

* For an account of the patriarchate of Alexandria, and the various 
prelates who have filled that see, it will be proper to consult Sollerii 
Commentar. de Patriarchis Alexandrinis, prefixed to the fifth volume of 
the Acta Sanctorum Mensis Junii ; as also the Oriens Christianus of 
Mich. Le duien, torn. ii. p. 329. The nature of their office, the extent 
of their authority, and the manner of their creation, are accurately de- 
scribed by Eus. Renaudot, in his Dissertatio de Patriarchs Alexandri- 
ne, published in Liturg. Orient. TheGrecian patriarch has. atthis day, no 
bishops under his jurisdiction; the chorepiscopi or rural bishops alone are 
Bubjcct to his authority. AH the bishops acknowledge as their chief die pa- 

No. XXX VIII. Ill 



who live under the government of their own bishops and 
rulers. The third is composed of those who are subject 
to the see of Rome. 

II. That society which holds religious communion with 
the patriarch of Constantinople, is. properly speaking, the 
Greek (though it assumes likewise the title of the eastern) 
church. This society is subdivided into two branches, of 
which one acknowledges the supreme authority and juris- 
diction of the bishop of Constantinople, while the other, 
though joined in communion of doctrine and worship with 
that prelate, obstinately refuses to receive his legates, or to 
obey his edicts, and is governed by its own laws and in- 

[ situtions, under the jurisdiction of spiritual rulers, who are 
not dependent on any foreign authority. 

III. That part of the Greek church which acknow- 
ledges the jurisdiction of the bishop of Constantinople, i3 
divided, as in the early ages of Christianity, into four large 
districts or provinces, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, 
and Jerusalem ; and over each of these a bishop presides 
with the title of Patriarch, whom the inferior bishops and 
monastic orders unanimously respect as their common 
Father. But the supreme chief of all these patriarchs, 
bishops and abbots, and indeed of the whole church, is the 
patriarch of Constantinople. This prelate has the privi- 
lege of nominating the other patriarchs, (though that dig- 
nity still continues apparently elective.) and of approving 
the election that is made ; nor is any thing of moment 
undertaken or transacted in the church without his ex- 

| press permission, or his especial order. It is true, that, in 
the present decayed state of the Greek churches, whose 
former opulence is reduced almost to nothing, their spiri- 
tual rulers enjoy little more than the splendid title of pa- 
triarchs, without being in a condition to extend their fame, 
or promote their cause, by any undertaking of signal im 
portance. 

IV. The spiritual jurisdiction and dominion of the first 
of these patriarchs are very extensive, comprehending a 
considerable part of Greece, the Grecian Isles, Wallachia, 
Moldavia, and several of the European and Asiatic pro- 
vinces subject to the Turks. The patriarch of Alexan- 
dria resides generally at Cairo, and exercises his spiritual 
authority in Egypt, Nubia, Libya, and part of Arabia. b 
Damascus is the principal residence of the patriarch oi 
Antioch, whose jurisdiction extends to Mesopotamia. Syria, 
Cilicia, and other provinces, while the patriarch of Jeru- 
salem comprehends, within the bounds of his pontificate, 

triarch of the Monophysites, w r ho is, in effect, the patriarch of Alexandria. 
c The Jesuits have prefixed a particular and learned account of the 
patriarchs of Antioch to the fifth volume of the Acta SS. Mensis Julii, 
in which, however, there are some omissions and defects. Add to this 
the account that is given of the district or diocese of the patriarch ot 
Antioch, by Le Gluten, in his Oriens Christianus, torn. ii. and by Blasi- 
us Tertius, in his " Siria Sacra, 6 Descrittione Historico-Geosrraphica 
delle due Chiese Patriarchali, Antiochia, e Gierusalemme," published at 
Rome, in IG95. There are three bishops in Syria who claim the title 
and dignity of patriarch of Antioch. The first is the bishop of the 
Melchites, — a name given to the Christians in Syria, who follow the 
doctrines, institutions, and worship of the Greek church; the second is 
[ the spiritual swde of the Svrian Monophysites ; and the third is the 
chief of the Maronites, who hold communion with the church of Rome. 
This last bishop pretends to be the true and lawful patriarch of Anti- 
och, and is acknowledged as such, or at least receives this denomina- 
tion from die Roman pontiff; yet it is certain, that the pope creates at 
Rome a patriarch of Antioch of his own choice Thus the see of An- 
tioch has, at this day, four patriarchs, one from the Greeks, two from 
] the Syrians, and one created at Rome, who is patriarch in parlibus, 
1 i. e. titular patriarch, according to the usual signification of that phrase. 



442 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURCHES. 



Sect. III. 



Palestine, Syria," Arabia, the country beyond Jordan, Cana 
in Galillee, and mount Sion. b The episcopal dominions 
of these three patriarchs are indeed extremely poor and 
inconsiderable ; for the Monophysites have long since as- 
sumed the patriarchal seats of Alexandria and Antioch, 
and have deprived the Greek churches of the greatest 
part of their members in all those places where they have 
gained an ascendancy ; and, as Jerusalem is the resort of 
Christians of every sect, who have their respective bishops 
and rulers, the jurisdiction of the Grecian patriarch is con- 
sequently confined there within narrow limits. 

V. The right of electing the patriarch of Constantino- 
ple is, at this day, vested in the twelve bishops who re- 
side nearest to that famous capital ; but the Turkish em- 
peror alone enjoys the right of confirming this election, 
and of enabling the new patriarch to exercise his spiritual 
functions. This institution, however, if it is not entirely 
overturned, is nevertheless, on many occasions, prostituted 
in a shameful manner by the corruption and avarice of 
the reigning ministers. Thus it happens, that many bi- 
shops, inflamed with the ambitious lust of power and pre- 
eminence, purchase by money what they cannot obtain 
by merit, and, seeing themselves excluded from the pa- 
triarchal dignity by the suffrages of their brethren, find an 
open and ready way to it by the mercenary services of 
men in power. What is yet more deplorable has fre- 
quently happened : prelates, who have been chosen in the 
lawful way to this eminent office, have even been deposed, 
in order to make way for others, whose only pretensions 
were ambition and bribery. And indeed, generally speak- 
ing, he is looked upon by the Turkish viziers as the most 
qualified for the office of patriarch, who surpasses his com- 
petitors in the number and value of the presents he em- 
ploys on that occasion. It is true, that some accounts 
worthy of credit represent the present state of the Greek 
church as advantageously changed in this respect ; and 
it is reported, that, as the Turkish manners have gradu- 
ally assumed a milder and more humane cast, the patri- 
archs live under their dominion with more security and 
repose than they did some ages ago/ 

The power of the patriarch among a people dispirited 
by oppression, and sunk, through their extreme ignorance, 
into the greatest superstition, may be supposed to be very 
considerable and extensive ; and such, indeed, it is. Its 
extent, however, is not entirely derived from the causes 
now mentioned but from others that give no small weight 
and lustre to tfie patnaii,bal dignity. For this prelate 
not only calls councils by his own authority, in order to 
decide, by their assistance, the controversies that arise, 

JjT * Syria is here erroneously placed in the patriarchate of Jerusa- 
lem : it evidently belongs to that of Antioch, in which also Dr. Mosheim 
places it in the preceding part of the sentence. 

b Bias. Tertii Siria Sacra, lib. ii. D. Papebrochii Comment, de Patri- 
arch. ILerosolym. torn. iii. Act. Sanct. Mens. Maii. — Le Gluien, 
torn. iii. 

Le Gluien, torn. i. p. 145. — Eisner, Beschreibung der Griechischen in 
der Turckey. 

d Cuper, a Jesuit, has given a History of the Patriarchs of Constan- 
tinople, in the Acta Sanctorum Mensis Augusti, torn. i. p. 1 — 257. 
There is also a very ample account both of the see of Constantinople 
and its patriarchs, in the Oriens Christianus of Le Gluien, who likewise 
treats of the Latin patriarchs. of that city. See also a brief account of 
the power and revenues of the present patriarch, and of the names of 
the several sees under his spiritual jurisdiction, in Smith, de Eccles. 
GrasciK Hodierno Statu. 

e It was originally composed in the Russian language. 

' This confession was published at Leipsic, with a Latin translation, 



and to make use of their prudent advice and wise delibe- 
rations in directing the affairs of the church ; his prero 
gatives go yet farther, and, by the especial permission of 
the sultan, he administers justice and takes cognizance 
of civil causes among the members of his communion. 
His influence is maintained, on the one hand, by the 
authority of the Turkisir monarch, and, on the other, by 
his right of excommunicating the disobedient members 
of the Greek church. This right gives the patriarcha 
a singular degree of influence and authority, as nothing 
has a more terrifying aspect to that people than a sen- 
tence of excommunication, which they reckon among 
the greatest and most tremendous evils. The revenue 
of this prelate is drawn particularly from the churches 
that are subject to his jurisdiction ; and its produce varies 
according to the state and circumstances of the Greek 
Christians, whose condition is exposed to many vicissi- 
tudes." 1 

VI. The Scriptures and the decrees of the first seven 
general councils are acknowledged by the Greeks as the 
rule of their faith. It is received, however, as a maxim 
established by long custom, that no private person has a 
right to explain, for himself or others, either the declara- 
tions of Scripture, or the decisions of these councils ; and 
that the patriarch and his brethren are alone authorized 
to consult these oracles, and to declare their meaning ; 
and, accordingly, the declarations of this prelate are looked 
upon as sacred and infallible directions, whose authority 
is supreme, and which can neither be transgressed nor 
disregarded without the utmost impiety. The substance 
of the doctrine of the Greek church is contained in a trea- 
tise entitled, The orthodox Confession of the Catholic and 
Apostolic Eastern Church, which was drawn up by Peter 
Mogislaus, bishop of Kiow, in a provincial council assem- 
bled in that city. This confession was translated into 
Greek, e and publicly approved and adopted, in 1643, by 
Parthenius of Constantinople, and the other Grecian pa- 
triarchs. It was afterwards published in Greek and Latin 4 
at the expense of Panagiota, the grand-signor's interpre 
ter, a man of great opulence and liberality, who ordered 
it to be distributed gratis among the Greek Christians ; 
and it was also enriched with a recommendatory letter 
composed by Nectarius, patriarch of Jerusalem. f It ap- 
pears evidently from this confession, that the Greeks dif- 
fer widely from the votaries of the Roman pontiff, whose 
doctrines they reject and treat with indignation in several 
places ; but it appears, at the same time, that their reli- 
gious tenets are equally remote from those of other Chris- 
tian societies ; so that whoever peruses this treatise with 

by LfVJr. Normannus, in 1695. In the preface we are informed, that it 
had 1-een composed by Nectarius : but this, assertion is refuted by thai 
jjrele te himself, in a letter which immediately follows the preface. It 
>s also affirmed, both in the preface and title-page, that this is the first 
jub/ic edition which has been given of the Greek confession. But this 
assertion is also false, since it is well known that it was published in 
Ho'land in 1662, at the expense of Panagiota. The German transla- 
tion, of this confession was published at Frankfort and Leipsic, in 1727. 
Tin learned Jo. Christ. Kocher has given, with his usual accuracy and 
erudition, an ample account both of this and the other confessions re- 
ceived among the Greeks, in his Bibliotheca Theologia; Symbol., and 
the laborious Dr. Hoffman, principal professor of divinity at Witten- 
berg, published, in 1751, a new edition of the Orthodox confession, with 
an historical account of it. Those who are desirous of a circumstantial 
account of the famous Panagiota, to whom this confession was indebted 
for a considerable part of its credit, and who rendered to the Greek 
church in general the most eminent services, will find it in Canttmir's 
Histoive de 1'Empire Ottoman, torn. iii. p. 149. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHIJRCHES. 



443 



attention, "will be fully convinced, how much certain -mi- 
ters mistake the case, who imagine that the obstacles 
Avhich prevent the union of the Greeks with this or the 
other Christian community, are small and inconsiderable. 1 

TIL The votaries of Rome have found this to be true 
on many occasions. And the Lutherans made an expe- 
riment of the same kind, when they presented a fruitless 
invitation to the Greek churches to embrace their doctrine 
and discipline, and live with them in religious commu- 
nion. The first steps in this laudable attempt were taken 
by Melancthon, who sent to the patriarch of Constanti- 
nople a copy of the confession of Augsburg, translated 
into Greek by Paul Dolscius. This present was accom- 
panied with a letter, in which the learned and humane 
professor represented the protestant doctrine with the ut 
most simplicity and faithfulness, hoping that the artless 
charms of truth might touch the heart of the Grecian pre- 
late. But his hopes were disappointed ; for the patriarch 
did not even deign to send him an answer. b After this 
the divines of Tubingen renewed, with his successor Je- 
remiah, the correspondence which had been begun by 
Melancthon. They wrote frequently, during the course 
of several years, a to the new patriarch, and sent him 
another copy of the Confession of Augsburg, with a Com- 
pendium of Theology, composed by Heerbrand, and trans- 
lated into Greek by Martin Crusius ; nor did they leave 
unemployed any means, which a pious and well-conducted 
zeal could suggest as proper to gain over this prelate to 
their communion. The fruits, however, of this corre- 
spondence were very inconsiderable, and wholly consisted 
in a few letters from the Greek patriarch, written, indeed, 
with an amiable spirit of benevolence and cordiality, but 
at the same time in terms which showed the impossibility 
of the union so much desired by the protestants. The 
whole strain of these letters manifested in the Greeks an 
inviolable attachment to the opinions and institutions of 
their ancestors, and tended to demonstrate the vanity of 
attempting to dissolve it in the present situation and cir- 
cumstances of that peoples 

VIII. Nothing, indeed, more deplorable can be conceiv- 
ed than the state of the greatest part of the Greeks, since 
then subjection to the oppressive yoke of the Turkish 
emperors. Since that fatal period, almost all learning 
and science, human and divine, have been extinguished 
among them. They have neither schools, colleges, nor 
any of those literary establishments that ennoble human 
nature, by sowing in the mind the immortal seeds of 
knowledge and virtue. Those few who smpass the vul- 
gar herd in intellectual acquirements have derived this 
advantage from the schools of learning in Sicily or Italy, 
where the studious Greeks usually repair in quest of 
knowledge, or from a perusal of the writings of the ancient 
doctors, and more especially of the theology of St. Tho- 
mas Aquinas, which they have translated into their native 
language/ 

Such, at least, is the notion of the learning of the mo- 

* The learned Fabricius has given, in the tenth volume of his Biblio- 
theca Grseca, an exact and ample list of the writers, whom it is proper 
to consult, in order to form a just notion of the slate, circumstances, and 
doctrines of the Greek church. 

b Leo AlUtius, de perpetua Consensione Eccles. Orient, et Occident 
lib. iii. cap. viii. sect. ii. p. 1005. 

i^T ° The name of the former patriarch was Joseph. In 1559, he 
had sent his deacon Demetrius to Wittenberg, to inform himself upon 
the spot of die genius and doctrines of the protestant religion. 



dern Greeks, that is entertained by all the European Chris- 
tians, as well Roman Catholics as protestants ; and it is 
built upon the clearest evidence, and supported by testi- 
monies of every kind. Many of the Greeks deny with 
obstinacy this inglorious charge, and not only defend their 
countrymen against the imputation of such gross igno- 
rance, but even go so far as to maintain, that all the li- 
beral arts and sciences are in as flourishing a state in 
modern Greece, as they were in any period of the history 
of that nation. Among the writers that exalt the learn- 
ing of the modern Greeks in such an extraordinary man- 
ner, the first place is due to an eminent historian,? who 
has taken much pains to demonstrate the error of these 
who are of a different opinion. For this purpose he has 
not only composed a list of the learned men who adorned 
that country in the last centuiy, but also makes mention 
of an academy founded at Constantinople by a certain 
Greek, whose name was Manolax, in which all the branches 
of philosophy, all the liberal and useful arts and sci- 
ences, are taught with the utmost success and applause, 
after the manner of the ancient sages of Greece. But all 
this, though matter of fact, does not amount to a satisfac- 
tory proof of the point in question. It only proves, what was 
never doubted by any thinking person, that the populous 
Greek nation, in which are many ancient, noble, and op- 
ulent families, is not entirely destitute of men of learning 
and genius. But it does net at all demonstrate, that this 
nation, considered in general, is at present enriched with 
science either sacred or profane, or makes any shining 
figure in the republic of letters. In a nation which, gen- 
erally speaking, is sunk in the most barbarous ignorance, 
some men of genius and learning may arise, and shine 
like meteors in a gloomy firmament. With respect to the 
academy founded at Constantinople, it may be observed, 
that a literary establishment, so necessary and yet so re- 
cent, confirms the judgment that has been almost uni- 
versally formed concerning the state of erudition among 
the Greeks. 

This ignorance, which reigns among the Greeks, has 
the most pernicious influence upon their morals. Licen- 
tiousness and impiety not only abound among the people, 
but also dishonour their leaders; and the calamities that 
arise from this corruption of manners, are deplorably aug- 
mented by their endless contentions and divissions. Their 
religion is a motley collection of ceremonies, the greatest 
part of which are either ridiculously trifling, or shockingly 
absurd. Yet they are much more zealous in retaining 
and observing these senseless rites, than in maintaining 
the doctrine, or obeying tne precepts, of the religion they 
profess. Their misery would be extreme, were it not for 
the support they derive from those Greeks who perform 
the functions of physicians and interpreters at the empe- 
ror's court ; and who, by their opulence and credit, fre- 
quently interpose to reconcile the differences, or to ward 
off the dangers, that so often menace their church with de 
struction. 

* This correspondence commenced in 1576, and ended in 1581. 

c All the acts and papers relating to this correspondence were pub- 
lished in 1584. See Christ. Mattli. Pfaffii Liber de Actis et Scnpti* 
publicis Ecclesiaj Wirtembergicaj, p. 50. — Jo. Alb. Fabricii Bibliolh. 
Grreca, vol. x. — Emman. a Schelstrate, Acta Ecclesiae Orientalis eontra 
Luiheri Ha;resin. — Lami Delicite Eruiditorum. torn. viii. 

f^- f The translator has inserted the note [kj of the original into that 
paragraph of the English text, which begins thus : Such, at least, &c, 

e See Demetrius Cauitmir's Histoire de l'Empire Ottoman, torn. ii. 



444 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURCHES. 



Sect. HL 



IX. The Russians, Georgians, and Mingrelians, adopt 
the doctrines and ceremonies of the Greek church, though 
they are entirely free from the jurisdiction and authority 
of the patriarch of Constantinople. It is true, indeed, that 
this prelate had formerly enjoyed the privilege of a spiri- 
tual supremacy over the Russians, to whom he sent a 
bishop whenever a vacancy happened. But, toward the 
conclusion of this century, this privilege ceased in conse- 
quence of the following incident. Jeremiah II., patriarch 
of Constantinople, undertook a journey into Moscovy, to 
levy pecuniary succours against his rival Metrophanes, 
and to drive him, by the force of money, from the patri- 
archal throne. On this occasion, the Moscovite monks, 
in compliance, no doubt, with the secret orders of the grand 
duke Theodore, the son of John Basilowitz, employed all 
the influence both of threatenings and supplications to en- 
gage Jeremiah to place at the head of the Moscovite na- 
tion an independent patriarch. The patriarch of Constan- 
tinople, unable to resist such powerful solicitations, was 
forced to yield ; and accordingly, in a council assembled 
at Moscow in 1589, he nominated and proclaimed Job, 
archbishop of Rostow, the first patriarch of the Moscovites. 
This extraordinary step was, however, taken on condition 
that every new patriarch of the Russians should demand the 
consent and suffrage of the patriarch of Constantinople, 
and pay, at fixed periods, five hundred gold ducats. The 
transactions of this Moscovite council were afterwards 
ratified in one assembled by Jeremiah at Constantinople in 
1593, to which ratification the Turkish emperor gave his 
solemn consent. a But the privileges and immunities of 
the patriarch of Moscow were extended about the middle 
of the following century, when Dionysius II., the Con- 
stantinopolitan primate, and his three patriarchal col- 
leagues, exempted him, at the renewed solicitation of the 
grand duke of Moscovy, from the double obligation of 
paying tribute, and of depending, for the confirmation of 
his election and installation, on a foreign jurisdiction. b 

X. The Georgians and Mingrelians, or, as they were 
anciently called, the Iberians and Colchians, have de- 
clined so remarkably since the Mohammedan dominion 
has been established in these countries, that they can 
scarcely be ranked in the number of Christians. Such, 
in a more especial manner, is the depraved state of the 
latter, who wander about the woods and mountains, 
and lead a savage and undisciplined life ; but, among the 
Georgians or Iberians, there are yet some remains of re- 
ligion, morals, and humanity. These nations have a 
pontiff at their head, whom they call the Catholic; they 
have also their bishops and priests ; but these spiritual 
rulers are a dishonour to Christianity, by their ignorance, 
avarice, and profligacy; they surpass almost the popu- 
lace in the corruption of their manners, and ? grossly igno- 



• See Anton. Possevini Moscovia. — Le (Allien, torn. i. — The Catalo- 
gus Codicum Manuscriptorum Biblioth. Taurinens. (p. 433 — 469.) con- 
tains Jeremiah's account of this transaction. 

b Le (Allien, torn. i. — Nic. Bergius, de Ecclesia Muscovitica. part i. 
sect. i. c. xviii. 

e Clementis Galini Conciliatio Ecclesia Armenicae cum Romana, 
torn. i. p. 156. — Chardin's Voyage en Perse, &c. torn. i. p. 67, where 
the reader will find Jos. Mar. Zumpi's Relation de la Colchide et Min- 
grelie. — Lamberti's Relation de la Colchide ouMingrelie, in the Recueil 
dps Voyages au Nord, torn. vii. p. 160. Le Gluten, torn. i. p. 1333. — 
See also Rich. Simon's Histoire Critique des Dogmes et Ceremonies des 
Chretiens Oriehtaux, ch. v. and vi. in which the learned author endea- 
vours to remove, at least, a part of the reproach under which the Geor- 
gians and Mingrelians labour on account of their supposed ignorance 
und corruption. The catholics or pontiffs of Georgia and Mingrelia 



rant themselves of the truths and principles of religion, 
they never entertain the least thought of instructing the 
people. If therefore it be arfirmed, that the Georgians and 
Mingrelians, at this day, are neither attached to the opi- 
nions of the Monophysites, nor to those of the Nestorians. 
but embrace the doctrine of the Greek church, this musl 
be confirmed rather in consequence of probable con- 
jecture, than of certain knowledge, since it is almost im- 
possible to know, with precision, what are the sentiments 
of a people who seem to be involved in the thickest dark- 
ness. Any remains of religion, observable among them, 
are entirely comprehended in certain sacred festivals and 
external ceremonies, of which the former are celebrated, 
and the latter are performed, without the least appearance 
of decency : for the priests administer the sacraments ot 
baptism and of the Lord's supper with as little respect and 
devotion, as if they were partaking of an ordinary repast. 

XI. The eastern Christians, w T ho renounce the com- 
munion of the Greek church, and differ from it both in 
doctrine and worship, may be comprehended under two 
distinct classes. To the former belong the Monophy- 
sites, or Jacobites, so called from Jacob Albardai/ who 
declare it as their opinion, that in the Saviour of the 
world there is only one nature, while the latter compre- 
hends the followers of Nestorius, frequently called Chal- 
dceans, from the country where they principally reside, 
and who suppose that there are two distinct persons or 
natures in the Son of God. The Monophysites are sub- 
divided into two sects or parties, one African, the other 
Asiatic. At the head of the Asiatics is the patriarch of 
Antioch, who resides, for the most part, in the monastery 
of St. Ananias, and sometimes at Merdin, his episcopal 
seat, or at Amida, Aleppo, and other Syrian cities. 
The government of this prelate is too extensive, and the 
churches over which he presides are too numerous, to 
allow his performing, himself, all the duties of his high 
office ; and therefore a part of the administration of the 
pontificate is given to a kind of colleague, who is called 
the maphrian, or primate of the East, and whose doc- 
trine and discipline are said to be adopted by the eastern 
churches beyond the Tigris. This primate used former- 
ly to reside at Tauris, a city on the frontiers of Armenia ; 
but his present habitation is the monastery of St. Matthew, 
near Mosul, in Mesopotamia. It is farther observable, that 
all the patriarchs of the Jacobites assume the denomina 
tion of Ignatius/ 

XII. The African Monophysites are under the juris 
diction of the patriarch of Alexandria, who generally re- 
sides at Grand Cairo ; and they are subdivided into Copts 
and Abyssinians. The former denomination compre- 
hends all those Christians who dwell in Egypt, Nubia, and 
the countries adjacent, and whose condition is truly deplo- 

are, at this day, exempt from foreign jurisdiction ; they are, however, 
obliged to pay a certain tribute to the patriarch of Constantinople. 

a This Jacob Albardai, or Baradaeus, as he is called by others, restored, 
in the sixth century, the sect of the Monophysites, then almost expiring, 
to its former vigour, and modelled it anew ; hence they were called Jacob- 
ites. This denomination is commonly Used in an extensive sense, as 
comprehending all the Monophysites, except those of Armenia; it, 
however, more strictly and properly belongs only to those Asiatic Mo- 
nophysites, of whom Jacob Albardai was the restorer and the chief. 
See Simon's Histoire des Chretiens Orientaux — a work, nevertheless, 
that often wants correction. 

• Assemani Dissert, de Monophysitis, torn. ii. — Biblioth. Orient. 
Clem. Vatican, sect. viii. — Faust. Nairon's Euoplia Fidei Catholics ex 
Syrorum Monument, par. i. p. 40.— Le Gluien's Oriens Christ, torn. ii. 
p. 1343. i Assemani Dissertat. de Monophysitis, sect. viiL 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURCHES. 



445 



rable. Oppressed by the insatiable avarice and tyranny of 
the Turks, they draw out their wretched days in misery 
and want, and are unable to support either their patriarch 
or their bishops. These are not, however, left entirely 
destitute ; since they are, in a manner, maintained by 
the liberality of those Copts, who, on account of their ca- 
pacity in domestic affairs, and their dexterity in the exer- 
cise of several manual arts, highly useful, though entirely 
unknown to the Turks, have gained admittance into the 
principal Moslem families. 11 As to the Abyssinians, they 
surpass considerably the Copts, in number, power, and 
opulence ; nor will this appear surprising, when it is con- 
sidered, that they live under the dominion of a Christian 
emperor ; they, nevertheless, consider the Alexandrian 
pontiff as their spiritual parent and chief ; and, consequent- 
ly, instead of choosing their own bishop, receive from that 
prelate a primate, whom they call abuna, and whom they 
acknowledge as their spiritual ruler. b 

XIII. These Monophysites differ from other Christian so- 
cieties, whether of the Greek or Latin communion, in many 
points, both of doctrine and worship, though the principal 
reason of their separation lies in the opinion they entertain 
concerning the nature and person of Jesus Christ. Fol- 
lowing the doctrine of Dioscorus, Barsuma, Xenaias, Fullo, 
and others, whom they consider as the heads or chief or- 
naments of their sect, they maintain that in Christ the di- 
vine and human natures were reduced into one, and con- 
sequently reject both the decrees of the council of Chalce- 
don, and the famous letter of Leo the Great. That, how- 
ever, they may not seem to have the least inclination 
toward the doctrine of Eutyches, which they profess to 
reject with the most ardent zeal, they propose their own 
system with the utmost caution and circumspection, and 
hold the following obscure principles: That the two 
natures are united in Christ without either confusion or 
mixture ; so that though the nature of our Saviour be re- 
ally one, yet it is at the same time twofold and compound. 1 
By this declaration it appears, that those learned men, 
who look upon the difference between the Monophysites, 
and the Greek and Latin churches, rather as a dispute 
about ivords than things, are not so far in an error as 

" Renaudot published, in 1713, a very learned work, relative to the 
history of the Eastern patriarchs, under the title of " Historia Alexan- 
drinorum Patriarcharum Jacobitarum," &c. He also gave to the world 
the office used in die ordination of the Jacobite patriarch, with remarks, 
in the first volume of his Liturg. Orient. — The internal state of the 
Alexandrian or Coptic church, both with respect to doctrine and wor- 
ship, is described by Wansleb, in his " Histoire de l'Eglise d'Alexan- 
drie, que nous appelions celle des Jacobites Coptes,'' published in 1067. 
Add to this another work of the same author, entitled. " Relation d'un 
Voyage en Egyptc," in which there is a particular account of the Cop- 
tic monasteries and religious orders. See also " Nouveaux Memoires 
des Missions de la Compagnie de Jesus dans le Levant ;" and Maillet's 
Description de l'Egypte, torn. ii. 

b Job. Ludolf Comment, in Histor. iEthiop. p. 451, 4G1. — Lobo, 
Voyage dAbissinie, torn. ii. p. 36. — Nouveaux Memoires des Missions 
dans le Levant, torn. iv. — Le Gluien, torn. ii. 

c Assemani Biblioth. Orien. Clement. Vatican, torn. ii. p. 25, 34, 117, 
133, 277, 297, &c. — See, in the same work, Abulpharajius' subtle vindi- 
cation of the doctrine of his sect, vol. ii. p. 288. There is a complete 
and circumstantial account of the religion of the Abyssinians, in the The- 
ologia jEthiopica of Gregory the Abyssinian, published by Fabricius, in 
his Lux Evangelii toti orbi exoriens, p. 716, where may also be found a 
list of all the writers who have given accounts of the Abyssinians. 

* See La Croze, Hist, du Christianisme des Indes, p. 23. Asseman. 
torn. ii. p. 291, 297. — Rich. Simon, Histoire des Chretiens Oricntaux, p. 
119. — Jo. Joach. Schroderi Thesaurus Linguae Armenicae, p. 276. 
fpf The truth of the matter is, that the terms used by the Monophy- 
sites are something more' than equivocal ; they are contradictory. It 
may also be farther observed, that those who pretend to hold a middle 

No. XXXVIII. 112 



some have imagined." 1 Be that as it may, both the Asiatic 
and African Monophysites of the present times are, gen- 
erally speaking, so deeply sunk in ignorance, that their 
attachment to the doctrine by which they are distinguish- 
ed from other Christian societies, is rather founded on their 
own obstinacy, and on the authority of their ancestors, 
than on any other circumstance; nor do they even pre- 
tend to appeal, in its behalf, to reason and argument. 6 

XIV. The Armenians/ though they agree with the 
other Monophysites in the main doctrine of that sect re 
lating to the unity of the divine and human nature in 
Christ, differ from them, nevertheless, in many points of 
faith, discipline, and worship ; and hence it comes to pass, 
that they hold no communion with that branch of the 
Monophysites who are Jacobites in the more limited sense 
of that term. The Armenian church is governed by three 
patriarchs-^ The chief, whose diocese comprehends the 
Greater Armenia, beholds forty-two archbishops subjected 
to his jurisdiction, and resides in a monastery at Echmia- 
zin. The revenues of this spiritual ruler are such as would 
enable him to live in the most splendid and magnificent 
manner ; h but there are no marks of pomp or opulence 
in his external appearance, or in his regular economy. 
His table is frugal, his habit plain ; nor is he distin- 
guished from the monks, with whom he lives, by any 
other circumstance than his superior power and authority. 
He is, for the most part, elected to his patriarchal dignity 
by the suffrages of the bishops assembled at Echmiazin, 
and his election is confirmed by the solemn approbation 
of the Persian monarch. The second patriarch of the 
Armenians, who is called the Catholic, resides at Cis in 
Cilicia, rules over the churches established in Cappadocia, 
Cilicia, Cyprus, and Syria, and has twelve archbishops 
under his jurisdiction. He at present acknowledges his 
subordination to the patriarch of Echmiazin. The third 
patriarch, who has no more than eight or nine bishops 
under his dominion, resides in the island of Aghtamar 
(which is in the midst of the great lake of Varaspuracan,) 
and is looked upon by the other Armenians as the enemy 
of their church. 

Beside these prelates, who are patriarchs in the true 



path between the doctrines of Nestorius and Eutyches, were greatly em- 
barrassed, as it was almost impossible to oppose the one, without adopt- 
ing, or at least appearing to adopt the other. 

e The liturgies of the Copts, the Syrian Jacobites, and the Abyssi- 
nians, have been published, with learned observations, by Renaudot, in 
the first and second volumes of his Liturgiae Orientales. 

t The first writer, who gave a circumstantial account of the religion 
and history of the Armenians, was Clement Galani, an Italian of the 
order of the Theatins, whose Conciliatio Ecclesia; Armenics cum Ro- 
mana was published in 1650. The other authors, who have treated of 
this branch of ecclesiastical history, are enumerated by Fabricius, in his 
Lux Evangelii toti Orbi exoriens, ch. xxxviii. ; to which must be added, 
Le Gluien, Oriens Christianus, torn. i. — The History of Christianity in 
Armenia, which the learned La Croze has subjoined to his account of 
the progress of the Christian religion in Abyssinia, is by no means 
answerable to the importance and copiousness of the subject; which 
must be attributed to the age and infirmities of that author. For an 
account of the particular institutions and rites of the Armenians, see 
Gemelli Carreri, Voyage autour du Monde, torn. ii. 

%jt * Sir Paul Ricaut mentions four ; but his authority, were it more 
respectable than it res?'*' is, cannot be compared with that of the excel- 
lent sources from which iV Mosheim draws his materials. 

b R. Simon has subjoined tt his Histoire des Chretiens Orient an 
account of nil the Armenian chuiches which are subject to tl\e jurisdic- 
tion of this grand patriarch; W '^is account, though taken from Usca- 
nus, an Armenian bishop, is defeu. -<■ in many respects. For an ac- 
count of the resirVr.e and manner ot .ft of the patriarch of Echmia- 
zin, see Paul Lucas, Voyage au Levant, tou: ii, crd Gemelli Ca/reri, 
Voyage autour du Monde, torn, ii. 



4ie 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURCHES. 



Sect. III. 



sense of that term, the Armenians have other spiritual 
leaders, who are honoured with the same appellation ; but 
this, indeed, is no more than an empty title, unattended 
with the authority and prerogatives of the patriarchal 
dignity. Thus the archbishop of the Armenians, who 
lives at Constantinople, and whose authority is respected 
by the churches established in those provinces which form 
the connexion between Europe and Asia, enjoys the title 
of patriarch. The same denomination is given to the 
Armenian bishop who resides at Jerusalem, and also to 
the prelate of the same nation, who has his episcopal 
seat at Caminiec in Poland, and governs the Armenian 
churches that are established in Russia, Poland, and the 
adjacent countries. These bishops assume the title of pa- 
triarchs, on account of some peculiar privileges conferred 
on them by the great patriarch of Echmaizin ; for, by an 
authority derived from this supreme head of the Armenian 
church, they are allowed to consecrate bishops, and to 
make, every third year, and distribute among their con- 
gregations, the holy chiasm, or ointment ; which, accord- 
ing to a constant custom among the eastern Christians, is 
the privilege of the patriarchs alone. a 

XV. The Nestorians, who are also known by the de- 
nomination of Chaldeans, have fixed their habitation 
chiefly in Mesopotamia and the neighbouring countries. 
They have several doctrines, as well as some religious ce- 
remonies and institutions, that are peculiar to themselves. 
But the main points that distinguish them from all other 
Christian societies, are, their persuasion that Nestorius 
was unjustly condemned by the council of Ephesus, and 
their firm attachment to the doctrine of that prelate, who 
maintained that there were not only two natures, but also 
two distinct persons in the Son of God. In the earlier 
ages of the church, this error was looked upon as of the 
most momentous and pernicious kind ; but in our times 
it is deemed of less consequence, by persons of the greatest 
weight and authority in theological matters, even among 
the Roman Catholic doctors. They consider this whole 
controversy as a dispute about words, and the opinion of 
Nestorius as a nominal, rather than a real heresy; that 
is, as an error arising rather from the words he employed, 
than from his intention in the use of them. It is true, in- 
deed, that the Chaldeans attribute to Christ two natures, 
and even two persons ; but they correct what may seem 
rash in this expression, by adding, that these natures and 
persons are so closely and intimately united, that, they 
have only one aspect. Now the word barsopa, by which 
they express this aspect, is precisely of the same signifi- 
cation with the Greek word ■xgoraKai, which signifies a 
person;' and hence it is evident, that they attached to 
the word aspect the same idea that we attach to the word 
person, and that they understood by the word person, 
precisely what we understand by the, term nature. 
However that may be, we must observe here, to the last- 



a See the Nouveaux Memoires des Missions de la Compagnie de Je- 
sus, torn. iii. where there is an ample and circumstantial account, both 
of the civil and religious state of the Armenians. This account has 
been highly applauded by M. de la Croze, for the fidelity, accuracy, and 
industry with which it is drawn up; and no man was more conversant 
in subjects of this nature than that learned author. 

i> It is in this manner that the sentiments of the Nestorians are ex- 
plained in the inscriptions which adorn the tombs of their patriarchs at 

Mosul. — See Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Vatican, torn. iii. par. ii. R. 

Simon, Histoire de la Creance des Chretiens Orientaux, eh. vii. P. 

Strozzi, de Dogmatibus Chaldaeorum, published in 1617. 

See the learned dissertation of Assemanus ds Syris Nestorianis, 



ing honour of the Nestorians, that, of all the Christian 
societies established in the East, they have been the most 
careful and successful in avoiding a multitude of super- 
stitious opinions and practices that have infected the Greek 
and Latin churches. 

XVI. In the earlier ages of Nestorianism, the various 
branches of that numerous and powerful sect were under 
the spiritual jurisdiction of the same pontiff, or catholic, 
who resided first at Bagdad, and afterwards at Mosul ; 
but in this century the Nestorians were divided into two 
sects. They had chosen, in 1552, as has been already 
observed, two bishops at the same time, Simeon Barmama, 
and John Sulaka, otherwise named Siud. The latter, to 
strengthen his interest, and to triumph over his competitor, 
hastened to Rome, and acknowledged the jurisdiction, 
that he might be supported by the credit, of the Roman 
pontiff. In 1555, Simeon Denha, archbishop of Gelu, 
adopted the party of the fugitive patriarch, who had em- 
braced the communion of the Latin church ; and, being 
afterwards chosen patriarch himself, fixed his residence in 
the city of Ormia, in the mountainous parts of Persia. . So 
far down as the last century, these patriarchs persevered 
in their communion with the church of Rome ; but they 
seem at present to have withdrawn themselves from it. d 
The great Nestorian pontiffs, who form the opposite party, 
and look with a hostile eye on this little patriarch, have, 
since the year 1559, been distinguished by the general 
denomination of Elias, and reside constantly in the city of 
Mosul. e Their spiritual dominion is very extensive, takes 
in a considerable part of Asia, and comprehends also with- 
in its circuit the Arabian Nestorians ; as also the Christians 
of St. Thomas, who dwell along the coast of Malabar/ 

XVII. Beside the Christian societies now mentioned, 
who still retain some faint shadow at least of the system 
of religion delivered by Christ and his apostles, there are 
other sects dispersed through a great part of Asia, whose 
principles and doctrines are highly pernicious. These 
sects derive their origin from the Ebionites, Valentinians, 
Manicheans, Basilidians, and other separatists, who, in the 
early ages of Christianity, excited schisms and factions in 
the church. Equally abhorred by Turks and Christians, 
and thus suffering oppression from all quarters, they gra- 
dually declined in successive centuries, and fell at length 
into such barbarous superstition and ignorance, as ex- 
tinguished among them every spark of true religion. 
Thus were they reduced to the wretched and ignomini- 
ous figure they at present make, having fallen from the 
privileges, and almost forfeited the very name of Christians. 
The sectaries, who pass in the East under the denomina- 
tion of Sabians, who call themselves Mendai Ijahi, or the 
disciples of John, and whom the Europeans style the 
Christians of St. John, because they yet retain some 
knowledge of the Gospel, are probably of Jewish origin, 
and the remains of the ancient Hemerobaptists, of whom 

which occupies entirely the fourth volume of his Biblioth. Oriental. Va- 
tican, and which seems to have been much consulted and partly copied 
by Mich. Le Qui en. 

a See Jos. Sim. Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. l. p. 538, 
and torn. ii. p. 45(5. 

c A list of the Nestorian pontiffs is given by Assemanus, in his Bi- 
blioth. Orient. Vatican, torn. iii. part i. p. 711 ; which is corrected, 
however, in the same volume, part ii. — See also Le Gtuien, tom. iii. 
p. 1078. 

f The reader will find an ample account of the Christians of St 
Thomas in La Croze, Histoire du Christianisme des Indes. See also 
Assemani Biblioth. tom. iii. part ii.- cap. ix. p. ccccxiii. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURCHES. 



447 



the writers of ecclesiastical history make frequent men- 
tion. a This, at least, is certain, that John, whom they 
consider as the founder of their sect, bears no sort of si- 
militude to John the Baptist, but rather resembles the per- 
son ol that name whom the ancient writers represent as 
the chief of the Jewish Hemerobaptists. These ambigu- 
ous Christians, whatever their origin may be, dwell in 
Persia and Arabia, and principally at Basra, and their re- 
ligion consists in bodily washings, performed frequently, 
and with great solemnity, 13 and attended with certain ce- 
remonies which the priests mingle with this superstitious 
service. 1 

XVTII. The Jasidians, or Jezdseans, of whose religion 
and manners many reports of a very doubtful nature are 
given by voyage-writers, are an unsettled wandering tribe, 
who frequent the Gordian mountains, and the deserts of 
Curdistan, a province of Persia ; the character of whose 
inhabitants has something in it peculiarly fierce and in- 
tractable. The Jezdeeans are divided into black and 
white members. The former are the priests and rulers of 
the sect, who go arrayed in sable garments ; while the 
latter, who compose the multitude, are clothed in white. 
Their system of religion is certainly very singular, and is 
not hitherto sufficiently known, though it is evidently 
composed of some Christian doctrines, and a motley mix- 
ture of fictions drawn from a different source. They are 
distinguished from the other corrupt sects, that have dis- 
honoured Christianity, by the peculiar impiety of their 
opinion concerning the evil genius. This malignant 
principle they call Karubin, or Cherub, i. e. one of the 
great ministers of the Supreme Being ; and, if they do 
not directly address religious worship to this evil minister, 

§rjj* a The sect of Hemerobaptists among the Jews were so called 
from their washing themselves every day, and their performing this 
custom with the greatest solemnity, as a religious rite, necessary to sal- 
vation. The account of this sect given by Epiphanius, in the introduc- 
tion to his book of heresies, has been treated as a fiction, in consequence 
of the suspicions of inaccuracy and want of veracity, under which that 
author too justly labours. Even the existence of the Hemerobaptists has 
been denied, but without reason, since they are mentioned by Justin 
Martyr, Eusebius, and many other ancient writers, every way worthy 
of credit. That the Christians of St. John descended from this sect, is 
rendered probahle by many reasons, of which the principal and the 
most satisfactory may be seen in a very learned and ingenious work of 
Dr. Mosheim, entitled, de Rebus Christianorum ante Constantinum 
Magnum Commentarii. 

srjjr ■> The Mendaeans at present perform these ablutions only once 
in a year. 

See the work of a learned Carmelite, named Ignatius a Jesu, pub- 
lished in 1G52, under the following title : " Narratto Originis Rituum 
et Errorum Christianorum S. Johannis, cui adjungitur Discursus, per 
modimi Dialogi, in quo confutantur xxxiv. Errores ejusdem Nationis." 
Engelb. Kaempferi Amoenitates Exotica?, Fascic. II. Relat. XI. p. 35. — 
Sale's Preface to his English Translation of the Koran, p. 15. — Assema- 
ni Bihlioth. Oriental, torn. iii. par. ii. p. 609. — Thevenot, Voyages, torn. 
iv. p. 584. — Herbelot, Bihlioth. Orient, p. 725. — The very learned Bayer 
had composed an historical account of these Mendreans, which contain- 
ed a variety of curious and interesting facts, and of which he intended 
that I should be the editor ; but a sudden death prevented his executing 
his intention. He was of opinion (as appears from the Thesaurus 
Epistolicus Crozianus) that these Mendaeans., or disciples of St. John, 
Were a branch of the ancient Manicheans ; which opinion La Crcze 
himself seems to have adopted, as may be seen in the work now cited, 
torn. iii. But there is really nothing, either in the doctrines or manners 
of this sect, that resembles the opinions and practice of the Manicheans. 
Hence several learned men conjecture, that they derive their origin from 
the ancient idolators who worshipped a plurality of gods, and more 
especially from those who payed religious adoration to the stars of 
heaven, and who were called, by the Arabians, Sabians or Sabeans. 
This opinion has been maintained with much erudition by the famous 
Fourmont, in a dissertation inserted in the eighteenth volume of the 
Memoires de l'Academie des Inscriptions et des Belles Lettres. But it 
is absolutely groundless, and has not even a shadow of probability, if 



they treat him at least with the utmost lespect, and not 
only abstain, themselves, from offering him any marks 
of hatred or contempt, but will not suffer any contumelious 
treatment to be given him by others. They carry, it is 
said, this reverence and circumspection to such an exces- 
sive height, that no efforts of persecution, no torments, not 
even death itself, can engage them to conceive or express 
an abhorrence of this evil genius; and it is even added, 
that they will make no scruple to put to death such per- 
sons as express, in their presence, an aversion to him. d 

•XIX. The Duruzians, or Dursians, a fierce and war- 
like people that inhabit the craggy rocks and inhospitable 
wilds of mount Libanus, give themselves out for descen- 
dants of the. Franks, who, from the eleventh century, car- 
ried on the holy war with the Mohammedans in Pales- 
tine; though this pretended origin is a matter of the 
greatest uncertainty. What the doctrine and discipline 
of this nation are at present, it is extremely difficult to 
know, as they are at the greatest pains imaginable to con- 
ceal their religious sentiments and principles. We find, 
however, both in their opinions and practice, the plainest 
proofs of their acquaintance with Christianity. Several 
learned men have imagined, that both they and the Curdi 
of Persia had formerly embraced the sentiments of the 
Manicheans, and perhaps still persist in their pernicious 
errors/ 

The Chamsi, or Solares, who reside in a certain district 
of Mesopotamia, are supposed, by curious inquirers into 
these matters, to be a branch of the Samsseans, mentioned 
by Epiphanius. f 

There are many other Semi-Christian sects of these 
kinds in the east/ whose principles, tenets, and institu- 



we except the name which the Mohammedans usually give to this sect. 
The Mendaeans, themselves, acknowledge that they are of Jewish ori- 
gin, and that they were transferred from Palestine into the country 
which they at present inhabit. They have sacred books of a very 
remote antiquity ; among others, one which they attribute to Adam, 
and another composed by John, whom they revere as the founder of their 
sect. As these books were some years ago added to the library of the 
king of France, it is to be hoped that they may contribute to give us a 
more authentic account of this people than we have hitherto received. 

d See Hyde, Historia Relig. Veter. Persarum in Append, p. 549. — 
Otter, Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, torn. i. p. 121, torn. ii. p. 249. 
In the seventeeth century, Mich. Nau, a learned Jesuit, undertook to 
instruct this profane sect, and to give them juster notions of religion, 
(see D' Arvieux, Memoires ou Voyages, torn. vi. p. 362, 377,) and after 
him another Jesuit, whose name was Monier, embarked in the same 
dangerous enterprise, (see Memoires des Missions des Jesuites, torn, 
iii. p. 291 ;) but how they were received, and what success attended their 
ministry, is hitherto unknown. Rhenferdius (as appears from the let- 
ters of the learned GisbertCuper, published by Bayer) considers the Jez- 
dseans as the descendants of the ancient Scythians. But this opinion is no 
less improbable than that which makes them a branch of the Maniche- 
ans ; and this is sufficiently refuted by their sentiments concerning the 
Evil Genius. Beausobre, in his Histoire du Manicheisme, conjectures 
that the denomination of this sect is derived from the name of Jesus; 
but it seems rather to be borrowed from the word Jazid, or Jezdan, 
which, in the Persian language, signifies the good God , and is opposed 
ti Ahrimen, or Arimanius, the Evil Principle, (see Herbelot, Biblioth. 
Orient, p. 484. — Cherefeddin Ali, Hist de Timur-bec, torn. iii. p. 81.) 
so that the appellative term derived from the former points out that sect 
as the worshippers of the good, or true God. Notwithstanding the 
plausibility of this account of the matter, it is not impossible that the 
city Jezd, of which Otter speaks in his Voyage en Turquie et en Perse, 
may have given rise to the title of Jasidians, or Jezdaans. 

' See Lucas' Voyage en Grece et Asie Mineure, torn. ii. p. 36. — 
Hyde's Hist. Relig. Veter. Persar. p. 491, 554.— Sir Paul Ricaut's His- 
tory of the Ottoman Empire, vol i. p. 313. 

f Hyde, Histor. Relig. Veter. Persar. p. 555. 

s The Jesuit Diusse (in the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses des Mis- 
sions Etrangeres, torn. i. p. 63,) informs us of the existence of a sect of 
Christians, in the mountains which separate Persia from India, who 
imprint the sign of the cross on their bodies with a red-hot iron. 



448 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AIND EASTERN CHURCHES. 



Sect. Ill 



lions, are far from being unworthy of the curiosity of the 
learned. And those who would be at the pains to turn 
their researches this way, and more especially to have 
the religious books of these sects conveyed into Europe, 
would undoubtedly render eminent service to the cause 
of sacred literature, and obtain applause from all who 
have a taste for the study of Christian antiquities; for 
the accounts which have hitherto been given of these 
nations and sects are full of uncertainty and contradic- 
tion. 

XX. The missionaries of Rome have never ceased to 
display, in these parts of the world, their dexterity in mak- 
ing proselytes, and accordingly have founded, though 
with great difficulty and expense, among the greatest 
part of the sects now mentioned, congregations that adopt 
the doctrine, and acknowledge the jurisdiction, of the Ro- 
man pontiff. It is abundantly known, that among the 
Greeks, who live under the empire of the Turks, and 
also among those who are subject to the dominion of the 
Venetians, the emperor of Germany, and other Christian 
princes, there are many who have adopted the faith and 
discipline of the Latin church, and are governed by their 
own clergy and bishops, who receive their confirmation 
and authority from Rome. In the latter city is a college, 
expressly founded with a view to multiply these aposta- 
tising societies, and to increase and strengthen the credit 
and authority of the Roman pontiff among the Greeks. 
In these colleges a certain number of Grecian stu- 
dents, who have given early marks of genius and 
capacity, are instructed in the arts and sciences, and 
are more especially prepossessed with the deepest senti- 
ments of veneration and zeal for the authority of the pope. 
Such an institution, accompanied with the efforts and la- 
bours of the missionaries, could not fail, one would think, 
to gain an immense number of proselytes to Rome, con- 
sidering the unhappy state of the Grecian churches. But 
the case is quite otherwise ; for the most respectable wri- 
ters, even of the Roman catholic persuasion, acknowledge 
fairly, that the proselytes they have drawn from the 
Greek churches make a wretched and despicable figure, 
in point of number, opulence, and dignity, when compar- 
ed with those, to whom the religion, government, and the 
very name of Rome, are disgusting and odious. They 
observe farther, that the sincerity of a great part of these 
proselytes is of the Grecian stamp ; so that, when a favour- 
able occasion is offered them of renouncing, with advan- 
tage, their pretended conversion, they seldom fail, not 
only to return to the bosom of their own church, but even 
to recompense the good offices they received from the 
Romans with the most injurious treatment. The same 
writers mention another circumstance, much less sur- 
prising, indeed, than those now mentioned, but much 
more dishonourable to the church of Rome ; and that cir- 
cumstance is, that even those of the Greek students who 
are educated at Rome with such care, as might naturally 
attach them to its religion and government, are, never- 

t ° See, among other authors who have treated this point of history, 
Urb. Cerri, Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, in which, speaking of 
the Greeks, he expresses himself in the following manner : " lis devien- 
nent les plus violens ennemis des catholiques lorsqu'ils ont apris nos 
sciences, et qu'ils out connoissance de nos imperfections :" i. e. in plain 
English, they (the Greeks) become the bitterest enemies of us Roman 
catholics; when they have been instructed in our sciences, and have 
acquired the knowledge of our imperfections. — Other testimonies of a 
.ike nature shall be given hereafter. — Mich. Le Quicn has given us an 



theless so disgusted and shocked at the corruptions of 
its church, clergy, and people, that they forget, more no- 
toriously than others, the obligations with which they 
have been loaded, and exert themselves with peculiar ob- 
stinacy and bitterness in opposing the credit and autho- 
rity of the Latin church. 1 

XXI. In their efforts to extend the papal empire over 
the Greek churches, the designing pontiffs did not forget 
the church of Russia, the chief bulwark and ornament of 
the Grecian faith. On the contrary, frequent delibera- 
tions were holden at Rome, about the proper methods of 
uniting, or rather subjecting this church to the papal hier- 
archy. In this century John Basilides, or Basilowitz, grand 
duke of the Russians, seemed to discover a propensity to- 
ward this union, by sending, in 1580, a solemn embassy 
to Gregory XIII. to exhort that pontiff to resume the ne- 
gotiations relative to this important matter, that they 
might be brought to a happy and speedy conclusion. Ac- 
cordingly, in the year following, Antony Possevin, a 
learned and artful Jesuit, was charged by the pope with 
the commission, and sent into Moscovy, to carry it into ex- 
ecution. But this dexterous missionary, though he 
spared no pains to obtain the purposes of his ambitious 
court, found by experience that all his efforts were une- 
qual to the task he had undertaken ; nor did the Russian 
ambassadors, who arrived at Rome soon after, bring any 
thing to the ardent wishes of the pontiff, but empty pro- 
mises, conceived in dubious and general terms, on which 
little dependence could be placed. b And, indeed, the 
event abundantly showed, that Basilowitz had no other 
view, in all these negotiations, than to flatter the pope, 
and obtain his assistance, in order to bring to an advan- 
tageous conclusion the unsuccessful war which he had 
carried on against Poland. 

The advice and exhortations of Possevin and his asso- 
ciates were attended with more fruit among the Russian 
residents in the Polish dominions, many of whom em- 
braced the doctrine and rites of the Roman church, in 
consequence of an association agreed on in 1596, in a 
meeting at Bresty, the capital of the Palatinate of Cujavia. 
Those who thus submitted to the communion of Rome 
were called the United, while the adverse party, who ad- 
hered to the doctrine and jurisdiction of the patriarch of 
Constantinople, were distinguished by the title of the Noh 
United. It is likewise worthy of observation here, that 
there has been established at Kiow, since the fourteenth 
century, a Russian congregation, subject to the jurisdiction 
of the Roman pontiff, and ruled by its own metropolitans, 
who are entirely distinct from the Russian bishops resident 
in that city. d 

XXII. The Roman missionaries made scarcely any 
spiritual conquests worthy of mention among either the 
Asiatic or African Monophysites. About the middle of the 
preceding century, a little insignificant church, that ac- 
knowledged the jurisdiction of the pope, was erected among 
the Nestorians, whose patriarchs, successively named Jo- 



enumeration, although a defective one, of the Greek bishops who follow 
the rites of the Roman church, in his Oriens Christ, torn. iii. p. 360. 

b See the conferences between Possevin and the duke of Moscovy 
together with the other writings of this Jesuit, (relative to the negotia- 
tion in question,) subjoined to his work, called Moscovia. — See also La 
Vie du Pere Possevin, par Jean Dorigny, Hv. v. p. 351. 

Adr. Regenvolscii Histor. Ecc.l. Slavonicar. lib. iv. cap. ii. p. 465. 

J See Le Q.uien, torn. i. p. 1274, and torn. iii. p. 1126. — Acta Sancto- 
rum, torn. ii. Februar- p. 693. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURCHES. 



449 



soph," resided in the city of Diarbek. Some of the Ar- 
menian provinces embraced the doctrines and discipline 
of Rome so early as the fourteenth century, under the 
pontificate of John XXIII.. who, in 1318, sent them a 
Dominican monk to govern their church, with the title 
and authority of an archbishop. The episcopal seat of 
this spiritual ruler was first fixed at Soldania, a city in the 
province of Aderbijan : b but was afterwards transferred to 
Naxivan, where it still remains in the hands of the Do- 
minicans, who alone are admitted to that spiritual digni- 
ty. e The Armenian churches in Poland, which have 
embraced the faith of Rome, have also their bishop, who 
resides at Lemberg. d The Georgians and Mingrelians, 
who were visited by some monks of the Theatin and 
Capuchin orders, disgusted these missionaries by their fe- 
rocity and ignorance, remained inattentive to their coun- 
sels, and unmoved by their admonitions ; so that their 
ministry and labours were scarcely attended with any 
visible fruit." 

XXIII. The pompous accounts which the papal mis- 
sionaries have given of the vast success of their labours 
among all these Grecian sects, are equally destitute of can- 
dour and truth. It is evident, from testimonies of the best 
and most respectable authority, that, in some of those coun- 
tries, they do nothing more than administer clandestine 
baptism to sick infants who are committed to their care, as 
they appear in the fictitious character of physicians ; f and 
that, in other places, the whole success of their ministry is 
confined to the assembling of some wretched tribes of in- 
digent converts, whose poverty is the only bond of their 
attachment to the Romish church, and who, when the 
papal largesses are suspended or withdrawn, fall from their 
pretended allegiance to Rome, and return to the religion 
of their ancestors.*? It happens also, from time to time, 
that a person of distinction, among the Greeks or Orientals, 
embraces the doctrine of the Latin church, promises obe- 
dience to its pontiff, and carries matters so far as to repair 
to Rome to testify his respectful submission to the apos- 
tolic see. But in these obsequious steps the noble con- 
verts are almost always moved by avarice or ambition i 
and, accordingly, upon a change of affairs, when they have 

* See Assemani Biblioth. Orient, Vatican, torn. iii. par. i. p. 615. — 
Le Q.uien. torn. ii. p. 1084. 

i> Odor. Raynald. Annal. torn. xv. ad An. 1318. sect. iv. 

' Le Gluien, torn. iii. p. 1362, and 1403. — Clemens Galanus, Concilia- 
tio Ecclesiae Amienicae cum Romana, torn. i. p. 527. 

a Memoires des Missions de la Compagnie de Jesus, torn. iii. 

c TJrb. Cerri. Etat present de FEglise Romaine. 

i Urb. Cerri, p. 164. — Gabr. de Chinon, Relations nouvelles du Le- 
vant, par. i.e. vi. This Capuchin monk delivers his opinions on many 
subjects with frankness and candour. 

e See Chardin'a Voyages en Perse, torn. i. ii. iii. of the last edition 
published in Holland, in 4to. ; for, in the former editions, all die scan- 
dalous transactions of the Roman missionaries anions the Armenians, 
Colchians, Iberians, and Persians, are entirely wanting. — See also Chi- 
non's Relations du Levant, part ii. for the affairs of the Armenians ; 
and Maillet's Description d'Egypte, torn, iii., for an account of die Copts. 

i> Otherwise named Amida and Caramit. 

i Assemanus complains (in several passages of his Biblioth. Orient. 
Vatican.) that even the very books printed at Rome for the use of die 
Nestorians, Jacobites, and Armenians, were not corrected or purged 
from the errors peculiar to diese sects ; and he looks upon this negli- 
gence as the reason of the defection of many Roman converts, and of 
their return to the bosom of the eastern and Greek churches, to which 
they originally belonged. — See, on the other hand, the Lettres Choisies 
de R Simon, torn. ii. let. xxiii., in which the author pretends to defend 
this conduct of the Romanists, which some attribute to indolence and 
neglect, others to artifice and prudence. 

k The Maronite doctors, and more especially those who reside at 
Rome, maintain, with the greatest efforts of zeal and argument, that the 

No. XXXYIII. 113 



obtained their purposes, and have nothing more to expect, 
they, in general, either suddenly abandon the church of 
Rome, or express their attachment to it in such ambigu- 
ous terms as are only calculate jo deceive. Those who. 
like the Nestorian bishop of Diarbek, h continue in the pro- 
fession of the Roman faith, and even transmit it with an 
appearance of zeal to then posterity, are excited to this 
perseverance by no other motive than the uninterrupted 
liberality of the Roman pontiff. 

On the other hand, the bishops of Rome are extremely 
attentive and assiduous in employing all the methods in 
their power to maintain and extend their dominion 
among the Christians of the East. For this purpose, they 
treat, with the greatest lenity and indulgence, the prose- 
lytes they have made in those parts of the world, that 
their yoke may not appear intolerable. They even carry 
this indulgence so far, as to show evidently, that they are 
actuated more by a love of power, than by an attach- 
ment to their own doctrines and institutions ; for they not 
only allow the Greek and other eastern proselytes the 
liberty of retaining the ceremonies of their ancestors 
(though in direct opposition to the religious service of the 
church of Rome.) and of living in a manner repugnant to 
the customs and practice of the Latin Avorld : but. what 
is much more surprising, the}" suffer the peculiar doctrines, 
that distinguish the Greeks and Orientals from all other 
Christian societies, to remain in the public religious books 
of the proselytes already mentioned, and even to be reprint- 
ed at Rome in those which are sent abroad for their use.' 
The truth of the matter seems to be briefly this : at Rome, 
a Greek, an Armenian, or a Copt, is looked upon as an 
obedient child; and a worthy member of the church, if he 
acknowledges the supreme and unlimited power of the 
Roman pontiff over all the Christian world. 

XXIY. The Maronites who inhabit the mounts Li- 
banus and Anti-Libanus, date their subjection to the 
spiritual jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff from the time 
that the Latins carried their hostile arms into Palestine, 
with a view to make themselves masters of the Holy 
Land. k This subjection however was agreed to, with an 
express condition, that neither the popes nor their emis- 



religion of Rome has always been preserved among them in its purity, 
and exempt from any mixture of heresy or error. The proof of this 
assertion has been attempted, with great labour and industry, by Faust. 
Xairon, in his Dissertatio de Origne, Nomine, ac Religione, Maronita- 
rum, published at Rome in 1679. It was from this treatise, and some 
other Maronite writers, that De la Roque drew die materials of his 
discourses concerning the origin of the Maronites, together with the 
abridgment of dieir history, which he inserted in the second volume of 
his Voyage de Syrie et du Mont Liban. But neither this hvpothesis, 
nor die authorities by which it is supported, have any weight with the 
most learned men of the Roman church, who maintain, diat die Maron- 
ites derived their origin from the Monophysites, and adhered to the 
doctrine of die Monothelites,* until the twelfth century, when diey 
embraced die communion of Rome. See R. Simon, Histoire Critique 
des Chretiens Orientaux, ch. xiii. — Euseb. Renaudot, Histor. Patriarch. 
Alexand. in Prscfat. iii. 2. in Histor. p. 49. The very learned Assema- 
nus, who was himself a Maronite, steers a middle way between these 
opposite accounts, in his Biblioth. Orient. Vatic, torn, i., while the mat- 
ter in debate is left undecided by Mich, le Quien, in his Oriens Christia- 
nus, torn, iii., where he gives an account of the Maronite church and 
its spiritual rulers. — For my own part I am persuaded, diat those who 
consider that all die Maronites have not as yet embraced the faith, or 
acknowledged the jurisdiction of Rome, will be little disposed to receive 
with credulity the assertions of certain Maronite priests, who are, after 
die manner of the Syrians, much addicted to boasting and exaggeration. 
Certain it is, that there are Maronites in Syria, who sull behold the 
* Those who maintained, that, notwithstanding the two natures in 
Christ, viz. die human and the divine, there was, neverdieless, but one 
will, which was die divine. 



450 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AJND EASTERN CHURCHES. 



Sect. III. 



saries should pretend to change or abolish any thing 
which related to the ancient rites, moral precepts, or re- 
ligious opinions, of this people ; so that in reality, among 
the Maronites, there is nothing to be found that savours of 
popery, if we except their attachment to the Roman pon- 
tiff," who is obliged to pay dearly for their friendship ; 
for, as they live in the utmost distress of poverty, under 
the tyrannical yoke of infidels, the bishop of Rome is un- 
der a necessity of furnishing them with such subsidies as 
may gratify the rapacity of their oppressors, procure a sub- 
sistence for their bishop and clergy, provide all things re- 
quisite for the support of their churches and the uninter- 
rupted exercise of public worship, and contribute in gen- 
church of Rome with the greatest aversion and abhorrence ; and, what 
is still more remarkable, great numbers of that nation residing in Italy, 
even under the eye of the pontiff, opposed his authority during the last 
century, and threw the court of Rome into great perplexity. One 
body of these non-conforming Maronites retired into the valleys of Pied- 
mont, where they joined the Waldenses ; another, above six hundred 
in number, with a bishop and several ecclesiastics at their head, fled 
into Corsica, and implored the protection of the republic of Genoa 
against the violence of the inquisitors. See TJrb. Cerri's Etat present 
de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 121. Now may it not be asked here, What 
could have excited the Maronites in Italy to this public and vigorous 
opposition to the Roman pontiff, if it be true that their opinions were in 
all respects conformable to the doctrines and decrees of the church of 
Rome 1 This opposition could not have arisen from any thing but a 



eral to lessen their misery. Besides, the college erected 
at Rome by Gregory XIII. with a view of instructing the 
young men, frequently sent from Syria, in the various 
branches of useful science and sacred erudition, and pre- 
possessing them with an early veneration and attachment 
for the Roman pontiff, is attended with a very consi- 
derable expense. The Maronite patriarch performs his 
spiritual functions at Canobin, a convent of the monks of 
St. Antony, on mount Libanus, which is his constant 
residence. He claims the title of Patriarch of Antioch, 
and always assumes the name of Peter, as if he seemed 
desirous of being considered as the successor of that 
apostle. b 

difference in point of doctrine and belief, since the church of Rome 
allowed, and still allows the Maronites,. under its jurisdiction, to retain 
and perform the religious rites and institutions that have been "handed 
down to them from their ancestors, and to follow the precepts and rules 
of life to which they have always been accustomed. Compare, with 
the authors above cited, Thesaur. Epistol. Crozian. t. i. 

a The reader will do well to consult principally, on this subject, the 
observations subjoined by Rich. Simon to his French translation of the 
Italian Jesuit Dandini's Voyage to Mount Libanus, published in 1685. 
See also Euseb. Renaudot's Historia Patriarch. Alexandr. p. 548. 

•> See Pelitqueux, Voyage a. Canobin dans le Mont Liban, in the Nou- 
veaux Memoires des Missions de la Compagnie de Jesus, torn. iv. p. 252. 
and torn. viii. p. 355. — La Roque, Voyage de Syrie, torn. ii. p. 10.-- 
Laur. D'Arvieux, Memoires ou Voyages, torn. ii. p. 418. 



PART II. 

THE HISTORY OF THE MODERN CHURCHES. 



CHAPTER I. 
Tlie History of the Lutheran Church. 

I. The rise and progress of the Evangelical or Lu- 
theran church, have been already related, so far as they 
belong to the history of the Reformation. The former 
title was assumed by that church in consequence of the 
original design of its founder, which was to restore to its 
native lustre the Gospel of Christ, that had so long been 
covered with the darkness of superstition, or, in other 
words, to place in its proper and true light that important 
doctrine, which represents salvation as attainable by the 
merits of Christ alone. Nor did the church, now under 
consideration, discover any reluctance to an adoption of 
the name of the great man, whom Providence employed 
as the honoured instrument of its foundation and esta- 
blishment. A natural sentiment of gratitude to him, by 
whose ministry the clouds of superstition had been chiefly 
dispelled, who had destroyed the claims of pride and self- 
sufficiency, exposed the vanity of confidence in the inter- 
cession of saints and martyrs, and pointed out the Son 
of God as the only proper object of trust to miserable 
mortals, excited his followers to assume his name, and to 
call their community the Lutheran Church. 

The rise of this church must be dated from that re- 
markable period, when pope Leo X. drove Martin Luther, 
with his friends and followers, from the bosom of the Ro- 
man hierarchy, by a solemn and violent sentence of ex- 
communication. It began to acquire a regular form, and 
a considerable degree of stability and consistence, from 
the year 1530, when the system of doctrine and morality 
which it had adopted was drawn up and presented to the 
diet of Augsburg ; and it was raised to the dignity of a 
lawful and complete hierarchy, totally independent of the 

§^f * When the confession of Augsburg had been presented to the 
diet of that city, the Roman catholic doctors were employed to refute the 
doctrines it contained ; and this pretended refutation was also read to that 
august assembly. A reply was immediately drawn up by Melancthon, 
and presented to the emperor, who, under the pretext of a pacific spirit, 
refused to receive it This reply was afterwards published, under the 
title of Apologia Confessionis Augustanae ; and is the defence of that 
confession, mentioned by Dr. Mosheim as annexed to it. To speak 
plainly, Melancthon's love of peace and concord seems to have carried 
him beyond what he owed to the truth, in composing this defence of the 
confession of Augsburg. In that edition of the Defence which some 
Lutherans (and Chytraeus among others) look upon as the most genuine 
and authentic, Melancthon makes several strange concessions to the 
church of Rome ; whether through servile fear, excessive charity, or 
hesitation of mind, I will not pretend to determine. He speaks of the 
presence of Christ's body in the eucharist in the very strongest terms 
that tire catholics use to express the monstrous doctrine of transubstan- 
iiation, and adopts those remarkable words of Theophylact, that ' the 
bread was not a figure only, but was truly changed into flesh.' He ap- 
proves that canon of the mass, in which the priest prays that 'the bread 
may be changed into the body of Christ.' It is true, that, in some sub- 
sequent editions of the defence or apology now under consideration, 
these obnoxious passages were omitted, and the phraseology, which had 
given such just offence, was considerably mitigated. There is an am- 
ple account of this whole affair, together with a history of the dissen- 
sions of the Lutheran church, in the valuable and learned work of 
Hospinian, entitled, ' Historic Sacramentariae Pars posterior,' p. 199, 
et seq. These expressions, in Melancthon's Apologia, will appear still 
more surprising, when we recollect that, in the course of the debates 
concerning the manner of Christ's presence in the eucharist, he, at 
ength, seemed to lean visibly toward die opinions of Bucer aud Calvin, 



laws and jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, in consequence 
of the treaty concluded at Passau, in 1552, between 
Charles V., and Maurice, elector of Saxony, relating to 
the religious affairs of the empire. 

II. The gTeat and leading principle of the Lutheian 
church, is, that the Scriptures are the only source from 
which we are to draw our religious sentiments, whether 
they relate to faith or practice ; and that these inspired 
writings are, in all matters that are essential to salvation, 
so plain, and so easy to be thoroughly understood, that 
their signification may be learned, without the aid of an 
expositor, by every person of common sense, who has a 
competent knowledge of the language in which they are 
composed. There are, indeed, certain formularies adopt- 
ed by this church, which contain the principal points of 
its doctrine, ranged, for the sake of method and perspi- 
cuity, in their natural order. But these books have no 
authority but what they derive from the scriptures of truth, 
whose sense and meaning they are designed to convey ; 
nor are the Lutheran doctors permitted to interpret or ex- 
plain these books so as to draw from them any proposi- 
tions inconsistent with the express declarations of the 
word of God. The Confession of Augsburg, and the 
annexed Defence of it against the objections of the Ro- 
man catholic doctors, may be deemed the chief and the 
most respectable of these human productions. 1 In the 
next rank may be placed the Articles of Sm ale aid* as 
the}^ are commonly called, together with the shorter and 
larger Catechisms of Luther, calculated for the instruc- 
tion of youth, and the improvement of persons of riper 
years. To these standard-books most churches add the 
Form of Concord ; which, though not universally re- 
ceived, has not, on that account, occasioned any animo- 
sity or disunion, as the few points that prevent its being 
adopted by some churches are of an indifferent nature, 

and that, after his death, his followers were censured and persecuted in 
Saxony on this account, under the denomination of Philippists. This 
shows either that the great man now under consideration changed his 
opinions, or that he had formerly been seeking union and concord at the 
expense of truth. 

3pT b The articles here mentioned were drawn up at Smalcald by 
Luther, on occasion of a meeting of the protestant electors, princes, 
and states, at that place. They were principally designed to show how 
far the Lutherans were disposed to go, in order to avoid a final rupture, 
and in what sense they were willing to adopt the. doctrine of Christ's 
presence in the eucharist. And though the terms in which these articles 
are expressed, be somewhat dubious, yet they are much less harsh and 
disgusting than those used in the Confession, the Apology, and die Form 
of Concord. 

glf e Dr. Mosheim, like an artful painter, shades those objects in tire 
history of Lutheranism which it is impossible to expose with advan- 
tage to a full view. Of this nature was the conduct of the Lutheran 
doctors in the deliberations relating to the famous Form of Concord 
here mentioned ; a conduct that discovers such an imperious and un- 
charitable spirit, as would have been more consistent with the genius of 
the court of Rome than with die principles of a protestant church. 
The reader who is desirous of an ample demonstration of the trudi and 
justice of this censure, has only to consult the learned work of Rod. 
Hospinian, entitled, ' Concordia Discors, seu de Origine et Progressu 
Formulae Concordia? Bergensis.' The history of this remarkable pro- 
duction is more amply related in the thirty-ninth and following para- 
graphs of this first chapter, and in die notes, which the translator has 
taken the liberty to add there, in order to cast a proper light upon some 
things that are too interesting to be viewed superficially. In the mean 
time I shall only observe that die points in die Form of Concord, that 
prevented its being universally received, are not of such an indifferent 



452 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. in. 



and do not, in any degree, affect the grand and funda- 
mental principles of true religion.* 

III. The form of public worship, and the rites and ce- 
remonies that were proper to be admitted as a part of it, 
gave rise to disputes in several places, during the infancy 
of the Lutheran church. Some were inclined to retain a 
greater number of the ceremonies and customs that had 
been so excessively multiplied in the church of Rome, 
than seemed either lawful or expedient to others. The 
latter, after the example of the Helvetic reformers had 
their views entirely turned toward that simplicity and 
gravity which characterized the Christian worship in the 
primitive times ; while the former were of opinion, that 
some indulgence was to be shown to the weakness of the 
multitude, and some regard paid to institutions that had 
acquired a certain degree of weight through long estab- 
lished custom. But, as these contending parties were 
both persuaded that the ceremonial part of religion was, 
generally speaking, a matter of human institution, and 
that consequently a diversity of external rites might be 
admitted among different churches professing the same 
religion, without any prejudice to the bonds of charity 
and fraternal union, these disputes could not be of any 
long duration. In the mean time, all those ceremonies 
and observances of the church of Rome, whether of a 
public or private nature, that carried palpable marks of 
eiror and superstition, were every where rejected without 
hesitation ; and wise precautions were used to regulate 
the forms of public worship in such a manner, that the 
genuine fruits of piety should not be choked by a multi- 
tude of insignificant rites. Besides, every church was al- 
lowed to retain so much of the ancient form of worship 
as might be still observed without giving offence, and as 
seemed suited to the character of the people, the genius of 
the government, and the nature and circumstances of the 
place where it was founded. Hence it has happened, 
that, even so far down as the present times, the Lutheran 
churches differ considerably one from another, with re- 
spect both to the number and nature of their religious ce- 
remonies ; a circumstance so far from tending to their dis- 
honour, that it is, on the contrary, a very striking proof of 
their wisdom and moderation. 11 

IV. The supreme civil rulers of every Lutheran state 
are clothed also with the dignity, and perform the func- 
tions of supremacy in the church. The very essence of 
civil government seems manifestly to point out the neces- 
sity of investing the sovereign with this spiritual supre- 
macy, and the tacit consent of the Lutheran churches 
has confirmed the dictates of wise policy m this respect. 
It must not, however, be imagined, that the ancient rights 
and privileges of the people in ecclesiastical affairs have 
been totally abolished by this constitution of things, since 
it is certain, that the vestiges of the authority exercised 

nature as Dr. Mosheim seems to imagine. To maintain the ubiquity or 
omnipresence of Christ's body, together with its real and peculiar pre- 
sence in the eucharist, and to exclude from their communion the protes- 
tunts, who denied these palpable absurdities, was the plan of the Lu- 
theran doctors in composing and recommending the Form of Concord; 
and this plan can neither be looked upon as a matter of pure indifference, 
nor as a mark of Christian charity. 

• See, for an account of the Lutheran confessions of faith, Christ. 
Locheri Biblioth. Theologiae Symbolics, p. 114. 

* See Balth. Meisneirus, Lib. de Legibus, lib. iv. art. iv. qua?st. 

iv. — Jo. Adam Scherzerus, Breviar. Hulsemann. Enulc. p. 1313 

1321. 

§£j* c Since nothing is more inconsistent with that subordination and 



by them in the primitive times, though more striking m 
one place than in another, are yet more or less visible 
every where. Besides, it must be carefully remembered, 
that all civil rulers of the Lutheran persuasion are effec- 
tually restrained, by the fundamental principles of the doc- 
trine they profess, from any attempts to change or destroy 
the established rule of faith and manners, to make any 
alteration in the essential doctrines of their religion, or in 
any thing that is intimately connected with them, or to 
impose their particular opinions upon their subjects in a 
despotic and arbitrary manner. 

The councils, or societies, appointed by the sovereign 
to watch over the interests of the church, and to govern 
and direct its affairs, are composed of persons conversant 
both in civil and ecclesiastical law, and, according to a 
very ancient denomination, are called Consistories. The 
internal government of the Lutheran church seems equally 
removed from episcopacy on the one hand, and from pres- 
byterianism on the other, if we except the kingdoms of 
Sweden and Denmark, which retain the form of ecclesi- 
astical government that preceded the reformation, purged, 
indeed, from the superstitions and abuses that rendered it 
so odious. d This constitution of the hierarchy of the Lu- 
therans will not seem surprising, when their sentiments 
with respect to ecclesiastical polity are duly considered. 
On the one hand, they are persuaded that there is no law, 
of divine authority, which points out a distinction between 
the ministers of the Gospel, in rank, dignity, or preroga- 
tives ; and therefore they recede from episcopacy. But, 
on the other hand, they are of opinion, that a certain sub- 
ordination, a diversity in point of rank and privileges 
among the clergy, are not only highly useful, but also ne- 
cessary to the perfection of church communion, by con- 
necting more closely, in consequence of a mutual depen- 
dence, the members of the same body ; and thus they 
avoid the uniformity of the presbyterian government. 
They do not, however, agree with respect to the extent 
of this subordination, and the degrees of superiority and 
precedence that ought to distinguish their doctors ; for, in 
some places, this is regulated with much more regard to 
the ancient rules of church-government, than is discovered 
in others. As the divine law is silent on this head, dif- 
ferent opinions may be entertained, and different forms of 
ecclesiastical polity adopted, without a breach of Christian 
charity and fraternal union. 

V. Every country has its own liturgies, which are the 
rules of proceeding in every thing that relates to external 
worship and the public exercise of religion. These rules, 
however, are not of an immutable nature, like those insti- 
tutions which bear the stamp of a divine authority, but 
may be augmented, corrected, or illustrated, by the order 
of the sovereign, when such changes evidently appear to 
be necessary or expedient. The liturgies used in the dif 

concord, which are among the great ends of civil government, than i m- 
perivstn in imperio, i. e. two independent sovereignties in the same 
body politic, the genius of government, equally with the spirit of genu- 
ine Christianity, proclaims die equity of that constitution, which makes 
the head of the state the supreme visible ruler of the church. 

3£JT a In these two kingdoms the church is ruled by bishops and super- 
intendants, under the inspection and authority of the sovereign. The 
archbishop of Upsal is primate of Sweden, and the only archbishop 
among the Lutherans. The luxury and licentiousness that too com- 
monly flow from the opulence of the Roman catholic clergy are unknown 
in these two northern states, since the revenues of the prelate now men- 
tioned do not amount to more than 400 pounds yearly, while those of 
the bishops are proportionally small. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



453 



ferent countries that have embraced the system of Luther, ! [ 
agree perfectly in all the essential branches of religion, in ![ 
all matters that can be looked upon as of real moment and 
.mportance ; but they differ widely in many things of an 
indifferent nature, concerning which tbe Scriptures are i 
silent, and which compose that part of the public religion 
that derives its authority from the wisdom and appoint- 
meat of men. Assemblies for the celebration of divine 
worship meet every where at stated times. Here the 
Scriptures are read publicly, prayers and hymns are ad- 
dressed to the Deity, the sacraments are administered, and 
the people are instructed in the knowledge of religion, 
and excited to the practice of virtue by the discourses of j 
their ministers. The wisest methods are used for the re- i 
ligious education of youth, who are not only carefully in- j 
structed in the elements of Christianity in the public 
schools, but are also examined by the pastors of the 
churches to which they belong, in a public manner, in 
order to the progressive extension of their knowledge, and 
the more vigorous exertion of their faculties in the study 
of divine truth. Hence, in almost every province, cate- j 
chisms, containing the essential truths of religion and the : 
main precepts of morality, are published and recommend- | 
ed by the authority of the sovereign, as rules to be follow- j 
ed by the masters of schools, and by the ministers of the 
church, both in their private and public instructions. ! 
But. as Luther left behind him an accurate and judicious ] 
production of this kind, in winch the fundamental princi- ' 
pies of religion and morality are explained and confirmed 
with the greatest perspicuity and force, both of evidence j 
and expression, this compendious catechism of that emi- j 
nent reformer is universally adopted as the first introduc- | 
tion to religious knowledge, and is one of the standard- j 
books of that church which bears his name ; and, indeed, 
all the provincial catechisms are no more than illustrations 
and enlargements of this excellent abridgment of faith 
and practice. 

"VI. Among the days deemed sacred in the Lutheran 
church, (beside that which is celebrated every week in 
memory of Christ's resurrection from the dead,) we may 
reckon all such as were signalised by those glorious and 
important events that proclaimed the celestial mission of 
the Saviour, and the divine authority of his holy religion. 3 
For these sacred festivals, the grateful and well-grounded 
piety of ancient times had always professed the highest 
veneration. But the Lutheran church has gone yet far- 
ther ; and, to. avoid giving offence to weak brethren, has 
retained several which seemed to have derived the re- 
spect that is paid to them, rather from the suggestions of 
superstition than from the dictates of true religion. There 
are some churches that carry the desire of multiplying 
festivals so far, as to observe religiously the days former- 
ly set apart for celebrating the memory of the twelve 
apostles. 

It is well known, that the power of excommunication. 
L e. of banishing from its bosom obstinate and scandalous 
transgressors, was a privilege enjoyed and exercised by 
the church from the remotest antiquity ; and it is no less 
certain, that this privilege was often perverted to the 

" Such (for example) are the nativity, death, resurrection, and ascen- 
sion of the Son of God ; the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles 
on die day of Pentecost, &c. 

O" b The reason of this will be seen in the following note. 

f^- ° In the diet of Augsburg, which was assembled in 1555. in order 

No. XXXIX. 114 



most iniquitous and odious purposes. The founders of 
the Lutheran church, therefore, undertook to remove the 
abuses and corruptions under which this branch of 
ecclesiastical discipline laboured, and to restore it to its pri- 
mitive purity and vigour. At first their attempt seemed to 
be crowned with success, since it is plain, that, during the 
sixteenth century, no opposition of any moment was 
made to the wise and moderate exercise of this spiritual 
authority. But. in process of time, this privilege fell im 
perceptibly into contempt ; the terror of excommunica- 
tion lost its force : and ecclesiastical discipline was reduced 
to such a shadow, that, in most places, there are scarcely 
any remains or traces of it at this day. This change may 
be partly attributed to the corrupt propensities of man- 
kind, who are naturally desirous of destroying the influ- 
ence of even* institution that is designed to curb their li- 
centious passions! It must, however, be acknowledged, 
that the relaxation of ecclesiastical discipline was not owing 
to this cause alone ; other circumstances concurred to di- 
minish the respect and submission that had been paid to 
the spiritual tribunal. On one hand, the clergy abused 
this important privilege in various ways ; some misapply- 
ing the severity of excommunication through ignorance 
or imprudence, while others impiously perverted an insti- 
tution, in itself exceedingly useful, to satisfy their private 
resentments, and to avenge themselves upon those who 
had dared to offend them. On the other hand, the coun- 
sels of certain persons in power, who considered the privi- 
lege of excommunicating in the hands of the clergy as 
derogatory from the majesty of the sovereign, and detri- 
mental to the interests of civil society, had no small influ- 
ence in bringing this branch of spiritual jurisdiction into 
disrepute. It is however certain, that whatever causes 
may have contributed to produce this effect, the effect it- 
self was much to be lamented, as it removed one of the 
most powerful restraints upon iniquity. Nor will it ap- 
pear surprising, when this is duly considered, that the 
manners of the Lutherans are so remarkably depraved, 
and that, in a church which is almost deprived of all autho- 
rity and discipline, multitudes affront the public by their 
audacious irregularities, and transgress, with a shameless 
impudence, through the prospect of impunity. 

VII. The prosperous and unfavourable events which be- 
long to the history of the Lutheran church, since the 
happy establishment of its liberty and independence, are 
neither numerous nor remarkable, and may consequently 
be mentioned in a few words. The rise and progress of 
this church, before its final and permanent establishment, 
have been already related; but that very religious peace, 
which was the instrument of its stability and indepen- 
dence, set bounds, at the same time, to its progress in the 
empire, and prevented it effectually from extending its 
limits. b Near the close of this century, Gebhard. archbi- 
shop of Cologne, evinced a wish to enter into its commu 
nion, and, having contracted the bonds of matrimony, 
formed the design of introducing the reformation into his 
dominions. But this arduous attempt, which was in di- 
rect contradiction to the famous ecclesiastical reservation 1 
stipulated in the articles of the peace of religion concluded 

to execute the treaty of Passau, those states which had already embracwl 
the Lutheran religion, were confirmed in. the full enjoyment of their re- 
ligious liberty. To prevent, however, as far as was possible, the pro- 
gress of the reformation, Charles V. stipulated for the catholics the 
famous ecclesiastical reservation, by which it was decreed, that if any 



454 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. lU 



at Augsburg, proved abortive ; and the prelate was oblig- 
ed to resign his dignity, and to abandon his country. 1 On 
the other hand, it is certain, that the adversaries of the 
Lutheran church were not permitted to disturb its tran- 
quillity, or to hurt, in any essential point, its liberty, pros- 
perity, and independence. Their intentions, indeed, were 
malignant enough ; and it appeared evident, from many 
striking circumstances, that they were secretly projecting 
a new attack upon the protestants with a view to annul 
the treaty of Passau, and to have them declared public 
enemies to the empire. Such was undoubtedly the un- 
just and seditious design of Francis Burckhard, in com- 
posing the famous book de Autonomic which was pub- 
lished in 1586 ; and also of Pistorius, in drawing up the 
reasons, which the margrave of Baden alleged in vindi- 
cation of his returning from Lutheranism into the bosom 
of popery.* These writers, and, others of the same stamp, 
treated the Religious Peace, negociated at Passau, and 
ratified at Augsburg, as unjust, because it was obtained 
by force of arms, and as null, because concluded without 
the knowledge and consent of the Roman pontiff. 
They pretended also to prove, that by the changes and in- 
terpolations, which they affirmed to have been made by 
Melancthon, in the confession of Augsburg, after it had 
been presented to the diet, the protestants forfeited all the 
privileges and advantages derived from the treaty now 
mentioned. The latter accusation gave rise to long and 
warm debates during this and the following century. 
Many learned and ingenious productions were published 
on that occasion, in which the Lutheran divines proved, 
with the utmost perspicuity and force of argument, that 
the Confession was preserved in their church in its origi- 
nal state, un corrupted by any mixture, and that none of 
their brethren had ever departed in any instance from the 
doctrines contained in it. c They who felt most sensibly 
the bitter and implacable hatred of the papists against the 
doctrine and worship of the Lutheran Church (which they 
disdainfully called the new religion,) were such mem- 
bers of that church as lived in the territories of Roman 
Catholic princes. This is more especially true of the pro- 
testant subjects of the house of Austria, d who experienced, 
in the most affecting manner, the dire effect of bigotry 
and superstition seated on a throne, and who lost the 
greatest part of their liberty before the conclusion of this 
century. 

VIII. While the votaries of Rome were thus meditating 
the ruin of the Lutheran church, and exerting, for this 
purpose, all the powers of secret artifice and open violence, 
the followers of Luther were assiduously bent on defeating 
their efforts, and left no means unemployed, that seemed 
proper to maintain their own doctrine, and to strengthen 
their cause. The calamities which they had suffered 
were fresh in their remembrance ; and hence they were 



archbishop, prelate, bishop, or other ecclesiastic, should, in time to come, 
renounce the faith of Rome, his dignity and benefice should be forfeited, 
and his place be filled by that chapter or college which possessed the 
power of election. 

* See Jo. Dav. Koleri Dissertatio de Gebhardo Truchsessio. — Jo. Pet. 
a Ludewig Reliquiae Manuscriptorum omnis JEvi, torn. v. p. 383. — See 
also a German work entitled Unschuldige Nachr itch ten. An. 1748. p. 484. 

i> See Chr. Aug. Salig. Histor. August. Confessionis, torn. i. lib. iv. 
cap. iii. p. 767. 

e See Salig. Hist. August. Confessionis, torn i. — It cannot indeed be 
denied, that Melancthon corrected and altered some passages of the Con- 
fession of Augsburg. It is certain, that, in 1555, he made use of the 
extraordinary credit and influence he then had, to introduce among the 



admonished to use all possible precautions to prevent their 
falling again into the like unhappy circumstances. Add 
to this, the zeal of princes and men in power for the ad- 
vancement of true religion, which, it must be acknowl- 
edged, was much greater in this century, than it is in the 
times in which we live. Hence the original confederacy 
that had been formed among the German princes for the 
maintenance of Lutheranism, and of which the electoi 
of Saxony was the chief, gradually acquired new strength ; 
and foreign sovereigns, particularly those of Sweden and 
Denmark, were invited to enter into this grand alliance ; 
and, as it was universally agreed, that the stability and 
lustre of the rising church depended much on the learning 
of its ministers, and the progress of the sciences, among 
those in general who professed its doctrines, so the great- 
est part of the confederate princes promoted, with the ut- 
most zeal, the culture of letters, and banished, wherever 
their salutary influence could extend, that baneful igno- 
rance wh ich is the parent of superstition. The academical 
institutions founded by the Lutherans, at Jena, Helmstadt, 
and Altorf, and by the Calvinists at Franeker, Leyden, and 
other places ; the ancient universities reformed and accom- 
modated to the constitution and exigencies of a purer 
church than that under whose influence they had been 
at first established ; the great number of schools that 
were opened in almost every city ; the ample rewards, to- 
gether with the distinguished honours and privileges that 
were bestowed on men of learning and genius ; all these 
circumstances bear honourable testimony to the generous 
zeal of the German princes for the advancement of useful 
knowledge. These noble establishments were undoubt- 
edly expensive, and required large funds for their support. 
These were principally drawn from the revenues and pos- 
sessions, which the piety or superstition of ancient times 
had consecrated to the multiplication of convents, the 
erection or embellishment of churches, and other religious 
uses. 

IX. These generous and zealous efforts in the cause of 
learning were attended with remarkable success. Almost 
all the liberal arts and sciences were cultivated with em- 
ulation, and brought to greater degrees of perfection. All 
those, whose views were turned to the service of the church, 
were obliged to apply themselves, with diligence and as- 
siduity, to the study of Greek, Hebrew, and Latin litera- 
ture, in order to qualify them for performing, with digni- 
ty and success, the duties of the sacred function ; and it 
is well known that in these branches of erudition several 
Lutheran doctors excelled in such a manner, as to require 
a deathless name in the republic of letters. Melancthon, 
Cario, Chytrseus, Reineccius, and others, were eminent 
for their knowledge of history. More particularly Matthias 
Flacius, one of the authors of the Centurise Magdeburg- 
enses,* (an immortal work that restored to the light of evi- 

Saxon churches an edition of that confession, which was so far correct- 
ed as to be, upon the whole, very different from the original one. But 
his conduct in this step, which was extremely audacious, or at least 
highly imprudent, never received the approbation of the Lutheran 
church, nor was the Augsburg Confession, in this new shape, ever ad- 
mitted as one of the standard-books of its faith and doctrine. 

i See the Austria Evangelica of the learned Raupachius, torn. i. p. 152. 
torn., ii. p. 287. 

g^T * The joint authors of this famous work (beside Flacius Illyricus) 
were Nicolaus Gallus, Johannes Wigandus, and Matthias Judex, all 
ministers of Magdeburg; and they were assisted by Caspar Nidpruck- 
ius, an Imperial counsellor, Johannes Baptista Heincelius, an Augus- 
tinian, Basil Faber, and others. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



455 



dence and truth the facts relating to the rise and progress 
of the Christian church, which had been covered with 
great darkness, and corrupted by innumerable fables,) may 
be deservedly considered as the parent of ecclesiastical 
history. Nor should we omit mentioning the learned 
Martin Chumnitz, to whose Examination of the Decrees 
of the Council of Trent, the history of religion is more 
indebted, than many, at this day, are apt to imagine. 
While so many branches of learning were cultivated with 
zeal, some, it must be confessed, were too little pursued. 
Among these we may place the history of literature and 
philosophy, the important science of criticism, the study 
of antiquities, and other objects of erudition connected with 
them. It is, however, to be observed, that, notwithstanding 
the neglect -with which these branches of science seemed 
too generally to be treated, the foundations of their culture 
and improvement in future ages were really laid in this 
century. On the other hand, it is remarkable that Latin 
eloquence and poetry were carried to a very high degree 
of improvement, and exhibited orators and poets of the 
first order ; from which circumstance alone it may be 
fairly concluded, that, if all the branches of literature and 
philosophy were not brought to that pitch of perfection, of 
which they were susceptible, this was not owing to the 
want of industry or genius, but rather to the restraints 
imposed upon genius by the infelicity of the times. All 
the votaries of science, whom a noble emulation excited 
to the pursuit of literary fame, were greatly animated by 
the example, the influence, and the instructions of Me- 
lancthon, who was deservedly considered as the great 
and leading doctor of the Lutheran church, and whose 
sentiments, relating both to sacred and profane erudition, 
were so generally respected, that scarcely any had the 
courage to oppose them. In the next rank to this eminent 
reformer may be mentioned Joachim Camerarius of Leip- 
sic, a shining ornament to the republic of letters in this 
century, who, by his zeal and application, contributed 
much to promote the cause of universal learning, and 
more especially the study of elegant literature. 

X. The revolutions of philosophy among the Lutheran 
doctors were many and various. Luther and Melanc- 
thon seemed to set out with a resolution to banish every 
species of philosophy 3 from the church ; and, though it is 
impossible to justify entirely this part of their conduct, 
they are less to be blamed than those scholastic doctors 
whose barbarous method of teaching philosophy was ex- 
tremely disgusting, and who, by a miserable abuse of the 
subtle precepts of Aristotle, had perverted the dictates of 
common sense, and introduced the greatest obscurity and 
confusion both into philosophy and religion. But, though 
these abuses led the two great men now mentioned too 
far, and were carrying them into the opposite extreme, 
their own recollection suspended their precipitation, and 
ihey both perceived, before it was too late, that true phi- 

a See Christ. Aug. Heumanni Acta Philosophor. art ii. part x. p. 
679. — Jo. Herm. ab Elswich, Dissertat. de Varia Aristotelis Fortuna in 
Scholis Protestantium, which Launoy has prefixed to his book, de For- 
tuna Aristotelis in Academia Parisiensi. sect. viii. xiii. 

§3r b Some writers, either through malignity, or for want of better in- 
formation, have pretended that Luther rejected the scholastic philosophy 
through a total ignorance of its nature and precepts. Those who have 
ventured upon such an assertion must have been as ignorant of the his- 
tory of literature in general, as of the industry and erudition of Luther 
in particular. For a demonstrative proof of this, see Brucker's Historia 
Critica Philosophise, torn. iv. part i. 

• Jo. Herm. ab. Elswich, de Fatis Aristot. in Scholis Protest, sect, j 



i losophy was necessary to restrain the licentious flights of 
I mere genius and fancy, and to guard the sanctuary of re- 
ligion against the inroads of superstition and enthusiasm. b 
It was in consequence of this persuasion that Melancthon 
composed, in a plain and familiar style, abridgments of 
almost all the branches of philosophy, which, during many 
years, were explained publicly to the studious youth in 
all the Lutheran academies and schools of learning. This 
celebrated reformer may not improperly be considered as 
an eclectic; for, though in many points he followed 
Aristotle, and retained some degree of propensity to the 
ancient philosophy of the schools, yet he drew many 
things from the fecundity of his own genius, and often 
had recourse also to the doctrines of the Platonists and 
Stoics. 

XL This method of teaching philosophy, however re- 
commendable on account of its simplicity and perspicuity, 
did not long enjoy, alone and unrivalled, the great credit 
and authority which it had obtained. Certain acute and 
subtle doctors, having perceived that Melancthon, in com- 
posing his Abridgments, had discovered a peculiar and 
predominant attachment to the philosophy of Aristotle, 
thought it was better to go to the source, than to drink 
at the stream, and therefore read and explained to their 
disciples the words of the Stagirite. On the other hand, 
it was observed, that the Jesuits, and other votaries of 
Rome, artfully made use of the ambiguous terms and 
the intricate sophistry of the ancient schoolmen, in order 
to puzzle the protestants, and to reduce them to silence, 
when they particularly wished for such arguments as 
were calculated to produce conviction ; and, therefore, 
many protestant doctors thought it might be advantageous 
to their cause to have the studious youth instructed in 
the mysteries of the Aristotelian philosophy, as it was 
taught in the schools, that thus they might be qualified 
to defend themselves with the same weapons with which 
they were attacked. Hence there arose, in the latter part 
of this century, three philosophical sects, the Melanctho- 
nian, the Aristotelian, and the Scholastic. The first de- 
clined gradually, and soon disappeared : but the other 
two imperceptibly grew into one, acquired new vigour by 
this coalition, increased daily in reputation and influence, 
and were adopted in all the schools of learning. It is 
true, that the followers of Ramus made violent inroads, 
in several places, upon the territories of these combined 
sects, and sometimes with a certain appearance of success ; 
but their hopes were transitory ; for after various strug- 
gles they were obliged to yield, and were at length en- 
tirely banished from the schools. 

XII. Such also was the fate of the disciples of Para- 
celsus, who, from the grand principle of their physical 
system, were called Fire-Philosophers^ and who aimed 
I at nothing less than the total subversion of the peripa- 
tetic philosophy, and the introduction of their own reve- 

xxi. — Jo. Georg. Walchius, Historia Logices, lib. ii. cap. i. — Otto Fred. 
Schutzius, de Vita Chytraei, lib. iv. sect. iv. 

f^T 4 This fanatical sect of philosophers had several denominations. 
They were called Theo-Sophists, from their declaiming against human 
reason as a dangerous and deceitful guide, and their representing a 
divine and supernatural illumination as the only means of arriving at 
truth. They were called Philosophi per ignem, i. e. Fire-Philoso- 
phers, from their maintaining that the intimate essences of natural 
things were only to be known by the trying efforts of fire, directed in a 
chemical process. They were, lasdy, denominated Paracelsists, from 
the eminent physician and chemist of that name, who was the chief 
ornament ana leader of that extraordinary sect 



456 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. III. 



ries into the public schools. Toward the close of this 
century, the Paracelsists really made a figure in almost 
all the countries of Europe, as their sect was patronised 
and supported by the genius and eloquence of several 
great men, who exerted themselves, with the utmost zeal 
and assiduity, in its cause, and endeavoured, both by their 
writings and their transactions, to augment its credit. In 
England it found an eminent defender in Robert Flood, 
or Fludd, a man of a very singular genius, a who illus- 
trated, or at least attempted to illustrate, the philosophy 
of Paracelsus, in a great number of treatises, which, even 
in our times, are not entirely destitute of readers and ad- 
mirers. The same philosophy found some votaries in 
France, and was propagated with zeal at Paris by Rivier, 
in opposition to the sentiments and efforts of the univer- 
sity of that city. b Its cause was industriously promoted 
in Denmark, by Severinus ; c in Germany, by Kunrath, 
an eminent physician at Dresden, who died in 1605 ; d 
and in other countries by a considerable number of warm 
votaries, who were by no means unsuccessful in aug- 
menting its reputation, and multiplying its followers. 
As all these heralds of the new philosophy accompanied 
their instructions with a striking air of piety and devotion, 
and seemed, in propagating their strange system, to pro- 
pose to themselves no other end than the advancement 
of the divine glory, and the restoration of peace and con- 
cord to a divided church, a motive which, in appearance, 
was so generous and noble, could not fail to procure friends 
and protectors. Accordingly, we find, that, near the close 
of this century, several persons, eminent for their piety, 
and distinguished by their zeal for the advancement of 
true religion, joined themselves to this sect. Of this num- 
ber were the Lutheran doctors Weigelius, Arndius, and 
others, who were led into the snare by their ill-grounded 
notions of human reason, and who apprehended that con- 
troversy and argumentation might lead men to substitute 
anew the pompous and intricate jargon of the schools in 
the place of solid and sincere piety. 

XIII. Among those who manifested a propensity to- 
ward the system of the Paracelsists, or Theosophists, 
was the celebrated Daniel Hoffman, professor of divinity 
in the university of Helmstadt, who, from the year 1598, 
had declared open war against philosophy, and who con- 
tinued to oppose it with the greatest obstinacy and violence. 
Alleging the weight and authority of some opinions of 
Luther, and of various passages in the writings of that 
great man, he extravagantly maintained, that philosophy 
was the mortal enemy of religion ; that truth was divi- 
sible into two branches, one philosophical and the other 
theological ; and that what was true in philosophy, was 
fplse in theology. These absurd and pernicious tenets 
naturally alarmed the judicious doctors of the university, 
and excited a warm controversy between Hoffman and 
his colleagues Owen Guntherus, Cornelius Martin, John 
Caselius, and Duncan Liddle ; a controversy also of too 
much consequence, to be confined within such narrow 

f^- * The person here mentioned by Dr. Mosheim is not the famous 
Dominican monk of that name, who, from his ardent pursuit of mathe- 
matical knowledge, was called the Seeker, and who, from his passion 
for chemistry, was suspected of magic, but a famous physician born in 
Kent, in 1574, who was very remarkable for his attachment to the alche- 
mists. See Wood's Athen. Oxoniens. vol. i. p. 610, and his Hist, et 
Antiq. Acad. Oxoniens. lib. ii. p. 390; also P. Gassendi, Examen Phi- 
losoph. Fluddanze, torn. iii. op. 

» Boulay, Histor. Acad. Paris, torn. vi. 



bounds, and which accordingly was carried on in other 
countries with the same fervour. The tumults which it 
excited in Germany were appeased by the interposition 
of Henry, duke of Brunswick, who, having made a care- 
ful inquiry into the nature of this debate, and consulted 
the professors of the academy of Rostoch on that subject, 
commanded Hoffman to retract publicly the invectives he 
had thrown out against philosophy in his writings and 
in his academical lectures, and to acknowledge, in the 
most open manner, the harmony and union of sound 
philosophy with true and genuine theology. e 

XIV. The theological system that now prevails in the 
Lutheran academies, is not of the same tenor or spirit 
with that which was adopted in the infancy of the Re- 
formation. As time and experience are necessary to bring 
all things to perfection, so the doctrine of the Lutheran 
church changed, imperceptibly and by degrees, its original 
form, and was improved and perfected in many respects. 
This will appear both evident and striking to those who 
are acquainted with the history of the doctrines relating 
to free-will, predestination, and other points, and who com- 
pare the Lutheran systems of divinity of an earlier date, 
with those which have been composed in modern times. 
The case could not well be otherwise. The glorious de- 
fenders of religious liberty, to whom we owe the various 
blessings of the Reformation, as they were conducted 
only by the suggestions of their natural sagacity, whose 
advances in the pursuit of knowledge are gradual and pro- 
gressive, could not at once behold the truth in all its lus- 
tre, and in all its extent ; but, as usually happens to per- 
sons who have been long accustomed to the darkness of 
ignorance, their approaches toward knowledge were slow, 
and their views of things very imperfect. The Luther- 
ans were greatly assisted both in correcting and illustrat- 
ing the articles of their faith, partly by the controversies 
which they were obliged to carry on with the Roman 
Catholic doctors and the disciples of Zuingle and Calvin, 
and partly by the intestine divisions that prevailed among 
themselves, of which an account shall be given in this 
chapter. They have been absurdly reproached, on ac- 
count of this variation in their doctrine, by Bossuet and 
other papal writers, who did not consider that the founders 
of the Lutheran church never pretended to divine inspi- 
ration, and that it is by discovering first the errors of others, 
that the wise generally prepare themselves for the inves- 
tigation of truth. 

XV. The first and principal object that drew the at- 
tention and employed the industry of the reformers, was 
the exposition and illustration of the sacred writings, 
which, according to the doctrine of the Lutheran church, 
contain all the treasures of celestial wisdom, all things 
that relate to faith and practice. Hence it happened, that 
the number of commentators and expositors among the 
Lutherans equalled that of the eminent and learned doc- 
tors who adorned that communion. At the head of all, 
Luther and Melancthon are undoubtedly to be placed ; 

c Jo. Molleri Cimbria Literata, torn. i. p. 623. 

d Cimb. Lit. torn. ii. p. 440. 

c There is an accurate account of this controversy, with an enumera- 
tion of the writings published on both sides of the question, in the life 
of Owen Guntherus, inserted by Mollerus in his Cimbria Literata, 
torn. i. p. 225. — See also Jo. Herm. ab Elswich, de Fatis Aristotelis in 
Scholis Protestant, sect, xxvii., and a German work, by Gottfried Ar- 
nold, upon the affairs of the church and the progress of heresy, entitled, 
Kirchen und Ketzer Historie, p. 947. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



457 



the former, on account of the sagacity and learning, dis- 
covered in his explications of several portions of Scripture, 
and particularly of the books of Moses, and the latter, in 
consequence of his commentaries on the Epistles of St. 
Pnul, and other learned labours of that kind, which are 
abundantly known. A second class of expositors, of the 
same communion, obtained also great applause in the 
learned world, by their successful application to the study 
of the Scriptures. In this class we may rank Matthias 
Flacius, who composed a Glossary and Key to the sacred 
Writings, 1 very useful in unfolding the meaning of the 
inspired penmen ; John Bugenhagius, Justus Jonas, An- 
drew Osiander, and Martin Chemnitz, whose Harmonies 
of the Evangelists are not destitute of merit ; and to these 
we may add Victor Strigelius and Joachim Camerarius ; 
of whom the latter, in his Commentary on the New Tes- 
tament, expounds the Scriptures in a grammatical and 
critical manner only, and, laying aside all debated points 
of doctrine and religious controversy, unfolds the sense of 
each term, and the spirit of each phrase, by the rules of 
criticism and the genius of the ancient languages, in 
which he was a very uncommon proficient. 

XVI. All these expositors and commentators abandon- 
ed the method of the ancient interpreters, who, neglecting 
the plain and evident purport of the words of Scripture, 
were perpetually torturing their imaginations, hi order to 
find out a mysterious sense in each word or sentence, or 
were hunting after insipid allusions and chimerical appli- 
cations of particular passages to objects which never en- 
ured into the views of the inspired writers. On the con- 
trary, their principal zeal and industry were employed in 
investigating the natural force and signification of each 
expression, in consequence of that golden rule of inter- 
pretation which Luther inculcated, ' that there is only one 
sense annexed to the words of Scripture throughout all 
the books of the Old and New Testament?* It must, 
however, be acknowledged, that the examples exhibited 
by these judicious expositors were far from being univer- 
sally followed. Many, labouring under the inveterate dis- 
ease of an irregular fancy and a scanty judgment, were 
still seeking hidden significations and double meanings in 
the expressions of holy writ. They were perpetually bu- 
sied in twisting all the prophecies of the Old Testament 
into an intimate connexion with the life, sufferings, and 
transactions of Jesus Christ ; and were over-sagacious in 
pretending to find out, in the history of the patriarchal 
and Jewish churches, the types and figures of the events 
that have happened in modern, and which may yet hap- 
pen in future times. In all this they discovered more 
imagination than judgment, more wit than wisdom. Be 
that as it may, all the expositors of this age may, I think. 
be properly divided into two classes, with Luther at the 
head of the one, and Melancthon presiding in the other. 
Some commentators followed the example of the former, 
who, after a familiar explication of the sense of Scripture, 
applied its decisions to the settlement of controverted points, 
and to the illustration of the doctrines and duties of reli- 
gion. Others discovered a greater propensity to the me- 
thod of the latter, who first divided the discourses of the 
sacred writers into several parts, explained them accord- 
ing to the rides of rhetoric, and afterwards proceeded to 

" The Latin lilies are GLissa Scriptures Sacra, and Clavis Scriptu- 
res Sacrts. 

§Qr i> This solden rule 'will be found often defective ajid false, unless 

No. XXXIX. 115 



a more strict and almost a literal exposition of each part, 
taken separately, applying the result, as rarely as was pos 
sible, to points of doctrine or matters of controversy. 

XVII. Complete systems of theology were far from be- 
ing numerous in this century. Melancthon, the most 
eminent of all the Lutheran doctors, collected and digest- 
ed the doctrines of the church, which he so eminently 
adorned, into a body of divinity, under the vague title of 
Loci Communes, i. e. a Common-Place-Book of Theology. 
This compilation, which was at different times reviewed, 
corrected, and enlarged by its author, was in such high 
repute during this century, and even in succeeding times, 
that it was considered as a model of doctrine for all those, 
who either instructed the people by their public discourses, 
or promoted the knowledge of religion by their writings. 
The title prefixed to this performance, indicates suffi- 
ciently the method, or rather the irregularity that reigns 
in the arrangement of its material ; and shows, that it 
was not the design of Melancthon to place the various 
truths of religion in that systematic concatenation, and 
that scientific order and connexion, which are observed 
by the philosophers in their demonstrations and discourses, 
but to propose them with freedom and simplicity, as thej 
presented themselves to his view. Accordingly, in the 
earlier editions of the book under consideration, the me> 
thod observed, both in delineating and illustrating these 
important truths, is exceedingly plain, and not loaded 
with the terms, the definitions, or the distinctions that 
abound in the writings of the philosophers. Thus did 
the Lutheran doctors, in the first period of the rising 
church, renounce and avoid, in imitation of the great re- 
former whose name they bore, all the abstruse reasoning, 
and subtle discussions, of the scholastic disputants and 
writers. But the sophistry of their adversaries, and their 
perpetual debates with the artful champions of the church 
of Rome, engaged them by degrees, as has been ahead}' ob- 
served, to change their language and their methods of rea- 
soning ; so that, in process of time, the simplicity that had 
reigned in their theological systems, and in their manner 
; of explaining the truths of religion, almost totally disap- 
peared. Even Melancthon himself fell imperceptibly in- 
to the new method, or rather into the old method revived 
and enlarged the subsequent editions of his Loci Com 
: munes. by the addition of several philosophical illustra- 
tions, calculated to expose the fallacious reasonings of the 
Romish doctors. As yet, however, the discussions of phi 
losophy were sparingly used, and the unintelligible jargon 
of the schoolmen was kept at a certain distance, and sel- 
dom borrowed. But when the founders of the Lutheran 
church were removed by death, and the Jesuits attacked 
I the principles of the Reformation with redoubled aninio- 
; sity, armed with the intricate and perplexing dialect of 
the schools, the scene was changed, and theology assumed 
another aspect. The stratagem employed by the Jesuits 
corrupted our doctors, induced them to revive that intri- 
cate and abstruse manner of defending and illustrating 
religious truth, which Luther and his associates had re- 
jected, and to introduce, into the plain and artless paths 
of theology, all the thorns and thistles, all the dark and 
devious labyrinths of the scholastic philosophy. This un- 
happy change was deeply lamented by several divines of 

several prophetical, parabolical, and figurative expressions be excepted 
in its application. 
c See Jo. Franc. Buddcus, Isagoge ad Theolo. lib. ii. c.i.5 xiii.t. i. p. 361. 



458 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. HI. 



eminent piety and learning about the commencement of 
the -seventeenth century, who regretted the loss of that 
amiable simplicity which is the attendant on divine 
truth ; but they could not prevail upon the professors, in 
the different universities, to sacrifice the jargon of the 
schools to the dictates of common sense, or to return to 
the plain, serious, and unaffected method of teaching 
theology, that had been introduced by Luther. These 
obstinate doctors pleaded necessity in behalf of their scho- 
lastic divinity, and looked upon this pretended necessity 
as superior to all authorities, and all examples, however 
respectable. 

XVIII. Those who are sensible of the intimate con- 
nexion between faith and practice, between the truths and 
duties of religion, will easily perceive the necessity that 
existed for a reformation of the corrupt morality, as well 
as of the superstitious doctrines, of the church of Rome. 
It is therefore natural, that the same persons, who had 
spirit enough to do the one, should think themselves oblig- 
ed to attempt the other. This they accordingly attempted, 
and not without a certain degree of success ; for it may 
be affirmed with truth, that more genuine piety and more 
excellent rules of conduct are observable in the few prac- 
tical productions of Luther, Melancthon, Weller, and Ri- 
vius, than are to be found in the innumerable volumes 
of all the ancient Casuists and Moralisers, a as they are 
called in the barbarous language of those remote periods. 
It is not, however, meant even to insinuate, that the no- 
tions of these great men concerning the important science 
of morality were either sufficiently accurate or extensive. 
It appears, on the contrary, from various debates which 
were carried on during this century, concerning the duties 
and obligations of Christians, and from the answers that 
were given by famous casuists to persons perplexed with 
religious scruples, that the true principles of morality 
were not yet fixed with perspicuity and precision, the 
agreement or difference between the laws of nature and 
the precepts of Christianity not sufficiently examined and 
determined, nor the proper distinctions made between those 
parts of the gospel dispensation, which are agreeable to 
right reason, and such as are beyond its reach and com- 
prehension. Had not the number of adversaries, with 
whom the Lutheran doctors were obliged to contend, given 
them perpetual employment in the field of controversy, 
and robbed them of that precious leisure which they might 
have consecrated to the advancement of real piety and 
virtue, they would certainly have been free from the de- 
fects now mentioned, and would, perhaps, have equalled 
the best moral writers of modern times. This consider- 
ation will also diminish our wonder at a circumstance, 
which otherwise might^seem surprising, that none of the 
famous Lutheran doctors attempted to give a regular sys- 
tem of morality. Melancthon himself, -whose exquisite 
judgment rendered him peculiarly capable of reducing 
into a compendious system the elements of every science, 
never seems to have thought of treating morals in this 
manner ; but has inserted, on the contrary, all his prac- 
tical rules and instructions under the theological articles 
that relate to the law, sin, free-will, faith, hope, and cha- 
rity. 

XIX. All the divines of this century were educated 
in the school of controversy, and so trained up to spi- 

3£jT * The moral writers of this century were called Moralisantes, a bar- 



ritual Avar, that an eminent theologian, and a bold and 
vehement disputant, were considered as synonymous 
terms. It could scarcely, indeed, be otherwise, in an age 
when foreign quarrels and intestine divisions of a religi- 
ous nature threw all the countries of Europe into a state 
of agitation, and obliged the doctors of the contending 
churches to be perpetually in action, or at least in a pos- 
ture of defence. These champions of the Reformation 
were not, however, all animated with the same spirit, nor 
did they attack and defend with the same arms. Such of 
them as were contemporary with Luther, or lived near his 
time, were remarkable for the simplicity of their reasoning, 
and attacked their adversaries with no other arguments 
than those which they drew from the declarations of the in- 
spired writers, and the decisions of the ancient fathers. 
In the latter part of the century this method was consi- 
derably changed ; and we see those doctors, who were 
its chief ornaments, reinforcing their cause with the suc- 
cours of the Aristotelian philosophy, and thus losing, in 
point of perspicuity and evidence, what they gained in 
point of subtilty and imagined science. It is true, as has 
been already observed more than once, that they were too 
naturally, though inconsiderately, led to adopt this method 
of disputing by the example of their adversaries the Ro- 
man catholics. The latter, having learned, by a disa- 
greeable and discouraging experience, that their cause 
was unable to support that plain and perspicuous method 
of reasoning, which is the proper test of religious and moral 
truth, had recourse to stratagem, when evidence failed, and 
involved both their arguments and their opinions in the 
dark and intricate mazes of the scholastic philosophy ; and 
it was this that engaged the protestant doctors to change 
their weapons, and to employ methods of defence unworthy 
of the glorious cause in which they had embarked. 

The spirit of zeal, that animated the Lutheran divines, 
was, in general, very far from being tempered by a spirit 
of charity. If we except Melancthon, in whom a pre- 
dominant mildness and sweetness of natural temper tri- 
umphed over the contagious ferocity of the times, all the 
disputants of this century discovered too much bitterness 
and animosity in their transactions and in their writings. 
Luther himself appears at the head of this sanguine tribe, 
whom he far surpassed in invectives and abuse, treating 
his adversaries with the most brutal asperity, and sparing 
neither rank nor condition, however elevated or respecta- 
ble they might be. It must indeed be confessed, that the 
criminal nature of this vehemence will be much alleviated, 
when it is considered in one point of view with the ge- 
nius of those barbarous times, and the odious cruelty and 
injustice of the virulent enemies, whom the oppressed re- 
formers were called to encounter. When the impartial 
inquirer considers the abominable calumnies that were la- 
vished on the authors and instruments of the Reforma- 
tion ; when he reflects upon the horrors of fire and sword 
employed, by bigoted and blood-thirsty tyrants, to extir- 
pate those good men whom they wanted arguments to con- 
vince ; will not his heart burn with a generous indigna- 
tion ? and will he not think it in some measure just, that 
such horrid proceedings should be represented in theft 
proper colours, and be stigmatised by such expressions as 
are suited to their demerit ? 

XX. In order to form a just idea of the internal state 

barous term, to which the English w6rd„Moraliser$bea.i:s some resemblance. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



459 



of the Lutheran Church, and of the revolutions and I 
changes which have happened in it, with their true springs 
and real causes, it is necessary to consider the history of 
that church under three periods. The first extends from | 
the commencement of the Reformation to the death of j 
Luther, which happened in 1546: the second takes in 
the time which elapsed between the death of Luther and 
that of Melancthon, and consequently terminates in 
1560 ; and the remainder of the century is comprehended 
in the third period. 

THE FIRST PERIOD. 

During this period, all things were transacted in the 
Lutheran church in a manner conformable to the senti- 
ments, counsels, and orders of Luther. This eminent re- 
former, whose undaunted resolution, and amazing credit 
and authority, rendered him equal to the most arduous 
attempts, easily suppressed the commotions and dissen- 
sions which arose from time to time in the church, and 
did not suffer the sects, that several had attempted to form 
in its bosom, to gather strength, or to arrive at any con- 
siderable degree of consistence and maturity. The natu- 
ral consequence of this was, that, during the life of that 
great man, the internal state of the Lutheran church was 
a state of tolerable tranquillity and repose ; and all such 
as attempted to foment divisions, or to introduce any essen- 
tial changes, were either speedily reduced to silence, or 
obliged to retire from the new community. 

XXI. The infancy of this church was troubled by an 
impetuous rabble of wrong-headed fanatics, who introdu- 
ced the utmost confusion wherever they endeavoured to 
diffuse their pestilential errors, and who pretended that they 
had received a divine inspiration, authorizing them to erect 
a new kingdom of Christ, in which sin and corruption 
were to have no place. The leaders of this turbulent 
and riotous sect were Munzer, Storck, Stubner, and others, 
either Swiss or Germans, who kindled the flame of dis- 
cord and rebellion in several parts of Europe, but chiefly 
in Germany, and excited among the ignorant multitude 
tumults and commotions, which, though less violent in 
some places than in others, were, nevertheless, formidable 
wherever they appeared." The history of this seditious 
band is full of obscurity and confusion. A regular, full, 
and accurate account of it, neither has been, nor could 
well be, committed to writing ; since, on one hand, the 

* John Baptist Ottius, in his Annales Anabaptist, has collected a con- 
siderable number of facts relating; to these fanatical commotions, which 
are likewise mentioned by all the writers of the history of the Reforma- 
tion. 

fOf" b The tumults of the anabaptists in Germany have already been 
mentioned in a cursory manner, sect. i. chap. ii. sect. xxii. For an am- 
ple account of the origin, doctrine, and progress of the Mennonites, see 
the third chapter of the second part of this third section, cent. xvi. 

f£lr e The danger that threatened the Lutheran church in these tu- 
mults of the German anabaptists, was so much the greater on account 
of the inclination which Munzer and Storck discovered at first for tire 
sentiments of Luther, and the favourable disposition which Carlostadt 
seemed for some time to entertain with respect to these fanatics. 

fjj* d The reader may perhaps imagine, from Dr. Mosheim's account 
of this matter, that Carlostadt introduced these changes merely by his 
own authority ; but this was far from being the case; the suppression 
of private masses, the removal of images out of the churches, the aboli- 
tion of the law which imposed celibacy upon the clergy, which are the 
changes hinted at by our historian as rash and perilous, were effected 
by Carlostadt, in conjunction with Bugenhagius. Melancthon, Jonas 
Amsdorff, and others, and were confirmed by the authority of the elector 
of Saxony ; so that there is some reason to apprehend that one of the 
principal causes of Luther's displeasure at these changes, was their be- 
ing introduced in his absence ; unless we suppose thai he had not so far 



opinions and actions of these fanatics were a motley chaos 
of inconsistencies and contradictions, and, on the other, 
the age, in which they lived, produced few writers who 
had either the leisure or the capacity to observe with dili- 
gence, or to relate with accuracy, commotions and tumults 
of this extraordinary kind. It is however certain, that, 
from the most profligate and abandoned part of this en- 
thusiastical multitude, those seditious armies were formed, 
which kindled in Germany the war of the peasants, and 
afterwards seized the city of Munster, involving the whole 
province of Westphalia in the most dreadful calamities". 
It is also well known, that the better part of this motley 
tribe, terrified by the unhappy and deserved fate of their 
unworthy associates, whom they saw massacred with the 
most unrelenting severity, saved themselves from the ruin 
of their sect, and, at length, embraced the communion of 
those who are called Mennonites. b The zeal, vigilance, 
and resolution of Luther, happily prevented the divisions, 
which the odious disciples of Munzer attempted to excite 
in the church he had founded, and preserved the giddy 
and credulous multitude from their seductions; and it 
may be safely affirmed, that, had it not been for the vigour 
and fortitude of this active and undaunted reformer, the 
Lutheran church would, in its infancy, have fallen a 
miserable prey to the enthusiastic fury of these detestable 
fanatics. c 

XXII. Fanatics and enthusiasts of the kind now de- 
scribed, while they met with the warmest opposition from 
Luther, found, on the contrary, in his colleague Carlo- 
stadt, such a credulous attention to their seductions, as na- 
turally flattered them with the hopes of his patronage and 
favour. This divine, who was a native of Franconia, was 
not destitute of learning or of merit ; but imprudence and 
precipitation were the distinguished lines of his warm and 
violent character. Of these he gave the most evident 
marks, in 1523, when, during the absence of Luther, he ex- 
cited no small tumult at Wittenberg, by ordering the images 
to be taken out of the churches, and by other enterprises of 
a rash and dangerous nature. d This tumult was appeas- 
ed by the sudden return of Luther, whose presence and 
exhortations calmed the troubled spirits of the people ; and 
here we must look for the origin of the rupture between 
him and Carlostadt; for the latter immediately retired from 
Wittenberg to Orlamund, where he not only opposed the 
sentiments of Luther concerning the eucharist, e but also 

shaken off the fetters of superstition, as to be sensible of the absurdity 
and the perrjk'ous consequences of the use of images, &c. As to the 
abolition of the law that imposed celibacy on the clergy, it is well 
known that it was the object of his warmest approbation. This ap- 
pears from the following expressions in his letter to Amsdorff: " Car- 
lostadii nuptia? mire placent : novi puellam: comfortet aim Dominus in 
bonum exemplum inhibenda? et minuendae papistical libidinis." He 
soon afterwards confirmed this approbation bv his own example. 

f^» e This difference of opinion between Carlostadt and Lulhcr con- 
cerning the eucharist, was the true cause of the violent rupture between 
those two eminent men, and it tended very little to the honour of the 
latter; for, however the explication, which the former gave of the 
words of the institution of the Lord's Supper, may appear forced, yet 
the sentiments he entertained of that ordinance as a commemoration of 
Christ's death, and not as a celebration of his bodily presence, in. conse- 
quence of a consubstantiation with the bread and wine, are infinitely 
more rational than the doctrine of Luther, which is loaded with some of 
the most palpable absurdities of transubstantiation ; and if it be suppo- 
sed that Carlostadt strained the rule of interpretation too far, when he 
alleged, that Christ pronounced the pronoun this, (in the words This 's 
my body) pointing to his body, and not to the bread, what shall \\ e 
think of Luther's explaining the nonsensical doctrine of consubstantia- 
tion by the similitude of a red-hot iron,' in which two elements are 
united^ as the body of Christ is with the bread in the eucharist 1 



460 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. III. 



betrayed, in several instances, a fanatical turn of mind." 
Ho was therefore commanded to leave the territories of the 
elector of Saxony, which he did accordingly, and repaired 
to Switzerland, where he propagated his doctrines, and 
taught with success, first at Zurich, and afterwards at 
Basil, retaining however, as long as he lived, a favourable 
disposition toward the sects of the Anabaptists, and, in 
general, to all enthusiastic teachers, who pretended to a 
divine inspiration. 11 Thus then did Luther, in a short 
time, allay this new storm which the precipitation of Car- 
lostadt had raised in the church. 

XXIII. The reforming spirit of Carlostadt, with re- 
spect to the doctrine of Christ's presence in the eucharist, 
was not extinguished, by his exile, in the Lutheran 
church. It was revived, on the contrary, by a man 
nearly of the same turn of mind, a Silesian knight, and 
counsellor to the duke of Lignitz, whose name was Cas- 
par Schwenckfeld. This nobleman, seconded by Valen- 
tine Crautwald, a man of eminent learning, who lived 
at the court of the prince now mentioned, took notice of 
many things, which he deemed erroneous and defective, 
in the opinions and rites established by Luther ; and, had 
not the latter been extremely vigilant, as well as vigorous- 
ly supported by his friends and adherents, would have 
undoubtedly brought about a considerable schism in the 
church. Every circumstance, in Schwenckfeld's conduct 
and appearance, was adapted to give him credit and influ- 
ence. His morals were pure, and his life, in all respects, 
exemplary. His exhortations in favour of true and solid 
piety were warm and persuasive, and his principal zeal 
was employed in promoting it among the people. He thus 
acquired the esteem and friendship of many learned and 
pious men, both in the Lutheran and Helvetic churches, 
who favoured his sentiments, and undertook to defend 
him against all his adversaries. Notwithstanding all this, 
he was banished by his sovereign both from the court and 
from his country, in 1528, only because Zuingle had ap- 
proved his opinions concerning the eucharist, and declared 
that they did not differ essentially from his own. From 
that time the persecuted knight wandered from place to 
place, under various turns of fortune, until death, in 1561, 
put an end to his trials. d He had founded, in Silesia, a 
small congregation, the members of which were persecu- 
ted and ejected by the popish possessors of that country ; 



g^T * This censure is with too much truth applicable to Carlostadt. 
Though he did not adopt the impious and abominable doctrines of Mun- 
zer and his band, (as Dr. Mosheim permits the uninstructed reader to 
imagine by mentioning him, as being a friend to these fanatics in gene- 
ral,') yet he certainly was chargeable with some extravagances that 
were observable in the tenets of that wrong-headed tribe. He was for 
abolishing the civil law, with the municipal laws and constitutions of 
the German empire, and proposed substituting the law of Moses in their 
place. He distinguished himself by railing at the universities, de- 
claiming against human learning, and other follies. 

" Great wits to madness nearly are allied." 
See Val. Em. Loscheri Historia Motuum inter Lutheranos et Reformat, 
par. i. cap. i. — Dan. Gerdes, Vita Carolostadii, in Miscell. Groningens. 
novis. 

5J> b This affirmation of Dr. Mosheim wants much to be modified. 
In the original it stands thus: "Dum vixit vero anabaptistarum homi- 
numque divina visa jaetantium partibus amicum sese ostendit," — i. e. 
as long as he lived, he showed himself a friend to the anabaptists, and 
other enthusiasts who pretended to divine inspiration. But how could 
our historian assert this without restriction, since it is well known that 
Carlostadt, after hisbanishment from Saxony, composed a treatise against 
enthusiasm in general, and against the extravagant tenets and the vio- 
lent proceedings of the anabaptists in particular 1 This treatise was 
even addressed to Luther, who was so affected by it, that, repenting of 
his unworthy treatment of Carlostadt, he pleaded his cause, and obtain- 



but they were restored to their former habitations and 
privileges, civil and religious, by that prince whc began, 
in 1740, to reign over Prussia." 5 

XXIV. The upright intentions of Schwenckfeld, and 
his zeal for the advancement of true piety, deserve, no 
doubt, the highest commendation ; but the same thing 
cannot be said of his prudence and judgment. The good 
man had a natural propensity toward fanaticism, and 
fondly imagained that he had received a divine commis- 
sion to propagate his opinions. He differed from Luther, 
and the other friends of the reformation, in three points, 
which it is proper to select from others of less conse- 
quence. The first of these points related to the doctrine 
concerning the eucharist. Schwenckfeld inverted the 
words of Christ, ' This is my body,' and insisted on their 
being thus understood : "My body is this, i. e. such as 
this bread which is broken and consumed ; a true and 
real food, which nourishes, satisfies, and delights the 
soul. My blood is this, that is, such in its effects as the 
wine, which strengthens and refreshes the heart." The 
poor man imagined that this wonderfid doctrine had been 
revealed to him from heaven ; which circumstance alone 
is a sufficient demonstration of his folly. 

The second point in which he differed from Luther, 
was in his hypothesis relating to the efficacy of the divine 
word. He denied, for example, that the external word, 
which is committed to writing in the Scriptures, was en- 
dowed with the power of healing, illuminating, and re- 
newing the mind ; and he ascribed this power to the 
internal word, which, according to his notion, was Christ 
himself. His discourses, however, concerning this inter- 
nal word, were, as usually happens to persons of his turn, 
so full of confusion, obscurity, and contradiction, that it 
was difficult to find out what his doctrine really was, and 
whether it resembled that of the Mystics and Quakers, or 
was borrowed from a different source. 

His doctrine concerning the human nature of Christ, 
formed the third subject of debate between him and the 
Lutherans. He would not allow Christ's human nature, 
in its exalted state, to be called a creature, or a created 
substance, as such denomination appeared to him infi- 
nitely below its majestic dignity, united as it is, in that 
glorious state, with the divine essence. This notion of 
Schwenckfeld bears a remarkable affinity to the doctrine 

ed from the elector a permission for him to return into Saxony. See 
Gerdes, Vita Carolostadii. After this reconciliation with Luther, he 
composed a treatise on the eucharist, which breathes the most amiable 
spirit of moderation and humility; and, having perused the writings of 
Zuingle, where he saw his own sentiments on that subject maintained 
with the greatest perspicuity and force of evidence, he repaired a se- 
cond time to Zurich, and thence to Basil, where he was admitted to the 
offices of pastor and professor of divinity, and where, after having 
lived in the exemp'ary and constant practice of every Christian virtue, 
he died, amidst the warmest effusions of piety and resignation, on the 
25th of December, 1541. All this is testified solemnly in a letter of the 
learned and pious Grynreas of Basil, toPitiscus, chaplain to the Elector 
Palatine, and shows how little credit ought to be given to the assertion* 
of the ignorant Moreri, or to the insinuations of the insidious Bos 
suet. 

See Jo. Conr. Fueslini Centuria I. Epistolar. a Reformatoribus Hel 
veticis scriptar. p. 169, 175, 225. Museum Helvetic, torn. iv. p. 445. 

<> Jo. Wigandi Schwenckfeldianismus. — Conr. Schlusselburgi Catalog . 
Hrereticor. lib. x. — The most accurate accounts of this nobleman have 
oeen given by Chr. Aug. Salig, in his Histor. August. Confessionis 
torn. iii. lib. xi. and by Gottfried Arnold, in his Kirchen und Ketzer 
Historie, p. 720, both of which authors have pleaded the cause of 
Schwenckfeld. 

• See an account of Schwenckfeld's Confession of Faith, in Kocher'a 
Bibliotheca Theologiae Symbolical, p. 457. 



Part II 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



4CI 



of Eutyches, which, however, he professed to reject ; and, 
in his turn, he accused those of Nestorianism, who gave the 
denomination of a creature to the human nature of Christ. 

XXV. An intemperate zeal, by straining certain truths 
too far ;urns them into falsehood, or, at least, often ren- 
ders tl-em the occasion of the most pernicious abuses. 
A striking instance of this happened during the ministry 
of Luther. While he was insisting upon the necessity of 
imprinting deeply in the minds of the people that doctrine 
of the Gospel, which represents Christ's merits as the 
source of man's salvation, and while he was eagerly em- 
ployed in censuring and refuting the popish doctors, who 
mixed the law and the Gospel together, and represented 
eternal happiness as the fruit of legal obedience, a fanatic 
arose, who abused his doctrine, by over-straining it, and 
thus opened a field for the most dangerous errors. This 
new teacher was John Agricola, a native of Eisleben, and 
an eminent doctor of the Lutheran church, though 
chargeable with vanity, presumption, and artifice. He 
first began to make a noise in 1538, when, from the doc- 
trine of Luther now mentioned, he took occasion to de- 
claim against the law, maintaining, that it was neither 
fit to be proposed to the people as a rule of manners, nor 
to be used in the church as a mean of instruction ; and 
that the Gospel alone was to be inculcated and explained, 
both in the churches and in the schools of learning-. The 
followers of Agricola were called Antinomians, i. e. ene- 
mies of the law. But the fortitude, vigilance, and credit 
of Luther, suppressed this sect in its very infancy ; and 
Agncola, intimidated by the opposition of such a re- 
spectable adversary, acknowledged and renounced his 
pernicious system. But this recantation does not seem 
to have been sincere, since it is said, that when his fears 
were dispelled by the death of Luther, he returned to his 
errors, and gained proselytes to his extravagant doc- 
trine. 11 

XXVI. The tenets of the Antinomians, if their adver- 
saries are to be believed, were of the most noxious nature 
and tendency ; for they are supposed to have taught the 
most dissolute doctrine in point of morals, and to have 
maintained that it was allowable to follow the impulse of 
every passion, and to transgress without reluctance the 
divine law, provided that the transgressor took hold of 
Christ, and embraced his merits by a lively faith. Such, 
at least, is the representation that is generally given of 
their doctrine ; but it ought not to be received with im- 
plicit credulity ; for whoever looks into this matter with 
attention and impartiality, will soon be persuaded, that 
such an absurd and impious doctrine is unjustly laid to 
the charge of Agricola, and that the principal fault of this 
presumptuous man lay in some harsh and inaccurate ex- 
pressions, which were susceptible of dangerous and per- 
nicious interpretations. By the term law, he understood 
the ten Commandments, promulgated under the Mosaic 
dispensation ; and he considered this law as enacted for 
the Jews, and not for Christians. He, at the same time, 
explained the term Gospel (which he considered as sub- 
stituted for the law) in its true and extensive sense, as 
comprehending not only the doctrine of the merits of 



1 See. Caspar Sagittarius, Introd. ad Histor. Ecclesiast. torn. i. p. 838. 
— Bayle's Dictionarie, Com. ii. at the article Islebius. — Conr. Schlussel- 
burg, Catalog. Haer. lib. iv.— G. Arnold, Kirchen und Ketzer Hist. p. 813. 

it?" b It would certainly be very difficult to point out the many re- 
spects in which Dr. Mosheim affirms that Luther was superior to Me- 

No. XXXIX. 118 



Christ rendered salutary by faith, but also the sublime pre- 
cepts of holiness and virtue, delivered by the divine Saviour, 
as rules of obedience. If, therefore, we follow the inten- 
tion of Agricola, without interpreting, in a rigorous man- 
ner, the uncouth phrases and improper expressions which 
he so frequently and so injudiciously employed, his doc- 
trine will plainly amount to this: "That the ten Com- 
mandments, published during the ministry of Moses, were 
chiefly designed for the Jews, and on that account might 
be lawfully neglected and laid aside by Christians : and 
that it was sufficient to explain with perspicuity, and to 
enforce with zeal, what Christ and his apostles had taught 
in the New Testament, both with respect to the means of 
grace and salvation, and the obligations of repentance and 
virtue." The greatest part of the doctors of this century 
are chargeable with a want of precision and consistency 
in expressing their ideas : hence their real sentiments have 
been misunderstood, and opinions have been imputed to 
them which they never entertained. 

THE SECOND PERIOD. 

XXVII. After the death of Luther, which happen- 
ed in the year 1546, Philip Melancthon was placed at 
the head of the Lutheran doctors. The merit, genius, and 
talents of this new chief were, undoubtedly, great and il- 
lustrious, though it must, at the same time, be confess- 
ed, that he was inferior to Luther in many respects,' 
and more especially in courage, firmness, and personal 
authority. His natural temper was soft and flexible; 
his love of peace almost excessive, and his apprehensions 
of the displeasure and resentment of men in power Avere 
such as betrayed a pusillanimous spirit. He was ambi- 
tious of the esteem and friendship of all with whom he 
had any intercourse, and was absolutely incapable of em- 
ploying the force of threatenings, or the restraints of fear, 
to suppress the efforts of religious faction, to keep withi'* 
due bounds the irregular love of novelty and change, and 
to secure to the church the obedience of its members. It 
is also to be observed, that his sentiments, on some points 
of moment, differed considerably from those of Luther ; 
and it may not be improper to point out the principal sub- 
jects on which they adopted different ways of thinking. 

In the first place, Melancthon was of opinion, that, 
for the sake of peace and concord, many things might be 
connived at and tolerated in the church of Rome, which 
Jfuther considered as absolutely insupportable. The for 
mer carried so far the spirit of toleration and indulgence, 
as to discover no reluctance against retaining the ancient 
form of ecclesiastical government, and submitting to the 
dominion of the Roman pontiff, on certain conditions, and 
in such a manner, as might be without prejudice to the 
obligation and authority of all those truths which are 
clearly revealed in the holy scriptures. 

A second occasion of a diversity of sentiment, between 
these great men, was furnished by the tenets which Lu- 
ther maintained in opposition to the doctrines of the church 
of Rome. Such were his ideas concerning faith, as the 
only cause of salvation, concerning the necessity of good 
works to our final happiness, and man's natural incapacity 

lancthon ; for, if the single article of courage and firmness of mind be 
excepted, I know no other respect in which Melancthon is not superior, 
or at least equal, to Luther. He was certainly his equal in piety and 
virtue, and much his superior in learning, judgment, meekness, and 
humanity. 



462 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. in. 



of promoting his own conversion. In avoiding the cor- 
ruot notions which were embraced by the Roman-catholic 
doctors on these important points of theology, Luther 
seemed, in the judgment of Melancthon, to lean too 
much toward the opposite extreme. 11 Hence the latter 
was inclined to think, that the sentiments and expressions 
of his colleague required to be in some degree mitigated, 
lest they should give a handle to dangerous abuses, and 
•e perverted to the propagation of pernicious errors. 

It may be observed, thirdly, that though Melancthon 
adopted the sentiments of Luther in relation to the eucha- 
rist, b yet he did not consider the controversy with the di- 
vines of Switzerland on that subject, as a matter of suffi- 
cient moment to occasion a breach of church communion 
and fraternal concord between the contending parties. 
He thought that this happy concord might be easily pre- 
served by expressing the doctrine of the eucharist, and 
Christ's presence in that ordinance, in general and ambi- 
guous terms, which the two churches might explain ac- 
cording to their respective systems. 

Such were the sentiments of Melancthon, which, 
though they were not entirely concealed during the life 
of Luther, he delivered, nevertheless, with great circum- 
spection and modesty, yielding always to the authority of 
his colleague, for whom he had a sincere friendship, and 
of whom also he stood in awe. But no sooner were the 
eyes of Luther closed, than he inculcated, with the great- 
est plainness and freedom, what he had before only hinted 
with timidity and caution. The eminent rank which 
he held among the Lutheran doctors rendered this bold 
manner of proceeding extremely disagreeable to many. 
His doctrine accordingly was censured and opposed ; and 
thus the church was deprived of the tranquillity which it 
had enjoyed under Luther, and exhibited an unhappy 
scene of animosity, contention, and discord. 

XXVIII. The rise of these unhappy divisions must be 
dated from the year 1548, when Charles V. attempted to 
impose upon the Germans the famous edict, called the 
Interim. Maurice, the new elector of Saxony, desirous 
of knowing how far such an edict ought to be respected 
in his dominions, assembled the doctors of Wittenberg 
and Leipsic in the lasVmentioned city, and proposed this 
nice and critical subject to their serious examination. 
Upon this occasion Melancthon, complying with the 
suggestions of that lenity and moderation which were the 

IpT a It is certain, that Luther carried the doctrine of Justification by- 
Faith to such an excessiv /ength, as seemed, though perhaps contrary 
to his intention, to derogate not only from the necessity of good works, 
but even from their obligation and importance. He would not allow 
them to be considered either as the conditions or means of salvation, 
or even as a preparation for receiving it. 

gTl* '• It is somewhat surprising to hear Dr. Mosheim affirming that 
Melancthon adopted the sentiments of his friend with regard to the 
eucharist, when the contrary is weil known. It is'tiue, that in his wri- 
tings, published before the year 1529 or 1530, there are passages, 
which show that he had not yet thoroughly examined the controversy 
relating to the nature of Christ's presence in the eucharist. It is also 
true, that during the disputes carried on between Westphal and Calvin, 
after the death of Luther, concerning the real presence, he did not de- 
clare himself in an open manner for either side, (which however is a 
presumptive argument of his leaning to that of Calvin,) but expressed 
his sorrow at these divisions, and at the spirit of animosity by which 
they were inflamed. But whoever will be at the pains to read his let- 
ters to Calvin upon this subject, or those extracts of them which are 
collected by Hospinian, in the second volume of his Historia Sacramen- 
taria, will be persuaded that he looked upon the doctrine of Consubstan- 
tiation not only as erroneous, but even as idolatrous ; and that nothing 
bu'. the fear of inflaming the present divisions, and of not being second- 



great and leading principles in the whole course of his 
conduct and actions, declared it as his opinion, that, in 
matters of an indifferent nature, compliance was due to 
the imperial edicts. But, in the class of matters indiffer- 
ent, this great man and his associates placed many things 
which had appeared of the highest importance to Luther, 
and consequently could not be considered as indifferent 
by his true disciples ; d for he regarded, as such, the doc- 
trine of justification by faith alone, the necessit}'' of good 
works to eternal salvation, the number of the sacraments, 
the jurisdiction claimed by the pope and the bishops, ex- 
treme unction, the observance of certain religious festivals, 
and several superstitious rites and ceremonies. Hence 
arose that warm contest e which divided the church du- 
ring many years, and proved highly detrimental to the 
progress of the Reformation. The defenders of the prim- 
itive doctrines of Lutheranism, with Flacius at their head, 
attacked with incredible bitterness and fury the doctors 
of Wittenberg and Leipsic, (particularly Melancthon, by 
whose counsel and influence every thing relating to the 
Interim had been conducted,) and accused them of apos- 
tacy from the true religion. Melancthon, on the other 
hand, seconded by the zeal of his friends and disciples, 
justified his conduct with the utmost spirit and vigour/ 
In this unfortunate debate the two following questions were 
principally discussed : first, whether the points that seem- 
ed indifferent to Melancthon were so in reality? — this 
his adversaries obstinately denied :' — secondly, whether 
in things of an indifferent nature, and in which the inte- 
rests of religion are not essentially concerned, it be lawful 
to yield to the enemies of the truth ? 

XXIX. This debate became, as might have been ex- 
pected, a fruitful source of other controversies, which were 
equally detrimental to the tranquillity of the church, and 
to the cause of the Reformation. The first to which it 
gave rise was the warm dispute concerning the necessity 
of good works, that was carried on with such spirit against 
the rigid Lutherans, by George Major, an eminent teach- 
er of theology at Wittenberg. Melancthon had long 
been of opinion, that the necessity of good works, in order 
to the attainment of everlasting salvation, might be as- 
serted and taught, as conformable to the truths revealed 
in the Gospel ; and both he and his colleagues declared 
this to be their opinion, when they were assembled at 
Leipsic, in 1548, to examine the famous edict already 



ed, prevented him from declaring his sentiments openly. See Bayle's 
Life of Melancthon, in his Dictionary. 

c The piece in which Melancthon and his associates delivered their 
sentiments relating to things indifferent, is commonly called in the Ger- 
man language Das Leipziger Interim, and was republished at Leipsic 
in 1721, by Bieckius, in a work entitled, Das Dreyfache Interim. 

f3f d If they only are the true disciples of Luther, who submit to his 
judgment, and adopt his sentiments in theological matters, many doctors 
of that communion, and our historian among the rest, must certainly be 
supposed to have forfeited that title, as will abundantly appear hereaf- 
ter. Be that as it may, Melancthon can scarcely, if at all, be justified 
in placing in the class of things indifferent the doctrines relating to faith 
and good works, which are the fundamental points of the Christian 
religion, and, if I may use such an expression, the very hinges on 
whichthe Gospel turns. 

|^= • This controversy was called Adiaphoristic, and Melancthon 
and his followers Adiaphorists, from the Greek word diia<j>n(ios, which 
signifies indifferent. 

f Schlusselburg's Catalog. Hasreticor. lib. xiii. — Arnold's Kirchen 
und Ketzer Historie, lib. xvi. cap. xxvi. p. 816. — Salig's Histor. Aug. 
Confess, vol. i. p. 611. — The German work, entitled Unschuldige 
Nachrichten, An. 1702. — Luc.Osiandri Epitome Histor. Eccles. Centur. 
XVI. p. 502. f^ * See above, note d 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



4G3 



mentioned. 1 This declaration was severely censured by 
the rigid disciples of Luther, as contrary to the doctrine 
and sentiments of their chief, and as conformable both to 
the tenets and interests of the church of Rome ; but it 
found an able defender in Major, who, in 1552, main- 
tained the necessity of good works, against the extrava- 
gant assertions of jkmsdorf. Hence arose a new contro- 
versy between the rigid and moderate Lutherans, which 
was carried on with the keenness and animosity that were 
peculiar to all debates of a religious nature during this 
century. In the course of this warm debate, Amsdorf 
was so far transported and infatuated by his excessive 
zeal for the doctrine of Luther, as to maintain, that good 
works were an impediment to salvation ; from which im- 
prudent and odious expression, the flame of controversy 
received new fuel, and broke forth with redoubled fury. 
On the other hand, Major complained of the malice or ig- 
norance of his adversaries, who explained his doctrine in 
a manner quite different from that in which he intended 
it should be understood ; and, at length, he renounced it 
entirely, that he might not appear fond of wrangling, or be 
looked' upon as a disturber of the peace of the church. 
This step did not, however, put an end to the debate, which 
was still carried on, until it was terminated at last by the 
Form of Concorde 

XXX. From the same source that produced the dis- 
pute concerning the necessity of good works, arose the 
synergistical controversy. The Synergists, whose doc- 
trine was almost the same with that of the Semi-Pelagi- 
ans, denied that God was the only agent in the conversion 
of sinful man ; and affirmed, that man co-operated with 
divine grace in the accomplishment of this salutary pur- 
pose. Here also Melancthon renounced the doctrine of 
Luther ; at least, the terms he employs in expressing his 
sentiments concerning this intricate subject, are such as 
Luther would have rejected with horror; for, in the con- 
ference at Leipsic, the former of these great men did not 
scruple to affirm, that " God drew to himself and converted 
adult persons in such a manner, that the powerful impres- 
sion of his grace was accompanied with a certain corres- 
pondent action of their will." The friends and disciples 
of Melancthon adopted this manner of speaking, and 
used the expressions of their master to describe the nature 
of the divine agency in man's conversion. But this repre- 
sentation of the matter was far from being agreeable to 
the rigid Lutherans. They looked upon it as subversive 
of the true and genuine doctrine of Luther, relating to the 
absolute servitude of the human will, d and the total ina- 
bility of man to do any good action, or to bear any part in 
his own conversion ; and hence they oppose the Syner- 
gists with the utmost animosity and bitterness. The 
principal champions in this theological conflict were Stri- 
gelius, who defended the sentiments of Melancthon with 
singular dexterity and perspicuity, and Flacius, who main- 
tained the ancient doctrine of Luther : of these doctors, 



a The Intemn of Charles V. 

»> Schlusselburg, lib. vii. Catal. Haereticor. — G. Arnold's Kirchen 
Hist. lib. xvi. cap. xxvii. p. 823. — Jo. Muscei Praelect. in Form. Con- 
cord, p. 181. — Am. Greyii Memoria Jo. Westphali, p. 166. 

!C=r "As this controversy turned upon the co-operation of the human 
will with the divine grace, the persons who maintained this joint agen- 
cy, were called Synergists, from a Greek word (trwepyaa,) which signi- 
fies co-operation. 

H^* J The doctrines of absolute predestination, irresistible grace, and 
human impotence, were never carried to a move excessive length, 



as also the subject of their debate, a farther account will 
soon be given. e 

XXXI. During these dissensions, a new university 
was founded at Jena by the dukes of Saxe-Weimar, the 
sons of the famous John Frederic, whose unsuccessful 
wars with the emperor Charles Y. had involved him in 
so many calamities, and deprived him of his electoral do- 
minions. The noble founders of this university, having 
designed it for the bulwark of the protestant religion, as 
it was taught and inculcated by Luther, were particularly 
careful in choosing such professors and divines as were 
remarkable for their attachment to the genuine doctrine 
of that great reformer, and their aversion to the senti- 
ments of those moderate Lutherans, who had attempted, 
by certain modifications and corrections, to render it less 
harsh and disgusting ; and, as none of the Lutheran doc- 
tors were so much distinguished by their uncharitable and 
intemperate zeal for this ancient doctrine, as Matthias 
Flacius, the virulent enemy of Melancthon and all the 
Philippists, he was appointed, in 1557, professor of divi- 
nity at Jena. The consequences of this nomination were, 
indeed, deplorable. This turbulent and impetuous man, 
whom nature had formed with an uncommon propensity 
to foment divisions and propagate discord, not only revived 
all the ancient controversies that had distracted the church, 
but also excited new debates ; and sowed, with such avi- 
dity and success, the seeds of contention between the di- 
vines of Weimar and those of the electorate of Saxony, 
that a fatal schism in the Lutheran church was appre- 
hended by many of its wisest members. f And indeed 
this schism would have been inevitable, if the machinations 
and intrigues of Flacius had produced the desired effect ; 
for, in 1559, he persuaded the dukes of Saxe-Weimar to 
order a refutation of the errors that had crept into the Lu- 
theran church, and particularly of those which were im- 
puted to the followers of Melancthon, to be drawn up with 
care, promulgated by authority, and placed among the 
other religious edicts and articles of faith that were in force 
in their dominions. But this pernicious design of divid- 
ing the church proved abortive ; for the other Lutheran 
princes, who acted from the true and genuine principles 
of the Reformation, disapproved this seditious book, from 
a just apprehension of its tendency to increase the present 
troubles, and to augment, instead of diminishing, the ca- 
lamities of the church. s 

XXXII. This theological incendiary kindled the flame 
of discord and persecution even in the church of Saxe- 
Weimar, and in the university of Jena, to which he be- 
longed, by venting his fury against Strigelius, h the friend 
and disciple of Melancthon. This moderate divine adopt- 
ed, in many things, the sentiments of his master, and 
maintained, particularly, in his public lectures, that the 
human will, when under the influence of the divine grace 
leading it to repentance, was not totally inactive, but bore 
a certain part in the salutary work of its conversion. 



or maintained with a more virulent obstinacy, by any divine, than they 
were by Luther. But in these times he has very few followers in this 
respect, even among those who bear his name. 

See Schlusselburg's Catal. Haereticor. lib. v. — G. Arnold, Histor. 
Eccles. lib. xvi. cap. xxviii. p. 826. — Bayle's Diet. — Salig's Histor. Au« 
gust. Confess, vol. iii. — Musasi Praelect. 

f See the remarkable letter of Augustus, elector of Saxony, concern- 
ing Flacius and his malignant attempts ; published by Am. Grevius in 
his Memoria Joh. Westphali. 

e Salig's Hist. Aug. Cncfess. vol. iii. p. 476. ' See Bayle's Diet. 



464 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. in. 



In consequence of this doctrine, he was accused by Flacius 
of Synergism at the court of Saxe-Weimar ; and, by the 
duke's order, was cast into prison, where he was treated 
with severity and rigour. He was at length delivered 
from this confinement in 1562, and allowed to resume 
his former vocation, after he had made a declaration of 
his real sentiments, which, as he alleged, had been greatly 
misrepresented. This declaration, however, did not either 
lecide or terminate the controversy, since Strigelius seem- 
ed rather to conceal his erroneous sentiments 1 under am- 
biguous expressions, than to renounce them entirely ; and 
indeed he was so conscious of this himself, that, to avoid 
being involved in neAv calamities and persecutions, he re- 
tired from Jena to Leipsic, and thence to Heidelberg, 
where he spent the remainder of his days ; and appeared 
so unsettled in his religious opinions, that it is doubtful 
whether he ought to be placed among the followers of 
Luther or Calvin. 

XXXIII. The issue of this warm controversy, which 
Flacius had kindled with such an intemperate zeal, prov- 
ed highly detrimental to his own reputation and influence 
in particular, as well as to the interests of the Lutheran 
chucrh in general ; for, while this vehement disputant 
was assailing his adversary with an inconsiderate ardour, 
he exaggerated so excessively the sentiments, which he 
looked upon as orthodox, as to maintain an opinion of 
the most monstrous and detestable kind ; an opinion which 
made him appear, even in the judgment of his warmest 
friends, an odious heretic, and a corruptor of the true reli- 
gion. In 1560, a public dispute was holden at Weimar, 
between him and Strigelius, concerning the natural pow- 
ers and faculties of the human mind, and their influence 
in the conversion and conduct of the true Christian. In 
this conference the latter seemed to attribute to unassisted 
nature too much, and the former too little. The one look- 
ed upon the fall of man as an event that extinguished, 
in the human mind, every virtuous tendency, every noble 
faculty, and left nothing behind it but universal darkness 
and corruption. The other maintained, that this degra- 
dation of the powers of nature was by no means univer- 
sal or entire ; that the will still retained some propensity 
to worthy pursuits, and a certain degree of activity that 
rendered it capable of attainments in virtue. Strigelius, 
who was well acquainted with the wiles of a captious phi- 
losophy, proposed to defeat his adversary by puzzling him, 
and, with that view, addressed to him the following ques- 
tion : " Whether original sin, or the corrupt habit which 
the human soul contracted by the fall, ought to be placed 
in the class of substances or accidents'?" Flacius answer- 
ed, with unparalleled imprudence and temerity, that it 
belonged to the former ; and maintained, to his dying hour, 
this most extravagant and dangerous proposition, that ori- 
ginal sin is the very substance of human nature. So in- 
vincible was the obstinacy with which he persevered in 
this strange doctrine, that he chose to renounce all worldly 
honours and advantages rather than depart from it. It 

!Gr a Tile sentiments of Strigelius were not, I have reason to be- 
lieve, very erroneous in the judgment of Dr. Mosheim. nor are they such 
in the estimation of the greatest part of the Lutheran doctors at this day. 

i> Schlusselburg, Catalog.-Hajret. lib. ii. — The Life of Flacius. writ- 
ten in German by Ritter. — Salig. Histor. Aug. Confessionis, vol. iii. p. 
593. — Arnold's Kirchen Hist. lib. xvi. cap. xxix. p. 829. — Mussel Prse- 
lect. in Formul. Concordia;, p 29. — Jo. Georgii Leuckfeldii Hist. Span- 
genbergensis. — For a particular account of the dispute, that was holden 
publicly at Weimar, see the work entitled Unschuldige'Nachichten, p. 383. 



was condemned by the greatest and soundest part of the 
Lutheran church, as a doctrine that bore no small affinity 
to that of the Manicheeans. But, on the other hand, the 
merit, erudition, and credit of Flacius, procured him many 
respectable patrons as well as able defenders among the 
most learned doctors of the church, who embraced hi3 
sentiments and maintained his cafltse with the greatest 
spirit and zeal ; of whom the most eminent were Cyriac 
Spangenberg, Christopher Irena;us, and Cselestine. b 

XXXIV. It is scarcely possible to imagine how much 
the Lutheran church suffered from this new dispute in 
all those places where its contagion had reached, and 
how detrimental it was to the progress of Lutheranism, 
among those who still adhered to the religion of Rome ; 
for the flame of discord spread to a great extent ; it was 
communicated even to those churches which were erected 
in popish countries, and particularly in the Austrian ter- 
ritories, under the gloomy shade of a dubious toleration ; 
and it so animated the Lutheran pastors, though surround- 
ed by their cruel adversaries, that they could neither be 
restrained by the dictates of prudence, nor by the sense 
of danger. Many are of opinion, that an ignorance of 
philosophical distinctions and definitions threw Flacius 
inconsiderately into the extravagant hypothesis which he 
maintained with such obstinacy, and that his greatest he- 
resy was no more then a foolish attachment to an unusual 
term. But Flacius seems to have fully refuted this plea 
in his behalf, by declaring boldly, in several parts of his 
writings, that he knew perfectly well the philosophical 
signification and the whole energy of the word substance, 
and was by no means ignorant of the consequences that 
might be drawn from the doctrine he had embraced. 11 
Be that as it may, we cannot but wonder at the senseless 
and excessive obstinacy of this turbulent man, who chose 
rather to sacrifice his fortune, and disturb the tranquillity 
of the church, than to abandon a word, which was en- 
tirely foreign to the subject in debate, and renounce an 
hypothesis, that was composed of the most palpable con- 
tradictions. 

XXXV. The last controversy that we shall mention, 
of those which were occasioned by the excessive lenity 
of Melancthon, was set on foot by Osiander, in 1549, and 
produced much animosity in the church. Had its foun- 
der been yet alive, his influence and authority would have 
suppressed in their birth these wretched disputes ; nor 
would Osiander, who despised the moderation of Melanc- 
thon, have dared either to publish or defend his crude 
and chimerical opinions within the reach of Luther. 
Arrogance and singularity were the principal lines in 
Osiander's character ; he loved to strike ova new notions; 
but his views seemed always involved in an intricate ob- 
scurity. The disputes that arose concerning the Interim, 
induced him to retire from Nuremberg, where he had ex- 
ercised the pastoral charge, to Konigsberg, where he was 
chosen professor of divinity. In this new station he be- 
gan his academical functions by propagating notions con- 

See Bern. Raupach's Zwiefache Zugabe zu dem Evangelisch. Oes- 
ttrrich. The same author speaks of the friends of Flacius in Austria, 
and particularly of IrenKus, in his Presbyterol. Austriac. — For an ac- 
count of Crelestme, see the Unschuldige Nachrichten. 

•> This will appear evident to such as will be at the pains to consult 
the letters which Westphal wrote to his friend Flacius, in order to per- 
suade him to abstain from the use of the word substance, with the an- 
swers of the latter. These letters and answers were published by 
Arnold Grevius, in his Mem. J. Westphali. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



465 



ceming the divine Image, and the nature of repentance, 
very different from the doctrine that Luther had taught 
on these interesting subjects ; and, not content with this 
deviation from the common course, he thought proper, in 
the year 1550, to introduce considerable alterations and 
corrections into the doctrine that had been generally re- 
ceived in the Lutheran church, with respect to the means 
of out justification before God. When we examine his 
discussion of this important point, we shall find it much 
more easy to perceive the opinions he rejected, than to 
understand the system he had invented or adopted ; for, 
as was too usual in this age, he not only expressed his 
notions in an obscure manner, but seemed very frequently 
to speak and write in contradiction to himself. His doc- 
trine, when carefully examined, will appear to amount 
to the following propositions ; " Christ, considered in his 
humUn nature only, could not, by his obedience to the 
divine law, obtain justification and pardon for sinners ; 
nor can we be justified before God by embracing and ap- 
plying to ourselves, through faith, the righteousness and 
obedience of the man Christ. It is only through that 
eternal and essential righteousness, which dwells in Christ 
considered as God, and which resides in his divine na- 
ture, that is united to the human, that mankind can ob- 
tain complete justification. Man becomes a partaker of 
this divine righteousness by faith, since it is inconsequence 
of this uniting principle that Christ dwells in the heart 
of man, with his divine righteousness ; now, wherever 
this divine righteousness dwells, there God can behold no 
sin, and therefore, when it is present with Christ in the 
hearts of the regenerate, they are, on its account, consi- 
dered by the Deity as righteous, although they may be 
sinners. Moreover, this divine and justifying righteous- 
ness of Christ, excites the faithful to the pursuit of holi- 
ness and to the practice of virtue." This doctrine was 
zealously opposed by the most eminent doctors of the 
Lutheran church, and, in a more especial manner, by Me- 
lancthon and his colleagues. On the other hand, Osiander 
and his sentiments were supported by persons of considera- 
ble weight. But, upon the death of this rigid and fanciful 
divine, the flame of controversy was cooled, and dwindled 
by degrees into nothing." 

XXXVI. The doctrine of Osiander, concerning the 
method of being justified before God, appeared so absurd 
to Stancarus, professor of Hebrew at Konigsberg, that 
he undertook to refute it. But while this turbulent 
and impetuous doctor was exerting all the vehemence of 
his zeal against the opinion of his colleague, he was hur- 
ried by his violence into the opposite extreme, and fell into 
an hypothesis, that appeared equally groundless, and not 
less dangerous in its tendency and consequences. Osian- 
der had maintained that the man Christ, in his character 

• See Schlusselburgii Catalog's Hsereticor. lib. vi. — Arnoldi Kirehen 
Hist. lib. xvi. cap. xxiv. p. 804. — Christ. Hartknoch's Preussische Kir- 
chen Historie, p. 309. — Salig's Historia August. Confessionis, torn. ii. 
p. 922. The judgment that was formed of this controversy by the di- 
vines of Wittenberg, may be seen in the Unschuldige Nachrichten, 
and that of the doctors of Copenhagen, in tire Danischen Bibliothee. 

fiart vii. p. 150, where may be found an ample list of the writings pub- 
ished on this subject. — To form a just idea of the insolence and arro- 
gance of Osiander, those who understand the German language will do 
well to consult Hirschius, Nurembure Interims-Historie. 

*> See Hartknoch's Preussische Kirehen Hist. — Schlussclburg, liv. 
ix. — Bayle's Diet. — Before the arrival of Stancarus at Konigsberg, in 
1548, he had lived for soipe time in Switzerland, where also he had 
occasioned religious disputes ; for he adopted several doctrines of Lu- 

No. XL. . 117 



of moral agent, was obliged to obey, for himself, the 
divine law, and therefore could not, by the imputation of 
this obedience, obtain righteousness or justification for 
others. Hence he concluded, that the Saviour of the 
world had been empowered, not by his character as man, 
but by his nature as God, to make expiation for our 
sins, and reconcile us to the favour of an offended Deity. 
Stancarus, on the other hand, excluded entirely Christ's 
divine nature from all concern in the satisfaction he made, 
and in the redemption he procured for offending mortals, 
and maintained, that the sacred office of a mediator be- 
tween God and man belonged to Jesus, considered in his 
human nature alone. Having perceived, however, that 
this doctrine exposed him to the enmity of many divines, 
and even rendered him the object of popular resentment 
and indignation, he retired from Konigsberg into Germa- 
ny, and at length into Poland, where, after having excited 
no small commotions, b he concluded his days in 1574. c 

XXXVII. All those who had the cause of virtue, and 
the advancement of the Reformation really at heart, look- 
ed with an impatient ardour for an end to these bitter and 
uncharitable contentions : and their desires of peace and 
concord in the church were still increased, by their per- 
ceiving the great assiduity with which Rome turned these 
unhappy divisions to the advancement of her interests. 
But during the life of Melancthon, who was principally 
concerned in these warm debates, no effectual method 
could be found to bring them to a conclusion. The death 
of this great man, which happened in 1560, changed, in- 
deed, the face of affairs, and enabled those who were dispos- 
ed to terminate the present contests, to act with more re- 
solution, and a surer prospect of success than had accom- 
panied their former efforts. Hence it was, that after several 
vain attempts, Augustus, elector of Saxony, and John 
William, duke of Saxe- Weimar, summoned the most 
eminent doctors of both the contending parties to meet 
at Altenburg, in 1568, and there to propose, in an amica- 
ble manner, and with a charitable spirit, their respective 
opinions, that thus it might be seen how far a reconcilia- 
tion was possible, and what was the most probable method 
of bringing it about. But the intemperate zeal and 
warmth of the disputants, with other inauspicious cir- 
cumstances, blasted the fruits that were expected from 
this conference. 11 Another method of restoring tranquil- 
lity and union among the members of the Lutheran church 
was therefore proposed ; and this was, that a certain num- 
ber of wise and moderate divines should be employed in 
composing a form of doctrine, in which all the contro- 
versies that divided the church should be terminated and 
decided ; and that this new compilation, as soon as it 
should be approved by the Lutheran princes and consis- 
tories, should be invested with ecclesiastical authority, and 

ther, particularly that concerning the virtue and efficacy of the sacra- 
ments, which were rejected by the Swiss and Grisons. See the 
Museum Helveticum, torn. v. page 484, 490. For an account of the dis- 
turbances he occasioned in Poland, in 1556, see Bullinger, in Jo. Conr. 
Fueslini Cent. I. Epistolarum a Reformatoribus Helveticis scriptarum. 

gjf • The main argument alleged by Stancarus, in favour of his hypo- 
thesis, was this, — that, if Christ was mediator by his divine nature only, 
it followed evidently, that even considered as God he was inferior to the 
Father; and thus, according to him, the doctrine of his adversary Osi- 
ander led direcdy to the Unitarian system. This difficulty, which was 
presented with great subtlety, engaged many to strike into a middle 
road, and to maintain, that both the divine and human natures of Christ 
were immediately concerned in the work of redemption. 

« Casp. Sagittarii Introductio ad Histor. Ecclesiasticam, p. ii. p. 1542. 



466 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. HI. 



added to the symbolical 1 or standard books of the Luthe- 
ran church. James Andreas, professor at Tubingen, 
whose theological abilities had procured him the most, 
eminent and shining reputation, had been employed, so 
early as in the year 1569, in this critical and difficult un- 
dertaking, by the special command of the dukes of Wir- 
temberg and Brunswick. The elector of Saxony, b with 
several persons of distinction, embarked with these two 
princes in the project they had formed ; so that Andreas, 
under the shade of such a powerful protection and patron- 
age, exerted all his zeal, travelled through different parts of 
Germany, negotiating alternately with courts and synods, 
and took all the measures which prudence could suggest, 
to render the form, that he was composing, universally 
acceptable. 

XXXVIII. Tire persons embarked in this conciliatory 
design, were persuaded that no time ought to be lost in 
carrying it into execution, when they perceived the im- 
prudence and temerity of the disciples of Melancthon, 
and the changes they were attempting to introduce into 
the doctrine of the church ; for his son-in-law, Peucer, c 
who was a physician and professor of natural philosophy 
at Wittenberg, together with the divines of that city and 
of Leipsic, encouraged by the approbation, and relying 
on the credit, of Cracovius, chancellor of Dresden, and 
of several ecclesiastics and persons of distinction at the 
Saxon court, aimed at nothing less than aholishing the 
doctrines of Luther, concerning the eucharist and the per- 
son qf Christ, with a view of substituting the sentiments 
of Calvin in its place. This new reformation was at- 
tempted in Saxony in 1570 ; and a great variety of clan- 
destine arts and stratagems were employed, in order to 
bring it to a happy and successful issue. What the sen- 
timents of Melancthon concerning the eucharist were to- 
ward the conclusion of his days, appears to be extremely 
doubtful. It is however certain, that he had a strong in- 
clination to form a coalition between the Saxons and Cal- 
vinists, though he was prevented, by the irresolution and 

3Jf a The Lutherans call symbolical (from a Greek word that signi- 
fies collection or compilation) the books which contain their articles of 
faith and rules of discipline. 

b Augustus. 

§3r c This Peucer, whom Dr. Mosheim mentions without any mark 
of distinction, was one of the wisest, most amiable, and most learned 
men that adorned the annals of German literature during this century, as 
the well-known history of his life, and the considerable number of his 
medical, mathematical, moral, and theological writings, abundantly tes- 
tify. Nor was he more remarkable for his merit than for his sufferings. 
After his genius and virtues had rendered him the favourite of the elector 
of Saxony, and placed him at the head of the university of Wittenberg, 
he felt, in a terrible manner, the effects of the bigotry and barbarity of 
the rigid Lutherans, who, on account of his denying the corporal pre- 
sence of Christ in the eucharist, united, with success, their efforts to 
deprive him of the favour of his sovereign, and procured his imprison- 
ment. His confinement, which lasted ten years, was accompanied with 
inhuman severity. See Melchior Adam's Vit, Medicor. Germanor. 

5£jp <• A term which signifies foundation. 

gjT " The learned historian seems to deviate here from his usual accu- 
cy. The authors of the Stereoma did not declare their dissent from the 
doctrine of Luther, but from the extravagant inventions of some of his 
successors. This great man, in his controversy with Zuingle, had in- 
deed thrown out some unguarded expressions, that seemed to imply a 
belief of the omnipresence of the body of Christ; but he became sensi- 
ble afterwards that this opinion was attended with great difficulties, and 
particularly, that it ought, not to be brought forward as a proof of 
Christ's corporal presence in the eucharist.* Yet this absurd hypothesis 
was renewed after the death of Luther, by Tinman and Westphal, and 
was dressed up in a still more specious and plausible form, by Brenti- 
us, Chemnitz, and Andreas, who maintained the communication of the 
properties of Christ's divinity to his human nature, as it was afterwards 
adopted by the Lutheran church. This strange system gave occasion 
•t> the Stereoma, in which the doctrine of Luther was respected, and the 



timidity of his natural character, from attempting openly 
this much desired union. Peucer, and the other disci- 
ples of Melancthon already mentioned, made a public pro- 
fession of the doctrine of Calvin ; and though they had 
much more spirit and courage than their soft and yield- 
ing master, yet they wanted his circumspection and pru- 
dence, which were not less necessary to the accomplish- 
ment of their designs. Accordingly in 1571, they pub- 
lished, in the German language, a work entitled Stcre- 
oma, d and other writings, in which they openly declared' 
their dissent from the doctrine of Luther concerning the 
eucharist and the person of Christ ; e and, that they might 
execute their purposes with greater facility, they introdu- 
ced into the schools a Catechism, compiled by Pezelius, 
which was favourable to the sentiments of Calvin. As 
this bold step excited great commotions and debates in 
the church, Augustus held at Dresden, in the same year, 
a solemn convocation of the Saxon divines, and of other 
persons concerned in the administration of ecclesiastical 
affairs, and commanded them to adopt his opinion in re- 
lation to the eucharist/ The assembled doctors complied 
with this order in appearance ; but their compliance was 
feigned ;s for, on their return to the places of their abode, 
they resumed their original design, pursued it with assi- 
duity and zeal, and by their writings, as also by their 
public and private instructions, endeavoured to abolish the 
ancient doctrine of the Saxons, relating to the presence 
of Christ's body in that holy sacrament. The elector, 
informed of these proceedings, convened anew the Saxon 
doctors, and held, in 1574, the famous convocation of 
Torgaw, 11 where, after a strict inquiry into the doctrines 
of those who, from their secret attachment to the senti- 
ments of the Swiss divines, were called Crypfo-Calvinists,' 
he committed some of them to prison, sent others into ba- 
nishment, and engaged a certain number by the force of 
the secular arm to change their sentiments. Peucer, who 
had been principally concerned in moderating the rigour 
of some of Luther's doctrines, felt, in a more especial man • 

inventions alone of his successors were renounced, and in which the 
authors declared plainly, that they did not adopt the sentiments of Zuin- 
gle or Calvin, but that they admitted the real and substantial presence 
of Christ's body and blood in the eucharist. 

§3° t In this passage, compared with what follows, Dr. Mosheim 
seems to maintain, that the opinion of Augustus, which he imposed up- 
on the assembled divines, was in favour of the adversaries of Melanc- 
thon, and in direct opposition to the authors of the Stereoma. But here 
he has committed a palpable oversight. The convocation of Dresden, 
in 1571, instead of approving or maintaining the doctrine of the rigid 
Lutherans, drew up, on the contrary, a form of agreement {formula 
consensus) in which the omnipresence or ubiquity of Christ's body was 
denied ; and which was, indeed, an abridgment of the Stereoma; so that 
the transactions at Dresden were entirely favourable to the moderate 
Lutherans, who embraced openly and sincerely (and not by a feigned 
consent (subdolc) as our historian remarks) the sentiment of the elector 
Augustus, who at that time. patronised the disciples of Melancthon. 
This prince, it is true, seduced by the crafty and artful insinuations of 
the Ubiquitarians, or rigid Lutherans, who made him believe that the 
ancient doctrines of the church were in danger, changed sides soon after, 
and was pushed on to the most violent and persecuting measures, of 
which the convocation of Torgaw was the first step, and the Form of 
Concord the unhappy issue. 

§3= = The compliance was sincere; but the order was very different 
from that mentioned by our author, as appears from the preceding note. 

13= h It is to be observed, that not more than fifteen of the Saxon doc- 
tors were convened at Torgaw by the elector — a small number this to 
give law to the Lutheran "church. For an account of the declaration 
drawn up by this assembly on the points relating to the presence of 
Christ's body in the eucharist, the omnipresence of that body, and the 
oral manducation of the flesh' and blood of the divine Saviour, see Hos- 
piniani Concordia Discors. 

|3= ■ i. e. Hidden, or disguised Calvinists. 

* See Lutheri op. torn. viii. p. 375, Edit. Janiens. 



Part 11. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH, 



467 



ner, the severe effects of the elector's displeasure ; for he 
was confined to a comfortless prison, where he lay in the 
most affecting circumstances of distress until the year 
1585, when, having obtained his liberty through the in- 
tercession of the prince of Anhalt, who had given his 
daughter in marriage to Augustus, he retired to Zerbst, 
where he ended his days in peace. a 

XXXIX. The schemes of the Crypto-Calvinists being 
thus disconcerted, the elector of Saxony, and those princes 
who had entered into his views, redoubled their zeal and 
diligence in promoting the Form of Concord, already men- 
tioned. Accordingly, various conferences were holden, 
preparatory to this important undertaking ; and, in 1576, 
while the Saxon divines were convened at Torgaw by 
the order of Augustus, a treatise was composed by James 
Andreas, with a view of healing the divisions of the Lu- 
theran church, and as a preservative against the opinions 
of the reformed doctors. 13 When this production, which 
was styled the Book of Torgaw, had been carefully exa- 
mined, reviewed, and corrected, by the greatest part of 
the Lutheran doctors in Germany, the affair was again 
proposed to the deliberation of a select number of divines, 
w r ho met at Berg, a Benedictine monastery in the neigh- 
bourhood of Magdeburg. Here all points relating to the 
intended project were accurately weighed, the opinions of 
the assembled doctors carefully discussed, and the result 
of all was the famous Form of Concord. The persons 
who assisted Andreas in the composition of this celebrated 
work, or at least in the revision of it at Berg, were Martin 
Chemnitz, Nicholas Selneccer, Andrew Musculus, Chris- 
topher Cornerus, and David Chytreeus. d This new con- 
fession of the Lutheran faith w T as adopted first by the 
Saxons in consequence of the strict order of Augustus ; 
and their example was followed by the greatest part of the 
Lutheran churches, by some sooner, by others later. e The 
authority of this confession, as is sufficiently known, was 
employed for the following purposes: first, to terminate 
the controversies which divided the Lutheran church, 

§3r * See Schlusselburgii Theologia Calvinistica, lib. ii. iii. iv. — Hut- 
teri Concordia Concors, cap. i.-viii. — Arnoldi Histor. Ecclesiast. lib. xvi. 
cap. xxxii. — Loscheri Historia Motuum inter Lutheranos et Reformat, 
par. ii. iii. — All these are writers favourable to the rigid Lutherans ; see 
therefore, on the other side, Casp. Peuceri Hist. Carcerum et Libera- 
tionis Divinae, published at Zurich, in 1605, by Pezelius. 

JUT b The term Reformed was used to distinguish the other protes- 
tants of various denominations from the Lutherans : and it was equally 
applied to the friends of episcopacy and presbyterianism. See the fol- 
lowing chapter. 

f^T c The book that was composed by Andreas and his associates at 
Torgaw, was sent by the elector to almost all die Lutheran princes, 
with a view of its being examined, approved, and received by them. It 
was, however, rejected by several princes, and censured and refuted by 
various doctors. These censures engaged the compilers to review and 
correct it ; and it was from this book, thus changed and new-modelled, 
that the farm published at Berg was entirely drawn. 

fTJr d The Form of Concord, composed at Torgaw, and reviewed at 
Berg, consists of two parts. In the first is contained a system of doc- 
trine, drawn up according to the fancy of the six doctors here mentioned. 
In the second is exhibited one of the strongest instances of that persecu- 
ting and tyrannical spirit, of which the protestants complained in the 
church of Rome, even a formal condemnation of all those who differed 
from these six doctors, particularly in their strange opinions concerning 
the majesty and omnipresence of Christ's body, and the real manduca- 
tion of his flesh and blood in the eucharist. This condemnation branded 
with the denomination of heretics, and excluded from the communion of 
the church, all Christians, of all nations, who refused to subscribe 
these doctrines. More particularly in Germany, the terrors of the 
sword were solicited against these pretended heretics, as may be seen 
in the famous testament of Brentius. For a full account of the Confes- 
sion of Torgaw and Berg, see Hospinian's Concordia Discors, where 
the reader will find large extracts from this confession, with an ample 



more especially after the death of its founder ; and. second- 
ly, to preserve that church against the opinions of the Re- 
formed in relation to the eucharist. 

XL. This very form, however, which was designed to 
restore peace and concord in the church, and had actually 
produced this effect in several places, became a source of 
new tumults, and furnished matter for the most violent 
dissensions and contests. It immediately met with a 
warm opposition from the Reformed, and also from all 
those who were either secretly attached to their doctrine, 
or who, at least, were desirous of living in concord and 
communion with them, from a laudable zeal for the com- 
mon interest of the Protestant cause. Nor was their oppo- 
sition at all unaccountable, since they plainly perceived 
that this form removed all the flattering hopes they had 
entertained, of seeing the divisions that reigned among 
the friends of religious liberty happily healed, and entirely 
excluded the Reformed from the communion of the Lu- 
theran church. Hence they were filled with indignation 
against the authors of this new confession of faith, and 
exposed their uncharitable proceedings in writings full of 
spirit and vehemence. The Swiss doctors, with Hospini- 
an at their head, the Belgic divines/ those of the Palati- 
nate^ together with the principalities of Anhalt and Ba- 
den, declared war against the form ; and accordingly from 
this period the Lutheran, and more especially the Saxon 
doctors, were charged with the disagreeable task of de- 
fending this new creed and its compilers, in many labo- 
rious productions. 11 

XLI. Nor were the followers of Zuingle and Calvin 
the only opposers of this form : it found adversaries, even 
in the very bosom of Lutheranism, and several of the 
most eminent churches of that communion rejected it 
with such firmness and resolution, that no arguments or 
entreaties could engage them to admit it as a ride of faith, 
or even as a mean of instruction. It was rejected by the 
church of Nuremberg, by those of Hesse, Pomerania, Hol- 
stein, Silesia, Denmark, Brunswick, and others.' But 

account of the censures it underwent, the opposition that was made to it, 
and the arguments which were used by its learned adversaries. 

e A list of the writers who have treated of this form, may be found in 
Jo. Georgii Walchii Introduct. in Libros Symbolicos, lib. i. cap. vii. p. 
707, and Kocheri Biblioth. Theol. Symbolical, p. 188. There are also 
several unpublished documents relative to this famous confession, of 
which there is an account in the German work entitled, Unsch. Nach- 
richt. — The principal writers who have given the history of the /orwi 
and the transactions relating to it, are Hospinian and Hutter, already 
mentioned. These two historians have written on opposite sides ; and 
whoever will be at the pains of comparing their accounts with attention 
and impartiality, will easily perceive where the truth lies, and receive 
satisfactory information with respect to the true state of these contro- 
versies, and the motives that animated the contending parties. 

f See Petri Villerii Epistola Apologetica Reformatarum in Belgio 
Ecclesiarum ad et contra Auctores Libri Bergensis, dicti " Concordia?." 
— This work was published a second time, with the annotations of Lud. 
Gerard a Renesse, by the learned Dr. Gerdes of Groningen, in his Scri- 
nium Antiquarium, seu Miscellan. Groningens. Nov. torn. i. Add to 
these the Unschuldige Nachricht. 

B John Casimir, prince Palatine, convoked an assembly of the reform- 
ed divines at Francfort, in 1577, in order to reject and annul this form 
See Hen. Altingii Histor. Eccles. Palatin. sect, clxxix. 

i> See Jo. Georg. Walchii Introd. in Libros Symbolicos Lutheranor. 
lib. i. cap. vii. 

i For an account of the ill success of this form in the dutchy of Hol- 
stein, see the Danische Bibliothec. vol. iv. p. 212, vol. v. p. 355, vol. 
viii. p. 333—461, vol. ix. p. 1.— Muhlii Dissert. Histor. Theol. Diss. i. 
de Reformat. Holsat. p. 108. — Arn. Grevii Memoria Pauli ab Eilzcn. 
The transactions in Denmark, in relation to this form, and the particu- 
lar reasons for which it was rejected there, may be seen in the Danish 
Library above quoted, vol. iv. p. 222 — 282, ami also in Pontoppidan'« 
Aunal. Eccles. Danicce Diplomatici, torn. iii. p. 456. The last author 



468 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. HI. 



though they all united in opposing it, their opposition was 
founded on different reasons, nor did they all act in this 
affair from the same motives or the same principles. A 
warm and affectionate veneration for the memory of Me- 
lancthon was, with some, the only, or at least the predo- 
minant, motive, that induced them to declare against the 
form in question ; they could not behold, without the ut- 
most abhorrence, a production in which the sentiments of 
this great and excellent man were so rudely treated. In 
this class we may rank the Lutherans of Holstein. Others 
were not only animated in their opposition by a regard for 
Melancthon, but also by a persuasion, that the opinions, 
condemned in the new creed, were more conformable to 
truth, than to those which were substituted in their place. 
A secret attachment to the sentiments of the Helvetic doc- 
tors prevented some from approving the form under consi- 
deration ; the hopes of uniting the Reformed and Lutheran 
churches engaged many to declare against it ; and a con- 
siderable number refused their assent to it from an appre- 
hension, whether real or pretended, that the addition of a 
new creed to the ancient confessions of faith would be 
really a source of disturbance and discord in the Lutheran 
church. It would be endless to enumerate the different 
reasons alleged by the different individuals or commu- 
nities, who declared their dissent from the Form of Con- 
cord. 

XLII. This form was patronised in a more especial 
manner by Julius, duke of Brunswick, to whom, in a 
great measure, it owed its existence, who had employed 
both his authority and munificence in order to encourage 
those who had undertaken to compose it, and had com- 
manded all the ecclesiastics, within his dominions, to re- 
ceive and subscribe it as a ride of faith. But scarcely was 
it published, when the zealous prince, changing his mind, 
suffered the form to be publicly opposed by Heshusius, and 
other divines of his university of Helmstadt, and to be ex- 
cluded from the number of the creeds and confessions re- 
ceived by his subjects. The reasons alleged by the Lu- 
therans of Brunswick, in behalf of this step, were, 1st, 
That the Form of Concord, when printed, differed in se- 
veral places from the manuscript copy to which they had 
given their approbation ; 2dly, That the doctrine relating 
to the freedom of the human will was expressed in it with- 
out a sufficient degree of accuracy and precision, and was 
also inculcated in the harsh and improper terms that Lu- 
ther had employed in treating that subject : 3dly, That 
the ubiquity, or universal and indefinite presence of 
Christ's human nature, was therein positively maintain- 
ed, although the Lutheran church had never adopted any 
such doctrine. Besides these reasons, which were pub- 
licly avowed, some perhaps of a secret nature, contributed 
to the remarkable change, which was visible in the sen- 
timents and proceedings of the duke of Brunswick. Va- 
rious methods and negotiations were employed to remove 

evidently proves (p. 476,) a fact which Herman ab Elswich, and other 
authors, have endeavoured to represent as dubibus, — that Frederic II. 
king of Denmark, as soon as he received a copy of the form, threw it 
into the fire, and saw it consumed before his eyes. The opposition that 
was made to it by the Hessians, may be seen in Tielemanni Vita? 
Theologor. Marpugens. p. 99. — Danischen Bibliothec. vol. vii. p. 273 — 
364. t. ix. p. 1 — 87. — The ill fate of this famous Confession, in the prin- 
cipalities of Lignitz and Brieg, is amplyrelated in theUnsch. Nachricht. 
* See Leon. Hutteri Concordia Concors, cap. xlv. — Phil. Jul. Richt- 
meyeri Braunschweig Kirchen Hist, part iii. cap. viii. — See also the 
authors mentioned by Christ. Matth. Pfaffius, in his Acta et Scripta 
Ecclesia: Wirtembergensis, p. 62, et Histor. Literar. Theologiae, part ii. 



the dislike which this prince, and the divines who lived in 
his territories, had conceived against the Creed of Berg. 
Particularly, in 1583, a convocation of divines from Sax- 
ony, Brandenburg, Brunswick, and the Palatinate, was 
hoklen at Quedlinburg for this purpose. But Julius per- 
sisted steadfastly in his opposition, and proposed that the 
form should be examined, and its authority discussed in 
a general assembly or synod of the Lutheran church. a 

XLIII. This form was not only opposed from abroad, 
but had likewise adversaries in the very country which 
gave it birth ; for even in Saxony many, who had been 
obliged to subscribe it, beheld it with aversion, in conse- 
quence of their attachment to the doctrine of Melanc- 
thon. During the life of Augustus, they were forced to 
suppress their sentiments ; but, as soon as he had paid the 
last tribute to nature, and was succeeded by Christian I., 
the moderate Lutherans and the secret Calvinists resumed 
their courage. The new elector had been accustomed, 
from his tender yeai s, to the moderate sentiments of Me- 
lancthon, and is also said to have evinced a propensity 
to the doctrine of the Helvetic church. Under his gov- 
ernment, therefore, an opportunity was offered to the per- 
sons above mentioned of declaring their sentiments and 
executing their designs ; and the attempts to abolish the 
form now seemed to be renewed, with a view of opening a 
door for the entrance of Calvinism into Saxony. The 
persons who had embarked in this design, were greatly 
encouraged by the protection which they received from 
several noblemen of the first rank at the Saxon court, and, 
particularly, from Crellius, the first minister of Christian. 
Under the auspicious influence of such patrons it was 
natural to expect success ; yet they conducted their affairs 
with circumspection and prudence. Certain laws were 
previously enacted, in order to prepare the minds of the 
people for the intended revolution in the doctrine of the 
church ; and, some time after, b the form of exorcism was 
omitted in the administration of baptism. These mea- 
sures were followed by others still more alarming to the 
rigid Lutherans; for not only a new German catechism, 
favourable to the purpose of the secret Calvinists, was in 
dustriously distributed among the people, but also a new 
edition of the Bible, in the same language, enriched with 
the observations of Henry Salmouth, which were artfully 
accommodated to this purpose, was, in 1591, published at 
Dresden. The consequences of these vigorous measures 
were violent tumults and seditions among the people, 
which the magistrates endeavoured to suppress, by punish- 
ing with severity such of the clergy as distinguished them- 
selves by their opposition to the views of the court. But 
the whole plan of this religious revolution was overturned 
by the unexpected death of Christian, which happened in 
the year 1591. Affairs then assumed their former aspect. 
The doctors, who had been principally concerned in the 
execution of this unsuccessful project, were committed to 

p. 423. — For an account of the convocation of Quedlinburg, and the acta 
that passed in that assembly, see the Danisc-he Bibliothec. part viii. 

b In the year 1591. 

55= ° The custom of exorcising, or casting out evil spirits, was used 
in the fourth century at the admission of catechumens, and was after- 
wards absurdly applied in the baptism of infants. This application ot 
it was retained by the greatest part of the Lutheran churches. It was 
indeed abolished by the elector, .Christian I., but was restored after his 
death ; and the opposition that had been made to it by Crellius was the 
chief reason of his unhappy end. See Justi H. Bohmeri Jus Ecclesiast 
Protestant, torn, iii.; as also a German work of Melchior Kraft, entitled 
Geschichte des Exorcismi. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



469 



prison, or sent into banishment, after the death of the 
elector ; and its chief encourager and patron, Crellius, 
suffered death in 1601, as the fruit of his temerity." 

XLIV. Towards the conclusion of this century, a new 
controversy was imprudently set on foot at Wittenberg, 
by a Swiss named Samuel Huber, professor of divinity in 
that university. The Calvinistical tenets of absolute pre- 
destination and unconditional decrees were extremely of- 
fensive to this adventurous theologian, and even excited 
his warmest indignation. Accordingly he affirmed, and 
taught publicly, that all mankind were elected from eter- 
nity by the Supreme Being to everlasting salvation, and 
accused his colleagues in particular, and the Lutheran 
divines in general, of a propensity to the doctrine of Cal- 
vin, on account of their asserting, that the divine election 
was confined to those, whose faith, foreseen by an om- 
niscient God, rendered them the proper objects of his re- 
deeming mercy. The opinion of Huber, as is now ac- 
knowledged by many learned men, differed more in words 
than in reality, from the doctrine of the Lutheran church ; 
for he did no more than explain in a new method, and 
with a different turn of phrase, what that church had 
always taught concerning the unlimited extent of the love 
of God, as embracing the whole human race, and ex- 
cluding none by an absolute decree from everlasting sal- 
vation. However, as a disagreeable experience and re- 
peated examples had abundantly shown, that new me- 
thods of explaining or proving even received doctrines were 
as much adapted to excite divisions and contests, as the 
introduction of new errors, Huber was exhorted to adhere 
to the ancient method of proposing the doctrine of election, 
and, instead of his own peculiar forms of expression, to 
make use of those which were received and authorized by 
the church. To this compliance he refused to submit, 
alleging that it was contrary to the dictates of his con- 
science, while his patrons and disciples, in many places, 
gave several indications of a turbulent and seditious zeal 
for his cause. These considerations engaged the magis- 
trates of Wittenberg to depose him from his office, and to 
send him into banishments 

XLV. The controversies, of which a succinct account 
has now been given, and others of inferior moment, which 
it is needless to mention, were highly detrimental to the 
true interests of the Lutheran church, as is abundantly 
known by all who are acquainted with the history of this 
century. It must also be acknowledged, that the man- 
ner of conducting and deciding these debates, the spirit of 
the disputants, and the proceedings of the judges, if we 
form our estimate of them by the sentiments that prevail 
among the wiser sort of men in modern times, must be 
considered as inconsistent with equity, moderation, and 
charity. It betrays, nevertheless, a want, both of candour 
and justice, to inveigh indiscriminately against the authors 

* See Arnold's Kirchen und Ketzer Historie, part ii. book xvi. cap. 
xxxii.; as also the authors mentioned by Herm. Ascan. Engelcken, in 
his Dissertat. de Nic. Crellio, ejusque Supplicio. 

' For an account of the writers that appeared in this controversy, 
see Christ. Matth. Pfafii Introductio in Histor. Liter. Theologiae, par. 
ii. lib. iii. p. 431. 

" For an ample account of these Lutheran doctors, see Melchior 
Adam's Vita? Theologorum, and Du-Pin's Bibliotheque des Auteurs 
separes de la Communion de l'Eglise Romaine au XVII. Siecle. The 
lives of several of these divines have been also composed by different 
authors of the present times; for example, that of Weller by Lremelius, 
that of Flacius by Ritter, those of Heshusius and Spangenberg by 
Leuckfeldt, that of Fagiua by Fervelin, that o f Chytraus by Schutz, 

No. XL. 118 



of these misfortunes, and to represent them as totally des- 
titute of rational sentiments and virtuous principles ; and 
it is still more unjust to throw the whole blame upon the 
triumphant party, while the suffering side are all fondly 
represented as men of unblemished virtue, and worthy of 
a better fate. It ought not certainly to be a matter of 
surprise, that persons long accustomed to a state of dark- 
ness, and suddenly transported from it into the blaze of 
day, did not, at first, behold the objects that were presented 
to their view with that distinctness and precision which 
are natural to those who have long enjoyed the light ; 
and such really was the case of the first proiestant doctors, 
who were delivered from the gloom of papal superstition 
and tyranny. Besides, there was something gross and 
indelicate in the reigning spirit of this age, which made 
the people not only tolerate, but even applaud, many 
things relating both to the conduct of life and the ma- 
nagement of controversy, which the more polished man- 
ners of modern times cannot relish, and which, indeed, 
are by no means worthy of imitation. As to the particu- 
lar motives or intentions that guided each individual in 
this troubled scene of controversy, whether they acted from 
the suggestions of malice and resentment, or from an up- 
right and sincere attachment to what they considered as 
truth, or how far these two springs of action were jointly 
concerned in their conduct, all this must be left to the de- 
cision of Him alone, whose privilege it is to search the 
heart, and to discern its' most hidden intentions and its 
most secret motives. 

XL VI. The Lutheran church furnished, during this 
century, a long list of distinguished men, who illustrated, 
in their writings, the various branches of theological sci- 
ence. After Luther and Melancthon, who stand foremost 
in this list, on account of their superior genius and erudi- 
tion, we may select the following writers as the most emi- 
nent, and as persons whose names are worthy of being 
preserved in the annals of literature ; viz. Weller, Chemnitz, 
Brentius, Flacius, Regius, Major, Amsdorf, Sarcerius, 
Matthesius, Wigandus, Lambertus, Andreas, Chytrseus, 
Selneccer, Bucer, Fagius, Cruciger, Strigelius, Spangen- 
berg, Judex, Heshusius, Westphal, iEpinus, Osiander, 
and others. c 

CHAPTER II. 

History of the Reformed d Church. 

I. The reformed church, founded by Zuingle and 
Calvin, differs considerably, in its nature and constitution, 
from all other ecclesiastical communities. Every other 
Christian church hath some common centre of union, 
and its members are connected by some common bond of 
doctrine and discipline. But this is far from being the 
case of the Reformed church,' whose several branches 



that of Bucer by Verportenius, those of Westphal and iEpinus by Am. 
Grevius, &c. 

i It has already been observed, that the denomination of Reformed 
was given to those protestant churches which did not embrace the doc- 
trine and discipline of Luther. The title was first assumed by the 
French protestants, and afterwards became the common denomination 
of all the Calvinistical churches on the continent; — I say, on the con- 
tinent ; since in England the term Reformed is generally us d as stand- 
ing in opposition to popery alone. Be that as it may, this part of Dr. 
Mosheim's work would have been, perhaps, with greater propriety en- 
titled, ' The Historyof the Reformed Churches' than that of (he 'Reform- 
ed Church.' This will appear still more evident from the following note. 

%£■ ' This, and the following observations, are designed to give the 



470 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. IIL 



are neither united by the same system of doctrine, nor by 
the same mode of worship, nor yet by the same form of 
government. It is farther to be observed, that this church 
does not require, from its ministers, either uniformity in 
their private sentiments, or in their public doctrine, but 
permits them to explain, in different ways, several doc- 
trines of no small moment, provided that the great and fun- 
damental principles of Christianity, and the practical pre- 
cepts of that divine religion, be maintained in their original 
purity. This great community, therefore, maybe proper- 
ly considered as an ecclesiastical body composed of many 
churches, that vary from each other in their form and con- 
stitution, but which are preserved from anarchy and schism, 
by a general spirit of equity and toleration, that runs 
through the whole system, and renders variety of opinion 
consistent with fraternal union. 

II. This indeed was not the original state and consti- 
tution of the reformed church, but was the result of a 
certain combination of events and circumstances, that 
threw it, by a sort of necessity, into this ambiguous form. 
The divines of Switzerland, from whom it derived its 
origin, and Calvin, who was one of its principal founders, 
employed all their credit, and exerted their most vigour- 
bus efforts, in order to reduce all the churches, which em- 
braced their sentiments, under one rule of faith, and the 
same form of ecclesiastical government. And although 
they considered the Lutherans as their brethren, yet they 
showed no marks of indulgence to those who openly fa- 
voured the opinions of Luther, concerning the eucharist, 
the person of Christ, or predestination ; nor would they 
permit the other protestant churches that embraced their 
communion, to deviate from their example in this respect. 
A new scene, however, which was exhibited in Britain, 
contributed much to enlarge this narrow and contracted 
"ystem of church communion ; for, when the violent con- 
est concerning the form of ecclesiastical government, and 
the nature and number of those ceremonies which were 
proper to be admitted into the public worship, arose be- 
tween the abettors of episcopacy and the puritans, 8 - it was 
judged necessary to extend the borders of the reformed 
church, and rank, in the class of its true members, even 
those who departed, in some respects, from the ecclesias- 
tical polity and doctrines established at Geneva. This 
spirit of toleration and indulgence became still more for- 
bearing and comprehensive after the famous synod of 
Dordrecht ; for, though the sentiments and doctrines of 

Lutheran church an air of unity, which is not to be found in the reform- 
ed. But there is a real fallacy in this specious representation of things. 
The reformed church, when considered in the true extent of the term, 
comprehends all those religious communities which separated themselves 
from the church of Rome ; and, in this sense, it includes the Lutheran 
church, as well as the others. And even when this epithet is used in 
opposition to the community founded by Luther, it represents not a sin- 
gle church, as the episcopal, presbyterian, or independent, but rather a 
collection of churches ; which, though they may be invisibly united by 
a belief and profession of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity, 
maintain separate placet) of worship, and have each a visible centre of 
external union peculiar to themselves, which is formed by certain pecu- 
liarities in their respective rules of public worship and ecclesiastical 
government.* An attentive examination of the discipline, polity, and 
worship of the churches of England, Scotland, Holland, and Switzer- 
land, will set tSis matter in the clearest light. The first of these 
churches, being governed by bishops, and not admitting the validity of 
presbyterian ordination, differs from the other three more than any of 
these differ from each other. There are, however, peculiarities of 
government and worship that distinguish the church of Holland from 
that of Scotland. The institution of deacons, the use of forms for the 
celebration of the sacraments, an ordinary form of prayer, the obser- 
Tancc of the festivals of Christmas, Easter, Ascension-day, and Whit- 



the Arminians were rejected and condemned in that nu- 
merous assembly, yet they gained ground privately, and 
insinuated themselves into the minds of many. The 
church of England, in the reign of Charles I., publicly 
renounced the opinions of Calvin relating to the divine 
decrees, and made several attempts to model its doctrine 
and institutions after the laws, tenets, and customs, that 
were observed by the primitive Christians. b On the othei 
hand, several Lutheran congregations in Germany enter- 
tained a strong propensity to the doctrines and discipline 
of the church of Geneva, though they were restrained 
from declaring themselves fully and openly on this head, 
by their apprehensions of forfeiting the privileges which 
they derived from their adherence to the confession of 
Augsburg. The French refugees also, who had long 
been accustomed to a moderate way of thinking in reli- 
gious matters, and whose national turn led them to a 
certain freedom of inquiry, being dispersed abroad in all 
parts of the protestant world, rendered themselves so 
agreeable, by their wit and eloquence, that their example 
excited a kind of emulation in favour of religious liberty. 
All these circumstances, accompanied with others, whose 
influence was less palpable, though equally real, gradu- 
ally instilled such a spirit of lenity and forbearance into 
the minds of protestants, that at this day, all Christians, 
if we except Roman Catholics, Socinians, Quakers, and 
Anabaptists, may claim a place among the members of 
the reformed church. It is true, that great reluctance was 
discovered by msxij against this comprehensive scheme of 
church communion ; and, even in the times in which we 
live, the ancient and less charitable manner of proceeding 
hath several patrons, who would be glad to see the doc- 
trines and institutions of Calvin universally adopted and 
rigourously observed. These zealots, however, are not 
very numerous, nor is their influence considerable ; and 
it may be affirmed with truth, that, both in point of num 
ber and authority, they are much inferior to the friends of 
moderation, who reduce within a narrow compass the fun- 
damental doctrines of Christianity, on the belief of which 
salvation depends, exercise forbearance and fraternal cha- 
rity toward those who explain certain doctrines in a man- 
ner peculiar to themselves, and desire to see the enclosure 
(if I may use that expression) of the reformed church ren- 
dered as large and comprehensive as is possible. 

III. The founder of the reformed church was Ulric Zu- 
ingle, a native of Switzerland, and a man of uncommon 



suntide, are established in the Dutch church ; and it is well known that 
the church of Scotland greatly differs from it in these respects. — But, 
after all, to what does the pretended uniformity among the Lutherans 
amount'? Are not some of the Lutheran churches governed by bi- 
shops, while others are ruled by elders ] It shall moreover be shown 
in its proper place, that even in point of doctrine, the Lutheran churches 
are not so very remarkable for their uniformity. 

jjrjr " The Puritans, who inclined to the presbyterian forra of 
church government, of which Knox was one of the earliest abettors in 
Britain, derived this denomination from their pretending to a purer 
method of worship than that which had been established by Edward VI. 
and queen Elizabeth. 

§3r t This assertion is equivocal. Many members of the church of 
England, with Archbishop Laud at their, head, did, indeed, propagate 
the doctrines of Arminrus, both in their pulpits and in their writings. 
But it is not accurate to say that the church of England renounced pub- 
licly, in that reign, the opinions of Calvin. See this matter farther 
discussed in the note , cent. xvii. sect. ii. p. ii. ch. ii. paragraph xx. 

c The annals of theology have' not yet been enriched with a full and 
accurate history of the Reformed Church. This task was indeed under- 
taken by Scultet, and even carried down so far as his own time, in his 

* See the general sketch of the state of the church in the eighteenth 
century, paragraph xxi. and the notes annexed. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



471 



penetration and acuteness, accompanied with an ardent 
zeal for truth. This great man was for removing out of 
the churches, and abolishing, in the ceremonies and ap- 
pendages of public worship, many things which Luther 
was disposed to treat with toleration and indulgence, such 
as images, altars, wax-tapers, the form of exorcism, and 
private confession. He aimed at nothing so much as 
establishing, in his country, a form of divine worship re- 
markable for its simplicity, and as far remote as could be 
from every thing that might have the smallest tendency 
to nourish a spirit of superstition. 1 Nor were these the 
only circumstances in which he differed from the Saxon 
reformer ; for his sentiments concerning several points of 
theology/ and more especially his opinions relating to the 
sacrament of the Lord's supper, varied widely from those 
of Luther. The greatest part of these sentiments and 
opinions were adopted in Switzerland, by those who had 
joined themselves to Zuingle in promoting the cause of 
the Reformation, and were by them transmitted to all the 
Helvetic churches that threw off the yoke of Rome. 
From Switzerland these opinions were propagated among 
the neighbouring nations, by the ministerial labours and 
the theological writings of the friends and disciples of Zu- 
ingle : and thus the primitive reformed church, that was 
founded by this eminent ecclesiastic, and whose extent at 
first was not very considerable, gathered strength by de- 
grees, and daily made new acquisitions. 

IV. The separation, between the Lutheran and Swiss 
churches, was chiefly occasioned by the doctrine of Zuin- 
gle, concerning the sacrament of the Lord's supper. Lu- 
ther maintained, that the body and blood of Christ were 
really, though in a manner far beyond human compre- 
hension, present in the eucharist, and were exhibited 
together with the bread and wine. On the contrary, the 
Swiss reformer looked upon the bread and wine in no 
other light than as the signs and symbols of the absent 
bod} 7 and blood of Christ ; and, from the year 1524, he 
propagated this doctrine in a public manner by his writings, 
having entertained and taught it privately before that pe- 



Annales Evangelii Renovatii; but the greatest part of this work is lost. 
Theod. Hasaeus, who proposed to give the annals of that church, was 
prevented by death from fulfilling his purpose. The famous work of 
James Basnage, published in 1725, under the title of Histoire de la 
Religione des Eglises Reformees, instead of giving a regular history of 
the reformed church, is only designed to show that its peculiar and dis- 
tinguishing doctrines are not new inventions, but were taught and em- 
braced in the earliest ages of the church. Maimbourg's Histoire du 
Calvinisme is remarkable for nothing but the partiality of its author, and 
the wilful errors with which it abounds. 

fTjf * The design of Zuingle was certainly excellent ; but in the 
execution of it perhaps he went too far, and consulted rather the dictates 
of reason than the real exigencies of human nature in its present state. 
The existing union between soul and body, which operate together in 
the actions of moral agents, even in those who appear the most abstract- 
ed and refined, renders it necessary to consult the external senses, as 
well as the intellectual powers, in the institution of public worship. Be- 
sides, between a worship purely and philosophically rational, and a 
service grossly and palpably superstitious, there are many intermediate 
steps and circumstances, by which a rational service may be ren- 
dered more afTecting and awakening, without becoming supersti- 
tious. A noble edifice, solemn music, a well-ordered set of external 
gestures, though they do not, in themselves, render our prayers more 
acceptable to the Deity, than if they were offered up without any of 
these circumstances, produce, nevertheless, a good effect. They elevate 
the mind, they give it a composed and solemn frame, and thus contri- 
bute to the fervour of its devotion. 

k Zuingle certainly taught this doctrine in private before the year 1524, 
as appears from Gerdes' Historia Renovati Evangelii, torn. i. 

• In the year 1525. 

* Jo. Conr. Fueslini Centuriai. Epistol. Theolog. Reformat. — 3T_jpCEco- 
lampadiug was not less remarkable for his extraordinary modesty, his ! 



riod. b In a little time after this, c his example was followed 
by CEcolampadius, a divine of Basil, and one of the most 
learned men of that century. d But they were both op- 
posed with obstinacy and spirit by Luther and his asso- 
ciates, particularly those of the circle of Suabia. In the 
mean time, Philip, landgrave of Hesse, apprehending the 
pernicious effects that these debates might have upon the 
affairs of the protestants, which were, as yet, in the fluctu- 
ating and unsettled state that marks the infancy of all 
great revolutions, was desirous of putting an end to these 
differences, and, for that purpose, appointed a conference 
at Marpurg, between Zuingle, Luther, and other doctors ot 
both parties. 6 This meeting, however, only covered the 
flame instead of extinguishing it ; and the pacific prince, 
seeing it impossible to bring about a definite treaty of peace 
and concord between these jarring divines, was obliged to 
rest satisfied with having engaged them to consent to a 
truce. Luther and Zuingle came to an agreement about 
several points ; but the principal matter in debate, — that 
which regarded Christ's presence in the eucharist, — was 
left undecided ; each party appealing to the Fountain of 
wisdom to terminate this controversy, and expressing a 
hope that time and impartial refection might discover and 
confirm the truth. f 

V. The reformed Church had scarcely been founded in 
Switzerland by Zuingle, when the Christian hero fell in 
a battle that was fought, in 1530, between the protestants 
of Zurich, and their Roman catholic compatriots, who 
drew the sword in defence of popery. It was not indeed 
to perform the sanguinary office of a soldier that Zuingle 
was present at this engagement, but with a view to en- 
courage and animate, by his counsel and exhortations, the 
valiant defenders of the protestant caused After his 
death, several Lutheran doctors of the more moderate sort, 
and particularly Martin Bucer, used their utmost endea- 
vours to bring about some kind of reconciliation between 
the contending parties. For this purpose they exhorted 
the jarring theologians to concord, interpreted the points 
in dispute with a prudent regard to the prejudices of both 

charitable, forbearing, and pacific spirit, and his zeal for the progress of 
vital and practical religion, than for his profound erudition, which 
he seemed rather studious to conceal, than to display. 

f~jf ° Zuingle was accompanied by CEcolampadius, Bucer, and Hi- 
deon. Luther had with him Melancthon and Justus Jonas from Saxo- 
ny, and also Osiander, Brentius, andAgricola. 

f Ruchat, Histoire de la Reformation de la Suisse, vol. i. ii. — Hot- 
tinger, HelvetischeKirchen-Geschichte, part iii. — Loscher, Historia Mo- 
tuum, par. i. cap. ii. iii. vi. — Fueslini Beytrage zur Schweizer Reforma- 
tion, torn. iv. 

s The Lutherans, who consider this unhappy fate of Zuingle as 
a reproach upon that great man in particular, and upon the reformed 
church in general, discover a gross ignorance of the genius and man- 
ners of the Swiss nation in this century; for, as all the inhabitants of 
that country are at present trained to arms, and obliged to take the field 
when the defence of their country requires it, so in the time of Zuingle 
this obligation was so general, that neither the ministers of the Gospel, 
nor the professors of theology, was exempted from this military service. 
Accordingly, in the same bat'de in which Zuingle fell, Jerome Pontanus, 
one of the theological doctors of Basil, also lost his life. See Fueslini 
Centuria i. Epistolar. Theol. Reformator. ?7jp Erasmus also spoke in 
a very unfriendly manner of the death of Zuingle and his friend CEco- 
lampadius. See Jortin's Life of Erasmus, vol. i. It is not therefore 
surprising to find the bigoted Sir Thomas More insulting (with the bar- 
barity that superstition seldom fails to produce in a narrow and peevish 
mind) the memory of these two eminent reformers, in a letter to the 
furious and turbulent Cochlaeus ; of which the following words show the 
spirit of the writer : " Postrema ea fait, quam de Zuinglio et CEcolam- 
padio, scriptam misisti, quorum nunciata mors mihi laetitiam attulit. — 
Sublatos e medio esse tarn immanes fidei Christianas hostes, tarn intentos 
ubiquein omnem perimendae pietatis occasionem, jure gaudere possum." 
Jorlin, vol. ii. 



472 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. 111. 



sides, admonished them of the pernicious consequences 
that must attend the prolongation of these unhappy con- 
tests, and even went so far as to express the respective 
sentiments of the contending doctors in terms of consider- 
able ambiguity and latitude, that thus the desired union 
might be the more easily effected. There is no doubt, 
that the intentions and designs of these zealous inter- 
cessors were pious and upright ; a but it will be difficult to 
decide, whether the means they employed were adapted 
to promote the end they had in view. Be that as it may, 
these specific counsels of Bucer excited divisions in Swit- 
zerland : for some persevered obstinately in the doctrine 
of Zuingle, while others adopted the explications and 
modifications of his doctrine, offered by Bucer. b But 
these divisions and commotions had not the least effect 
on that reconciliation with Luther, which was earnestly 
desired by the pious and moderate doctors of both parties. 
The efforts of Bucer were more successful out of Switzer- 
land, and particularly among those divines in the upper 
parts of Germany, who inclined to the sentiments of the 
Helvetic church ; for they retired from the communion 
of that church, and joined themselves to Luther by a 
public act, which was sent to Wittenberg, in 1536, by a 
solemn deputation appointed for that purpose. The 
Swiss divines could not be brought to so great a length. 
There was, however, still some prospect of a reconcilia- 
tion even between them and the Lutherans. But this 
fair prospect entirely disappeared in 1544, when Luther 
published his confession of faith in relation to the sacra- 
ment of the Lord's supper, which was directly opposite to 
the doctrine of Zuingle and his followers on that head. 
The doctors of Zurich pleaded their cause publicly against 
the Saxon reformer in the following year ; and thus the 
purposes of the advocates of peace were totally defeated. d 
VI. The death of Luther, which happened in the year 
546, was an event that seemed adapted to calm these 
commotions, and to revive, in the breast of the moderate 
and pacific, the hopes of a reconciliation between the con- 
tending parties. For this union, between the Lutherans 
and Zuinglians, was so ardently desired by Melancthon 
and his followers, that this great man left no means un- 
employed to effect it, and seemed resolved, rather to sub- 
mit to a dubious and forced peace, than to see those flam- 
ing discords perpetuated, which reflected such dishonour 
on the protestant cause. At the same time, this salutary 
work seemed to be facilitated by the theological system 
that was adopted by John Calvin, a native of Noyon in 
France, who was pastor and professor of divinity at Ge- 
neva, and whose genius, learning, eloquence, and talents, 
rendered him respectable, even in the eyes of his enemies. 
This great man, whose particular friendship for Melanc- 
thon was an incidental circumstance highly favourable 
to the intended reconciliation, proposed an explication of 
the point in debate, that modified the crude hypothesis of 
Zuingle, and made use of all his credit and authority 

» See Alb. Menon. Verpoorten, Comment, de Mart. Bucero, et ejus 
Sententia de Ccena Domini, sect. ix. p. 23, published in 8vo. at Coburg, 
in the year 1709. — Loscheri Hist. Motuum, par. i. lib. ii. and par. i.lib.iii. 

t> Fueslini Centur. i. Epistolar. Theolog. 

c Loscheri Hist. cap. ii. p. 205, — Ruchat, Histoire de la Reformat, de 
Suisse, torn. v. p. 535. — Hottingeri Histor. Eccles. Helvet. torn. iii. lib. 
vi. p. 702. 

i Loscheri Hist. par. i. lib. ii. cap. iv. p. 341. 

* Salig, Hist. Aug. Confessionis, torn. ii. lib. vii. 

f^* ' Calvin went certainly too far in this matter ; and, in his explica- 



among the Swiss, and more particularly at Zurich, where 
he was held in the highest veneration, in order to obtain 
their assent to it. e The explication he proposed was not, 
indeed, favourable to the doctrine of Christ's bodily pre- 
sence in the eucharist, which he persisted in denying ; 
he supposed, however, that a certain divine virtue, or effi- 
cacy, was communicated by Christ, with the bread and 
wine, to those who approached this holy sacrament with 
a lively faith, and with upright hearts ; and to render this 
notion still more satisfactory, he expressed it in almost the 
same terms v,hich the Lutherans employed in inculcating 
their doctrine of Christ's real presence in the eucharist/ 
Indeed the great and common error of all those, who, 
from a desire of peace, assumed the character of arbitra- 
tors in this controversy, lay in this, that they aimed rather 
at an uniformity of terms than of sentiments, and seem- 
ed satisfied when they had engaged the contending parties 
to use the same words and phrases, though their real dif- 
ference in opinion remained the same, and each explained 
these ambiguous or figurative terms in a manner agree- 
able to their respective s3^stems. 

The concord, so much desired, did not, however, seem 
to advance much. Melancthon, although he stood fore- 
most in the rank of those who longed impatiently for it, 
had not courage enough to embark openly in the exe- 
cution of such a perilous project. Besides, after the death 
of Luther, his enemies attacked him with redoubled fury, 
and gave him so much disagreeable occupation, that he 
had neither that leisure, nor that tranquillity of mind, 
which were necessary to prepare his measures properly 
for such an arduous undertaking. A new obstacle to the 
execution of this pacific project was also presented, by the 
intemperate zeal of Joachim Westphal, pastor at Ham- 
burg, who, in 1552, renewed, with greater vehemence 
than ever, this deplorable controversy, which had been for 
some time suspended ; and who, after Flacius, was the 
most obstinate defender of the opinions of Luther. This 
violent theologian, with a spirit of acrimonious vehemence, 
like that which too remarkably appeared in the polemic 
writings of Luther, attacked the act of uniformity, by 
which the churches of Geneva and Zurich declared their 
agreement concerning the doctrine of the eucharist. In 
the book which he published with this view,e he censured, 
with the utmost severity, the variety of sentiments con- 
cerning the sacrament of the Lord's supper, observable in the 
reformed church, and maintained, with his usual warmth 
and obstinacy, the opinion of Luther on that subject. Thia 
engaged Calvin to enter the lists with Westphal, whom ho 
treated with as little lenity and forbearance, as the rigid 
Lutherans had shown toward the Helvetic churches. The 
consequences of this debate were, that Calvin and West- 
phal had, respectively, their zealous defenders and pa- 
trons : thus the breach was widened, the spirits were heat- 
ed, and the flame of controversy was kindled anew with 
such violence and fury, that to extinguish it entirely seem- 

tion of the benefits that arise from a worthy commemoration of Christ's 
death in the eucharist, he dwelt too grossly upon the allegorical expres- 
sions of Scripture, which the papists had so egregiously abused, and 
talked of really eating by faith the body, and drinking the blood ot 
Christ. 

|^= e This book, which abounds with senseless and extravagant tenets 
that Luther never so much as thought of, and breathes the most virulent 
spirit of persecution, is entitled, " Fan-ago Confusanearum et inter se 
dissidentium de S. Coena Opinionum ex Sacramentariorum Libris con 
gesta." 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



473 



ed to be a task beyond the reach of human wisdom or 
power. 1 

VII. These disputes were unhappily augmented by 
that famous controversy concerning the decrees of God, 
with respect to the eternal condition of men, which was 
!=et on foot by Calvin, and became an inexhaustible source 
of intricate researches, and abstruse, subtle, and inexpli- 
cable questions. The most ancient Helvetic doctors were 
far from adopting the doctrine of those, who represent 
the Deity as assigning from all eternity, by an absolute, 
arbitrary, and unconditional decree, to some everlasting 
happiness, and to others endless misery, without any pre- 
vious regard to the moral characters and circumstances 
of either. Their sentiments seemed to differ very little 
from those of the Pelagians ; nor did they hesitate in de- 
claring, after the example of Zuingle, that the kingdom 
of heaven was open to all who lived according to the dic- 
tates of right reason. b Calvin had adopted a quite dif- 
ferent system with respect to the divine decrees. He 
maintained, that the everlasting condition of mankind in 
a future world was determined from all eternity, by the 
unchangeable order of the Deity, and that this absolute 
determination of his will and good pleasure, was the only 
source of happiness or misery to every individual. This 
opinion was in a very short time propagated through all 
the reformed churches, by the writing:; of Calvin, and by 
the ministry of his disciples ; and, in some places, it was 
inserted in the national creeds and confessions, and thus 
made a public article of faith. The unhappy controversy, 
which took its rise from this doctrine, was opened at Stras- 
burg, in 1560, by Jerome Zanchius, an Italian ecclesias- 
tic, who was particularly attached to the sentiments of 
Calvin ; and it was afterwards carried on by others with 
such zeal and assiduity, that it drew, in an extraordinary 
manner, the attention of the pi'iblic, and tended as much 
to exasperate the passions, and foment the discord of the 
contending parties, as the dispute about the eucharist had 
already done. c 

VIII. The Helvetic doctors had no prospect left of 
calming the troubled spirits, and tempering, at least, the 
vehemence of these deplorable feuds, but the moderation 
of the Saxon divines, who were the disciples of Melanc- 
thon, and who, breathing the pacific spirit of their master, 
seemed, after his death, to have nothing so much at heart 
as the restoration of concord and union to the protestant 
church. Their designs, however, were not carried on 
with that caution and circumspection, with that prudent 
foresight, or that wise attention to the nature of the times, 
which always distinguished the transactions of Melanc- 
thon, and which the critical nature of the cause they were 
engaged in, indispensably required. And hence they 
had already taken a step, which threatened to render in- 
effectual all the remedies they could apply to the healing 
of the present disorders ; for, by dispersing artful and in- 
sidious writings, with a design to seduce the ministers of 
the church, and the studious youth, into the sentiments 

* Loscheri Historia Motuum, par. ii. lib. iii. cap. viii. p. 83. — Molleri 
Cimbria Literata, torn. iii. p. 642. — Arn. Grevii Memona Joac. West- 
[>hali. 

b For the proof of this assertion, see Dallrei Apologia pro duabus 
Ecclesiarum Gallicar. Synodis adversus Fred. Spanheim, part iv. p. 
94G. — Jo. Alphons. Turretini Epistol. ad Antistitem Cantuariensem, 
inserted in the Bibliotheque Germanique, torn. xiii. — Simon, Biblio- jl 
theque Critique, published under the fictitious name of Sanior, torn. iii. ch. I 
xxviii., and also a book, entitled, Observationes Gallics in Formul. Con- II 

No. XL. 119 



of the Swiss divines, or, at least, to engage them to treat 
these sentiments with toleration and forbearance, they 
drew upon themselves the indignation of their adversa- 
ries, and ruined the pacific cause in which they had em- 
barked. It was this conduct that gave occasion to the 
composition of that famous Form of Concord, which con- 
demned the sentiments of the reformed churches in rela- 
tion to the person of Christ, and the sacrament of the 
Lord's supper ; and, as this form is received by the great- 
est part of the Lutherans, as one of the articles of their 
religion, hence arises an insuperable obstacle to all schemes 
of reconciliation and concord. 

IX. So much did it seem necessary to premise con- 
cerning the causes, rise, and progress of the controversy, 
which formed the separation that still subsists between 
the Lutheran and reformed churches. Thence it will be 
proper to proceed to an account of the internal state of 
the latter, and to the history of its progress and revolu- 
tions. The history of the reformed church, during this 
century, comprehends two distinct periods. The first 
commences with the year 1519, when Zuingle withdrew 
from the communion of Rome, and began to form a chris- 
tian church beyond the bounds of the pope's jurisdiction ; 
and it extends to the time of Calvin's settlement at Ge- 
neva, where he required the greatest reputation and au- 
thority. The second period takes in the rest of this cen- 
tury. 

During the first of these periods, the Helvetic church, 
which assumed the title of Reformed after the example 
of the French protestants in its neighbourhood, who had 
chosen this denomination, in order to distinguish them- 
selves from the catholics, as very considerable in its extent, 
and was confined to the cantons of Switzerland. It was 
indeed augmented by the accession of some small states in 
Suabia and Alsace ; but, in 1526, these states changed 
sides, through the suggestions and influence of Bucer, re- 
turned to the communion of the Saxon church, and thus 
made their peace with Luther. The other religious com- 
munities, which had abandoned the church of Rome, 
either openly embraced the doctrine of Luther, or consist- 
ed of persons who did not agree in their theological opi- 
nions, and who really seemed to stand in a kind of neutral- 
ity between the contending parties. All things being 
duly considered, it appears probable enough that the 
church founded by Zuingle, would have remained still 
confined to its original limits, had not Calvin arise)', to 
augment its extent, authority, and lustre ; for the natural 
and political character of the Swiss, neither bent toward 
the lust of conquest, nor the grasping views of ambition, 
discovered itself in their religious transactions ; and, as a 
spirit of contentment with what they had, prevented their 
aiming at an augmentation of their territory, so did a simi- 
lar spirit hinder them from being extremely solicitous 
about enlarging the borders of their church. 

X. In this infant state of the reformed church, the only 
point that prevented its union with the followers of Lu- 

sensus Helveticam. The very learned Dr. Gerdes, instead of being 
persuaded by these testimonies, maintains, on the contrary, (in his Mis- 
cellan. Groningens.) that the sentiments of Calvin were the same with 
those of the ancient Swiss doctors ; but this excellent author may be 
refuted, even from his own account of the tumults which were occasion- 
ed in Switzerland, by the opinion that Calvin had propagated in relation 
to the divine decrees. 

c Loscheri Historia Motuum, part iii. lib. v. cap. ii. — Salig. Hist. 
August. Confcssionis, torn. i. lib. ii. cap. xiii. 



474 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH 



Sect. Ill 



ther, was the doctrine they taught with respect to the 
sacrament of the Lord's supper. This first controversy, 
indeed, soon produced a second, relating to the person of 
Jesus Christ ; which, nevertheless, concerned oidy a part 
of the Lutheran Church.* The Lutheran divines of 
Suabia, in the course of their debates with those of Swit- 
zerland, drew an argument in favour of the real presence 
of Christ's body and blood in the eucharist, from the fol- 
lowing proposition : that " all the properties of the divine 
nature, and consequently its omnipresence were commu- 
nicated to the human nature of Christ by the hypostatic 
union." The Swiss doctors, in order to destroy the force 
of this argument, denied this communication of the divine 
attributes to Christ's human nature ; and denied, more 
especially, the 'ubiquity or omnipresence of the man 
Jesus ;' and hence arose that most intricate and abstruse 
controversy concerning ubiquity, and the communication 
of properties, which produced so many learned and unin- 
telligible treatises, so many subtle disputes, and occasioned 
such a multitude of accusations and invectives. 

It is proper to observe, that, at this time, the Helvetic 
church universally embraced the doctrine of Zuingle con- 
cerning the eucharist. This doctrine, which differed con- 
siderably from that of Calvin, amounted to the following 
propositions: That the bread and wine were no more 
than a representation of the body and blood of Christ ; or, 
in other words, the signs appointed to denote the benefits 
that were conferred upon mankind, in consequence of the 
death of Christ ; that, therefore, Christians derived no other 
fruit from the participation of the Lord's supper, than a 
mere commemoration and remembrance of the merits of 
Christ, which, according to an expression common in the 
mouths of the advocates of this doctrine, was the ' only 
thing that was properly meant by the Lord's supper.' b 
Bucer, whose leading principles was the desire of peace 
and concord, endeavoured to correct and modify this doc- 
trine in such a manner, as to give it a certain degree of 
conformity to the hypothesis of Luther ; but the memory 
of Zuingle was too fresh in the minds of the Swiss, to 
permit their acceptance of these corrections and modifica- 
tions, or to suffer them to depart, in any respect, from the 
doctrine of that eminent man, who had founded their 
church, and had been the instrument of their deliverance 
from the tyranny and superstition of Rome. 

XI. In the year 1541, John Calvin, who surpassed al- 
most all the doctors of this age in laborious application, 
constancy of mind, force of eloquence, and extent of ge- 
nius, returned to Geneva, whence the opposition of his 
enemies had obliged him to retire. On his settlement 
in that city, the affairs of the new church were commit- 
ted to his direction ; c and he acquired also a high de- 
gree of influence in the political administration of that 
republic. This event changed entirely the face of affairs, 
and gave a new aspect to the reformed church. The 

f^» • It was only a certain number of those Lutherans, who were 
much more rigid in their doctrine than Luther himself, that believed the 
ubiquity or omnipresence of Christ's person, considered as a man. By 
this we may see that the Lutherans have their divisions as well as the 
reformed, of which several instances may be yet given in the course of 
this History. 

*> Nihil esse in Coena quam memoriam Christi. That this was the 
real opinion of Zuingle, appears evidently from various testimonies, 
which may be seen in the Museum Helveticum, torn. i. p. 485, 490. torn. 
iii. p. 631. This is also confirmed by the following sentence in his book 
concerning baptism ; (torn. ii. op. p. 85.) " Coena Dominica non aliud 



views and projects of this great man were grand and ex- 
tensive ; for he not only undertook to give strength and 
vigour to the rising church, by framing the wisest laws 
and the most salutary institutions for the maintenance of 
order, and the advancement of true piety, but even pro- 
posed to render Geneva the mother, the seminary of all 
the reformed churches, as Wittenberg was of all the Lu- 
theran communities. He formed the scheme of sending 
forth from this little republic the succours and ministers 
that were to promote and propagate the protestant cause 
through the most distant nations, and aimed at nothing 
less than rendering the government, discipline, and doc- 
trine of Geneva, the model and rule of strict imitation to 
all the reformed churches in the world. The undertak- 
ing was certainly great, and worthy of the extensive ge- 
nius and capacity of this eminent man ; and, great and 
arduous as it was, it was executed in part, and even car- 
ried on to a very considerable length, by his indefatigable 
assiduity and inextinguishable zeal. It was with this 
view, that, by the fame of his learning, as well as by his 
epistolary solicitations and encouragements of various 
kinds, he engaged many persons of rank and fortune, in 
France, Italy, and other countries, to leave the places of 
their nativity, and to settle at Geneva : while others re- 
paired thither merely out of curiosity to see a man, whose 
talents and exploits had rendered bim so famous, and to 
hear the discourses which he delivered in public. Ano- 
ther circumstance, that contributed much to the success 
of his designs, was the establishment of an university at 
Geneva, which the senate of that city founded at his re- 
quest ; and in which he himself, with his colleague, Theo- 
dore Beza, and other divines of eminent learning and 
abilities, taught the sciences with the greatest reputation. 
In effect, the lustre which these great men reflected upon 
this infant seminary of learning, spread its fame through 
the distant nations with such amazing rapidity, that all 
who were ambitious of a distinguished progress either in 
sacred or profane erudition, repaired to Geneva, and that 
England, Scotland, France, Italy, and Germany, seemed 
to vie with each other in the numbers of their studious 
3^outh, that were incessantly repairing to the new uni- 
versity. By these means, and by the ministry of these 
his disciples, Calvin enlarged considerably the borders of 
the reformed church, propagated his doctrine, and gained 
proselytes and patrons to his theological system, in several 
countries of Europe. In the midst of this glorious career, 
he ended his days, in the year 1564 ; but the salutary in- 
stitutions and wise regulations, of which he had been 
the author, were both respected and maintained after his 
death. In a more especial manner, the university of 
Geneva flourished as much under Beza, as it had done 
during the life of its founder." 1 

XII. The plan of doctrine and discipline that had been 
formed by Zuingle, was altered and corrected by Calvin, 



quam Commemorationis nomen meretur." Compare, with all this, 
Fueslini Cent. I. Epist. Theol. Reform. > 

Calvin, in reality, enjoyed the power and authority of a bishop at 
Geneva ; for, as long as he lived, he presided in the assembly of the 
clergy, and in the consistory, or ecclesiastical judicatory. But, when he 
was at the point of death, he advised the clergy not to appoint a succes- 
sor, and proved to them evidently the dangerous consequences of entrust- 
ing with any one man, during life, a place of such high authority. Af- 
ter him, therefore, the place of president ceased to be perpetual. See 
Spon's Histoirede Geneve, torn. ii. - 

•i The various projects and plans that were formed, conducted, and 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



475 



more especially in three points, of -which it will not be im- 
proper to give a particular account. 

1st. Zuingle. in his form of ecclesiastical government, 
had given an absolute and unbounded power, in religious 
matters, to the civil magistrate, to whom he had placed 
the clergy in a degree of subjection that was displeasing 
to many." At the same time he allowed a certain subor- 
dination and difference of rank among the ministers of 
the church, and even thought it expedient to place at their 
head a perpetual president, or superintendant, with a cer- 
tain degree of inspection and authority over the whole 
body. Calvin, on the contrary, reduced the power of the 
magistrate, in religious matters, within narrow bounds. 
He declared the church a separate and independent body, 
endowed with the power of legislation for itself. He main- 
tained, that it was to be governed, like the primitive 
church, only by presbyteries and synods, that is. by as- 
semblies of elders, composed both of the clergy and laity: 
and he left to the civil magistrate little more than the pri- 
vilege of protecting and defending the church, and pro- 
viding for what related to its external exigencies and con- 
cernsr Thus this eminent reformer introduced into the 
republic of Geneva, and endeavoured to introduce into all 
the reformed churches throughout Europe, that form of 
ecclesiastical government, -which is called Presbyterian. 
from its neither admitting the institution of bishops, nor 
any subordination among the clergy; and which is found- 
ed on this principle, that all ministers of the Gospel are, 
by the law of God, declared to be equal in rank and au- 
thoritv. In consequence of this principle, he established 
at Geneva a consistory composed of ruling elders, partly 
pastors, and partly laymen, and invested this ecclesiasti- 
cal body with a high degree of power and authority. He 
also convened synods, composed of the ruling elders of dif- 
ferent churches, and, in these consistories and synods, 
procured laws to be enacted for the regulation of all mat- 
ters of a religious nature : and, among other things, re- 
stored to its former vigour the ancient practice of excom- \ 
munication. All these things were done with the con- 
seat of the greatest part of the senate of Geneva. 

2dly, The system that Zuingle had adopted with re- 
spect to the eucharist, was by no means agreeable to Cal- 
vin, who, in order to facilitate the desired union with the 
Lutheran church, substituted in its place another, which 

executed with equal prudence and resolution by Calvin, in behalf, both 
of the republic and church of Geneva, are related by the learned person, 
who, in 1730. ?ave a new edition (enriched with interesting- historical 
notes, and authentic documents) of Spon's Histoire de Geneve. The 
particular accounts of Calvin : s transactions, given by this anonymous 
editor, in his notes, are drawn from several curious manuscripts of 
undoubted credit 

13" * The term Impanation (which signifies here the presence of 
Christ's bodv in the eucharist, hi or with the bread, that is there exhi- 
bited) amounts to what is called Consubstantiation. It was a modifica- 
tion of the monstrous doctrine of Transubstantiation. first invented by 
some of the disciples of Berenger, who had not a mind to break all mea- 
sures with the church of Rome, and was afterwards adopted by Luther 
and his followers, who, in reality, made sad work of it. For. in order 
to give it some faint air of possibility, and to maintain it as well as they 
could, they fell into a wretched scholastic jargon about the nature of sub- 
stances, subsistences, attributes, properties, and accidents, that did infinite 
michief to the true and sublime science of gospel theology, whose beauti- 
ful simplicity it was adapted to destroy. The very same perplexity and 
darkness, the same quibbling, sophistical, and unintelligible logic, that 
reigned in the attempts of the Roman catholics to defend the doctrine of 
Transubstantiation. were visible in the controversial writings of the 
Lutiiefifns in behalf of Consubstantiation, or Impanation. The latter 
had, indeed, one absurdity less to maintain ; but being obliged to assert, 
in opposition to intuitive evidence and unchangeable truth, that the 
same body can be" in many plaies at the same time, they were conse- 



appeared more conformable to the doctrine of that church, 
and. in reality, differed little from it. For while the doc- 
trine of Zuingle supposed only a symbolical or figurative 
presence of the body and blood of Christ in the eucharist, 
and represented a pious remembrance of Christ's death, 
and of the benefits it procured to mankind, as the only 
fruits that arose from the celebration of the Lord's supper, 
Calvin explained this critical point in a quite different 
manner. He acknowledged a real though spiritual pre- 
sence of Christ in this sacrament ; or, in other words, he 
maintained, that true Christians, who approached this 
holy ordinance with a lively faith, were, in a certain man- 
ner, united to the man Christ ; and that from this union 
the spiritual life derived new vigour in the soul, and was 
still carried on, in a progressive motion, to greater degrees 
of purity and perfection. This kind of language had been 
used in the forms of doctrine drawn up by Luther : and 
as Calvin observed, among other things, that the divine 
grace was conferred upon sinners, and sealed to them by 
the celebration of the Lord's supper, this induced many 
to suppose that he adopted the sentiment implied in the 
barbarous term impanation.* and did not essentially alter 
the doctrine of the Lutheran church on this important 
subject. 15 Be that as it may, his sentiments differed con- 
siderably from those of Zuingle ; for, while the latter as- 
serted, that all Christians, whether regenerate or unrege- 
nerate, might be partakers of the body and blood of Christ, 
Calvin confined this privilege to the pious and regenerate 
believer alone. 

3dly. The absolute decree of God, with respect to the 
future and everlasting condition of the human race, which 
made no part of the theology of Zuingle, was an essen- 
tial tenet in the creed of Calvin, who inculcated with zeal 
the following doctrine : that God, in predestinating, from 
all eternity, one part of mankind to everlasting happiness, 
and another to endless misery, was led to make this dis- 
tinction by no other motive than his own good pleasure 
and free will. 

XIII. The first point was of such a nature, that, great 
as the credit and influence of Calvin were, he could not 
procure an universal reception for it in the reformed 
churches. The English and Germans rejected it. and 
even the Swiss refused to adopt it. It was. however, re- 
ceived by the reformed churches in France. Holland, and 

quently obliged to have recourse to the darkest and most intricate jargon 
of the schools, to hide the nonsense of this unaccountable doctrine. 
The modern Lutherans are grown somewhat wiser in this respect : at 
least, they seem less zealous than their ancestors about the tenet in 
question. 

i> See Fueslini Centur. I. Epistol. Theol. Reform, torn. i. p. 255. 262. — 
Lettres de Calvin a Mons. de Falaise, p. 84. — "v7e learn from Fueslin 
that Calvin wrote to Bucer a letter, intimating that he approved his sen- 
timents. It is possible, that he may have derived from Bucer the opi- 
nion he entertained with respect to the eucharist — See Bossuet's His- 
toire, drs Variations des Eglises Protestantes, torn. ii. ; and Courayer's 
Exame- s des Defauts de Theolci. iens, torn. ii. These two writers pre- 
tend that the sentiments of Cah.n, with respect to the eucharist, were 
almost the same with those of the catholics* The truth of the matter is, 
that the obscurity and inconsistency with which this great man ex- 
pressed himself upon that subject, render it extremely difficult to give a 
clear and accurate account of his doctrine. 

§3r * How it could come into the heads of such men as Bossuet and 
Dr. Courayer to say, that " the sentiments of Calvin concerning the eu- 
charist were almost die same with those of the catholics," is, indeed, 
strange enough. The doctrine of transubstantiation was to Calvin an 
invincible obstacle to any sort of conformity between him and Rome on 
that subject: for, however obscure and figurative his expressions with 
respect to Christ's spiritual presence in the eucharist may have been, hft 
never once dreamed of any thing like a corporal presence in that holy 
sacrament. 



476 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. III. 



Scotland. The Swiss remained firm in their opposition ; 
they would not suffer the form of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment, that had once been established under the inspec- 
tion of Zuingle, to be changed in any respect, nor the 
power of the civil magistrate, in religious matters, to receive 
the smallest prejudice. The other two points were long 
debated, even in Switzerland, with the greatest warmth. 
Several churches, more especially those of Zurich and 
Bern, maintained obstinately the doctrine of Zuingle con- 
cerning the eucharist ; a and they could not be easily per- 
suaded to admit, as an article of faith, the doctrine of 
predestination, as it had been taught by Calvin. b The 
prudence, however, of this great man, seconded by his 
resolute perseverance and his extraordinary credit, tri- 
umphed at length so far, as to bring about an union be- 
tween the Swiss churches and that of Geneva, first in 
relation to the doctrine of the eucharist, c and afterwards 
also on the subject of predestination. d The followers of 
Calvin extended still farther the triumphs of their chief, 
and improved with such success the footing he had gained, 
that, in process of time, almost all the reformed churches 
adopted his theological system ; a result to which, no 
doubt, his learned writings greatly contributed. 6 

XIV. It will not be improper to pass in review the dif- 
ferent countries in which the doctrine and discipline of 
the reformed church, as modelled by Calvin, were esta- 
blished in a fixed and permanent manner. Among its 
chief patrons in Germany we may reckon Frederic III. 
elector Palatine, who, in 1560, removed from their pas- 
toral functions the Lutheran doctors, and filled their places 
with Calvinists ; and, at the same time, obliged his sub- 
jects to embrace the tenets, rites, and institutions of the 
church of Geneva/ This order was indeed abrogated, 
in 1576, by his son and successor Louis, who restor- 
ed Lutheranism to its former credit and authority. The 
effects of this revolution were, however, transitory : for, 
in 1583, under the government of the elector John Casi- 
mir, who had followed the example of his brother Frede- 
ric in embracing the discipline of the reformed church, 
Calvinism resumed what it had lost, and became trium- 
phant, s From this period the church of the Palatinate 
obtained the second place among the reformed churches ; 
and its influence and reputation were so considerable, that 
the form of instruction, which was composed for its 
use by Ursinus, and which is known under the title of 
the Catechism of Heidelberg, was almost universally 



a See Fueslini Centur. Epistolar. p. 264. — Museum Helvet. torn. i. p. 
490. torn. v. p. 479, 483. torn. ii. p. 79. 

»> Beside Ruchat and Hottinger, see Museum Helveticum, torn. ii. — 
Gerdes, Miscellan. Groningens. Nova, torn. ii. 

c This agreement was concluded in 1549, for one point ; and in 1554 
for the other. 

& See the Consensus Genev. et Tigurinor. in Calvini Opuscul's. 

The learned Dan. Ern. Jablonsky, in his Letters to Leibni z, pub- 
lished by Kappius, maintains (p. 24, 41,) that the opinion of Zuingle 
has no longer any patrons among the reformed. But this is a palpable 
mistake: for its patrons and defenders are, on the contrary, extremely 
numerous ; and at this very time the doctrine of Zuingle is received in 
England, Switzerland, and other countries, and seems to acquire new 
degrees of credit from day to day. 

f Hen. Alting-ii Hist. Eccl. Palat. in Lud. Chr. Mirgii Monum. Pa- 
»at. torn. i. p. 223. Loscheri Historia Motuum, par. ii. lib. iv. cap. iv. p. 
125. — Salig, Hist. Confession. Aug. torn. iii. lib. ix. cap. v. p. 433. 

s Alting. loc. cit. — Loscheri Hist. par. iii. lib. vi. p. 324. — See also a 
German work, by Gotth. Struvius, entitled Pfaelzische Kirchen Historic, 
p. 110. 

b For an account of the catechism of Heidelberg, see Kocheri Biblio- 
tiieca Theologise Symbolic*, p. 593 and 308. 



adopted by the Calvinists. h The republic of Bremen 
embraced, also, the same doctrine and institutions. Al 
bert Hardenberg, the intimate friend of Melancthon, was 
the first who attempted to introduce there the doctrine of 
Calvin concerning the eucharist. This attempt he made 
so early as the year 1556 ; and, though a powerful op- 
position rendered it at that time unsuccessful, and pro- 
cured the expulsion of its author from the city of Bremen, 
yet the latent seeds of Calvinism took root, and, toward 
the conclusion of this century, acquired such strength, 
that no measures either of prudence or force were suffi- 
cient to prevent the church of Bremen from regulating 
its faith, worship, and government, by that of Geneva.* 
The various motives that engaged other German states 
to adopt by degrees the same sentiments, and the incidents 
and circumstances that favoured the progress of Calvin- 
ism in the empire, must be sought in those writers, who 
have undertaken to give an ample and complete history 
of the Christian church. 

XV. Those among the French, who first renounced 
the jurisdiction and doctrine of the church of Rome, are 
commonly called Lutherans by the writers of these early 
times. This denomination, joined to other circumstances, 
induced some to imagine, that these French converts to 
the protestant cause were attached to the tenets of the 
Lutheran church, and averse to those of the Swiss di- 
vines. 11 But this is by no means a just representation of 
the matter. It appears much more probable, that the first 
French protestants were uniform in nothing but their an- 
tipathy to the church of Rome, and that, this point being 
excepted, there was a great variety in their religious sen- 
timents. It is, however, to be observed, that the vicinity 
of Geneva, Lausanne, and other cities which had adopted 
the doctrine of Calvin, together with the incredible zeal 
of this eminent man, and his two colleagues Farel and 
Beza, in nourishing the opposition to the church of Rome 
and augmenting both the indignation and number of its 
enemies, produced a very remarkable effect upon the 
French churches ; for, before the middle of this century, 
they all entered into the bonds of fraternal communion 
with the church of Geneva. The French protestants 
were called by their enemies Huguenots, by way of deri- 
sion and contempt ; the origin, however, of this denomi- 
nation is extremely uncertain. i Their fate was severe ; 
the storms of persecution assailed them with unparallel- 
ed fury ; and, though many princes of the royal blood, 

■ Salig, loc. cit. par. iii. lib. x. cap. v. p. 715. cap. vi. p. 776. — Losche- 
rus, loc. cit. par. ii. lib. iv. cap. v. p. 134. par. iii. lib. vi. cap. vii. p. 276. 
— Gerdes, Historia, Renovati Evangeliii, torn. iii. p. 157. 

k Losch. par. ii. cap. vi. — Salig, torn. ii. lib. v. cap. vi. 

f^T i Some etymologists suppose this term derived from Huguon, a 
word used in Touraine, to signify "persons who walk at night in the 
streets ;" and as the first Protestants, like the first Christians, may have 
chosen that season for their religious assemblies, through the fear of per- 
secution, the nickname of huguenot may, naturally enough, have been 
applied to them by their enemies. Others are of opinion, that it was 
derived from a French and faulty pronunciation of the German word 
eidgenossen, which signifies confederates, and had been originally the 
name of that valiant part of the city of Geneva which entered into an 
alliance with the Swiss cantons, in order to maintain their liberties 
against the tyrannical attempts of Charles III. duke of Savoy. These 
confederates were called egnotes ; and thence, very probably, was deri- 
ved the word huguenot, now under consideration. The count de Villars, 
in a letter written to the king of France from the province of Languedoc, 
where he was lieutenant-general, and dated the 11th of November, 1560, 
calls the riotous Calvinists of the Cevennes, Huguenots ; and this is the 
first time that the term is found in the registers of that province, applied 
to the protestants, 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



477 



and the flower of the nobility, adopted their sentiments, 
and stood forth m their cause,* no other part of the re- 
formed church suffered so grievously as they did for the 
sake of religion. Even the peace, which they obtained 
from Henry III. in 1576. was the source of that civil war, 
in which the powerful and ambitious house of Guise, in- 
stigated by the sanguinary suggestions of the Roman pon- 
tiffs, aimed at nothing less than the extirpation of the j 
royal family, and the utter ruin of the protestant religion ; j 
while the Huguenots, on the other hand, headed by leaders J 
a£ the most heroic valour and the most illustrious rank,"j 
combated for their religion and for their sovereigns with 
various success. These dreadful commotions, in which 
hoth the Contending parties committed such deeds as are ' 
yet (and alwavs will be) remembered with horror, were 
at length calmed by the fortitude and prudence of Henry 
TV. This monarch, indeed, sacrificed the dictates of con- i 
science to the suggestions of policy ; and imagining, that 
his government could have no stable or solid foundation, 
88 long as he persisted in disowning the authority and ; 
jurisdiction of Rome, he renounced the reformed religion, 
and made a solemn and public profession of popery. Per- 
ceiving, however, on the other hand, that it was not pos- 
sible to extirpate or suppress entirely the protestant reli- 
gion, he granted to its professors, by the famous edict pro- 
mulgated at Xantes in 159S, the liberty of serving God 
according to their consciences. b and a full security for the 
enjoyment of their civil rights and privileges, without per- 
secution or molestation from any quarter. 

XVI. The church of Scotland acknowledges as its 
founder John Knox, the disciple of Calvin ; and, accord- 
ingly, from its first reformation, it adopted the doctrine, 
rites, and form of ecclesiastical government established 
at Geneva. To these it has always adhered with the ut- 
most uniformity, and has maintained them with the great- 
est jealousy and zeal ; so that even in the last cenuuy 
the designs of those who attempted to introduce certain 
changes into its discipline and worship, were publicly op- 
posed by the force of arras. d 

A quite different constitution is observable in the church 
of England, which could never be brought to an entire 
compliance with the ecclesiastical laws of Geneva, and 
which retained, but for a short time, even those which it 
adopted. It is well known, that the greatest part of those 

• See the Histoire Eccles. des Eglises Reformees au Royaume de 
France, published at Antwerp in 1580, and supposed by many to have 
been written by Beza. The writers that have given the best accounts 
of the French reformed churches, their confession of faith, and their 
forms of worship and discipline, are enumerated by Kocher, in his Bi- 
blioth. Theolog. Symboiicse, p. 299. 

fj= i> This edict restored and confirmed, in the fullest terras, all the 
favours that had ever been granted to the protectants by other princes, 
and particularly by Henry III. To these privileges some were added, 
which had never been granted or even demanded before ; such as a free 
admission to all employments of trust, honour, andprofit; the establish- 
ment of courts and chambers, in which the professors of the two relisions 
were equal in number ; and die permitting of the children of protest- 
ants to be educated, without any molestation or constraint, in the public 
universities. 

e Benoit, Histoire de FEdit de Xantes. torn. i. lib. v. p. 200. — Daniel, 
Hist de France, torn. ix. page 409. Boulay, Hist Academ. Paris, 
torn. vi. 

*-Salig, Hist. Aug. Confessionis. part ii. lib. vi. cap. i. p. 403. — 
3pT Dr. Mosheim alludes, in Oris passage, to the attempts made in the 
reisrn of Charles II. to introduce episcopacy into Scotland. 

• Loscher, par. ii. lib. iii. cap. viL — Sa.i?, torn. ii. lib. vi. cap. iii. 
%y~ ' I cannot help mentioning the unchantableness of the Lutherans, 

upon this occasion, who hated these unhappy exiles because they were 
Sacramsntaricms, (for so the Lutherans called those who denied 
Christ's bodily presence hi the eucharist,) and expelled from their cities 

No. XLI. 120 



English, who first threw off the yoke of Rome, seemed 
much more inclined to the sentiments of Luther concern 
ing the eucharist, the form of public worship, and ecclesi- 
astical government, than to those of the Swiss churches. 
But the scene changed after the death of Henry VIII. 
when, by the industrious zeal of Calvin, and his disciples, 
more especially Peter Martyr, the cause of Lutheranism lost 
ground considerably ; and the universities, schools, and 
churches, became the oracles of Calvinism, which also ac- 
quired new votaries among the people from day to day." 
Hence it happened, that, when it was proposed, in the 
reign of Edward VI., to give a fixed and stable form to 
the doctrine and discipline of the church, Geneva was 
acknowledged as a sister church ; and the theological sys- 
tem, there established by Calvin, was adopted, and ren- 
dered the pubhc rule of faith in England. This, how- 
ever, was done without any change of the form of episco- 
pal government, which had already taken place, and was 
entirely different from that of Geneva ; nor was this step 
attended with any alteration of several religious ceremo- 
nies, which were looked upon as superstitious by the great- 
est part of the reformed. This difference, however, be- 
tween the churches, though it appeared at first of little con- 
sequence, and. in the judgment even of Calvin, was deem- 
ed an object of toleration and indulgence, was nevertheless, 
in succeeding times, a source of dissensions and calami- 
ties, which were highly detrimental both to the civil and 
ecclesiastical constitution of Great Britain. 

XVII. The origin of these unhappy dissensions, which 
it has not yet been possible entirely to heal, must be sought 
in the conduct of those persecuted fugitives, who, to save 
their fives, their families, and their fortunes, from the san- 
guinary rage and inhuman tyranny of Q.ueen Mary, left 
their native country in 1554, and took refuge in Germany/ 
Of these fugitive congregations some performed divine 
worship with the rites that had been authorized by Ed- 
ward VI., while others preferred the Swiss method of wor- 
ship as more recommendable on account of its purity and 
simplicity. The former were called Conformists, on ac- 
count of their compliance with the ecclesiastical laws en- 
acted by that prince ; and the denominations of Non- 
conformists and Puritans were given to the latter, from 
their insisting upon a fomi of worship, more exempt from 
superstition, and of a more pure kind, than the liturgy of 

such of the English protestants as repaired to them, as a refuge from 
popish superstition and persecution. Such as sought an asylum in 
France, Geneva, and those parts of Switzerland and Germany where the 
Reformation had taken place, and where Lutheranism was not professed, 
were received with great humanity, and allowed to have places of public 
worship. Bat it was at Frankfort that the exiles were most numerous ; 
and there be^an the contest and division which gave rise to that separa- 
tion from the church of England, which continues to this day. Ii is, 
however, a piece of justice due to the memory of the excellent Me- 
lancthon, to observe, that he warmly condemned this uncharitable treat- 
ment, and more especially the indecent reproaches which the Lutherans 
cast upon the English martyrs who had sealed the Reformation, whom 
they called die Devil's martyrs. " Vociferantur quidam, (says this 
amiable reformer,) Martyres Angelicos esse Mart)-res Diaboli. ISolim 
hac contumelia afficere sanctum spiritum in Latimero, qui annum octo- 
gesimum egressus fuit, et in aliis Sanctis viris quos uovL" These ire 
the words of this truly Christian reformer, in one of nis letters to Caine- 
rarius, Epist lib. iv. p. 959; and in another of his letters, speaking of 
the burning of Burgius at Paris, he thus severely censures "VVestphal's 
intolerant principles : l: Tales viros ait Westphalus esse Diaboli Mar- 
lyres. Hanc judicii perversitatem quis non detestetur V' Ep. lib. ii. p. 
387. Such were the humane and liberal sentiments of Melancthon, 
which have rendered his name so precious to the lovers of piety, probity, 
and moderation, while the zealots of his own church have treated his 
memory with obloquy, and composed dissertations de indij/ercrUisiiie 
Melan^ihonis. 



478 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. HI 



Edward seemed to them to be. The controversy concern- 
ing the ceremonial part of divine worship that had di- 
vided these protestants when they were in exile, changed 
scenes, and was removed with them to England, when 
the auspicious accession of Elizabeth to the throne per- 
mitted them to return to their native country. The hopes 
of enjoying libenty, and of promoting their respective sys- 
tems, increased their contests instead of diminishing them ; 
nd the breach was widened to such a degree, that the 
most sagacious and provident observers of things seemed 
to despair of seeing it healed. The wise queen, in her 
design to accomplish the reformation of the church, was 
fully resolved not to confine herself to the model exhibited 
by the protestants of Geneva, and by their adherents the 
Puritans ; and, therefore, she recommended to the atten- 
tion and imitation of the doctors, who were employed in 
this weighty and important matter, the practice and insti- 
tutions of the primitive ages. R When her plan was put 
in execution, and the face of the church was changed and 
reformed by new rules of discipline, and purer forms of 
public worship, the famous Act of Uniformity was issued 
forth, by which all her subjects were commanded to ob- 
serve these rules, and to submit to the reformation of the 
church on the footing on which it was now placed by the 
queen, as its supreme visible head upon earth. The Pu- 
ritans refused their assent to these proceedings ; pleaded 
the dictates of their consciences in behalf of this refusal ; 
and complained heavily, that the gross superstitions of 
popery, which they had looked upon as abrogated and 
abolished, were now revived, and even imposed by autho- 
rity. They were not indeed all equally exasperated against 
the new constitution of the church ; nor did they in effect 
carry their opposition to equal degrees of excess. The 
more violent demanded the total abrogation of all that 
had been done toward the establishment of a national re- 
ligion, and required nothing less than that the church of 
England should be exactly modelled after that of Geneva. 
The milder and more moderate Puritans were much more 
equitable in their demands, and only desired liberty of con- 
science, with the privilege of celebrating divine worship 
in their own way. The queen did not judge it proper to 
grant to either the object of their requests ; but, rather in- 
tent upon the suppression of this troublesome sect, (as she 
called it,) permitted its enemies to employ for that purpose 
all the resources of artifice, and all the severity of the laws. 
Thus was that form of religion established in Britain, 
which separated the English equally from the church of 
Rome, on the one hand, and from the other churches that 

3Qr ' Dr. Mosheim seems disposed, by this ambiguous expression of 
the primitive ages, to insinuate that queen Elizabeth had formed a pure, 
rational, and evangelical plan of religious discipline and worship. It is 
however certain, that, instead of being willing to strip religion of the 
ceremonies which remained in it, she was rather inclined to bring the 
public worship still nearer to the Romish ritual,* and had a great pro- 
pensity to several usages in the church of Rome, which were justly 
looked upon as superstitious. She thanked publicly one of her chap- 
lains, who had preached in defence of the " real presence ;" she was 
fond of images, and retained some in her private chapel ; and would 
undoubtedly have forbidden the marriage of the clergy, if Cecil, her 
secretary, had not interposed.t Having appointed a committee of di- 
vines to review king Edward's liturgy, she gave them an order to strike 
out all offensive passages against the pope, and to make people easy 
about the corporal presence of Christ in the sacrament.i 

*> No writer has treated this part of the ecclesiastical history of Bri- 
tain in a more ample and elegant manner than Daniel Neal, in his 
History of the Puritans, or Protestant Nonconformists. The first part 
of this laborious work was published at London, in 1732, and the latter 



had renounced popery on the other ; but which, at the 
same time, laid a perpetual foundation for dissensions 
and feuds, in that otherwise happy and prosperous na- 
tion. 11 

XVIII. The incident that gave rise to these unhappy 
divisions, which were productive of so many and such 
dreadful calamities, was a matter of very small moment, 
that did not seem to affect, in any way, the interests of 
true religion and virtue. The chief leaders among the 
Puritans entertained a strong aversion to the vestments 
worn by the English clergy in the celebration of divine 
worship. As these habits had been used in the times of 
popery, and seemed to renew the impressions that had been 
made upon the people by the Romish priests, they appear- 
ed to the Puritans in no other light than as the ensigns 
of Anti-Christ. The spirit of opposition, being once set 
on foot, proceeded, in its remonstrances, to matters of supe- 
rior moment. The form of ecclesiastical government, 
established in England, was one of the first and main 
grievances of which the Puritans complained. They look- 
ed upon this form as quite different from that which had 
been instituted by Christ, the great lawgiver of the church ; 
and, in conformity with the sentiments of Calvin, main- 
tained, that, by the divine law, all the ministers of the 
Gospel were absolutely equal in point of rank and autho- 
rity. They did not indeed think it unlawful, that a per- 
son distinguished by the title of bishop, or superintendant, 
should preside in the assembly of the clergy, for the sake 
of maintaining order and decency in their method of 
proceeding ; but they deemed it incongruous and absurd, 
that the persons invested Avith this character should be 
ranked, as the bishops had hitherto been, among the no- 
bility of the kingdom, employed in civil and political af- 
fairs, and distinguished so eminently by their worldly opu- j 
lence and power. This controversy was not carried on, 
however, with excessive animosity and zeal, as long as y 
the English bishops pretended to derive their dignity and 
authority from no other source than the laws of their 
country, and pleaded a right, purely human, to the rank 
they held in church and state. But the flame broke out 
with redoubled fury in 158S, when Bancroft, afterwards] 
archbishop of Canterbury, ventured to~ assert, that the 1 
episcopal order was superior to the body of presbyters, not 
in consequence of any human institution, but by the ex- 
press appointment of God himself. This doctrine was 
readily adopted by many, and the consequences that seem- 
ed naturally to flow from it in favour of episcopal ordinal 
tion, happened in effect, and gave new fuel to the flame. 

part in 1738. The author, who was himself a non-conformist, has not 
indeed been able to impose silence so far on the warm and impetuous 
spirit of party, as not to discover a certain degree of partiality in favour 
of his brethren : for, while he relates, in the most circumstantial manner, 
all the injuries the Puritans received from the bishops, and those of the 
established religion, he in many places diminishes, excuses, or sup- 
presses, the faults and failings of these separatists. See also, for an 
account of the religious history of these times, Strype's Lives of the 
Archbishops Parker, Grindal, and Whitgift. 

' See Strype's Life and Acts of John Whitgift, archbishop of Canter- 
bury, p. 121. =dr The first English reformers admitted but two orders 
of church officers to be of divine appointment, viz. bishops and deacons; 
a presbyter and a bishop, according to them, being merely two names 
for the same office ; but Dr. Bancroft, in a sermon preached at Paul's 
cross, (January 12, 1588,) maintained, that the bishops of England were 
a distinct order from priests, and had superiority over iaemjure divvno. 

* Heylin, p. 124. 

t Strype's Life of Parker, p. 107. 

t Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 138. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



479 



of controversy ; for they who embraced the sentiments I 
of Bancroft, considered all ministers of the Gospel, who 
had not received ordination from a bishop, as not properly 
invested with the sacred character, and also maintained 
that the clergy, in those countries where there were no i 
bishops, were destitute of the gifts and qualifications that 
were necessary to the exercise of the pastoral office, and 
were to be deemed inferior to the Roman catholic priests. 
XIX. All these things exasperated the puritans whose 
complaints, however, were not confined to the objects al- 
ready mentioned. There were many circumstances that 
entered into their plan of reformation. They had a sin- j 
gular antipathy against cathedral churches, and demand- 
ed the abolition of the archdeacons, deans, canons, and 
other officials, that are supported by their lands and reve- '■ 
nues. They disapproved the pompous manner of wor- 
ship that is generally observed in these churches, and look- 
ed, particularly, upon instrumental music, as improperly 
employed in the service of God. The severity of their 
zeal was also very great ; for they were of opinion, that 
not only open profligates, but even persons whose piety 
was dubious, deserved to be excluded from the commu- 
nion of the church : a and they endeavoured to justify the 
rigour of this decision, by observing, that, as the church 
was the congregation of the faithful, nothing was more 
incumbent on its ministers and rulers, than to guard 
against its being defiled by the presence of persons desti- 
tute of true faith and piety. They found, moreover, 
much subject of affliction and complaint, in the ceremo- 
nies that were imposed by the queen's order, and by the 
authority of her council.' Among these were the festi- 
vals or holy day s that were celebrated in honour of the 
saints, the use of the sign of the cross, more especially 
in the sacrament of baptism, the nomination of godfathers 
and godmothers as sureties for the education of children, 
whose parents were still living, and the doctrine relating 
. to the validity of lay baptism. 4 They disliked the reading 
of the apocryphal books in the church ; and. with respect to 

f^r * The puritans justified themselves in relation to this point, in a let- 
ter addressed from their prison to queen Elizabeth, in 1592, by observing', 
that their sentiments concerning the persons subject to excommunication, 
and also with regard to the effects and extent of that act of church disci- 
pline, were conformable to those of all the reformed churches, and to the 
doctrine and practice of the church of England in particular. They de- 
clared more especially, that, according to their sense of things, the cen- | 
sure of excommunication deprived only of spiritual privileges and com- 
forts, without taking away either liberty, goods, lands, government pri- \ 
vate or public, or any other civil or earthly commodity of this life ; and 
thus they distinguished themselves from those furious and fanatical ana- 
baptists, who had committed such disorders in Germany, and some of i 
whom were now making a noise in England. 

f3f i> By this council our author means, the High-Commission court, 
of which it is proper to give some account, as its proceedings essentially 
belong to the ecclesiastical history of England. This court took its rise 
from a remarkable clause in the act of supremacy, by which the queen i 
and her successors were empowered to choose persons " to exercise, un- 
der her, all manner of jurisdiction, privileges, and pre-eminences, touch- I 
ing any spiritual or ecclesiastical jurisdiction within the realms of Eng- ! 
land and Ireland, as also to visit, reform, redress, order, correct, and amend, i 
all errors, heresies, schisms, abuses, contempts, offences and enormities 
whatsoever; provided that they have no power to determine any thing 
to be heresy, but what has been adjudged to be so by the authority of 
the canonical scripture, or by the first four general councils, or any of 
them ; or by any other general council, wherein the same was declared 
heresy by the express and plain words of canonical scripture, or such as 
shall hereafter be declared to be heresy by the high court of parliament, 
widi the assent of the clergy in convocation." Upon the authority of 
this clause, the queen appointed a certain number of commissioners for 
ecclesiastical causes, who, in many instances, abused their power. The 
court they composed, was called the Court of High, Commission, be- 
cause it claimed a more extensive jurisdiction, and higher powers, than 
the ordinary courts of the bishops. Its jurisdiction reached over the 



set forms of prayer, although they did not go so far as to 
insist upon their being entirely abolished, yet they pleaded 
for a right to all ministers, of modifying, correcting, and 
using them in such a manner, as might tend most to the 
advancement of true piety, and of addressing the Deity 
in such terms as were suggested by their inward feelings, 
instead of those which were dictated by others. In a 
word, they were of opinion, that the government and dis- 
cipline of the church of England ought to have been 
modelled after the ecclesiastical laws and institutions of 
Geneva, and that no indulgence was to be shown to those 
ceremonies or practices, which bore the smallest resem- 
blance to the discipline or worship of the church of 
Rome. 

XX. These sentiments, considered in themselves, seem- 
ed neither susceptible of a satisfactory defence, nor of a 
complete refutation. Their solidity or falsehood depended 
upon the principles from which they were derived ; and 
no regular controversy could be carried on upon these 
matters, until the contending parties adopted some com- 
mon and evident principles, by which they might corro- 
borate their respective systems. It is only by an exami- 
nation of these, that it can be known on which side the 
truth lies, and what degree of utility or importance can 
be attributed to a contest of this nature. The principles 
laid down by the queen's commissioners on the one 
hand, and the Puritans on the other, were indeed very 
different. 

For, in the first place, the former maintained, that the 
right of reformation, that is, the privilege of removing the 
corruptions, and of correcting the errors that might have 
been introduced into the doctrine, discipline, or worship 
of the church, was lodged in the sovereign, or civil ma- 
gistrate alone ; while the latter denied, that the power of 
the magistrate extended so far, and maintained, that it 
was rather the business of the clergy to restore religion to 
its native dignity and lustre. This was the opinion of 
Calvin, as has been already observed. 

whole kingdom, and was much the same with that which had been 
lodged in the single person of lord Cromwell, vicar-general of Henry 
VIII. These commissioners were empowered to make inquiry, not 
only by die legal methods of juries, and witnesses, but by all other ways 
and means which they could devise, that is, by rack, torture, inquisition, 
and imprisonment. They were invested with a right to examine such 
persons as they suspected, by administering to them an oath, (not allowed 
in their commission, and therefore called ex officio.)by which they were 
required to answer all questions, and thereby might be obliged to accuse 
themselves or their most intimate friends. The fines they imposed 
were merely discretionary ; the imprisonment to which they condemned 
was limited by no rule but their own pleasure; they imposed, when 
they thought proper, new articles of faith on the clergy, and practised 
all the iniquities and cruelties of a real inquisition. See Rapin's and 
Hume's History of England, and deal's History of the Puritans. 

f^* ° Other rites and customs displeasing to the puritans, and omitted 
by our author, were, kneeling at the sacrament of the Lord's supper, 
bowing at the name of Jesus, giving the ring in marriage, the prohibition 
of marriage duringcertain times of the year, and the licensing of it for mo- 
ney, as also the confirmation of children by episcopal imposition of hands. 

f3T d The words of the original are " nee sacris Christianis pueros 
recens natos ab aliis, quam sacerdotibus, initiari patiebantur." The Ro- 
man catholics, who look upon the external rite of baptism as absolutely 
necessary to salvation, consequently allow it to be performed by a layman, 
or a midwife, where a clergyman is not at hand, or (if such a ridiculous 
tiling may be mentioned) by a surgeon, where a still birth is apprehend- 
ed. The church of England, though it teacheth in general, that none 
ought to baptize but men dedicated to the service of God, yet doth not 
deem null baptism performed by laics or women, because it makes a dif- 
ference between what is essential to a sacrament, and what is requisite 
to the regular way of using it. The puritans, that they might neither 
prescribe, nor even connive at a practice that seemed to be founded on 
the absolute necessity of infant baptism, would allow that sacred rile to 
be performed by the clergy alone. 



480 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. Ill 



Secondly, the queen's commissioners maintained, that 
the rules of proceeding", in reforming the doctrine or dis- 
cipline of the church, were not to be derived from the sa- 
cred writings nlone, but also from the writings and deci- 
sions of the fathers in the primitive ages. The Puritans, 
on the contrary, affirmed, that the inspired word of God 
being the pure and only fountain of wisdom and truth, it 
was thence alone that the rules and directions were to be 
drawn, which were to guide the measures of those who 
undertook to purify the faith, or to rectify the discipline 
and worship, of the church ; and that the ecclesiastical 
institutions of the early ages, as also the writings of the 
ancient doctors, were absolutely destitute of all authority. 

Thirdly, the commissioners ventured to assert, that the 
church of Rome was a true church, though corrupt and 
erroneous in many points of doctrine and government ; 
that the pontiff, though chargeable with temerity and ar- 
rogance in assuming to himself the title and jurisdiction 
of head of the whole church, was, nevertheless, to be es- 
teemed a true and lawful bishop ; and, consequently, that 
the ministers ordained by him were qualified for perform- 
ing the pastoral duties. This was a point which the En- 
glish bishops thought it absolutely necessary to maintain, 
since they could not otherwise claim the honour of deriv- 
ing their dignities, in an uninterrupted line of succession, 
from the apostles. But the Puritans entertained very dif- 
ferent notions of this matter ; they considered the Romish 
hierarchy as a system of political and spiritual tyranny, 
that had justly forfeited the title and privileges of a true 
church ; they looked upon its pontiff as Anti-Christ, and 
its discipline as vain, superstitious, idolatrous, and diame- 
trically opposite to the injunctions of the Gospel ; and, in 
consequence of these sentiments, they renounced its com- 
munion, and regarded all approaches to its discipline 
and worship as highly dangerous to the cause of true 
religion. 

Fourthly, the commissioners considered, as the best and 
most perfect form of ecclesiastical government, that which 
took place during the first four or five centuries ; they 
even preferred it to that which had been instituted by the 
apostles, because, as they alleged, our Saviour and his 
apostles had accommodated the form, mentioned in Scrip- 
ture, to the feeble and infant state of the church, and left 
it to the wisdom and discretion of future ages to modify 
it in such a manner as might be suitable to the triumph- 
ant progress of Christianity, the grandeur of a national 
establishment, and also to the ends of civil policy. The 
Puritans asserted, in opposition to this, that the rules of 
church government were clearly laid down in the Scrip- 
tures, the only standard of spiritual discipline ; a and that 
the apostles, in establishing the first Christian church on 
the aristocratic plan that was then observed in the Jewish 
Sanhedrim, designed it as an unchangeable model, to be 
followed in all times, and in all places. 

Lastly, the court reformers were of, opinion, that things 

f^= " By this they meant, at least, that nothing should be imposed 
3S necessary, but what was expressly contained in the Scriptures, or 
deduced from them by necessary consequence. They maintained still 
farther, that supposing it proved, that all things necessary to the good 
government of the church could not be deduced from those writings, 
yet the discretionary power of supplying this defect was not vested in 
the civil magistrate, but in the spiritual officers of the church. 

f3r b Dr. Mosheim, in these five articles, has followed the account 
of this controversy given by Mr. Neal. This writer adds a sixth article, 
not of debate, but ef union. "Both parties (says he^ agreed too well 



indifferent, which are neither commanded nor forbidden 
by the authority of Scripture, such as the external rites 01 
public worship, the kind of vestments that are to be used 
lay the clergy, religious festivals, and the like, might be 
ordered, determined, and rendered a matter of obligation 
by the authority of the civil magistrate ; and that, in such 
a case, the violation of his commands would be no less cri- 
minal than an act of rebellion against the laws of the state. 
The Puritans alleged, in answer to this assertion, that it 
was an indecent prostitution of power to impose, as neces- 
sary and indispensable, those things which Christ had left 
in the class of matters indifferent, since this was a mani- 
fest encroachment upon that liberty with which the divine 
Saviour had indulged us. To this they added, that such 
ceremonies as had been abused to idolatrous purposes, and 
had a manifest tendency to revive the impressions of su- 
perstition and popery in the minds of men, could by no 
means be considered as indifferent, but deserved to be re- 
jected without hesitation as impious and profane. Such, 
in their estimation, were the religious ceremonies of an- 
cient times, whose abrogation was refused by the queen 
and her council.' 1 

XXI. This contest between the commissioners of the 
court, and those religionists who desired a more complete 
reformation than had yet taken place, would have been 
much more dangerous in its consequences, had the party, 
distinguished by the general denomination of Puritans, 
been united in their sentiments, views, and measures. 
But the case was quite otherwise ; for this large body, 
composed of persons of different, ranks, characters, opi- 
nions, and intentions, and unanimous in nothing but their 
antipathy to the forms of doctrine and discipline that were 
established by law, was suddenly divided into a variety 
of sects ; of which some spread abroad the delusions of 
enthusiasm, which had turned their own brains ; while 
others displayed their folly in inventing new and whim- 
sical plans of church government. Of all these sects the 
most famous was that which was formed, about the year 
1581, by Robert Brown, an insinuating man, but very 
unsettled and inconsistent in his views and notions of 
things. This innovator did not greatly differ, in point 
of doctrine, either from the church of England, or from 
the rest of the Puritans ; but he had formed singular no- 
tions concerning the nature of the church, and the rules 
of ecclesiastical government. He was for dividing the 
whole body of the faithful into separate societies or con- 
gregations, not larger than those which were formed by 
the apostles in the infancy of Christianity ; and maintain- 
ed, that such a number of persons, as could be contained 
in an ordinary place of worship, ought to be considered 
as a church, and enjoy all the rights and privileges that 
are competent to an ecclesiastical community. These 
small societies he pronounced independent, jure divino, 
and entirely exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishops, 
in whose hands the court placed the reins of spiritual go- 



in asserting the necessity of an unifoi'mity of public worship, and of 
calling in the sword of the magistrate for the support and defence of 
their several principles, which they made an ill use of m their turns, as 
they could grasp the power into their hands. The standard of uniform- 
ity, according to the bishops, was the queen's supremacy, and the laws 
of the land ; according to the puritans, the decrees of provincial ana 
national synods, allowed and enforced by the civil magistrate: but nei- 
ther party were for admitting that liberty of conscience, and freedom of 
profession, which is every man's right, as far as is consistent with the 
peace of the government under which he lives." 



.'art II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



481 



vernment; and also from that of synods, which the Puri- 
tans in general regarded as the supreme visible sources 
of ecclesiastical authority. He also maintained, that the 
power of governing each congregation, and providing for 
its welfare, resided in the people ; and that each member 
had an equal share in this direction, and an equal right to 
regulate affairs for the good of the whole society. 1 Hence 
all points both of doctrine and discipline were submitted 
to the discussion of the whole congregation, and what- 
ever was supported by a majority of votes passed into a law. 
It was the congregation also that elected some of the bre- 
thren to the office of pastors, to perform the duty of pub- 
lic instruction, and the several branches of divine wor- 
ship ; reserving, however, the power of dismissing these 
ministers, and reducing them to the condition of private 
members, whenever such a change should appear to be 
conducive to the spiritual advantage of the community. 
For these pastors were .not esteemed superior, either in 
sanctity or rank, to the rest of their brethren, nor distin- 
guished from them by any other circumstance than the 
liberty of preaching and praying, which they derived 
from the free will and consent of the congregation. It 
is, besides, to be observed, that their right of preaching 
was by no means of an exclusive nature, or peculiar to 
them alone, since any member that thought proper to ex- 
hort, or instruct the brethren, was abundantly indulged 
in the liberty of prophesying to the whole assembly. 
Accordingly, when the ordinary teacher or pastor had 
finished his discourse, all the other brethren were permit- 
ted to communicate in public then sentiments and illus- 
trations upon any useful or edifying subject, on which 
they supposed they could throw new light. In a word, 
Brown endeavoured to model the form of the church af- 
ter the infant community that was founded by the apos- 
tles, without once considering the important changes 
which had taken place since that time, both in the reli- 
gious and civil state of the world, the influence that these 
changes must necessarily have upon all ecclesiastical 
establishments, or the particular circumstances of the 
Christian church, in consequence of its former corrup- 
tions and its late reformation. And, if his notions were 
crude and chimerical, the zeal, with which he and his 
associates maintained and propagated them, was intem- 
perate and extravagant in the highest degree ; for he 
affirmed, that all communion was to be broken off with 
those religious societies which were founded upon a diffe- 
rent plan from his, and treated more especially the church 
of England as a spurious church, whose ministers were 
unlawfully ordained, whose discipline was popish and 
antichristian, and whose sacraments and institutions were 
destitute of all efficacy and virtue. The sect of this hot- 
headed innovator, not being able to endure the severe 

53T " It is farther to be observed, that, according to this system, one 
:hurch was not entitled to exercise jurisdiction over another; but each 
might give the other counsel or admonition, if its members walked in a 
disorderly manner, or abandoned the capital truths of religion; and, if 
the offending church did not receive die admonition, the others were 
allowed to disown it publicly as a church of Christ. On the other hand, 
the pi.wers of the church-officers were confined within the narrow limits 
of their own society. The pastor of the church might not administer 
the sacrament of baptism, or the Lord's supper, to any but those of his 
own communion. 

!3r b The British churches at Amsterdam and Middleburg are incor- 
porated into the national Dutch church, and their pastors are members 
of the Dutch synod, which "is sufficient to show that there arc at this 
time no traces of Brownism or Independency in these churches. The 
church at Leyden, where Robinson had fixed the standard of independen- 

No. XLI. 121 



treatment which their opposition to the established forms 
of religious government and worship had drawn upon 
them, from an administration that was not distinguished 
by its mildness and indulgence, retired into the Nether- 
lands, and founded churches at Middleburg, Amsterdam, 
and Leyden ; but their establishments were neither solid 
nor durable. b Their founder returned into England, and, 
having renounced his principles of separation, took orders 
in the established church, and obtained a benefice. c The 
Puritan exiles, whom he thus abandoned, disagreed 
among themselves, and split into parties ; and their af- 
fairs declined from day to day. d This engaged the wiser 
part of them to mitigate the severity of their founder's 
plan, and to soften the rigour of his uncharitable deci- 
sions ; and hence arose the community of the Indepen- 
dents, or Congregational Brethren ; a sect which still 
subsists, and of which an account shall be given in the 
history of the following century. 

XXII. In the Belgic provinces, the friends of the Re- 
formation seemed for a long time uncertain, whether they 
should embrace the communion of the Swiss or that of 
the Lutheran church. Each of these had zealous friends 
and powerful patrons. 1 The matter was, nevertheless, 
decided in 1571, and the religious system of Calvin was 
publicly adopted : for the Belgic confession of faith, which 
then appeared/ wa3 drawn up in the spirit, and almost 
in the terms, of that which was received in the reformed 
churches of Fiance, and differed considerably, in several 
respects, from the confession of Augsburg, but more espe- 
cially in the article relating to Christ's presence in the 
eucharist.e This will not appear surprising to those who 
consider the vicinity of the French to the Low-Countries, 
the number of French protestants constantly passing or 
sojourning there, the extraordinary reputation of Calvin 
and of the college of Geneva, and the indefatigable zeal 
of his disciples in extending the limits of their church, 
and propagating throughout Europe their system of doc- 
trine, discipline, and government. Be that as it may 
from this period, the Dutch, who had before been deno- 
minated Lutherans, assumed universally the title of 
Reformed, in which also they imitated the French, by 
whom this title had been first invented and adopted. It 
is true, that, as long as they were subject to the Spanish 
yoke, the fear of exposing themselves to the displeasure 
of their sovereign induced them to avoid the title of Re- 
formed, and to call themselves Associates of the Bre- 
thren of the Confession of Augsburg ; for the Luther- 
ans were esteemed, by the Spanish court, much better 
subjects than the disciples of Calvin, who, on account of 
the tumults which had lately prevailed in France, were 
i supposed to have a greater propensity to mutiny and sedi- 
tion. 11 

cy, about the year 1595, was dispersed ; and it is very remarkable, 
that some members of this church, transplanting themselves into Ameri- 
ca, laid the foundation of the colony of New-England. 

|2r ° Brown, in his new preferment, forgot not only the rigour of his 
principles, but also the gravity of his former morals; for he led a very 
idle and dissolute life. See Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. 

& Neal, vol. i. chap. vi. — Hoonibeckii Summa Controvers. lib. x. p. 
738. — Fuller's Ecclesiastical History of Britain, book x. 

• Loscher, par. iii. lib. v. cap. iv. 

f Kocheri Biblioth. Theolog. Symbolical, p. 216. 

e See Brandt's His. of the Netherlands (written in Dutch,) vol. l. book v 

U= i> Dr. Mosheim advances this on the authority of a passage in 
Brandt's History of the Reformation, which is a most curious and valu- 
able work, notwithstanding the author's partiality to the cause of Armi- 
nianism, of which lie was one of the most respectable patrons. 



482 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. U* 



XXni. The light of the Reformation was first trans- 
mitted from Saxony into Poland by the disciples of Lu- 
ther. Some time after this happy period, the Bohemian 
Brethren, whom the Romish clergy had expelled from 
their country, as also several Helvetic doctors, propagated 
their sentiments among the Polanders. Some congregra- 
tions were also founded in that republic by the Anabap- 
tists, Anti-Trinitarians, and other sectaries. 3 Hence it 
was, that three distinct communities, each of which adopt- 
ed the main principles of the Reformation, were to be 
found in Poland, — the Bohemian Brethren, the Luther- 
ans, and Swiss. These communities, in order to defend 
themselves with the greater vigour against their common 
enemies, formed among themselves a kind of confederacy, 
in a synod held at Sendomir in 1570, on certain condi- 
tions, which were comprehended in the Confession of 
Faith that derives its title from the city now mentioned. 15 
But, as this association seemed rather adapted to accele- 
rate the conclusion of peace, than to promote the cause of 
truth, the points in debate between the Lutherans and the 
Reformed being expressed in this reconciling confession 
in vague and ambiguous terms, it was soon after this 
warmly opposed by many of the former, and was entirely 
annulled in the following century. Many attempts have, 
indeed, been made to revive it ; but they have not an- 
swered the expectations of those who have employed their 
dexterity and zeal in this matter. In Prussia the Re- 
formed gained ground after the death of Luther and Me- 
lancthon, and founded the flourishing churches which still 
subsist in that country. 

XXIV. The Bohemian, or (as they are otherwise called) 
Moravian Brethren, who descended from the better sort of 
Hussites, and were distinguished by several religious in- 
stitutions of a singular nature, which were well adapted 
to guard their community against the reigning vices and 
corruptions of the times, had no sooner heard of Luther's 
design of reforming the church, than they sent deputies, 
in 1522, to recommend themselves to his friendship and 
good offices. In succeeding times, they continued to dis- 
cover the same zealous attachment to the Lutheran 
churches in Saxony, and also to those which were found- 
ed in other countries. These offers could not be well ac- 
cepted without a previous examination of their religious 
sentiments and principles : and, indeed, this examination 
turned to their advantage ; for neither Luther nor his dis- 
ciples found any thing, either in their doctrine or disci- 
pline, that wets, in any great measure, liable to censure ; 
and though he could not approve every part of their Con- 
fession of Faith, which they submitted to his judgment, 
yet he looked upon it as an object of toleration and indul- 
gence. d Nevertheless, the death of Luther, and the ex- 
pulsion of these Brethren from their country in 1547, gave 
a new turn to their religious connexions ; and great num- 
bers of them, more especially of those who retired into Po- 

■ Loscher, par. iii. lib. v. cap. iii. — Salig, torn. ii. lib. vi. cap. iii. iv. v. 
— Regenvolscii Hist. Eccles. Slavonicar. lib. i. cap. xvi.— Solignac, Hist, 
de Pologne, torn. v. — Kautz, Praecipua Relig. Evangel, in Polonia Fa- 
ta, published at Hamburg, in 1738. 

b Sec Dan. Ernest Jablonsky's Historia Consensus Sendomiriensis, 
published at Berlin, in 1731.; as also the Epistola Apologetica of the 
same author, in defence of the work now mentioned, against the ob- 
jections of an anonymous author. 

Loscher, par. iii. lib. vi. cap. i. 

d See a German work of Carpzovius, entitled, Nachricht von den 
Bohmischen Brudern, p. 46; as also Jo. Chr. Kocheri Biblioth. p. 76. 



land, embraced the religious sentiments and discipline of 
the Reformed. The attachment of the Bohemians to the 
Lutherans seemed, indeed, to be revived by the Conven- 
tion of Sendomir ; but, as the articles of union, drawn up 
in that assembly, soon lost all their force and authority, 
all the Bohemians gradually entered into the communion 
of the Swiss church. e This union was at first formed on 
the express condition, that the two churches should con- 
tinue to be governed by their respective laws and institu- 
tions, and should have separate places of public worship ; 
but, in the following century, all remains of dissension 
were removed in the synods holden at Ostrog in 1620 
and 1627, and the two congregations were formed into 
one, under the title of The Church of the United Bre- 
thren. In this coalition the reconciled parties showed to 
each other reciprocal marks of toleration and indulgence ; 
for the external form of the church was regulated by the 
discipline of the Bohemian Brethren, and the articles of 
faith were taken from the creed of the Calvinists. f 

XXV. The descendants of the Waldenses, who lived 
shut up in the valleys of Piedmont, were naturally led, 
by their situation in the neighbourhood of the French, 
and of the republic of Geneva, to embrace the doctrines 
and rites of the reformed church. So far down, however, 
as the year 1630, they retained a considerable part of their 
ancient discipline and tenets ; but the plague that broke 
out in that year having destroyed the greatest part of this 
unhappy people, and among the rest a considerable num- 
ber of their pastors and clergy, they addressed themselves 
to the French churches for spiritual succour ; and the new 
doctors, who were sent in consequence of that invitation, 
made several changes in the discipline and doctrine of 
the Waldenses, and rendered them conformable, in every 
respect, with those of the protestant churches in France. e 

The Hungarians and Transylvanians were enga.ged 
to renounce the errors and superstitions of the church 
of Rome by the writings of Luther, and the ministry of 
his disciples. But, some time after, Matthias Devay, and 
other doctors, began to introduce, in a secret manner, 
among these nations, the doctrine of the Swiss churches 
in relation to the eucharist, as also their principles of ec 
clesiastical government. This doctrine and these princi- 
ples were propagated in a more open and public manner 
about the 3^ear 1550, by Szegedin and other Calvinist 
teachers, whose ministry was attended with remarkable 
success. This change was followed by the same dissen- 
sions that had broken out in other countries on similar 
occasions ; and these dissensions grew into an open 
schism among the friends of the Reformation in these 
provinces, which the lapse of time has rather confirmed 
than diminished. h 

XXVI. After the solemn publication of the famous 
Form of Concord, many German churches, of the Lu- 
theran communion, dissolved their original bonds, and 

6 Beside Comenius, Camerarius, and Lasitius, who have written pro- 
fessedly the history of the Bohemian Brethren, see Loscher, par. iii. lib. 
v. cap. vi. — Salig, torn. ii. lib. vi. cap. iii. — Regenvolsc. lib. l. cap. xiii. 
xiv. xv. 

i Regenvolscii Hist. lib. i. cap. xiv. p. 120. 

e Leger, Histoire Generate cles Eglises Vaudoises, livr. i. chap. xxxiiL 
p. 205, 206.— A br. Sculeti Annates Renovati Evangelii, p. 294.— Dan. 
Gerdes, Hist, Renovati Evangelii. torn. ii. p. 401. 

k Pauli Dcbrezeni Historia Eccles. Reform, in Hungar. et Transylvan. 
lib. ii. p. 64, 72, 98.— Unschuld. Nachricht, An. 1738, p. 1076.— Georg. 
Hanen Historia Eccles. Transylv. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



48T 



embraced the doctrine and discipline of Calvin. Among 
these we may place the churches of Nassau, Hanau, and 
Isenburg, with several others of less note. In 1595, the 
princes of Anhalt, influenced by the counsels of Wolfgang 
Amling. renounced also the profession of Lutheranism, and 
introduced into their dominions the religious tenets and 
rites of Geneva; this revolution, however, produced a long 
and warm controversy between the Lutherans and the in- 
habitants of the principality.* The doctrines of the Cal- 
vinist or reformed church, particularly those which re- 
bate to the eucharist, were also introduced into Denmark, 
'oward the conclusion of this century ; for, in this king- 
iom, the disciples and votaries of Melancthon, who had 
xhvays discovered a strong propensity to a union between 
'.he protestant churches, were extremely numerous, and 
they had at their he?td Nicholas Hemmingius, a man emi- 
nent for his piety and learning. But the views of this di- 
vine, and the schemes of his party, being discovered much 
sooner than they expected, by the vigilant defenders of 
the Lutheran cause, their plans were disconcerted, 11 and 
the progress of Calvinism was successfully opposed by the 
Lutheran ministers, seconded by the countenance and 
authority of the sovereign. 

XXYII. It must not, however, be imagined, that the 
different nations which embraced the communion of the 
Calvinist church, adopted, at the same time, without ex- 
ception, all its tenets, rites, and institutions. This uni- 
versal conformity was. indeed, ardently desired by the Hel- 
vetic doctors ; but their desires, in this respect, were far 
from being accomplished. The English, as is sufficiently 
known, rejected the forms of ecclesiastical government and 
religious worship that were adopted by the other reformed 
churches, and could not be persuaded to receive, as public 
and national articles of faith, the doctrines that were pro- 
pagated in Switzerland, in relation to the sacrament of 
the Lord's supper and the divine decrees. d The protestants 
in Holland, Bremen, Poland, Hungary, and the Palatin- 
ate, followed, indeed, the French and Helvetic churches 
in their sentiments concerning the eucharist, in the sim- 
plicity of their worship, and in their principles of ecclesi- 
astical polity ; but not in their notions of predestination. 

* See for an account of this matter, the German work of Bechman, 
which is entitled Historie des Hauses Anhalt, vol. ii. p. 133, and that of 
Kraft, which bears the title of Ausfuhrliche Historie von dem Exorcis- 
mo, p. 428, 497. 5Z=T Though the princes professed Calvinism, and 
introduced Calvinist ministers into all the churches, where they had the 
right of patronage, yet the people were left free in their choice ; and the 
noblemen and their vassals, who were attached to Lutheranism, had 
secured to them the unrestrained exercise of their religion. By virtue 
of- a convention made in 1G79, the Lutherans were permitted to erect 
new churches. The Zerbst line, and the greatest part of its subjects, 
profess Lutheranism ; but the three other lines, with their respective 
people, are Calvinists. 

i> Erici Pontoppidani Annai. Ecclesiae Danicae Diplomatici, t. iii p. 57. 

|3" " That is, (for our author consistently with truth can mean no 
more) the designs, that were formed to render Calvinism the national 
and established religion, proved abortive. It is certain, however, that 
Calvinism made a very considerable progress in Denmark, and has still 
a great number of votaries in that kingdom. 

f^T i It is true, that the doctrine of Zuingle, who represented the 
bread and wine as nothing more than the external signs of the death of 
Christ, was not adopted by the church of England ; but the doctrine of 
Calvin was embraced by that church, and is plainly taught in the 
xxviiith article of its faith. As to what relates to the doctrine of the 
divine decrees, Dr. Mosheim is equally in an error. The xviith article 
of the church of England, is, as bishop Burnet candidly acknowledges, 
framed according to St. Augustin's doctrine, which scarcely differs at 
all from that of Calvin ; and though it be expressed with a certain 
fititude that renders it susceptible of a mitigated interpretation, yet it is 
very probable, that those who penned it were patrons of the doctrine of 
absolute decrees. - The very cautions, that are subjoined to this arti- 



which intricate doctrine they left undefined, and submit- 
ted to the free examination and private judgment of every 
individual.' It may farther be affirmed, that, before the 
synod of Dordrecht/ no reformed church had obliged its 
members, by any special law or article of faith, to adhere 
to the doctrine of the church of Geneva relating to the 
primary causes of the salvation of the elect, or the ruin 
of the reprobate. It is true, that, in the countries now 
mentioned, the greatest part of the reformed doctors fell 
by degrees, of their own accord, into the Calvinistical opi- 
nion concerning these intricate points ; and this was prin- 
cipally owing, no doubt, to tbe great reputation of the col- 
lege of Geneva, which was generally frequented, in this 
century, by those among the reformed who were candi- 
dates for the ministry. 

XXVIII. The books of the Old and New Testament 
are regarded by the reformed churches as the only sources 
of Divine Truth ; it must however be observed, that, to 
their authority, the church of England adds that of the 
writings of the Fathers during the first five centuries.' 
The reformed and the Lutherans agree in maintaining 
that the Scriptures are infallible in all things ; that, in 
matters of which the knowledge is necessary to salvation, 
thej" are clear, and complete ; and also that they are to 
be explained by themselves, and not by the dictates of 
human reason, or the decisions of the ancient Fathers. 
Several of the doctors among the former have indeed em- 
ployed too freely the sagacity of their natural understand- 
ing, in explaining the divine mysteries that are contained 
in the Gospel ; and this circumstance has induced many 
to imagine, that the reformed adopted two sources of reli- 
gion, two criterions of divine truth, viz. the Scripture and 
human reason. But perhaps it will be found, that, in 
this respect, doctors of both communions have sometimes 
gone too far, being led on by the spirit of controversy, 
and animated with the desire of victory ; for, if we ex- 
cept the singular tenets of some individuals, it may be 
affirmed with truth, that the Lutherans and the reformed 
are unanimous hi the matter now under consideration. 
They both maintain, that contradictory propositions can- 
not be the objects of faith ; and consequently that all 

cle, intimate, that Calvinism was what it was meant to establish. It 
is certain, that the Calvinistical doctrine of predestination prevailed 
among the first English reformers, the greatest part of whom were, at 
least, Sublapsarians : in the reign of queen Elizabeth this doctrine was 
predominant, but after that period it lost ground imperceptibly, and was 
renounced by the church of England in the reign of king Charles I. 
Some members of that church still adhered, nevertheless, to the tenets ot 
Calvin, and maintained, not only that the thirty-nine articles were Cal- 
vinistical, but also affirmed that they were not susceptible of that lati 
tude of interpretation for which the Arminians contended. These epis- 
copal votaries of Calvinism were called Doctrinal Puritans. See Bui- 
net's Exposition of the Seventeenth Article. &c, and .Neal's History of 
the Puritans, vol. i. p. 579. 

e See Grotii Apologct. eorum, qui Hollandiae ante mutationem, An. 
1618, praefuerunt, cap. iii. 

3T_jr f It was in this famous synod, that was assembled in the year 
1618, and of which we shall have occasion to give a more ample ac- 
count in the history of the following century, that the doctrine of Cat-- 
vin was fixed as the national and established religion of the Seven 
United Provinces. 

?^s> t There is nothing in the thirty-nine articles of the church of 
England, which implies its considering the writings of the Fathers of 
the first five centuries, as an authoritative criterion of religious truth. 
There is, indeed, a clause in the Act of Uniformity, passed in the reign 
of queen Elizabeth, delaring that her delegates, in ecclesiastical matters, 
should not determine any thing to be heresy but what was adjudged so 
by the authority of Scripture, or by the first four general councils; and 
this has perhaps misled Dr. Mosheim in the passage to which this note 
refers. Much respect, indeed, (perhaps too much,) has been paid to the 
Fathers ; but that has been alwavs a matter of choice.andnot ofobligation. 



484 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. Ill 



doctrines which contain such ideas and notions as are 
repugnant to and destroy each other, must be false and 
incredible. It is true, indeed, that the reformed some- 
times use this principle in a contentious manner, to over- 
turn certain points of the Lutheran system, which they 
have thought proper to reject. 1 

XXIX. The reformed, if by this denomination we 
understand those who embrace the sentiments of Calvin, 
differ entirely from the Lutherans in the following points : 

1st, In their notions of the sacrament of the Lord's 
Supper. The Lutherans affirm that the body and blood 
of Christ are materially present in this sacrament, though 
in an incomprehensible manner ; and that they are really 
exhibited, both to the righteous and the wicked, to the 
worthy and to the unworthy receiver. The reformed 
hold, on the contrary, that the man Christ is only pre- 
sent in this ordinance by the external signs of bread and 
wine, though it must, at the same time, be observed, that 
this matter is differently explained and represented in the 
writings of their theologians. 

2dly, In their doctrine of the eternal decrees of God, 
respecting man's salvation. The Lutherans maintain, 
that the divine decrees respecting the salvation or misery 
of men are founded upon a previous knowledge of their 
sentiments and characters ; or, in other words, that God, 
foreseeing from all eternity the faith or incredulity of dif- 
ferent persons, had reserved eternal happiness for the faith- 
ful, and eternal misery for the unbelieving and disobe- 
dient. The reformed entertained different sentiments 
•oncerning this intricate point. They consider the divine 
decrees as free and unconditional, and as founded on the 
will of God, which is limited by no superior order, and 
which is above all laws. 

3dly, Concerning some religious rites and institutions, 
which the Reformed consider as bordering upon supersti- 
tion, or tending, at least, to promote it, while the Luther- 
ans view them in another light, and represent all of them 
as tolerable, and some of them as useful. Such are, the 
use of images in the churches, the distinguishing vest- 
ments of the clergy, the private confession of sins, the 
use of wafers in the administration of the Lord's supper, 
the form of exorcism in the celebration of baptism, and 
other ceremonies of like moment. The reformed doctors 
insist on the abolition of all these rites and institutions, 
upon this general principle, that the discipline and wor- 
ship of the Christian church ought to be restored to their 
primitive simplicity, and freed from the human inventions 
and additions that were employed by superstition in the 
times of ignorance, to render them more striking to the 
deluded multitude. 

XXX. The few heads of difference, between the two 
communions, which have been now brie-fly pointed out, 
have furnished an inexhaustible fund of controversy to 
the contending parties, and been drawn out into a multi- 
tude of intricate questions, and subjects of debate, that, 
by consequences, fairly or injudiciously deduced, have 
widened the scene of contention, and extended to almost 
all the important truths of religion. Thus the debate 
concerning the manner in which the body and blood of 
Christ are present in the eucharist, opened to the dispu- 
te* a Our author has here undoubtedly in view the Lutheran doc- 
trine of Consubstantiation, which supposes the same extended body to 
be totally present in different places at one and the same time. To 



tants a large field of inquiry ; in which the nature and 
fruits of the institutions called sacraments, the majesty 
and glory of Christ's human nature, together with the 
communication of the divine perfections to it. and the in- 
ward frame of spirit that is required in the worship ad- 
dressed to the Saviour, were carefully examined. In like 
manner, the controversy, which had for its object the di- 
vine decrees, led the doctors, by whom it was carried on, 
into the most subtile and profound researches concerning 
the nature of the divine attributes, particularly those of 
justice and goodness, the doctrines of fate and necessity, 
the connexion between human liberty and divine pre- 
science ; the extent of God's love to mankind, and of the 
benefits that arise from the merits of Christ as mediator ; 
the operations of that divine spirit, or power, which recti- 
fies the wills and sanctifies the affections of men ; the 
perseverance of the elect in their covenant with God, and 
in a state of salvation ; and other points of great moment. 
The subject of debate, that was drawn from the use of 
external ceremonies in religious worship, was -also produc- 
tive of several questions and inquiries ; for, beside the 
researches into the origin and antiquity of certain institu- 
tions to which it gave occasion, it naturally led to a dis- 
cussion of the following important questions : viz. " What 
are the special marks thett characterize things indiffer- 
ent ? — How far is it lawful to comply with the demands 
of an adversary, whose opposition is only directed against 
things esteemed indifferent in their own nature ? — What 
is the extent of Christian liberty? — Is it lawful to retain, 
in condescension to the prejudices of the people, or with 
a view to their benefit, certain ancient rites and institutions, 
which, although they carry a superstitious aspect, may 
nevertheless be susceptible of a favourable and rational 
interpretation ?" 

XXXI. It has always been a question much debated 
among protestants, and more especially in England and 
Holland, where it has excited great commotions and tu- 
mults, — to whom the right of governing the church, and 
the power of deciding in religious matters, properly belong 1 
This controversy has been determined in favour of those 
who maintain, that the power of deciding, in matters of 
religious doctrine, discipline, and government, is, by the 
appointment of Christ himself, vested in the church, and 
therefore ought by no means to be intrusted with the civil 
magistrate ; while, at the same time, they grant, that it is 
the business of the latter to assist the church with his pro- 
tection and advice, to convoke and preside in its synods 
and councils, to take care that the clergy do not attempt 
to carry on any thing that may be prejudicial to the in- 
terests of the state, and, by his authority, to confirm the 
validity, and secure the execution of the different laws 
enacted by the church under his inspection. It is true, 
that from the time of Henry VIII. the sovereigns of Eng- 
land consider themselves as supreme heads of the church, 
in relation to its spiritual, as well as its temporal concerns ; 
and it is plain enough, that, on the strength of this im- 
portant title, both Henry and his son Edward assumed 
an extensive authority and jurisdiction in the church, and 
looked upon their spiritual power, as equal to that which 
had been unworthily enjoyed by the Roman pontiff." 



call this a gross and glaring contradiction, seems rather the dictate Ol 
common sense, than the suggestion of a contentious spirit, 
t See Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. p. 11. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



485 



But queen Elizabeth receded considerably from these high 
pretensions, and diminished the spiritual power of her suc- 
cessors, by declaring that the royal jurisdiction extended 
only to the ministers of religion, and not to religion it- 
self ; to the rulers of the church, and not to the church 
itself ; or, in other words, that the persons of the clergy 
were alone subject to their civil authority. 1 Accordingly, 
we see that the constitution of the church of England per- 
fectly resembles that of the state, and that a striking ana- 
logy exists between the civil and ecclesiastical govern- 
ment established in thar country. The clergy, consisting 
of the upper and lower houses of convocation, are imme- 
diately assembled by the archbishop of Canterbury, in 
consequence of an order from the sovereign, and propose 
in these meetings, by common consent, such measures as 
seem necessary to the well-being of the church. These 
measures are laid before the king and parliament, and de- 
rive from their approbation and authority the force of 
laws. b But it must be acknowledged, that this matter 
has given occasion to much altercation and debate ; nor 
has it been found easy to fix the extent of the jurisdiction 
and prerogatives of these great bodies in a manner con- 
formable to their respective pretensions, since the king 
and his council explain them in one way, and the clergy, 
more especially those who are zealous for the spiritual su- 
premacy and independency of the church, understand 
them in another. The truth of the matter is plainly this, 
that the ecclesiastical polity in England has never ac- 
quired a stable and consistent form ; nor has it been re- 
duced to clear and certain principles. It has rather been 
carried on and administered by ancient custom and pre- 
cedent, than defined and fixed by any regular system of 
laws and institutions. 

XXXII. If it was not an easy matter to determine in 
what hands the power of deciding affairs of a religious na- 
ture was to be lodged, it was no less difficult to fix the 
form of ecclesiastical government in which this power 
was to be administered. Many vehement disputes were 
kindled on this subject, which neither the lapse of time, 
nor the efforts of human wisdom, have been able to bring 
to an amicable issue. The republic of Geneva, in conse- 
quence of the counsels of Calvin, judged it proper that 
the particular affairs of each church should be directed by 
a body of presbyters, all invested with an equal degree of 
power and authority ; that matters of a more public and 
important nature were to be submitted to the judgment 
of an assembly, or synod, composed of elders chosen as 
deputies by the churches of a whole province or district ; 

1 See Courayer's Supplement aux deux Ouvrages pour la Defense de 
la Validite des Ordinations Anglicanes, chap. xv. 

iTJr This must be understood with many restrictions, if it can be at 
all admitted. The whole tenor of queen Elizabeth's reign showed 
plainly that she did not pretend to less power in religious matters than 
any of her predecessors. 

f^r b Jo. Cosinus, de Ecclesiae Anglicans Religione et Disciplina, 
m the learned Thomas Smith's Vitee Eruditiss. Virorum, published in 
1707. — See also Dav. Wilkins, de Veteri et Moderna Synodi Anglic. 
Constitutione, torn. i. Concil. Magn. Britann. p. 7. — Neal, vol. i. 

..US" " The account which Dr. Mosheim gives here and above (sect, 
xii. of this chapter) of the form of ecclesiastical government established 
by Calvin at Geneva, is far from being accurate. There are but two 
ecclesiastical bodies in that republic, viz. the venerable company of the 
pastors and professors, and the consistory : for a just description of 
which, see the judicious Mr. Keate's "Short Account of the Ancient 
History, present Government, and Laws of the Republic of Geneva," 
published in 1761. — I would only remark that what this sensible author 
observes, with respect to the consistory, in p. 124 of his interesting per- 
formance, belongs principally, if not wholly, to the venerable company. 

No.XLI. 122 



and that all affairs of such extensive influence and high 
moment, as concerned the welfare of the sacred commu- 
nity in general, should be examined and decided, as in 
early times, by an assembly of the whole church. This 
form of ecclesiastical government the church of Geneva 
adopted for itself, and left no intreaties or methods of per- 
suasion unemployed, that might recommend it to those 
reformed churches with which they lived in fraternal com- 
munion. But it was obstinately rejected by the English 
clergy, who regarded as sacred and immutable that an- 
cient form of spiritual government, according to which a 
certain district or diocese is committed to the care and 
inspection of one ruler or bishop, to whom the presbyters 
of each church are subject, as also the deacons are to the 
presbyters ; while the general interests of the church are 
treated and discussed in an assembly of bishops, and of 
such ecclesiastics as are next to them in rank and dig- 
nity. This form of episcopal polity was, with some small 
exceptions, adopted by the Bohemian and Moravian bre- 
thren, d who had become one of the reformed churches ; 
but it was highly displeasing to those among the protest- 
ants, who had embraced the sentiments and discipline of 
Calvin. The dissensions, occasioned by these different 
schemes of ecclesiastical polity, were every way adapted 
to produce a violent schism in the church ; so much the 
more, as the leaders of the contending parties pretended 
to derive their respective plans from the injunctions of 
Christ, and the practice of his disciples. And, in effect, 
it divided the English nation into two parties, who during 
a long time treated each other with great animosity and 
bitterness, and whose feuds, on many occasions, proved 
detrimental to the civil interests and prosperity of the na- 
tion. This schism, however, which did such mischief in 
England, was, by the prudence and piety of a few great 
and excellent divines, confined to that country, and pre- 
vented from either becoming universal, or interrupting the 
fraternal union that prevailed between the church of En- 
gland and the reformed churches abroad. The worthy 
men, who thus set bounds to the influence of these un- 
happy divisions, found great opposition made, by the sug- 
gestions of bigotry, to then charitable purpose. To main- 
tain, however, the bonds of union between the episcopal 
church of England and the presbyterian churches in 
foreign countries, they laid down the following maxim, 
which, though it be not universally adopted, tends never- 
theless to the preservation of external concord among the 
reformed, viz. " That Jesus Christ has left upon record 
no express injunctions with respect to the external form 

Dr. Mosheim seems to have been led into this mistake, by imagining 
that the ecclesiastical form of government established in Scotland, where 
indeed all church affairs are managed by consistorial, provincial, and 
national assemblies, or, in other words, by presbyteries, synods, and 
general synods, was a direct transcript of the hierarchy of Geneva. It is 
also probable, that he may have been deceived by reading, in Neal's 
History of the Puritans, that the Scottish reformers approved the disci- 
pline of the removed churches of Geneva and Switzerland, and followed 
their plan of ecclesiastical government. But he ought to have observed, 
that this approbation and imitation related only to the democratic form 
of the church of Geneva, and the parity of its ministers. Be that as it 
may, the plan of government which our historian here supposes to have 
place at Geneva, is in reality that which is observed in Scotland, and of 
which no more than the first and fundamental principles were taken 
from the discipline of Calvin. The small territory of Geneva would 
not admit such a form of ecclesiastical polity as Dr. Mosheim here 
describes. 

<• See Epist. de Ordinat. et Successione Episcopal, in Unitate Fra- 
trum Bohem, conservata, in Christ. Matth. Pfaffii Institutionibus Juris 
Eccles. p. 410. 



486 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. III. 



of government thai is to be observed in his church ; and, 
consequently, that every nation hath a right to establish 
such a form, as seemeth conducive to the interests, and 
suitable to the peculiar state, circumstances, and exigen- 
cies of the community, provided that such an establish- 
ment be in no respect prejudicial to truth, or favourable 
to the revival of superstition." 1 

XXXIII. It was the opinion of Calvin, not only that 
flagitious and profligate members were to be cut off from 
the sacred society, and excluded from the communion of 
the church, but also that men of dissolute and licentious 
lives were punishable by the laws of the state, and the 
arm of the civil magistrate. In this he differed from 
Zu ingle, who, supposing that all authority, of every kind, 
was lodged in the hands of the magistrate alone, would 
not allow to the ministers of the church the power of 
excluding flagitious offenders from its communion, or 
withholding from them the participation of its sacra- 
ments. 1 ' But the credit and influence of Calvin were so 
great at Geneva, that he accomplished his purpose, even 
in the face of a formidable opposition from various quar- 
ters. He established the severest rules of discipline to 
correct the licentious manners of the times, by which he 
exposed himself to innumerable perils from the malig- 
nity and resentment of the dissolute, and to perpetual con- 
tests with the patrons of voluptuousness and immorality. 
He executed, moreover, these rules of discipline with the 
utmost rigour, had them strengthened and supported by 
the authority of the state, excluded obstinate offenders 
from the communion of the church, by the judicial sen- 
tence of the consistory, and even went so far as to procure 
their banishment from the city ; not to mention other 
kinds of punishment, of no mild nature, which, at his 
desire, were inflicted upon men of loose principles and ir- 
regular lives. c The clergy in Switzerland were highly 
pleased with the form of church-government that had 
been established at Geneva, and ardently desirous of a 
greater degree of power to restrain the insolence of obsti- 
nate sinners, and a larger share of authority in the church, 
than they were intrusted with by the moderate ecclesias- 
tical constitution of Zuingle. They devoutly wished that 
the discipline of Calvin might be followed in their can- 
tons, and even made some attempts for that purpose. 

a See Spanhemii Opera, torn. ii. lib. viii. ix. p. 1055. This was the 
general opinion of the British divines who lived in the earliest period 
of the Reformation, and was first abandoned by Archbishop Whitgift. 
See Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. iii. 

h See a remarkable letter of Rodolph Gualter, in Fueslin's Centuria I. 
Epistolarum a Reformatoribus Helveticis scriptarum, p. 478, where he 
expresses himself thus : " Excommunicationem neque Zuinglius . . . 
nequeBullingerus, unquam probarunt, et . . . obstiterunt iis qui earn ali- 
quatido voluerunt introducere . . . Basile» quidem CEcolampadius, mul- 
tum dissuadente Zuinglio, instituerat . . . sed adeo non durabilis fuit ilia 
constitutio, ut CEcolampadius iiiarri abrogirit, &c. See also p. 90. 

c Of all the undertakings of Calvin, there was not one that involved 
him in so much trouble, or exposed him to such imminent danger, as 
the plan he had formed, with such resolution and fortitude, of purging 
the church, by the exclusion of obstinate and scandalous offenders, and 
inflicting severe punishments on all suc.i as violated the laws, enacted 
by the church, or by the consistory, which was its representative. See 
the Life of Calvin, composed by Beza, and prefixed to his Letters. — 
Spon's Histoire de Geneve, and particularly the notes, torn. ii. p. 45, 65. 
—Calvin's Letters, and more especially those addressed to Jaques de 
Bourgogne. The party at Geneva, which Calvin called the sect of Li- 
bertines, (because they defended the licentious customs of ancient times, 
the erection of stews, and other vicious practices, not only by their dis- 
course and their actions, but even by force of arms,) was both nume- 
rous and powerful. But the courage and resolution of this great reform- 
er gained the ascendency, and triumphed over the opposition of his 
enemies. 



But their desires and their endeavours were equally vain ; 
for the cantons of Bern, Zurich, and Basil, distinguishea 
themselves among the others in opposing this change, and 
would by no means permit the bounds, that Zuingle had 
set to the jurisdiction of the church, to be removed, nor 
its power and authority to be augmented in any respect. d 

XXXIV. All the various branches of learning, whe- 
ther sacred or profane, flourished among the reformed 
during this century, as appears evidently by the great 
number of excellent productions which have been trans- 
mitted to our times. Zuingle, indeed, seemed disposed to 
exclude philosophy from the pale of the church ; e but in 
this inconsiderate purpose he had few followers, and the 
succeeding doctors of the Helvetic church were soon per- 
suaded of the necessity of philosophical knowledge, more 
especially in controversies, and researches of a theologi- 
cal kind. Hence it was, that, in 1588, an academical 
body was founded at Geneva by Calvin, whose first care 
was to place in this new seminary a professor of philoso- 
phy for the instruction of youth in the principles of rea- 
soning. It is true, indeed, that this professor had a very 
limited province assigned to him, being obliged to con- 
fine his instructions to a mere interpretation of the pre- 
cepts of Aristotle, who at this same time was the oracle 
of all the public schools/ and whose philosophical prin- 
ciples and method were exclusively adopted by all the 
other reformed colleges ; though it is certain, that the 
philosophy of Ramus was, for some time, preferred, by 
many of the doctors of Basil, to that of the Stagirite.e 

XXXV. The reformed church, from its very infancy, 
produced a great number of expositors of Scripture, whose 
learned and excellent commentaries deserve a memorable 
place h in the history of theological science. The expo- 
sition that Zuingle has given of the greatest part of the 
books of the New Testament, is far from being destitute 
of merit.' He was succeeded by Bullinger, CEcolampa- 
dius, and Musculus, and also by others, who, though in- 
ferior to those great men in erudition and genius, deserve 
a certain degree of approbation and esteem. But the 
two divines who shone with a superior and unrivalled lus- 
tre in this learned list of sacred expositors, were John 
Calvin and Theodore Beza. The former composed an 
excellent commentary on almost all the books of Holy 



a See the account of the tumults and commotions of Lausanne, in the 
Museum Helveticum, torn. ii. The disputes that were carried on upon 
this occasion, in the Palatinate, which adopted the ecclesiastical disci- 
pline of Geneva, are recorded by Altingius, in his Hist. Eccles. Palat. 
and by Struvius, in his Hist. Eccles. Palat. German. 

• Zuingle, in the dedication of his book, de Vera et Falsa. Religione, 
to Francis I. king of France, expresses himself in the following terms : 
" Philosophise interdictum est a Christi scholis; at isti (Sorbonistse) 
fccerunt earn coelestis verbi magistram." 

f Beza, in his Epist. Theol. (ep. xxxvi. p. 156,) speaks thus : "Cer- 
tum nobis ac constitutum est, et in ipsis tradendis logicis et in ceteris 
explicandis disciplinis ab Aristotelis sententia ne tantillum quidem 
deflectere." 

e See Casp. Brandtii Vita Jacobi Arminii, p. 12, 22. 

f^- . h Dr. Mosheim pays a tribute to these great men of the reformed 
church, that seems to be extorted by justice, with a kind of effort from 
the spirit of party. He says, that Zuingle's labours are not contemptible; 
that Calvin attempted an illustration of the sacred writings ; that the 
New Testament of Beza has not, even at this day, entirely lost the re- 
putation it formerly enjoyed. This is faint praise ; and therefore the 
translator has, without departing from the tenor of the author's phraseo- 
logy, animated a little the coldness of his panegyric. 

§CJ= ■ It was not only on the books of the New Testament that Zuin- 
gle employed his very learned and excellent labours. He expounded the 
book of Genesis, together with the twenty-four first chapters of Exodus, 
and °-ave new versions of the Psalms, of the Prophecies of Isaiah and 
Jeremiah. 



PaetIL 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



487 



Writ ; and the atter published a Latin version of the 
New Testament, enriched with theological and critical 
observations, which has passed through many editions, 
and enjoys, at this day, a considerable pail of the repu- 
tation and applause with which it was crowned at its first 
appearance. It must be acknowledged, to the honour of 
the greatest part of these commentators, that, wisely ne- 
glecting those allegorical significations and mystical mean- 
ings which the irregular fancies of former expositors had 
attributed to the terms of Scripture, they employed their 
whole diligence and industry in investigating the literal 
sense and the full energy of the words, in order to find out 
the true intention of the sacred writer. It must, howe- ; 
ver, be observed, on the other hand, that some of these i 
interpreters, and more especially Calvin, have been sharply j 
censured for applying, to the temporal state and circum- 
stances of the Jews, several prophecies that point to the 
Messiah and to the Christian dispensation in the most evi- 
dent and palpable manner, and thus removing some of 
the most striking arguments in favour of the divinity of 
the Gospel. a 

XXXVI. The state of theology, and the revolutions 
it underwent among the Helvetic and the other reformed j 
churches, were nearly the same as among the Lutherans, j 
Zuingle was one of the first reformed doctors who reduc- 
ed that sacred science into a certain sort of order, in his 
book concerning true and false Religion, which contained 
a brief exposition of the principal doctrines of Christi- 
anity. This production was followed by one much more 
comprehensive in its contents, and perfect in its kind, 
composed by Calvin, and entitled Institutes of the Chris- 
tian Religion, which held in the reformed churches the 
same rank, authority, and credit, that the Loci Communes 
of Melancthon obtained among us. b The example of 
Calvin animated the doctors of his communion, and pro- 
duced a great number of writers of Common-Place Divi- 
nity, some more, others less voluminous, among whom 
Museums, Peter Martyr, and Piscator. particularly excel- 
led. The most ancient of these writers are, generally 
speaking, the best, on account of their simplicity and 
clearness, being untainted with that affectation of sub- 
tlety, and that scholastic spirit, which have eclipsed the 



• See .iEgidii Hunnii Calvinus Judaizans, published in 1595, which 
was refuted by David Pareus, in a book published the same year, under 
the title of Calvinus Orthodoxus. 

>> The reader must not forget that the learned author of this History 
was a Lutheran. 

c It must however be acknowledged, that the scholastic method of 
teaching theology seems to have first infected our (the Lutheran) church, 
though the contagion spread itself, soon after, among the reformed doc- 
tors. It was certainly very recent in Holland at the time of the famous 
synod of Dordrecht. In this assembly Maccovius. professor at Franeker, 
a man deeply versed in all the mysteries of die scholastic philosophy, was 
accused of heresy by his colleague Sibrand Lubbert. When the matter 
was examined, the synod declared that Maccovius was unjustly accused 
of heresy ; but that, in his divinity lectures, he had not followed that 
simplicity of method, and clearness of expression, which are commend- 
able in a public teacher of Christianity ; and that he rather followed the 
subtle manner of the scholastic doctors, than the plain and unaffected 
phraseology of the inspired writers. The decision of the synod is ex- 
pressed by Walter Balcanqual (in the acts of that ecclesiastical assem- 
bly, subjoined to his letters to Sir Dudley Carleton) in the following 
words : " Maccovium . . . nullius haereseos reum teneri . . . peccasse 
eum, quod quibusdam ambiguis et obscuris scholasticis phrasibu:; usus 
sit; quod scholasticum docendi modum conetur in Eeigicis academiis 
introducere . . . Monendum esse eum, ut cum spiritu sancto loquatur, 
non cum Bellarmino aut Suarezio."* These admonitions produced 
Jttle effect on Maccovius, as appears by his theological writings, which 
are richly seasoned with scholastic wit and intricate speculations. He 
therefore appears to have been the first who introduced the subtleties of 



merit of many a good genius. Calvin was a model in 
this respect, more especially in his Institutes ; a work re- 
markable for the finest elegance of style, and the greatest 
ease and perspicuity of expression, together with the most 
perfect simplicity of method, and clearness of argument. 
But this simplicity was soon effaced by the intricate 
science of the schools. The philosophy of Aristotle, which 
was taught in almost all the seminaries of learning, and 
suffered much from falling into bad hands, insinuated it- 
self into the regions of theology, and rendered them bar- 
ren, thorny, intricate, and gloomy, by the enormous mul- 
titude of barbarous terms, captious questions, minute 
distinctions, and useless subtleties, that followed in its 
train. 

XXXYII. The reformed doctors of this century gene- 
rally concluded their treatises of didactic theology with a 
delineation of the moral duties that are incumbent upon 
Christians, and the rules of practice that are prescribed in 
the Gospel. This method was observed by Calvin, and 
was followed, out of respect for his example, by almost all 
the divines of his communion, who looked upon him as 
their model and their guide. This eminent man, toward 
; the conclusion of his Institutes, speaks of the power of the 
magistrate, and the ends of civil government ; and, in the 
last chapter, gives the portraiture of the life and manners 
! of a true Christian, but in a much more concise manner 
than the copiousness, dignity, and importance of the sub- 
I ject seemed to require. The progress of morality among 
the reformed, was obstructed by the very same means that 
retarded its improvement among the Lutherans. It was 
1 neglected amidst the tumult of controversy : and, while 
every pen was drawn to maintain certain systems of doc- 
trine, few were employed in cultivating or promoting that 
noblest of all sciences, which has virtue, life, and manners, 
for its objects. 

This master-science, which Calvin and his associates 
had left in a rude and imperfect state, was first reduced 
into some kind of form, and explained with a certain de- 
gree of accuracy and precision, by "William Perkins, d an 
English divine, as the reformed doctors universally allow. 
He was seconded in this laudable undertaking by Telin- 
gius, a native of Holland ; and it was by a worthy and 

philosophy into the theological system of the reformed churches in Hol- 
land. He was not. however, alone in this attempt, but was seconded 
by the acute Dr. William Ames, minister of the English church at the 
Hague, and several others of the same scholastic turn. This method 
of teaching theology must have been in use among almost all the re- 
| formed doctors before the synod of Dordrecht, if we give credit to Epis- 
> copius, who, in the last discourse which he addressed to his disciples at 
; Leyden, tells them that he had carefully avoided this scholastic divinity; 
and that this was the principal cause that had drawn on him the vehe- 
ment hatred and opposition of all the other professors and teachers of 
theology. His words are as follows : " Videbam veritatem multarum 
et maximarum rerum in ipsa scriptura sacra, elaboratis humana indus- 
i tria phrasibus, inge^.iosis vocularum fictionibus, locorum communium 
artificiosis texturis exquisitis terminorum ac formularum invenuonibus, 
adeo involutam, perplexam et intricatam reddham esse, ut CEdipo sape 
opus esset ad Sphingem illam theologicam enodandam. Ita est, et hinc 
prims lacrymse — Reducendam itaque terminorum apostolicorum et cui- 
, vis obviorum simplicitatem semper sequendam putavi, el sequestrandas, 
1 quas academis et scholae tanquam proprias sibi vendicant, iogicas phi- 
losophicasque speculationes et dictiones." See Philippi Limborchii 
Vita Episcopii, p. 123. 

fj- d Mr. William Perkins was born at Marston in Warwickshire, 
in the first year of queen Elizabeth, and educated in Christ's College, 
Cambridge, of which he became fellow. He was one of die most fa- 
mous practical writers and preachers of his age. His puritanical and 
non-conforming principles exposed him to die cognizance of the High- 
* See the Acta Synodi Dord. in Hale's Golden Remains, p. 161.— 
, and Philippi Limborchii Epistolar. Ecclesiasucar. Collect p. 574. 



4S8 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. III. 



pious spirit of emulation, excited by the example of these 
two doctors, that William Ames, a native of Scotland, and 
professor of divinity at Franeker,* was engaged to com- 
pose a complete body of Christian morality. b These writers 
were succeeded by others, who threw farther light on this 
important science. 

XXXVIII. The reformed church was less disturbed, 
during this century, by sects, divisions, and theological 
disputes, than the Lutheran, which was often a prey to 
the most unhappy dissensions. This circumstance is 
looked upon by the former as a matter of triumph, though 
it may be very easily accounted for by all such as are 
acquainted with the history of that church. c We have 
however, in the writings of Calvin, an account, and also 
a refutation, of a most pernicious sect that sprang up in 
that establishment, and produced troubles of a more de- 
plorable kind than any that happened in our community. d 
This odious sect, which assumed the denominations of 
Libertines and Spiritual Brethren and Sisters, arose in 
Flanders, under the auspices of Pockesius, Ruffus, and 
Quintin ; gained a certain footing in France through 
the favour and protection of Margaret, queen of Navarre, 
and sister to Francis I. ; and found patrons in several of 
the reformed churches. e Their doctrine, as far as it can be 
known by the writings of Calvin and its other antagonists, 
(for I do not find that these fanatics published any account 
of their tenets,) amounted to the following propositions : 
" That the Deity was the sole operating cause in the 
mind of man, and the immediate author of all human 
actions ; that, consequently, the distinctions of good and 
evil, which had been established with respect to these ac- 
tions, were false and groundless, and that men could not, 
properly speaking, commit sin ; that religion consisted in 
the union of the spirit, or rational soul, with the Supreme 
Being ; that all those who had attained this happy union, 
by sublime contemplation and elevation of mind, were al- 
lowed to indulge, without exception or restraint, their ap- 
petites and passions ; that all their actions and pursuits 
were then perfectly innocent ; and that, after the death 
of the body, they were to be united to the Deity." These 
extravagant tenets resemble, in such a striking manner, 
the opinions of the Beghards, or Brethren of the Free 
Spirit, that it appears to me, beyond all doubt, that the 
Libertines, or Spirituals, now under consideration, were 
no more than a remnant of that ancient sect. The place 
of their origin tends to confirm this hypothesis, since it 
is well known, that, in the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 

Commission Court ; but his peaceable behaviour, and eminent reputation 
in the learned world, procured him an exemption from the persecutions 
that fell upon his brethren. His works, which were printed in three 
volumes folio, afford abundant proofs of his piety and industry, espe- 
cially when it is considered that he died in the 44th year of his age. 

f^" a Dr. William Ames, educated at Cambridge under Mr. Perkins, 
fled from the persecution of archbishop Bancroft, and was invited by 
the states of Friesland to the divinity chair in the university of Frane- 
ker, which he filled with great reputation for twelve years. He then 
removed to Rotterdam, at the invitation of an English church there, and 
became their pastor. He was at the synod of Dordrecht, and informed 
the ambassador of king James at the Hague, from time to time, of the 
debates of that assembly. Besides his controversial writings against 
the Arminians, he published the following; Medulla Theologian (the 
work here referred to by Dr. Mosheim;)— Manuductio Logica; — Cases 
of Conscience ; — Analysis of the Book of Psalms ; — Notes on the First 
and Second Epistles of St. Peter, &c. These productions are not void 
of merit, considering the times in which they were written. 

~%j? h In the preface to his famous book de Conscientia et ejus Jure, 
Dr. Ames observes, that an excessive zeal for doctrine had produced an 
unhappy neglect of morality: " Quod heec pars prophetiac (i. e. morali- 



turies, Flanders swarmed with licentious fanatics of this 
kind. 

XXXIX. We must not confound (as is frequently 
done) with these fanatics, another kind of Libertines, 
whom Calvin had to combat, and who gave him much 
trouble and perplexity during the whole course of his life 
and ministry ; I mean the Libertines of Geneva. These 
were rather a cabal of rakes than a sect of fanatics ; for 
they made no pretences to any religious system, but plead- 
ed only for the liberty of leading voluptuous and immo- 
ral lives. This cabal was composed of such licentious 
citizens as could not bear the severe discipline of Calvin, 
who punished with rigour, not only dissolute manners, 
but also whatever carried the aspect of irreligion and im- 
piety. This irregular troop stood forth in defence of the 
licentiousness and dissipation that had reigned in their 
city before the Reformation, pleaded for the continuance 
of those brothels, banquetings, and other entertainments 
of a sensual kind, which the regulations of Calvin were 
designed to abolish, and employed all the bitterness of 
reproach and invective, all the resources of fraud and vio- 
lence, all the powers of faction, to accomplish their pur- 
pose. 1 " In this turbulent cabal there were several persons, 
who were not only notorious for their dissolute and scan- 
dalous manner of living, but also for their contempt of 
all religion. Of this odious class was Gruet, who attack- 
ed Calvin with the utmost animosity and fury, calling 
him bishop of Asculum, the new pope, and branding him 
with other contumelious denominations. This Gruet 
denied the divinity of the Christian religion, the immor- 
tality of the soul, the difference between moral good and 
evil, and rejected, with disdain, the doctrines that are 
deemed most sacred among Christians ; for which impi- 
eties he was at last brought before the civil tribunals, in 
1550, and was punished with death.s 

XL. The opposition that was made to Calvin did not 
end here. He had contests of another kind to sustain 
against those who disapproved his theological system, and, 
more especially, his melancholy and discouraging doc- 
trine in relation to eternal and absolute decrees. These 
adversaries felt, by a disagreeable experience, the warmth 
and violence of his haughty temper, and that impatience 
of contradiction which arose from an over-jealous concern 
for his honour, or rather for his unrivalled supremacy. 
He would not suffer them to remain at Geneva ; and, in 
the heat of controversy, being carried away by the impe- 
tuosity of his passions, he accused them of crimes from 

ty,) hactenus minus fuerit exculta, hoc inde fuit, quod primipilares nos- 
tri perpetuo in acie adversus hostes pugnare, fidem propugnare, et aream 
ecclesias purgare, necessitate quadam cogebantur, ita ut agros et vineas 
plantare et rigare non potuerint ex voto, sicut bello fervente usu venire 
solet." The address to the students of Franeker, which is subjoined to 
this book, under the title of Paraenesis ad Studiosos, &c. deserves to be 
perused, as it tends to confirm what has been already observed with 
respect to the neglect of the science of morality. " Theologi (says 
he) praeclare se instructos putant ad omnes officii sui partes, si dogmata 
tantum intelligant. Neque tamen omnia dogmata scrutantur, sed ilia 
sola, quae praecipue solent agitari et in controversiam vocari." 

ffg= ? Dr. Mosheim ought to have given us a hint of his manner of 
accounting for this, to avoid the suspicion of having been somewhat at 
a loss for a favourable solution. 

f^ d Why all these comparisons 1 Our author seems, on some oc- 
casions, to tinge his historical relation with the spirit of party. 

See "Calvini Instructio adversus fanaticam et furiosam Sec- 
tarn Libertinorum, qui se Spirituals vocant," among his theological 
tracts. 

f Spon's Histoire de Geneve, torn. ii. p. 44, in the edition of 1730. 

B Spon's Hist. torn. ii. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



489 



which they have been fully absolved by the impartial 
judgment of unprejudiced posterity. 1 Among these vic- 
tims of Calvin's unlimited power and excessive zeal, we 
may reckon Sebastian Castalio, master of the public school 
at Geneva, who, though not exempt from failings, 11 was 
nevertheless a man of probity, and was also remarkable 
for the extent of his learning and the elegance of his 
taste. As this learned man could neither approve all the 
measures that were followed, nor all the opinions that 
were entertained by Calvin and his colleagues, and par- 
ticularly that of absolute and unconditional predestination, 
he was deposed from his office in 1544, and banished 
from the city. The magistrates of Basil, however, re- 
ceived this ingenious exile, and gave him the Greek pro- 
fessorship of their university. 

XLI. A like fate happened to Jerome Bolsec, a French 
monk of the Carmelite order, who, though much inferior 
to Castalio in genius and learning, was judged worthy 
of esteem, on account of the motive that brought him to 
Geneva ; for it was a conviction of the excellence of the 
protestant religion that engaged him to abandon the mo- 
nastic retreats of superstition, and to repair to this city, 
where he followed the profession of physic. His impru- 
dence, however, was great, and was the principal cause 
of the mifortunes that befell him. It led him, in 1551, 
to lift up his voice in the full congregation, after the con- 
clusion of divine worship, and to declaim, in the most 
indecorous manner, against the doctrine of absolute de- 
crees ; for which offence he was thrown into prison, and 
soon after, sent into banishment. He then returned to 
the place of his nativity, and to the communion of Rome, 
and published the most bitter and slanderous libels, in 
which the reputation, conduct, and morals of Calvin and 
Beza, were cruelly attacked. 11 From this treatment of 
Bolsec arose the misunderstanding between Calvin and 
his intimate friend and patron Jaques de Bourgogne, a 
man illustrious by his descent from the dukes of Bur- 
gundy, who had settled at Geneva with no other view 
than to enjoy the pleasure of conversing with him. Jaques 
de Bourgogne had employed Bolsec as his physician, and 
was so well satisfied with his services, that he endeavour- 
ed to support him, and to prevent his being ruined by the 
enmity and authority of Calvin. This incensed the lat- 
ter to such a degree, that he turned the force of his re- 
sentment against this illustrious nobleman, who, to avoid 
his vengeance, removed from Geneva, and passed the 
remainder of his days in a rural retreat. e 

XLH. Bernardino Ochino, a native of Sienna, (and, 
before his conversion, general of the Capuchin order,) was, 

• At this day we may venture to speak thus freely of the rash deci- 
sions of Calvin, since even the doctors of Geneva, as well as those of 
the other reformed churches, ingenuously acknowledge that his eminent 
talents and excellent qualities were accompanied with great defects, for 
which, however, they plead indulgence, in consideration of his services 
and virtues. Seethe notes to Spon's Histoire de Geneve, torn. ii. p. 110, 
as also the preface to Calvin's Letters to Jaques de Bourgogne. 

§^T b See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Castalio, in which the 
merit and demerit of that learned man seem to be impartially and accu- 
rately examined. 

• See TJytenbogard's Ecclesiastical History, part ii. where that au- 
thor endeavours to defend the innocence of Castalio. — See also Colomesii 
Italia Orientalis, p. 99. — Bayle's Diet. torn. i. 

• See Bayle's Diet, at the article Bolsec. — Spon's Hist, de Geneve, 
torn. ii. p. 55, in the Notes. — Bibilioth. Raisonnee, torn, xxxii. p. 446, 
torn, xxxiv. p. 409. 

• See the preface to Lettres de Calvin a Jaques de Bourgogne, and La 
Bibliotheque Raisonee. torn, xxxii. xxxiv. 

No.XLII. 123 



in 1543, banished from Switzerland, in consequence of 
a sentence passed upon him by the Helvetic church. 
This proselyte, who was a man of a fertile imagination, 
and a lively and subtle turn of mind, had been invited 
to Zurich as pastor of the Italian church established in 
that city. But the freedom, or rather the licentiousness 
of his sentiments, justly exposed him to the displeasure 
of those who had been his patrons and protectors ; for, 
among many other opinions very different from such as 
were commonly received, he maintained that the law, 
which confined a husband to one wife, was susceptible 
of exceptions in certain cases. In his writings also he 
propagated several notions which were repugnant to the 
theological system of the Helvetic doctors, and ptished 
his inquiries into many subjects of importance, with a 
! boldness and freedom by no means suited to the genius 
and spirit of the age in which he lived. Some have, 
however, undertaken his defence, and have alleged in his 
behalf, that the errors he maintained at the time of his 
banishment, (when, worn out with age, and oppressed 
with poverty, he was rather an object of compassion, than 
of resentment,) were not of such a heinous nature as to 
justify so severe a punishment. However that may have 
been, this unfortunate exile retired into Poland, where he 
embraced the communion of the Anti-Trinitarians and 
Anabaptists/ and ended his days in 1564.S 

XLIII. It is remarkable that those very doctors, who 
animadverted with such severity upon all that dared to 
dissent from any part of their theological system, thought 
proper, nevertheless, to behave with the greatest circum- 
spection, and the most pacific spirit of mildness, in the 
long controversy which was carried on with such ani- 
mosity between the Puritans, and the advocates of epis- 
copacy, in England ; for if, on the one hand, they could 
not but stand well affected to the Puritans, who were 
steadfast defenders of the discipline and sentiments of the 
Helvetic church ; so, on the other, they were connected with 
their episcopal doctors by the bonds of Christian commu- 
nion and fraternal love. In this critical situation, their 
| whole thoughts were turned to reconciliation and peace ; 
and they exhorted their brethren, the Puritans, to put on 
a spirit of meekness and forbearance toward the episcopal 
church, and not to break the bonds of charity and com- 
munion with its rulers or its members. Such was the 
gentle spirit of the doctors in Switzerland toward the 
church of England, notwithstanding the severe treatment 
the greatest part of the reformed had received from that 
church, which constantly insisted on the divine origin of 
its government and discipline, and scarcely allowed, to the 



' See Boverii Annales Capucinorum ; and a book entitled, La Guerre 
Seraphique, ou Histoire des Perils qu'a couru la Barbe des Capucins, 
livr. ii. p. 147. livr. iii. p. 190, 230. — Observations Halenses Latinae, 
torn. iv. Observ. xx. p. 406. torn. v. Observ. i. p. 3. — Bayle's Diction, at 
the article Ochin. — Christ. Sandii Biblioth. Anti-Trinitar. p. 4. IS'ice- 
ron's Memoires pourservir a l'Hist. des Hommes illustres, t. xix. p. 166. 

fr_1p e Ochino did not leave the accusations of his adversaries without 
a reply; he published, in Italian, an Apology for his character and con- 
duct, printed, with a Latin translation by Seb. Castalio, without the 
date of the year. The Geneva edition of this apology bears the date of 
1554, and a German edition appeared in 1556. Beza, in his letter to 
Dudithius, insults the memory of Ochino, and pretends to justify the 
severity with which he was treated, in such a taunting and uncharitable 
manner as does him little credit. See his Epist. Theolog. Geneva, 
1575. What the writers of the Romish church have laid to the charge 
of Ochino, may be seen in the life of cardinal Commendoni, written by 
Gratiani, bishop of Amelia, (and published in a French translation by 
the eloquent Flechier, bishop of Nismes,) B. 2. C. 9. p. 138—149. N. 



490 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



Sect. IIL 



other reformed communities, the privileges, or even the 
denomination of a true church. This moderation of the 
Helvetic doctors was the dictate of prudence. They did 
not think it expedient to contend with a generous and 
flourishing people, or to incur the displeasure of a mighty 
queen, whose authority seemed to extend not only over her 
own dominions, but even to the United Provinces, which 
were placed in her neighbourhood, and, in some measure, 
under her protection. Nor did the apprehensions of a ge- 
neral schism in the reformed church contribute a little to 
render them meek, moderate, and pacific. It is one thing 
to punish and excommunicate a handful of weak and un- 
supported individuals, who attempt to disturb the tran- 
quillity of the state by the introduction of opinions, which, 
though neither highly absurd, nor of dangerous conse- 
quence, have yet the demerit of novelty ; and another to 
irritate, or promote divisions in a flourishing church, which, 
though weakened by intestine feuds, is yet both powerful 
and respectable in a high degree. Besides, the dispute 
between the church of England and the other reformed 
churches, did not, as yet, turn upon points of doctrine, but 
only on the rites of external worship and the form of ec- 
clesiastical government. It is. however, to be observed, 
that, soon after the period now under consideration, cer- 
tain religious doctrines were introduced into the debate 
between the churches, that contributed much to widen 



gjT a All the protestant divines of the reformed church, whether pu- 
ritans or others, seemed, indeed, hitherto of one mind about the doc- 
trines of faith. But, toward the latter end of queen Elizabeth's reign, 
there arose a party, that first wished to soften, and then to overthrow, the 
received opinions concerning predestination, perseverance, free-will, ef- 
fectual grace, and the extent of Christ's redemption. These are the doc- 
trines to which Dr. Mosheim alludes in this passage. The clergy of 
the episcopal church began to lean toward the notions concerning these 
intricate points, which Arminius propagated some time after this ; 
while, on the other hand, the puritans adhered rigorously to the system 
of Calvin. Several episcopal doctors remained attached to the same 
system ; and all these abettors of Calvinism, whether episcopal or 
presbyterian, were called doctrinal puritans. 

b The modern Mennonites reject the denomination of Anabaptists, 
and also disavow the custom of repeating the ceremony of baptism, 
whence this denomination is derived. They acknowledge that the an- 
cient Anabaptists practised the repetition of baptism to those who 
joined them from other Christian churches ; but they maintain, at the 
same time, that this custom is at present abolished by the far greater 
part of their community. See Herm. Schyn's Historian Mennonita- 
rum plenior Deductio, cap. ii. But here, if I do not mistake, these good 
men forget that ingenuous candour and simplicity, of which, on other 
occasions, they make such ostentation, and have recourse to artifice, in 
order to disguise the true cause and origin of the denomination in 
question. They pretend, for instance, that the Anabaptists, their ances- 
tors, were so called from their baptizing a sscpnd time all the adult per- 
sons who left other churches to enter into their communion. But it is 
certain, that the denomination in question was given to them, not only 
on this account, but also, and indeed principally, from the following 
consideration ; that they did not look upon those who had been baptized 
in a state of infancy, or at a tender age, as rendered, by the administra- 
tion of this sacrament, true members of the Christian church; and 
therefore insisted upon their being re-baptized, in order to their being re- 
ceived into the communion of the Anabaptists. It is likewise certain that 
all the churches of that communion, however they may vary in other re- 
spects, and differ from each other in their tenets and practices, agree never- 
theless in this opinion, and persevere obstinately in it. In a more espe- 
cial manner are the ancient Flemish Anabaptists entitled to this denomi- 
nation ; for they not only re-baptized the children that had been already 
baptized in other churches, but even observed the same method with 
*espect to persons who had reached the years of reason and discretion ; 
and, what is still more remarkable, the different sects of Anabaptists 
deal in the same manner one with another; each sect rebaptizes the 
persons that enter into its communion, although they have already 
received that sacrament in another sect of the same denomination ; and 
the reason of this conduct is, that each sect considers its baptism alone 
as pure and valid. It is indeed to be observed, that there is another 
class of Anabaptists, called Waterlandians, who arc more moderate in 
their principles, and wiser in all respects than those now mentioned, and 



the breach, and to obscure the prospect of reconcilia- 
tion.* 

XLIV. That the reformed church abounded, during 
this century, with great and eminent men, justly celebra- 
ted for their talents and learning, is too well known to re- 
quire proof. Beside Calvin, Zuingle, and Beza, who ex- 
hibited to the republic of letters very striking instances 
of genius and erudition, we may place, in the list of those 
who have gained an immortal name by their writings, 
OEcolampadius, Bullinger, Farel, Viret, Martyr, Biblian- 
der, Musculus, Pelican, Lavater, Hospinian, Ursinus, 
Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, Szegedinus, and 
many others, whose names and merits are recorded by the 
writers of literary history, particularly by Melchior Adam, 
Antony Wood, Gerard Brandt, and Daniel Neal, the learn- 
ed and industrious author of the History of the Puritans. 

CHAPTER III. 

The History of the Anabaptists or Mennonites. 

I. The true origin of that sect which acquired the 
denomination of Anabaptists b by their administering 
anew the rite of baptism to those who came over to their 
communion, and derived that of Mennonites from the 
famous man to whom they owe the greatest part of their 
present felicity, is hidden in the depths of antiquity, and 



who do not pretend to re-baptize adult persons already baptized in other 
Christian churches, or in other sects of their own denomination. These 
moderate sectaries are, however, with propriety termed Anabaptists, on 
account of their re-baptizing such as had received the baptismal rite in 
a state of infancy or childhood. The patrons of this sect seem, indeed, 
very studious to conceal a practice which they cannot deny to take 
place among them ; and their eagerness to conceal it, arises from a fear 
of reviving the hatred and severities which formerly pursued them. 
They are apprehensive that, by acknowledging the truth, the modern 
Mennonites may be considered as the descendants of those flagitious 
and fanatical Anabaptists of Minister, whose enormities rendered their 
very name odious to all true Christians. All this appears evident from 
the following passage in Schyn's Historian Mennonitarum plenior De- 
ductio, torn. ii. where that author pretends to prove that his brethren are 
unjustly stigmatized with the odious denomination of Anabaptists. 
His words are: " Anabaptismus ille plane obsolevit; et a multis retro 
annis neminem cujuscunque sectse Christianas fidei, juxta mandatum 
Chrisli baptizatum, dum ad nostras Ecclesias transire cupit, re-baptiza- 
verunt." i. e. That species of Anabaptism with which we are charged 
exists no longer, nor has it happened during the space of many years 
past, that any person professing Christianity, of whatever church or 
sect he may have been, and who had been previously baptized accord- 
ing to the commandment of Christ, has. been re-baptized upon his enter- 
ing into our communion. This passage would, at first sight, induce an 
inattentive reader to imagine that there is no such thing among the 
modern Mennonites, as the custom of re-baptizing those who enter into 
their community. But the words, juxta mandatum Christi, discover 
sufficiently the artifice and fraud that lie hidden in this apology; for the 
Anabaptists maintain that there is no commandment of Christ in favour 
of infant baptism. Moreover, we see the whole fallacy exposed, by 
what the author adds to the sentence already quoted : " Sed illam etiam 
adultorum baptismum ut sufficientem agnoscunt." Nevertheless, this 
author, as if he had perfectly proved his point, concludes, with an air of 
triumph, that the odious name of Anabaptists cannot be given, with any 
propriety, to the Mennonites at this day; " CXuare (says he,) verissi- 
mum est, illud odiosum nomen Anabaptistarum illis non convenire." 
In this, however, he is certainly in an error ; and the name in question 
is as applicable to the modern Mennonites, as it was to the sect from 
which they descend, since the best and wisest of the Mennonites main- 
tain, in conformity with the principles of the ancient Anabaptists, that 
the baptism of infants is destitute of validity, and consequently are 
very careful in re-baptizing their proselytes, notwithstanding their 
having been baptized in their tender years, in other Christian churches. 
Many circumstances persuade me that the declarations and representa- 
tions of things given by the modern Mennonites, are not always worthy 
of credit. Unhappily instructed by the miseries and calamities in 
which their ancestors were involved, they are anxiously careful to con- 
ceal entirely those tenets and laws which are the distinguishing charac- 
teristics of their sect ; while Lhey embellish what they cannot totally 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



491 



is, of consequence, extremely difficult to be ascertained. 1 
This uncertainty will not appear surprising, when it is 
considered, that this sect started up suddenly in several 
countries, at the same point of time, under leaders of dif- 
ferent talents and different intentions, and at the very 
period when the first contests of the reformers with the 
Roman pontiffs drew the attention of the world," and em- 
ployed the pens of the learned, in such a manner, as to 
render all other objects and incidents almost matters of 
indifference. The modern Mennonites not only consider 
themselves as the descendants of the Waldenses, who 
were so grievously oppressed and persecuted by the des- 
potic heads of the Romish church, but pretend, more- 
over, to be the purest offspring of these respectable suf- 
ferers, being equally averse to all principles of rebellion, 
on the one hand, and all suggestions of fanaticism on 
the other. b Their adversaries, on the contrary, repre- 
sent them as the descendants of those turbulent and furi- 
ous Anabaptists, who, in the sixteenth century, involved 
Holland, Switzerland, Germany, and more especially the 
province of Westphalia, in such scenes of blood, per- 
plexity, and distress ; and allege, that, terrified by the 
dreadful fate of their associates, and also influenced by the 
moderate counsels and wise injunctions of Mennon, they 
abandoned the ferocity of their primitive enthusiasm, and 
were gradually brought to a better mind. After having 
examined these different accounts of the origin of the 
Anabaptists with the utmost attention and impartiality, 
I have found that neither of them can justly be pronoun- 
ced conformable to strict truth. 

II. It may be observed, in the first place, that the 
Mennonites are not entirely in an error when they boast 
of their descent from the Waldenses, Petrobrusians, 
and other ancient sects, who are usually considered as 
witnesses of the truth, in the times of general darkness 
and superstition. Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, 
there lay concealed, in almost all the countries of Europe, 
particularly in Bohemia, Moravia, Switzerland, and Ger- 
many, many persons, who adhered tenaciously to the fol- 
lowing doctrine, which the Waldenses, Wickliffites, and 
Hussites, had maintained, some in a more disguised, and 
others in a more open and public manner ; viz. " That 
the kingdom of Christ, or the visible church which he 
established upon earth, was an assembly of true and real 
saints, and ought therefore to be inaccessible to the wicked 
aud unrighteous, and also exempt from all those institu- 
tions which human prudence suggests, to oppose the pro- 
gress of iniquity, or to correct and reform transgressors." 
This maxim is the true source of all the peculiarities 
that are to be found in the religious doctrine and disci- 
pline of the Mennonites ; and it is most certain, that the 
greatest part of these peculiarities were approved by many 



conceal, and disguise with the greatest art such of their institutions as 
otherwise might appear of a pernicious tendency, and might expose 
thern to censure. 

a The writers for and against the Anabaptists are amply enumerated 
by Caspar Sagittarius, in his Introductio ad Histor. Eccles. torn. i. p. 
826. and by Christ. M. Pfaffius, in his Introduct. in Histor. Liter. Theo- 
logian, part ii. p. 349.— Add to these a modern writer and a Mennonite 
preacher, Herman Schyn, who published at Amsterdam, in 1723, his 
Historia Mennonitarum, and, in 1729, his Plenior Deductio Histor. 
Mennonit. These two books, though they do not deserve the title of a 
History of the Mennonites, are nevertheless useful, in order to come at 
a thorough knowledge of the affairs of this sect ; for this author is much 
more intent upon defending his brethren against the accusations and 
reproaches with which they have been loaded, than careful in tracing 
out the origin, progress, and revolutions of their sect. Indeed the Men- 



of those, who, before the dawn of the reformation, enter- 
tained the notion already mentioned, relating to the visi- 
ble church of Christ. There were, however, different 
ways of thinking among the different members of this 
sect, with respect to the methods of attaining such a per- 
fect church-establishment as they had in view. Some, 
who were of a fanatical complexion on the one hand, and 
were persuaded on the other, that such a visible church 
as they had modelled out in fancy, could not be realized 
by the power of man, entertained the pleasing hope, that 
God, in his own good time, would erect to himself a holy 
church, exempt from every degree of blemish and impu- 
rity, and would set apart, for the execution of this grand 
design, a certain number of chosen instruments, divinely 
assisted and prepared for this work, by the extraordinary 
succours of his Holy Spirit. Others, of a more prudent 
and rational turn of mind, entertained different views of 
this matter. They neither expected stupenduous mira- 
cles, nor extraordinary revelations, since they were per- 
suaded, that it was possible, by human wisdom, industry, 
and vigilance, to purify the church from the contagion of 
the wicked, and restore it to the simplicity of its original 
constitution, provided that the manners and spirit of the 
primitive Christians could recover their lost dignity and 
lustre. 

III. The drooping spirits of these people, who had been 
dispersed through many countries, and persecuted every 
where with the greatest severity, were revived when they 
were informed that Luther, seconded by several persons 
of eminent piety, had attempted with success the reforma- 
tion of the church. Then they spoke with openness and 
freedom ; and the enthusiasm of the fanatical, as well as 
the prudence of the wise, discovered themselves in their 
natural colours. Some of them imagined, that the time 
was now come in which God himself was to dwell with 
his servants in an extraordinary manner, by celestial suc- 
cours, and to establish upon earth a kingdom truly spiritu- 
al and divine. Others, less sanguine and chimerical in 
their expectations, flattered themselves, nevertheless, with 
the fond hope of the approach of that happy period, in 
which the restoration of the church, w T hich had been so 
long expected in vain, Avas to be accomplished, under the 
divine protection, by the labours and counsels of pious 
and eminent men. This sect was soon joined by great 
numbers, and (as usually happens in sudden revolutions 
of this nature) by many persons, whose characters and ca- 
pacities were very different, though their views seemed to 
turn upon the same object. Their progress was rapid ; 
for, in a very short time, their discourses, visions, and 
predictions, excited commotions in a great part of Europe, 
and drew into their communion a prodigious multitude, 
whose ignorance rendered them easy victims to the illu- 

nonites have not much reason to boast either of the extraordinary learn- 
ing or dexterity of this their patron ; and it is to be imagined, that they 
may easily find a more able defender. For an accurate account of the 
Mennonite historians, and their confessions of faith, see Jo. Christ. Ko- 
cheri Bibliotheca Theol. Symbolical, p. 461. 

b See Herm. Schyn's Plenior Deductio Histor. Mennon. cap. i. as 
also a Dutch work by Galen Abrahamzon, entitled, Verdediging der 
Christenen, die Doopsgesinde genand worden. 

° See, for an account of the religious sentiments of the Waldenses, 
Limborch's excellent History of the Inquisition, translated into English 
by the learned Dr. Samuel Chandler, book i. chap. viii. — It appears 
from undoubted testimonies, that theWickliffitesand Hussites did notgrent- 
ly differ from the Waldenses, with regard to the point underconsideration. 

f^- See also Lydii Waldensia/and Allix's Ancient Churches oi 
Piedmont, ch. xxii. — xxvi. p. 211 — 280. N. 



492 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



Sect. Ill, 



sions of enthusiasm. It is, however, to be observed, that, 
as the leaders of this sect had fallen into that erroneous 
and chimerical notion, that the new kingdom of Christ, 
which they expected, was to be exempted from every kind 
of vice, and from the smallest degree of imperfection and 
corruption, they were not satisfied with the plan of reform- 
ation proposed by Luther. They looked upon it as much 
beneath the sublimity of their views, and, consequently, 
undertook a more perfect reformation, or, to express more 
properly their visionary enterprise, they proposed to found 
a true church, entirely spiritual, and truly divine. 

IV. It is difficult to determine, with certainty, the parti- 
cular spot that gave birth to that seditious and pestilential 
sect of Anabaptists, whose tumultuous and desperate at- 
tempts were equally pernicious to the cause of religion, 
and the civil interests of maukind. Whether this sect 
arose in Switzerland, Germany, or Holland, is still a point 
of debate, whose decision is of no great importances It is 
most probable, that several persons of this odious class 
made their appearance at the same time, in different coun- 
tries ; and we may fix this period soon after the dawn of the 
Reformation in Germany, when Luther arose to set bounds 
to the ambition of Rome. This appears from a variety of 
circumstances, and especially from this striking one, that 
the first Anabaptist doctors of any eminence were, almost 
all, heads and leaders of particular and separate sects ; for 
it must be carefully observed, that though all these pro- 
jectors of a new, unspotted, and perfect church, were com- 
prehended under the general denomination of Anabaptists, 
on account of their opposing the baptism of infants, and 
their re-baptizing such as had received that sacrament in 
a state of childhood in other churches, yet they were, from 
their very origin, subdivided into various sects, which dif- 
fered from each other in points of no small moment. The 
most pernicious faction of all those that composed this 
motley multitude, was the sect which pretended that the 
founders of the new and perfect church, already men- 
tioned, were under the direction of a divine impulse, and 
were armed against all opposition by the power of work- 
ing miracles. It was this detestable faction that, in 1521, 
began their fanatical work, under the guidance of Mun- 
zer, Stubner, Storck, and other leaders of the same furious 
complexion, and excited the most unhappy tumults and 
commotions in Saxony and the adjacent countries. They 
employed at first the various arts of persuasion, in order 
to propagate their doctrine. They preached, exhorted, ad- 
monished, and reasoned, in a manner that seemed proper 
to gain the multitude, and related a great number of vi- 
sions and revelations, with which they pretended to have 
been favoured from above. But when they saw that these 
methods of making proselytes were not attended with such 
rapid success as they fondly expected, and that the minis- 
try of Luther, and other eminent reformers, proved detri- 
mental to their cause, they had recourse to more expedi- 
tious measures, and madly attempted to propagate their 
fanatical doctrine by force o" arms. Munzer and his as- 
sociates assembled, in 1525 a numerous army, chiefly 
composed of the peasants of Suabia, Thuringia, Franco- 

* Fueslin has attempted to examine, whether the Anabaptists first 
arose in Germany or Switzerland, in a German work, entitled, Bey- 
trage zur Sckwezerisch Reformat. Gesckichte, torn. i. p. 190 ; torn, ii, 
p. 64, 265, 327 ; torn. iii. p. 323 ; but without success. 

•> See Seckendorf, Histor. Lutheranismi lib. i. p. 192, 304. lib. ii. p. 
13. — Sleidan, Commentar. lib. v. p. 47. — Joach. Camerarii Vita Me- 
iancthonis, p. 44. 



nia, and Saxony, and, at the head of this credulous and 
deluded rabble, declared war against all laws, govern- 
ments, and magistrates of every kind, under the chimeri- 
cal pretext, that Christ was now to take the reins of civil 
and ecclesiastical government into his own hands, and to 
rule alone over the nations. But this seditious crowd was 
routed and dispersed, without much difficulty, by the 
elector of Saxony and other princes ; Munzer was igno- 
miniously put to death, and his factious counsellors were 
scattered abroad in different places. b 

V. This bloody defeat of one part of these seditious and 
turbulent fanatics, did not produce that effect upon the rest 
which might naturally have been expected ; it rendered 
them, indeed, more timorous, but it did not open their eyes 
upon their delusion. It is certain, that, even after this pe- 
riod, numbers of them, who were infected with the same 
odious principles that occasioned the destruction of Mun- 
zer, wandered about in Germany, Switzerland, and Hol- 
land, and excited the people to rebellion, by then - seditious 
discourses. They collected congregations in several 
places ; affected to foretel, in consequence of a divine 
commission, the approaching abolition of magistracy, and 
the downfall of civil rulers and governors ; and, while 
they pretended to be ambassadors of the Most High, in- 
sulted on many occasions the majesty of Heaven by the 
most flagitious crimes. Those who distinguished them- 
selves by the enormity of their conduct in this infamous 
sect, were Louis Hetzer, Balthazar Hubmeyer, Felix 
Mentz, Conrad Grebel, Melchior Hoffman, and George 
Jacob, who, if their power had seconded their designs, 
would have involved all Switzerland, Holland, and Ger- 
many, in tumult and bloodshed. A great part of thia 
rabble seemed really delirious ; and nothing more ex- 
travagant or more incredible can be imagined than the 
dreams and visions that were constantly arising in their 
disordered brains. Such of them as had some sparks of 
reason left, and had reflexion enough to reduce their no- 
tions into a certain form, maintained, among others, the 
following points of doctrine : " That the church of Christ 
ought to be exempt from all sin ; that all things ought to 
be in common among the faithful ; that all usury, tithes, 
and tribute, ought to be entirely abolished ; that the bap- 
tism of infants was an invention of the devil ; that every 
Christian was invested with a power of preaching the Gos- 
pel, and, consequently, that the church stood in no need 
of ministers or pastors ; that in the kingdom of Christ 
civil magistrates were absolutely useless ; and that God 
still continued to reveal his will to chosen persons by 
dreams and visions." 11 

It would betray, however, a strange ignorance, or an 
unjustifiable partiality, to maintain, that all those who 
professed this eccentric and absurd doctrine were charge- 
able with that furious and brutal extravagance which has 
been mentioned as the character of too great a part of 
their sect. This was by no means the case ; several of 
these enthusiasts discovered a milder and more pacific 
spirit, and were free from any other reproach, than that 
which resulted from the errors they maintained, and their 



' See Jo. Bapt. Ottii Annales Anabaptist, p. 21. — Jo. Hornbcckii 
Summa Controvers. lib. v. p. .332. — Anton. IVJatthaji Analcct. veteria 
iEvi, torn. iv. p. 629, 677, 679. — Bernard. Raupachii Aust. Evnngel. 
t. ii. p. 41. — Jo. Georg. Schelhorn, Act. ad Hist. Ec. pertin. t. i. p. IOC- 
See also Arnold's Kirchen Hist. lib. xvi. c. xxi. and Fueslin's Beytrage. 

J This account of the doctrine of the Anabaptists is principally taken 
from the learned Fueslin already quoted. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



493 



too ardent desire of spreading them among the multitude. 
It may still farther be affirmed with truth, that many of 
those who followed the wiser class of Anabaptists, and 
even some who adhered to the most extravagant factions 
of that sect, were men of upright intentions and sincere 
piety, who were seduced into this mystery of fanaticism 
and iniquity, on the one hand, by their ignorance and 
simplicity, and, on the other, by a laudable desire of re- 
forming the corrupt state of religion. 

VI. The progress of this turbulent sect, in almost all 
the countries of Europe, alarmed all who had any concern 
for the public good. Princes, and sovereign states, exert- 
ed themselves to check these rebellious enthusiasts in their 
career, by issuing out, first, severe edicts to restrain their 
violence, and employing, at length, capital punishments 
to conquer their obstinacy. 11 But here a maxim, already 
verified by repeated experience, received a new degree of 
confirmation ; for the conduct of the Anabaptists, under 
the pressure of persecution, plainly showed the extreme 
difficulty of correcting or influencing, by the prospect of 
suffering, or even by the terrors of death, minds that are 
either deeply tainted with the poison of fanaticism, or 
firmly bound by the ties of religion. In almost all the 
countries of Europe, an unspeakable number of these 
unhappy wretches preferred death, in its worst forms, to a 
retraction of their errors. Neither the view of the flames 
that were kindled to consume them, nor the ignominy of 
the gibbet, nor the terrors of the sword, could shake their 
invincible, but ill-placed constancy, or make them aban- 
don tenets, that appeared dearer to them than life and all 
its enjoyments. The Mennonites have preserved volu- 
minous records of the lives, actions, and unhappy fate of 
those of their sect, who suffered death for the crimes of rebel- 
lion or heresy, which were imputed to them. b Certain 
it is, that they were treated with severity ; and it is much 
to be lamented that so little distinction was made between 
the members of this sect, when the sword of justice was 
unsheathed against them. Why were the innocent and 
the guilty involved in the same fate ? Why were doc- 
trines purely theological, or, at worst, fanatical, punished 
with the same rigour that was shown to crimes inconsis- 
tent with the peace and welfare of civil society ? Those 
who had no other marks of peculiarity than their adminis- 
tering baptism to adult persons only, and their excluding 
the unrighteous from the external communion of the 
church, ought undoubtedly to have met with milder treat- 
ment than that which was given to those seditious incen- 
diaries, who were for unhinging all government and des- 
troying all civil authority. Many suffered for errors which 
they had embraced with the most upright intentions, 
seduced by the eloquence and fervour of their doctors, and 
persuading themselves that they were contributing to the 

• It was in Saxony, if I mistake not, and also in the year 1525, that 
penal laws were first enacted against this fanatical tribe. These laws 
were renewed in 1527, 1528, 1534. See a German work of the learned 
Kappius, entitled, Nachlese von Reformations TJrkunden, part i. p. 176. 
C;iarles V. incensed at the increasing impudence and iniquity of these 
enthusiasts, issued out against them severe edicts, in the years 1527 and 
1529. (See Ottii Annales Anabapt. p. 45.) The magistrates of Swit- 
zerland treated, at first, with remarkable lenity and indulgence, the 
Anabaptists who lived under their government; but when it was found 
that this lenity rendered them still more enterprising and insolent, it 
was judged proper to have recourse to a different manner of proceeding. 
Accordingly the magistrates of Zurich, in 1525, denounced capital 
punishment against this riotous sect. 

b See Joach. Christ. Jehring, Praefat. ad Historiam Mennonitaram. 

Bockhold, or Bockelson, aliis John of Leyden, who headed them at 

No. XLII. 124 



advancement of true religion. But, as the greatest part 
of these enthusiasts had communicated to the multitude 
their visionary notions, concerning the new spiritual king- 
dom that was soon to be erected, and the abolition of ma- 
gistracy and civil government that was to be the imme- 
diate effect of this great revolution, this rendered the very 
name of an Anabaptist unspeakably odious, and made it 
always excite the idea of a seditious incendiary, a pest to 
human society. It is true, that many Anabaptists suffered 
death, not on account of their being considered as rebel- 
lious subjects, but merely because they were judged to be 
incorrigible heretics ; for in this century the error of limit- 
ing the administration of baptism to adult persons only, 
and the practice of re-baptizing such as had received that 
sacrament in a state of infancy, were looked upon as most 
flagitious and intolerable heresies. It is, nevertheless, 
certain, that the greatest part of these wretched sufferers 
owed their unhappy fate to their rebellious principles and 
tumultuous proceedings, and that many also were punish- 
ed for their temerity and imprudence, which had led them 
to the commission of various crimes. 

VII. There stands upon record a most shocking in- 
stance of this, in the dreadful commotions that were ex- 
cited at Munster, in 1533, by some Dutch Anabaptists, 
who chose that city as the scene of their horrid operations, 
and committed in it such deeds as would surpass all cre- 
dibility, were they not attested in a manner that excludes 
every degree of doubt and uncertainty. A handful of 
madmen, who had gotten into their heads the visionary 
notion of a new and spiritual kingdom, soon to be esta- 
blished in an extraordinary manner, formed themselves 
into a society, under the guidance of a few illiterate leaders 
chosen out of the populace ; and they persuaded, not only 
the ignorant multitude, but even several among the learn- 
ed, that Munster Was to be the seat of this new and hea- 
venly Jerusalem, whose spiritual dominion was thence to 
be propagated to all parts of the earth. The bold ring- 
leaders of this furious tribe were John Matthison, John 
Bockhold, a tailor of Leyden, one Gerard, with some 
others, whom the blind rage of enthusiasm, or the still 
more culpable principles of sedition, had embarked in this 
extravagant and desperate cause. They made themselves 
masters of the city of Munster, deposed the magistrates, and 
committed all the enormous crimes, and ridiculous follies, 
which the most perverse and infernal imagination could 
suggest. John Bockhold was proclaimed king and legis- 
lator of this new hierarchy ; but his reign was transitory, 
and his end deplorable ; for Munster was, in 1536, retaken 
after a long siege by its bishop and sovereign, count Wal- 
deck, the New Jerusalem of the Anabaptists destroyed, 
and its mock monarch punished with a most painful and 
ignominious death. d The disorders occasioned by the 

Munster, ran naked in the streets, married eleven wives, at the same 
time, to show his approbation of polygamy; and entitled himself king 
of Sion ; all which formed but a very small part of the pernicious follies 
of this mock monarch. 

d See Anton. Corvini Narratio de miserabili Monaster. Anabapt. Ex 
cidio. — Casp. Sagittar. Introduct. in Histor. Ecclesiast. torn. i. p. 537 
and 835. — Herm. Hamelmann, Historia Renati Evangelii in urbe Mo- 
naster, in Operib. Genealogico-Historicis, p. 1203. — The elegant Latin 
poem of Bolandus in elegiac verse, entitled, J. Fabricii Bolandi Motus 
Monasteriens. Libri decern, — Herm. Kerssenbrock, Histor. Belli Mo- 
naster, edited by Dan. Gerdes in Miscellan. Groningens. Nov. torn. ii. 
The last-mentioned author speaks also of Bernard Rothman, an ecclesi- 
astic of Munster, who had introduced die reformation into that city, but 
afterwards was infected with the enthusiasm of the Anabaptists ; and 
who, though, in other respects, he had shown himself to be neither desti- 



494 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



Sect. Ill 



Anabaptists at this period, not only in Westphalia, but also 
in -other parts of Germany, 1 showed too plainly to what 
horrid extremities the pernicious doctrines of this wrong- 
headed sect were calculated to lead the inconsiderate and 
unwary ; and therefore it is not at all to be wondered, 
that the secular arm employed rigorous measures to ex- 
tirpate a faction, which was the occasion, and the source, 
of unspeakable calamities in so many countries. 11 

VIII. While the terrors of death, in the most dreadful 
forms, were presented to the view of this miserable sect, 
and numbers of them were executed every day, without 
a proper distinction being made between the innocent and 
the guilty, those who escaped the severity of justice were 
in the most discouraging situation that can well be ima- 
gined. On the one band, they beheld, with sorrow, ah 
their hopes blasted by the total defeat of their brethren at 
Munster ; and, on the other, they were filled with the 
most anxious apprehensions of the perils that threatened 
them on all sides. In this critical situation they derived 
much comfort and assistance from the counsels and zeal 
of Menno Simonis, a native of Friseland, who had former- 
ly been a popish priest, and, as he himself confesses, a 
notorious profligate. This man went over to the Anabap- 
tists, at first, in a clandestine manner, and frequented their 
assemblies with the utmost secrecy ; but, in 1436, he threw 
off the mask, resigned his rank and office in the Romish 
Church, and publicly embraced their communion. About 
a year after this, he was earnestly solicited by many of the 
sect to assume among them the rank and functions of a 
public teacher ; and as he looked upon the persons, from 
whom this proposal came, to be exempt from the fanatical 
phrenzy of their brethren at Munster, (though, according 
lo other accounts, they were originally of the same stamp, 
only rendered somewhat wiser by their sufferings,) he 
yielded to their entreaties. From this period to the end of 
his days, that is, during the space of twenty-five years, he 
travelled from one country to another with his wife and „ 
children, exercising his ministry under a series of pressuresnfTi 
and calamities of various kinds, and constantly exposed 
to the danger of falling a victim to the severity of the 
laws. East and West Friseland, together with the pro- 
vince of Groningen, were first visited by tbe zealous apos- 
tle of the Anabaptists : thence he directed his course into 



tute of learning nor of virtue, yet enlisted himself in this fanatical 
tribe, and had a share in their most turbulent and furious proceedings. 

fjr a The scenes of violence, tumult, and sedition, that were exhibit- 
ed in Holland by this odious tribe, were likewise terrible. They form- 
ed the design of reducing the city of Leyden to ashes, but were happily 
prevented, and severely punished. John of Leyden, the Anabaptist 
king of Munster, had taken it into his head that God had made him a 
present of the cities of Amsterdam, Deventer, and Wesel; in conse- 
quence of which, he sent bishops to these three places, to preach Ms gos- 
pel of sedition and carnage. About the beginning of the year 1535, 
twelve Anabaptists, of whom five were women, assembled at midnight 
in a private house at Amsterdam. One of them, who was a tailor by 
profession, fell into a trance, and, after having preached and prayed 
during the space of four hours, stripped himself naked, threw his clothes 
into the fire, and commanded all the assembly to do the same, in which 
he was obeyed without the least reluctance. 'He then ordered them to 
follow him through the streets in this state of nature, which they ac- 
cordingly did, howling and bawling out, "Wo! wo! the wrath of 
God ! wo to Babylon!" When, after being seized and brought before 
the magistrates, clothes were offered them to cover their indecency, they 
refused them obstinately, and cried aloud, "We are the naked truth." 
When they were brought to the scaffold, they sang, danced, and disco- 
vered all the marks of enthusiastic phrenzy. — These tumults were fol- 
lowed by a regular and deep laid conspiracy, formed by Van Geelen 
(an envoy of the mock king of Munster, who had made a very conside- 
rable number of proselytes) -against the magistrates of Amsterdam, 



Holland, Guelderland, Brabant, and Westphalia, continu- 
ed it through the German provinces on the coast of the 
Baltic sea, and penetrated as far as Livonia. In all these 
places his ministerial labours were attended with remarka- 
ble success, and added to his sect a prodigious number of 
proselytes. Hence he is deservedly looked upon as the 
common chief of almost all the Anabaptists, and the parent 
of the sect that still subsists under that denomination. 
The success of this missionary will not appear very sur- 
prising to those who are acquainted Avith his character, 
spirit, and talents, and who have a just notion of the state 
of the Anabaptists at the period now under consideration. 
Menno was a man of genius ; though, as his writings 
show, his genius was not under the direction of a very 
sound judgment. He had the inestimable advantage of 
a natural and persuasive eloquence, and his learning was 
sufficient to make him pass for an oracle in the eyes of 
the multitude. He appears, moreover, to have been a man 
of probity, of a meek and tractable spirit, gentle in his 
manners, pliant and obsequious in his commerce with 
persons of all ranks and characters, and extremely zeal- 
ous in promoting practical religion and virtue, which he 
recommended by his example, as well as by his precepts. 
A man of such talents and dispositions could not fail to at- 
tract the admiration of the people, and to gain a great 
number of adherents wherever he exercised his ministry. 
But no where could he expect a more plentiful harvest 
than among the Anabaptists, whose ignorance and sim- 
plicity rendered them peculiarly susceptible of new impres- 
sions, and who, having been long accustomed to leaders 
that resembled phrenetic Bacchanals more than Christian 
ministers, and often deluded by odious impostors, who in- 
volved them in endless perils and calamities, were rejoiced 
to find at length a teacher, whose doctrine and manners 
flattered them with the hopes of more prosperous days. 6 
IX. Menno drew up a plan of doctrine and discipline 
of a much more mild and moderate nature than that of the 
urious and fanatical Anabaptists already mentioned, but 
somewhat more severe, though more clear and consistent, 
than the doctrine of some of the wiser branches of that 
sect, who aimed at nothing more than the restoration of 
the Christian church to its primitive purity. Accordingly 
he condemned the plan of ecclesiastical discipline, that was 



with a design to wrest the government of that city out of their hands. 
This incendiary marched with his fanatical troops to the town-house on 
the day appointed, drums beating, and colours flying, and fixed there his 
head-quarters. He was attacked by the burghers, who were assisted by 
some regular troops, and headed by several of the burgomasters of the 
city. After an obstinate resistance, he was surrounded with his whole 
troop, who were put to death in the severest and most dreadful manner, 
to serve as examples to the other branches of the sect, who were exciting 
commotions of a like nature in Friseland, Groningen, and other provin- 
ces and cities in the Netherlands. 

b Ger. Brandt. Histor. Reform. Belgicae, torn. i. lib. ii. 

Menno was born in the neighbourhood of Bolswert in Friseland, in 
1505, and not in 1496, as most writers affirm. After a life of toil, peril, 
and agitation, he died in peace in 1561, at the country seat of a certain 
nobleman, (not far from the city of Oldesloe in Holstein,) who, moved 
with compassion at a view of the perils to which Menno was exposed, 
and the snares that were daily laid for his ruin, took him, with some of 
his associates, into his protection, and gave him an asylum. We have 
a particular account of this famous Anabaptist in the Cimbria Literata 
of Mollerus, torn. ii. p. 835. See also Schyn's Plenior Deduct. Histor. 
Mennon. cap. vi. p. 116. — The writings of Menno, which are almost all 
composed in the Dutch language, wore published at Amsterdam, ii» 
1651. An excessively diffuse and rambling style, frequent and unneces. 
sary repetitions, an irregular and confused method, with other defects of 
equal moment, render the perusal of these productions highly disagree- 
able. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



495 



founded on the prospect of a new kingdom, to be miracu- 
lously established by Jesus Christ on the ruins of civil go- 
vernment, and the destruction of human rulers, and which 
had been the pestilential source of such dreadful commo- 
tions, such execrable rebellions, and such enormous 
crimes. He declared, publicly, his dislike to that doctrine 
which pointed out the approach of a marvellous reforma- 
tion in the church by the means of a new and extraor- 
dinary effusion of the Holy Spirit. He expressed his ab- 
horrence of the licentious tenets which several of the 
Anabaptists had maintained, with respect to the lawful- 
ness of polygamy and divorce ; and finally considered, as 
unworthy of toleration, those fanatics who were of opinion 
that the Holy Ghost continued to descend into the minds 
of many chosen believers, in as extraordinary a manner 
as it did at the first establishment of the Christian church, 
and that it testified its peculiar presence to several of the 
faithful, by miracles, predictions, dreams, and visions of 
various kinds. He retained, indeed, the doctrines com- 
monly received among the Anabaptists in relation to the 
baptism of infants, the Millenium, or thousand-years' 
reign of Christ upon earth, the exclusion of magistrates 
from the Christian church, the abolition of war, and the 
prohibition of oaths enjoined by our Saviour, and the 
vanity, as well as the pernicious effects, of human science. 
But. while Menno retained these doctrines in a general 
6ense, he explained and modified them in such a man- 



ner, as made them resemble the religious tenets which 
were universally received in the protestant churches ; and 
this rendered them agreeable to many, and made them 
appear inoffensive even to numbers who had no inclina- 
tion to embrace them. Indeed, it so happened, that the 
nature of the doctrines, considered in themselves, the elo- 
quence of Menno, which set them off to such advantage, 
[ and the circumstances of the times, gave a high degree 
I, of credit to the religious system of this famous teacher 
among the Anabaptists, so that it made a rapid progress 
in that sect. And thus it was in consequence of the 
ministry of Menno that the different sorts of Anabaptists 
agreed together in excluding from their communion the 
fanatics who dishonoured it, and in renouncing all tenets 
that were detrimental to the authority of civil government, 
and, by an unexpected coalition, formed themselves into 
one community. 1 

X. To preserve a spirit of union and concord in a body 
composed of such a motley multitude of dissonant members, 
required more than human power ; and Menno neither 
had, nor pretended to have, supernatural succours. Ac- 
cordingly, the seeds of dissension were, in a little time, 
sown among this people. About the middle of this cen- 
tury, a warm contest, concerning excommunication, was 
excited by several Anabaptists, headed by Leonard Bowen- 
son and Theodore Philip ; and its fruits are yet visible in 
that divided sect. These men carried the discipline of 



* These facts show us plainly how the famous question concerning 
the ori?in of the modern Anabaptists may be resolved. The Mennonites 
oppose^ with all their might, the account of their descent from the an- 
cient. Anabaptists, which we find in so many writers, and would wil- 
lingly give the modern Anabaptists a more honourable origin. (See 
Schyn's Histor. Mennonitar. cap. viii. ix. xxi. p. 223.) The reason of 
their zeal in this matter is evident. Their situation has rendered them 
timorous. They live, as it were, in the midst of their enemies, and are 
constantly filled with an uneasy apprehension, that, at some time or 
other, malevolent zealots may take occasion, from their supposed origin, 
to renew against them the penal laws, by which the seditious Anabap- 
tists of ancient times suffered in such a dreadful manner. At least, they 
imagine that the odium under which they lie, will be greatly diminished, 
if they can prove, to the satisfaction of the public, the falsehood of the 
general opinion, that "the Mennonites are the descendants of the Ana- 
baptists ;" or, to speak more properly, " die same individual sect, purged 
indeed from the fanaticism that formerly disgraced it, and rendered wiser 
than their ancestors, by reflection and suffering." 

After comparing diligently and impartially what has been alleged by 
the Mennonites and their adversaries in relation to this matter. I cannot 
see what it is properly, that forms the subject of their controversy; and 
if the merits of the case be stated with accuracy and perspicuity, I do 
not see how there can be any dispute at all about the matter now under 
consideration. For, in the first place, if the Mennonites mean nothing 
more than this, that Menno, whom they considered as their parent and 
their chief, was not infected with those odious opinions which drew the 
just severity of the laws upon the Anabaptists of Munster; that he 
neither looked for a new and spotless kingdom that was to be miracu- 
lously erected on earth, nor excited the multitude to depose magistrates, 
and abolish civil government ; that he neither deceived himself, nor im- 
posed upon others, by fanatical pretensions to dreams and visions of the 
supernatural kind; if (I say) this be all that the Mennonites mean, 
when they speak of their chief, no person, acquainted with the history 
of their sect, will pretend to contradict them. Even those who maintain 
that there was an immediate and intimate connexion between the an- 
cient and modern Anabaptists, will readily allow to be true, all that has 
been here said of Menno. — 2dly, If the Anabaptists maintain, that such 
of their churches as received their doctrine and discipline from Menno, 
have not only discovered, without interruption, a pacific spirit and an 
unlimited submission to civil government, (abstaining from every thing 
that bears the remotest aspect of sedition, and showing the utmost ar> 
horrence of wars and bloodshed.) but have even banished from their 
confessions of faith, and their religious instructions, all those tenets and 
principles which led the ancient Anabaptists to disobedience, violence, 
and rebellion; this also will be readily granted. — And if they allege, in 
the third plac •, that even the Anabaptists who lived before Menno, were 
not all so delirious as Muhzer, or so outrageous as the fanatical mem- 
bers of the sect, who rendered their memory eternally odious by the 



enormities they committed at Munster; that, on the contrary, many of 
these ancient Anabaptists abstained religiously from all acts of violence 
and sedition, followed the pious examples of the ancient Waldenses, 
Henricians, Petrobrusians, Hussites, and Wickliffites, and adopted the 
doctrine and disciple of Menno, as soon as that new parent arose to re- 
form and patronise the sect ; all this will be allowed without hesita- 
tion. 

But, on the other hand, the Mennonites may assert many things in 
defence of the purity of their origin, which cannot be admitted by any 

person w r ho is free from prejudice, and well acquainted with their history. 
If they maintain, 1st, that none of their sect descended, by birth, from 
those Anabaptists, who involved Germany and other countries in the 
most dreadful calamities, or that none of these furious fanatics adopted 
the doctrine and discipline of Menno, they may be easily refuted by a 
great number of facts and testimonies, and particularly by the declara- 
tions of Menno himself, who glories in his having conquered the ferocity 
and reformed the lives and errors of many members of this pestilential 
sect. Nothing can be more certain than this fact, viz. that the first 
Mennonite congregations were composed of the different sorts of Ana- 
baptists already mentioned, of those who had been always inoffensive 
and upright, and of those who, before their conversion by the ministry 
of Menno, had been seditious fanatics. Nor can the acknowledgment 
of this incontestable fact be a just matter of reproach to the Mennonites, 
or be more dishonourable to them, than it is to us, that our ancestors 
were warmly attached to the idolatrous and extravagant worship of 
paganism or popery. — Again, it will not be possible for us to agree with 
the Mennonites, if they maintain, 2dly, that their sect does not retain, 
at this day, any of those tenets, or even any remains of those opinions 
and doctrines which led the seditious and turbulent Anabaptists of old 
to the commission of so many, and of such enormous crimes. For, not 

\ to mention Menno's calling the Anabaptists of Munster his Brethren, 

| (a denomination indeed somewhat softened by the epithet of erring, 
which he joined to it,) it is undoubtedly true, that the doctrine concern- 
ing the nature of Christ's kingdom, or the church of the New-Testa- 
ment, which led by degrees the ancient Anabaptists to those furious acts 
of rebellion that rendered them so odious, is by no means effaced in the 
minds of the modern Mennonites. It is, indeed, weakened and modified 
in such a manner as to have lost its noxious qualities, and to be no longer 
pernicious in its influence; but it is not totally renounced or abolished. — 

, I shall not now inquire how far even the reformed and milder sect of 
Menno has been, in time past, exempt from tumults and commotions 
of a grievous kind, nor shall I examine what passes at this day among 
the Anabaptists in general, or in particular branches of that sect, since 
it is certain, that the more eminent communities of that denomination, 
particularly those that flourish in North Holland, and the places adja- 
cent, behold fanatics with the utmost aversion, as appears evidently 
from this circumstance, among others, that they will not suffer the peo- 

| pic called Quakers to enter into their communion. 



496 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



Sect. III. 



excommunication to an enormous degree of severity. 
They not only maintained, that open transgressors, even 
those who sincerely deplored and lamented their faults, 
should, without any previous warning or admonition, be 
expelled from the communion of the church, but were 
also audacious enough to pretend to exclude the persons, 
thus excommunicated, from all intercourse with their 
wives, husbands, brothers, sisters, children, and other rela- 
tives. The same persons, as might naturally be expected 
from this instance of their severity, were harsh and rigid 
in their manners, and were for imposing upon their breth- 
ren a course of moral discipline, which was difficult and 
austere in the highest degree. Many of the Anabaptists 
protested against this, as unreasonable and unnecessary ; 
and thus the community was suddenly divided into two 
sects, one of which treated transgressors with lenity and 
moderation, while the other proceeded against them with 
the utmost rigour. Nor was this the only difference that 
was observable in the conduct and manners of these two 
parties, since the members of the latter sect were remark- 
able for the sordid austerity that reigned in their rules of 
life and practice, while the former, considering more wise- 
ly the present state of human nature, were less severe in 
their injunctions, and were not altogether regardless of 
what is called decent, agreeable, and ornamental in life 
and manners. Menno employed his most vigorous efforts 
to heal these divisions, and to restore peace and concord 
in the community ; but, when he perceived that his at- 
tempts were vain, he conducted himself in such a manner 
as he thought the most proper to maintain his credit and 
influence among both parties. For this purpose he de- 
clared himself for neither side, but was constantly trimming 
between the two, as long as he lived ; at one time, discover- 
ing an inclination toward the austere Anabaptists ; and, 
at another, seeming to prefer the milder discipline and 
manners of the moderate brethren. But in this he acted 
in opposition to the plainest dictates of prudence ; and ac- 
cordingly the high degree of authority he enjoyed, ren- 
dered his inconstancy and irresolution not only disa- 
greeable to both parties, but also the means of inflaming, 
instead of healing, their divisions. 1 

XL These two sects are, to this very day, distinguished 
by the denomination of fine and gross, b or, to express the 
distinction in more intelligible terms, into rigid and mo- 
derate Anabaptists. The former observe, with the most 
religious accuracy, veneration, and precision, the ancient 
doctrine, discipline, and precepts of the purer sort of Ana- 
baptists ; the latter depart much more from the primitive 

* See the Historia Bellorum et Certaminum quae, ab An. 1615, inter 
Mennonitas contigerunt, published by an anonymous Mennonite. — See 
also a German work by Simon Frederic Rues, entitled Nachrichten von 
dem Zustande der Mennoniten, published at Jena in 1743. 

|j" b The terms fine and gross are a literal translation of feinen and 
groben, which are the German denominations used to distinguish these 
two sects. The same terms have been introduced among the protestants 
in Holland ; the fine denoting a set of people, whose extraordinary and 
sometimes fanatical devotion resembles that of the English methodists ; 
while the epithet gross is applied to the generality of Christians, who 
make no extraordinary pretensions to sanctity and devotion. 

" See Fred. Spanhemii Elenchus Controvers. Theol. op. torn. iii. p. 
772. The Waterlandians were also called Johannites, from John de 
Ries, who was of great use to them in many respects, and who, assisted 
by Lubert Gerard, composed their confession of faith in 1580. This 
confession (which far surpasses both in point of simplicity and wisdom 
all the other confessions of the Mennonites) has passed through several 
editions, and has been lately republishedby Herman Schyn, in his His- 
tor. Mennon. It was also illustrated in an ample Commentary, in 1686 



sentiments, manners, and institutions of their sect, and 
more nearly approach those of the protestant churches. 
The gross or moderate Anabaptists consisted, at first, of 
the inhabitants of a district in North-Holland, called Wa- 
terland ; and hence their whole sect received the deno- 
mination of Waterlandians.' The fine or rigid part of 
that community were, for the most part, natives of Flan- 
ders ; and hence their sect acquired the denomination of 
Flemings or Flandrians. But new dissensions and con- 
tests arose among these rigid Anabaptists, not, indeed, 
concerning any point of doctrine, but about the manner 
of treating persons that were to be excommunicated, and 
other matters of inferior moment. Hence a new schism 
arose ; and they were subdivided into new sects, distin- 
guished by the appellations of Flandrians and Friselan- 
ders, who differed from each other in their manners and 
discipline. The members of a third division took the 
name of their country, like the two former sects, and 
were called Germans ; for the Anabaptists of Germany 
passed in shoals into Holland and the Netherlands. But, 
in process of time, the greatest part of these three sects 
came over, by degrees, to the moderate community of the 
Waterlandians, with whom they lived in the strictest 
bonds of peace and union. Those among the rigid Ana- 
baptists, who refused to follow this example of modera- 
tion, are still known by the denomination of the Old 
Flemings or Flandrians, but are few in number, when 
compared with the united congregations of the milder 
sects now mentioned. 

XII. No sooner had the ferment of enthusiasm sub- 
sided among the Mennonites, than all the different sects, 
into which they had been divided, unanimously agreed 
to draw the whole system of their religious doctrine from 
the Holy Scriptures alone. To give a satisfactory proof 
of the sincerity of their resolution in this respect, they 
took care to have Confessions drawn up, in which their 
sentiments concerning the Deity, and the manner of serv- 
ing him, were expressed in the terms and phrases of Holy 
Writ. The most ancient, and also the most respectable 
of these Confessions, is that which we find among the 
Waterlandians. Several others of later date, were also 
composed, some for the use of large communities, for the 
people of a whole district, and which were consequently 
submitted to the inspection of the magistrate ; others de- 
signed only for the benefit of private societies. 11 It might 
not, perhaps, be amiss to inquire, whether all the tenets 
received among the Mennonites are faithfully exhibited 
and plainly expressed in these Confessions, or whether se- 



by Peter Joannis, a native of Holland, and pastor among the "Waterlan- 
dians. It has, however, been alleged, that this famous production is by 
no means the general confession of the Waterlandians, but the private 
one only of that particular congregation of which its author was the 
pastor. See Rues, Nachrichten, p. 93. 

J See Schyn's Plenior Deduct. Hist. Mennon. cap. iv. where he 
maintains, that " these Confessions prove as great an uniformity among 
the Mennonites, in relation to the great and fundamental doctrines cf 
religion, as can be pretended to by any other Christian community." 
But should the good man even succeed in persuading us of this boasted 
uniformity, he will yet never be able to' make his assertion go down with 
many of his own brethren, who are, to this day, quarreling about several 
points of religion, and who look upon matters, which appear to him of 
little consequence, as of high moment and importance to the cause of 
true piety. And, indeed, how could any of the Mennonites, before the 
pi - esent (eighteenth) century, believe what Schyn here affirms, since it is 
well known, that they disputed about matters which he treats with 
contempt, as if they had been immediately connected with their eternal 
interests ? 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



497 



veral points be not there omitted which relate to the inter- 
nal constitution of this sect, and would give us a complete 
idea of its nature and tendency. One thing is certain, 
that whoever peruses these Confessions with an ordinary 
degree of attention, will easily perceive, that those tenets 
which appear detrimental to the interests of civil society, 
particularly such as relate to the prerogatives of magis- 
tracy, and the administration of oaths, are expressed with 
the utmost caution, and embellished with the greatest art, 
to prevent their bearing an alarming aspect. At the same 
time, the more discerning observer will see, that these em- 
bellishments are intended to disguise the truth, and that 
the doctrines of the Anabaptists, concerning ihe critical 
points above-mentioned, are not represented, in then pub- 
lic confessions, in their real colours. 

XIII. The ancient Anabaptists, who trusted in an ex- 
traordinary direction of the Holy Spirit, were (under the 
pretended influence of so infallible a guide) little solicit- 
ous about composing a system of religion, and never once 
thought of instilling into the minds of the people just sen- 
timents of the Deity. Hence warm dissensions arose 
among them, concerning matters of the highest conse- 
quence, such as the divinity of Christ, polygamy, and di- 
vorce. Menno and his disciples made some attempts to 
supply this defect. Yet we find, after his time, that the 
Mennonites, more especially those of the rigid class, car- 
ried the freedom of their religious speculations to such an 
excessive height, as bordered upon extravagance. This 
circumstance alone, were there no other, proves that the 
heads of this sect employed the smallest part of their zeal 
to prevent the introduction and propagation of error, and 
that they looked upon sanctity of life and manners alone 
as the essence of true religion. The Waterlandians, in- 
deed, and after them the other Anabaptists, were obliged, 
at length, to draw up a summary of their doctrine, and to 
lay it before the public, in order to remove the odium that 
was cast upon them, on account of their bold tenets and 
their extravagant disputes, which were likely to involve 
them in the greatest calamities. But these confessions of 
the Mennonites were, in reality, little more than a me- 
thod of defence, to which they were reduced by the op- 
position they met with, and must therefore be rather con- 
sidered as an expedient to avert the indignation of their 
enemies, than as articles of doctrine, which all of them 
without exception were obliged to believe. For we do not 
find among the Mennonites (a part of the modern Water- 
landians excepted) any injunction, which expressly pro- 
hibits individuals from entertaining or propagating reli- 
gious opinions different from the public creed of the com- 
munity ; and, indeed, when we look attentively into the 
nature and constitution of this sect, it will appear to have 
been, in some measure, founded upon this principle, that 
practical piety is the essence of religion, and that the 
surest and most infallible mark of the true church is the 
6anc(ity of its members ; it is at least certain, that this 

* That they did not entirely relinquish it, is evident from their own 
jreeds and confessions, even from those in which the greatest caution 
iasbeen employed to conceal the principles that rendered their ancestors 
«H?sou8, and to disguise whatever might render themselves liable to sus- 
^ricn>n. For example, they speak in the most pompous terms concern- 
ing tbe dignity, excellence, utility, and divine origin, of civil magis- 
trates ; and I am willing to suppose that they speak their real senti- 
ments -r\his matter. But, when they proceed to give reasons that pre- 
vent thv'tr admitting magistrates into their communion, they discover 
unwaruy \ho very principled which they are otherwise so studious to 
conceal. Thus, ^ the thirtieth article of the Waterlandiai. \Jonfessiou, 

No. XLli 125 



principle was always universally adopted by the Ana- 
baptists. 

XIV. If we are to form our judgment of the religion of 
the Mennonites from their public creeds and confessions, 
we shall find, that, though it differs widely from the doc- 
trine of the Lutherans, it varies little in most points from 
that of the reformed church. They consider the sacra- 
ments in no other light, than as signs or symbols of the 
spiritual blessings administered in the Gospel ; and their ec- 
clesiastical discipline seems to be almost entirely the same 
with that of the Presbyterians. There are, however, pecu- 
liar tenets, by which they are distinguished from all other 
religious communities ; and these may be reduced under 
three heads ; for it is observable, that there are certain 
doctrines, which are holden in common by all the various 
sects of the Mennonites ; others, which are only received 
in some of the more eminent and numerous sects of that 
community; (such were the sentiments of Menno, which 
hindered him from being universally acceptable to the 
Anabaptists ;) and some, which are only to be found 
among the more obscure and inconsiderable societies of 
that denomination. These last, indeed, appear and va- 
nish, alternately, with the transitory sects that adopt them, 
and therefore do not deserve to engage our attention. 

XV. The opinions, entertained by the Mennonites in 
general, seem to be derived from this leading and funda- 
mental principle, that ' the kingdom which Christ esta- 
blished upon earth is a visible church, or community, in- 
to which the holy and the just are alone to be admitted, 
and which is consequently exempt from all those institu- 
tions and rules of discipline that have been invented by 
human wisdom for the correction and reformation of the 
wicked.' 

This fanatical principle was frankly avowed by the an- 
cient Mennonites : their more immediate descendants, 
however, began to be less ingenuous ; and, in their pub- 
lic confessions of faith, they either disguised it under am- 
biguous phrases, or expressed themselves as if they meant 
to renounce it. To renounce it entirely was, indeed, im- 
possible, without falling into the greatest inconsistency, 
and undermining the very foundation of those doctrines 
which distinguished them from ail other Christian socie- 
ties. 1 And yet it is certain that the present Mennonites, 
as they have, in many other respects, departed from the 
principles and maxims of their ancestors, have also given 
a striking instance of defection in the case now before us, 
and have almost wholly relinquished this fundamental 
doctrine of their sect, relating to the nature of the Chris- 
tian church. A dismal experience has convinced them 
of the absurdity of this chimerical principle, which the 
dictates of reason, and the declarations of Scripture, had 
demonstrated sufficiently, but without effect. Now, that 
the Mennonites have opened their eyes, they seem to be 
pretty generally agreed about the following tenets : first, 
That there is an invisible church, which is universal in 

they declare, that " Jesus Christ has not comprehended the institution 
of civil magistracy in his spiritual kingdom, in the church of the New 
Testament, nor has he added it to the offices of his church." The Latin 
words are: "Potestatem hanc politicam Dominus Jesus in regno suo 
spirituali, ecclesia Novi Testamenti, non instituit, neque hanc officiis eo- 
clesiaj sua: adjunxit." Hence it appears, that the Mennonites look upon 
the church of the New Testament as a holy republic, inaccessible to the 
wicked, and, consequently, exempt from those institutions and laws 
which are necessary to oppose the progress' of iniquity. Why then do 
they not speak plainly, when they deliver their doctrine concerning tho 
nature of the church, instead of affecting ambiguity and evasions! 



498 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



Sect. Ill 



its extent, and is composed of members from all the sects 
and communities that bear the Christian name : secondly, 
That the mark of the true church is not, as their former 
doctrine supposed, to be sought in the unspotted sanctity 
of all its members, (since the acknowledge that the visible 
church is promiscuously composed of the righteous and 
the wicked,) but in the knowledge of the truth, as it was 
delivered by Christ, and in the agreement of all the mem- 
bers of th'3 church in professing and defending it. 

XVI. Notwithstanding all this, it is manifest, beyond 
all possibility of contradiction, that the religious opinions 
which still distinguish the Mennonites from all other 
Christian communities, flow directly from the ancient doc- 
trine of the Anabaptists concerning the nature of the 
church. It is in consequence of this doctrine, that they 
admit none to the sacrament of baptism, but persons who 
are come to the full use of their reason ; because infants 
are incapable of binding themselves by a solemn vow to 
a holy life, and it is altogether uncertain whether, in ma- 
ture years, they will be saints or sinners. Influenced by 
the same doctrine, they neither admit civil riders into their 
communion, nor allow any of their members to perform 
the functions of magistracy ; for, where there are no 
malefactors, magistrates are useless. Hence they pretend 
also to deny the lawfulness of repelling force by force, 
and consider war, in all its shapes, as unchristian and 
unjust ; for, as those who are perfectly holy, can neither 
be provoked by injuries, nor commit them, they do not 
stand in need of the force of arms, either for the purposes 
of resentment or defence. It is still the same principle 
that excites in them the utmost aversion to the execution 
of justice, and more especially to capital punishments ; 
since according to this principle, there are no transgres- 
sions or crimes in the kingdom of Christ, and consequently 
no occasion for the arm of the judge. Nor can it be 
imagined, that they should refuse to confirm their testi- 
mony by an oath npon any other foundation than this, 
that the perfect members of a holy church can neither 
dissemble nor deceive. It was certainly then the ancient 
doctrine of the Anabaptists, concerning the sanctity of 
the church, that gave rise to the tenets now mentioned, 
and was the source of that, rigid and severe discipline, 
which excited such tumults and divisions among the 
members of that community. 

XVII. The rules of moral discipline, formerly observed 
by the Mennonites, were rigorous and austere in the high- 
est degree, and thus every way conformable to the funda- 
mental principle, which has been already mentioned as 

ftJr a It is certain, that the Mennonites in Holland, at this day, are, in 
their tables, their equipages, and their country seals, the most luxurious 
part of the Dutch nation. This is more especially true of the Mennon- 
ites of Amsterdam, who are very numerous and opulent. 

t This is the account that is given of the opinion of Menno by Her- 
man Schyn, in his Plenior Deduct. Hist. Mennonit. which other writers 
represent in a different manner. After an attentive perusal of several 
passages in the writings of Menno, where he professedly handles this 
very subject, it appears to me more than probable, that he inclined to 
the opinion attributed to him in the text, anil that it was in this sense 
only, that he supposed Christ to be clothed with a divine and celestial 
body; for that may, without impropriety, be called celestial and divine, 
■which is produced immediately, in consequence of a creating act, by 
the Holy Ghost. It must, however, be acknowledged, that Menno does 
not seem to have been unchangeably wedded to this opinion: for, in 
several places, he expresses himself ambiguously on this head, and even 
sometimes falls into inconsistencies. Hence, perhaps, it may not be 
unreasonable to conclude, that he renounced indeed the common opinion 
concerning the origin of Christ's human nature, but was undetermined 
witil respect to the hypothesis, which, among many that were proposed, 



the source of all their peculiar tenets. It is somewhat 
doubtful whether these rules still subsist and are respected 
among them ; but it is certain, that in former times their 
moral precepts were very severe. And indeed it could 
not well be otherwise : for, when these people had once 
imbibed a notion that sanctity of manners was the only 
genuine mark of the true church, it may well be ima- 
gined, that they would spare no pains to obtain this ho- 
nourable character for their sect ; and that, for this pur- 
pose, they would use the strictest precautions to guard their 
brethren against disgracing their profession by immoral 
practices. Hence it was, that they unanimously, and no 
doubt justly, exalted the rules of the Gospel, on account 
of their transcendent purity. They alleged, that Christ 
had promulgated a new law of life, far more perfect than 
that which had been delivered by Moses and the prophets ; 
and they excluded from their communion all such as devi- 
ated, in the least, from tfee most rigorous rules of simpli- 
city and gravity in their looks, their gestures, their cloth- 
ing, and their tables; all whose desires surpassed the dic- 
tates of mere necessity ; and even all who observed a 
certain decorum in their manners, and paid a decent re- 
gard to the innocent customs of the world. But this pri- 
mitive austerity is greatly diminished in the more consi- 
derable sects of the Mennonites, and more especially 
among the Waterlandians and Germans. The opulence 
they have acquired, by their industry and commerce, has 
relaxed their severity, softened their manners, and ren- 
dered them less insensible of the sweets of life ; so that at 
this day the Mennonite congregations furnish their pastors 
with as much matter of censure and admonition as any 
other Christian communion. 1 There are, however, still 
some remains of the abstinence and severity of manners 
that prevailed formerly among the Anabaptists ; but these 
are only to be found among some of the smaller sects of 
that persuasion, and more particularly among those who 
live remote from great and populous cities. 

XVIII. The particular sentiments and opinions that 
divided the more considerable societies of the Mennonites, 
were those which follow : 1. Menno denied that Christ 
derived from his mother the body he assumed; and 
thought, on the contrary, that it was produced out of no- 
thing, in the womb of that blessed virgin, by the creative 
power of the Holy Ghost. b This opinion is yet firmly 
maintained by the ancient Flemings or rigid Anabaptists, 
but has, long since, been renounced by all other sects of 
that denomination. 2. The more austere Mennonites, 
like their forefathers, not only animadvert, with the most 



it was proper to substitute in its place. HJ= See Fueslini Centuria I. 
Epistolar. a Reformator. Helveticis scriptar. p. 383. — Be that as it may, 
Menno is generally considered as the author of this opinion concern- 
ing the origin of Christ's body, which is still entertained by the more 
rigid part of his followers. It appears probable, nevertheless, that this 
opinion was much older than his time, and was only adopted by him 
with the other tenets of the Anabaptists. As a proof of this, it may 
be observed, that Bolandus, in his Poem, entitled, Motus Monasterien- 
sis, lib. x. v. 49, plainly declares, that many of the Anabaptists of Mun- 
ster (who certainly had not been instructed by Menno) held this very 
doctrine in relation to Christ's incarnation : 

Esse' Deum statimnt alii, seel corpore carnem 

Humanain sumto sustinuisse negant: 
At Dinm inentem, tenuis quasi fauce canalis, 

Per Marias corpus virginis isse ferunt. 

c Many writers are of opinion, that the "Waterlandians, of all the 
Anabaptists, evinced the strongest propensity to adopt the doctrine of 
Menno, relating to the origin of Christ's body. See Histoire des Ana- 
baptists, p. "223, and the Ceremonies et Coutumes de tous les Peuples du 
♦Christum. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



499 



unielenting seventy, upon actions manifestly criminal, 
and evidently repugnant to the divine laws, but also treat, 
in the same manner, the smallest marks of an internal 
propensity to the pleasures of sense, or of a disposition to 
comply with the customs of the world. They condemn, 
for example, elegant dress, rich furniture, every thing, in 
aw r ord, that looks like ornament, or surpasses the bounds 
of absolute necessity. Their conduct also to offenders 
is truly merciless; for they expel them from the church 
without, previous admonition, and never temper the rigour 
of their judgments by an equitable consideration of the 
infirmities of nature in this imperfect state. The other 
Mennonites are by no means chargeable with this severity 
toward their offending brethren ; they exclude none from 
their communion but the obstinate contemners of the di- 
vine laws j nor do they proceed to this extremity even 
with regard to such, until repeated admonitions have 
proved ineffectual to reform them. 3. The more rigid 
Mennonites look upon excommunicated persons as the 
pests of society, who are to be avoided on all occasions, and 
to be banished from all the comforts of social intercourse. 
Neither the voice of nature, nor the ties of blood, are al- 
lowed to plead in their behalf, or to procure them the 
smallest degree of indulgence. In such a case the ex- 
change of good offices, the sweets of friendly conversation, 
and the mutual effusions of tenderness and love, are 
cruelly suspended, even between parents and children, hus- 
bands and wives, and also in all the other endearing rela- 
tions of human life. But the more moderate branches 
of this community have wisely rejected this unnatural 
discipline, and consider the honour and sanctity of the 
church as sufficiently vindicated, when its members avoid 
a close and particular intimacy w r ith those who have been 
expelled from its communion. 4. The rigid Anabaptists 
enjoin it as an obligation upon their disciples, and the 
members of their community, to wash the feet of their 
guests as a token of brotherly love and affection, and in 
obedience to the example of Christ; which they suppose, 
in this case, to have the force of a positive command ; 
and hence they are sometimes called Podoniptce. But 
the other Mennonites deny that Christ meant, in this in- 
stance of his goodness and condescension, to recommend 
this custom to the imitation of his followers, or to give to 
his example, in this case, the authority of a positive pre- 
cept. 

XIX. The Anabaptists, however divided on other sub- 
jects, agreed in their notions of learning and philosophy, 
which, in former times, they unanimously considered as 
the pest of the Christian church, and as highly detrimental 
to the progress of true religion and v ::'ute. Hence it hap- 
pened, that among a considerable number of writers who, 
in this century, employed their pens in the defence of that 
6ect, there is not one whose labours bear any inviting marks 
of learning and genius. The rigid Mennonites persevere 
still in the barbarous system of their ancestors, and, neg- 
lecting the improvement of the mind and the culture of the 
sciences, devote themselves entirely to trade, manual in- 
dustry, and the mechanic arts. The Waterlandians, in- 
deed, are honourably distinguished from all the other Ana- 
baptists, in this, as well as in many other respects ; for 
they permit several members of their community to fre- 

Monde, torn. iv. p. 200. But that these writers are in error, is abund- 
antly manifest from the public Confession of Faiih of the Waterlan- 



1 quent the public universities, and there to apply themselves 
to the study of languages, history, antiquities, and more 
especially of physic, whose utility and importance they do 
not pretend to deny ; and hence it happens, that, in our 
times, so many pastors among the Mennonites assume 
j the title and profession of physicians. It is not unusual 
i to see Anabaptists of this more humane and moderate 
class engaged even in philosophical researches, to the ex- 
cellence and advantages of which their eyes are, at length, 
; so far opened, as to make them acknowledge their impor- 
: tance to the well-being of society. It was, no doubt, in 
1 consequence of this change of sentiment, that they erected, 
not long ago, a public seminary of learning at Amster- 
dam, in which there is always a person of eminent abili- 
ties chosen as professor of philosophy. But, though these 
moderate Anabaptists acknowledge the benefit that may 
be derived to civil society from the culture of philosophy 
and the sciences, they still persist so far in their ancient 
prejudices, as to deem theology a system that has no con- 
nexion with them ; and, consequently, they are of opinion, 
that in order to preserve it pure and untainted, the utmost 
: caution must be used not to blend the dictates of philoso- 
phy with the doctrines of religion. It is farther to be ob- 
served, that, in the present times, even the Flemish or 
rigid Anabaptists begin gradually to divest themselves of 
; their antipathy to learning, and allow their brethren to 
apply themselves to the study of languages, history, and 
! the sciences. 

XX. That simplicity and ignorance, of which the an- 
cient Anabaptists boasted, as the guardians of their piety 
and the sources of their felicity, contributed principally to 
the divisions that prevailed among them, even from their 
! rise, in a degree unknown and unprecedented in any other 
j Christian community. This will appear evident to such 
as inquire, with the smallest attention, into the more im- 
I mediate causes of their dissensions ; for it is observable > 
! that their most vehement contests had not for their object 
I any difference in opinion concerning the doctrines or mys- 
teries of religion, but generally turned upon matters re- 
I lating to the conduct of life, on what was lawful, decent, 
just, and pious, in actions and manners, and what, on the 
I contrary, was to be deemed criminal, indecorous, unjust, 
! or impious. These disputes were a natural consequence 
■ of their favourite principle, that holiness of life, and purity 
j of manners, were the authentic marks of the true church. 
I But the misfortune lay here, that, being ignorant them- 
! selves, and under the guidance of persons whose know- 
i ledge was little superior to theirs, they were unacquainted 
! with the true method of determining, in a multitude of 
j cases, what was pious, laudable and lawful, and what was 
. impious, unbecoming, and criminal. The criterion they 
employed for this purpose was neither the decision of 
j right reason, nor the authority of the divine laws, accu- 
j rately interpreted, since their ignorance rendered them 
incapable of using these means of arriving at the truth. 
j They judged, therefore, of these matters by the suggestions 
of fancy, and the opinions of others. But, as this 
method of discerning between right and wrong, decent 
and indecent, was extremely uncertain and precarious, 
and necessarily tended to produce a variety of decisions, 
according to the different feelings, fancies, tempers, and 

dians, composed by John de Ries. See also, for a farther refutation of 
this mistake, Herm. Schyn's Deduct. Plen. p. lb'5. 



600 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



Sect. III. 



capacities of different persons, hence naturally arose diver- 
sity of sentiments, debates, and contests of various kinds. 
These debates produced schisms, which are never more 
easily excited, or more obstinately fomented and perpetu- 
ated, than where ignorance, the true source of bigotry, 
prevails. 

XXI. The Mennonites, after having been long in an 
uncertain and precarious situation, obtained a fixed and 
unmolested settlement in the United Provinces, under the 
shade of a legal toleration procured for them by William, 
prince of Orange, the glorious founder of Belgic liberty. 
This illustrious chief, who acted from principle in allow- 
ing liberty of conscience and worship to Christians of dif- 
ferent denominations, was moreover engaged, by gratitude, 
to favour the Mennonites, who had assisted him, in 1 572, 
with a considerable sum of money, when his coffers were 
almost exhausted. 1 The fruits, however, of this tolera- 
tion, were not immediately enjoyed by all the Anabaptists 
that were dispersed through the different provinces of the 
rising republic ; for, in several places, both the civil ma- 
gistrates and the clergy made a long and obstinate oppo- 
sition to the will of the prince in this matter ; particularly 
in the province of Zealand and the city of Amsterdam, 
where the plots formed by the Anabaptists, and the tu- 
mults they had excited, were still remembered by the peo- 
ple with horror. b This opposition, indeed, was in a great 
measure conquered before the conclusion of this century, 
partly by the resolution and influence of William the First, 
and his son Maurice, and partly by the exemplary con- 
duct of the Mennonites, who manifested their zealous at- 
tachment to the republic on several occasions, and re- 
doubled, instead of diminishing, the precautions which 
were calculated to remove all grounds of suspicion, and 
take from their adversaries every pretext which could 
render their opposition justifiable. But it was not before 
the following century, that their liberty and tranquillity 
were fixed upon solid foundations, when, by a Confession 
of Faith, published in 1626, they cleared themselves from 
the imputation of those pernicious and detestable errors 
which had been laid to their charge. 

XXII. The sectaries in England, who reject the cus- 
tom of baptising infants, are not distinguished by the title 
of Anabaptists, but by that of Baptists. It is, however, 
probable, that they derive their origin from the German 
and Dutch Mennonites, and that, in former times, they 
adopted their doctrine in all its points. That, indeed, is 
by no means the case at present ; for the English Bap- 
tists differ, in many things, both from the ancient and 
modern Mennonites. They are divided into two sects. 
The members of one sect are distinguished by the deno- 
mination of General or Arminian Baptists, on account of 
their rejection of the doctrine of absolute and uncondi- 
tional decrees ; and the others are called Particular or 

" See Brandt, Histoirede Reformatie in deNederlande, vol. i. p. 525. — 
Ceremonies et Coutumes de tous les Peuples du Monde, torn. iv. p. 201. 

'• Brandt's Hist, book xi. p. 555, 586, 601l'; book xiv. p. 780: book 
XTi. -3, 811. 

c See Herm. Schyn's Deduct. Plen. cap. iv. p. 79. 

* See Whiston's Memoirs of his Life and Writings, vol. ii. p. 461. 

• See, a German work composed by Ant. "William Bohm, under the 
title of the History of the Reformation in England, p. 151, 473, 536, 1152. 

f Bibhotheque Britannique, torn. vi. 

8 This appears evidently from their Confession of Faith, which ap- 
peared first in 1660, was re-publishcd by Mr. Whiston, in the Memoirs 
of his Life, vol. ii.p. 561, and is drawn up with such latitude, that, with 
the removal and alteration of a few points,* it may be adopted by 



Calvinistical Baptists, from the striking resemblance of 
their religious system to that of the presbyterians, who 
have Calvin for their chief. d The Baptists of the latter 
sect settled chiefly in London, and in the adjacent towns 
and villages ; and they have departed so far from the 
tenets of their ancestors, that, at this day, they retain no 
more of the peculiar doctrines and institutions of the Men- 
nonites, than the administration of baptism by immersion, 
and the refusal of that sacrament to infants, and those of 
tender years ; and consequently they have none of those 
scruples relating to oaths, wars, and the functions of ma- 
gistracy, which still remain among even the most rational 
part of the Mennonites. They observe in their congre- 
gations the same rules of government, and the same forms 
of worship, that are followed by the presbyterians ; and 
their community is under the direction of men eminent 
for their piety and learnings From their Confession of 
Faith, published in 1643, it appears plainly, that their re- 
ligious sentiments were then the same as they are at this 
day/ 

XXIII. The General Baptists, or, as they are called 
by some, the Antipsedobaptists, are dispersed in great num- 
bers through several counties of England, and are, for the 
most part, persons of mean condition, and almost totally 
destitute of learning and knowledge. This latter circum- 
stance will appear less surprising, when it is considered, 
that, like the ancient Mennonites, they profess a contempt 
of erudition and science. There is much latitude in their 
system of religious doctrine, which consists in such vague 
and general principles, as render their communion acces- 
sible to Christians of almost all denominations ; and, ac- 
cordingly, they tolerate, in fact, and receive among them, 
persons of every sect, even Socinians and Arians ; nor do 
they reject, from their communion, any who profess them- 
selves Christians, and receive the Scriptures as the source 
of truth, and the rule of faith.e They agree with the Par- 
ticular Baptists in this circumstance, that they admit to 
baptism adult persons only, and administer that sacra- 
ment by dipping or total immersion ; but they differ from 
them in another respect, that is, in their repeating the ad- 
ministration of baptism to those who had received it, either 
in a state of infancy, or by aspersion, instead of dipping ; 
for, if the common accounts may be believed, the Parti- 
cular Baptists do not carry matters so far. The following 
sentiments, rites, and tenets, are also peculiar to the former : 
1. After the manner of the ancient Mennonites, they look 
upon their sect as the only true Christian church, and con- 
sequently shun, with the most scrupulous caution, the 
communion of all other religious societies. 2. They dip on- 
ly once (and not three rimes, as is practised elsewhere) the 
candidates for baptism, and consider it as a matter of in- 
difference, whether that sacrament be administered in the 
name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or in that of 

Christians of all denominations^ Mr. Whiston, though an Anan, 
became a member of this Baptist community, which, as he thought, 
came nearest to the simplicity of the primitive and apostolic age. The 
famous Mr. Emlyn, who was persecuted on account of his Socinian 
principles, joined himself also to this society, and died in their com- 
munion. 

fj- * Namely, those relating to universal redemption, the perseve- 
rance of the saints, election and reprobation, which are illustrated en- 
tirely on Arminian principles; and consequently cannot be embraced by 
rigid Calvinists; not to mention the points relating to baptism, which 
are the distinctive marks of this sect. 

fj" t Our author certainly does not mean to include Roman catholics, 
in this large class ; for then his assertion would not be true. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE ANABAPTISTS OR MENNONITES. 



601 



Christ alone. 3. They adopt the doctrine of Menno with 
respect to the Millenium, or the reign of the saints with 
Christ upon earth for a thousand years. 4. Many of them ' 
embrace his particular opinion concerning the origin of 
Christ's body. a 5. They look upon the precept of the 
apostles, prohibiting the use of blood and things strangled," 
as a law that was designed to be in force in all ages and 
periods of the church. 6. They believe that the soul, from 
the moment that the body dies until its resurrection at 
the last day, remains in a state of perfect insensibility. 
7. They use the ceremony of extreme unction. And, to 
omit matters of a more trifling nature, 8. Several of them 
observe the Jewish, as well as the Christian Sabbath. 1 
These Baptists have three different classes of ecclesiasti- 
cal governors, bishops, elders, and deacons ; the first of 
these, among whom there have been several learned 
men/ they modestly call messengers/ as St. John is 
known to have styled that order in the book of the 
Revelations. 

XXIV. Before we conclude the history of the Anabap- 
tists, it may not be improper to mention a very singular 
and ridiculous sect that was founded by David George, a 
native of Delft, and a member of that community. This 
enthusiast, after having laid the foundation of the sect 
of the Davidists, or David-Georgians, deserted the Ana- 
baptists, and removed to Basil, in 1544, where he changed 
his name, and by the liberality and splendour that attend- 
ed his opulence, joined to his probity and purity of man- 
ners, acquired a very high degree of esteem, which he 
preserved till his death. The lustre of his reputation was, 
however, transitory ; for, soon after his decease, which 
happened in 1556, his son-in-law, Nicholas Blesdyck, 
charged him with having maintained the most blasphe- 
mous and pestilential errors. The senate of Basil, before 
whom this accusation was brought, being satisfied with 
the evidence by which it was supported, pronounced sen- 
tence against the deceased heretic, and ordered his body 
to be dug up and publicly burned. And indeed, nothing 
more horridly impious and extravagant can be conceived, 
than the sentiments and tenets of this fanatic, if they were 
really such as they have been represented, either by his ac- 
cusers or his historians ; for he is said to have given him- 
self out for the Son of God, the fountain of divine wis- 
dom, to have denied the existence of angels, good and 
evil, of heaven and hell, and to have rejected the doc- 
trine of a future judgment ; and he is also charged with 
having trampled upon all the rules of decency and mo- 
desty with the utmost contempt/ In all this, however, 
there may be much exaggeration. The enthusiast in 
question, though a man of some natural genius, was, ne- 
vertheless, totally destitute of learning of every kind, and 
had something obscure, harsh, and illiberal in his manner 
of expression, that gave too much occasion to an unfa- 
vourable interpretation of his religious tenets. That he 
had both more sense and more virtue than he is gene- 

Ipf * Namely, that the body of Jesus was not derived from the sub- 
stance of the blessed Virgin, but was created in her womb by an 
omnipotent act of the Holy Spirit. b Acts xv. 29. 

c These accounts of the doctrine of the Baptists are taken from 
Wall's History of Infant Biptism, vol. ii. and also from the second 
volume of Whiston's Mftsslrs. 

* See "Whiston'oM3a3j , Si 7ol. ii. p. 466, as also Crosby's History 
of the English Ba,:'_3ii. 

* St.. John calls them the " angels of the churches ;" the word angel 
(in Greek ayycXos) signifies properly an envoy or messenger. 

* See Nic. Blesdyckii Historia Davidis Georgii a Jacobo Revio edita ; 

No. XLIII. 126 



rally supposed to have possessed, appears manifestly, not 
only from his numerous writings, but also from the sim- 
plicity and candour that were visible in the temper and 
spirit of the disciples he left behind him, some of whom 
are yet to be found in Holstein, Friseland, and other coun 
tries. s He deplored the decline of vital and practical re- 
ligion, and endeavoured to restore it among his followers ; 
and in this he seemed to imitate the example of the more 
moderate Anabaptists. But the excessive warmth of an 
irregular imagination threw him into illusions of the most 
dangerous and pernicious kind, and seduced him into a 
persuasion that he was honoured with the gift of divine 
inspiration, and had celestial visions constantly presented 
to his mind. Thus was he led to such a high degree of 
fanaticism, that, rejecting as mean and useless the exter- 
nal services of piety, he reduced religion to contempla- 
tion, silence, and a certain frame or habit of soul, which 
it is equally difficult, to define and to understand. The 
soaring Mystics, and the visionary Quakers, may there- 
fore, if they please, give David George a distinguished 
rank in their enthusiastical community. 

XXV. Henry Nicolas, a Westphalian, one of the inti- 
mate companions of this fanatic, though somewhat dif- 
ferent from him in the nature of his enthusiasm, and also 
in point of genius and character, founded a sect in Hol- 
land, in 1555, which he called the Family of Love. 
The principles of this sect were afterwards propagated 
in England, and produced no small confusion in both 
countries. The judgment that has been formed with 
respect to David George may be applied with truth, at 
least in a great measure, to his associate Nicolas, who, 
perhaps, would have prevented a considerable part of the 
heavy reproaches with which he has been loaded, had he 
been endowed with a degree of genius, discernment and 
knowledge, sufficient to enable him to express his senti- 
ments with perspicuity and elegance. Be that as it may, 
the character, temper, and views of this man, may be 
learned from the spirit that reigned in his flock. h As to 
his pretensions, they were, indeed, visionary and chime- 
rical ; for he maintained, that he had a commission from 
heaven, to teach men that the essence of religion consisted 
in the feelings of divine love ; that all other theological 
tenets, whether they related to objects of faith, or modes 
of worship, were of no moment ; and consequently, that 
it was a matter of perfect indifference, what opinions 
Christians entertained concerning the divine nature, pro- 
vided their hearts burned with the pure and sacred flame 
of piety and love. To this, his main doctrine, Nicolas 
may have probably added other odd fancies, as always is 
the case Avith those innovators who are endued with 
a warm and fruitful imagination ; to obtain, however, 
a true notion of the opinions of this enthusiast, it will 
be much more advisable to consult his own writings, than 
to depend entirely upon the accounts and refutations of his 
adversaries.' 

as also the life of the same fanatic, written in the German language, by 
Stolterforth. Among the modern writers see Arnold's Kirchen und 
Ketzer Historie, torn. i. p. 750; torn. ii. p. 534 and 1183, in which there 
are several things that tend to clear the characterof David. See also Henr. 
Mori Enthusiasmus Triumphatus, sect, xxiii. — and the documents 1 have 
published in relation to this matter, in the History of ServetUS, p. 425. 

* See Jo. Melleri Introduct. in Histor. Chersones. Cimbricae, par. ii. 
p. 116, and his Cimbria Literata, torn. i. p. 422. 

h See Jo. Hornbeck, Summa Controvers. lib. vi. p. 393.— Arnold, p. 
746. — Bohm, book iv. ch. v. p. 541. 

i Th« most learned of all the authors who wrote against the Family 



502 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



Sect. 111. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The History of the Socinians. 

I. The Socinians are said to have derived this deno- 
mination from the illustrious family of the Sozzini, which 
flourished a long time at Sienna in Tuscany, and pro- 
duced several great and eminent men, and among others 
Ltelius and Faustus Socinus, who are commonly supposed 
to have been the founders of this sect. The former was 
the son of Marianus, a famous lawyer, and was himself 
a man of uncommon genius and learning ; to which he 
added, as his very enemies were obliged to acknowledge, 
the lustre of a virtuous life and of unblemished manners. 
Being obliged to leave his country, in 1547, on account 
of the disgust he had conceived against popery, he tra- 
velled through France, England, Holland, Germany, and 
Poland, in order to examine the religious sentiments of 
those who had thrown off the yoke of Rome, and thus 
at length to come at the truth. After this he settled at 
Zurich, where he died in 1562, before he had arrived at 
the fortieth year of his age. a His mild and gentle dis- 
position rendered him averse from whatever had the air 
of contention and discord. He adopted the Helvetic con- 
fession of faith, and professed himself a member of the 
church of Switzerland ; and this did not induce him to 
conceal entirely the doubts he had formed in relation to 
certain points of religion, and which he communicated, 
in effect, by letter, to some learned men, whose judgment 
he respected, and in whose friendship he could confide. b 
His sentiments were indeed propagated, in a more public 
manner, after his death, since Faustus, his nephew and 
his heir, is supposed to have drawn, from the papers he 
left behind him, ihat religious system upon which the 
Socinian sect was founded. 

II. It is, however, to be observed, that this denomina- 
tion does not always convey the same ideas, since it is 
susceptible of different significations, and is, in effect, 
used sometimes in a more strict and proper, and at others 
in a more improper and extensive sense. For, according 
to the usual manner of speaking, all are termed Socinians, 
whose sentiments bear a certain affinity to the system of 
Socinus ; and those are more especially ranked in that 
class, who either boldly deny, or artfully explain away, 
the doctrines that assert the divine nature of Christ, and 
a trinity of persons in the Godhead. But, in a strict and 
proper sense, they only are deemed the members of this 

of Love, was Dr. Henry More, in his Grand Explanation of the Myste- 
ry of Godliness, &c. book vi. George Fox, the founder of the sect of 
Quakers, inveighed also severely against this seraphic family, and 
called them a motley tribe of fanatics, because they took oaths, danced, 
sang, and made merry. See Sewell's History of the Quakers, book iii. 
p. 88, 83, 344. 

Cloppenburg, Dissertatio de Origine et Progressu Socinianismi. — 
Jo. Hornbeck, Summa Controversiarum, p. 563. — Jo. Henr. Hottinger, 
Hist. Eccles. torn. ix. p. 417. 

■> Zanchius, Prref. ad Libr. de tribus Elohim. — Beza, Epist. lxxxi. p. 
167. Certain writings are attributed to him by Sandius, in his Biblio- 
theca Anti-Trinitar. but it is very doubtful whether he was the real 
author of them. 

c We have, hitherto, no complete or accurate history either of the 
sect called Socinians, or of La;lius and Faustus Socinus, its founders; 
nor any satisfactory account of those who laboured principally with 
them, and, after them, in giving a permanent and stable form to this 
community ; for the accounts we have of the Socinians, and their prin- 
cipal doctors, from Hornbeck, * Calovius.t Cloppenburg,! Sandius,§ Lu- 
bieniecius,l! and Lauterbach,1T are far from being proper to satisfy the 
curiosity of those, who desire something more than a vague and super- 
ficial knowledge of this matter. The history of Socinianism, published at 
Paris by Lamy in 1723, is a wretched compilation from the most com- 



sect, who embrace wholly, or Avith a few exceptions, the 
form of theological doctrine, which Faustus Socinus either 
drew up himself or received from his uncle, and delivered 
to the Unitarian brethren, or Socinians, in Poland and 
Transjdvania. c 

III. The origin of Socinianism may be traced to the 
earliest period of the Reformation. Scarcely had the hap- 
py revolution in the state of religion taken place, when a 
set of men, fond of extremes, and consequently disposed to 
look upon as erroneous whatever had hitherto been taught 
and professed in the church of Rome, bejran to undermine 
the doctrine of Christ's divinity, and the other truths that 
are connected with it, and proposed reducing the whole oi 
religion to practical piety and virtue. The efforts of these 
men were opposed with united zeal and vigilance by the 
Romish, Reformed, and Lutheran churches ; and their 
designs were so far disconcerted, as to prevent their form- 
ing themselves and their followers into a regular and per- 
manent sect. So early as the year 1524, the divinity of 
Christ was openly denied by Louis Hetzer, one of the 
wandering and fanatical Anabaptists, who, about three 
years afterwards, suffered death at Constance. 4 There 
were not wanting, among the first Anabaptists, several 
persons who entertained the opinions of Hetzer. though it 
would be manifestly unfair to lay these opinions to the 
charge of the whole community. But it was not only 
from that quarter that erroneous opinions were propagated 
in relation to the points already mentioned ; others seemed 
to have been seized with the contagion, and it manifested 
itself from day to day in several countries. John Cam- 
panus, a native of Juliers, disseminated, at Wittenberg and 
other places, various tenets of an heretical aspect ; and 
taught, among other things, that the Son was inferior to 
the Father, and that the Holy Ghost was not the title of a 
divine person, but a denomination used to denote the 
nature of the Father and of the Son ; and thus did this in- 
novator revive, in a great measure, the errors of the ancient 
Arians. e A doctrine of a similar kind was propagated, in 
1530, at Augsburg and in Switzerland, by a person, 
whose name was Claudius, who, by his opposition to the 
doctrine of Christ's divinity, excited no small commotions/ 
But none of these new teachers were so far encouraged by 
the number of their followers, or the indulgence of their 
adversaries, as to be in a condition to form a regular sect. 

IV. The attempts of Michael Servede,? or Servetus, a 
Spanish physician, were much more alarming to those 



mon-place writers on that subject; it is also full of errors, and is loaded 
with a variety of matters that have no sort of relation to the history oi 
Socinus, or to the doctrine he taught. The very learned and laborious 
La Croze promised a complete history of Socinianism, but did not fulfil 
this interesting engagement. 

d Sandii Bibliotheca Anti-Trinitar. — Jo. Bapt. Ottii Annal. Anabap- 
tist.— Breitingeri Museum Helveticum, torn. v. vi. 

See the Dissertation de Joh. Campano, Anti-Trinitario, in the 
Amrenitates Literariae of the learned Senelhornius, torn. xi. 

f See Schelhornii Dissert. Epistol. de Mino Celso Senensi, Claudio 
item Allobroge, homine Fanatico et SS. Trinitatis hoste. — Jac. Breitin- 
geri Museum Helvetic, torn. Vii. — Jo. Hallerus, Epistol. in Fucslin's 
Centuria Epistolar. Viror Eruditor. 

c By taking away the last syllable of this name (I mean the Spanish 
termination de) there remains Serve, which, by placing differently the 
letters that compose it, makes Reves. Servetus assumed the latter 
name in the title-pages of all his books. He also called himself some- 
times Michael Villanovanus.-ov Villanovanus alone, after the place of 
his nativity, omitting the name of his family. 

* In his Socinianism. Confutat. vol. i.— t In his Opera Anti-Socinia- 
na. — X In his Dissertat. de origine et progressu Socinianismi. torn. ii. op. 
— § In his Bibliotheca Anti-Trinitariorum. — II In his Historia Reforma- 
tionis Polonicse. — IT In his Ariano-Socinismus. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE SOCESTANS. 



503 



who had the cause of true religion at heart, than the fee- ! | 
ble and impotent efforts of the innovators now mentioned. 
This man. who made so great a noise in the world, was 
born at Villa-Nueva, in the kingdom of Arragon, distin- 
guished himself by the superiority of his genius, and had 
made a considerable progress in various branches of J 
science. In the years 1531 and 1532, he published, in 
Latin, Ids seven books concerning the errors that are con- | 
tained in the doctrine of the Trinity, and two Dialogues 
on the same subject, in which he attacked, in the most 
audacious manner, the sentiments adopted by the greatest I 
part of the Christian church, in relation to the divine na- 
tare* and a trinity of persons in the Godhead. Some || 
years after this he travelled into France, and, after a vari- 
ety of adventures, settled at Yienne in Dauphine, where 
he applied himself, with success, to the practice of physic. 
It was here, that, letting loose the reins of his warm and 
irregular imagination, he invented that strange system of 
theology, which was printed, in a clandestine manner, in 
1553, under the title of Christianity restored. He seemed 
to be seized with a passion for reforming (in his way) ; J 
and many things concurred to favour his designs, such as j 
the fire of his genius, the extent of his learning, the power 
of lus eloquence, the strength of his resolution, the ob- 
stinacy of his temper, and an external appearance, at least, 
of piety, that rendered all the rest doubly engaging. Add, 
to all this, the protection and friendship of many persons 
of weight, in France, Germany, and Italy, which he had 
obtained by his talents and abilities both natural and ac- 
quired ; and it will appear, that few innovators have set 
out with a better prospect of success. But, notwithstand- 
ing these signal advantages, all his news were totally dis- 
appointed by the vigilance and severity of Calvin, who, 
when Servetus had escaped from his prison, and was 
passing through Switzerland, in order to seek refuge in 
Italy, caused him to be apprehended at Geneva, in 1553, 
and had an accusation of blasphemy brought against him 
before the councd. a The issue of this accusation was fa- 
tal to Servetus, who, adhering resolutely to the opinions 
he had embraced, was, by a public sentence of the court, 
declared an obstinate heretic, and condemned to the 
flames. For it is observable, that, at this time, the ancient 
laws which had been enacted against heretics by the em- 
peror Frederic II. and had been so frequently renewed 
after his reign, were still in vigour at Geneva. It must, 
however, be acknowledged, that this learned and ingeni- 
ous sufferer was worthy of a better fate ; though it is cer- 
tain, on the other hand, that his faults were neither few 
nor trivial, since it is well known, that his excessive arro- 
gance was accompanied with a malignant and contentious 
spirit, an invincible obstinacy of temper, and a considera- 
ble portion of fanaticism. b 

f^T "■ This accusation was brought against Servetus by a person, 
vho lived in Calvin's family as a servant; and this circumstance dis- 
[ leased many. 

g^f b Dr. Mosheim refers the reader here, in a note, to an ample and 
cuiious history of Servetus, composed by him in his native tongue. 
Those who are not acquainted with that language, will find a full ac- 
rount of this singular man, and of his extraordinary history, in a Latin 
dissertation, composed under the inspection of Dr. Mosheim, and en- 
tided, Historia Michaelis Served, quam, Preside Jo. Laur. Moshemio, 
Doctorum examini publice exponit Henricus ab Allwaerden. There is 
an accurate history of this unhappy man, written by M. de la Roche, in 
the first volume of the work, entided, Memoirs of Literature, contain- 
ing a Weekly Account of the State of Learning, both at home and 
•broad. There is also an account of him given by Mackenzie, in his 



V. The religious system that Servetus struck out of a 
wild and irregular fancy, was, indeed, singular in the 
highest degree. The greatest part of it was a necessary 
consequence of his peculiar notions concerning the uni- 
verse, the nature of God, and the nature of things, which 
were equally strange and chimerical. Thus it is difficult 
to unfold, in a few words, the doctrine of this unhappy 
man ; nor, indeed, would any detail render it intelligible 
in all its branches. He took it into his head that the true 
and genuine doctrine of Christ had been entirely lost, even 
before the council of Nice ; and he was, moreover, of 
opinion, that it had never been delivered with a sufficient 
degree of precision and perspicuity in any period of the 
church. To these extravagant assertions he added another 
still more so, even that he himself had received a commis- 
sion from above to reveal anew this divine doctrine, and 
to explain it to mankind. His notions with respect to the 
Supreme Being, and a trinity of persons in the Godhead, 
were obscure and chimerical beyond all measure, and 
amounted in general to the following propositions : That 
" the Deity, before the creation of the world, had produced 
within himself two personal representations or manners 
of existence,' which were to be the medium of inter- 
course between him and mortals, and by which, conse- 
quently, he was to reveal his will, and to display his mercy 
and beneficence to the children of men ; that these two 
representatives were the Word and the Holy Ghost ; 
that the former was united to the man Christ, who was 
born of the Virgin 3Iary by an omnipotent act of the 
divine will ; and that, on this account, Christ might be 
properly called God ; that the Holy Spirit directed the 
course, and animated the whole system of nature ; and 
more especially produced in the minds of men wise coun- 
sels, virtuous propensities, and divine feelings ; and. final- 
ly, that these two representations were to cease after the 
destruction of this terrestrial globe, and to be absorbed into 
the substance of the Deity, from which they had been 
formed." This is, at least, a general sketch of the doctrine 
of Servetus, who, however, did not always explain his 
system in the same manner, nor take any pains to avoid 
inconsistencies and contradictions ; and who frequently 
expressed himself in such ambiguous terms, that 't is ex- 
tremely difficult to learn from them his true sentiments. 
His s)stem of morality agreed in many circumstances 
with that of the Anabaptists, whom he also imitated in 
censuring, with the utmost severity, the custom of Infant- 
Baptism. 

VI. The pompous plans of reformation, that had been 
formed by Servetus, were not only disconcerted, but even 

| fell into oblivion, after the death of their author. He was, 
indeed, according to vulgar report, supposed to have left 
behind him a considerable number of disciples ; and we 

Lives and Characters of the most eminent Writers of the Scottish nation. 
To these we may add an Impartial History of Servetus, &c written by 
an anonymous author, and published at London in 1724. 

It is impossible to justify die conduct of Calvin in the case of Serve- 
tus, whose death will be an indelible reproach upon the character of that 
great and eminent reformer. The only thing that can be alleged, not 
to efface, but to diminish his crime, is, that it was no easy matter for him 
to divest himself at once of that persecuting spirit, which had been so 
long nourished and strengthened by the popish religion in which he was 
educated. It was a remaining portion of the spiritof popery in the breast 
of Calvin that kindled his unchristian zeal against the wretched Servetus. 

|-t, e These representations, or manners of existence, Servetus also 
called economies, dispensations, dispositions, etc. for he often changed 
his terms in unfolding his visionary system. 



504 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



Sect. IIL 



find, in the writing's of the doctors of this century, many 
complaints and apprehensions that seem to confirm this 
supposition, and would persuade us that Servetus had 
really founded a sect ; yet, when this matter is atten- 
tively examined, there will appear just reason to doubt, 
whether this man left behind him any one person that 
might properly be called his true disciple. For those who 
were denominated Servelians by the theological writers 
of this century, not only differed from Servetus in many 
points of doctrine, but also varied widely from him in his 
opinion of the Trinity, which was the peculiar and dis- 
tinguishing point of his theological system. Valentine 
Gentili, a Neapolitan, who suffered death at Bern in 1566, 
adopted the Arian hypothesis, and not that of Servetus, 
as many writers have imagined ; for his only error con- 
sisted in this, that he considered the Son and the Holy 
Ghost as subordinate to the Fathers Nearly allied to this, 
was the doctrine of Matthew Gribaldi, a lawyer, whom a 
timely death saved from the severity of an ecclesiastical 
tribunal, that was ready to pronounce sentence against 
him on account of his errors ; for he supposed the divine 
nature to be divided into three eternal spirits, which were 
distinguished from each other, not only by number, but 
also by subordination. 15 It is not so easy to determine the 
particular charge that was brought against Alciat, a na- 
tive of Piedmont, and Sylvester Tellius, who were ba- 
nished from the city and territory of Geneva, in 1559 ; 
nor do we know, with certainty, the errors that were em- 
braced by Paruta, Leonardo, and others, who ranked 
among the followers of Servetus. It is, however, more 
than probable, that none of the persons now mentioned 
were the disciples of Servetus, or adopted the hypothesis 
of that visionary innovator. The same thing may be 
affirmed with respect to Gonesius, who is said to have 
embraced the doctrine of that unhappy man, and to have 
introduced it into Poland ; d for, though he maintained 

* See Bayle's Dictionary. — Spoil's Hist, de Geneve, torn. ii. p. 80. — 
Sandii Biblioth. Anti-Trinit. p. 26 — Lamy's Histoire du Socinianisme, 
part ii. ch. vi. p. 251. — Fueslin's Reformations Beytrage, ton), v. 

b Sandius, p. 17. — Lamy, part ii. ch. vii. — Spoil, torn. ii. p. 85. not. — 
Haller, in Museo Tigurino, torn. ii. p. 114. 

"For an account of these, and other persons of the same class, see 
Sandius, Lamy, and also Lubieniecius' Historia Reformat. Polonicee, 
lib. ii. cap. v. — There is a particular and ample account of Alciat given 
by Bayle, in his Dictionary; see also Spon, torn. ii. 

<> This is affirmed upon the authority of Wissowatius and Lubienie- 
cius ; but the very words of the latter will be sufficient to shew us upon 
what grounds. He says, " Is Serveti sententiam de prse-eminentia pa- 
tris in patriam attulit, eamque non dissimulavit," i. e. Gonesius intro- 
duced into Poland the opinion embraced by Servetus in relation to the 
pre-eminence of the Father, and was by no means studious to conceal it. 
Who now does not see, that, if it was the pre-eminence of the Father 
that Gonesius maintained, he must have differed considerably from 
Servetus, whose doctrine removed all real distinction in the divine na- 
ture 1 ? The reader will do well to consult Sandius with regard to the 
sentiments of Gonesius, since it is from this writer, that Lamy has 
borrowed the greatest part of what he has advanced in his Histoire de 
Socinianisme, torn. ii. chap. x. 

•See the Bibliotheca Anti-Trinit. of Sandius, who mentions some 
writings that are supposed to have been published by the clandestine 
society of pretended reformers at Venice and Vicenza, though the truth 
of this supposition is extremely dubious; — Andr. Wissowatii Narratio 
quomodo in Polonia Reformati ab Unitariis separati sunt, which is sub- 
joined to the Biblioth. of Sandius. — The reader may likewise consult 
Lubieniecius, (Histor. Reformat. Polon. lib. ii. cap. i.) who intimates, 
that he took this account of the origin of Socinianism from the manu- 
script Commentaries of Budzinus, and his Life of Lcelius Socinus. 
See also Sam. Przipcovius, in Vita Socini. 

'See Gustav. Georg. Zeltneri Historia Crypto-Socinianismi Altorfini, 
cap. ii. sect. xli. p. 321, note. — This writer seems to think that the in- 
quiries hitherto made into this affair are by no means satisfactory ; and 
he therefore wishes that some men of learning, equal to the task, would 



some opinions that really resembled it in some of its 
points, his manner of explaining the mystery of the Tri- 
nity was totally different from that of Servetus. 

VII. It is evident that none of the persons, now men- 
tioned, professed the form or system of theological doc- 
trine, that is properly called Socinianism, the origin of 
which is, by the Avriters of that sect, dated from the year 
1546, and placed in Italy. These writers tell us, that, 
in this year, above forty persons eminently distinguished 
by their learning and genius, and still more by their ge- 
nerous zeal for truth, held secret assemblies, at different 
times, in the territory of Venice, and particularly at Vi- 
cenza, in which they deliberated upon a general reform- 
ation of the received systems of religion, and, in a more 
especial manner, undertook to refute the peculiar doctrines 
that were afterwards publicly rejected by the Socinians. 
They tell us farther, that the principal members of this 
clandestine society, were Lselius Socinus, Alciat, Ochino, 
Paruta, and Gentili ; that their design was divulged, and 
their meetings were discovered, by the temerity and im- 
prudence of some of their associates ; that two of them 
were apprehended and put to death ; while the rest, be- 
ing dispersed, sought a refuge in Switzerland, Germany, 
Moravia, and other countries ; and that Socinus, after 
having wandered up and down in several parts of Europe, 
went into Poland, first in 1551, and afterwards in 1558, 
and there sowed the seeds of his doctrine, which grew 
apace, and produced a rich and abundant harvest. Such 
is the account of the origin of Socinianism that is gene- 
rally given by the writers of that sect. To assert that it 
is, in every circumstance, fictitious and false, would per- 
haps be going too far ; but, on the other hand, it is easy 
to demonstrate that the system, commonly called Socini- 
anism, was neither invented nor drawn up in the meet- 
ings at Venice and Vicenza. f 

VIII. While, therefore, we reject this inaccurate ac- 

examine the subject anew. This, indeed, is much to be wished. In the 
mean time, I shall venture to offer a few observations, which may, per- 
haps, contribute to cast some light upon this matter. That there was in 
reality such a society as is mentioned in the text, is far from being im- 
probable. Many circumstances and relations prove sufficiently, that, 
immediately after the Reformation had taken place in Germany, secret 
assemblies were holden, and measures proposed, in several provinces that 
were still under the jurisdiction of Rome, with a view to combat the 
errors and superstition of the times. It is also, in a more especial man- 
ner, probable that the territory of Venice was the scene of these delibe- 
rations, since it is well known that a great number of the Venetians at 
this time, though they had no personal attachment to Luther, approved 
his design of reforming the corrupt state of religion, and wished well 
to every attempt that was made to restore Christianity to its native and 
primitive simplicity. It is farther highly credible, that these assemblies 
were interrupted and dispersed by the vigilance of the papal emissaries, 
and that some of their members were apprehended and put to death, 
while the rest saved themselves by flight. All this is probable enough; 
but it is extremely improbable, and utterly incredible, that all the per- 
sons who are said to have been present at these assemblies, were really 
so. And I therefore willingly adopt the opinion of those who affirm, 
that many persons, who, in after-times, distinguished themselves from 
the multitude by opposing the doctrine of the Trinity in Unity, were 
considered as members of the Venetian society, by ignorant writers, 
who looked upon that society as the source and nursery of the whole 
Unitarian sect. It is certain, for instance, that Ochino is erroneously 
placed among the members of the famous society now mentioned ; for, 
not to insist upon the circumstance, that it is not sufficiently clear whether 
he was really a Socinian or not, it undeniably appears, from the Annales 
Capucinorum of Boverius, as well as from other unquestionable testi- 
monies, that he left Italy so early as the year 1543, and went to Geneva. 
See a singular book, entitled, La Guerre Seraphique, ou l'Histoire des 
Perils qu'a courus la Barbedes Capucins, livr. iii. p. 191, 216. — What I 
have said of Ochino may be confidently affirmed with respect to L«lius 
Socinus, who, though reported to have been at the head of the society now 
under consideration, was certainly never present at any of its meetings. 



Part 11. 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



505 



count of the matter under consideration, it is incumbent 
upon us to substitute a better in its place ; and, indeed, 
the origin and progress of the Socinian doctrine may, 
I think, easily be traced out by such as are acquainted 
ivith the history of the church during this century. There 
were certain sects and doctors, against whom the zeal, 
vigilance and severity of Catholics, Lutherans, and Cal- 
vinists, were united, and, in opposing whose settlement 
and progress, these three communions, forgetting their dis- 
sensions, joined their most vigorous counsels and endea- 
vours. The objects of their common aversion were the j 
Anabaptists, and those who denied the divinity of Christ, 
and a trinity of persons in the Godhead. To avoid the 
unhappy consequences of such a formidable opposition, 
great numbers of both classes retired into Poland, from 
this persuasion, that, in a country whose inhabitants were 
passionately fond of freedom, religious liberty could not I 
fail to find a refuge. However, on their first arrival, they j 
proceeded with circumspection and prudence, and explain- 
ed their sentiments with much caution, and a certain mix- i 
ture of disguise, not knowing surely what might happen, ■ 
nor how far their opinions would be treated with indul- 
gence. Thus they live in peace and in quiet during seve- 
ral years, mixed with the Lutherans and Calvinists, who 
had already obtained a solid settlement in Poland, and 
who admitted them into their communion, and even into 
the assemblies where their public deliberations were holden. 
They were not, however, long satisfied with this state of 
constraint, notwithstanding the privileges with which it 
was attended ; but, having insinuated themselves into 
the friendship of several noble and opulent families, they 
began to act with greater spirit, and even to declare, in an 
open manner, their opposition to certain doctrines that 
were generally received among Christians. Hence arose 

For how can we suppose that a young man only one-and-twenty years 
old, would leave the place of his nativity, and repair to Venice or 
Vicenza without any other view than the pleasure of disputing freely I 
on certain points of religion 1* Or how could it happen, that a youth 
of such inexperienced years should acquire such a high degree of influence ' 
and authority, as to obtain the first rank, and the principal direction, in 
an assembly composed of so many eminently learned and ingenious i 
menl Besides, from the life of LaJius, which is still extant, and from : 
other testimonies of good authority, it is easy to show, that it was the i 
desire of improvement and the hope of being aided in his inquiries 
after truth, by the conversation of learned men in foreign nations, that 
induced him to leave Italy, and not the apprehension of persecution and 
death, as some have imagined. It is also certain, that he returned into | 
his native country afterwards, and, in 1551, remained some time at j 
Sienna, while his father lived at Bologna. Sec his letter to Bullinger, 
in the Museum Helveticum, torn. v. p. 489. Now surely it cannot easily 
be imagined, that a man in his senses would return to a country from 
which, a few years before, he had been obliged to fly, in order to avoid 
the terrors of a barbarous inquisition and a violent death. 

But, waving this question for a moment, let us suppose all the ac- 
counts we have from the Socinians, concerning this famous assembly of 
Venice and Vicenza, and the members of which it was composed, to 
be true and exact ; yet it remains to be proved, that the Socinian system ! 
of doctrine was invented and drawn up in that assembly. This the ! 
Socinian writers maintain ; and this, as the case appears to me, may be 
safely denied; for the Socinian doctrine is undoubtedly of much later j 
date than this assembly ; it also passed through different hands, and j 
was, during many years, reviewed and corrected by men of learning 
and genius, and thus underwent various changes and improvements be- j 
fore it was formed into a regular, permanent, and connected system. To ' 
be convinced of this, it will be sufficient to cast an eye upon the opinions, i 
doctrines, and reasonings of several of the members of the famous so- 
ciety, so often mentioned ; which vary in such a striking manner, as to 
show manifestly that this society had no fixed views, nor had ever 
agreed upon any consistent form of doctrine. We learn, moreover, from 
many circumstances in the life and transactions of Lrelius Socinus, that 
this man had not, when he left Italy, formed the plan of a regular sys- 
tem of religion ; and it is well known, that, for many years afterwards, 

No. XLIII. 127 



violent contests between them and the Swiss or refoimed 
churches, with which they had been principally connect- 
ed. These dissensions drew the attention of the govern- 
ment, and occasioned, in 1565, a resolution of the diet 
of Petrikow, ordering the innovators to separate themselves 
from the churches already mentioned, and to form a dis- 
tinct congregation or sect.* These founders of the Soci- 
nian church were commonly called Pinczovians, from the 
town in which the heads of their sect resided. Hitherto, 
indeed, they had not carried matters so far as they did 
afterwards ; for they professed chiefly the Arian doctrine 
concerning the divine nature, maintaining that the Son 
and the Holy Ghost were two distinct natures, begotten 
by God the Father, and subordinate to him. b 

IX. The Unitarians, being thus separated from the 
other religious societies in Poland, had many difficulties 
to encounter, both of an internal and external kind. From 
without, they were threatened with a very unfavourable 
prospect, arising from the united efforts of Catholics, Lu- 
therans, and Calvinists, to crush their infant sect. From 
within, they dreaded the effects of intestine discord, which 
portended the ruin of their community before it could ar- 
rive at any measure of stability or consistence. The lat- 
ter apprehension had some foundation; for, as yet, they 
had agreed upon no regular system of principles, which 
might serve as a centre and bond of union. Some of 
them chose to persevere in the doctrine of the Arians, and 
to proceed no farther; and these were caUed Farnovi- 
ans. c Others, more adventurous, went much greater 
lengths, and attributed to Jesus Christ scarcely any other 
rank and dignity than those of a divine messenger and a 
true prophet. A third class, distinguished by the denom- 
ination of Budneia?is, d went still farther ; declaring that 
Christ was born in an ordinary way, according to the 

his time was spent in doubting, inquiring, and disputing ; and that his 
ideas of religious matters were extremely fluctuating and unsettled; so 
that it seems probable to me, that the man died in this state of hesita- 
tion and uncertainty, before he had reduced his notions to any consis- 
tent form. As to Gribaldi and Alciat, who have been already mention- 
ed, it is manifest that they inclined toward the Arian system, and did not 
entertain such low ideas of the person and dignity of Jesus Christ, as 
those which are adopted among the Socinians. From all this it appears 
abundantly evident, that these Italian reformers, if their famous society 
ever existed in reality, (which I admit as a probable supposition, rather 
than as a fact sufficiently attested,) were dispersed and obliged to seek 
their safety in a voluntary exile, before they had agreed about any regu- 
lar system of religious doctrine: so that this account of the origin of 
Socinianism is rather imaginary than real, though it has been adopted 
by many writers. Fueslin has alleged several arguments against 
it in his German work, entitled, Reformations Bcyiragcn, torn. iii. 
page 327. 

* Lamy's Histoire du Sociuianisme, part i. chap. vi. &c. page 16 — 
Stoinii Epitome Originis Unitariorum in Polonia, apud Sandium, p. 
183. — Georg. Schomanni Testamentum, apud eundem, p. 194. — Andr. 
Wissowatius de Separatione Unitar. a Reformatis, p. 21 1 . — Lubieniccius, 
Histor. Reformat. Polonies, lib. ii. cap. vi. viii. lib. iii. cap. i. 

b This will appear abundantly evident to all such asconsult with a pro- 
per degree of attention, the writers mentioned in the preceding note. It is 
unquestionably certain, that all those, who then called themselves Uni- 
tarian Brethren, did not entertain the same sentiments concerning the 
Divine Nature. Some of the most eminent doctors of that sect adopted 
the notions relating to the person and dignity of Christ, that were in af- 
ter-times peculiar to the Socinians; the greatest part of them, however, 
embraced the Arian system, and affirmed, that our blessed Saviour was 
created before the formation of the world, by God the Father, to whom 
he was much inferior, nevertheless, in dignity and perfection. 

O" ' For a more particular account of the Farnovians, see sect, xxiv 
of this chapter. 

d See the part of this chapter referred to in the preceding note. 

O* * Is such a supposition really so absurd ? Is not a spirit of en- 
thusiasm, or even an uncommon degree of zeal, adequate to the pro- 
I duction of such an effect? 



506 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



Sect. IIL 



general law of nature, and that, consequently, he was no 
proper object of divine worship or adoration. 1 There 
were also among these people many fanatics, who were 
desirous of introducing into the society the discipline of 
the enthusiastic Anabaptists; such as a community of 
goods, an equality of rank, and other absurdities of the 
same nature. b Such were the disagreeable and perilous 
circumstances in which the Unitarians were placed, du- 
ring the infancy of that sect, and which, no doubt, ren- 
dered their situation extremely critical and perplexing. 
But they were happily extricated out of these difficulties 
by the dexterity and resolution of some of their doctors, 
whose efforts were crowned with singular success, on ac- 
count of the credit and influence which they had obtain- 
ed in Poland. These divines suppressed, in a little time, 
the factions that threatened the ruin of their community, 
erected flourishing congregations at Cracow, Lublin, 
Pinczow, Luck, Smila, c (a town belonging so the famous 
Dudith,)' 1 and in several other parts of Poland and Lithu- 
ania, and obtained the privilege of printing their produc- 
tions, and those of their brethren, without molestation or 
restraint. e All these advantages were crowned by a sig- 
nal mark of liberality and munificence which they re- 
ceived from Jo. Sienienius, palatine of Podolia, who gave 
them a settlement in the city of Racow, which he had 



a Vita Andr. Wissowatii in Sandii Biblioth. p. 226; also Sandius in 
Simone Budnaso, p. 54. 

•> Lubieniecius, lib. iii. cap. xii. 

c Mart. Adelt, Historia Arianismi Smiglensis. 

|jf d This Dudith, who was certainly one of the most learned and 
eminent men of the sixteenth century, was born at Buda, in 1533; and, 
after having studied in the most famous universities, and visited almost 
all the countries of Europe, was named to the bishophric of Tiniaby the 
emperor Ferdinand, and made privy counsellor to that prince. He had, 
by the force of his genius, and the study of the ancient orators, acquired 
such a masterly and irresistible eloquence, that in all public deliberations 
he carrie j every thing before him. In the council to which he was sent 
in the name of the emperor and of the Hungarian clergy, he spoke with 
such energy against several abuses of the church of Rome, and parti- 
cularly against the celibacy of the clergy, that the pope, being informed 
thereof by his legates, solicited the emperor to recall him. Ferdinand 
complied; but, having bear J Dudith's report of what passed in that fa- 
mous council, he approved his conduct, and rewarded him with the 
bishopric of Clionat. He afterwards married a maid of honour of the 
queen of Hungary, and resigned his bishopric; the emperor, however, 
Ptill continued to be his friend and piotector. The papal excommunication 
was levelled athis head ; buthetrea ?A it with contempt. Tiredof the fop- 
eries arid superstitions of the church of Rome, he retired to Cracow, where 
le publicly embraced the protestant religion, after having been for a con- 
siderable time its secret friend. It is said that he showed some inclina- 
tion toward the Socinian system. Some of his friends deny this; others 
confess it, but maintain, that he afterwards changed his sentiments in 
that respect. He was well acquainted with several branches of philo- 
sophy and th6iri2llie'r>atics, with physic, history, theology, and the civil 
law. He wa.i sucl. nn enthusiastic admirer of Cicero, that he copied 
over three times, with his own hand, all the works of that immortal au- 
thor. He had something majestic in his figure, and in the air of his 
countenance. His life wis regular and virtuous, his manners were ele- 
gant and easy, and his bf ^volence warm and extensive. 

Sandii Biblioth. p. 20 k 

' Sandius, p. 201. Lubi. niecius, p. 239. 

* See a German work of Ringeltaube, entitled, Von den Pohlnischen 
Bibeln, p. 90, 113, 142, in which there is a farther account of the Polish 
interpretations of the Bible composed by Socinian authors. 

b From this little performance, and indeed from it alone, we may learn 
with certainty the true state of the Unitarian religion before Faustus Soci- 
mts ; yet. I do not find that it has been so much as once quoted, or even 
mentioned by any of tl«, Socinian writers, by any historians who have 
given an account of their sect, or by any of the divines that have drawn 
the pen of controversy against their religious system. I am almost in- 
elio/sd to believe, that the Socinians (when in process of time they had 
gained ground, acquired more dexterity in the management of their af- 
fairs, and drawn up a new, specious, and artful summary of their doc- 
trine) were prudent enough to desire that this primitive catechism should 
disappear, that it might not ftirnish their adversaries with an occasion 
of accusing them of inconstancy in abandoning the tenets of their an- 



I 



himself built, in 1569, in the district of Sendomir.' This 
extraordinary favour was peculiarly adapted to better the 
state of the Unitarians, who were, at that time, scattered 
about in the midst of their enemies ; and accordingly they 
now looked upon their religious establishment as perma- 
nent and stable, and presumed so far upon their good 
fortune, as to declare Racow the centre of their commu- 
nity, where their distant and dispersed members might 
unite their counsels, and hold their deliberations. 

X. When they saw their affairs in this promising situ- 
ation, the first thing that employed the attention and zeal 
of their doctors and spiritual rulers, was a translation of 
the Bible into the Polish language, which was accord- 
ingly published in 1572. They had, v.ndeed, before this, 
a Polish version of the sacred writings, which they had 
composed jointly with the Helvetic doctors, in 1565, while 
they lived in communion with that church : but, after the 
breach of that communion, and the order they had re- 
ceived to separate themselves from the reformed church, 
this version lost its credit among them, as it did not seem 
proper to answer their views.* After they had finished 
their new version, they drew up a summary of their re- 
ligious- doctrine, which was published at Cracow, in 1574, 
under the title of Catechism or Confession of the Uni- 
tarians.^ The system of religion that is contained in 

cestors, nor excite factions and divisions among themselves, by inducing 
any of their peopleto complain that they had deviated from the ancient 
simplicity of the founders of their sect. These reasons, very probably, 
engaged the Socinian doctors to buy up all the copies they could find of 
this Confession, with a view to bury it in oblivion. It will not, there- 
fore, be improper to give here some account of the form and matter of 
this first Socinian creed, which contained the doctrine of that sect before 
the Racovian Catechism was composed. This account will throw new 
light upon a period and branch of ecclesiastical history that are highly 
interesting. The original catechism now under consideration, which 
is extremely rare, has the following title prefixed to it: "Catechism, 
or Confession of Faith of the Congregation assembled in Poland, in tha 
name of Jesus Christ our Lord, who was crucified, and raised from the 
dead — Deuter. vi. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God is one God — John 
viii. 54. It is my Father — of whom ye say that he is your God. Printed 
by Alexander Turobinus, born in the year of Christ, the Son of God, 
1574."* We find, by a passage at the end of the preface, that this curious 
catechism was printed at Cracow; for it is said to have been published 
in that city, in the year 1574 from the birth of Christ. Now it is known 
that the Unitarians had, at that time, a printing-house at Cracow, which 
was, soon after, removed to Racow. Turobinus, who is said to have 
been the printer of this little production, is mentioned by Sandius, undei 
the denomination of Turobinczyck, which he undoubtedly derived from 
Turobin, a town in the. Palatinate of Chelm, in Little or Red Russia, 
which was the place of his nativity. The author of this catechism was 
the famous George Schoman, as has been evidently proved from a piece 
entitled Schomanni Testamentum,t and other circumstances, by Jo 
Adam Mollerus, in his dissert, de Unitariorum Catechesi et Confessione 
omnium prima.i The preface, composed in the name of the whole 
congregation, begins with the following salutation: "To all those whu 
thirst after eternal salvation, the little and afflicted flock in Poland, whicl 
is baptized in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, sendeth greeting, pray- 
ing most earnestly that grace and peace may be shed upon them by tht 
one supreme God and Father, through his only begotten Son, our Lora 
Jesus Christ, who was crucified."? After this general salutation, the 
prefacers give an account of the reasons that engaged them to compose 
and publish this confession. The principal motives arose from the re- 

* The original title runs thus : " Catheehesis et Confessio fidei ccetus 
per Poloniam congregati in nomine Jesu Christi, Domini nostri crucifixi 
et resuscitati. Deut. vi. Audi, Israel, Dominus Deus noster Deus unus 
est. Johan. viii. dicit Jesus, Quern vos dicitis vestrum esse Deum, esl 
pater meus. Typis Alexandri Turobini, anno nati Jesu Christi, filii Dei, 
1574." 

t This testament is published by Sandius, in his Bibhotheca Anti-Trh 

X The dissertation of Mollerus is to be found in a collection of pieces 
published by Bartholomanis under the following title: " Fortgesezten 
nutzlichen Anmerckungen von allerhand Materien, 1 part xxi. p. 758. 

§ Omnibus salutem iternam sitientibus, gratiamac pacem abunoilln 
altissimo Deo patre, per unigenitum ejus filium. Dominum nostrum, 
Jesum Christum crucifixum, ex animoprecatur ccetus exiguus et afF.ictus 
per Poloniam, in nomine ejusdem Christi Na7aroni Baptizatus. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



501 



this catechism, is remarkable for its simplicity, and is nei- 
ther loaded with scholastic terms nor with subtle discus- 
sions ; but it breathes, in several places, the spirit of So- 
cinianism, even in those parts of it which its authors look 
upon as most important and fundamental. Nor will this 
appear surprising to those who consider, that the papers 

proaches and aspersions that were cast upon Che Anabaptists in several 
places; from which we learn, that, at this time, the denomination of 
Anabaptists was given to those, who, in after-times, were called Soci- 
nians. The rest of this preface is employed in beseeching the reader to 
be firmly persuaded, that the designs of the congregation are pious and 
upright, to read with attention, that he may judge with discernment, and, 
" abandoning the doctrine of Babylon, and the conduct and conversation 
of Sodom, to take refuge in the ark of Noah," i. e. among the Unitarian 
Brethren. , 

In the beginning of the catechism itself, the whole doctrine of Chris- 
tianity is reduced to six points. The first relates to the nature of God 
and his Son Jesus Christ; the second to justification; the third to disci- 
pline; the fourth to prayer; the fifth to baptism; and the sixth to the 
Lord's supper. These six points are explained at length, in the follow- 
ing manner. Each point is defined and unfolded, in general terms, in 
one question and answer, and is afterwards subdivided into its several 
branches in various questions and answers, in which its different parts 
are illustrated and confirmed by texts of Scripture. From this it appears, 
at first sight, that the primitive state of Socinianism was a state of real 
infancy and weakness; that its doctors were by no means distinguished 
by the depth or accuracy of their theological knowledge; and that they 
instructed their flock in a superficial manner, by giving them only some 
vague notions of certain leading doctrines and precepts of religion. In 
their definition of the nature of God, with which this catechism begins, 
the authors discover immediately their sentiments concerning Jesus 
Christ, by declaring that he is subject, with ' all other things,' to the 
Supreme Creator of the universe. It may also be observed, as a proof 
of the ignorance or negligence of these authors, that, in illustrating the 
nature and perfections of the Deity, they make not the least mention of 
his infinity, his omniscience, immensity, eternity, omnipotence, omni- 
presence, spirituality, or of those other perfections of the divine nature 
that surpass the comprehension of finite minds. Instead of this, they 
characterize tire Supreme Being only by his wisdom, his immortality, 
his goodness, and unbounded dominion and empire over the creatures. 
By this it would seem, that, even at this early period of Socinianism, 
the rulers of that sect had adopted it as a maxim, that nothing incom- 
prehensible or mysterious was to be admitted into their religious system. 
—Their erroneous notion concerning Christ is expressed in the follow- 
ing terms: "Our mediator before the throne of God is a man who was 
formerly promised to our fathers by the prophets, and was born in these 
latter days of the seed of David, and whom God the Father has made 
Lord and Christ; that is, the most perfect prophet, the most holy priest, 
and the most triumphant king, by whom he created the new world,* by 
whom he sent peace upon earth, restored all things, and reconciled them 
to himself; and by whom also he has bestowed eternal life upon his 
elect, to the end that, after the Supreme God, we should believe in him, 
adore and invoke him, hear his voice, imitate his example, and find in 
him rest to our souis."t It is here worthy of notice, that, although they 
call Christ a most holy priest, and justify this title by citations from 
Scripture, they no where explain the nature of that priesthood which 
they attribute to him. — With respect to the Holy Ghost, they plainly 
deny his being a divine person, and represent him as nothing more than 
a divine quality, or virtue, as appears from the following passage : " The 
Holy Ghost is the energy or perfection of God, whose fulness God the 
Father bestowed upon his only begotten Son, our Lord, that we, be- 
coming his adopted children, might receive of his fulness. "t — They ex- 
press their sentiments of justification in the ensuing terms: "Justifica- 
tion consists in the remission of all our past sins, through the mere 
grace and mercy of God, in, and by our Lord Jesus Christ, without our 
merits and works, and in consequence of a lively faith; as also in the 
certain hope of life eternal, and the true and unfeigned amendment of 
our lives and conversation, through the assistance of the divine Spirit, 
to the glory of God the Father, and the edification of our neighbours."! 
As by this inaccurate definition justification comprehends in it amend- 
ment and obedience, so, in the explication of this point, our authors 
break in upon the following one, which relates to discipline, and lay 
down a short summary of moral doctrine, which is contained in a few 
precepts, and expressed for the most part in the language of Scripture. 
There is this peculiarity in their moral injunctions, that they prohibit 
the taking of oaths and the repelling of injuries. As to what regards 
ecclesiastical discipline, they define it thus: "Ecclesiastical discipline 
consists in calling frequently to the remembrance of every individual, 
the duties that are incumbent upon him; in admonishing, first privately, 
ftnd afterwards, if that be ineffectual, in a public manner, before the 
whole congregation, such as have sinned openly against God, or offend- 
ed their neighbour; and, lastly, in excluding from the communion of the 
church the obstinate and impenitent, that, being thus covered with shame, 



of Laelius Socinus, which he undoubtedly left behind hira 
in Poland, were in the hands of many ; and that, by the 
perusal of them, the Arians, who had formerly the upper 
hand in the community of the Unitarians, were engaged 
to change their sentiments concerning the nature and me- 
diation of Christ. 1 It is true, indeed, that the denomina- 

they may be led to repentance, or, if they remain unconverted, may be 
damned eternally. "II By their farther explication of the point relating 
to ecclesiastical discipline, we see how imperfect and incomplete their no- 
tions of that matter were. For they treat, in the first place, concerning 
the government of the church an»l its ministers, whom they divide into 
bishops, deacons, elders, and widows. After this they enumerate, at 
length, the duties of husbands and wives, old and young, parents and 
children, masters and servants, citizens and magistrates, poor and rich; 
and conclude with what relates to the admonition of offenders, and their 
exclusion from the communion of the church, in case of obstinate im- 
penitence. Their sentiments concerning prayer, are, generally speak- 
ing, sound and rational. But, in their notion of baptism, they differ 
from other Christian churches in this, that they make it to consist in im- 
mersion or dipping, and emersion or rising again out of the water, and 
maintain that it ought not to be administered to any but adult persons 
" Baptism," say they, " is the immersion into water, and the emersion 
of one who believes in the Gospel, and is truly penitent, performed in 
the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, or in the name of Jesus 
Christ alone; by which solemn act the person baptized publicly acknow- 
ledged, that he is cleansed from all his sins, through the mercy of God 
the Father, by the blood of Christ, and the operation of the Holy Spirit, 
to the end that, being engrafted into the body of Christ, he may mortify 
the old Adam, and be transformed into the image of the new and hea- 
venly Adam, in the firm assurance of eternal life after the resurrec- 
tion. "TT The last point handled in this performance is the sacrament of 
the Lord's Supper, of which the authors give an explication that will be 
readily adopted by those who embrace the doctrine of Zuingle on that 
head. At the end of this curious catechism there is a piece entitled, 
" CEconomia Christiana, seu Pastoratus Domesticus," which contains a 
short instruction to heads of families, showing them how they ought to 
proceed in order to maintain and increase in their houses a spirit of 
piety; in which also their devotion is assisted by forms of prayer, com- 
posed for morning, evening, and other occasions. 

The copy of this catechism, which is now before me, was given in 
1680, by Martin Chelmius, one of the most eminent and zealous Soci- 
nian doctors, to Mr. Christopher Heiligmier, as appears by a long in- 
scription, written by the donor, at the end of the book. In this inscrip- 
tion Chelmius promises his friend other productions of the same kind, 
provided he receives the present one kindly, and concludes with these 
words of St. Paul : ' God hath chosen the weak tilings of the world to 
confound the strong.' 

* This appears evidently from the following passage in Schoman's 
Tcstamentum, p. 194, 195. " Sub id fere tempus (A. 1566,) ex rhapsodiis 

* This expression is remarkable; for these doctors maintained, that 
these declarations of Scripture, which represent the world as formed by 
Christ, do not relate to the visible world, but to the restoration of man- 
kind to virtue and happiness by the Son of God. They invented this 
interpretation to prevent their being obliged to acknowledge the divine 
glory and creative power of Christ. 

t Est homo, mediator noster apud Deum, patribus olim per prophe'as 
promissus, et ultimis tandem temporibus ex Davidis semine natus, quern 
Deus pater fecit Dominum et Christum, hoc est, perfectissimum prophe- 
tam, sanctissimum sacerdotem, invictissimum regem, per quern mundum 
creavit, omnia restauravit, secum reconciliavit, pacificavit, et vitam ater- 
nam electis suis donavit; utin ilium, post Deum altissimum, credamus, 
ilium adoremus, invocemus, audiamus, pro modulo nostro imiteinur, et, 
in illo, requiem animabus nostris inveniamus. 

J Spiritus sanctus est virtus Dei, cujusplenitudinem dedit Deus pater 
filio suo unigenito, Domino nostro, ut ex ejus plenitudine nos adoptivi 
acciperemus. 

§ Justificatioest ex mera. gratia, per Dominum nostrum Jesum Chris- 
tum, sine operibus et mentis nostris, omnium prateritorum peccatorum 
nostrorum in viva fide remissio, vitseque sterna; indubitata expectatio, et 
auxilio spiritus Dei vitoe nostra non simulata sed vera correct.io, ad glo- 
riam Dei patris nostri et redificationem proximorum nostrorum. 

II Disciplina ecclesiastica est officii singulorumfrequenscommemoratio, 
etpeccantium contra Deum vel proximumprimum privata.deinde ctiam 
publica, coram totoccetu, commonefactio, denique pcrtinacium n comnra- 
nione sanctorum alienatio, ut pudore suffusi convertantur, aut, si id 
nolint, aeternum darrmentur. 

If Baptismus est hominis Evangelio credentis et pcenitentiam agentis, 
in nomine Patris, et Filii et Spiritus Sancti, vel in nomine Jesu Christi, 
in aquam immersio et emersio, qua publicc profitetur, se gratia Dei Patris, 
in sanguine Christi, opera Spiritus Sancti, ab omnibus peccatis ablutuin 
esse, ut, in corpus Christi insertus. morlificet veterem Adamum, ettrans- 
formetur in Adamum ilium caslestcm, certus, se post rcsurrcctionekU 
consequuturtun esse vilam aUernam. 



608 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



Sect. HL 



tion of Sodnian was not as yet known. Those who were 
afterwards distinguished by this title, passed in Poland, at 
the time of which we now speak, under the name of 
Anabaptists, because they admitted to baptism adult per- 
sons only, and also rebaptized those who joined them from 
other Christian churches. 1 

XI. The dexterity and perseverance of Faustus Soci- 
nus gave a new face to the Unitarian sect, of which he 
became a zealous and industrious patron. He was a man 
of true genius, but of little learning ; firm in his purposes, 
and steady in his measures ; much inferior in knowledge 
to his uncle Laelius, while he surpassed him greatly in 
courage and resolution. This eminent sectary, after hav- 
ing wandered through several countries of Europe, settled, 
in 1579, among the Unitarians in Poland, and, at his ar- 
rival there, suffered many vexations and much opposition 
from a considerable number of persons, who looked upon 
some of his tenets as highly erroneous. And, indeed, it 
is evident, that his religious system, which he is said to 
have drawn from the papers of Laelius, was much less re- 
markable for its simplicity than that of the Unitarians. 
He triumphed, however, at last, over all the difficulties 
that had been laid in his way, by the power of his elo- 
quence, the spirit and address that reigned in his com- 
positions, the elegance and gentleness of his manner, the 
favour and protection of the nobility, which he had ac- 
quired by his happy talents and accomplishments, and 
also by some lucky hits of fortune. By seizing the occa- 
sions when it was prudent to yield, and improving the 
moments that demanded bold resistance and firm resolu- 
tion, he stemmed dexterously and courageously the tor- 
rent of opposition, and beheld the Unitarians submitting 
to his doctrine, which they had before treated with indig- 
nation and conteinpt. They, in effect, laid aside all feuds 
and controversies, and formed themselves into one com- 
munity under his superintendency and direction. b 

XII. Thus did Socinus introduce a considerable change 
into the ancient Unitarian system, which, before his time, 
was ill digested, ill expressed, and chargeable in many 
places with ambiguity and incoherence. He disguised 
its inconsistencies, gave it an air of connexion, method, 
and elegance, and defended it with much more dexterity 

Lcelii Socini quidam fratres didicerunt, Dei filium non esse secundam 
Trinitatis personam, patri coessentialem et coasqualem, sed hominem 
Jesum Christum, ex Spiritu Saneto conceptum, ex Virgine Maria, natum, 
cracifixum, ct resuscitatum : a quibus nos commoniti, sacras literas 
perscrutari persuasi sumus." These words show plainly, that the Uni- 
tarians, or Pinczovians, had, before their separation from the reformed 
church in 15G5, believed in a Trinity of some kind or other, and had 
not gone so far as totally to divest Jesus Christ of his divinity. Scho- 
man, now cited, was a doctor of great authority in this sect; and he tells 
us that, at the diet of Petricow, in 1565, he defended the unity of God 
the Father against the reformed, who maintained the existence of a three- 
fold Deity. "We learn nevertheless, from himself, that it was not till the 
year 1566, that a perusal of the papers of Laelius Socinus had engaged 
him to change his sentiments, and to deny the divine personality of 
Christ. Hence we may conclude, that, before the year last-mentioned, 
he and his Pinczovian flock were not Socinians, but Arians only. 

» This the Unitarians acknowledge, and it is confirmed by the writer of 
the Epistola de Vita Andr. Wissowatii, who tells us, that his sect were 
distinguished by the denomination of Anabaptists ar-d Arians, but that 
all other Christian communities and individuals in I'oland were promis- 
cuously called Chrzesciani, from the wordChrzest, which signifies Bap- 
tism. 

b See Bayle's Dictionary.— Sandii Biblioth. Anti-Trin. p. 64. — Sam. 
Przypcopii Vita Socini, prefixed to the works of Socinus. — Lamy's 
Histoire du Socinianisme, parti, ii. 

c Hence it appears, that the modern Unitarians are very properly 
called Socinians ; for certainly the formation and establishment of that 
sect were entirely owing to the labours of Laelius and Faustus Socinus. 



and art, than had ever been discovered by its former pa- 
trons. And, accordingly, the affairs of the Unitarians 
put on a new face. Under the auspicious protection of 
such a spirited and insinuating chief, the little flock, that 
had been hitherto destitute of strength, resolution, and 
courage, grew apace, and suddenly arose to a high degree 
of credit and influence. Its number was augmented by 
proselytes of all ranks and orders. Of these some were 
distinguished by their nobility, others by their opulence, 
some by their address, and many by their learning and 
eloquence. All these contributed, in one v/ay or another, 
to increase the lustre, and to advance the interests of this 
rising community, and to support it against the multitude 
of adversaries, which its remarkable prosperity and suc- 
cess had raised up against it from all quarters ; the rich 
maintained it by their liberality, the powerful by their 
patronage and protection, and the learned by their writ- 
ings. But now the system of the Unitarians, being thus 
changed and new-modelled, required a new confession of 
faith to make known its principles, and give a clear and 
full account of its present state. The ancient catechism, 
which was no more than a rude and incoherent sketch, 
was therefore laid aside, and a new form of doctrine was 
drawn up by Socinus himself. This form was corrected 
by some, augmented by others, and revised by all the Sq- 
cinian doctors of any eminence ; and, having thus ac- 
quired a competent degree of accuracy and perfection, 
was published under the title of the Catechism of Racow, 
and is still considered as the Confession of Faith of the 
whole sect. An unexpected circumstance crowned all 
the fortunate events that had happened to this sect, and 
seemed to leave them nothing farther to desire ; and this 
was the zealous protection of Jacobus a Sienno, to whom 
Racow belonged. This new patron, separating himself 
from the reformed church, in 1600, embraced the doctrine 
and communion of the Socinians, and, about two years 
after, erected in his own city, which he declared their 
metropolis, a public school, designed as a seminary for 
their church, to form its ministers and pastors. d 

XIII. From Poland, the doctrine of Socinus made its 
way into Transylvania, in 1563, principally by the credit 
and influence of George Blandrata, a celebrated physi- 



The former, indeed, who -was naturally timorous and irresolute, died at 
Zurich, in 1562, in the communion of the reformed church, and seemed 
unwilling to expose himself to danger, or to sacrifice his repose, by found- 
ing a new sect, that is, by appearing professedly and openly in this 
enterprise. Besides, many circumstances concur to render it highly 
probable, that he did not finish the religious system of which he had 
formed the plan, but died, on the contrary, in a state of uncertainty and 
doubt with respect to several points of no small importance. But, not- 
withstanding all this, he contributed much to the institution of the sect 
now under consideration. He collected the materials that Faustus after- 
wards digested and employed with such dexterity and success: he 
secretly and imperceptibly excited doubts and scruples in the minds o ( 
many, concerning several doctrines generally received among Christians-., 
and, by several arguments against the divinity of Christ, which he left 
in writing, he so far seduced, even after his death, the Arians in Poland, 
that they embraced the communion and sentiments of those who looked 
upon Christ as a mere man, created immediately, like Adam, by God 
himself. What Laelius had thus begun, Faustus carried on with vigour 
and finished with success. It is indeed difficult, and scarcely possible, 
to determine precisely, what materials he received from his uncle, and 
what tenets he added himself; that he added several is plain enough. The 
difficulty arises from this circumstance, that there are few writings of 
Laelius extant; and of those that bear his name, some undoubtedly be- 
long to other authors. We learn, however, from Faustus himself, that 
the doctrine he propagated, with respect to the person of Christ, was 
(at least, the greatest part of it) broached by Laelius. 

a See Wissowatii Narratio de Separatione Unitariorum a Reformatis, 
p. 214. — Lubieniecius, lib. iii. cap. xii. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



509 



cian, whom Sigismund, at that time sovereign of the 
country, had invited to his court, in cider to the restora- 
tion of his health. Blandrata was a man of uncommon 
address, had a deep knowledge of men and things, and 
was particularly acquainted with the manners, transac- 
tions, and intrigues of courts. He was accompanied hy 
a Socinian minister, whose name was Francis Davides, 
who seconded his efforts with such zeal, that, by their 
united solicitations and labours, they engaged the prince, 
and the greatest part of the nobility, in their cause, in- 
fected almost the whole province with their errors, and 
obtained for the ministers and members of their commu- 
nion, the privilege of professing and propagating their 
doctrines. in a public manner. The Bathori. indeed, who 
were afterwards chosen dukes of Transylvania, were by 
no means prejudiced in favour of the Socinians ; but that 
sect had become so powerful by its numbers and its in- 
fluence, that they could not, in prudence, attempt to sup- 
press it.* Such also was the case with the successors of 
the Bathori ; they ardently wished to extirpate this society, 
but never could accomplish that object ; so that to this 
day the Socinians profess their religion publicly in this 
province, and, indeed, in it alone ; and, relying on the 
protection of the laws, and the faith of certain treaties 
that have been adjusted with them, have their churches 
and seminaries of learning, and hold their ecclesiastical 
and religious assemblies, though exposed to perpetual dan- 
gers and snares from the vigilance of their adversaries. b 
About the same time the Socinians endeavoured to form 
settlements in Hungary 1 and Austria ; d but these attempts 
were defeated by the united and zealous opposition both 
of the Roman catholic and reformed churches. 

XIV. No sooner had the Socinians obtained a solid 
and happy settlement at Racow, than the dictates of zeal 
and ambition suggested to them views of a still more ex- 
tensive nature. Encouraged by the protection of men 
in power, and the suffrages of men of learning and ge- 
nius, they began to form several plans for the enlarge- 
ment of their community, and meditated nothing less 
than the propagation of their doctrine through all the 
states of Europe. The first step the}" took toward the 
execution of this purpose, was the publication of a consi- 
derable number of books, of which some were designed 
to illustrate and defend their theological system, and others 
to explain, or rather to pervert, the sacred writings into a 
conformity with their peculiar tenets. These books, which 
were composed by the most subtile and artful doctors of 
the sect, were printed at Racow. and dispersed with the 
utmost industry and zeal through different countries. e 
They also sent some of their brethren into various parts 
of Europe, toward the conclusion of this century, as we 
learn from authentic records, in order to make proselytes 

■ See Sandius, p. 28, 55. — Salig, vol. ii. lib. vi. — Debrezeni Hist 
Ecclesise Reformats in Hungaria, p. 147. — Mart. Sclimeizelii de Statu 
Ec. Lutherans in Transylvania, p. 55. — Lamy, His. clu Socinianisme, 
part i. ch. xiii. 

>> Zeltneri Historia Crypto-Socinismi Altorfini, cap. ii. p. 357. 

" Debrezeni Hist. p. 169. 

J Henr. Spondani Continual. Anna], Baronii, ad An. 1568. 

e A considerable number of these books were republished, in 1656, in 
one great collection, consisting of six volumes in folio, under the title of 
Bibliolheca Fratrum Polonorum. In this collection, indeed, many pieces 
are not inserted, which were composed by the most eminent leaders of 
the sect; but what is there published, is sufficient to give the attentive 
reader a clear idea of the doctrine of the Socinians, and of the nature of 
their institution as a religious community. 

No. XLIII. 128 



and erect new congregations. These missicnaries seem~ 
ed every way qualified to gain credit to the cause in which 
they had embarked, as some of them were distinguished 
by the lustre of their birth, and others by the extent of 
their learning, and the powers of their eloquence ; and 
| yet, notwithstanding these uncommon advantages, they 
failed, almost every where, in their attempts. A small 
congregation was founded at Dantzic, which subsisted 
for some time in a clandestine manner, and then gradu 
! ally dwindled to nothing/ The first attempts to promote 
the cause of Socinianism in Holland, were made by a 
person whose name was Erasmus Johannis.? After him 
I Christopher Ostorod, and Andrew Voidovius. who were 
the main pillars of the sect, used their utmost endeavours 
i to gain disciples and followers in that country ; nor were 
their labours wholly unsuccessful, though the zeal of the 
' clergy, and the vigilance of the magistrates, prevented 
' their forming any regular assemblies, 11 and thus hindered 
their party from acquiring any considerable degree of 
| strength and stability.' Socinianism did not meet with 
a better reception in Britain than in Holland. It was in- 
; troduced into Germany by Adam Neuser, and other emis- 
| saries, who infected the Palatinate with its errors, having 
j entered into a league with the Transylvanians, at the 
critical period when the affairs of the Unitarians, in Po- 
land, carried a dubious and unpromising aspect. But this 
pernicious league was soon detected, and the schemes of 
its authors were entirely disconcerted ; upon which Neu- 
ser went into Turkey, and enlisted among the Janisa- 
ries. k 

XV. Although the Socinians professed to believe that 
our divine knowledge is derived solely from the Holy 
Scriptures, they maintain in reality, that the sense of 
Scripture is to be investigated and explained by the dic- 
tates of right reason, to wdiich, in consequence, they at- 
tribute a great influence in determining the nature, and 
unfolding the various doctrines of religion. "When their 
writings are perused with attention, they will be found to 
attribute more to reason, in this matter, than most other 
Christian societies; for they frequently insinuate artfully, 
and sometimes declare plainly, that the sacred penmen 
were guilty of many errors, from a defect of memory, as 
well as a want of capacity ; that they expressed their sen- 
timents without perspicuity or precision, and rendered the 
plainest things obscure by their pompous and diffuse 
Asiatic style ; and that it was therefore absolutely neces- 
sary to employ the lamp of human reason to cast a light 
upon their doctrine, and to explain it in a manner con- 
formable to truth. It is easy to see what they had in view 
by maintaining propositions of this kind. They aimed at 
nothing less than the establishment of the following gen- 
eral rule, viz. That the history of the Jews, and also 

'Zelterni Hist. p. 199. s Sandius, p. 87. 

gjpfc Brandt, in his History of the Reformation of the Netherlands, 
tells us, that Ostorod and Voidovius were banished, and that their books 
were condemned to be publicly burned by the hands of the common 
hangman. Accordingly the pile was raised, the executioner approach- 
ed, and the multitude was assembled ; but the books did not appear. The 
magistrates, who were curious to peruse their contents, had quiedy 
divided them among themselves and their friends. 

i Zeltnerus, p. 31, 178. 

k Burch. Struvii Hist. Eccles. Palat. cap. viii. sect. liii. — Alting, Hist 
Eccles. Palat in Miegii Monum. Palat. p. 266 — 337— La Croze, Dis- 
sertations Historiques, torn. i. p. 101, 127. compared with Bern. Raupa- 
chius' Presbyterologia Austriaca, p. 113, where there is an account of 
John Matthaeus. who was concerned in these troubles. 



510 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



Sect. IIL 



that of Jesus Christ, were indeed to be derived from the 
books of the Old and New Testament, and that it was 
not lawful to entertain the least doubt concerning the 
truth of this history, or the authenticity of these books in 
general ; but that the particular doctrines which they con- 
tain, were, nevertheless, to be understood and explained 
in such a manner as to render them consonant with the 
dictates of reason. According to this representation of 
things, it is not the scripture that declares clearly and ex- 
pressly what we are to believe concerning the nature, 
counsels, and perfections of the Deity ; but it is human 
reason, which shows us the system of religion that we 
ought to seek in, and deduce from, the divine oracles. 

XVI. This fundamental principle of Socinianism will 
appear more dangerous and pernicious, when we con- 
sider the sense in which the word Reason was under- 
stood by this sect. The pompous title of Right Reason 
was given, by the Socinians, to that measure of intelli- 
gence and discernment, or, in other words, to that faculty 
of comprehending and judging, which we derive from 
nature. According to this definition, the fundamental 
rule of Socinianism necessarily supposes, that no doctrine 
ought to be acknowledged as true in its nature, or divine 
in its origin, all whose parts are not level to the compre- 
hension of the human understanding; and that, what- 
ever the Scriptures teach concerning the perfections of 
God, his counsels, and decrees, and the way of salvation, 
must be modified, curtailed, and filed down, in such a 
manner, by the transforming power of art and argument, 
as to answer the extent of our limited faculties. Those 
who adopt this singular rule, must at the same time grant 
that the number of religions must be nearly equal to that 
of individuals ; for, as there is a great variety in the talents 
and capacities of different persons, so what will appear dif- 
ficult and abstruse to one, will seem evident and clear to 
another ; and thus the more discerning and penetrating 
will adopt, as divine truth, what the slow and superficial 
will look upon as unintelligible jargon. This consequence 
does not at all alarm the Socinians, who suffer their mem- 
bers to explain, in very different ways, many doctrines of 
the highest importance, and permit every one to follow 
his particular fancy in composing his theological system, 
provided that they acknowledge, in general, the truth and 
authenticity of the history of Christ, and adhere to the pre- 
cepts which the gospel lays down for the regulation of our 
lives and actions. 

XVII. In consequence of this leading maxim, the So- 
cinians either reject without exception, or change and ac- 
commodate to their limited capacities, all those doctrines 
relating to the nature of God and of Jesus Christ, the plan 
of redemption, and the eternal rewards and punishments 
unfolded in the Gospel, which they either cannot compre- 
hend, or consider as attended with considerable difficulties. 
The sum of their theology is as follows : " God, who is in- 
finitely more perfect than man, though of a similar nature 
in some respects, exerted an act of that power by which 
he governs all things ; in consequence of which an ex- 
traordinary person was born of the Virgin Mary. That 
person was Jesus Christ, whom God first translated to 
heaven by that portion of his divine power, which is called 



• We have an account of the authors of this famous catechism, and 
of the various success it met with, in the Commentatio de Catechesi 
Recoviensi, published by Schmidius in 1707. See also Kocheri Biblioth. 



the Holy Ghost ; and, having there instructed him fully 
in the knowledge of his will, counsels, and designs 
he sent him again into this sublunary world, to promul- 
gate to mankind a new rule of hfe, more excellent than 
that under which they had formerly lived, to propagate 
divine truth by his ministry, and to confirm it by his 
death. 

"Those who obey the voice of this Divine Teacher, (and 
this obedience is in the power of every one whose will and 
inclination lead that way), shall one day be clothed with 
new bodies, and inhabit eternally those blessed regions, 
where God himself immediately resides. Such, on the 
contrary, as are disobedient and rebellious, shall undergo 
most terrible and exquisite torment.?, which shall be suc- 
ceeded by annihilation, or the total extinction of their 
being." 

The whole system of Socinianism, when stripped of the 
embellishments and commentaries with which it has been 
loaded and disguised by its doctors, is really reducible to 
the few propositions now mentioned. 

XVIII. The nature and genius of the Socinian theol- 
ogy have an immediate influence upon the moral system 
of that sect, and naturally led its doctors to confine their 
rules of morality and virtue to the external actions and 
duties of life. On one hand, they deny the influence of a 
divine spirit and power upon the minds of men ; and, on 
the other, they acknowledge, that no mortal has such an 
empire over himself as to be able to suppress or extinguish 
his sinful propensities and corrupt desires. Hence they 
have no conclusion left but one, and that is, to declare all 
such true and worthy Christians, whose words and exter- 
nal actions are conformable to the precepts of the divine law. 
It is, at the same time, remarkable, that another branch 
of their doctrine leads directly to the utmost severity in 
what relates to life and manners, since they maintain, 
that the great end of Christ's mission upon earth was to 
exhibit to mortals a new law, distinguished from all others 
by its unblemished sanctity and perfection. Hence it 
is, that a great number of Socinians have fallen into the 
fanatical rigour of the ancient Anabaptists, and judge it 
absolutely unlawful to repel injuries, to take oaths, to in- 
flict capital punishments on malefactors, to oppose the des- 
potic proceedings of tyrannical magistrates, or even to ac- 
quire wealth by honest industry. But, in this, there is 
something extremely singular, and they are here, indeed, 
inconsistent with themselves ; for while, in matters of doc- 
trine, the)^ take the greatest liberty with the expressions of 
Scripture, and pervert them, in a violent manner, to the 
defence of their peculiar tenets, they proceed quite other- 
wise, when they come to prescribe rules of conduct from the 
precepts of the Gospel ; for then they understand these pre- 
cepts literally, and apply them without the least distinction 
of times, persons, and circumstances. 

XIX. It must carefully be observed, that the Cate- 
chism of Racow, which most people look upon as the 
great standard of Socinianism, and as an accurate sum- 
mary of the doctrine of that sect, is, in reality, no more 
than a collection of the popular tenets of the Socinians, 
and by no means a just representation of the secret opi- 
nions and sentiments of their doctors. 1 The writings, 



A new edition of the catechism itself, with a solid refutation of the 

doctrine it contains, was published in 1739, by the learned George Louis 
Oeder. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



51 



therefore, of these learned men must be. perused with at- 
tention, in order to our knowing the hidden reasons and 
true principles from which the doctrines of the Catechism 
are derived. It is observable, besides, that, in this- Cate- 
chism, many Socinian tenets and institutions, which might 
have contributed to render the sect still more odious, and 
to expose its internal constitution too much to public view, | 
are entirely omitted ; so that it seems to have been less 
composed for the use of the Socinians themselves, than to 
impose upon strangers, and to mitigate the indignation ; 
which the tenets of this community had excited in the 
minds of many. 1 Hence it never obtained, among the 
Socinians. the authority of a public confession or rule of 
faith ; and hence the divines of that sect were authorized 
to correct and contradict it, or to substitute another form of '• 
doctrine in its place. It is also observable, that the most 
eminent writers and patrons of the Socinians. give no 
clear or consistent account of the sentiments of that sect 
in relation to ecclesiastical discipline aud government, and 
the form of public worship. All that we know is, that 
they follow in these matters, generally speaking, the cus- 
toms received in the protestaut churches. b 

XX. The founders and first patrons of this sect were 
eminently distinguished by their learning and genius. 
Their successors, however, did not follow their steps in 
this respect, nor retain the reputation the) - had univer- 
sally obtained. The Unitarians in Poland seem to have 
had little ambition of science. They gave no encourage- 
ment to learning or talents ; and appeared little solicitous 
of having in then community subtle doctors and learned 
disputants. But, when they perceived on the one hand, 
that the success of their community required as able de- 
fenders, as they had learned and ingenious adversaries, 
and were so fortunate, on the other, as to obtain the pri- 
vilege of erecting seminaries of learning at Racow and 
Lublin, they changed their sentiments with respect to this 
matter, and became sensible of the necessity under which 
the\" lay, to encourage in their community a zeal for the 
sciences. This zeal increased greatly from the time that 
Faustus Socinus undertook the restoration of their declin- 
ing credit, and put himself at the head of their tottering 
sect. At that time many persons, distinguished by their 
birth, education, and talents, embraced its doctrine, and 
contributed to promote the love of science among its mem- 
bers. Then the youth were instructed in the rules of 
eloquence and rhetoric, and the important branches of 
Oriental, Greek, and Latin hterature. Even the secret 
paths of philosophy were opened, though their treasures 
were disclosed only to a few, who were selected, for that 
purpose, from the multitude. The Racovian doctors, in 
compliance with the spirit and taste of the age, chose 
Aristotle as their guide in philosophy, as appears evidently 
from the Ethics of Crelhus, and other literary records of 
these times. 

XXI. Notwithstanding this progress of philosophy 
among the Socinians. their doctors seemed to reject its 
aid in theology with obstinacy and disdain. They de- 
clare, in numberless places of their writings, that both in 
the interpretation of Scripture, and in explaining and de- 

a Tiiis appears evident enough from their presenting a Latin transla- 
tion of tills catechism to James I. king of Great Britain, and a German 
one to the university of Wittenberg. 

tThis is manifest from a work which bears the following title: 
"Politia Ecclesiastica, quam vulgo Agenda vocant, sive forma Regi- 



monstrating tfje truth of religion in general, clearness and 
simplicity are alone to be consulted , and no regard paid 
to the subtleties of philosophy and logic. And, indeed, 
had their doctors and interpreters followed, in practice, 
that rule which they have laid down with so much osten 
tation in theory, they would nave saved their adversaries, 
and perhaps themselves, much trouble. But this is by no 
means the case. For, in the greatest part of their theolo 
gical productions, their pretended simplicity is frequently 
accompanied with much subtlety, and with the most re 
fined intricacies of scientific art. And, what is still more 
inexcusable, they reason with the greatest dexterity and 
acuteness upon those subjects, which (as they surpass the 
reach of the human understanding) are generally receiv- 
ed, among other Christians, as facts confirmed by the most 
respectable testimony, and consequently as matters of purb 
faith, while the}- discover little sagacity, or strength oi 
judgment, in those discussions which are within the 
sphere of reason, and are properly amenable to its tribu- 
nal. They are acute where they ought to be silent, and 
they reason awkwardly where sagacity and argument are 
required. These are certainly great inconsistencies ; yet 
they proceed from one and the same principle, even the 
maxim universally received in this community, that all 
things which surpass the limits of human comprehen- 
sion are to be entirely banished from the Christian re- 
ligion. 

XXII. It has been already observed, that the Unita- 
rians had no sooner separated themselves from the Re- 
formed churches in Poland, than they became a prey to 
intestine divisions, and were split into several factions. 
The points of doctrine that gave rise to these divisions, 
related to the dignity of Christ's nature and character, 
the unlawfulness of infant-baptism, and the personality 
of the Holy Ghost, to which were added several altera- 
tions, concerning the duties of life, and the rules of con- 
duct that were obligatory on Christians. The sects, pro- 
duced by these divisions, were not all equally obstinate. 
Some of them entertained pacific dispositions, and seemed 
inclined toward a reconciliation. But two, particularly, 
tenaciously maintained their sentiments, and persisted in 
their separation ; these were the Budn&eans and the Far- 
novians. The former were so called from their leader 
j Simon Budneeus, a man of considerable acuteness and 
: sagacity, who, more dexterous than the rest of his bre- 
thren in deducing consequences from their principles, and 
perceiving plainly the conclusions to which the peculiar 
principles of Ladius Socinus naturally led, peremptorily 
denied the propriety of offering any kind of religious wor- 
ship to Jesus Christ. Nor did Budnaeus stop here : in or- 
der to give a more specious colour to this capital error, 
and to maintain it upon consistent grounds, he asserted that 
Christ was not begotten by an extraordinary act of di- 
vine power, but that he was born like other men, in a 
natural way. This hypothesis, however conformable to 
the fundamental principles of Socinianism, appeared in- 
! tolerable and impious to the major part even of that com- 
munity. Hence Budnaeus, who had gained over to his 
doctrine a great number of proselytes in Lithuania and 



minis exterioris Ecclesiarum Christianarum in Polonia, quae unum 
Deum Patrem. per filium ejus Unigenitum in Spiritu Sancto, confitentur." 
This w T ork was composed in 1642 by Peter Morscovius or Morscowsky 
and published at Nuremberg by Oeder. It is mentioned by Sandius, 
who says that it was drawn up for the use of the Belgic churches. 



512 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS. 



Sect. ILL 



Russian Poland, was deposed from his ministerial func- 
tions, in 15S4, and publicly excommunicated with all his 
disciples. It is said, however, that he afterwards aban- 
doned his peculiar and offensive sentiments, and was re- 
admitted to the communion of that sect.. 11 

XXIII. This heretical doctrine, which had created so 
much trouble to Budnaeus, was soon after adopted by 
Francis Davides, a native of Hungary, who was the su- 
perintendent of the Socinian churches in Transylvania, 
and who opposed, with the greatest ardour and obstinacy, 
the custom of offering up prayers and divine worship to 
Jesus Christ. Several methods were used to reclaim him 
from this offensive error. Blandrata employed all the 
powei - of his eloquence for this purpose, and, to render his 
remonstrances still more effectual, sent for Faustus Socinus, 
who went accordingly into Transylvania, in 1573, and 
seconded his arguments and exhortations with the utmost 
zeal and perseverance. But Davides remained unmoved, 
and was, in consequence of this obstinate adherence to 
his error, apprehended by order of Christopher Bathori, 
prince of Transylvania, and thrown into prison, where 
he died in 1579, at an advanced age. b His unhappy 
fate did not, however, extinguish the controversy to which 
his doctrine had given rise ; for he left behind him disci- 
ples and friends, who strenuously maintained his senti- 
ments, stood firm against the opposition that was made to 
them, and created much uneasiness to Socinus and his 
followers in Lithuania and Poland. The most eminent 
of these were Jacob Paleeologus, of the isle of Chio, who 
was burned at Rome in 1585 ; Christian Francken, who 
had disputed in person with Socinus ; and John Somer, 
who was master of the academy of Clausenburg. d This 

1 See Sandii Biblioth. Anti-Trinit. p. 54, 55. — Epistola de Vita, Wis- 
sowatii, p. 226. — Ringeltaube's German Dissertation on the Polish 
Bibles, p. 144, 152. — Samuel Crellius, the most learned Socinian of our 
times, is of opinion that Adam Neuser,* who was banished on account 
of his erroneous sentiments, was the author of this doctrine, which is 
so derogatory from the dignity of Jesus Christ. See Crellii Thesaur. 
Epistol. Crozian. 

•> Sandius, Biblioth. Anti-Trinit. p. 55. — Faust. Socin.oper. torn. i. p. 
353,395; torn. ii. p. 713,771, where there is an account of his confe- 
rence and dispute with Francis Davides. — Stan. Lubieniecii Hist. Re- 
form. Polonicse, lib. iii. c. xi. 

c See Sandius, Biblioth. p. 57. The dispute between Socinus and 
Francken is related at large in the works of the former, torn. ii. p. 767. 

=£js= <i Clausenburg, otherwise Coloswar, is a town in Transylvania, 
extremely populous and well fortified. The Socinians have here a public 
school and a printing-house; and their community in this place is very nu- 
merous. Till the year 1603, they were in possession of the cathedral, 
which was then taken from them and given to the Jesuits, whose col- 
lege and church they had pulled down. 

"Faustus Socinus wrote a particular treatise against the Semi-Ju- 
daizers. It is, however, worthy of observation, that the motive which 
engaged him and his friends to employ so much pains and labour in the 
suppression of this faction, was not a persuasion of the pernicious ten- 
dency of its doctrines or peculiar notions. On the contrary, he express- 
ly acknowledges, that this controversy turns upon matters of very little 
importance, by declaring it, as his opinion, that praying or offering up 
divine worship to Christ, is not necessary to salvation. Thus, in his 
answer to Wujeck, he expresses himself in the following manner: 
" The Christian, whose faith is so great, as to encourage him to offer 
his addresses habitually and directly to the Supreme Being, and who 
standeth not in need of the comfort that flows from the invocation of 
Christ, his brother, who was tempted in all tilings like as he is, is not 



little sect is branded, by the Socinian writers, with the ig- 
nominious appellation of Semi-Judaizers. e 

XXIV. The Farnovians were treated by the Sociniam. 
with much greater indulgence. They were neither ex- 
cluded from the communion of the sect, nor obliged to re- 
nounce their peculiar tenets ; they were only exhorted to 
conceal them prudently, and not publish or propagate them 
in their discourses from the pulpit/ This particular 
branch of the Socinian community was so named from 
Stantislaus Farnovius, or Farnesius, who was engaged 
by Gonesius to prefer the Arian system to that of the So- 
cinians, and consequently asserted, that Christ had been 
engendered or produced out of nothing, by the Supreme 
Being, before tne creation of this terrestrial globe. It is 
not so easy to say, what his sentiments were concerning 
the Holy Ghost ; all we know upon that head is, that he 
warned his disciples against paying the tribute of religious 
worship to that divine Spirit, e Farnovius separated from 
the other Unitarians, in 1568, and was followed in this 
schism by several persons eminent on account of the ex- 
tent of their learning, and the influence of their rank, 
such as Martin Czechovicius, Neimoiovius, Stanislaus 
Wisnowius, John Falcon, George Schoman, and others. 
They did not, however, form themselves into a stable or 
permanent sect. The lenity and indulgence of the So- 
cinians, together with the dexterity of their disputants, 
brought many of them back into the bosom of the com- 
munity they had deserted, and considerable numbers were 
dispersed or regained by the prudence and address of 
Faustus Socinus; so that at length the whole faction, 
being deprived of its chief, who died in 1615, was scat- 
tered abroad, and reduced to nothing. 11 



obliged to call upon the name of Jesus, by prayer or supplication. "t Ac- 
cording therefore to the opinion of Socinus, those who lay aside all re- 
gard to Christ as an intercessor, and address themselves directly to God 
alone, have a greater measure of faith than others. But, if this be so, 
why did he oppose with such vehemence and animosity the senti- 
ment of Davides, who, in effect, did no more than exhort all Christians 
to address themselves directly and immediately to the Father'? Here 
there appears to be a striking inconsistency. We find also Lubienie- 
cius, in his Reformat. Histor. Polonicae, lib. iii. cap. xi. speaking lightly 
enough of this controversy, and representing it as a matter of very little 
moment; for he says that in Transylvania there was ' much ado about 
nothing.'* We may therefore conclude, that Socinus and his followers 
were more artful than ingenuous in their proceedings with respect to 
Davides. They persecuted him and his followers, lest, by tolerating 
his doctrine, they should increase the odium under which they already 
lay, and draw upon themselves anew the resentment of other Christian 
churches, while, in their private judgment, they looked upon this very 
doctrine, and its professors, as worthy of toleration and indulgence. 

t Epistola de Vita Wissowatii, p. 226. — Sandius says, that a pro- 
fessor of divinity at Clausenburg was prohibited from saying any thing, 
in his public discourses, of Christ's having existed before the Virgin 
Mary. 

s Sandius, Biblioth. p. 52, &c. 

h We omit here an enumeration of the more famous Socinian writers 
who flourished in this century, because the greater part of them have 
already been mentioned in the course of this History. The rest may 
be easily collected from Sandius. 

* See sect. xiv. of this chapter. 

t Si quis tanta est fide praeditus, ut ad Deum ipsum perpetuo recta 
accedere audeat, nee consolatione, quaj ex Christi fratris sui per omn^ 
tentati invocatione pi oficiscitur, indigeat, hie non opus habetut Christum 
invocet. t Fluctus in simpulo excitatos esse. 



THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY. 



SECTION I. 

THE GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



1. The arduous attempts of the pontiffs, in the preced- 
ing century, to advance the glory and majesty of the see 
of Rome, by extending the limits of the Christian church, 
and spreading the Gospel among distant nations, met 
with great opposition ; and, as they were neither well 
-onducted nor properly supported, their fruits were nei- 
ther abundant nor permanent. But in this century the 
same attempts were renewed with vigour, and crowned 
with such success, as contributed not a little to give a new 
degree of stability to the tottering grandeur of the papacy. 
They were begun by Gregory XV., who, by the advice 
of his confessor Narni, founded at Rome, in 1622, the fa- 
mous congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, and 
enriched it with ample revenues. This congregation, 
which consists of thirteen cardinals, two priests, one monk, 
and a secretary, 3 is designed to propagate and maintain the 
religion of Rome in ah pails of the world. Its riches and 
possessions were so prodigiously augmented by the mu- 
nificence of Urban VIII. and the liberality of an incredible 
number of donors, that its funds are, at this day, adequate 
to the most sumptuous undertakings. 13 And, indeed, the 
enterprises of this congregation are great and extensive : 
by it a vast number of missionaries are sent to the re- 
motest parts of the world ; books of various kinds pub- 
lished, to facilitate the study of foreign and barbarous 
languages; the sacred writings, and other pious produc- 
tions, sent abroad to the most distant corners of the globe, 
and exhibited to each nation and country in their own 
language and characters : seminaries founded for the sus- 
tenance and education of a great number of young men, 
set apart for the foreign missions ; houses erected for the 
instruction and support of the pagan youths who are year- 
ly sent from abroad to Rome, that they may return thence 
into their respective countries, and become the instructors 
of their blinded brethren : not to mention the charitable 
establishments that are intended for the relief and support 
of those who have suffered banishment, or been involved in 
other calamities, on account of their steadfast attachment 
to the religion of Rome, and their zeal for promoting 
the glory of its pontiff. Such are the arduous and com- 
plicated schemes, with the execution of which this congre- 
gation is charged ; but these, though the principal, are 
not the only objects of its attention ; its views, in a word, 



* Such is the number appropriated to this Congregation by Gregory's 
original Bull. See Bullarium Roman, torn. iii. — Cerri mentions the 
same number, in his Etat Present de 1'Eglise Romaine. But a differ- 
ent account is given by Aymon, in his Tableau dc la Cour de Rome, 
p. iu. ch. iii. p. 279. for he makes this Congregation to consist of eighteen 
cardinals, one of the pope's secretaries, one apostolical proto-notary, one 
referendary, and one of the assessors or secretaries of the inquisition. 

t> This assertion was not strictly true at the time when it was hazard- 
ed ; and to our own tune it is very inapplicable. — Edit. 

' The authors who have given an account of this Congregation, are 
mentioned by Fabricius, in his Lux Evangel ii toti Orbi exoriens, cap. 

No. XLIV, 129 



are vast, and its exploits almost incredible. Its members 
hold their assemblies in a spacious and magnificent paiace, 
whose delightful situation adds a singular lustre to its 
beauty and grandeur.' 

II. To this famous establishment, another, less splendid 
indeed, but highly useful, was added, in 1627, by Urban 
VIII. under the denomination of a College or Seminary 
for the Propagation of the Faith. This seminary is ap- 
propriated to the education of those who are designed for 
the foreign missions ; and they are here instructed, with 
the greatest care, in the knowledge of all the languages 
and sciences that are necessary to prepare them for pro- 
pagating the Gospel among the distant nations. This 
excellent foundation was due to the zeal and munificence 
of John Baptist Viles, a Spanish nobleman, who resided 
at the court of Rome, and who began by presenting to 
the pontiff all his ample possessions, together with his 
house, which was a noble and beautiful structure, for this 
pious and generous purpose. His liberality excited a spirit 
of pious emulation, and is followed with zeal even to this 
day. The seminary was at first committed by Urban to 
the care and direction of three canons of the patriarchal 
churches ; but this appointment was afterwards changed, 
and, ever since the year 1641, it has been governed by 
the congregation founded by Gregory XV. d 

III. The same zealous spirit reached France, and pro- 
duced in that country several pious foundations of a 
like nature. In 1663, the king- instituted the Cong-rega- 
tion of Priests of the foreign Missions ; while an as- 
sociation of bishops and other ecclesiastics founded the 
Parisian Seminary for the Missions abroad, designed for 
the education of those who were set apart for the propa- 
gation of Christianity among the pagan nations. Hence 
apostolical vicars are still sent to Siam, Tonquin, Cochin- 
Chin a, and Persia, bishops to Bagdad, and missionaries 
to other Asiatic nations ; and all these spiritual envoys 
are supported by the' ample revenues and possessions of 
the congregation and seminary* These priests of the 
foreign missions/ and the apostles whom they send into 
foreign countries, are almost perpetually involved in alter- 
cations and debates with the Jesuits and their missiona- 
ries. The former are shocked at the methods which are 
ordinarily employed by the latter in converting the Chi- 

xxxiii. p. 566. Add to these, Dorotheus Ascanius, de Montibus Pietatis 
Ecclesiae Roman, p. 522, where may be seen a complete list of the books 
that have been published by this congregation, from its first institution 
to the year 1667. 

* Helyot, Histoire des Ordres, torn. viii. cap. xii. — TJrb. Cerri, Etat. 
Present de 1'Eglise Romaine, p. 293, where, however, the founder of 
this college is called, by mistake, Vives. 

e See the Gallia Christiana Benedictinorum, torn. iv. p. 1024. — Hel- 
yot, Histoire des Ordres, torn. viii. chap. xii. 

< These Ecclesiastics are commonly called, in France, Messieurs dts 
Missions Etrangeres. 



614 



GENERAL HISTOR* OF THE CHURCH. 



Sect. I. 



nese and oilier Asiatics to the Christian religion ; and the 
Jesuits, in their turn, absolutely refuse obedience to the 
orders of the apostolical vicars and bishops, who receive 
their commission from the congregation above-mentioned, 
though this commission be issued out with the consent 
of the pope, or of the College de propaganda fide re- 
siding at Rome. There was also another religious esta- 
blishment formed in France, during this century, under 
the title of the Congregation of the Holy Sacrament, 
whose founder was Autherius, Bishop of Bethlehem, and 
which, in 1644, received an order from Urban VIII. to 
have always a number of ecclesiastics ready to exercise 
their ministry among the pagan nations, whenever they 
should be called upon by the pope, or the Congregation 
de propaganda fide, for that purpose. It would be 
endless to mention other associations of less note, that 
were formed in several countries for promoting the cause 
of Christianity among the darkened nations ; as also 
the care taken by the Jesuits, and other religious com- 
munities, to have a number of missionaries always 
ready for that service. 

IV. These congregations and colleges sent forth those 
legions of missionaries, who, in this century, covered a 
great part of the globe, and converted to the profession 
of Christianity at least, if not to its temper and spirit, 
multitudes of persons among the fiercest and most bar- 
barous nations. The religious orders, that made the 
greatest figure in these missions, were the Jesuits, Domi- 
nicans, Franciscans, and Capuchins, who, though con- 
cerned in one common cause, agreed very ill among them- 
selves, publicly accusing each other, with the most bitter 
reproaches and invectives, of want of zeal in the service 
of Christ, and even of corrupting the purity of the Chris- 
tian doctrine to promote their ambitious purposes. But 
none of these teachers of religion were so generally ac- 
cused of sinster views and unworthy practices, in this re- 
spect, as the Jesuits, who were singularly odious in the eyes 
of all the other missionaries, and were looked upon as a 
very dangerous and pernicious set of apostles by a consi- 
derable part of the Romish church. Nor, indeed, could 
they be viewed in any other light, if the general report 
be true, that, instead of instructing their proselytes in the 
genuine doctrines of Christianity, they then taught, and 
still teach, a corrupt system of religion and morality, that 
is not burthensome to the conscience, and is reconcilable 
with the indulgence of gross appetites and passions : — 
that they not only tolerate, but even countenance, in new 
converts, several profane opinions and superstitious rites 
and customs ;■ — that, by commerce, carried on with the 
most rapacious avidity, and various other methods, little 
consistent with probity and candour, they have already 
acquired an overgrown opulence, which they augment 
from day to day ; — that they burn with the thirst of am- 
bition, and are constantly gaping after worldly honours 
and prerogatives ; — that they Eire perpetually employing 
the arts of adulation, and the seductions of bribery, to 
insinuate themselves into the friendship and protection of 
men in power ; — that they are deeply involved in civil 
affairs, in the cabals of courts, and the intrigues of 
politicians ; — and finally, that they frequently excite in- 
;estine commotions and civil wars, in those states and 
kingdoms, where their views are obstructed or disappoint- 



The reader will find an ample relation of these facts, in the preface 



ed, and refuse obedience to the Roman pontiff, and to the 
vicars and bishops that bear his commission. These 
accusations are indeed grievous, but they are perfectly 
well attested, being confirmed by the most striking cir- 
cumstantial evidence, as well as by a prodigious number 
of unexceptionable witnesses. Among these we may 
reckon many of the most illustrious and respectable mem- 
bers of the church of Rome, whose testimony cannot be 
imputed to the suggestions of envy, on one hand, or be 
considered as the effect of temerity or ignorance on the 
other ; such are the cardinals, the members of the Con- 
gregation de propaganda fide, and even some of the 
popes themselves. These testimonies are supported and 
confirmed by glaring facts, even by the proceedings of the 
Jesuits in China, Abyssinia, Japan, and India, where they 
have dishonoured the cause of Christianity, and, by their 
corrupt practices, have injured, in the most sensible man- 
ner, the interest of Rome. 1 

V. The Jesuits exhausted all the resources of their pecu- 
liar artifice and dexterity to impose silence upon their ac- 
cusers, confound their adversaries, and give a specious 
colour to their own proceedings. But all their stratagems 
were ineffectual. The court of Rome was informed of 
thek odious frauds ; and this information was, by no 
means, looked upon as groundless. Many circumstances 
concur to prove this, and among others the conduct of that 
congregation by which, the foreign missions are carried on 
and directed ; for it is remarkable, that, for many years past, 
the Jesuits have been much less employed by this congre- 
gation, than in former times, and are also treated, on almost 
every occasion, with a degree of circumspection that mani- 
festly implies suspicion and diffidence. Other religious or- 
ders have evidently gained the ascendency which the Je- 
suits formerly held ; and, in the nice and critical affairs of 
the church, especially in what relates to the propagation of 
the Gospel in foreign parts, much greater confidence is 
placed in the austere sobriety, poverty, industry, and pa- 
tience of the Capuchins and Carmelites, than in the opu- 
lence, artifice, genius, and fortitude, of the disciples of 
Loyola. On the other hand it is certain, that, if the 
Jesuits are not much trusted, they are more or less feared 
since neither the powerful congregation, now mentioned, 
nor even the pontiffs themselves, venture to reform all the 
abuses, Avhich they silently disapprove, or openly blame 
in the conduct of this insidious order. This connivance, 
however involuntary, is now a matter of necessity. The 
opulence of the Jesuits is so excessive, and their credit and 
influence are so extensive and formidable, in all those 
parts of the world which have embraced the Romish re- 
ligion, that they carry their insolence so far as to menace 
! often the pontiff himself, who cannot, without the utmost 
peril, oblige them to submit to his orders, when they are 
disposed to be refractory. Even the decisions of the pope 
are frequently suggested by this powerful society; and it 
is only in such a case that the society treats them with 
unlimited respect. When they come from any other 
quarter, they are received in a. very different manner by 
the Jesuits, who trample upon some of them with impu- 
nity, and interpret others with their usual dexterity, w 
such a manner, as to answer the views and promote the 
interests of their ambitious order. Such, at least, are the 
accounts that are generally given of their pro ceedings ; 

to the Hist, de la Compagnie de Jesus, published at Utrecht in 1741. 



Sect. I 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



515 



accounts which, though contradicted by them, are sup- 
ported by striking and palpable evidence. 

TI. The rise of these dissensions between the Jesuits 
and the other Romish missionaries, may be ascribed to 
the methods of conversion used by the former, which are 
entirely different from those that are employed by the lat- 
ter. The crafty disciples of Loyola judge it proper to 
attack the superstition of the Indian nations by artifice 
and stratagem, and to bring them gradually, with the 
utmost caution and prudence, to the knowledge of Chris- 
tianity. In consequence of this principle, they interpret 
and explain the ancient doctrines of Paganism, and also 
those which Confucius taught in China, in such a man- 
ner as to soften and diminish, at least in appearance, 
their opposition to the truths of the Gospel ; and when- 
ever they find; in any of the religious systems of the In- 
dians, tenets or precepts that bear even the faintest resem- 
blance to certain doctrines or precepts of Christianity, 
they employ all their dexterity and zeal to render this 
resemblance more plausible and striking, and to persuade 
the Indians, that there is a great conformity between their 
ancient theology and the new religion they are exhorted 
to embrace. They go still farther ; for they indulge their 
proselytes in the observance of all their national customs 
and rites, except such as are glaringly inconsistent with 
the genius and spirit of tne Christian worship. These 
rites are modified a little by the Jesuits, and are directed 
toward a different set of objects, so as to forrn a sort of 
coalition between Paganism and Christianity. To secure 
themselves an ascendancy over the untutored minds of 
these simple Indians, they study their natural inclinations 
and propensities, comply with them on all occasions, and 
carefully avoid whatever may shock them ; and, as in 
all countries the clergy, and men of eminent learning, 
are supposed to have a considerable influence on the mul- 
titude, so the Jesuits are particularly assiduous in court- 
ing the friendship of the Indian priests, which they ob- 
tain by various methods, in the choice of which they are 
far from being scrupulous. But the protection of men 
in power is the great object at which they principally aim. 
as the surest method of establishing their authority, and 
extending their influence. With this view, they study 
all the arts that can render them agreeable or useful to 
great men ; apply themselves to the mathematics, physic, 
poetry, the theory of painting, sculpture, architecture, and 
other elegant arts : and persevere in studying men and 
manners, the interests of princes, and the affairs of the 
world, in order to prepare them for giving counsel in critical 
situations, and suggesting expedients in perplexing and 
complicated cases. It would be endless to enumerate all 
the circumstances that have been complained of in the 
proceedings of the Jesuits. These, now mentioned, have 
ruined their credit in the esteem of the other missionaries. 
who consider their artful and insiduous dealings as every 
way unsuitable to the character and dignity of the am- 

* Others call this famous missionary Robert de jNbbilibus. 

fc Urban Cerri, Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 173. 

Ij" Nobili, who was looked upon by the Jesuits as the chief apostle 
of the Indians after Francis Xavier. took incredible pains to acquire 
knowledge of the religion, customs, and language of Madura, sufficient 
for the purposes of his ministry. But tills was not all ; for, to stop the 
mouths of his opposers, and particularly of those who treated his cha- 
racter of Bramin as an impostor, he produced an old, dirty parchment, 
in which he had forged, in the ancient Indian characters, a deed, show- 
ing thai the Bramins of Rome were of much older date than those of 
Ind.a. and that the Jesuits of Rome descended, in a direct line, from die 



bassadors of Christ, whom it becomes to plead the cause 
of God with an honest simplicity, and an ingenuous 
openness and candour, without any mixture of dissimu- 
lation or fraud. And, accordingly, we find the other reli- 
gious orders, that are employed in the foreign missions, 
proceeding in a very different method in the exercise of 
their ministry. They attack openly the superstitions of 
the Indians, in all their connexions and in all their con- 
sequences, and are studious to remove whatever might 
tend to nourish them. They show little regard to the 
ancient rites and customs in use among the blinded nations, 
and little respect for the authority of those by whom 
they were established. They treat, with an indifference 
bordering upon contempt, the pagan priests, grandees, and 
princes ; and preach, without disguise, the peculiar doc- 
trines of Christianity, while they attack, without hesita- 
tion or fear, the superstitions of those nations the}* are 
called to convert. 

YII. These missionaries diffused the fame of the Chris- 
tian religion through a great part of Asia during this cen- 
tury. The ministerial labours of the Jesuits, Theatins, 
and Augustinians, contributed to introduce some rays of 
divine truth, mixed, indeed, with much darkness and 
superstition, into those parts of India which had been pos- 
sessed by the Portuguese, before their expulsion by the 
Dutch. But, of all the missions that were established in 
those distant parts of the globe, no one has been more 
constantly and generally applauded than that of Madura, 
or is said to have produced more abundant and permanent 
fruit. It was undertaken and executed by Robert de 
Nobih> an Italian Jesuit, who took a very singular me- 
thod of rendering his ministry successful. Considering", 
on one hand, that the Indians beheld all Europeans 
with an eye of prejudice and aversion, and, on the other, 
that they held in the highest veneration the order of 
Brachmans or Bramins, as descended from the Gods ; 
and that, impatient of other rulers, they paid an implicit 
and unlimited obedience to them alone : he assumed the 
appearance and title of a Bramin who had come from a 
distant country, and, by smearing his countenance, and 
imitating that most austere and painful method of living 
which the Sanianes or penitents observe, he at length 
persuaded the credulous people that he was, in reality, a 
member of that venerable order. b By this stratagem he 
gained over to Christianity twelve eminent Bramins, 
whose example and influence engaged a prodigious num- 
ber of the people to hear the instructions, and to receive 
the doctrine of this famous missionary. On the death 
of Robert, this singular mission was for some time at a 
stand, and seemed even to be neglected : c but it was re- 
newed by the zeal and industry of the Portuguese Jesuits, 
and is still carried on by several missionaries of that order, 
from France and Portugal, who have inured themselves 
to the terrible austerities that were practised by Robert, 
and which have thus become, as it were, the appendages 

god Brama. Father Jouvenci, a learned Jesuit, tells us, in the His- 
tory of his Order, something yet more remarkable; even that Robert 
de Xobili, when the authenticity of his smoky parchment was called 
in question by some Indian unbelievers, declared upon oath, before the 
assembly of the Bramins of Madura, that he really derived his origin 
from the god Brama. Is it not astonishing that this reverend father 
should acknowledge, is it not monstrous that he should applaud, as a 
piece of pious insenuity, this detestable instance of perjury and fraud 1 
See Jouvenci, His'toire des Jesuiies ; and >"orbet, Memoires Historiques 
surles Missions deMalab. torn. ii. p. 145. 

c Crbau Cerri, Etat present de TEglise Romaine, p. 173. 



516 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Sect. 1. 



of that mission. These fictitious Bramins, who boldly 
deny their being Europeans or Franks,* and only give 
themselves out for inhabitants of the northern regions, 
are said to have converted a prodigious number of In- 
dians to Christianity ; and, if common report may be cre- 
di'ed, the congregations which they have already founded 
in those countries grow more numerous from year to year. 
Nor, indeed, do these accounts appear, in the main, un- 
worthy of belief, b though we must not be too ready to 
receive, as authentic and well attested, the relations which 
have been given of the intolerable hardships and sufferings 
sustained by these Jesuit-Bramins in the cause of Christ. 
Many imagine, and not without good foundation, that 
their austerities are (generally speaking) more dreadful in 
appearance than in reality ; and that, while they out- 
wardly affect an extraordinary degree of self-denial, they 
indulge themselves privately in a free, and even luxurious 
mode of living, have their tables delicately served, and 
their cellars exquisitely furnished, in order to refresh them- 
selves after their labours. 

VIII. The knowledge of Christianity was first con- 
veyed to the kingdoms of Siam, Tong-king or Tonquin, 
and Cochin-China, by a mission of Jesuits, under the di- 
rection of Alexander of Rhodes, a native of Avignon,' whose 



• The Indians distinguish all the Europeans by the general denomi- 
nation of Franks, or (as they pronounce the word) Franghis. 

i> The Jesuits seem to want words to express the glory that has ac- 
crued to their order from the remarkable success and the abundant fruits 
of this famous mission, as also the dreadful sufferings and hardships 
which their missionaries sustained in the course of their ministry. See 
the LettresCurieuses et Edifiantes, ecrites des Missions Etrangeres, torn, 
i. where Father Martin observes, that this mission surpasses all others ; 
that each missionary baptises, at least, a thousand converts every year ; 
that, nevertheless, baptism is not indiscriminately administered, or 
granted with facility and precipitation to every one who demands it ; 
that those who present themselves to be baptized, are accurately exami- 
ned until they exhibit sufficient proofs of their sincerity, and are carefully 
instructed during a period of four months in order to their reception ; 
that, after their reception, they live like angels rather than like men ; 
and that the smallest appearance of a mortal sin is scarcely, if ever, to 
be found among them. If any one is curious enough to inquire into the 
causes that produced such an uncommon degree of sanctity among these 
new converts, the Jesuits allege the two following : The first is mo- 
destly drawn from the holy lives and examples of the missionaries, who 
pass their days in the greatest austerity, and in acts of mortification 
that are terrible to nature ; (see torn. xii. p. 206 ; torn. xv. p. 211 ;) who 
are not allowed, for instance, to take bread, wine, fish, or flesh, but are 
obliged to be satisfied with water and vegetables, dressed in the most 
insipid and digusting manner, and whose clothing and other circum- 
r-tances of life are answerable to their miserable diet. The second 
cause of this unusual appearance, alleged by the Jesuits, is the situation 
of these new Christians, by which they are cut off from all communica- 
tion and intercourse with the Europeans, who are said to have corrupted, 
by their licentious manners, almost, all the other Indian proselytes. Add, 
to all this, other considerations, which are scattered up and down, in 
the Letters above cited, torn. i. p. 16, 17 ; torn. ii. p. 1 ; torn. iii. p. 217 ; 
torn. v. p. 2; torn. vi. p. 119; torn. ix. p. 126. Madura is a separate 
kingdom situated in the midst of the Indian peninsula beyond the Gan- 
ges.* There is an accurate map of the territory comprehended in the 
mission of Madura, published by the Jesuits in the xvth tome of the 
Lettres Curieuses, p. 60. The French Jesuits set on foot, in the king- 
dom of Carnate and in the adjacent provinces, a mission like that of 
Madura; and, toward the conclusion of this century, other missionaries 
of the same order formed an enterprise of the same nature in the do- 
minions of the king of Marava. The Jesuits themselves acknowledge 
that the latter establishment succeeded much, better than the former. 
The reason of this may perhaps be, that the French Jesuits, who found- 
ed the mission of Carnate, could not endure, with such constancy and 
patience, the austere and mortified manner of living which an institu- 
tion of this nature required, nor imitate the rigid self-denial of the Bra- 
mins, so well as the missionaries of Spain and Portugal. Be that as it 
may, all these missions, which formerly made such a noise in the 
world, were suspended and abandoned, in consequence of a mandate 
issued in 1754, by Benedict XIV., who declared his disapprobation of 
the mean and perfidious methods of converting the Indians that were 
Practised by the Jesuits, and pronounced it unlawful to make use of 



instructions were received with uncommon docility by a 
prodigious number of the inhabitants of those countries. 
When an account of the success of this spiritual expedi- 
tion was brought to pope Alexander VII. in 165S, he re- 
solved to commit this new church to the inspection and 
government of a certain number of bishops, and chose 
for this purpose some French priests out of the Congre- 
gation of foreign Missions to carry his orders to the rising 
community, and to rule over it as his representatives and 
vicegerents. But the Jesuits, who can bear no superiors, 
and scarcely an equal, treated these pious men with the 
greatest indignity, loaded them with injuries and re- 
proaches, and would not permit them to share their la- 
bours or partake of their glory. d Hence arose, in the court 
of Rome, a long and tedious contest, which served to show, 
in the plainest manner, that the Jesuits were ready enough 
to make use of the authority of the pope, when it was ne- 
cessary to promote their interests, or to extend their influ- 
ence and dominion ; but that they did not hesitate, on the 
other hand, to treat the same authority with indifference 
and contempt in all cases, where it, seemed to oppose 
their private views and personal interests. After this, 
Louis XIV. sent a solemn embassy, 6 in 1684, to the 
king of Siam, whose prime ministe., at that time, was a 

frauds or insidious artifices in extending the limits of the Christian 
church. See Norbert's Memoires Historiques pour les Missions Orien- 
tales, torn. i. and iv. Mammachius has given an account of this matter, 
and also published the mandate of Benedict, in his Orig. et Antiq. 
Christian, torn. ii. p. 245. See also Lockman's Travels of the Jesuits. 

c See the writings of Alexander de Rhodes, who was undoubtedly 
a man of sense and spirit, and more especially his Travels, which 
were published at Paris in 1666. 

d There were several pamphlets and memorials published at Paris, in 
the years 1666, 1674, and 1681, in which these French missionaries, whom 
the Jesuits refused to admit as fellow-labourers in the conversion of the 
Indians, relate, in an eloquent and affecting strain, the injuries they had 
received from that jealous and ambitious order. The most ample and 
accurate narration of that kind was published in 1688 by Francis Pallu, 
whom the pope had created bishop of Heliopolis. The same subject is 
largely treated in the Gallia Christiana of the learned Benedictines, 
torn. vii. p. 1027 ; and a concise account of it is also given by Urban 
Cerri, in his Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 199. The latter 
author, though a secretary of the Congregation de propaganda fide, yet 
inveighs with a just severity and a generous warmth against the perfidy, 
cruelty, and ambition of the Jesuits, and laments it as a most unhappy 
thing, that the congregation now mentioned, had not sufficient power to 
set limits to the rapacity and tyranny of that arrogant society. He 
farther observes, toward the end of his narrative, which is addressed to 
the pope, that he was not at liberty to reveal all the abominations which 
the Jesuits had committed, during the course of this contest, but, by the 
order of his holiness, was obliged to pass them over in silence. His 
words are, Voire Sainted a ordonne qu'eUes demeur assent sous le se- 
cret. — See also, on this topic, Helyot's Histoire des Ordres, torn. viii. 

§£js j 8 The French bishops of Heliopolis, Berytus, and Metellopolis, 
who had been sent into India about the year 1663, had prepared the 
way for this embassy, and, by an account of tins favourable dispositions 
of tiie monarch then reigning at Siar&. Aid encourage'! the French king 
to make a new attempt for die establishment of Christianity in those 
distant regions. A fixed residence had been formed at Siam for the 
French missionaries, together with a seminary for instructing the youth 
in the languages c' the ~ : rcumjacent nations, who had all settlements 
(or camps, as they were called) at the capital. A church was also 
erected there, by the king's permission, in 1667; and that prince propo- 
sed several questions to the missionaries, which seemed to discover a 
propensity to inform himself concerning their religion. The bishop of 
Heliopolis, who had gone back to Europe on the affairs of the mission, 
returned to Siam in 1673, with letters from Louis and pope Clement 
IX., accompanied with rich presents, to. thank his Siamese majesty for 
the favours bestowed on the French bishops. In a private audience to 
which he was admitted, he explained, in an answer to a question pro- 
posed to him by the king of Siam, the motive that had engaged the 
French bishops to cross so many seas, and the French king to send hia 

=£jf * This is a mistake. Madura is id the Indian peninsula on this 
side of the Ganges, and not beyond it. Its chief produce is rice, which 
is one of the principal instruments used by the rich Jesuits in the con- 
version of the poor Indians. 



Sect. I 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



517 



Greek Christian, named Constantine Falcon, a man of an 
artful, ambitious, and enterprising spirit. The design of 
this embassy was to engage the pagan prince to embrace 
Christianity, and to permit the propagation of the Gospel 
in his dominions. The ambassadors were attended by a 
great retinue of priests and Jesuits, some of whom were 
well acquainted with such branches of science as were 
agreeable to the taste of the king of Siam. It was only, 
however, among a small part of the people, that the la- 
bours of these missionaries were crowned with any degree 
Oi success ; for the monarch himself, and the great men 
of his kingdom, remained unmoved by their exhortations, 
and deaf to their instructions. 1 The king, indeed, though 
he chose to persevere in the religion of his ancestors, yet 
discovered a spirit of condescension and toleration towards 
the conductors of this mission ; and his favourite Constan- 
tine had secretly invited the Fiench to Siam to support 
him in his authority, which was beheld with an envious 
eye by several of the grandees. As long as this prince 
and his minister lived, the French retained some hopes 
of accomplishing their purpose, and of converting the na- 
tion to the faith ; but these hopes entirely vanished in 
1688, when, in a popular sedition, excited and fomented 
by some prince of the blood, both the king and his minis- 
ter were put to death ; b and then the missionaries re- 
turned home. 

IX. China, the most extensive and opulent of all the 
Asiatic kingdoms, could not but appear, to the missionaries 
and their constituents, an object worthy of their pious zeal 
and spiritual ambition. And accordingly a numerous 
tribe of Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans, and Capuchins, 
set out about the commencement of this century, with a 
view to enlighten that immense region with the know- 
ledge of the Gospel. All these, however they differed in 
other matters, agreed in proclaiming the astonishing suc- 
cess of their ministerial labours. It is nevertheless certain, 
that the principal honour of these religious exploits be- 
longed to the Jesuits, who, with peculiar dexterity and ad- 
dress, removed the chief obstacles to the progress of Chris- 
tianity, among a people whose natural acuteness and pride 
were accompanied with a superstitious attachment to the 
religion and manners of their ancestors. These artful mis- 
subjects to countries so far from home ; observing, that a strong desire, 
in his prince, to extend die kingdom of the true God, was the sole rea- 
son of their voyage. Upon this we are told, that the king of Siam offer- 
ed a port in any part of his dominions, where a city might be built to 
the honour of Louis the Great, and where, if he thought fit, he might 
send a viceroy to reside ; and declared afterwards, in a public assembly 
of the grandees of his court, that he would leave all his subjects at 
liberty to embrace the Romish faith. All this raised the hopes of the 
missionaries to a very high pitch; but the expectations which they 
thence derived of converting the king himself were entirely groundless, 
as may be seen from a very remarkable declaration of that monarch in 
the following note. See the Relp.tion des Missions et des Voyages des 
Eveques Francois. 

|3* * When Monsieur de Chaumont, who was charged with this 
famous embassy, arrived at Siam, he presented a long memorial to the 
monarch of that country, intimating how solicitous the king of France 
was to have his Siamese majesty of the same religion with himself. 
Chaw Naraya, (for so was the latter named,) who seems to have al- 
ways deceived the French by encouraging words, which administered 
hopes that he never intended to accomplish, answered this memorial in 
a very acute and artful manner. After asking who had made the king 
of France believe that he entertained any sucli sentiments, he desired 
his minister Falcon to tell the French ambassador, " That he left it to 
his most Christian majesty to judge, whether the change of a religion 
that had been followed in his dominions without interruption for 2229 
years could be a matter of small importance to him, or a demand with 
which it was easy to comply ; — that, besides, he was much surprised to 
find the king of France concern himself so zealously and so warmly in 

No.XLIV. 130 



sionaries studied the temper, character, taste, inclinations, 
and prejudices of the Chinese, with incredible attention ; 
and perceiving that their natural sagacity was attended 
with an ardent desire of improvement, and that they took 
the highest pleasure in the study of the arts and sciences, 
and more especially in the mathematics, they lost no oc- 
casion of sending for such members of their order as. be- 
side their knowledge of mankind, and prudence in trans- 
acting business, were also masters of the different branches 
of learning and philosophy. Some of these learned Jesuits 
acquired such a high degree of credit and influence by 
their sagacity and eloquence, the insinuating sweetness 
and facility of their manners, and their surprising dexte- 
rity and skill in all kinds of transactions, that they were 
at length gratified by the emperor with the most honour- 
able marks of distinction, and were employed in the most 
secret and important deliberations and affairs of the cabi- 
net. Under the auspicious protection of such powerful 
patrons, the other missionaries, though of a lower rank 
and of inferior talents, were delivered from all apprehen- 
sion of danger in the exercise of their ministry; and were 
thus encouraged to exert themselves with spirit, vigour, 
and perseverance, in the propagation of the Gospel, in all 
the provinces of that mighty empire. 

X. This promising scene was clouded for some time, 
when Xun-chi, the first Chinese emperor of the Mogol 
race, died, and left, as his only hen, a son, who was a 
minor. The grandees of the empire, to whose tuition and 
care this young prince was committed, had long enter- 
tained an aversion to Christianity, and only sought for a 
convenient occasion of venting their rage against it. This 
occasion was now offered and greedily embraced. The 
guardians of the young prince abused his power to exe- 
cute their vindictive purposes, and, after using their ut- 
most efforts to extirpate Christianity wherever it was pro- 
fessed, they persecuted its patrons, more especially the Je- 
suits, with great bitterness, deprived them of all the ho- 
nours and advantages they had enjoyed, and treated them 
with the utmost barbarity and injustice. John Adam 
Schaal, their chief, whose advanced age and extensive 
knowledge, together with the honourable place which he 
held at court, seemed to demand some marks of exemp- 



a matter which related to God and not to him ; and in which, though it 
related to God, the Deity did not seem to interfere at all, but left it 
entirely to human discretion." The king asked, at the same time, 
" Whether the true God, who created heaven and earth, and had be- 
stowed on mankind such different natures and inclinations, could not, 
when he gave to men the same bodies and souls, have also, if he had 
pleased, inspired them with the same religious sentiments, and have 
made all nations live and die in th€ same laws." He added, that, 
" since order among men, and unity in religion, depend absolutely on 
the divine will, which could as easily introduce them into the world as a 
diversity of sects, it is natural thence to conclude, that the true God 
takes as much pleasure to be honoured by different modes of religion 
and worship, as to be glorified by a prodijious number of different 
creatures, who praise him every one in his own way." He moreover 
asked, " Whether that beauty and variety, which we admire in the 
order of nature, be less admirable in the order of supernatural things, or 
less becoming in the wisdom of God 1 — However that may be, (continued 
the king of Siam,) since we know that God is the absolute master of 
the world, and we are persuaded that nothing comes to pass contrary to 
his will, I resign my person and dominions into the arms of his provi- 
dence, and beseech his eternal wisdom to dispose thereof according to 
his good will and pleasure." See Tachard's Prem. Voyage de Siam, 
p. 218 ; as also the Journal of the Abbe Choisi. 

i> An account of this embassy, and of the transactions both of ambas- 
sadors and missionaries, is given by Tachard, Chaumont, and La 
Loubere. The relations, however, of the author last-mentioned, who 
was a man of learning and candour, deserve undoubtedly the piefo 
rence. 



518 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Sect. J. 



tion from the calamities that pursued his brethren, was 
thrown into prison, and condemned to death, while the 
other missionaries were sent into exile. These dismal 
scenes of persecution were exhibited in 1664 ; but, about 
five years after this gloomy period, when Kang-hi as- 
sumed the reins of government, a new face of things ap- 
peared. The Christian cause, and the labours of its mi- 
nisters, not only resumed their former credit and vigour, 
but even gained ground, and received such distinguished 
marks of protection from the throne, that the Jesuits usu- 
ally date from this period the commencement of the 
golden age of Christianity in China. The new emperor, 
whose noble and generous spirit a was equal to the un- 
common extent of his genius, and to his ardent curiosity 
in the investigation of truth, began his reign by recalling 
the Jesuits to his court, and restoring them to the credit 
and influence which they had formerly enjoyed. But his 
generosity and munificence did not stop here ; for he sent 
to Europe for a still greater number of the members of 
that order, such of them particularly as were eminent for 
their skill in the arts and sciences. Some of these he 
placed in the highest offices of the state, and employed 
in civil negotiations and transactions of the greatest im- 
portance. Others he chose for his private friends and 
counsellors, who were to assist him with their advice in 
various points, and to direct his philosophical and mathe- 
matical studies. These private friends and counsellors 
were principally chosen from among the French Jesuits. 
Thus the order was raised, in a short time, to the very 
summit of favour, and invested with a degree of autho- 
rity and lustre which it had not before attained. In such 
a state of things, it is natural to conclude, that the Chris- 
tian religion would not want powerful patrons, and that 
. ts preachers would not be left destitute and unsupported. 
Accordingly a multitude of spiritual labourers from all 
parts of Europe repaired to China, allured by the pros- 
pect of a rich, abundant, and glorious harvest ; and, in- 
deed, the success of their ministry seemed to answer fully 
the extent of their expectations, since it is well known 
that, with very little pains, and still less opposition, they 
made a prodigious number of converts to the profession of 
the Gospel. At length Christianity seemed to triumph in 
1692, when the emperor, from an excessive attachment 
to the Jesuits, issued that remarkable edict, by which he 
declared, that the Christian religion was in no wise detri- 
mental to the safety 01 interests of the monarchy, as its 
enemies 1 pretended ; and by which also he granted to all 
his subjects an entire freedom of conscience, and a full 
permission to embrace the Gospel. This triumph was 
farther confirmed, when the same prince, in 1700, ordered 
a magnificent church to be built for the Jesuits within the 
precincts of the imperial palace. b 

XI. This surprising success of the Christian cause may 
undoubtedly be attributed to the dexterity and perseve- 
rance of the Jesuits, as even the greatest enemies of that 
artful order are obliged to acknowledge. But it is quite 

B See Joach. Bouveti Icon Monarchal Sinarum, translated into Latin 
by the famous Leibnitz, and published in 1699, in the second part of his 
INovissima Sinica. See also Du Hakle's Description de la Chine, and 
the LettresEdifiantes, in which the Jesuits give an account of the suc- 
cess of their missions. In these productions, the virtues and talents of 
this emperor, which seem indeed to be universally acknowledged, are 
described and celebrated with peculiar encomiums. 

1 There is a concise but interesting account of these revolutions 
given by Du Halde, in his Description de la Chine, torn, iii., and by the 



another question, whether this success was obtained i j 
methods agreeable to the dictates of reason and conscience, 
and consistent with the dignity and genius o { th<? Chris- 
tian religion. The latter point has been long debated, 
with great animosity and vehemence, on both sides. Th« 
adversaries of the Jesuits, whose opposition is as keen as 
their numbers are formidable, and more especially the 
Jansenites and Dominicans, asserjt boldly, that the sue 
cess above-mentioned was obtained by the most odious 
frauds, and even, in many cases, by detestable crimes. 
They charge the Jesuits with having given a false expo- 
sition and a spurious account of the ancient religion of 
the Chinese, and with having endeavoured to persuade 
the emperor and the nobility, that the primitive theology 
of their nation, and the doctrine of their great instructor 
and philosopher Confucius, scarcely differed in any re- 
spect from the doctrine of the Gospel. The missionaries 
are farther charged with having invented a variety of his- 
torical fictions, in order to persuade the Chinese, (who are 
warmly attached to whatever carries the air of remote 
antiquity,) that Jesus Christ had been known and 
worshipped in their nation many ages ago ; and these 
fictions are supposed to have prejudiced the emperor in 
favour of Christianity, and to have engaged certain gran- 
dees not only to grant their protection to the Jesuits, but 
even to become members of their society. The disciples 
of Loyola are also said to have lost sight of all the duties 
and obligations that are incumbent on the ministers of 
Christ, and the heralds of a spiritual kingdom, by not 
only accepting worldly honours and places of civil autho- 
rity and power, but even aspiring to them with all the 
ardour of an insatiable ambition, by boasting, with an 
arrogant vanity, of the protection and munificence of the 
emperor, by deserting the simplicity of a frugal and hum- 
ble appearance, and indulging themselves in all the cir- 
cumstances of external pomp and splendour, such as 
costly garments, numerous retinues, luxurious tables, and 
magnificent houses. To all this is added, that they em- 
ployed much more zeal and industry in the advancement 
of human science, especially the mathematics, than in 
promoting Christian knowledge and virtue ; and that 
they even went so far as to interfere in military matters, 
and to concern themselves, both personally and by their 
counsels, in the bloody scenes of war. While these heavy 
crimes are laid to the charge of those Jesuits, who, by 
their capacity and talents, had been raised to a high de- 
gree of credit in the empire, the more obscure members 
of that same order, who were appointed more immedi- 
ately to instruct the Chinese in the truths of the Gospel, 
are far from being considered as blameless. They are 
accused of having employed, in the practice of usury, and 
various kinds of traffic, the precious moments which ought 
to have been consecrated to the functions of their ministry, 
and of having used low and dishonourable methods of ad- 
vancing their fortunes, and insinuating themselves into 
the favour of the multitude. The Jesuits acknowledge, 

Jesuit Fontaney, in the Lettres Edifiantes et Curieuses, torn. viii. — 
They are related in a more diffuse and ample manner by other writers. 
See Suarez, de Libertate Religionem Christianam apud Siiw propa- 
ganda Narratio, published in 1698 by Leibnitz, in the first part of his 
Novissima Sinica. The other authors who have treated this branch of 
history are mentioned by Fabricius, in his Lux Evangelii, cap. xxxix. 
See also an Eccles. His. of China, which I published in German in 1748. 
O" This history was translated into English, and published in 1750 
with this title : Authentic Memoirs of the Christian Church in China. 



Sect. 1. 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



519 



that some of these accusations are founded upon facts ; 
but they give a specious colour to these facts, and use all 
their artifice and eloquence to justify what they cannot 
deny. Other articles of these complaints they treat as 
groundless, and as the fictions of calumny, invented with 
no other design than to cast a reproach upon their order. 
An impartial inquirer into these matters will perhaps find, 
that if, in several points, the Jesuits defend themselves in 
a very weak and unsatisfactory manner, there are others, 
in which their misconduct seems to have been exagge- 
rated by envy and prejudice in the complaints of their 
adversaries. 

XII. The grand accusation that is brought against the 
Jesuits in China, is this : That they make an impious 
mixture of light and darkness, of Chinese superstition 
and Christian truth, in order to triumph with the greater 
speed and facility over the prejudices of that people against 
the doctrine of the Gospel ; and that they allow their con- 
verts to retain the profane customs and the absurd rites 
of their pagan ancestors. Ricci, who was the founder of 
the Christian Church in that famous monarchy, declared 
it as his opinion, that the greatest part of those rites, which 
the Chinese are obliged by the laws of their country to 
perform, might be innocently observed by the new con- 
verts. To render this opinion less shocking, he supported 
and explained it upon the following principle : that these 
rites were of a civil and not of a sacred nature ; that they 
were invented from views of policy ; and not for any pur- 
poses of religion ; and that none but the very dregs of 
the populace in China, considered them in any other 
light." This opinion was not only rejected by the Domi- 
nicans and Franciscans, who were associated with the 
Jesuits in this important mission, but also by some even 
of the most learned Jesuits both in China and Japan, 
and particularly by Nicolas Lombard, who published a 
memorial, containing the reasons b upon which his dissent 
was founded. This contest, which was long carried on 
in a private manner, was brought, by the Dominicans, 
before the tribunal of the pontiff, in the year 1645 ; and 
from that period it continued to produce great divisions, 
cabals, and commotions, in the church of Rome. Inno- 
cent X., in the year now mentioned, pronounced in favour 
of the Dominicans, and highly condemned the indulgence 
which the Jesuits had shown to the Chinese superstitions. 
But, about eleven years after, this sentence, though not 
formally reversed, was virtually annulled by Alexander 
VII., at the instigation of the Jesuits, who persuaded that 
pontiff to allow the Chinese converts the liberty of per- 
forming several of the rites to which they had been accus- 
tomed, and for which they discovered a peculiar fondness. 
This, however, did not preveut the Dominicans from renew- 
ing their complaints in 1661, and also in 1674, under the 
pontificate of Innocent XL, though the power and credit of 
the Jesuits seemed to triumph over all their remonstrances. 

a See Mammachii Origines et Antiquitates Christiana, torn. ii. 
p. 373. 

b See Chr. Kortholti Praefatio ad Volumen II. Epistolar. Leibnitiar. 
sect. vi. To this work are subjoined the pieces composed against the 
Jesuits by Lombard and Antony de S. Maria, with the remarks of 
Leibnitz ; and there is also inserted in this collection, p. 413, an ample 
dissertation on the Chinese philosophy, drawn up by Leibnitz, who 
deads therein the cause of the Jesuits. 

f3r c See the Lettres des Messieurs des Missions Etrangeres au 
Pane, sur les Idolatries et les Superstitions Chinoises — Revocation de 
' Approbation donnfee par M. Brisacier, Superieur des Missions Etran- 



This fatal dispute, which had been suspended for many 
years in China, broke out there again, in 1684, with 
greater violence than ever ; and then the victory seemed 
to incline to the side of the Dominicans, in consequence 
of a decision pronounced, in 1693, by Charles Maigrot, 
a doctor of the Sorbonne, who acted as the delegate or 
vicar of the Roman pontiff, in the province of Fokien, 
and who was afterwards consecrated titular bishop of 
Conon. This ecclesiastic, by a public edict, declared the 
opinions and practices of the Jesuits, in relation to the 
affairs of the Chinese mission, absolutely inconsistent with 
the purity and simplicity of the Christian religion. But 
the pope, to whose supreme cognisance and decision Mai- 
grot had submitted this important edict, refused to come 
to a determination before the matter in debate had been 
carefully examined, and the reasons of each party weigh- 
ed with the utmost attention ; and therefore, in 1699, he 
appointed a congregation of chosen doctors to examine 
and decide this tedious controversy. This resolution of 
the pontiff was no sooner made public, than all the ene- 
mies of the Jesuits, in all quarters of the church of Rome, 
and more especially those who wished ill to the order in 
France, came forth with their complaints, their accusa 
tions, and invectives, and loaded the transactions and re- 
putation of the whole society with the most bitter re- 
proaches/ The Jesuits, on the other hand, were not 
silent or inactive. They attacked their adversaries with 
vigour, and defended themselves with dexterity and spirit. d 
— But the conclusion of this critical and momentous con- 
test belongs to the history of the following century. 

XIII. If, in considering this controversy, which em- 
ployed the ablest pens of the Romish church, Ave confine 
our attention to the merits of the cause, (passing over what 
personally concerns the Jesuits, with some other questions 
of a minute and incidental kind,) it will appear, that the 
whole dispute turns essentially upon two great points ; 
the one relating to the Chinese notion of the Supreme 
Being ; and the other to the nature of those honours 
which that people offer to certain persons deceased. 

As to the former of these points, it is to be observed, that 
the Chinese call the supreme object of their religious wor- 
ship Tien and Shang-ti, which, in their language, signify 
the Heavens, and that the Jesuits employ the same terms 
when they speak of the true God, who is adored by the 
Christians. Hence it is inferred, that they make no distinc- 
tion between the supreme God of the Chinese, and the infi- 
nitely perfect Deity of the Christians ; or (to express the 
same thing in other words) that they imagine the Chinese 
entertain the same notions concerning the Tien, or Hea- 
ven, that the Christians do concerning the God whom 
they adore. The question then relative to this point is 
properly as follows : " Do the Chinese understand, by the 
denominations above-mentioned, the visible and material 
heavens ? or are these terms, on the contrary, employed 

geres, au Livre de la Defense des nouveaux Chretiens et des Mission- 
aires de la Chine. — Deux Lettres d'un Docteur de 1'Ordre de St. Do- 
minique au R. P. Dez, Provincial des Jesuites, sur les Ceremonies de la 
Chine. 

J Du Halde, Description de la Chine, torn. iii. p. 142. — See the enu- 
meration of other writers on the same subject, given by Fabricius, in his 
Lux Evangrlii, cap. xxxix. p. 665. — See also Voltaire's Siccle de Louis 
XIV. torn. ii. p. 318. — But the most ingenious patron of the Jesuits, on 
this occasion, was Father Daniel, himself a member of that famous 
order. See his Histoire Apologetique de la Conduite des Jesuites de '.i 
Chine, in the third volume of his Opuscules. 



520 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Sect. 1. 



by them to represent the Lord of these heavens, i. e. an 
eternal ana a.A perfect Being, who presides over universal 
nature, and, from heaven, the immediate residence of his 
glory, governs all things with unerring wisdom ?" or, to 
express the object in fewer words, " Do the Chinese mean, 
by their Tien, such a Deity as the Christians adore?" This 
question the Jesuits answer in the affirmative. They 
maintain, that the ancient Chinese philosophers, who had 
an accurate knowledge of the great principles of natural 
religion, represented the Supreme Being almost under the 
very same characters that are attributed to him by Chris- 
tians ; and hence they not only allow their Chinese dis- 
ciples to employ the terms already mentioned in their 
prayers to the Deity, and in their religious discourses, but 
even use these terms themselves, when they pronounce 
the name of God in their public instructions, or in private 
conversation. The adversaries of the Jesuits maintain 
the negative of this question, regard the ancient philoso- 
phy of the Chinese as an impure source of blasphemy and 
impiety, and affirm, that it confounded the Divine Nature 
with that of the universe. They assert farther, that the 
famous Confucius, whose name and writings are held in 
such veneration by the people of China, was totally igno- 
rant of divine truth, destitute of religious principle, and re- 
ferred the origin of all things that exist to an internal 
and inevitable necessity. This contest, concerning the 
first point that divided the missionaries, produced a mul- 
titude of learned dissertations on the manners, laws, and 
opinions of the ancient inhabitants of China, and gave 
rise to several curious discoveries. But all these were in- 
sufficient to serve the chief purpose they were designed to 
accomplish, since they were far from giving a clear and 
satisfactory decision of the matter in debate. It still re- 
mained a question, which were most to be believed, — the 
Jesuits or their adversaries? and the impartial inquirer, 
after long examination, thought it prudent to trust entire- 
ly to neither ; since, if it appeared on the one hand, that 
the Tien, or supreme God of the Chinese, was much in- 
ferior, in perfection and excellence, to the God of the 
Christians, it was equally evident, on the other, that this 
Chinese Deity was looked upon by his adorers as entire- 
ly distinct from the material sether and the visible heavens. 
XIV. As to the other point in dispute, it must be pre- 
viously observed, that the ancient laws of China oblige 
the natives of that vast region to perform, annually, at a 
stated time, in honour of their ancestors, certain rites, which 
seem to be of a religious nature. It may also be observed, 

Idr » True ; if the means be not either criminal in themselves, perni- 
cious in their consequences, or of such a nature as to defeat, in a great 
measure, the benefits and advantages proposed by the end. And it is a 
very nice and momentous question, whether the concessions pleaded for 
in behalf of the Chinese converts, by the Jesuits, are not to be ranked 
among the means here characterized See the following note. 

b O" The public honours paid to Confucius twice a year, used to be 
performed before his statue, erected in the great hall or temple that is 
dedicated to his memory. At present they are performed before a kind 
of table, placed in the most conspicuous part of the edifice, with the 
following inscription: " The Throne of the Soul of the most holy and 
the most excellent chief Teacher Confucius." The literati, or learned, 
celebrate this famous festival in the following manner : — The chief man- 
darin of the place exercises the office of priest, and the others discharge 
the functions of deacons, sub-deacons, &c. A certain sacrifice, which con- 
sists of wine, blood, fruits, &c. is offered, after the worshippers have 
prepared themselves for this ceremony by fasting and other acts of ab- 
stinence and mortification. They kneel before the inscription, prostrate 
the body nine times before it, until the head touches the ground, and 
repeat many prayers ; after which the priest, taking in one hand a 
cup full of wine, and in the other a like cup filled with blood, makes a 



that it is a custom among the learned to pay, at stated 
times, to the memory of Confucius, whom the Chinese 
consider as the oracle of all wisdom and knowledge, cer- 
tain marks of veneration that have undoubtedly a reli- 
gious aspect, and which are, moreover, performed in a 
kind of temple erected to that great and illustrious phi- 
losopher. Hence arises a second question, which is thus 
proposed : "Are those honours that the Chinese, in general, 
pay to the memory of their ancestors, and which the 
learned, in particular, offer at the shrine of Confucius, of 
a civil or sacred nature ? Are they to be considered as 
religious offerings, or are they no more than political 
institutions designed to promote some public good ?" The 
Jesuits affirm, that the ancient Chinese law givers estab- 
lished these rites with no other view than to keep the 
people in order, and to maintain the tranquillity of the 
state ; and that the Chinese did not pay any religious 
worship, either to the memory of Confucius, or to the de- 
parted souls of their ancestors, but only declared, by the 
performance of certain rites, their gratitude and respect to 
both, and their solemn resolution to imitate their virtues, 
and follow their illustrious examples. Hence these mis- 
sionaries conclude, that the Chinese converts to Christian- 
ity might be permitted to perform these ceremonies accord- 
ing to the ancient custom of their country, provided they 
understood their true nature, and kept always in remem- 
brance, the political views with which they were institut- 
ed, and the civil purposes they were designed to serve. 
By this specious account of things, the conduct of the 
Jesuits is, in some measure, justified. But, whether thit 
representation be true or false, it will still remain evident, 
that, in order to render the Christian cause triumphant in 
China, some such concessions and accommodations as 
those of the Jesuits seem almost absolutely necessary ; and 
they who desire the end must submit to the use of the 
means. 11 The necessity of concession arises from this re- 
markable circumstance, that, by a solemn law of ancient 
date, it is positively declared, that no man shall be esteem- 
ed a good citizen, or be looked upon as qualified to hold 
any public office in the stale, who neglects the observance 
of the ceremonies now under consideration. On the other 
hand, the Dominicans, and the other adversaries of the 
Jesuits, maintain, that the rites in question form an im- 
portant branch of the Chinese religion ; that the honours 
paid by the Chinese to Confucius and to the souls of their 
ancestors, are not of a civil, but of a religious nature ; b and 
consequently, that all who perform these rites are charge- 



solemn libation to the deceased, and dismisses the assembly with a 
blessing. The rites performed by families, in honour of their deceased 
parents, are nearly of the same nature. 

Now, in order to know, with certainty, whether this festival and 
these rites be of a civil or religious nature, we have only to inquire 
whether they be the same with those ceremonies that are performed by 
the Chinese, in the worship they pay to certain celestial and terrestrial 
spirits, or genii, which worship is undoubtedly of a religious kind 
The learned Leibnitz* undertook to affirm, that the service* now men- 
tioned were not of the same kind, and, consequently, that the Jesuit: 
were accused unjustly. But that great man does not appear to hayt 
examined this matter with his usual sagacity and attention ; for it is 
evident, from a multitude of relations every way worthy of credit, and 
particularly from the observations made on the Chinese missions by 
that learned and candid Franciscan, Antonio de S. Maria.t not only 
that Confucius was worshipped among the idols, and the celestial and 
terrestrial spirits of the Chinese, but that the oblations and ceremonies 
observed in honour of him, were perfectly the same with those that 
were performed as acts of worship tothese idols and spirits. Those who 

* See Prxf. Novissim. Sinicorum. 

t See vol. ii. Epist. Leibnitz. 



Sect. I. 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



521 



able with insulting the majesty of God, to whom alone 
all divine worship is due, and cannoi be considered as 
true Christians. This account of the affair is so specious 
and probable, and the consequences deducible from it are 
so natural and just, that the more equitable and impartial 
among the Jesuits have acknowledged the difficulties that 
attend the cause they maintain ; and taking, at length, 
refuge in the plea of necessity, allege, that certain evils 
and inconveniences may be lawfully submitted to when 
they are requisite in order to the attainment of extensive, 
important, and salutary purposes. 

XV. The ministerial labours of the Romish mission- 
aries, and more especially of the Jesuits, were crowned 
in Japan with surprising success, about the commence- 
ment of this century, and made an incredible number of 
converts to the Christian religion. 1 But this prosperous 
and flourishing state of the church was somewhat inter- 
rupted by the prejudices that the priests and grandees of 
the kingdom had conceived against the new religion, pre- 
judices which proved fatal in many places, both to those 
who embraced it, and to those who taught it. The cause 
of Christianity did not, however, suffer only from the viru- 
lence and malignity of its enemies ; it was wounded in 
the house of its friends, and received some detriment from 
the intestine quarrels and contentions of ihose tc whom 
ihe care of the rising church was comr jtted. For the 
same scenes of fraternal discord, that had given such 
offence in the other heathen countries, were renewed in 
Japan, where the Dominicans, Franciscans, and Augus- 
tinians, were at perpetual variance with the Jesuits. 
This -variance produced, on both sides, the heaviest accu- 
sations, and the most bitter reproaches. The Jesuits were 
charged, by the missionaries of the three orders now men- 
tioned, with insatiable avarice, with showing an excessive 
indulgence, both to the vices and superstitions of the 
Japanese, with crafty and low practices unworthy of the 
ministers of Christ, with an ambitious thirst after autho- 
rity and dominion, and other misdemeanors of a like na- 
ture. These accusations were not only exhibited at the 
court of Rome, but were spread abroad in every part of 
Christendom. The disciples of Loyola were by no means 
silent under these reproaches ; but, in their turn, charged 
their accusers with imprudence, ignorance of the world, 
obstinacy, asperity of manners, and a disgusting rusticity 
in their way of living ; adding, that these circumstances 

desire a more ample account of this matter may consult the following 
mthors : Budsei Annal. Histor. Philos. p. 287, where he treats desuper- 
•Mioso Demortuorum apud Sinenses Cultu. — Wolfii Not. ad Casau- 
bon. p. 342. — Nic. Charmos, AnnoL ad Maigrotti Historiam Cultus 
Sinensis; and more especially Arnaud, Morale Pratique des Jesuites, 
torn. iii. vi. vii. ; and a collection of historical relations, published in 
1700, under the following title: Historia Cultus Sinensium, seu varia 
Scripta de Cultibus Sinarum inter Vicarios Apostolicos et P. P. S. I. 
controversis. 

f^p " Two peculiar circumstances contributed to facilitate the pro- 
gress of the Romish religion in Japan. The first was the uncharitable 
severity and cruelty of the Japanese bonzas or priests toward the sick 
and indigent, compared with the humanity, zeal, and beneficence of the 
missionaries. These bonzas represented the poor and infirm not as 
objects of pity but as wretches loaded with the displeasure of the gods, 
and abandoned to present and future misery by the judgments of 
Heaven ; and inspired the ricli with a contempt and abhorrence of them. 
The Christian religion, therefore, which declares that poverty and af- 
flictions are often surer marks of the divine favour than grandeur and 
prosperity, and that the transitory evils which the righteous endure 
here, shall be crowned with everlasting glory and felicity hereafter, was 
every way proper to comfort this unhappy class of persons, and could 
not but meet with a most favourable reception among them. Add to 
this, that the missionaries were constantly employed in providing them 

No.XLlV. 131 



rendered their ministry rather detrimental than advanta- 
geous to the cause of Christianity, among a people re- 
markable for their penetration, generosity, and magnifi- 
cence. Such then were the contests that trose imong 
the missionaries in Japan ; and nothing but the amazing 
progress that Christianity had already made, and the im- 
mense multitude of those who had embraced it, could 
have prevented these contests from being fatal to its in- 
terests. As the case stood, neither the cause of the Gos- 
pel, nor its numerous professors, received any essential 
damage from these divisions ; and, if no other circum- 
stance had intervened to stop its progress, an expedient 
might have probably been found out, either to heal these 
divisions, or at least to appease them so far as to prevent 
them from being attended with mischievous and calami- 
tous consequences. b 

XVI. But a new and dreadful scene of opposition arose, 
in 1615, to blast the hopes of those who wished Avell to the 
cause of Christianity in Japan : for, in that year, the em- 
peror issued, against the professors and ministers of that 
divine religion, a persecuting edict, which was executed 
with a degree of barbarity unparalleled in the annals of the 
Christian history. This cruel persecution raged for many 
years with unrelenting fury, and only ended with the 
extinction of Christianity throughout that mighty empire. 
That religion, which had been suffered to make such a 
rapid and triumphant progress in Japan, was at length 
considered as detrimental to the interests of the monarchy, 
inconsistent with the good of the people, and derogatory 
from the majesty of their high priest, whom they revered 
as a person descended from the gods ; and, on these ac 
counts, it was judged unworthy not only of protection, 
but even of toleration. This judgment was followed by 
the fatal order, by which all foreigners that were Chris 
tians, and more especially the Spaniards and Portuguese, 
were commanded to quit the kingdom ; and the natives, 
who had embraced the Gospel, were required to renounce 
the name and doctrine of Christ, on pain of death pre- 
sented to them in the most dreadful forms. This tre- 
mendous order was the signal for the perpetration of such 
horrors as the most sanguine and atrocious imagination 
will scarcely be able to conceive. Innumerable multitudes 
of the Japanese Christians of each sex, and of all ages, 
ranks, and stations, expired with magnanimous constancy, 
amidst the most dreadful torments, rather than apostatize 



with food, medicine, and habitations. A second circumstance that was 
advantageous to Christianity (that is, to such a form of Christianity as 
the popish missionaries preached in Japan,) was a certain resemblance 
or analogy between it and some practices and sentiments which pre- 
vailed among the Japanese. The latter look for present and future 
felicity only through the merits of Xaca Amida, and other of their dei- 
ties, who, after a long course of severe mortifications freely undertaken, 
had voluntarily, also, put an end to their lives. They sainted many 
melancholy persons who had been guilty of suicide, celebrated their 
memories, and implored their intercession and good offices. They used 
processions, statues, candles, and perfumes in their worship ; as also 
prayers for the dead, and auricular confession ; and had monasteries 
founded for devout persons of both sexes, who lived in celibacy, solitude, 
and abstinence ; so that the Japanese religion was not an inapplicable 
preparation for popery. Beside these two circumstances, another may 
be mentioned, which we take from the letters of die Jesuits themselves, 
who inform us, that the princes of the maritime parts of Japan were so 
fond of this new commerce with the Portuguese, that they strove who 
should oblige diem most, and encouraged die missionaries, less perhaps 
from a principle of zeal, than from views of interest. See Vareniua' 
Descrip. Japon. lib. iii. cap. vi. x. and the Modern Univ. History. 

h See the writers on diis subject enumerated by Fabricius, in his Lux 
Evangelii, p. 678, as also Charlevoix, Histoire Generate de Japon, torn. 
ii. liv. xi. 



522 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Sect. I. 



from the faith they had embraced. And here it may not 
be amiss to observe, that both the Jesuits and their adver- 
saries in the missions expiated, in some measure, if I may 
so express myself, by the agonies they endured, and the 
fortitude with which they suffered, the faults they had 
committed in the exercise of their ministry. For it is 
well known, that the greatest part of them died magna- 
nimously for the cause of Christ by the hands of the 
executioner, and that some of them even expired with 
triumphant feelings of satisfaction and joy. 

Historians are not entirely agreed with respect to the 
real causes of this merciless persecution. The Jesuits con- 
sider it as having been occasioned, in part, by the impru- 
dence of the Dominicans and Franciscans ; while the lat- 
ter impute it, in a great measure, to the covetous, arro- 
gant, and factious spirit of the Jesuits." Both parties ac- 
cuse the English and Dutch of having excited in the em- 
peror of Japan a strong prejudice against the Spaniards, 
Portuguese, and the Roman pontiff, to the end that they 
alone might engross the commerce of that vast monarchy, 
and be unrivalled in their credit among that powerful 
people. The English and Dutch allege, on the other- 
hand, that they never attempted to undermine, by any 
false accusations, the credit of the Roman Catholics in 
that kingdom, but only detected the perfidious plots the 
Spaniards had laid against it. Almost all the historians, 
who have given accounts of this country, concur in 
affirming, that certain letters, intercepted by the Dutch, 
and other circumstances of a very striking and alarming 
kind, had persuaded the emperor, that the Jesuits, as 
also the other missionaries, had formed seditious designs 
against his government, and aimed at nothing less than 
exciting their numerous disciples to rebellion, with a view 
to reduce the kingdom of Japan under the dominion of 
Spain. b A discovery of this nature could not but make 
the most dreadful impressions upon a prince naturally 
suspicious and cruel, such as the emperor then reigning 
was ; and, indeed, as soon as he had received this infor- 
mation, he concluded, with equal precipitation and vio- 
lence, that he could not sit secure on his throne, while 
the smallest spark of Christianity remained unextin- 
guished in his dominions, or any of its professors breathed 
under his government. It is from this remarkable period, 
that we must date the severe edict by which all Euro- 
peans are forbidden to approach the Japanese dominions, 
and in consequence of which all the terrors of fire and 
sword are employed to destroy whatever carries the remo- 
test aspect or shadow of the Christian doctrine. The only 
exception from this general law is made in favour of some 
Dutch merchants, who are allowed to import annually a 
certain quantity of European commodities, and have a 
factory, or rather a kind of prison, allowed them, in one 
of the extremities of the kingdom, where they are strictly 
watched, and rigourously precluded from all communica- 

There is a concise and sensible account of this tedious dispute in the 
sixth discourse that is subjoined to the English edition of Kaempfer's 
History of Japan, sect. iv. But it will also be proper to see what is 
said on the other side, by an author, who, in his long and circumstantial 
narration, has not omitted any incident, however minute, that tends, in 
the least, to exculpate the Jesuits, or to procure them indulgence ; that 
author is Charlevoix; see his Histoire Generale de Japon, torn. ii. liv. 
xii. The other historians that may be consulted with utility on this 
subject, are enumerated by Pabricius, in his Lux Evangelii, cap. x. p. 
678. Add to these the Acta Sanctorum, torn. i. Mens. Februar. p. 723, 
where we find not only a history of the commencement and progress of 
Christianity in Japan, but also an account of the lives auid martyr- 



tion with the natives, but what is essentially necessary to 
the commerce they are permitted to carry on. 

XVII. The example of the Roman Catholic states could 
not but excite a spirit of pious emulation in Protestant 
countries, and induce them to propagate a still purer form 
of Christianity among those unhappy nations that lay 
grovelling in the darkness of Paganism and idolatry 
Accordingly the Lutherans were, on several occasions, 
solicited by persons of eminent merit and rank in their 
communion, to embark in this pious and generous under- 
taking. Justinian Ernest, baron of Wells, distinguished 
himself by his zealous appearance in this good cause, hav- 
ing formed the plan of a society that was to be intrusted 
with the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts, and 
to bear the name of Jesus, the divine founder of that 
religion which its members were anxious to promote. 1 But 
several circumstances concurred to prevent the execution 
of this pious design, among which we may reckon, prin- 
cipally, the peculiar situation of the Lutheran princes, of 
whom very few had any territories, forts, or settlements, 
beyond the limits of Europe. 

This was by no means the case with the princes and 
states who professed the reformed religion. The English 
and Dutch, more especially, whose ships covered the ocean, 
and sailed to the most distant corners of the globe, and who, 
moreover, in this century, had sent colonies to Asia, Africa, 
and America, had abundant opportunities of spreading 
abroad the knowledge of Christianity among the unen- 
lightened nations. Nor were these opportunities entirely 
neglected, notwithstanding the reports that have generally 
prevailed, of their being much more zealous in engrossing 
the riches of the Indians than in effecting their conver- 
sion, though it may, perhaps, be granted, that neither of 
these nations exerted themselves, to the extent of theii 
power, in this salutary undertaking. In 1647, the pro 
pagation of the Gospel in foreign parts was committed, by 
an act of the English parliament, to the care and inspec- 
tion of a society composed of persons of eminent rank and 
merit. The civil wars that ensued suspended the execu 
tion of the plans that were laid for carrying on this salu 
tary Avork. In 1661, under the sway of Charles II., the 
work was resumed, and the society re-established. In 
1701, this respectable society received singular marks of 
protection and favour from king William III. who en- 
riched it with new donations and privileges. 11 Since that 
period, even to the present time, it has been distinguished 
by ample marks of the munificence of the kings of Eng- 
land, and of the liberality of persons of all ranks and or- 
ders, and has been, and continues to be, eminently useful 
in facilitating the means of instruction to the nations im- 
mersed in pagan darkness, and more especially to the 
Americans. Nor are the laudable efforts of the United 
Provinces, in the advancement and propagation of Chris- 
tian knowledge, to be passed over in silence, since they 

dom of those who first suffered for the cause of the Gospel in that 
kingdom. See likewise Mammachii Origines et Antiquitat. Christian, 
torn. ii. p. 376. 

O" b The discoveries made by the Dutch were against the Portu- 
guese, with whom they were then at war ; so that, instead of Spain, our 
author should have said Portugal. See Ksempfer's Japan, and the 
the Modern Universal History. 

c See Molleri Cimbria Literata, torn. iii. as also a German work of 
the learned Arnold, entitled, Kirchen und Ketzer Histone, part ii. 
book xvii. c. xv. sect. 23. part iii. cap. xv. sect. 18. 

d See Humphrey's Account of the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parte. 



Sect. I. 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



5^3 



also are said to have converted to the Gospel a prodigious 
number of Indians, in the islands of Ceylon and Formosa, 
on the coast of Malabar, and in other Asiatic settlements, 
which they either had acquired by their own industry, or 
obtained by conquest from the Portuguese. 1 Some histo- 
rians; perhaps, may have exaggerated, in their relations, 
vine number of proselytes made by the Dutch ; it is never- 
less most certain, that, as soon as that nation had gained 
a firm footing in the East Indies, they planned with wis- j 
dom, and executed, at a great expense, various schemes < 
for instructing the natives of those distant regions in the j 
doctrines of the Gospel. b 

XVIII. The inward parts of Africa remain still in the I 
darkness of Paganism, as they have been hitherto inac- 
cessible to the most adventurous of the Europeans. But 
in the maritime provinces of that great peninsula, and 
more especially in those where the Portuguese have their 
settlements, there are several districts in which the religion 
of Rome has prevailed over the savage, superstitions of 
that barbarous region. It is nevertheless acknowledged, 
bv the more ingenuous historians, even among the Roman 
Catholics, who have given accounts of the African colo- 
nies, that, of the proselytes made there to the Gospel, a 
very small number deserve the denomination of Chris- 
tians, since the greatest part of them retain the abomina- 
ble superstitions of their ancestors, and the very best among 
them dishonour their profession by various practices of a 
most vicious and corrupt nature. Any progress that Chris- 
tianity made hi these parts must be chiefly attributed to 
the zealous labours of the Capuchin missionaries, who, in 
tins century suffered the most dreadful hardships and dis- 
couragements in their attempts to bring the fierce and 
savage Africans under the Christian yoke. These attempts 
succeeded so far, as to gain over to the profession of the 
Gospel the kings of Benin and Awem, c and also to 
engage the cruel and intrepid Anna Zingha, queen of 
Metamba, and all her subjects, to embrace, in 1652, the 
Christian faith." 1 The African missions were allotted to 
this austere order by the court of Rome, and by the society 
de propaganda fide, for wise reasons, since none could 
be so fitted for an enterprise attended with dreadful hard- 
ships, difficulties, and perils, as a set of men whose mo- 
nastic institute had familiarized them to the severest acts 
of mortification, abstinence, and penance, and thus pre- 
pared them for the bitterest scenes of trial and adversity. 
Although the Capuchins seem to have been alone ho- 
noured with this sacred, but arduous commission, it does 
not appear that the other orders beheld, with the smallest 
sentiment of envy, their dear-bought glory. 

XIX. The extensive continent of America swarms with 

1 See Epist de Successu Evangelii apud Indos Orientales, ad Johan. 
Leusdenium script 

<> See Braun's Veritable Religion des Hollanders, p. 71, 267, &c. 
This treatise, which was published at Amsterdam, in 1675. was intend- 
ed as an answer to a malignant libel of one Stoup, entitled la Religion 
des Hollandois, in which that writer proposed to persuade the world 
that the Dutch had scarely any religion at all. 

c Calied by some Ouverne. 

53r <> For a more ample account of this queen, and her conversion, 
Dr. Mosheim refers the reader (in his note [']) to Urban Cerri's Etat pre- 
sent de l'Eglise Romainc, p. 222, and to the third and fourth volumes of 
Father Labat's Relation Historique de l'Afrique Occidentale, in the 
former of which, he tells us, there is a French translation of Ant. Ca- 
vazzi's account of Africa. All these citations are inaccurate. Cerri 
makes no mention of Zingha, or of Metamba ; nor are they mentioned 
by Labat. in any of the fire volumes of his Historical Relation ; nor 
is Cavazzi's account translated in that work. In general it may be 



colonies from Spain, Portugal, and France,' all which pro- 
fess the Christian religion as it has been disfigured by the 
church of Rome. But it is abundantly known, that these 
colonists, more especially the Spaniards and Portuguese, 
are the most worthless and profligate set of men that bear 
the Christian name ; and this fact is confirmed by the tes- 
timonies of Roman catholic writers of great merit and au- 
thority, who cannot be suspected of partiality in this mat- 
ter. Even the clergy are not excepted from this general 
condemnation ; but, as we learn from the same credible 
testimonies, surpass even the idolatrous natives in the 
ridiculous rites which they perform in the worship of God, 
as well as in the licentiousness of their manners, and the 
enormity of the crimes they commit without reluctance. 
Those of the ancient inhabitants of America, who either 
have submitted to the European yoke, or live near the 
colonies, have imbibed some faint knowledge of the Ro- 
mish religion, from the Jesuits, Franciscans, and other 
ecclesiastics ; but these feeble rays of instruction are totally 
clouded by the gloomy suggestions of their native super- 
stition, and the corrupt influence of then barbarous cus- 
toms aiid'manners. As to those Indians who live more 
remote from the European settlements, and wander about 
in the woods without any fixed habitation, they are abso- 
lutely incapable either of receiving or retaining any ade- 
quate notions of the Christian doctrine, unless they be pre- 
viously reclaimed from that irregular and desultory man- 
ner of life, and civilized by an intercourse with persons, 
whose humane and insinuating manners are adapted to 
attract their love, and excite their imitation. This the 
Jesuits, and other ecclesiastics who have been sent in later 
times to convert these wandering savages, have found by 
a constant and uniform experience/ Hence the former 
have erected cities, and founded civil societies, cemented 
by government and laws, like the European states, in 
several Indiau provinces both in South and North Ame- 
rica ; and it is on this account that they discharge the 
double functions of magistrates and doctors among these 
their new subjects and disciples, whose morals and senti- 
ments, it is said, they endeavour to preserve pure and un- 
corrupted, by permitting few or no Europeans to approach 
them. s These arduous and difficult attempts have fur- 
nished to the disciples of Loyola ample matter of boasting, 
and a lucky occasion of extolling the zeal, the dexterity, 
and industry of their order. But it has appeared, from 
relations worthy of credit, that these exploits of the Jesuits, 
in the internal and more inaccessible provinces of Ame- 
rica, are not so much carried on with a view to the pro- 
pagation of Christianity, as with an intention of gratify- 
ing their own insatiable avarice and boundless ambition ; 

observed, that the missions in Africa were greatly neglected by the 
Portuguese, and that the few missionaries sent thither were men abso- 
lutely void of learning, and destitute of almost every qualification that 
was necessary to the prosecution of such an important undertaking 
See Labat's Preface, as also the Modern Universal History. 

See the authors mentioned by Fabricius, in his Lux Evangelii Or- 
bem Terrarum collustrans, cap. xlviii. xlix. p. 769. — There is a'cursory 
account of the state of the Romish religion, in that part of America 
which is possessed by the European catholics, in Cerri's work ab\»e- 
mentioned. 

' A great variety of facts are alleged as a proof of this, in the Letters 
in which the French Jesuits gave their friends in Europe an account of 
the success and fruits of their mission, and which were regularly pub- 
lished at Paris. 

|3= ! That this was by no means the only, nor even die principal 
reason of cutting off all communication between the Indians and Europe- 
i ans, will appear evident from the contents of the following note. 



524 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Sect. I. 



and, accordingly, they are reported to send yearly to the 
members of their order, in Europe, immense quantities of 
gold, drawn from several American provinces where they 
have power and property, but chiefly from Paraguay, 
which belongs to them alone. a 

XX. The cause of Christianity was promoted with 
greater wisdom, and consequently with better success, in 
those parts of America where the English formed settle- 
ments during this century; and, though it had the greatest 
ignorance, stupidity, and indolence to conquer, it quickly 
made a considerable progress. The English Independents 
who retired to America because they dissented from the 
established religion of their country, claimed the honour of 
carrying thither the first rays of divine truth, and of begin- 
ning a work that has been since continued with such pious 
zeal and such abundant fruit ; and indeed this claim is 
founded injustice. Several families of this sect that had been 
settled in Holland, removed thence intoAmerica b in 1620, 
in order, as they alleged, to transmit their doctrine pure and 
undefiled to future ages ; and there tbey laid the founda- 
tions of a new state. The success that attended this first 
emigration engaged great numbers of the Puritans, who 
groaned under the oppression of the bishops, and the seve- 
rity of a court by which this oppression was authorized, to 

" While Father Labat was at Rome, Tamburini, at that time general 
of the Jesuits, asked him several questions relating to the progress of 
Christianity in America ; to which, with equal courage and candour, he 
gave immediately this general answer : " that the Gospel had made little 
or no real progress in that country ; that he had never met with one adult 
person among the Americans who could be regarded as a true proselyte 
to Christianity ; and that the missionaries could scarcely pretend to any 
other exploits (of a spiritual kind) than their having baptized some 
children at the point of death." [Labat's Voyage en Espagne et en 
Italie, torn, viii.] He added, that, " in order to make the Americans 
Christians, it was previously necessary to make them men," This 
bold Dominican, who had been himself a missionary in the American 
islands, was inclined to give Tamburini some seasonable advice con- 
cerning the immense wealth and authority that the Jesuits had acquired 
in those parts of the world ; but the cunning old man eluded artfully 
this part of the conversation, and turned it upon another subject. 
Labat gave, on another occasion, a still greater proof of his undaunted 
spirit and presence of mind; for when, in an audience granted him by 
Clement XI. that pontiff praised, in pompous terms, the industry and 
zeal of the Portuguese and Spanish missionaries in promoting the sal- 
vation of the Americans, and reproached the French with inactivity 
and indifference in a matter of such high importance, our resolute Do- 
minican told him plainly, "that the Spaniards and Portuguese boasted 
of the success of their labours without any sort of foundation; since it 
was well known, that, instead of converts, they had only made hypo- 
crites, all their disciples among the Indians having been forced, by the 
dread of punishment and the terrors of death, to embrace Christianity;" 
adding, " that such as had received baptism continued as open and egre- 
gious idolaters as they had been before their profession of Christianity." 
To this account we might add the relations of a whole cloud of wit- 
nesses, whose testimonies are every way worthy of credit, and who 
declare unanimously the same thing. See, among others, a remarkable 
piece, entitled, Memoire touchant l'Etablissement considerable des Peres 
Jesuites dans les Indes d'Espagne, which is subjoined to Frezier's Rela- 
tion du Voyage de la Mer du Sud. See also Voyage aux Indes Occi- 
dentales, par F. Coreal, torn. ii. p. 67, and Mammachius, Orig. et Anti- 
quit. Christian, torn. ii. p. 337. There is a particular account of the 
Jesuits of Paraguay, given by Don Ulloa, in his Voyage d'Amerique, 
torn. i. p. 540 ; but this account is partial in their favour. They are 
also zealously and artfully defended in an account of the mission of 
Paraguay, published by Muratori. 

f^» When Dr. Mosheim wrote this note,, the important discovery 
that placed the ambitious, despotic, and rebellious proceedings of the 
Jesuits in Paraguay in the plainest and most striking light, had not been 
yet made. The book of Muratori deceived, for some time, the over- 
credulous, and induced even the enemies of the Jesuits to suspect that 
their conduct at Paraguay was not so criminal as ithad been represented ; 
so that, notwithstanding the. accusations that had been brought against 
these missionaries by the writers mentioned by our historian : notwith- 
standing a memorial sent to the court of Spain in 1730, by Don Martin 
de Barua, at that time Spanish governor of Paraguay, in which the 
Jesuits are charged with the most ambitious projects and the most rebel- 
lious designs, represented as setting up an independent government, 



follow the fortunes of these religious adventurers ; a and 
this produced a second emigration in 1629. But, not- 
withstanding the success which at length crowned this 
enterprise, its commencement was unpromising, and the 
colonists, immediately after their arrival, laboured under 
such hardships and difficulties in the dreary and uncul- 
tivated wilds of this new region, that, for several years, 
they could make very little progress in instructing the 
Indians, their whole zeal and industry being scarcely 
sufficient to preserve the infant settlement from the 
horrors of famine. But, about the year 1633, c affairs 
assumed a better aspect : the colony began to flourish, 
and the new-comers, among whom the Puritans Mayhew, 
Shepherd, and Elliot, made an eminent figure, had the 
leisure, courage, and tranquillity of mind, that were neces- 
sary for the execution of such an important and arduous 
design. All these devout exiles were remarkably zealous, 
laborious, and successful in the conversion of the Indians ; 
but none acquired such a shining reputation, in this pious 
career, as John Elliot, who learned their language, (into 
which he translated the Bible, and other instructive and 
edifying books,) collected the wandering savages, and 
formed them into regular congregations, instructed them 
in a manner suited to the dulness of their comprehen- 

accused of carrying on a prodigious trade, and other things of that 
nature; and notwithstanding the circumstantial evidence of various 
known facts that supported these accusations in the strongest manner ; 
a great proportion of the public had not just ideas upon the subject. 
The illusion, however, did not last long. In 1750, the courts of Madrid 
and Lisbon entered into a treaty for fixing the limits of their respective 
dominions in South- America. The Jesuits, who had formed an inde- 
pendent republic in the heart of those dominions, composed of the In- 
dians, whom they had gained by the insinuating softness and affected 
mildness, humility, and generosity of their proceedings, were much 
alarmed at this treaty. It was one of the fundamental laws of this new 
state, (which was founded under the mask of a Christian mission,) that 
no bishop or governor, nor any officer, civil, military, or ecclesiastical, 
nor even any individual, Spaniard or Portuguese, should be admitted 
into its territories, to the end that the proceedings and projects of the 
Jesuits might still remain an impenetrable secret. The members of 
their order were alone to be instructed in this profound and important 
mystery. The use of the Spanish language was prohibited in this new 
territory, in order to prevent more effectually all communication between 
the Indians and that nation. The Indians were trained to the use of 
arms, furnished with artillery, instructed in the art of war, taught to 
behold the Jesuits as their sovereigns and their gods, and to look upon 
all white people, except the Jesuits, as demoniacs, atheists, and more- 
over, as their barbarous and mortal enemies. Such was the state of 
affairs when, in 1752, the united troops of Spain and Portugal marched 
toward the eastern borders of the river Uragai, to make the exchanges 
of certain villages that had been agreed upon in the treaty above-men- 
tioned. Upon this, the Jesuits, not being sufficiently prepared for their 
defence, demanded a delay of the execution of the treaty under various 
pretexts. This delay was granted: but, as the Spanish general, Go- 
mez Frere Andrada, perceived that the holy fathers employed this delay 
in arming the Indians, and confirming them in their rebellion, he wrote 
to his court, and thence received new orders to proceed to the execution 
of the treaty. A war ensued between the Spanish and the Portuguese on 
one side, and the Indians, animated by the Jesuits, on the other, in 
which the Spanish general lost his life, and of which the other circum- 
stances are well known. This was the real and original cause of the 
disgrace of the Jesuits at the court of Portugal. Those who desire a 
more particular account of this matter, will find it in a famous pamphlet, 
drawn from an authentic memorial, published by the court of Lisbon, 
and printed in 1758, under the following title: La Republique des Je- 
suites au Paraguay Renversee, on Relation Authentique de la Guerre 
que ces Rehgieux ont ose soutenir contre les Monarques d'Espagne et 
de Portugal en Amerique. pour y defendre les domaines dont Us avoi- 
ent inurpe la Souveraine au Paraguay sous pretexte de Religion. 

b This colony settled in that part of America which was afterwards 
called New Plymouth. 

See Neal's Hist, of the Puritans, vol. ii. p. 128 ; and also a German 
work entitled, Englische Refor. Hist, by Ant. W. Bohm, b. vi. c. v. 

d See Mather's History of New-England, p. 126.— Neal, vol. ii. 

f^= " Dr. Mosheim says in the year 1623 ; but this is probably an 
error of the press; for it is well known, that the emigration of Shep- 
herd and Elliot happened between 1G31 and 1G34. 



Sect. I. 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



525 



sion, and the measure of their respective capacities ; and, 
by such eminent displays of his zeal, dexterity, and inde- 
fatigable industry, merited, after his death, the honour- 
able title of the Apostle of the Indians. 1 

The. unexpected success that attended these pious 
attempts toward the propagation of Christian knowledge, 
drew the attention of the parliament and people of Eng- 
land ; and the advancement of this good cause appeared 
an object of sufficient importance to employ the delibera- 
tions, and to claim the protection, of the great council of 
the nation. Thus was formed that illustrious society, 
which derives its title from the great purpose of its insti- 
tution, namely, the propagation of the Gospel in foreign 
parts, and which, in proportion to the increase of its num- 
ber, influence, revenues, and prerogatives, has still renew- 
ed and augmented its efforts for the instruction of the 
Pagans in all parts of the world, particularly those of the 
American continent. It is true, that, after all its efforts, 
much is yet to be done ; but it is also true, and must be 
acknowledged by all who have examined these matters 
with attention and impartiality, that much has been done, 
and that the pious undertakings of this respectable society 
have been followed by unexpected fruit.— With respect 
to the province of Pennsylvania, which receives in its 
bosom, without distinction, persons of all sects and all 
opinions, we shall have occasion to speak of its religious 
state in another place. The American provinces which 
were taken from the Portuguese by the Dutch, under the 
command of count Maurice of Nassau, became immedi- 
ately an object of the pious zeal of their new masters, 
who began, with great ardour and remarkable success, 
to spread the light of the Gospel among the wretched 
inhabitants of those benighted regions. 13 But this fair 
prospect was clouded in 1644, when the Portuguese reco- 
vered the territories they had lost. As to the Dutch set- 
tlement in Surinam, we cannot say much, having never 
received the smallest information of any attempts made 
by the colonists to instruct the neighbouring Indians in 
the knowledge of Christianity. 

XXI. Religion in general, and the Christian faith in 
particular, had many enemies to encounter in this century, 
though their number has been studiously diminished in 
the accounts of some, and greatly exaggerated in the 
representations of others. The English complain of the 
reign of Charles II. as the fatal period, when corruption 
of manners, and vice, in the most licentious and profli- 
gate forms, over-ran their nation, engendered a spirit of 
scepticism and infidelity, and formed a set of unhappy 
men, who employed all the wantonness of inconsiderate 
wit, all the sallies of imagination, and even all the force 

* Hornbeckius, de Conversione Indorum et Gentil. lib. ii. cap. xv. | 
p. 260. — Crescentii Matheri Epistola de Successu Evangelii apud Indos 
Occidentals ad Joh. Leusdenium. §3f- The Letter to Leusden, by 
Increase Mather, is translated into English, and inserted in Cotton Ma- 
ther's Life of Elliot, and in his History of New-England, book iii. N. 

•> Jo. Henr. Hottingeri Topographia Ecclesiastica, p. 47. — Janicon, 
Eiat Present des Provinces Unices, torn. i. p. 396. The same author 
gives an account of Surinam, and of the state of religion in that colony, 
chap. xiv. p. 407. 

jiQr ° There are three churches in that settlement for the use of the 
colonists; but no attempt has been made to spread the knowledge of the 
Gospel among the natives. 

■i See Ricoticr's preface to his French translation of Dr. Clarke's Dis- 
courses on the Being and Attributes of God. For an account of the 
pious, learned, and Illustrious Mr. Boyle, see Budgell's Memoirs of the 
Lives, and Characters of the 1 illustrious Family ofthe Boyles: see also 
the Bibliotheque Brittanique, torn. xii. g^- But. above all, see the 

No. XLV. 132 



of real talent and genius, to extinguish a sense of reli- 
gion in the minds of mankind. That this complaint is 
far from being groundless, appears, on one hand, from the 
number of those writers among the English, who either 
directed their attacks against all religion, or endeavoured 
to confine the belief of men to natural religion alone ; 
and, on the other from the still superior number of 
learned and ingenious treatises in which the divinity, 
dignity, and intrinsic excellence of the Gospel, were de ■ 
monstrated and displayed in the mGst striking and con- 
spicuous manner. But nothing is more adapted to con- 
firm the accounts that have been given of the progress of 
infidelity and licentiousness at the period now under con- 
sideration, than the famous Lectures founded by that 
illustrious ornament of religion and humanity, Mr. Robert 
Boyle, who, in 1691, consecrated a considerable part of 
his large fortune to the service of Christianity, by leav- 
ing, in his last will, a sum to be distributed successively 
to a number of learned divines, who were to preach, in 
their turns, eight sermons every year, in defence of natu- 
ral and revealed religion." 1 This pious and honourable 
task has been generally committed to men of the most 
eminent genius and abilities, and is still undertaken with 
zeal, and performed with remarkable dignity and success. 
The discourses that have been delivered in consequence 
of this admirable institution have always been published ; 
and they form at this day a large and important collec- 
tion, which is known throughout all Europe, and has 
done eminent service to the cause of religion and virtue.' 
XXII. The leader of the impious band in England, 
which, so early as the reign of Charles II., attempted to 
obscure the truth, and to dissolve the solemn obligatioirs 
of religion, was Thomas Hobbes of Mahnesbury, a man 
whose audacious pride was accompanied with an uncom- 
mon degree of artifice and address, whose sagacity was 
superior to his learning, and whose reputation was more 
owing to the subtilty and extent of his genius, than to 
any progress he had made either in sacred or profane eru- 
dition/ This man, notwithstanding the pernicious na- 
ture and tendency of his principles, had several adherents 
in England ; and found also, in foreign countries, more 
than one apologist, who, though they acknowledge that 
his sentiments were erroneous, yet deny that he went such 
an impious length as to introduce the disbelief, or to over- 
turn the worship of a Supreme Being.e But if it should 
be granted, on one hand, that Hobbes was not totally des- 
titute of all sense of a Deity, or of all impressions of reli- 
gion, it must be allowed, on the other, by all who peruse 
his writings with a proper degree of attention, that his 
tenets lead, by natural consequences, to a contempt of 

late learned Dr. Birch's Life of Boyle, and that very valuable collection 
of lives, the Biographia Britannica, Article Boyle (Robert} note". See 
also the article Hobbes, in the same collection. N. 

• There is a complete list of these learned discourses in the Biblio- 
theque, Angloise, torn. xv. part ii. p. 416. — The late Reverend Mr. Gil- 
bert Burnet published a judicious, comprehensive, and well-digested 
abridgment of such of the Lectures as had been preached before the 
year 1737. This abridgment comprehends the discourses of Bentley_ 
Kidder, Williams, Gastrell, Harris, Bradford, Blackhall, Stanhope, 
Clarke, Hancock, Whiston, Turner, Butler, Woodward, Derham, 
Ibbot, Long, J. Clarke, Gurdon, Burnet, Berriman. 

' See Bayle's Dictionary, and Wood's Athena Oxonienses. 

B Amc ng the patrons and defenders of Hobbes, we may reckon Nic. 
Hier. Gundltngius, in his Observationes Selects, and in his Gundlingi- 
ana, and also Arnold, in the second part of his German history of tha 
church and of heresy. These writers are refuted by the learned Bud- 
deus, in his 1'heses de Atheismo et Superstitione. 



526 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Sect. 1. 



religion and of divine worship ; and that, in some of his 
productions, there are visible marks of an extreme aver- 
sion to Christianity. It has, indeed, been said of him, 
that, at an advanced age, he returned to a better mind, 
and condemned publicly the opinions and tenets he had 
formerly entertained ; a but how far this recantation was 
sincere, we shall not pretend to determine, since the rea- 
lity of his repentance has been strongly questioned. 

The same thing cannot be said of John earl of Roches- 
ter, who had insulted the majesty of God, and trampled 
upon the truths of religion and the obligations of morality 
with a profane sort of phrensy, that far exceeded the im- 
piety of Hobbes, but whose repentance and conversion 
were also as palpable as had been his folly, and much 
more unquestionable than the dubious recantation of the 
philosopher of Malmesbury. The earl was a man of 
uncommon sagacity and penetration, of a fine genius and 
an elegant taste ; but these natural talents were accom- 
panied with the greatest levity and licentiousness, and 
the most impetuous propensity to unlawful pleasure. As 
long as health enabled him to answer the demands of 
passion, his life was an uninterrupted scene of debauch- 
ery. b He was, however, so happy in the last years of a 
very short life, as to see the extreme folly and guilt of his 
past conduct, in which salutary view he was greatly assist- 

"■ This recantation depends upon the testimony of Wood, who in- 
forms us, that Hobbes composed an apology for himself and his writings, 
in which he declared, that the opinions he had published in his Levia- 
than were by no means conformable to his real sentiments ; that he had 
only proposed them as a matter of debate, to exercise his mind in the 
art of reasoning; that, after the publication of that book, he had never 
maintained them either in public or in private, but had left them entirely 
to the judgment and decision of the church; more especially that the 
tenets, in this and his other writings, which seemed inconsistent with 
the received doctrines concerning God and religion, were never delivered 
by him as truths, but proposed as questions to be decided by divines 
and ecclesiastical judges endued with a proper authority. — Such is the 
account that Wood gives of the apology now under consideration ; but 
he does not tell us the year in which it was published, which is a proof 
that he himself had never seen it; nor does he inform us whether it ap- 
peared during the life of Hobbes, or after his death. As indeed it is 
placed in the catalogue of his writings, with a date posterior to the year 
1682, it is natural to suppose that it was not published during his life, 
since he died in 1G79. It is, therefore, no easy matter to determine 
what stress is to be laid upon this recantation of Hobbes, or what opi- 
nion we are to form of his supposed repentance. That the apology 
exists, we do not pretend to deny ; but it may have been composed by 
some of his friends, to diminish the odium which, it was natural to 
think, his licentious principles would cast on his memory. But should 
it be granted, that it was drawn up and published by Hobbes himself, 
even this concession would contribute little to save, or rather to recover, 
his reputation, since it is well known, that nothing is more common 
among those who, by spreading corrupt principles and pernicious opi- 
nions, have drawn upon themselves the just indignation of the public, 
than, like Hobbes, to deceive the world by insidious and insincere 
declarations of the soundness of their belief, and the uprightness of 
their intentions. It is thus that they secure themselves against the ex- 
ecution of the laws that are designed to fence religion, while they perse- 
vere in their licentious sentiments, and propagate them, wherever they 
can do it with security. 

' See an account of his life and writings in Wood's Athene Oxoni- 
enses, vol. ii. His poetical genius is justly celebrated by Voltaire, in 
his Melanges de Literature et de Philosophie. 

° Bishop Burnet has given a particular account of this last and very 
affecting scene of the life of this nobleman, jn a pamphlet written ex- 
pressly on that subject, and entitled, Some Passages of the Life and 
Death of John, Earl of Rochester, written, at his desire, on his death- 
bed, by Gilbert Burnet, D. D. containing more amply their Conversa- 
tions on the great principles of Natural and Revealed Religion. 

<i His works were first collected and published under the title of Cha- 
racteristics, in 1711, and, since that time, have passed through many 
editions. See Le Clerc's account of them in his Bibliotheque Choise, 
torn, xxiii. - The critical reflexions of the learned and ingenious Leib- 
neitz on the philosophy of Lord Shaftesbury were published by Dez- 
Maizeaux, in the second volume of his Receuil de diverses Pieces sur la 
Philosophie, p. 3-15. — There are some writers who maintain, that this 



ed by the wise and pathetic reasonings and exhortations 
of Doctor Burnet, afterwards bishop of Sarum. This 
conviction of his guilt produced a deep contrition and 
repentance, an ardent recourse to the mercy of God, as it 
is manifested in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and a sincere 
abhorrence of the offences he had committed against the 
Best of Beings. In these pious sentiments he died in 
1680.= 

In this list we may also place Anthony, earl of Shaftes- 
bury, who died of a consumption at Naples, in the year 
1713 ; not that this illustrious writer attacked openly and 
professedly the Christian religion, but that the most sedu- 
cing strokes of wit and raillery, the most enchanting elo- 
quence, and the charms of a genius, in which amenity, 
elegance, copiousness, and elevation, were happily blended, 
rendered him one of its most dangerous, though secret 
enemies ; and so much the more dangerous, because his 
opposition was carried on under a mask. His works have 
been published in various forms, and have passed through 
many editions. They are remarkable for beauty of dic- 
tion, and contain very noble and sublime sentiments; 
but they ought to be read with the utmost caution, as 
being extremely dangerous to inexperienced, youthful and 
unwary minds. d The brutal rusticity and uncouth turn 
of John Toland, a native of Ireland, who, toward the 

noble philosopher has been unjustly charged, by the greatest part of the 
clergy, with a contempt for revealed religion ; and it is to be wished, 
that the arguments they employ to vindicate him from this charge were 
more satisfactory and solid than they really are. But, if I do not 
greatly mistake, whoever peruses his writings, and more especially his 
famous letter concerning enthusiasm, will be inclined to adopt the judg- 
ment that was formed of him by the ingenious Dr. Berkeley, bishop of 
Cloyne, in his Alciphron, or the Minute Philosopher, vol. i. p. 200.- 
Nothing is more easy than to observe, in the writings of Lord Shaftes- 
bury, a spirit of raillery, mingling itself even with those of his reflex- 
ions upon religious subjects that seem to be delivered with the greatest 
seriousness and gravity. But, at the same time, this unseemly mix- 
ture of the solemn and the ludicrous, renders it difficult for those who 
are not well acquainted with his manner, to know whether he is in jest 
or in earnest. It may also be added, that this author has perniciously 
endeavoured to destroy the influence and efficacy of some of the great 
motives that are proposed in the Scriptures to render men virtuous, by 
representing these motives as mercenary, and even turning them into 
ridicule. He substitutes, in their place, the intrinsic excellence and 
beauty of virtue, as the great source of moral obligation, and the true 
incentive to virtuous deeds. But, however alluring this sublime scheme 
of morals may appear to certain minds of a refined, elegant, and inge- 
nious turn, it is certainly little adapted to the taste, the comprehension, 
and the character of the multitude. Take away from the lower orders 
of mankind the prospects of reward and punishment, that lead them to 
virtue and obedience, by the powerful suggestions of hope and fear ; and 
the great supports of virtue, and the most effectual motives to the pur- 
suit of it will, with respect to them, be removed. 

glf" Since Dr. Mosheim wrote this note, the very learned and judi- 
cious Dr. Leland published his View of the Principal Deistical Wri- 
ters that have appeared in England during the last and present Century, 
&c. in which there is a full account of the free-th ikers and deists men- 
tioned by our historian, with a review of the writings of the earl of 
Shaftesbury. This review merits a particular attention, as it contains 
an impartial account, an accurate examination, and a satisfactory refu- 
tation, of the erroneous principles of that great man. Like all other 
eminent innovators, the earl has been misrepresented both by his friends 
and his enemies. Dr. Leland has steered a middle course betwi en the 
blind enthusiasm of the former, and the partial malignity of the latter. 
He points out, with singular penetration and judgment, the errors, 
inconsistencies, and contradictions, of that illustrious author; does jus- 
tice to what is good in his ingenious writings ; separates carefully the 
wheat from the chaff; and neither approves nor condemns in the lump, 
as too many have done. In a more particular mannerhehas shown, with 
his usual perspicuity and good sense, that the being influenced by the 
hope of the reward promised in the Gospel has nothing in it disingenu- 
ous and slavish, and is so far from being inconsistent with loving virtue 
for its own sake, that it tends, on the contrary, to heighten our esteem 
of its amiableness and worth. The triumphant manner in which die 
learned Dr. Warburton has refuted Shaftesbury's representation of rail- 
lery and ridicule as a test of truth, is too well known to be mentioned 



Sect. I. 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



527 



conclusion of this century, was rendered famous by sev- 
eral injurious libels against Christianity, must naturally 
appear doubly disgusting, when compared with the ami- 
able elegance and specious refinement of the author now 
mentioned. However, as those writers, who flatter the 
uassions by endeavouring to remove all the restraints that 
religion imposes upon their excessive indulgence, will 
never want patrons among the licentious part of mankind ; 
so this man, who was not destitute of learning, imposed 
upon the ignorant and unwary ; and, notwithstanding 
the excess of his arrogance and vanity, and the shocking 
rudeness and ferocity of his manners, acquired a certain 
measure of fame. a It is not necessary to mention other 
authors of this class, who appeared in England, during 

here. See also Dr. Brown's Three Essays on the Characteristics, in 
which that, sensible author treats of ridicule considered as a test of truth ; 
of the. obligations of men to virtue, and of the necessity of religious 
principle, and of revealed religion and Christianity. 

|3r * Dr. Mosheim, in a short note, refers to an account he had 
given of the Life and Writings of Toland, prefixed to his confutation 
of the Nazarenus of that contemptible author. He also quotes a life of 
Toland, prefixed to his posthumous works by Des-Maizeaux. — Dr. 
Mosheim says, that this man was not destitute of learning. Should 
that be granted, it must, nevertheless, be acknowledged that this learn- 
ing lay quite undigested in his head, and that the use he. made of it, in 
his works, was equally injudicious and impudent. His conference with 
M. Beausobre concerning the authenticity of the Holy Scriptures, which 
was bolden at Berlin in presence of the queen of Prussia, and in which 
he made such a despicable figure, is a proof of the former; and his 
writings, to all but half-scholars and half-thinkers, will be a proof (as 
long as they endure) of the latter. — It is remarkable that (according to 
the maxim of Juvenal, Nemo repente fuit turpissimus) Toland arrived 
only gradually, and by a progressive motion, at the summit of infidelity. 
His first step was Socinianism, which appeared in his book, entitled, 
Christianity not Mysterious. This book procured him hard treatment 
from the Irish parliament, and was answered by Mr. Brown, after- 
wards bishop of Cork, who, unhappily, did not think good arguments 
sufficient to maintain a good cause, unless they were seconded by the 
secular arm, whose ill-placed succours he solicited with ardour. The 
second step that Toland made in the devious fields of religion, was in 
the publication of his Amyntor, which, in appearance, was designed to 
vindicate what he advanced in his Life of Milton, to prove that king 
Charles I. was not the real author of the Eikon Basilike, but, in reality, 
was intended to invalidate the Canon of the New Testament, and to 
render it uncertain and precarious. This piece, as far as it attacked the 
authenticity of Scripture, was answered in a triumphant manner by 
Dr. Clarke, in his Reflections on that part of the Book called Amyntor, 
which relates to the Writings of the Primitive Fathers, and the Canon 
of the New Testament; by Mr. Richardson, in his learned and judi- 
cious Vindication of the Canon of the New Testament ; and by Mr. 
Jones, in his new and full Method of settling the Canonical Authority 
of the New Testament. These learned writers have exposed, in the 
most striking manner, the disingenuity, the blunders, the false quota- 
tions, the insidious fictions, and ridiculous mistakes of Toland, who, on 
various accounts, may pass for one of the most harmless writers against 
the Christian religion. For an account of the Adeisidamion, the Naza- 
renus, the Letters to Serena, the Pantheisticon, and the other irreligious 
works of this author, and also of the excellent answers that have been 
made to them, see his Life in the General Dictionary, or rather in Chauffc- 
pied's Supplement to Bayle's Dictionary, entitled, Nouveau Dictionnaire 
Historique et Critique, as this author has not only translated the articles 
added to Bayle's Dictionary by the English editors of that work, but has 
augmented and improved them by several interesting anecdotes drawn 
from the literary history of the continent. 

|3* b Lord Herbert did not presume to denj *he divinity of the Gos- 
pel; he even declared that he had no intention to attack Christianity. 
He expressly calls it the " best religion," and admits that it tends to es- 
tablish the five great articles of that universal, sufficient, and absolutely 
perfect religion, which he pretends to deduce from reason and nature. 
But, notwithstanding these fair professions, his lordship loses no occa- 
sion of throwing out insinuations against all revealed religion, as abso- 
lutely uncertain, and of little or no use. But this same deist, who was 
the first, and, indeed, the least contemptible of that tribe in England, has 
jeft upon record one of the strongest instances of fanaticism and absurd- 
ity chat perhaps ever were heard of, and of which he himseif was 
guilty. This instance is preserved in a manuscript life of lord Her- 
bert, drawn up from memorials penned by himself, which is now in the 
possession of a gentleman of -distinction,* and is as follows: that lord, 
having finished his book de' Veritate, apprehended that he should meet 
with much opposition, and was, consequently, dubious for some time, 



this century, but are long since consigned to oblivion. 
The reader may, however, add, to those who have been 
already named, lord Herbert of Cherbury, a philosopher 
of some note, who, if he did not absolutely deny the 
divine origin of the Gospel, b maintained, at least, that it 
was not essentially necessary to the salvation of man- 
kind : b and Charles Blount, who composed a book, enti- 
tled the Oracles of Reason, and, in 1693, died by his own 
hand. c 

XXIII. Infidelity, and even atheism, shewed them- 
selves also on the continent during this century. In 
France, Julius Caesar Vanini, the author of two books, one 
entitled, the Amphitheatre of Providence, 4 and the other, 
Dialogues concerning Nature,* was publicly burned at 



whether it would not be prudent to suppress it. " Being thus doubtful 
(says his lordship.) in my chamber (at Paris, where he was ambassador, 
in 1624,) one fair day in the summer, my casement being open towards 
the south, the sun shining clear, and, no wind stirring, 1 took my book 
de Veritate in my hands, and, kneeling on my knees, devoutly said 
these words : O thou Eternal God, author of this light that now shines 
upon me, and giver of all inward illuminations, I do beseech thee, of 
thine infinite goodness, to pardon a greater request than a sinner ought 
to make; I am not satisfied enough whether I shall publish this book ; 
if it be for thy glory, I beseech thee, give me some sign from heaven ; 
if not, I shall suppress it." What does the reader now think of this 
corner-stone of deism, who demands a supernatural revelation from 
heaven in favour of a book that was designed to prove all revelation un- 
certain and useless? But the absurdity does not end here ; for our deist 
not only sought for this revelation, but also obtained it, if we are to be- 
lieve him. " I had no sooner (says he) spoken these words, but a 
loud though yet gentle noise came forth from the heavens, (for it was like 
nothing on earth,) which did so cheer and comfort me, that I took my 
petition as granted." Rare credulity this in an unbeliever ! but these 
gentlemen can believe even against reason, when it answers their pur- 
pose. His lordship continues, " This, however strange it may seem, 1 
protest before the Eternal God, is true : neither am I superstitiously de- 
ceived herein," &c. See Leland's View of the Deistical Writers, vol. i. 

This is sufficiently known to those who have perused lord Herbert's 
book de Causis Errorum, as also his celebrated work de Religione Gen- 
tilium. This author is generally considered as the chief and founder of 
the sect or society that are called Naturalists from their attachment to 
natural religion alone. See Arnoldi Historia Eccles. at Haeret. part ii. 
p. 1083. — The peculiar tenets of this famous deist have been refuted by 
Musreus and Kortholt, two German divines of eminent learning and 
abilities. f^T Gassendi also composed an answer to lord Herbert's 
book de Veritate. In England it was refuted by Mr. Richard Baxter, 
in a treatise entitled, More Reasons for the Christian Religion, and no 
Reason against it. Mr. Locke, in his Essay on the Human Understand- 
ing, shows, with great perspicuity and force of evidence, that the five 
articles of natural religion, prooosed by this noble author, are not, 
as he represents them, common notices, clearly inscribed by the hand of 
God in the minds of all men, and that a divine revelation is necessary to 
indicate, develope, and enforce them. Dr. Whitby has also treated the 
same matter amply in his learned work, entitled, The Necessity and 
Usefulness of the Christian Revelation, by reason of the Corruptions 
of the Principles of Natural Religion among the Jews and Heathens. 

& See the Nouveau Dictionnaire Historique et Critique of Chauffepied, 
who, however, has omitted the mention of this gentleman's unhappy 
fate, out of a regard, no doubt, to his illustrious family, g^f- Mr. 
Chauffepied only translated the article Charles Blount, from that of the 
English continuators of Bayle. 

|jf This book was published at Lyons in 1615, was approved by the 
clergy and magistrates of that city, and contains many things abso- 
lutely irreconcilable with atheistical principles: its title is as follows : 
Amphitheatrum iEternse Providentiaj, Divino-Magicum Cliristiano- 
Physicum Astrologico-Catholicum, adversus Veteres Philosophos, 
Atheos, Epicureos, Peripateticos, Stoicos, &c. This book has been 
deemed innocent by several writers, impious by others ; but, in our 
judgment, it would nave escaped reproach, had Vanini published none 
of his other productions, since the impieties it may contam, according to 
the intention of its author, are carefully concealed. This is by no 
means the case of the book mentioned in the following note. 

|^p ° This book, concerning the Secrets of Queen Nature, the God- 
dess of Mortals, was published with this suspicious title at Paris, in 
1616, and contains glaring marks of impiety and atheism; and yet it 
was published with the king's permission, and the approbation of the 
Faculty of Theology. This scandalous negligence or ignorance is 
unaccountable in such a reverend body. The Jesuit Garasse pretends 

* The translator probably alludes to Horace Walpole, earl of Orford, 
who afterwards published It. — Edit. 



528 



GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH. 



Sect. L 



Toulouse, 1629, as an impious and obstinate atheist. It 
is nevertheless to be observed, that several learned and 
respectable writers consider this unhappy man rather as 
a victim to bigotry and envy, than as a martyr to impiety 
and atheism ; and maintain, that neither his life nor his 
writings were so absurd or blasphemous as to entitle him 
to the character of a despiser of God and religion. 1 But, 
if Vanini had his apologists, this was by no means the 
case of Cosmo Ruggieri, a native of Florence, whose 
atheism was as impudent as it was impious, and who 
died in the most desperate sentiments of irreligion at Paris, 
in 1615, declaring that he looked upon all the accounts 
that had been given of the existence of a Supreme Being, 
and of evil spirits, as idle dreams. b Casimir Leszynski, 
a Polish knight, was capitally punished at Warsaw, in 
1689, for denying the Being and Providence of God ; but 
whether this accusation was well founded, can only be 
known by reading his trial, and examining the nature 
and circumstances of the evidence adduced against him. c 
In Germany, a senseless and frantic man, called Matthew 
Knutzen, a native of Holstein, attempted to found a new 
sect, whose members, laying aside all considerations of 
God and religion, were to follow the dictates of reason and 
conscience alone, and thence were to assume the title 
of Conscientiarians. But this wrong-headed sectary was 
easily obliged to abandon his extravagant undertakings ; 
and thus his idle attempt proved abortive. d 

XXIV. The most acute and eminent of the atheists 
of this century, whose system represented the Supreme 
Author of all things as a Being bound by the eter- 
nal and immutable laws of necessity or fate, was 
Benedict de Spinosa, a Portuguese Jew. This man, 
who died at the Hague in 1677, observed in his conduct 
the rules of wisdom and probity, much better than many 
who profess themselves Christians ; nor did he ever en- 
deavour to pervert the sentiments or corrupt the morals of 
those with whom he lived, or to inspire, in his discourse, 
a contempt of religion or virtue. e It is true, indeed, that 
in his writings, more especially in those which were pub- 
lished after his death, he maintains openly, that God and 



that the Faculty was deceived by Vanini, who substituted another trea- 
tise in the place of that which had been approved. See a wretched book 
of Garasse, entitled, Doctrine Curieuse ; as also Durand's Vie de Vanini. 

a See Buddeus's Theses de Atheismo et Superstitione. The author 
of the Apologia pro Vanino, which appeared in Holland in 1712, was 
Peter Frederic Arp, a learned lawyer ; and we may also place, among 
the defenders of Vanini, Elias Frederic Heister, author of the Apolo-. 
gia pro Medicis. i> See Bayle's Dictionary. 

c See Arnold's History of the Church. — The famous library of Offen- 
bach formerly contained a complete collection of all the papers relating to 
the trial of Leszynski, and a full account of the proceedings against him. 

d See Molleri Cimbria Literata, torn. i. p. 304; and Isagoge ad His- 
torians Chersonesi Cimbr. part ii. cap. vi. sect. viii. — La Croze, Entreti- 
jns sur divers sujets d'Histoire, p. 400. 

c The life of Spinosa was accurately written by Colerus, whose per- 
formance was published at the Hague in 1706. But a more ample and 
circumstantial account of this singular man was given by Lenglet du 
Fresnoy, and prefixed to Boulainvilliers' Exposition of the Doctrine of 
Spinosa. See Bayle's Dictionary. f^» Lenglet du Fresnoy repub- 
lished the work of Colerus, and added to it several anecdotes and cir- 
cumstances, borrowed from a Life of Spinosa, written by an infamous 
profligate, whose name was Lucas, and who practised physic at the 
Hague. See the notes c and <* p. 529. 

t The learned Fabricius, in his Bibliotheca Graeca, and Jenichen, in 
his Historia Spinosismi Lehnhofiani, have given us an ample list of the 
writers who have refuted the system of Spinosa. The real opinion 
which this subtle sophist entertained concerning the Deity, is to be 
learned in his Ethics, that were published after his death, and not in his 
Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, which was printed during his life. In 
the latter treatise, he reasons like one who was persuaded that there 
exists an eternal Deity, distinct from matter and the universe, who has 



the universe are one and the same Being, and that all 
things happen by the eternal and immutable law of 
nature, i. e. of an all-comprehending and infinite Being, 
that exists and acts by an invincible necessity. This 
doctrine leads directly to consequences equally impious 
and absurd ; for, if the principle now mentioned be true, 
each individual is his own God, or, at least, a part of the 
universal Deity, and is, therefore, impeccable and perfect/ 
Be that as it may, it is evident that Spinosa was seduced 
into this monstrous system by the Cartesian philosophy, 
of which he was a passionate admirer, and which was 
the perpetual subject of his meditation and study. When 
he had adopted the general principle (about which philo- 
sophers of all sects are agreed) that all realities are pos- 
sessed by the Deity in the most eminent degree, and ha., 
annexed to this principle, as equally evident, the opinion 
of Des-Cartes, that there are only two realities in nature, 
thought and extension, one essential to spirit, and the 
other to matter, s the natural consequence was, that he 
should attribute to the Deity both these realities, even 
thought and extension, in an eminent degree, or, in other 
words, should represent them as infinite and immense in 
God. Hence the transition seemed easy to that enor- 
mous system, which confounds God with the universe, 
represents them as one and the same Being, and supposes 
only one substance whence all things proceed, and into 
which they all return. It is natural to observe here, that 
even the friends of Spinosa are obliged to acknowledge, 
that this system is neither attended with that luminous 
perspicuity, nor with that force of evidence, which are 
proper to make proselytes. It is too dark, too intricate, to 
allure men from the belief of those truths relating to the 
Deity, which the works of nature, and the plainest dictates 
of reason, are perpetually enforcing upon the human 
mind. Accordingly, the followers of Spinosa tell us, with- 
out hesitation, that it is rather by the suggestions of a 
certain sense, than by the investigations of reason, that 
his doctrine is to be comprehended ; and that it is of such 
a nature, as to be easily misunderstood even by persons 
of the greatest sagacity and penetration. h His disciples 

sent upon earth a religion designed to form men to the practice of bene- 
volence and justice, and has confirmed that religion by events of a won- 
derful and astonishing, though not of a supernatural kind ; but in his 
Ethics he throws off the mask, explains clearly his sentiments, and 
endeavours to demonstrate, that the Deity is nothing more than the 
universe, producing a series of necessary movements or acts, in conse- 
quence of its own intrinsic, immutable, and irresistible energy. This di- 
versity of sentiment, that appears in thedifferent productions of Spinosa, 
is a sufficient refutation of those who, forming the estimate of his system 
from his Tractatus Theologico-Politicus alone, pronounce it less perni- 
cious, and its author less impious, than they are generally supposed to 
be. But, on the other hand, how shall this diversity be accounted for'? 
Are we to suppose that Spinosa proceeded to atheism by gradual steps, 
or is it more probable, that, during his life, he prudently concealed his 
real sentiments 1 Whether the former, or the latter, be the real case, it 
is not easy to determine. It appears, however, from testimonies, every 
way worthy of credit, that he never, during his whole life, either made, 
or attempted to make, converts to irreligion, and never said any thing in 
public that tended to encourage disrespectful sentiments of the Supreme 
Being, or of the worship that is due to him. It is well known, on the, 
contrary, that, when subjects of a religious nature were incidentally" 
treated in the course of conversation where he was present, he always 
expressed himself with the utmost decency on the occasion, and often with 
an air of piety and seriousness more adapted to edify than to give offence. 

|3» e The hypothesis of Des-Cartes is not, perhaps, represented with 
sufficient accuracy and precision, by saying that he looked upon thought 
as essential to spirit, and extension as essential to matter, since it is well 
known that this philosopher considered thought as the very essence or 
substance of the soul, and extension as the very essence and substance of 
matter. 

i» There is certainly no man so little acquainted with the character of 



Sect. I. 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



529 



assumed the denomination of Pantheists, choosing rather 
to derive their distinctive title from the nature of their 
doctrine, than from the name of their master. 1 The 
most noted members of this strange sect were a physician, 
whose name was Louis Meyer, b a person called Lucas, c 
count Boulainvilliers," 1 and some others, equally con- 
temptible on account, of their sentiments and morals. 

XXV. The progressive and flourishing state of the 
arts and sciences, in the seventeenth century, is abun- 
dantly known ; and we see the effects, and enjoy the fruits, 
of the efforts then made for the advancement of learning. 
No branch of literature seemed to be neglected. Logic, 

Bayle as to think him void of discernment and sagacity ; and yet this most 
subtle metaphysician has been accused by the followers of Spinosa, of 
misunderstanding and misrepresenting the doctrine of that Pantheist, 
and consequently of answering it with very little solidity. This 
charge is brought against Bayle, with peculiar severity, by L. Meyer, 
in his preface to the posthumous works of Spinosa, in which, after com- 
plaining of the misrepresentations that have been given of the opinions 
of that writer, he pretends to maintain, that his system was, in every 
point, conformable to the doctrines of Christianity. Boulainvilliers 
also, another of Spinosa's commentators and advocates, declares, in his 
preface to a book, whose perfidious title is mentioned below in note &, 
that all the antagonists of that famous Jew either ignorantly misunder- 
stood, or maliciously perverted, his true doctrine; his words are: Les 
refutations de Spinosa m'ont induit a juger, ou que leurs auteurs n'avoi- 
ent pas voulu mettre la doctrine, qu'ils combattent, dans une evidence 
sunisante, ou qu'ils l'avoient mal entendue. If this be true, if the doc- 
trine of Spinosa be not only far beyond the comprehension of the vul- 
gar, but also difficult to be understood, and liable to be mistaken and mis- 
represented by men of the most acute parts and the most eminent abili- 
ties, what is the most obvious conclusion deducible from this fact ■? It is 
plainly this, that the greatest part of the Spinosists, whose sect is sup- 
posed by some to be very numerous in Europe, have adopted the doc- 
trine of that famous atheist, not so much from a conviction of its truth, 
founded on an examination of its intricate contents, as from the pleasure 
they take in a system that promises impunity to all transgressions that do 
not come within the cognisance of the law, and thus lets loose the reins 
to every irregular appetite and passion ; for it would be senseless, in the 
highest degree, to imagine, that the pretended multitude of the Spino- 
sists, many of whom never once dreamed of exercising their minds in 
the pursuit of truth, or accustoming them to philosophical discussion, 
should all accurately comprehend a system, which, according to their 
own account, has escaped the penetration and sagacity of the greatest 
geniuses. 

a Toland, unable to purchase a dinner, composed and published, in 
order to supply the sharp demands of hunger, an infamous and impious 
book under the following title: Pantheisticon, sive Formula; celebrandse 
Societatis Socratica?, in tres Particulas divisse, qua Pantheistarum sive 
Sodalium continent, I. Mores et Axiomata ; II. Numen et Philoso- 
phiam; III. Libertatem et non fallentem Legem neque fallendam, &c. 
The design of this book, which was published at London in 1720, ap- 
pears by the title. It was intended to draw a picture of the licentious 
morals and principles of his brethren the Pantheists under the fictitious 
description of a Socratical Society, which they are represented as hold- 
ing in all the places where they are dispersed. In the Socratical, or 
rather Bacchanalian Society, described in this pernicious work, the 
president and members are said to converse freely on several subjects. 
There is also a Form or Liturgy read by the president, who officiates as 
priest, and is answered by the assembly in suitable responses. He 
recommends earnestly to the members of the Society the care of truth, 
liberty, and health ; exhorts them to guard against superstition, that is, 
religion ; and reads aloud to them, by way of lesson, certain select pas- 
sages out of Cicero and Seneca, which seem to favour irreligion. His 
colleagues promise solemnly to conform themselves to his injunctions 
and exhortations. Sometimes all the members, animated with enthusi- 
asm and joy, raise their voices together, and sing, out of the ancient 
Latin poets, certain verses which are suitable to the laws and principles 
cf their sect. See Des-Maizeaux, Life of John Toland, p. 77. — Biblio- 
theque Angloise, torn. viii. If the pantheistical community be really- 
such as it is here represented, it is not so much the duty of wise and 
good men to dispute with or refute its members, as it is the business of 
the civil magistrate to prevent such licentious and turbulent spirits from 
troubling the order of society, and seducing honest citizens from their 
religious principles, and the duties of their respective stations. 

b This Meyer was the person who translated into Latin the pieces 
that Spinosa had composed in the Dutch language; who assisted him 
in his last moments, after having attempted in vain to remove his disor- 
der ; and who published his Posthumous Works, with a preface, in 
which, with great impudence and little success, he endeavours to prove, 
that the doctrine of Spinosa differs in nothing from that of the Gospel. 

No.XLV. 133 



philosophy, history, poetry, and rhetoric ; in a word, all the 
sciences that belong to the respective provinces of reason 
experience, observation, genius, memory, and imagination, 
were cultivated and improved with remarkable success 
throughout the Christian world. While the learned men 
of this happy period discovered such zeal for the improve- 
ment of science, their zeal was both inflamed and directed 
by one of the greatest and rarest geniuses that ever arose 
for the instruction of mankind. This was Francis Bacon, 
lord Verulam, who, toward the commencement of this 
century, opened the paths that lead to true philosophy in 
his admirable works. 6 It must be acknowledged, indeed, 

Meyer is also the author of a well-known treatise, entitled, Philosophia 
Scripturae Interpres, in which the merit and authority of the sacred 
writings are examined by the dictates of philosophy, that is to say, of 
the philosophy of Mr. Meyer. 

6 Lucas was a physician at the Hague, and was as famous for what 
he called his Quintessences, as he was infamous on account of the profli- 
gacy of his morals. He left behind him a Life of Spinosa, from 
which Lenglet du Fresnoy took all the additions that he made to the life 
of that atheist written by Colerus. He also composed a work which is 
still handed about, and bought at an extravagant price, by those in 
whose judgment rarity and impiety are equivalent to merit. This 
work is entided, l'Esprit de Spinosa, and surpasses infinitely, in atheis- 
tical profaneness, even those productions of Spinosa that are generally 
looked upon as the most pernicious ; so far has this miserable writer lost 
sight of every dictate of prudence, and triumphed even over the re- 
straints of shame. 

d This fertile and copious, but paradoxical and inconsiderate writer, is 
abundantly known by his various productions relating to the history and 
political state of the French nation, by a certain prolix Fable, entitled, 
the Life of Mohammed, and by the adverse turns of fortune that pur- 
sued him. His character was so made up of inconsistencies and contra- 
dictions, that he is almost equally chargeable with superstition and 
atheism; for, though he acknowledged no other Deity than the uni- 
verse, or nature, yet he looked upon Mohammed as authorized, by a 
divine commission, to instruct mankind ; and he was of opinion, that 
the fate of nations, and the destiny of individuals, could be foreknown, 
by an attentive observation of the stars. Thus the man was, at the 
same time, an atheist and an astrologer. Now this medley of a man 
was greatly concerned (in consequence, forsooth, of his ardent zeal for 
the public good) to see the admirable doctrine of Spinosa so generally 
misunderstood, and therefore he formed the laudable design of expound- 
ing, illustrating, and accommodating it, as is done with respect to the 
doctrines of the Gospel in books of piety, to ordinary capacities. This 
design, indeed, he executed, but not so fortunately for his master as he 
might fondly imagine, since it appeared most evidently from his own 
account of the system of Spinosa, that Bayle and the other writers who 
had represented his doctrine as repugnant to the plainest dictates of rea- 
son, and destructive of all religion, had judged rightly, and were not mis- 
led by ignorance or by temerity. In short, the book of Boulainvilliers 
set the atheism and impiety of Spinosa in a much more clear and strik- 
ing light than ever they had appeared before. This infamous book, which 
was worthy of eternal oblivion, was published by Lenglet du Fresnoy, 
who, that it might be bought with avidity, and read without reluctance, 
prefixed to it the attractive but perfidious title of a Refutation of the 
Errors of Spinosa ; adding to it, indeed, some separate pieces, to which 
this title may, in some measure, be thought applicable. The whole title 
rails thus: Refutation des Erreurs de Benoitde Spinosa, par M. de Fene- 
lon, Archeveque de Cambray.par le Pere Lami Benedictin, et par M. le 
Comte de Boulainvilliers, avec la Vie de Spinosa, ecrite par Jean Cole- 
rus, Ministre de l : Eglise Lutherierme de la Haye, augmentee de beau- 
coup de Particularites threes d'une Vie Manuscrite de ce Philosophe, 
faite par un de ses Amis (this friend was Lucas, the atheistical physi- 
cian mentioned in the preceding note,) a Bruxelles, chez Francois Fop- 
pens, 1731. Here we see the poison and the antidote joined, but the 
latter perfidiously distributed in a manner and measure every way insuf- 
ficient to remove the noxious effects of the former: in a word, the wolf 
is shut up with the sheep. The account and defence of the philosophy 
of Spinosa, given by Boulainvilliers under the insidious title of a Refu- 
tation, take up the greatest part of this book, and are placed first, and 
not the last in order, as the title would insinuate. Besides, the whole 
contents of this motley collection are not enumerated in the title : for at 
the end of it we find a Latin treatise, entitled Certamen Philosophicum 
propugnata: Veritatis divinse et naturalis, adversus Jo. Bredenburgii 
Principia, in fine annexa. This philosophical controversy contains a 
Defence of the Doctrine of Spinosa, by Bredenburg, and a Refutation 
of that Defence by Isaac Orobio, a learned Jewish physician at Amster- 
dam, and was first published in 1703. 

More especially in his treatise de Dignitate et Augmentis Scientia- 
rum, and in his Novum Organum. S'ee the life of that great man, pre- 



530 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



Sect. I. 



that the rules he prescribes, to direct the researches of the 
studious, are not all practicable amidst the numerous pre- 
judices and impediments to which the most zealous in- 
quirers are exposed in the pursuit of truth ; and it appears 
plainly that this great man, to whose elevated and com- 
prehensive genius all things seemed easy, was at certain 
times so far carried away by the vastness of his concep- 
tions, as to require, from the application and abilities of 
men, more than they were capable of performing, and to 
desire the end, without always examining whether the 
means of attaining it were possible. At the same time 
it must be confessed that a great part of the improvements 
in learning and science, which distinguished Europe dur- 
ing this century, arose from the counsels and directions 
of this extraordinary man. This is more particularly 
true of the progress then made in natural philosophy, to 
which noble science Bacon did such important service, 
as is alone sufficient to render his name immortal. He 
opened the eyes of those who had been led blindfold by 
the dubious authority of traditionary systems, and the 
uncertain directory of hypothesis and conjecture. He 
led them to Nature, that they might consult that oracle 
directly and near at hand, and receive her answers ; and, 
by the introduction of experimental inquiry, he placed 
philosophy upon a new and solid basis. It was thus 
undoubtedly that he removed the prejudices of former 
times, which led men to consider all human knowledge 
as circumscribed within the bounds of Greek and Latin 
erudition, and an acquaintance with the more elegant and 
liberal arts ; and thus, in the vast regions of nature, he 
opened scenes of instruction and science, which, although 
hitherto unknown or disregarded, were infinitely more 
noble and sublime, and much more productive of solid 
nourishment to the minds of the wise, than the learning 
that was cultivated before his time. 

XXVI. It is remarkable, in general, that the sciences 
of natural philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy, were 
carried in this century, in all the nations of Europe, to 
such a high degree of perfection, that they seemed sud- 
denly to rise from the puny weakness of infancy to a 
state of full maturity. There is certainly no sort of com- 
parison between the philosophers, mathematicians, and 
astronomers, of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. 
The former look like pygmies, when compared with the 
gigantic stature of the latter. At the head of the latter 
appears Galileo, the ornament of natural science in Italy, 
who was encouraged, in his astronomical researches and 
discoveries, by the munificence and protection of the grand 
dukes of Tuscany. a In France appeared Des-Cartes 
and Gassendi, who left behind them a great number of 
eminent disciples ; in Denmark Tycho Brahe ; in Eng- 
land Boyle and Newton ; in Germany Kepler, Hevelius, 
and Leibnitz ; and in Switzerland the brothers, James 
and John Bernoulli. These philosophers of the first 
magnitude, if I may use that expression, excited such a 
gpirit of emulation in Europe, and were followed by such 
a multitude of admirers and rivals, that, if we except 

fixed to his works published in four volumes, in folio, 1740. — Biblio- 
theque Britannique, torn. xv. — In Mallet's Life of Bacon there is a parti- 
cular and interesting account, of his noble attempt to reform the misera- 
ble philosophy that prevailed before his time. See also Voltaire's 
Melanges de Literature et de Philosophie. 

a SeeHeuman's Acta Philosophorum, the xivth, xvth, and xviith parts. 

t> The history of the Royal Society of London, was published by Dr. 



those countries which had not yet emerged from a state 
of ignorance and barbarism, there was scarcely any na- 
tion that could not boast of possessing a profound mathe- 
matician, a famous astronomer, or an eminent philosopher. 
Nor were the dukes of Tuscany, however distinguished 
by their hereditary zeal for the sciences, and their libe- 
rality to the learned, the only patrons of philosophy at 
this time, since it is well known that the monarchs of 
Great-Britain and France, Charles II. and Louis XIV., 
honoured the sciences, and those who cultivated them, 
with their protection and encouragement. It is to the 
munificence of those two princes that the Royal Society 
of London, and the Academy of Sciences at Paris, owe 
their origin and establishment, their privileges, honours 
and endowments, and that we, in consequence, are in- 
debted for the interesting discoveries that have been made 
by these two learned bodies, the end of whose institution 
is the study and investigation of nature, and the culture 
of all those arts and sciences which lead to truth, and 
are useful to mankind. b These establishments, and the 
inquiries they were so naturally adapted to encourage 
and promote, proved not only beneficial, in the highest 
degree, to the civil interests of mankind, but were also 
productive of inestimable advantages to the cause of true 
religion. By these inquiries, the empire of superstition, 
which is always the bane of genuine piety, and often a 
source of rebellion and calamity in sovereign states, was 
greatly shaken ; by them the fictitious prodigies, that had 
so long kept miserable mortals in a painful state of servi- 
tude and terror, were deprived of their influence ; by 
them natural religion was built upon solid foundations, 
and illustrated with admirable perspicuity and evidence ; 
as by them the infinite perfections of the Supreme Being 
were demonstrated with the utmost clearness and force 
from the frame of the universe in general, and also from 
the structure of its various parts. 

XXVII. The improvements made in history, and more 
especially the new degrees of light that were thrown upon 
the ancient history of the church, were of eminent service 
to the cause of genuine Christianity ; for thus the original 
sources and reasons of many absurd opinions and institu- 
tions, which antiquity and custom had rendered sacred, 
were discovered and exposed in their proper colours ; and 
innumerable errors that had possessed and perplexed the 
anxious spirits of the credulous and superstitious multi- 
tude, were happily deprived of their authority and influ 
ence. Thus, in consequence, the cheerful light of truth, 
and the calm repose and tranquillity that attend it, arose 
upon the minds of many ; and human life was delivered 
from the crimes that have been sanctified by superstition, 
and from the tumults and agitations in which it has so 
often involved unhappy mortals. The advantages that 
flowed from the improvement of historical knowledge 
were both innumerable and inestimable. By this many 
pious and excellent persons, whom ignorance or malice 
had stigmatised as heretics, were delivered from reproach, 
recovered their good fame, and thus were secured against 



Sprat in the year- 1722.* Fontenelle composed the History of the Aca- 
demy of Sciences at Paris. The reader will find a comparison between 
these learned bodies in Voltaire's Melanges de Literature et de Philo- 
sophie. ' . ... ,. 

rS= * A much more interesting and ample history of this respectable 
society was afterwards composed, and published by Dr. Birch, its learn- 
ed secretary. 



Sect. 1. 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



531 



the malignity of superstition. By this it appeared, that 
many of those religious controversies, which had divided 
nations, friends, and families, and involved so often sove- 
reign states in bloodshed, rebellion, and crimes of the most 
horrid kind, were owing to the most trifling and con- 
temptible causes, to the ambiguity and obscurity of certain 
theological phrases and terms, to superstition, ignorance, 
and envy, to spiritual pride and ambition. By this it was 
demonstrated with the fullest evidence, that many of those 
religious ceremonies, which had been long considered as 
of divine institution, were derived from the most inglorious 
sources, being either borrowed from the manners and cus- 
toms of. barbarous nations, or invented with a design to 
deceive the ignorant and credulous, or dictated by the idle j 
visions of senseless enthusiasm. By this the ambitious 
intrigues of the bishops and other miuisters of religion, ! 
who, by perfidious arts, had encroached upon the prerog- 
atives of the throne, usurped a considerable part of its 
authority and revenues, and held princes in subjection to 
their yoke by the terrors of the church, were brought to 
light. And to mention no more instances, it was by the 
lamp of history that those councils, whose decrees had so 
long been regarded as infallible and sacred, and revered as 
the dictates of celestial wisdom, were exhibited to the atten- 
tive observer as assemblies, where an odious mixture of 
ignorance and knavery very frequently presided. Our 
happy experience, in these later times, furnishes daily 
instances of the salutary effects of these important disco- 
veries on the state of the Christian church, and on the 
condition of all its members. Hence flow that lenity and 
moderation which are mutually exercised by those who 
differ in their religious sentiments ; the prudence and 
caution that are used in estimating opinions and deciding 
controversies ; the protection and support that are granted 
to men of worth, when attacked by the malice of bigotry ; 
and the visible diminution of the errors, frauds, crimes, and 
cruelties, with which superstition formerly embittered the 
pleasures of human life, and the enjoyments of social 
intercourse. 

XXYIH. Many of the doctors of this century applied 
themselves, with eminent success, to the study of Hebrew 
and Greek literature, and of the oriental languages and 
antiquities ; and, as their progress in this kind of erudition 
was rapid, so, in many instances, was the use they made 
of it truly excellent and laudable ; for they were thus 
enabled to throw light on many difficult passages of the 
eacred writings that had been ill understood and injudi- 
ciously applied, and which some had even employed in 
supporting erroneous opinions, and giving a plausible 
colour to pernicious doctrines. Hence it happened, that 
many patrons and promoters of popular notions, and of 
visionary and groundless fancies, were deprived of the falla- 
cious arguments by which they maintained their errors. It 
cannot also be denied, that the cause of religion received 
considerable benefit from the labours of those, who either 
endeavoured to preserve the purity and elegance of the 
Latin language, or who, beholding with emulation 
the example of the French, employed their industry in 
improving and polishing the languages of their respective 
countries ; for it must be evidently both honourable and 

•See Adam. Fred. Glafey's Historia Juris Naturae; to which is 
■ubjoined his Bibliotheca Juris Naturae et Gentium. 

b This sentence, beginning with " There is scarcely a discourse" 



advantageous to the Christian church, to have always in 
its bosom men of learning qualified to write and discourse 
upon theological subjects with precision, elegance, ease, 
and perspicuity, that so the ignorant and perverse may 
be allured to receive instruction, and also be able to com- 
prehend with facility the instructions they receive. 

XXIX. The rules of morality and practice, which were 
laid down in the sacred writings by Christ and his apostles, 
assumed an advantageous form, received new illustrations, 
and were supported upon new and solid principles, when 
that great system of law, which results from the consti- 
tution of nature, and the dictates of right reason, began 
to be studied with more diligence, and investigated with 
more accuracy and perspicuity than had been the case in 
preceding ages. In this sublime study of the law of nature 
the immortal GrOtius led the way in his excellent book 
concerning the Rights of War and Peace : and, from the 
dignity and importance of the subject, his labours excited 
the zeal and emulation of men of the most eminent genius 
and abilities, 11 who turned their principal attention to this 
noble science. How much the labours of these great men 
contributed to assist the ministers of the Gospel, both in 
their discourses and writings concerning the duties and 
obligations of Christians, may be easily seen by compar- 
ing the books of a practical kind, published since the period 
now under consideration, with those which were in vogue 
before that time. [SCr 3 There is scarcely a discourse 
upon any subject of Christian morality, how inconsiderable 
soever it maybe, that does not bear some marks of the 
improvement which was introduced into the science of 
morals by those great men, who studied that science in 
the paths of nature, in the frame and constitution of ra- 
tional and moral beings, and in the relations by which they 
are rendered members of one great family, under the 
inspection and government of one common anduniversal b 
Parent.] It is unquestionably certain, that since this period 
the dictates of natural law, and the duties of Christian 
morality, have been more accurately denned ; certain 
evangelical precepts, whose nature and foundations were 
imperfectly comprehended in the times of old, have been 
more clearly illustrated ; the superiority which distin- 
guishes the morality of the Gospel from the course of duty 
that is deducible from the mere light of nature, has been 
more fully demonstrated ; and those common notions and 
general principles, which are the foundations of moral 
obligation, and are every way adapted to dispel all doubts 
that may arise, and all controversies that maybe started, 
concerning the nature of evangelical righteousness and 
virtue, have been established with greater evidence and 
certainty. It may also be added, that the impiety of those 
infidels who have had the effrontery to maintain that the 
precepts of the Gospel are contrary to the dictates of sound 
reason, repugnant to the constitution of our nature, incon- 
sistent with the interests of civil society, adapt ed to enervate 
the mind, and to draw men off from the business, the 
duties, and enjoyments of life, has been much more 
triumphantly refuted in the seventeenth and eighteenth 
centuries, than in any other period of the Christian 
church. 

XXX. To these reflections upon the state of learning 

and ending with " common and universal Parent," is added by &o 
translator. 
c Le Contra Social, par Rousseau. 



532 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



Sect. I. 



and .science in general, it may not be improper to add a 
particular and separate account of the progress and revo- 
lutions of philosophy in the Christian schools. At the 
beginning of this century almost all the European philo- 
sophers were divided into two classes, one of which com- 
prehended the Peripatetics, and the other the Chemists, 
or Fire-Philosophers, as they were often styled. These 
two classes, during many years, contended warmly for 
the pre-eminence ; and a great number of laboured and 
subtile productions were published amidst this philosophi- 
cal contest. The Peripatetics were in possession of the 
professorships in almost all the schools of learning, and 
looked upon all such as presumed, either to reject, or even 
amend the doctrines of Aristotle, as objects of indignation, 
little less criminal than traitors and rebels. It is, how- 
ever, observable, that the greatest part of these superci- 
lious and persecuting doctors, if we except those of the 
universities of Tubingen, Altorf, Juliers, and Leipsic, 
were less attached to Aristotle himself than to his modern 
interpreters and commentators. The Chemists spread 
themselves through almost all Europe, and assumed the 
obscure and ambiguous title of Rosecrucian Brethren,* 
which drew at first some degree of respect, as it seemed 
to be borrowed from the arms of Luther, which were a 
cross placed upon a rose. They inveighed against the 
Peripatetics with a singular degree of bitterness and ani- 
mosity, represented them as corrupters both of religion 
and philosophy, and published a multitude of treatises 
against them, which discovered little else than their folly 
and their malice. At the head of these fanatics were 
Robert Fludd, b a native cf England, and a man of sur- 
prising genius ; Jacob Behmen, a shoemaker, who lived 
at Gorlitz : and Michael Mayer. c These leaders of the 
sect w r ere followed by John Baptist Helmont, and his 
son Francis, Christian Knorrius de Rosenroth, Khulman, 
•follius, Sperber, and many others of various fame. A 
uniformity of opinion, and a spirit of concord, seem scarcely 
possible in such a society as this ; for, as a great part of 
its doctrine is derived from certain internal feelings and 
flights of imagination, which can neither be compre- 
hended nor defined, and is supported by testimonies of 
the external senses, whose reports are illusory and change- 
able, so it is remarkable, that, among the more eminent 
writers of this sect, there are scarcely any two who adopt 
the same tenets and sentiments. There are, nevertheless, 
some common principles that are generally embraced, and 
which serve as a centre of union to the society. They 

* The title of Rosecrucians evidently denotes the chemical philoso- 
phers, and those who blended the doctrines of religion with the secrets of 
chymistry. The denomination itself is drawn from the science of chy- 
mistry ; and they only who are acquainted with the peculiar language 
of the chymists can understand its true signification and energy. It is 
not compounded, as many imagine, of the two words rosa and crux, 
which signify rose and cross, but of the latter of these words, and the 
Latin word ros, which signifies dew. Of all natural bodies, d-ew, is the 
most powerful dissolvent of gold. The cross, in the chymical style, is 
equivalent to light ; because the figure of thecross (-|-) exhibits, at the 
same time, the three letters of which the word lux, i. e. light, is com- 
pounded. Now lux is called by this sect the seed or menstruum of the 
red dragon ; or, in other words, that gross and corporeal light, which, 
when properly digested and modified, produces gold. From all this it 
follows, that a Rosecrucian philosopher is one who, by the intervention 
and assistance of the dew, seeks for light, or, in other words, the sub- 
stance called the Philosopher's Stone. All other explications of this 
ierm are false and chimerical. The interpretations that are given of it 
by the chymists, who love, on all occasions, to involve themselves in in- 
tricacy and darkness, are invented merely to deceive those who are stran- 
gers to their mysteries. The true energy and meaning of this denomi- 



all maintain, that the dissolution of bodies, by the power 
of fire, is the only way through which men can arrive at 
true wisdom, and come to discern the first principles of 
things. They all acknowledge a certain analogy and 
harmony between the powers of nature and the doctrines 
of religion, and believe that the Deity governs the king- 
dom of grace by the same laws with which he rules the 
kingdom of nature'; and hence it is that they employ 
chemical denominations to express the truths of religion. 
They all hold, that there is a sort of divine energy, or 
soul, diffused through the frame of the universe, which 
some call Archseus, others the Universal Spirit, and which 
others mention under different appellations. They all 
talk in the most obscure and superstitious manner of 
what they call the signatures of things, of the power of 
the stars over all corporeal beings, and their particular 
influence upon the human race, of the efficacy of magic, 
and the various species and classes of demons. In fine, 
they all agree in throwing out the most crude and incom- 
prehensible notions and ideas, in the most obscure, quaint, 
and unusual expressions. 

XXXI. This controversy, between the Chemists and 
Peripatetics, was buried in silence and oblivion, as soon 
as a new and more seemly form of philosophy was pre- 
sented to the world by two great men, who reflected a 
lustre upon the French nation, — Gassendi and Des-Cartes. 
The former, whose profound knowledge of geometry and 
astronomy was accompanied with the most engaging 
eloquence, and an acquaintance with the various branches 
of solid erudition and polite literature, was canon of 
Digne, and professor of mathematics at Paris. The latter, 
who was a man of quality and bred a soldier, surpassed 
the greatest part of his contemporaries in acuteness, sub- 
tlety, and extent of genius, though he was much inferior 
to Gassendi in point of learning. In 1624, Gassendi 
attacked Aristotle, and the whole body of his commenta- 
tors and followers, with great resolution and ingenuity ; d 
but the resentment and indignation Avhich he drew upon 
himself from all quarters by this bold attempt, and the 
sweetness of his natural temper, which made him an 
enemy to dissention and contest, engaged him to desist, 
and to suspend an enterprise, that, by opposing the pre- 
judices, was so adapted to inflame the passions of the 
learned. Hence no more than two books of the work he 
had composed against the Aristotelians were made public ; 
the other five were suppressed. 6 He also wrote against 
Fludd, and, by refuting him, refuted at the same time 

nation of Rosecrucians did not escape the penetration and .sagacity of 
Gassendi, as appears by his Examen Philosophise Fluddanae, sect. xv. 
It was, however, still more fully explained by Renaudot, a famous 
French physician, in his Conferences Publiques, t. iv. A great numbei 
of materials and anecdotes relating to the fraternity, rales, observances; 
and writings, of the Rosecrucians, (who made such a noise in this century,) 
may be found in Arnold's Kirchen-und-Ketzer, Historie, part ii.p. 1114. 

b See, for an account of this singular man, from whose writings Jacob 
Behmen derived all his mystical aud rapturous doctrine, Wood's 
Athenas Oxonienses, vol. i. p. 610. and Histor. et Antiq. Academiaj 
Oxoniensis, lib. ii. p. 308. — For an account of Helmont, the father, see 
Hen. Witte, Memor. Philosoph. — Consult also Joach. Fred. Feller, in 
Miscellan. Leibnitian.— Several writers beside Arnold have given an 
account of Jacob Behmen.* 

c See Molleri Cimbria Literata, torn. i. p. 376. 

i The title of his book against the Aristotelians is as follows : Exer- 
citationum paradoxicarum adversus Aristoteleos Libri VII. in his qui- 
bus pracipua totius Peripateticae Doctrinaj Fundamenta excutkuitur, 
Opiniones vero, ut ex vetustioribus obsolets, stabiliuntur. 

See Bougerelle's Vie de Gassendi. 

* See, also sect. ii. part ii. chap. i. sect. xl. of this century. 



Sect. I. 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



533 



the Rosecrucian Brethren ; and here the Aristotelians 
seemed to behold his labours with a favourable eye. After 
having overturned several false and visionary systems of 
philosophy, he began to think of substituting something 
more solid and satisfactory in their place, and in pursu- 
ance of this design he proceeded with the utmost circum- 
spection and caution. He recommended to others, and 
followed himself, that wise method of philosophical inves- 
tigation, which, with a slow and timorous pace, rises from 
the objects of sense to the discussions of reason, and arrives 
at truth by assiduity, experiment, and an attentive obser- 
vation of the laws of nature ; or, to express the same 
thing in other words, he struck out that judicious method, 
which, by an attention to facts, to the changes and mo- 
tions of the natural world, leads by degrees to general 
principles, and lays a solid foundation for rational inquiry. 
In the application of this method, he had recourse chiefly 
to mathematical succours, from a persuasion that demon- 
stration and certainty were the peculiar fruits of that 
accurate and luminous science. He drew no assistance 
from metaphysics, which he overlooked from an opinion 
that the greatest part of its rules and decisions were too 
precarious to satisfy a sincere inquirer, animated with the 
love of truth. a 

XXXII. Des-Cartes followed a very different meihod 
in his philosophical researches. He abandoned mathe- 
matics, which he had at first looked upon as the tree of 
knowledge, and employed the science of abstract ideas, or 
metaphysics, in the investigation of truth. Having ac- 
cordingly laid down a few plain and general principles, 
which seemed to be deduced immediately from the nature 
of man, his next business was to form distinct notions of 
the Deity, of matter, soul, body, space, the universe, and 
the various parts of which it is composed. From these 
notions, examined with attention, compared and combin- 
ed according to their mutual relations, connexions, and 
resemblances, and reduced into a kind of system, he pro- 
ceeded still farther, and made admirable use of them in 
reforming the other branches of philosophy, and giving 
them a new degree of stability and consistence. This 
he effected by connecting all his branches of philosophi- 
cal reasoning in such a manner, that principles and con- 
sequences were placed in the most accurate order, and the 
latter seemed to flow from the former in the most natural 
manner. This method of pursuing truth could not fail 
to attract the admiration of many ; and so indeed it hap- 
pened ; for no sooner had Des-Cartes published his dis- 
coveries in philosophy, than a considerable number of emi- 
nent men, in different parts of Europe, who had long 
entertained a high disgust to the inelegant and ambiguous 
jargon of the schools, adopted these discoveries with zeal, 
declared their approbation of the new s)'stem, and express- 
ed their desire that its author should be substituted in the 
place of the Peripatetics, as a philosophical guide to the 
youth in the public seminaries of learning. On the other 
hand, the Peripatetics, or Aristotelians, seconded by the 
influence of the clergy, who apprehended that the cause 
of religion was aimed at, and endangered, by these philo- 
sophical innovations, made a prodigious noise, and left 
no means unemployed to prevent the downfall of their old 

_ * See Gassendrs Institutiones Philosophic ; a diffuse production, 
which takes up the two first volumes of his works, and in which his 
principal design is to show, that those opinions, both of the ancient and 
modern philosophers, which are deduced from metaphysical principles, 

No.XLV. 134 



system, and diminish the growing reputation of the new 
philosophy. To execute this invidious purpose with the 
greater facility, they not only accused Des-Cartes of the 
most dangerous and pernicious errors, but went so far, in 
tire extravagance of their malignity, as to bring a charge 
of atheism against him. This furious zeal of the Aris- 
totelians will not appear so extraordinary, when it is con- 
sidered, that they contended, not so much for their philo- 
sophical system, as for the honours, advantages, and pro- 
fits they derived from it. The Theosophists, Rosecru- 
cians, and Chymists, entered into this contest against Des- 
Cartes, but conducted themselves with greater moderation 
than the Aristotelians, notwithstanding their persuasion 
that the Peripatetic philosophy, though chimerical and 
impious, was much less intolerable than the Cartesian 
system. b The consequences of this dispute were favour- 
able to the progress of science ; for the wiser part of the 
European philosophers, although they did not adopt the 
sentiments of Des-Cartes, were encouraged and animat- 
ed by his example to carry on their inquiries with more 
freedom from the restraints of traditional and personal 
authority than they had formerly done, and to throw reso- 
lutely from their necks that yoke of servitude, under 
which Aristotle and his followers had so long kept them 
in subjection. 

XXXIII. The most eminent contemporaries of Des- 
Cartes applauded, in general, the efforts he made toward 
the reformation of philosophy, and that noble resolution 
with which he broke the shackles of magisterial autho- 
rity, and struck out new paths, in which he proceeded 
without a guide, in the search after truth. They also 
approved his method of rising, with caution and accu- 
racy, from the most simple, and, as it were, the pri- 
mary dictates of reason and nature, to truths and propo- 
sitions of a more complex and intricate kind, and of 
admitting nothing as truth, that was not clearly and dis 
tinctly apprehended as such. They went still farther, 
and unanimously acknowledged, that he had made most 
valuable and important discoveries in philosophy, and 
had demonstrated several truths, which, before his time, 
were received upon no other evidence than that of tradition 
and conjecture. But these acknowledgments did not pre- 
vent some of those who made them with the greatest since- 
rity, from finding several essential defects in the philosophy 
of this great man. They considered his account of the 
causes and principles of natural things, as for the most 
part hypothetical, and founded on fancy, rather than expe- 
rience. They even attacked the fundamental principles 
upon which the whole system of his philosophy was 
built, such as his ideas of the Deity, of the universe, of 
matter and spirit, of the laws of motion, and other points 
that were connected with these. Some of these princi- 
ples they pronounced uncertain ; others, they said, were 
of a pernicious tendency, and likely to engender the most 
dangerous errors ; and they affirmed, that some were 
directly contrary to the language of experience. At the 
head of these objectors appeared his fellow-citizen, Gas- 
sendi, who had made war before him upon the Aristote- 
lians and Chymists ; who, in genius, was his equal ; in 
learning, greatly his superior ; and whose mathematical 

have little solidity, and are generally defective in point of evidence and 
perspicuity. 

•> See B'aillet's Vie de Rene Des-Cartes, and also the General Dic- 
tionary. 



534 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY, 



Sect. 1. 



knowledge was most uncommon and extensive. This 
formidable adversary directed his first attacks against the 
metaphysical principles which supported the whole struc- 
ture of the Cartesian philosophy. He then proceeded 
still farther ; and, for the physical system of Des-Cartes, 
substituted one that resembled not a little the natural 
philosophy of Epicurus, though far superior to it in soli- 
dity, much more rational, consistent, and perfect, being 
founded, not on the illusory visions of fancy, but on the 
testimony of sense and the dictates of experience. 1 This 
new and sagacious observer of nature had not many fol- 
lowers, and his disciples were much less numerous than 
those of Des-Cartes. But what he wanted in number, 
was sufficiently compensated by the merit and reputation 
of those who adopted his philosophical system ; for he 
was followed by some of the most eminent men in Europe, 
by persons who were distinguished in the highest degree 
by their indefatigable application, and their extensive 
knowledge both of natural philosophy and mathematics. 
Pie had certainly few disciples in his own country ; but, 
among the English, who in his time were remarkable 
for their application to studies of a physical and mathe- 
matical kind, a considerable number adopted his philoso- 
phical system. It may here be observed, that even those 
eminent philosophers and divines, such as Whichcot, 
Gale, Cudworth, and More, who entered the lists with 
Hobbes, (whose doctrine came nearer to the principles of 
Gassendi than to the system of Des-Cartes,) and revived 
ancient Platonism, in order to crush under its weight the 
philosopher of Malmesbury, placed Gassendi and Plato 
in the same class, and explained the sentiments of the 
latter in such a manner as to make them appear quite 
agreeable to the principles of the former. b 

XXXIY. From this period must be dated the famous 
schism that divided the philosophical world into two great 
sects, which, though they almost agree upon those points 
that are of the greatest utility and importance in human 
life, differ widely about the principles of human know- 
ledge, and the fundamental points whence the philoso- 
pher must proceed in his search of truth. Of these sects, 
one may properly be called Metaphysical, and the other 
Mathematical. The metaphysical sect follows the sys- 
tem of Des-Cartes ; the mathematical one directs its 
researches by the principles of Gassendi. Philosophers 
of the former class look upon truth as attainable by ab- 
stract reasoning ; those of the latter seek it by observation 
and experience. The follower of Des-Cartes attributes 
little to the external senses, and much to meditation and 
discussion. The disciple of Gassendi, on the contrary, 
places little confidence in metaphysical discussion, and 
principally has recourse to the reports of sense and the 
contemplation of nature. The Cartesian,, from a small 
number of abstract truths, deduces a long series of pro- 

» See his Disquisitio Metaphysica, seu Dubitationes et Instantis ad- 
versus Cartesii iVletaphysicam, et Responsa, in the third volume of his 
works. — Bernier, a celebrated French physician, has given an accurate 
view of the philosophy of Gassendi in his abridgment of it, published 
at Lyons, in 1684. This abridgment will give the reader a better 
account of this philosophy than even the works of Gassendi himself, in 
which his meaning is often expressed in an ambiguous manner, and 
which are, besides, loaded with superfluous erudition. The Life of 
Gassendi, accurately written by Bougerelle, a priest of the oratory, was 
published in 1737. — See Biblioth. Francoise, torn, xxvii. p. 353. 

b See the preface to the Latin translation of Cudworth s Intellectual 
System ; and also the remarks added to that translation. §^= Dr. Mo- 
Bneim is the author of that translation and of those remarks. 



positions, in order to arrive at a precise and accurate know- 
ledge of God and nature, of body and spirit ; the Gassen- 
dian admits these metaphysical truths, but at the same 
time denies the possibility of erecting, upon their basis, a 
regular and solid system of philosophy, without the aid 
of assiduous observation and repeated experiments, which 
are the most natural and effectual means of philosophical 
progress and improvement. The one, eagle-like, soars 
with an intrepid flight to the first fountain of truth, and 
to the general relations and final causes of things ; and 
thence descending, explains, by them, the various changes 
and appearances of nature, the attributes and counsels of 
the Deity, the moral constitution and duties of man, the 
frame and structure of the universe. The other, more 
difficult and cautious, observes with attention, and exa- 
mines with assiduity, the objects that are before his eyes ; 
and rises gradually from them to the first cause, and the 
primordial principle of things. The Cartesians suppose, 
that many things are known by man with the utmost 
certainty ; and hence arises their propensity to form their 
opinions and doctrines into a regular system. The fol- 
lowers of Gassendi consider man as in a state of ignorance 
with respect to an immense number of points, and, con- 
sequently, think it incumbent upon them to suspend their 
judgment in a multitude of cases, until time and expe- 
rience dispel their darkness ; and hence it is also, that 
they consider a system as an attempt of too adventurous 
a nature, and by no means proportioned to the narrow 
extent of human knowledge ; or, at least, they think, 
that the business of system-making ought to be left to 
the philosophers of future times, who, by joining the 
observations and experience of many ages, may acquire 
a more satisfactory and accurate knowledge of nature 
than has been yet attained. 

These dissensions and contests concerning the first 
principles of human knowledge, produced various debates 
upon other subjects of the utmost moment and importance ; 
such as, the nature of God, the essence of matter, the 
elements or constituent principles of bodies, the laws of 
motion, the manner in which the Divine Providence 
exerts itself in the government of the world, the frame 
and structure of the universe, the nature, union, and. 
joint operations of soul and body. If we consider atten 
tivelythe profound and intricate nature of these subjects, 
together with the limits, debility, and imperfections of 
the human understanding, we shall see too much reasoD 
to fear, that these contests will last as long as the present 
state of man.' The wise and the good, sensible of this, 
will carry on such debates with a spirit of mildness and 
mutual forbearance ; and, knowing that differences in 
opinions are inevitable where truth is so difficult of access, 
will guard against that temerity with which too many dis 
putants accuse their antagonists of irreligion and impiety. d 

c Voltaire published, in 1740, at Amsterdam, a pamphlet, entitled, La 
Metaphysique de Newton, ou Parallele des Sentimens de Newton et de 
Leibnitz, which, though superficial and inaccurate, may be useful to 
those readers who have not application enough to draw from better 
sources, and are desirous of knowing how much these two philosophical 
sects differ in their principles and tenets. 

a It is abundantly known that Des-Cartes and his metaphysical fol- 
lowers were accused by many of striking at the foundations of all reli' 
gion ; nor is this accusation entirely withdrawn even in our times. See, 
in the miscellaneous works of Father Hardouin, his Atheists Unmasked, 
Among these pretended atheists, Des-Cartes, and his two famous disci- 
ples, (Antoine Le Grand and Sylvain Regis,) hold, the first rank ; nor i» 
Father Malebranche, though he seems rather chargeable with fanaticism 



JbnOT. I. 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



535 



XXXV. Those who had either adopted, without excep- 
tion, the principles of Des-Cartes, or who, without going 
so far, approved the method and rules laid down by him 
for the investigation of truth, employed all their zeal and 
industry in correcting, amending, confirming, and illus- 
trating, the metaphysical species of philosophy ; and its 
votaries were exceedingly numerous, particularly in 
France and in the United Provinces. But among the 
members of this philosophical sect there were some who 
aimed at the destruction of all religion, more especially 
Spinosa, and others, who, like Balthasar Becker, a made 
use of the principles of Des-Cartes, to overturn some doc- 
trines of Christianity, and to pervert others. This cir- 
cumstance proved disadvantageous to the whole sect, and 
brought it into disrepute in many places. The metaphy- 
sical philosophy fell, however, afterwards into better hands, 
and was treated with great wisdom and acuteness by 
Malebranche, a man of uncommon eloquence and sub- 
tlety ; and by Leibnitz, whose name is consigned to im- 
mortality as one of tbe greatest geniuses that ever appear- 
ed in the world. b Neither of these great men, indeed, 
adopted all the principles and doctrines of Des-Cartes ; 
but both of them approved, upon the whole, his philoso- 
phical method, which they enlarged, amended, and im- 
proved, by several additions and corrections, that rendered 
its procedure more luminous and sure. This is more 
especially true of Leibnitz, who, rejecting the suggestions 
of fancy, seemed to follow no other guides than reason 
and judgment ; for Malebranche, having received from 
nature a warm and exuberant imagination, was too much 
ruled by its dictates, and was thus often imperceptibly 
led into the visionary regions of enthusiasm. 

XXXVI. The mathematical philosophy already men- 
tioned, was much less studied and adopted than the meta- 
physical system, and its followers in France were very 
few in number. But it met with a favourable reception in 
Great Britain, whose philosophers perceiving, in its infant 
and unfinished features, the immortal lines of Verulam's 
wisdom, snatched it from its cradle, in a soil where it was 
ready to perish, cherished it with parental tenderness, and 
have still continued their zealous efforts to bring it to ma- 
turity and perfection. The Royal Society of London, 
which may be considered as the philosophical seminary 

than atheism, exempted from a place in this odious list. It is true that 
Hardouin, who gives so liberally a place in the atheistical class to these 
great men, was himself a visionary dreamer, whose judgment, in many 
cases, is little to be respected; but it is also true, that, in the work now 
under consideration, he does not reason from his own whimsical notions, 
but draws all his arguments from tho->e followers of Aristotle and Gas- 
sendi, who have opposed, with the greatest success and acuteness, the 
Cartesian system. Even Voltaire, notwithstanding the moderation with 
which he expresses himself, seems plainly enough to give his assent to the 
accusers of Des-Cartes. On the other hand, it must be observed that these 
accusers are censured in their turns by several modern metaphysicians. 
Gassendi, for example, is charged by Arnauld with overturning the 
doctrine of the soul's immortality in his controversy with Des-Cartes, 
and by Leibnitz with corrupting and destroying the whole system of 
natural religion : see Des-Maizeaux, Recueil de diverses pieces sur la 
Philosophic, torn, ii.* Leibnitz has also ventured to affirm, that Sir 
Isaac Newton and his followers rob the Deity of some of his most 
excellent attributes, and sap the foundations of natural religion. In 
short, Ihe controversial writings on both sides are filled with rash and 
indecorous reproaches of this kind. 

Hlf* See, for a farther account of the particular tenets and opinions 
of Becker, sect. ii. part ii. chap. ii. sect. xxxv. of this century. 

•> For an ample and interesting account of Malebranche and his philo- 
sophy, see Fontenelle's Eloges des Academiciens, torn. i. p. 317, and, 
for a view of the errors and defects of his metaphysical svstcm, see 
Hardouin's Atheists Unmasked, in his CEuvres Melees, p."43. Fon- 
tenelle has also given an account of the life and philosophical sentiments 



of the nation, took it under their protection, and have 
neither spared expense nor pains to cultivate and improve 
it, and to render it subservient to the purposes of life. 
It owed, more especially, a great part of its progress and 
improvement to the countenance, industry, and genius of 
that immortal protector of science, the pious and venera- 
ble Robert Boyle, whose memory will be ever precious to 
the worthy and the wise, the friends of religion, learning, 
and mankind. The illustrious names of Barrow, Wallis, 
and Locke, may also be added to the list of those who 
contributed to the progress of natural knowledge. Nor 
were the learned divines of the British nation (though 
that order has often excited the complaints of philosophers, 
and been supposed to behold, with a jealous and suspi- 
cious eye, the efforts of philosophy as dangerous to the 
cause of religion) less zealous than the other patrons of 
science in this noble cause. On the contrary, they looked 
upon the improvement of natural knowledge not only as 
innocent, but as of the highest utility and importance , 
as admirably adapted to excite and maintain in the minds 
of men a profound veneration for the Supreme Creator 
and Governor of the world, and to furnish new supports 
to the cause of religion ; and also as agreeable both to 
the laws and the spirit of the Gospel, and to the senti- 
ments of the primitive church. And hence it was that 
those doctors, who, in the lectures founded by Mr. Boyle, 
attacked the enemies of religion, employed in this noble 
and pious attempt the succours of philosophy with the most 
happy and triumphant success. But the immortal man, 
to whose immense genius and indefatigable industry 
philosophy owed its greatest improvements, and who 
carried the lamp of knowledge into paths of nature that 
had been unexplored before his time, was Sir Isaac New- 
ton, whose name was revered, and whose genius was 
admired, even by his warmest adversaries. This great 
man spent, with uninterrupted assiduity, the whole of a 
long life in correcting, digesting, and enlarging, the new 
philosophy, and in throwing upon it the light of demon- 
stration and evidence, both by observing the laws of nature, 
and by subjecting them to the rules of calculation ; and 
thus he introduced a great change into natural science, 
and brought it to a very high degree of perfection. d The 
English look upon it as an unquestionable proof of the 

of Leibnitz, in the work already quoted, vol. ii, ; but a much more am- 
ple one has been published in German by Charles Gunther Ludewig, 
in his history of the Leibnitian Philosophy. However, the genius and 
philosophy of this great man are best to be learned from his letters, 
published by Kortholt. 

§rjr ° Mr. Hume's account of this great man is extremely just, and 
contains some peculiar strokes that do honour to this elegant painter of 
minds. " In Newton, (sow; he,) this island may boast of having produ- 
ced the greatest and rarest genius that ever arose for the ornament 
and instruction of the species. Cautious in admitting no principles 
but such as were founded in experiment; but resolute to adopt everv 
such principle, however newwnd unusual ; from modesty, ignorant of his 
superiority above the rest of mankind, and thence less careful to accom- 
modate his reasonings to common apprehensions; more anxious to 
merit than to acquire fame ; he was, from these causes, long unknown 
to the world ; but. his reputation, at last, broke out with a lustre, which 
scarcely any writer, during his own life-time, had ever before attained. 
While Newton seemed to draw off the veil from some of the mysteries 
of nature, he showed, at the same time, the imperfections of the mecha- 
nical philosophy; and thereby restored her ultimate secrets to that 
obscurity, in which they ever did and ever will remain.'' 

<i The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, as also the 
other writings, whether philosophical, mathematical, or theological, of 

§3= * It appears, on reference, that tile censure is not conveyed in 
such strong terms as those employed by our historian ; Leibnitz merely 
says, that Gassendi appeared to h esitate .-'.iii! waver too much concerning 
the nature of the soul, and the principles of natural religion. 



536 



STATE OF LEARNING AND PHILOSOPHY. 



Sect. L 



solidity and excellence of the Newtonian philosophy, that 
its most eminent votaries were friends to religion, and 
have transmitted to posterity shining examples of piety 
and virtue ; while, on the contrary, the Cartesian or meta- 
physical system has exhibited, in its followers, many 
flagrant instances of irreligion, and some demonstrations 
of the most horrid impiety. 

XXXVII. The two famous philosophical sects now 
mentioned, deprived, indeed, all the ancient systems of 
natural science, both of their credit and their disciples ; 
and hence it might have been expected that they would 
have totally engrossed and divided between them the 
suffrages of the learned. But this was not the case ; the 
liberty of thinking being restored by Des-Cartes and 
Newton, who broke the fetters of prejudice, in which 
philosophical superstition had confined, in former times, 
the human understanding, a variety of sects sprang up. 
Some trusting to their superior genius and sagacity, and 
others, more remarkable for the exuberance of their fancy 
than for the solidity of their judgment, pretended to 
strike out new paths in the unknown regions of nature, 
and new methods of investigating truth ; but of their 
disciples the number was small, and the duration of their 
inventions transitory ; and therefore it is sufficient to have 
barely mentioned them. There appeared also another 

this great man, are abundantly known. There is an elegant account 
of his life, and literary and philosophical merit, given by Fontenelle, in 
his Eloge des Academiciens, torn. ii. p. 293. — See also the Biblioth. 
Angloise, torn. xv. par. ii. p. 545, and Biblioth. Raisonee, torn. vi. par. 
ii. p. 478. §3r See more especially the late learned and ingenious Mr. 
Maclaurin's Account of Sir Isaac Newton's Discoveries. 

* There is still extant a famous book of this writer, entitled, de eo 
quod nihil scitur, which, with the rest of his works, and an account of 
his life, appeared at Toulouse, in 1636. See Bayle's Dictionary, and 
Villemandi Scepticismus debellatus, cap. iv. 

b See Bayle's Dictionary for an account of this author. 

' Huet's book concerning the Weakness of Human Reason was pub- 
lished after his death, in French, at Amsterdam, in 1723, and lately in 
Latin. It appears, however, that this eminent writer had, long be- 
fore the composition of this book, recommended the sceptical method of 
conducting philosophical researches, and looked upon it as the best 
adapted to establish the truth of Christianity upon solid foundations. 



sort of men, whom mediocrity of genius, or an indolent 
turn of mind, indisposed for investigating truth by the 
exertion of their own talents and powers, and who, terri- 
fied at the view of such an arduous task, contented them- 
selves with borrowing from the different sects such of 
their respective tenets as seemed to them most remark- 
able for their perspicuity and solidity, more especially 
those concerning which all the different sects were agreed. 
These they compiled and digested into a system, and 
pushed their inquiries no farther. The philosophers of 
this class are generally termed Eclectics. From these 
remarkable differences of sentiment and system that 
reigned among the jarring sects, some persons, otherwise 
distinguished by their acuteness and sagacity, took occa- 
sion to represent truth as unattainable by such a short- 
sighted being as man, and to revive the desperate and 
uncomfortable doctrine (shall I call it, or jargon) of the 
Sceptics, that had long been buried in the silence and 
oblivion which it deserved. The most eminent of these 
cloudy philosophers were Sanchez, a physician of Tou- 
louse, a de la Mothe le Vayer, b Huet, bishop of Avranches, 
to whom we may justly add Peter Bayle, d who, by the 
erudition and wit that abound in his voluminous works, 
acquired a distinguished reputation in the republic of 
letters. 

See the Commentarius de Rebus ad eum pertinentibus, lib. iv. p. 230 ; 
and Demonstrat Evangelical Pr»fat. sect. iv. p. 9, where he commendi 
their manner of proceeding, who, by sceptical arguments, invalidate all 
philosophical principles, before they begin to prove the truth of Chris- 
tianity to those who doubt of its evidence. It is well known that the 
Jesuits, who were particularly favoured by Huet, have, on many occa- 
sions, employed this method to throw dust in the eyes of the Protes- 
tants, and thus lead them blindfold into the Romish communion, and that 
they still continue to practise the same insidious instrument of seduction. 
i Every tiling relating to the life and sentiments of Bayle is abun- 
dantly and universally known. His life, composed by M. Des-Mai- 
zeaux, was published at the Hague in 1732. — The scepticism of this 
insidious and seducing writer was unmasked and refuted, with great 
learning and force of argument, by J. P. do- Crousaz, in a voluminous 
French work, entitled, Traite du Pyrrhonisme, of which M. Formey 
gave an elegant and judicious abridgment under the title of Triomphe 
de l'Evidence. 



SECTION II. 



PART I. 

THE HISTORY OF THE MORE ANCIENT CHURCHES. 



CHAPTER I. 

Containing the History of the Romish Church. 

I. Hippolito Aldobrandini, under the papal name 
of Clement YIII. continued to rule the church of Rome at 
the commencement of this century, having been elected 
to that high dignity toward the conclusion of the preceding 
one. The eminent abilities and insidious dexterity of this i 
pontiff, as also his ardent desire of extinguishing the j 
Protestant religion, and extending the limits of the Romish 
church, are universally acknowledged ; but it is much | 
questioned, whether his prudence was equal to the ardu- 
ous nature of his pontifical station, and the critical circum- 
stances of an incidental kind that arose during his admi- 
nistration. 8 He was succeeded in 1605 by Leo XL of the 
house of Medici, who died a few weeks after his election, 
and thus left the papal chair open to Camillo Borghese, 
by whom it was filled under the denomination of Paul V. 
This pontiff was of a haughty and violent spirit, jealous 
to excess of his authority, and insatiably furious in the 
execution of his revenge upon such as encroached on his 
pretended prerogative, as appears in a striking manner by 
his rash and unsuccessful contest with the Venetians. 11 — 
Gregory XV., c who was raised to the pontificate in 1621, 
seemed to be of a milder disposition, though he was not 
less defective than his predecessor in equity and clemency 
toward those who had separated themselves from the 
church of Rome. An unjust severity against the friends 
of the Reformation is, indeed, the general and inevitable 
character of the Roman pontiffs ; for, without this, they 
would be destitute of the predominant and distinctive 
mark of the papacy. A pope inspired with sentiments 
of toleration and charity toward those who refuse a blind 
submission to his opinions and decisions, is a contradic- 
tion in terms. Urban VIII., who previously bore the 

a This pontiff had an edition of the Vulgate published, -which was 
very different from that of pope Sixtus ; and this is or.e of the many I 
instances of that contrariety of opinion which has prevailed amongst 
the infallible heads of the church of Rome. 

gjT >> This contest arose, partly from .two edicts of the republic of 
Venice for preventing the unnecessary increase of religious buildings, 
and the augmentation of the enormous wealth of the clergy ; and partly 
from the prosecution of two ecclesiastics for capital crimes, who had 
not been delivered up to the pope at his requisition. It is not surprising 
that these proceedings of the Venetians, however just and equitable, 
should inflame the ambitious fury of a pontiff, who called himself Vice- 
God, the Monarch of Christendom, and the Supporter of Papal Omnipo- 
tence. Accordingly, Paul subjected all the dominions of the republic to 
an interdict, while the Venetians, on the other hand, declared that unjust 
and tyrannical mandate null and void, and banished from their territory 
the Jesuits and Capuchins, who had openly disobeyed the laws of the 
state. Preparations for war were proceeding on both sides, when an 
accommodation, not very honourable to the pope, was brought about by 
the mediation of Henry IV. of France. This controversy between the 
pope and the Venetians produced several important pieces, composed by 
Sarpi on the side of the republic, and by Baronius and Bcllarmine in 
behalf of the pontiff. The controversy concerning the nature and limits 
of the pope's pretended supremacy is judiciously stated, and the papal 
pretensions are accurately examined, by Savpi. in his history of this 
tyrannical interdict, which, in Italian, occupies the fourth volume of his 
works, and was translated into Latin by William Bedell, of Cambridge. 

NaXLVI. 135 



name of Meffei Barberini, and who, by his interest in the 
conclave, ascended the papal throne in 1623, was a man 
of letters, an eloquent writer, an elegant poet, and a gene- 
rous and munificent patron of learning and genius ; d but 
nothing could equal the rigour and barbarity with which 
he treated all who bore the name of Protestants. He may 
be indeed considered as a good and equitable ruler of the 
church, when compared with Innocent X. of the family 
of Pamphili, who succeeded him in 1644. This unworthy 
pontiff, to a profound ignorance of all those things which 
it was necessary for a Christian bishop to know, joined the 
most shameful indolence and the most notorious profli- 
gacy; for he abandoned his person, his dignity, the admi- 
nistration of his temporal affairs, and the government of 
the church, to the disposal of Donna 01ympia, e a woman 
of corrupt morals, insatiable avarice, and boundless ambi- 
tion.'' His zealous endeavours to prevent the peace of 
Westphalia, however odious they may appear when con- 
sidered in themselves, ought not to be reckoned among 
his personal crimes, since it is to be supposed, that any 
other pontiff, in his place, would have made the same 
attempts without hesitation or remorse. He was succeeded 
in the papal chair, in 1655, by Fabio Chigi, who assumed 
the title of Alexander VII. and who, though less odious 
than his predecessor, nevertheless possessed all the per- 
nicious qualities that are necessary to constitute a true 
pope, and without which the papal jurisdiction and 
majesty cannot be maintained. The other parts of his 
character are drawn much to his disadvantage, by several 
ingenious and eminent writers of the Romish church, 
who represent him as a man of a mean genius, unequal to 
great or difficult undertakings, full of craft and dissimu- 
lation, and chargeable with the most shameful levity and 
the greatest inconsistency of sentiment and conduct.* 
The two Clements IX. and X. who were elected succes- 

— It was Paul V. that dishonoured his title of Holiness, and cast an 
eternal stain upon his infallibility, by an express approbation of the 
doctrine of Suarez, the Jesuit, in defence of the murder of kings. 

3pf c His family name was Alexander Ludovisio. 

d See Leonis Allatii Apes Urbanse. This little work is a sort of index, 
or list, of all the learned and eminent men who adorned Rome, under 
the pontificate of Urban VIII. and experienced the munificence and 
liberality of that pontiff; and their number is far from being small. 
The Latin poems of Urban, which are not without a considerable portion 
of wit and elegance, have passed through several editions, gjf These 
poems were composed while he was yet a cardinal. After his elevation 
to the pontificate, he published a remarkable edition of the Romish 
Breviary and several bulls ; among which, that which abolishes the 
order of Female Jesuits and certain festivals, those relating to image- 
worship, and to the condemnation of Jansenius' Augustinus, and that 
which confers the title of Eminence upon the cardinal-legates, the three 
ecclesiastical electors, and the grand master of Malta, are the most 
worthy of notice. 

53r ° This Donna Olympia Maldachini was his brother's widow, 
with whom he had lived, before his elevation to the pontificate, in an 
illicit commerce, in which his holiness continued afterwards. 

1 See the Memoires du Cardinal de Retz, torn. iii. and iv. of the last 
edition published at Geneva. — For an account of the disputes betweer 
this pontiff and the French, see Bougeant's Histoire de la Paix ds 
Westphalie, torn. iv. 

* See the Memoires du Cardinal de Retz, lorn. ir. p. 16, 77. — Ma 



538 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. n. 



sively to the papacy in 1668 and 1669, were concerned j 
in few transactions that deserve to be transmitted to pos- 
terity. 11 This was not the case of Benedict Odeschalchi, 
who is known in the list of pontiffs by the denomination 
of Innocent XI. and was raised to that high dignity in 
I677. b This respectable pontiff acquired a very high and 
permanent reputation by the austerity of his morals, his 
uncommon courage and resolution, his dislike of the 
grosser superstitions that reigned in the Romish church, 
his attempts to reform the manners of the clergy, and to 
abolish a considerable number of those fictions and frauds 
that dishonour their ministry, and also by other solid and 
eminent virtues. But it appeared manifestly by his exam- 
ple that those pontiffs, who respect truth, and act from 
virtuous and Christian principles, may, indeed, form noble 
plans, but will never be able to carry them into execution, 
or at least to give them that measure of stability and per- 
fection, which is the object of their wishes. By his example 
and administration it appeared, that the wisest institutions, 
and the most judicious establishments, will be unable to 
stand firm, for any considerable time, against the insidious 
stratagems, or declared opposition of a deluded multitude, 
who are corrupted by the prevalence of licentious morals, 
whose imaginations are impregnated with superstitious 
fictions and fables, whose credulity is abused by pious 
frauds, and whose minds are nourished, or rather amused, 
with vain rites and senseless ceremonies/ Be that as it 
may, all the wise and salutary regulations of Innocent XI. 
were suffered to go almost to ruin by the criminal indo- 
lence of Peter Ottoboni, who was raised to the head of 
the Romish church, in 1689, and assumed the name of 
Alexander VIII. A laudable attempt was made to revive 
them by Innocent XII., a man of uncommon merit and 
eminent talents, whose name was Pignatelli, and who, in 
1691, succeeded Alexander in the papal chair ; nor were his 
zealous endeavours absolutely destitute of success. But it 
was also his fate to learn, by experience, that the most 
prudent and resolute pontiffs are unequal to such an 
arduous task, such an Herculean labour, as the reform- 
ation of the church and court of Rome ; nor were the 
fruits of this good pope's wise administration enjoyed long 
after his decease. d The pontiff, whose reign concluded 
this century, was John Francis Albani, who was raised 
to the head of the Romish church in 1699, and assumed 

moires de M. Joly, torn. ii. p. 186, 210, 237. — Archenholtz, Memoires de 
la Reine Christine, torn. ii. p. 125. j|jf* The craft and dissimulation 
attributed to this pontiff really constituted an essential part of his 
character; but it is not strictly true that he was a man of a mean genius, 
or unequal to great and difficult undertakings. He was a man of learn- 
ing, and discovered very eminent abilities at the treaty of Minister, 
where he appeared in the character of nuncio.. Some writers relate, that, 
while he was in Germany, he had formed the design of abjuring popery, 
and embracing the Protestant religion, but was deterred from the exe- 
cution of this purpose by the example of his cousin count Pompey, who 
was poisoned at Lyons, on his way to Germany, after he had abjured 
the Romish faith. These writers add, that Chigi was confirmed in his 
religion by his elevation to the cardinalship. See Bayle, Nouvelles de 
la Repub. dcs Lettres, Oct. 1688. 

0= "Clement IX. was of the family of Ro'spigliosi, and the family 
name of Clement X. was Altieri. See Memoires de la Reine Chris- 
tine, torn. ii. There are upon record several transactions of Clement 
IX. that do him honour, and prove his dislike of nepotism, and his love 
of peace and justice. 

|r%* t Some maintain, and with the strongest appearance of truth, 
that this pontiff had formerly been a soldier, though this report is treat- 
ed as groundless by count Turrezonico, in his dissertation ' de supposi- 
tiis militaribus Stipendiis Bened. Odeschalchi.' See an interesting ac- 
count of this pontiff in Bayle's Dictionary. 

c See Journal Universel, torn. i. p. 441 ; torn. vi. p. 306. The present 
pope, Benedict XIV.,* attempted, in the year 1743, the canonization of 



the name of Clement XI. He surpassed in learning the 
whole college of cardinals, and was inferior to none of the 
preceding pontiffs in sagacity, lenity, and a desire, at least, 
to govern well ; but he was very far from opposing, with 
a proper degree of vigour and resolution, the inveterate 
corruptions and superstitious observances of the church 
over which he presided ; on the contrary, he inconsider- 
ately aimed at, what he thought, the honour and advan- 
tage of the church (that is, the glory and interests of its 
pontiff) by measures that proved detrimental to both ; 
and thus showed, by a striking example, that popes, even 
of the best disposition, may fall imperceptibly into the 
greatest mistakes, and commit the most pernicious blun- 
ders, through an imprudent, zeal for extending their 
jurisdiction, and augmenting the influence and lustre of 
their station. c 

II. The incredible pains that were taken by the pon- 
tiffs and clergy of the Romish church, to spread their 
doctrine and to erect their dominion among the nations 
that lay in the darkness of Paganism, have been already 
mentioned. We are, therefore, at present, to confine 
our narration to the schemes they laid, the cabals they 
formed, and the commotions they excited, with an unin- 
terrupted and mischievous industry, in order to recover 
the possessions and prerogatives they had lost in Europe, 
to oppress the Protestants, and to extinguish the light of the 
glorious Reformation. Various were the stratagems and 
projects they formed for these purposes. The resources 
of genius, the force of arms, the seduction of the most 
alluring promises, the terrors of the most formidable threat- 
enings, the subtle wiles of controversy, the influence of 
pious, and often of impious frauds, the arts of dissimula- 
tion, in short, all possible means, fair or disingenuous, 
were employed for the destruction of the reformed 
churches, but in most cases without success. The plan 
of a dreadful attack upon the friends of the Reformation 
had been, for some time, formed in secret ; and the bigot- 
ed and persecuting house of Austria, at the pope's per- 
suasion, undertook to put it in execution. However, as 
injustice, however arrogant, usually seeks some pretext to 
mask, or at least to diminish its deformity, so the church 
of Rome endeavored before-hand to justify the persecution, 
of which the flame was ready to break out. For this 
purpose, the pens of the perfidious and learned Scioppius, f 



Innocent XI. ; but the king of France, instigated by the Jesuits, op- 
posed this design, chiefly on account of the misunderstandings that always 
subsisted between Louis XIV. and Innocent, of which more will be said 
hereafter. 

a For an account of the character, morals, and election of Innocent 
XII., see the Letters of cardinal Norris, published in the fifth volume of 
his Works, p. 362. 

e In the year 1752, there appeared, at Padua, a Life of Clement XL, 
composed in French by the learned and eloquent M. Lafitau, bishop of 
Sisteron. In the same year M. Reboulet, chancellor of Avignon, pub- 
lished his Histoire de Clement XI. These two productions, and more 
epecially the latter, are written with uncommon elegance; but they 
abound with historical errors, which the French writers, in general, are 
at too little pains to avoid. Besides, they are both composed rather in 
the strain of panegyric than of history. An attentive reader will, how- 
ever, easily perceive, even in these panegyrics, that Clement XI., not- 
withstanding his acknowledged sagacity and prudence, took several rash 
and inconsiderate steps, in order to augment the power, and multiply 
the prerogatives of the Roman pontiffs; and thus, through his own 
temerity, involved himself in various perplexities. 

|3= ' Scioppius seems rather to merit the titles of malevolent and fu- 
rious, than that of perfidious, unless his turning papist be considered by 
Dr. Mosheim as an instance of perfidy. This is the intemperate and 
odious satirist who was caned by the servants of the English ambassador 
at Madrid, for the invectives he had thrown out against king James L 

* This note was written during the life of Benidict XIV. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



539 



of the Jesuits Tanner, Possevin, Hager, Hederic, and 
Forer, jurists of Dillingen, were employed to represent 
the treaty of peace, concluded between Charles V. and 
the protestants of Germany, as unjust, null, and even 
rendered void by the Protestants themselves, by their 
departing from, or at least perverting, by various changes 
and modifications, the confession of Augsburg." This 
injurious charge was proved groundless by several Lu- 
theran doctors who, of their own accord, defended their 
communion against this instance of popish calumny ; 
and it was also refuted by public authority, by the ex- 
press order of John George, elector of Saxony. The 
task was committed to Matthew Hoe, who, in the years 
1628 and 1631, published an accurate and laborious de- 
fence of the Protestants, entitled, Defensio Pupillse Evan- 
gelical The mouth of calumny was not stopped by 
these performances. The accusers continued their cla- 
mours, multiplied their libels, and had recourse to the suc- 
cours of indecent raillery and sarcastic wit, to cover as 
well as they were able, the striking defects of a bad 
cause. On the other hand, the Lutheran writers exerted 
themselves in exposing the sophistry, and refuting the 
arguments and invectives of their adversaries. 

III. The first flames of that religious war, which the 
Roman pontiffs proposed to carry on by the arms of the 
Austrians and Spaniards, their servile and bigoted in- 
struments, broke out in Austria, where, about the 
commencement of this century, the friends of the Re- 
formation were cruelly persecuted and oppressed by 
their Roman catholic adversaries. 15 The solemn treaties 
and conventions, by which the religious liberty and civil 
rights of these Protestants had been secured, were tram- 
pled upon, and violated in the most shocking manner ; 
nor had these unhappy sufferers resolution, vigour, or 
strength, sufficient to maintain their privileges. The Bo- 
hemians, who were involved in the same vexations, pro- 
ceeded in a different manner. Perceiving plainly that 
the votaries of Rome earnestly wished to deprive them of 
that religious liberty which had been purchased by the 
blood of their ancestors, and so lately confirmed to them 
by an imperial fdict, they came to a resolution of taking 
up arms to defend themselves against a set of men, whom, 
in consequence of the violence they offered to conscience, 
they could look upon in no other light than as the ene- 
mies of their souls. Accordingly a league was formed 
by the Bohemian Protestants ; and they began to avenge, 
with great spirit and resolution, the injuries that had been 
committed against their persons, their families, their reli- 
gion, and their civil rights and privileges. But it must 
be acknowledged, that, in this just attempt to defend 
what was dear to them as men and Christians, they lost 
sight of the dictates of equity and moderation, and carried 



in a book which was burned by the hands of the common hangman at 
Paris. 

" See Salig, Hist. August. Confessionis, t. i. lib. iv. cap. iii. p. 768. 

b Raupachius, in his Austria Evangelica, (a German work with a 
Latin title,) has given an accurate account of this persecution and these 
commotions. The same learned and worthy author had formed the de- 
sign of publishing an authentic and circumstantial relation of the suf- 
ferings of the Protestants in Styria, Moravia, and Carinthia, with an 
account of the perfidious snares that were laid for them, the whole drawn 
from unexceptionable records j but death prevented the execution of this 
scheme. 
_ ° Beside Caroli and Jagerus, who have composed the ecclesiastical 
history of this century, see Burch. Gotlh. Struvii Syntagma Historian 
Germanics, p. 1487, 1510, 1523, 1538 ; as also the writers whom he re- 



their resentment beyond the bounds, both of reason and 
religion. Their adversaries were alarmed at a view of 
their intrepidity, but were not dismayed. The Bohe- 
mians, therefore, apprehending still farther opposition and 
vexations from bigotry, animated by a spirit of ven- 
geance, renewed their efforts to provide for their security. 
The death of the emperor Matthias, which happened in 
1619, furnished them, as they thought, with an opportu- 
nity of striking at the root of the evil, and removing the 
source of their calamities, by choosing a sovereign of the 
reformed religion ; for they considered themselves as au- 
thorized by the ancient laws and customs of the kingdom, 
to reject any one who pretended to the throne by virtue 
of an hereditary right, and to demand a prince whose 
title to the crown should be derived from the free suffrages 
of the states. Accordingly, Frederic V., elector Palatine, 
who professed the reformed religion, was, in the same 
year, chosen king of Bohemia, and solemnly crowned at 
Prague. 

IV. This bold step, from which the Bohemians expected 
such signal advantages, proved to them a source of com- 
plicated misfortunes. Its consequences were highly detri- 
mental to their new sovereign, and fatal to their own 
liberties and privileges ; for by it they were involved in 
the most dreadful calamities, and deprived of the free 
exercise of the Protestant religion, the security of which 
was the ultimate end of all the measures they had pursued. 
Frederic was defeated, before Prague, by the Imperial 
army, in 1620, and by this unfortunate battle was not 
only deprived of his new crown, but also of his hereditary 
dominions. Reduced thus to the wretched condition of 
an exile, he was obliged to leave his fruitful territories, 
and his ample treasures, to the merciless discretion of the 
Austrians and Bavarians, who plundered and ravaged 
them with the most rapacious barbarity. The defeat of 
this unfortunate prince was attended with dreadful con- 
sequences to the Bohemians, and more especially to those 
who, from a zeal for religious liberty and the interests of 
the Reformation, had embarked in his cause. Some of 
them were committed to a perpetual prison, others 
banished for life ; several had their estates and posses- 
sions confiscated ; many were put to death ; and the whole 
nation was obliged, from that fatal period, to embrace the 
religion of the victor, and bend an unwilling neck under 
the yoke of Rome. The triumph of the Austrians would 
neither have been so sudden nor so complete, nor would 
they have been in a condition to impose such rigourous 
and despotic terms on the Bohemians, had they not been 
powerfully assisted by John George I., elector of Saxony, 
who, partly from a principle of hatred toward the Reform- 
ed,' 1 and partly from considerations of a political kind, 
reinforced with his troops the imperial army." This 

commends. See also the Histoire de Louis XIII., composed by the 
learned and accurate Le Vassor, torn. iii. p. 223. 

|3r d By the Reformed, as has been already observed, we are to under- 
stand the Calvinists, and also, in general, those Protestants who are not of 
the Lutheran persuasion. And hereweseeaLutheranelectordra'winghis 
s word to support the cause of popery and persecution against a people gene- 
rously struggling for the Protestant religion, and the rights of conscience. 

• See the Commentarii de Bello Bohemico-Germanico, ab A. C. 16"17 
ad An. 1630. — Abraham Scultet, Narratio Apologetica de Curriculo 
Vitae sum, p. 86. — It is well known, that the Roman catholics, and I 
especially Martin Becan, a Jesuit, persuaded Matthew Hoe, who was 
an Austrian by birth, and the elector's chaplain, to represent to Ms prince 
the cause of the elector Palatine (which was the cause of the reformed 
religion) as not only unjust, but also as detrimental to the interest o! 



540 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. n. 



invasion of the Palatinate was the occasion of that long 
and bloody war, that was so injurious to Germany, and 
in which the greatest part of the princes of Europe were, 
in one way or another, unhappily engaged. It began by 
a confederacy formed between some German powers and 
the king of Denmark, in order to assert the rights of the 
elector Palatine, unjustly excluded from his dominions, 
against the despotic proceedings of the emperor. The 
confederates maintained, that the invasion of Bohemia, 
by this unhappy prince, was no just subject of offence to 
the emperor ; and that the house of Austria, whose quar- 
rel the emperor was not obliged by any means to adopt, 
was alone the sufferer in this case. However that may 
have been, the progress and issue of the war were unfa- 
vourable to the allies. 

V. The success of the imperial arms filled the votaries 
of popery and Rome with the warmest transports of joy 
and exultation, and presented to their imaginations the 
most flattering prospects. They thought that the happy 
period was now approaching, when the whole tribe of 
heretics, that had withdrawn their necks from the papal 
yoke, should either perish by the sword, or be reduced 
under the dominion of the church. The emperor him- 
self seemed to have imbibed no small portion of this 
odious spirit, which was doubly prepared, to convert or 
destroy. The flame of ambition that burned within him 
was nourished by the suggestions of bigotry. Hence he 
audaciously carried his arms through a great part of Ger- 
many, suffered his generals to harass, with impunity, 
such princes and states as refused a blind obedience to 
the court of Rome, and showed plainly, by all his pro- 
ceedings, that a scheme had been laid for the extinction 
of the Germanic liberty, civil and sacred. The Saxon 
elector's zealous attachment to the emperor, which he had 
abundantly discovered by his warm and ungenerous oppo- 
sition to the unfortunate Frederic, togetker with the 
lamentable discoid that reigned among the German 
princes, persuaded the papal faction, that the difficulties 
which seemed to oppose the execution of their project, 
were far from being invincible. Accordingly, the persons 
concerned in this grand enterprise began to act their respec- 
tive parts. In 1629, Ferdinand II., to give some colour 
of justice to this religious war, issued out the terrible 
restitution-edict, by which the Protestants were ordered 
to restore to the church of Rome all the possessions of 
which they had become masters in consequence of the 
religious peace, concluded in the preceding century." This 
edict principally arose from the suggestions of the Jesuits. 
That greedy and ambitious order claimed a great part 
of these goods and possessions as a recompense due to 
their labours in the cause of religion ; and hence arose 

Lutheranism, and to recommend to him the cause and interests of the 
house, of Austria. See Unschuldige Nachricht, An. 1747, p. 858. 
fj* What Dr. Mosheim observes here may be true; but then it is as 
true that Matthew Hoe must have been a great fool, or a great knave, 
to listen to such insinuations, not only on account of their glaring ab- 
surdity, but also considering the persons from whom they came. This 
is the same Hoe that is mentioned above, as a learned defender of the 
Lutheran faith. 

a See, for an illustration of this matter, the authors mentioned by 
Struvius, in his Syntagma Histor. Germanise, p. 1553. 

fcSeeSalig, His. August. Confessionis, t. i. lib. iv. c. iii.i xxv. p. 810. 

f3r * When the consequences of these iniquitous and barbarous pro- 
ceedings were represented to this emperor, and he was assured that the 
country must be utterly rained, if the Bohemians, rendered desperate by 
his enormous cruelty and oppression, should exert themselves in defence 



a warm contest between them and the ancient and rea. 
proprietors. b This contest, indeed, was decided by the 
law of force. It was the depopulating soldier, who, sword 
in hand, gave weight and authority to the imperial edict, 
wresting out of the hands of the lawful possessor, without 
form of process, whatever the Romish priests and monks 
thought proper to claim, and treating the innocent and 
plundered sufferers with all the severity that the most 
barbarous spirit of oppression and injustice could sug- 
gest/ 

VI. Germany groaned under these dismal scenes of 
tumult and oppression, and looked about for succour in 
vain. The enemy assailed her on all sides ; and not 
one of her princes seemed qualified to stand forth as the 
avenger of her injuries, or the assertor of her rights. 
Some were restrained from appearing in her cause by the 
suggestions of bigotry, others by a principle of fear, and 
others again by an ungenerous attention to their oAvn pri- 
vate interest, which choked in their breasts all concern for 
the public good. An illustrious hero, whose deeds even 
envy was obliged to revere, and whose name will descend 
with glory to the latest ages, came forth, nevertheless, at 
this critical season ; Gustavus Adolphus took the field, and 
maintained the cause of the Germanic liberties against the 
oppression and tyranny of the house of Austria. At the 
earnest request of the French court, which beheld, with 
uneasiness, the overgrown power of that aspiring house, 
he set sail for Germany, in 1629, with a small army ; 
and, by his repeated victories, blasted, in a short time, the 
sanguine hopes which the pope and emperor had entertain- 
ed of suppressing the Protestant religion in the empire. 
These hopes, indeed, seemed to revive in 1632, when this 
glorious assertor of Germanic liberty fell in the battle of 
Lutzen ; d but this very serious loss was, in some measure, 
made up in process of time, by the •conduct of those who 
succeeded Gustavus at the head of the Swedish army. 
And, accordingly, the war was obstinately c.arried on in 
bleeding Germany, during many years, with various suc- 
cess, until the exhausted treasures of the contending par- 
ties, and the pacific inclinations of Christina, the daughter 
and successor of Gustavus, put an end to these desolations, 
and brought on a treaty of peace. 

TIL Thus, after a Avar of thirty years, carried on 
with the most unrelenting animosity and ardour, the 
wounds of Germany were closed, and the drooping states 
of Europe revived, in 1648, by the peace of Westphalia, 
so called from the cities of Minister and Osnabrug, where 
the negotiations were prosecuted and concluded. The 
Protestants, indeed, did not derive from this treaty all the 
privileges they claimed, or all the advantages they had 
in view ; for the emperor, among less important instances 

of their liberties, and endeavour to repel force by force, he is reported 
to have answered, with great zeal and calmness, Malumus rcgnum vas- 
tatum, quam dammatuni. See the Historia Persecutionum Ecclesia? 
Bohemica:, published in 1648. This little book contains an ample reci- 
tal of the deplorable effects of lawless power, inhuman bigotry, and 
blood-thirsty zeal, and proves, by numberless facts, that Dr. Mosheim 
had the strongest evidence for the account he gives of Ferdinand and 
his missionaries. It is impossible to reflect upon the sanguinary spirit 
of such converters, without expressing, at the same time, a generous de- 
testation and abhorrence of their unjust and violent proceedings. 

ll See Archenholtz, Memoires de ia Reine Christine, torn. i. in which 
are many very interesting anecdotes relating to the life, exploits, and 
death of Gustavus. The learned compiler of these Memoires has also 
thrown much light upon this period, and particularly upon the peace 
that terminated this long and dreadful war. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



541 



of obstinacy, absolutely refused to reinstate the Bohe- 
mian and Austrian protestants in their leligious privileges, 
>r to restore the Upper Palatinate to its ancient and law- 
ful proprietor. Yet they obtained, by this peace, privi- 
leges and advantages which the votaries of Rome beheld 
with great displeasure and uneasiness ; and it is unques- 
tionably evident, that the treaty of Westphalia gave a 
new and remarkable degree of stability to the Lutheran 
and reformed churches in Germany. By this treaty the 
peace of Augsburg, which the Lutherans had obtained 
from Charles V. in the preceding century, was firmly 
secured against all the machinations and stratagems of 
the court of Rome; it abrogated the edict that commanded 
the protestants to restore to the Romish church the eccle- 
siastical revenues and lands of which they had taken 
possession after that peace ; and it confirmed both the con- 
tending parties in the perpetual possession of whatever 
they had occupied in the beginning of the year 1624. 
It would be entering into a very long detail, were we to 
enumerate the advantages that accrued to tbe protestant 
princes from this treaty.* All this was a source of vex- 
ation to the court of Rome, and made its pontiff feel the 
severest pangs of disappointed ambition. He, accord- 
ingly, used various stratagems, without being very scru- 
pulous in his choice, in order to annul this treaty, or elude 
its effects ; but his attempts were unsuccessful, since nei- 
ther the emperor, nor the princes that had embarked in 
this cause, thought it advisable to involve themselves anew 
in the tumults of war, whose issue is so uncertain, and 
whose most fatal effects they had lately escaped with so 
much difficulty. The treaty, therefore, was executed in 
all its parts ; and all the articles that had been agreed 
upon at Munster and Osnabrug were confirmed and rati- 
fied, in 1650, at Nuremberg. 11 

VIII. After this period, the court of Rome and its 
creatures were laid under a considerable degree of re- 
straint. They no longer dared to make war in an open 
and public manner upon the protestants, since the pre- 
sent state of affairs blasted all the hopes they had fondly 
entertained of extinguishing the light of the reformation, 
by destroying, or reducing under their spiritual yoke, the 
princes and states that had encouraged and protected 
it in their territories. But, wherever they could exert 
the spirit of persecution with impunity, they oppressed the 
protestants in the most grievous manner, and, in defiance 
of the most solemn conventions and the most sacred 
obligations, encroached upon their rights, privileges, and 
possessions. Thus, in Hungary, during the space of ten 
years, c both Lutherans and Calvinists were involved in an 
uninterrupted series of the most cruel calamities and vex- 

* An account of this whole matter, sufficient to satisfy the curiosity of 
the most inquisitive reader, may be found in that most elaborate and 
excellent work, compiled by the very learned and judicious John God- 
frey de Meyern, under the following title : Acta Pacis Westphalicee et 
Executionis ejus ISorimbergensis. See also the more compendious, 
though valuable work of Adam Adami, bishop of Hierapolis, entitled, 
Relatio Historica de Pacificatione Osnabrugo-Monasteriensi, of which 
the illustrious author published anew edition in 1737, more accurate and 
ample than the preceding one. We must not omit here the ingenious 
Father Bougeant's elegant history of this treaty, which though chiefly 
drawn from the papers of the French ambassadors, is nevertheless 
(generally speaking) composed with accuracy, impartiality, and can- 
dour ; it was published in 1746, under the tide of Histoire de la Paix de 
Westphalie. 

t> Pope Innocent X. opposed, to this treaty of peace, in 1651, a flaming 
bull, on which Hornbeck published an ample and learned commentary, 
entitled, Examen Bulli Papalis. qua Innocentius X. abrogare nititur 

No. XLVI. 136 



ations. d The injuries and insults they suffered from vari- 
ous orders of men, and more especially from the Jesuits, 
both before and after the period now under consideration, are 
not to be numbered. In Poland, all those who ventured to 
differ from the pope, found, by a bitter experience, during 
the whole course of this century, that no treaty or con- 
vention that tended to set bounds to the authority or rapa- 
city of the church, was deemed sacred, or even regarded 
at Rome ; for many of these were ejected out of their 
schools, deprived of their churches, robbed of their goods 
and possessions under a variety of perfidious pretexts, and 
frequently condemned to the most severe and cruel punish- 
ments, without having been even chargeable with the 
appearance of a crime. e The remains of the Waldenses, 
that lived in the valleys of Piedmont, were persecuted 
often with the most inhuman cruelty, (and more espe- 
cially in the years 1632, 1655, and 16S5,) on account of 
their magnanimous and steady attachment to the religion 
of their ancestors ; and this persecution was carried on 
with all the horrors of fire and sword by the dukes of 
Savoy. f In Germany, the same spirit of bigotry and 
persecution produced almost every Avhere flagrant acts 
of injustice. The infractions of the famous treaty above 
mentioned, and of the Germanic liberty that was founded 
upon it, would furnish matter for many volumes ;s and 
all these infractions were occasioned by a preposterous 
and extravagant zeal for augmenting the authority, and 
extending the jurisdiction of the church of Rome. And, 
indeed, as long as that church and its assuming pontiff 
shall persist in maintaining that they have a right to 
extend their lordly sceptre over all the churches of the 
Christian world, so long must those who have renounced 
their authority, but are more or less within their reach, 
despair of enjoying the inestimable blessings of security 
and peace. They will always be considered as rebellious 
subjects, against whom the greatest acts of severity and 
violence are lawful. 

IX. The over zealous instruments of the court of Rome 
at length accomplished, in this century, (what had often 
been attempted without success,) the deliverance of 
Spain from the infidelity of the Moors, and of France 
from the heresy of the protestants. The posterity of 
the Moors or Saracens, who had formerly been masters 
of the greatest part of Spain, and hitherto lived in that 
kingdom, mixed with the other inhabitants of the coun- 
try, and their number was still considerable. They 
were Christians, at least in their external profession and 
manners ; industrious also, and inoffensive ; and, upon 
the whole, good and useful subjects : but they were 
strongly suspected of a secret propensity to the doctrine 

Pacem Germanic. This bull might, perhaps, have produced some effect 
upon the emperor and his allies, had it been properly gilded. 

c From 1671 to 1681. 

& See Historia Diplomatica de Statu Religionis Evangelicse in Hun- 
garia, p. 69. — Pauli Debrezeni Historia Ecclesiae Reformats in Hun- 
garia, lib. ii. p. 447. — Schelhornius, in Aluseo Helvetico, torn. vii. page 
46—90. 

' See Ad. Regenvolscii Historia Ecclesiae Sclavonicae, lib. ii. cap. xv. 
p. 216, 235, 253. The grievances which the dissenters from the church 
of Rome suffered in Poland, after the death of Regenvolscius, may 
be learned from various memorials that have been published in our 
times. 

f See Gilles' Histoire Ecclesiastique des Eglises Vaudoises, ch. xlviii. 
p. 339. 

* The histories of the grievances suffered by the protestants of Ger- 
many on account of their religion, that have been composed by Slruvius 
and Hoffman, contain ample details of this matter. 



542 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. H 



of Mohammed, which was the religion of their ancestors. 
Hence the clergy beset the monarch with their impor- 
tunate solicitations, and never ceased their clamorous 
remonstrances before a royal edict was obtained to drive 
the Saracens out of the Spanish territories. This impru- 
dent step was highly detrimental to the kingdom, and its 
pernicious effects are more or less visible even at the 
present time ; but the church, whose interest and domi- 
nion are, in popish countries, considered as distinct from 
the interests and authority of the state, and of a much 
more sublime and excellent nature, acquired new acces- 
sions of wealth and power by the expulsion of the Moors." 
In proportion as the community lost, the church gained ; 
and thus the public good was sacrificed to the demands 
of bigotry and superstition. 

In France, the persecuting spirit of the Romish church 
exhibited scenes still more shocking. The Huguenots, 
after having long groaned under various forms of cruelty 
and oppression, and seen multitudes of their brethren put 
to death, by secret conspiracies or open tyranny and vio- 
lence, were, at length, obliged either to save themselves 
by a clandestine flight, or to profess, against their con- 
sciences, the Romish religion. This barbarous and ini- 
quitous scene of French persecution, than which the 
annals of modern history present nothing more unnatu- 
ral and odious, will find its place below, in the history of 
the Reformed Church. b 

X. All the resources of inventive genius and refined 
policy, all the efforts of insinuating craft and audacious 
rebellion, were employed to bring back Great Britain and 
Ireland under the yoke of Rome. But all these attempts 
were without effect. About the beginning of this cen- 
tury, a set of desperate and execrable wretches, in whose 
breasts the suggestions of bigotry and the hatred of the 
protestant religion had suppressed all the feelings of jus- 
tice and humanity, were instigated by three Jesuits, of 
whom Garnet, the superior of the society in England, 
was the chief, to form the most horrid plot that is known 
in the annals of history. The design of this conspiracy 
was nothing less than to destroy, at one blow, James I., 
the prince of Wales, and both houses of parliament, by 
the explosion of an immense quantity of gunpowder, 
which was concealed for that purpose, in the vaults situ- 
ated under the house of lords. The sanguinary bigots 
concerned in it imagined, that, as soon as this horrible 
deed was performed, they would be at full liberty to re- 
store popery to its former credit, and substitute it in the 

° See the history of this impolitic expulsion by Michael Geddes, in 
his Miscellaneous Tracts, vol. i. 

b In the second chapter of the second part of this section. 

3£jT c There is a letter extant written by Sir Everard Digby, one of 
the conspirators, to his wife, after his condemnation, which deserves an 
eminent place in the history of superstition and bigotry, and shows 
abundantly their infernal spirit and tendency. The following passage 
will confirm this judgment: " Now for my intention," says Digby, " let 
me tell you, that if I had thought there had been the least sin in the plot. 
[ would not have been of it for all the world ; and no other cause drew 
me to hazard my fortune and life, but zeal to God's religion." See the 
Papers relating to the popish plot, published by the orders of secretary 
Coventry. 

4 See Rapin's Hist. d'Angleterre, t. vii. livre xviii. and Heidegger's 
Historia Papatus. 

?j* • Mr. Hume, speaking of Laud's learning and morals, expresses 
himself in the following manner : " This man was virtuous, if severity 
of manners alone, and abstinence from pleasure, could deserve that 
name. He was learned, if polemical knowledge could entitle him to 
that praise." 

< Sea Cerri's Etat Present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 315. — Neal's His- 
tory of the Puritans, vol. iii. p. 194. 



place of the protestant religion.' This odious conspiracy, 
whose infernal purpose was providentially discovered, 
when it was ripe for execution, is commonly known in 
Britain under the denomination of the gun-powder plot. A 

This discovery did not suspend the efforts and strata- 
gems of the court of Rome, which carried on its schemes 
in the succeeding reign, but with less violence, and more 
caution. Charles I. was a prince of a soft and gentle 
temper, and was entirely directed by the counsels of 
Laud, archbishop of Canterbury, a man who was neither 
destitute of learning nor of good qualities, though he carri- 
ed things to excessive and intolerable lengths through his 
warm and violent attachment to the ancient forms and 
ceremonies of the church. The queen also, Henrietta 
Maria, who was a princess of France, was warmly devo- 
ted to the interests of popery ; and from all this it seemed 
probable, that, though treason and violence had failed, 
yet artifice and mild measures might succeed, and that a 
reconciliation might be brought about between England 
and Rome. f This prospect, which had smiled in the im- 
aginations of the friends of popery, vanished entirely when 
the civil war broke out between the king and parliament. 
In consequence of these commotions, both the unfortu- 
nate Charles, and his imprudent and bigoted counsellor 
Laud, were brought to the scaffold ; and Oliver Crom- 
well, a man of unparalleled resolution, dexterity, and fore- 
sight, and a declared enemy to every thing that bore even 
the most distant resemblance to popery, was placed at the 
helm of government, under the title of Protector of the 
Commonwealth. 

The hopes of Rome and its votaries were nevertheless 
revived by the restoration of Charles II., and from that 
period grew more lively and sanguine from day to day. 
For that monarch, as appears from unquestionable au- 
thorities, e had been initiated, during his exile, into the 
mysteries of popery, and had secretly embraced that reli- 
gion, while his only brother, the presumptive heir to the 
crown, professed it openly, and had publicly apostatized 
from the protestant faith. Charles, indeed, was not 
a proper instrument for the propagation of any theologi- 
cal system. Indolent and voluptuous on one hand, and 
inclined to infidelity and irreligion on the other, it was 
not from him that the Roman pontiff could expect the 
zeal and industry which were necessary to force upon 
the English nation, a religion so contrary as popery was 
to the tenor of the laws and the spirit of the people. 11 
This zeal was found in his bigoted successor James II. ; 



s Burnet's History of his Own Time vol. i. book iii. — Neal, vol. iv. 
— Rapin, livre. xxiii. 

?£§= h Such is the representation given of Charles II. by almost every 
historian ; so that Dr. Mosheim is excusable in mistaking a part of this 
monarch's character, which was known to very few before him. Mr. 
Hume, whose history of the reign of that prince is amaster-piece in every 
respect, gave a like account of Charles, as fluctuating between deism 
and popery. But this eminent historian having had occasion, during his 
residence at Paris, to peruse the manuscript memoirs of king James II. 
which were written by himself, and are kept in the Scottish college 
there, received from them new information with respect to the religious 
character of Charles, and was convinced that his zeal for popery went 
much farther than has been generally imagined. For it appears, with 
the utmost evidence, from these memoirs, that the king had laid with 
his ministry a formal plan for subverting the constitution in favour of 
popery, and that the introduction of popery, as the established religion, 
was the great and principal object which Charles had in view when he 
entered into the French alliance, which was concluded at Versailles in 
June 1670, by lord Arundel of Wardour. By this treaty, Louis was to 
give Charles 200,000 pounds a-year, in quarterly payments, in order to 
enable him to establish the Roman" catholic religion in England ; and he 
also engaged to supply him with 6000 men in case of any msurrectio'i. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



543 



but it was accompanied with such excessive vehemence 
and imprudence as entirely defeated its own purposes ; 
for that inconsiderate monarch, by his passionate attach- 
ment to the court of Rome, and his blind obsequiousness 
to the unseasonable and precipitate counsels of the Jesuits, 
who were the oracles of his cabinet, gave a mortal blow 
to that religion which he meant to promote, and lost that 
royalty which he was attempting to fix on the basis of 
despotism. He openly attempted to restore to its former 
vigour, both in England and Ireland, the authority of the 
pontiff, which had been renounced and annulled by the 
laws of both realms ; and that he might accomplish with 
the more facility this most imprudent purpose, he tram- 
pled upon those rights and privileges of his people, that 
had ever been deemed most respectable and sacred, and 
which he had bound himself, by the most solemn en- 
gagements, to support and maintain. Justly exaspera- 
ted and provoked by repeated insults from the throne 
upon their religion and liberties, and alarmed with na- 
tural apprehensions of the approaching ruin of both, the 
English looked about for a deliverer, and fixed their 
views, in 1688, on William prince of Orange, (son-in-law 
to their despotic monarch,) by whose wisdom and valour, 
affairs were so conducted that James was obliged to re- 
tire from his dominions, and to abdicate the crown ; and 
the pope and his adherents were disappointed in the fond 
expectations they had formed of restoring popery in Eng- 
land. a 

XI. When the more prudent defenders and patrons of 
the Romish faith perceived the ill success that attended 
all their violent and sanguinary attempts to establish its 
authority, they thought it expedient to have recourse to 
softer methods ; and, instead of conquering the protest- 
ants by open force, proposed deluding them back into the 
church of Rome by the insinuating influence of secret ar- 
tifice. This way of proceeding was approved by many 
of the votaries of Rome ; but they did not all agree about 
the particular manner of employing it, and therefore fol- 
lowed different methods. Some had recourse to the ap- 
pointment of public disputations or conferences between 
the principal doctors of the contending parties ; and this 
from a notion, which past experience had rendered so vain 
and chimerical, that the adversaries of popery would ei- 
ther be vanquished in the debate, or at least be persuaded 
to look upon the Roman catholics with less aversion and 
disgust. Others declared it as their opinion, that all con- 
test was to be suspended ; that the great point was to find 
out the proper method of reconciling the two churches ; 
and that, in order to promote this salutary purpose, as 
little stress as possible was to be laid upon those mat- 
ters of controversy which had been hitherto looked upon 
as of the highest moment and importance. A different 
manner of proceeding was thought more adviseable by a 
third set of men, who, from a persuasion that their doc- 

The division of the United Provinces between England and France was 
another article of this treaty. But we are told that the subversion of 
the protestant religion in England was the point that Charles had chiefly 
at heart, and that he insisted warmly on beginning with the execution 
of this part of the treaty ; but the duchess of Orleans, in the interview at 
Dover, persuaded him to begin with the Dutch war. The king (says 
Mr. HumeJ was so zealous a papist, that he wept for joy when he en- 
tertained the project of re-uniting his kingdom to the catholic church. 
See the Corrections and Additions to Mr. Hume's History of Charles 
II., and also Macpherson's Appendix to his History of Great Bri- 
tain. 



tors had more zeal than argument, and were much more 
eminent for their attachment to the church of Rome, than 
for their skill in defending its cause, prepared their com- 
batants with greater care for the field of controversy, 
taught them a new art of theological war, and furnished 
them with a new and artful method of vanquishing, or at 
least of perplexing, their heretical adversaries. 

XII. A public conference took place at Ratisbon, in 
1601, at the joint desire of Maximilian, duke of Bavaria, 
and Philip Louis, elector Palatine, between some eminent 
Lutheran doctors on one side, and three celebrated Je- 
suits on the other. The dispute turned upon the two 
great points, to which almost all the contests between the 
Protestants and Roman Catholics are reducible, namely, 
the rule of faith and the judge of controversies. In 1615, 
James Heilbronner, a learned Lutheran, held a conference 
at Neuburg with James Keller, a celebrated Jesuit, by the 
appointment of Wolfgang William, prince Palatine, who 
had recently embraced the Romish faith. But the most 
famous conference of this kind, was that which was holden 
in 1645, at Thorn, by the express order of Uladislaus IV. 
king of Poland, between several eminent doctors of the 
Romish, Lutheran, and Reformed churches. This meet- 
ing - , which was designed to heal the division that reigned 
among these churches, and to find out some method of 
reconciling their differences, and bringing about their re- 
union, was thence called the Charitable Covfei ence. 

Some time after this, Ernest, landgrave of Hesse, in 
order to give a plausible colour to his apostasy from the 
Protestant religion, and make it appear to be the result 
of examination and conviction, obliged Valerianus Mag- 
nus, a learned Capuchin, to enter the lists with Peter Ha- 
bercorn, a reformed minister, in the castle of Rheinfeld. 
Beside these public conferences, there were some of a pri- 
vate nature during this century, between the doctors of 
the contending churches. Of these the most remarkable 
was the famous dispute between John Claude, the most 
learned of the reformed divines in France, and Jaques 
Benigne de Bossuet, whose genius and erudition placed 
him at the head of the Romish doctors in that country. 
This dispute, which occurred in 1683, ended like all the 
rest. They all widened the breach instead of healing it. 
Neither of the contending parties could be persuaded to 
yield : b on the contrary, they both returned from the field 
of controversy more riveted in their own opinions, and 
more unfriendly to the tenets of their adversaries. 

XIII. Those Roman catholics, whose views were turned 
toward union and concord, did not omit the use of pious 
artifice, in order to accomplish this salutary purpose. 
They endeavoured to persuade the zealous protestants 
and the rigid catholics, that their differences in opinion 
were less considerable, and less important, than they them- 
selves imagined ; and that the true way to put an end to 
their dissensions, and to promote union, was not to nourish 

The circumstances of this famous and ever-memorable revolution 
are accurately recorded by Burnet, in the second volume of his History 
of his own Times ; and also by Rapin, in the tenth volume of his 
History of England. Add to these, Neal's History of the Puritans, 
vol. iv. ch. xi. p. 53G. 

b The reader who desires a more particular account of what passed 
in these conferences, may satisfy his curiosity by consulting the writers 
mentioned by Sagittarius, in his Introduct. in Historiam Ecclesiast. torn, 
ii. p. 1569, 1581, 1592, 1598. An account of the conference between 
Claude and Bossuet, was composed and published by each of these 
famous combatants. 



544 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



the flames of discord by disputes and conferences, but to 
see whether their systems might not be reconciled, and 
apparent inconsistencies removed, by proper and candid 
explications. They imagined that a plausible and artful 
exposition of those doctrines of the church of Rome, which 
appeared the most shocking to the Protestants, would tend 
much to conquer their aversion to popery. Such was the 
general principle in which the Romish peace-makers 
agreed, and such the basis on which they proposed to 
carry on their pacific operations ; but they differed so widely 
in their manner of applying this general principle, and 
pursued such different methods in the execution of this 
nice and hazardous stratagem, that the event did not 
answer their expectations. In the way they proceeded, 
instead of promoting the desired union by their represen- 
tations of things, by their exhortations and counsels, this 
union seemed to be previously necessary, in order to ren- 
der their explications and exhortations acceptable, or even 
supportable ; so little were the means proportioned to the 
end ! 

The first, as well as the most eminent, of those who 
tried the force of their genius in this arduous enterprise, 
was cardinal Richelieu, that great minister, who employed 
all the influence of promises and threats, all the powers of 
sophistry and eloquence, all the arts of persuasion, in order 
to bring back the French protestants into the bosom of 
the Romish church, a The example of this illustrious 
prelate was followed, with less dignity and less influence, 
by Masenius, a German Jesuit, b Volusius, a theologian of 
Mentz, c Praetorius, a Prussian, d Gibbon deBurg, an Irish 
doctor, who was professor at Erfort/ Marcellus, a Jesuit/ 
and other divines of inferior note. But, of all modern 
adepts in controversy, none pursued this method with such 
dexterity and art as Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, a man of 
true genius, directed by the most consummate circum- 
spection and prudence. The famous Exposition of the 
Roman Catholic Faith, that was drawn up by this subtle 
and insinuating author, was designed to show the pro- 
testants, that their reasons against returning to the bosom 
of the Romish church would be easily removed, if they 
would view the doctrines of that church in their true light, 
and not as they had been erroneously represented by pro- 

» Rich. Simon, Lettres Choisies, torn. i. — Bayle's Dictionary, at the 
articles Amyraut, Beaulieu, Ferry, and Milletiere. 

i> See F. Spanhemii Striclura: ad Bossueti Expositionem Fidei Catho- 
lics, torn. iii. op. Theolog. pars ii. p. 1042. 

c There is extant a book composed by this writer under the following 
title : Aurora Pacis religiose divinae Veritate arnica. 

d In his Tuba Pacis, of which the reader may see a curious ac- 
count in Bayle's Nouvelles de la Republique des Lettres for the year 1685. 

In a treatise, entitled, Luthero Calvinismus schismaticus quidem 
sed reconciliabilis. 

t The book of Marcellus, entitled Sapientia Pacifica, was refuted by 
Seldius, at the express desire of the duke of Saxe-Gotha. 

5 This book might furnish topics for a multitude of reflexions. See a 
particular account of its history and its effects in Pfaff's Historia Lite- 
raria Theologian, torn, ii., and Le Clerc's Bibliotheque Universelle et 
Historique, torn. xi. g^T It is remarkable, that nine years passed be- 
fore this work could obtain the pope's approbation. Clement X. refu- 
sed it positively ; and several catholic priests were rigorously treated, 
and severely persecuted, for preaching the doctrine contained in the 
Exposition, which was, moreover, formally condemned by the univer- 
sity of Louvain, in 1685, and declared to be scandalous and pernicious. 
The Sorbonne also disavowed the doctrine contained in that book, 
though by a late edict we learn, that the fathers of that theological semi- 
nary have changed their opinion on that head, and thus given a new 
instance of the variations that reign in the Romish church, which boasts 
so much of its uniformity in doctrinal matters. The artifice that was 
employed in the composition of this book, and the tricks that were used 
in the suppression and alteration of the first edition that was given of it, 



testant writers.^ This notion was propagated, though 
with less dexterity and success, by Dezius, a Jesuit of 
Strasbourg, who wrote a book expressly to prove, that 
there was little if any difference between the doctrine of 
the council of Trent, and that of the confession of Augs- 
burg, than which no two systems can be more irrecon- 
cilably opposite. 11 It is, however, remarkable, that all 
these pacific attempts to re-unite the two churches, were 
made by the persons now mentioned on their own private 
authority ; they were not avowed by the higher powers, 
who alone were qualified to remove, modify, or explain 
away those doctrines and rites of the Romish church, that 
shocked the protestants and justified their separation. It 
is true, that, in 1686, this plan of reconciliation was 
warmly recommended by a person properly commissioned, 
or, at least, who gave himself out for such. This pacifi- 
cator was Christopher de Roxas, bishop of Tinia, m the 
district of Bosnia ; who, during several years, frequented, 
with these reconciling views, the courts of the protestant 
princes in Germany : intimated the assembling of a new 
council, that was to be more impartial in its decisions and 
less restrained in its proceedings than the council of Trent ; 
and even assured the protestants, that they might obtain 
without difficulty whatever rights, privileges, and immu- 
nities, they should think proper to demand from the Roman 
pontiff, provided they would acknowledge his paternal au- 
thority, and no longer refuse submission to his mild and 
g-entle empire. But the artifice and designs of this spe- 
cious missionary were easily detected ; the protestant 
doctors, and also their sovereigns, soon perceived that a 
fair and candid plan of reconciliation and union was no) 
what the court of Rome had in view ; but that a scheme 
was in agitation for restoring its pontiffs to their formei 
despotic dominion over the Christian world. * 

XIV. The Romish peace-makers found among the 
protestants, and more especially among those of the 
reformed church, certain doctors, who, by a natural pro- 
pensity to union and concord, seconded perhaps, in some, 
by views of interest, or by the suggestions erf' ambition, 
were disposed to enter into their plan, and to assist them 
in the execution of it. These theologians maintained, 
that the points in debate between the churches were not 



have been detected with great sagacity and cvi'ien'e by the learned and 
excellent archbishop Wake, in the Introduction to his Exposition of the 
Doctrine of the Church of England. Ser, also his two Defences of that 
Exposition, in which the perfidious sophistry of Bossuet is unmasked 
and refuted in the most satisfactory n.anner. There was an excellent 
answer to Bossuet's book publisb-.rl by M. de la Bastide, one of the 
most eminent protestant minister's in France. Of this answer the 
French prelate took no notice dur'jn,-' eight years ; at the end of which, 
he published an advertisement in a new edition of his Exposition, 
which was designed to removi the objections of Bastide. The latter 
replied in such a demonstrative and victorious manner, that the learned 
bishop, notwithstanding all his eloquence and art, was obliged to quit 
the field of controversy. See a very interesting account of this insidi- 
ous work of Bossuet, and the controversies it occasioned, in the Biblio- 
theque des Sciences published at the Hague, vol. xviii. Tins account, 
which is curious, accurate, ample, and learned, was given partly on 
occasion of a new edition of the Exposition, printed in 1761, and ac- 
companied with a Latin translation by Fleury, and partly on occasion 
of Burigny's Life of Bossuet. 

h This book is entitled, La Re-union des Protestans de Strasbourg a 
l'Eglise Romaine, and was published in 1689. — See Phil. Jac. Speneri 
Consilia Theol. German, in parte iii. p. 650, 662. 

i See Jo. Wolf. Jaegeri Historia Ecclesiast. Sa:culi XVII. — Christ. 
Eberhardi Weismanni. Hist. Ecclesiast. Sxc. XVII. p. 735. The 
reader will find, in the Commercium Epistolico-Leibnitianum of Gru- 
berus, vol. i. an account of the particular conditions of reconciliation 
that were proposed to the German courts in 1660, by the elector ot 
Mentz, authorized, as it is alleged, by the Roman pontiff. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



545 



of sufficient importance to justify their separation. Among 
the French protestants, Louis Le Blanch and his disciples 
were suspected of a strong inclination to go too far in this 
matter." The same accusation was brought, with fuller evi- 
dence, against Huisseaux, professor of divinity at Saumur, 
Milletiere, Le Fevre, and others of less note. b Among 
the British divines, this excessive propensity to diminish 
the shocking absurdities of popery was less remarkable ; 
William Forbes was the principal person who discovered 
an extreme facility to compose a considerable number of 
the differences that contributed to perpetuate the separation 
between the churches.' With respect to the Dutch, it 
is abundantly known, how ardently the great and learned 
Grotius desired the re-union of all Christian churches in 
one general bond of charity and concord, and with what 
peculiar zeal he endeavoured to reform some enormities 
of the church of Rome, and to excuse others. But these, 
and all the other arbitrators, whose names and whose 
efforts in this pacific cause it would be tedious to mention, 
derived no other fruit from their (perhaps, well-intended) 
labours, than the displeasure of both the contending par- 
ties, and the bitter reproaches of their respective churches. 

In the number of the protestant doctors who betrayed 
an inconsiderate zeal for the re-union of these churches, 
many writers place George Calixtus, a man of eminent 
learning, and professor of divinity in the university of 
Hehnstadt. It is nevertheless certain, that this great man 
discovered and exposed the errors and corruptions of 
popery with a degree of learning and perspicuity scarcely 
surpassed by any writer in this century, and persisted in 
maintaining that the decrees and anathemas of the coun- 
cil of Trent had banished all hopes of a reconciliation 
between the protestant churches and the see of Rome. 
He looked, indeed, upon some of the controversies that 
divided the two communions with much greater indul- 
gence than was usually shown, and decided them in a 
manner that did not seem suited to the taste and spirit 
of the times ; he was also of opinion that the church of 
Rome had not destroyed the genuine principles of Chris- 
tianity, but had only deformed them with its senseless 
fictions, and buried them under a heap of rubbish, under 
a motley multitude of the most extravagant and intole- 
rable doctrines and ceremonies. It was undoubtedly on 
this account, that he has been ranked by some in the 
class of the imprudent peace makers already mentioned. 

XV. It was no difficult matter to defeat the purposes, 

" See a particular and interesting account of Le Blanc, in Bayle's 
Dictionary, at the article Beaulieu. 

b See the above-mentioned Dictionary, at the article Miletiere. For 
an account of Huisseaux, aad his pacific counsels, see Rich. Simon's 
Lettres Choisies, torn, iii., and Aymon's Synodes Nationaux des Egli- 
ses Reformers en France, torn. ii. The labours of Le-Fevre, father to 
the famous Madame Dacier, in the same cause, are mentioned by Mor- 
hoff". in his Polyhistor, torn. i. 

e See Forbes' " Considerationes modestse etpacificse Controversiarum 
de Justifieatione, Purgatorio," &c, which were published at London in 
1G58, and afterwards more correctly in Germany, under the inspection 
of John Fabricius, professor of divinity at Helmstadt. Forbes is men- 
tioned by Grabe with the highest encomiums, in his Notaj ad Bulli Har- 
moniam Apostolicam; and, if we consider his probity, and the exem- 
plary regularity of his life and conversation, he must be allowed to 
deserve the praise that is due to piety and good morals. Nevertheless, 
he had his infirmities, and the wiser part of the English doctors ac- 
knowledge, that his propensity toward a reconciliation with the church 
of Rome was carried too far. See Burnet's History of his own Time, 
vol. i. On this account he has been lavishly praised by the catholic 
writers; see R. Simon's Lettres Choisies, torn. iii. lettre xvii. — He was 
undoubtedly one of those who contributed most to spread among the 
English a notion, (die truth or falsehood of which we shall not here 

No. XLVI. 137 



and ruin the credit of these pacific arbitrators, who, upon 
the whole, made up but a motley and ill composed so- 
ciety, weakened by intestine discords. It required more 
dexterity and greater efforts of genius, to oppose the pro- 
gress, and disconcert the sophistry of a set of men who 
had invented new methods of defending popery, and 
attacking its adversaries. This new species of polemic 
doctors were called Methodists, and the most eminent of 
them arose in France, where a perpetual scene of contro- 
versy, carried on with the most learned among the Hugue- 
nots, had augmented the dexterity, and improved the theo- 
logical talents of the catholic disputants. The Metho- 
dists, from their different manner of treating the contro- 
versy in question, may be divided into two classes. In 
one we may place those doctors whose method of disput- 
ing was disingenuous and unreasonable, and who followed 
the examples of those military chiefs, who shut up their 
troops in entrenchments and strong-holds, in order to 
cover them from the attacks of the enemy. Such was 
the manner of proceeding of the Jesuit Yeron, who was 
of opinion that the protestants should be obliged to prove 
the tenets of their church d by plain passages of Scripture, 
without being allowed to have the liberty of illustrating 
these passages, reasoning upon them, or drawing any con 
elusions from them.' In the same class may be ranked 
Nihusius, an apostate from the protestant religion/ the 
two Walenburgs, and other polemics, who, looking upon 
it as an easier matter to maintain their pretensions, than 
to show upon what principles they were originally found- 
ed,s obliged their adversaries to prove all their assertions 
and objections, whether of an affirmative or negative 
kind, and confined themselves to the mere business of 
answering objections, and repelling attacks. We may 
also place among this kind of Methodists cardinal Riche- 
lieu, who judged it the shortest and best w r ay to attend 
little to the multitude of accusations, objections, and 
reproaches, with which the protestants loaded the various 
branches of the Romish government, discipline, doctrine, 
and worship, and to confine the whole controversy to the 
single article of the divine institution and authority of 
the church, which he thought it essential to establish by 
the strongest arguments, as the grand principle that would 
render popery impregnable. h 

The Methodists of the second class were of opinion, 
that the most expedient manner of reducing the protes- 
tants to silence, was not to attack them partially, but to 

examine,) that king Charles I. and archbishop Laud had formed the 
design of restoring popery in England. 

Spy d More especially the doctrines that peculiarly oppose the de- 
crees and tenets of the council of Trent. 

5 Musxus de Usu Principiorum Rationis i'i Controversiis Theologi- 
cis, lib. i. c. iv.— G. Calixti Digressio de Arte nova, p. 125. Simon's 
Lettres Choisies, torn. i. 

f See a particular account of this vain and superficial doctor in 
Bayle's Dictionary. His work,. entitled Ars nova dicto Sacras Scrip- 
tural unico lucrandi a Pontiiiciis plurimas in partes Lutheranorum de- 
tecta. &c, was refuted in the most satisfactory manner by Calixtus, in 
his Digressio de Arte Nova contra Nihusium, a curious and learned 
work, published at Helmstadt in 1634. 

§-j" z That is to say, in other words, that they pleaded prescription 
in favour of popery, and acted like one who. having been for a long 
time in possession of an estate, refuses to produce his tide, and requires 
that those who question it should prove its insufficiency or falsehood. 

i> For a more ample account of these methods of controversy, and of 
others used by the church of Rome, the curious reader may consult 
Fred. Spanheim's Strictur. ad Expositionem Fidei Bussueti, torn. iii. op. 
par. ii. p. 1037. — Heidegger's Histor. Papaius, Period, vii. sect ccxvhi. 
p. 316.— Walchii Introduct. ad Controvers. Theolog. lorn, ii.— Wei*- 
manni Histor. Ecclesiastica, ssec. xvii. p. 7'26. 



546 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



overwhelm them at once, by the weight of some general 
principle or presumption, some universal argument, which 
comprehended, or might be applied to, all the points con- 
tested between the churches. They imitated the con- 
duct of those military leaders, who, instead of spending 
their time and strength in sieges and skirmishes, endea- 
vour to put an end to a war by a general and decisive ac- 
tion. This method, if not invented, a was at least im- 
proved and seconded, with all the aids of eloquence and 
genius, by Nicole, a celebrated doctor among the Jansen- 
ists ; b and it was followed by many of the disputants of 
the church of Rome, who were so fully persuaded of its 
irresistible influence, that they looked upon any one of 
the general points already mentioned as sufficient, when 
properly handled, to overturn the whole protestant cause. 
Hence it was, that some of these polemics rested the de- 
fence of popery upon the single principle of prescription ; 
others upon the vicious lives of several of those princes 
who had withdrawn their dominions from the yoke of 
Rome ; and some, upon the criminal nature of religious 
schism, with which they reproached the promoters of the 
Reformation ; and they were all convinced, that, by urg- 
ing their respective arguments, and making good their 
respective charges, the mouths of their adversaries must 
be stopped, and the cause of Rome and its pontiff 
triumph/ The famous Bossuet stood foremost in this 
class, which he peculiarly adorned, by the superiority of 
his genius and the insinuating charms of his eloquence. 
His arguments, indeed, were more specious than solid, 
and the circumstances from which they were drawn were 
imprudently chosen. From the variety of opinions which 
had taken place among the protestant doctors, and the 
changes which had happened in their discipline and doc- 
trine, he endeavoured to demonstrate, that the church 

IfjV tt This method certainly was not the invention of Nicole, for it 
seems to differ little, if at all, from the method of cardinal Richelieu. 
We may observe farther, that Richelieu seems rather to belong to the 
second class of Methodists than to the first, where Dr. Mosheim has 
placed him. 

i> Nicole is supposed to be the author of a book entitled, " Prcjugez 
legitimes contre les Calvinistes," which was answered in a satisfactory 
manner by several learned men. =Tjp It is very remarkable, that some 
of the principal arguments employed in this book against the protes- 
tants, are precisely the same that the deists make use of to show that it 
is impossible for the general body of Christians to believe upon a ra- 
tional foundation. The learned Claude, in his Defence of the Reforma- 
tion, showed in a demonstrative manner, that the difficulties arising 
from the incapacity of the multitude to examine the grounds and princi- 
ples of the protestant religion, are much less than those which occur to 
a papist, whose faith is founded, not on the plain word of God alone, 
but on the dictates of tradition, on the decrees of councils, and a variety 
of antiquated records that are beyond his reach. The protestant divine 
goes still farther, and proves that there are arguments in favourof Chris- 
tianity and the protestant faith, that are intelligible by the lowest capa- 
city, and, at the same time, sufficient to satisfy an upright and unpre- 
judiced mind. 

' Fred. Spanhemii Diss, de Prascriptione, in Rebus Fidei, adversus 
novos Methodistas, torn. iii. par. ii. op. p. 1079. 

a This is the purpose of Bossuet's Historie des Variations des Egli- 
ses Protestant.es, which was published in 16S8, and is still considered 
by the catholics as one of the strongest bulwarks of popery. Let them 
go on in their delusions, and boast of this famous champion and defender; 
bat, if they have any true zeal for the cause he defends, or any regard 
for the authority of the supreme head of their church, they will bury in 
oblivion that maxim of this their champion, that "the church, which 
frequently modifies, varies, and changes its doctrines, is destitute of the 
direction of the Holy Spirit." 1JJT This observation might be verified 
by numberless instances of variations in the doctrine and worship of 
Rome, that must strike every one who has any tolerable acquaintance 
with the history of that church. — But, without going any farther than 
one instance, we may observe, that Bossuet had a striking proof of the 
variations of his own church, in the different reception that his Exposi- 
tion of the Roman Catholic Faith met with from different persons, and 



founded by Luther was not the true church ; and, on the 
other hand, from the perpetual sameness and unifor- 
mity that prevailed in the tenets and worship of the church 
of Rome, he pretended to prove its divine original." 1 
Such an argument must indeed surprise, coming from a 
man of learning, who could not be ignorant of the tem- 
porising spirit of the Roman pontiffs, or of the changes 
they had permitted in their discipline and doctrine, ac- 
cording to the genius of time and place, and the different 
characters of those whom they were desirous to gain 
over to their interest. It was still more surprising in a 
French prelate, since the doctors of that nation generally 
maintain, that the leaden age does not differ more from 
the age of gold, than the modern church of Rome differs 
from the ancient and primitive church of that famous city. 
XVI. These various attempts of the votaries of Rome, 
though they gave abundant exercise to the activity and 
vigilance of the protestant doctors, were not, however, at- 
tended with any important revolutions, or any consider- 
able fruits. Some princes, indeed, and a few learned 
men, were thereby seduced into the communion of that 
church, from whose superstition and tyranny their ances- 
tors had delivered themselves and others ; but these de- 
fections were only personal, nor could any people or pro- 
vince be persuaded to follow these examples. Among 
the more illustrious deserters of the Protestant religion, 
we may place Christina, queen of Sweden, 1, who was a 
princess of great spirit and genius, but was precipitate and 
vehement in almost all her proceedings, and preferred 
her ease, pleasure, and liberty, to all other considerations^ 
Wolfgang William, count Palatine of the Rhine ; Chris- 
tian William, marquis of Brandenburg ; Ernest, prince 
of Hesse ;s John Frederic, duke of Brunswick; and 
Frederic Augustus, king 1 of Poland. 



at different times. It was disapproved by one pope, and approved by 
another ; it was applauded by the archbishop of Rheims, and condemn- 
ed by the university of Louvain ; it was censured by the Sorbonne in 
1671, and declared by the same society a true exposition of the catholic 
faith in the following century. For a full proof of the truth of these 
and other variations, see Wake's Exposition, &c. — the Bibliolh. Univ. 
of Le Clerc, torn. xi. p. 438. — the General Dictionary, at the article 
Wake, in the note, and the Biblioth. des Sciences, torn, xviii. 

* See Archenholtz, Memoires de la Reine Christine, which contain a 
variety of agreeable and interesting anecdotes. 

f^f £ The candid and impartial writer, mentioned in the preceding 
note, has given an ample account of the circumstances that attended 
this queen's change of religion, and of the causes that might have con- 
tributed to determine her to a step so unexpected and inexcusable. It 
was neither the subtlety of Des-Cartes, nor the dexterity of Canut, that 
brought about this event, as Baillet would persuade us. The true state 
of the case seems to have been this: Christina, having had her senti- 
ments of religion in general considerably perverted by the licentious 
insinuations of her favourite Bourdelot, was prepared for embracing 
any particular religion, that pleasure, interest, or ambition, should re- 
commend to her. Upon this foundation, the Jesuits Macedo, Malines, 
and Cassati, under the immediate protection of Pimentel, and encouraged 
by the courts of Rome, Spain, and Portugal, employed their labours and 
dexterity in the conversion of this princess, whose passion for Italy, 
together with that taste for the fine arts and the precious remains of 
antiquity, which rendered her desirous of sojourning there, may have 
contributed not a little to make her embrace the religion of that coun- 
try. 

e This learned and well-meaning prince was engaged, by the conver- 
sation and importunities of Valerius Magnus, a celebrated monk of the 
Capuchin order, to embrace popery, in 1651. See Gruberi Commercium 
Epistol. Leibnitianum, t. i. p. 27, 35. Memoires de la Reine Christine, t. 
i. p. 216 — It is, however, to be observed, that this prince, with Anthony 
Ulric, duke of Brunswick, and several others, who went over to the 
church of Rome, did not go oyer to that church of Rome which is now 
exhibited to us in the odious forms of superstition and tyranny, but to 
another kind of church, which, perhaps, never existed but in their idea, 
and which at least has long ceased to exist. That this was the case 
appears evidently from the theological writings of prince Ernest 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



547 



The learned men that embraced the communion of 
the church of Rome were, baron Boineburg, secretary to 
the elector of Mentz, and a zealous patron of erudition 
andgenius, a Christopher Ranzow, a knight of Holstein, b 
Caspar Scioppius, Peter Bertius, Christopher Besold, Ul- 
ric Hunnius, Nicolas Stenon, a Danish physician, of 
great reputation in his profession, John Philip Pfeiffer, 
professor at Konigsberg, Luke Holstenius, Peter Lambe- 
cius, Henry Blumius, professor at Helmstadt, a man of 
learning, and of excessive vanity, Daniel Nesselius, An- 
drew Fromius, Barthold Nihusius, Christopher Hellwi- 
gius, Matthew Prffitorius, and a few others of inferior 
rank in the learned world. But these conversions, when 
considered with the motives that produced them, will be 
found, in reality, less honourable to the church of Rome 
than they are in appearance ; for if, from this list of 
princes and learned men, we efface those whom the 
temptations of adversity, the impulse of avarice and am- 
bition, the suggestions of levity, the effects of personal 
attachments, the power of superstition upon a feeble and 
irresolute mind, and other motives of like merit, engaged 
to embrace the Romish religion, these proselytes will be re- 
duced to a number too small to excite the envy of the 
protestant churches. 3 

XVII. The Christian churches in the East, which 
were not dependent on the yoke of Rome, did not stand 
less firm against the attempts of the papal mission- 
aries than those of Europe. The pompous accounts 
which several Roman catholic writers have given of the 
wonderful success of the missionaries among the Nesto- 
rians and Monophysites, are little else than splendid fa- 
bles, designed to amuse and dazzle the multitude ; and 
many of the wisest and best of the Romish doctors 
acknowledge, that they ought to be considered in no 
other light. As little credit is to be given to those who 
mention the strong propensity discovered by several of 
the heads and superintendents of the Christian sects in 
those remote regions, to submit to the jurisdiction of the 
Roman pontiff. 6 It is evident, on the contrary, that 
Rome, in two remarkable instances, suffered a con- 
siderable diminution of its influence and authority in the 
eastern world during this century. One instance was 
the dreadful revolution in Japan, which has been already 
related, and which was unhappily followed by the total 
extinction of Christianity in that great monarchy. The 
other was the downfall of popery by the extirpation of 
its missionaries in the empire of Abyssinia, of which it 
will not be improper, or foreign from our purpose, to give 
here a brief account. 

1 This eminent man, who had more learning than philosophy, and 
who was more remarkable for the extent of his memory than for the 
rectitude of his judgment, followed the example of the prince of Hesse, 
ill 1G53. See Gruberi Commercium Epistol. Leibnitianum, in which 
his letters, and those of Conringius, are published, torn. i. 

i> See Molleri Cimbria Literata, torn. i. p. 520. 

1 Blumius deserted the protestant church in 1G54. — See Burckhardi 
Historia Biblioth. Augustae, pars iii. p. 223 — Gruberi Comm. Epist. torn. 
i. p. 41, 95, &c. In some of these letters he is called Floras, probably 
in allusion to his German name Blum, which signifies a ffmcer. 

A See, for a particular account of these proselytes to popery, "VVeis- 
man's Historia Eccles. ssec. XVII. p. 73S. — Walchius' Introductio in 
Controversias, torn. ii. p. 728. — Arnold's Kirchen und Kctzer Historie, 
pars ii. p. 912, and other writers of civil and literary history. 

•Seethe remarks made by Chardin in several places of the last edi- 
tion of his travels. See also whatCerri, in ins Etat Present de l'Eglise ] 
Romaine, says of the Armenians and Copts. — It is true, that, among 
these sects, the papal missionaries sometimes form congregations that 



About the commencement of the seventeenth century, 
the Portuguese Jesuits renewed, under the most auspicious 
encouragement, the mission to Abyssinia that had been for 
some time interrupted and suspended ; for the emperor 
Susneius or Socinios, who assumed the denomination of 
Sultan Segued, after the defeat of his enemies and his 
accession to the throne, covered the missionaries with his 
peculiar protection. Gained over to their cause, partly by 
the eloquence of the Jesuits, and partly by the hopes of 
maintaining himself upon the throne by the succours of 
the Portuguese, he committed the whole government of 
the church to Alphonso Mendez, a missionary from that 
nation ; created him patriarch of the Abyssinians ; and, 
in 1628, not only swore, in a public manner, allegiance 
to the Roman pontiff, but also obliged his subjects to aban- 
don the religious rites and tenets of their ancestors, and 
to embrace the doctrine and worship of the Romish church. 
But the new patriarch, by his intemperate zeal, impru- 
dence, and arrogance, ruined the cause in which he had 
embarked, and occasioned the total subversion of the 
Roman pontiff's authority and jurisdiction, which seemed 
to have been established upon solid foundations. He 
began his ministry with the most inconsiderate acts of 
violence and despotism. Following the spirit of the Spa- 
nish inquisition, he employed formidable threatenings and 
cruel tortures to convert the Abyssinians ; the greatest part 
of whom, together with their priests and ministers, held 
the religion of their ancestors in the highest veneration, 
and were willing to part with their fives and fortunes 
rather than forsake it. He also ordered those to be re- 
baptized, who, in compliance with the orders of the 
emperor, had embraced the faith of Rome, as if their for- 
mer religion had been nothing more than a system of 
Paganism. f This the Abyssinian clergy looked upon as 
a shocking insult to the religious discipline of their ances- 
tors, as even more provoking than the violence and bar- 
barities practised against those who refused to submit to 
the papal yoke. Nor did the insolent patriarch rest satis- 
fied with these arbitrary and despotic proceedings in the 
church ; he excited tumults and factions in the state, and, 
with an unparalleled spirit of rebellion and arrogance, 
encroached upon the prerogatives of the throne, and 
attempted to give law to the emperor himself. Hence 
arose civil commotions, conspiracies, and seditions, which 
excited in a little time the indignation of the emperor, 
and the hatred of the people against the Jesuits, and pro- 
duced, at length, in 1631, a public declaration from the 
throne, by which the Abyssinian monarch annulled the 
orders he had formerly given in favour of popery, and left 

are obedient to the see of Rome; but these congregations are poor, and 
composed only of a very small number of individuals. Thus die 
Capuchins, about the middle of the century now under consideration, 
founded a small congregation among the Monophysites of Asia, whose 
bishop resided at Aleppo. See Lequien, Oriens Christianus, t. ii.'p. 140S 
§Tjf f The reader will recollect, that the Abyssinians differ very little 
from the Copts, and acknowledge the patriarch of Alexandria as their 
spiritual chief. They receive the old arid new Testament, the three 
first Councils, the Nicene Creed, and the Apostolical Constitutions. 
Their first conversion to Christianity is attributed by some to die fa- 
mous prime minister of their queen Candace, mentioned in the Acts of 
the Apostles : it is, however, probable, that the general conveision of 
that great empire was not perfected before the fourth century, whes 
Frumentius, ordained bishop of Axuma bv j\thanasius, exercised his 
ministry among the peop!' ^iui vile most astonisning success. They 
wire esteemed a pure church before they fell into the errors of Eutyches 
and Dioscorus ; and even since that period they still form a purer church 
than that of Rome. 



548 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



his subjects at liberty, either to persevere in the doctrine 
of (heir ancestors, or to embrace the faith of Rome. This 
rational declaration was mild and indulgent toward the 
Jesuits, considering the treatment which their insolence 
and presumption had so justly deserved ; but, in the fol- 
lowing reign, much severer measures were employed 
against them. Basilides or Facilidas, the son of Segued, 
who succeeded his father in 1632, thought it expedient 
to free his dominions from these troublesome and despotic 
guests ; and accordingly, in 1634, he banished from his 
territories the patriarch Mendez, with all the Jesuits and 
Europeans who belonged to his retinue, and treated the 
Roman Catholic missionaries with excessive severity. 1 
From this period the very name of Rome, its religion, and 
its pontiff, were objects of the highest aversion among the 
Abyssinians, who guarded their frontiers with the greatest 
vigilance and the strictest attention, lest any Jesuit or 
Romish missionary should steal into their territories in 
disguise, and excite new tumults and commotions in the 
kingdom. The Roman pontiffs indeed made more than 
one attempt to recover the authority they had lost by the 
ill success and misconduct of the Jesuits. They began 
by sending two Capuchin monks to repair their loss ; but 
these unfortunate wretches were no sooner discovered than 
they were stoned to death. They afterwards employed 
more artful and clandestine methods of reviving the mis- 
sions, and had recourse to the influence and intercession 
of Louis XIV. to procure admission for their emissaries 
into the Abyssinian empire ; b bu t, as far as we have learned, 
neither the pontiffs nor their votaries have yet been able 
to calm the resentment of that exasperated nation, or to 
conquer its reluctance against the worship and jurisdic- 
tion of the church of Rome. 

XVIII. Hitherto we have confined our views to the 
external state and condition of this church, and to the 
good or ill success that attended its endeavours to extend 
its dominion in the different parts of the world. It will 
be now proper to change the scene, to consider this esta- 
blishment in its internal constitution, and to review its 
polity, discipline, institutions, and doctrine. Its ancient 

a See Ludolfi Histor. iEthiopica, lib. iii. cap. xii. — Geddes' Church 
History of Ethiopia, p. 233. — La Croze, Histoire du Christianisme 
d'Ethiopie, p. 79. — Lobo, Voyage d'Abyssinie, p. 116, 130, 144, with the 
additions of Le Grand, p. 1 73, and the fourth Dissertation that is subjoin- 
ed to the second volume. In this dissertation, Le Grand, himself a Roman 
Catholic, makes the following remark upon the conduct of the patriarch 
Mendez : " It is to be wished that the patriarch had never intermeddled 
in such a variety of affairs," {by which 'mitigated, expression the au- 
thor means his ambitions attempts to govern in the coMnet as well as in 
the church,) " or carried his authority to such a height, as to behave in 
Ethiopia as if he had been in a country where the inquisition was 
established : for, by this conduct, he set all the people against him, 
and excited in them such an aversion to the Roman Catholics in general, 
and to the Jesuits in particular, as nothing has been hitherto able to 
diminish, and which subsists in its full force to this day." f^= The 
third book of La Croze's History, which relates to the progress and 
ruin of this mission, is translated by Mr. Lockman into English, and 
inserted in the Travels of the Jesuits, voL i. p. 308, &c. as also is Pon- 
cet's Voyage, mentioned in the following note. 

i> These projects are mentioned by Cerri, and by Le Grand in his 
Supplement to Lobo's Itinerarium iEthiopicum* The reader who 
would know what credit is to be given to what the Jesuits say of the 
attachment and veneration which the Asiatic and African Christians 
express for the church of Rome, will do well to compare the relations 
of Le Grand, who was a Roman Catholic, and no enemy to the Jesuits, 
and who drew his relations from the most authentic records, with those 
of Poncet, a French physician, who went into Ethiopia in 1698, accom- 
panied by Father Brevedent, a Jesuit, who died during the voyage. 
This comparison will convince every ingenuous and impartial inquirer, 
that the accounts of the Jesuits are not to be trusted, and that they sur- 
pass the ancient Carthaginians themselves in the art of deceiving. Pon- 



form of government still remained ; but its pontiffs and 
bishops lost, in many places, no small part of that exten- 
sive authority which they had so long enjoyed. The 
halcyon days were now over, in which the papal clergy 
excited with impunity seditious tumults in the state, in- 
terfered openly in the transactions of government, struck 
terror into the hearts of sovereigns and subjects by the 
thunder of their anathemas, and, imposing burthensome 
contributions on the credulous multitude, filled their cof- 
fers by notorious acts of tyranny and oppression. The 
pope himself, though still honoured with the same pom- 
pous titles and denominations, frequently found, by a 
mortifying and painful experience, that these titles had 
lost a considerable part of their former signification, and 
that the energy of these denominations daily diminished. 
For now almost all the princes and states of Europe had 
adopted the important maxim, formerly peculiar to the 
French nation ; that the power of the Roman pontiff is con- 
fined to matters of a religious and spiritual nature, and can- 
not, under any pretext whatever, extend to civil transactions 
or worldly affairs. In the schools, indeed, and colleges 
of Roman catholic countries, and in the writings of the 
Romish priests and doctors, the majesty of the pope was 
still exalted in the most emphatic terms, and his prero- 
gatives were displayed with all imaginable pomp. The 
Jesuits also, who have been always ambitious of a distin- 
guished place among the assertors of the power and pre- 
eminence of the Roman see, and who give themselves 
out for the pope's most obsequious creatures, raised their 
voices, in this ignoble cause, even above those of the 
schools and colleges. Even in the courts of sovereign 
princes, very flattering terms and high-sounding phrases 
were sometimes used, to express the dignity and autho- 
rity of the head of the church. But as it happens in 
other cases, that men's actions are frequently very diffe- 
rent from their language, so was this observation particu- 
larly verified in the case of Home's holy father. He 
was extolled in words, by those who despised him most 
in reality ; and, when any dispute arose between him and 
the princes of his communion, the latter respected his 

cet's Voyage is published in the fourth volume of the Jesuitical work, 
entitled, Lettres Curieuses et Edifiantes des Missions Etrangeres. 

c Lafitau and Reboulet, who have composed each a Life of pope 
Clement XL, tell us, that the emperor of Abyssinia desired that pontiff, 
in 1703, to send to his court missionaries and legates to instruct him 
and his people, and to receive their submission to the see of Rome. 
These biographers go still farther, and assert that this monarch actually 
embraced the communion of Rome, in 1712. But these assertions are 
idle fictions, forged by the Jesuits and their creatures. It is well known, 
on the contrary, that, not many years ago, the edict prohibiting the 
entrance of Europeans within the Abyssinian frontier, was still in force, 
and was executed with the greatest severity. Even the Turks are 
included in this prohibition ; and what is still more remarkable, the 
Egyptian Monophysites, who have once entered within the Abyssinian 
territories, are not allowed to return into their own country. All these 
facts are confirmed by a modern writer of the most unquestionable 
authority, the learned and worthy M. Maillet, the French consul-gene- 
ral in Egypt, and ambassador from Louis XIV. to the emperor of Abys- 
sinia, in his Description de l'Egypte, par. i. p. 325. See also Le Grand's 
Supplement. The last-mentioned author, after relating all the attempt's 
that have been made in our times, by the French nation and the pope, 
to introduce Romish priests into Abyssinia, adds, that all such attempts 
must appear vain and chimerical to all those who have any knowledge 
of the empire of Abyssinia, and of the spirit and character of its 

f^» * Father Lobo, who resided nine years in Ethiopia, has given an 
elegant and lively, though simple and succinct description, of that vast 
empire, in his Itinerarium iEtfiiopicum. This itinerary was translated 
into French by M. Le Grand, and enriched by him with curious anec- 
dotes and dissertations. Hence Dr. Mosheim sometimes quotes the 
Itinerarium, under the title of Voyage d'Abyssinie, referring to Le 
Grand's French translation of it. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



549 



authority no farther than they found expedient for their 
own purposes, and measured the extent of his prerogatives 
and jurisdiction, not by the slavish adulation of the col- 
leges and the Jesuits, but by a regard to their own inte- 
rests and independence. 

XIX. This the pontiffs learned by disagreeable expe- 
rience, as often as they endeavoured, in this century, to 
resume their former pretensions, to interpose their autho- 
rity in civil affairs, and encroach upon the jurisdiction 
of sovereign states. The conduct of Paid V. and its 
consequences furnish a striking example that abundantly 
verifies this observation. This haughty and arrogant 
pontiff, in 1606, laid the republic of Venice under an 
interdict. The reasons alleged for this insolent proceed- 
ing, were the prosecution of two ecclesiastics for capital 
crimes, and the promulgation of two edicts, one of which 
prohibited the erection of any more religious edifices in 
the Venetian territories, without the knowledge and con- 
sent of the senate, while the other forbade the alienation 
of any lay possessions or estates in favour of the clergy, 
without the express approbation of the republic. ' The 
assembled senators received this papal insult with dignity, 
and conducted themselves under it with becoming reso- 
lution and fortitude. Their first step was to prevent their 
clergy from executing the interdict, by an act prohibiting 
that cessation of public worship, and that suspension of 
the sacraments, which the pope had so imperiously com- 
manded. Their next step was equally vigorous ; for 
they banished from their territories the Jesuits and Capu- 
chins, who intended to obey the orders of the pope, in 
opposition to their express commands. In the process 
of this controversy they employed their ablest pens, and 
particularly that of the learned and ingenious Paul Sarpi, 
of the order of Servites, to demonstrate, on one hand, the 
justice of their cause, and to determine, on the other, 
after an accurate and impartial inquiry, the true limits of 
the pontiff's jurisdiction and authority. The arguments 
of these writers were so strong and cogent, that Baronius, 
and the other learned advocates whom the pope had em- 
ployed in supporting his pretensions and defending his 
measures, struggled in vain against irresistible evidence. 

inhabitants; his words are: " Toutes ces entreprises paroitront chime- 
riques a ceux qui connoitront l'Abissinie et. les Abissins." 

gjj* * It must be observed here, that it was at the request of the pope, 
and not of the Venetians, that Henry acted as mediator. The Vene- 
tians had nothing to fear. Their cause was considered as the common 
cause of all the sovereign states of Italy : and the dukes of Urbino, 
Modena, and Savoy, had already offered their troops and services to the 
republic. The rash pontiff, perceiving the storm that was gathering 
against him, took refuge in the French monarch's intercession. 

>> Beside De Thou and other historians, see Daniel's Histoire de la 
France, torn. x. — Heidegger's Historia Papatus, period, vii. sect. cexx. 
— Jaeger's Historia Eccles. skc. XVII. decenn. i. — More especially the 
writings of the famous Paul Sarpi, commonly called Fra-Paolo, and of 
the other divines and canonists that defended the cause of the republic, 
deserve a careful and attentive perusal; for these writings were com- 
posed with such solidity, learning, and eloquence, that they produced 
remarkable effects, and contributed much to open the eyes of several 
princes and magistrates, and to prevent their submitting blindly and 
implicitly, as their ancestors had done, to the imperious dictates of the 
pontiffs. Among the most masterly pieces written in this cause, we 
must place Fra-Paolo's Istoria delle Cose passate entre Paolo V. e la 
Republ. di Venetia, published at Mirandola in 1634, and his Historia 
Interdicti Veneti, which was published at Cambridge in 1G26, by 
bishop Bedell, who, during these troubles, had been chaplain to the 
English ambassador at Venice. Paul V., by forcing the Venetians to 
expose, in these admirable productions, his arrogance and temerity, on 
one hand, and many truths' unfavourable to the pretensions of the popes 
on the other, was the occasion of the greatest perplexities and opposi- 
tions that the court of Rome had to encounter in after-times. 

No. XLVI. 138 



In the mean time all things tended toward a rupture ; 
and Paul was assembling his forces in order to make 
war upon the Venetians, when Henry IV., king of France, 
interposed as mediator, 6 and adjusted a peace between 
the contending parties, on conditions not very honourable 
to the ambitious pontiff ; a for the Venetians could not be 
persuaded either to repeal the edicts and resolutions they 
had issued against the court of Rome on this occasion, 
or to recall the Jesuits from their exile. It is remarka- 
ble, that, at the time of this rupture, the senate enter- 
tained serious thoughts of a total separation from the 
church of Rome, in which the ambassadors of England 
and Holland did all that was in their power to confirm 
that assembly. But many considerations of a momen- 
tous nature intervened to prevent the execution of this 
design, which, as it would seem, had not the approbation 
of the sagacious and prudent Father Paul, notwithstand- 
ing his aversion to the tyranny and maxims of the court 
of Rome. d 

XX. Had the Portuguese acted with the same wisdom 
and resolution that distinguished the Venetians, their con- 
test with the court of Rome, which began under the pon- 
tificate of Urban VIII. in 1641, and was carried on until 
the year 1666, would have been terminated in a manner 
equally disadvantageous to the haughty pretensions of the 
pontiffs. The Portuguese, unable to bear any longer the 
tyranny and oppression of the Spanish government, threw 
off the yoke, and chose Don John, duke of Braganza, for 
their king. Urban and his successors obstinately refused, 
notwithstanding the most earnest and pressing solicitations, 
both of the French and Portuguese, either to acknowledge 
Don John's title to the crown, or to confirm the bishops 
whom that prince had named to fill the vacant sees in 
Portugal. Hence it happened, that the greatest part of 
the kingdom remained for a long time without bishops. 
The pretended vicar of Christ upon earth, whose character 
ought to set him above the fear of man, was so slavishly 
apprehensive of the resentment of the king of Spain, that, 
rather than offend that monarch, he violated the most 
solemn obligations of his station, by leaving such a num- 
ber of churches without pastors and spiritual guides. The 

When peace was concluded between the Venetians and the pope, in 
1607, the Capuchins and the other ecclesiastics, who had been banished 
on account of their partiality to the cause of Rome, were all re-instated in 
their respective functions, except the Jesuits ; and even the latter were 
recalled in 1657, under the pontificate of Alexander VII. in consequence 
of the earnest and importunate requests of Louis XIV. king of France, 
and several other princes, who gave the Venetians no rest until they 
re-admitted these dangerous guests into their territories. It is, never- 
theless, to be observed, that the Jesuits never recovered the credit and 
influence they had formerly enjoyed in that republic, nor, at this pre- 
sent time, are there any people of the Romish communion, among whom 
their society has less power than among the Venetians, who have 
never yet forgotten their rebellious behaviour during the quarrel now 
mentioned. See the Voyage Historique en Italie, Allemagne, Suisse, 
(published at Amsterdam in 1736,) torn. i. p. 291. It is farther worthy 
of observation, that, since this famous quarrel, the bulls and rescripts 
of the popes have just as much authority at Venice, as the senate judges 
consistent with the rules of wise policy, and the true interests and wel- 
fare of the community. For proof of this, we need go no farther than 
the respectable testimony of cardinal Henry Norris, who, in 1676, 
wrote to Magliabecchi in the following terms : Poche Bulle passcvaun 
quelle acque verso la parte del Adriatico, per le massime lasciate nel 
Tcstamento di Fra-Paolo; i. e. "Few papal Bulls pass the Po, or ap- 
proach the coasts of the Adriatic sea : the maxims bequeathed to the 
Venetians by Fra-Paolo, render this passage extremely difficult 

* This intention is particularly mentioned by Burnet, in his Life of 
Bishop Bedell, and by M. Courayer in his Defense de la Nouvelle 
Traduction de l'Histoire du Concile de Trente. The latter writer 
shows plainly, that Father Paul, though his sentir-.;:-.U differed in many 



550 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



French, and other European courts, advised and exhorted 
the new king of Portugal to follow the noble example of 
the Venetians, and to assemble a national council, by 
which the new-created bishops might be confirmed, in 
spite of the pope, in their respective sees. Don John 
seemed disposed to listen to their counsels, and to act with 
resolution and vigour at this important crisis ; but his en- 
terprising spirit was checked by the formidable power of 
the court of inquisition, the incredible superstition of the 
people, and the blind zeal and attachment that the nation 
in general discovered for the person and authority of the 
pontiff. Hence the popes continued their insults with im- 
punity ; and it was not before peace was concluded be- 
tween Portugal and Spain, five-and-twenty years after this 
revolution, that the bishops nominated by the king were 
confirmed by the pope. It was under the pontificate of 
Clement IX. that an accommodation was brought about 
between the courts of Portugal and Rome. It must, in- 
deed, be observed, to the honour of the Portuguese, that, 
notwithstanding their superstitious attachment to the court 
of Rome, they vigorously opposed its ambitious pontiff in 
all his attempts to draw from this contest an augmentation 
of his power and authority in their kingdom ; nor did the 
bishops permit, in their respective sees, any encroachment 
to be made, at this time, upon the privileges and rights 
enjoyed by their monarchs in former ages. a 

XXI. There had subsisted, during many preceding ages, 
an almost uninterrupted variance between the French mo- 
narchs and the pontiffs, which had often occasioned an 
open rupture, and which produced more than once that 
violent effect during this century. The greatest exertions 
of industry, artifice, and assiduous labour, were employed 
by the popes, during the whole of this period, to conquer 
the aversion that the French had conceived against the 
iretensions and authority of the court of Rome, and to 

ndermine imperceptibly, and^enervate and destroy by 
degrees, the liberties of the Gallican church. In this 
arduous and important enterprise the Jesuits acted a 
principal part, and seconded, with all their dexterity and 
craft, the designs of the aspiring pontiffs. But these 
attempts and stratagems were effectually defeated and dis- 
concerted by the parliament of Paris, while many able 
pens exposed the tyranny and injustice of the papal claims. 
Richer, Launoy, Peter de Marca, Natalis Alexander, Elias 
du-Pin, and others, displayed their learning and talents in 
this contest, though with different degrees of merit. They 
appealed to the ancient decrees of the Gallican church, 
which they confirmed by recent authorities, and enforced 
by new and victorious arguments. It will naturally be 
thought, that these bold and respectable defenders of the 
rights and liberties, both of the church and state, were 
amply rewarded, for their generous labours, by peculiar 
marks of the approbation and protection of the court of 
France. But this was so far from being always the case, 

iioints from the doctrine of the church of Rome, did not approve all the 
tenets received by the protestants, or suggest to the Venetians the idea 
of renouncing the Romish faith. 

a See Geddes' History of the Pope's Behaviour toward Portugal, from 
1641 to 1666, in his Miscellaneous* Tracts, vol. ii. p. 73 — 186. — The 
cause of the Portuguese, in this quarrel, is defended with great learning 
and sagacity by a French writer, whose name was Bulliald, in a 
book entitled, Pro Ecclesiis Lusitanis ad Clerum Gallicanum Libelli 
Duo. 

f3f b It is with a view to this that Voltaire, speaking of the manner 
in which the corf.* of France maintains its prerogatives against the 



that they received, on the contrary, from time to time, 
several marks of its resentment and displeasure, designed 
to appease the rage and indignation of the threatening 
pontiff, whom it was thought expedient to treat sometimes 
with artifice and caution. Rome, however, gained little 
by this mild policy of the French court ; for it has been 
always a prevailing maxim with the monarchs of that 
nation, that their prerogatives and pretensions are to be 
defended against the encroachments of the pontiffs w T ith 
as little noise and contention as possible, and that pom- 
pous memorials, and warm and vehement remonstrances, 
are to be carefully avoided, except in cases of urgent 
necessity. 15 Nor do these princes think it beneath their 
dignity to yield, more or less, to time and occasion, and 
even to pretend a great veneration for the orders and 
authority of the pontiffs, in order to obtain from them, by 
fair means, the immunities and privileges which they 
look upon as their due. But they are, nevertheless, con- 
stantly on their guard ; and, as soon as they perceive the 
court of Rome taking advantage of their lenity to extend 
its dominion, and the lordly popes growing insolent in 
consequence of their mildness and submission, they then 
alter their tone, change their measures, and resume the 
language that becomes the monarchs of a nation, that 
could never bear the tyranny and oppression of the papal 
yoke. This appears evidently in the contests that arose 
between the courts of France and Rome, under the reign 
of Louis XIV., of which it will not be improper to give 
here some remarkable instances. 

XXII. The first of these contests happened in the pon- 
tificate of Alexander VII., and arose from the temerity 
and insolence of his Corsican guards, who, in 1662, in- 
sulted the French ambassador and his lady, the duke and 
duchess of Crequi, at the instigation, as it is supposed, of 
the pope's nephews. Louis demanded satisfaction for the 
insult offered to his representative ; and, on the pope's de- 
laying to answer this demand, actually ordered his troops 
to file off for Italy, and to besiege the arrogant pontiff in 
his capital. Alexander, terrified by these warlike prepa- 
rations, implored the clemency of the incensed monarch, 
who granted pardon and absolution to the humble pontiff, 
and concluded a peace with him at Pisa, in 1664, upon 
the most inglorious and mortifying conditions. These 
conditions were, that the pope should send his nephew to 
Paris, in the character of a suppliant for pardon ; that he 
should brand the Corsican guards with perpetual infamy, 
and break them by a public edict; and should erect a pyra- 
mid at Rome, with an inscription destined to preserve the 
memory of this audacious instance of papal insolence, 
and of the exemplary manner in which it was chastised 
and humbled by the French monarch. It is however to 
be observed, that, in this contest, Louis did not chastise 
Alexander, considered as head of the church, but as a 
temporal prince violating the law of nations.* Yet he 



Roman pontiff, says, pleasantly, that "the king of France kisses the 
pope's feet, and ties up his hands." 

|TJ= • The long note ' of the original, in which Dr. Mosheim has 
examined that interesting question, "Whether the papal authority gain- 
ed or lost ground in France during the seventeenth century V is trans- 
posed by the translator into the text, and placed at the end of our author's 
account of the quarrels of Louis XIV. with the pope, where it comes in 
with the utmost propriety. See sect, xxiii. 

i See Jaegeri Histor. Eccles. ssec. XVII. decenn. vii. lib. n. cap. ii. p. 

180. Voltaire, Siecle de Louis XIV. torn. i. p. 134. Edit, de Dresde, 

1753.— Archenholtz, Memoires de la Reine Christine, torn. ii. p. 72. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



651 



showed, on other occasions, that, when seriously provoked, 
he was as much disposed to humble papal as princely am- 
bition, and that he feared the head of the church as little 
as the temporal ruler of the ecclesiastical state. This 
appeared evidently by the important and warm debate he 
had with Innocent XI. considered in his spiritual charac- 
ter, which began about the year 1678, and was carried 
on for several years with great animosity and contention. 
The subject of this controversy was a right called in 
France the regale, by which the French king, upon the 
death of a bishop, claimed the revenues and fruits of his 
see, and also discharged several parts* of the episcopal 
function, until a new bishop was elected. Louis was de- 
sirous that all the churches in his dominions should be 
subject to the regale. Innocent pretended, on the con- 
trary, that this claim could not be granted with such 
universality ; nor would he consent to any augmentation 
of the prerogatives of this nature, that had formerly been 
enjoyed by the kings of France. Thus the claims of the 
prince and the remonstrances of the pontiff, both urged 
with warmth and perseverance, formed a sharp and 
violent contest, which was carried on by both parties 
with spirit and resolution. The pontiff sent forth his bulls 
and mandates. The monarch opposed their execution by 
the terror of penal laws, and the authority of severe edicts 
against all who dared to treat them with the smallest re- 
gard. When the pope refused to confirm the bishops who 
were nominated by the king, the latter took care to have 
them consecrated and inducted into their respective sees ; 
and thus, in some measure, declared to the world, that 
the Gallican church could govern itself without the inter- 
vention of the Roman pontiff. Innocent, who was a man 
of a high spirit, and inflexibly obstinate in his purposes, did 
not lose courage at a view of these resolute and vigorous 
proceedings, but threatened the monarch with the di- 
vine vengeance, issued out bull after bull, and did every 
thing in his power to convince his adversaries, that the 
vigour and intrepidity, which formerly distinguished the 
lordly rulers of the Romish church, were not yet totally 

§Tjr * The author means here undoubtedly the collation of all bene- 
fices, which became vacant in the diocese of a deceased bishop, before the 
nomination of his successor. The right of collation, in such cases, was 
comprehended in the regale. See note ". 

•> See Jo. Hen. Heideggeri Historia Papatus, period, vii. sect, cccxli. 
p. 555. fj= Voltaire's Siecle de Louis XIV. torn. i. p. 221. A great 
number of writers have either incidentally or professedly treated the 
subject of the regale, and have given ample accounts of the controver- 
sies it has occasioned. But no author has traced out more circumstan- 
tially the rise and progress of this famous right than cardinal Henry 
Norris, in his Istoria delle Investiture Ecclesiast. p. 547. 

gjf*°This assembly, which consisted of thirty-five bishops, and as 
many deputies of the second order, extended the regale to all the churches 
in France without exception. The bishops, at the same time, thought 
proper to represent it to the king, as their humble opinion, that those 
ecclesiastics whom he should be pleased to nominate, during the vacancy 
of the see, to benefices attended with cure of souls, were bound to apply for 
induction and confirmation to the grand vicars appointed by the chapters. 

i^fd These four propositions were to the following purport: 

1. That neither St. Peter nor his successors have received from God 
any power to interfere, directly or indirectly, in what concerns the tem- 
poral interests of princes and sovereign states ; that kings and princes 
cannot be deposed by ecclesiastical authority, nor their subjects freed 
from the sacred obligation of fidelity and allegiance, by the power of the 
church, or the bulls of the Roman pontiff. 

2. That the decrees of the council of Constance, which represent the 
authority of general councils as superior to that of the pope, in spiritual 
matters, arc approved and adopted by the Gallican church. 

3. That the rules, customs, institutions, and observances, which have 
been received in the Gallican church, are to be preserved inviolable. 

4. That the decisions of the pope, in points of faith, are not infallible, 
anlcss they be attended with the consent of tne church. 



extinguished. b This obstinacy., however, only served to 
add fuel to the indignation and resentment of Louis ; and 
accordingly that monarch summoned the famous assem- 
bly of bishops, which met at Paris in 1682. In this con- 
vocation, the ancient doctrine of the Gallican church, that 
declares the power of the pope to be merely spiritual, and 
also inferior to that of a general council, was drawn up 
anew in four propositions,' 1 which were solemnly adopted 
by the whole assembly, and were proposed to the whole 
body of the clergy and to all the universities throughout 
the kingdom, as a sacred and inviolable rule of faith. But 
even this respectable decision of the affair, which gave 
such a severe wound to the authority of Rome, did not 
shake the constancy of its resolute pontiff, or reduce him 
to silence. e 

Another contest arose, some time after the one now 
mentioned, between these princes, whose mutual jealousy 
and dislike inflamed their divisions. This new dispute 
broke out in 1687, when Innocent wisely resolved to 
suppress the franchises, and the right of asylum, which 
had formerly been enjoyed by the ambassadors residing 
at Rome/ and had, on many occasions, proved a sanc- 
tuary for rapine, violence, and injustice, by procuring 
impunity for the most heinous malefactors. The mar- 
quis de Lavardin refused, in the name of the French 
king, to submit to this new regulation ; and Louis took 
all the violent methods that pride and resentment could 
invent to oblige the pontiff to restore to his ambassador 
the immunities above mentioned. s Innocent, on the 
other hand, persisted in his purpose, opposed the king's 
demands in the most open and intrepid manner, and 
could not be induced by any consideration to yield, even 
in appearance, to his ambitious adversary. h His death, 
however, put an end to this long debate, which had 
proved really detrimental to both parties. His succes- 
sors, being men of a softer and more complaisant dispo- 
sition, were less averse to the concessions that were neces- 
sary to bring about a reconciliation, and to the measures 
that were adapted to remove the chief causes of these 

e This pope was far from keeping silence with respect to the famous 
propositions mentioned in the preceding note. As they were highly un- 
favourable to his authority, so he took care to have them refuted and op- 
posed both in private and in public. The principal champion for the. 
papal cause, on this occasion, was the cardinal Celestin Sfondrati, who, 
in 1684, published, under the feigned name of Eugenius Lombardus, a 
treatise, entitled, Regale Sacerdotium Romano Pontifici assertium, et 
quatuor Propositionibus explicatum. This treatise was printed in 
Switzerland, as appears evidently by the character or form of the letters. 
Several German, Flemish, Italian, and Spanish doctors, stood forth to 
support the tottering majesty of the pontiff against the court of France ; 
and more especially the learned Nicolas du Bois, professor at Louvain. 
whose writings in defence of the pope are mentioned by Bossuet. But 
all these papal champions were defeated by the famous prelate last men- 
tioned, the learned and eloquent bishop of Meaux, who, by the king's 
special order, composed that celebrated work, which appeared in 1730, 
under the following title: Defensio Declarationis celeberrimac, quam de 
Potestate Ecclesiastica sanxit Clerus Gallicanus, xix Martii, iudclxxxi i, 
Luxemburgi. The late publication of this defence was owing to the 
prospect of a reconciliation between the courts of France and Rome, 
after the death of Innocent; which reconciliation actually took place, and 
engaged Louis to prohibit the publication of this work. 

f^T f This right of asylum extended much farther than the ambassa- 
dor's palace, whose immunity the pope did not mean to violate ; it com- 
prehended a considerable extent of ground which was called a quarter, 
and undoubtedly gave occasion to great and flagrant abuses. 

f^= e The marquis de Lavardin began his embassy by entering Romej 
surrounded with a thousand men in arms. 

b See Jaegeri Historia Ecclesiastic. sa?c. XVII. decenn. ix. p. 19, ana 
Legatio Lavardini ; but, above all, the Memoires de la Reine Christine, 
torn. ii. p. 248 ; for Christina took part in this contest, and adopted the 
cause of the French monarch. 



552 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II 



unseemly contests. They were not, indeed, so far 
unmindful of the papal dignity, and of the interests of 
Rome, as to patch up an agreement on inglorious terms. 
On the one hand, the right of asylum was suppressed 
with the king's consent ; on the other the right of the 
regale was settled, with modifications. 1 The four 
famous propositions, relating to the pope's authority and 
jurisdiction, were softened, by the king's permission, in 
private letters addressed to the pontiff by certain bishops ; 
but they were neither abrogated by the prince, nor 
renounced by the clergy : on the contrary, they still 
remain in force, and occupy an eminent place among the 
laws of the kingdom. 

XXIII. b Several protestant writers of great merit and 
learning, lament the accessions of. power and authority 
which the Roman pontiffs are supposed to have gained 
in France during the course of this century. They tell 
us, with sorrow, that the Italian notions of the papal 
majesty and jurisdiction, which the French nation had, 
in former ages, looked upon with abhorrence, gained 
ground now, and had infected not only the nobility and 
clergy, but almost all ranks and orders of men ; and 
hence they conclude, that the famous rights and liberties 
of the Gallican church have suffered greatly by the per- 
fidious stratagems of the Jesuits. They are led into this 
opinion by certain measures that were taken by the 
French court, and which seemed to favour the pretensions 
of the Roman pontiff. They are confirmed in it by 
the declamations of the Jansenists, and other modern 
writers among the French, who complain of the high 
veneration that was paid to the papal bulls during this 
century ; of the success of the Jesuits in instilling into 
the mind of the king and his counsellors the maxims of 
Rome, and an excessive attachment to its bishop ; of the 
"iolence and ill treatment that were offered to all those 
ho firmly adhered to the doctrine and maxims of their 
forefathers ; and of the gradual attempts that were made 
to introduce the formidable tribunal of the inquisition into 
France. But it will perhaps appear, on mature consi- 
deration, that too much stress is laid, by many, on these 
complaints, and that the rights and privileges of the Gal- 
lican church were in this century, and are actually at 
this day, in the same state and condition in which we 
find them during those earlier ages, of which the writers 
and declaimers above mentioned incessantly boast. It 
might be asked, where are the victories that are said to 
have been obtained over the French by the popes, and 
which some protestant doctors, lending a credulous ear 
to the complaints of the Jansenists and Appellants, think 
they perceive with the utmost clearness? I am per- 
suaded that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to give 
a satisfactory answer in the affirmative to this question. 

It is true, indeed, that, as the transactions of govern- 
ment, in general, are now carried on in France, with more 
subtlety, secrecy, and art, than in former times, so, in 
particular, the stratagems and machinations of the pon- 
tiffs have been opposed and defeated with more artifice 

» See Fleury's Institutions du Droit Ecclesiastique Francois, -which 
excellent work is translated into Latin. Dr. Mosheim refers to p. 454 
of the Latin version. b See Note c , p. 550. 

IS" c It is scarcely necessary to inform the reader, that by these 
liberties we do not mean that rational and Christian liberty which 
entitles every individual to follow the light of his own conscience and 
the dictates of his own judgment in religious matters ; for no such liberty 
is allowed in France. The liberties of the Gallican church consist in 



and less noise, than in those more rude and unpolished 
ages, when almost every contest was terminated by bru- 
tal force and open violence. The opposition between the 
court of France and the bishop of Rome still subsists ; 
but the manner of conducting it is changed ; and the con- 
tests are carried on with less clamour, though not with less 
animosity and vigour, than in former times. This new and 
prudent manner of disputing is not agreeable to the restless, 
fiery, and impatient temper of the French,whohave an irre- 
sistible propensity to noisy, clamorous, and expeditious 
proceedings ; and hence undoubtedly arise all the com- 
plaints we have heard, and still hear, of the decline of 
the liberties of the Gallican church, in consequence of 
the growing influence and perfidious counsels of the 
Jesuits. If those, however, who are accustomed to make 
these complaints, would for a moment suspend their pre- 
judices, and examine with attention the history, and 
also the present state of their country, they would soon 
perceive that their ecclesiastical liberties, instead of 
declining, or of being neglected by their monarchs, are 
maintained and preserved with greater care, resolution, 
and foresight, than ever. It must indeed be acknow- 
ledged, that, in France, there are multitudes of cringing 
slaves, who basely fawn upon the pontiffs, exalt their 
prerogatives, revere their majesty, and, through the dic- 
tates of superstition, interest, or ambition, are ever ready 
to hug the papal chain, and submit their necks blindly 
to the yoke of those spiritual tyrants : but it may be 
proved, by the most undoubted facts, and by innumera- 
ble examples, that these servile creatures of the pope 
abounded as much in France in former ages as they do 
at this day ; and it must be also considered, that it is not 
by the counsels of this slavish tribe, that the springs of 
government are moved, or the affairs of state and church 
transacted. It must be farther acknowledged, that the 
Jesuits have attained a very high degree of influence 
and authority, 11 and sometimes have credit enough to 
promote measures that are by no means consistent with 
the rights of the Gallican church, and must consequently 
be considered as heavy grievances by the patrons of the 
ancient ecclesiastical liberty. But here it may be observ- 
ed, on one hand, that many such measures were propo- 
sed and followed before the rise of the Jesuits ; and-, on 
the other, that many affairs of great consequence are 
daily transacted in a manner highly displeasing and 
detrimental to that society, and extremely disagreeable to 
the Roman pontiffs. If it be alleged, that those who 
defend with learning and judgment the ancient doctrines 
and maxims of the Gallican church, scarcely escape 
public censure and punishment, and that those who 
maintain them with vehemence and intemperate zeal 
are frequently rewarded with exile or a prison ; and that 
even the most humble and modest patrons of these doc- 
trines are left in obscurity without encouragement or 
recompense ; all this must be granted. But it must be 
considered, that the cause they maintain, and the ancient 
doctrines and maxims they defend, are not condemned, 

the opposition which that church has made, at different times, to the 
overgrown power of the Roman pontiff, and to his pretended persona. 
infallibility. 

f^= d Dr. Mosheim wrote this in 1753, before the suppression of the 
order of Jesuits in France. The downfall of that society, and' the 
circumstances that attended it, seem both to illustrate and confirm his 
judicious notion with respect to the degree of credit and influence which 
the popes have had in that kingdom for some time past. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



553 



nor even deserted ; the matter is only this, that the prince 
and his ministry have fallen upon a new method of 
maintaining and supporting them. It appears to them 
much more conducive to public peace and order, that the 
stratagems and attempts of the pontiffs should be op- 
posed and defeated by secret exertions of resolution and 
vigour, without noise or ostentation, than by learned pro- 
ductions and clamorous disputes ; which, for the most 
part, excite factions in the kingdom, inflame the spirits 
of the people, throw the state into tumult and confusion, 
exasperate the pontiffs, and alienate them still more and 
more from the French nation. In the mean time the 
doctors and professors, who are placed in the various semi- 
laries of learning, are left at liberty to instruct the youth 
n the ancient doctrine and discipline of the church, and 
o explain and inculcate those maxims and laws by 
vhich. in former times, the papal authority was restrain- 
ed and confined within certain limits. If these laws and 
maxims are infringed, and if even violent methods are 
employed against those who firmly adhere to them, this 
nappens very rarely, and never but when their suspen- 
sion is required by some case of extreme necessity, or by 
the prospect of some great advantage to the community. 
Besides, those who sit at the political helm, always take 
care to prevent the pope's reaping much benefit from this 
suspension or neglect of the ancient laws and maxims 
of the church. This circumstance, which is of so much 
importance in the present question, must appear evident 
to such as will be at the pains to look into the history of 
the debates that attended, and the consequences that fol- 
lowed the reception of the Bull Unigenitus in France, 
than which no papal edict could seem more repugnant to 
the rights and liberties of the Gallican church. In the 
business of this bull, as in other transactions of a like 
nature, the court proceeded upon this political maxim, 
that a smaller evil is to be submitted to, when a greater 
may be thereby prevented. 

In a word, the kings of France have almost always 
treated the Roman pontiffs as the heroes, who are said in 
pagan story to have descended into Tartarus, behaved 
toward the triple-jawed guardian of that lower region : 
sometimes they offered a soporiferous cake to suppress his 
grumbling and menacing tone ; at others they terrified 
him with their naked swords, and the din of arms ; and 
this with a view to stop his barking, and to obtain the 
liberty of directing their course in the manner they thought 
proper. There is nothing invidious designed by this 
comparison, which certainly represents, in a lively man- 
ner, the caresses and threatenings that were employed by 
the French monarchs, according to the nature of the 
times, the state of affairs, the characters of the pontiffs, 
and other incidental circumstances, in order to render 
the court of Rome favourable to their designs. We have 
dwelt, perhaps, too much upon this subject ; but we 
thought it not improper to undeceive many protestant 
miters, who, too much influenced by the bitter complaints 
and declamations of certain Jansenists, and not sufhciently 
mstructed in the history of these ecclesiastical contentions, 
have formed erroneous notions concerning that point 
which we have here endeavoured to examine and discuss. 

XXIV. The corruptions that had been complained of 

* The reader may see these disagreeable accounts of die corruptions 
of the clergy confirmed by a great number of unexceptionable testimo- 

No.XLVII. 139 



in preceding ages, both in the higher and inferior orders 
of the Romish clergy, were rather increased than dimi- 
nished during this century, as the most impartial writers 
of that communion candidly confess. The bishops were 
rarely indebted for their elevation to eminent learning, or 
superior merit. The intercession of potent patrons, ser- 
vices rendered to men in power, connexions of blood, and 
simoniacal practices, were, generally speaking, the steps 
to preferment ; and, what was still more deplorable, their 
promotion was sometimes obtained by their vices. Their 
lives were such, as might be expected from persons who 
had risen in the church by such unseemly means ; for, 
had they been obliged by their profession, to give public 
examples of those vices which the holy laws of the Gos- 
pel so solemnly and expressly condemn, instead of exhi- 
biting patterns of sanctity and virtue to their flock, they 
could not have conducted themselves otherwise than they 
did.* Some indeed there were, who, sensible of the obli- 
gations of their profession, displayed a true Christian zeal, 
in administering useful instruction, and exhibiting pious 
examples to their flock, and exerted their utmost vigour 
and activity, in opposing the vices of the sacred order in 
particular, and the licentiousness of the times in general. 
But these rare cultivators of virtue and piety were either 
ruined by the resentment and stratagems of their en- 
vious and exasperated brethren, or were left in obscurity, 
without that encouragement and support which were 
requisite to enable them to execute effectually their pious 
and laudable purposes. The same treatment fell to the 
lot of those among the lower order of the clergy, who 
endeavoured to maintain the cause of truth and virtue. 
But the number of sufferers in this noble cause was small, 
compared with the multitude of corrupt ecclesiastics, who 
were carried away with the torrent, instead of opposing it, 
and whose lives were spent in scenes of pleasure, or in 
the anxiety and toils of avarice and ambition. While 
we acknowledge, that, among the bishops and inferior 
clerg)r, there were several exceptions from that general 
prevalence of immorality and licentiousness with which 
the sacred order was chargeable, it is also incumbent upon 
us to do justice to the merit of some of the Roman pon- 
tiffs, in this century, who used their most zealous endea- 
vours to reform the manners of the clergy, or, at least, 
to oblige them to observe the rules of external decency 
in their conduct and conversation. It is however mat- 
ter of surprise, that these pontiffs did not perceive the 
insurmountable obstacles to the success of then counsels, 
and the fruits of their wise and salutary edicts, that arose 
from the internal constitution of the Romish church, and 
the very nature of the papal government ; for, if the pon- 
tiffs were even divinely inspired, and really infallible, yet, 
unless this inspiration and infallibility were attended with 
a miraculous power, and with the supernatural privilege 
of being present in many places at the same time, it is 
not conceivable how they should ever entertain a notion 
of the possibility of restoring or maintaining order, or good 
morals, among the prodigious multitude of persons of all 
classes and characters that are subject to their jurisdiction. 
XXV. Though the monks, in several places, behaved 
with much more circumspection and decency than in for- 
mer times, yet they had everywhere departed, in a great 

nies, drawn from die writings of the most eminent doctors of the Romish 
church, in the Memoires de Port Royal, torn. ii. p. 308. 



554 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II 



measure, from the spirit of their founders, and the pri- 
mitive laws of their respective institutions. About the 
commencement of this age, their convents and colleges 
made a most wretched and deplorable figure, as we learn 
from the accounts of the wisest and most learned, even 
of their own writers. But, in the progress of the cen- 
tury several attempts were made to remove this disorder. 
Some wise and pious Benedictines, in France and other 
countries, reformed several monasteries of their order, and 
endeavoured to bring them back, as near as was possible, 
to the laws and discipline of their founders." Then- 
example was followed by the monks of Clugni, the Cis- 
tercians, the regular canons, the Dominicans, and Fran- 
ciscans. b It is from this period that we are to date the 
division of the monastic orders into two general classes. 
One comprehends the reformed monks, who, reclaimed 
from that licentiousness and corruption of manners which 
had formerly dishonoured their societies, lead more strict 
and regular lives, and discover in their conduct a greater 
regard to the primitive laws of their order. The other 
is composed of the un-reformed orders, who, forgetting 
the spirit of their founders, and the rules of their insti- 
tutes, spend their days in ease and pleasure, and have no 
taste for the austerities and hardships of the monastic 
life. The latter class is evidently the most numerous ; 
and the majority, even of the reformed monks, not only 
fall short of that purity of manners which their rules 
enjoin, but are moreover gradually and imperceptibly 
relapsing into their former indolence and disorder. 

XXVI. Among the reformed monks, a particular de- 

* Le BcEuf, Memoires sur l'Histoire d'Auxeire, torn. ii. p. 513, 
where an account is given of the first reforms made in the convents 
during this century. — See Martenne's Voyage Literaire de deux Bene- 
dictins, par. ii. p. 97. 

•> There is an account of all the convents reformed in this century, in 
Helyot's Histoire des Ordres, torn. v. vi. vii. to which, however, several 
interesting circumstances may be added, by consulting other writers. 
The reform of the monks of Clugni is amply described by the Benedic- 
tines, in the Gallia Christiana, torn. vii. p. 544. The same authors 
speak of the reform of the Regular Canons of St. Augustin, torn. vii. 
p. 778, 787, 790. — For an account of that of the Cistercians, see Mabil- 
lon's Annal. Benedict, torn. vi. p. 121 ; and the Voyage Literaire de 
deux Benedictins, torn. i. p. 7 ; torn. ii. p. 133, 229, 269, 303. The Cis- 
tercians were no sooner reformed, than they used their most zealous 
endeavours for the reformation of the whole society, (i. e. of the Bene- 
dictine order,) but in vain. See Meaupou's Vie de l'Abbe de la Trappe, 
torn. i. 

c See the Gallia Christiana Nova, an admirable work, composed by 
the Congregation of St. Maur, torn vii. p. 474. — Helyot, torn. vi. cap. 
xxxvii. p. 256. The letters patent of Gregory XV., by which the 
establishment of this famous congregation was approved and confirmed, 
were criticised with great severity and rigour by Launoy, that formi- 
dable scourge of all the monastic orders, in his Examen. Privil. S. Ger- 
mani, torn. iii. p. i. op. p. 303. The same author, (in his Assert. Inquisit. 
in priv. S. Medardi, torn. iii. op.) gives an account of the dissentions 
that arose in this congregation, immediately after its establishment; 
but this account savours too much of that partiality with which he is 
chargeable, whenever he treats of monastic affairs. 

d The Benedictines celebrate, in pompous terms, the exploits of this 
congregation in general, and more especially its zealous and successful 
labours in restoring order, discipline, and virtue, in a great number of 
monasteries, which were falling into ruin through the indolence and 
corruption of their licentious members; see 'the " Voyage de deux Re- 
ligieux Benedictins de la Congregation de S. Maur," torn. i. p. 16; torn, 
ii. p. 47. This eulogy, though perhaps exaggerated, is not entirely 
unmerited; and there is no doubt that the Benedictines have contribu- 
ted much to restore the credit of the monastic orders. There are, never- 
theless, several classes of ecclesiastics in the Romish church, who are 
no well-wishers to this learned congregation, though their dislike be 
founded on different reasons. In the first class, we may place a cer- 
tain number of ambitious prelates, whose artful purposes have been 
disappointed by this ingenious fraternity ; for the monks of St. Maur, 
having turned their principal study toward ancient history and antiqui- 
ties of every kind, and being perfectly acquainted with ancient records, 



gree of attention is due to certain Benedictine societies, 
or congregations, who surpass all the other monastic 
orders, both in the excellence and utility of their rules 
and constitution, and in the zeal and perseverance with 
which they adhere to them. Of these societies the most 
distinguished is the congregation of St. Mauiy which was 
founded in 1620 by the express order of Gregory XV., 
and was enriched by Urban VIII. in 1627, with various 
donations and privileges. It does not indeed appear, that 
even this society adheres strictly to the spirit and maxims 
of Benedict, whose name it bears, nor is it beyond the 
reach of censure in other respects ; but these imperfections 
are compensated by the great number of excellent rules 
and institutions that are observed in it, and by the regu- 
lar lives and learned labours of its members. For, in this 
congregation, a select number of men of genius and talent 
are set apart for the study of sacred and profane literature, 
and more especially of history and antiquities ; and these 
learned members are furnished with all the means and 
materials of knowledge in a rich abundance, and with 
every thing that can tend to facilitate their labours and 
render them successful." 1 It must be abundantly known, 
to those who have any acquaintance with the history and 
progress of learning in Europe, what signal advantages 
the republic of letters has derived from the establishment 
of this famous Congregation, whose numerous and admi- 
rable productions have cast a great light upon the various 
branches of philology and the belles lettres, and whose 
researches have embraced the whole circle of science, phi- 
losophy excepted. e 



diplomas, and charters, are thus peculiarly qualified to maintain their 
possessions, their jurisdictions, and privileges, against the litigious pre- 
tensions of the bishops, and have, in fact, maintained them with more 
success than their order could do in former times, when destitute of 
learning, or ill furnished with the knowledge of ancient history. The 
Jesuits form the second class of adversaries, with whom this learned 
congregation has been obliged to struggle ; for, their lustre and reputa- 
tion being considerably eclipsed by the numerous and admirable produc- 
tions of these Benedictines, they have used their utmost endeavours to 
sink, or at least to diminish, the credit of such formidable rivals. See 
Simon's Lettres Choisies, torn. iv. p. 36, 45. These Benedictines have a 
third set of enemies, who are instigated by superstition ; and it is not 
improbable that this superstition may be accompanied with a certain 
mixture of envy. To understand this fully, it must be observed, that 
the learned monks, of whom we are now speaking, have substituted an 
assiduous application to the culture of philology and literature in the 
place of that bodily and manual labour, which the rule of St. Benedict 
prescribes to his followers. The more robust, healthy, and vigorous 
monks, indeed, are obliged to employ a certain portion of the day in 
working with their hands ; but those of a weaker constitution and 
superior genius, are allowed to exchange bodily for mental labour, and, 
instead of cultivating the lands or gardens of the convent, to spend their 
days in the pursuit of knowledge, both human and divine. The lazy 
monks envy this bodily repose; and the superstitious and fanatical 
ones, who are vehemently .prejudiced in favour of the ancient monastic 
discipline, behold with contempt these learned researches as unbecoming 
the monastic character, since they tend to divert the mind from divine 
contemplation. This superstitious and absurd opinion was maintained 
with peculiar warmth and vehemence, by Armand John Bouthillicr de 
Ranee, abbot of La Trappe, in his book des Devoirs Monastiques ; 
upon which the Benedictines employed Mabillon, the most learned of 
their fraternity, to defend their cause, and to expose the reveries of the 
abbot in their proper colours. This he did with remarkable success, in 
his famous book, de Studiis Monasticis, which was published in 1691, 
passed through many editions, and was translated into different langua- 
ges. Hence arose that celebrated question, which was long debated 
with great warmth and animosity in France ; — "How far a monk may, 
consistently with his character, apply himself to the study of literature 1" 
There is an elegant and interesting history of this controversy given by 
Vincent Thuillier, a most learned monk of the congregation of St. 
Maur ; see the Opera Posthuma of Mabillon and Ruinart, torn. i. p. 
365—425. 

The curious reader will find an account of the authors and learned 
productions with which the congregation of St. Maur has enriched the 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



555 



XXYII. Though these pious attempts to reform the 
monasteries were not entirely unsuccessful, yet the effects 
they produced, even in those places where they had suc- 
ceeded most, came far short of that perfection of austerity 
that had seized the imaginations of a set of persons, whose 
number is considerable in the Romish church, though 
their credit be small, and their severity be generally looked 
upon as excessive and disgusting. These rigid censors, 
having always in their eyes the ancient discipline of the 
monastic orders, and being bent on reducing the modern 
convents to that austere discipline, looked upon the changes 
above-mentioned as imperfect and trifling. They consi- 
dered a monk as a person obliged, by the sanctity of his 
profession, to spend his whole time in prayer, tears, con- 
templation, and silence ; in the perusal of holy books, and 
the hardships of bodily labour : they even went so far as 
to maintain, that all other designs and occupations, how- 
ever laudable and excellent in themselves, were entirely 
foreign from the monastic vocation, and, on that account, 
vain and sinful in persons of that order. This severe plan 
of monastic discipline was recommended by several per- 
sons, whose obscurity put it out of their power to influence 
many in its behalf; but it Avas also adopted by the Jan- 
senists, who reduced it to practice in some parts of France, 1 
and in none with more success and reputation than in 
the female convent of Port Royal, where it has subsisted 
from the year 1618 to our time. b These steps of the Jan- 
senists excited a spirit of emulation, and several monaste- 
ries exerted themselves in the imitation of this austere 
model ; but they were all surpassed by the famous Bou- 
thillier de Ranee, abbot de la Trappe, c who, with the most 
ardent zeal, and indefatigable labour, attended with un- 
common success, introduced into his monastery this dis- 
cipline, in all its austere and shocking perfection. This 
abbot, so illustrious by his birth, and so remarkable for his 
extraordinary devotion, was so happy as to vindicate his 
fraternity from the charge of excessive superstition, which 
the Jansenists had drawn upon themselves by the auste- 
rity of their monastic discipline ; and yet his society ob- 
served the severe and laborious rule of the ancient Cister- 
cians, whom they even surpassed in abstinence, mortifi- 
cations, and self-denial. This order still subsists, under the 
denomination of the Reformed Bernardins of La Trappe, 
and has several monasteries both in Spain and Italy ; but, 

republic of letters, in Ph. le Cerfs Bibliotheque Historique et Critique 
des Autcurs de la Congregation de St. Maur ; and also in Bernard Pez's 
Bibliotheca Benedictino-Maurina. — These Benedictines still maintain 
their literary fame by the frequent publications of laborious and learned 
works both in sacred and profane literature. 

1 See the Memoires de Port Royal, torn. ii. p. G01. Martin Barcos, 
the most celebrated Jansenist of this century, introduced this austere rule 
of discipline into the monastery of St. Cyran, of which he was abbot. 
See the Gallia Christiana, torn. ii. p. 132, and Moleon's Voyages 
Liturgiques, p. 135 ; but, after the death of this famous abbot, the monks 
of his cloister relapsed into their former disorder, and resumed their 
former manners. See the Voyage de deux Benedictins, torn. i. 

b Helyot, torn. v. chap. xliv. p. 455. 

• This illustrious abbot showed very early an extraordinary genius 
for the belles lellres. At the age often, he was master of several of the 
Greek and Roman poets, and understood Homer perfectly. At the age 
of twelve or thirteen, he gave an edition of Anacreon, with learned 
annotations. Some writers allege, that he had imbibed the voluptuous 
spirit of that poet, and that his subsequent application to the study of 
theology in the Sorbonne did not entirely extinguish it. They also 
attribute his conversion to a singular incident. They tell us, that re- 
turning from the country, after six weeks' absence from a lady whom he 
loved passionately, (and not in vain,) he went directly to her chamber 
by a back-stair, without having the patience to make any previous 
inquiry about her health and situation. On opening the door, he found 



if credit may be given to the accounts of writers who seem 
to be well informed, it is degenerating gradually from the 
austere and painful discipline of its famous founder." 

XXVIII. The Romish church, from whose prolific 
womb all the various forms of superstition issued forth in 
an amazing abundance, saw several new monastic estab- 
lishments arise within its borders during this century. 
The greatest part of them we shall pass over in silence, 
and confine ourselves to the mention of those which have 
obtained some degree of fame. 

We begin with the Fathers of the Oratory of the Holy 
Jesus, a famous order, instituted by cardinal Berulle, a 
man of genius and talents, who displayed his abilities with 
such success, in the service both of state and church, that 
i he was generally looked upon as equally qualified for 
shining in these very different spheres. This order, which, 
both in the nature of its rules, and in the design of its 
establishment, seems to be in direct opposition to that of 
the Jesuits, was founded, in 1613, has produced a consi- 
derable number of persons eminent for their piety, learn- 
ing, and eloquence, and still maintains its reputation in 
this respect. Its members however have, on account of 
certain theological productions, been suspected of intro- 
ducing new opinions ; and this suspicion has not only 
been raised but is also industriously fomented and propa- 
gated by the Jesuits. The priests who enter into this 
society are not obliged to renounce their property or pos- 
sessions, but only to refuse all ecclesiastical cures or offices 
to which any fixed revenues or honours are annexed, as 
long as they continue members of this fraternity, from 
which they are, however, at liberty to retire whenever 
they think proper. 6 While they continue in the order, 
they are bound to perforin, with the greatest fidelity and 
accuracy, all the priestly functions, and to turn the whole 
bent of their zeal and industry to one point, namely, the 
task of preparing and qualifying themselves and others 
for discharging them daily with greater perfection and 
more abundant fruits. If, therefore, we consider this order 
in the original end of its institution, its convents may, not 
improperly, be called the schools of sacerdotal divinity.' 
It is nevertheless to be observed, that, in later times, the 
Fathers of the Oratory have not confined themselves to 
this object, but have imperceptibly extended their original 
plan, and applied themselves to the study of polite litera- 

the chamber illuminated, and hung with black: and, on approaching 
the bed, saw the most hideous spectacle that could be presented to his 
eyes, and the most adapted to mortify passion, inspire horror, and 
engender the gloom of melancholy devotion, in a mind too lively and too 
much agitated to improve this shocking change to the purposes of ra- 
tional piety ; he saw his fair mistress in her shroud — dead of the small 
pox — all her charms fled — and succeeded by the ghastly lines of "death, 
and the frightful marks of that terrible disorder. From that moment, it is 
said, our abbot retired from the world, repaired to La Trappe, the most 
gloomy, barren, and desolate spot in the whole kingdom of France, and 
there spent the forty last years of his life in perpetual acts of the most 
austere piety. 

<i Marsolier's Vie del' Abbe de la Trappe. — Mcaupou'sViedeM. l'Abbd 
de la Trappe. — Felibien's,Descrip.del'Ab. de la Trappe. — Helyot, t. vi. 

f^f c The Fathers, or Priests (as they also are called) of the Oratory, 
are not, properly speaking, religious, or monks, being bound by no vows, 
and their institute being purely ecclesiastical or sacerdotal. 

t See Hubert de Cerisi, Vie du Cardinal Berulle, Fondateur da 
l'Oratoire de Jesus. — Morini Vita Antiq. prefixed to his Orientalia, p. 
3, 110. — R. Simon, Letties Choisies, torn. ii. p. 60, and his Bibliotheque 
Critique, (published under the fictitious name of Saint Jorre.) torn. iii. p. 
303, 324, 330. For an account of the genius and capacity of Berulle, 
see Baillet's Vie de Richer, p. 220, 342.— Le Vassor's Histoirc de Louis 
XIII. torn. iii. p. 397. — Helyot, torn. viii. chap. x. — Gallia Christiana 
Benedictinorum, torn. vii. p. 976. 



556 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. It 



ture and theology, which they teach with reputation in 
their colleges. 1 

After these Fathers, the next place is due to the Priests 
of the Missions ; an order founded by Yincent de Paul, 
(who obtained, not long ago, the honours of saintship,) 
and formed into a regular congregation, in 1632, by pope 
Urban VIII. The rule prescribed to this society, by its 
founder, lays its members under the three following obli- 
gations : first, to purify themselves, and to aspire daily 
to higher degrees of sanctity and perfection, by prayer, 
meditation, the perusal of pious books, and other de- 
vout exercises ; secondly, to employ eight months in 
the year in the villages, and, in general, among the coun- 
try people, in order to instruct them in the principles of 
religion, form them to the practice of piety and virtue, 
accommodate their differences, and administer consolation 
and relief to the sick and indigent ; thirdly, to inspect 
and govern the seminaries in which persons designed 
for holy orders receive their education, and to instruct the 
candidates for the ministry, in the sciences that relate to 
their respective vocations. 15 

The Priests of the Missions were also intrusted with 
the direction and government of a female order called 
Virgins of Love, or Daughters of Charity, whose office 
t was to administer assistance and relief to indigent per- 
sons, who were confined to their beds by sickness and 
infirmity. This order was founded by a noble virgin, 
whose name was Louisa le Gras, and received, in 1660, 
the approbation of Clement IX. C The Brethren and 
Sisters of the pious and Christian schools, who are now 
commonly called Pietists, were formed into a society in 
1678, by Nicolas Barre, and obliged by their engagements 
to devote themselves to the education of poor children of 
both sexes. b It would be endless to mention all the reli- 
gious societies which rose and fell, were formed by fits 
of zeal, and dissolved by external incidents, or by their 
own internal principles of instability and decay. 

XXIX. If the Company of Jesus, which maybe con- 
sidered as the soul of the papal hierarchy, and the main- 
spring that directs its motions, had not been invincible, it 
must have sunk under the attacks of those formidable 

f^T * Hie Fathers of the Oratory will now be obliged, in a more par- 
ticular manner, to extend their plan, since, by the suppression of the 
Jesuits in France, the education of youth is committed to them. 

t> Abely's Vie de Vincent de Paul. — Helyot, torn. viii. chap. xi. — 
Gallia Christiana, torn, vii.p. 998. 

■ Gobillon's Vie de Madame le Gras, Fondatrice des Filles de la 
Charite, published at Paris, in 1676. 

a Helyot's Histoire des Ordres, torn. viii. chap. xxx. p. 233. 

" An account of this opposition to, and of these contests with the 
Jesuits, would furnish matter for many volumes, since there is scarcely 
any Roman catholic country which has not been the theatre of violent 
divisions between the sons of Loyola, and the magistrates, monks, or 
doctors, of the Romish church. In these contests, the Jesuits seemed 
almost always to be vanquished ; and, nevertheless, in the issue, they 
always came victorious from the field of controversy. A Jansenist 
writer proposed, some years ago, to collect into one relation the dis- 
persed accounts of these contests, and to give a complete history of this 
famous order. The first volume of his work accordingly appeared at 
Utrecht, in 1741, was accompanied with a curious preface, and entitled, 
Histoire des Religieux de la Compagnie de Jesus. If we may give 
credit to what this writer tells us of the journeys he undertook, the 
dangers and difficulties he encountered, and the number of years he spent 
in investigating the proceedings, and in detecting the frauds and artifices 
of the Jesuits, we must certainly be persuaded, that no man could be 
better qualified for composing the history of this insidious order. But 
this good man, returning imprudently into France, was discovered by 
his exasperated enemies the Jesuits, and is said to have perished 
miserably by their hands. Hence not above a third part of his intended 
work was either published, or finished for the press. r£3r Some things 
may be added, both by way of correction and illustration, to what Dr. 



enemies, who, during the course of this century assailed 
it on all sides and from every quarter. When we consi- 
der the multitude of the adversaries the Jesuits had to en- 
counter, the heinous crimes with which they were charged, 
the innumerable affronts they received, and the various 
calamities in which they were involved, it must appear 
astonishing that they yet subsist ; and still more so, that 
they enjoy any degree of public esteem, and are not. on 
the contrary, sunk in oblivion, or covered with infamy. 
In France, Holland, Poland, and Italy, they experienced, 
from time to time, the bitter effects of a warm and vehe- 
ment opposition, and were, both in public and private, 
accused of the greatest enormities, and charged with 
maintaining pestilential errors and maxims, that were 
equally destructive of the temporal and eternal interests 
of mankind, by their tendency to extinguish the spirit of 
true religion, and to trouble the order and peace of civil 
society. The Jansenists, and all who espoused their 
cause, distinguished themselves more especially in this 
opposition. They composed an innumerable multitude 
of books, in order to cover the sons of Loyola with eter- 
nal reproach, and to expose them to the hatred and scorn 
of the universe. Nor were these productions mere defa- 
matory libels dictated by malice alone, or pompous decla- 
mations, destitute of argument and evidence. On the 
contrary, they were attended with the strongest demon- 
stration, being drawn from undeniable facts, and confirm 
ed by unexceptionable testimonies. 6 Yet all this was far 
from overturning that fabric of profound and insidious 
policy which the Jesuits had raised, under the protection 
of the Roman pontiffs, and the connivance of deluded 
princes and nations. It seemed, on the contrary, as if 
the opposition of such a multitude of enemies and ac- 
cusers had strengthened their interest instead of dimi- 
nishing it, and added to their affluence and prosperity, 
instead of bringing on their destruction. Amidst the 
storm that threatened them with a fatal shipwreck, they 
directed their course with the utmost dexterity, tranquil- 
lity and prudence. Thus they safely reached the desired 
harbour, and rose to the very summit of spiritual autho- 
rity in the church of Rome. Avoiding, rather than repel- 

Mosheim has here said concerning the history of the Jesuits and it s 
author. In the first place, its author or compiler is still alive, resides at 
the Hague, passes by the name of Benard, is supposed to be a Janse- 
nist, and a relative of the famous Father Gluesnel, whom the Jesuits 
persecuted with such violence in France. He is a native of France, 
and belonged to the oratory. It is also true that he went thither from 
Holland several years ago ; and it was believed, that he had fallen a 
victim to the resentment of the Jesuits, until his return to the Hague 
proved that report false. Secondly, this history is carried no farther 
down than the year 1572, notwithstanding the express promises and 
engagements, by which our author bound himself, four and twenty 
years ago,* (in the preface to his first volume,) to publish the whole in a 
very short time, declaring that it was ready for the press. This suspen- 
sion is far from being honourable to M. Benard, as he is at full liberty 
to accomplish his promise. This has made some suspect, that, though 
he is too much out of the Jesuits' reach to be influenced by their threat- 
enings, he is not too far from them to be moved by the eloquence of - 
their promises, or sufficiently firm and resolute to stand out against the 
weighty remonstrances they may have employed to prevent the farther 
publication of his history. It may be observed, thirdly, that the cnarac- 
ter of a traveller, who has studied the manners and conduct of the 
Jesuits in the most remarkable scenes of their transactions in Europe, 
and the other parts of the globe, is here assumed by M. Benard as the 
most pleasing manner of conveying the accounts which he compiled in 
his closet. These accounts do not appear to be false, though the cha- 
racter of a traveller, assumed'by the compiler, be fictitious. It must be 
allowed, on the contrary, that M. Benard has drawn his relations from 
good sources, though his style and manner cannot well be justified from 
the charge of acrimony and malignity. 
* The translator wrote this note in 1765. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



557 



lino- the assault of their enemies, opposing - , for the most 
part, patience and silence to their redoubled insults, they 
proceeded uniformly and steadily to their great purpose, 
and they seemed to have attained it. For those very 
nations who formerly looked upon a Jesuit as a kind of 
monster, and as a public pest, commit, at this day, some 
through necessity, some through choice, and others 
through both, a great part of their interests and transac- 
tions to the direction of this most artful and powerful 
society. 1 

XXX. All the different branches of literature received, 
during this century, in the more polished Roman Catholic 
countries, a new degree of lustre and improvement. 
France, Spain, Italy, and the Netherlands, produced seve- 
ral men eminent for their genius, erudition, and acquain- 
tance with the learned languages. This happy circum- 
stance must not, however, be attributed to the labour of 
the schools, or to the methods and procedure of public 
education ; for the old, dry, perplexing, inelegant, scholastic 
method of instruction prevailed then, and indeed still takes 
nlace in both the higher and lower seminaries of learning ; 
and it is the peculiar tendency of this method to damp 
genius, to depress (instead of exciting and encouraging) 
the generous efforts of the mind toward the pursuit of 
truth, and to load the memory with a multitude of insig- 
nificant words and useless distinctions. It was beyond ! 
the borders of these pedantic seminaries, that genius was 
encouraged, and directed by great and eminent patrons 
of science, who opened new paths to the attainment of 
solid learning, and presented the sciences under a new 
and engaging aspect to the studious youth. It must be 
observed here, in justice to the French, that they bore a 
distinguished part in this literary reformation. Excited 
by their native force of genius, and animated by the en- 
couragement which learning and learned men received 
from the munificence of Louis XIV., they cultivated with 
success almost every branch of literature, and, rejecting 
the barbarous jargon of the schools, exhibited learning 
under an elegant and alluring form, and thereby multiplied 
the number of its votaries and patrons. b It is well known 
how much the example and labours of this polite nation 
contributed to deliver other countries from the yoke of 
scholastic bondage. 

XXXI. The Aristotelians of this century were a set of 
intricate dialecticians, who had the name of the Stagirite 
always in their mouths, without the least portion of his 
genius, or any tolerable knowledge of his system ; and 
they maintained their empire in the schools, notwithstand- 

11 It may perhaps be affirmed with truth, that none of the Roman 
catholic nations attacked the Jesuits with more vehemence and animo- 
sity than the French did upon several occasions ; and it is certain, that 
the Jesuits in that kingdom have been, more than once, involved in great 
difficulties and distress. To be convinced of this, the reader has only to 
consult Du-Boulay's Hist. Acadcmiae Parisiensis, torn. vi. page 559, 648, 
676, 738, 742, 763,874, 890, 909, in which he will find an ample and 
accurate account of the resolutions and transactions of the parliament 
and university of Paris, and also of the proceedings of the people in 
general, to the detriment of this artful and dangerous society. But 
what was the final issue of all these resolutions and transactions, and in 
what did all this opposition end 1 ? I answer, in the exaltation and 
grandeur of the Jesuits. They had been banished with ignominy out 
of the kingdom, and were recalled from their exile, and honourably 
restored to their former credit in 1604, in the reign of Henry IV., not- 
withstanding the remonstrances of many persons of the highest rank 
and dignity, who were shocked beyond expression at this unaccountably 
mean and ignoble step, (see the Memoires de Sully, modern edition, 
published at Geneva, torn. v.'p. 83, 314.) After that period, they moved 
the main-springs of government both in church and state, and still 

No. XLVII. 140 



ing the attempts that had been made to diminish their 
credit. It was long before the court of Rome, which 
beheld with terror whatever bore the smallest aspect of 
novelty, could think of consenting to the introduction of 
a more rational philosophy, or permit the modern disco- 
veries in that noble science to be explained with freedom 
in the public seminaries of learning. This appears suffi- 
ciently from the fate of Galileo, the famous mathema- 
tician of Florence, who was cast into prison by the court 
of Inquisition, for adopting the sentiments of Copernicus, 
with regard to the constitution of the solar system. It is 
true, that Des-Cartes and Gassendi, c one by his new phi- 
losophy, and the other by his admirable writings, gave a 
mortal wound to the Peripatetics, and excited a spirit of 
liberty and emulation that changed the face of science in 
France. It was under the auspicious influence of these 
adventurous guides, that several ingenious men of that 
nation abandoned the perplexed and intricate wilds of the 
philosophy that was taught by the modern Aristotelians; 
and, throwing off the shackles of mere authority, dared 
to consult the dictates of reason and experience, in the 
study of nature, and in the investigation of truth. Among 
these converts to true philosophy, several Jesuits, and a 
still greater number of Jansenists and priests of the Ora- 
tory, distinguished themselves ; and, accordingly, we find 
in this list the respectable names of Malebranche, Arnauld, 
Lami, Nicole, Pascal, who acquired immortal fame by illus- 
trating and improving the doctrine of Des-Cartes, and 
accommodating it to the purposes of human life. d The 
modesty, circumspection, and self-diffidence of Gassendi, 
who confessed the scanty measure of his knowledge, and 
pretended to no other merit than that of pointing out a 
rational method of arriving at truth, while others boasted 
that they had already found it out, rendered him disagree- 
able in France. The ardent curiosity, the fervour, preci- 
pitation, and impatience of that lively people, could not 
bear the slow and cautious method of proceeding that was 
recommended by the cool wisdom of this prudent inquirer. 
They wanted to get at the summit of philosophy, without 
climbing the steps that lead to it. 

Toward the conclusion of this centuiy, many eminent 
men, in Italy and in other countries, followed the example 
of the French, in throwing off the yoke of the Peripatetics, 
and venturing into the paths that were newly opened for 
the investigation of truth. This desertion of the old phi- 
losophy was at first attended with that timidity and secrecy 
which arose from apprehensions of the displeasure and 
resentment of the court of Rome ; but, as soon as it was 

continue to sit, though invisibly, at the helm of both, g^* The reader 
must be reminded, that this note was written by Dr. Mosheim some 
years before the suppression of the society of Jesuits in France. 

b For an ample account of this matter, see Voltaire's Steele de Louis 
XIV. and more especially the chapter in die second volume relative to 
the arts and sciences. 

c See Gassendi Exercitationes Paradoxse adversus Aristoteleos, torn. 
iii. op. This subtle and judicious work contributed, perhaps more than 
any thing else, to hurt the cause, and ruin the credit, of the Peripatetics. 

rt These great men were, indeed, very ill treated by the Peripatetics, 
on account of their learned and excellent labours. They were accused, 
by these exasperated scholastics, of irreligion, and were even charged 
with atheism by father Hardouin, who was really intoxicated with the 
large draughts he had taken from the muddy fountains of Peripatetic 
and scholastic science. See his Athei Detecti, in his Op. Posthuzn. — It 
is easy to perceive the reasons of all this resentment, since the Cartesian 
system, which aimed at restoring the authority of reason, and the light 
of true philosophy, was by no means so proper to defend the pi- ten- 
sions of Rome anii the cause of popery, as the dark and intricate jargon 
of the Peripatetics. 



558 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



known that the pontiffs beheld, with less indignation and 
jealousy, the new discoveries in metaphysics, mathematics, 
and natural philosophy, the deserters broke their chains 
with greater confidence, and proceeded with greater free- 
dom and boldness in the pursuit of truth. 

XXXII. After this general account of the state of learn- 
ing in the catholic countries, it will not be improper to 
point out, in a more particular manner, those Romish 
writers, who contributed most to the propagation and im- 
provement both of sacred and profane erudition during 
this century. The Jesuits, for a long time, not only pos- 
sessed an undisputed pre-eminence in this" respect, but 
were, moreover, considered as almost the sole fountains 
of universal knowledge, and the only religious order that 
made any great figure in the literary world. And it must 
be allowed by all, who are not misled by want of candour 
or of proper information, that this famous society was 
adorned by many persons of uncommon genius and 
learning. The names of Petau, Sirmond, Poussin, Labbe, 
and Abram, will live as long as literature shall be honoured 
and valued ; and even that of Hardouin, notwithstanding 
the singularity of his disordered fancy, and the extrava- 
gance of many of his opinions, will escape oblivion. 

It is at the same time to be observed, that the literary 
glory of the Jesuits suffered a remarkable eclipse in this 
century, from the growing lustre of the Benedictine order, 
and more especially of the Congregation of St. Maur. 
The Jesuits were perpetually boasting of the eminent 
merit and lustre of their society on the one hand, and 
exposing, on the other, to public contempt, the ignorance 
and stupidity of the Benedictines, who, indeed, formerly 
made a very different figure from what they do at pre- 
sent. Their view in this was to form a plausible pretext 
for invading the rights of the latter, and engrossing their 
ample revenues and possessions ; but the Benedictines 
resolved to disconcert this insidious project, to wipe off 
the reproach of ignorance that had heretofore been cast 
upon them with too much justice, and to disappoint the 
rapacious avidity of their enemies, and rob them of their 
pretexts. For this purpose they not only erected schools 
in their monasteries, for the instruction of youth in the va- 
rious branches of learning and science, but also empkwed 
such of their select members, as were distinguished 
by their erudition and genius, in composing a variety of 
learned productions that were likely to survive the waste 
of time, adapted to vindicate the honour of the fraternity, 
and to reduce its enemies to silence. This important 
task was executed with incredible ability and success by 
Mabillon, DAchery, Massuet, Ruinart, Beaugendre, Gar- 
nier, De la Rue, Martenne, Montfaucon, and other emi- 
nent men of that learned order. It is to these Benedic- 
tines that we are indebted for the best editions of the 
Greek and Latin fathers ; for the discovery of many curi- 
ous records, and ancient documents, that throw a new 
light upon the history of remote ages, and upon the an- 
tiquities of various countries ; for the best accounts of 
ancient transactions, whether ecclesiastical or political, 
and of the manners and customs of the earliest times ; 
for the improvement of chronology, and the other branches 
of literature. In all these parts of philology and the belles 

The denomination of Messieurs de Port-Royal comprehended all 
the Jansenist writers ; but it was applied, in a more confined and par- 
ticular sense, to those Jansenists who passed their days in pious exer- 
cises and literary pursuits in the retreat of Port^Royal, a mansion situa- 



lettres, the religious order, now under consideration, has 
shone with a distinguished lustre, and given specimens 
of knowledge, discernment, and industry, that are wor- 
thy of being transmitted to the latest posterity. It would 
be perhaps difficult to assign a reason for that visible de- 
cline of learning among the Jesuits, which commenced 
precisely at the very period when the Benedictines began 
to make this eminent figure in the republic of letters. 
The fact, however, is undeniable ; and the Jesuits have 
long been at a loss to produce any one or more of their 
members who are qualified to dispute the pre-eminence, 
or even to claim an equality, with the Benedictines. The 
latter still continue to shine in the various branches of 
philology, and, almost every year, enrich the literary world 
with productions that furnish abundant proofs of their 
learning and industry ; whereas, if we except a single 
work published by the Jesuits of Antwerp, (the Acts of 
the Saints,) many years have passed since the sons of 
Loyola have given any satisfactory proofs of their boasted 
learning, or added to the mass of literature any work wor- 
thy to be compared with the labours of the followers of 
Benedict. 

These learned monks excited the emulation of the 
Priests of the Oratory, whose efforts to resemble them 
were far from being destitute of success. Several mem- 
bers of the latter order distinguished themselves by their 
remarkable proficiency in various branches both of sacred 
and profane literature. This, to mention no more exam- 
ples, appears sufficiently from the writings of Morin, 
Thomassin, and Simon, and from that admirable work 
of Charles le Cointe, entitled, The Ecclesiastical Annals 
of France. The Jansenists also deserve a place in the 
list of those who cultivated letters with industry and suc- 
cess. Many of their productions abound with erudition, 
and several of them excel both in elegance of style and 
precision of method ; and it may be said, in general, that 
their writings were eminently serviceable in the instruc- 
tion of youth, and also proper to contribute to the progress 
of learning among persons of riper years. The writings 
of those who composed the community of Port-Royal, a 
the works of Tillemont, Arnauld, Nicole, Pascal, and 
Lancelot, with many other elegant and useful productions 
of persons of this class, were undoubtedly an ornament 
to French literature during this century. The other reli- 
gious societies, the higher and lower orders of the clergy, 
had also among them men of learning and genius, who 
reflected a lustre upon the respective classes to which they 
belonged. Nor ought this to be a matter of astonishment, 
since nothing is more natural than that, in an immense 
multitude of monks and clergy, all possessing abundant 
leisure for study, and the best opportunities of improve- 
ment, there should be some who, unwilling to hide or 
throw away such a precious talent, would employ with 
success this leisure, and these opportunities, in the culti- 
vation of the sciences. It is nevertheless certain, that the 
eminent men who were to be found beyond the limits of 
the four classes already mentioned, 11 were few in number, 
comparatively speaking, and scarcely exceeded the list 
that any one of these classes could furnish. 

XXXIII. Hence it comes, that the church of Rome 

ted near Paris. It is well known, that several writers of superior 
genius, extensive learning, and uncommon eloquence, resided in this 
sanctuary of letters. 

>> The Jesuits, Benedictines, Priests of the Oratory, and Jansenists. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



559 



can produce a long list of writers who have arisen in its 
bosom, and acquired a shining and permanent reputation 
by their learned productions. At the head of the emi- 
nent authors, found among the monastic orders and the 
regular clergy, must be placed the cardinals Baronius and 
Bellarniine, who have obtained an immortal name in 
their church, one by his laborious Annals, and the other 
by his books of controversy. The other writers who be- 
long to this class, are, Serrarius, Fevardentius, Possevin. 
Gretser, Combefis, Natalis Alexander, Becan, Sirmond, 
Petau, Poussin, Cellot, Caussin, Morin, Renaud, Fra- 
Paolo, Pallavicini, Labbe, Maimbourg, Thomassin, Sfon- 
drati, Aguirre, Henry Norris, DAchery, Mabillon, Har- 
douin, Simon, Ruinart, Montfaucon, Galloni, Scacchi, 
Cornelius a Lapide, Bonfrere, Menard, Seguenot, Ber- 
nard, Lamy, Bolland, Henschen, Papebroch, and others. 

The principal among the secular clergy, who are nei- 
ther bound by vows, nor attached to any peculiar com- 
munity and rules of discipline, were, Perron, Estius, 
Launoy, Albaspinseus, Peter de Marca, Richelieu, Hol- 
stenius, Baluze, Bona, Huet, Bossuet, Fenelon, Godeau, 
Tillemont, Thiers, Du-Pin, Leo Allatius, Zaccagni, Cote- 
lier, Filesac, Visconti, &c.* This list might be consider- 
ably augmented by adding to it those writers among the 
laity who distinguished themselves by their theological or 
literary productions. 

XXXIV. If we take an accurate view of the religious 
system of the Romish church during this century, both 
with respect to articles of faith and rules of practice, we 
shall find that, instead of being improved by being brought 
nearer to the perfect model of doctrine and morals, exhi- 
bited to us in the Holy Scriptures, it had contracted new 
degrees of corruption and degeneracy, partly by the neg- 
ligeuce of the pontiffs, and partly by the dangerous max- 
ims and influence of the Jesuits. This is not only the 
observation of those who have renounced the Romish com- 
munion, and in the despotic style of that church are called 
heretics ; it is the complaint of the wisest and worthiest 
part of that communion, of all its members who have a 
zeal for the advancement of true Christian knowledge and 
genuine piety. 

As to the doctrinal part of the Romish religion, it is 
said, and not without foundation, to have suffered ex- 
tremely in the hands of the Jesuits, who, under the con- 
nivance, and sometimes even by the immediate assistance 
of the pontiffs, have perverted and corrupted such of the 
fundamental doctrines of Christianity as were left entire 
by the council of Trent. There are proofs sufficient to 
support this charge ; inasmuch as the subtle and insidious 
fathers have manifestly endeavoured to diminish the autho- 
rity and importance of the Scriptures, have extolled the 
power of human nature, changed the sentiments of many 
with respect to the necessity and efficacy of divine grace, 
represented the mediation and sufferings of Christ as less 
powerful and meritorious than they are said to be in the 
sacred writings, turned the Roman pontiff into a terres- 
trial Deity, and put him almost upon an equal footing 
with the Divine Saviour ; and, finally, have rendered, as 
far as they can, the truth of the Christian religion dubious, 
by their fallacious reasonings, and their artful and per- 
nicious sophistry. The testimonies adduced to support 
these accusations by men of weight and merit, parlicu- 

• For a particular account of the respective merit of the writers hera 



larly among the Jansenists, are of very great authority ; 
and it is extremely difficult to refuse our assent to them, 
when they are impartially examined : but, on the other 
hand, it may be easily proved, that the Jesuits, instead 
of inventing these pernicious doctrines, did no more, in 
reality, than propagate them as they found them in that 
ancient system of religion which preceded the Reform- 
.ation, and was directly calculated to raise the authority 
of the pope, and the power and prerogatives of the church, 
to the highest pitch of despotic grandeur. To inculcate 
this form of doctrine was the direct vocation of the Jesuits, 
who were to derive all their credit, opulence, and influ- 
ence, from their being considered as the main support of 
the papacy, and the peculiar favourites of the pontiffs. If 
the ultimate end and purpose of these pontiffs were to 
render the church more pure and holy, and to bring it as 
near as possible to the resemblance of its Divine Founder, 
and if this were the commission they gave to their favour- 
ite emissaries the doctors, then the Jesuits would be at 
liberty to preach a very different doctrine from what they 
now inculcate. But that liberty cannot be granted to 
them as long as their principal orders from the papal 
throne are, to use all their diligence and industry, to the 
end that the pontiffs may hold what they have acquired, 
and recover what they have lost, and that the bishops 
and other ministers of the church may daily see their 
opulence increase, and the limits of then authority ex- 
tended and enlarged. The chief crime then of the Jesuits 
is really this, that they have explained, with more open- 
ness and perspicuity, those points which the leading 
managers in the council of Trent had either entirely 
omitted, or slightly mentioned, that they might not shock 
the friends of true religion, who composed a part of that 
famous assembly. And here we see the true reason why 
the pontiffs, notwithstanding the ardent solicitations and 
remonstrances that have been employed to arm their just 
severity against the Jesuits, have always maintained that 
artful order, and have been so deaf to the accusations of 
their adversaries, that no entreaties have been able to^er- 
suade them to condemn their religious principles and 
tenets, however erroneous in their nature, and pernicious 
in their effects. On the contrary, the court of Rome has 
always opposed, either in a public or clandestine manner, 
all the vigorous measures that have been used to procure 
the condemnation and suppression of the doctrine of the 
Jesuits ; and it has constantly treated ail such attempts 
as the projects of rash and imprudent men, who, through 
involuntary ignorance or obstinate prejudice, were blind 
to the true interest of the church. 

XXXV. In the sphere of morals, the Jesuits made still 
more dreadful and atrocious inroads than in that of reli 
gion. In affirming that they have perverted and corrupted 
almost every branch and precept of morality, we should 
not express sufficiently the pernicious tendency of their 
maxims. Were we to go still farther, and maintain, that 
they have sapped and destroyed its very foundations, we 
should maintain no more than what innumerable writers 
of the Romish church abundantly testify, and what man y 
of the most illustrious communities of that church pub- 
licly lament. Those who bring this dreadful charge 
against the sons of Loyola, have taken abundant pre- 
cautions to vindicate themselves from the reproach of 

mentionsd, see Du-Pin's His. des Ecrevains Eccles. t. xvii. xviii. six. 



560 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. n. 



calumny. They have published several maxims, incon- 
sistent with all regard for virtue and even decency, which 
they have drawn from the moral writings of that order, 
and more especially from the numerous productions of its 
casuists. They observe, more particularly, that the whole 
society adopts and inculcates the following maxims : 

" That persons truly wicked, and void of the love of 

God, may expect to obtain eternal life in heaven, provided 

hat they be impressed with a fear of the divine anger, 

nd avoid all heinous and enormous crimes through the 

dread of future punishment. 

" That those persons may transgress with safety, who 
have a probable reason for transgressing, i. e. any plausible 
argument or authority in favour of the sin they are in- 
clined to commit. 1 

" That actions intrinsically evil, and directly contrary 
to the divine laws, may be innocently performed, by those 
who have so much power over their own minds, as to join, 
even ideally, a good end to this wicked action, or (to speak 
in the style of the Jesuits) who are capable of rightly 
directing their intention. b 

" That philosophical sin is of a very light and trivial 
nature, and does no*t deserve the pains of hell : — By phi- 
losophical sin the Jesuits mean an action contrary to the 

f~ir ° This is one of the m >st corrupt and most dangerous maxims 
of the Jesuits. On one hand, t_*ey have among them doctors of different 
characters and different princip.->s, that thus they may render their 
society recommendable in the eyes of all sorts of persons, the licentious 
as well as the austere. On the otha.' '.hey maintain, that an opinion or 
practice, recommended by any one doctor, becomes thereby probable, as 
it is not to be supposed, that a learned divine would adopt an opinion, 
or recommend a practice, in favour of which no considerable reason 
could be alleged. — But here lies the poison: this probable opinion or 
practice may be followed, say the Jesuits, when the contrary is still 
more probable, and even when it is sure, because, though the man may 
err, he errs under the authority of an eminent doctor. Thus Escobar 
affirms, that a judge may decide in favour of that side of a question 
which is the least probable, and even against his own opinion, if he be 
supported by any tolerable authority. See the viiith of the Lettres 
Provinciales. 

ITJT b For example, an ecclesiastic who buys a benefice, in order to 
direct his intention rightly, must, by a powerful act of abstraction, turn 
away his thoughts from the crime of simony, which he is committing, 
to some lawful purpose, such as that of acquiring an ample subsistence, 
or that of doing good by instructing the ignorant. Thus again, a man 
who runs his neighbour through the body in a duel, on account of a 
trivial affront, to render his action lawful, has only to turn his thoughts 
from the principal of vengeance, to the more decent principle of honour, 
and the murder he commits will, by the magic power of Jesuitical 
morality, be converted into an innocent action. There is no crime or 
enormity to which this abominable maxim may not be extended. " A 
famous Jesuit has declared, that a son may wish for the death of his 
father, and even rejoice at it when it arrives, provided that his wish 
does not arise from any personal hatred, but only from a desire of the 
patrimony which this death will procure him." See Gaspard Hurtado, 
de sub. p'eccat. definit. 9, quoted by Diana, p. 5. tr. 14. R. 99, and ano- 
ther has had the effrontery to maintain, that a monk or ecclesiastic may 
lawfully assassinate a calumniator, who threatens to impute scandalous 
crimes to their community, when there is no other way of preventing the 
execution of his purpose. See the works of Father L'Amy, torn. v. 
disp. 36, n. 118. 

H=T ° It would perhaps be more accurate to define the philosophical 
sin of the Jesuits to be "an action contrary to right reason, which is 
done by a person who is either absolutely ignorant of God, or does not 
think of him during the time this action is committed." 

<i The books that have been written to expbse and refute the corrupt 
and enormous maxims of the Jesuits, would make an ample library, were 
they collected. But nothing of this kind is equal to the learned, inge- 
nious, and humorous work of the famous Pascal, entitled, Les Provin- 
ciales, ou Lettres ecrites par Louis de Montalte a un Provincial de ses 
amis, et aux Jesuites, sur la Morale et la Politique de ces Peres. This 
exquisite production is accompanied, in some editions of it, with the 
learned and judicious observations of Nicole, who, under the fictitious 
name of Guillaume Wenderock, fully demonstrated the truth of those 
facts which Pascal had advanced without quoting his authorities, and 
olaced, in a full and striking light, several interesting circumstances 
which that great man had treated with, perhaps, too much brevity. 



dictates of nature and right reason, done by a person who 
is ignorant of the written law of God, or doubtful c of ita 
true meaning. 

" That the transgressions committed by a person blind- 
ed by the seduction of lust, agitated by the impulse of 
tumultuous passions, and destitute of all sense and im- 
pression of religion, however detestable and heinous they 
may be in themselves, 'are not imputable to the transgres- 
sor before the tribunal of God ; and that such transgres 
sions may often be as involuntary as the actions of a 
madman : 

" That the person who takes an oath, or enters into a 
contract, may, to elude the force of the one, and the obli- 
gation of the other, add, to the form of words by which 
they are expressed, certain mental additions and tacit 
reservations." 

These, and other enormities of a like nature/ are 
said to make an essential part of the system of morality 
inculcated by the Jesuits. And they were complained 
of, in the strongest remonstrances, not only hy the Domi- 
nicans and Jansenists, but also by the most eminent theo- 
logians of Paris, Poictiers, Louvain, and other academical 
cities, who expressed their abhorrence of them in such a 
public and solemn manner, that the pontiff neither thought 

These letters, which did the Jesuits more real mischief than either 
the indignation of sovereign princes, or any other calamity that had 
heretofore fallen upon their order, were translated into Latin by Rache- 
lius. On the other hand, the sons of Loyola, sensibly affected and 
alarmed by this formidable attack upon their reputation, left no means 
unemployed to defend themselves against such a respectable adversary. 
They sent forth their ablest champions to defend their cause, or, at least, 
to cover them from shame : among which champions the subtle and 
eloquent Father Daniel, the celebrated author of the History of France, 
shone forth with a superior lustre ; and, as if they thought it unsafe to 
trust to the powers of argument, and the force of evidence alone, they 
applied themselves for help to the secular arm, and had credit enough to 
obtain a sentence, condemning the Provinciales to be burned publicly 
at Paris. See Daniel's Opuscules, vol. i. p. 363. This author, how- 
ever, acknowledges that the greatest part of the answers which the 
Jesuits opposed to the performance of Pascal were weak and unsatis- 
factory. Certain it is, that (whether it was owing to the strength of argu- 
ment, or to the elegant wit and humour that reigned in them,) the Pro- 
vincial Letters lost not the smallest portion of their credit and reputation 
by all the answers that were made to them, but continued to pass through 
a great number of editions, which could scarcely be printed off with 
rapidity sufficient to satisfy the desires of the public. 

Another severe attack was made upon the Jesuits, in a book inferior 
to Pascal's work in point of wit and genteel pleasantry, but superior 
to it in point of evidence, since it abounds with passages and testimo- 
nies, which are drawn from the most applauded writings of the Jesuits, 
and demonstrate fully the corruption and enormity of the moral rules 
and maxims inculcated by that famous order. This book, which was 
published at Mons in 1702, bears the following title : La Morale des 
Jesuites, extraite fidelement de leurs Livres imprimez avec la permis- 
sion et l'approbation des Superieurs de leur Compagnie, pa-run Docteur 
de Sorbonne. The author was Perrault, (son of Charles Perrault, who 
began the famous controversy in France concerning the respective 
merits of the ancients and moderns,) and his book met with the same 
fate with the Provinciales of Pascal : for it was burned at Paris in 1670, 
at the request of the Jesuits. See the Opuscules du Pere Daniel, t. i. p. 
356. Nor indeed is it at all surprising, that the Jesuits exerted all their 
zeal against this compilation, which exhibited, in one shocking point of 
view, all that had been complained of and censured in their maxims and 
institutions, and unfolded the whole mystery of their iniquity. 

It has also been laid to the charge of the Jesuits, that they reduced 
their pernicious maxims to practice, especially in the remoter parts of 
the world. Arnauld, and some of his Jansenist brethren, ably endea- 
voured to support this charge in that laborious and celebrated work, 
entitled La Morale Pratique des Jesuites. In this important work, a 
multitude of authentic relations, documents, facts, and testimonies, are 
employed to demonstrate the criminal conduct and practices of the 
Jesuits. For an ample account of the Jesuitical doctrine concerning 
philosophical sin, and the dissensions and controversies it occasioned, 
see Jacobi Hyacinthi Serry.* Addenda ad Histor. Congregationum de 
Auxiliis, p. 82 ; as also his Auctarium, p. 289. 

|3= * This is a fictitious name ; the true name of the author of the 
Addenda was Augustin Le Blanc. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



561 



it safe nor honourable to keep silence on that head. Ac- 
cordingly some of these maxims were condemned, in 1659, 
by pope Alexander VII. in a public edict; and, in 1690, 
the article relating to philosophical sin met with the same 
fate, under the pontificate of Alexander VIII. a . It was 
natural to think, that, if the order of Jesuits did not ex- 
pire under the terrible blows it received from such a for- 
midable list of adversaries, yet their system of morals 
must at least have been suppressed, and their pestilential 
maxims banished from the schools. This is the least 
that could have been expected from the complaints and 
remonstrances of the clerical and monastic orders, and 
the damnatory bulls of the pontiffs. And yet, if we may 
credit the testimonies of many learned and pious men in 
the communion of Rome, even this effect was not produc- 
ed ; and the remonstrances of the monks, the complaints 
of the clergy, and the bulls of the popes, rather served to 
restrain, in a certain measure, the enormous licentiousness 
that had reigned among the writers of this corrupt order, 
than to purify the seminaries of instruction from the con- 
tagion of their dissolute maxims. — After what has been 
observed in relation to the moral system of the Jesuits, it 
will not be difficult to assign a reason for the remarkable 
propensity that is discovered by kings, princes, the nobi- 
lity and gentry of both sexes, and an innumerable multi- 
tude of persons of all ranks and conditions, to commit their 
consciences to the direction, and their souls to the care, of 
the brethren of this society. It is, no doubt, highly con- 
venient for persons, who do not pretend to a rigid obser- 
vance of the duties of religion and morality, to have spi- 
ritual guides, who diminish the guilt of transgression, 
disguise the deformity of vice, let loose the reins to all 
the passions, and even nourish them by their dissolute 
precepts, and render the way to heaven as easjr, agreeable, 
and smooth as is possible. b 

What has here been said concerning the erroneous 
maxims and corrupt practices of the Jesuits, must, how- 
ever, be understood with modifications and restrictions. 
It must not be imagined, that these maxims are adopted, 
or these practices justified, by all the sons of Loyola, with- 
out exception, or that they are publicly taught and incul- 
cated in all their schools and seminaries : for this, in re- 
ality, is not the case. As this order has produced men 
of learning and genius, so neither has it been destitute 
of men of probity and candour ; nor would it be a diffi- 
cult task to compile from the writings of the Jesuits a 
much more just and proper representation of the duties 
of religion and the obligations of morality, than that 
hideous and unseemly exhibition of both, which Pascal 
and his followers have drawn from the Jesuitical casuists, 
summists, and moralists. Those who censure the Jesuits 
in general, must, if their censures be well founded, have 
the following circumstances in view ; first, that the 
rulers of that society not only suffer many of their mem- 
bers to propagate publicly impious opinions and corrupt 
maxims, but even go so far as to set the seal of their 

* Tnere is a concise and accurate account of the contests and divisions, 
to which the morality of the Jesuits gave rise in France and in other 
countries, in a work, entitled, Catechisme Historique et Dogmatique sur 
les Contestations qui divisent maintenant l'Eglise, published in 1730. 
See torn. ii. p. 26. — It is very remarkable, that the two bulls of Alexan- 
der VII. and VIII. against the Jesuits are not to be found in the Bulla- 
rwm Pontificum ; but the Jansenists and Dominicans, who are careful 
in perpetuating whatever may tend to the dishonour of the Jesuits, have 
preserved them industriously from oblivion. 

No. XLVIH. 141 



approbation to the books in which these opinions and 
maxims are contained ; c secondly, that the system of 
religion and morality, taught in the greatest part of their 
seminaries, is so loose, vague, and ill-digested, that it not 
only may be easily perverted to bad purposes and erro- 
neous conclusions, but even seems peculiarly susceptible 
of such abuse ; and lastly, that the select few, who are 
initiated into the grand mysteries of the society, and set 
apart to transact its affairs, to carry on its projects, to exert 
their political talents in the closet of the minister, or in 
the cabinet of the prince, commonly make use of the 
dangerous and pernicious maxims that are complained 
of to augment the authority and opulence of their order. 
The candour and impartiality that become an historian, 
oblige us to acknowledge, at the same time, that, in de- 
monstrating the turpitude and enormity of certain max- 
ims and opinions of the Jesuits, their adversaries have 
gone too far, and permitted their eloquence and zeal to 
run into exaggeration. This we might show, with the 
fullest evidence, by examples deduced from the doctrines 
of probability and mental reservation, and the imputa- 
tions that have been made to the Jesuits on these heads ; 
but this would lead us too far from the thread of our his- 
tory. We shall only observe, that what happens fre- 
quently in every kind of controversy, happened here in 
a singular manner ; I mean, that the Jesuits were charg- 
ed with tenets, which had been drawn consequentially 
from their doctrine, by their accusers, without their con- 
sent ; that their phrases and terms were not always in- 
terpreted according to the precise meaning which they 
annexed to them ; and that the tendency of their sys- 
tem was represented in too partial and unequitable a 
fight. 

XXXVI. The Scriptures did not acquire any new 
degrees of public respect and authority under the pontiffs 
of this century. It can be proved, on the contrary, by 
the most authentic records, that the votaries of Rome, and 
more especially the Jesuits, employed all their dexterity 
and art, either to prevent the word of God from falling 
into the hands of the people, or at least to have it explain- 
ed in a manner consistent with the interest, grandeur, 
and pretensions of their church. In France and the 
Netherlands there arose, indeed, several commentators 
and critics, who were very far from being destitute of 
knowledge and erudition ; but it may nevertheless be said 
of them, that, instead of illustrating and explaining the 
divine oracles, they rendered them more obscure, by 
blending 1 their own crude inventions with the dictates of 
celestial wisdom. This is chargeable even upon the Jan- 
senists, who, though superior to the other Roman catho- 
lic expositors in most respects, yet fell into that absurd 
method of disfiguring the pure word of God. by far-fetched 
allusions, mystic interpretations, and frigid allegories, 
compiled from the reveries of the ancient fathers. d Here, 
nevertheless, an exception is to be made in favour of 
Pasquier Quesnel, a priest of the oratory, whose edition 

* The translator has here inserted in the text the note « of the original. 

5^p c This is, no doubt, true. The Jesuits have doctors of all sorts 
and sizes; and this, indeed, is necessary, in order to the establishment 
of that universal empire at which they aim. See Lettres Provinciales, 
let. v. p. 62 of the tenth Cologne edition. 

a The reader will find a striking example of this in the well-known 
Bible of Isaac le Maitre, commonly called Sacy, which contains all the 
crude and extravagant fancies and allegories, with which the ancient 
doctors obscured die beautiful simplicity of the Scriptures, and rendered 
their clearest expressions intricate and mysterious. 



562 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



of the New Testament, accompanied with pious medita- 
tions and remarks, made such a prodigious noise in the 
theological world, 11 and even in our time has continued to 
furnish matter of warm and violent contest, and to split 
the Roman catholic doctors into parties and factions. b 

XXXVII. The majority of the public schools retained 
that dry, intricate, and captious method of teaching theo- 
logy, which had prevailed in the ages of barbarism and 
darkness, and which could only excite disgust in all such 
as were endowed with a liberal turn of mind. There was 
no possibility of ordering matters so, that didactic or bibli- 
cal theology, which is supposed to arrange and illustrate 
the truths of religion by the dictates of Scripture, should 
be placed upon the same footing, and holden in the same 
honour with scholastic divinity, which had its source in 
the metaphysical visions of the Peripatetic philosophy. 
Even the edicts of the pontiffs were insufficient to accom- 
plish this object. In the greatest part of the universities, 
the scholastic doctors domineered, and were constantly 
molesting and insulting the biblical divines, who, generally 
speaking, were little skilled in the captious arts of sophis- 
try and dialectical chicane. It is nevertheless to be ob- 
served, that many of the French doctors, and more espe- 
cially the Jansenists, explained the principal doctrines and 
duties of Christianity in a style and manner that were at 
least recommendable on account of their elegance and per- 
spicuity ; and indeed it may be affirmed, that almost all 
the theological or moral treatises of this age, that were 
composed with any tolerable degree of simplicity and good 
sense, had the doctors of Port-Royal, or the French priests 
of the oratory, for their authors. We have already taken 
notice of the changes that were introduced, during this 
century, into the method of carrying on theological con- 
troversy. The German, Belgic, and French divines, being 
at length convinced, by disagreeable experience, that their 
captious, incoherent, and uncharitable manner of disput- 
ing, exasperated those who differed from them in their 
religious sentiments, and confirmed them in their respec- 
tive systems, instead of converting them ; — and perceiv- 
ing, moreover, that the arguments in which they had 
formerly placed their principal confidence, proved feeble 
and insufficient to make the least impression, — found it 
necessary to look out for new and more specious methods 
of attack and defence. 

XXXVIII. The Romish church has, notwithstanding 
its boasted uniformity of doctrine, been always divided by 
a multitude of controversies. It would be endless to enu- 
merate the disputes that have arisen between the semi- 
naries of learning, and the contests that have divided the 
monastic orders. The greatest part of these, as being of 
little moment, we shall pass over in silence ; for they have 
been treated with indifference and neglect by the popes, 
who never took notice of them but when they grew violent 
and noisy, and then suppressed them with an imperious 
nod, that imposed silence upon the contending parties. Be- 
sides, these less momentous controversies, which it will ne- 
ver be possible entirely to extinguish, are not of such a na- 
ture as to affect the church in its fundamental principles, to 

fjf » That is, in the Roman Catholic part of the theological world. 
Never perhaps did any thing show, in a more striking manner, the 
olind zeal of faction than the hard treatment this book met with. See 
Cent, xviii. sect. x. note . 

*> The first part of this work, which contains observations on the four 
Gospels, was published in 1671 ; and, as it was received with general 



endanger its constitution, or to hurt its interests. It will, 
therefore, be sufficient to give a brief account of those de- 
bates which, by their superior importance and their variou3 
connexions and dependencies, may be said to have affected 
the church in general, and to have threatened it with 
alarming changes and revolutions. 

And here the first place is naturally due to the famous 
debates, carried on between the Jesuits and Dominicans 
concerning the nature and necessity of divine grace ; the 
decision of which important point had, toward the conclu- 
sion of the preceding century, been committed by Clement 
VIII. to a select assembly of learned divines. These arbi- 
ters, after having employed several years in deliberating 
upon this nice and critical subject, and in examining the 
arguments of the contending parties, intimated, plainly 
enough, to the pontiff, that the sentiments of the Domini- 
cans, concerning grace, predestination, human liberty, and 
original sin, were more conformable to the doctrine of 
Scripture and the decisions of the ancient fathers than 
the opinions of Molina, which were patronised by the 
Jesuits. They observed, more especially, that the former 
leaned toward the tenets of Augustine, while the latter 
bore a striking resemblance to the Pelagian heresy. In 
consequence of this declaration, Clement seemed resolved 
to pass condemnation on the Jesuits, and to determine the 
controversy in favour of the Dominicans. Affairs were in 
this state in 1601, when the Jesuits, alarmed at the dan- 
gers that threatened them, beset the old pontiff night and 
day, and so importuned him with entreaties, menaces, 
arguments, and complaints, that, in 1602, he consented to 
re-examine this intricate controversy, and undertook him- 
self the critical task of principal arbitrator. For this pur- 
pose, he chose a council (composed of fifteen cardinals, 
nine professors of divinity, and five bishops,) which, in 
the course of three years, d assembled seventy-eight times, 
or, to speak in the style of Rome, held so many congre- 
gations. At these meetings, the pontiff heard, at one 
time, the Jesuits and Dominicans disputing in favour of 
their respective systems ; and, at another, ordered the 
assembled doctors to weigh their reasons, and examine 
the proofs that were adduced on both sides of this difficult 
question. The result of this examination is not known 
with certainty ; as the death of Clement, which happened 
on the fourth day of March, 1605, prevented his pro 
nounciog a decisive sentence. The Dominicans assure 
us, that the pope, had he lived, would have condemned 
Molina. The Jesuits, on the contrary, maintain, that he 
would have acquitted him publicly from all charge of 
heresy and error. They alone who have seen the records 
of this council and the journals of its proceedings, are qua- 
lified to determine which of the two we are to believe ; 
but these records are kept with the utmost secrecy at 
Rome. 

XXXIX. The proceedings of the congregation that 
had been assembled by Clement were suspended for some 
time, by the death of that pontiff; but they were resumed, 
in the same year, by the order of Paul V. his successor. 
Their deliberations, which were continued from September 

applause, this encouraged the author not only to revise and augment it, 
but also to enlarge his plan, and compose observations on the other 
books of theN. Test. Seethe Catech. Hist, sur les Contest, de l'Eglise, 
t. ii. p. 150.— Ch. Eberh. Weismanni Hist.Eccles. skc. XVII. p. 588. 

f^» ° This council was called the congregation de Auziliis. 

* From the 20th of March, 1602, to the 22d of January, 1605. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



563 



to the following March, did not turn so much upon the me- 
rits of the cause, which were already sufficiently examined, 
as upon the prudent and proper method of finishing the 
contest. The great question now was, whether the well- 
being of the church would admit the decision of this con- 
troversy by a papal bull ; and, if such a decision should 
seem advisable, it still remained to be considered, in what 
terms the bull should be drawn up. All these long and 
solemn deliberations resembled the delivery of the moun- 
tain in the fable, and ended in this resolution, that the 
whole controversy, instead of being decided, should be 
suppressed, and that each of the contending parties 
should have the liberty of following their respective 
opinions. The Dominicans assert, that the two. pontiffs, 
together with the congregation of divines employed by 
them in the review of this important controversy, were 
fully persuaded of the justice of their cause, and of the 
truth of their system ; they moreover observe, that Paul 
had expressly ordered a solemn condemnation of the doc- 
trine of the Jesuits to be drawn up, but was prevented 
from finishing and publishing it, by the unhappy war 
that was kindled about that time between him and the 
Venetians. The Jesuits, on the other hand, represent 
these accounts of the Dominicans as entirely fictitious, 
and affirm that neither the pontiff, nor the more judicious 
and respectable members of the congregation, found any 
thing in the sentiments of Molina that was worthy of 
censure, or stood in much need of correction. In a point 
which is rendered thus uncertain by contradictory testi- 
monies and assertions, it is difficult to determine what we 
are to believe ; it however appears exceedingly probable, 
that, whatever the private opinion of Paul may have been, 
he was prevented from pronouncing a public determination 

■ Beside the authors we have above recommended as proper to be 
consulted in relation to these contests, see Le Clerc, Memoires pour ser- 
vir al'Histoire des Controverses dans l'Eglise Romaine sur la Predesti- 
nation et sur la Grace, in his Bibliotheque Universelle et Historique, 
torn. xiv. p. 235. The conduct, both of the Jesuits and Dominicans, 
after their controversy was hushed, affords much reason to presume that 
they had been botli secretly exhorted by the pontiff to mitigate their 
respective systems, and so to modify their doctrines or expressions, as 
to avoid the reproach of heresy that had been cast upon them ; for the 
Jesuits had been accused of Pelagianism, and the Dominicans of a pro- 
pensity to the tenets of the protestant churches. This appears, in a more 
particular manner, from a letter written by Claudius Aquaviva. general 
of the Jesuits, in 1613, and addressed to all the members of his" order. 
In this letter the prudent general modifies with great dexterity and cau- 
tion the sentiments of .Molina, and enjoins it upon the brethren of the 
society to teach every where the doctrine which represents die Supreme 
Being as electing, freely, to eternal life, without any regard had to their 
merits, those whom he has been pleased to render partakers of that 
inestimable blessing; but, at the same time, he exhorts them to incul- 
cate this doctrine in such a manner, as not to give up the tenets relating 
to divine grace, which they had maintained in their controversy with 
the Dominicans. Never, surely, was such a contradictory exhortation 
or order hoard of; the good general thought, nevertheless, that he could 
reconcile abundantly these contradictions^ by that branch of the divine 
knowledge which is called, by the schoolmen, scientia media. See the 
Catechisme Historique sur les Dissensions de l'Eglise, torn. i. p. 207. 

On the other hand, the Dominicans, although their sentiments remain 
the same as they were before the commencement of this controversy, 
have learned to cast a kind of ambiguity and obscurity over their theo^ 
logical system, by using certain terms and expressions, which are mani- 
festly borrowed from the schools of the Jesuits ; and this they do to pre- 
vent the latter from reproaching them with a propensity to the doctrine 
of Calvin. They are, moreover, much less remarkable than formerly, 
for their zealous opposition to the Jesuits, which may be owing perhaps 
to prudent reflections on the dangers they may have been involved in 
by this opposition, and the fruitless pains and labour it has cost them. 
The Jansenists reproach them severely with this change of conduct, 
and consider it as a manifest and notorious apostacy from divine truth' 
See the Lettres Provinciales of Pascal, lettre ii. We arc not, however 



of this famous controversy, by his apprehensions of offend 
ing either the king of France, who protected the Jesuits, 
or the king of Spain, who warmly maintained the cause 
of the Dominicans. It is farther probable, and almost cer- 
tain, that, had the pontiff been independent of all foreign 
influence, and at full liberty to decide this knotty point, 
he would have pronounced one of those ambiguous sen- 
tences, for which the oracle of Rome is so famous, and 
would have so conducted matters as to shock neither of 
the contending parties. 1 

XL. The flame of controversy, which seemed thus ex- 
tinguished, or at least covered, broke out again with new 
violence, in 1640, and formed a kind of schism in the 
church of Rome, which involved it in great perplexity, 
and proved highly detrimental to it in various respects. 
The occasion of these new troubles was the publication 
of a book, entitled Augustinus, composed by Cornelius 
Jansenius, bishop of Ypres, and published after the death 
of the author. b In this book, which even the Jesuits ac- 
knowledge to be the production of a man of learning and 
piety, the doctrine of Augustine, concerning man's natural 
corruption, and the nature and efficacy of that divine 
grace, which alone can efface this unhappy stain, is un- 
folded at large, and illustrated, for the most part, in Au- 
gustine's own words : for the end, which Jansenius pro- 
posed to himself in this work, was not to give his own 
private sentiments concerning these important points, but 
to show in what manner they had been understood and 
explained by that celebrated father of the church, now 
mentioned, whose name and authority were highly rever- 
ed in all parts of the Roman catholic world. c No incident 
could be more unfavourable to the cause of the Jesuits, 
and the progress of their religious system, than the publi- 



to conclude, from this change of style and external conduct among the 
Dominicans, that they are reconciled to the Jesuits, and that there 
remain no traces of their ancient opposition to that perfidious order. 
By no means ; for, besides that many of them are shocked at the 
excessive timidity or prudence of a great part of their brethren, the 
whole body retain some hidden sparks of the indignation with which 
they formerly beheld the Jesuits; and, when a convenient occasion of 
discovering this indignation is offered, they do not let it pass unim- 
proved. The Jansenists are here embarked in the same cause with 
the Dominicans since the sentiments of St. Thomas, concerning divine 
grace differ very little from those of St. Augustine. Cardinal Henry 
Noris, the most eminently learned among the followers of the latter, 
expresses his concern, that he is not at liberty to publish what passed 
in favour of Augustine, and to the disadvantage of Molina and the 
Jesuits, in the famous congregation de Auxiliis, so often assembled by 
the popes Clement VIII. and Paul V. See his Vindiciae Augustinianae, 
cap. vi. p. 1175, torn. i. op. — " Gtuando,'' says he, " recentiori Romano 
decreto id vetitum est, cum dispendio causa, quam defendo, necessariam 
defensionem omitto." 

•> For an account of this famous man, see Baylc's Diction aire. — 
Leydecker, de Vita et Morte Jansenii, lib. iii. which makes the. first 
part of his History of Jansenism. — Diclionaire des Livres Jansenis- 
tes, torn. i. — This celebrated work of Jansenius, which gave such a 
wound to the Romish church, as neither the power nor wisdom of its 
pontiff's will ever be able to heal, is divided into three parts. The first 
is historical, and contains a relation of the Pelagian controversy, which 
arose in the fifth century. In the second we find an accurate account 
and illustration of the doctrine of Augustine, relating to the Constitution 
and Powers of Human Nature, in its original, fallen, and renewed 
state. The third contains the doctrine of the same great man relating 
to the Aids of sanctifying Grace procured by Christ, and to the eternal 
Predestination of Men and Angels. The style of Jansenius is clear, 
but not sufficiently correct. 

° Thus Jansenius expresses himself in his Augustinus, torn. ii. lib 
prooemial. cap. xxix. p. 05. — Non ego hie de aliqua nova sententia repe- 
rienda disputo . . . sed de antiqua Augustini. Q.ua?ritur, non quid de 
naturae humans statibus et viribus, vel de Dei gratia ct prardestinationo 
sentiendum est, sed quid Augustinus olim, ecclesias nomine et applausu, 
tradiderit, prsdicaverit, scriptoque niultipliciter consignavcrit" 



564 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. IL 



cation of this book ; for, as the doctrine of Augustine 
scarcely differed from that of the Dominicans ; a as it was 
held sacred, and almost respected as divine, in the church 
of Rome, on account of the extraordinary merit and 
authority of that illustrious bishop, and, at the same time, 
was almost diametrically opposite to the sentiments gene- 
rally received among the Jesuits, the latter could scarcely 
consider the book of Jansenius in any other light than as 
a tacit, but formidable refutation of their opinions concern- 
ing human liberty and divine grace ; and accordingly, 
they not only drew their pens against this famous book, 
but also used their most zealous endeavours to obtain a 
public condemnation of it from Rome. Their endea- 
vours were not unsuccessful. The Roman inquisitors 
began the opposition by prohibiting the perusal of it, in 
1741 ; and, in the following year, Urban VIII. condemn- 
ed it by a solemn bull, as infected with various errors that 
had been long banished from the catholic church. 

XLI. There were nevertheless places, even within the 
bounds of the Romish church, where neither the decisions 
of the inquisitors, nor the bull of the pontiff, were in the 
least respected. The doctors of Louvain in particular, 
and the followers of Augustine in general, who were very 
numerous in the Netherlands, opposed, with the utmost 
vigour, the proceedings of the Jesuits and the condemna- 
tion of Jansenius ; and hence arose a warm contest, which 
proved a source of much trouble to the Belgic provinces. 
But it was not confined within such narrow limits ; it 
reached the neighbouring countries, and broke out with 
peculiar vehemence in France, where the abbot of St. 
Cyran, b a man of an elegant genius, and equally distin- 
guished by the extent of his learning, the lustre of his piety, 
and the sanctity of his manners, had procured to Augus- 
tine many zealous followers, and to the Jesuits as many 
bitter and implacable adversaries. This respectable ab- 
bot was the intimate friend and relative of Jansenius, and 
one of the most strenuous defenders of his doctrine. On 
the other hand, the far greater part of the French theolo- 
gists appeared on the side of the Jesuits, whose religious 
tenets seemed more honourable to human nature, or, at 
least, more agreeable to its propensities, more suitable to 
the genius of the Romish religion, and more adapted to 
promote and advance the interests of the Romish church, 
than the doctrine of Augustine. The party of Jansenius 
had also its patrons ; and they were such as reflected 
honour on the cause. In this respectable list we may 
reckon several bishops eminent for their piety, and some 
of the first and most elegant geniuses of the French na- 
tion, such as Arnauld, Nicole, Pascal, and Q,uesnel, and 
the other famous and learned men, who are known under 
the denomination of the Authors of Port-Royal. This 
party was also considerably augmented by a multitude 

■ The Dominicans followed the sentiments of Thomas Aquinas, con- 
cerning the nature and efficacy of Divine Grace. 

t The name of this abbot was Jean du Verger de Haurane. 

c This illustrious abbot is considered by the Jansenists as equal in 
merit and authority to Jansenius himself, whom he is supposed to have 
assisted in composing his Augustinus. The French, more especially, 
(I mean such of them as adopt the doctrine of Augustine,) revere him 
as an oracle, and even extol him beyond Jansenius. For an account of 
the life and transactions of this pious abbot, see Lancelot's Memoires 
touchant la Vie de M. de S. Cyran. — Recueil de plusieurs Pieces pour 
servir a l'Histoire de Port-Royal. — Arnaud D'Andilly, Memoires au 
sujet de l'Abbe de S. Cyran, published in the first volume of his Vies 
des Religieuses de Port-Royal.— Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Jan- 
senius. Dictionaire de3 Livres Jansenistes, torn. i. For an account of 



of persons, who looked upon the usual practice of piety in 
the Romish church (which consists in the frequent use of 
the eucharist, the confession of sins, and the performance 
of certain external acts of religion) as much inferior to 
what the Gospel requires, and who considered Christian 
piety as the vital and internal principle of a soul, in which 
true faith and divine love have gained a happy ascendency. 
Thus one of the contending parties excelled in the num- 
ber and power of its votaries, the other in the learning, 
genius, and piety of its adherents ; and, things being thus 
balanced, it is not difficult to comprehend, how a contro- 
versy, which began about a century ago, should be still 
carried on with vehement contention and ardour. d 

XLII. Those who have taken an attentive view of 
this long, and indeed endless controversy,, cannot but 
think it a matter both of curiosity and amusement to ob- 
serve the contrivances, stratagems, arguments, and arts 
employed by both Jesuits and Jansenists ; by the former 
in their methods of attack, and by the latter in their 
plans of defence. The Jesuits came forth into the field 
of controversy, armed with sophistical arguments, odious 
comparisons, papal bulls, royal edicts, and the protection 
of a great part of the nobility and bishops ; and, as if all 
this had appeared to them insufficient, they had recourse 
to still more formidable auxiliaries, even the secular arm, 
and a competent number of dragoons. The Jansenists, 
far from being dismayed at the view of this warlike host, 
stood their ground with steadiness and intrepidity. They 
evaded the seemingly mortal blows that were levelled at 
them in the royal and papal mandates, by the help of nice 
interpretations and subtle distinctions, and by the very 
same sophistical refinements which they blamed in the 
Jesuits. To the threats and frowns of the nobles and 
bishops, who protected their adversaries, they opposed the 
favour and applause of the people ; to sophisms they 
opposed sophisms, and invectives to invectives ; and to 
human power they opposed the Divine Omnipotence, and 
boasted of the miracles by which Heaven had declared it- 
self in their favour. When they perceived that the strong- 
est arguments, and the most respectable authorities, were 
insufficient to conquer the obstinacy of their adversaries, 
they endeavoured by their religious exploits, and their 
application to the advancement of piety and learning, to 
obtain the favour of the pontiffs, and strengthen their in- 
terest with the people. Hence they declared war against 
the enemies of the Romish church ; formed new strata- 
gems to ensnare and ruin the protestants ; took extraor- 
dinary pains in instructing the youth in all the liberal 
arts and sciences ; drew up a variety of useful, accurate, 
and elegant abridgments, containing the elements of phi 
losophy and the learned languages; published a multitude 
of treatises on practical religion and morality, whose per- 



the earlier studies of the abbot in question, see Gabriel Liron's Singu- 
larity Historiques et Literaires, torn. iv. p. 507. 

& The history of this contest is to be found in many authors, who have 
either given a relation of the whole, or treated apart some of its most 
interesting branches. The writers that ought to be principally consult- 
ed on this subject are the following : Gerberon, Histoire Generale du 
Jansenisme, published at Amsterdam in 1700 ; and Du-Mas, Histoire 
des Cinq Propositions de Jansenius. The former maintains the cause 
of the Jansenists, while the latter favours that of the Jesuits.— Add, to 
these Melch. Leydecker's Historia Jansenismi, and Voltaire's Sieclede 
Louis XIV. Several books, written on both sides, are enumerated in 
the Bibliotheque Janseniste, ou Catalogue Alphabetique des Pnncipaux 
Livres Jansenistes, the author of which is said to be Domin. Coloiua, a 
learned Jesuit. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



565 



suasive eloquence charmed all ranks and orders of men ; 
introduced and cultivated an easy, correct, and agreeable 
manner of writing ; and gave accurate and learned in- 
terpretations of several ancient authors. To all these 
various kinds of merit, the greatest part of which were 
real and solid, they added others that were at least vision- 
ary and chimerical ; for they endeavoured to persuade, 
and did in effect persuade many, that the Supreme Being 
interposed particularly in support of their cause, and, by 
prodigies and miracles of a stupendous kind, confirmed 
the truth of the doctrine of Augustine, in a manner adap- 
ted to remove all doubt, and triumph over all opposition.* 
All this' rendered the Jansenists extremely popular, and 
held the victory of the Jesuits for some time dubious ; and 
it is more than probable, that the former would have 
triumphed, had not the cause of the latter been the cause 
of the papacy, and had not the stability and grandeur of 
the Romish church depended in a great measure upon the 
success of their religious maxims. 

XLIII. It appears from several circumstances, that 
Urban VIII., and after him Innocent X., were really bent 
on appeasing these dangerous tumults, in the same man- 
ner as the popes in former times had prudently suppressed 
the controversies excited by Baius and the Dominicans. 
But the vivacity, inconstancy, and restless spirit of the 
French doctors, threw all into confusion, and disconcerted 
the measures of the pontiffs. The opposers of the doc- 
trine of Augustine selected five propositions out of the 
work of Jansenius already mentioned, which appeared to 
them the most erroneous in their nature, and the most perni- 
cious in their tendency ; and, being set on by the instiga- 
tion, and seconded by the influence of the Jesuits, employed 
their most zealous endeavours and their most importunate 
entreaties at the court of Rome, to have these propositions 
condemned. On the other hand, a great part of the 
Gallican clergy used their utmost efforts to prevent this 
condemnation ; and, for that purpose they sent deputies 
to Rome, to entreat Innocent to suspend his final decision 



• It is well known that the Jansenists, or Augustinians, have long 
pretended to confirm their doctrine by miracles ; and they even acknow- 
ledge, that these miracles have sometimes saved them, when their 
affairs have been reduced to a desperate situation. See the Memoires de 
Port-Royal, torn. i. p. 256, torn. ii. p. 107. — The first time we hear men- 
tion made of these miracles, is in 1656, and the following years, when a 
thorn of the derisive crown that was put upon our Saviour's head by 
the Roman soldiers, is reported to have performed several marvellous 
cures in the convent of Port-Royal. See the Recueil de plusieurs 
Pieces pour servir a l'Histoire de Port-Royal, p. 228, 448 ; and Fon- 
taine's collections upon the same subject, torn. ii. — Other prodigies fol- 
lowed in 1661 and 1664; and the fame of these miracles rose to a great 
height during the last century, and proved singularly advantageous to 
the cause of the Jansenists ; but they arenow fallen, even in France, into 
oblivion and discredit The Jansenists, therefore, of the present age, 
being pressed by their adversaries, were obliged to have recourse to 
new prodigies, as the old ones had entirely lost their credit; and they 
seemed, indeed, to have had miracles at command, by the considerable 
number they pretended to perform. Thus, (if we are credulous enough 
to believe their reports,) in 1725, a woman, whose name was La Fosse, 
was suddenly cured of a bloody flux, by imploring the aid of the host, 
when it was, one day, carried by a Jansenist priest. About two years 
after this, we are told, that the tomb of Gerard Rouse, a canon of 
Avignon, was honoured with miracles of a stupendous kind ; and, 
finally, we are informed, that the same honour was conferred, in 
1731, on the bones of the abbe de Paris, which were interred at St. 
Medard, where innumerable miracles are said to have been wrought. 
This last story has given rise to the warmest contests, between the 
superstitious or crafty Jansenists and their adversaries in all commu- 
nions. Beside all this, duesnel, Levier, Desangins, and Tournus, the 
great ornaments of Jansenism, are said to have furnished extraordinary 
Buccours, on several occasions, to sick and infirm persons, who testified 
a lively confidence in their prayers and merits. See a famous Jansenist 

No. XLVIII, 142 



until the true sense of these propositions should be deli- 
berately examined, since the ambiguity of style, in which 
they were expressed, rendered them susceptible of a false 
interpretation. But these entreaties were ineffectual : the 
interest and importunities of the Jesuits prevailed ; and 
the pontiff, without examining the merits of the cause 
with a suitable degree of impartiality and attention, con- 
demned, by a public bull, on the 31st of May, 1653, the 
propositions of Jansenius. These propositions contained 
the following doctrines : 1. " That there are divine pre- 
cepts which good men, notwithstanding their desire to 
observe them, are, nevertheless, absolutely unable to obey; 
nor has God given them that measure of grace, which is 
essentially necessaiy to render them capable of such obe- 
dience : 2. That no person, in this corrupt state of nature, 
can resist the influence of divine grace, when it operates 
upon the mind : 3. That, in order to render human 
actions meritorious, it is not requisite that they be 
exempt from necessity, but only that they be free froni 
constraint : b 4. That the Semi- Pelagians err grievously 
in maintaining, that the human will is endowed with 
the power of either receiving or resisting the aids and in- 
fluences of preventing grace : 5. That whosoever affirms, 
that Jesus Christ made expiation, by his sufferings and 
death, for the sins of all mankind, is a Semi-Pelagian." 
—Of these propositions the pontiff declared the first four 
only heretical ; but he pronounced the fifth rash, impious, 
and injurious to the Supreme Being/ 

XLIV. This sentence of the supreme ecclesiastical 
judge was indeed painful to the Jansenists, and in con- 
sequence highly agreeable to their adversaries. It did not 
however either drive the former to despair, or satisfy the 
latter to the extent of their desires ; for while the doctrine 
was condemned, the man escaped. Jansenius was not 
named in the bull, nor did the pontiff even declare that 
the five propositions were maintained, in the book entitled 
Augustinus, in the sense in which he had condemned 
them. Hence the disciples of Augustine and Jansenius 

book composed in answer to the Bull Unigenitus, and entitled, Jesus 
Christ sous l'Anatheme et sous rExcommunication, art. xvii. xviii. — 
There is no doubt that a great part of the Jansenists defend these mira- 
cles from principle, and in consequence of a persuasion of their truth 
and reality ; for that party abounds with persons, whose piety is 
blended with a most superstitious credulity, who look upon their reli- 
gious system as celestial truth, and their cause as the immediate cause 
of Heaven, and who are consequently disposed to think that it cannot 
be neglected by the Deity, or left without extraordinary marks of his 
approbation and supporting presence. It is however amazing, and 
almost incredible, on the other hand, that the more judicious defenders 
of this cause, those eminent Jansenists, whose sagacity, learning, and 
good sense, discover themselves so abundantly in other matters, do not 
consider that the powers of nature, the efficacy of proper remedies, or 
the effects of imagination, produce many important changes and effects, 
which, from imposture, or a blind attachment to some particular cause, 
many are led to attribute to the miraculous interposition of the Deity. 
We can easily account for the delusions of weak enthusiasts, or the 
tricks of egregious impostors ; but when we see men of piety and 
judgment appearing in defence of such miracles as those now under 
consideration, we must conclude, that they look upon fraud as lawnA 
in the support of a good cause, and make no scruple of deceiving the 
people, when they propose, by this delusion, to confirm and propagate 
what they take to be the truth. 

b Augustine, Leibnitz, and a considerable number of modern philoso- 
phers, who Imaintain the doctrine of necessity, consider this necessity, 
in moral actions, as consistent with true liberty, because it is consistent 
with spontaneity and choice. According to them, constraint alone and 
external force destroy merit and imputation. 

This bull is still extant in the Bullarium Romanum, torn. vi. p. 456. 
It has also been published, together with several other pieces relating to 
this controversy, by Du-Plessis D'Argentre, in his Collectio Judicioruni 
de novis Erroribus, lorn. iii. p. ii. 



566 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



defended themselves by a distinction invented by the in- 
genious and subtle Arnaud, in consequence of which 
they considered separately in this controversy the matter 
of doctrine and the matter of fact ; that is to say, they 
acknowledged themselves bound to believe, that the five 
propositions were justly condemned by the pontiff ; a but 
they maintained, that the pope had not declared, and con- 
sequently that they were bound not to believe, that these 
propositioas were to be found in Jansenius' book, in the 
sense in which they had been condemned. b They did 
not however enjoy long the benefit of this artful distinc- 
tion. The restless and invincible hatred of their enemies 
pursued them in every quarter where they looked for pro- 
tection or repose, and at length engaged Alexander VII., 
the successor of Innocent, to declare, by a solemn bull, 
issued in 1656, that the five condemned propositions were 
the tenets of Jansenius, and were contained in his book. 
The pontiff did not stop here ; but to this flagrant in- 
stance of imprudence added another still more shocking ; 
for, in 1665, he sent into France the form of a declara- 
tion, that was to be subscribed by all those who aspired 
to any preferment in the church, and in which it was 
affirmed, that the five propositions were to be found in 
the book of Jansenius, in the same sense in which they 
had been condemned by the church. This declaration, 
whose temerity and contentious tendency appeared in 
the most odious colours, not only to the Jansenists. but 
also to the wiser part of the French nation, produced 
deplorable divisions and tumults. It was immediately 
opposed with vigour by the Jansenists, who maintained, 
that in matters of fact the pope was fallible, especially 
when his decisions were merely personal, and not con- 
firmed by a general council ; and, in consequence, that 
it was neither obligatory nor necessary to subscribe this 
~»apal declaration, which had only a matter of fact for its 

bject. The Jesuits, on the contrary, audaciously assert- 
ed, even openly, in the city of Paris, and in the face of the 
Gallican church, that faith and confidence in the papal 
decisions relating to matter of fact, had no less the cha- 
racters of a well-grounded and divine faith, that when 
these decisions related merely to matters of doctrine and 
opinion. It is to be remarked, on the other hand, that 
all the Jansenists were by no means so resolute and in- 
trepid as those above-mentioned. Some of them declar- 
ed, that they would neither subscribe nor reject the Form 
in question, but would show their veneration for the autho- 
rity of the pope, by observing a profound silence on that 
subject. Others professed themselves ready to subscribe 
it, not indeed without exception and reserve, but on con- 
dition of being allowed to explain, either verbally or in 
writing, the sense in which they understood it, or the dis- 
tinctions and limitations with which they were willing to 



gj- a This was what our author calls the qucestio de jure. 

gjf b This is the qutzslio de facto. 

° This bull, and several other pieces, are aiso tc be found in D'Argen- 
tre's Collectio Judiciorum, torn. iii. — See the form of Alexander's decla- 
ration, with the Mandate of Louis XIV. ibid. 

d See Du-Mas, Histoire des Cinq Propositions, p. 158. — Gerberon, 
Histoire Generate du Jansenisme, p. ii. p. 516. 

The transactions relating to this event, which were carried on under 
the pontificate of Clement IX., are circumstantially related by cardinal 
Rospigliosi, in his Commentaries, which Du-Plessis D'Argentre has 
subjoined to his Elementa Theologica, published at Paris, in 1716. See 
also the last-mentioned author's Collectio Judiciorum, torn. iii. p. ii. p. 
336, in which the letters of Clement are inserted. Two Jansenists 
have written the History of the Clementine Peace.— Varet, vicar to the 



adopt it. Others employed a variety of methods and strata- 
gems to elude the force of this tyrannical declaration/ But 
nothing of this kind was sufficient to satisfy the violent de- 
mands of the Jesuits ; nothing less than the entire ruin of 
the Jansenists could appease their fury. Such, therefore, 
among the latter, as made the least opposition to the decla- 
ration in question, were thrown into prison, or sent into 
exile, or involved in some other species of persecution ; 
and it is well known, that this severity was a consequence 
of the suggestions of the Jesuits, and of their influence 
in cabinet-councils. 

XLV. The lenity or prudence of Clement IX. sus- 
pended, for a while, the calamities of those who had sacri- 
ficed their liberty and their fortunes to their zeal for the 
doctrine of Augustine, and gave them both time to breathe, 
and reason to hope for better days. This change, which hap- 
pened in 1669, was occasioned by the fortitude and reso- 
lution of the bishops of Angers, Beauvais, Pamiers, and 
Alet, who obstinately and gloriously refused to subscribe, 
without the proper explications and distinctions, the oath 
or declaration that had produced such troubles and divi- 
sions in the church. They did not indeed stand alone in 
the breach ; for, when the court of Rome began to menace 
and level its thunder at their heads, nineteen bishops more 
arose with a noble intrepidity, and adopted their cause, in 
solemn remonstrances, addressed both to the king of 
France and the pontiff. These resolute protesters were 
joined by Ann Genevieve de Bourbon, duchess of Lon- 
gueville, a heroine of the first rank both in birth and mag- 
nanimity, who, having renounced the pleasures and vani- 
ties of the world, which had long employed her most seri- 
ous thoughts, espoused, with a devout ardour, the doctrines 
and cause of the Jansenists, and most earnestly implored 
the pope's clemency in their behalf. Moved by these entrea- 
ties, and also by other arguments and considerations of 
like moment, Clement became so indulgent as to accept 
a conditional subscription to the famous declaration, ano 
to permit doctors of scrupulous consciences to sign i' 
according to the mental interpretation they thought propel 
to give, it. This instance of condescension and lenity was 
no sooner made public, than the Jansenists began to come 
forth from their lurking-places, to return from their volun 
tary exile, and to enjoy their former tranquillity and free 
dom, being exempt from all uneasy apprehensions of any 
farther persecution. 

This remarkable event is commonly called the Peace ol 
Clement IX. ; its duration, nevertheless, was but transi- 
tory. 6 It was violated in 1676, at the instigation of the 
Jesuits, by Louis XIV., who declared, in a public edict, 
that it had only been granted for a time, out of conde- 
scending indulgence to the tender and scrupulous con- 
sciences of a certain number of persons ; and it was totally 



archbishop of Sens, in an anonymous work, entitled, Relation de ce 
qui s'est pass dans l'Aifaire de la Paix de l'Eglise sous le Pape Cle- 
ment IX. ; and duesnel, in an anonymous production also, entitled, 
La Paix de Clement IX. ou Demonstration des deux Faussctes 
capital es avancees dans l'Histoire des Cinq Propositions contre la 
Foi des Disciples de St. Augustin. That Varet was the author of the 
former work is asserted in the Catechisme Historique sur les Contesta- 
tions de l'Eglise, torn. i. p. 352 ; and that the latter came from the pen of 
duesnel, we learn from the writer of the Bibliotheque Janseniste, p. 314. 
There was another accurate and interesting account of this transaction 
published in 1706, under the following title : Relation de c-- qui s'est 
passe dans 1' Affaire de la Paix de l'Eglise sous le Pape Clc -sent IX. 
avec les Lettres, Actes, Memoires, et autres Pieces qui y ont raoport. 
The important services that the duchess of LonguevilJc rendered X> the 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



567 



abolished after the death of the dutchess of Longueville, 
which happened in 1679, and deprived the Jansenists of 
their principal support. From that time their calamities 
were renewed, and they were pursued with the same ma- 
lignity and rage that they had before experienced. Some 
of them avoided the rising storm by a voluntary exile ; 
others sustained it with invincible fortitude and constancy 
of mind ; others turned aside its fury, and escaped its 
violence, as well as they could, by dexterity and prudence. 
Antoine Arnaud, who was the head and leader of the 
party, fled into the Netherlands in 1679 ;» and in this 
retreat he not only escaped the fury of his enemies, but 
had it in his power to hurt them considerably, and actually 
made the Jesuits feel the weight of his talents and the ex- 
tent of his influence. For the admirable eloquence and 
sagacity of this great man gave him such an ascendency 
in the Netherlands, that the greatest part of the churches 
there embraced his opinions, and adopted his cause ; the 
Romish congregations in Holland also were, by his influ- 
ence, and the ministry of his intimate friends and adhe- 
rents, John Neercassel and Peter Coddeus, bishops of Cas- 
torie and Sebasto, b entirely gained over to the Jansenist 
party. The latter churches still persevere with the utmost 
steadiness in the principles of Jansenism ; and, secured 
under the protection of the Dutch government, defy the 
threats, and hold in derision the resentment, of the Romish 
pontiffs/ 

XLYI. It is not only on account of their embracing the 
doctrine of Augustine concerning divine grace (a doctrine 
which bears a striking resemblance to that of the Calvin- 
Lsts,) that the Jansenists have incurred the displeasure 
and resentment of the Jesuits. They are charged with 
many other circumstances, which appear intolerable to 
the warm votaries of the church of Rome. And, indeed, it 
is certain, that the various controversies, which have been 
mentioned above, were excited in that church principally by 
the Jansenists, and have been propagated and handed down 



Jansenists in this affair are related with elegance and spirit by Villefort, 
in his Vie d'Anne Genevieve de Bourbon, Duchesse de Longueville, 
torn. ii. livr. vi. p. 89, of the edition of Amsterdam (1739,) which is 
more ample and complete than the edition of Paris. 

* For an account of this great man, see Bayle's Dictionary, and 
the Histoire abregee de la Vie et des Ouvrages de M. Arnaud, pub- 
lished at Cologne. The change introduced into the Romish churches in 
Holland is mentioned by Lafiteau, Vie de Clement XI. torn. i. p. 123. 
For an account of Coddeus, Neercassel, and Varet, and the other pa- 
trons of Jansenism among the Dutch, see the Dictionaire des Livres 
Jansenistes, torn. i. ii. iv. 

b Bishops in partibus infidelium. 

g^T ' It must, however, be observed, that, notwithstanding the ascen- 
dency which the Jansenists have in Holland, the Jesuits, for some time 
past, have by artifice and disguise gained a considerable footing among 
the Romish churches that are tolerated by the republic. 

* See Hist. Eccles. Rom. seec. XVI. sect. xxxi. 

* They who desire to form a just notion of the dismal piety of the 
Jansenists, (which carries the unseemly features of the gloomy devotion 
that was formerly practised by fanatical hermits in the deserts of 
Syria, Libya, and Egypt, but is entirely foreign from the dictates of 
reason and the amiable spirit of Christianity,) have only to peruse the 
epistles and other writings of the abbot of St. Cyran, who is the great 
oracle of the party. This abbot was a well-meaning man ; and his 
piety, such as it was, carried in it the marks of sincerity and fervour ; 
he was also superior, perhaps, as a pastor, to the greatest part of the 
Roman catholic doctors ; and his learning, more especially his know- 
ledge of religious antiquity, was very considerable; but to propose this 
man as a complete and perfect model of genuine piety, and as a most 
accurate and accomplished teacher of Christian virtue, is an absurdity 
peculiar to the Jansenists, and can be adopted bv no person who knows 
what genuine piety and Christian virtue are. That we may not seem 
to detract rashly, and without reason, from the merit of this eminent 
man, it will not be improper to confirm what we have said by some 
instances. This good abbot, having undertaken to vanquish the here- 



by them, even to our times, in a prodigious multitude of their 
books published both in France and in the Netherlands." 1 
But that which offends most the Jesuits, and the other 
creatures of the pontiff", is the austere severity that reigns 
in the system of moral discipline and practical religion 
adopted by the Jansenists. For the members of this sect 
cry out against the corruptions of the church of Rome, 
and complain that neither its doctrines nor morals retain 
any traces of their former purity. They reproach the 
clergy with an universal depravation of sentiments and 
manners, and an entire forgetfulness of the dignity of 
their character, and the duties of their vocation. They 
censure the licentiousness of the monastic orders, and in- 
sist upon the necessity of reforming their discipline accord- 
ing to the rules of sanctity, abstinence, and self-denial, 
that were originally prescribed by their respective founders. 
They maintain, also, that the people ought to be carefully 
instructed in all the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, 
and that, for this purpose, the Scriptures and public litur- 
gies should be offered to their perusal in their mother- 
tongue ; and. finally, they look upon it as a matter of the 
highest moment to persuade all Christians that true piety 
does not consist in the observance of pompous rites, or in 
the performance of external acts of devotion, but in inward 
holiness and divine love. 

These sentiments of the Jansenists, on a general view, 
seem just and rational, and suitable to the spirit and ge- 
nius of Christianity ; but, when we examine the particular 
branches into which they extend these general principles, 
the consequences they deduce from them, and the manner 
in which they apply them, in their rules of discipline and 
practice, we shall find, that the piety of this famous party 
is deeply tinged both with superstition and fanaticism ; 
that it more especially favours the harsh and enthusias- 
tical opinion of the Mystics ; and, in consequence, that 
the Jansenists are not undeservedly branded by their ad- 
versaries with the appellation of Rigorists. 6 This deno- 
tes, (i. e. the protestants.) in a prolix and extensive work, was obliged 
to read, or at least to look into the various writings published by that 
impious tribe ; and this he did in company with his nephew Martin de 
Barcos, who resembled him entirely hi his sentiments and manners. 
But before he would venture to open a book composed by a protestant, 
he constandy marked it with the sign of the cross, to expel the evil spirit. 
What weakness and superstition did this ridiculous proceeding discover ! 
for the good man was persuaded that Satan had fixed his residence in 
the books of the protestants ; but it is not so easy to determine where he 
imagined the wicked spirit lay, whether in the paper, in the letters, 
between the leaves, or in the doctrines of these infernal productions. 
Let us see the account that is given of this matter by Lancelot, in his 
Memoires touchant la Vie de M. lAbbe de S. Cyran, torn. i. p. 226. 
His words are as follow: " II lisoit ces livres avec tant de piete, qu T en 
les prenant il les exorcisoit toujours en faisant la signe de la croix dessus, 
ne doutant point que le demon n'y residoit actuellement." His attach- 
ment to Augustine was so excessive, that he looked upon as sacred and 
divine even those opinions of that great man, which the wiser part of 
the Romish doctors had rejected as erroneous and highly dangerous. 
Such, (among others.) was the extravagant and pernicious tenet, that 
the saints are die only lawful proprietors of the world, and that the 
wicked have no right, by the divine law, to those tilings which they 
possess jusdy, in consequence of the decisions of human law. To this 
purpose is the following assertion of our abbot, as we find it in Fon- 
taine's Memoires pour servir a 1' Histoire de Port-Royal, torn. i. p. 201. 
"Jesus Christ n'est encore entre dans la possession de son royaume 
temporel, et des biens du monde qui lui appartiennent, que par cette 
petite portion qu'en tient l'eglise par les benefices de ses clercs, qui ne 
sont que les fermiers et les depositaires de Jesus Christ." If, therefore, 
we are to give credit to this visionary man, the golden age is approach- 
ing, when Jesus Christ, having pulled, down the mighty from their 
seats, and dethroned the kings and princes of the earth, shall reduce the 
whole world under his sole dominion, and give it over to the government 
of priests and monks, who are the princes of his church.— After we 
have seen such sentiments as these maintained by their oracle and 



568 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. IL 



minQtion they merited in a peculiar manner, by their doc- 
trine concerning repentance and penance, whose tendency, 
considered both in a civil and religious point of view, is 
singularly pernicious ; for they make repentance consist 
chiefly in those voluntary sufferings, which the trans- 
gressor inflicts upon himself, in proportion to the nature 
of his crimes and the degree of his guilt. As their no- 
tions of the extent of man's original corruption are greatly 
exaggerated, they prescribe remedies to it that are of the 
same nature. They look upon Christians as bound to 
expiate this original guilt by acts of mortification per- 
formed in solitude and silence, by torturing and macerat- 
ing their bodies, by painful labour, excessive abstinence, 
continual prayer and contemplation ; and they hold every 
person obliged to increase these voluntary pains and suf- 
ferings, in proportion to the degree of corruption derived by 
each from nature, or contracted by a vicious and licentious 
course of life. They even carry these austerities to so high 
a pitch, that they do not scruple to call those holy self- 
tormentors, who have gradually put an end to their days 
by excessive abstinence or labour, the ' sacred victims of 
repentance, that have been consumed by the fire of divine 
love.' Not satisfied with this fanatical language, they go 
still farther, and superstitiously maintain, that the conduct 
of these self-murderers is peculiarly meritorious in the eye 
of Heaven ; and that their sufferings, macerations, and 
labours, appease the anger of the Deity, and not only con- 
tribute to their own felicity, but draw down abundant 
blessings upon their friends and upon the church. We 
might confirm this account by various examples, and 
more especially by that of the famous abbe de Paris, the 
great wonder-worker of the Jansenists, who put himself 



chief, it is natural to be surprised when we hear the Jansenists boasting 
of their zeal in defending sovereign states, and, in general, the civil 

ights of mankind, against the stratagems and usurpations of the 

on tiffs. 
The notions of the abbot of St. Cyran concerning prayer, which 
breathe the fanatical spirit of mysticism, will farther confirm what we 
have said of his propensity to enthusiasm. It was, for example, a fa- 
vourite maxim with him, that the Christian who prays, ought never to 
recollect the good things he stands in need of in order to ask them of 
God, since true prayer does not consist in distinct notions and clear 
ideas of what we are doing in that solemn act, but in a certain blind 
impulse of divine love. Such is the account given of the abbot's senti- 
ments on this head by Lancelot, torn. ii. p. 44. — " II ne croyoit pas, (says 
that author,) que Ton put faire quelque effort pour s'appliquer a quelque 
point, ou a quelque pensee particuliere — parce que la veritable priere est 
plutot un attrait de son amour, qui emporte notre coeur vers lui, et nous 
enleve comme hors de nous-memes, qu'une occupation de notre esprit, 
qui se remplisse de l'idee de quelque objeti quoique divin." According to 
this hypothesis, the man prays best who neither thinks nor asks, in that 
act of devotion. This is, indeed, a very extraordinary account of the 
matter, and contains an idea of prayer which seems to have been quite 
unknown to Christ, and his apostles; for the former has commanded us 
to address our prayers to God in a set form of words ; and the latter 
frequently tell us the subjects of their petitions and supplications. 

But, of all the errors of this Arch-Jansenist, not one was so pernicious 
as the fanatical notion he entertained of his being the residence of the 
Deity, the instrumental the Godhead, by which the divine nature itself 
essentially operated. It was in consequence of this dangerous principle, 
that he recommended it as a duty incumbent on all pious men to follow, 
without consulting their judgment or any other guide, the first motions 
and impulses of their minds, as the dictates of Heaven. And, indeed, 
the Jansenists, in general, are intimately persuaded, that God operates 
immediately upon the minds of those who have composed, or rather 
suppressed, all the motions of the understanding and of the will, and 
that tosuch he declares, from above, his intentions and commands ; since 
whatever thoughts, inclinations, or designs, arise within them, in this 
calm state of tranquillity and silence, are to be considered as the direct 
suggestions and oracles of the divine wisdom. See, for a farther ac- 
count of this pestilential doctrine, the Memoires de Port-Roval, torn iii. 
p. 246. 

■ See Morin's Com. de Poenitentia, praff. p. 3, in which there is a 
tacit censure of th« penance of the Jansenists. — See, on the other hand, 



to a most painful death, in order to satisfy the justice of 
an incensed God : a such was the picture he had formed 
of the best of beings in his disordered fancy. 

XLVII. A striking example of this austere, forbidding, 
and extravagant species of devotion, was exhibited in that 
celebrated female convent called Port-Royal in the Fields, 
which was situated in a retired, deep, and gloomy vale, 
not far from Paris. Henry IV. committed the inspection 
and government of this austere society, about the com 
mencement of this century, to Jaqueline, daughter of 
Antoine Arnaud, b who, after her conversion, assumed the 
name of Marie Angelique de la Sainte-Madelaine. This 
lady had at first led a very dissolute life, c which was the 
general case of the cloistered fair in France about this 
period ; but a remarkable change happened in her senti- 
ments and manners, in 1609, when she resolved no more 
to live like a nun, but to consecrate her future days to 
deep devotion and penitential exercises. This holy reso- 
lution was strengthened by her acquaintance with the 
famous Francois de Sales, and the abbot of St. Cyran. 
The last of these pious connexions she formed in 1623, 
and regulated both her own conduct and the manners 
of her convent by the doctrine and example of these de- 
vout men. Hence it happened, that, during the whole 
course of this century, the convent of Port-Royal excited 
the indignation of the Jesuits, the admiration of the Jan- 
senists, and the attention of Europe. The holy virgins 
observed, with the utmost rigour and exactness, that an- 
cient rule of the Cistercians, which had been almost every 
where abrogated on account of its excessive and intoler- 
able austerity: they even went beyond its most cruel 
demands. d Such was the fame of this devout sisterhood, 

the Memoires de Port-Royal. — The Jansenists, among all the meritori-. 
ous actions of the abbot of St. Cyran, find none more worthy of admi- 
ration and applause than his restoring from oblivion the true system of 
penitential discipline ; and they consider him as the second author or 
parent of the doctrine of penance. This very doctrine, however, was 
one of the principal reasons of his being committed to prison by the 
order of cardinal Richelieu. 

>> An eminent lawyer, and father to the famous Arnaud, doctor of the 
Sorbonne. 

g~|= c The dissolute life imputed to this abbess by Dr. Mosheim is an 
egregious mistake, which seems to have proceeded from his misunder- 
standing a passage in Bayle's Dictionary, vol. i. p. 338, note ', the 
fourth French edition. 

a There is a prodigious multitude of books still extant, in which the 
rise, progress, laws, and sanctity, of this famous convent, are described 
and extolled by eminent Jansenists, who, at the same time, deplore its 
fate in the most doleful strains. Of this multitude we shall mention 
those only which may easily be procured, and which contain the most 
modern and circumstantial accounts of that celebrated establishment. — 
The Benedictines of St. Maur have given an exact, though dry history 
of this convent in their Gallia Christiana, torn. vii. A more elegant 
and agreeable account of it, charged, however, with imperfection 
and partiality, was composed by the famous poet Racine, under the 
title of Abrege de 1 Histoire de Port-Royal, and was published, after 
having passed through many editions, in the year 1750, at Amsterdam, 
among the works of his son Louis Racine, torn. ii. The external state 
and form of this convent are professedly described by Moleon, in his 
Voyages Liturgiques, p. 234. — Add to these, Nic. Fontaine's Memoires 
pour servir a l'Histoire de Port-Royal, published in 1738. — The Me- 
moires (by Du- Fosse) pour servir a l'Histoire de Port-Royal ; and 
the Recueil de plusiers Pieces pour servir a l'Histoire de Port-Royal. — 
The editor of this last compilation promises, in his preface, farther col- 
lections of pieces relative to the same subject, and seems to insinuate, 
that a complete history of Port-Royal, drawn from these and other 
valuable and authentic records, will sooner or later see the light. See, 
beside the authors above-mentioned, Lancelot's Memoires touchant 
la Vie de l'Abbe de St. Cyran. All these authors confine their re- 
lations to the external form and various revolutions of this nunnery. 
Its internal state, its rules of discipline, the manners of its virgins, and 
the incidents and transactions that happened between them and the holy 
neighbourhood of Jansenists, are described and related by another set of 
writers. See the Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire de Port-Royal, et a 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



569 



that multitudes of pious persons were ambitious to dwell 
in the neighbourhood of Port-Royal, and that a great part 
of the Jansenist Penitents, or self-tormentors, of both 
sexes, built huts without its precincts, where they imitated 
the manners of those austere and gloomy fanatics, who, 
in the fourth and fifth centuries, retired into the wild and 
uncultivated places of Syria and Egypt, and were com- 
monly called the Fathers of the Desert. The end which 
these penitents had in view was, by silence, hunger, thirst, 
prayer, bodily labour, watchings, sorrow, and other volun- 
tary acts of self-denial, to efface the guilt, and remove the 
pollution which the soul had derived from natural corrup- 
tions or evil habits. 1 They did not, however, all observe 
the same discipline, or follow the same kind of applica- 
tion and labour. The more learned consumed their 
strength in composing laborious productions filled with 
sacred and profane erudition, and some of these have, no 
doubt, deserved well of the republic of letters : others were 
employed in teaching youth the rudiments of language 
and the principles of science ; but the far greatest part 
exhausted both the health of their bodies and the vigour 
of their minds in servile industry and rural labour, and 
thus pined away by a slow kind of death. What is sin- 
gularly surprising is, that many of these voluntary vic- 
tims of an inhuman piety were persons illustrious both 
by their birth and stations, who. after having distin- 
guished themselves in civil or military employments, de- 
based themselves so far in this penitential retreat, as to 
assume the character, offices, and labours, of the lowest 
servants. 

This celebrated retreat of the devout and austere Jan- 
senists was subject to many vicissitudes during the whole 
course of this century : at one time it flourished in unri- 
valled glory ; at another, it seemed eclipsed, and on the 
brink of ruin. At length, however, the period of its ex- 
tinction approached. The nuns obstinately refused to sub- 
scribe the declaration of pope Alexander VII., that has 
been so often mentioned : on the other hand, their convent 
and Rile of discipline were considered as detrimental to 
the interests of the kingdom, and a dishonour to some of 
the first families in France ; hence Louis XIV., in 1709, 
instigated by the violent counsels of the Jesuits, ordered the 
convent to be suppressed, the whole building to be levelled 
with the ground, and the nuns to be removed to Paris. 

la Vie de Marie Angelique D'Arnaud, published at Utrecht in 1742; 
also the Vies interessantes et edifiantes des Religieuses de Port-Royal, 
ct de plusieurs Personnes qui leur etoient attachees ; and, for an account 
of the suppression and abolition of this convent, see the Memoires sur la 
Destruction de 1'Abbaye de Port-Royal des Champs. If we not do mis- 
take, all these histories and relations have been much less serviceable to 
the reputation of this famous convent than the Jansenist party are will- 
ing to think. When we view Arnaud, Tillemont, Nicole, Le Maitre, 
and the other authors of Port-Royal, in their learned productions, they 
then appear truly great ; but, when we lay aside their works, and, 
taking up these histories of Port-Royal, see these great men in private 
life, in the constant practice of that austere discipline of which the Jan- 
senists boast so foolishly, they shrink almost to nothing, appear in the 
contemptible light of fanatics, and seem totally unworthy of the fame 
they have acquired. When wi read the Discourses that Isaac le 
Maitre, commonly called Sacy, pronounced at the bar, together with his 
other ingenious productions, we cannot refuse him the applause that is 
due to such an elegant and accomplished writer ; but when we meet 
with this polite author at Port-Royal, mixed with labourers and reapers, 
and with the spade or the sickle in his hand, he certainly makes a ludi- 
crous or comical figure, and can scarcely be looked upon as perfectly 
right in his head. 

* Among the most eminent of these penitents was Isaac le Maitre, a 
celebiated advocate at Paris, whose eloquence had procured him a 
shining reputation, and who. in 1637, retired to Port-Royal to make ex- 

No. XL VIII. 143 



And, lest there should still remain some secret fuel to 
nourish the flame of superstition in that place, he ordered 
the very carcases of the nuns and devout Jansenists to be 
dug up and buried elsewhere. 

XL VIII. The other controversies that disturbed the 
tranquillity of the church of Rome, were but light blasts 
when compared with this violent hurricane. The old de- 
bate, however, between the Franciscans and Dominicans, 
concerning the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, 
which was maintained by the former, and denied by the 
latter, gave much trouble and perplexity to the pontiffs, 
and more especially to Paul V., Gregory XV., and Alex- 
ander VII. The kingdom of Spain was so agitated and 
divided into factions by this controversy, in the for- 
mer part of this century, that solemn embassies were sent 
to Rome, both by Philip III., and his successor, with a view 
to engage the Roman pontiff to determine the question, or, 
at any rate, to put an end to the contest by a public edict. 
But, notwithstanding the weighty solicitations of these 
monarcliS; the oracle of Rome pronounced nothing but 
ambiguous words ; and its high priests prudently avoided 
coming to a plain and positive decision of the affair. If 
they were awed, on one hand, by the warm remon- 
strances of the Spanish court, which favoured the senti- 
ment of the Franciscans, they were restrained, on the 
other, by the credit and influence of the Dominicans : so 
that, after the most earnest entreaties and importunities, 
all that could be obtained from the pontiff, by the court 
of Spain, was a declaration, intimating that the opinion 
of the Franciscans had a high degree of probability on 
its side, and forbidding the Dominicans to oppose it in a 
public manner ; but this declaration was accompanied 
with another, b by which the Franciscans were prohibited, 
in their turn, from treating as erroneous the doctrine of 
the Dominicans. This accommodation of the dispute 
would have been highly laudable in a prince or civil ma- 
gistrate, who, unacquainted with theological questions of 
such an abstruse nature, preferred the tranquillity of his 
people to the discussion of such an intricate and unim- 
portant point ; but whether it was honourable to a supreme 
pontiff, who boasts of a divine right to decide all religious 
controversies, and pretends to a degree of inspiration that 
places him beyond the possibility of erring, we leave to 
the consideration of those who have his glory at heart. 

piation for his sins. The retreat of this eminent man raised new 
enemies to the abbot of St. Cyran. See the Memoires pour l'Histoire 
de Port-Royal, torn. i. p. 223. The example of Le Maitre was followed 
by some persons of the highest distinction, and by a great number of per- 
sons of all ranks. See the Vies des Religieuses de Port-Royal, t. i. p. 141. 
b See Fred. Ulr. Calixti Historia Immaculate Conceptionis B. Vir- 
ginis Marias, published in 1696. — Hornbeckii Comm. ad Bullam Urbani 
VIII. de diebus Festis, p. 250. — Launoii Praescriptiones de Conceptu 
Virginis Maris, torn. i. p. i. oper. — Long after this period, Clement XI. 
went a step farther, and appointed, in 1708, a festival to be celebrated, 
in honour of the immaculate conception, throughout the Romish church. 
See the Memoires de Trevoux for the year 1709, art. xxxviii. p. 514. 
But the Dominicans obstinately deny that the obligation of this law 
extends to them, and persist in maintaining their ancient doctrine, though 
with more modesty and circumspection than they formerly discovered 
in this debate; and when we consider that their opinion in this respect 
has never been expressly condemned by any pope, and that they are 
not in the least molested, or even censured, for refusing to celebrate the 
festival above-mentioned, it appears evidently, from all this, that the 
terms of the papal edict are to be understood with certain restrictions, 
and interpreted in a mild and indulgent manner ; and that the spirit of 
this edict is not contrary to the tenor of the former declarations of the 
pontiffs on this head. See Lamindus Pritanius (a fictitious name assu- 
med by the author Muratori) de Ingeniorum Moderatione in Religionis 
Negotio, p. 254. 



570 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



XLIX. The controversies with the Mystics were now 
renewed ; and that sect, which in former times enjoyed 
such a hio-h degree of reputation and authority, was treated 
with the greatest severity, and involved in the deepest 
distress, toward the conclusion of this century. This un- 
happy change in its affairs was principally occasioned by 
the fanaticism and imprudence of Michael de Molinos, a 
Spanish priest, who resided at Rome, and the fame of 
whose ardent piety and devotion procured him a consider- 
able number of disciples of both sexes. A book published 
at Rome in 1681, by this ecclesiastic, under the title of 
the Spiritual Guide, alarmed the doctors of the church. a 
This book contained, beside the usual precepts and in- 
stitutions of mystic theology, several notions relating to a 
spiritual and contemplative life, that seemed to revive the 
pernicious and infernal errors of the Beghards, and open 
a door to all sorts of licentiousness and profligacy. The 
principles of Molinos, which have been very differently 
interpreted by his friends and enemies, amount to this : 
" that the whole of religion consists in the perfect tran- 
quillity of a mind removed from all external and finite 
things, and centred in God, and in such a pure love of 
the Supreme Being, as is independent of all prospect of 
'nterest or reward ;" or, to express the doctrine of this 
Mystic, in other words, " The soul, in the pursuit of the 
supreme good, must retire from the reports and gratifica- 
tions of sense, and, in general, from all corporeal objects, 
and, imposing silence upon all the motions of the under- 
standing and will, must be absorbed in the Deity." Hence 
the denomination of Q,uietist was given to the followers 
of Molinos ; though that of Mystic, which was their vulgar 
title, was more applicable, and expressed with greater pro- 
priety their fanatical system ; for the doctrine of Molinos 
had no other circumstance of novelty attending it, than the 
singular terms he employed in unfolding his notions, and 
the ingenuity he discovered in digesting what the ancient 
Mystics had thrown out in the most confused and inco- 
herent jargon, into something that looked like a system. 
The Jesuits, and other zealous votaries of Rome, soon per- 
ceived that his system was a tacit censure of the Romish 
church, as having departed from the spirit of true reli- 
gion, by placing the essence of piety in external works, 
and in the performance of a certain round of ceremonies. 
But the warmest opposition that he met with was from 
the French ambassador^ at Rome, who raised a most vio- 
lent persecution against him. This made many imagine, 
that it was not his theological system alone that had in- 
flamed the resentment of that minister, but that some con- 
siderations of a political nature had been blended with 
this famous controversy, and that the Spanish Mystic had 
opposed the designs and negotiations of the French mon- 
arch at the court of Rome. However that may have been, 
Molinos, unable to resist the storm, and abandoned by 
those from whom he chiefly expected succour, yielded to 

" This work, which was published in 1675, was honoured with the 
approbation and encomiums of many eminent and respectable personages. 
It was translated into Latin, Italian, French, and Dutch, and passed 
through many editions. There is another work of Molinos composed 
in the same spirit, concerning the daily celebration of the communion, 
which was also condemned. See the " Recueil de diverses Pieces con- 
cernant le Gluietisme et les duietistes, oil Molinos, ses Sentimens et ses 
Disciples," published at Amsterdam, in 1688, in which the reader will 
find a French translation of the Spiritual Guide, together with a collec- 
tion of letters on various subjects, written by Molinos. 

b Cardinal d'Estrees. 



it in 1685, when, notwithstanding the number, rank, and 
credit of his friends at Rome, and the particular marks of 
favour he had received from the pontiff, he was thrown 
into prison. Two years after this, he was obliged to re- 
nounce, in a public manner, the errors of which he was 
accused ; and this solemn recantation was followed by a 
sentence of perpetual imprisonment, from which he was, 
in an advanced age, delivered by death, in 1696. d The 
candid and impartial will be obliged to acknowledge, that 
the opinions and expressions of this enthusiast were per- 
fidiously misrepresented and perverted by the Jesuits and 
others, whose interest it was that he should be put out of 
the way, and excluded from every thing but contempla- 
tion and repose ; and it is most certain, that his doctrine 
was charged with consequences which he neither approv- 
ed nor even apprehended. But, on the other hand, it 
must also be confessed, that his system was chargeable 
with the greatest part of the reproaches that are justly 
thrown upon the Mystics, and favoured much the illusions 
and follies of those fanatics, who would make the crude 
visions of their disordered fancies pass for divine revela- 
tions. 6 

L. It would have been truly surprising had a system 
of piety, that was so adapted to seduce the indolent mind, 
to captivate the warm imagination, and melt the tender 
heart, been destitute of votaries and followers. This was 
by no means the case. In Italy, Spain, France, and the 
Netherlands, Molinos had a considerable number of dis- 
ciples ; and, beside the reasons we have now hinted, an- 
other circumstance must have contributed much to multi- 
ply his votaries ; for, in all parts of the Romish dominion, 
there were numbers of persons, who had sense and know- 
ledge enough to perceive, that the whole of religion could 
not consist in external rites and bodily mortifications, but 
too little to direct themselves in religious matters, or to 
substitute what was right in the place of what they knew 
to be wrong ; and hence it was natural for them to follow 
the first plausible guide that was offered to them. But 
the church of Rome, apprehensive of the consequences of 
this mystic theology, left no method unemployed that 
could contribute to stop its progress ; and, by the force of 
promises and threats, of severity and mildness properly 
applied, stifled in the birth the commotions and changes 
it seemed adapted to excite. The death of Molinos con- 
tributed also to dispel the anxiety of the Romish doctors, 
since his disciples and followers seemed too inconsidera- 
ble to deserve any notice. Among these are generally 
reckoned cardinal Petrucci, Francis de la Combe, a Bar 
nabite friar, (the spiritual director of Madame Guyon,) 
Francis Malavalle, Bernier de Louvigni, and others of less 
note. These enthusiasts, as is common among the Mys- 
tics, differ from Molinos in several points, and are also 
divided among themselves. This diversity is, however, 
rather nominal than real ; and, if we consider the true 

c Innocent XI. 

dHe was born in the diocese of Saragossa, in 1627; seethe Biblioth. 
Janseniste, p. 469.— For an account of this controversy, see the Narra- 
tive of the Proceedings of the Controversy concerning Q.uietism, sub- 
joined to the German translation of Burnet's Travels ; as also Arnoldi 
Histor. Eccles. et Heretic, torn. iii. c. xvii. — Jaegeri Histor. Eccles. et 
Polit. SfEculi XVII. decen. ix.— Plessis D'Argentre, Collectio Judiciorum 
de novis Erroribus, t. iii. p. 357, where may be seen the papal edicts 
relating to this controversy. 

All that can be alleged in defence of Molinos has been collected by 
Weisman, in his Histor. Ecclesiast. ssec. XVII. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



571 



signification of the terms by which they express their re- 
spective notions, we shall find that they all set out from 
ihe some principles, and tend to the same conclusions. 11 
LI One of the principal patrons and propagators of 
Q,uirtism in France was Marie Bouvieres de la Mothe 
Guyon, a woman of fashion, remarkable for the goodness 
of her heart and the regularity of her manners, but of an 
inconstant and unsettled temper, and subject to be drawn 
away by the seduction of a warm and unbridled fancy. 
This female apostle of mysticism derived all her ideas of 
religion from the feelings of her own heart, b and described 
its nature to others as she felt it herself; a manner of 
proceeding which is extremely uncertain and delusive. 
And, accordingly, her religious sentiments made a great 
noise in 1687, and gave offence to many. Hence, after 
they had been attentively and accurately examined by 
several men of eminent piety and learning, they were 
pronounced erroneous and unsound, and, in 1697, w r ere 
professedly confuted by the celebrated Bossuet. This 
gave rise to a controversy of still greater moment, between 
the prelate last mentioned, and Francis Salignac de Fene- 
lon, archbishop of Cambray, whose sublime virtue and 
superior genius were beheld with veneration in all the 
countries of Europe. Of these two disputants, who, in 
point of eloquence, were avowedly without either supe- 
riors or equals in France, the latter seemed disposed to 
favour the religious system of Madame Guyon ; for, 
when Bossuet desired his approbation of the book he had 
composed in answer to the sentiments of that female 
mystic, Fenelon not only refused it, but openly declared 
that this pious woman had been treated with great par- 
tiality and injustice, and that the censures of her adver- 
eary were unmerited and groundless. Nor did the warm 
imagination of this amiable prelate permit him to stop 
here, where the dictates of prudence ought to have set 
bounds to his zeal ; for, in the same year, he published a 
book, c in which he adopted several of the tenets of Ma- 
dame Guyon, and more especially that favourite doctrine 
of the Mystics, which teaches that the love of the Supreme 
Being must be pure and disinterested ; that is, exempt 
from all views of interest and all hope of reward. d This 
doctrine Fenelon explained with pathetic eloquence, and 
confirmed it by the authority of many of the most emi- 
nent and pious among the Romish doctors. Bossuet, 
whose leading passion was ambition, and who beheld 
with anxiety the rising fame and eminent talents of Fene- 
lon as an obstacle to his glory, was highly exasperated 
by this opposition, and left no method unemployed which 
artifice and jealousy could suggest to mortify a rival whose 



°- The writings of these fanatics are enumerated and sharply criticised 
by Colonia, in the Bibliotheque Q.uietiste (which he has subjoined to his 
Biblioth. Janseniste,) p. 455,488. — See also God. Arnoldi Hist, et De- 
scriptio Theologiae Mysticae, p. 364, and Poiret's Biblio. Mysticorum. 

t The writings of this lady abound with childish allegories and 
mystic ejaculations. She wrote an account of her own life and spiritual 
adventures; but her principal production was La Bible de Mad. Guyon, 
avec des Explications et Reflexions qui regardent la Vie interieure. 
This Bible, with Annotations relating to the hidden or internal Life, 
was published in 1715, in twenty volumes in 8vo. and the notes abun- 
dantly discover the fertile imagination and shallow judgment of this fe- 
male mystic. — See a farther account cf her in the Letters of Mad. de 
Maintenon, torn. i. ii. 

c This book was entitled, Explication des Maximes dcs Saints sur la 
Vie interieure. It has been translated into Latin. 

5jT d This doctrine has thus far a foundation in reason and philoso- 
phy, that the moral perfectioris of the Deity are, in themselves, intrin- 
sically amiable ; and that their excellence is as much adapted to excite 
our esteem and love, as the experience of their beneficent effects in 



illustrious merit had rendered him so formidable. For 
this purpose, he threw himself at the feet of Louis XIV., 
implored the pope's aid, and, by his importunities and 
stratagems, obtained the condemnation of Fenelon's book. 
This censure was pronounced, in 1699, by Innocent 
XII., who. in a public brief, declared that book unsound 
in general, and branded with peculiar marks of disap- 
probation twenty-three propositions, specified by that Con- 
gregation which had been appointed to examine it. The 
book, however, was condemned alone, without any men- 
tion of the author ; and the conduct of Fenelon on this 
occasion was very remarkable. He declared public kly 
his entire acquiescence in the sentence by w T hich his book 
had been condemned, and not only read that sentence to 
his people in the pulpit at Cambray, but exhorted them 
to respect and obey the papal decree. 8 This step was 
differently interpreted by different persons, according to 
their notions of this great man, or their respective ways 
of thinking. Some considered it as an instance of true 
magnanimity, as the mark of a meek and gentle spirit, 
that preferred the peace of the church to every private 
view of interest or glory. Others, less charitable, looked 
upon this submissive conduct as ignoble and pusillani- 
mous, as denoting manifestly a want, of integrity, in- 
asmuch as it implied, that the prelate condemned with 
his lips what in his heart he believed to be true. One 
thing indeed seems generally agreed on ; and that is, 
that Fenelon persisted, to the end of his days, in the sen- 
timents which, in obedience to the order of the pope, he 
retracted and condemned in a public manner. 

LII. Beside these controversies, which derived their 
importance chiefly from the influence and reputation of 
the disputants, and thus became productive of great 
tumults and divisions in the church, there w r ere others 
excited by several innovators, whose new and singular 
opinions were followed by troubles, though of a less mo- 
mentous and permanent nature. Such was the strange 
doctrine of Isaac la Peyrere, who, in two small treatises, 
published in 1655, maintained that it is the origin of the 
Jewish nation, and not of the huaaan race, that w r e find 
recorded in the books of Moses, and that our globe w T as 
inhabited by many nations before Adam, whom he con- 
sidered as merely the father of the Jews. Though Pey- 
rere was a protestantwhen he published this opinion, yet 
the doctors of the Romish church thought themselves 
bound to punish an error that seemed to strike at the 
foundation of all revealed religion ; and, therefore, in 
1656, had him seized at Brussels, and thrown into prison, 
where, to escape the flames, he publickly renounced his 

promoting our well-being, is to inflame our gratitude. The error, therefore 
of the mystics lay in their drawing extravagant conclusions from a right 
principle, and in their requiring in their followers a perpetual abstraction 
and separa:ion of ideas which are intimately connected, and, as it were, 
blended together, such as felicity and perfection ; for, though these two 
are inseparable in fact, yet the mystics, from a fanlostic pretension to dis- 
interestedness, would separate them right or wrong, and turned their 
whole attention to the latter. In their views also of the Supreme Being, 
they overlooked the important relations he bears to us as benefactor and 
rewarder; relations which certainly give rise to noble sentiments and 
important duties ; and confined their views to his supreme beauty, ex- 
cellence, and perfection. 

"An ample and impartial account of this controversy has been given 
by Toussaint du Plessis, a Benedictine, in his Histoire de l'Eglise de 
Meaux, livre v. torn. i. p. 485 — 523. — Ramsay, in his life of Fenelon, 
is less impartial, but is nevertheless worthy of being consulted on this 
subject. See Voltaire's Siecle de Louis XIV. torn. ii. p. 301. — The 
public acts and edicts relating to this controversy have been collected by 
M. du Plessis Argentre, in his Collectio Judiciorum, torn. iii. 



572 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



erroneous system, and, to make a full expiation for it, 
embraced the popish religion. 1 

Thomas White, known at different times, and in differ- 
ent countries, by the nariies of Albius, Anglus, Candid us, 
Bianchi, b which he assumed successively, made a con- 
siderable figure, about the middle of this century, in Eng- 
land, Portugal, France, and the Netherlands, by the 
number and subtlety of his philosophical productions ; 
but he also incurred the displeasure of many of the doc- 
tors of his communion, on account of the novelty and 
singularity of his opinions. He was undoubtedly a man 
of genius and penetration ; but, being a passionate ad- 
mirer of the Peripatetic philosophy, he ventured to employ 
it in the explication of some of the peculiar doctrines of 
*he Romish church. This bold attempt led him imper- 
ceptibly out of the beaten road of popery, opened to him 
new views of things, and made him adopt notions that 
had never been heard of in the church of Rome ; and 
hence his books were prohibited and condemned in seve- 
ral places, and particularly at Rome by the Congregation 
of the Index. This innovator is said to have died in 
England, his native country, and to have left a sect be- 
hind him that embraced his doctrine, but which, in pro- 
cess of time, fell into oblivion. 

His peculiarities, however, were nothing, in comparison 
with the romantic notions of Joseph Francis Borri, a 
Milanese knight, eminent for his knowledge of chemistry 
and physic ; but who, at the same time, appears to have 
been rather a madman than a heretic. The fancies 
broached by this man, concerning the Virgin Mary, the 
Holy Ghost, the erection of a new celestial kingdom, of 
which he himself was to be the founder, and the down- 
fall of the Roman pontiff, are so extravagant, childish, 
and absurd, that no sober person can view them in any 
other light than as the crude reveries of a disordered brain. 
Besides, the conduct of this fanatic, in many instances, 
discovered the greatest vanity and levity, attended with 
that spirit of imposture which is usually visible in quacks 
and mountebanks ; and, indeed, in the whole of his be- 
haviour, he seemed destitute of sense, integrity, and pru- 
dence. The inquisitors had spread their snares for Borri ; 
but he fortunately escaped them, and wandered up and 
down through a great part of Europe, giving himself out 
for another iEsculapius, and pretending to be initiated 
into the most profound mysteries of chemical science. 
But, in 1672, he imprudently fell into the power of the 
pontiff, who pronounced against him a sentence of per- 
petual imprisonment. 4 

The last innovator we shall here mention is Celestine 
Sfondrati, who, having formed the design of terminating 
the disputes concerning predestination, by new explica- 
tions of that doctrine, wrote a book upon that knotty 

• Bayle's Dictionary. — Arnold's Histor. Eccles. et Hseret. torn. iii. — 
Menagiana, published by M. de la Monnoye, torn. ii. 

fCj* b All these denominations bear reference to his true name, which 
was White. This man was a peculiar favourite of Sir Kenelm Digby, 
and mentions him with singular veneration in his philosophical writings. 
See more of this White in Wood's Athena; Oxon. second edit. vol. ii. 
p. 665, and in the Biograph. Brit, article Glanville, vol. iv. p. 2206. 

6 See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Anglus. — Baillet, Vie de M. 
Des Cartes, torn. ii. 

• There is a very interesting article in Bayle's Dictionary relating to 
Borri, in which all the extravagances of that wrong-headed man are 
curiously related. See also Arnold's History, p. iii. c. xviii. p. 193. 

• This book, which was published at Rome in 1696, is entitled, Nodus 
Prsedestinationis dissolutus. The letters of the French bishops, with 



subject, which threw into combustion, in 1696, a consid- 
erable part of the Romish church, since it was, in some 
things, agreeable to none of the contending parties, and 
neither satisfied entirely the Jesuits nor their adversaries." 
Five French bishops, of great credit at the court of Rome, 
accused the author, notwithstanding the high rank of 
cardinal to which he had been raised on account of his 
extensive learning, of various errors, and more especially 
of having departed from the sentiments and doctrine of 
Augustine. This accusation was brought before Inno- 
cent XII. in 1696 ; but the contest which it seemed cal- 
culated to excite was nipped in the bud. The pontiff 
appeased, or rather put off, the French prelates, with a 
fair promise that he would appoint a congregation to ex- 
amine the cardinal's doctrine, and then pronounce sentence 
accordingly ; but he forgot his promise, imitated the pru- 
dent conduct of his predecessors on like occasions, and did 
not venture to decide this intricate controversy. 

LIII. There was scarcely any change introduced into 
the Romish ritual during this century, if we except an 
edict of Urban VIII., issued in 1643/ for diminishing the 
number of holidays : we shall therefore conclude this 
account with a list of the saints added to the calendar by 
the Roman pontiffs during the period now before us. 

In the year 1601, Clement VIII. raised to that spiritual 
dignity Raymond of Pennafort, the famous compiler of 
the Decretals ; in 1608, Frances Pontiani, a Benedictine 
nun ; and, in 1610, the eminent and illustrious Charles 
Borromeo, bishop of Milan, so justly celebrated for his 
exemplary piety, and almost unparalleled liberality and 
beneficence. 

Gregory XV. conferred, in 1622, the honour of saint- 
ship on Theresa, a native of Avila in Spain, and a nun 
of the Carmelite order. 

Urban VIII. in 1623, conferred the same spiritual 
honours on Philip Neri, the founder of the order entitled 
Fathers of the Oratory, in Italy ; on Ignatius Loyola, 
the parent of the Jesuits ; and on his chief disciple Franci'- 
Xavier, the Apostle of the Indians. 

Alexander VII. canonized, in 1658,. Thomas de Villa 
nueva, a Spanish monk, of the order of St. Augustin , 
and, in 1665, Francis de Sales, bishop of Geneva. 

Clement X. added to this honourable list, in 1670, 
Pedro de Alcantara, a Franciscan monk, and Maria Mag- 
dalena Pactii, a Florentine nun of the Carmelite order ; 
and. in 1671, Rose, an American virgin, of the third order 
of Dominick, and Louis Bertrand, a Dominican monk. 

Under the pontificate of Innocent XII. saintship was 
conferred upon Caietan of Vicenza, a regular clerk of the 
order of Theatins, for whom that honour had been de- 
signed twenty years before by Clement X. who died at the 
time when the canonization was to have been performed. 



the answer of the pontiff, are to be found in Du-Plessis D'Argentre's 
Collectio Judiciorum, torn. iii. and in Natalis Alexander's Theologia 
Dogmatica et Moralis, p. 877. The letters of the bishops are remarkable 
in this respect, that they contain sharp animadversions upon the Jesuits 
and their discipline. The prelates express, in the strongest terms, their 
abhorrence of the doctrine of philosophical sin, which rendered the 
Jesuits so deservedly infamous, and their detestation of the methods of 
propagating Christianity employed by the missionaries of that order in 
China; and, to express their aversion to the doctrine of Sfondra;!, 
they say, that his opinions are still more erroneous and pernicious than 
even those of the Molinists. The doctrine of this cardinal has been 
accurately represented and compared with that of Augustin by the 
learned Basnage, in his Histoire de l'Eglise, livre xii. c. iii. sect. xi. 
' This bull may be seen in the Nouvelle Bibliotbeque, torn. xv. p. 88. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND ORIENTAL CHURCHES. 



573 



John of Leon, also, a hermit of St. Augustin ; Pascal 
Baylonio. a Franciscan monk of the kingdom of Arra- 
gon ; and John de Dieu, a Portuguese, and one of the order 
of the Brethren of Hospitality, all of whom had been 
marked for a place in the calendar by Alexander VIIL, 
were solemnly canonized, in 1691, by Innocent XII. a 

CHAPTER II. 

The History of the Greek and Oriental Churches. 
I. The history of the Greek and Eastern Christians, 
faithfully and accurately composed, would, no doubt, fur- 
nish us with a variety of entertaining and useful records ; j 
but the events that happen, and the transactions that are j 
carried on in those distant regions, are very rarely trans- 1 
mitted to us genuine and uncorrupted. The spirit of; 
religious party, and the pious frauds which it often j 
engenders, want of proper information, and undistinguish- j 
ins: credulity, have introduced a fabulous mixture into the 
accounts we have of the state of the Christian religion in i 
the East ; and this consideration has engaged us to treat 
in a more concise manner than would otherwise have been 
expedient, this particular branch of ecclesiastical history. ! 
The Greek church, whose wretched situation was j 
mentioned in the history of the preceding century, con- ' 
tinued, during the present one, in the same deplorable 
state of ignorance and decay, destitute of the means of 
acquiring or promoting solid and useful knowledge. This 
account is, however, to be considered as taken from a 
general view of that church ; for several of its members 
may be alleged as exceptions from the prevailing character 
of ignorance, superstition, and corruption. Among the 
multitude of Greeks who travel into Sicily, Italy, England, 
Holland, and Germany, or carry on trade in their own 
country, or fill honourable and important posts in the courts 
of the Turkish emperors, there are undoubtedly some 
who are exempt from this reproach of ignorance and 
stupidity, of superstition and profligacy, and who make a 
figure by their opulence and credit. b But nothing can be 
more rooted and invincible than the aversion the Greeks 
in general discover to the Latin or Romish church ; an 
aversion which neither promises nor threats, artifice nor 

" The diplomas of the pontiffs, relative to all these canonizations, may 
De seen in Fontanini's Codex Constitutionum, quas sumfni Pontifices 
ediderunt in solemni Canonizatione sanctorum, p. 260. published at 
Rome, in 1729. As they contain the particular reasons which occasion- 
ed the elevation of these persons to a place in the calendar, and the 
peculiar kind of merit on which each promotion was founded, they 
offer abundant matter for reflection and censure to a judicious reader. 
Nor would it be labour ill employed to inquire, without prejudice or 
partiality, into the justice, piety, and truth of what the popes allege in 
these diplomas, as the reasons for conferring saintship on the persons 
therein mentioned. 

b I have been led to these remarks by the complaints of Alexander 
Helladius, and of others who see tilings in the light in which he has 
placed them. There is still extant a book published in Latin by this 
author, in 1714, entitled, The present State of the Greek Church, in 
which he throws out the bitterest reproaches upon several authors of 
eminent merit and learning, who have given accounts of that church, 
and maintains that his brethren of the Greek communion are much more 
pious, learned, wise, and opulent, than they are commonly supposed to 
be. Instead of envying the Greeks the merit and felicity which this 
panegyrist supposes them to possess, we sincerely wish them much 
greater degrees of both. But we observe at the same time, that from 
the very accounts given by Helladius it would be easy to prove, that 
the stale of the Greeks is not a whit better than it is generally supposed to 
De ; though it may be granted, that the same ignorance, superstition, and 
immorality, do not abound alike in all places, or among all persons. 
See what we have remarked on this subject in the accounts we have 
given of the Eastern church during the sixteenth century. 

No. XLVIIi: 144 



violence, have been able to conquer, or even to temper or 
diminish, and which has continued inflexible and unre- 
lenting amidst the most zealous efforts of the Roman 
pontiffs, and the various means employed by their nu- 
merous missionaries, to gain over this people to their 
communion and jurisdiction. It is true, indeed, that 
the Latin Christians have founded churches in some of 
the islands of the Archipelago ; but these congregations 
are poor and inconsiderable ; nor will either the Greeks 
or their masters, the Turks, permit the Romish mission- 
aries to extend farther their spiritual jurisdiction. 

II. Under the pontificate of Urban VIII. great hopes 
were entertained of softening the antipathy of the Greeks 
against the Latin church, d and of engaging them and the 
other Christians of the East, to embrace the communion of 
Rome, and acknowledge the supremacy and jurisdiction 
of its pontiff. This was the chief object that excited the 
ambitious zeal and employed the assiduous labour and 
activity of Urban, who called to his assistance such eccle- 
siastics as were most eminent for their acquaintance with 
Greek and Oriental learning, and with the tempers, man- 
ners, and characters of the Christians in those distant 
regions, that they 'might suggest the shortest and most 
effectual method of bringing them and their churches 
under the Roman yoke. The wisest of these counsellors 
advised the pontiff to lay it down for a preliminary in 
this difficult negotiation, that the Greek and Eastern 
Christians were to be indulged in almost every point that 
had - hitherto been refused them by the Romish mission- 
aries, and that no alteration was to be introduced either 
into their ritual or doctrine ; that their ceremonies were 
to be tolerated, since they did not concern the essence of 
religion ; and that their doctrine was to be explained and 
understood in such a manner as might give it a near and 
striking resemblance to the doctrine and institutions of 
the church of Rome. In defence of this method of pro- 
ceeding, it was judiciously observed, that the Greeks would 
be much more tractable and obsequious, were they told 
by the missionaries, that it was not meant to convert 
them ; that they had always been Roman catholics in 
reality, though not in profession ; and that the popes had 
no intention of persuading them to abandon the doctrine 



c The Jesuit Tarillon has given an ample relation of the numerous 
missions in Greece and the other provinces of the Ottoman empire, and 
of the present state of these missions, in his letter to Pontchartrain, sur 
l'Etat present des Missions des Peres Jesuites dans la Grece, published 
in the Nouveaux Memoires des Missions de la Compagnie de Jesus, torn. 
i. p. 1125. For an account of the state of the Romish religion in the 
islands of the Archipelago, see the letter of the Jesuit Xavier Portier. 
in the Lettres edifiantes et curieuses, ecrites des Missions etrangeres, t 
x. p. 328. These accounts are, it is true, somewhat embellished, in 
order to advance the glory of the Jesuits ; but the exaggerations of these 
missionaries may be easily corrected by the accounts of other writers, 
who, in our times, have treated this branch of ecclesiastical history. 
See, above all others, R. Simon's (under the fictitious name of Saiiit- 
Jore) Bibliothcque Critique, torn. i. c. xxiii. p. 340, and especially p. 
346, where the author confirms a remarkable fact, which we have men- 
tioned above upon the authority of Cerri, namely, that, amidst the 
general dislike which the Greeks have to the Romish church, no per- 
sons carry this dislike to such a high degree of antipathy and aversion, 
as those veiy Greeks who have been educated at Rome, or in the other 
schools and seminaries belonging to its spiritual jurisdiction. " lis sont 
(says Father Simon) les premiers a. crier contre et a medire du pape et 
des Latins. Ces pelerins Orientaux qui viennent chez nous, fourbent 
et abusent de notre credulite, pour acheter un benefice, et tourmenter les 
missionaries Latins, &c." We have still more recent and ample testi- 
monies of the invincible hatred of the Greeks toward the Latins, in the 
preface to Cowell's Account of the present Greek Church. 

d See the Life of Morinus, prefixed to his Antiquitates Ecclea 
Orient, p. 37. 



574 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND ORIENTAL CHURCHES. 



Sect. H. 



of their ancestors, but only desired that they would under- 
stand it in its true and genuine sense. This plan gave 
rise to a variety of laborious productions', in which there 
was more learning than probity, and more dexterity than 
candour and good faith. Such were the treatises publish- 
ed by Leo Allatius, Morinus, Clement Galanus, Lucas 
Holstenius, Abraham Eccbellensis, 3 and others who pre- 
tended to demonstrate, that there was little or no differ- 
nce between the religion of the Greeks, Armenians and 
Nestorians, and that of the church of Rome, a few cere- 
monies excepted, together with some unusual phrases 
and terms that are peculiar to the Christians of the 
East. 

The design of bringing, by artful compliances, the 
Greek and Eastern churches under the jurisdiction of 
Rome, was opposed by many, but by none with more 
resolution and zeal than by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of 
Constantinople, a man of extensive learning and know- 
ledge of the world, who had visited a great part of Europe, 
and was well acquainted with the doctrine and discipline, 
both of the protestant and papal churches. This prelate 
declared openly, and indeed with more courage than pru- 
dence, that he had a strong propensity to the religious 
sentiments of the English and Dutch churches, and had 
conceived the design of reforming the doctrine and ritual 
of the Greeks, and bringing them nearer to the purity 
and simplicity of the Gospel. This was sufficient to 
render the venerable patriarch odious to the friends of 
Rome ; and accordingly the Jesuits, seconded by the-cre- 
dit and influence of the French ambassador, and assisted 
by the treacherous stratagems of some perfidious Greeks, 
continued to perplex and persecute the good man in vari- 
ous ways, and at length accomplished his ruin ; for, by 
the help of false witnesses, they obtained an accusation 
of treason against him ; in consequence of which he 
was put to death, in 1638, by the mandate of the Turkish 
emperor. b He was succeeded by Cyril, bishop of Berea, 
a man of a dark, malignant, and violent spirit, and the in- 
famous instrument the Jesuits had chiefly employed in 
bringing him to an untimely end. As this new patriarch 
declared himself openly in favour of the Latins, the recon- 
ciliation of the Greeks with the church of Rome seemed 

a The book of Leo Allatius, de Concordia Ecclesice Oricntalis et 
Occidnntalis, is well known, and deservedly looked upon, by the most 
learned protestants, as the work of a disingenuous and insidious writer. 
The Graecia Orthodoxa of the same author, which was published at 
R.ome in 1652, and contains a compilation from all the books of the 
Grecian doctors who were well affected to the Latin church, is still ex- 
tant.— We have nothing of Lucas Holstenius (who was superior to 
Allatius in learning and sagacity) upon this subject, except two posthu- 
mous dissertations, de Ministro et Forma, Sacramcnti Confimationis 
apud Gracos, which were published at Rome in 1666.— The treatises 
of Morinus, de Pcenitentia et Ordinationibus, are known to all the learn- 
ed, and seem expressly composed to make the world believe, that there 
is a striking conformity of sentiment between the Greek and Latin 
churches on these two important points, when, laying aside the differ- 
ence that scholastic terms and peculiar modes of expression may ap- 
pear to occasion, we attend to the meaning that is annexed to these 
terms by the members of the two communions'. Galanus, in a long and 
laborious work, has endeavoured to prove, that the Armenians differ 
v»ry little from the Latins in their religious opinions; and Abraham 
Ecchellensis has attempted to convince us in several treatises, (and 
more especially in his Animadversiones ad Hebed. Jesu Catalogum lib- 
rorum ChaJdaicorum) that all Christians throughout Africa and Asia 
have the same system of doctrine that is received among the Latins. 

•> The Confession of Faith, drawn up by Cyril Lucar, was published 
m Holland, in 1645; and is also inserted bv Aymon in his Monumens 
authentiques de la Religion des Grecs, p. 237. By this confession, it 
appears evidently, that this prelate had a stronger inclination toward 
the doctrine of the reformed churches, than to that which was commonly 



more probable than ever, and almost certain ;« but the dis- 
mal fate of this unworthy prelate suddenly dispelled the 
pleasing hopes and the anxious fears with which 
Rome and its adversaries beheld the approach of this im- 
portant event. The same violent death that had con- 
cluded the days of Cyril Lucar pursued his successor, in 
whose place Parthenius, a zealous opposer of the doctrine 
and ambitious pretensions of Rome, was raised to the 
patriarchal dignity. After this period the Roman pontiffs 
desisted from their attempts upon the Greek church, no 
opportunity being offered either of deposing its patriarchs, 
or gaining them over to the Romish communion. 

III. Notwithstanding these unsuccessful attempts of 
the pontiffs to reduce the Greek church under their domi- 
nion, man)r allege, and more especially the reformed 
clergy complain, that the doctrine of that church has been 
manifestly corrupted by the emissaries of Rome. It is 
supposed, that, in later times, the munificence of the 
French ambassadors at the Porte, and the persuasive 
sophistry of the Jesuits, have made such irresistible impres- 
sions on the avarice and ignorance of the Greek bishops, 
whose poverty is great, that they have departed, in several 
points, from the religious system of their ancestors, and 
have adopted, among other errors of the Romish church, 
the monstrous and unnatural doctrine of transubstantia- 
tion. This change is said to have been more especially 
brought about in the famous council, which was assem- 
bled, in 1672, at Jerusalem, by Dositheus, the patriarch 
of that city. d Without entering into an examination of 
the truth and equity of this charge brought against the 
Greek bishops, we shall only observe, that it was the con- 
troversy between the catholics and protestants in France 
that first gave rise to it. The latter, and more especially 
John Claude, so justly celebrated for his extensive learn- 
ing and masterly eloquence, maintained, that many of 
the doctrines of the Romish church, and more particu- 
larly that of transubstantiation, were of a modern date, 
and had never been heard of before the ninth century. 
The catholics on the contrary, with Arnaud at their head, 
affirmed, that the doctrine of Rome concerning the eucha- 
rist, and the real conversion of the bread and wine into 
the body and blood of Christ in that holy ordinance, had 



received among the Greeks. Nor was he, by any means, ill-affected 
toward the Lutherans, since he addressed several letters to the Swedish 
clergy about this time, and solicited their friendship, as appears from 
the learned Archenholtz' Memoires dela Reine Christine. — Aymon has 
published, in the work already mentioned, twenty-seven letters of this 
patriarch to the clergy of Geneva, and to the doctors of the reformed 
church, in which his religious sentiments are still more plainly disco- 
vered. His life, transactions, and deplorable fate, have been recorded 
by Thomas Smith, a learned divine of the English church, in his Narra- 
tio de Vita, Studiis, Gestis et Martyrio Cyrilli Lucaris, which is the 
third article of his Miscellanea; as also by Hottinger, and by other 
authors mentioned by Fabricius in his Bibliotheca Graeca. 

° See Eliae Vegelii Defensio Exerc. de Ecclesia Graca, p. 300, where 
we find the letters of pope Urban VIII. to Cyril of Berea, in which he 
loads with applause this new patriarch, for having been so instrumental 
in banishing from among the Greeks the pernicious errors of Cyril 
Lucar, and warmly exhorts him to depose all the Greek patriarchs and 
bishops who are not favourable to the Latin church. These exhorta- 
tions are seconded by flattering promises, and, particularly, by an assu- 
rance of protection and succour from the king of Spain. Cyril of Berea 
died in the communion of the. Romish church. See Hen. Hilarii Not. 
ad Phil. Cyprii Chron. Ecclesise Grreca, p. 470. 

d See, for an account of this.council, Aymon's Memoires Authentiques 
de la Religion des Grecs, torn. i. p. 263 ; and Gisberti Cuperi Epistolae, 
p. 404, 407. — See, more especially, the judicious and learned observa- 
tions of Basnage on the transactions of this council, in his Histoire de 
la Religion des Eglises Reformers, period iv. p. i. c. xxxii. p. 452, and 
CowelPs Account of the Present State of the Greek Church, book l. ch. v. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND ORIENTAL CHURCHES. 



575 



been received by Christians in all ages of the church." 
To strengthen their cause by authorities, which they 
imagined would have no small influence upon their ad- 
versaries, they ventured to assert that this doctrine was 
adopted by all the Eastern Christians, and particularly 
by the Greek churches. b This bold assertion required 
striking and authentic testimonies to give it any degree 
of credit. Accordingly the ambassador of France, resi- 
ding at Constantinople, received orders from his court to 
concur with the Jesuits, and to leave no methods unem- 
ployed in procuring certificates from the Greek clergy to 
confirm this assertion. On the other hand, the English 
and Dutch ambassadors, persuaded that no such doctrine 
was really professed in the Greek church, procured also 
the testimonies of several ecclesiastics, in order to take 
from the catholic disputants this pretext ; which, after all, 
was of no great consequence, as it did not affect the'merits 
of the cause. The result, however, of this scrutiny was 
favourable to the Romish doctors, whose agents in foreign 
parts procured a more numerous list of testimonies than 
their adversaries could produce. The protestants invali- 
dated these testimonies, by proving fully, that many of 
them were obtained by bribery from the indigent Greeks, 
whose deplorable poverty made them sacrifice truth to 
lucre : and that a great number of them were drawn by 
artifice from ignorant priests, whom the Jesuits deceived, 
by disguising the doctrines of Rome in such a manner as 
to give them a Grecian air, and make them resemble 
the religious system of the Eastern churches.' If we 
grant this to be true, we may nevertheless justly question, 
whether the admission of certain doctrines in the Greek 
church, that resemble the errors of popery, ought to be 
dated from the period now before us ; and whoever exa- 
mines this controversy with a spirit of impartiality, accom- 
panied with a competent knowledge of the history of 
the religious doctrine of the Greek churches, will perhaps 
find that a certain vague and obscure notion, similar to 
the Romish doctrine of transubstantiation, was received 
during- many ages by several of these churches ; though, 
in these later times, they may have learned, from the 
Romish missionaries, the popish manner of expressing 
this very absurd and unaccountable tenet. d 

IV. Of those independent Greek churches, which are 

5jP" It was to prove this most groundless assertion, that the famous 
Nicole published his artful book, de la Perpetuite de la Foi, in 1664, 
which was answered, with a victorious force of evidence, bv the learned 
Claude. 

<> The names and productions of the principal writers that appeared 
in this controversy may be found in theBibliotheca Gr»ca of Fabricius, 
vol. x. p. 444, and in the learned Pfaff's Dissertatio contra Ludov. Roge- 
rii Opus Eucharisticum. 

c Here, above all other histories, the reader will do well to consult 
Cowell's Account of the present State of the Greek Church, as this 
author was actually at Constantinople when the scene of fraud and 
bribery was carried on, and was an eye-witness of the insidious arts 
and perfi.Jious practices employed by the Jesuits to obtain, from the 
Greek priests and monks, testimonies in favour of the doctrine of the 
Latin or Romish church. 

J The learned La Croze, who cannot be suspected of any propensity 
to favour the cause of Rome in general, or that of the Jesuits in parti- 
cular, was of opinion that the Greeks had been long in possession of 
the foolish doctrine of transubstantiation. See Gisberti Cuperi Epis- 
tolae. 

e These, perhaps, are the same persons of whom the learned Gmelin 
speaks, under the denomination of Sterowerzi, in the account of his 
Voyage into Siberia, torn. iv. p. 404. 

|^» f This sect is called, by other authors, the sect of the Roskolniki. 
According to the account of Voltaire, who pretends to have drawn the 
matenajs of his History of the Russian Empire under Peter I. from 
authentic records furnished by the court of Petersburg, this sect made 



governed by their own laws, and are not subject to the 
jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople, there is not 
one that can furnish any matter for an ecclesiastical his- 
torian, except the church established in Russia ; the rest 
are sunk in the most deplorable ignorance and barbarity 
that can be imagined. About the year 1666, a certain 
sect, which assumed the name of Isbraniki. i. e. the mul- 
titude of the Elect, but were called by their adversaries 
Roscolskika. or the seditious Faction, arose in Russia, 
and excited considerable tumults and commotions in that 
kingdom. e The reasons alleged by this sect in defence 
of its separation from the Russian church, are not yet 
known with certainty ; nor have we any satisfactory or 
accurate account of its doctrines and institutions ; f we 
only know in general, that its members affect an extra- 
ordinary air of piety and devotion, and complain of the 
corruptions introduced into the ancient religion of the 
Russians, partly by the negligence, and partly by the 
ambition, of the episcopal order.' On the other hand, 
great pains were taken to conquer the obstinacy of this 
factious sect ; arguments, promises, threatenings, dragoon- 
ings, the authority of synods and councils, seconded by 
racks and gibbets ; in a word, all the methods that arti- 
fice or barbarity could suggest, were practised to bring 
back these seditious heretics into the bosom of the church. 
But the effect of these violent measures by no means an- 
swered the expectations of the Russian government ; they 
exasperated, instead of reclaiming, these schismatics, who 
retired into the woods and deserts, and, as it often happens, 
were rendered more fierce and desperate by the calamities 
and sufferings in which they were involved. From the 
time that Peter the Great ascended the throne of Russia, 
and made such remarkable changes both in its civil and 
ecclesiastical government, this faction has been treated 
with greater humanity and mildness ; but it is alleged, 
that these mild proceedings have by no means healed the 
schism, and that, on the contrary, the Roskolniki have 
gained strength, and have become still more obstinate 
since the period now mentioned. 

V. It will not be improper here to give some account 
of this reformation of the church of Russia, which resulted 
from the active zeal and wisdom of Peter ; for, though 
this interesting event belongs to the history of the follow - 

its first appearance in the twelfth century. The members of it alleged, 
in defence of their separation, the corruptions, both in doctrine and 
discipline, which had been introduced into the Russian church. They 
profess a rigorous zeal for the letter of Scripture, which they do not 
understand; and the transposition of a single word in a new edition of 
the Russian Bible, though it tended only to correct an uncouth phrase in 
the translation commonly received, threw them into the greatest combus- 
tion and tumult. They will not allow a priest to administer baptism 
after having tasted spirituous liquor : and in this, perhaps, they do not 
amiss, since it is well known, that the Russian priests seldom touch the 
flask without drinking deeply. They hold that there is no subordination. 
of rank, no superior or inferior, among the faithful ; that a Christian 
may kill himself for the love of Christ; that it is a great sin to say 
Hallelujah dirice, and that a priest must never give a blessing but with 
three fingers. They are regular, even to austerity, in theirnianners; 
but, as they have always refused to admit Christians of odier denomina- 
tions into their religious assemblies, they have been suspected of com- 
mitting, at those meetings, various abominations, which ought not to be 
believed without the strongest demonstrative proof. They are accused, 
for example, of killing a child in these assemblies, and of drinking its- 
blood, and of lascivious commerce in its most irregular forms. 

e See Bergius, de Statu Ecclesiae et Religionis Moseoviticne, sect. xi. 
cap. vii. sect. ii. cap. xvi. — Append. 270. — Heineceius' Account of tlia 
Greek Church, written in German ; and Haven"s Iter Russicum. — Some 
writers conjecture, diat the Roskolniki are a branch descended from tha 
ancient Bogomilians, of whom we have already given some account, 
cent. xii. p. ii. chap. v. sect. ii. 



576 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND ORIENTAL CHURCHES. 



Sect. 11. 



ing century, yet the scheme, by which it was brought 
about, was formed toward the conclusion of the seven- 
teenth. This great prince made no change in the articles 
of faith received among the Russians, and which contain 
the doctrine of the Greek church. But he took the utmost 
pains to have this doctrine explained in a manner con- 
formable to the dictates of right reason and the spirit of 
the Gospel ; and he used .the most effectual methods to 
lestroy, on one hand, the influence of the hideous super- 
tition that sat brooding over the whole nation, and, on 
the other, to dispel the ignorance of the clergy, which 
was incredible, and that of the people, which would have 
exceeded it, had that been possible. These were great and 
arduous undertakings ; and the reformation to which they 
pointed, was such as seemed to require whole ages to 
accomplish and bring to any tolerable degree of perfection. 
To accelerate the execution of this glorious plan, Peter 
became a zealous protector and patron of arts and sciences. 
He encouraged, by various instances of munificence, men 
of learning and genius to settle in his dominions. He 
reformed the schools that were sunk in ignorance and 
barbarism, and erected new seminaries of learning. He 
endeavoured to excite in his subjects a desire of emerging 
from their ignorance and brutality, and a taste for know- 
ledge and the useful arts. And, to crown all these noble 
attempts, he extinguished the infernal spirit of persecution; 
abolished the penal laws against those who differed merely 
in religious opinion from the established church ; and 
granted to Christians of all denominations liberty of con- 
science, and the privilege of performing divine worship in 
the manner prescribed by their respective liturgies and 
institutions. This liberty, however, was modified in such 
a prudent manner, as to restrain and defeat any attempts 
that might be made by the Latins to promote the interests 
of popery in Russia, or to extend the jurisdiction of the 
Roman pontiff beyond the tolerated chapels of that com- 
munion ; for, though Roman Catholics were allowed to 
have places for the celebration of divine worship, the 
Jesuits were not permitted to exercise the functions of 
missionaries or public teachers in Russia ; and a parti- 
cular charge was given to the council, to which belonged 
the cognizance of ecclesiastical affairs, to use the utmost 
care and vigilance to prevent the propagation of Romish 
tenets among the people. 

Beside all this, a remarkable change was now intro- 
duced into the manner of governing the church. The 
splendid dignity of patriarch, which approached too near 
the lustre and prerogatives of majesty, not to be offensive 
to the emperor, and burthensome to the people, was sup- 
pressed, or rather assumed by this spirited prince, who 
declared himself the supreme pontiff and head of the 
Russian church.' 1 The functions of this high and im- 

f^" * This account is not perhaps entirely accurate. Dr. Mosheim 
seems to insinuate that Peter assumed not only the authority, but also 
the office and title of patriarch or supreme pontiff and head of the church. 
This, however, was not the case; he retained the power without the 
title, as may be seen by the oath that every member of the synod he 
had established was obliged to take when he was appointed to that 
office. It was in consequence of his authority, as emperor, that he 
claimed an absolute authority in the church, and not from any spiritual 
character or denomination. The oath now mentioned ran thus : " I 
swear and promise to be a faithful and obedient subject and servant to 
my true and natural sovereign, and to the august successors whom it 
shall please him to appoint, inconsequence of the indisputable power he 
has to regulate the succession to the crown. — I acknowledge him as the 
supreme judge of this spiritual college," &c. See Voltaire's Histoire de 
l'Empiro de Russie sous Pierre le Grand, torn. i. p. 174. 



portant office were committed to a council assembled at 
Petersburg, which was called the Holy Synod, and in 
which one of the archbishops, the most distinguished by 
his integrity and prudence, acted as president. This 
honourable office was filled by the famous Stephen Javor- 
ski, who composed a laborious work, in the Russian lan- 
guage, against heresy." The other orders of the clergy 
continued in their respective ranks and offices ; but both 
their revenues and their authority were considerably dimi- 
nished. It was resolved at first, in this general reform- 
ation, to abolish all monasteries and convents, as preju- 
dicial to the community, and unfriendly to population ; 
but this resolution was not executed ; on the contrary, 
the emperor himself erected a magnificent monastery in 
honour of Alexander Newsky, whom the Russians place 
in the. list of their heroes. 

VI. A small body of the Monophysites in Asia aban- 
doned, for some time, the doctrine and institutions of their 
ancestors, and embraced the communion of Rome. This 
step was entirely occasioned by the suggestions and in 
trigues of a person named Andrew Achigian, who had 
been educated at Rome, where he imbibed the principles 
of popery, and, having obtained the title and dignity of 
patriarch from the Roman pontiff, assumed the denomi- 
nation of Ignatius XXIV. d After the death of this pre- 
tended patriarch, another usurper, whose name was Peter, 
aspired to the same dignity, and, taking the title of Igna- 
tius XXV., placed himself in the patriarchal chair ; but 
the lawful patriarch of the sect had credit enough with 
the Turks to procure the deposition and banishment of 
this pretender ; and thus the small congregation which 
acknowledged his jurisdiction was entirely dispersed. 
The African Monophysites, and more especially the Copts 
notwithstanding that poverty and ignorance which expo- 
sed them to the seductions of sophistry and gain, stood 
firm in their principles, and made an obstinate resistance 
to the promises, presents, and attempts, employed by the 
papal missionaries to bring them under the Roman yoke. 
With respect to the Abyssinians, we have mentioned 
already, in its proper place, a revolution by which they 
delivered themselves from that tyrannical yoke, and re- 
sumed the liberty they had so imprudently renounced. 
It is proper, however, to take notice here of the zeal dis- 
covered by the Lutherans, in their attempts to dispel the 
ignorance and superstition of this people, and to bring 
them to the knowledge of a purer religion and a more 
rational worship. It was with this pious design that the 
learned Heyling, of Lubeck, undertook a voyage into 
Ethiopia in 1634, where he resided many years, and ac- 
quired such a distinguished place in the favour and es- 
teem of the emperor, that he was honoured with the im- 
portant office of prime minister of that mighty empire. 



b Le duien, Oriens Christianus, torn. i. p. 1295. 

c Those who are acquainted with either the Danish or German lan- 
guage, will find several interesting anecdotes relating to these changes 
in Haven's Iter Russicum. 

<i From the fifteenth century downwards, all the patriarchs of the 
Monophysites have taken the name of Ignatius, for no other reason than 
to show that they are the lineal successors of Ignatius, (who was bishop 
of Antioch in the first century,) and of consequence the lawful patriarchs 
of Antioch. A like reason induces the religious chief of the Maro- 
nites, who also claims the same dignity, to assume the name of Peter ; 
for St. Peter is said to have governed the church of Antioch before 
Ignatius. 

d Jo. Simon. Assemani Biblioth. Oriental. Clementino- Vatican, torn, 
ii. p. 482, and his Dissert, de Monophysitis, sect. iii. 



Part I. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND ORIENTAL CHURCHES. 



577 



In this eminent station he gave many instances of his 
zeal both for the interests of religion and the public good ; 
after which he set out for Europe, but never arrived there ; 
nor is it known in what manner, or by what accident, 
he ended his days. 1 

Several years after this, Ernest, duke of Saxe-Gotha, 
surnamed the Pious, on account of his sanctity and vir- 
tue, formed the resolution of making a new attempt to 
diffuse the knowledge of the Gospel, in its purity and 
simplicity, among the ignorant and superstitious Abyssi- 
nians. This design was formed by the counsels and sug- 
gestions of the famous Ludolph, and was to have been 
executed by the ministry of the abbot Gregory, an Abys- 
sinian, who had resided for some time in Europe." The 
unhappy fate of this missionary, who perished in a ship- 
wreck in 1657, did not totally discourage the prince from 
pursuing his purpose ; for, in 1663, he entrusted the same 
pious and important commission to John Michael Wansleb, 
a native of Erfort, to whom he gave the wisest orders, 
and whom he charged particularly to leave no means 
unemployed that might contribute to give the Abyssinian 
nation a favourable opinion of the Germans, as it was 
upon this basis alone that the success of the present en- 
terprise could be built. Wansleb, however, whose virtue 
was by no means equal to his abilities, instead of conti- 
nuing his journey to Abyssinia, remained several years 
in Egypt. On his return thence into Europe, he began 
to entertain uneasy apprehensions of the account that 
would naturally be demanded both of his conduct, and 
of the manner in which he had employed the sums of mo- 
ney he had received for his Abyssinian expedition. These 
apprehensions rendered him desperate, because they were 
attended with a consciousness of guilt. Hence, instead 
of returning into Germany, he went to Rome, where, in 
1667, he embraced, at least in outward profession, the 
doctrine of that church, and entered into the Dominican 
order. Thus the pious design of the best of princes 
failed in the execution. To his formation of that scheme, 
however, we are indebted for the great light that has 
been thrown by the learned and laborious Ludolph on 
the history, doctrine, literature, and manners of the Abys- 
sinians, which before this period were very superficially 
known in Europe. 

VII. The state of the Christians in Armenia under- 
went a considerable change soon after the commencement 
of this century, in consequence of the incursions of Abbas 
the Great, king of Persia, into that province. This prince 
ravaged that part of Armenia which lay contiguous to 
his dominions, and ordered the inhabitants to retire into 
Persia. These devastations were intended to prevent the 
Turks from approaching his frontier ; for the Eastern 
monarchs, instead of erecting fortified towns on the bor- 
ders of their respective kingdoms, as is done by the Euro- 
pean princes, laid waste their borders upon the approach 
of the invaders, that, by thus cutting off the means of 

1 A very curious life of Heyling was published in German by Dr. 
Michaelis at Halle, in 1734. — See also Moller's Cimb. Litera. t. i. p. 253. 

k See Ludolphi Procmium ad Comm. in Hist. iEthiop. p. 31. — Junc- 
keri Vita Lobi Ludolphi, p. S3. 

* For an account of this inconstant and worthless, but learned man, see 
Lobo's Voyage d'Abyss. torn. i. p. 198, 227, 233, 248.— Cyprian's Cata- 
log. MSS. Biblioth. Gothana;, p. 64. — Eus. Renaudot's Prxf. ad Histor. 
Patriarch. Alexand. and his Historia Ecclesiai Alexandrinoe: see also 
Scriptor. Ordin. Prsedicatorum, edited by Echard and Cluetif. t. ii. p. 693. 

<» See Chardin's Voyages en Perse, torn. ii. p. 106 ; and the Nouvellcs 
Relations au Levant., by Gabriel de Chinon, p. 206. 

No. XLIX. 145 



their subsistence, their progress might be either entirely 
stopped, or considerably retarded. In this general emi- 
gration, the more opulent and the better sort of the Arme- 
nians removed to Ispahan, the capital of Persia, where 
the generous monarch granted them a beautiful suburb 
for their residence, with the free exercise of their religion 
under the jurisdiction of a bishop or patriarch. Under 
the sway of this magnanimous prince, who cherished his 
people with a paternal tenderness, these happy exiles en- 
joyed the sweets of liberty and abundance ; but after 
his death the scene changed, and they were involved in 
calamities of various kinds. d The storm of persecution 
that arose upon them shook their constancy ; many of 
them apostatised to the Mohammedan religion, so that it 
was justly to be feared that this branch of the Armenian 
church would gradually be lost. On the other hand, the 
state of religion in that church derived considerable ad- 
vantages from the settlement of a great number of Arme- 
nians in different parts of Europe for the purposes of 
commerce. These merchants, who had fixed their resi- 
dence, during this century, at London, Amsterdam, Mar- 
seilles, and Venice, e were not unmindful of the interests of 
religion in their native country ; and their situation fur- 
nished them with opportunities of exerting their zeal in 
this good cause, and particularly of supplying their Asi- 
atic brethren with Armenian translations of the Scriptures, 
and of other theological books, from the European presses, 
especially from those of England and Holland. These 
pious and instructive productions, being dispersed among 
the Armenians, who lived under the Persian and Turkish 
governments, contributed, no doubt, to preserve that illi- 
terate and superstitious people from falling into the most 
consummate and deplorable ignorance. 

VIII. The divisions that reigned among the Nestorians 
in the preceding century still subsisted, as all the methods 
employed to heal them had hitherto proved ineffectual. 
Some of the Nestorian bishops discovered a propensity 
to accommodate matters with the church of Rome. Elia& 
II., bishop of Mosul, sent two private embassies to the 
pope, in 1607 and 1610, to solicit his friendship: and, in 
the letter he addressed upon that occasion to Paul V., he 
declared his desire of effecting'a reconciliation between 
the Nestorians and the Latin church. f Elias III., though 
at first extremely averse to the doctrine and institution of 
that church, changed his sentiments in this respect ; and, 
in" 1657, addressed a letter to the congregation de propa- 
ganda Fide, in which he intimated his readiness to join 
with the church of Rome, on condition that the pope 
would allow the Nestorians a place of public worship in 
that city, and would abstain from all attempts to alter the 
discipline of the sect.' The Romish doctors could not 
but perceive that a reconciliation, founded on such con- 
ditions as these, would be attended with no advantage to 
their church, and promised nothing that could flatter the 
ambition of their pontiff; and accordingly we do not find 

For an account of the Armenians who settled at Marseilles, and of 
the books which they ordered to be printed in that city for the use of 
their brethren in foreign parts, see Richard Simon's Lettres Choisies, 
torn. ii. p. 137. — The same author (torn. iv. p. 160.) and die learned 
Joachim Schroder, in a dissertation prefixed to his Thesaurus Linguse 
Armenicoe, give an account of the Armenian Bible that was printed 
in Holland. The latter also takes notice of the other Armenian books 
that were published at Venice, Lyons, and Amsterdam. 

t Jos. Sim. Assemani Biblioth. Orient. Clement, Vatican, torn. L 
ii. iii. 

s Idem Opus, torn. iii. 



578 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK AND ORIENTAL CHURCHES. 



Sect. II. 



that the proposal above-mentioned was accepted. It does 
not appear that the Nestorians were received, at this time, 
into the communion of the Romish church, or that the 
bishops of Mosul were, after this period, at all solicitous 
about the friendship or good-will of the pope. The Nes- 
torian bishops of Ormus, who successively assume the 
name of Simeon, proposed also, more than once, a plans 
of reconciliation with the church of Rome ; and, with 
that view, sent to the pontiff a confession of their faith, 
which gave a clear idea of their religious tenets and in- 
stitutions. But these proposals were little attended to by 
the court of Rome, either in consequence of its disappro- 
bation of the doctrine of these Nestorians, b or of that 
contempt which their poverty and want of influence ex- 
cited in the pontiffs, whose ambition and avidity aimed 
at acquisitions of greater consequence ; for it is well known, 
that, since the year 1617, the bishops of Ormus have been 
in a low and declining state, both in point of opulence 
and credit, and are no longer in a condition to excite the 
envy of their brethren at Mosul.' The Romish mission- 
aries gained over, nevertheless, to their communion, a 

» In the years 1619 and 1658. 

•> Assemani Biblioth. torn. i. ii. iii. 

* Pet. Strozza, Praef. ad Librum da Chaldeeorum Dogmatibus. 



small number of Nestorians, whom they formed into a 
congregation or church, about the middle of this century. 
The bishops or patriarchs of this little flock reside in the 
city of Amida, or Diarbek, and all assume the denomi- 
nation of Joseph. 4 The Nestorians, resident on the coast 
of Malabar, called also the Christians of St. Thomas, 
suffered innumerable vexations, and the most grievous 
persecution, from the Romish priests, and more especially 
from the Jesuits, while those settlements were in the hands 
of the Portuguese ; but neither artifice nor violence could 
engage them to embrace the communion of Rome.' 
When Cochin was taken by the Dutch, in 1663, and 
the Portuguese were driven out of these quarters, the 
persecuted Nestorians resumed their primitive liberty, and 
were reinstated in the privilege of serving God without 
molestation, according to their consciences. These bless- 
ings they still continued to enjoy; nor are such of them 
as entered into the communion of Rome disturbed by the 
Dutch, who are accustomed to treat with toleration and 
indulgence all sects that live peaceably with those who 
differ from them in religious opinions and ceremonies.' 

<i See Le Q.uien, Oriens Christianus, torn. ii. p. 1078. 

• La Croze, Histoire du Christianisme des Indes, liv. v. p. 334. 

t Schouten, Voyage aux Indes Orient, torn. i. p. 319, 446. 



SECTION II. 
PART II. 



THE HISTORY OF THE MODERN CHURCHES. 



CHAPTER I. 

Tlie History of the Lutheran Church. 

1. We have already seen* the calamities and vexations 
that were entailed on the Lutheran church, by the perse- 
cuting spirit of the Roman pontiffs, and the intemperate 
zeal of the house of Austria, which, on many occasions, 
showed too great a propensity to second their ambitious 
and despotic measures ; we shall, therefore, at present con- 
fine our view to the losses it sustained from other quarters. 
The cause of Lutheranism suffered considerably by the 
desertion of Maurice, landgrave of Hesse, a prince of un- 
common genius and learning, who not only embraced the 
doctrine and discipline of the reformed church, b but also, 
in 1604, removed the Lutheran professors from their places 
in the university of Marpurg, and the doctors of that com- 
munion from the churches they had in his dominions. 
After taking this vigorous step, on account of the obstinacy 
with which the Lutheran clergy opposed his design, he 
took particular care to have his subjects instructed in the 
doctrine of the Helvetic church, and introduced into the 
Hessian churches the form of public worship that was 
observed at Geneva. This plan was not executed with- 
out some difficulty ; but it acquired a complete degree of 
stability and consistence in 1619, when deputies were sent 
by this prince to the synod of Dordrecht, with express 
orders to consent, in the name of the Hessian churches, 
to all the acts that should be passed in that assembly. 
The doctors of the reformed church, who lived at this 
period, strenuously defended the measures followed by 
Maurice, and maintained, that in all these transactions he 
observed the strictest principles of equity, and discovered 
an uncommon spirit of moderation. Perhaps the doctors 
of modern days may view this matter in a different light. 
They will acknowledge, perhaps without hesitation, that 
if this illustrious prince had been more influenced by the 
sentiments of the wisest of the reformed doctors, concern- 
ing the conduct we ought to observe toward those who 
differ from us in religious matters, and less by his own will 
and humour, he would have ordered many things other- 
wise than he actually did. 

II. The example of the landgrave of Hesse was followed, 
in 1614, by John Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg, who 
also renounced Lutheranism, and embraced the commu- 
nion of the reformed churches, though with certain restric- 
tions, and without employing any acts of mere authority 
to engage his subjects in the same measure ; for it is 
observable, that this prince did not adopt all the peculiar 
doctrines of Calvinism. He introduced, indeed, into his 



* In the History of the Romish Church. — See above. 

13" b The reader must always remember, that the writers of the con- 
tinent generally use the denomination oi reformed in a limited sense, to 
distinguish the church of England and the Calvinistical churches from 
those of the Lutheran persuasion. 

The reader will find a more ample account of this matter in the con- 



1 dominions the Genevan form of public worship, and em- 
braced the sentiments of the reformed churches concerning 
the person of Christ, and the manner in which he is pre- 
sent in the eucharist, as they appeared to him much more 
conformable to reason and Scripture than the doctrine of 
the Lutherans relating to these points. But, on the other 
hand, he refused to admit the Calvinistical doctrines of 
divine grace and absolute decrees ; and, on this account, 
he neither sent deputies to the synod of Dordrecht, nor 
adopted the decisions of that famous assembly on these in- 
tricate subjects. This way of thinking was so exactly fol- 
lowed by the successors of Sigismund, that they never 
would allow the opinion of Calvin, concerning the divine 
decrees, to be considered as the public and received doc- 
trine of the reformed churches in their dominions. It 
must be particularly mentioned, to the honour of this wise 
prince, that he granted to his subjects an entire liberty in 
religious matters, and left it to their unrestrained and free 
choice, whether they would remain in the profession of 
Lutheranism, or follow the example of their sovereign ; 
nor did he exclude from civil honours and employments, 
or from the usual marks of his protection and favour, those 
who continued in the faith of their ancestors. This lenity 
and moderation, which seemed so adapted to prevent jea- 
lousy and envy, and to satisfy both parties, did not how- 
ever produce this natural and salutary effect ; nor were 
they sufficient to restrain within the bounds of decency 
and charity several warm and inconsiderate votaries of 
Lutheranism. These over-zealous persons, who breathed 
the violent spirit of an age in which matters of conse- 
quence were usually carried on with vehemence and rigour, 
deemed it intolerable and highly provoking, that the Lu- 
therans and Calvinists should enjoy the same honours and 
prerogatives ; that all injurious terms and odious compa- 
risons should be banished from religious debates : that 
the controverted points in theology should either be en- 
tirely omitted in the public discourses of the clergy, or ex- 
plained with a spirit of modesty and Christian charity ; 
that certain rites which displeased the Calvinists should be 
totally abolished ; and that they who differed in opinion 
should be obliged to live in peace, concord, and the mutual 
exchange of good offices. If it was unreasonable in them 
to be offended at injunctions of this nature, it was still 
more so to discover their indignation in a manner, that 
excited not only sharp and uncharitable debates, but also 
civil commotions and violent tumults, that disturbed con- 
siderably the tranquillity of the state, and nourished a spirit 
of sedition and revolt, which the labour of years was in 
vain employed to extinguish. In this troubled stale of 



troyersial writings of the divines of Cassel and Darmstadt, of which 
Salig speaks largely in his Hist. Aug. Confess, torn. i. lib. iv. cap. ii. p. 
756. Those who understand the German lansrunee, may also consult 
Garth's Historischer Bericht von dem Reli^ions-Wesen in Furstenthum 
Hessen — Cyprian's Unterricht von Kiiehlicher Vereinigung der Pro- 
testanten, and the Acts published in the Unschuld. Nachrich. An. 1749 



580 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. n. 



thing?, the divines of Saxony, and more especially those 
of Wittenberg, undertook to defend the Lutheran cause ; 
but if it be acknowledged, on one hand, that their views 
were good, and their intentions upright, it must be owned, 
on the other, that their style was keen even to a degree 
of licentiousness, and their zeal warm beyond all measure. 
And, indeed, as it generally happens, their want of mode- 
ration injured, instead of promoting, the cause in which 
they had embarked ; for it was in consequence of their 
violent proceedings, that the Form of Concord was sup- 
pressed in the territories of Brandenburg, and the subjects 
of that electorate were prohibited, by a solemn edict, from 
studying divinity in the university of Wittenberg.* 

III. It was deplorable to see two churches, which had 
discovered an equal degree of pious zeal and fortitude in 
throwing off the despotic yoke of Rome, divided among 
themselves, and living in discords that were highly detri- 
mental to the interests of religion and the welfare of 
society. Hence several eminent divines and leading men, 
both among the Lutherans and Calvinists, anxiously 
sought some method of uniting the two churches, though 
divided in their opinions, in the bonds of Christian cha- 
rity and ecclesiastical communion. A competent know- 
ledge of human nature and human passions served to 
persuade these wise and pacific mediators, that a perfect 
uniformity of religious opinion was not practicable, and 
that it would be entirely extravagant to imagine that either 
of these communities could ever be brought to embrace 
universally, and without limitation, the doctrines of the 
other. They made it, therefore, their principal business 
to persuade those, whose spirits were inflamed with the 
heat of controversy, that the points in debate between the 
churches were not essential to true religion ; — that the 
fundamental doctrines of Christianity were received and 
professed in both communions ; — and that the difference 
of opinion between the contending parties, turned either 
upon points of an abstruse and incomprehensible nature, 
or upon matters of indifference, which did not tend to 
render mankind wiser or better, and in which the interests 
of genuine piety were in no respects concerned. Those 
who viewed things in this point of light, were obliged to 
acknowledge, that the diversity of opinion was by no 
means a sufficient reason for the separation of the churches, 
and that in consequence they were called, by the dictates 
of that Gospel which they both professed, to live not only 
in the mutual exercise of Christian charity, but also to 
enter into the fraternal bonds of church communion. The 
greatest part of the reformed doctors seemed disposed to 
acknowledge, that the errors of the Lutherans were not 
of a momentous nature, or of a pernicious tendency, and 
that the fundamental doctrines of Christianity had not 

» The edicts of Sigismund and his successors, relating to this change 
in the state of religion in Brandenburg have been several times republish- 
ed in one collection. Beside these, there are many books, treatises, and 
pamphlets, which give an account of this remarkable transaction, and of 
which the reader will find a complete list in the German work, entitled, 
Unschuldigen Nachrichten, An. 1745, p. 34; An. 1746, p. 326, compared 
with Jo. Carol. Kocheri. Biblioth. Theolog. Symbol, p. 312. — The reader 
who desires to attain a perfect acquaintance with this controversy, and to 
be able to weigh the merits of the cause, by having a true state of the 
case before him, will do well to consult Arnold's Histor. Eccles. et Hae- 
ret. p. ii. lib. xvii. c. vii. p. 965. — Cyprian's TJnterricht von der Vereini- 
gung der Protestant, p. 75, and Append. Monum. p. 225. Unschuldigen 
Nachrichten, An. 1727, p. 1069, et An. 1732, p. 715. They who affirm 
that the elector's ultimate end, in changing the face of religion in his 
dominions, was not the prospect of augmenting and extending his 



undergone any remarkable alteration in that communion; 
and thus on their side an important step was made toward 
peace and union between the churches. But the majority 
of the Lutheran doctors declared, that they could not form 
a like judgment with respect to the doctrine of the reformed 
churches ; they maintained tenaciously the importance of 
the points which divided the two communions, and 
affirmed, that a considerable part of the controversy 
turned upon the fundamental principles of all religion 
and virtue. It is not at all surprising, that the opposite 
party branded this steadiness and constancy with the 
epithets of morose obstinacy, supercilious arrogance, and 
the like odious denominations. The Lutherans were not 
behind-hand with their adversaries in acrimony of style ; 
they recriminated with vehemence, and charged their 
accusers with instances of misconduct, different in kind, 
but equally condemnable. They reproached them with 
having dealt disingenuously, by disguising, under ambi- 
guous expressions, the real doctrine of the reformed 
churches ; they observed farther, that their adversaries, 
notwithstanding their consummate prudence and circum- 
spection, gave plain proofs, on many occasions, that their 
propensity to a reconciliation between the churches arose 
from views of private interest, rather than from a zeal for 
the public good. 

IV. Among the public transactions relative to the project 
of an union between the reformed and Lutheran churches, 
we must not omit mentioning the attempt made in 1615 
by James I., king of Great Britain, to accomplish this 
salutary purpose. The person employed for this end by 
the British monarch, was Peter du Moulin, the most emi- 
nent among the Protestant doctors in France ; b but this 
design was neither carried on with spirit, nor attended 
with success.' Another attempt of the same pacific nature 
was made in 1631, in the synod of Charenton, in which 
an act was passed by the reformed doctors of that respect- 
able assembly, declaring the Lutheran system of religion 
conformable with the spirit of true piety, and free from 
pernicious and fundamental errors. By this act, an oppor- 
tunity was offered to the Lutherans of joining with the re- 
formed church upon honourable terms, and of entering into 
the bonds both of civil and religious communion with their 
Calvinistical brethren. d But this candid and charitable pro- 
ceeding was attended with very little fruit, since few of the 
Lutherans were disposed to embrace the occasion that was 
here so freely offered to them, of terminating the dissen- 
sions that separated the two churches. In the same year, 
a conference took place at Leipsic between the Saxon 
doctors, Koe, Lyser, and Hopfner, on one side, and some 
of the most eminent divines of Hesse-Cassel and Branden- 
burg, on the other ; to the end that, by exposing with 

authority, found their opinion rather on conjecture than on demonstra- 
tion ; nor do they confirm this assertion by testimonies that are sufficient 
to produce full conviction. It must, however, be acknowledged, on the 
other hand, that their conjectures have neither an absurd nor an impro- 
bable aspect. 

i> See Le Vassor, Hist, de Louis XIII. torn. ii. part ii. 

f^ c King James, who would have abandoned the most important 
and noble design, at any time, to discuss a point of grammar or the- 
ology, or to gain a point of interest for himself or his minions, neglected 
this union of the Lutheran and reformed churches, which he had begun 
to promote with such an appearance of piety and zeal. 

i Benoit, Histoira de l'Edit de Nantes, torn. ii. p. 544.— Aymon, Actes 
des Synodes Nationaux des Eglises Reformees de France, torn. ii. p. 
500.— Ittigii Dissert, de Synodi Carentoniensis Indulgentia erga Lu- 
theranos, Lips. 1705. 4to. 



Par II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



581 



fidelity and precision their respective doctrines, it might 
be more easily seen, what were the real obstacles to the 
union projected between the churches. This conference 
was conducted with decency and moderation, and the 
deliberations were neither disturbed by intemperate zeal 
nor by a proud spirit of contention and dispute ; but that 
openness of heart, that mutual trust and confidence, which 
are so essential to the success of all kinds of pacification, 
were not manifested on this occasion ; for, though the 
doctors of the reformed party exposed, with great preci- 
sion and fairness, the tenets of their church, and even 
made several concessions, which the Lutherans them- 
selves could scarcely expect ; yet the latter, suspicious and 
fearful, and always apprehensive of schemes, formed by 
artifice under the mask of candour, to betray and ensnare 
them, did not dare to acknowledge, that they were satis- 
fied with these explications and offers ; and thus the con- 
ference broke up without having contributed in any re- 
spect to promote the salutary work of peace. 1 To form 
a true idea of these pacific deliberations, of the reasons 
that gave rise to them, and of the principles by which 
they were conducted, it will be necessary to study the 
civil history of this interesting period with attention and 



care. 



V. Uladislaus IV., king of Poland, formed a still more 
extensive plan of religious union than those which have 
been mentioned ; he proposed a reconciliation, not only 
between the Reformed and Lutheran churches, but also 
between these communions and that of Rome. For 
this purpose, he ordered a conference to be holden at 
Thorn, in 1645, the issue of which, as might naturally 
have been expected, was far from being favourable to the 
projected union ; for the persons employed by the three 
churches to heal their divisions, or at least to calm their 
animosities, returned from this conference with a greater 
measure of party zeal, and a smaller portion of Christian 
charity, than they had brought to it. 

The conference which took place at Cassel in 1661, by 
the order of William VI., landgrave of Hesse, between 
Musaeus and Henichius, professors at Rintelen, on the 
side of the Lutherans, and Curtius and Heine, of the 
university of Marpurg, on that of the reformed, was at- 
tended with better success ; and, if it did not bring about 
a perfect uniformity of opinion, it produced what was 
more desirable, a spirit of Christian charity and forbearance. 
For these candid doctors, after having diligently examin- 
ed the nature, and weighed the importance, of the con- 
troversies that divided the two churches, embraced each 
other with reciprocal marks of affection and esteem, and 
mutually declared that their respective doctrines were less 
different than was generally imagined, and that this dif- 
ference was not of sufficient moment to prevent their 
fraternal union and concord. But it unfortunatety hap- 
pened, that these moderate theologians could not infuse 
the same spirit of peace and charity that animated them, 
into their Lutheran brethren, nor persuade them to view 



m Timanni Gesselii Historia Sacra et Ecclesiastica, p. ii. in addendis, 
p. 597 — 613, in which the acts of this conference are published. — Jo. 
Wolfg. Jaegeri Historia Saeculi XVII. decenn. iv. p. 497. |^> This 
testimony of Dr. Mosheim, who was himself a Lutheran, is singularly 
honourable to the reformed doctors. 

b The writers who have given accounts of the conferences of Thorn 
and Cassel, are enumerated by Sagittarius, in his Introd. ad Hist. Eccle- 
■iast. torn ii. p. 1604. See also Jaegeri Historia Saeculi XVII. decenn 

No. XLIX. 146 



the diversities of opinion that divided the Protestant 
churches, hi the same indulgent point of view in which 
they had considered them in the conference at Cassel. 
On the contrary, this their moderation drew upon them 
the hatred of almost all the Lutherans ; and they were 
loaded with bitter reproaches in a multitude of pamphlets, b 
that were composed expressly to refute their sentiments. 
and to censure their conduct. The pains that were 
taken after this period by the princes of the house of 
Brandenberg, and more especially by Frederic William 
and his son Frederic, in order to compose the dissensions 
and animosity that divided the Protestants, and particu- 
larly to promote a fraternal union between the reformed 
and Lutheran churches in the Prussian territories, and 
in the rest of their dominions, are well known ; and it 
is also equally notorious, that innumerable difficulties op- 
posed the execution of this salutary design. 

VI. Beside these public conferences, holden by the 
authority of princes, in order to promote union and con- 
cord among Protestants, a multitude of individuals, ani- 
mated by a spirit of true Christian charity, embarked in 
this pious cause on their own private authority, and of- 
fered their mediation and good offices to reconcile the 
two churches. It is true, indeed, that these peace-makers 
were, generally speaking, of the reformed church, and 
that those among the Lutherans, who appeared in this 
amiable character, were but few, in comparison with the 
great number of Calvinists that favoured this benevolent 
but arduous design. The most eminent Calvinistical 
advocate of peace was John Dureus, a native of Scotland, 
justly celebrated on account of his universal benevolence, 
solid piety, and extensive learning, but, at the same time, 
more remarkable for genius and memory, than for nicety 
of discernment and accuracy of judgment, as might be 
evinced by several proofs and testimonies, were this the 
proper place for discussions of that nature. Be that as 
it will, never, perhaps, were greater zeal and perseverance 
manifested than by Dureus, who, during a period of forty- 
three years, suffered vexations and underwent labours 
which required the firmest resolution and the most inex- 
haustible patience; wrote, exhorted, admonished, entreat- 
ed, and disputed ; in a word, tried every method that 
human wisdom could suggest, to put an end to the dis- 
sensions and animosities that reigned among the Protes- 
tant churches. It was not merely by the persuasive elo- 
quence of his pen, or by forming plans in the silence of 
the closet, that this worthy divine performed the task 
which his benevolence and zeal engaged him to under- 
take ; his activity and industry were equal to his zeal ; 
he travelled through all the countries in Europe, where 
the Protestant religion had obtained any footing ; he 
formed connexions with the doctors of both parties ; he 
addressed himself to kings, princes, magistrates, and mi- 
nisters ; and by representing, in lively and striking colours, 
the utility and importance of the plan he had formed, 
hoped to engage them more or less in this good cause, or 



v. p. 689, and decenn. vii. p. 160, where the acts of the two conferences 
are extant. — Add to these Jo. Alphons. Turretini Nubes Testium pro 
moderato in Rebus theologicis Judicio, p. 178. — There is an ample ac- 
count of the conference of Cassel in the life of Musaeus, given by Moller, 
in his Cimbria Literate, torn. ii. p. 566. The reader will find, in the 
same work, an accurate index of the accounts of this conference, pub- 
lished on both sides. 
' From the year 1631 to 1674. 



582 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



at least to derive some succour from their influence and 
protection. But here his views were considerably disap- 
pointed ; for, though his undertaking was generally ap- 
plauded, and though he met with a favourable and civil 
reception from the greatest part of those to whom he ad- 
dressed himself, he found very few who were seriously 
disposed to alleviate his labours, by lending him their 
assistance, and seconding his attempts by their influence 
and counsels. Some, suspecting that his fervent and 
extraordinary zeal arose from mysterious and sinister 
motives, and apprehending that he bad secretly formed 
a design of drawing the Lutherans into a snare, even 
attacked him in their writings with animosity and bitter- 
ness, and loaded him with the sharpest invectives and 
reproaches : so that this well-meaning man, neglected at 
length by those of his own communion, opposed and 
rejected by the followers of Luther, involved in various 
perplexities and distress, exhausted by unsuccessful labour, 
and oppressed and dejected by injurious treatment, per- 
ceived, by a painful experience, that he had undertaken 
a task which was beyond the power of a private person, 
and spent the remainder of his days in repose and obscu- 
rity at Cassel. 1 

It may not be improper to observe here, that Dureus, 
who, notwithstanding the general uprightness of his inten- 
tions, was sometimes deficient in ingenuous frankness, 
had annexed to his plan of reconciliation certain doctrines 
which, were they susceptible of proof, would serve as a 
foundation for the union, not only of the Lutherans and 
Calvinists, but also of all the different sects that bear the 
Christian name ; for, among other things, he maintained, 
that the Apostles' Creed was a complete body of divinity ; 
that the Ten Commandments formed a perfect system of 
morals, and the Lord's Prayer a comprehensive series of 
petitions for all the blessings contained in the divine 
promises. Now if this notion, that these sacred compo- 
sitions contain all that is essential to faith, obedience, and 
devotion, . had been universally entertained, or evidently 
demonstrated, it would not have been a chimerical project 
to aim at a reconciliation of all Christian churches upon 
this basis, and to render these compositions the foundation 
of their coalition and the bond of their union. But it 
would have been highly chimerical to expect, that the 
Christian sects would universally adopt this notion, or be 
pleased to see the doctrines of Christianity reduced to such 
general principles. It is farther to be observed, with re- 
spect to Dureus, that he showed a peculiar propensity 
toward the sentiments of the Mystics and Quakers, on 
account of their tendency to favour his conciliatory and 
pacific project. Like them, he placed the essence of reli- 
gion in the ascent of the soul to God, in calling forth the 

• See Coleri Historia Joh. Dureei, to which many important additions 
might be made from public records, and also from documents that have 
not yet seen the light. Some records and documents of the kind here 
referred to, have been published by Hasasus, in his Bibliotheca Bre- 
mens. Theologico-Philologica, torn. i. p. 911, and torn. iv. p. 683. A still 
greater number are given by Gessehus, in the addenda to his Historia 
Ecclesiastica, torn. ii. p. 614. The transactions of Duraeus at Marpurg, 
are mentioned by Sehenck, in his Vitas Professorum Theologiae Mar- 
purg. p. 207. — His attempts in Holstein may be learned from the letters 
of Lackman and Lossius, which are joined together in the same volume. 
His exploits in Prussia and Poland are recorded by Jablonsky, in his 
Historia Consensus Sendomiriensis, p. 127 ; and his labours in Switzer- 
land, Denmark, and the Palatinate, are mentioned respectively in the 
Museum Helveticum, torn. iii. iv. v. by Elswich, in his Fasciculus 
Epistol. Theolog. p. 147, and by Seelen, in the Delicise Epistol. p. 353. 
See also Jaegeri Historia Seeculi XVII. decenn. vii. p. 171 ; the 



hidden word, in fanning the divine spark that resides in 
the recesses of the human mind ; and, in consequence of 
this system, he was intimately persuaded, that differences 
merely in theological opinions did not at all concern the 
essence of true piety. 

VII. Among the Lutherans, those who appeared the 
most zealous in this pacific cause, were John Matthias, * 
bishop of Strengnes in Sweden, and George Calixtus, pro- 
fessor of divinity at Helmstadt, whom Dureus had ani- 
mated with a portion of his charitable and indulgent spi- 
rit. The former was a man of capacity and merit ; the 
latter was eminently distinguished among the divines of 
this century, by his learning, genius, probity, and can- 
dour ; but both failed in the arduous undertaking in which 
they had engaged, and suffered considerably in their at- 
tempts to promote the cause of unity and concord. The 
Olive-branches of Matthias, who entitled thus his pacific 
productions, were, by a royal edict, publicly condemned 
and suppressed in Sweden ; and their author, in order to 
appease the fury of his enemies, was obliged to resign 
his bishopric, and pass the rest of his days in retirement. 3 
The zeal of Calixtus, in calming the tumultuous and 
violent spirit of the contending parties, drew upon him the 
bitterest reproaches, and the warmest animosity and re- 
sentment from those who were more bent on maintaining 
their peculiar opinions, than in promoting that charity 
which is the end of the commandment ; and, while he 
was labouring to remove all sects and divisions, he ap- 
peared to many of his brethren in the light of a new 
sectary, who was founding the most pernicious of all sects, 
even that of the Syncretists, who were supposed to pro- 
mote peace and concord at the expense of truth. We shall, 
before we finish this chapter, endeavour to give a more 
particular and circumstantial account of the sentiments 
and trials of this great man, to whose charge many other 
things were laid, beside the crime of endeavouring to 
unite the disciples of the same master in the amiable 
bonds of charity, concord, and mutual forbearance, and 
whose opinions and designs excited warm contests in the 
Lutheran church. 

VIII. The external state of the Lutheran church at 
this period was attended with various circumstances of 
prosperity, among which we may reckon its standing 
firm against the assaults of Rome, whose artifice and 
violence were in vain employed to effect its destruction. 
It is well known, that a very considerable number of 
Lutherans resided in those provinces where the public 
exercise of their religion was prohibited. It has more 
especially been shown by the late memorable emigration 
of the Saltzburgers, 6 that a still greater number of them 
lay concealed in that land of despotism and bigotry, 

Englische Reformations Historie, by Bohm, and more especially an 
account of Duraeus, published under my direction at Helmstadt, in 1744, 
by Benzelius, and entitled, Dissertatio de Johan. Duraeo, maxime de 
Actis ejus Suecanis. 

§Cr" b Matthias had been chaplain to Gustavus Adolphus, and was 
afterwards appointed, by that prince, preceptor to his daughter Christina, 
so famous in history, on account of the whimsical peculiarities of her 
character, her taste for learning, and her desertion of the Swedish throne 
and the protestant religion. c Rami Olivae Septentrionalis. 

<i See Schefferi Suecia Literata, p. 123, and Joh. Molleri ad earn Hy- 
pomnemata, p. 317.— Archenholtz, Memoires de la Reine Christine, 
torn. i. p. 320, 505 ; torn. ii. p. 63. 

g^ ° For an account of the persecuted Lutherans in the archbishopric 
of Saltzburg, see Burnet's Travels. See more especially a famous Latin 
discourse, entitled, Commentariolus Theologicus de non tolerandis in Re- 
ligione Dissentieiitibus, pub at Tubingen, in 1732, by W. L. Letscbing. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



583 



where the smallest dissent from popery, with whatever 
secrecy and circumspection it may be disguised, is consi- 
dered as an enormous and capital crime ; and that they 
preserved their religious sentiments and doctrines pure 
and uncorrupte,d amidst the contagion of Romish super- 
stition, which they always beheld with aversion and 
horror. In those countries which are inhabited by persons 
of different communions, and whose sovereigns are mem- 
bers of the Romish church, we have numberless instances 
of the cruelty and injustice practised by the papists against 
those who dissent from them ; and these cruelties are ex- 
ercised under a pretext suggested by the most malevolent 
bigotry, which represents these dissenters as seditious sub- 
jects, and consequently as worthy of the most rigorous treat- 
ment. And yet it is certain that, amidst all these vexa- 
tions, the Lutheran church stood its ground ; nor could 
either the craft or fury of its enemies, in any country, 
deprive it entirely of its rights and privileges. It may 
also be observed, that the doctrine of Luther was carried 
into Asia, Africa, and America, by several persons who 
fixed their habitations in those distant regions, and was 
also introduced into sdme parts of Europe, where it had 
hitherto been unknown. 

IX. When we turn our view to the internal state of 
the Lutheran church during this century, we shall find 
it improved in various respects. Though several blem- 
ishes yet remained that clouded its lustre, it must be ac- 
knowledged, to the honour of the Lutherans, that they 
cultivated all the branches of literature, both sacred and 
profane, with uncommon industry and success, and made 
several improvements in the sciences, which are too well 
known to stand in need of a particular mention, and of 
which a circumstantial enumeration would be inconsist- 
ent with the brevity required in an historical compendium. 
But if it cannot be denied, on one hand, that the cause of 
religion gained by these improvements in learning, it 
must be owned, on the other, that some branches of 
science were perverted by injudicious or ill-designing men, 
to corrupt the pure simplicity of genuine Christianity, and 
to render its doctrines abstruse and intricate. Thus it too 
often happens in life, that the best things are the most 
egregiously abused. About the commencement of this 
century, the sciences chiefly cultivated in the schools were 
logic and metaphysics, though the manner in which they 
were treated was almost entirely destitute of elegance, sim- 
plicity, and precision. But, in process of time, the scene 
changed in the seminaries of learning ; and the more 
entertaining and agreeable branches of literature, that 
polish wit, excite taste, exercise judgment, and enrich 
memory, such as civil and natural history, philology, an- 
tiquities, criticism, and eloquence, gained the ascendency. 
Both these kinds of knowledge acquired also a more grace- 
ful, consistent, and regular form than that under which 
they had hitherto appeared. But it unfortunately happened, 
that, while the boundaries of science were extended from 
day to day. and new discoveries and improvements were 
constantly enriching the republic of letters, the credit of 
learning began sensibly to decrease, and learned men 
seemed gradually to lose those peculiar marks of venera- 
tion and distinction that the novelty of their character, as 
well as the excellence and importance of their labours, 



1 Among these we find Wenceslaus Schellingius, of whom a parti- 
cular account is given by Arnold, in his Histor. Eccles. et Haeret. p. ii. 
lib. xvii. cap. vi. 



had hitherto drawn from the public. Among the various 
circumstances that contributed to this decline of literary 
glory, we may particularly reckon the multitude of those 
who, without natural capacity, taste, or inclination, were 
led, by authority or a desire of applause, to literary pursuits, 
and, by their ignorance or their pedantry, cast a reproach 
upon the republic of letters. 

X. The only kind of philosophy that was taught in 
the Lutheran schools, during the greatest part of this 
century, was that of Aristotle, dressed up in that scholastic 
form which increased its native intricacy and subtlety ; 
and such was the devout and excessive veneration enter- 
tained by many for this abstruse system, that any attempt 
to reject the Grecian oracle, or to correct its decisions, was 
looked upon as of the most dangerous consequence to the 
interests of the church, and as equally criminal with a 
like attempt upon the sacred writings. Those who dis- 
tinguished themselves in the most extraordinary manner 
by their zealous and invincible attachment to the Peri- 
patetic philosophy, were the divines of Leipsic, Tubingen, 
Helmstadt, and Altorf. The enchantment, however, was 
not universal ; and there were many who, withdrawing 
their private judgment from the yoke of authority, were 
bold enough to see with their own eyes, and thus dis- 
cerned the blemishes that were indeed sufficiently visible 
in the pretended wisdom of the Grecian sage. The first 
attempt to reduce his authority within narrow bounds was 
made by certain pious and prudent divines, 1 who, though 
the} 7 did not pretend to discourage all philosophical in- 
quiries, yet were desirous of confining them to a few select 
subjects, and complained, that the pompous denomination 
of philosophy was too frequently prostituted by being 
applied to unintelligible distinctions, and words (or rather 
sounds) destitute of sense. These were succeeded in 
their repugnance to the Peripatetic philosophy by the dis- 
ciples of Ramus, who had credit enough to banish it from 
several seminaries of learning, and to substitute in its place 
the system of their master, which was of a more practical 
kind, and better adapted to the purposes of life. b But, if 
the philosophy of Aristotle met with adversaries, who 
opposed it upon solid and rational principles, it had also 
enemies of a very different character, who imprudently 
declaimed against philosophy in general, as highly detri- 
mental to the cause of religion and the interests of society. 
Such was the fanatical extravagance of Daniel Hoffman, 
professor at Helmstadt, who betrayed, in this controversy, 
an equal degree of ignorance and animosity ; and such 
also were the followers of Robert Fludd, Jacob Behmen, 
and the Rosecrucians. who boasted of having stricken out, 
by the assistance of fire and divine illumination, a new 
wonderful, and celestial system of philosophy, of which 
mention has been already made. c These adversaries of 
the Stagirite were divided among themselves ; and this 
diminished the strength and vigour of their opposition to 
the common enemy. But, even if they had been very 
closely united in their sentiments and measures, they would 
not have been able to overturn the empire of Aristotle, 
which was deeply rooted in the schools through long pos- 
session, and had a powerful support in the multitude of its 
votaries and defenders. 

XI. The Peripatetic system had still more formidable 

>- See Jo. Herman ab Elswich, de varia Aristotelis fortuna, § xxi. p. 
54, and Walchius, His. Logices, lib. ii. c. ii.§ iii. v. in Parergisejus Acade- 
micis, p. 613. • See above, in the General His. of the Church, S 31. 



584 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



adversaries to encounter in Des-Cartes and Gassendi, 
whose writings were composed with such perspicuity and 
precision as rendered them highly agreeable to many of 
the Lutheran doctors of this century, who were hence in- 
duced to look with contempt on that obsolete and barren 
philosophy of the schools, which was expressed in uncouth 
terms and barbarous phrases, without taste, elegance, or 
accuracy. The votaries of Aristotle beheld with envy 
these new philosophers, used their most zealous endea- 
vours to bring them into discredit, and, for this purpose, 
represented their researches and principles as highly in- 
jurious to the interests of religion and the growth of true 
piety. But when they found, by experience, that these 
methods of attack proved unsuccessful, they changed their 
method of proceeding, and (like a prudent general, who, 
besieged by a superior force, abandons his outworks and 
retires into the citadel) they relinquished much of their 
jargon, and defended only the main and essential prin- 
ciples of their system. To render these principles more 
palatable, they began to adorn them with the graces of 
elocution, and to mingle with their philosophical tenets 
the charms of polite literature. They even went so far 
as to confess, that Aristotle, though the prince of philoso- 
phers, was chargeable with errors and defects, which it 
was both lawful and expedient to correct. But these con- 
cessions only served to render their adversaries more con- 
fident and enterprising, since they were interpreted as 
resulting from a consciousness of their weakness, and were 
looked upon as a manifest acknowledgment of their de- 
feat. In consequence of this, the enemies of the Stagirite 
renewed their attacks with redoubled impetuosity, and 
with a full assurance of victory ; nor did they confine 
them to those branches of the Peripatetic philosophy which 
were allowed by its votaries to stand in need of correction, 
but levelled them, without distinction, at the whole system, 
and aimed at nothing less than its total dissolution. Gro- 
tius, indeed, who marched at the head of these philosophi- 
cal reformers, proceeded with a certain degree of prudence 
and moderation. Puffendorf, in treating of the law of 
nature and of the duties of morality, threw off, with more 
boldness and freedom, the Peripatetic yoke, and pursued 
a. method entirely different from that which had been 
hitherto observed in the schools. This freedom drew 
upon him a multitude of enemies, who loaded him with 
the bitterest reproaches ; his example, however, was imi- 
tated by Thomasius, professor of law in the academy of 
Leipsic, and afterwards at Hall, who attacked the Peri- 
patetics with new degrees of vehemence and zeal. This 
eminent man, though honourably distinguished by the 
excellence of his genius and the strength of his resolution, 
was not, perhaps, the most proper person that could be 
fixed upon to manage the interests of philosophy. His 
views, nevertheless, were vast ; he aimed at the reforma- 
tion of philosophy in general, and of the Peripatetic sys- 
tem in particular ; and he assiduously employed both the 
power of exhortation and the influence of example, in 
order to persuade the Saxons to reject the Aristotelian 
system, which he had never read, and which most cer- 
tainly he did not understand. The scheme of philosophy, 
that he substituted in its place, was received with little 



g^ » By the Sectarian Philosophers were meant those who followed 
implicitly some one of the ancient philosophical sects, without daring to 
ase the dictates of their private judgment, to correct or modify the doc- 
trines or expressions of these hoary guides. 



applause, and soon fell into oblivion ; but his attempt to 
overturn the system of the Peripatetics, and to restore the 
freedom of philosophical inquiry, was attended with re- 
markable success, made, in a little time, the most rapid 
progress, and produced such admirable effects, that Tho- 
masius is justly looked upon, to this day, as the chief of 
those bold spirits who pulled down philosophical tyranny 
from its throne in Germany, and gave a mortal blow to 
what was called the Sectarian Philosophy 11 in that country. 
The first seminary of learning that adopted the measures 
of Thomasius Avas that of Hall in Saxony, where he was 
professor ; this example was followed by the rest of the 
German schools, by some sooner, and by others later ; 
and thence a spirit of philosophical liberty began to spread 
itself into other countries where the Lutheran religion 
was established ; so that, toward the conclusion of this 
century, the Lutherans enjoyed a perfect liberty of con- 
ducting their philosophical researches in that manner 
which they judged the most conformable with truth and 
reason, of departing from the mere dictates of authority 
in matters of science, and of proposing publicly every 
one his respective opinions. Th'is liberty was not the 
consequence of any positive decree of the state, nor was 
it inculcated by any law of the church ; it seemed to 
result from that invisible disposal of things, which we call 
accident, and certainly proceeded from the efforts of a 
few great men, seconding and exciting the natural pro- 
pensity toward free inquiry, that can never be totally 
extinguished in the human mind. Many employed this 
liberty in extracting, after the manner of the ancient 
Eclectics, what they thought most conformable to reason, 
and most susceptible of demonstration, from the produc- 
tions of the different schools, and connecting these ex- 
tracts in such a manner as to constitute a complete body 
of philosophy. But some made a yet more noble use of 
this inestimable privilege, by employing, with indefati- 
gable zeal and industry, their own faculties in the 
investigation of truth, and building upon solid and un 
changeable principles a new and sublime system 0/ 
philosophy. b At the head of these we may place Leib- 
nitz, whose genius and labours have deservedly rendered 
his name immortal. 

In this conflict between the reformers of philosophy and 
the votaries of Aristotle, the latter lost ground from day 
to day ; and his system, in consequence of the extremes 
into which reformers often fall, became so odious, that 
condemnation was passed on every part of it. Hence 
the science of Metaphysics, which the Grecian sage had 
considered as the master science, as the original fountain 
of all true philosophy, Avas despoiled of its honours and 
fell into contempt ; nor could the authority and influence 
even of Des-Cartes (who also set out, in his inquiries, on 
metaphysical principles) support it effectually against the 
prejudices of the times. HoAvever, when the first heat oi 
opposition began to cool, and the rage of party to subside, 
this degraded science Avas not only recalled from its exile, 
by the interposition and credit of Leibnitz, but was also 
reinstated in its former dignity and lustre. 

XII. The defects and vices of the Lutheran clergy 
have been circumstantially exposed and even exaggera- 

•> The curious reader will find an accurate and ample account of this 
revolution in philosophy, in the learned Brucker's Histona Cntica 
Philosophise. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



585 



ted by many writers, who seem to require in the minis- 
ters of the Gospel a degree of perfection, which ought in- 
deed always to be aimed at, but which no wise observer 
of human nature can ever hope to see generally reduced 
to practice. These censors represent the leading men of 
the Lutheran church as arrogant, contentious, despotic, 
and uncharitable ; as destitute of Christian simplicity and 
candour ; fond of quibbling and dispute ; judging of all 
things by the narrow spirit of party ; and treating with 
the utmost antipathy and aversion those who differ from 
them very slightly in religious matters. The less con- 
siderable among the Lutheran doctors are charged with 
ignorance, with a neglect of the sacred duties of their 
station, and with a want of talent in their characters as 
public teachers ; and avarice, indolence, want of piety, 
and corruption of manners, are boldly imputed to the 
whole body. 

It will be acknowledged, without difficulty, by those 
who have studied with attention and impartiality the 
genius, manners, and history of this century, that the 
Lutheran clergy were not wholly irreproachable with 
respect to the matters that are here laid to their charge, and 
that many Lutheran churches were under the direction 
of pastors who were highly deficient, some in zeal, others 
in abilities, many in both, and consequently ill qualified 
for propagating the truths of Christianity with wisdom 
and success. But this reproach is not peculiarly applica- 
ble to the seventeenth century ; it is a general charge, 
that, with too much truth, may be brought against all 
the ages of the church. On the other hand, it must be 
acknowledged, by all such as are not blinded by ignorance 
or partiality, that the whole of the Lutheran clergy did 
not consist of these unworthy pastors, and that many of 
the Lutheran doctors of this century were distinguished by 
their learning, piety, gravity, and wisdom ; and perhaps 
it might be difficult to decide, whether in our times, in 
which some pretend that the sanctity of the primitive 
doctors is revived in several places, there be not as many 
that do little honour to the pastoral character as in the 
times of our ancestors. It must farther be observed, that 
many of the defects which are invidiously charged upon 
the doctors of this age, were in a great measure occasion- 
ed by the infelicity of the times. They were the unhappy 
effects of those public calamities which a dreadful war of 
thirty years produced in Germany ; they derived strength 
from the influence of a corrupt education, and were some- 
times encouraged by the protection and countenance of 
vicious and profligate magistrates. 

XIII. That the vices of the Lutheran clergy were 
parti jr owing to the infelicity of the times, will appear 
evident from some particular instances. It must be ac- 
knowledged that, during the greatest part of this century, 
neither the discourses of the pulpit, nor the instructions 
of the schools, were adapted to promote, among the people, 
just ideas of religion, or to give them a competent know- 
ledge of the doctrines and precepts of the Gospel. The 
eloquence of the pulpit, as some ludicrously and too justly 
represent it, was reduced, in many places, to the noisy 
art of bawling (during a certain space of time measured 
by a sand-glass) upon various points of theology, which 
the orators understood very imperfectly, and which the 
people did not understand at all ; and, when the important 

Jjf * It is to be wished that the Lutherans had not, in many places, per- 

No.XLIX. 147 



doctrines and precepts of Christianity were introducea m 
these public discourses, they were frequently disfigured 
by tawdry and puerile ornaments, wholly inconsistent with 
the spirit and genius of the divine wisdom that shines 
forth in the Gospel, and were thus, in a great measure, 
deprived of their native beauty, efficacy, and power. All 
this must be confessed ; but perhaps it may not appear 
an object of wonder, when all things are duly considered. 
The ministers of the Gospel had their heads full of sono- 
rous and empty words, of trivial distinctions and meta- 
physical subtleties, and very ill furnished with that kind 
of knowledge which is adapted to touch the heart and to 
reform the life ; they had also few models of true elo- 
quence before their eyes ; and therefore it is not very 
surprising, that they dressed out their discourses with 
foreign and tasteless ornaments. 

The charge brought against the universities, that they 
spent more time in subtle and contentious controversy, 
than in explaining the Scriptures, teaching the duties of 
morality, and promoting a spirit of piety and virtue, though 
too just, yet may also be alleviated by considering the 
nature and circumstances of the times. The Lutherans 
were surrounded with a multitude of adversaries, who 
obliged them to be perpetually in a posture of defence ; 
and the Roman catholics, by threatening their destruc- 
tion, contributed, in a more particular manner, to excite 
in their doctors that polemic spirit which unfortunately 
became a habit, and had an unhappy influence on the 
exercise both of their academical and pastoral functions. 
In time of war, the military art not only becomes singu- 
larly respectable, but is preferred, without hesitation, to all 
others, on account of its tendency to maintain the inestima- 
ble blessings of liberty and independence ; and thus, in the 
midst of theological commotions, the spirit of controversy, 
by becoming necessary, gains an ascendency, which, even 
when the danger is over, it is unwilling to lose. It is in- 
deed ardently to be wished, that the Lutherans had treat- 
ed with more mildness and charity those who differed 
from them in religious opinions, and had discovered more 
indulgence and forbearance toward such, more especially, 
as by ignorance, fanaticism, or excessive curiosit) 7 , were 
led into error, yet without pretending to disturb the public 
tranquillity by propagating their particular systems. But 
they had unhappily imbibed a spirit of persecution in 
their early education ; this was too much the spirit of 
the times, and it was even a leading maxim with our 
ancestors, that it was both lawful and expedient to use 
severity and force against those whom they looked upon 
as heretics. This maxim was derived from Rome ; and 
even those who separated from that church did not find 
it easy to throw off, suddenly, that despotic and unchari- 
table spirit which had so long been the main-spring of 
its government, and the general characteristic of its mem- 
bers. In their narrow views of things, their very piety 
seemed to suppress the generous movements of fraternal 
love and forbearance ; and the more they felt themselves 
animated with a zeal for the divine glory, the more dif 
ficult did they find it to renounce that ancient and fa- 
vourite maxim, which had so often been ill interpreted and 
ill applied, that 'whoever is found to be an enemy to God. 
ought also to be declared an enemy to his country.'* 
XIV. There were few or no changes introduced, du- 

severed in these severe and despotic principles longer than other Proto 



586 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



ring this century, into the form of government, the method 
of worship, and the external rites and ceremonies of the 
Lutheran church. Many alterations would indeed have 
been made in all these, had the princes and states of that 
communion judged it expedient to put in execution the 
plans that had been laid by Thomasius, and other emi- 
nent men, for reforming its ecclesiastical polity. These 
plans were built upon a new principle, which supposed, 
that the majesty and supreme authority of the sovereign 
formed the only source of church-power. On this funda- 
mental principle, which these great men took all imagin- 
able pains to prove, by solid and striking arguments, they 
raised a voluminous system of laws, which, in the judg- 
ment of many, evidently tended to these conclusions ;— 
that the same sovereign who presides in the state ought 
to rule in the church ; that prince and pontiff are insepa- 
rable characters ; and that the ministers of the Gospel are 
not the ambassadors of the Deity, but the deputies or 
vicegerents of the civil magistrate. These reformers of 
Lutheranism did not stop here ; they reduced within nar- 
rower bounds the few privileges and advantages that the 
clergy yet retained ; and treated many of the rites, insti- 
tutions, and customs of our church, as the remains of 
popish superstition. Hence an abundant source of con- 
tention was opened, and a long and tedious controversy 
was carried on with warmth and animosity between the 
clergy and civilians. We leave it to others to determine 
with what views these debates were commenced and 
fomented, and with what success they were respectively 
carried on. We shall only observe, that their effects and 
consequences were unhappy, as, in many places, they 
proved seriously detrimental to the reputation of the clergy, 
to the dignity and authority of religion, and to the peace 
and prosperity of the Lutheran church. 1 The present 
state of that church verifies too plainly this observation. 
It is now its fate to see few entering into its public ser- 
vice, who are adapted to restore the reputation it has lost, 
or to maintain that which it yet retains. Those who 
are distinguished by illustrious birth, uncommon genius, 
and a liberal and ingenuous turn of mind, look upon the 
study of theology, which has so few external honours 
and advantages to recommend it, as below their ambi- 
tion ; and hence the number of wise, learned, and emi- 
nent ministers may be said gradually to decrease. This 
circumstance is deeply lamented by those among us who 
consider with attention the dangerous and declining state 
of the Lutheran church ; and it is to be feared, that our 
descendants will have reason to lament it still more bit- 
terly. 

XV. The eminent writers that adorned the Lutheran 
church through the course of this century, were many 
in number. We shall only mention those whom it is 
most necessary for a student of ecclesiastical history to be 
more particularly acquainted with ; such are Giles and 
Nicolas Hunnius — Leonard Hutter — Joseph and John 
Ernest Gerard — George and Frederic Ulric Calixtus — 



tant churches. Until this very day, the Lutherans of Frankfort on the 
Maine have always refused to permit the Reformed to celebrate public 
worship within the bounds, or even in the suburbs of that city. Many 
attempts have been made to conquer their obstinacy in this respect, but 
hitherto without success. 

fjf » It has been the misfortune even of well-meaning persons to fall 
into pernicious extremes, in the controversies relating to the foundation, 
power, and privileges of the church. Too few have steered the middle 
way, and laid their plans with such equity and wisdom as to maintain 



the Mentzers — Godfrey and John Olearius — Frederic 
Baldwin — Albert Grawer — Matthias Hoe — two of the 
name of Carpzovius — John and Paul Tarnovius — John 
Affelman — Eilhart Luber — the Lysers — Michael Walther 
— Joachim Hildebrand — John Valentine Andreas — Solo- 
mon Glassius — Abraham Calovius — Theodore Hackspan 
— John Hulseman — Jacob Weller — Peter and John Mu- 
seeus, brothers — John Conrad Danhaver — John George 
Dorscheeus — John Arndt — Martin Geyer — John Adam 
Schartzer — Balthazar and John Meisner — Augustus Pfeif- 
fer — Henry and John Muller — Justus Christopher Sche- 
mer — Sebastian Schmidt — Christopher Kortholt — the 
Osianders— Philip Jacob Spener — Geb. Theodore Meyer 
— Fridem. Bechman — and others. b 

XVI. The doctrine of the Lutheran church remained 
entire during this century ; its fundamental principles 
received no alteration, nor could any doctor of that church, 
who should have presumed to renounce or invalidate any 
of those theological points which are contained in the 
symbolical books of the Lutherans, have met with tole- 
ration and indulgence. It is, however, to be observed, 
that, in later times, various circumstances contributed to 
diminish, in many places, the authority of these oracles, 
which had so long been considered as almost infallible 
rules of faith and practice. Hence arose that unbounded 
liberty, which is at this day enjoyed by all who are not 
invested with the character of public teachers, of dissent- 
ing from the decisions of these symbols or creeds, and of 
declaring this dissent in the manner they judge the most 
expedient. The case was very different in former times : 
whoever ventured to oppose any of the received doctrines 
of the church, or to spread new religious opinions among 
the people, was called before the higher powers to give 
an account of his conduct, and very rarely escaped with- 
out suffering in his fortune or reputation, unless he re- 
nounced his innovations. But the teachers of novel doc- 
trines had nothing to apprehend, when, toward the con- 
clusion of this century, the Lutheran churches adopted 
the leading maxim of the Armenians, that " Christians 
were accountable to God alone for their religious senti- 
ments, and that no individual could be justly punished 
by the magistrate for his erroneous opinions, while he 
conducted himself like a virtuous and obedient subject, 
and made no attempts to disturb the peace and order of 
civil society." It is to be wished, that this religious liberty, 
which the advocates of equity must approve, but of which 
the virtuous mind alone can make a wise and proper use, 
had never degenerated into the unbridled licentiousness 
that holds nothing sacred, but with an audacious insolence 
tramples under foot the solemn truths of religion, and is 
constantly endeavouring to throw contempt upon the 
respectable profession of its ministers. 

XVII. The various branches of sacred erudition were 
cultivated with uninterrupted zeal and assiduity among 
the Lutherans, who, in no period, were without able 
commentators, and learned and faithful guides for the 



the sovereignty and authority of the state, without reducing the churcn. 
to a mere creature of civil policy. The reader will find a most interest- 
ing view of this nice and important subject in the learned and ingenious 
bishop Warburton's Alliance between Church and State, and in his 
dedication of the second volume of his Divine Legation of Moses, to 
the earl of Mansfield. 

i For an account of the lives and writings of these authors, see W ltte s 
Memorial Theologorum, and his Diarium Biographicum ; as also Pip- 
pingius, Goesius, and other writers of literary histoiy. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



387 



interpretation of the Holy Scriptures. It is proper to [ 
mention here Tamovius, Gerard, Hackspan, Calixtus, 
Erasmus Schmidt, to whom might be added a numerous 
list of learned and judicious expositors of the sacred ora- 
cles. But what appears more peculiarly worthy of obser- 
vation is, that the very period which some look upon as 
the most barren of learned productions, and the most 
remarkable for a general inattention to the branch of eru- 
dition now under consideration, produced that inestimable 
and immortal work of Solomon Glassius, which he pub- 
lished under the title of Sacred Philology, and than which 
none can be more useful for the interpretation of Scrip- 
ture, as it throws an uncommon degree of light upon 
the language and phraseology of the inspired writers. 
It must, at the same time, be candidly acknowledged, 
that a considerable part of this century was more employ- 
ed, by the professors of the different universities, in defend- 
ing, with subtlety and art, the peculiar doctrines of the 
Lutheran church, than in illustrating and explaining the 
Scripture, the only genuine source of divine truth. 
Whatever was worthy of censure in this manner of pro- 
ceeding, was abundantly repaired by the more modern di- 
vines of the Lutheran communion : for no sooner did the 
rage of controversy begin to subside, than the greatest part 
of them turned their principal studies toward the exposition 
and illustration of the sacred writings ; and they were 
particularly animated in the execution of this laborious 
task, by observing the indefatigable industry of those 
among the Dutch divines, who, in their interpretations 
of Scripture, followed the sentiments and method of Coc- 
ceius. At the head of these modern commentators we 
may place, with justice, Sebastian Schmidt, who was at 
least the most laborious and voluminous expositor of this 
age. After this learned writer, may be ranked Calovius, 
Geyer, Schomer, and others of inferior note. a The con- 
tests excited by the persons called Pietists, though un- 
happy in several respects, were nevertheless attended with 
this good effect, that they engaged many to apply them- 
selves to the study of the Scriptures, which they had too 
much neglected before that period, and to the perusal of 
the commentators and interpreters, of the sacred oracles. 
These commentators pursued various methods, and were 
unequal both in their merit and success. Some confined 
themselves to the mere signification of the words, and the 
literal sense that belonged to the phrases of the inspired 
writers ; others applied their expositions to the decision 
of controverted points, and attacked their adversaries, 
either by refuting their false interpretations, or by making 
use of their own commentaries to overturn their doctrines ; 
a third sort, after unfolding the sense of Scripture, applied 
it carefully to the purposes of life and the direction of 
practice. We might mention another class of interpreters, 
who, by an assiduous perusal of the writings of the Coc- 
ceians, are said to have injudiciously acquired their defects, 
as appears by their turning the sacred history into alle- 
gory, and seeking rather the more remote and mysterious 
sense of Scripture, than its obvious and literal signification. 
XVIII. The principal doctors of this century followed, 
at first, the loose method of deducing their theological 
doctrines from Scripture under a few general heads. This 
method had been observed in ancient times by Melanc- 
thon, and was vulgarly called common-place divinity. 



They, however, made use of the principles, terms, and 
subtle distinctions of the Peripatetic philosophy, which 
was yet in high reputation, in explaining and illustrating 
each particular doctrine. The first person that reduced 
theology into a regular system, and gave it a truly scien- 
tific and philosophical form, was George Calixtus, a man 
of great genius and erudition, who had imbibed the spirit 
of the Aristotelian school. His general design was not so 
much censured, as the particular method he followed, and 
the form he gave to his system ; for he divided the whole 
science of divinity into three parts, viz. the end, the sub- 
ject, the means ; and this division, which was borrowed 
from Aristotle, appeared to many extremely improper. 
This philosophical method of arranging the truths of 
Christianity was followed, with remarkable zeal and emu- 
lation, by the most eminent doctors in the different schools 
of learning ; and even in our times it has its votaries. 
Some indeed had the courage to depart from it, and to 
exhibit the doctrines of religion under a different, though 
still under a scientific form ; but they had few followers, 
and struggled in vain against the empire of Aristotle, who 
reigned with a despotic authority in the schools. 

There were, however, many pious and good men, who 
beheld, with great displeasure, this irruption of metaphy- 
sics into the sphere of theology, and never could be 
brought to approve this philosophical method of teaching 
the doctrines of Christianity. They earnestly desired to 
see divine truth freed from captious questions and subtle- 
ties, delivered from the shackles of an imperious system, 
and exhibited with that beautiful simplicity, perspicuity, 
and evidence, in which it appears in the sacred writings. 
Persons of this turn had their wishes and expectations in 
some measure answered, when, toward the conclusion of 
this century, the learned Spener, and others who were 
animated by his exhortations and example, began to in- 
culcate the truths and precepts of religion in a more plain 
and popular manner, and when the eclectics had succeeded 
so far as to dethrone Aristotle, and to banish his philoso- 
phy from the greatest part of the Lutheran schools. 
Spener was not so far successful as to render universal 
his popular method of teaching theology ; it was never- 
theless adopted by a considerable number of doctors : and 
it cannot be denied, that, since this period, the science of 
divinit)^, delivered from the jargon of the schools, has 
assumed a more liberal and graceful aspect. The same 
observation may be applied to controversial productions ; 
it is certain that polemics were totally destitute of elegance 
and perspicuity so long as Aristotle reigned in the semi- 
naries of learning, and that they were more or less em- 
bellished and improved after the suppression and disgrace 
of the Peripatetic philosophy. It is, however, to be 
lamented, that controversy did not lose, at this period, all 
the circumstances which had so justly rendered it dis- 
pleasing ; and that the defects, that had given such offence 
in the theological disputants of all parties, were far from 
being entirely removed. These defects still subsist, though 
perhaps in a less shocking degree ; and, whether we pe- 
ruse the polemic writers of ancient or modern times, we 
shall find too few among them who may be said to be 
animated by the pure love of truth, without any mixture 
of pride, passion, or partiality, and whom we may pro- 
nounce free from the illusions of prejudice and self-love. 



• See J. Franc. Buddei Isagoge in Theologiam, lib. ii. cap. yiii. p. 1686. 



588 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



XIX. The science of morals, which must ever be 
esteemed the master-science, from its immediate influence 
upon life and manners, was, for a long time, neglected 
among the Lutherans. If we except a few eminent men, 
such as Arndt and Gerard, who composed some popular 
treatises concerning the internal worship of the Deity, and 
the duties of Christians, there did not appear, in the for- 
mer part of this century, any moral writer of distinguished 
merit. Hence it happened, that those who applied them- 
selves to the business of resolving what are called Cases of 
Conscience, were holden in high esteem, and their tribu- 
nals were much frequented. But, as the true principles 
and foundations of morality were not yet established with 
a sufficient degree of precision and evidence, their decisions 
were often erroneous, and they were liable to fall into daily 
mistakes. Calixtus was the first who separated the objects 
of faith from the duties of morality, and exhibited the lat- 
ter under the form of an independent science. He did not, 
indeed, live to finish this work, the beginning of which 
met with general applause ; his disciples, however, em- 
ployed, with some degree of success, the instructions they 
had received from their master, in executing his plan, 
and composing a system of Moral Theology. This sys- 
tem, in process of time, fell into discredit on account of 
the Peripatetic form under which it appeared ; for, not- 
withstanding the striking dissimilarity that exists, in the 
very nature of things, between the beautiful science of 
morals, and the perplexing intricacies of metaphysics, 
Calixtus could not abstain from the latter in building his 
moral system. The moderns, however, stripped morality 
of the Peripatetic garment. Calling to their assistance 
the law of nature, which had been explained and illus- 
trated by Puffendorf and other authors, and comparing 
this law with the sacred writings, they not only disco- 
vered the true springs of Christian virtue, and entered into 
the true spirit and sense of the divine laws, but also di- 
gested the whole science of morals into a better order, and 
demonstrated its principles with a new and superior degree 
of evidence. 

XX. These improvements in theology and morality 
did not diffuse such a spirit of concord in the Lutheran 
church, as was sufficient to heal ancient divisions, or to 
prevent new ones. That church, on the contrary, was in- 
volved in the most lamentable commotions and tumults, 
during the whole course of this century, partly by the 
controversies that arose among its most eminent doctors, 
and partly by the intemperate zeal of violent reformers, 
the fanatical predictions of pretended prophets, and the 
rash measures of innovators, who studiously spread among 
the people singular notions and (for the most part) extra- 
vagant opinions. The controversies that divided the Lu- 
theran doctors may be ranged under two classes, according 
to their different importance and extent, as some of them 
involved the whole church in tumult and discord, while 
others were less general in their pernicious effects. Of the 
former class there were two controversies, that gave abun- 
dant exercise to the polemic talents of the Lutheran divines 
during the greatest part of this century ; and these turned 
upon the religious systems that are generally known under 
the denominations of Syncretism and Pietism. Nothing 
could be more amiable than the principles that gave rise 

* The Syncretists were also called Calixtines, from their chief, George 
Calixtus ; and Helmstadians, from the university where their plan of 
doctrine and union took its rise. 



to the former, and nothing more respectable and praise- 
worthy than the design that was proposed by the latter. 
The Syncretists,* animated with that fraternal love and 
that pacific spirit, which Jesus Christ had so often recom- 
mended as the peculiar characteristics of his true disciples, 
used their warmest endeavours to promote union and con- 
cord among Christians ; and the Pietists had undoubtedly 
in view the restoration and advancement of that holiness 
and virtue, which had suffered so much by the influence 
of licentious manners on the one hand, and by the turbu- 
lent spirit of controversy on the other. These two great 
and amiable virtues, that gave rise to the projects and 
efforts of the two orders of persons now mentioned, were 
combated by a third, even a zeal for maintaining the truth, 
and preserving it from all mixture of error. Thus the love 
of truth was unhappily found to stand in opposition to the 
love of union, piety, and concord ; and thus, in the pre- 
sent critical and corrupt state of human nature, the unruly 
and turbulent passions of men can, by an egregious abuse, 
draw the worst consequences from the best things, and 
render the most excellent principles and views productive 
of discord, confusion, and calamity. 

XXI. The origin of Syncretism was owing to George 
Calixtus, of Sleswick, a man of eminent and distinguish- 
ed abilities and merit, and who had few equals in this 
century, either in point of learning or genius. This 
great man being placed in an university, b which, from 
the very time of its foundation, had been remarkable for 
encouraging freedom of inquiry, improved this happy 
privilege, examined the respective doctrines of the vari- 
ous Christian sects, and found, in the notions commonly 
received among divines, some things defective and erro- 
neous. He accordingly gave early intimations of his dis- 
satisfaction at the state of theology, and lamented, in a 
more particular manner, the divisions and factions that 
reigned among the servants and disciples of the same 
great master. He therefore turned his views to the salu- 
tary work of softening the animosities produced by these 
divisions, and showed the warmest desire, not so much 
of establishing a perfect harmony and concord between 
the jarring sects, which no human power seemed capable 
of effecting, as of extinguishing the hatred, and appea- 
sing the resentment, which the contending parties disco- 
vered too much in their conduct toward each other. 
His colleagues did not seem at all averse to this pacific 
project ; and the surprise that this their silence or acqui- 
escence must naturally excite, in such as are acquainted 
with the theological spirit of the seventeenth century, will 
be diminished, when it is considered, that the professors 
of divinity at Helmstadt bind themselves, at their admis- 
sion, by an oath, to use their best and most zealous endea- 
vours to heal the divisions, and terminate the contests 
that prevail among Christians. Neither Calixtus, how- 
ever, nor his friends, escaped the opposition which it was 
natural to expect in the execution of such an unpopular 
and comprehensive project. They were warmly attacked, 
in 1639, by Statius Buscher, a Hanoverian ecclesiastic, a 
bigoted votary of Ramus, a declared enemy to all philo- 
sophy, and a man of great temerity and imprudence. 
This man, exasperated at the preference given by Calix- 
tus and his companions to the Peripatetic philosophy over 

t> The university of Helmstadt, in the dutchy of Brunswick, founded 
in 1576. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



589, 



the principles of the Ramists, composed a very malignant 
book entitled, Crypto-Papismus novae Theologian Helmsta- 
diensis,* in which Calixtuswas charged with a long list of 
errors. Though this production made some small impres- 
sion on the minds of certain persons, it is nevertheless pro- 
bable that Buscher would have almost universally passed 
for a partial, malicious, and rash accuser, had his invectives 
and complaints rendered Calixtus more cautious and pru- 
dent. But the upright and generous heart of this emi- 
nent man, which disdained dissimulation to a degree that 
bordered upon the extreme of imprudence, excited him 
to speak with the utmost frankness his private sentiments, 
and thus to give a certain measure of plausibility to the 
accusations of his adversary. Both he and his colleague 
Conrad Horneius maintained, with boldness and perse- 
verance, several propositions, which appeared, to many 
others beside Buscher, new, singular, and of a dangerous 
tendency ; and Calixtus more especially, by the freedom 
and plainness with which he declared and defended his 
sentiments, drew upon himself the resentment and indig- 
nation of the Saxon doctors, who, in 1645, were present 
at the conference of Thorn. He had been chosen by 
Frederic William, elector of Brandenburg, as colleague 
and assistant to the divines sent from Konigsberg to these 
conferences ; and the Saxon deputies were greatly in- 
censed to see a Lutheran ecclesiastic in the character 
of an assistant to a deputation of reformed doctors. The 
first cause of offence was followed by other incidents, in 
the course of these conferences, which increased the 
resentment of the Saxons against Calixtus, and made 
them accuse him of leaning to the side of the reformed 
churches. We cannot enter here into a circumstantial 
account of this matter, which would lead us from our 
main design. We shall only observe, that, when these 
conferences broke up, the Saxon doctors, and more espe- 
cially Hulseman, Weller, Scharfius, and Calovius, turned 
the whole force of their polemic weapons against Calix- 
tus, and, in their public writings, reproached him with 
apostacy from the principles of Lutheranism, and with 
a propensity toward the sentiments both of the reformed 
and Romish churches. This great man did not receive 
tamely the insults of his adversaries. His consummate 
knowledge of the philosophy that reigned in the schools, 
and his perfect acquaintance with the history of the 
church, rendered him an able disputant ; and accordingly 
he repelled, with the greatest vigour, the attacks of his 
enemies, and carried on, with uncommon spirit and eru- 
dition, this important controversy, until the year 1656, 
when death put an end to his labours, and transported 
him from these scenes of dissension and tumult into the 
regions of peace and concord. b 

XXTI. Neither the death of Calixtus, nor the decease 
of his principal adversaries, could extinguish the flame 



1 i. e. Popery disguised under the mask of the new theological sys- 
tem of Helmstadt. 

"• Those who desire to be more minutely acquainted with the particu- 
lar circumstances of this famous controversy, the titles and characters of 
the books published on that occasion, and the doctrines that produced 
such warm contests and such deplorable divisions, will do well to 
consult Walchius, Carolus, Weisman, Arnold, and other writers ; and, 
above all, the third volume of the Cimbria Literata of Moller, in which 
there is an ample account of the life, transactions, and writings of Calix- 
tus. But, if any reader should push his curiosity still farther, and be 
solicitous to know the more secret springs that acted in this whole affair, 
the remote causes of the events and transactions relating to it, the 
spirit, views, and characters of the disputants, the arguments used on 

No. L. 148 



they had kindled : on the contrary, the contest was car- 
ried on, after that period, with greater animosity and vio- 
lence than ever. The Saxon doctors, and more especi- 
ally Calovius, insulted the ashes and attacked the memory 
of this great man with unexampled bitterness and malig- 
nity ; and in the judgment of many eminent and worthy 
divines, who were by no means the partisans of Calixtus, 
conducted themselves with such imprudence and temerity, 
as tended to produce an open schism in the Lutheran 
church. They drew up a new creed, or confession of 
faith, c which they proposed to place in the class of what 
the members of our communion call their Symbolical 
Books, and which, consequently, all professors of divinity 
and all candidates for the ministry would be obliged to sub- 
scribe, as containing the true and genuine doctrine of the 
church. By this new production of intemperate zeal, 
the friends and followers of Calixtus were declared un- 
worthy of the communion of that church, and were 
accordingly supposed to have forfeited all right to the pri- 
vileges and tranquillity that were granted to the Luthe- 
rans by the laws of the empire. The reputation of Calix- 
tus found, nevertheless, some able defenders, who pleaded 
his cause with modesty and candour ; such were Titius, 
Hildebrand, and other ecclesiastics, who were distinguish- 
ed from the multitude by their charity, moderation, and 
prudence. These good men showed with the utmost 
evidence, that the new creed would be a perpetual source 
of contention and discord, and would thus have a fatal 
effect upon the true interests of the church : but their 
counsels were overruled, and their admonitions neglected. 
Among the writers who opposed this creed, was Frederic 
Ulric Calixtus, w T ho was not destitute of abilities, though 
much inferior to his father in learning, genius, and mode- 
ration. Of those who stood forth in its vindication and 
defence, the most considerable were Calovius and Strau- 
chius. The polemic productions of these contending par- 
ties were multiplied from day to day, and yet remain as 
deplorable monuments of the intemperate zeal of the 
champions. The invectives, reproaches, and calumnies, 
with which these productions were filled, showed too 
plainly that many of these writers, instead of being ani- 
mated with a love of truth and a zeal for religion, were 
rather actuated by a keen spirit of party, and by the sug- 
gestions of vindictive pride and vanity. These contests 
were of long duration ; they were, however, at length 
suspended toward the close of this century, by the death 
of those who had been the principal actors in this scene 
of theological discord, by the abolition of the creed that 
had produced it, by the rise of debates of a different na- 
ture, and by various circumstances of inferior moment, 
which do not require particular notice. 

XXIII. It will be proper to give here some account of 
the accusations adduced against Calixtus by his adversa- 

both sides, — in a word, those things which are principally interesting 
and worthy of attention in controversies of this kind, — lie will find no 
history that will satisfy him fully in these respects. A history that 
would throw a proper light upon these important matters, must be com- 
posed by a man of great candour and abilities ; by one who knows the 
world, has studied human nature, is furnished with materials and docu- 
ments that lie yet concealed in the cabinets of the curious, and is not 
unacquainted with the spirit that reigns, and the cabals that are carried 
on in the courts of princes. — But were such an historian to be found, I 
question very much, whether, even in our times, he could publish 
without danger all the circumstances of this memorable contest. 

c The title of this new creed was, Consensus repetitus Fidei verse 
Lutheranae. 



590 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. 11. 



lies. The principal charge was, his having formed a 
project, not of uniting into one ecclesiastical body, as some 
have understood it, the Romish, Lutheran, and Reformed 
churches, but of extinguishing the hatred and animosity 
that reigned among the members of these different com- 
munions, and joining them in the bonds of charity, mutual 
benevolence, and forbearance. This is the project, which 
was at first condemned, and is still known under the de- 
nomination of Syncretism."- Several singular opinions 
were also laid to the charge of this great man, and were 
exaggerated and blackened, as the most innocent things 
generally are, when they pass through the medium of ma- 
lignity and party-spirit. Such were his notions concern- 
ing the obscure manner in which the doctrine of the Tri- 
nity was revealed under the Old Testament dispensation, 
the appearances of the Son of God during that period, the 
necessity of good works to the attainment of everlasting 
salvation, and God's being occasionally b the author of sin. 
These notions have been considered, by many of the best 
judges of theology, as of an indifferent nature, as opinions 
which, even were they false, would not affect the great 
and fundamental doctrines of Christianity. But the two 
great principles that Calixtus laid down as the foundation 
of all his reconciling and pacific plans, gave much greater 
offence than the plans themselves, and drew upon him the 
indignation and resentment of many. Those principles 
were ; first, that the fundamental doctrines of Christianity 
(by which he meant those elementary principles from 
which all its truths flow) were preserved pure and entire 
in all the three communions, and were contained in the 
ancient form of doctrine, vulgarly known by the name of 
the "Apostles' Creed ; and secondly, that the tenets and opi- 
nions, which had been constantly received by the ancient 
doctors during the first five centuries, were to be considered 
as of equal truth and authority with the express declarations 
and doctrines of Scripture. The general plan of Calixtus 
was founded upon the first of these propositions ; and he 
made use of the second to give some degree of plausibility 

a It is neither my design nor my inclination to adopt the cause of 
Calixtus ; nor do I pretend to maintain that his writings or his doctrines 
are exempt from error. But the love of truth obliges me to observe, that 
it has been the ill fortune of this eminent man to fall into the hands of 
bad interpreters ; and that even those who imagine they have been 
more successful than others in investigating his true sentiments, have 
most grievously misunderstood them. Calixtus is commonly supposed 
to have formed the plan of a formal reconciliation of the protestants with 
the church of Rome and its pontiffs ; but this notion is entirely ground- 
less, since he publicly and expressly declared, that the Protestants could 
by no means enter into the bonds of concord and communion with the 
Romish church, as it was constituted at this time ; and that, if there had 
ever existed any prospect of healing the divisions that reigned between 
it and the Protestant churches, this prospect had entirely vanished since 
the council of Trent, whose violent proceedings and tyrannical decrees 
had rendered the union now under consideration absolutely impossible. 
He is farther charged with having either approved or excused the 
greatest part of those errors and superstitions, that are looked upon as a 
dishonour to the church of Rome ; but this charge is abundantly refuted, 
not only by the various treatises in which he exposed the falsehood and 
absurdity of the doctrines and opinions of that church, but also by the 
declarations of the Roman catholics themselves, who acknowledge that 
Calixtus attacked them with much more learning and ingenuity than 
had been discovered by any other protestant writer* It is true, he 
maintained that the Lutherans and Roman Catholics did not differ 
about the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith ; and it is to be 
wished, that he had never asserted any such thing, or, at least, that he 
had expressed his meaning in more proper and inoffensive terms. It 
must however be considered, that he always looked upon the popes and 
their votaries, as having adulterated these fundamental doctrines with 
an impure mixture or addition of many opinions and tenets, which no 
wise and good Christian could adopt; and this consideration diminishes 
a good deal the extravagance of an assertion, which, otherwise, would 



to certain Romish doctrines and institutions, which have 
been always rejected by the protestant church, and to estab- 
lish a happy concord between the various Christian com- 
munions that had hitherto lived in a state of dissension 
and separation from each other. 

XXIV. The divines of Rintelen, Konigsberg, and Jena, 
were more or less involved in these warm contests. Those 
of Rintelen, more especially Henichius and Peter Musaeus, 
had, on several occasions, and particularly at the confer- 
ence of Cassel, shewn plainly that they approved the plan 
of Calixtus for removing the discords and animosities that 
reigned among Christians, and that they beheld with pe- 
culiar satisfaction that part of it which had, for its objects, 
union and concord among the protestant churches. 
Hence they were opposed with great animosity by the 
Saxon doctors and their adherents, in various polemic pro- 
ductions. 

The pacific spirit of Calixtus discovered itself also at 
Konigsberg. John Laterman, Michael Behmius, and the 
learned Christopher Dryer, who had been the disciples ol 
that great man, were at little pains to conceal their attach- 
ment to the sentiments of their master. By this disco- 
very, they drew upon them the resentment of their col- 
leagues John Behmius and Celestine Mislenta, who were 
seconded by almost the whole body of the clergy of Kon- 
igsberg ; and thus a warm controversy arose, which was 
carried on, during many years, in such a manner as did 
very little honour to either of the contending parties. The 
interposition of the civil magistrate, together with the de- 
cease of Behmius and Mislenta, put an end to this intes- 
tine war, which was succeeded, however, by a new contest 
of long duration between Dryer and his associates on one 
side, and several foreign divines on the other, who consi- 
dered the system of Calixtus as highly pernicious, and 
looked upon its defenders as the enemies of the church. 
This new controversy was managed, on both sides, with 
as little equity and moderation as those which preceded it.* 

XXV. It must, at the same time, be acknowledged, to 



deserve the severest censure. We shall not enter farther into a review 
of the imputations that were cast upon Calixtus, by persons more dis- 
posed to listen to his accusers, than to those who endeavour, with can- 
dour and impartiality, to represent his sentiments and his measures in 
their true point of view. But if it should be asked here, what this man's 
real design was, we answer, that he laid down the following maxims : 
first, " that if it were possible to bring back the church of Rome to 
the state in which it was during the first five centuries, the Protestants 
would be no longer justified in rejecting its communion : secondly, that 
the modern members of the Romish church, though polluted with many 
intolerable errors, were not all equally criminal ; and, that such of them, 
more especially, as sincerely believed the doctrines they had learned 
from their parents or masters, and by ignorance, education, or the 
power of habit, were hindered from perceiving the truth, were not to be 
excluded from salvation, or deemed heretics, provided they gave their 
assent to the doctrines contained in the Apostle's Creed, and endeavoured 
seriously to govern their lives by the precepts of the Gospel." I do not 
pretend to defend these maxims, which seem, however, to have many 
patrons in our times ; I would only observe, that the doctrine they con- 
tain is much less intolerable than that which was commonly imputed to 
Calixtus. 

b Per accidens. 

e See Abrah. Calovii Historia Syncretistica, p. 618. — Jo. Georgii 
Walchii Introductio in Controversias Lutheran, vol. 1. p. 286. 

& See Christopher Hartknoch's Church-History of Prussia, book ii. 
chap. x. p. 602. — Moller's Cimbria Literata, torn. iii. p. 150. — See also 
the Acts and Documents contained in the famous collection, entitled. 
TJnschuldige Nachrichten, A. 1740. p. 144. A. 1742. p. 29. A. 1745. 
p. 91. 

* Bossuet, in his Traite de la Communion sous les deux Especes, 
speaks thus of the eminent man now under consideration ; " Le fanieux 
George Calixte, le plus habile des Lutheriens de notre tems, qui a ecrit 
le plus doctement contre nous," &c. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OP THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



591 



the immortal honour of the divines of Jena, that they disco- 
vered the most consummate prudence and the most ami- 
able moderation in the midst of these theological debates ; 
for, though they ingenuously confessed, that all the senti- 
ments of Calixtus were not of such a nature, as to be rea- 
sonably adopted without exception, yet they maintained, 
that the greatest part of his tenets were much less pernicious 
than the Saxon divines had represented them, and that 
several of them were innocent, and might be freely admit- 
ted without any danger to the cause of truth. Solomon 
Glassius, an ecclesiastic renowned for the mildness of his 
temper and the equity of his proceedings, examined with 
the utmost candour and impartiality the opposite sentiments 
of the doctors who were engaged in this important contro- 
versy, and published the result of this examination, by the 
express order of Ernest, prince of Saxe-Gotha, surnamed 
the Pious. 11 John Museeus, a man of superior learning 
and exquisite penetration and judgment, so far adopted 
the sentiments of Calixtus and Horneius, as to maintain 
that good works might, in a certain sense, be considered 
as necessary to salvation ; and that, of the erroneous doc- 
trines imputed to the former of these divines, several were 
of little importance. It is very probable, that the followers 
of Calixtus would have willingly submitted this whole 
controversy to the arbitration of such candid and impar- 
tial judges. But this laudable moderation so highly offend- 
ed the Saxon doctors, that they began to suspect the uni- 
versity of Jena of several erroneous opinions, and marked 
out Musseus, in a particular manner, as a person who had 
in various respects apostatized from the true and orthodox 
faith." 

XXVI. These debates were suppressed and succeeded 
by new disputes, which are commonly known under the 
denomination of the Pietistical Controversy. This dis- 
pute arose from the zeal of a certain set of persons, who, 
no doubt, with pious and upright intentions, endeavoured 
to stem the torrent of vice and corruption, and to reform 
the licentious manners both of the clergy and the people. 
But, as the best things may be abused, so this reforming 
spirit inflamed persons who were ill qualified to exert it 
with wisdom and success. Many, deluded by the sug- 
gestions of an irregular imagination and an ill-informed 
understanding, or guided by principles and views of a cri- 
minal nature, spread abroad new and singular opinions, 
false visions, unintelligible maxims, austere precepts, and 
imprudent clamours against the discipline of the church; 
all which excited dreadful tumults, and kindled the flames 
of contention and discord. The commencement of Pietism 
was indeed laudable and decent. It was set on foot by the 
pious and learned Philip James Spener, who, by the private 
societies which he formed at Francfort, with a view of pro- 
moting vital religion, roused the luke-warm from their indif- 
ference, and excited a spirit of vigour and resolution in those 
who had been satisfied to lament, in silence, the progress of 
impiety. The remarkable effect of these pious meetings 
was increased by a book published by this well- meaning 
man, under the title of Pious Desires, in which he exhibited 
a striking view of the disorders of the church, and proposed 
the remedies that were proper to heal them. Many persons 
of good intentions were highly pleased both with the pro- 

» This piece, which did not appear in public till after the death of 
Glassius, in 1662, exhibits a rare and shining instance of theological 
moderation, and is worthy of a serious and attentive perusal. 

•> For an account of the imputations cast upon the divines of Jena, 



ceedings and writings of Spener ; and indeed the majority 
of those who had the cause of virtue and practical reli- 
gion at heart, applauded the designs of this good man, 
though an apprehension of abuses restrained numbers from 
encouraging them openly. These abuses actually hap- 
pened. The remedies proposed by Spener to heal the dis- 
orders of the church fell into unskilful hands, were admi- 
nistered without sagacity or prudence, and thus, in many 
cases, proved to be worse than the disease itself. The reli- 
gious meetings above-mentioned (or the Colleges of Piety, 
as they were usually called by a phrase borrowed from 
the Dutch,) tended in many places to kindle in the breasts 
of the multitude the flames of a blind and intemperate zeal, 
whose effects were impetuous and violent, instead of that 
pure and rational love of God, whose fruits are benign and 
peaceful. Hence complaints arose against these insti- 
tutions of Pietism, as if, under a striking appearance of 
sanctity, they led the people into false notions of religion, 
and fomented in those who were of a turbulent and vio- 
lent character, the seeds and principles of mutiny and 
sedition. 

XXVII. These first complaints would have been un- 
doubtedly hushed, and the tumults which they occasioned 
would have subsided by degrees, had not the contests that 
arose at Leipsic, in 1689, added fuel to the flame. Some 
pious and learned professors of philosophy, and particu- 
larly Franckius, Schadius, and Paulus Antonius, the dis- 
ciples of Spener, who at that time was ecclesiastical super- 
intendant of the court of Saxony, began to consider with 
attention the defects that prevailed in the ordinary method 
of instructing the candidates for the ministry ; and this 
review persuaded them of the necessity of using their best 
endeavours to supply what was deficient, and to correct 
what was amiss. For this purpose, they undertook to 
explain in their colleges certain books of Scripture, in 
order to render these genuine sources of religious know- 
ledge better understood, and to promote a spirit of prac- 
tical piety and vital religion in the minds of their hearers. 
The novelty of this method drew attention, and rendered 
it singularly pleasing to many ; accordingly, these lectures 
were much frequented, and their effects were visible in the 
fives and conversations of several persons, whom they 
seemed to inspire with a deep sense of the importance of 
religion and virtue. Whether these first effusions of reli- 
gious fervour, which were, in themselves, most certainly 
laudable, were always kept within the strict bounds of 
reason and discretion, is a question not easily decided. If 
we are to believe the report of common fame, and the tes 
timonies of several persons of great weight, this was by no 
means the case ; and many things were both said and 
done in these Biblical Colleges (as they were called) 
which, though they might be looked upon, by equitable 
and candid judges, as worthy of toleration and indul- 
gence, were contrary to custom, and far from being consist- 
ent with prudence. Hence rumours were spread, tumults 
excited, animosities kindled, and the matter at length 
brought to a public trial, in which the pious and learned 
men above-mentioned were, indeed, declared free from the 
errors and heresies that had been laid to their charge, but 
were, at the same time, prohibited from carrying on that 

and more especially on Musaeus, see a judicious and solid work of tho 
latter, entitled, Der Jenischen Theologen Ausfuhrliche Erklamng, &<• 
See also Jo. Georgii Walchii Introductio in Controversies Ecclesia 
Lutherans, vol. i. p. 405. 



592 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. H. 



plan of religious instruction which they had undertaken 
with such zeal. It was during these troubles and divisions 
that the invidious denomination of Pietist was first invent- 
ed ; it may, at least, be affirmed, that it was not commonly 
known before this period. It was at first applied by some 
giddy and inconsiderate persons to those who frequented 
tbe Biblical Colleges, and lived in a manner suitable to 
the instructions and exhortations that were addressed to 
them in those seminaries of piety. It was afterwards 
used to characterise all who were either distinguished by 
the excessive austerity of their manners, or who, regard- 
less of truth and opinion, were only intent upon practice, 
and turned the whole vigour of their efforts toward the 
attainment of religious feelings and habits. But, as it is 
the fate of all those denominations by which peculiar sects 
are distinguished, to be variously and often very impro- 
perly applied, so the title of Pietist was frequently given, 
in common conversation, to persons of eminent wisdom 
and sanctity, who were equally remarkable for their adhe- 
rence to truth and their love of piety ; and, not seldom, 
to persons whose motley characters exhibited an enor- 
mous mixture of profligacy and enthusiasm, and who de- 
served the title of delirious fanatics rather than any other 
denomination. 

XXVIII. This contest was by no means confined to 
Leipsic, but diffused its contagion, with incredible celerity, 
through all the Lutheran churches, in the different states 
and kingdoms of Europe ; for, from this time, in all the 
cities, towns, and villages, where Lutheranism was pro- 
fessed, there suddenly started up persons of various ranks 
and professions, of both sexes, learned and illiterate, who 
declared that they were called, by a divine impulse, to pull 
up iniquity by the root, to restore to its primitive lustre, 
and propagate through the world, the declining cause of 
piety and virtue, to govern the Church of Christ by wiser 
rules than those by which it was at present directed ; and 
who, partly in their writings, and partly in their private 
and public discourses, pointed out the means and mea- 
sures that were necessary to bring about this important 
revolution. All those who were stricken with this imagi- 
nary impulse, unanimously agreed, that nothing could 
have a more powerful tendency to propagate among the 
multitude solid knowledge, pious feelings, and holy habits, 
than the private meetings which had been first contrived 
by Spener, and were afterwards introduced into Leipsic. 
Several religious assemblies were accordingly formed in 
various places, which, though they differed in some cir- 
cumstances, and were not all composed and conducted 
with equal wisdom, piety, and prudence, were intended to 
promote the same general purpose. In the mean time, 
these unusual, irregular and tumultuous proceedings, filled, 
with uneasy and alarming apprehensions, both those who 
were intrusted with the government of the church, and 
those who sat at the helm of the state. These apprehen- 
sions were justified by this important consideration, that 
the pious and well-meaning persons who composed these 

a This whole matter is amply illustrated by the learned John George 
Walchius, in his Introduetio ad Controversias, vol. ii. and iii. who ex- 
hibits successively the various scenes of this deplorable contest, with a 
view of the principal points that were controverted, and his judgment 
concerning each, and a particular account of the writers who displayed 
their talents on this occasion. It would, indeed, be difficult for any one 
man to give an ample and exacthistory of this contest, which was ac- 
companied with so many incidental circumstances, and was, upon the 
whole, of such a tedious and complicated nature. It is therefore to be 



assemblies, had indiscreetly admitted into their commu- 
nity a number of extravagant and hot-headed fanatics, 
who foretold the approaching destruction of Babel, (by 
which they meant the Lutheran church,) terrified the popu- 
lace with fictitious visions, assumed the authority of pro- 
phets honoured with a divine commission, obscured the sub- 
lime truths of religion by a gloomy kind of jargon of their 
own invention, and revived doctrines that had long before 
been condemned by the church. These enthusiasts also 
asserted, that the millennium, (or thousand-years' reign 
of the saints on earth,) mentioned by St. John, was near 
at hand. They endeavoured to overturn the wisest estab- 
lishments, and to destroy the best institutions, and desired 
that the power of preaching and administering public 
instruction might be given promiscuously to all sorts of 
persons. Thus was the Lutheran church torn asunder 
in the most deplorable manner, while the votaries of Rome 
stood by and beheld, with a secret satisfaction, these un- 
happy divisions. The most violent debates arose in all 
the churches ; and persons, whose differences were occa- 
sioned rather by mere words and questions of little conse- 
quence, than by any doctrines or institutions of consider- 
able importance, attacked one another with the bitterest 
animosity ; and, in many countries, severe laws were at 
length enacted against the Pietists.* 

XXIX. These revivers of piety were of two kinds, 
who, by their different manner of proceeding, deserve to 
be placed in two distinct classes. One sect of these practi- 
cal reformers proposed to carry on their plan without intro- 
ducing any change into the doctrine, discipline, or form of 
government, established in the Lutheran church. The 
other maintained, on the contrary, that it was impossible 
to promote the progress of real piety among the Lutherans, 
without making considerable alterations in their doctrine, 
and changing the whole form of their ecclesiastical disci- 
pline and polity. The former had at their head the 
learned and pious Spener, who, in 1691, removed from 
Dresden to Berlin, and whose sentiments were adopted 
by the professors of the new university at Halle, and par- 
ticularly by Franckius and Paulus Antonius, who had 
been invited thither from Leipsic, where they began to be 
suspected of Pietism. Though few pretended to treat 
either with indignation or contempt the intentions and 
purpose of these good men (which, indeed, no one could 
despise without affecting to appear the enemy of practical 
religion and virtue,) yet many eminent divines, and more 
especially the professors and pastors of Wittenberg, were 
of opinion, that, in the execution of this laudable purpose, 
several maxims were adopted, and certain measures em- 
ployed, that were prejudicial to the truth, and also detri- 
mental to the interests of the church. Hence they thought 
themselves obliged to proceed publicly, first against Spe- 
ner, in 1695, and afterwards against his disciples and 
adherents, as the inventors and promoters of erroneous 
and dangerous opinions. These debates are of a recent 
date ; so that those who are desirous of knowing more par- 



wished, that a society of prudent and impartial persons, furnished with a 
competent knowledge of human nature and political transactions, and 
also with proper materials, would undertake to compose the history of 
Pietism. If several persons Were employed in collecting from public 
records, and also from papers that are yet concealed in the cabinets of 
the curious, the events which happened in each country where this con- 
troversy reigned ; and if these materials, thus carefully gathered on the 
spot, were put into the hands of a man capable of digesting the whole 
this would produce a most interesting and useful history. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH, 



593 



ticularly how far the principles of equity, moderation, and 
candour, influenced the conduct and directed the proceed- 
tngs of the contending parties, may easily receive satis- 
factory information. 

XXX. These debates turned upon a variety of points ; 
and therefore the matter of them cannot be comprehended 
under any one general head. If we consider them indeed 
in relation to their origin, and the circumstances that 
gave rise to them, we shall be able to reduce them to 
some fixed principles. It is well known that those who 
had the advancement of piety most zealously at heart, en- 
tertained a notion that no order of men contributed more 
to retard its progress than the clergy, whose peculiar vo- 
cation it was to inculcate and promote it. While they 
considered this as the root of the evil, it was natural that 
their plans of reformation should begin here ; and, accord- 
ingly, they laid it down as an essential principle, that 
none should be admitted into the ministry, but such as 
had received a proper education, were distinguished by 
their wisdom and sanctity of manners, and had hearts 
filled with divine love. Hence they proposed, in the first 
place, a thorough reformation of the schools of divinity ; 
and they explained clearly enough what they meant by 
this reformation, which consisted in the following points : 
That the systematical theology, which reigned in the 
colleges, and was composed of intricate and disputable 
doctrines, and obscure and unusual forms of expression, 
should be totally abolished ; that polemical divinity, which 
comprehended the controversies subsisting between Chris- 
tians of different communions, should be less eagerly 
studied, and less frequently treated, though not entirely 
neglected ; that all mixture of philosophy and human 
learning with divine wisdom was to be most carefully 
avoided ; that, on the contrary, all those who were intend- 
ed for the ministry, should be accustomed from their early 
youth to the perusal and study of the Scriptures ; that 
they should be instructed in a plain system of theology, 
drawn from these unerring sources of truth ; and that the 
whole course of their education was to be so directed, as 
to render them useful in life, by the practical power of 
their doctrine and the commanding influence of their 
example. As these maxims were propagated with the 
greatest industry and zeal, and were explained inadvert- 
ently by some, without those restrictions which prudence 
seemed to require, these professed patrons and revivers 
of piety were suspected of designs that could not but ren- 
der them obnoxious to censure. They were supposed to 
despise philosophy and learning, to treat with indifference, 
and even to renounce, all inquiries into the nature and 
foundations of religious truth, to disapprove the zeal and 
labours of those who defended it against such as either cor- 
rupted or opposed it, and to place the whole of their theo- 
logy in certain vague and incoherent declamations con- 
cerning the duties of morality. Hence arose those famous 
disputes concerning the use of philosophy and the value 
of human learning, considered in connexion with the 
interests of religion — the dignity and usefulness of sys- 
ematic theology — the necessity of polemic divinity — the 
excellence of the mystic system — and also concerning 
the true method of instructing the people. 

The second great object, that employed the zeal and 
attention of the persons now under consideration, was, that 
the candidates for the ministry should not only, for the 

No. L. 149 



future, receive* such an academical education as would 
tend rather to solid utility than to mere speculation, but 
also that they should dedicate themselves to God in a 
peculiar manner, and exhibit the most striking examples 
of piety and virtue. This maxim, which, when consid- 
ered in itself, must be acknowledged to be highly lauda- 
ble, not only gave occasion to several new regulations, 
calculated to restrain the passions of the studious youth, 
to inspire them with pious sentiments, and to excite in 
them holy resolutions ; but also produced another maxim, 
which was a lasting source of controversy and debate, 
namely, "that no person, who was not himself a model 
of piety and divine love, was qualified to be a public 
teacher of piety, or a guide to others in the way of salva- 
tion." This opinion was considered by many as 
derogatory from the power and efficacy of the word of 
God, which cannot be deprived of its divine influence by 
the vices of its ministers, and a sort of revival of the long- 
exploded errors of the Donatists; and what rendered it pe 
culiarly hable to an interpretation of this nature was, the 
imprudence of some Pietists, who inculcated it without 
those restrictions that were necessary to render it unex- 
ceptionable. Hence arose endless and intricate debates 
concerning the following questions; "whether the reli- 
gious knowledge acquired by a wicked man can be termed 
theology?" "whether a vicious person can, in effect, obtain 
a true knowledge of religion ?" — " how far the office and 
ministry of an impious ecclesiastic can be pronouncec 
salutary and efficacious?" — "whether a licentious and 
ungodly man can be susceptible of illumination ?" — and 
other questions of a like nature, 

XXXI. These revivers of declining piety went yet far- 
ther. In order to render the ministry of their pastors as 
successful as possible, in rousing men from their indolence, 
and in stemming the torrent of corruption and immorality, 
they judged two things indispensably necessary. The first 
was, to suppress entirely, in the course of public instruc- 
tion, and more especially in that delivered from the pulpit, 
certain maxims and phrases which the corruption of men 
leads them frequently to interpret in a manner favourable 
to the indulgence of their passions. Such, in the judg- 
ment of the Pietists, were the following propositions : — 
" No man is able to attain that perfection which the divine 
law requires : good works are not necessary to salvation : 
in the act of justification, on the part of man, faith alone 
is concerned, without good works." Many, however, were 
apprehensive, that, by the suppression of these propositions, 
truth itself must sutler deeply, and that the Christian reli- 
gion, deprived thus of its peculiar doctrines, would be 
exposed, naked and defenceless, to the attacks of its 
adversaries. The second step they took, in order to give 
efficacy to their plans of reformation, was to form new 
rules of life and manners, much more rigorous and austere 
than those which had been formerly practised, and to 
place in the class of sinful and unlawful gratifications seve- 
ral kinds of pleasure and amusement, which had hitherto 
been looked upon as innocent in themselves, and which 
could only become good or evil, in consequence of the 
respective characters of those who used them with pru 
dence, or abused them with intemperance. Thus, dancing, 
public sports, pantomimes, theatrical diversions, the read- 
ing of humorous and comical books, with several other 
kinds of pleasure and entertainment, were prohibited by 



594 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



the Pietists, as unlawful and unseemly, and, therefore, by 
no means of an indifferent nature. Many, however, 
thought this rule of moral discipline far too rigid and 
severe ; and thus was revived the ancient contest of the 
schoolmen, concerning the famous question, whether any 
human actions are truly indifferent 1 i. e. equally removed 
from moral good on the one hand, and from moral evil on 
the other ; and whether, on the contrary, it be not true, 
that all actions, whatever, must be either considered as 
good or as evil ? The discussion of this question Avas 
attended with a variety of debates upon the several points 
of the prohibition now mentioned ; and these debates were 
often carried on with animosity and bitterness, and very 
rarely with that precision, temper, and judgment, which 
the nicety of the matters in dispute required. The third 
point, on which the Pietists insisted, was, that beside the 
stated meetings for public worship, private assemblies 
should be holden for prayer and other religious exercises. 
But many were of opinion, that the cause of true piety and 
virtue was rather endangered than promoted by these as- 
semblies ; and experience and observation seemed to con- 
firm this opinion. It would be both endless and unneces- 
sary to enumerate all the little disputes that arose from the 
appointment of these private assemblies, and, in general, 
from the notions entertained, and the measures pursued 
by the Pietists. 1 It is nevertheless proper to observe, that 
the lenity and indulgence shown by these people to per- 
sons whose opinions were erroneous, and whose errors 
were by no means of an indifferent nature, irritated their 
adversaries to a very high degree, and made many suspect, 
that the Pietists laid a much greater stress upon practice 
than upon belief, and that, separating what ought ever to 
oe inseparably joined, they held virtuous manners in higher 
esteem than religious truth. Amidst the prodigious num- 
bers that appeared in these controversies it was not at all 
surprising, if the variety of their characters, capacities, and 
views, be duly considered, that some were chargeable with 
imprudence, others with intemperate zeal, and that many, 
to avoid what they looked upon as unlawful, fell injudi- 
ciously into the opposite extreme. 

XXXII. The other class of Pietists already mentioned, 
whose reforming views extended so far, as to change the 
system of doctrine, and the form of ecclesiastical govern- 
ment, established iu the Lutheran church, comprehended 
persons of various characters and different ways of think- 
ing. Some of them were totally destitute of reason and 
judgment; their errors were the reveries of a disordered 
brain ; and they were rather to be considered as lunatics 
than as heretics. Others were less extravagant, and tem- 
pered the singular notions, which they had derived from 
reading or meditation, with a certain mixture of the im- 
portant truths and doctrines of religion. Of this class we 
shall mention those only who were distinguished from the 
rest by superior merit and reputation. Among these we 
find Godfrey Arnold, a native of Saxony, a man of exten- 
sive reading, tolerable parts, and richly endowed with that 
natural and unaffected eloquence, which is so wonderfully 
adapted to touch a nd to persuade. This man disturbed 

• These debates were first collected, and also needlessly multiplied, by 
Schelvigius, in his Synopsis Controversarium sub Pietatis Pratextu 
motarum, published in 1701. The reader will also find the arguments, 
used by the contending parties in this dispute, judiciously summed up 
in two different works of Langius, one entitled Anti-Barbarus, and the 
other the Middle Way, {die Mittel-strasse ;) the former composed in 
Latin, the latter in German.* 



the tranquillity of the church, toward the conclusion of 
this century, by a variety of theological productions, that 
were full of new and singular opinions, and more espe- 
cially by his ecclesiastical history, which he had the assur- 
ance to impose upon the public, as a work composed with 
candour and impartiality. His natural complexion was 
dark, melancholy and austere ; and these seeds of fanati- 
cism were so expanded and nourished by the perusal of 
the mystic writers, that the flame of enthusiasm was kin- 
dled in his breast, and broke forth in his conduct and 
writings with peculiar vehemence. He looked upon the 
Mystics as superior to all other writers, and even as the 
only depositories of true wisdom ; reduced the whole of 
religion to certain internal feelings and motions, of which 
it is difficult to form a just idea ; neglected entirely the 
study of truth ; and employed the whole power of his 
genius and eloquence in enumerating, deploring, and ex- 
aggerating, the vices and corruptions of human nature. 
If it is universally allowed to be the first and most essential 
obligation of an historian to avoid all appearance of parti- 
ality, and neither to be influenced by personal attachments 
nor by private resentment in the recital of facts, it may 
fairly be acknowledged, that no man could be less fit for 
writing history than Arnold. His whole history, as every 
one must see who looks into it with the smallest degree 
of attention, is the production of a violent spirit, and is 
dictated by a vehement antipathy to the doctrines and 
institutions of the Lutheran church. A fundamental 
principle that influences the judgment, and directj the 
opinions and decisions of this historian, through tb ■ vhole 
course of his work, is, that all the abuses and cc ."options 
that have found admittance into the church sinc\ 'the lime 
of the apostles, have been introduced by its min _<ters and 
rulers, men of vicious and abandoned characters. From 
this principle he draws the following goodly consequence: 
that all those who opposed the measures of the clergy, or 
felt their resentment, were persons of distinguished sanctity 
and virtue ; and that, on the contrary, such as either 
favoured the ministers of the church or were favoured by 
them, were strangers to the spirit of true and genuine piety. 
Hence proceeded Arnold's unaccountable partiality to 
almost all that bore the denomination of heretics ; b whom 
he defended with the utmost zeal, without having always 
understood their doctrine, and, in some cases, without hav- 
ing even examined their arguments. This partiality was 
highly detrimental to his reputation, and rendered his his- 
tory peculiarly obnoxious to censure. He did not, however, 
continue in this way of thinking : but, as he advanced in 
years and experience, perceived the errors into which he 
had been led by the impetuosity of his passion and the 
contagious influence of pernicious examples. This sense 
of his mistakes corrected the vehemence of his natural 
temper and the turbulence of his party spirit, so that, as 
we learn from witnesses worthy of credit, he became at 
last a lover of truth and a pattern of moderation. c 

XXXIII. Arnold was far exceeded in fanatical malig- 
nity and insolence by John Conrad Dippelius, a Hessian 
divine, who assumed the denomination of the Christian 

|3= i> Arnold's history is entitled HistoriaEcclessiastica et Hseretica. 
Dr. Mosheim's account of this learned man is drawn up with much 
severity, and perhaps is not entirely destitute of partiality. See the 
Life of Arnold in the General Dictionary. 

See Coleri Vita Arnoldi, and also the Nouveau Diction. Histor. et 
Critique, torn. i. p. 485. 

* See also the Timotheus Verinus of Val. Em. Loscher. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



595 



Democritus, inflamed the minds of the simple by a variety 
of productions, and excited considerable tumults and 

• amotions near the close of this century. This vain, 
supercilious, and arrogant doctor, who seemed formed by 
nature for a satirist and a buffoon, instead of proposing 
any new system of religious doctrine and discipline, was 
solely employed in overturning those which were received 
in the protestant church. His days were principally spent 
in throwing out sarcasms and invectives against all deno- 
minations of Christians ; and the Lutherans, to whose 
communion he belonged, were more especially the objects 
of his raillery and derision, which, on many occasions, 
spared not those things which had formerly been looked 
upon as the most respectable and sacred. It is much to 
be doubted, whether he had formed any clear and distinct 
notions of the doctrines he taught, since, in his views of 
things, the power of imagination domineered evidently 
over the dictates of reason and common sense. But, if 
he really understood the religious maxims he was propa- 
gating, he certainly had not the talent of rendering them 
clear and perspicuous to others; for nothing can be more 
ambiguous and obscure than the expressions under which 
they are conveyed, and the arguments by which they are 
supported. A man must have the gift of divination, to 
be able to deduce a regular and consistent system of doc- 
trine from the various productions of this incoherent and 
unintelligible writer, who was a chemist into the bargain, 
and whose brain seems to have been heated into a high 
degree of fermentation by the fire of the laboratory. If 
the rude, motley, and sarcastic writings of this wrong- 
headed reformer should reach posterity, it will be certainly 
a just matter of surprise to our descendants, that a consi- 
derable number of their ancestors should have been so 
blind as to choose, for a model of genuine piety and a 
teacher of religion, a man who had audaciously violated 
the first and most essential principles of solid piety and 
sound sense. 1 

XXXIV. The mild and gentle temper of John Wil- 
liam Petersen, minister and first member of the ecclesi- 
astical consistory of Lunenburg, distinguished him remark- 
ably from the fiery enthusiast now mentioned. But the 
mildness of this good-natured ecclesiastic was accompa- 
nied with a want of resolution, that might be called weak- 
ness, and a certain floridness and warmth of imagination, 
which rendered him peculiarly susceptible of illusion him- 
self, and a fit instrument to lead others innocently into 
error. Of this he gave a very remarkable specimen in 
1691, by maintaining publicly that, Rosamond Juliana, 
countess of Asseburg (whose disordered brain suggested 
to her the most romantic and chimerical notions) was 
honoured with a vision of the Deity, and commissioned 
to make a new declaration of his will to mankind. He 
also revived and propagated openly the absolute doctrine 
of the Millennium, which Rosamond had confirmed by 
her pretended authority from above. This first error pro- 
duced many; for error is fertile, especially in those minds 

"His works were all published in 1747; and his memory is still 
highly honoured and respected by many, who consider him as having 
been, in his day, an eminent teacher of true piety and wisdom. No 
kind of authors find such zealous readers and patrons as those who deal 
largely in invective, and swell themselves, by a vain self-sufficiency, 
into =in imagined superiority over the rest of mankind. Besides, Dippc- 
rius was an excellent chemist, and a good physician; and this procured 
him many friends and admirers, as all men are fond of riches and long 
life, and these two sciences were supposed to lead to the one and the 
other. 



where imagination has spurned the yoke of reason, and 
considers all its airy visions as solid and important disco- 
veries. Accordingly, Petersen went about prophesying 
with his wife, b who also gave herself out for a kind of 
oracle, and boasted of her extensive knowledge of the 
secrets of heaven. They talked of a general restitution 
of all things ; at which grand and solemn period all in- 
telligent beings were to be restored to happiness, the gates 
of hell opened, and wicked men, together with evil spirits, 
delivered from the guilt, power and punishment of sin. 
They supposed that two distinct natures, and both of them 
human, were united in Christ ; one assumed in heaven 
before the formation of this globe, the other derived, upon 
earth, from the Virgin Mary. These opinions were swal- 
lowed down by many among the multitude, and were 
even embraced by some of superior rank ; they met, how- 
ever, with great opposition, and were refuted by a consi- 
derable number of authors, to whom Petersen, who was 
amply furnished with leisure and eloquence, wrote volu- 
minous replies. In the year 1692, he was deposed ; and, 
from that period, passed his days in the tranquillity of a 
rural retreat in the territory of Magdeburg, where he 
cheered his solitude by epistolary commerce, and spent 
the remainder of his life in composition and study.' 

XXXV. It is not easy to determine whether John Cas- 
par Schade and George Bosius may be associated properly 
with the persons now mentioned. They were both good 
men, full of zeal for the happiness and salvation of their 
brethren ; but their zeal was neither directed by prudence, 
nor tempered with moderation. The former, who was 
minister at Berlin, propagated several notions that seemed 
crude and uncouth ; and, in 1697, inveighed with the 
greatest bitterness against the custom that prevails in the 
Lutheran church of confessing privately to the clergy. 
These violent remonstrances excited great commotions, 
and were even attended with popular tumults. Bosius per- 
formed the pastoral functions at Soraw ; and, to awaken 
sinners from their security, and prevent their treating, with 
negligence and indifference, interests that are most impor- 
tant by being eternal, denied that God would continue 
always propitious and placable with respect to those offen- 
ders, whose incorrigible obstinacy he had foreseen from 
all eternity ; or that he would offer to them beyond a cer- 
tain period, marked in his decrees, those succours of grace 
which are necessary to salvation. This tenet, in the judg- 
ment of many grave divines, seemed highly injurious to 
the boundless mercy of God, and was accordingly refuted 
and condemned in several treatises : it found, nevertheless, 
an eminent patron and defender in the learned Rechen- 
berg, professor of divinity at Leipsic, not to mention others 
of less note, who appeared in its behalf/ 1 

XXXVI. Among the controversies of inferior moment 
that divided the Lutheran church, we shall first mention 
those that broke out between the doctors of Tubingen 
and Giessen so early as the year 1616. The principal 
part of this debate related to the abasement and humilia- 

b Her name was Johanna Eleonora a Merjau. 

" Petersen wrote an account of his own life in German; his wife 
added her life to it, by way of supplement; and these pieces of biogru- 
phy will satisfy such as are desirous of a particular account of the 
character, manners, and talents, of this extraordinary pair. For an 
account of the troubles they excited at Luncnburgh, sec Moller s Cini- 
bria Literata, torn. ii. p. 639 ; the TJnschuldigen Nachriohten, An. 
1748, p. 974 ; An. 1749, p. 30—200. 

i See the first part of Wulchius' Introductir ad Controversiaa, 
cap. iv. 



596 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



tion, or to what divines call the exinanitioti of Jesus 
Christ ; and the great point was, to know in what this 
exinanition properly consisted, and what was the precise 
characteristic of this singular situation. That the man 
Christ possessed, even in the most dreadful periods of his 
abasement, the divine properties and attributes he had 
received in consequence of the hypostatic union, was 
unanimously agreed on by both parties ; but they differed 
in their sentiments relating to this subtle and intricate 
question, whether Christ during his mediatorial sufferings 
and sacerdotal state, really suspended the exertion of 
these attributes, or only concealed this exertion from the 
view of mortals'? The latter was maintained by the 
doctors of Tubingen, while those of Giessen were inclined 
to think, that the exertion of the divine attributes was 
really suspended in Christ during his humiliation and suf- 
ferings. This main question was followed by others 
which were much more subtle than important, concern- 
ing the manner in which God is present with all his 
works, the reasons and foundation of this universal pre- 
sence, the true cause of the omnipresence of Christ's body, 
and others of a like intricate and unintelligible nature. 
The champions who distinguished themselves on the side 
of the doctors of Tubingen were, Lucas Osiander, Mel- 
chior Nicolas, and Theodore Thummius. The most 
eminent of those who adopted the cause of the divines of 
Giessen were Balthasar Menzer and Justus Feverborn. 
The contest was carried on with zeal, learning, and saga- 
city : it is to be wished that one could add, that it was 
managed with wisdom, dignity, and moderation. This, 
indeed, was far from being the case ; for such was the 
complexion of the age, that many things were now treated 
with indulgence, or beheld with approbation, which the 
wisdom and decency of succeeding times have justly en- 
deavoured to discountenance and correct. In order to ter- 
minate these disagreeable contests, the Saxon divines 
were commanded by their sovereign, to offer themselves 
as arbitrators between the contending parties in 1624 : 
their arbitration was accepted ; but it did not at all con- 
tribute to decide the matters in debate. Their decisions 
were vague and ambiguous, and were therefore not 
adapted to give satisfaction. They declared, that they 
could not fully or entirely approve the doctrine of either ; 
but insinuated, at the same time, that a certain degree of 
preference was due to the opinions maintained by the 
doctors of Giessen. a Those of Tubingen rejected the de- 
cision of the Saxon arbitrators ; and it is very probable, 
that the divines of Giessen would have appealed from it 
also, had not the public calamities, in which Germany be- 
gan to be involved at this time, suspended this miserable 
contest, by imposing silence upon the disputants, and 
leaving them in the quiet possession of their respective 
opinions. 

XXXVII. Before the cessation of the controversy now 
mentioned, a new one was occasioned, in 1621, by the 
writings of Herman Rathman, minister at Dantzic, a man 
of eminent piety, some learning, and a zealous patron 
and admirer of Arndt's famous book concerning true 
Christianity. This good man was suspected by his col- 
league Corvinus, and several others, of entertaining senti- 

■ Jo. Wolf. Jager, Histor. Eccles. et. Polit. soec. XVII. decenn. iii. p. 
329. — Christ. Eberh. Weisman, Histor. Ecclesiast. ssec. XVII. p. 1178. 
— WcMe.hius, p. 206. — See also Carolus, Arnold, and the other writers, 
who have written the ecclesiastical history of these times. 



ments derogatory from the dignity and power of the 
sacred writings. These suspicions they derived from a 
book published by him in 1621, concerning Christ's King- 
dom of Grace, which, according to the representations of 
his adversaries, contained the following doctrine : " That 
the word of God, as it stands in the sacred writings, has 
no innate power to illuminate the mind, to excite in it a 
principle of regeneration, and thus to turn it to God : that 
the external word shows, indeed, the way to salvation, 
but cannot effectually lead men to it ; but that God him- 
self, by the ministry of another, and an internal word, 
works such a change in the minds of men, as is necessary 
to render them agreeable in his sight, and enables them 
to please him by their words and actions." This doctrine 
was represented by Corvinus and his associates as the 
same which had been formerly maintained by Schwenck- 
feld, and was professed by the Mystics in general. But 
whoever will be at the pains to examine with attention 
the various writings of Rathman on this subject, must 
soon be convinced, that his adversaries either misunder- 
stood his true sentiments, or wilfully misrepresented them. 
His real doctrine may be comprised in the four following 
points : " first, that the divine word, contained in Scrip- 
ture, is endowed with the power of healing the minds of 
men, and bringing them to God ; but that, secondly, it 
cannot exert this power in the minds of corrupt men, who 
resist its divine operation and influence ; and that, in con- 
sequence, thirdly, it is absolutely necessary, that the 
word be preceded or accompanied by some divine energy, 
which may prepare the minds of sinners to receive it, and 
remove those impediments that oppose its efficacy ; and, 
fourthly, that it is by the power of the holy spirit, or 
internal word, that the external word is rendered capable 
of exerting its efficacy in enlightening and sanctifying the 
minds of men." b There is, indeed, some difference 
between these opinions and the doctrine commonly receiv- 
ed in the Lutheran church, relating to the efficacy of the 
divine word ; but a careful perusal of the writings of 
Rathman on this subject, and a candid examination of 
his inaccurate expressions, will persuade the impartia 
reader, that this difference is neither great nor important 
and he will only perceive, that this pious man had not 
the talent of expressing his notions with order, perspicuity 
and precision. However that may have been, this con- 
test grew more general from day to day, and, at length, 
extended its polemic influence through the whole Lu- 
theran church, the greatest part of whose members fol- 
lowed the example of the Saxon doctors in condemning 
Rathman, while a considerable number, dazzled by the 
lustre of his piety, and persuaded of the innocence of his 
doctrine, espoused his cause. He died in 1628, when 
this controversy was at the greatest height, and the 
warmth and animosity of the contending parties gradually 
subsided. 

XXXVIII. It would be repugnant to the true end of 
history, as well as to all principles of candour and equity 
to swell this enumeration of the controversies that divid- 
ed the Lutheran church, with the private disputes of in- 
dividuals concerning particular points of doctrine and 
worship. Some writers .have, indeed, followed this me- 



fc See Moller's Cimbria Literata, torn. iii. p. 559. — Hartknoch's Ger- 
man work, entitled, Preussische Kirchen-Geschichte, book iii. ch. viii, 
p. 812. Arnold's Kirchen Historie, part iii. chap. xiL 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERA CHURCH. 



507 



thod, not so much with a design to enrich their histories 
w ith a multitude of facts, and to show men and opinions 
iu all their various aspects, as with a view to render the 
Lutherans ridiculous or odious. In the happiest times, 
and in the hest-modelled communities, there will always 
remain sufficient marks of human imperfection, and abun- 
dant sources of private contention, at least, in the impru- 
dence, inadvertency, and misconceptions of some, and 
the impatience and severity of others ; but it must betray 
a great want of sound judgment, as well as of candour 
and impartiality, to form a general estimate of the state 
and character of a whole church upon such particular 
instances of imperfection and error. Certain singular 
opinions and modes of expression were censured by many 
in the writings of Tarnovius and Alfelman, two divines 
of Rostoch, who were otherwise men of distinguished 
merit. This, however, will surprise us less if we consider, 
that these doctors often expressed themselves improperly, 
when their sentiments were just ; and that, when their 
expressions were accurate and proper, the} 7 were frequently 
misunderstood by those who pretended to censure them. 
Joachim Lutkeman, whose reputation was considerable, 
and, in man}* respects, well deserved, conceived the idea 
of denying that Christ remained a true man during the 
three days that intervened from his death to his resurrec- 
tion. This sentiment appeared highly erroneous to many ; 
and hence arose a contest, which was merely a dispute 
about w r ords, resembling many other debates, which, like 
bubbles, are incessantly swelling and vanishing on the 
surface of human life. Of this kind, more especially, was 
the controversy which, for some time, exercised the talents 
of Boetius and Balduin, professors of divinity (the former 
at Helmstadt, and the latter at Wittenberg.) and had for 
its subject the following question, whether the wicked 
shall one day be restored to life by the merits of Christ ? 
In the duchy of Holstein, Reinboth distinguished himself 
by the singularity of his opinions. After the example of 
Calixtus, he reduced the fundamental doctrines of religion 
within narrower bounds than were usually prescribed to 
them ; he also considered the opinion of those Greeks, 
who denied that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son, as 
an error of very little consequence. In both these respects, 
his sentiments were adopted by many ; they, however, 
met with opposition from several quarters, and were cen- 
sured with peculiar warmth by the learned John Conrad 
Danhaver, professor of divinity at Strasbourg : in conse- 
quence of this, a kind of controversy was kindled be- 
tween these eminent men, and was carried on with more 
vehemence than the nature and importance of the deba- 
ted points could justify. 1 But these and other contests of 
this nature, must not be admitted into that list of contro- 
versies, from which we are to form a judgment of the in- 
ternal state of the Lutheran church during this century. 
XXXIX. We cannot make the same observation with 
regard to certain controversies, which were of a personal 
rather than a real nature, and related to the orthodoxy or 
unsoundness of certain men, rather than to the truth or 
falsehood of particular opinions ; for these are more parti- 
cularly connected with the internal state and history of the 
church, than the contests last mentioned. It is not unusual 
for those who professedly embark in the cause of declining 

* For a general account of these controversies, see Arnold's Kirchen 
Hist. p. ii. lib. xvii. cap. vi. p. 957. That which was occasioned by 

No. LI. 150 



piety, and aim, in a solemn, zealous, and public manner, 
at its revival and restoration, to be elated with high and 
towering views, and warmed with a certain enthusiastic, 
though noble fervour. This ardent elevation of mind is 
by no means a source of accuracy and precision ; on the 
contrary, it produces many unguarded expressions, and 
prevents men of warm piety from framing their language 
by those rules which are necessary to render it clear, accu- 
rate, and proper ; it frequently dictates expressions and 
phrases that are : omi ous and emphatic, but. at the same 
time, allegorical and ai biguous : and leads pious and 
even sensible men to adopt uncouth and vulgar- forms of 
speech, employed by writers whose style is as low and bar- 
barous as their intentions are upright and pious, and whose 
practical treatises on religion and morality have nothing 
to recommend them but the zeal and fervour with which 
they are penned. Persons of this warm and enthusiastic 
turn fall with more facility than any other set of men into 
the suspicion of heresy, on account of the inaccuracy of 
their expressions. This many doctors found to be true, 
by a disagreeable experience, during the course of this cen- 
tury ; but it was, in a more particular manner, the fate of 
Stephen Praetorius, minister of Saltzwedel, and of John 
Arndt, whose piety and virtue have rendered his memory 
precious to the friends of true religion. Praetorius had, so 
early as the preceding century, composed certain treatises, 
designed to revive a spirit of vital religion, and awaken in 
the minds of men a zeal for their future and eternal inter- 
ests. These productions, which were frequently repub- 
lished during this century, were highly applauded by many, 
while, in the judgment of others, they abounded with ex- 
pressions and sentiments, that were partly false, and partly 
adapted by their ambiguity to lead men into error. It can- 
not be denied, that there are in the writings of- Praetorius 
some improper and unguarded expressions, which may too 
easily deceive the ignorant and unwary, as also several 
marks of a credulity that borders upon weakness ; but 
those who peruse his works with impartiality will be fully 
persuaded of the uprightness of his intentions. 

The unfeigned piety and integrity of Arndt could not 
secure him from censure. His famous book concerning 
true Christianity, which is still perused with the utmost 
pleasure and edification by many persons eminent for the 
sanctity of their lives and manners, met with a warm and 
obstinate opposition. Osiander, Rostius. and other doctors, 
inveighed against it with great asperity, pretended to find 
in it various defects, and alleged, among other things, that 
its style was infected with the jargon of the Paracelsists, 
Weigelians, and other Mystico-chemical philosophers. It 
must, indeed, be acknowledged, that this eminent man 
was highly disgusted at the philosophy that, in his time, 
reigned in the schools ; nor can it be denied, that he had 
a high, perhaps an excessive degree of respect for the 
chemists, and an ill-placed confidence in their obscure de- 
cisions and pompous undertakings. This led him some- 
times into conversation with those fantastic philosophers, 
who, by the power and ministry of fire, pretended to unfold 
both the secrets of nature and the mysteries of religion. 
But, notwithstanding this, he was declared exempt from 
any errors of moment by a multitude of grave and pious 
divines, among whom were Egard, Dilger, Breler, Gerard, 

Reinboth is amply and circumstantially related by Moller, in part ii. of 
his In trod, ad Hist. ChersonesiCimbrica:, and in hisCimbria Litciaia, t. ii. 



59S 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



Sect. 11. 



and Dorschceus ; and in the issue the censures and oppo- 
sition of his adversaries seemed rather to give a new 
lustre to his reputation than to cover him with reproach. 1 

We may place, in the class now under consideration, 
Valentine Weigel, a minister of the church of Zscopavia in 
Misnia ; for, though he died in the preceding century, yet 
it was in this that the greatest part of his writings were 
published, and also censured as erroneous and of a dan- 
gerous tendency. The science of chemistry, which at this 
time was making such a rapid progress in Germany, 
proved also detrimental to this ecclesiastic ; who, though 
in the main a man of probity and merit, neglected the 
paths of right reason, and chose rather to wander in the 
devious wilds of a chimerical philosophy. b 

XL. There were a set of fanatics among the Luther- 
ans, who in the flights of their enthusiasm far surpassed 
those now mentioned, and who had such a high notion 
of their own abilities as to attempt melting down the pre- 
sent form of religion, and casting a new system of piety 
after a model drawn from their wanton and irregular fan- 
cies : it is with some account of the principal of these 
spiritual projectors that we shall conclude the history of 
the Lutheran church during this century. 

At the head of this visionary tribe we may place Jacob 
Behmen, a taylor at Gorlitz, who was remarkable for the 
multitude of his patrons and adversaries, and whom his 
admirers commonly called the German Theosophist. 
This man had a natural propensity toward the investiga- 
tion of mysteries, and was fond of abstruse and intricate 
inquiries of every kind ; and having, partly by books, and 
partly by conversation with certain physicians, acquired 
some knowledge of the doctrine of Robert Fludd'and 
the Rosecrusians, which was propagated in Germany with 
great ostentation during this century, he struck out of the 
element of fire, by the succours of imagination, a species 
of theology much more obscure than the numbers of 
Pythagoras, or the intricacies of Heraclitus. Some have 
bestowed high praises on this enthusiast, on account of 
his piety, integrity, and sincere love of truth and virtue ; 
and we shall not presume to contradict these encomiums. 
But such as carry their admiration of his doctrine so far 
as to honour him with the character of an inspired mes- 
senger of Heaven, or even of a judicious and wise phi- 
losopher, must be themselves deceived and blinded in a 
very high degree ; for never did there reign such obscu- 
rity and confusion in the writings of any mortal, as in the 
miserable productions of Jacob Behmen, which exhibit a 
motley mixture of chemical terms, crude visions, and mys- 
tic jargon. Among other dreams of a disturbed and eccen- 
tric fancy, he entertained the following chimerical notion : 
" That the divine grace operates by the same rules, and 
follows the same methods, which the divine providence 



■ See Amoldi Hist. Eccles. p. ii. lib. xvii. cap. vi. p. 940.— "Weis- 
manni Histor. Eccles. sac. XVIt. p. 1174, ] 189.— Godof. Balth, Scharfii. 
Supplementum Histories Litisque Arndtianae. • 

i> There is an account of Weigel, more ample than impartial, given 
by Arnold, lib. xvii. cap. xvii. p. 1088. 

" Tobias Kober and Balthaser Walther. 

J It is needless to mention the writers who employed their pens in 
stemming the torrent of Behmen's enthusiasm. The works of this 
r anatic are in every body's hands, and the books that were composed to 
refute them are well known, and to be found every where. All that has 
been alleged, in his favour and defence, has been carefully collected by 
Arnold, who is, generally speaking, peculiarly eloquent in the praises 
of those whom others treat with contempt. For an account of Kuhlman 
and his unhappy fate see the German work, entitled, Unschuld. Nach- 
richten, An. 1748. 



observes in the natural world, and that the minds of men 
are purged from their vices and corruptions in the same 
way that metals are purified from their dross ;" and this 
maxim was the principle of his fire-theology. Behmen 
had a considerable number of followers in this century, 
the most eminent of whom were John Louis Giftheil, John 
Angelus Werdenhagen, Abraham Frankenberg, Theodore 
Tzetsch, Paul Felgenhauer, Q,uirinus Kuhlman, John Ja 
cob Zimmermann ; and he has still many votaries and ad- 
mirers even in our times. Some of his followers retained, 
notwithstanding their attachment to his extravagant sys- 
tem, a certain degree of moderation and good sense, while 
others seemed entirely out of their wits, and by their 
phrensy excited the compassion of those who were the 
spectators of their conduct ; such were Kuhlman and 
Gichtel, of whom the former was burned at Moscow in 
1684; but, indeed, it may be affirmed in general, that 
none of his disciples propagated his doctrine, or con- 
ducted themselves, in such a manner as to do honour 
either to their master or to his cause in the judgment of 
the wise. d 

XLI. Another class of persons, who deserve to be placed 
immediately after Behmen, were they, whom a disordered 
brain persuaded that they were prophets sent from above, 
and that they were divinely inspired with the power of 
prediction. A considerable number of these delirious fana- 
tics arose in this century, more especially at that juncture 
when the house of Austria was employed in maintaining 
its power in the empire, against the united armies of Swe- 
den, France, and Germany. It is remarkable, that pre- 
tended prophets and diviners are never more numerous 
than at those critical and striking periods when great revo- 
lutions are expected, or sudden and heavy calamities have 
happened, as such periods, and the scenes they exhibit, 
inflame the imagination of the fanatic, and may be turned 
to the profit of the impostor. The most eminent of the 
fanatical prophets now under consideration, were Nicholas 
Drabicius, Christopher Kotter, Christina Poniatovia (all of 
whom found an eloquent defender and patron in John 
Amos Comenius,) Joachim Greulich, Anne Vetter, Mary 
Frolich, and George Reichard ; beside several others, who 
audaciously assumed the same character. It is not neces- 
sary to enter into a circumstantial detail of the history of 
this visionary tribe, since none of them arose to such a 
degree of reputation and consequence, as to occasion any 
considerable tumults by their pretended predictions. It is 
sufficient to have observed in general, that, even in this 
century, there were among the Lutherans some crazy 
fanatics, who, under the impulse of a disordered imagina- 
tion, assumed the character and authority of prophets sent 
from above to enlighten the world. 5 

XLII. It will not, however, be improper to mention, 

f^T Behmen, however, had the good fortune to meet with, in our 
days, a warm advocate and an industrious disciple, in the late well- 
meaning but gloomy and visionary Mr. William Law, who employed 
himself, for many years, in preparing a new edition and translation of 
Behmen's works, which, after his death,- a friend gave to the world. 

c Arnold is to be commended for giving us an accurate collection of 
the transactions and visions of these enthusiasts, in the third and fourth 
parts of his History of Heretics, since those who are desirous of full 
information in this matter may easily see, by consulting this historian, 
that the pretended revelations of these prophets were no more than the 
phantoms of a disordered imagination. A pious but ignorant man, 
named Benedict Bahnsen, who was a native of Holstein, and lived al 
Amsterdam about the middle of the seventeenth century, was so delight- 
ed with the effusions and writings cf these fanatics, that he collected 
them carefully, and published them. In 1670, a catalogue of his library 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 



599 



somewhat more circumstantially, the case of those, who, 
though they did not arrive at that enormous height of 
folly which leads men to pretend to divine inspiration, yet 
deceived themselves and deluded others, by entertaining 
and propagating the strangest fancies, and the most mon- 
strous and impious absurdities. Some time after the 
commencement of this century, Isaiah Stiefel and Ezekiel 
Meth, natives of Thuringia, were observed to throw out the 
most extraordinary and shocking expressions, while they 
spoke of themselves and their religious attainments. These 
expressions, in the judgment of many, amounted to no- 
thing less, than attributing to themselves the divine glory 
and majesty, and thus implied a blasphemous, or rather 
a phrenetic, insult on the Supreme Being and his eternal 
Son. It is nevertheless scarcely credible, however irra- 
tional we may suppose them to have been, that these 
fanatics should have carried their perverse and absurd 
fancies to such an amazing height ; and it would perhaps 
be more agreeable both to truth and charity to suppose, 
that they only imitated the pompous and turgid language 
of the mystic writers in such an extravagant manner, as 
to give occasion to the heavy accusation above stated. 
Considering the matter even in this candid and charitable 
light, we may see by their examples what an effect the 
constant perusal of the writings of the Mystics may have 
in shedding darkness, delusion, and folly, into the imagi- 
nations of weak and ignorant men. 1 The reveries of Paul 
Nagel, professor of divinity at Leipsic, were highly absurd, 
but of a less pernicious tendency than those already men- 
tioned. This prophetic dreamer, who had received a 
superficial tincture of mathematical knowledge, pretended 
to see, in the position of the stars, the events that were to 
happen in church and state ; and, from a view of these 
celestial bodies, affected to foretell, in a more particular 
manner, the erection of a new and most holy kingdom 
in which Christ should reign here upon earth. b 

XLIII. Christian Hoburg, a native of Lunenburg, a 
man of a turbulent and inconstant spirit, and not more 
remarkable for his violence, than for his duplicity, threw 
out the most bitter reproaches and invectives against the 
whole Lutheran church without exception, and thereby 
involved himself in various perplexities. He long deceived 
the multitude by his dissimulation and hypocrisy ; and, 
by a series of frauds, which he undoubtedly looked upon 
as lawful, he so far disguised his true character that he 
appeared to many, and especially to persons of a candid 
and charitable turn, much less contemptible than he was 
in reality ; and though the acrimony and violence of his 
proceedings were condemned, yet they were supposed to 
be directed, not against religion itself, but against the 
licentiousness and vices of its professors, and particularly 
of its ministers. At length, however, the mask fell from 
the face of this hypocrite, who became an object of general 
indignation and contempt, and, deserting the communion 
of the Lutheran church, went over to the Mennonites. d 
There was a striking resemblance between this petulant 



was printed at Amsterdam, which was full of chemical, fanatical, and 
prctendedly-prophetic books. 

' See Arnold's Historia Eccles. p. iii. cap. iv. p. 32. — Thomasius' 
German work, entitled, Histoire der Weisheit und Narrheit, vol. i. 

b Arnold, p. iii. cap. v. p. 53.— Andr. Caroli Memorabilia Ecclesia, 
«aec. XVII. in parte i. lib', iii. Gap. iv. p. 513. 

* Hoburg, in some of his petulant and satirical writings, assumed the 
names of Elias Praetorius and Bernard Baumann. 

* Arnold, p. iii. cap. xiii. p. 130.— Andr. Caroli Mem. Eccles. vol. i. p. 



railer and Freder'c Breckling ; the latter, however, sur- 
passed even the former in impetuosity and malignity. 
Breckling had been pastor, first in the duchy of Holstein, 
and afterwards at Zwoll, a city in the United Provinces, 
where he was desposed from his ministry, and lived many 
years afterward without being attached to any religious 
sect or community. There are several of his writings 
extant, which, indeed, recommend warmly the practice of 
piety and virtue, and seem to express the most implacable., 
abhorrence of vicious persons and licentious manners ; 
and yet, at the same time, they demonstrate plainly that 
their author was destitute of that charity, prudence, meek- 
ness, patience, and love of truth, which are essential and 
fundamental virtues of a real Christian.' It is undoubt- 
edly a just matter of surprise, that these vehement de- 
claimers against the established religion and its ministers, 
who pretend to be so much more sagacious and sharp- 
sighted than their brethren, do not perceive a truth, 
which the most simple may learn from daily observation ; 
even that nothing is more odious and disgusting than an 
angry, petulant, and violent reformer, who comes to heal 
the disorders of a community, armed as it were with fire 
and sword, with menaces and terrors. We may also 
wonder, that these men are not aware of another con- 
sideration equally obvious, namely, that, it is scarcely 
credible, that a spiritual physician will cure another with 
entire success of the disorders under which he himself i3 
known to labour. 

George Laurence Seidenbecher, pastor at Eisfeld in 
Saxony, adopted himself, and propagated among the 
multitude, the doctrine of the Millennium, which scarcely 
ever gains admittance but in disordered brains, and rarely 
produces any other fruits than incoherent dreams and 
idle visions. Seidenbecher was censured on account of 
this doctrine, and deposed from his pastoral charge. b 

XLIV. It would be superfluous to name the other fana- 
tics that seem to demand a place in the class now before 
us, since they almost all laboured under the same disorder, 
and such uniformity prevailed in their sentiments and 
conduct, that the history of one may in a great measure 
be considered as the history of all. We shall therefore con- 
clude this crazy list with a short account of the very worst 
of the whole tribe, namely, Martin Seidel, a native of 
Silesia, who endeavoured to form a sect in Poland toward 
the conclusion of the preceding century and the com- 
mencement of this, but could not find followers, even 
among the Socinians ; so wild were his views, and so 
extravagant his notions. This audacious adventurer in 
religious novelty was of opinion, that God had, indeed, 
promised a Saviour or Messiah to the Jews ; but that 
this Messiah had never appeared, and never would ap- 
pear, on account of the sins of the Jewish people, which 
rendered them unworthy of this great deliverer. Hence 
he concluded, that it was erroneous to look upon Christ 
as the Messiah ; that the only office of Jesus was, to in- 
terpret and republish the law of nature, which had been 

1065. Jo. Hornbeck's Summa Controvers. p. 535. — Moller's Cimbria 
Literata, torn. ii. p. 337. 

• Arnold has given an account of Breckling, in the third and fourth 
parts of his History ; he has also published some of his writings, 
which sufficiently demonstrate die irregularity and exuberance of his 
fancy. There is a particular account of this degraded pastor given in 
the Cimbria Literaia, torn. iii. p. 72. 

' There is a circumstantial account of this man given by Alb. Me no. 
Verpoorten, in his Commentat. de Vita et Insiituus G. L. Seidenbecheri. 



GOO 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



perverted and obscured by the vices, corruptions, and igno- 
rance of men ; and that the whole duty of men, and all 
the obligations of religion, were fulfilled by an obedience 
to this law, republished and explained by Jesus Christ. 
To render this doctrine more defensible and specious, or, 
at least, to get rid of a multitude of arguments and ex- 
press declarations that might be drawn from the Scrip- 
tures to prove its absurdity, he boldly rejected all the 
books of the New Testament. The small number of 
disciples, that adopted the fancies of this intrepid inno- 
vator, were denominated semi-judaizcrs.* Had he 
appeared in our times, he would have given less offence 
than at the period in which he lived ; for, if we except 
his singular notion concerning the Messiah, his doctrine 
was such as would at present be highly agreeable to 
many persons in Great-Britain, Holland, and other coun- 
tries. 1 ' 

CHAPTER II. 

The History of the Reformed Church. 

I. It has been already observed, that the Reformed 
Church, considered in the most comprehensive sense of 
that term, as forming a whole, composed of a great variety 
of parts, is rather united by the principles of moderation 
and fraternal charity, than by a perfect uniformity in 
doctrine, discipline, and worship. It will, therefore, be 
proper first to take a view of those events which related to 
this great body collectively considered, and afterwards to 
enter into a detail of the most, memorable occurrences that 
happened in the particular communities of which it is 
composed. The principal accessions it received during 
this century have already been mentioned, when, in the 
history of the Lutheran church, we related the changes 
and commotions that happened in the principalities of 
Hesse-Cassel and Brandenburg. These, however, were 
not the only changes that took place in favour of the re- 
formed church. Its doctrine was embraced, early in this 
century, by Adolphus, duke of Holstein ; and it was 
naturally expected, that the subjects Avould follow the 
example of their prince : but this expectation was dis- 
appointed by the death of Adolphus, in 1616. cl Henry, 
duke of Saxony, withdrew also from the communion of 
the Lutherans, in whose religious principles he had been 
educated, and, in 1688, embraced the doctrine of the re- 
formed church at Dessau, in consequence, as some allege, 
of the solicitations of his duchess. e In Denmark, about 
the beginning of this century, there were still a consider- 
able number of persons who secretly espoused the senti- 
ments of that church, and more especially could never 
reconcile themselves to the Lutheran doctrine of Christ's 
bodily presence with the sacrament of the eucharist. 

a See Gustavi Georgii Zeltneri Historia Crypto-Socinismi Altorffini, 
vol. i. p. 268, 335. 

jfJr * We are much at a loss to know what Dr. Mosheim means by 
this insinuation, as also the persons he has in view, for, on one hand, it 
is sufiiciently evident he cannot mean the deists ; and, on the other, we 
know of no denomination of Christians, who "boldly reject all the books 
of the New Testament." Our author probably meant that the part of 
Seidel's doctrine which represents Christ's mission as only designed to 
republish and interpret the law of nature, and the whole religious and 
moral duty of man, as consisting in an obedience to this law, would 
have been well received by many persons in Great-Britain and Hol- 
land ; but he should have said so ; nothing requires such precision as 
accusations. 

c See sect. ii. part ii. chap. i. sect. i. ii. where the History of the 
Lutheran church commences with an account of the loss which that 
church sustained by the secession of Maurice, landgrave of Hesse-Cas- 



They were confirmed in their attachment to the tenets 
of the reformed by Hemming, and the other followers of 
Melanchthon, whose secret ministry and public writings 
were attended with considerable success. The face of 
things, however, changed ; and the reformed in Den- 
mark saw their expectations vanish, and their credit sink, 
in 1614, when Canute, bishop of Gothenburg, who had 
given too plain intimations of his propensity to the doc- 
trines of Calvin, was deprived of his episcopal dignity. f 
The progress of the reformed religion in Africa', Asia, 
and America, is abundantly known ; it was carried into 
those distant regions by the English and Dutch emi- 
grants, who formed settlements there for the purposes of 
commerce, and founded flourishing churches in the vari- 
ous provinces where they fixed their habitations. It is 
also known, that, in several places where Lutheranism 
was established, the French, German, and British mem- 
bers of the reformed church were allowed to enjoy the 
free exercise of their religion. 

II. Of all the calamities that tended to diminish the 
influence, and eclipse the lustre, of the reformed church, 
none proved more dismal in its circumstances, and more 
unhappy in its effects, than the deplorable fate of that 
church in France. From the time of the accession of 
Henry IV. to the throne of that kingdom, this church 
had acquired the form of a body-politic.= Its members 
were endowed with considerable privileges ; they were 
also secured against insults of every kind by a solemn 
edict, and possessed several fortified places, particularly 
the strong city of Rochelle ; in which, to render their 
security still more complete, they were permitted to have 
their own garrisons. This body politic was not, indeed, 
always under the influence and direction of leaders emi- 
nent for their prudence, or distinguished by their perma- 
nent attachment to the interests of the crown, and the 
person of the sovereign. Truth and candour oblige us to 
acknowledge, that the Reformed conducted themselves, 
on some occasions, in a manner inconsistent with the 
demands of regular subordination. Sometimes, amidst 
the broils and tumults of faction, they joined the parties 
that opposed the government ; at others, they took im- 
portant steps without the king's approbation or consent ; 
they even went so far as to solicit, more than once, with- 
out so much as disguising their measures, the alliance 
and friendship of England and Holland, and formed views 
which, at least in appearance, were scarcely consistent 
with the tranquillity of the kingdom, or with a proper 
respect for the authority of its monarch. Hence contests 
arose in 1621, and subsisted long, between Louis XIII. 
and his protestant subjects ; and these civil broils fur- 
nished a pretence for the severe and despotic maxim of 



sel, and John Sigismund, elector of Brandenburg, who embraced 
solemnly the doctrine of the reformed church, the former in 1604, and 
the latter in 1614. 

d Jo. Molleri Introd. ad Histor. Chersonesi CimbricBe, p. ii. p. 101. — 
Erici Pontoppidani Annates Ecclesia Danicae Diplomatici, torn. iii. p. 
691. 

8 See Moebii Selects: Disp. Theolog. p. 1137. The duke of Saxrny 
published a Confession of his Faith, containing the reasons of his 
change. This piece, which the divines of Leipsic were obliged by a 
public order to refute, was defended against their attacks by the learned 
Isaac de Beausobre, at that time pastor at Magdeburg, in a book 
entitled, " Defense de la Doctrine des Reformes, et en particulier de la 
Confession de S. A. S. Mon-Seigneur le Due Henri de Saxe, contre tin 
Livre compose par la Faculte de Theologie a Leipsic." 

t Pontoppidani Annal. Eccles. Danica;, torn. iii. p. 695. 

s Imperium in imperio, i. e. an empire within un empire. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



601 



Richelieu, the first minister of that monarch, that the 
kingdom could never enjoy the sweets of peace, or the 
satisfaction that was founded upon the assurance of pub- 
lic safety, before the protestants were deprived of their 
towns and strong-holds, and before their rights and pri- 
vileges, together with their ecclesiastical polity, were 
crushed to pieces, and totally suppressed. This haughty 
minister, after many violent efforts and hard struggles, at 
length obtained his purpose ; for, in 1628, Rochelle, the 
chief bulwark of the reformed interest in France, was 
taken, after a long and difficult siege, and annexed to 
the crown. From this fatal event the party, defenceless 
and naked, dated its decline ; since, after the reduction 
of their chief city, these protestants had no other resource 
than the pure clemency and generosity of their sovereigns 
Those who judge of the reduction of this place by the 
maxims of civil policy, consider the conduct of the French 
court as entirely consistent with the principles both of 
wisdom and justice ; since nothing can be more detri- 
mental to the tranquillity and safety of any nation, than 
a body politic erected in its bosom, independent of the 
supreme authority of the state, and secured against its 
influence or inspection by an external force ; and if the 
French monarch, satisfied with depriving the Protestants 
of their strong-holds, had continued to maintain them in 
the possession of that liberty of conscience, and that free 
exercise of their religion, for which they had shed so much 
blood, and to the enjoyment of which their eminent ser- 
vices to the house of Bourbon had given them such a 
fair and illustrious claim, it is highly probable that they 
would have borne with patience this infraction of their 
privileges, and the loss of that liberty which had been 
confirmed to them by the most solemn edicts. 

III. But the court and the despotic minister were not 
satisfied with this success. Having destroyed that form 
of civil polity which had been annexed to the reformed 
church as a security for the maintenance of its religious 
privileges, and was afterwards considered as detrimental 
to the supreme authority of the state, they proceeded still 
farther, and regardless of the royal faith, confirmed by 
the most solemn declarations, perfidiously invaded those 
privileges of the church which were merely of a spiritual 
and religious nature. At first, the court, and the minis- 
ters of its tyranny, put in practice all the arts of insinua- 
tion and persuasion, in order to gain over the heads of 
the reformed church, and tire more learned and celebrated 
ministers of that communion. Pathetic exhortations and 
alluring promises were tried ; artful interpretations of those 
doctrines of popery which were most disagreeable to the 
Protestants were brought forward ; in a word, every in- 
sidious method was employed to conquer their aversion 
to the church of Rome. Richelieu exhausted all the 
resources of his dexterity and artifice, and eagerly prac- 

" See Le Clerc, Viedu Cardinal Richelieu, torn. i. p. 69, 77, 177, 199, 
269. — Le Vassor, Histoirede Louis XIII. torn. iii. p. 676, torn. iv. p. 1, 
nnd the following volumes. See also die third, fourth, and fifth volumes 
of the Memoirs of Sully (the friend and confidant of Heniy IV.) who, 
though a protestant, acknowledges frankly the errors of his party. 

b Seethe Life of Isaac de Beausobre, written by the ingenious Ar- 
mand de la Chapelle, and subjoined to Beausobre's Remarques Histo- 
riques, Critiques, et Philologiques sur le Nouveau Testament. 

gjr* Some late hireling writers, employed by the Jesuits, have been 
audacious enough to plead the cause of the revocation of tire edict of 
Nantes. But it must be observed, to the honour of the French nation, 
that these impotent attempts, to justify the measures of a persecuting 
and unrelenting priesthood, have been treated almost universally at 

No. LI. 151 



tised, with the most industrious assiduity, all the means 
that he thought the most adapted to seduce the protestants 
into the Romish communion. When all these stratagems 
were observed to produce little or no effect, barbarity and 
violence were employed to extirpate and destroy a set of 
men, whom mean perfidy could not seduce, and whom 
weak arguments were insufficient to convince. The 
most inhuman laws that the blind rage of bigotry could 
dictate, the most oppressive measures that the ingenious 
efforts of malice could invent, were put in execution to 
damp the courage of a party become odious by their reso- 
lute adherence to the dictates of their consciences, and to 
bring them by force under the yoke of Rome. The 
French bishops distinguished themselves by their intem- 
perate and unchristian zeal in this horrid scene of perse- 
cution and cruelty : many of the protestants sunk under 
the weight of despotic oppression, and yielded up their 
faith to armed legions, that were sent to convert them ; 
a considerable number fled from the storm, and deserted 
their families, their friends, and their country ; and the 
greatest part persevered, with a noble and heroic con- 
stancy, in the purity of that religion, which their ances- 
tors had delivered, and happily separated, from the mani- 
fold superstitions of a corrupt and idolatrous church. 

IV. When at length every method which artifice or 
perfidy could invent had been practised in vain against 
the protestants under the reign of Louis XIV., the bishops 
and Jesuits, whose counsels had a peculiar influence in 
the cabinet of that prince, judged it necessary to extirpate 
by fire and sword, this resolute people, and thus to ruin. a. 
it were by one mortal blow, the cause of the Reformation 
in France. Their insidious arguments and importunate 
solicitations had such an effect upon the weak and cre- 
dulous mind of Louis, that, in 1685, trampling on the 
most solemn obligations, and regardless of all laws, hu- 
man and divine, he revoked the edict of Nantes, and 
thereby deprived the protestants of the liberty of serving 
God according to their consciences. This revocation was 
accompanied with the applause of Rome ; but it excited 
the indignation even of many Roman Catholics, whose 
bigotry had not effaced or suspended, on this occasion, 
their natural sentiments of generosity and justice. It 
was, moreover, followed by a measure still more tyran- 
nical and shocking, even an express order, addressed to 
all the reformed churches, to embrace the Romish faith. 
The consequences of this cruel and unrighteous proceed- 
ing were highly detrimental to the true interests and the 
real prosperity of the French nation, b by the prodigious 
emigrations it occasioned among the Protestants, who 
sought, in various parts of Europe, that religious liberty, 
and that humane treatment, which their mother-country 
had so cruelly refused them. Those among them, whom 
the vigilance of their enemies guarded so plosely as to 

Paris with indignation and contempt. They who are desirous of seeing 
a true statement of the losses the French nation sustained, by the revo- 
cation of that famous edict, have only to consult the curious nnd authentic 
account of the state of that nation, taken from memorials drawn up by 
the intendants of the several provinces, for the use of the duke of Bur- 
gundy, and published in 1727 with the following title : " Etat de la 
France, extrait, par M. le Comte de Boulainvilliers, des Memoirfes 
dresses par les Intendans du Royaume, par TOrdre du Roi Louis XIV. 
a la Solicitation du Due de Bourgogne.." See also Voltaire, Sur la 
Tolerance, p. 41 and 201 ; and, for an account of the conduct of the 
French court toward the protestants at that dismal period, see tire incom- 
parable memorial of the learned and pious Claude, entitled, Plabites de« 
Protestans de France. 



602 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



prevent their flight, were exposed to the brutal rage of an 
unrelenting soldiery, and were assailed by every barba- 
rous form of persecution that might tend to subdue their 
courage, exhaust their patience, and thus engage them 
to a feigned and external profession of popery, which in 
their consciences they beheld with the utmost aversion 
and disgust. This crying act of perfidy and injustice in 
a prince, who, on other occasions, gave evident proofs of 
his generosity and equity, sufficient to show, in their true 
and 'genuine colours, the spirit of the Romish church and 
pontiffs, and the manner in which they stand affected to 
those whom they consider as heretics. It is peculiarly 
adapted to convince the impartial and attentive observer, 
that the most solemn oaths, and the most sacred treaties, 
are never looked upon by this church and its pontiffs as 
respectable and obligatory, when the violation of them 
may contribute to advance their interest, or to accomplish 
their views. 

T. The Waldenses, who lived in the vallies of Pied- 
mont, and had embraced the doctrine, discipline, and wor- 
ship of the church of Geneva, were oppressed and per- 
secuted, in the most inhuman manner, during the greatest 
part of this century, by the ministers of Rome. This 
persecution was carried on with peculiar marks of rage 
and enormity in the years 1655, 1686, and 1696, and 
seemed to portend nothing less than the total extinction 
of that unhappy nation. a The most horrid scenes of 
violence and bloodshed were exhibited on this theatre of 
papal tyranny ; and the small numbers of the Waldenses 
that yet survive, are indebted for their existence and sup- 
port, precarious and uncertain as it is, to the continual 
intercession made for them by the English and Dutch 
governments, and also by the Swiss cantons, who never 
cease to solicit the clemency of the duke of Savoy in 
their behalf. 

The church of the Palatinate, which had been long 
at the head of the Reformed churches in Germany, declin- 
ed apace from the year 1685, when a catholic prince was 
raised to that electorate. This decline became at length 
so visible, that, instead of being the first, it was the least 
considerable of all the Protestant assemblies in that 
country. 

VI. The eminent and illustrious figure that the prin- 
cipal members of the reformed church made in the learn- 
ed world is too well known, and the reputation they ac- 
quired, by a successful application to the various branches 
of literature and science, is too well established, to require 
our entering into a circumstantial detail upon that head. 
We shall also pass in silence the names of those cele- 
brated men who have acquired immortal fame by their 
writings, and transmitted their eminent usefulness to suc- 
ceeding times in their learned and pious productions. 

a Leger, Histoire Generate des Eglises Vaudoises, p. ii. c. vi. p. 72. — 
Gilles, Histoire Ecclesiast. des Eglises Vaudoises, ch. xlix. p. 353. — A 
particular history of the persecution suffered by these victims of papal 
cruelty in 1686, appeared at Rotterdam in 1688. 

f^T See also a pamphlet, entitled, An Account of the late Persecu- 
tions of the Waldenses by the duke of Savoy and the French king in 
1686; and likewise a detail of the miseries endured by these unfortu- 
nate objects of papal persecution in the years 1655, 1662, 1663, and 
1686, related by Peter Boyer, in his history of the Vaudois. 

fj" i> The list of the eminent divines and men of learning who were 
ornaments to the Reformed church in the Seventeenth century, is indeed 
extremely ample. Among those who adorned Great Britain, we shall 
always remember, with peculiar veneration, the immortal names of 
Newton, Barrow, Cudworth, Boyle, Chillingworth, Usher, Bedell, Hall, 
Pocock, Fell, Lightfoot, Hammond, Calamy, Walton, Baxter, Pearson, 



Out of the copious list of famous authors tkc.t adorned 
this church, it would be difficult to select the most emi- 
nent ; and this is a sufficient reason for our silence. b The 
supreme guide and legislator of such as applied themselves 
to the study of philosophy had been Aristotle, who, for a 
long time, reigned unrivalled in the reformed, as well as 
in the Lutheran schools, and was exhibited, in both, not 
in his natural and genuine aspect, but in the motley and 
uncouth form in which he had been dressed up by the 
scholastic doctors. But, when Gassendi and Des-Cartes 
appeared, the Stagirite began to decline, and his fame and 
authority diminished gradually. Among the French and 
Dutch, many adopted the Cartesian philosophy on its 
first promulgation ; and a considerable number of the 
English embraced the principles of Gassendi, and were 
singularly pleased with his prudent and candid manner 
of investigating truth. The Aristotelians every where, 
and more especially in Holland, were greatly alarmed at 
this revolution in the philosophical world, and set them- 
selves, with all their vigour, to oppose its progress. They 
endeavoured to persuade the people, that the cause of truth 
and religion must suffer considerably by the efforts that 
were made to dethrone Aristotle, and bring into disrepute 
the doctrine of his interpreters ; but the principal cause 
of their anxiety and zeal, was the apprehension of losing 
their places in the public schools ; a thought which they 
could not bear with any degree of patience. However, 
the powerful lustre of truth, which unfolded daily more 
and more its engaging charms, and the love of liberty, 
which had been kept in chains by Peripatetic tyranny, 
obliged this obstinate sect to yield, and reduced them to 
silence ; and hence it is, that the doctors of the reformed 
church carry on, at this day, their philosophical inquiries 
w T ith the same freedom that is observable among the Luthe- 
rans. It may, indeed, be a question with some, whether 
Aristotle be not, even yet, secretly revered in some of the 
English universities. It is at least certain, that, although, 
under the government of Charles II. and in the two suc- 
ceeding reigns, the mathematical philosophy had made 
a most extensive progress in Great-Britain, there were, 
both at Oxford and Cambridge, some doctors who pre- 
ferred the ancient system of the schools to the new dis- 
coveries now under consideration. 

YII. All the interpreters and expositors of Scripture 
that made a figure in the reformed church about the com- 
mencement of this century, followed scrupulously the 
method of Calvin in their illustrations of the sacred writ- 
ings, and unfolded the true and natural signification of 
the words of Scripture, without perplexing their brains 
to find out deep mysteries in plain expressions, or to force, 
by the inventive efforts of fancy, a variety of singular 
notions from the metaphorical language that is frequently 

Stillingfleet, Mede, Parker, Oughtred, Burnet, Tillotson, and many 
others well known in the literary world. In Germany we find Pareus, 
Scultet, Fabricius, the two Altings, Pelargus, and Bergius ; in Switzer- 
land and Geneva, Hospinian, the two Buxtorfs, Hottinger, Heidegger, 
and Turretin. In the churches and universities of Holland, we meet 
with the following learned divines: Drusus, Amama, Gomar, Rivet, 
Cloppenburg, Vossius, Cocceius, Voet, Des-Marets, Heidan, Momma, 
Burman, Wittichius, Hornbeck, the Spanheims, Le Moine, De Mae- 
stricht, and others. Among the French doctors, we may reckon Came- 
ron, Chamier, Du-Moulin, Mestrezat, Blondel, Drelincourt, Daille, 
Amyrault, the two Capels, De la Place, Gamstole, Croy, Morus, Le 
Blanc, Pajon, Bochart, Claude, Allix, Jurieu, Basnage, Abbadie, 
Beausobre," L'Enfant, Martin, Des-Vignoles, &c. 
' See Baillet's Vie de Rene Des-Cartes. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



603 



used by the inspired writers. This attachment to the 
method of Calvin, wa? indeed considerably diminished, 
in the sequel, by the credit and influence of two celebrat- 
ed commentators, who struck out new paths in the sphere 
of sacred criticism. These were Hugo Grotius, and John 
Cocceius. The former departed less from the manner of 
interpretation generally received than the latter. Like 
Calvin, he followed in his commentaries, both in the Old 
and New Testament, the literal and obvious signification 
of the words employed by the sacred writers ; but he dif- 
fered considerably from that great man in his manner of 
explaining the predictions of the prophets. The hypo- 
thesis of Grotius, upon that important subject, amounts 
to this : " That the predictions of the ancient prophets 
were all accomplished in the events to which they directly 
pointed before the coming of Christ ; and that therefore 
the natural and obvious sense and import of the words 
and phrases, in which they were delivered, do not termi- 
nate in our blessed Lord ; but that in some of these pre- 
dictions, and more especially in those which the writers 
of the New Testament apply to Christ, there is, beside 
the literal and obvious signification, a hidden and myste- 
rious sense, that lies concealed under the external mask 
of certain persons, events, and actions, which are repre- 
sentative of the person, ministry, sufferings, and merits 
of the Son of God." 

The method of Cocceius was entirely different from 
this. He looked upon the whole history of the Old Tes- 
tament as a perpetual and uninterrupted representation 
Dr mirror of the history of the divine Saviour, and of the 
Christian church : he maintained, moreover, that all the 
prophecies have a literal and direct relation to Christ ; 
and he finished his romantic system by laying it down 
as a certain maxim, that all the events and revolutions 
which shall happen in the church, until the end of time, 
are prefigured and pointed out, though not all with the 
same degree of evidence and perspicuity, in different 
places of the Old Testament. 5 Each of these eminent 
commentators had his zealous disciples and followers. 
The Arminians in general, many of the English and 
French divines, together with those warm votaries of 
ancient Calvinism who are called Yoetians (from their 
chief Gisbert Voet, the Great adversary of Cocceius.) 
adopted the method of interpreting Scripture introduced 

* It is become almost a proverbial saying, that in the Books of the 
Old Testament Cocceius finds Christ every where, while Grotius meets 
nim no where. The first part of this saying is certainly true; the 
.atter much less so: for it appears, with sufficient evidence, from the 
Commentaries of Grotius, that he finds Christ prefigured in many 
places of the Old Testament, not, indeed, directly in the letter of the pro- 
phecies, where Cocceius discovers him, but mysteriously, under the appear- 
ance of certain persons, and in thesecret sense of certain transactions. 

gjp >> These have been confuted by the learned Dr. Whitby, in his 
important work, concerning the Interpretation of Scripture after the 
Manner of the Fathers, which was published in 1714, under the follow- 
ing title: " Dissertatio de Scripturarum Interpretatione secundum Pa- 
trum Commentarius," &c. — In this dissertation, which was the forerun- 
ner of the many remarkable attempts that were afterwards made to 
deliver the right of private judgment in matters of religion, from the 
restraints of human authority, the judicious author has shown, first, that 
the Scripture is the only rule of faith, and that by it alone we are to 
judge of the doctrines that are necessary to salvation ; secondly, that 
the fathers, both of the primitive times and also of succeeding ages, are 
extremely deficient and unsuccessful in their explications of the sacred 
writings; and, thirdly, that it is impossible to terminate the debates 
concerning the Trinity, by the opinions of the fathers, the decisions of 
councils, or by any tradition which is really universal. The contradic- 
tions, absurdities, the romantic conceits and extravagant fancies, that 
are to be found in the commentaries of the fathers, were never repre- 
sented in such a ridiculous point of view as they are in this perform- 



by Grotius. On the other hand, many of the Dutch, 
Swiss, and Germans, were singularly delighted with the 
learned fancies of Cocceius. There are, however, still 
great numbers of prudent and impartial divines, who, con- 
sidering the extremes into which these two eminent cri- 
tics ran, and disposed to profit by what is really solid in 
both their systems, neither reject nor embrace their opi- 
nions in the aggregate, but agree with them both in some 
things, and differ from them both in others. It may also 
be observed, that neither the followers of Grotius nor 
those of Cocceius are agreed among themselves, and that 
these two general classes of expositors may be divided 
into many subordinate ones. A considerable number of 
English divines of the episcopal church refused to adopt 
the opinions, or to respect the authority, of these modern 
expositors ; they appealed to the decisions of the primi- 
tive fathers, and maintained, that the sacred -writings 
ought always to be understood in that sense only, which 
has been attributed to them by these ancient doctors of 
the rising church. b 

VIII. The doctrines of Christianity, which had been so 
sadly disfigured among the Lutherans by the obscure jar- 
gon and the intricate tenets of the scholastic philosophy, 
met with the same fate in the Reformed churches. The 
first successful effort, that prevented these churches from 
falling entirely under the Aristotelian yoke, was made by 
the Arminians, who were remarkable for expounding, with 
simplicity and perspicuity, the truths and precepts of reli 
gion, and who censured, with great plainness and severity, 
those ostentatious doctors, who affected to render them 
obscure and unintelligible, by expressing them in the 
terms, and reducing them under the classes and divisions, 
used in the schools. The Cartesians and Cocceians con- 
tributed also to deliver theology from the chains of the 
Peripatetics ; though it, must be allowed, that it had not, 
in some respects, a much better fate in the hands of these 
its deliverers. The Cartesians applied the principles and 
tenets of their philosophy, in illustrating the doctrines of 
the Gospel ; the Cocceians imagined, that they could not 
give a more sublime and engaging aspect to the Christian 
1 religion, than by representing it under the notion, of a 
i covenant concluded between God and man ; c and both 
' these modes of proceeding were disliked by the wisest and 

i most learned divines of the reformed church. Thev com- 

i 

\ ance. The worst part of the matter is, that such a production as Dr. 

I Whitby's, in which all the mistakes of these ancient expositors are 
culled out and compiled with such care, may tend to prejudice young 

! students even against what may be good in their writings, and thus 

1 give them a disgust to a kind of study, which, when conducted with 
impartiality and prudence, has its uses. It is the infirmity of our 

; nature to be fond of extremes. 

5^T c Jt is somewhat surprising, that Dr. Mosheim should mention 
this circumstance as an invention of Cocceius, or as a manner of speak- 
ing peculiar to him. The representation of the Gospel dispensation 
under the idea of a Covenant, whether this representation be literal or 

' metaphorical, is to be found, almost every where, in the Epistles of St. 
Paul, and of the other aposdes, though rarely, (scarcely more than 

I twice) in the Gospels. The same phraseology has also been adopted by 
Christians of almost ail denominations. It is, indeed, a manner of 

i speaking that has been grossly abused by those divines, who, urging 
the metaphor too closely, exhibit the sublime transactions of the divine 
wisdom under the narrow and imperfect forms of human tribunals, and 

i thus lead to false notions of the springs of action, as well as of the 

! dispensations and attributes of the Supreme Being. We have remarka- 
ble instances of this abuse, in a book lately translated into English; I 
mean the CEconomy of the Covenants, by Witsius, in which that learn- 

j ed and pious man, who has deservedly gained an eminent reputation by 

! other valuable productions, has inconsiderately introduced the captious, 
formal, and trivial terms, employed in human courts, into his descrip- 

; lions of the stupendous scheme of redemption. 



604 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



plained with reason, that the tenets and distinctions of the 
Cartesian philosophy had as evident a tendency to render the 
doctrines of Christianity obscure and intricate as the abstruse 
terms, and the endless divisions and subdivisions of the 
Peripatetics, They observed also, that the metaphor of a 
covenant, applied to the Christian religion, must be at- 
tended with many inconveniences, by leading uninstructed 
minds to form a variety of ill-grounded notions, which is 
the ordinary consequence of straining metaphors ; and that 
it must contribute to introduce into the colleges of divinity 
the captious terms, distinctions, and quibbles, that are em- 
ployed in the ordinary courts of justice, and thus give rise 
to the most trifling and ill-judged discussions and debates 
about religious matters. Accordingly, the greatest part, 
both of the British and French doctors, refused to admit 
the intricacies of Cartesianism or the imagery of Coc- 
ceius into their theological system, and followed the free, 
easy, and unaffected method of the Arminian divines 
in illustrating the truths^ and enforcing the duties of 
Christianity. 

IX. We have had occasion to observe, that Dr. William 
Ames, a Scottish divine, was one of the first among the Re- 
formed whoattempted to treat morality as a separate science, 
to consider it abstractedly from its connexion with any par- 
ticular system of doctrine, and to introduce new light, and 
a new degree of accuracy and precision, into this master- 
science of life and manners. The attempt was laudable, had 
it been well executed ; but the system of this learned writer 
was dry, theoretical, and subtle, and was thus much more 
adapted to the instruction of the studious than to the prac- 
tical direction of the Christian. The Arminians, who are 
known to be much more zealous in enforcing the duties 
of Christianity than in illustrating its truths, and who ge- 
nerally employ more pains in directing the will than in 
enlightening the understanding, engaged several authors 
of note to exhibit the precepts and obligations of morality 
in a more useful, practical, and popular manner ; but the 
English and French surpassed all the moral writers of the 
reformed church in penetration and solidity, and in the 
ease, freedom, and perspicuity, of their method and com- 
positions. Moses Amyrault, a man. of a sound under- 
standing and subtle genius, was the first French divine 
who distinguished himself in this kind of writing. He 
composed an accurate and elaborate system of morality, 
in a style, indeed, that is now obsolete ; and those more 
moderate French writers, such as La Placette and Pictet, 
who acquired such a high reputation on account of their 
moral writings, owe to the excellent work now mentioned 
a considerable part of their glory. While England groaned 
under the horrors and tumults of a civil war, it was chiefly 
the Presbyterians and Independents that employed their 
talents and their pens in promoting the cause of practical 
religion. During this unhappy period, indeed, these doctors 
were remarkable for the austere gravity of their manners, 
and for a melancholy complexion and turn of mind which 
appeared abundantly in their compositions. Some of these 
were penned with such rigour and severity, as discovered 
either a total ignorance of the present imperfect state of 
humanity, or an entire want of indulgence for its unavoid- 

fjr * See Leland's View of the Deistical Writers, vol. 1. p. 48. 

*> The lustre and authority of the college of Geneva began gradually 
to decline, from the time that, the United Provinces being formed into a 
free and independent republ ic, universities were founded at Leyden, 
Franeker, and Utrecht. 



able infirmities. Others were composed with a spirit of 
enthusiasm, that betrayed an evident propensity to the doc- 
trine of the Mystics. But, when Hobbes appeared, the 
scene changed. A new set of illustrious and excellent 
writers arose to defend the truths of religion, and the obli- 
gations of morality, against this author, who aimed at the 
destruction of both, since he subjected the unchangeable 
nature of religion to the arbitrary will of the sovereign, and 
endeavoured to efface the eternal distinction that exists 
between moral good and evil. Cudworth, Cumberland, 
Sharrock, and others, 1 alarmed at the view of a system so 
false in its principles, and so pernicious in its effects, ren- 
dered eminent service to the cause of religion and morals 
by their immortal labours, in which, rising to the first prin- 
ciples of things, and opening the primitive and eternal 
fountains of truth and good, they illustrated clearly the 
doctrines of the one with the fairest evidence, and estab- 
lished the obligations of the other on the firmest foun- 
dations. 

X. About the commencement of this century, the col 
lege of Geneva was in such high repute among the 
reformed churches, that it was resorted to from all quarters 
by persons who were desirous of a learned education, and 
more especially by those students of theology, whose 
circumstances in life permitted them to frequent this 
famous seminary. b Hence it very naturally happened, 
that the opinions of Calvin, concerning the decrees of 
God and divine grace, became daily more general, and 
were gradually introduced every where into the schools 
of learning. There was not, however, any public law or 
confession of faith that obliged the pastors of the reformed 
churches, in any part of the world, to conform their senti- 
ments to the theological doctrines that were adopted and 
taught at Geneva. c And accordingly there were many, 
who either rejected entirely the doctrine of that college on 
these intricate points, or received it with certain restric- 
tions and modifications. Even those who were in general 
attached to the theological system of Geneva, did not per- 
fectly agree about the manner of explaining the doctrines 
relating to the divine decrees. The majority were of 
opinion, that God had only permitted the first man to 
fall into transgression, without positively ■predetermining 
his fall. But others went much farther, and presumptu- 
ously forgetting their own ignorance on the one hand, 
and the wisdom and equity of the divine counsels on the 
other, maintained, that God, in order to exercise and dis- 
play his awful justice and his free mercy, had decreed 
from all eternity the transgression of Adam, and so ordered 
the course of events, that our first parents could not possi- 
bly avoid their unhappy fall. Those who held this latter 
sentiment were denominated Supralapsarians, to distin- 
guish them from the Sublapsarian doctors, who main- 
tained the doctrine of permission already mentioned. 

XL It is remarkable that the Supralapsarian and fcnib- 
lapsarian divines forgot their debates and differences, as 
matters of little consequence, and united their force against 
those who thought it their duty to represent the Deity, as 
extending his goodness and mercy to all mankind. This 
gave rise, soon after the commencement of this century, 



See, for a full demonstration of this assertion, Grotius' Apologeticus> 
&c. ; as also several treatises, written in Dutch by Theod. Volkh- 
Coornhert, of whom Arnold makes particular mention in his Historia 
Eccles. torn. ii. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



605 



to a deplorable schism, which all the eiForts of human 
wisdom have since been unable to heal. James Arminius, 
professor of divinity in the university of Leyden, rejected, 
ihe doctrine of the church of Geneva, in relation to the 
deep and intricate points of predestination and grace ; and 
maintained, with the Lutherans, that God has excluded 
none from salvation by an absolute and eternal decree. 
He was joined in these sentiments by several persons in 
Holland, who were eminently distinguished by the extent 
of their learning, and the dignity of their stations ; but he 
met with the warmest opposition from Francis Gomar, his 
colleague, and from the principal professors in the Dutch 
universities. The magistrates exhorted the contending 
parties to moderation and charity ; and observed, that, in 
a free state, their respective opinions might be treated with 
toleration, without any detriment to the essential interests 
of true religion. After long and tedious debates, which 
were frequently attended with popular tumults and civil 
broils, this intricate controversy was, by the counsels and 
authority 1 of Maurice, prince of Orange, referred to the 
decision of the church, assembled in a general synod at 
Dordrecht, in 1618. The most eminent divines of the 
United Provinces, and many learned deputies from the 
churches of England, Scotland, Switzerland, Bremen, 
Hesse, and the Palatinate, were present at this numerous 
and solemn assembly. It was by the sentence of these 
judges, that the Arminians lost their cause, and were de- 
clared corruptors of the true religion. It must be observed, 
at the same time, that the doctors of Geneva, who embraced 
the Sublapsarian system, triumphed over their adversaries 
in this synod ; for, though the patrons of the Supralapsa- 
rian cause were far from being contemptible either in point 
of number er of abilities, yet the moderation and equity of 
the British divines prevented the synod from giving its 
sanction to the opinions of that presumptuous sect. Nor 
indeed would even the Sublapsarians have obtained the 
accomplishment of their desires, had the doctors of Bremen, 
who for weighty reasons were attached to the Lutherans, 
been able to execute their purposes. b 

XII. It is greatly to be doubted, whether this victory, 
gained over the Arminians, was, upon the whole, advan- 
tageous or detrimental to the church of Geneva in particu- 
lar, and to the reformed church in general. It is at least 
certain, that, after the synod of Dordrecht, the doctrine of 
absolute decrees, lost ground from day to day ; and its 
patrons were put to the hard necessity of holding frater- 
nal communion with those whose doctrine was either pro- 
fessedly Arminian, or at least nearly resembled it. The 
feaders of the vanquished Arminians were eminently dis- 
tinguished by their eloquence, sagacity, and learning ; 
and, being highly exasperated by the injurious and op- 
pressive treatment they met with, in consequence of their 
condemnation, they defended themselves, and attacked 
their adversaries with such spirit and vigour, and also with 
such dexterity and eloquence, that multitudes were per- 
suaded of the justice of their cause. It is particularly to 
6e observed, that the authority of the synod of Dordrecht 
was far from being universally acknowledged among the 

O** It was not by the authority of prince Maurice, but by that of the 
States-General, that the national synod was assembled at Dordrecht. 
The states were not indeed unanimous ; three of the seven provinces 
protested against the holding of this synod, viz. Holland, Utrecht, and 
Over-Yssel. 

>> We shall give, in the History of the Arminians, a list of the writers 

No. LI. 152 



Dutch ; the provinces of Friseland, Zealand, Utrecht, Guel- 
derland, and Groningen, could not be persuaded to adopt 
its decisions ; and though, in 1651, they were at length 
gained.over so far as to intimate, that they would see with 
pleasure the reformed religion maintained upon the footing 
on which it had been placed and confirmed by the synod, 
yet the most eminent adepts in Belgic jurisprudence deny 
that this intimation has the force or character of a law.' 

In England, the face of religion changed considerably, 
in a very little time after the famous synod now mention- 
ed ; and this change, which was entirely in favour of 
Arminianism, was principally effected by the counsels 
and influence of William Laud, archbishop of Canterbury. 
This revolution gave new courage to the Arminians ; 
and, from that period to the present time, they have had the 
pleasure of seeing the decisions and doctrines of the synod, 
relating to the points in debate between them and the 
Calvinists, treated in England, with something more than 
mere indifference, beheld by some with aversion, and by 
others with contempt." 1 And, indeed, if we consider the 
genius and spirit of the church of England during this 
period, we shall plainly see, that the doctrine of the Go- 
marists, concerning predestination and grace, could not 
meet there with a favourable reception, since the leading 
English divines were zealous in modelling its doctrine 
and discipline after the sentiments and institutions that 
were received in the primitive times, and since those early 
fathers of the church, whom they followed with a pro- 
found submission, had never presumed, before Augustine, 
to set limits to the extent of the divine grace and mercy. 

The reformed churches in France seemed, at first, 
disposed to give a favourable reception to the decisions of 
this famous synod ; but, as these decisions w'ere highly 
displeasing to the votaries of Rome among whom they 
lived, and kindled anew their rage against the protestants, 
the latter thought it their duty to be circumspect in this 
matter ; and, in process of time, their real sentiments, and 
the doctrines they taught, began to differ extremely from 
those of the Gomarists. The churchesof Brandenburg and 
Bremen, which made a considerable figure among the 
reformed in Germany, would never suffer their doctors to 
be tied down to the opinions and tenets of the Dutch 
divines ; and thus it happened, that the liberty of private 
judgment, (with respect to the doctrines of predestination 
and grace,) which the spirit that prevailed among the 
divines of Dordrecht seemed so much calculated to sup- 
press or discourage, acquired rather new vigour, in con- 
sequence of the arbitrary proceedings of that assemblv ; 
and the reformed church was immediately divided into 
Universalists, Semi-Universalists, Supralapsarians, and 
Sublapsarians, who, indeed, notwithstanding their dissen- 
sions, which sometimes become violent and tumultuous, 
live generally in the exercise of mutual toleration, and 
are reciprocally restrained by many reasons from indulo;- 
ing a spirit of hostility and persecution. What is still 
more remarkable, and therefore ought not to be passed 
over in silence, we see the city of Geneva, which was the 
parent, the nurse, and the guardian of the doctrine of 



who appeared in this controversy, and a more particular account of the 
transactions of the synod of Dordrecht. 

See the very learned and illustrious president Bynkershoek's Q,ua;s- 
tiones Juris publici, lib. ii. cap. xviii. 

J Sev. Lintrupii Dissertatio de Contemptu Concilii Dordraceni in 
Anglia, in Dissert. Theologicis Hect. Godofr. Masii, torn. i. n. xLx. 



606 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



absolute predestination and particular grace, not only dis- 
play sentiments of charity, forbearance, and esteem for 
the Arminians, but become itself almost so far Arminian, 
as to deserve a place among the churches of that com- 
munion. 

XIII. While the reformed church in France yet sub- 
sisted, its doctors departed, in several points, from the 
common rule of faith that was received in the other 
churches of their communion. This, as appears from 
several circumstances, in a great measure resulted from 
their desire of diminishing the prejudices of the catholics 
against them, and of repelling a part of the odious con- 
clusions which were drawn by their adversaries from the 
doctrines of Dordrecht, and laid to their charge with that 
malignity which popish bigotry so naturally inspires. 
Hence we find, in the books that were composed by the 
doctors of Saumur and Sedan after the synod, many 
things which seem conformable, not only to the senti- 
ments of the Lutherans, concerning grace, predestination, 
the person of Christ, and the efficacy of the sacraments, 
but also to certain peculiar opinions of the Romish church. 
This moderation may be dated from the year 1615, when 
the opinion of John Piscator, pastor at Herborn, concerning 
the obedience of Christ, was tacitly adopted, or at least pro- 
nounced free from error, by the synod of the isle of France, 1 
though it had been condemned and rejected in several 
preceding assemblies of the same nature. b Piscator main- 
tained, that it was not by his obedience to the divine law 
that Christ made a satisfaction to that law in our stead, 
since this obedience was his duty considered as a man ; 
and, therefore, being obliged to obey this law himself, his 
observance of it could not merit any thing for others from 
the Supreme Being. This opinion, as every one may 
see, tended to confirm the doctrine of the Romish church, 
concerning the merit of good works, the natural power of 
man to obey the commands of God, and other points of 
a like nature. These less important concessions were 
followed by others of a much more weighty and momen- 

* Aymon, Actes de tous les Synodes Nationaux des Eglises Refor- 
mers de France, torn. ii. p. 275, 276. 

t See Aymon, torn. i. p. 400, 401, 457. torn. ii. p. 13. — Bossuet, Histoire 
des Variations des Eglises Protestantes, livr. xii. torn. ii. p. 268, where 
this prelate, with his usual malignity and bitterness, reproaches the pro- 
testants with their inconstancy. The learned Basnage has endeavoured 
to defend the reformed churches against this charge, in the second vo- 
lume of his Histoire de l'Eglise, p. 1533 : but his defence is not satisfac- 
tory. 3£|r To Dr. Mosheim, who speaks more than once of the reform- 
ed church and its doctors with partiality and prejudice, this defence may 
not appear satisfactory ; it has, nevertheless, been judged so by many 
persons of uncommon discernment; and we invite the reader to judge 
for himself. 

fjT c It does not appear to me that any one, who looks with an unpre- 
judiced eye, can see the least connexion between the opinion of Piscator 
(which I shall not here either refute or defend,) and the popish doctrine 
which maintains the merit of good works ; for, though we are not justi- 
fied (i. e. pardoned or treated as if we had not offended) in consequence 
of Christ's active obedience to the divine law, yet we may be so by his 
death and sufferings ; and it is really to these, that the Scriptures, in 
many places, ascribe our acceptance. Now a person who ascribes his 
acceptance and salvation to the death and mediation of Christ, does not 
surely give any countenance to the doctrine of the strict and rigorous 
merit of works, although he should not be so sharp-sighted as to per- 
ceive the influence which certain doctors attribute to what is called 
Christ's active obedience. But let it be observed here, in a particular 
manner, that the opinion of Piscator is much more unfavourable to 
popery than our author imagined, since it overturns totally, by a direct 
and most natural consequence, the popish doctrine concerning works of 
supererogation, which is as monstrous an absurdity in morals, as tran- 
substantiation is in the estimation of common sense; for, if Christ, in 
his universal and perfect obedience to the divine laws, did no more than 
ha was morally obliged to do by his character as a man, is it not absurd, 



tous kind, of which some were so erroneous that they 
were strongly disapproved and rejected, even by those of 
the French protestants themselves, who were the most 
remarkable for their moderation, charity, and love o 
peace. d 

XIV. The doctors of Saumur revived a controversy, 
that had for some time been suspended, by their attempts 
to reconcile the doctrine of predestination, as it had been 
taught at Geneva, and confirmed at Dordrecht, with the 
sentiments of those who represent the Deity as offering 
the displays of his goodness and mercy to all mankind. 
The first person who made this fruitless attempt was 
John Cameron, whose sentiments were supported and 
illustrated by Moses Amyrault, a man of uncommon 
sagacity and erudition. The latter applied himself, from 
the year 1634, with unparalleled zeal, to this arduous 
work, and displayed in it extraordinary exertions of capa- 
city and genius ; and so ardently was he bent on bringing 
it into execution, that he made, for this purpose, no 
small changes in the doctrine commonly received among 
the reformed in France. The form of doctrine Avhich he 
had devised, in order to accomplish this important recon- 
cilation, may be briefly summed up in the following pro- 
positions : " That God desires the happiness of all men, 
and that no mortal is excluded, by any divine decree, 
from the benefits that are procured by the death, suffer- 
ings, and gospel of Christ : 

" That, however, no one can be made a partaker of 
the blessings of the Gospel, and of eternal salvation, with- 
out believing in Jesus Christ : 

" That such, indeed, is the immense and universal 
goodness of the Supreme Being, that he refuses to none 
the power of believing, though he does not grant unto 
all his assistance and succour, that they may wisely im- 
prove this power to the attainment of everlasting salvation : 

" And, that, in consequence of this, multitudes perish 
through their own fault, and not from any want of good- 
ness in God." e 



if not impious, to seek in the virtue of the Romish saints (all of whom 
were very imperfect, and some of them very worthless mortals) an 
exuberance of obedience, a superabundant quantity of virtue, to which 
they were not obliged, and which they are supposed to deposit in the 
hands of the popes, who are empowered to distribute it, for love or 
money, among such as have need of it to make up their accounts ■? 

d This affirmation is groundless, and I wish it were not liable to die 
charge of malignity. The accusation that Dr. Mosheim brings here 
against the reformed church in France is of too serious a nature not to 
require the most evident and circumstantial proofs. He has, however, 
alleged none ; nor has he given any one instance of these weighty and 
momentous concessions that were made to popery. It was not, indeed, 
in his power either to give arguments or examples of a satisfactory 
kind ; and it is highly probable, that the unguarded words of Elias 
Saurin, minister of Utrecht, in relation to the learned Louis Le Blanc, 
professor of Sedan (which dropped from the pen of the former, in his 
Examen de la Theologie de M. Jurieu,) are the only testimony Dr. 
Mosheim had to allege, in support of an accusation, which he has not 
limited to any one person, but inconsiderately thrown out upon the 
French churches in general. Those who are desirous of a full illustra- 
tion of this matter, and yet have not an opportunity of consulting the 
original sources of information, may satisfy their curiosity by perusing 
the articles Bcaidieu and Amyrault in Bayle's Dictionary, and the 
articles Pajon and Papin in M. de Chauffepied's supplement to that 
work. Any concessions that seem to have been made by the protes- 
tarit doctors in France to their adversaries, consisted in giving an ArmU 
nian turn to some of the more rigid tenets of Calvin relating to original 
sin, predestination, and grace;' and this turn would undoubtedly have 
been given to these doctrines, had popery been out of the question. But 
these concessions are not certainly what our historian had in view; nor 
would he, in effect, have treated such concessions as erroneous. 

• See Jo. Wolfg. Jaegeri Hist. Eccles. ssec. XVII. decenn. iv. p. 522. 
jjQr This mitigated view of the doctrine of predestination has only 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



607 



Those who embraced this doctrine were called Uni- j 
versalists, because they represented God as willing to 
show meoy to all mankind ; and Hypothetical Uni ver- 
salists, because the condition of faith in Christ was 
necessary to render them the objects of this mercy. It 
is the opinion of many, that this doctrine differs little 
from that which was established by the synod of Dor- 
drecht : but such do not seem to have attentively con- 
sidered either the principles whence it is derived, or the 
consequences to which it leads. The more I examine 
this reconciling system, the more I am persuaded, that 
it is no more than Arniinianism or Pelagianism artfully 
dressed up, and ingeniously covered with a half-transpa- 
rent veil of specious, but ambiguous expressions ; and 
this judgment is confirmed by the language that is used 
in treating this subject by the modern followers of Amy- 
rault, who express their sentiments with greater courage, 
plainness, and perspicuity, than the spirit of the times 
permitted their master to do. A cry was raised in seve- 
ral French synods, against the doctrine of Amyrault ; 
but, after it bad been carefully examined by them, and 
defended bv him at their public meetings with his usual 
eloquence and erudition, he was honourably acquitted, 1 
The opposition he met with from Holland was still more 
formidable, as it came from the celebrated pens of Rivet, 
Spanheim, Des-Marets, and other learned adversaries. 
He nevertheless answered them with great spirit and 
vigour ; and his cause was powerfully supported after- 
wards by Daille. Blondel, Alestrezat, and Claude. This 
controversy was carried on for a long time, with great 
animosity, and little fruit to those who opposed the opinions 
Df the French innovator : for the sentiments of Amyrault 
were not only received in all the colleges of the Hugue- 
nots m France, and adopted by divines of the highest 
note m that nation, but also spread themselves as far as 
Geneva, and were afterwards disseminated by the French 
protestants, who fled from the rage of persecution, through 
all the reformed churches of Europe ; and they now are 
so generally received, that few have the courage to oppose 
or decry them. 

XY. The desire of mitig'atins' certain doctrines of the 
reformed church, which drew upon it the heaviest cen- 
sures from both the Roman catholics and some protestant 
communions, was the true origin of the opinion propa- 
gated, in the year 1640, by Joshua de la Place, concern- 
ing the imputation of original sin. This divine, who was 
the intimate friend of Amyrault, and his colleague at 

one defect: but it is a capital one. It represents God as desiring a 
thing (?. e. salvation and happiness) for all, which, in order to its attain- 
ment, requires a degTee of his assistance and succour, which he refuses 
to many. This rendered grace and redemption universal only in words, 
but partial in reality, and therefore did not at all mend the matter. The 
Supralapsarians were consistent with themselves ; but their doctrine 
was harsh and terrible, and was founded on the most unworthy notions 
of the Supreme Being; and, on the other hand, the system of Amyrault 
was full of inconsistencies ; even the Sublapsarian doctrine has its 
difficulties, and rather palliates than removes the horrors of Supralapsa- 
rianism. What then is to be done ? from what quarter shall the candid 
and well-disposed Christian receive that solid satisfaction and wise 
direction, which neither system is adapted to administer 1 These he 
will receive by turning his dazzled and feeble eve from the secret de- 
crees of God, which were neither designed to be rules of action, nor 
sources of comfort to mortals here below ; and bv fixing his view upon 
the mercy of God, as it is manifested through Christ, upon the pure 
laws and sublime promises of his gospel, and the equity of his present 
government and his future tribunal. 

* See Aymon's Actes des 1 Synodes Nationaux des Eglises Reformers 
en France, torn. ii. p. 571, 604. — Blondel's Actes Autlientiques des 
Eglises Reforme-es touchant la Paix et la Charile fraternelle. 



Saumur, rejected the opinion generally received in the 
schools of the reformed, that the personal and actual 
transgression of the first man is imputed to his posterity. 
He maintained, on the contrary, that God imputes to 
every man his natural corruption, his personal guilt, and 
his propensity to sin ; or, to speak in the theological style, 
he affirmed, that original sin is indirectly, and not direct- 
ly, imputed to mankind. This opinion was condemned 
as erroneous, in 1642, by the synod of Charenton, and 
man}* Dutch and Helvetic doctors of great name endea- 
voured to refute it, c while the love of peace and union 
prevented its author from defending it in a public and 
open manner. d But neither the sentence of the synod, 
nor the silence of M. de la Place, could preclude this sen- 
timent from making a deep impression on the minds of 
many, who deemed it conformable to the plainest dictates 
of justice and equity ; nor could they prevent its being 
transmitted, with the French exiles, into other countries. 

In the class of those who, to diminish or avoid the 
resentment of the papists, made concessions inconsistent 
with truth, and detrimental to the purity of the protestant 
religion, many place Louis Capel, professor at Saumur, 
who, in a voluminous and elaborate work,' undertook to 
prove that the Hebrew points were not used by the sacred 
writers, and were a modern invention added to the text 
by the Masoretes. f It is at least certain, that this hypo- 
thesis was highly agreeable to the votaries of Rome, and 
seemed manifestly adapted to diminish the authority 
of the Scriptures, and to put them upon a level with oral 
tradition, if not to render their decisions still less respect- 
able and certain. e On these accounts, the system of this 
famous professor was opposed, with the most ardent efforts 
of erudition and zeal, by several doctors both of the re- 
formed and Lutheran churches, who were eminent for 
their knowledge of the Hebrew language, and their gene- 
ral acquaintance with Oriental learning. 11 

XVI. Though these great men gave offence to man}", 
by the freedom and novelty of their sentiments, yet they 
had the approbation and esteem of the greatest part of the 
reformed churches ; and the equity of succeeding gene- 
rations removed the aspersions that envy had thrown upon 
them during their lives, and made ample amends for the 
injuries they had received from several of their contempo- 
raries. This was far from being the case of those doctors 
who either openly attempted to bring about a complete 
reconciliation and union between the reformed and Romish 
churches, or explained the doctrines of Christianity in such 

b Bavle's Dictionary, vol. i. at the articles Amyrault and Blondel; 
and vol. ii. at the article Daille. — See Christ. Pfaffius, de Formula 
Consensus, cap. i. • Aynion, torn. ii. p. 680. 

* Christ. Eberh. Weismanni Histor. Eccles. sac. XVII. p. 817. 

* This work, which is entitled, Arcanum Punctuationis Revelatum, 
may be found with its Vindiciae in the works of Capel. printed at 
Amsterdam in 1689, and in the Critica Sacra Veteris Testamenti, 
published at Paris in 1630. 

t §3r It was also Capel who affirmed that the characters which com- 
pose the Hebrew text, were such as the Chaldeans used after the Baby- 
lonian captivity, the Jews having always made use of the Samaritan 
| characters before that period. 

* Jj" This absurd notion of the tendency of Capel's hypothesis is 
now almost entirely exploded by the learned world. Be thai as it may, 
the hypothesis in question is by no means peculiar to Capel ; it was 
adopted by Luther, Zuingle, Calvin, the three great pillars of the 
Reformation ; as also by Munster, .Olivetan, Masius, Scaliger, Casau- 
bon, Drusius, De Dieu, "Walton, and Bochart, those eminent men. who 
have thrown such light on sacred philology; so that Capel had only 
the merit of supporting it by new arguments, and placing it in a stri- 
king and luminous point of view. 

h See B. Jo. Christ. Wolfii Biblioth. Hcbraica. 



608 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH 



Sect. II 



a manner as lessened the difference between the commu- 
nion's, and thereby rendered the passage from the former 
to the latter less disgusting and painful. The attempts 
of these advocates of peace were looked upon as odious ; 
and in the issue they proved utterly unsuccessful. The 
most eminent of these reconciling doctors were Louis Le 
Blanc, professor at Sedan, and Claude Pajon, minister of 
Orleans, 11 who were both remarkable for the persuasive 
power of their eloquence, and discovered an uncommon 
degree of penetration and sagacity in their writings and 
negotiations. The former passed in review many of the 
controversies that divided the two churches, and seemed 
clearly to prove, that some of them were merely disputes 
ibout words, and that the others were of much less con- 
sequence than was generally imagined. b This manner 
of stating the differences between the two churches drew 
upon Le Blanc the indignation of those who considered 
all attempts to soften and modify controverted doctrines as 
dangerous and detrimental to the cause of truth. On the 
other hand, the acuteness and dexterity with which he 
treated this delicate affair, made a considerable impression 
upon many persons, and procured him disciples, who still 
entertain his reconciling sentiments, but either conceal 
them entirely, or discover them with caution, as they are 
known to be displeasing to the greatest part of the mem- 
bers of both communions. 

XVII. The modifications under which Pajon exhibited 
some of the doctrines of the reformed church, were also 
extremely offensive and unpopular. This ecclesiastic ap- 
plied the principles and tenets of the Cartesian philosophy, 
of which he was a warm and able defender, to, an explica- 
tion of the opinions of that church relating to the corrup- 
tion of human nature, the state of its moral faculties and 
powers, the grace of God, and the conversion of sinners ; 
and, in the judgment of many, he gave an erroneous in- 
terpretation of these opinions. It is, indeed, very difficult 
to determine what were the real sentiments of this manj 
nor is it easy to say, whether this difficulty be most owing 
to the affected obscurity and ambiguity under which he 
disguised them, or to the inaccuracy with which his ad- 
versaries, through negligence or malignity, have repre- 
sented them. If we may give credit to the latter, his doc- 
trine amounts to the following propositions : " That the 
corruption of man is less, and his natural power to amend 
his ways greater, than is generally imagined: — That 
original sin lies in the understanding alone, and consists 
principally in the obscurity and imperfection of our ideas 
of divine things : — That this imperfection of the human 
understanding has a pernicious influence upon the will, 
excites in it vicious propensities, and thus leads it to sinful 
actions : — That this internal disorder is healed, not by the 
mere efforts of our natural faculties and powers, but by the 
assistance and energy of the Holy Spirit, operating upon 
the mind by the divine word as its mean or instrument : — 
That, however, this word is not endowed with any divine 

fj' a It is difficult to conceive what could engage Dr. Mosheim to 
place Pajon in the class of those who explained the doctrines of Chris- 
tianity in such a manner, as to diminish the difference between the 
doctrines of the reformed and papal churches. Pajon was, indeed, a 
moderate divine, and leaned toward the Arminian system ; and this 
propensity was not uncommon among the French protestants. But 
few doctors of this time wrote against popery with more learning, 
zeal, and judgment, than Claude Pajon, as appears from his excellent 
treatise against Nicole, entitled, " Examen du Livre qui porte pour 
litre prejugez legitimes contre les Calvinistes." 



intrinsic energy, either natural or supernatural, but only 
with a moral influence, i. e. it corrects and improves the 
understanding, in the same manner as human truth does, 
even by imparting clear and distinct notions of spiritual 
and divine things, and furnishing solid arguments for the 
truth and divinity of the Christian religion, and its perfect 
conformity with the dictates of right reason ; — and that, in 
consequence, every man, if no internal or external impedi- 
ments destroy or suspend the exertion of his natural powers 
and faculties, may, by the use of his own reason, and a 
careful and assiduous study of there vealed will of God, be 
enabled to correct what is amiss in his sentiments, affec- 
tions, and actions, without any extraordinary assistance 
from the Holy Ghost." d 

Such is the account of the opinions of Pajon, given by 
his adversaries. On the other hand, if we take our ideas 
of his doctrine from himself, we shall find this account 
disingenuous and erroneous. Pajon intimates plainly his 
assent to the doctrines that, were confirmed by the synod 
of Dordrecht, and which are contained in the catechisms 
and confessions of faith of the reformed churches ; he com- 
plains that his doctrine has been ill understood or wilfully 
perverted ; and he observes, that he did not deny entirely 
an immediate operation of the Holy Spirit on the minds 
of those who are really converted to God, but only such 
an immediate operation as was not accompanied with the 
ministry and efficacy of the divine word ; or, to express 
the matter in other terms, he declared that he could not 
adopt the sentiments of those who represent that word 
as no more than an instrument void of intrinsic efficacy, 
a mere external sign of an immediate operation of the 
Spirit of God. e This last declaration is, however, both 
obscure and captious. Be that as it may, Pajon concludes 
by observing, that we ought not to dispute about the man- 
ner in which the Holy Spirit operates upon the minds of 
men, but content ourselves with acknowledging, that this 
spirit is the true and original author of all that is good in 
the affections of our heart, and the actions that proceed 
from them. Notwithstanding these declarations, the doc- 
trine of this learned and ingenious ecclesiastic was, not 
only deemed heterodox by some of the most eminent 
divines of the reformed church, but was also condemned, 
in 1677, by several synods in France, and, in 1686, by a 
synod assembled at Rotterdam. 

XVIII. This controversy, which seemed to be brought 
to a conclusion by the death of Pajon, was revived, or 
rather continued, by Isaac Papin, his nephew, a native of 
Blois, who, by his writings and travels, was highly instru- 
mental in communicating to England, Holland, and Ger- 
many, the contagion of these unhappy debates. This 
ecclesiastic expressed his sentiments without ambiguity or 
reserve, and zealously propagated the doctrine of his uncle, 
which, according to his crude and harsh manner of 



representing 
positions : — 



it, he reduced to the two following pro- 



' In his Theses Theologies;, which are highly worthy of an attentive 
perusal. ° See Bayle's Dictionary, at the article Beaulieu. 

& Fred. Spanheim's Append, ad Elenchum Controversial-, torn. iii. 
op. p. 882.— Jurieu's Traite de la Nature et de la Grace, p. 35.— Val. 
Ern. Loscher's Exercit. de Claud. Pajonii ejusque Sectatorum Doctrma 
et Fatis. 

■ All these declarations made by Pajon may be seen in a confession 
of his faith, supposed to have been drawn up by himself, and published 
by the learned M. de Chauffepied, in his Nouveau Dictionnaire Histor 
et Critique, torn. ii. p. 164. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



609 



" That the natural powers and faculties of man are 
more than sufficient to lead him to the knowledge of divine 
truth : 

" That, in order to produce that amendment of the 
heart, which is called regeneration, nothing more is requi- 
site than to put the body, if its habit is bad, into a sound 
state by the power of physic, and then to set truth and 
falsehood before the understanding, and virtue and vice 
before the will, in their genuine colours, clearly and dis- 
tinctly, so that then nature and properties may be fully 
apprehended." 

This and the other opinions of Papin were refuted with 
a considerable degree of acrimony, in 16S6, by the famous 
Jurieu. professor of divinity, and pastor of the French 
church at Rotterdam ; and they were condemned in the 
following year by the synod of Bois-le-duc. In 16SS. they 
were condemned, with still greater marks of severity, by the 
French synod at the Hague, where a sentence of excom- 
munication was pronounced against their author. Exas- 
perated at these proceedings, Papin returned into France 
in 1690, where he publicly abjured the protestant religion, 
and embraced the communion of the church of Rome, in 
which he died in 1709. a It has been affirmed by some, 
that this ingenious man was treated with great rigour and 
injustice, and that his theological opinions were unfaith- 
fully represented by his violent and unrelenting adversary, 
Jurieu, whose warmth and impetuosity in religious con- 
troversy are well known. How far this affirmation may 
be supported by evidence, we cannot pretend to determine. 
A doctrine in some degree resembling that of Pajon, was 
maintained in several treatises, in 16S4, by Charles le Cene, 
a French divine of uncommon learning and sagacity, who 
gave a new and very singular translation of the Bible. b 
But he entirely rejected the doctrine of original sin, and 
of the impotency of human nature ; and asserted, that it 
was in every man's power to amend his ways, and arrive 
at a state of obedience and virtue, by the mere use of 
his natural faculties, and an attentive study of the 
divine word ; more especially, if these were seconded 
by the advantage of a good education, and the influ- 
ence of virtuous examples. Hence several divines pre- 
tend that his doctrine is, in many respects, different from 
that of Pajon. c 

» See Jurieu de la Nature et de la Grace — Molleri Cimbria Literata, 
torn. ii. p. 608. 

b This translation was published at Amsterdam in 1741, and was 
condemned by the French synod in Holland. 

e See the learned and laborious M. Chauffepied's Nouv. Diction, torn, 
ii. p. 160 

f^p d In a general assembly holden at Edinburgh, in 1590, this 
prince is said to have made the following public declaration : I praise 
God that I was born in the time of the light of the Gospel, and in such 
a place as to be the king of the sincerest (i. e. purest) kirk in the world. 
The kirk of Geneva keep pasche and yule (i. e. Easter and Christmas.) 
"What have they for them 1 They have no institution. As for our 
neighbour kirk of England, their service is an evil-said mass in Eng- 
lish ; they want nothing of the mass but the liftings (i. e. the elevation of 
the host.) I charge you, my good ministers, doctors, elders, nobles, 
gentlemen, and barons, to stand to your purity, and to exhort your peo- 
ple to do the same ; and I, forsooth, as long as I brook my life, shall do 
the same." Calderwood's History of the Church of Scotland, p. 256. 

• The religious disputes between the church and the puritans induced 
James to appoint a conference between the two parties at Hampton- 
Court, at which nine bishops, and as many dignitaries of the church, 
'appeared on one side, and four puritan ministers on the other. The 
king himself took a considerable part in the controversy against the 
latter; and this was an occupation well adapted to his taste ; for no- 
thing could be more pleasing to this royal pedant, than to dictate magis- 
terially to an assembly of divines upon points of faith and discipline, 
nnd to receive the applause of these holy men for his superior zeal and 

No. LI. 153 



XIX. The church of England had, for a long time, 
resembled a ship tossed on a boisterous and tempestuous 
ocean. The opposition of the Papists on the one hand, 
and the discontents and remonstrances of the Puritans on 
the other, had kept it in a perpetual ferment. When, on 
the death of Elizabeth, James I. ascended the throne, the 
latter conceived the warmest hopes of seeing more serene 
and prosperous days, and of being delivered from the 
vexations and oppressions to which they had been con- 
stantly exposed on account of their attachment to the dis- 
cipline and worship of the church of Geneva. These 
hopes were so much the more natural, as the king 1 had 
received his education in Scotland, where the Puritans 
prevailed, and had, on some occasions, made the strongest 
declarations of his attachment to their ecclesiastical con- 
stitution d And some of the first steps taken by this prince 
seemed to encourage those hopes, as he appeared desirous 
of assuming the character and office of an arbitrator, in 
order to accommodate matters between the church and the 
Puritans. e But these expectations soon vanished : and, 
under his government, affairs assumed a new aspect. As 
the desire of unlimited power and authority was his reign- 
ing passion, so all his measures, whether of a civil or reli- 
gious nature, were calculated to answer the purposes of 
his ambition. The presbyterian form of ecclesiastical 
government seemed less favourable to his views than the 
episcopal hierarchy, as the former exhibits a kind of re- 
public, which is administered by various rules of equal 
authority, while the latter approaches much nearer to the 
spirit and genius of monarchy. The very name of a re- 
public, synod, or council, was odious to James, who dreaded 
every thing that had a popular aspect ; hence he distin- 
guished the bishops with peculiar marks of his favour, ex- 
tended their authority, increased their prerogatives, and 
publicly adopted and inculcated the following maxim, ' No 
bishop, no king.' At the same time, as the church of 
England had not yet abandoned the Calvinistical doctrines 
of predestination and grace, he alsoadhered to them for some 
time, and gave his theological representatives, in the svned 
of Dordrecht, an order to join in the condemnation of the 
sentiments of Arminius, in relation to these deep and in- 
tricate points. Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, a man 
of remarkable gravity, 1 ' and of eminent zeal both for civil 

learning. The conference continued three days. On the first day, it 
was managed between the king and the bishops and deans, to whorr 
James proposed some objections against certain expressions in the 
liturgy, and a few alterations in the ritual of the church ; in consequence 
of which, some slight alterations were made. On the two following 
days, the puritans were admitted, whose proposals and remonstrances 
may be seen in JNeafs History of the Puritans, vol. ii. Dr. Warner, 
in his Ecclesiastical History of England, observes, that this author 
must be read with caution, on account of his unfairness and partiality : 
why therefore did he not take his account of the Hampton-Court confe- 
rence from a better source 1 The different accounts of the opposite par- 
ties, and more particularly those published by Dr. Barlow, dean of 
Chester, on one hand, and Patrick Galloway, a Scottish writer, on the 
other, (both of whom were present at the conference,) must be carefully 
consulted, in order to our forming a proper idea of these theological 
transactions. James at least obtained, on this occasion, the applause 
he had in view. The archbishop of Canterbury (Whitgift) said, that 
'•undoubtedly his majesty spoke by the special assistance of God's 

spirit;" and Bancroft, falling on his "knees, with his eyes raised to 

James, expressed himself thus : " I protest, my heart meltclh for joy, 
that Almighty God, of his singular mercy, has given us such a king, as 
since Christ's time has not been." 

f^> f The earl of Clarendon says, in his History of the Rebellion, 
that ' : Abbot was a man of very morose manners, and of a very sour 
aspect, which at that time was called graviti/." If. in general. »ve 
strike a medium between what Clarendon and NeaJ say of this prelate, 
we shall probably arrive at the true knowledge of his character. See 



CIO 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



and religious liberty, whose lenity toward their ancestors 
the Puritans still celebrate in the highest strains/ used his 
utmost endeavours to confirm the king in the principles 
of Calvinism, to which he himself was thoroughly attached. 
But scarcely had the British divines returned from the 
synod of Dordrecht, and given an account of the laws 
that had been enacted, atid the doctrines that had been 
established by that famous assembly, when the king, and 
the greatest part of the episcopal clergy, discovered, in the 
strongest terms, their dislike of these proceedings, and 
judged the sentiments of Arminius, relating to the divine 
decrees, preferable to those of Gomar and of Calvin. b This 

the History of the Rebellion, vol. i. p. 88 ; and Neal's History of the 
Puritans, vol. ii. p. 243. It is certain, that nothing can be more unjust 
and partial than Clarendon's account of this eminent prelate, particu- 
larly when he says, that " he neither understood nor regarded the con- 
stitution of the church." But it is too much the custom of this writer, 
and others of his stamp, to give the denomination of latitudinarian 
indifference to that chanty, prudence, and moderation, by which alone 
the best interests of the church (though not the personal views of many 
of its ambitious members) can be established upon firm and permanent 
foundations. Abbot would have been reckoned a good churchman by 
some, if he had breathed that spirit of despotism and violence, which, 
being essentially incompatible with the spirit and character of a people, 
not only free, but jealous of their liberty, has often endangered the 
church, by exciting that resentment which always renders opposition 
excessive. Abbot was so far from being indifferent about the constitu- 
tion of the church, or inclined to the presbyterian discipline, (as the 
noble author affirms,) that it was by his zeed and dexterity that the 
cler-gy of Scotland, who had refused to admit the bishops as moderators 
in their synods, were brought to a more tractable temper, and affairs 
put into such a situation as afterwards produced the entire establishment 
of the episcopal order in that nation. It is true, that Abbot's zeal in 
this affair was conducted with great prudence and moderation ; and it 
was by these that his zeal was rendered successful. Nor have these 
his transactions in Scotland, where he went as chaplain to the lord- 
treasurer Dunbar, been sufficiently attended to by historians: they 
even seem to have been entirely unknown to some, who have pretended 
to depreciate the conduct and principles of this virtuous and excellent 
prelate. King James, who had been so zealous a presbyterian in ap- 
pearance before his accession to the crown of England, had scarcely 
set his foot out of Scotland, when he conceived the design of restoring 
the ancient form of episcopal government in that kingdom; and it was 
Abbot's conduct there that brought him to that high favour with the king, 
which, in a short time, raised him from the deanery of Winchester to 
the see of Canterbury. For it was by Abbot's mild and prudent coun- 
sels, that Dunbar procured that famous act of the general assembly fo 
Scotland, by which it was provided, " that the king should have the 
calling of all general assemblies, that the bishops (or their deputies) 
should be perpetual moderators of the diocesan synods, that no excom- 
munication should be pronounced without their approbation, that all 
presentations of benefices should be made by them, that the deprivation 
or suspension of ministers should belong to them, that the visitation of 
the diocese should be performed by the bishop or his deputy only, and 
that the bishop should be moderator of all conventions for cxercisings 
or prophesying s (i. e. preaching) within their bounds." See Calder- 
wood's True History of the Church of Scotland, p. 588, 589. Heylin's 
History of the Presbyterians, p. 381, 382; and above all, Speed's His- 
tory of Great Britain, book x. The writers who seem the least disposed 
to speak favourably of this wise and good prelate, bear testimony, 
nevertheless, to his eminent piety, his exemplary conversation, and his 
inflexible probity and integrity; and it may be said with truth, that, if 
his moderate measures had been pursued, the liberties of England 
would have been secured, popery discountenanced, and the church pre- 
vented from running into those excesses which afterwards proved so 
injurious to it. If Abbot's candour failed him on any occasion, it was 
in the representations, which his rigid attachment, not to the discipline, 
but to the doctrinal tenets of Calvinism, led him to give of the Arminian 
doctors. There is a remarkable instance of this in a letter of his to Sir 
Ralph Winwood, dated at Lambeth, the first of June, 1613, and occa- 
sioned by the arrival of Grotius in England, who had been expressly 
sent from Holland, by the Remonstrants, or Arminians, to mitigate the 
king's displeasure and antipathy against that party. In this letter, the 
archbishop represents Grotius (with whom he certainly was not worthy 
to be named, either in point of learning, sagacity, or judgment) as a 
pedant, and mentions, with a-high degree of complacency and approba- 
tion, the absurd and impertinent judgment of some civilians and di- 
vines, who called this immortal ornament of the republic of letters, a 
smalterer and a simple fellow. See Winwood's Memorials vol. iii p 
459. 

* See Wood's Athena? Oxoniens. t. i. p. 583. — Neal's History of the 



sudden change in the theological opinions of the court and 
clergy, was certainly owing to a variety of reasons, as will 
appear evident to those who have any acquaintance with 
the spirit and transactions of these times. The principal 
one, if we are not deceived, must be sought in the plans 
of a farther reformation of the church of England, which 
were proposed by several eminent ecclesiastics, whose in- 
tention was to bring it to as near a resemblance as was 
possible of the primitive church ; and every one knows, 
that the peculiar doctrines to which the victory was 
assigned by the synod were absolutely unknown in the 
first ages of the Christian church. Be that as it mav 

Puritans, vol. ii. ch. iv. p. 242. — Clarendon's History of the Rebellioi 
vol. i. 

b See Heylin's History of the Five Articles. — Neal, vol. ii. ch ii. p. 
117. The latter author tells us, that the following verses were made in 
England, with a design to pour contempt on the synod, and to turn its 
proceedings into ridicule : 

"Dordrecht! Synodus, nodus ; chorus integer, rcger; 
Conventus, ventus , sessio, stramen. Amen!"" 

With respect to James, those who are desirous of forming a just idea 
of the character, proceedings, and theological fickleness and inconstancy 
of that monarch, must peruse the writers of English history, more espe- 
cially Larrey and Rapin. The majority of these writers tell us, that, 
toward the close of his life, James, after having deserted from the Cal- 
vinists to the Arminians, began to discover a strong propensity toward 
popery; and they affirm positively, that he entertained the most ardent 
desire of bringing about an union between the churches of England and 
Rome. In this, however, these writers seem to have gone too far ; for, 
though many of the proceedings of this injudicious prince justly deserve 
the sharpest censure, yet it is both rash and unjust to accuse him of a 
design to introduce popery into England. It is not to be believed, that 
a prince, who aspired to arbitrary power and uncontrolled dominion, 
could ever have entertained a thought of submitting to the yoke of the 
Roman pontiff.t The truth of the matter seems to be this, that, toward 
the end of his reign, James began to have less aversion to the doctrines 
and rites of the Romish church, and permitted certain religious obser- 
vances, that were conformable to the spirit of that church, to be used in 
England. This conduct was founded upon a manner of reasoning, 
which lie had learned from several bishops of his time, that the primi- 
tive church is the model which all Christian churches ought to imitate 
in doctrine and worship: that, in proportion as any church approaches 
to this original standard of truth and purity, it must become proportion- 
ably pure and perfect; and that the Romish church retained more of 
the spirit and manner of the primitive church than the Puritan or Cal- 
vinist churches. f^T Of these three propositions, the two first are 
undoubtedly true, and the last is evidently and demonstrably false. Be- 
sides, this makes nothing to the argument : for, as James had a mani- 
fest aversion to the Puritans, it could, in his eyes, be no very great 
recommendation of the Romish church, that it surpassed that of the 
Puritans in doctrine and discipline. 

Dr. Mosheim has annexed the following note to this passage: " Per- 
haps the king entered into these ecclesiastical proceedings with the 
more readiness, when he reflected on the civil commotions and tumults 
that an attachment to the presbyterian religion had occasioned in Scot- 
land. There are also some circumstances that intimate plainly enough, 
that James, before his accession to the crown of England, was very far 
from having an aversion to popery." Whoever, indeed, looks into the 
Historical View of the Negociations between the Courts of England, 
France, and Brussels, from the year 1592 to 1617, extracted from the 
manuscript State Papers of Sir Thomas Edmondes and Anthony Ba- 
con, Esq., and published in 1749 by the learned and judicious Dr. Birch, 
will be persuaded, that, about the year 1595, this fickle and unsteady 
prince had really formed an intention of embracing the faith of Rome. 
See, in the curious collection now mentioned, the postscript of a letter 
from Sir Thomas Edmondes to the lord high treasurer, dated the 20th 
of December, 1595. We learn also, from the Memoirs of Sir Ralph 

§3f * It would be a difficult, and indeed an impracticable task, to 
justify all the proceedings of this synod ; and it is much to be wished, 
that they had been more conformable to the spirit of Christian charity, 
than the representations of history, impartially weighed, show thein to 
have been. We are not, however, to conclude, from the insipid monk- 
ish lines here quoted by Dr. Mosheim, that the transactions and dec) 
sions of that synod were universally condemned or despised in England 
It had its partisans in the established church, as well as among the 
Puritans: and its decisions, in point of doctrine, were looked upon by 
many, and not without reason, as agreeable to the tenor of the book of 
articles established by law in the church of England. 

t This remark is confuted by fact, observation, and the perpetual 
contradictions that are observable in the conduct of men : besides, see 
the note . 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



611 



this change was very injurious to the Puritans ; for, the 
king being indisposed to the opinions and institutions of 
Calvinism, those sectaries were left without defence, and 
exposed anew to the animosity and hatred of their adver- 
saries, which had been, for some time, suspended, but now 
broke out with redoubled vehemence, and at length kin- 
dled a religious war, whose consequences were deplorable 
beyond expression. In 1625 this prince died, of whom it 
may be observed, that he was the bitterest enemy of the 
doctrine and discipline of the Puritans, to which he had 
been in his youth most warmly attached ; the most inflexi- 
ble and ardent patron of the Arminians, in whose ruin 
and condemnation in Holland he had been highly instru- 
mental ; and the most zealous defender of episcopal 
government, against which he had more than once ex- 
pressed himself in the strongest terms. He left the con- 
stitution of England, both ecclesiastical and civil, in a very 
unsettled and fluctuating state, languishing under intes- 
tine disorders of various kinds. 

XX. His son and successor Charles, who had imbib- 
ed his political and religious principles, had nothing so 
much at heart as to bring to perfection what his father 
had left unfinished. All the exertions of his zeal, and 
the whole tenor of his administration, were directed to- 
ward the three following objects : " The extending the 
royal prerogative, and raising the power of the crown 
above the authority of the law — the reduction of all the 
churches in Great-Britain and Ireland under the jurisdic- 
tion of bishops, whose government he looked upon as of 
divine institution, and also as the most adapted to guard 
the privileges and majesty of the throne — and, lastly, 
the suppression of the opinions and institutions that 

Winwood, that, in 1596, James sent Mr. Ogilvie, a Scottish baron, 
into Spain, to assure his catholic majesty, that he was then ready and 
resolved to embrace popery, and to propose an alliance with that king 
and the pope against the queen of England. See State Tracts, vol. i. 
p. 1. See also an extract of a letter from Tobie Matthew, D. D. dean of 
Durham, to the lord-treasurer Burghley, containing an information of 
Scotch affairs, in Strype's Annals, vol. iv. p. 201. Above all, see Harris' 
Hist, and Critical Account of the Life and Writings of James I., p. 29, 
note (N.) This last writer may be added to Larrey and Rapin who have 
exposed the pliability and inconsistency of this self-sufficient monarch. 

a See Wood's Athenre Oxon. t. ii. p. 55. — Heylin's Cyprianus Ange- 
licus, or Hist, of Life and Death of Wm. Laud. — Clarendon's His. vol. i. 

■> " Sincere he undoubtedly was, (says Mr, Hume,) and, however mis- 
guided, actuated by religious principles hi all his pursuits ; and it is to 
be regretted, that a man of such spirit, who conducted his enterprises 
with such warmth and industry, had not entertained more enlarged 
views, and embraced principles more favourable to the general happi- 
ness of human society." 

c See Mich, le Vassor, Hist, de Louis XIII. torn. v. p. 2G2. 

JjT This expression may lead the uninformed reader into a mistake, 
and make him imagine that Laud had caused the Calvinistical doctrine 
of the xxxix Articles to be abrogated, and the tenets of Arminius to be 
substituted in their place. ' It may therefore be proper to set this matter 
in a clearer light. In 1G25, Laud wrote a small treatise to prove the 
orthodoxy of the Arminian doctrines; and. by his credit with the duke 
of Buckingham, had Arminian and anti-puritanical chaplains placed 
about the king. This step increased the debates between the Calvinis- 
tical and Arminian doctors, and produced the warmest animosities and 
dissensions. To calm these, the king issued out a proclamation, dated 
the 14th of January, 162G, the literal tenor of which was, in truth, more 
favourable to the Caivinists than to the Arminians, though, by the man- 
ner in which it was interpreted and executed by Laud, it was turned to 
the advantage of the latter. In this proclamation it was said expressly, 
" that his majesty would admit no innovations in the doctrine, disci- 
pline, or government of the church ;" (N. B. The doctrine of tlie church, 
previously to this, teas Calvinistical,) " and therefore charges all his 
subjects, and especially the clergy, not to publish or maintain, in preach- 
ing or writing, any new inventions or opinions, contrary to the said 
doctrine and discipline established by law, &c." It was certainly a 
very singular instance of Laud's indecent partiality, that this proclama- 
tion was employed to suppress the books that were expressly written in 
the defence of the xxxix Articles, while the writings of the Arminians, 



were peculiar to Calvinism, and the modelling of the 
doctrine, discipline, ceremonies, and polity of the church 
of England, after the spirit and constitution of the 
primitive church." The person whom the king chiefly 
intrusted with the execution of this arduous plan, 
was William Laud, bishop of London, who was raised, 
in 1633, to the see of Canterbury, and exhibited in 
these high stations a mixed character, composed of 
great qualities and great defects. The voice of justice 
must celebrate his fortitude, his erudition, his zeal for 
the sciences, and his munificence and liberality to men 
of letters ; and, at the same time, even charity must 
acknowledge, with regret, his inexcusable imprudence, 
his excessive superstition, his rigid attachment to the sen- 
timents, rites, and institutions of the ancient church, 
which made him behold the Puritans and Caivinists with 
horror,* and that violent spirit of animosity and persecu- 
tion which discovered itself in the whole course of his 
ecclesiastical administration. b This haughty prelate exe- 
cuted the plans of his royal master, and fulfilled the views 
of his own ambition, without using those mild and mode- 
rate methods, which prudence employs in the prosecution 
of unpopular schemes. He carried things with a high 
hand : when he found the laws opposing his views, 
he treated them with contempt, and violated them with- 
out hesitation ; he loaded the Puritans with injuries and 
vexations, and aimed at nothing less than their total ex- 
tinction ; he publicly rejected, in 1625, the Calvinistical 
doctrine of predestination, and, notwithstanding the oppo- 
sition and remonstrances of Abbot, substituted the Armi- 
nian system in its place ; c he revived many religious cere- 
monies, which though stamped with the sanction of anti- 

who certainly opposed these articles, were publicly licensed. I do not 
here enter into the merits of the cause ; I only speak of the tenor of the 
proclamation, and the manner of its execution. 

This manner of proceeding showed how difficult and arduous a thing 
it is to change systems of doctrine established by lav/, since neither 
Charles, who was by no means diffident of his authority, nor Laud, 
who was far from being timorous in the use and abuse of it, attempted 
to reform articles of faith, that stood in direct opposition to the Armi- 
nian doctrines, which they were now promoting by the warmest en- 
couragements, and which were daily gaining ground under their protec- 
tion. Instead of reforming the xxxix Articles, which step would have 
met with great opposition from the house of commons, and from a con- 
siderable part of the clergy and laity, who were still warmly attached 
to Calvinism, Laud advised the king to have these articles reprinted, 
with an ambiguous declaration prefixed to them, which might tend to 
silence or discourage the reigning controversies between the Caivinists 
and Arminians, and thus secure to the latter an unmolested state, in 
which they would daily find their power growing under the countenance 
and protection of the court. This declaration, which, in most editions 
of the Common Prayer, is still to be found at the head of the articles, is 
a most curious piece of political theology ; and, if it had not borne hard 
upon the right of private judgment, and been evidently designed to 
favour one party, though it carried the aspect of a perfect neutrality, it 
might have been looked upon as a wise and provident measure to secure 
the tranquillity of the church ; for, in the tenor of this declaration, pre- 
cision was sacrificed to prudence and ambiguity; and even contra- 
dictions were preferred to consistent, clear, and positive decisions, that 
might have fomented dissensions and discord. Therjeclaration seemed 
to favour the Caivinists, since it prohibited the affixing any new sense 
to any article : it also in effect favoured the Arminians, as it ordered 
all curious search about the contested points to be laid aside, and these 
disputes to be shut up in God's promises, as they are set forth to us in 
the holy scriptures, and in the general meaning of the articles of the 
church of England according to them. But what was singularly prepos- 
terous in this declaration was, its being designed to favour the Armini- 
ans, and yet prohibiting expressly any person, either in sermons or 
writings, from giving his own sense or comment as the meaning of the 
article, and ordering every one, on the contrary, to take each article in 
its literal and grammatical sense, and -to submit to it in die full and 
plain meaning thereof; for certainly, if the 17th article has a plain, 
literal, and grammatical meaning, it is a meaning unfavourable to Arnii- 
nianism; and bishop Burnet was obliged afterwards to acknowledge, 



612 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



quity, were nevertheless marked with the turpitude of 
superstition, and had been on that account justly abro- 
gated ; he forced bishops upon the Scots, who were zea- 
lously attached to the discipline and ecclesiastical polity 
of Geneva, and had shown, on all occasions, the greatest 
reluctance against an episcopal government ; and, lastly, 
he gave many, and very plain intimations, that he looked 
upon the Romish church, with all its errors, as more pure, 
more holy, and preferable upon the whole to those Pro- 
testant churches which were not subject to the jurisdiction 
of bishops. By these his unpopular sentiments and vio- 
lent measures, Laud drew an odium on the king, on 
himself, and on the episcopal order in general. Hence, 
in 1644, he was brought before the public tribunals of 
justice, declared guilty of high treason, and condemned 
to lose his head on a scaffold ; which sentence was 
accordingly executed. 

After the death of Laud, the dissensions that had reign- 
ed for a long time between the king and parliament, grew 
still more violent, and rose at length to so great a height, 
that they could not be extinguished but by the blood of 
that excellent prince. The great council of the nation, 
heated by the violent suggestions of the Puritans and Inde- 
pendents, 11 abolished episcopal government; condemned 
and abrogated every thing in the ecclesiastical establish- 
ment that was contrary to the doctrine, worship, and dis- 
cipline of the church of Geneva ; turned the vehemence 
of their opposition against the king himself, and, having 
brought him into their power by the fate of arms, accused 
him of treason against the majesty of the nation ; and, in 
1649, while the eyes of Europe were fixed with astonish- 
ment on this strange spectacle, ordered him to be decapi- 
tated on a public scaffold. Such are the calamities that 
flow from religious zeal without knowledge, from that 
enthusiasm and bigotry which inspire a blind and im- 

that, without enlarging the sense of the articles, the Arminians could 
not subscribe them consistently with their opinions, or without violating 
the demands of common candour and sincerity. See Burnet's remarks 
on the examination of his exposition, &c. p. 3. 

This renders it probable, that the declaration now mentioned (in 
which we see no royal signature, no attestation of any officer of the 
crown, no date, in short, no mark to show where, when, or by what 
authority it was issued out) was not composed in the reign of king 
Charles. Burnet, indeed, was of opinion, that it was composed in that 
reign to support the Arminians, who, when they were charged with 
departing from the true sense of the articles, answered, "that they took 
the articles in their literal and grammatical sense, and therefore did not 
prevaricate." But this reasoning does not appear conclusive to the 
acute and learned author of the Confessional. He thinks it more pro- 
bable that the declaration was composed, and first published, in the lat- 
ter part of king James' reign ; for though, says he, there be no evidence 
that James ever turned Arminian in principle, yet this was the party 
that adhered to him in his measures, and which it became necessary for 
him on that account to humour, and to render respectable in the eyes of 
the people by every expedient that might not bring any reflection on his 
own consistency. " And whoever (continues this author) considers the 
quibbling and equivocal terms in which this instrument is drawn, will, I 
am persuaded, observe the distress of a man divided between his prin- 
ciples and his interests, that is, of a man exactly in the situation of king 
James I. in the three last years of his reign." It is likely then, that 
this declaration was only republished at the head of the articles, which 
were reprinted by the order of Charles I. 

a The origin of this sect has been already mentioned. 

>> Beside Clarendon and the other writers of English history already 
mentioned, see Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. ii. and iii. 

c This sect is of recent date, and still subsists in England; there is, 
nevertheless, not one, either of the ancient or modern sects of Christians, 
that is less known, or has been more loaded with groundless aspersions 
and reproaches. The most eminent English writers, not only among 
the patrons of episcopacy, but even among those very presbyterians 
with whom those sectaries are now united, have, thrown out against 
'Jiem the bitterest accusations and severest invectives that the warmest 
indignation could invent. They have not only been represented as 



moderate attachment to the external unessential parts of 
religion, and to certain doctrines ill-understood ! These 
broils and tumults tended also unhappily to confirm the 
truth of an observation often made, that all religious sects, 
while they are kept under and oppressed, are remarkable 
for inculcating the duties of moderation, forbearance, and 
charity toward those who dissent from them ; but, as 
soon as the scenes of persecution are removed, and they 
in their turn arrive at power and pre eminence, they for- 
get their own precepts and maxims, and leave both the 
recommendation and practice of charity to those who 
groan under their yoke. Such, in reality, was the be 
haviour of the Puritans during their transitory exaltation ; 
they showed as little clemency and equity to the bishops 
and other patrons of episcopacy, as they had received 
from them when the reins of government were in their 
hands. b 

XXI. The Independents, who have been just men- 
tioned among the promoters of civil discord in England, 
are generally represented by the British writers in a much 
worse light than the Presbyterians or Calvinists. They 
are commonly accused of various enormities, and they 
are even charged with the crime of parricide, as having 
borne a principal part in the death of the king. But who- 
ever will be at the pains of examining, with impartiality 
and attention, the writings of that sect, and their confes- 
sion of faith, must soon perceive, that many crimes have 
been imputed to them without foundation, and will prob- 
ably be induced to think, that the bold attempts of the 
civil Independents (i. e. of those warm republicans who 
were the declared enemies of monarchy, and wished to 
extend the liberty of the people beyond all bounds of wis- 
dom and prudence) have been unjustly laid to the charge 
of those independents whose principles were merely of a 
religious kind. The religious Independents derived their 

delirious, mad, fanatical, illiterate, factious, and ignorant both of natural 
and revealed religion, but also as abandoned to all kinds of wickedness 
and sedition, and as the only authors of the odious parricide committed 
on the person of Charles I.* And as the writers who have given these 
representations, are considered by foreigners as the best and most authen- 
tic narrators of the transactions that passed in their own country, and 
are therefore followed as the surest guides, the Independents appear, 
almost every where, under the most unfavourable aspect. It must 
indeed be candidly acknowledged, that, as every class and order of 
men consist of persons of very different characters and qualities, the 
independent sect has been likewise dishonoured by several turbulent, 
factious, profligate, and flagitious members. But if it be a constant 
maxim with the wise and prudent, not to judge of the spirit and princi- 
ples of a sect from the actions or expressions of a handful of its mem- 
bers, but from the manners, customs, opinions, and behaviour of the 
generality of those who compose it, from the writings and discourses of 
its learned men, and from its public and avowed forms of doctrine, and 
confessions of faith, I make no doubt that, by this rule of estimating 
matters, the Independents will appear to have been unjustly loaded with 
so many accusations and reproaches. 

We shall take no notice of the invidious and severe animadversions 
that have been made upon this religious community by Clarendon, 
Echard, Parker, and so many other writers. To set this whole matter 
in the clearest and most impartial light, we shall confine ourselves to 
the account of the Independents given by a writer, justly celebrated by 
the English themselves, and who, though a foreigner, is generally sup- 
posed to have had an accurate knowledge of the British nation, its his- 
tory, parties, sects, and revolutions. This writer is Rapin de Thoyras, 
who, (in the twenty-first book of his History of England) represents the 
Independents under such horrid colours, that, were his portrait just they 
* Dwell, (whom nevertheless Louis de Moulin, the most zealous de- 
fender of the Independents, commends on account of his ingenuity and 
candour,) in his Historia Rituum Sanctae Ecclcsise Anglicanas, c. i. p. 4, 
expresses himself thus : "Fateori si atrocis illius tragoedise tot actus 
fuerint, qupt ludicrarum esse solent, postremum fere Independcntium 
fuisse; — adeo ut non acute magis, quamvere, dixerit L'Estmngius nos- 
ter, Regem primo a Presbyterianis interemtum, Carolum deinde ab 
Independentibus interfeetum. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



613 



denomination from the following principle, which they 
held in common with the Browriists ; that every 

would not deserve to enjoy the light of the sun, or to breathe the free air 
of Britain, much less to be treated with indulgence and esteem by those 
who have the cause of virtue at heart. Let us now examine the ac- 
count which this illustrious historian gives of this sect. He declares, in 
the first place, that, notwithstanding all the pains he had taken to trace 
out the true origin of it, his inquiries had been entirely fruitless ; his 
words may be thus translated : "After all my researches, I have not 
been able to discover, precisely, the origin of the Independent sect, or 
faction." It is veiy surprising to hear a man of learning, who had 
employed seventeen years in composing the History of England, and 
had admittance to so many rich and famous libraries, express his igno- 
rance of a matter, about which it was so easy to acquire ample informa- 
tion. Had he only looked into the work of the learned Hornbeck, 
entituled,- Summa Controversiarum, lib. x. p. 775, ho would have found, 
in a moment, what he had been so long and so laboriously seeking in 
vain. Rapin proceeds to the doctrines and opinions of the Independents, 
and begins this part of his work by a general declaration of their ten- 
dency to throw the nation into disorder and combustion. He says, "It is 
at least certain, that their principles were* very proper to put the king- 
dom in a flame ; and this they did effectually." What truth may be in 
this assertion, will be seen by what follows. Their sentiments con- 
cerning government were, if we are to believe this writer, of the most 
pernicious kind, since, according to him, they wanted to overturn the 
monarchy, and to establish a democracy in its place : his words are, 
" With regard to the state, they abhorred monarchy, and approved only 
a republican government." I will not pretend to deny, that there were 
among the Independents several persons who were unfriendly to a 
kingly government; persons of this kind were to be found among the 
Presbyterians, Anabaptists, and all the other religious sects and com- 
munities that flourished in England during this tumultuous period; but 
I want to see it proved, in an evident and satisfactory manner, that 
these republican principles were embraced by all the Independents, 
and formed one of the distinguishing characteristics of that sect 
There is, at least, no such thing to be found in their public writings. 
They declared, on the contrary, in a public memorial drawn up by 
them in 1647, that, as magistracy in general is the ordinance of God, 
" they do not disapprove any form of civil government, but do freely 
acknowledge, that a kingly government, bounden by just and whole- 
some laws, is both allowed by God, and also a good accommodation 
unto men." I omit the mention of several other circumstances which 
unite to prove that the Independents were far from looking with abhor- 
rence on a monarchical government. 

Their sentiments of religion, according to Rapin, were highly ab- 
surd, since he represents their principles as entirely opposite to those of 
all other religious communities : " As to religion, (says he,) their princi- 
ples were contrary to those of all the rest of the world." With respect to this 
accusation, it may be proper to observe, that there are extant two Confes- 
sions of Faith, one of the English Independents in Holland, and ano- 
ther drawn up by the principal members of that community in England. 
The former was composed by John Robinson, the founder of the sect, 
and was published at Leyden in 1619, under the following title: 
" Apologia pro Exulibus Anglis, qui Brownista? vulgo appellantur :" 
the latter appeared at London, for the first time, in 1658, and was thus 
entitled : " A declaration of the Faith and Order owned and practised in 
the Congregational churches in England, agreed upon, and consented 
unto by their elders and messengers, in their meeting at the Savoy, 
October 13, 1658. Hornbeck gave, in 1659, a Latin translation of this 
Declaration, and subjoined it to his Epistolas ad Durreum de Indepen- 
dentismo. It appears evidently from these two public and authentic 
pieces not to mention other writings of the Independents, that they 
differed from the presbyterians or calvinists in no single point of any 
consequence, except that of ecclesiastical government. To put this 
matter beyond all doubt, we have only to attend to the following pas- 
sage in Robinson's Apology for the English Exiles, p. 7, 11, where 
that founder of the Independent sect expresses his own private senti- 
ments, and those of his community, in the plainest manner: " Profite- 
mur coram Deo et hominibus, adeo nobis convenire cum ccclesiis refor- 
matis Belgicis in re religionis. ut omnibus et singulis earundem ecclesi- 
arum fidei articulis, prout habentur in harmonia. confessionum fidei, 
parati simus subscribere. — Ecclesias reformatas pro veris et genuinis 
habemus, cum iisdem in sacris Dei communionem profitemur, et, quan- 
tum in nobis est, colimus." It clearly appears from this declaration, 
that, instead of differing totally from all other Christian societies, it may 
rather be said }f the Independents, that they perfectly agreed with the 
far greater part of the reformed churches. To show, as he imagines, 
by a striking example, the absurdity of their religion and worship, our 
eminent historian tells us. that they not only reject all kind of ecclesias- 
tical government, but, moreover, allow all their members promiscuously, 
and without exception, to perform in public the pastoral functions, i. e. 
to preach, pray, and expound the Scriptures ; his words are, " They 
were not only averse to episcopacy and the ecclesiastical hierarchy," 
this charge is true, but it may equally be brought against the Presbyte- 
rians, Brownists, Anabaptists, and all the various sects of Non-confor- 
mists,) " but they would not so much as endure ordinary ministers in the 

No. LII. 154 



Christian congregation ought to be governed by its awn 
laws, without depending on the jurisdiction of bisl ops, 

church. They maintained, that every man might pray in public, ex- 
hort his brethren, and interpret the Scriptures, according to the talents 
with which God had endowed him. So with them every one preached, 
prayed, admonished, interpreted the Scriptures, without any other call, 
than what he himself drew from his zeal and supposed gifts, and with- 
out any other authority than the approbation of his auditors." This 
whole charge is evidently false and groundless. The Independents 
have, and always have had, fixed and regular ministers, approved by 
their people; nor do they allow to teach in public every person who 
thinks himself qualified for that important office. The celebrated histo- 
rian has here confounded the Independents with the Brownists, who, as 
is well known, permitted all to pray and preach in public without dis- 
tinction. We shall not enlarge upon the other mistakes into which he 
has fallen on this subject ; but only observe, that if so eminent a writer, 
and one so well acquainted with the English nation, has pronounced 
such an unjust sentence agaiixst this sect, we may the more easily 
excuse an inferior set of authors, who have loaded them with groundless 
accusations. 

It will, however, be alleged, that, whatever may have been the reli- 
gious sentiments and discipline of the Independents, innumerable testi- 
monies concur in proving, that they were chargeable with the death of 
Charles I. and many will consider this single circumstance as a suffi- 
cient demonstration of the impiety and depravity of the whole sect. I 
am well aware, indeed, that many of the most eminent and respectable 
English writers have given the Independents the denomination of Regi- 
cides ; and if, by the term Independents, they mean those licentious 
republicans, whose dislike of a monarchical form of government carried 
them to the most pernicious and extrs.vagant lengths, I grant that this 
denomination is well applied. But if, by this term, we are to understand 
a religious sect, the ancestors of those who still bear the same title in 
England, it appears very questionable to me, whether the unhappy fate 
of the worthy prince above-mentioned ought to be imputed entirely te 
that set of men. They who affirm that the Independents were the only 
authors of the death of king Charles, must mean one of these two things, 
either that the regicides were animated and set on by the seditious doc- 
trines of that sect, and the violent suggestions of its members, or that all 
who were concerned in this atrocious deed were themselves Indepen- 
dents, zealously attached to the religious community now under consider- 
ation. Now it may be proved with the clearest evidence, that neither 
was tire case. There is nothing in the doctrines of this sect, so far 
as they are known to me, that seems in the least adapted to excite men 
to such a horrid deed ; nor does it appear from the history of those 
times, that the Independents were a whit more exasperated against 
Charles, than were the Presbyterians. And as to the latter supposition, 
it is far from being true, that all those who were concerned in bringing 
this unfortunate prince to the scaffold were Independents, since we learn 
from the best English writers, and from the public declarations of 
Charles II., that this violent faction was composed of persons of diffe- 
rent sects. That there were Independents among them may be easily 
conceived. After all, this matter will be best unravelled by the English 
writers, who know best in what sense the term is used, when it is 
applied to those who brought Charles I. to the block.t 

On inquiring, with particular attention, into the causes of the odium 
that has been cast upon the Independents, and of the heavy accusations 

t Tout-a-fait propres a mettre l'Angleterre en combustion. 

Jj" * Dr. Mosheim's defence of the Independents is certainly specious ; 
but he has not sufficiently distinguished the times ; and he has, perhaps, 
in defending them, strained too far that equitable principle, that we 
must not impute to a sect any principles that are not contained in, or 
deducible from, their religious system. This maxim does not entirely 
answer here the purpose to which it is applied. The religious system of 
a sect may be in itself pacific and innocent, while incidental circumstan- 
ces, or certain associations of ideas, may render that sect more turbulent 
and restless than others, or at least involve it in political factions and 
broils. Such perhaps was the case of the Independents at certain 
periods, and more especially at the period now under consideration. 
When we consider their religious form of government, we shall see 
evidently, that a principle of analogy (which influences the sentiments 
and imaginations of men much more than is generally supposed ) must 
naturally have led the greatest part of them to republican notions of 
civil government; and it is farther to be observed, that, from a republican 
government, they must have expected much more protection and favour, 
than from a kingly one. When these two points are considered, to- 
gether with their situation under the reign of Charles I. when the 
government was unhinged, when affairs were in great confusion, when 
the minds of men were suspended upon tire issue of the national troubles, 
and when the eager spirit of party, nourished by hope, made each fac- 
tion expect that the chaos would end in some settled system, favourable 
to their respective views, sentiments, and passions; we maybe induced 
to think, that the Independents, at that time, were much more tumultu- 
ous and republican than the sect which bears that denomination in our 
times. The reader who would form just ideas of the matter of fact, 
must examine the relations given by the writers of both parlies. See 
particularly the histories of Clarendon, Ne&l, Burnet, and Hume. 



614 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



or being subject to tbe authority of synods, presbyteries, 
or any ecclesiastical assembly composed of the deputies 
from different churches. 11 It is in this their notion of ec- 
clesiastical government, that the difference, between them 
and the Presbyterians, principally consists ; for their re- 
ligious doctrines, if we except some points of very little 
moment, are almost entirely the same with those of the 
church of Geneva. The founder of this sect was John 
Robinson, a man who had much of the solemn piety of 
the times, and was master of a congregation of Brown- 
ists that had settled at Leyden. This well-meaning man, 
perceiving the defects that reigned in the discipline of 
Brown, and in the spirit and temper of his followers, 
employed his zeal and diligence in correcting them, and 
in modelling anew the society, in such a manner as to ren- 
der it less odious to its adversaries, and less liable to the 
^ust censure of those true Christians, who looked upon 
charity as the end of the commandment. The Inde- 
pendents, accordingly, were much more commendable 
than the Brownists in two respects. They surpassed them 
both in the moderation of their sentiments, and the order 
of their discipline. They did not, like Brown, pour forth 
bitter and uncharitable invectives against the churches 
that were governed by rules entirely different from 
theirs, nor pronounce them, on that account, unworthy 
of the Christian name. On the contrary, though they 
considered their own form of ecclesiastical government as 
of divine institution, and as originally introduced by the 
authority of the apostles, or by the apostles themselves, 
yet they had candour and charity enough to acknowledge 
that true religion and solid piety might flourish in those 
communities, which were under the jurisdiction of bishops, 

and severe invectives with which they have been loaded, I was more 
peculiarly struck with the three following considerations, which will 
perhaps furnish a satisfactory account of this matter. In the first place, 
the denomination is ambiguous, and is not peculiar to any one distinct 
order of men. For, not to enumerate the other notions that have been 
annexed to this term, it is sufficient to observe, that it is used sometimes 
by the English writers to denote those who aim at the establishment of a 
purely democratical or popular government, in which the body of the 
people is clothed with the supreme dominion. Such a faction there was 
in England, composed, in a great measure, of persons of an enthusiasti- 
cal character and complexion ; and to it, no doubt, we are to ascribe 
those scenes of sedition and misery, whose effects are still justly 
lamented. The violence and folly that dishonoured the proceedings of 
this tumultuous faction have been, if I mistake not, too rashly imputed 
to the religious Independents now under consideration, who, with all 
their defects, were a much better set of men than the party now men- 
tioned. It may be observed, secondly, that almost all the religious 
sects, which divided the English nation in the reign of Charles I. and 
more especially under the administration of Cromwell, assumed the 
denomination of Independents, in order to screen themselves from the 
reproaches of the public, and to share a part of that popular esteem 
which the true and genuine Independents had acquired, on account of 
the regularity of their lives, and the sanctity of their manners. This 
is confirmed, among other testimonies, by the following passage of a 
letter from Toland to Le Clcrc. " Au commencement .tous les sectaires 
se disoient Independans, parce que ces derniers etoient fort honores du 
peuple a cause de leur piele." See Le Clerc's Biblioth. Univers. et 
Histor. torn, xxiii. p. ii. p. 506. As this title was of a very extensive 
signification, and of great latitude, it might thus easily happen, that all 
the enormities of the various sects that sheltered themselves under it, 
and several of which were but of short duration, might unluckily belaid 
to the charge of the true Independents. But it must be particularly 
remarked, in the third place^ that the usurper Cromwell preferred the 
Independents to all other religious communities. He looked, with an 
equal eye of suspicion and fear, upon the presbyterian synods and the 
episcopal visitations ; eveiy thing that looked like an extensive au- 
thority, whether it was of a civil or religious nature, excited uneasy 
apprehensions in the breast of the tyrant; but, in the limited and simple 
form of ecclesiastical discipline that was adopted by the Independents, 
he saw nothing that was calculated to alarm his fears. This circum- 
stance was sufficient to render the Independents odious in the eyes of 
many, who would be naturally disposed to extend their abhorrence of 



or the government of synods and presbyteries. They 
were also much more attentive than the Brownists to the 
establishment of a regular ministry in their communities ; 
for, while the latter allowed promiscuously all ranks and 
orders of men to teach in public, and to perform the other 
pastoral functions, the Independents had, and still have, 
a certain number of ministers, chosen respectively by the 
congregations where they are fixed ; nor is any person 
among them permitted to speak in public, before he has 
submitted to a proper examination of his capacity and ta- 
lents, and has been approved by the heads of the congre 
gation. This community, which was originally formed 
in Holland in 1610, made at first but a very small pro- 
gress in England ; b it worked its way slowly, and in a 
clandestine manner; and its members concealed their 
principles from public view, to avoid the penal laws that 
had been enacted against Non-conformists. But during 
the reign of Charles I., when, amidst the shocks of civil 
and religious discord, the authority of the bishops and the 
cause of episcopacy began to decline, and more particular- 
ly about the year 1640, the Independents became more 
courageous, and came forth, with an air of resolution and 
confidence, to public view. After this period, their affairs 
took a prosperous turn ; and, in a little time, they became 
so considerable, both by their numbers, and by the repu- 
tation they acquired, that they vied in point of pre-emi- 
nence and credit, not only with the bishops, but also with 
the Presbyterians, while these were in the very zenith of 
their power. This rapid progress of the Independents, no 
doubt, arose from a variety of causes ; among which jus- 
tice obliges us to reckon the learning of their teachers, 
and the regularity and sanctity of their manners/ Dur- 



Cromwell to those who were the objects of his favour and protection. 

a The Independents were undoubtedly so called from their main- 
taining that all Christian congregations were so many independent 
religious societies, which had a right to be governed by their own laws, 
without being subject to any ulterior or foreign jurisdiction. Robinson, 
the founder of the sect, makes express use of this term in explaining his 
doctrine relating to ecclesiastical government ; '•' Ccetum quemlibet par- 
ticularem (says he, in his Apologia, cap. v. p. 22,) esse totam, integram, 
et perfectam ecclesiam ex suis partibus constantem, immediate et in- 
dependenter (quoad alias ecclesias) sub ipso Christo." It may possibly 
have been from this very passage that the title of Independent was 
originally derived. The disciples of Robinson did not reject it ; nor 
indeed is there any thing shocking in the title, when it is understood 
in a manner conformable to the sentiments of those to whom it is ap- 
plied. It was certainly utterly unknown in England before the year 
1640; at least it is not once mentioned in the ecclesiastical canons and 
constitutions that were drawn up, during that year, in the synods or 
visitations holden by the archbishops of Canterbury, York, and other 
prelates, in which canons all the various sects that then existed in Eng- 
land are particularly mentioned. See Wilkins' Concilia Magnae Bri- 
tannia; et Hibernias, vol. iv. cap. v. p. 548, where are the " constitutions 
and canons ecclesiastical treated upon by the archbishops of Canterbury 
and York, and the rest of the bishops and clergy, in their several synods." 
An. mdcxl. It is true, that not long after this period, and more parti- 
cularly from the year 1642, we find this denomination very frequently 
in the English annals. The English Independents were so far from 
being displeased with it, that they assumed it publicly in a piece they 
published in their own defence in 1644, under the following title; Apo- 
logetical Narration of the Independents. But when, in process of time, 
a great variety of sects, as has been already observed, sheltered them- 
selves under the cover of this extensive denomination, and even seditious 
subjects, who aimed at nothing less than the death of their sovereign 
and the destruction of the government, employed it as a mask to hide 
their deformity, then the true and genuine Independents renounced this 
title, and substituted a less odious appellation for it, calling themselves 
Congregational Brethren, and. their religious assemblies Congrega- 
tional Churches. 

|5» i> In 1616, Mr. Jacob, who had adopted the religious sentiments 
of Robinson, set up the first Independent or Congregational church in 
England. 

• Neal's History, vol. ii. p. 107, 393 ; vol. viii. p. 141, 276, 303, 437, 
549. See also Bohm's Englische Reformations-Historie, p. 794. 



P^RT II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



615 



ing the administration of Cromwell, whose peculiar pro- 
tection and patronage they enjoyed on more than one ac- 
count, their credit rose to the greatest height, and their 
influence and reputation were almost universal ; but, after 
the Restoration, their cause declined, and they fell back 
gradually into their primitive obscurity. The sect, in- 
deed, still subsisted, but in such a state of dejection and 
weakness, as engaged them in 1691, under the govern- 
ment of King William, to enter into an association with 
the Presbyterians residing in and about London, under 
certain heads of agreement, that tended to the mainte- 
nance of their respective institutions. 1 

XXII. While Oliver Cromwell held the reins of go- 
vernment in Great-Britain, all sects, even those that disho- 
noured true religion in the most shocking manner by their 
fanaticism or their ignorance, enjoyed a full and unbound- 
ed liberty of professing publicly their respective doctrines. 
The Episcopalians alone were excepted from this tolera- 
tion, and received the most severe and iniquitous treat- 
ment. The bishops were deprived of their dignities and 
revenues, and felt, in a particular manner, the heavy 
hand of oppression. But, though toleration was extend- 
ed to all other sects and religious communities, yet the 
Presbyterians and Independents were treated with pecu- 
liar marks of distinction and favour. Cromwell, though 
attached to no one particular sect, gave to the latter extraor- 
dinary proofs of his good-wiil, and augmented their credit 
and authority, as this seemed the easiest and least exas- 



■ From this time they were called United Brethren. The heads of 
agreement that formed and cemented this union aie to be found in the 
second volume of Whiston's Memoirs of his Life and Writings ; and 
they consist of nine articles. The first relates to " Churches and Church 
Members," in which the United Ministers, Presbyterians and Inde- 
pendents, declare, among other things, " That each particular church 
hath a right to choose its own officers, and, being furnished with such 
as are duly qualified and ordained according to the Gospel rule, hath 
authority from Christ for exercising government and enjoying all the 
ordinances of worship within itself: that, in the administration of 
church-power, it belongs to the pastors and other elders of every parti- 
cular church (if sueh there be) to rule and govern, and to the brother- 
hood to consent, according to the rule of the Gospel." In this both 
Presbyterians and Independents depart from the primitive principles of 
their respective institutions. Article II. relates to "the Ministry," 
which they grant to have been instituted by Jesus Christ, " for the 
gathering, guiding, edifying, and governing of his church." In this 
article it is farther observed, " that ministers ought to be endued with 
competent learning, sound judgment, and solid piety ; that none are to 
be ordained to the work of the ministry, but such, as are chosen and 
called thereunto by a particular church ;" that, in such a weighty matter, 
" it is ordinarily requisite, that every such church consult and advise 
with the pastors of neighbouring congregations : and that, after such 
advice, the person thus consulted about, being chosen by the brotherhood 
of that particular church, be duly ordained and set apart to his office 
over them." Article III. relates to " Censures," and prescribes, first, 
the admonishing, and, if this prove ineffectual, the excommunication of 
offending and scandalous members, to be performed by the pastors, with 
the consent of the brethren. Article IV. concerning the " Communion 
of Churches," lays it down as a principle, that there is no subordination 
between particular churches ; that they are all equal, and consequently 
independent ; that the pastors, however, of these churches " ought to have 
frequent meetings, that, by mutual advice, support, encouragement, and 
brotherly intercourse, they may strengthen the hearts and hands of each 
other in the ways of the Lord." In Article V. which relates to " Dea- 
cons and Ruling Elders," the United Brethren acknowledge, that, " the 
office of a deacon is of divine appointment, and that it belongs to his 
office to receive, lay out, and distribute, the stock of the church to its 
proper uses ;" and as there are different sentiments about the office of 
Ruling Elders, who labour not in word and doctrine, they agree that 
this difference makes no breach among tV-iTfi. In Article VI. concern- 
ing " Occasional Meetings of Ministers " •&c. the brethren agree, that 
it is needful, in weighty and difficult casp-s. '.'.at the ministers of several 
churches meet together, ."in order to Jc consulted and advised with 
about such matters ;" and that particular creches " ought to have a 
reverential regard to their judgment so given, and not dissent therefrom 
without upparent grounds from the word of God." Article VII. which 



perating method of setting bounds to the ambition of the 
Presbyterians, who aimed at a very high degree of eccle- 
siastical power. b It was during this period of religious anar- 
chy, that the Fifth-Monarchy-Men arose — a set of wrong- 
headed and turbulent enthusiasts, who expected Christ's 
sudden appearance upon earth to establish a new kingdom, 
and, acting in consequence of this illusion, aimed at the sub- 
version of all human government, and were for turning 
all things into the most deplorable confusion/- It was at 
this time also, that the Quakers, of whom we propose to 
give a more particular account, d and the hot-headed Ana- 
baptists, propagated, without restraint, their visionary doc- 
trines. It must likewise be observed, that the Deists, 
headed by Sidney, Neville, Martin, and Harrington, ap- 
peared with impunity, and promoted a kind of religion, 
which consisted in a few plain precepts, drawn from the 
dictates of natural reason. f 

XXIII. Among the various religious factions that 
sprang up in England during this period of confusion 
and anarchy, we may reckon a certain sect of Presbyte- 
rians, who were called by their adversaries Antino?nians, 
or enemies of the law, and still subsist even in our times. 
The Antinomians are a more rigid kind of Calvinists, 
who pervert Calvin's doctrine of absolute decrees to the 
worst purposes, by drawing from it conclusions highly 
detrimental to the interests of true religion and virtue. 
Such is the judgment that the other Presbyterian com- 
munities form of this perverse and extravagant sect.e 

relates to "the Demeanour of the Brethern towards the Civil Magis- 
trate," prescribes obedience to, and prayers for God's protection and 
blessing upon, their rulers. In Article VIII. which relates to a "Con- 
fession of Faith," the brethren esteem it sufficient, that a church acknow- 
ledge the Scriptures to be the word of God, the perfect and only rule of 
faith and practice, and " own either the doctrinal part of the articles of 
the church of England," or the Westminster Confession and Catechisms, 
drawn up by the Presbyterians, or the Confession of the Congregational 
Brethren (i. e. the Independents) to be agreeable to the said rule. 
Article IX. which concerns the " duty and deportment of the Brethren 
towards those who are not in communion with them," inculcates charity 
and moderation. It appears from these articles, that the Independents 
were led by a kind of necessity to adopt, in many things, the sentiments 
of the Presbyterians, and to depart thus far from the original principles 
of their sect. 

f^T b Soon after Cromwell's elevation, it was resolved by the parlia- 
ment, at the conclusion of a debate concerning public worship and church- 
government, that the Presbyterian system should be the established 
government. The Independents had not yet agreed upon any standard 
of faith and discipline ; and it was only a little before Cromwell's death 
that they held a synod, by his permission, in order to publish to the 
world an uniform account of their doctrine and principles. 

c See Burnet's History of his own Time, vol. i. p. 67. 

& See the History of the Q.uakers, in the present volume. 

gJT • We are not to imagine, by the term hot-headed, (furiosi,) that 
the Anabaptists resembled the furious fanatics of that name who for- 
merly excited such dreadful tumults in Germany, and more especially 
at Munster. This was by no means the case ; the English Anabap- 
tists differed from their Protestant brethren about the subject and mode 
of baptism alone, confining the former to grown Christians, and the 
latter to immersion, or dipping. They were divided into Generals and 
Particulars, from their different sentiments upon the Arminian contro- 
versy. The latter, who were so called from their belief of the doctrines of 
particular election, redemption, &c. were strict Calvinists, who separa- 
ted from the Independent congregation at Leyden in 1038. Their con- 
fession was composed with a remarkable spirit of modesty and charity. 
Their preachers were generally illiterate, and were eager in making 
proselytes of all that would submit to their immersion, without a due 
regard to their religious principles, or their moral characters. The 
writers of these times represent them as tinctured with a kind of enthu- 
siastic fury against all that opposed them. There were, nevertheless, 
among them some learned and pious persons, who highly disapproved 
all violent and uncharitable proceedings. 

f Neal's History, vol. iv. p. 87. 

e See Toland's Letters to Le Clerc, in the periodical work of the 
latter, entitled, Bibliothcque Universelle et Historique.tom. xxiii.p. 505 j 
and also Hornbeck's Summa Controversiarum, p. 800, 812. 



616 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. IL 



Several of the Antinomians (for they are not all precisely 
of the same mind) look upon it as unnecessary for Chris- 
tian ministers to exhort their flock to a virtuous practice, 
and a pious obedience to the divine law, "since they whom 
God has elected to salvation, by an eternal and immutable 
decree, will, by the irresistible impulse of divine grace, be 
led to the practice of piety and virtue ; while those who 
are doomed by a divine decree to eternal punishment, 
will never be engaged, by any exhortations or admonitions, 
how affecting soever they may be, to a virtuous course ; 
nor have they it in their power to obey the divine law, 
when the succours of divine grace are withholden from 
them." From these principles they concluded, that the 
ministers of the Gospel discharged sufficiently their pas- 
toral functions, when they inculcated the necessity of faith 
in Christ, and proclaimed to their people the blessings of 
the new covenant. Another, and a still more hideous 
%m of Antinomianism, is that which is exhibited in the 
opinions of other doctors of that sect, a who maintain, 
•' That, as the elect cannot fall from grace or forfeit the 
divine favour, the wicked actions they commit, and the 
violations of the divine law with wdiich they are charge- 
able, are not really sinful, nor are to be considered as in- 
stances of their departing from the law of God ; and, 
consequently, they have no occasion either to confess 
their sins or to break them off by repentance. Thus adul- 
tery, for example, in one of the elect, though it may ap- 
pear sinful in the sight of men, and be considered uni- 
versally as an enormous violation of the divine law, yet is 
not a sin in the sight of God, because it is one of the 
essential and distinctive characters of the elect, that they 
cannot do any thing which is either displeasing to God, 
or prohibited by the law." b 

XXIV. The public calamities, that flowed from these 
vehement and uncharitable disputes about religion, afflict- 
ed all wise and good men, and engaged several who were 
not less eminent for their piety than for their moderation 
and wisdom, to seek some method of uniting such of the 
contending parties as were capable of listening to thedic- 
•ates of charity and reason, or at least of calming their ani- 
mosities, and persuading them to mutual forbearance. 
These pacific doctors offered themselves as mediators be- 
tween the more violent Episcopalians on the one hand, 
and the more rigid Presbyterians and Independents on 
the other ; and hoped that, when their differences were 
accommodated, the minor factions would fall of them- 
selves. The contests that reigned between the former 
turned partly on the forms of church government and 
public worship, and partly on certain religious tenets, 
more especially those that were debated between the Ar- 
minians and Calvinists. To lessen the breach that kept 

|TJr " This second Antinomian hypothesis has certainly a still more 
odious aspect than the first ; and it is therefore surprising that our author 
should use, in the original, these terms ; Alii tantum statuunl, Elec- 
tos, fyc. 

"> There is an account of the other tenets of the Antinomians, and of 
the modern disputes that were occasioned by the publication of the post- 
humous works of Crisp, a flaming doctor of that extravagant and per- 
nicious sect, given by Pierre Francois le Courayer, in his Examen des 
Defauts Theologiques, torn. ii. p. 198. Baxter and Tillotson distin- 
guished themselves by their zeal against the Antinomians ; and they 
were also completely refuted by Dr. Williams, in his famous book, 
entitled, Gospel Truth Stated and Vindicated, frjf I have been inform- 
ed, since the first edition of this history was published, that the book 
entitled Examen des Defauts Theologiques, which our author supposes 
*o have been written by Dr. Courayer, is the production of another 
pen. 



these two great communities at such a distance from each 
other, the arbitrators, already mentioned, endeavoured to 
draw them out of their narrow enclosures, to render their 
charity more extensive, and widen the paths of salvation, 
which bigotry and party-rage had been labouring to render 
inaccessible to many good Christians. This noble and 
truly evangelical method of proceeding procured to its au- 
thors the denomination of Latitudinarians. c Their views, 
indeed, were generous and extensive. They were zeal- 
ously attached to the forms of ecclesiastical government 
and worship that were established in the church of Eng- 
land, and they recommended episcopacy with all the 
strength and power of their eloquence ; but they did not 
go so far as to look upon it as of divine institution, or as 
absolutely and indispensably necessary to the constitu- 
tion of a Christian church ; and hence they maintained, 
that those who followed other forms of government and 
worship, were not, on that account, to be excluded from 
their communion, or to forfeit the title of brethren. As 
to the doctrinal part of religion, they took the system of 
the famous Episcopius for their model ; and, like him, 
reduced the fundamental doctrines of Christianity (or 
those doctrines, the belief of which is necessary to salva- 
tion,) to a few points. By this manner of proceeding 
they showed, that neither the Episcopalians, who, gene- 
rally speaking, embraced the sentiments of the Arminians 
nor the Presbyterians and Independents, who as gene- 
rally adopted the doctrine of Calvin, had any reason tc 
oppose each other with such animosity and bitterness 
since the subjects of their debates were matters of an in 
different nature, with respect to salvation, and might be 
variously explained and understood, without any preju- 
dice to their eternal interests. The chief leaders of these 
Latitudinarians were Hales and Chillingworth, whose 
names are still pronounced in England with that vene- 
ration which is due to distinguished wisdom and rational 
piety. d The respectable names of More, Cudworth, Gale, 
Whichcot, and Tillotson. add a high degree of lustre to 
this eminent list. The undertaking of these great men, 
was indeed bold and perilous ; and it drew upon them 
much opposition, and many bitter reproaches. They re- 
ceived, as the first fruits of their charitable zeal, the odi- 
ous appellations of Atheists, Deists, and Socinians, both 
from the Roman Catholics and the more rigid of the con- 
tending protestant parties ; but, on the restoration of 
Charles II., they were raised to the first dignities of the 
church, and were deservedly holden in general esteem. 
It is also well known, that, even at the present time, the 
church of England is chiefly governed by Latitudinari- 
ans of this kind, though there be among both bishops 
and clergy, from time to time, ecclesiastics who breathe 



c See Burnet's History of his own Time, vol. i. book ii. 

d The life of the ingenious and worthy Mr. Hales was composed in 
English by M. Des-Maizeaux, and published at London in 1719; it 
was considerably augmented in the Latin translation of it, which I pre- 
fixed to the account of the synod of Dordrecht, drawn from the letters 
of that great man, and published at Hamburg in 1724. A life of Mr. 
Hales, written in French, is to be found in the first volume of the French 
translation of Chillingworth's Religion of Protestants, a safe Way to 
Salvation. The life of Chillingworth also was drawn up by Des- 
Maizeaux in English : and a French translation of it appeared in 1730 
at the head of the excellent book now mentioned, which was also trans- 
lated into that language, and published at Amsterdam in 1730. Those 
who are desirous of acquiring a thorough knowledge of the doctrines, 
government, laws, and present state of the church of England, will do 
well to read the history of these two men, and more especially to peruse 
Chillingworth's admirable book already mentioned. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



617* 



the narrow and despotic spirit of Laud, and who, in the ' 
language of faction, are called High-Churchmen, or 
Church-Tories.* 

XXV. No sooner was Charles II. re-established on the ' 
throne of his ancestors, than the ancient forms of eccle- 
siastical government and public worship were restored 
with him, and the bishops reinstated in their dignities and 
honours. The Non-conformists hoped, that they should 
be allowed to share some part of the honours and revenues 
of the church ; but their expectations were totally disap- 
pointed, and the face of affairs changed very suddenly 
with respect to them ; for Charles subjected to the go- 
vernment of bishops, not only the church of Ireland, but 
also that of Scotland, a nation which was peculiarly 
attached to the ecclesiastical discipline and polity of Ge- 
neva ; and, in 1662, a public law was enacted, by which 
all who refused to observe the rites, and subscribe the 
doctrines of the church of England, were entirely ex- 
cluded from its communion. b From this period until 
the reign of William III. the Non-conformists were in a 
precarious and changing situation, sometimes involved in 
calamity and trouble, at others enjoying some intervals 
of tranquillity and gleams of hope, according to the vary- 
ing spirit of the court and ministry, but never entirely 
free from perplexities and fears. c But, in 1689, their 
affairs took a favourable turn, when a bill for the toleration 
of all protestant dissenters from the church of England, 
except the Socinians, passed in parliament almost without 
opposition, and delivered them from the penal laws to 
which they had been subjected by the act of uniformity, 
and other statutes enacted under the sway of the Stuart 
family." 1 Nor did the protestant dissenters in England 
enjoy, alone, the benefits of this act ; for it extended also 
to the Scottish church, which was permitted thereby to 
follow the ecclesiastical discipline of Geneva, and was de- 
livered from the jurisdiction of bishops, and from the forms 
of worship that were annexed to episcopacy. It is from 
this period that the non-conformists date the liberty and 
tranquillity they have long been blessed with, and which 
they still enjoy ; but it is also observable, that it is to the 
transactions carried on during this period, in favour of reli- 
gious liberty, that we must chiefly impute the multitude 
of religious sects and factions, that start up from time to 
time in that free and happy island, and involve its inhabi- 
tants in the perplexities of religious division and controversy. 6 

* See Rapin's Dissertation on the Whigs and Tories, f^f See an 
admirable defence of the latitudinarian divines, in a book entitled, The 
Principles and Practices of certain moderate Divines of the Church of 
England (greatly misunderstood) truly represented and defended, Lon- 
don, 1670. This book was written by Dr. Fowler, afterwards bishop 
of Gloucester. N. 

f^f b This was the famous Act of Uniformity, in consequence 
of which the validity of presbyterian ordination was renounced, the 
ministrations of the foreign churches were disowned, the terms of con- 
formity rendered more difficult, and raised higher than before the civil 
wars ; and by which (contrary to the manner of proceeding in the times 
of Elizabeth and Cromwell, both of whom reserved for the subsistence 
of each ejected clergyman a fifth part of his benefice) no provision was 
made for tnose who should be deprived of their livings. See Wilkins' 
Concilia Magna; Britannise et Hiberniae, torn. iv. p. 573. — Burnet's 
History of his own Time, vol. ii. p, 190, &c. — Neal's History of the 
Puritans, vol. iv. p. 358. 

e See the whole fourth volume o<" Neat's History. 

4 This was called the Toleration Act ; and it may be seen at length 
in the Appendix, subjoined to the fourth volume of Neal's History of 
the Puritans. — gjf It is entitled, An Act for exempting their Majesties' 
Protestant Subjects, dissenting from the Church of England, from the 
Penalties of certain Laws. In this bill the Corporation and Test acts 
are omitted, and consequently still remain in force. The Socinians are 

No.LII. 155 



XXVI. In the reign of King William, and in the year 
1689, the divisions among the friends of episcopacy ran 
high, and terminated in that famous schism in the church 
of England, which has never hitherto been entirely heal- 
ed. Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, and seven of the 
other bishops/ all of whom were eminently distinguished 
both by their learning and their virtue, deemed it unlaw- 
ful to take the oath of allegiance to the new king, from 
a mistaken notion that James II., though banished from 
his dominions, remained their rightful sovereign. As 
these scruples were deeply rooted, and no arguments or 
exhortations could engage these prelates to acknowledge 
the title of the prince of Orange to the crown of Great 
Britain, they were deprived of their ecclesiastical dignities, 
and their sees were filled by other men of eminent merit.* 
The deposed bishops and clergy formed a new episcopal 
church, which differed, in some points of doctrine, and 
certain circumstances of public worship, from the establish- 
ed church. The members of this new religious commu- 
nity were denominated No?i-jurors, on account of their 
refusing to take the oath of allegiance, and were also call- 
ed the High- Church party, on account of the high no- 
tions they entertained of the dignity and power of the 
church, and the extent they gave to its prerogatives and 
jurisdiction. Those, on the other hand, who disapproved 
this schism, who distinguished themselves by their cha- 
rity and moderation toward dissenters, and were less ardent 
in extending the limits of ecclesiastical authority, were 
denominated Low-Churchmen. h The bishops who were 
deprived of their sees, and those who embarked in their 
cause, maintained openly that the church was not depen- 
dent on the jurisdiction of the king or the parliament, but 
was subject to the authority of God alone, and empower- 
ed to govern itself by its own laws ; that consequently the 
sentence, pronounced against these prelates by the great 
council of the nation, was destitute both of justice and vali- 
dity : and that it was only h\ the decree of an ecclesias- 
tical council that a bishop could be deposed. These high 
notions of the authority and prerogatives of the church 
were maintained and propagated, with peculiar zeal, by 
the famous Henry Dodwell, who led the way in this im- 
portant cause, and who, by his example and abilities, form- 
ed a considerable number of champions for its defence. 
Hence arose a very nice and intricate controversy, con- 
cerning the nature, privileges, and authority of the church, 

also excepted ; but provision is made for Quakers, upon their making a 
solemn declaration, instead of taking the oaths to the government. This 
act excuses protestant dissenters from the penalties of die laws therein 
mentioned, provided they take the oaths to the government, and sub- 
scribe the doctrinal articles of the church of England. 

• Burnet's History of his own Time, vol. ii. p. 23. 

§£§* ' The other non-juring bishops were Lloyd, bishop of Norwich ; 
Turner, of Ely; Kenn, of Bath and Wells; Frampton, of Gloucester; 
Thomas, of Worcester ; Lake, of Chichester, and White, of Peterbo- 
rough. 

?3r B Among these were Tillotson, Moore, Patrick, Kidder, Fowler, 
and Cumberland, names that will be ever pronounced with veneration 
by such as are capable of esteeming well employed learning and genuine 
piety, and that will always shine among the brightest ornaments of the 
church of England. 

i> The denomination of High-church is given certainly, with great 
propriety, to the Non-jurors, who have very proud notions of church 
power; but it is commonly used in a more extensive signification, and 
is applied to all those who, though far from being Non-jurors, or other- 
wise disaffected to the present happy establishment, "«" form pompous 
and ambitious conceptions of the authority and jurisdiction of the church, 
and would raise it to an absolute exemption from all human contrcl. 
Many such are to be found even among those who go under the general 
denomination of the Low-Church party. 



618 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. II 



which has not yet been brought to a satisfactory con- 
clusion. 1 

XXVII. The Non-jurors or High-Churchmen, who 
boast with peculiar ostentation of their orthodoxy, and 
treat the Low-Church as unsound and schismatical, dif- 
fer in several things from the members of the episcopal 
church, in its present establishment ; but they are more 
particularly distinguished by the following principles : 
1. That it is never lawful for the people, under any pro- 
vocation or pretext whatever, to resist the sovereign. 
This is called in England passive obedience, and is a 
doctrine warmly opposed by many, who think it both 
lawful and necessary, in certain circumstances, and in 
cases of an urgent and momentous nature, to resist the 
prince for the happiness of the people. They maintain far- 
ther, 2. That the hereditary succession to the throne is of 
divine institution, and therefore can never be interrupted, 
suspended, or annulled, on any pretext: 3. That the church 
is subject to the jurisdiction, not of the civil magistrate, 
but of God alone, particularly in matters of a religious 
nature : 4. That, consequently, Sancroft, and the other 
bishops, deposed by King William III., remained, notwith- 
standing their deposition, true bishops, to the day of their 
death ; and that those who were substituted in th<iir places 
were the unjust possessors of other men's property : 5. 
That these unjust possessors of ecclesiastical dignities 
were rebels against the state, as well as schismatics in 
the church ; and that all, therefore, who held communion 
with them, were also chargeable with rebellion and 
schism : 6. That this schism, which rends the church in 
pieces, is a most heinous sin, and that the punishment 
due to it must fall heavy upon all those who do not re- 
turn sincerely to the true church, from which they have 
departed. 15 

XXVIII. It will now be proper to change the scene, 
and to consider a little the state of the reformed church 
in Holland. The Dutch Calvinists thought themselves 
happy after the defeat of the Arminians, and were flat- 
tering themselves with the agreeable prospect of enjoying 
long, in tranquillity and repose, the fruits of their victory, 
when new scenes of tumult arose from another quarter. 
Scarcely had they triumphed over the enemies of abso- 
lute predestination, when, by an ill hap, they became the 
prey of intestine disputes, and were divided among them- 
selves in such a deplorable manner, that, during the 
whole of this century, the United Provinces were a scene 
of contention, animosity, and strife. It is not necessary to 
mention all the subjects of these religious quarrels ; nor 
indeed would this be an easy task. We shall therefore 
pass over in silence the debates of certain divines, who 



fjjf a Dodwell himself was deprived of his professorship of history, 
for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to King William and Queen 
Mary ; and this circumstance, no doubt, augmenter 1 '«he zeal with which 
he interested himself in the defence of the bishops, who were suspended 
for the same reason. It was on this occasion that he published his 
" Cautionary Discourse of Schism, with a particular regard to the case 
of the bishops, who are suspended for refusing to take the new oath." 
This book was fully refuted by the learned Dr. Hody, in 1691, in a 
work entitled, " The Unreasonableness of a Separation from the new 
Bishops : or a Treatise out of Ecclesiastical History, showing, that 
although a bishop was unjustly deprived, neither he nor the church ever 
made a separation, if the successor was not a heretic ;" translated out 
of an ancient Greek manuscript (among the Baroccian MSS.) in the 
public library at Oxford. The learned author translated this work 
afterwards into Latin, and prefixed to it some pieces out of ecclesiastical 
antiquity, relative to the same subject. Dodwell published, in 1692, an 
answer to it, which he called, "A Vindication of the deprived Bishops," 
Ac, to which Dr. Hody replied, in a treatise entitled, " The Case of 



disputed about some particular, though not very momen- 
tous, points of doctrine and discipline ; such as those of 
the famous Voet and the learned Des-Marets ; as also the 
disputes of Salmasius, Boxhorn, Voet, and others, con- 
cerning usury, ornaments in dress, stage-plays, and other 
minute points of morality ; and the contests of Apollo- 
nius, Trigland, and Vedelius, concerning the power of 
the magistrate in matters of religion and ecclesiastical dis- 
cipline, which produced such a flaming division between 
Frederic Spanheim and John Vander-Wayen. These, 
and other debates of the like nature and importance 
rather discover the sentiments of certain learned men, 
concerning some particular points of religion and mora- 
lity, than exhibit a clear view of the internal state of the 
Belgic church. The knowledge of this must be derived 
from those controversies alone in which the whole church, 
or at least the greatest part of its doctors, have been 
directly concerned. 

XXIX. Such were the controversies occasioned in Hol- 
land by the philosophy of Des-Cartes, and the theological 
novelties of Cocceius. Hence arose the two powerful and 
numerous factions, distinguished by the denominations of 
Cocceians and Voetians, which still subsist, though their 
debates are now less violent, and their champions some- 
what more moderate than they were in former times. 
The Cocceian theology and the Cartesian philosophy 
have, indeed, no common features, nor any thing, in their 
respective tenets and principles, that was in the least adapt- 
ed to form a connexion between them ; and, in consequence, 
the debates they excited, and the factions they produced, 
had no natural relation to, or dependence on, each other. 
It nevertheless so happened, that the respective votaries 
of these very different sciences formed themselves into 
one sect ; so far at least, that those who chose Cocceius 
for their guide in theology, took Des-Cartes for their mas 
ter in philosophy. This will appear less surprising when 
we consider, that the very same persons who opposed the 
progress of Cartesianism in Holland were the warm ad- 
versaries of the Cocceian theology ; for this opposition, 
equally levelled at these two great men and their respec- 
tive systems, laid the Cartesians and Cocceians under a 
kind of necessity of uniting their force, in order to defend 
their cause, in a more effectual manner, against the for- 
midable attacks of their numerous adversaries. The Voe- 
tians were so called from Gisbert Voet, a learned and emi- 
nent professor of divinity in the university of Utrecht, 
who fust sounded the alarm of this theologico-philosophi- 
cal war, and led on, with zeal, the polemic legions against 
those who followed the standard of Des-Cartes and Coc- 



ceius. 



the Sees vacant by an unjust or uncanonical Deprivation stated, ir. 
reply to the Vindication," &c. The controversy did not end here ; for 
it was extremely difficult to reduce Mr. Dodwell to silence. Accordingly 
he came forth a third time with his stiff and rigid polemics, and publish- 
ed, in 1695, his Defence of the Vindication of the deprived Bishops. 
The preface which he designed for this work, was at first suppressed, 
but appeared afterwards under the following title : " The Doctrine of 
the Church of England concerning the independency of the Clergy on 
the Lay-power, as to those rights of theirs which are purely spiritual, 
reconciled with our oath of supremacy and the lay-deprivation of the 
popish Bishops in the beginning of the Reformation. Several other 
pamphlets were published on the subject of this controversy. 

b See Whiston's Memoirs, of his Life and Writings, vol. i. p. 30.— 
Hickes' Memoirs of the Life of John Kettlewell. — Nouveau Diction. 
Histor. et Crit. at the article Collier.— Ph. Masson, Histoire Critique 
de la Repub. des Lettres, torn. xiii. p. 298. 

c See Fred. Spanhemii Epistola de novissimis in Belgio Dissidiis, 
torn. ii. op. p. 973. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



619 



XXX. The Cartesian philosophy, at its first appear- 
ance, attracted the attention and esteem of many, and 
seemed more conformable to truth and nature, as well 
as more elegant and pleasing in its aspect, than the intri- 
cate labyrinths of Peripatetic wisdom. It was considered 
in this light in Holland ; it however met there with a 
formidable adversary, in 1639, in the famous Voet above 
mentioned, who taught theology with the greatest reputa- 
tion, and gave plain intimations of his looking upon Car- 
tesianism as a system of impiety. Voet was a man of 
uncommon application and immense learning ; he had 
made an extraordinary progress in the various branches 
of erudition and philosophy ; but he was not endowed 
with a large portion of that philosophical spirit, which 
judges with acuteness and precision of natural science 
and abstract truths. While Des-Cartes resided at Utrecht, 
Voet found fault with many things in his philosophy ; 
but what induced him to cast upon it the aspersion of im- 
piety, was its being introduced by the following principles : 
" That the person who aspires to the character of a true 
philosopher must begin by doubting of all things, even 
of the existence of a Supreme Being — that the nature or 
essence of spirit, and even of God himself, consists in 
thought — that space has no real existence, and is no more 
than the creature of fancy, — and that, consequently, mat- 
ter is without bounds." 

Des-Cartes defended his principles, with his usual acute- 
ness, against the professor of Utrecht ; his disciples and 
followers thought themselves obliged, on this occasion, to 
assist their master ; and thus war was formally declared. 
On the other hand, Voet was not only seconded by those 
Belgic divines who were the most eminent, at this time, 
for the extent of their learning and the soundness of their 
theology, such as Rivet, Des-Marets, and Maestricht, but 
also was followed and applauded by the greatest part of 
the Dutch clergy . a While the flame of controversy burn- 
ed with sufficient ardour, it was considerably augmented 
by the proceedings of certain doctors, who applied the 
principles and tenets of Des-Cartes to the illustration of 
theological truth. Hence, in 1656, an alarm was raised 
in the Dutch churches and schools, and a strong resolu- 
tion was taken in several of their ecclesiastical assemblies 
(commonly called classes,) to make head against Carte- 
sianism, and not to permit that imperious philosophy to 
make such encroachments upon the domain of theology. 
The states of Holland not only approved this resolution, 
but also gave a new force and efficacy by a public edict, 
issued in the same year, by which both the professors of 
philosophy and theology were forbidden either to explain 
the writings of Des-Cartes to the youth under their care, 
or to illustrate the doctrines of the Gospel by the princi- 
ples of philosophy. It was farther resolved in an assem- 
bly of the clergy, holden at Delft in the following year, 
that no candidate for holy orders should be received into 
the ministry before he made a solemn declaration, that 
he would neither promote the Cartesian philosophy, nor 
disfigure the divine simplicity of religion, by loading it 
with foreign ornaments. Laws of a like tenor were after- 
wards passed by the States-general, and by the govern- 
ments of other countries. b But as there is in human 

m See Baillet's Vie de M. Des-Cartes, torn. ii. chap. v. and Daniel's 
Voyage du Monde de M. Des-Cartes. 
b Fred. Spanheim, de novissimis in Belgio Dissidiis, torn. ii. op. p. 



nature a strange propensity to struggle against authority, 
and to pursue, with a peculiar degree of ardour, things 
that are forbidden, so it happened, that all these edicts 
proved insufficient to stop the progress of Cartesianism, 
which at length obtained a solid and permanent footing 
in the seminaries of learning, and was applied, both in 
the universities and churches, and sometimes indeed very 
preposterously, to explain the truths and precepts of Chris- 
tianity. Hence it was, that the United Provinces were 
divided into the two great factions already mentioned, and 
that the whole remainder of this century was spent 
amidst their contentions and debates. 

XXXI. John Koch of Cocceius, a native of Bremen, 
and professor of divinity in the university of Leyden, 
might have certainly passed for a great man, had his vast 
erudition, his exuberant fancy, his ardent piety, and his 
uncommon application to the study of the Scriptures, 
been under the direction of a sound and solid judgment. 
This singular man introduced into theology a multitude 
of new tenets and strange notions, which had never be- 
fore entered into the brain of any other mortal, or at least 
had never been heard of before his time. In the first 
place, as has been already hinted, his manner of explain- 
ing Scripture was totally different from that of Calvin and 
his followers. Departing entirely from the admirable sim- 
plicity that reigns in the commentaries of that great man, 
he represented the whole history of the Old Testament 
as a mirror, that held forth an accurate view of the trans- 
actions and events which were to happen in the church 
under the dispensation of the New Testament, and to the 
end of the world. He even went so far as to maintain, 
that the miracles, actions, and sufferings of Christ and of 
his apostles, during the course of their ministry, were 
types and images of future events. He affirmed, that the 
far greater part of the ancient prophecies foretold Christ's 
ministry and mediation, and the rise, progress, and revo- 
lutions of the church, not only under the figures of per- 
sons and transactions, but in a literal manner, and by the 
very sense of 'the words, used in these predictions ; and 
he completed the extravagance of this chimerical system, 
by turning, with wonderful art and dexterity, into holy 
riddles and typical predictions, even those passages of the 
Old Testament which seemed intended for no other pur- 
pose than to celebrate the praises of the Deity, convey 
some religious truth, or inculcate some rule of practice. 
In order to give an air of solidity and plausibility to these 
eccentric notions, he first laid it down as a fundamental 
rule of interpretation, " That the words and phrases of 
Scripture are to be understood in every sense of which 
they are susceptible ; or, in other words, that they signify, 
in effect, every thing that they can signify ;" a rule which, 
when followed by a man who had more imagination than 
judgment, could not fail to produce very extraordinary 
comments on the sacred writings. After having laid 
down this singular rule, he divided the whole history of 
the church into seven periods, conformable to the seven 
trumpets and seals mentioned in the Revelations. 

XXXII. One of the great designs formed by Cocceius, 
was that of separating theology from philosophy, and of 
confining the Christian doctors, in their explications of 

959. — The reader may also consult the historians of this century, such 
as Arnold, Weismann, Jager, Carolus, and also Walchius' Histor. 
Controvers. Germanic, torn. iii. 



620 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



the former, to the words and phrases of the Scriptures. 
Hence it was, that, finding, in the language of the sacred 
writers, the Gospel dispensation represented under the 
ima°"e of a covenant made between God and man, he 
looked upon the use of this image as admirably adapted 
to exhibit a complete and well connected system of religi- 
ous truth. But while he was labouring this point, and 
endeavouring to accommodate the circumstances and 
characters of human contracts to the dispensations of di- 
vine wisdom, which they represent in such an inaccurate 
and imperfect manner, he fell imprudently into some 
erroneous notions. Such was his opinion concerning the 
covenant made between God and the Jewish nation by 
the ministry and the mediation of Moses, which he 
affirmed to be " of the same nature with the new cove- 
nant obtained by the mediation of Jesus Christ." In con- 
sequence of this general principle, he maintained, " That 
the Ten Commandments were promulgated by Moses 
not as a rule of obedience, but as a representation of the 
covenant of grace ; that when the Jews had provoked 
the Deity, by their various transgressions, particularly by 
the worship of the golden calf, the severe and servile yoke 
of the ceremonial law was added to the decalogue, as a 
punishment inflicted on them by the Supreme Being in 
his righteous displeasure ; that this yoke, which was pain- 
ful in itself, became doubly so on account of its typical 
signification, since it admonished the Israelites, from day 
to day, of the imperfection and uncertainty of their state, 
filled them with anxiety, and was a standing and perpetual 
proof that they had merited the displeasure of God, and 
could not expect, before the coming of the Messiah, the 
entire remission of their transgressions and iniquities : 
that, indeed, good men, even under the Mosaic dispen- 
sation, were immediately after death made partakers of 
everlasting happiness and glory ; but that they were, 
nevertheless, during the whole course of their lives, far 
removed from that firm hope and assurance of salvation, 
with which the faithful are gratified under the dispensa- 
tion of the Gospel, and that their anxiety flowed naturally 
from this consideration, that their sins, though they re- 
mained unpunished, were not pardoned, because Christ 
had not then offered himself up a sacrifice to the Father 
to make an entire atonement for them." These are the 
principal lines that distinguish the Cocceian from other 
systems of theology ; it is attended, indeed, with other 
peculiarities; but we shall pass them over in silence, as 
of little moment, and unworthy of notice. These notions 
were warmly opposed by the persons who had declared war 
against the Cartesian philosophy ; and the contest was 
carried on for many years with various success. But in the 
issue, the doctrines of Cocceius, like those of Des-Cartes, 
maintained their ground ; and neither the dexterity nor 
tire vehemence of his adversaries could exclude his disci- 
ples from the public seminaries of learning, or hinder them 
from propagating, with surprising success and rapidity, the 
tenets of their master in Germany and Switzerland. 11 
XXXIII. The other controversies that divided the 

* See Baillet's Vie de M^ Des-Cartes. torn. ii. p. 33.— Daniel's Voy- 
age du Monde de Des-Cartes. — Val. Alberti AittXoSv rairira, Cartesian- 
ismus et Cocceianismus descripti et refutati. 

k See the Biblioth. Univers. et Historique of Le Clerc, torn. vi. 

For an account of Roell, see the Bibliotheca Bremens, Theologico- 
Philolog. torn. ii. p. vi. p. 707 ; and Casp, Burmanni Trajectum Eru- 
ditum, p. 306. 



Batavian church during this century, arose from the im- 
moderate propensity that certain doctors discovered toward 
an alliance between the Cartesian philosophy and their 
theological system. This will appear, with the utmost 
evidence, from the debates excited by Roell and Becker, 
which surpassed all the others, both by the importance of 
their subjects and by the noise they made in the world. 
About the year 1686, certain Cartesian doctors of divinity, 
headed by the ingenious Herman Alexander Roell, pro- 
fessor of theology in the university of Franeker, seemed 
to attribute to the dictates of reason a more extensive 
authority in religious matters, than they had hitherto 
possessed. The controversy occasioned by this innovation 
was reducible to the two following questions : " I. Whether 
the divine origin and authority of Scripture can be 
demonstrated by reason alone, or whether an inward tes- 
timony of the Holy Spirit in the hearts of Christians be 
necessary in order to the firm belief of this fundamental 
point ? 2. Whether the sacred writings propose to us, 
as an object of faith, any thing that is repugnant to the 
dictates of right reason ?" These questions were answer- 
ed, the former in the affirmative, and the latter in the 
negative, not only by Roell, but also by Vander-Wayen, 
Wessel, Duker, Ruard ab Andala, and other doctors, who 
were opposed on this occasion by Ulric Nuber, an eminent 
lawyer, Gerard de Vries, and others of inferior note. b 
The flame excited by this controversy spread itself far and 
wide through the United Provinces ; and its progress 
seemed to be increasing from day to day, when the states 
of Friseland prudently interposed to restore the peace of 
the church, by imposing silence on the contending par- 
ties. Those whose curiosity may engage them to exa- 
mine with attention and accuracy the points debated in this 
controversy, will find, that a very considerable part of it 
was merely a dispute about words, and that the real dif- 
ference of sentiment that existed between these learned 
disputants might have been easily accommodated, by 
proper explications on both sides. 

XXXIV. Not long after this controversy had been 
hushed, Roell alarmed the orthodoxy of his colleagues, 
and more particularly of the learned Vitringa, by some 
other new tenets, that rendered the soundness of his reli- 
gious principles extremely doubtful, not only in their 
opinion, but likewise in the judgment of many Dutch 
divines ; c for he maintained, u That the account we have 
of the generation of the Son, in the sacred writings, is not 
to be understood in a literal sense, or as a real generation 
of a natural kind ;" he also affirmed, " That the afflic- 
tions and death of the righteous are as truly the penal 
effects of original sin, as the afflictions and death of the 
wicked and impenitent ;" and he entertained notions con- 
cerning the divine decrees, original sin, the satisfaction of 
Christ, and some points of less moment, which differed in 
reality, or by the manner of expressing them seemed to 
differ greatly, from the doctrines received and established 
in the Dutch church. d The magistrates of Friseland 
used all the precautions that prudence could suggest, to 



d Those who are desirous of the most accurate account of the errors 
of Roell, will find them enumerated in a public piece composed by the 
faculty of theology at Leyden, in order to confirm the sentence of con- 
demnation that had been pronounced against them by the Dutch synods. 
This piece is entitled, Judicium Ecclesiasticum, quo Opiniones quaedam 
CI. H. A. Roellii synodice damnatee sunt, laudatum a Professoribus 
Theologix in Academia Lugduno-Batava. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE REFORMED CHURCH. 



621 



prevent these controversies from being propagated in their 
province ; and they enacted several laws for this purpose, 
all tending toward peace and silence. This conduct, 
however, was not imitated by the other provinces, where 
Roell and his disciples were condemned, both in private 
and in public, as heretics and corruptors of divine truth. a 
Nor did the death of this eminent man extinguish the 
animosity and resentment of his adversaries ; for his dis- 
ciples were still treated with severity ; and, notwithstand- 
ing the solemn protestations they have given of the 
soundness and purity of their religious sentiments, they 
labour under the imputation of many concealed errors. 

XXXV. The controversy set on foot by the ingenious 
Balthasar Becker, minister at Amsterdam, must not be 
omitted. This learned ecclesiastic took occasion, from 
the Cartesian definition of spirit, of the truth and preci- 
sion of which he was intimately persuaded, to deny boldly 
all the accounts we have in Scripture of the seduction, in- 
fluence, and operations of the devil and his infernal emis- 
saries, as also all that has been said in favour of the exis- 
tence of ghosts, spectres, and magicians. The long and 
elaborate work which he published in 1691, upon this 
interesting subject, is still extant. In this singular produc- 
tion, which bears the title of the World Bewitched, he 
modifies and perverts, with the greatest ingenuity, but also 
with equal temerity and presumption, the accounts given 
by the sacred writers of the power of Satan and wicked 
angels, and of persons possessed by evil spirits; he 
affirms, moreover, that the unhappy and malignant being, 
who is called in Scripture Satan, or the Devil, is chained 
down with his infernal ministers in hell; so that he can 
never come forth from this eternal prison to terrify mor- 
tals, or to seduce the righteous from the paths of virtue. 
According to the Cartesian definition above mentioned, 
the essence of spirit consists in thought ; and, from this 
definition, Becker drew his doctrine, since none of that 
influence, or of those operations which are attributed to evd 
spirits, can be effected by mere thinking. 6 Rather, there- 
fore, than call in question the accuracy or authority of 
Des-Cartes. Becker thousht "proper to force the narrations 
and doctrines of Scripture into a conformity with the prin- 
ciples and definitions of this philosopher. This error 
excited great tumults and divisions, not only in all the 
United Provinces, but also in some parts of Germany, 
where several doctors of the Lutheran church were 
tlarmed at its progress, and arose to oppose it.' Its inven- 
tor and promoter, though refuted victoriously by a mul- 

O* * This affirmation is somewhat exaggerated ; at least we must 
not conclude from it, that Roell was either deposed or persecuted ; for 
he exercised the functions of his professorship for several years after 
this at Franeker, and was afterwards called to the chair of divinity at 
Utrecht, upon the most honourable and advantageous terms. The 
sates of Friseland published an edict, enjoining silence, and forbidding 
all professors, pastors, &c. in their province, to teacii the particular 
opinions of Roell; and this pacific divine sacrificed the propagation of 
his opinions to the love of peace and concord. His notion concerning 
the Trinity did not essentially differ from the doctrine generally received 
upon that mysterious and unintelligible subject; and his design seemed 
to be no more than to prevent Christians from humanising the relation 
between the Father and Son. But this was wounding his brethren, the 
rigorous systematic divines, in a tender point; for, "if Anthropomor- 
phism, or the custom of attributing to the Deity the kind of procedure 
in acting and judging that is usual among men "(who resemble him only 
as imperfection resembles perfection,) should be banished from theology, 
orthodoxy would be deprived of some of its most precious phrases, and 
our confessions of faith and systems of doctrine would be reduced within 
much narrower bounds. 

b 5drO ur historian relates here somewhat obscurely the reasoning 

No. L1I. 156 



titude of adversaries, and publicly deposed from his pasto- 
ral charge, died in 1718, in the full persuasion of the truth 
of those opinions which had drawn upon him so much 
opposition, and professed, with his last breath, his sincere 
adherence to every thing he had written on that subject; 
nor can it be said, that this his doctrine died with him, 
since it is abundantly known, that it has still many vota- 
ries and patrons, who either hold it in secret, or profess it 
publicly. 

XXXVI. The curious reader can be no stranger to 
the multitude of sects, some Christian, some half-Chris- 
tian, some totally delirious, that have started up at diffe- 
rent times both in England and Holland. It is difficult, 
indeed, for those who live in other countries, to give accu- 
rate accounts of these separatists, as the books that contain 
their doctrine? and views are seldom dispersed among 
foreign nations. "We have, however, been lately favoured 
with some relations, that give a more just idea of the 
Dutch sects, called Verschorists and Hattemists, than we 
had before entertained ; and it will not therefore be im- 
proper to give here some account of these remarkable 
communities. The former derives its denomination from 
Jacob Verschoor, a native of Flushing, who in 1680, out 
of a perverse and heterogeneous mixture of the tenets of 
Cocceius and Spinosa, produced a new form of religion, 
equally remarkable for its extravagance and impiety. 
His disciples and followers were called Hebrews, on ac- 
count of the zeal and assiduity with which they all, with- 
out distinction of age or sex, applied themselves to the study 
of the Hebrew language. 

The Hattemists were so called from Pontian Van 
Hattem, a minister in the province of Zealand, who was 
also addicted to the sentiments of Spinosa, and was on 
that account degraded from his pastoral office. The 
Verschorists and Hattemists resemble each other in their 
religious systems, though there must also be some points 
in which they differ, since it is well known, that Van Hat- 
tem could never persuade the former to unite their sect 
with his, and thus to form one communion. Neither of 
the two would wish the public to conclude that they have 
abandoned the profession of the Preformed religion ; they 
affect, on the contrary, an apparent attachment to it : and 
Hattem, in particular, published a treatise upon the Cate- 
chism of Heidelberg. If I rightly understand the imper- 
fect relations that have been given of the sentiments and 
principles of these two communities, both their founders 
began by perverting the doctrine of the Reformed church 

which Becker founded upon the Cartesian definition of mind or spirit. 
The substance of his argument is as follows: " The essence of mind is 
thought, and the essence of matter extension. !Xow since there is no 
sort of conformity or connexion between thought and extension, mini 
cannot act upon matter, unless these two substances be united, as soul 
and body are in man : therefore no separate spirits, either good or evil, 
can act upon mankind. Such acting is miraculous, and miracles can be 
performed by God alone. It follows of consequence that the scriptural 
accounts of the actions and operations of good and evil spirits must be 
understood in an allegorical sense." This is Becker's argument; and it 
does, in truth, little honour to his acuteness and sagacity. By proving 
too much, it proves nothing at all ; for, if the want of a connexion or 
conformity between thought and extension renders mind incapable of 
acting upon matter, it is hard to see how their union should remove this 
incapacity, since the want of conformity and of connexion remains 
notwithstanding this union. Besides, according to this reasoning, the 
Supreme Beingcannot act upon material beings. In vain does Becker 
maintain the affirmative, by having recourse to a miracle ; fur this would 
imply, that the whole course of nature is a series of miracles, that is to 
say. that there are no miracles at all. 
« See Lilicnthalii Selectae Historic Literar. p. i. observat ii. p. 17.— 



622 



HISTORY OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 



Sect. D. 



concerning absolute decrees, so as to deduce from it the 
impious system of a fatal and uncontrollable necessity. 
Having laid down this principle to account for the origin 
of all events, they went a step farther into the domain of 
atheism, and denied " the difference between moral good 
and evil, and the corruption of human nature.' 1 Hence 
they concluded, " That mankind were under no sort of 
obligation to correct their manners, to improve their minds, 
or to endeavour after a regular obedience to the divine laws ; 
that the whole of religion consisted, not in acting, but in 
suffering ; and that all the precepts of Jesus Christ are 
reducible to this single one, that we should bear with cheer- 
fulness and patience the events that happen to us through 
the divine will, and make it our constant and only study 
to maintain a permanent tranquillity of mind." 

This, if we mistake not, was the common doctrine of 
the two sects under consideration. There were, however, 
certain opinions or fancies, which were peculiar to Hattem 
and his followers, who affirmed, " That Christ had not 
satisfied the divine justice, nor made an expiation for the 
sins of men by his death and sufferings, but had only sig- 
nified to us, by his mediation, that there was nothing in 
us that could offend the Deity." Hattem maintained, 
"that this was Christ's manner of justifying his servants, 
and presenting them blameless before the tribunal of 
God." These opinions seem perverse and pestilential in 
the highest degree; and they evidently tend to extin- 
guish all virtuous sentiments, and to dissolve all moral 
obligation. It does not however appear, that either of 
these innovators directly recommended immorality and 
vice, or thought that men might safely follow, without I 
any restraint, the impulse of their irregular appetites and 
passions. It is at least certain, that the following maxim 
is placed among their tenets, that God does not punish 
men for their sins, but by their sins ; and this maxim 
seems to signify, that, if a man does not restrain his 
irregular appetites, he must suffer the painful fruits of his 
licentiousness, both in a present and future life, not in 
consequence of any judicial sentence pronounced by the 
will, or executed by the immediate hand of God, but ac- 
cording to some fixed law or constitution of nature. 1 The 
two sects still subsist, though they bear no longer the 
names of their founders. 

XXXVII. The churches of Switzerland, so early as 
the year 1669, were alarmed at the progress which the 
opinions of Amyrault, De la Place, and Capel, were mak- 
ing in different countries ; and they were apprehensive that 
the doctrine they had received from Calvin, and which 
had been so solemnly confirmed by the S)mod of Dor- 
drecht, might be altered and corrupted by these supposed 
improvements in theology. This apprehension was so 
much the less chimerical, as at that, very time there 

Miscellan. Lipsiens, torn. i. p. 361, where may be found an explication 
of a satirical medal, struck to expose the sentiments of Becker. See 
also Nouveau Diction. Hist, et Critique, torn, i. p. 193. 

» See Theod. Has&i Dissert, in Museo Bremensi Theol. Philolog. 
vol. ii. p. 144. — Bibliotheque Belgique, torn. ii. p. 203. 

i> See Leti Istoria Genevina, part iv. book v. p. 448, 488, 497, &c. 

c 1^* It must not be imagined, from the expressions of' our historian, 
that this Consensus, or Form of Agreement, was abrogated at Basil by 
a positive edict. The case stood thus : Mr. Peter Werenfels, who 
was at the head of the ecclesiastical consistory of that city, paid such 
regard to the letter of the elector, as to avoid requiring a subscription to 
this form from the candidates for the ministry : and his conduct in this 
respect, was imitated by his successors. The remonstrances of the 
elector do not seem to have had the same effect upon those who governed 
the church of Geneva ; for the form maintained its credit and authority 



were, among the clergy of Geneva, certain doctors emi- 
nent for their learning and eloquence, who not only 
adopted these new opinions, but were also desirous, not- 
withstanding the opposition and remonstrances of their 
colleagues, of propagating them among the peopled To 
set bounds to the zeal of these innovators, and to stop the 
progress of the new doctrines, the learned John Henry 
Heidegger, professor of divinity at Zurich, was employed 
in 1675, by an assembly composed of the most eminent 
Helvetic divines, to draw up a form of doctrine, in direct 
opposition to the tenets and principles of the celebrated 
French writers mentioned above. The magistrates were 
engaged, without much difficulty, to give to this produc- 
tion the stamp of their authority, and to add to it the other 
confessions of faith received in the Helvetic church, under 
the peculiar denomination of the Form of Concord. 
This step, which seemed to be taken with pacific views, 
proved an abundant source of division and discord. Many 
declared, thot they could not conscientiously subscribe this 
new form; and thus unhappy tumults and contests arose 
in several places. Hence it happened, that the canton of 
Basil and the republic of Geneva, perceiving the incon- 
veniences that proceeded from this new article of church 
communion, and being strongly solicited, in 1686, by 
Frederic William, elector of Brandenburg, to ease the 
burthened consciences of their clergy, abrogated this 
form. c It is nevertheless certain, that in the other can- 
tons it maintained its authority for some time after this 
period ; but, in our time, the discords it has excited in 
many places, and more particularly in the university of 
Lausanne, have contributed to deprive it of all its autho- 
rity, and to plunge it into utter oblivion. 4 

CHAPTER III. 

The History of the Armtnian Church. 

I. There sprang forth from the bosom of the reformed 
church, during this century, two new sects, whose birth 
and progress were, for a long time, painful and perplexing 
to the parent that bore them. These sects were the Armi- 
nians and Quakers, whose origin was owing to very dif- 
ferent principles, since the former derived its existence 
from an excessive propensity to improve the faculty of 
reason, and to follow its dictates and discoveries : while 
the latter sprang up, like a rank weed, from the neglect 
and contempt of human reason. The Arminians derive 
their name and their origin from James Arminius, or 
Harmensen, who was first pastor at Amsterdam, after- 
wards professor of divinity at Leyden, and who attracted 
the esteem and applause of his very enemies, by his 
acknowledged candour, penetration, and piety. e They 
received also the denomination of Remonstrants, from 



there until the year 1706, when, without being abrogated by any posi- 
tive act, it fell into disuse. In several other parts of Switzerland, it was 
still imposed as a rule of faith, as appears from the letters addressed by 
George I., king of Great Britain, and by the king of Prussia, in 1723. to 
the Swiss cantons, in order to procure the abrogation of this form. 
which was considered as an obstacle to the union of the Reformed and 
Lutheran churches. See the Mcmoires pour servir a l'Histoire des 
Troubles arrivg.es en Suisse a l'occasion du Consensus, published at 
Amsterdam in 1726. 

i See the work last quoted, and also Christ. Matth. Pfaffii. Schediasma 
de Formula Consens. Helvet. 

6 The most ample account we have of this eminent man is given by 
Caspar Brandt, in his Historia Vita: Jac. Arminii, published at Leyden, 
in 1724, and the year after by me at Brunswick, with an additional pre- 
face and some annotations. See also Nouveau Dictionaire Histor. et 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 



623 



an humble petition, entitled their Remonstrance, which I 
they addressed, in 1610, to the states of Holland and | 
West-Friseland ; and, as the patrons of Calvinism pre- 
sented an address in opposition to this, which they called 
(heir Counter-Remonstrance, the latter received the name 
of Counter-Remonstrants. 

II. Arminius, though he had imbibed in his tender 
years the doctrines of Geneva, and had even received his 
theological education in the university of that city, yet 
rejected, when he arrived at the age of manhood, the sen- 
timents, concerning predestination and the divine decrees, 
that were adopted by the greatest part of the reformed 
churches, and embraced the principles and communion 
of those, whose religious system extended the love of the 
Supreme Being, and the merits of Jesus Christ, to all 
mankind. 1 As time and deep meditation had only serv- 
ed to confirm him in these principles, he thought himself 
obliged, by the dictates both of candour and conscience, 
to profess them publicly, when he had obtained the chair 
of divinity in the university of Leyden, and to oppose 
the doctrine and sentiments of Calvin on these heads, 
which had been followed by the greatest part of the Dutch 
clergy. Two considerations encouraged him, in a parti- 
cular manner, to venture upon this open declaration of 
his sentiments : for he was persuaded, on one hand, that 
there were many persons, beside himself, and, among 
these, some of the first rank and dignity, who were highly 
disgusted at the doctrine of absolute decrees ; and, on the 
other, he knew that the Dutch divines and doctors were 
neither obliged by their confession of faith, nor by any 
other public law, to adopt and propagate the principles of 
Calvin. Thus animated and encouraged, he taught his 
sentiments publicly, with great freedom and equal success, 
and persuaded many of the truth of his doctrine : but, 
as Calvinism was at this time in a flourishing state in 
Holland, this freedom procured him a multitude of ene- 
mies, and drew upon him the severest marks of disappro- 
bation and resentment from those who adhered to the 
theological system of Geneva, and more especially from 
Francis Gomar, his colleague. Thus commenced that 
long, tedious, and intricate controversy, which afterwards 
made such a noise in Europe. Arminius died in 1609, 
when it was just beginning to involve his country in con- 
tention and discord. b 

III. After the death of Arminius, the contest seemed 

Critique, torn. i. p. 471. They who would form a just and accurate 
notion of his temper, genius, and doctrine, will do well to peruse, with 
particular attention, his Disputationes publicse et privatae. There are 
in his manner of reasoning, and also in his phraseology, some little 
remains of the scholastic jargon of that age; yet we find in his wri- 
tings, upon the whole, much of that simplicity and perspicuity which 
his followers have always looked upon, and stiil consider, as among the 
principal qualities of a Christian minister. For an account of the Ar- 
minian confessions of fai'th, and the historical writers who have treated 
of this sect, see J. Christ. Kocher's Biblioth. Theol. Symbolics, p. 481. 

* Bertius in his Funeral Oration on Arminius, Brandt in his history 
of the life of that .divine, and almost all the ecclesiastical historians of 
this perL-d, mention the occasion of this change in his sentiments. It 
happened in 1591, as appears from the remarkable letter of Arminius to 
Grviicens, dated in that year, in which the former proposes to the latter 
eome of his theological doubts. This letter is published in the Biblioth. 
Brem. Theol. Philolog. torn. iii. p. 384. 

b The history of this controversy, and of the public discords and 
tumults it occasioned, is more circumstantially related by Brandt, in the 
second and third volumes of his History of the Reformation, than by 
airy other writer. This excellent history is written in Dutch; but 
there is an abridgment of it'in French, which has been translated into 
English. Add to this, Uytenbogard's Ecclesiastical History, written 
aiso in Dutch; Limborehi Historia Viue Episcopii; and the Epistolae 



to be carried on, during some years, with equal success ; 
so that it was not easy to foresee which side would gain 
the ascendency. The demands of the Arminians were 
moderate ; they required no more than a bare toleration 
of their religious sentiments ; c and some of the first men 
in the republic, such as Olden-Barneveldt, Grotius, 
Hoogerbeets, and several others, looked upon this demand 
as reasonable and just. It was the opinion of these great 
men, that, as the points in debate had not been determined 
by the Belgic confession of faith, every individual had an 
unquestionable right to judge for himself, more especially 
in a free state, which had thrown off the yoke of spiri- 
tual despotism and civil tyranny. In consequence of 
this persuasion, they used their utmost efforts to accom- 
modate matters, and left no methods unemployed to 
eng'ag'e the Calvinists to treat with Christian moderation 
and forbearance their dissenting brethren. These efforts 
were at first attended with some prospect of success. 
Maurice, prince of Orange, and the princess dowager, his 
mother, countenanced these pacific measures, though the 
former became afterwards one of the warmest adversaries 
of the Arminians. Hence a conference was holden in 
1611, at the Hague, between the contending parlies ; ano- 
ther took place at Delft in 1613 ; and with the same 
view, a pacific edict was issued in 1614 by the states of 
Holland to exhort them to charity and mutual forbear- 
ance ; not to mention a number of expedients applied in 
vain to prevent the schism that threatened the church. d 
But these measures confirmed, instead of removing, the 
apprehensions of the Calvinists ; from day to day they 
were still more firmly persuaded, that the Arminians 
aimed at nothing less than the ruin of all religion ; 
and hence they censured their magistrates with great 
warmth and freedom, for interposing their authority to 
promote peace and union with such adversaries ; e and 
those, who are well informed and impartial, must can- 
didly acknowledge, that the Arminians were far from 
being sufficiently cautious in avoiding connexions with 
persons of loose principles, and that, by frequenting the 
company of those, whose sentiments were entirely dif- 
ferent from the received doctrines of the reformed church, 
they furnished their enemies with a pretext for suspecting 
their own principles, and representing their theological 
system in the worst colours. 

IV. It is worthy of observation, that this unhappy con- 



Clarorum Virorum, published by Limborch. Those who desire a more 
concise view of this contest, will find it in Limborch's Relatio Historica 
de Origine et Progressu Controversiarum in Foederato Belgio de PiEe- 
destinatione et capitibus annexis, which is subjoined to the later editions 
of his Theologia Christiana, or Body of Divinity. It is true, all these 
are Arminians ; and, as impartiality requires our hearing both sides, the 
reader may consult Trigland's Ecclesiastical History, composed likewise 
in Dutch, and a prodigious number of polemical writings published 
against the Arminians. 

c HIT This toleration was offered to them in die conference holden at 
the Hague in 1611, provided tliey would renounce the errors of Socinian- 
ism. See Trigland's History, and also Henry Brandt's Collatio Scrip- 
torum habita Hag.T-Comitum. 

& The writers who have given accounts of these transactions are well 
known: we shall only mention the first and second volumes of the K>s- 
toire de Louis XIII. by Le Vassor, who treats largely and accurately of 
these religious commotions, and of the civil transactions that were 
connected with them. 

• The conduct of the states of Holland, who employed not only the 
language of persuasion, but also the voice of authority, in order to calm 
these commotions, and restore peace to the church, was defended, witli 
his usual learning and eloquence, by Grotius, in two treatises. One, 
which contains the general principles on which this defence is founded, 
is entitled, " De Jure summarum Potestatum circa Sacra;" the other, m 



6-24 



HISTORY OF THE ARMINIAN CHURCH. 



Sect. IT. 



troversy, which assumed another form, and was rendered 
more comprehensive by new subjects of contention, after 
the synod of Dordrecht, was at this time confined to the 
doctrines relating to predestination and grace. The sen- 
timents of the Arminians concerning these intricate points, 
were comprehended in five articles. They held, 

1. " That God, from all eternity, determined to bestow 
salvation on those who, as he foresaw, would persevere 
to the end in their faith in Christ Jesus, and to inflict 
everlasting punishments on those who should continue in 
their unbelief, and resist, to the end of life, his divine 
succours : 

2. " That Jesus Christ, by his death and sufferings, 
made an atonement for the sins of mankind in general, 
and of every individual in particular : that, however, none 
but those who believe in him can be partakers of that 
divine benefit. 

3. " That true faith cannot proceed from the exer- 
cise of our natural faculties and powers, or from the 
force and operation of free-will, since man, in consequence 
of his natural corruption, is incapable either of thinking 
or doing any good thing ; and that therefore it is neces- 
sary to his conversion and salvation, that he be regene- 
rated and renewed by the operation of the Holy Ghost, 
which is the gift of God, through Jesus Christ. 

4. " That this divine grace, or energy of the Holy 
Ghost, which heals the disorders of a corrupt nature, be- 
gins, advances, and brings to perfection, every thing that 
can be called good in man ; and that, consequently, all 

ood works, without exception, are to be attributed to God 
alone, and to the operation of his grace ; that, neverthe- 
less, this grace does not force the man to act against his 
inclination, but may be resisted and rendered ineffectual 
by the perverse will of the impenitent sinner. 

5. " That they who are united to Christ by faith are 
thereby furnished with abundant strength, and with suc- 
cours sufficient to enable them to triumph over the seduc- 
tions of Satan, and the allurements of sin and tempta- 
tion ; but that the question, Whether such may fall from 
their faith, and forfeit finally this state of grace, has not 
been yet resolved with sufficient perspicuity, and must, 
therefore, be yet more carefully examined by an attentive 
stud}^ of what the Scriptures have declared in relation to 
this important point." 

It is to be observed, that this last article w T as after- 
wards changed by the Arminians, who, in process of time, 
declared their sentiments with less caution, and posi- 
tively affirmed, that the saints might fall from a state of 
grace. 1 

which these principles are peculiarly applied in justifying the conduct 
of the states, was published, in 1613, under the following title: " Ordi- 
numHollandiae acWest-Frisise Pietas amultorum Calumniis vindicata." 

°- The history of these five articles, and more particularly of their 
reception and progress in England, has been written by Dr. Heylin, 
whose book was translated into Dutch by the learned and eloquent 
Brandt, and, published at Rotterdam in lb'87. ' 

i> 3£j- This is a curious remark. It would seem as if the Lutherans 
were not Semi-Pelagians; as if they considered man as absolutely 
passive in the work of his conversion and sanctification ; but such an 
opinion surely has never been the general doctrine of their church, 
however rigorously Luther may have expressed himself on that head, in 
some unguarded moments : more especially it may be affirmed, that in 
later times the Lutherans are, to a man, Semi-Pelagians ; and let it not 
be thought that this is imputed to them as a reproach. 

° That Maurice aimed at the dignity of count of Holland we learn 
from Aubery's Memoires pour servir a l'Histoire d' Hollande et des 
uutres Provinces Unies, seat. ii. If we are to believe Aubery (informed 



If we are to judge of men's sentiments by their words 
and declarations, the tenets of the Arminians, at the period 
now under consideration, bear a manifest resemblance to 
the Lutheran system. But the Calvinists did not judge 
in this manner ; on the contrary, they explained the 
words and declarations of the Arminians according to the 
notions they had formed of the hidden sentiments of those 
sectaries ; and, instead of judging of their opinions by 
their expressions, they judged of their expressions by their 
opinions. They maintained, that the Arminians designed, 
under these specious and artful declarations, to insinuate 
the poison of Socinianism and Pelagianism into unwary 
and uninstructed minds. The secret thoughts of men are 
only known to Him, who is the searcher of hearts ; and 
it is his privilege alone to pronounce judgment upon those 
intentions and designs which are concealed from public 
view. But if we were allowed to interpret the five articles 
now mentioned in a sense conformable to what the lead- 
ing doctors among the Arminians have taught in later 
times concerning these points, it would be difficult to show, 
that the suspicions of the Calvinists were entirely ground- 
less ; for it is certain, whatever the Arminians may allege 
to the contrary, that the sentiments of their most eminent 
theological writers, after the synod of Dordrecht, concern- 
ing divine grace, and the doctrines that are connected with 
it, are much more accordant to the opinions of the Pela- 
gians and Semi-Pelagians, than to those of the Lutheran 
church. 1 ' 

V. The mild and favourable treatment which the Armi- 
nians received from the magistrates of Holland, and from 
several persons of merit and distinction, encouraged them 
to hope, that their affairs would take a prosperous turn, 
or at least that their cause was not desperate, when an 
unexpected storm arose against them, and blasted their 
expectations. This change was produced by causes 
entirely foreign to religion ; and its origin must be sought 
in those connexions which can scarcely be admitted as 
possible by the philosopher, but are perpetually presented 
to the view of the historian. A secret misunderstanding had 
for some time subsisted between the stadtholder Maurice, 
prince of Orange, and some of the principal magistrates and 
ministers of the new republic, such as Olden-Barneveldt, 
Grotius, and Hoogerbeets ; and this misunderstanding had 
at length broken out into an open enmity and discord. 
The views of this great prince are differently represented 
by different historians. Some allege, that he had formed 
the design of getting himself declared count of Holland, a 
dignity which William I., the glorious founder of Belgir 
liberty, is also said to have had in view. Others affirm, 

by his father, who was, at that time, ambassador of France at the 
Hague,) Olden-Barneveldt disapproved this design, prevented its execu 
tion, and lost his life by his bold opposition to the views of the prince. 
This account is looked upon as erroneous by Le Vassor, who takes 
much pains to refute it, and indeed with success, in his Histoire de Louis 
XIII., t. ii. p. ii. Lc Clerc. in hisBiblioth. Choisie. and in his History 
of the United Provinces, endeavours to confirm what is related bj 
Aubery ; and also affirms, that the project formed by Maurice had beer, 
entertained before by his father. The determination of this debalec 
point is not necessary to our present purpose. It is sufficient to observe 
what is acknowledged on all sides, that Olden-Barneveldt and his assc 
ciates suspected prince Maurice of a design of encroaching upon the 
liberties of the republic, and arrogating to himself the supreme dominion 
Hence arose the zeal of Barneveldt to weaken his influence, and to set 
bounds to his authority ; hence the indignation and resentment of Mau- 
rice ; and hence the downfall of the Arminian sect, which enjoyed the 
patronage and adhered to the interests of Olden-BarneTeldt and Gro- 
tius. 



Pakt II. 



HISTORY OF THE ARM1NIAN CHURCH. 



fi25 



.hat he only aspired to a greater degree of authority and 
nfluence than seemed consistent with the liberties of the 
-epublic ; it is at least certain, that some of the principal 
persons in the government suspected him of aiming at 
supreme dominion. The leading men above mentioned 
opposed these designs ; and these leading men were the 
patrons of the Arminians. The Arminians adhered to 
these their defenders, without whose aid they could have 
no prospect of security or protection. Their adversaries 
the Gomarists, on the contrary, seconded the views and 
espoused the interests of the prince, and inflamed his 
resentment, which had been already kindled by various 
suggestions, to the disadvantage of the Arminians, and 
of those who protected them. Thus, after mutual sus- 
picions and discontents, the flame broke out with violence ; 
and Maurice aimed at the ruin of those who ruled the 
republic without showing a proper regard to his counsels, 
and also of the Arminians, who espoused their cause. 
The men who sat at the helm of government, were cast 
into prison. Olden-Barneveldt, a man of gravity and wis- 
dom, whose hairs were grown grey in the service of his 
country, lost his life on a public scaffold ; while Grotius 
and Hoogerbeets were condemned to perpetual imprison- 
ment ; a under what pretext, or in consequence of what 
accusations or crimes, is unknown to us. b As the Armi- 
nians were not charged with any violation of the laws, 
but merely with departing from the established religion, 
their cause was not of such a nature as rendered it cog- 
nisable by a civil tribunal. That, however, this cause 
might be regularly decided, it was judged proper to bring 
it before an ecclesiastical assembly, or national synod. 
This method of proceeding was agreeable to the sentiments 
and principles of the Calvinists, who are of opinion, that 
all spiritual concerns and religious controversies ought to 
be judged and decided by an ecclesiastical assembly or 
council. 

* The truth of this general account of these unhappy divisions will 
undoubtedly be acknowledged by all parties, particularly at this period, 
when these tumults and commotions have subsided, and the spirit of 
party is less blind, partial, and violent; and the candid and ingenu- 
ous Calvinists who acknowledge this, will. not thereby do the smallest 
prejudice to their cause. If they should even grant (what I neither pre- 
tend to affirm nor deny) that their ancestors, carried away by the impe- 
tuous spirit of the times, defended their religious opinions in a manner 
that was far from being consistent with the dictates of moderation and 
prudence, no rational conclusion can be drawn from this, either against 
them or the goodness of their cause ; for it is well known, both by 
observation and experience, that unjustifiable things have often been 
done by men, whose characters and intentions, in general, were good 
and upright, and that a good cause has frequently been maintained by 
methods that would not bear a rigorous examination. What I have said 
with brevity on this subject is confirmed and amplified by Le Clerc, in 
his Histoire des Provinces Unies, and in the Biblioth. Choisie, torn. ii. 
p. 131; and also by Grotius, in his Apologetieus eorum, qui Hollandise 
el. West-Frisiae, et vicinis quibusdam Nationibus, prscfuerunt ante Muta- 
tionem qua: evenit Anno 1618. The life of Olden-Barneveldt, written 
in Dutch, was published in 1G48. The history of his trial, and of the 
judgment pronounced on the famous triumvirate, mentioned above, was 
drawn by Gerard Brandt from authentic records, and published under 
the following title : Historie van de Rechts-pleginge gehouden an den 
faaren 1618 en 1619, omtrent de drie gevangene Heeren Johan van 
Olden-Barneveldt, Rombout Hoogerbeets, en HugodeGroot; a third 
Edition of this book, augmented with annotations, appeared in 1723. 
The History of the Life and Actions of Grotius, composed in Dutch by 
Caspar Brandt and Adrian van Cattenburg, and drawn mostly from 
original papers, throws a considerable degree of light on the history of 
these transactions. This famous work was published in 1727, under 
the following title: Historie van het leven des Heeren Huig de Groot, 
beschrewen tot den Anfang van zynGesand chap wegens de Koninginne 
en Kroone van Z weden aanit Hof van Vrankryck, door Caspard Brandt, 
en vervolgt tot zyn doodt door Adrian van Catterburg Those who desire 
to form a true and accurate notion of the character and conduct of Gro- 

No. LIII. 1 57 



VI. Accordingly a synod was convoked at Dordrecht, 
in 1618, by the counsels and influence of prince Maurice. 4 
at which were present ecclesiastical deputies from the United 
Provinces, as also from the churches of England, Hesse, 
Bremen, Switzerland, and the Palatinate. The leading 
men among the Arminians appeared, before this famous 
assembly, to defend their cause ; and they had, at their 
head, Simon Episcopius, who was, at that time, professor 
of divinity at Leyden, had formerly been the disciple of 
Arminius, and admired, even by his enemies, on account 
of the depth of his judgment, the extent of his learn- 
ing, and the force of his eloquence. This eminent man 
addressed a discourse, full of moderation, gravity, and elo- 
cution, to the assembled divines ; but this was no sooner 
finished, than difficulties arose, which prevented the con- 
ference the Arminians had demanded, in order to show 
the grounds, in reason and Scripture, on which their opi- 
nions were founded. The Arminian deputies proposed to 
begin the defence of their cause by refuting the opinions 
of the Calvinists. This proposal was rejected by the synod, 
which looked upon the Arminians as a set of men that lay 
under the charge of heresy, and therefore thought it in- 
cumbent upon them to declare and prove their own 
opinions, before they could be allowed to combat the sen- 
timents of others. The design of the Arminians, in the 
proposal they made, was probably to get the people on 
their side, by such an unfavourable representation of the 
Calvinistical system, and of the harsh consequences that 
seem deducible from it, as might excite, in the minds of 
those who were present, a disgust to its patrons and abet- 
tors ; and it is more than probable, that one of the prin- 
cipal reasons, that engaged the members of the synod to 
reject this proposal, was a consideration of the genius and 
talents of Episcopius, and an apprehension of the effects 
of his eloquence upon the multitude. When all the me- 
thods employed to persuade the Arminians to submit to the 

tius, and to see him as it were near hand, must have recourse to this 
excellent work, since almost all the other accounts of this great man are 
insipid, lifeless, and exhibit little else than a poor shadow, instead of a 
real and animated substance. The life of Grotius, composed by Bu- 
rigni in French, deserves perhaps to be included in this general cen- 
sure ; it is at least a very indifferent and superficial performance. 
fTjr There appeared in Holland a warm vindication of the memory of 
this great man, in a work published in 1727, and entitled, Grotii Manes 
ab iniquis Obtrectationibus vindicati ; accedit Scriptorum ejus, turn 
editorum turn in editorum, Conspectus Triplex. See the following note. 

b fjp Dr. Mosheim, however impartial, seems to have consulted 
more the authors of one side than of the other, probably because they 
are more numerous, and more generally known. When he published 
this history, the world had not been favoured with the Letters, Memoirs, 
and Negotiations of Sir Dudley Carleton ; which lord Royston (after- 
wards earl of Hardwicke) drew forth from his inestimable treasure of 
historical manuscripts, and presented to the public, or rather at first to a 
select number of persons, to whom he distributed a small number of 
copies of these Negotiations, printed at his own expence. They were 
soon translated both into Dutch and French ; and though it cannot be 
affirmed that the spirit of party is no where discoverable in them, yet 
they contain anecdotes with respect both to Olden-Barneveldt and Gro- 
tius, which the Arminians, and the other patrons of these two great m°n, 
have been studious to conceal. These anecdotes, though they may not 
be sufficient to justify the severities exercised against these eminent men, 
would, however, have prevented Dr. Mosheim from saying that he 
knew not under what pretext they were arrested. 

' gjf" The Calvinists are not particular in this ; and indeed it is 
natural that debates, purely theological, should be discussed in an assem- 
bly of divines. 

<i 5^T Our author always forgets to mention the order, issued by the 
states-general, for the convocation of this famous synod ; and, by his 
manner of expressing himself, and particularly by the phrase (Mauritio 
an dure.") would seem to insinuate, that it was by the prince that this 
assembly was called together. The legitimacy of the manner of con- 
voking this synod was questioned by Olden-Barneveldt, who maintain- 



626 



HISTORY OF THE ARMINIAN CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



manner of proceeding, proposed by the synod, proved inef- 
fectual, they were excluded from that assembly, and re- 
turned home, complaining bitterly of the rigour and par- 
tiality with which they had been treated. Their cause 
was nevertheless tried in their absence ; . and, in conse- 
quence of a strict examination of their writings, they were 
pronounced guilty of pestilential errors, and condemned as 
corruptors of the true religion. This sentence was followed 
by its natural effects, which were the excommunication of 
the Arminians, the suppression of their religious assemblies, 
and the deprivation of their ministers. In this unhappy 
contest, the candid and impartial observer will easily per- 
ceive that faults were committed on both sides. Which of 
the contending parties may justly be thought most worthy 
of censure, is a point, whose discussion is foreign to our 
present purpose. 1 

VII. We shall not here appreciate either the merk or 
demerit of the divines who were assembled in this famous 
synod ; but we cannot help observing that their sanctity, 
wisdom, and virtue, have been exalted beyond all mea- 
sure by the Calvinists, while their partiality, violence, and 
their other defects, have been exaggerated with some de- 
gree of malignity by the Arminians. b There is no doubt 
that, among the members of this assembly, who sat in 
judgment upon the Arminians, there were several persons 
equally distinguished by their learning, piety, and integ- 
rity, who acted with upright intentions, and had not the 
least notion, that the steps they were taking, or encoura- 
ging, were inconsistent with equity and wisdom. On the 
other hand it clearly appears, that the Arminians had rea- 
son to complain of several circumstances that strike us in 
the history of this remarkable period. It is evident in the 
first place, that the ruin of their community was a point 
not only premeditated, but determined even before the 
meeting of the national synod ; c and that this synod was 
not so much assembled to examine their doctrine, in order 
to see whether it was worthy of toleration and indul- 
gence, as to publish and execute, with a certain solem- 
nity, with an air of justice, and with the suffrages and con- 
sent of foreign divines, whose authority was respectable, 
a sentence already drawn up and agreed upon by those 
who had the principal direction of these affairs. It is far- 
ther to be observed, that the accusers and adversaries of 
the Arminians were their judges, and that Bogerman, 
who presided in this synod, was distinguished by his 

ed that the states-general had no sort of authority in matters of religion, 
not even the power of assembling a synod; affirming that this was an 
act of sovereignty, that belonged to each province separately and re- 
spectively. See Carleton's Letters. 

* The writers who have given accounts of the synod of Dordrecht, are 
mentioned by Jo. Albert Fabricius, in his Biblioth. Grsec. vol. xi. p. 723. 
The most ample account of this famous assembly has been given by 
Brandt, in the second and third volumes of his History of the Reforma- 
tion in the United Provinces; but, as this author is an Arminian, it 
will not be improper to compare his relation with a work of the learned 
Leydekker, in which the piety and justice of the proceedings of this 
synod are vindicated against the censures of Brandt. This work, 
which is composed in Dutch, was published in 1707 under the following 
title: Eere van de nationale Synode van Dordrecht, voorgestaan en 
bevestigd tegen de beschuldingen, van G. Brandt. After comparing 
diligently these two productions, lean see no enormouserror in Brandt; 
for, in truth, these two writers do not so much differ about facts, as they 
do in the reasoning they deduce from them, and in their accounts of the 
causes whence they proceeded. The reader will do well to consult the 
Letters of the learned and worthy Mr. John Hale of Eton, who was an 
impartial spectator of the proceedings of the synod, and who relates 
with candour and simplicity what he saw and heard. 

" All that appeared unfair to the Arminians in the proceedings of this 
synod has been collected in a Dutch book, entitled, Nulliteyten, Miskan- 



peculiar hatred of that sect ; that neither the Dutch nor 
foreign divines had the liberty of giving their suffrages 
according to their own private sentiments, but were obli- 
ged to deliver the opinions of the princes and magistrates, 
of whose orders they were the. depositories.;" 1 that the in- 
fluence of the lay deputies, who appeared in the synod 
with commissions from the states-general and the prince 
of Orange, was still superior to that of the ecclesiastical 
members, who sat as judges ; and, lastly, that the solemn 
promise, made to the Arminians, when they were sum- 
moned before the synod, that they should be allowed to 
enjoy the liberty of explaining and defending their opi- 
nions as far as they thought proper or necessary to' their 
justification, was manifestly violated. e 

VIII. The Arminians, in consequence of the decision 
of the synod, were considered as enemies of their country 
and of its established religion ; and they were accordingly 
treated with great severity. They were deprived of all 
their posts and employments, whether ecclesiastical or civil ; 
and, which they looked upon as a yet more intolerable in- 
stance of the rigour of their adversaries, their ministers were 
silenced, and their congregations were suppressed. They 
refused obedience to the order, by which their pastors 
were prohibited from performing, in public, their ministe 
rial functions ; and thus they drew upon themselves anew 
the resentment of their superiors who punished them 
by fines, imprisonment, exil'e, and other marks of igno- 
miny. To avoid these vexations, many of them retired 
to Antwerp, others fled into France ; while a considera- 
ble number, accepting the invitation sent to them by Fre- 
deric, duke of Holstein, formed a colony, which settled in 
the dominions of that prince, and built for themselves a 
handsome town called Fredericstadt, in the duchy of Sle;j- 
wick, where their descendants still live unmolested, in 
the open profession and free exercise of their religion. 
The heads of this colony were persons of distinction, who 
had been obliged to leave their native country on account 
of these troubles, particularly Adrian Vander-Wael, who 
was the first governor of the new city/ Among the per- 
secuted ecclesiastics, who followed this colony, were, the 
famous Vorstius, (who, by his religious sentiments, which 
differed little from the Socinian system, had rendered the 
Arminians particularly odious,) Grevinckhovius (a man 
of a resolute spirit, who had been pastor at Rotterdam,) 
Goulart, Grevius, Walther, Narsius, and others.s 

delingen, ende onbyllike, Proceduren des nationalen Synodi gehouden 
binnen Dordrecht, &c. 1619. 

c This assertion is of too weighty a nature to be advanced without 
sufficient proof. Our author quotes no authority for it. 

d frjr Here our author has fallen into a palpable mistake. The Dutch 
divines had no commission but from their respective consistories, or 
subordinate ecclesiastical assemblies ; nor are they ever depositories of 
the orders of their magistrates, who have lay-deputies to represent 
them both in provincial and national synods. As to the English and 
other foreign doctors who appeared in the synod, the case perhaps may 
have been somewhat different. 

c See Le Vassor, Histoire du Regne de Louis XIII. torn. iii. livr. xii. 
p. 365. — and Mosheim's preface to the Latin translation of the account 
of the synod of Dordrecht, written by the ever-memorable John Halt. 

f The history of this colony is accurately related in the famous letters 
published by Philip Limborch and Christian Hartsoeker, entitled, 
Epistolss preestantium et eruditorum virorum ecclesiastics et theological, 
of which the last edition was published at Amsterdam in 1704. See 
also Molleri Introductio in Histor. Chersonesi Cimbricse, p. ii. p. 108. 
and Pontoppidani Annales Ecclesia? Danicee Diplomatici, torn. iii. p. 
714. 

' For an ample account of Vorstius, see Molleri Cimbria Literata, 
torn. ii. where we find a particular account of the oilier ecclesiastics 
above mentioned. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE ARMINIAN CHURCH. 



627 



IX. After the death of prince Maurice, which happen- 
ed in 1625, the Arminian exiles experienced the mildness 
and clemency of his brother and successor Frederic Hen- 
ry, under whose administration they were recalled from 
banishment, and restored to their former reputation and 
tranquillity. Those who had taken refuge in- the king- 
dom of France, and in the Spanish Netherlands, were the 
first that embraced this occasion of returning to their 
native country, where they erected churches in several 
places, and more particularly in the cities of Amsterdam 
and Rotterdam, under the mild shade of religious tolera- 
tion. That they might also have a public seminary for 
the instruction of their youth, and the propagation of their 
theological principles, they founded a college at Amster- 
dam, in which two professors were appointed' to instruct 
the candidates for the ministry, in the various branches of 
literature and science, sacred and profane. Simon Epis- 
copius w r as the first professor of theology among the 
Arminians ; and, since his time, the seminary now men- 
tioned has been, in general, furnished with professors emi- 
nent for their learning and genius, such as Courcelles, 
Poelenburg, Limborch, Le Clerc, Cattenburg, a and Wet- 
stein. 

X. We have already seen that the original difference, 
between the Arminians and the Calvinists, was entirely 
confined to the five points mentioned above, relative to 
the doctrines of predestination and grace ; and it was the 
doctrine of the former concerning these points alone that 
occasioned their condemnation in the synod of Dordrecht. 
It is farther to be observed, that these points, as explain- 
ed at that time by the Arminians, seemed to differ very 
little from the Lutheran system. But after the dissolu- 
tion of the synod, and especially after the return of the 
Arminian exiles into their native country, the theological 
system of this community underwent a remarkable change, 
and assumed an aspect that distinguished it entirely from 
that of all other Christian churches ; for then they gave 
a new explication of these five articles, that made them 
almost coincide with the doctrine of those who deny the 
necessity of divine succours in the work of conversion, and 
in the paths of virtue; They even went farther ; and, 

* There is an accurate account of these and the other Arminian wri- 
ters given by Adrian van Cattenburg, in his Bibliotheca Scriptorum 
Remonstrantium, printed at Amsterdam in 1728. 

>> It is a common opinion, that the ancient Arminians, who flourished 
before the synod of Dordrecht, were much more sound in their opinions, 
and strict in their morals, than those who have lived since that period; 
that Arminius himself only rejected the Calvinistical doctrine of abso- 
lute decrees, and what he took to be its immediate consequences, adopt- 
ing in all other points the doctrines received in the reformed churches: 
but that his disciples, and more especially Episcopius, had boldly trans- 
gressed the bounds which had been wisely prescribed by their master, 
and had gone over to the Pelagians, and even to the Socinians. Such, 
I say, is the opinion commonly entertained concerning this matter. 
But it appears, on the contrary, evident to me, that Arminius himself 
had laid the plan of that theological system, which was, in after-times, 
embraced by his followers, and that he had instilled the main principles 
of it into the minds of his disciples ; and that these latter, and particularly 
Episcopius. did really no more than bring this plan to a greater degree 
of perfection, and propagate, with more courage and perspicuity, the 
doctrines it contained. I have the testimony of Arminius to support 
this notion, beside many others that might be alleged in its behalf: for, 
in the last will made by this eminent man, a litde before his death, he 
plrinly and positively declares, that the great object he had in view, in 
in all his theological and ministerial labours, was to unite in one commu- 
nity, cemented by the bonds of fraternal charity, all sects and denomina- 
tions of Christians, the papists excepted. His words, as they are 
recorded in the funeral oration, which was composed on occasion of his 
death by Bertius, are as follow : " Ea propositi et docui . . . qua; ad 
propagatiouenv amplificationemque veritutis religionis Christiana;, veri 



bringing the greatest part of the doctrines of Christianity 
before the tribunal of reason, they modified them con- 
siderably, and reduced them to an excessive degree of sim- 
plicity. Arminius, the parent and founder of the com- 
munity, was undoubtedly the inventor of this new form 
of doctrine, and taught it to his disciples ; b but it was first 
digested into a regular system, and embellished with th^ 
charms of a masculine eloquence, by Episcopius, whose 
learning and genius have given him a place among the 
Arminian doctors, next to their founder. 

XI. The great and ultimate end which the Arminians 
seem to have in view is. that Christians, though divided 
in their opinions, may be united in fraternal charity and 
love, and thus be formed into one family or community, 
notwithstanding the diversity of their theological senti- 
ments. In order to execute their benevolent purpose, 
they maintain, that Christ demands from his servants 
more virtue than faith : that he has confined, to a few 
articles, that belief which is essential to salvation : that, 
on the other hand, the rules of practice he has prescribed 
are extremely large in their extent ; and that charity and 
virtue ought to be the principal study of true Christians. 
Their definition of a true Christian is somewhat latitudina- 
rian in point of belief. According to their account, every 
person is a genuine subject of the kingdom of Christ, " 1. 
who receives the Scriptures, and more especially the New 
Testament, as the ride of his faith, however he may 
think proper to interpret and explain these sacred oracles ; 
2. who abstains from idolatry, polytheism, and all their 
concomitant absurdities ; 3. who leads a decent, ho- 
nest, and virtuous life, directed and regulated by the laws 
of God ; and, 4. who never discovers a spirit of persecu- 
tion, discord, or ill-will, toward those who differ from him 
in their religious sentiments, or in their manner of inter- 
preting Scripture." Thus the wide bosom of the Armi- 
nian church is open to Christians in general, however 
they may differ in some of their theological opinions. 
The papists alone are excluded from this extensive com- 
munion, because they deem it lawful d to persecute those 
who will not submit to the yoke of the Roman pontiff. 8 
It is not our design here either to justify or condemn these 



Dei cultus, communis pietatis, et sanctae inter homines conversations, 
denique ad convenientem Christiano nomini tranquillijptem et pacem 
juxta verbum Dei possent conferre, excludens ex iis papatum, cum quo 
nulla unitas fidei, nullum pietatis aut Christiana? pacis vinculum servari 
potest." These words, in their amount, coincide perfectly with the 
modern system of Arminianism, which extends the limits of the Chris- 
tian church, and relaxes the bonds of fraternal communion in such a 
manner, that Christians of all denominations, whatever their sentiments 
and opinions may be (papists excepted.) may be formed into one reli- 
gious body, and live together in brotherly love and concord. 

The life of this eminent man was composed in Latin by the learned 
and judicious Limborch, and is singularly worthy of an attentive peru- 
sal. It was published at Amsterdam in 1701. 

<i ?3r It is not only on account of their persecuting spirit, but also on 
account of their idolatrous worship, that the Arminians exclude the 
Papists from their communion. See the following note. 

c For a full and accurate representation of this matter, it will be suffi- 
cient for the reader to have recourse to that treatise which is published in 
the first volume of the works of Episcopius (p. 508.) under the following 
tide : Verus Theologus Remonstrans, sive verae Remonsu-antium Theo- 
lngirc do errantibus dilucida Declaratio. This treatise is written witii 
precision and perspicuity. Le Clerc. in the dedication prefixed to his 
Latin translation of Dr. Hammond's Paraphrase and Commenuuy on 
the New Testament, gives a brief account of the Arminian principles 
and terms of communion in the following words, addressed to learned 
men of that sect : " You declare," says he, " that they only are excluded 
from your communion, who are chargeable with idolatry, who do not 
receive the Scriptures as the rule of faith, who trample upon the pre- 
cepts of Christ by their licentious manners and actions, and who psrse- 



628 



HISTORY OF THE ARMENIAN CHURCH. 



Sect. II. 



latitudinanan terms of communion ; but it may be said, 
that, 'if other Christian churches should adopt them, 
diversity of sentiment would be no longer an obstacle to 
mutual love and concord. 

XII. From all this it appears, that the Arminian com- 
munity was a kind of medley, composed of persons of 
different principles, and that, properly speaking, it could 
have no fixed and stable form or system of doctrine. 
The Arminians, however, foreseeing that this circum- 
stance might be objected to them as a matter of reproach, 
and unwilling to pass for a society connected by no com- 
mon principles or bond of union, have adopted, as their 
Confession of Faith, a kind of theological system, drawn 
up by Episcopius, and expressed, for the most part, in the 
words and phrases of Scripture. 1 But as none of then- 
pastors are obliged, either by oath, declaration, or tacit 
compact, to adhere strictly to this confession, and as, on 
the contrary, by the fundamental constitution of this com- 
munity, every one is authorized to interpret its expres- 
sions (which are in effect susceptible of various significa- 
tions) in a manner conformable to their peculiar senti- 
ments ; it evidently follows, that we cannot thence de- 
duce an accurate and consistent view of Arminianism, or 
know, with certainty, what doctrines are adopted or 
rejected by this sect. Hence it happens, that the Armi- 
nian doctors differ widely among themselves concerning 
some of the most important doctrines of Christianity ; b 
and they can scarcely be said to agree universally, or to 
be entirely uniform, in their sentiments of any one point, 
if we except the doctrines of predestination and grace. 
They all, indeed, unanimously adhere to the doctrine that 
excluded their ancestors from the communion of the re- 
formed churches, importing ' that the love of God extends 
itself equally to all mankind ; .that no mortal is rendered 
finally unhappy by an eternal and invincible decree ; and 
that the misery of those who perish comes from them- 
selves ;' but they explain this doctrine in a very different 
manner from that in which it was formerly understood. 
Be that as it may, this is the fundamental doctrine of the 
Arminians, and whoever opposes it, becomes thereby an 
adversary to the whole community ; whereas those whose 
objections are levelled at particular tenets which are found 
in the writings of the Arminian divines, cannot be said, 
with any degree of propriety, to attack or censure the 
Arminian church, whose theological system, a few arti- 
cles excepted, is vague and uncertain, 1 and is not charac- 
terised by any fixed set of doctrines and principles. Such 
only attack certain doctors of that communion, who are 
divided among themselves, and do not agree, even in their 

cute those who differ from them in matters of religion."* Many writers 
affirm, that the Arminians acknowledge, as their brethren, all those who 
receive that form of doctrine which is known under the denomination of 
the Apostle's Creed. But that these writers are in an error, appears 
sufficiently from what has been already said on this subject, and is con- 
firmed by the express testimony of Le Clerc, who (in his Biblioth. 
Ancienne et Mod. torn. xxv. p. 110,) declares, that it is not true that the 
Arminians admit to their communion all those who receive the Apostles' 
Creed ; his words are, " lis se trompent; ils (the Arminians) offrent la 
communion a tous ceux qui recoivent l'ecriture sainte comme la seule 
regie de la foi etdes moeurs, et qui ne sont ni idolatres ni persecuteurs." 

* This Confession of Faith is extant in Latin, Dutch, and German. 
The Latin edition of it is to oe tound in the works of Episcopius, torn, 
ii. p. ii. p. 69 ; where may be found also a Defence of this Confession 
against the objections of the professors of divinity at Leyden. 

b They who will be at the pains of comparing the theological wri- 
tings of Episcopius, Courcelles, Limborch, Le Clerc, and Cattenburg, 
will see clearly the diversity of sentiment that reigns among the 
Arminian doctors. 



explications of the doctrine relating to the extent of the 
divine love and mercy, though this be the fundamental 
point that occasioned their separation from the reformed 
churches. 

XIII. The Arminian church makes at present but an 
inconsiderable figure, when compared with the reformed ; 
and, if credit may be given to public report, it declines 
from day to day. The Arminians have only in the 
United Provinces thirty-four congregations more or less 
numerous, which are furnished with forty-four pastors ; 
beside these, their church at Fredericstadt, in the duchy 
of Sleswick, still subsists. It cannot, however, be said, 
that the credit and influence of their religious principles 
have declined with the external lustre of their commu- 
nity, since it is well known that their sentiments were 
early adopted in several countries, and were secretly re- 
ceived by many who had not the courage to profess them 
openly. Every one is acquainted with the change that 
has taken place in the established church of England, 
whose clergy, generally speaking, since the time of arch- 
bishop Laud, have embraced the Arminian doctrine con- 
cerning predestination and grace, and, since the restora- 
tion of Charles II., have discovered a strong propensity 
to several other tenets of the Arminian church. Beside 
this, whoever has any acquaintance with the world, must 
know, that, in many of the courts of protestant princes, 
and, in general, among those persons who pretend to be 
wiser than the multitude, the following fundamental prin- 
ciple of Arminianism is adopted : " that those doctrines, 
whose belief is necessary to salvation, are very few in 
number ; and that every one is to be left at full liberty, 
with respect to his private sentiments of God and religion, 
provided his life and actions be conformable to the rules 
of piety and virtue." Even the United Provinces, which 
saw within their bosom the defeat of Arminianism, are 
at this time sensible of a considerable change in that 
respect ; for, while the patrons of Calvinism in that repub- 
lic acknowledge, that the community, which makes an 
external profession of Arminianism, declines gradually 
both in its numbers and influence, they, at the same time, 
complain, that its doctrines and spirit gain ground from 
day to day ; that they have even insinuated themselves 
more or less into the bosom of the established church, 
and infected the theological system of many of those very 
pastors who are appointed to maintain the doctrine and 
authority of the synod of Dordrecht. The progress of 
Arminianism, in other countries, is abundantly known ; 
and its votaries in France, Geneva, and many parts of 
Switzerland, are certainly very numerous. 4 

° H=T What renders the Arminian Confession of Faith an uncertain 
representation of the sentiments of the community, is, the liberty in 
which every pastor is indulged of departing from it, when he finds any 
of its doctrines contradictory to his private opinions. See the Introduc- 
tion to the Arminian Confession of Faith, in the third volume of the 
French abridgment of Brandt's History. 

i §£|f It may not, however, be improper to observe here, that the pro- 
gress of Arminianism has been greatly retarded, and that its cause daily 
declines in Germany and several parts of Switzerland, in consequence 
of the ascendency which the Leibnitian and Wolfian philosophy has 
gained in these countries, and particularly among the clergy and men of 
learning. Leibnitz and Wolff, by attacking that liberty of indifference, 
which is supposed to imply the power of acting, not only without but 
against motives, struck at the very foundation of the Arminian system. 
But this was not all : for, by considering the multiplicity of worlJs that 

* The original words of Le Clerf aie, " Profiteri soletis . . . . eos dun- 
taxat a vobis excludi, qui idololatria sunt contaminati, qui minime ha- 
bent Scripturam pro fidei norma, qui impuris moribus sancta Christi 
pnecepta conculcant, aut qui denique alios religionis causa vexant " 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE SECT CALLED GHJAKERS. 



629 



The external forms of divine worship and ecclesiastical 
government, in the Arminian church, are almost the 
same with those winch are in use among the Presbyte- 
rians. As, however, the leading men among the Armi- 
nians are peculiarly ambitious of maintaining their cor- 
respondence and fraternal intercourse with the church of 
England, and leave no circumstance unimproved that 
may tend to confirm this union ; so they discover, upon 
all occasions, their approbation of the episcopal form of 
ecclesiastical government, and profess to regard it as most 
ancient, as truly sacred, and as superior to all other insti- 
tutions of church-polity. 11 

CHAPTER IV. 

Tlie History of the Sect called Quakers. 

I. The sect of Quakers received this denomination, 
m the year 1650, from Gervas Bennet, a justice of peace 
in Derbyshire, b partly on account of the convulsive agita- 
tions and shakings of the body with which their discourses 
to the people were usually attended, and partly on account 
of the exhortation addressed to this magistrate by Fox and 
his companions, who, when they were called before him, 
desired him, with a loud voice and a vehement emotion 
of body, ' to tremble at the word of the Lord.' However 
sarcastical this appellation may be, when considered in its 
origin, the members of this sect are willing to adopt it, pro- 
vided it be rightly understood ; they prefer, nevertheless, 
to be called, in allusion to that doctrine which is the fun- 
damental principle of their association, ' Children or Con- 
compose the universe, as one system or whole, whose greatest possible 
perfection is the ultimate end of creative goodness, and the sovereign 
purpose of governing wisdom, they removed from the doctrine of pre- 
destination those arbitrary procedures and narrow views, with which 
the Calvinists are supposed to have loaded it, and gave it a new, a more 
pleasing, and a more philosophical aspect. As the Leibnitians laid 
down this great end, as the supreme object of God's universal dominion, 
and the scope to which all his dispensations are directed, so they con- 
cluded, that, if this end was proposed, it must be accomplished. Hence 
the doctrine of necessity seemed proper to fulfil the purposes of a pre- 
destination founded in wisdom and goodness; a necessity, physical and 
mechanical in the motions of material and inanimate things, but moral 
and spiritual in the voluntary determinations of intelligent beings, in 
consequence of prepollent motives, which produce their effects with cer- 
tainty, though these effects be contingent, and by no means the offspring 
of an absolute and essentially immutable fatality. These principles are 
evidently applicable to the main doctrines of Calvinism; by them pre- 
destination is confirmed, though modified with respect to its reasons and 
its ends ; by them irresistible grace (irresistible in a moral sense) is 
maintained upon the hypothesis of prepollent motives and a moral neces- 
sity. The perseverance of the saints is also explicable upon the same 
system, by a series of moral causes producing a series of moral effects. 
In consequence of all this, several divines of the German church have 
applied the Leibnitian and "Wolfian philosophy to the illustration of the 
doctrines of Christianity ; and the learned Canzius has written a book 
expressly to show die eminent use that may be made of that philosophy 
in throwing light upon the chief articles of our faith. See his Philoso- 
phic Leibnitianae et Wolfianse Usus in Theologia per preecipua Fidei 
capita, auctore Israele Theoph. Canzio. See also Wittenbach's Tenta- 
men Theologiee Dogmaticae Methodo Scientifica pertractatee ; but, above 
all, consult the famous work of Leibnitz, entitled, " Essais de Theo- 
dicee, sur la Bonte de Dieu, la Liberte de l'Homme, et l'Origine 
du Mai." It is remarkable enough, that the Leibnitia.n system has 
been embraced by veiy few, scarcely by any of the English Calvinists. 
Can this be owing to a want of inclination toward philosophical dis- 
cussions 1 This cannot be said. The scheme of necessity, and of 
partial evil's tending to universal good, has indeed been fostered in 
some parts of Great Britain, and even has turned some zealous Armi- 
nians into moderate and philosophical Calvinists. But the zealous Cal- 
vinists have, for the most part, adhered firmly to their theology, and blend- 
ed no philosophical principles with their system : and it is certain, that 
the most eminent philosophers have been found, in general, among 
the Arminians. If both Calvinists and Arminians claim a King, it is 
certain that the latter alone can boast of a Newton, a Locke, a Clarke, 
and a Boyle. 

No. LIII. 158 



fessors of Light.' In their conversation and intercourse 
with each other, they use no other term of appellation than 
that of Friends 

This sect had its rise in England, in those unhapp> 
times of confusion, anarchy, and civil discord, when every 
political or religious fanatic, who had formed a new plan 
of government, or invented a new system of theology, came 
forth with his novelties to public view, and propagated them 
with impunity among a fickle and unthinking multitude. 
Its parent or founder was George Fox, d a shoemaker of a 
dark and melancholy complexion, and of a visionary and 
enthusiastic turn of mind. About the year 1647, which 
was the twenty-fourth year of his age, he began to stroll 
through several counties in England, giving himself out 
for a person divinely inspired, and exhorting the people to 
attend to the voice of the divine word, that lies hidden in 
the hearts of all men. After the decapitation of Charles I., 
when all laws, both civil and ecclesiastical, seemed to be 
entirely suspended, if not extinct. Fox exerted his fanati- 
cal powers with new vigour, and formed more ambitious 
and extensive views. Having acquired a considerable 
number of disciples of both sexes, who were strongly in- 
fected with his wild enthusiasm, he excited great tumults 
in several pails of England, and, in 1650, went so far as 
to disturb the devotion of those who were assembled in the 
churches for the purposes of public worship, declaring that 
all such assemblies were useless and unchristian. For 
these extravagances, both he and his companions were 
sometimes thrown into prison, and chastised, as disturbers 
of the peace, by the civil magistrate/ 

* Hence, to omit many other circumstances that show unquestionably 
the truth of this observation, the Arminians have been at great pains to 
represent Grotius, their hero and their oracle, as a particular admirer of 
the constitution and governmentof the church of England, which he pre- 
ferred to all other forms of ecclesiastical polity. See what Le Clerc has 
published on this subject at the end of the edition of Grotius' book, de 
Veritate Religionis Christianse, which he gave at the Hague in 1724, 
p. 376. 

t> See George Sewell's History of the Quakers, p. 23. — Neal's His- 
tory of the Puritans, vol. iv. p. 32. c Sewell, p. 62-1. 

d S3r The anonymous writer of a letter to Dr. Forniey seems much 
offended at that gentleman on account of his calling George Fox a man 
of a turbulent spirit, &c. He tells us, on the contrary, that, from all the 
information worthy of credit which he was able to procure, Fox was 
" a man of so meek, contented, easy, steady, and tender a disposition, 
that it was a pleasure to be in his company; that he exercised no 
authority but over evil, and that every where, and in all, but with love, 
compassion, and long-suffering." This account he takes from Penn ; 
and it is very probable that he has looked no farther, unless it be to the 
curious portrait which Thomas Ellwood, another Quaker, has given of 
Fox, — a portrait in which there is such an affected jingle of words as 
shows the author to have been more attentive to the arrangement of his 
sentences, than to a true exhibition of the character of his original : for 
we are told by Ellwood that this same George Fox was deep in divine 
knowledge, powerful in preaching, fervent in prayer, quick in discern- 
ing, sound in judgment (risurn teneatis, amici?)— -manly in personage, 
grave in gesture, courteous in conversation, weighty in communication, 
&c. After having thus painted George after the fancy of his two 
brethren (for fancy is the quaker's fountain of light and uiith,) the letter- 
writer observes, that Dr. Formey has taken his account of George's 
turbulence and fanaticism from Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History. 
As Mosheim is dead, and cannot defend himself, may I be permitted to 
request this anonymous letter-writer, who appears to be a candid and 
rational man, to cast an eye upon Sewell's History of the Quakers, and 
to follow this meek, courteous and modest George, running like a wild 
man through several counties, refusing to pay due homage to his sove- 
reign, interrupting the ministers in the public celebration of divine ser- 
vice at Nottingham, Mansfield, and Bosworth 1 It is remarkable, that 
the very learned and worthy Dr. Henry More, who was not himself 
without a strong tincture of enthusiasm, and who looked upon Penn as 
a pious Christian, treated nevertheless George Fox as a melancholy 
fanatic, and as one possessed with the Devil. See his Mysu of Godli- 
ness, B. x. ch. xiii. and also Schol. in Dialogue v. sect. 5. 

• Beside the ordinary writers of the ecclesiastical history of this cen- 
tury, the curious reader will do well to consult Croesii Historia Quaker- 



630 



HISTORY OF THE SECT CALLED QUAKERS. 



Sect. 11. 



n. The first association of Quakers consisted chiefly of 
visionary fanatics, and of persons who really seemed to be 
disordered in their brains; and hence they committed 
many enormities, which the modern Quakers endeavour to 
alleviate and diminish, but which they neither pretend to 
justify nor to approve ; for the greatest part of them were 
riotous and tumultuous in the highest degree, and even 
their female disciples, forgetting the delicacy and decency 
peculiar to their sex, bore their part in these disorders. 
They ran, like Bacchanals, through the towns and villages, 
declaiming against episcopacy, presbyterianism, and every 
fixed form of religion ; railed at public and stated worship ; 
affronted and mocked the clergy, even in the very exercise 
of their ministerial functions ; a trampled upon the laws and 
the authority of the magistrates, under the pretext of be- 
ing actuated by a divine impulse : and made use of their 
pretended inspiration to excite vehement commotions both 
in state and church. Hence it is not at all surprising, that 
the secular arm was at length raised against these perni- 
cious fanatics, and that many of them were severely chas- 
tised for their extravagance and folly." Cromwell himself, 
who was, in general, an enemy to no sect, however en- 
thusiastical it might be, entertained uneasy apprehensions 
from the frantic violence of the Quakers, and therefore, 
in his first thoughts, formed a resolution to suppress their 
rising community. But when he perceived that they 
treated with contempt both his promises and threats, and 
were, in effect, too powerful or too headstrong to yield to 
either, he prudently abstained from the use of force, and 
contented himself with employing wise measures and pre- 

iana, tribus libris compreliensa. A physician named Kohlhansius, who 
was born a Lutheran, but afterwards became a Gluaker, published 
critical remarks upon this history, under the title of Dilucidationes ; and 
it must be acknowledged, that there are many inaccuracies in the work 
of Croesius ; it is, however, much less faulty than another history of 
this sect, which was published at Cologne in 1692, under the following 
title: Histoire abregee de la Naissance et du Progres du Kouakerisme, 
avec celle de ses Dogmes ; for the anonymous author of the latter his- 
tory, instead of relating well-attested facts, has compiled, without 
either discernment or choice, such an extravagant medley of truth and 
falsehood, as is rather adapted to excite laughter than to administer 
instruction. See the second book of Croesius' Historia Quakeriana, p. 
322, and 376, as also Le Clerc, Biblioth. Universelle et Historique, torn. 
Xxii. p. 53. — The most ample and authentic account of this sect is that 
which was composed by George Sewell from a great variety of genuine 
records, and partly from the papers of Fox, its founder, and published 
under the following title : " The History of the Christian people called 
Quakers." This work is remarkable for the industry and accuracy 
which the author has discovered in compiling it; but, as Sewell was 
himself a Gluaker, he is sometimes chargeable with concealing, dimi- 
nishing, or representing under artful colours, many things, which, if 
impartially related, must have appeared dishonourable, and 'might have 
been detrimental, tahis community. It must however be granted, that, 
notwithstanding these defects, his history is abundantly sufficient to 
enable an impartial and intelligent reader to form a just and satisfactory 
idea of this visionary sect. Voltaire has also entertained the public 
with four Letters, concerning the religion, manners, and history of the 
Quakers, in his Melanges de Literature, d'Histoire et de Philosophie, 
which are written with his usual wit and elegance, but are rather 
adapted to amuse than instruct. The conversation between him and 
Andrew Pitt, an eminent Quaker in London (which is related in these 
letters,) may be true in general ; but, to render the account of it still 
more pleasing, the ingenious writer has embellished it with effusions of 
wit and fancy, and even added some particulars, that are rather drawn 
from imagination than memory. It is from the books already mentioned 
that the French Dissertation on the Religion of the Quakers (which is 
inserted in the third volume of the splendid work, entitled, Ceremonies 
et Coutumes Religieusesde tous les Peuples,) is chiefly compiled, though 
with less attention and aciuracy than might have been expected. A 
Lutheran writer; named Fiederic Ernest Meis, has given an account of 
he English Quakers in a German work, entitled, Entwurff der Kirchen 

rdnung und Gebrauche der Quacker in Engelunct, 1715. 

• |3r A female, contrary to the modesty of her sex, appeared in 
Whitehall chapel stark naked, in the midst of public worship, when 



cautions to prevent their fomenting sedition among the 
people, or undermining the foundations of his new sove- 
reignty. 

III. In process of time, the fumes of this excessive 
fanaticism began to evaporate, and the ardent impetuosity 
of the rising sect seemed gradually to subside; nor did the 
divine light, of which the Quakers boast, produce such 
tumults in church and state, as at the first declaration of 
their celestial pretensions. In the reign of Charles II. 
both their religious doctrine and discipline assumed a more 
regular and permanent form, by the care and industry 
of Fox, assisted, in this very necessary undertaking, by 
Robert Barclay, George Keith, and Samuel Fisher, men 
of learning and abilities, who became, notwithstanding, 
members of this strange community. Fox stood in urgent 
need of such able assistants ; for his gross ignorance had 
rendered his religion, hitherto, a confused medley of inco- 
herent tenets and visions. The new triumvirate, there- 
fore, used their utmost endeavours to digest these under 
certain heads, and to reduce them to a sort of theological 
system. d But such was the change of times, that the 
wiser and more moderate Quakers of England suffered 
more vexations, and were involved in greater calamities, 
than had fallen to the lot of their frantic and turbulent 
ancestors. These vexations, indeed, were not so much 
the consequence of their religious principles, as of their sin- 
gular customs and manners in civil life ; for they would 
never give to magistrates those titles of honour and pre- 
eminence which are designed to mark the respect due to 
their authority ; they also refused obstinately to take the 

Cromwell was there present. Another entered the parliament-house, 
with a trencher in her hand, which she broke in pieces, saying, " Thus 
shall he be broken in pieces." Thomas Adams, having complained to 
the protector of the imprisonment of some of his friends, and not finding 
redress, took off his cap and tore it in pieces, saying, "So shall thy 
government be torn from thee and thy house." Several, pretending an 
extraordinary message from heaven, went about the streets, denouncing 
the judgments of God against the protector and his council; and one 
approached the door of the parliament-house with a drawn sword, and 
wounded several persons, saying, that " he was inspired by the Holy 
Spirit to kill every man who sat in that house." The most extravagant 
Quaker who appeared at this time, was James Naylor, formerly an 
officer, a man of parts, and so much admired by these fanatics, that they 
blasphemously styled him, " the everlasting son of righteousness, the 
prince of peace, the only begotten son of God, the fairest among ten 
thousand." See Neal's History of the Puritans, and the Life and Trial 
of Naylor. The anonymous author of the Letter to Dr. Formey, 
seems to have lost sight of the state of Quakerism in the time of Fox, 
when he denies that the charge of turbulence and fanaticism can be 
proved against him or his friends, and gives the gentle denomination 
of imprudence to the extravagances exhibited by the Quakers under 
Charles I. and the commonwealth. The single story of Naylor, who 
was the convert and pupil of Fox, and the letters, full of blasphemous 
absurdity, written to this " Rose of Sharon," this " new Jesus," by 
Hannah Stranger, Richard Fairman, and others, show the horrid vein 
of fanaticism that ran through this visionary sect. See these letters in 
the Life and Trial of Naylor, who, though cruelly scourged, was, how- 
ever, whipped into his senses, or at least, brought by his sufferings into 
a calmer state of mind. See also Satan Inthroned. If Quakerism be 
now in England on a more rational footing, we may congratulate its 
members upon the happy change, but at the same time condole with 
them on the approaching annihilation of their sect : for, if reason gets 
in among them, the spirit (I mean their spirit) will soon be quenched, 
and fancy being no more the only criterion of truth, the fundamental 
principle of their existence will be destroyed. In such a catastrophe, 
the abettors of ancient Quakerism will find some resource among tile 
Methodists. b Neal's History, vol. iv. — Sewell. 

c The earl of Clarendon tells us, in his History of the Rebellion, that 
the Quakers always persevered in their bitter enmity against Cromwell. 
See Sewcll's History, book i. 

<i For an account of the life and writings of Barclay, see the General 
Dictionary. Sewell, in his History, gives an ample account of Keith. 
There is also particular mention made of Fisher, in the Unschuldige 
Nachrichten, An. 1750, p. 338. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE SECT CALLED QUAKERS. 



631 



oath of allegiance to their sovereign, 3 and to pay tithes to 
the clergy ; hence they were looked upon as rebellious 
subjects, and, on that account, were frequently punished 
with great severity. b In the reign of James II. and more 
particularly about the year 1685, they began to see more 
prosperons days, and to enjoy the sweets of toleration and 
liberty, which they owed, not to the clemency of the govern- 
ment, but to the friendship of that monarch for the famous 
William Penn, 1 who had been employed by him in matters 
of the utmost moment, and had rendered him signal and 
important services. 11 What James had done, from motives 
of a personal or political nature, in favour of the Quakers, 
King William III. confirmed and continued, from a zeal 
for maintaining'the rights of conscience, and advancing 
the cause of religious liberty. From these motives, he 
procured a full and ample toleration for dissenters of almost 
all denominations ; and the Quakers, in consequence of 
this grant, enjoyed at length, upon a constitutional foot- 
ing, tranquillity and freedom. e 

IV. Fatigued with the vexations and persecution which 
they suffered in their native country during the reign of 
Charles II., the Quakers looked about for some distant 
settlements, where they might shelter themselves from 
the storm ; and with this view they began to disseminate 
their religious principles in various countries. Attempts 
of this nature were made in German}*, Prussia, France, 
Italy, Greece, Holland, and Holstein, but with little suc- 
cess. The Dutch, however, were, after much importunity, 
persuaded to allow a certain number of these enthusiasts 
to settle in Holland, where their descendants still continue 
to reside. Multitudes of them had already gone over 
to America, and formed settlements there, not long after 
the rise of their sect ; and it afterwards happened, by a 
singular concourse of events, that this new world became 
the chief seat of their prosperit)' and freedom. W T iiliam 
Penn, son of the famous vice-admiral of that name, who 
embraced Quakerism in 166S, received, in 1680, from 
Charles and from the English parliament, the grant of 
an ample and fertile but uncultivated province in America, 
as a reward for the eminent services of his father. This 
illustrious Quaker, who was far from being destitute of 
parts, and whose activity and penetration were accom- 
panied with an uncommon degree of eloquence/ carried 
over with him into his new dominions a considerable 
colony of his Friends and Brethren : and he founded in 

* IpT This refusal to take the oath of allegiance did not proceed from 
any disaffection to the government, but from a persuasion that all oaths 
were unlawful, and that swearing, even upon the most solemn occasions, 
was forbidden in the New Testament. They also sincerely believed, 
that they were as much obliged to obedience by an affirmation, which 
ihey were willing to make, as by an oath. 

•> See a circumstantial account of their sufferings under Charles II. in 
Neal's fourth volume, p. 313, 353, 396, 432, 510, 552, 569.— Burnet's 
History of his own Time, vol. i. p. 271. — SewelTs Hist. 

e See Se well's History. 

d Idf The indulgence of James towara the Quakers and other dis- 
senters from the established church, was, in fact, founded on a zeal for 
popery, and designed to favour the Roman Catholics. More particu- 
larly the order which he sent to the lord-mayor of London, on the 7th of 
November, 1687, to dispense with an oath from the Quakers, was 
evidently designed to open a door to the catholics to bear offices in 
the state without a legal qualification. At the same time it is probable 
enough, that a personal attachment to the famous William Penn may 
have contributed to render this monarch more indulgent to this sect than 
he would otherwise have been. The reasons of this attachment are 
differently represented. Some suppose it to have been owing to the 
services of his father in the fleet commanded against die Dutch in 1665, 
by James, when duke of York. Others' attribute this attachment to his 
personal services. From the high degree of favour he enjoyed at court, 



those distant regions a republic, whose form, laws, and 
institutions, resembled no other known system of govern- 
ment, whose pacific principles and commercial spirit have 
long blessed it with tranquillity and opulence, and which 
still continues in a prosperous and flourishing state.* 
The Quakers predominate in this colony, both by their 
influence and their numbers ; but all those who acknow- 
ledge the existence and providence of one Supreme Being, 
and show their respect to that Being, either by external 
worship, or at least by the regularity of their lives and 
actions, are admitted to the rights and privileges of citi- 
zens in this happy republic. The large province that 
constitutes its territory was called Pennsylvania, from the 
name of its proprietor ; and its capital cit) r was named 
Philadelphia, from the spirit of union and fraternal love 
that reigned at first, and is still supposed to prevail, among 
its inhabitants. 

V. Even during the life of their founder, the Quakers, 
notwithstanding their extraordinary pretensions to frater- 
nal charity and union, were frequently divided into parties, 
and involved in contests and debates. These debates, 
indeed, which were carried on in the years 1656, 1661, 
and l683, with peculiar warmth, were not occasioned by 
any doctrines of a religious nature, but by a diversity of 
opinions about matters of discipline, about certain customs 
and manners, and other affairs of little moment ; and 
they were generally terminated in a short time, and with- 
out much difficulty. 11 But, after the death of Fox, which 
happened in 1691, some Friends, and more especially 
George Keith, who was indisputably the most learned 
member of their community, excited, by then doctrines 
and innovations, discords of a more serious and momen- 
tous kind than those which had before divided the Breth- 
ren. This fountain of contention was opened in Penn- 
sylvania, where Keith was charged with erroneous opi- 
nions respecting several points of theology, and more par- 
ticularly concerning the human nature of Christ, which 
he supposed to be two-fold, one part being spiritual and 
celestial, the other corporeal and terrestrial. 1 This and 
other inventions of Keith would perhaps have passed 
without censure, among a people who reduce the whole 
of religion to fancy and a kind of spiritual instinct, had 
not this learned man animadverted, with a certain degree 
of severity, upon some of the fantastic notions of the 
American brethren, and opposed, in a more particular 

they concluded that he was a concealed papist, and assisted the king in 
the execution of his designs. That the imputation of popery was 
groundless, appears from his correspondence with Dr. Tillotson, which 
is published in the life of Penn, prefixed to the first volume of the works 
of the latter. It is nevertheless certain, that he was very intimate with 
Father Petre, the hot-headed Jesuit, whose bigotiy framed the king's 
projects, and whose imprudence rendered them abortive. It is also cer- 
tain, that, in 1686, he went over to Holland, in order to persuade the 
prince of Orange to support the measures of king James. 

CEuvres de M. de Voltaire, torn. iv. p. 182. 

!3r f Bishop Burnet, who knew Penn personally, says, that " he 
was a talking, vain man, who had such a high opinion of his own 
eloquence, that he thought nothing could stand before it;" and that " he 
had a tedious luscious way, that was not apt to overcome a man's rea- 
son, though it might tire his patience." 

% The laws and charters of the colony of Pennsylvania may be seen 
in Rapin's History, Penn's Works, and in other collections of public 
records ; they are also inserted in the Bibliotheque Britannique, torn. xv. 
p. 310 ; torn. xvi. p. 127. — Penn acquired a great reputation, both by his 
writings and the active figure he made in life. See the accounts given 
of him by Sewell and Burnet. 

•> See Sewell's History. 

i3r ' Ceremonies et Coutumes de tous les Pcuples du Monde, torn. it. 
p. 141. — Croesii Historia duakeriana, lib. iii. p. 446. 



632 



HISTORY OF THE SECT CALLED QUAKERS. 



Sect. II. 



manner, their method of converting the whole history of 
Christ's life and sufferings into a mere allegory, or sym- 
bolical representation of the duties of Christianity. The 
European Quakers dare not so far presume upon the in- 
dulgence of the civil and ecclesiastical powers, as to deny 
openly the reality of the history of the life, mediation, 
nnd sufferings of Christ ; but in America, where they 
have nothing to fear, they are said to express themselves 
without ambiguity, on this subject, and to maintain 
publicly, that Christ never existed but in the hearts of 
the faithful. This point was debated between Keith 
and his adversaries, in several general assemblies of the 
sect holden in England, and was at length brought be- 
fore the parliament. The contest was terminated, in 
1695, by the excommunication of Keith and his adhe- 
rents, which so exasperated this famous Quaker, 11 that 
he returned, some years after this, into the bosom of the 
English church, and died in its communion. b His friends 
and followers long continued to hold their assemblies, 
and to exercise their religion in a state of separation from 
the rest of the sect ; but now, if we may believe public 
fame, they are reconciled with their brethren. 

VI. The religion of this sect has an air of novelty that 
strikes at first sight ; but, when viewed closely, it will 
appear to be nothing more than a certain modification of 
that famous Mystic Theology, which arose so early as 
the second century, was fostered and embellished by the 
luxuriant fancy of Origen, and, passing through various 
hands, assumed different aspects until it was adopted by 
the Quakers, who set off the motley form with their own 
inventions. Fox, indeed, is not chargeable with these 
inventions ; his ignorant and inelegant simplicity places 
him beyond the reach of suspicion in this matter ; but it 
is, at the same time, undoubtedly certain, that all his 

f£lr * Bishop Burnet, who was certainly better acquainted with the 
history of Keith (with whom he had been educated) than Dr. Mosheim, 
attributes his return to the church of England to a much worthier mo- 
tive than irritation and resentment. He tells us that Keith, after the 
American quakers had appeared to him as little better than deists, op- 
posed them so warmly, that they sent him back to England. Here he 
opened a new meeting, and by printed summons called together the 
whole party to convince them of these errors. " He continued those 
meetings, (says the bishop,) being still, in outward appearance, a 
Quaker, for some years ; till having prevailed as far as he saw any ap- 
pearance of success, he laid aside their exterior, and was reconciled to 
the church." 

t> See Burnet's History, and also that of Sewell ; but it is proper to 
observe, that the latter was either unacquainted with the true nature and 
state of this controversy, which, as he was an illiterate man, may easily 
be supposed to have been the case, or he has given designedly a false 
and ambiguous representation of the matter. See the life of Kuster, in 
the Europa Erudita of Rahtlef (a work written in German,) where this 
controversy is placed in its true light. Kuster was a man of probity, who 
lived at that time in America, and was an eye-witness of these divisions. 

c See Rogers' Christian Quaker ; as also the Quakers a divided Peo- 
ple, and Unschuld. Nachricht. 1744, p. 496, 

J Most people are of opinion that we are to learn the true doctrine 
and sentiments of the Quakers from the Catechism of Robert Barclay, 
and more especially from his Apology for the true Christian Divinity, 
&c. which was published in 1676, and was translated' into several foreign 
languages ; nor do I deny, that the members of this sect are very desi- 
rous that we should judge of their religious sentiments by the doctrine 
that is exhibited in these books: but, if those who are disposed to judge 
by this rule, go so far as to maintain, that these books contain all the re- 
ligious tenets that were formerly advanced, or are at present adopted by 
the people called Quakers, they may be refuted without difficulty, from 
a great variety of books and records of unquestionable authenticity. It 
is necessary to enter into the true spirit of Barclay's writings. This in- 
enious man appeared as a patron and defender of Quakerism, and not 
as a professed teacher or expositor of its various doctrines ; and he in- 
terpreted and modified the opinions of this sect after the manner of a 
champion or advocate, who undertakes the defence of an odious cause. 



notions concerning the internal word, the divine light 
within, and its operations and effects, were either borrow- 
ed from the writings of the Mystics, which were, at that 
time, in the hands of many, or at least collected from the 
conversation and expressions of some persons of the Mystic 
order. The tenets, however, which this blunt and illite- 
rate man expressed in a rude, confused, and ambiguous 
manner, were dressed up and presented under a different 
form by the masterly hands of Barclay, Keith, Fisher, 
and Penn, who digested them with such sagacity and 
art, that they assumed the aspect of a regular system, 
The Quakers may therefore be deemed with reason the 
principal branch of the Mystics, as they not only embra- 
ced the precepts of their hidden wisdom,' but even saw its 
whole tendency, and adopted, without hesitation, all its 
consequences." 1 

VII. The fundamental doctrine of Quakerism, from 
which all the other tenets of the sect are derived, is that 
famous and ancient opinion of the mystic school, " that 
there lies concealed in the minds of all men a certain por- 
tion of divine reason, a spark of the same wisdom that 
exists in the Supreme Being. Therefore, those who are 
desirous of arriving at true felicity and eternal salvation, 
must, (according to their system) by self-converse, con- 
templation, and perpetual efforts to subdue their sensual 
affections, endeavour to draw forth, kindle, and inflame that 
divine, hidden spark, which is overpowered by the dark- 
ness of the flesh, and suffocated, as it were, by that mass 
of matter with which it is surrounded. They who ob- 
serve this rule, will feel (say the Quakers) a divine glow 
of warmth and light, and hear a celestial and divine voice 
proceeding from the inward recesses of their souls ; and by 
this light and this voice, they will be led to all truth, and be 
perfectly assured of their union with the Supreme Being." 

How then does he go to work 1 In the first place, he observes an entire 
silence in relation to those fundamental principles of Christianity, con- 
cerning which it is of great consequence to know the real opinions of the 
Quakers ; and thus he exhibits a system of theology that is evidently 
lame and imperfect; for it is the peculiar business of a prudent apolo- 
gist to pass over in silence points that are scarcely susceptible of a plau- 
sible defence, and to enlarge upon those only which the powers of genius 
and eloquence may be able to embellish and exhibit in an advantageous 
point of view. It is observable, in the second place, that Barclay 
touches, in a slight, superficial, and hasty manner, some tenets, the ex- 
planation of which had already exposed the Quakers to severe censures ; 
and in this he discovers plainly the weakness of his cause. Lastly (to 
omit many other observations that might be made here), this writer 
employs the greatest dexterity and art in softening and modifying those 
invidious doctrines which he cannot conceal, and presumes not to dis- 
avow ; for which purpose he carefully avoids all those phrases and 
terms which are used by the Quakers, and are peculiar to their sect, 
and expresses their tenets in ordinary language, in terms of a vague 
and indefinite nature, and in a style that casts a sort of mask over their 
natural aspect. At this rate the most enormous errors may be main- 
tained with impunity; for there is no doctrine, however absurd, to 
which a plausible air may not be given by following the insidious me 
thod of Barclay ; and it is well known that even the doctrine of Spinosa 
was, with a like artifice, dressed out and disguised by some of his dis- 
ciples. The other writers of this sect have declared their sentiments 
with more freedom, perspicuity, and candour, particularly the famous 
William Penn and George Whitehead, whose writings deserve an at- 
tentive perusal, preferably to all the other productions of that commu- 
nity. There is, among other writings of'these eminent Quakers, one 
in whose composition they were both concerned, and which was pub- 
lished in 1674, under the following title : The Christian Quaker and 
his divine Testimony vindicated by Scripture, Reason, and Authority, 
against the injurious Attempts that have been lately made by several 
Adversaries. The first part of this book was written by Penn, and the 
second by Whitehead. There is also, in Sewell's History, a confes- 
sion of faith that was published by the Quakers in 1693, during their 
controversy with Keith ; but this confession is composed with great 
caution, and is full of ambiguity. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE SECT CALLED QUAKERS. 



633 



This hidden treasure, which is possessed, though not im- I 
proved, by all the human race, bears different denomina- 
tions in the language of this fanatical sect. They fre- 
quently call it divine light, sometimes a ray of the eter- 
nal wisdo?n, at others, the heavenly Sophia, whom they 
suppose married to a mortal, and whose wedding garments 
some of their writers describe with the most gaudy and 
pompous eloquence. But the most usual epithets given 
to this spiritual treasure are those of the internal word, 
and of Christ within ; for as, on the one hand, they 
adopt that doctrine of Origen, and the ancient Mystics, 
which represents Christ as the eternal reason or wisdom 
of God, and, on the other, maintain, that all men are en- 
dowed naturally with a certain portion of the divine wis- 
dom, they are thus directly led to affirm, that Christ, or 
the word of God, dwells and speaks in the hearts of all 
men. 1 

VIII. All the singularities and wonderful fancies which 
are to be found in the religious system of the Quakers, 
are the immediate consequences of the fundamental prin- 
ciple now mentioned ; for, since Christ resides in the 
inward frame of every mortal, it follows, "first, that the 
whole of religion consists in calling off the mind from 
external objects, in weakening the influence and ascen- 
dancy of the outward senses, and in every one's entering 
deeply into the inmost recesses of his heart, and listening 
attentively to the divine instructions and commands that 
the internal word, or Christ within, delivers there ; se- 
condly, that the external word, i. e. the Scripture, neither 
points out the way of salvation, nor leads men to it, since 
it only consists of letters and words, which, being void of 
life, have not a sufficient degree of efficacy and power to 
illuminate the human mind, and unite it to God. The 
only advantage that, in their opinion, results from a pe- 
rusal of the Scripture, is, that it excites the mind to listen 
to the dictates of the internal word, and to go to the school 
of Christ, who teaches within them ; or (to express the 
same thing in other words,) they look upon the Bible as 
a mute master, who, by signs and figures, points out and 
discovers that living master, that effective guide, who 
dwells in the mind. Thirdly, they who are without this 
written word, such as the Jews, Mohammedans, and sav- 
age nations, are not, on that account, either removed from 
the path, or destitute of the doctrine of salvation, though 
they indeed want this inferior and subordinate help to 
its attainment ; for, if they only attend to this inward 
teacher, who always speaks when the man is silent, 
they will learn abundantly, from him, all that is neces- 
sary to be known and practised in order to their final hap- 
piness. In consequence, fourthly, the kingdom of Christ 
is of a vast extent, and comprehends the whole race of 
mankind ; for all have Christ within them, and therefore, 
even those who are deprived of the means of knowledge, 
and five in the grossest ignorance of the Christian religion, 
are capable of obtaining, through him, wisdom here, and 
happiness hereafter. Hence also they conclude, that 
those who lead virtuous lives, and resist the impulse of 
their lusts and passions, whether they be Jews, Moslems, 
or Polytheists, shall be united to God in this life, by 

• It is nevertheless to be observed, that the modem Quakers, as ap- 
pears from the writings of Martyn and others, are, in general, ignorant 
of the system of their ancestors, and perpetually confound the innate 
divine light above-mentioned, with the operations of the Holy Ghost in 
the. minds of the faithful. 

No. LII1. 159 



means of the Christ that lies hidden within them, and 
shall enjoy the fruits of this union in the life to come. To 
these tenets they add, in the fifth place, that a heavy, 
dark body, composed of corrupt matter, hinders men from 
discerning, with ease, this hidden Christ, and from hear- 
ing his divine and internal voice. Therefore they look 
upon it as a matter of the highest importance, to watch 
against the pernicious consequences of this union between 
the soul and body, that the latter may not blunt the powers 
of the former, disturb its tranquillity, or, by the minis- 
try of the outward senses, fill it with the images of vain, 
sensible, and external objects." The consideration now 
mentioned engages them, lastly, " to look upon it as ut- 
terly incredible, that God should ever again shut up, in 
the same material habitation, the souls that are set free 
by death from their bodily prison ; and therefore they 
affirm, that the Gospel-account of the resurrection of the 
body must either be interpreted in a figurative sense, or 
be understood as pointing out the creation of a new and 
celestial body. b 

IX. It evidently appears from all this, that the exist- 
ence of the man of Christ Jesus, and the circumstantial 
accounts we have in Scripture of his divine origin, his life, 
and actions, his satisfaction, merits and sufferings, make 
no essential part of the theological system of the Quakers, 
which is built upon a different foundation, and derives the 
whole plan and method of salvation from the Christ with- 
in. Hence several members of that sect, as we learn 
from writers of unquestionable authority, went such an 
extravagant length as to maintain, that the accounts we 
have of Jesus Christ, in the evangelical history, do not 
relate to the Son of God, who took upon him the nature 
of man, but to that Christ within, whose operations are 
recorded by the sacred historians in figurative and allego- 
rical language. This opinion, if we may confide in the 
testimonies of unexceptionable witnesses, is so far from 
having lost its credit among them, that it is still openly 
professed by the American Quakeis. Those of Europe, 
whether from the force of conviction or the suggestions of 
prudence, differ entirely from their brethren in this respect. 
They hold, " That the divine wisdom, or reason, resided 
in the son of the Virgin Mary, and conveyed its instruc- 
tions to mankind by his ministry ;" and they profess to be- 
lieve, " that this divine man really did and suffered what 
is recorded concerning him by the sacred writers." It is 
nevertheless certain, that they express themselves in a 
very ambiguous manner on many points that relate to the 
history of the divine Saviour ; and, in a more particular 
manner, their notions respecting the fruits of his suffer- 
ings, and the efficacy of his death, are so vague and ob- 
scure, that it is very difficult to know what is their real 
opinion about the degree of this efficacy, and the nature 
of these fruits. It is also worthy of observation, that the 
European Quakers, though they acknowledge the reality 
of ihe life, actions, and sufferings of Christ, yet do not en- 
tirely reject the allegorical interpretation of our Saviour s 
history mentioned above ; for they consider the events 
that happened to Christ, in the course of his ministry upon 
earth, as the signs and emblems of those scenes through 

b The Quakers adopt all these tenets ; they are at least obliged to 
adopt them, unless they renounce the fundamental principles of their 
system. We have omitted the mention of those points about which 
they dispute among themselves, that we may not appear to take plea- 
sure in representing them under odious colours. 



634 



HISTORY OF THE SECT CALLED QUAKERS. 



Sect. 11. 



which the mental Christ must pass, in order to render us 
partakers of eternal salvation. Hence they talk in high 
and pompous strains (like their models the Mystics) of the 
birth, life, sufferings, death, and resurrection of Christ 'in 
the hearts of the faithful' 

X. The religious discipline, worship, and practice of the 
Quakers, flow from the same source from which, as we 
have already observed, their doctrine and tenets were im- 
mediately derived. They meet for the purposes of reli- 
gion on the same days which are set apart for the celebra- 
tion of public worship in all other Christian churches ; 
but they neither observe festivals, nor use external rites 
and ceremonies, nor suffer religion, which they place 
entirely in the mental worship of the hidden Christ, to be 
shackled and cramped by positive institutions. All the 
members of their community, whether male or female, 
have an equal right to teach and exhort in their public 
meetings ; for who, say they, will presume to exclude, 
from the liberty of speaking to the Brethren, those per- 
sons in whom Christ dwells, and by whom he speaks 1 
They reject the use of prayers, hymns, and the various 
outward forms of devotion by which, in other Christian 
churches, public worship is distinguished ; and this, in- 
deed, is an instance of their consistency with themselves, 
as it is the immediate consequence of their religious sys- 
tem ; for, in their judgment, it is not the person who ex- 
presses his desires in a set form of words, that can be said 
to pray truly, but he, on the contrary, who, by a deep 
recollection, withdraws his mind from every outward ob- 
ject, reduces it to a state of absolute tranquillity, silences 
every inward motion and affection, and plunges it, as it 
were, into the abyss of Deity. They neither observe the 
institution of baptism, nor do they renew the remem- 
brance of Christ's death, and of the benefits that result from 
it, by the celebration of the eucharist. They look upon 
these two institutions as merely Judaical, and allege, that 
our Saviour observed them for no other end than to show 
for once, in a visible manner, the mystical purification of 
the soul, under the figure of baptism, and the spiritual 
nourishment of the inward man, under that of the eucha- 
rist. 

XI. The moral doctrine of this sect, which is remark- 
able for its excessive austerity, is chiefly comprehended in 
the two following precepts. One is of this import: 
" That the faithful are either to avoid entirely every thing 
that tends to gratify the external senses and passions, 
every thing that can be ranked under the denomination 
of sensual or bodily pleasure ; or, if such rigorous absti- 
nence be impossible in this present state, and contrary to 
the evident laws of nature, such pleasure is to be so mod- 
ified and restrained by reason and meditation, as to pre- 
vent it from debasing and corrupting the mind; for, as 
the whole attention of the mind must be given to the 
voice and orders of the internal guide, so, for this purpose, 
all possible care must be taken to remove it from the con- 
tagion of the body, and from all intimate and habitual 
commerce with corporeal objects." By another leading 
precept of morality among the Quakers, all imitation of 
those external manners, that go by the name of civility 
and politeness, as also several matters of form, usual in the 
conduct of life, and in the connexions of human society, 
are strictly prohibited as unlawful. Hence they are easi- 
ly distinguished from all other Christian sects, by their 



outward deportment and their manner of life. They 
never salute any person whom they meet in their Avay, 
nor employ in their conversation the usual manner of ad- 
dress, or the appellations that civility and custom have 
rendered a matter of decency, at least, if not of duty ; 
they never express their respect for magistrates, or persons 
in authority, either by bodily gestures, titles of honour, or 
in general by any of the marks of homage that are paid 
to them by persons of all other denominations. The)'' 
carry their pacific sentiments to such an extravagant 
length as to renounce the right of self-defence, and let 
pass with impunity, and even without resistance, the at- 
tacks that are made on their possessions, their reputation, 
and even on their lives. They refuse to confirm their testi- 
monies by an oath, to appear in behalf of their property 
before a civil tribunal, or to accuse those who have in- 
jured them. To these negative parts of their external 
conduct, they add peculiar circumstances of a positive 
kind, that discover the same austere, stiff, proud, and 
formal spirit ; for they distinguish themselves, in a strik- 
ing manner, from the rest of their fellow-citizens, by the 
gravity of their aspects, the rustic simplicity of their appa- 
rel, the affected tones of their voices, the stiffness of their 
conversation, and the frugality of their tables. It is, how- 
ever, affirmed by persons of credit, who are eye-witnesses 
of what passes among the members of this sect, that the 
modern, and more especially the English Quakers, whom 
trade has furnished with the means of luxury, have de- 
parted from this rigid and austere manner of life, and 
gradually become more reconciled to the outward plea- 
sures and enjoyments of the world. These more sociable 
Quakers are also said to modify and explain the theology of 
their ancestors, in such a manner as to render it more ra- 
tional than it was in its primitive state. At the same time 
it is certain, that many of the members of this sect have 
either a false notion, or no notion at all, of that theology. 

XII. The principles of this community seem to exclude 
the very idea of order, discipline, and ecclesiastical go- 
vernment. Its leading members, however, began to per- 
ceive in process of time, that without laws and rulers it 
could not subsist, but must inevitably fall into confusion 
and ruin. They accordingly erected a council of elders, 
who discuss and determine matters of a doubtful or diffi- 
cult nature, and use all possible care and diligence in 
inspecting the conduct of the Brethren, and in preventing 
whatever they look upon as prejudicial to the interests of 
the community. The names of those who enter into the 
state of matrimony are given in to those leading members, 
who also keep an exact register of the births and deaths 
that happen in their society. They exercise, moreover, 
a certain degree of authority over those who speak in their 
meetings, since it is well known, that in some places these 
speakers show their discourses to the ruling elders before 
they deliver them, in order that they may judge whether 
they are fit to be repeated in public ; for, since the abuse 
that was made of the unbounded liberty that every indi- 
vidual had to instruct and exhort the congregation, and to 
speak and harangue when the pretended spirit moved 
them, new regulations have been observed; and this lib- 
erty has been considerably modified, in several places, to 
avoid the mockery, contempt, and censure, to which the 
community was constantly exposed, by the absurd, inco- 
herent, and insipid discourses of many of its members. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE SECT CALLED QUAKERS. 



635 



There are also in some of the more considerable congrega- 
tions, and more especially in those which are formed at 
London, certain persons whose duty it is to be always 
prepared to speak to the people, if none of the congrega- 
tion should seem to be inwardly moved or disposed to rise 
and harangue. The appointment of these professed 
speakers was designed to remedy an inconvenience that 
frequently happened in the Quaker-meetings, the whole 
assembly being dismissed without either instruction or ex- 
hortation, because no persons found themselves moved to 
speak. It is indeed to be observed, that this public dis- 
course is not looked upon by the Quakers as an essential 
part of their religion and worship ; for the Brethren and 
Sisters do not meet that they may hear the words of an 
external teacher, but that they may listen with recollec- 
tion to the voice of the divine instructor, which every one 
carries with him in his own breast, or, to use their own 
phrase, that they may 'commune with themselves.' 
Nevertheless, as these mute assemblies excite the laugh- 
ter of their adversaries, and expose them to the reproach of 
enthusiasm and folly, they have, on that account, appoint- 
ed fixed speakers to whom they give a small salary, that 
the whole time of their meeting may not be passed in 
silence. 2 

The Quakers have, annually, a general assembly, 
which meets at London in the week before Whitsuntide,* 
and is composed of deputies from all their particular con- 
gregations. They still complain, notwithstanding the 
toleration they enjoy, of certain severities and hardships ; 
but these are entirely owing to their obstinate refusal to 
pay those tithes, which, by the laws of the land, are de- 
signed for the support of the established church. 

VINDICATION OF THE QUAKERS. 

[The following Vindication was added to the Philadelphia edition 
of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History, published in 1799 :] 

An American edition of Mosheim's Ecclesiastical His- 
tory being nearly completed, in which is contained a very 
false account of the principles, doctrine and discipline of 
our religious society, a very erroneous character of George 
Fox, and divers other misrepresentations and untrue 
charges ; and although full answers and refutations of 
these calumnies have been heretofore published, yet as 
this book may fall into the hands of persons unacquainted 
with the true state of facts, we think it a point of justice 
due to the cause of truth and to our religious society, and 
for the information of candid and unprejudiced minds, 
briefly to give what from authentic histories and our own 
knowledge we have ascertained is a just narration. 

Men who consider themselves accountable for their 
words and actions, and thiuk it highly criminal to deceive 
others by either disguising or falsification, who are well 
informed and acquainted with the facts and subjects they 
relate or write upon, are entitled to greater credit than 
professed and avowed opposers, who from mistaken mo- 



fTjr * The truth of this account of fixed speakers appointed to dis- 
course and exhort (when the spirit does not move any of the other 
brethren), and rewarded for their pains, is denied by the writer of the 
letter to Dr. Formey. We leave the decision of the matter to those who 
have an opportunity of examining the supposed fact. The translator, 
instead of leaving this point unsettled, ought to have inquired into the 
circumstance; but, as he was unwilling to take that trouble, the cdiUir 
is induced to supply the deficiency, by stating that for Dr. Mosheim's 
assertion there is no authority. Many persons are in the habit of 



tives publish distortions and misconstructions. From the 
misrepresentations and wrong accounts given by our adver- 
saries, we have no doubt Mosheim has taken most of his 
narrative. 

The true character of George Fox has been drawn by 
men of the first respectability and the fullest information ; 
men who were conversant with him from his youth to his 
close : and a cloud of witnesses and authentic testimonies 
can be produced to prove that he was a pious, sober, solid 
and exemplary man, and no fanatic, eminently qualified for 
the w T ork he was raised up to promote. As we wish to be 
brief, we shall omit recurring to other documents, and only 
cite a few sentences from a preface to George Fox's Journal 
written by TVillian Penn, as follows : 

" He was a man that God endowed with a clear and 
wonderful depth, a discerner of others' spirits, and very 
much a master of his own. 

' : He was of an innocent life, no busy body nor self- 
seeker, neither touchy nor critical. So meek, contented, 
modest, steady, tender, it was a pleasure to be in his com- 
pany. 

" As he was unwearied, so he was undaunted in his 
services for God. For in all things he acquitted himself 
like a man, a new and heavenly-minded man, a divine and 
a naturalist, and all of God Almighty's making. I have 
been surprised at his questions and answers in natural 
things, that whilst he was ignorant of useless and sophis- 
tical science, he had in him the foundation of useful and 
commendable knowledge, and cherished it every where. 

" Thus he lived and sojourned among us, and as he 
lived so he died, feeling in his last moments the same 
eternal power that had raised and preserved him." 

Instead of the first association of Quakers " being 
mostly composed of visionary fanatics, and of persons that 
really seemed to be disordered in their brains," "William 
Penn, in his aforesaid preface, gives the names of a num- 
ber of eminent men who became members of this society, 
and who were instrumental with rnany others in spread- 
ing and propagatingthedoctrineswhich they had espoused, 
and also of establishing a discipline and church govern- 
ment which must be allowed to be a compact and well 
regulated system of good order. 

The charge of their " running like bacchanals through 
the towns and villages, declaiming against Episcopacy, 
Presbyterianism, and every fixed form of religion, &c. 
trampling upon the laws, and making use of their pre- 
tended inspirations to excite the most vehement com- 
motions both in church and state," and divers other 
scandalous aspersions, we deny. 

That tumults were raised by their opposers, is very true, 
and also that the) r refused complying with laws which 
they conceived as violating the rights of conscience ; but 
that in any one instance the}- offered violence to the per- 
son of any man. or departed from their peaceable testi- 
mony, is false. That they bore beatings, imprisonment 
and death, with patience, meekness, and perseverance, 

preaching, exhorting, or advising, at the different meetings ; but they 
are not selected or appointed by the congregation, and do not act as sti- 
pendiary ministers. The Friends know that the labourer is worthy of 
his hire, and follow that rule in ordinary cases ; but the idea of remu- 
neration for religious instruction is neither entertained by the preacher 
himself, nor by the Brethren and Sisters who listen to his extempora- 
neous effusions. 

* It is now fixed for the third Sunday in May. 



636 



HISTORY OF THE SECT CALLED aUAKERS 



Sect. II. 



praving for their enemies, is a fact indisputable and of 
great notoriety ; so that in time, when the clouds of pre- 
iudice were dissipated and their innocence fully mani- 
fested, way was made in the minds of rulers for their 
toleration ; and this may with truth be said, that such of 
them as keep true to their principles, are as good members 
of civil society as any other people, and have never been 
found in any plots or combinations against the govern- 
ments which in the course of providence have been set 
over them. 

The conduct of James Naylor, in his dark and bewil- 
dered state, we freely condemn ; but his punishment was 
rigorous in the extreme. That two or three weak persons 
were deluded and paid a sort of divine honour to him, is 
confessed ; but that this was in any degree countenanced 
by our religious society is positively denied, but on the con- 
trary was fully reprobated by them. Although James Nay- 
lor had lamentably missed his way, yet we have reason 
to believe he was through divine mercy restored to a sound 
mind. He published a condemnation of his misconduct, 
and we reverently hope he died in peace with God and 
love to all men. 

As to the absurd story of " one of these people going to 
the parliament house with a drawn sword and wounding 
several, and saying he was inspired by the Holy Spirit to 
kill every man that sat in that house," it is a very fiction, 
and we deny that any acknowledged member among us 
ever was guilty of such conduct. 

We have also made diligent search and cannot find any 
account of a female going naked as mentioned in the same 
note, and believe it is untrue. 

That George Keith was a man of learning and a mem- 
ber of our society, and wrote several pieces in support of 
our tenets, is true ; but that he gave way to a contentious 
spirit, and endeavoured to lay waste what he himself had 
assisted to build up, and was, after much patient labour 
and forbearance, disowned by friends, we acknowledge . and 
that an opposition was made to the establishment of meet- 
ings for discipline, by some through ignorance, who after- 
wards saw their error and condemned it, and by others 
from mistaken motives ; but that our fundamental opi- 
nions have been the same from the first promulgation of 
them, we confidently assert. 

We believe the Scriptures of the Old and New Testa- 
ment to be of divine original, and give full credit to the 
historical facts, as well as the doctrines therein delivered ; 
and never had any doubt of the truth of the actual birth, 
life, sufferings, death, resurrection and ascension of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, as related by the evange- 
lists, without any mental or other reserve, or the least dimi- 
nution by allegorical explanation : and there is not, nor 
ever has been, any essential difference in faith or practice 
between Friends in Europe and America ; but a corres- 
pondence is regularly maintained, and love, harmony, and 
unity have been preserved down to this day ; and we hope 
and believe, under divine favour, nothing will be able to 
scatter or divide us. 

We do not wish to meddle with those, called mystics, 
or to adopt many of their expressions. We presume there 
were sincerely religious people among them ; but we 
think religion is a simple thing, the work of the Spirit 

* The severities exercised in Switzerland against the Mennonites are 
recorded by Ottius, is his Annal. Anabapt. p. 337, and more particu- 



of God in the hearts of men : and as to our tenets and 
history we refer to Fox, Barclay, Penn, Sewell. Gough, <kc. 
and declare, that we never had, nor now have, any other 
doctrines to publish, and that there are no religious opi- 
nions or practices among us which have not been made 
known to the world. 

When any person by submitting to the influence and 
operation of the Spirit of God, becomes thereby qualified, 
and is called to the work of the ministry, after having 
made full proof thereof to the satisfaction of the congre- 
gation, he or she is accepted and recommended as such ; 
but as to any person being appointed with a stipend, small 
or great, or preparing a sermon to be delivered in our 
meetings to be previously examined, or without such 
examination, there never was any such practice among 
us. Our ministers, elders, overseers, and other friends 
appointed to religious services, receive no pecuniary pay, 
but spend their time and their own money freely on such 
occasions, at home and abroad ; yet proper attention is 
given to those in low or poor circumstances of every 
description, besides contributing our full proportion to the 
support of the general poor. Equally untrue is the insi- 
nuation that we are ashamed of our silent meetings, 
having experienced them to be both profitable and refresh- 
ing, as by waiting on the Lord we renew our strength in 
him. 

Having referred to divers books for further information 
respecting us, and a more minute refutation of the other 
false charges, we shall content ourselves at present with this 
general answer. 

Signed by direction and on behalf of a meeting repre- 
senting the religious society called Quakers in Penn- 
sylvania, New- Jersey, &c. held in Philadelphia the 
22d of 11th Month, 1799. 

john drinker, Clerk. 

CHAPTER V. 

Concerning the Mennonites, or Anabaptists. 

1. After various scenes of trial and perplexity, the 
Mennonites at length found, during this century, that 
tranquillity which they had long sought in vain. They 
arrived, indeed, at this state of repose by very slow steps ; 
for though, in the preceding age, they were admitted to 
the rights and privileges of citizens in the United Pro- 
vinces, yet it was a long time before their solicitations and 
pleas of innocence could engage the English, the Swiss, 
and Germans, to receive them in their bosom, and to ab- 
rogate the laws that had been enacted against them. 
The civil magistrates, in these countries, had still before 
their eyes the enormities committed by the ancient Ana- 
baptists ; and, besides, they could not persuade them- 
selves, that a set of men, who looked upon all oaths as 
sinful, and declared that magistracy and penal laws have 
no place in the kingdom of Christ, had the qualities and 
sentiments that are necessary to constitute a good citizen. 
Hence we find, even in this century, several examples 
of great severities employed against the Anabaptists, and 
some instances of even capital punishments being inflicted 
on them. a But now, that the demonstrations of their in- 
nocence and probity are clear and unquestionable, they 

larly those which they suffered in the year 1693, by Hottinger, in his 
German work, entitled Schweizerische Kirchen-Historie, vol. i. p. 1101, 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE -MENNONITES, OR ANABAPTISTS. 



637 



enjoy the sweets of security and repose, not only in the 
United Provinces, but also in England, Germany, and 
Prussia, where they procure by their honest industry, and 
particularly by their application to trade and commerce, an 
ample subsistence for themselves and their families. 

II. The wiser members of this community easily per- 
ceived, that their external tranquillity would not be staple 
or permanent, unless their intestine discords were removed, 
and their ancient disputes about trifling and unimportant 
matters charitably terminated. They accordingly used 
their most zealous endeavours to diffuse the sweets of 
charity and concord throughout their sect ; nor were their 
labours altogether unsuccessful. In 1630, a considerable 
part of the Anabaptists of Flanders, Germany, and Frise- 
land, concluded their debates in a conference at Amster- 
dam, and entered into the bonds of fraternal communion ; 
each, notwithstanding, reserving a liberty of retaining 
certain opinions. This association was renewed, and 
confirmed by new resolutions in 1649, by the Anabaptists 
of Flanders and Germany, among whom great divisions 
had reigned. 1 All these formed a bond of union with those 
branches of the sect that were most distinguished by their 
moderation ; and they mitigated and corrected, in various 
respects, the rigorous laws of Menno and his successors. 

III. At this day, therefore, the whole community may 
be divided into two large sects. One comprehends the 
more refined Anabaptists, remarkable for their austerity, 
who are also called Flemings or Flandrians ; and those 
who form the other sect are styled the Gj^oss Anabaptists, 
who are of a milder complexion, and an easier and more 
moderate character, and go commonly under the denomi- 
nation of Waterlandians. We have already given a par- 
ticular account of the origin and etymology of these de- 
nominations. Each sect is subdivided into a variety of 
branches, more especially the refined and austere Ana- 
baptists ; who have not only produced two separate so- 
cieties, distinguished by the names of Groningenists, b and 
Dantzickers, or Prussians, but also a considerable num- 
ber of more obscure factions, which differ in doctrine, 
discipline, and manners, and agree in nothing but the 
name of Anabaptists, and in some ancient opinions that 
have been unanimously embraced by all the members of 
that sect. All the refined Anabaptists are the rigid fol- 
lowers of Simon Menno, and firmly maintain, though not 
all with the same degree of severity and rigour, the senti- 
ments of their chief on the following points — the human 
nature of Christ — the obligation that binds us to wash the 
feet of strangers in consequence of our Saviour's command 
— the necessity of excommunicating and of avoiding, as 
one would do the plague, not only avowed sinners, but 
also those who depart, even in some light instances, from 
the simplicity of their ancestors, and are tainted with any 
appearance of evil — the contempt that is due to human 
learning, and other matters of less momenta It is how- 
ever to be observed, that, in our times, some of the con- 
gregations of this refined sect have been gradually depart- 
ing from their austere system, and are proceeding, though 

nor even in the present* century have they been treated more mildly in 
tlis canton of Bern, as appears from Schyn's Historia Mennnnitar. cap. 
x. p. 289, in which we find the letters of the states-general of the United 
Provinces, interceding with that canton in their behalf. A severe per- 
secution was set on foot against them in the Palatinate in 1694, which 
was suspended by the intercession of William III. king of Great Bri- 
tain. Sec Schyn's Hist. p. 265. Bishop Burnet mentions some in- 
stances of Anabaptists suffering death in England during the seven- 

No. LIV. 160 



! with a slow pace, toward the opinions and discipline of 
I the moderate Anabaptists. 

IV. All these Anabaptists adopt a form of ecclesiastical 
; government and discipline, that is administered by three 
i distinct orders of persons. The first order is that of the 

Bishops or Presbyters, who always preside in the consis- 
; tory, and are alone invested with the power of adminis- 
tering the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper. 
The second is that of the Teachers, who are set apart for 
the purposes of public instruction, and the celebration of 
divine worship. The third comprehends the Deacons, 
who are chosen out of both sexes. These three orders 
compose the consistory, or council, by which the church 
is governed. All matters of importance are proposed, ex- 
amined, and decided, in the meetings of the Brethren. 
By their suffrages the ministers are elected to their holy 
office, and are all, the deacons excepted, installed by 
public prayers, attended with imposition of hands. 

V. Among the inferior sects of the rigid Anabaptists, 
the most considerable is that which passes under the de- 
nomination of Ukewallists, and is so called after its foun- 
der Uke Walles, a native of Friseland. This rustic, rigid, 
and ignorant sectary, not only exhorted his followers to 
maintain the primitive and austere doctrine of Menno, 
without suffering it to be softened or altered in the small- 
est degree, but also, in the year 1637, began to propagate, 
jointly with another innovator, named John Leus, a 
singular opinion concerning the salvation of Judas, and 
the rest of Christ's murderers. To give an air of plausi- 
bility to the favourable opinion he entertained concerning 
the eternal state of this arch-apostate, he invented the 
following odd hypothesis : iC That the period which ex- 
tended from the birth of Christ to the descent of the Holy 
Ghost, and was, as it were, the distinctive term that sepa- 
rated the Jewish from the Christian dispensation, was a 
time of deep ignorance and darkness, during which the 
Jews were void of light, and entirely destitute of divine 
succour ; and that, in consequence, the sins and enormi- 
ties that were committed during this interval were in a 
great measure excusable, and could not merit the severest 
displays of the divine justice." This idle fiction met with 
no indulgence, either from the Mennonites on the one 
hand, or from the magistrates of Groningen on the other ; 
for the former excluded its inventor from their commu- 
nion, and the latter banished him from their city. He 
fixed his residence in the adjacent province of East-Frise- 
land, and there drew after him a considerable number of 
disciples, whose descendants still subsist in Friseland, and 
also in Lithuania and Prussia, and have their own reli- 
gious assemblies, separate from those of the other Men- 
nonites. As they have little intercourse with any but 
those of their own communion, it is not an easy matter 
to know, with certainty, whether they persevere in the 
singular opinion that proved so detrimental to the interest 
of their leader. It is at least certain, that they follow 
scrupulously the steps of their original founder, Menno, 
and exhibit a lively image of the primitive manners and 

teenth century, in the first volume of his History of his own Time. 

* Herm. Scliyn, Plenior Deductio Historia; Mennonit. p. 41, 42. 

1 So called, because they met at certain stated times in Groningen. 

e They derive this denomination from their adopting the manners 
and discipline of the Prussians. 

i See a German work, entitled, Nachrichten von dem gegenwartigen 
Zustande der Mennoniten, by Rues, 1743. 
♦ The eighteenth. 



638 



HISTORY OF THE MENNONITES, OR ANABAPTISTS. 



Sect. II 



constitution of the Mennonites. They re-baptize all 
those who leave other Christian churches to embrace 
their communion. Their apparel is mean beyond ex- 
pression, and they avoid every thing that has the most 
distant appearance of elegance or ornament. They suffer 
theii beards to grow to an enormous length ; their hair, 
uncombed, lies in a disorderly manner on their shoulders ; 
their countenances are marked with the strongest lines 
of dejection and melancholy ; and their habitations and 
household furniture are such as are only fitted to answer 
the demands of mere necessity. Such moreover is the 
severity of their discipline, that any member of their 
community, who departs in the smallest instance from 
this austere rule, is immediately excluded from the society, 
and avoided by all the Brethren as a public pest. Their 
inspectors or bishops, whom they distinguish from the 
ministers, whose office is to preach and instruct, are chosen 
by an assembly composed of all the congregations of the 
sect. The ceremony of washing the feet of strangers, 
who come within the reach of their hospitality, is looked 
upon by them as a right of divine institution. We shall 
not enlarge upon the other circumstances of their ritual, 
but only observe, that they prevent all attempts to alter 
or modify their religious discipline, by preserving their 
people from every thing that bears the remotest aspect of 
learning and science ; from whatever, in a word, might 
have a tendency to enlighten their devout ignorance. 

VI. The more gross or moderate and less scrupulous 
Anabaptists are composed of certain inhabitants of Water- 
land, Flanders, Friseland, and Germany, who entered 
into an association, as has been already observed, and 
commonly pass under the denomination of Waterlandians. 
The members of this community have abandoned the 
severe discipline and singular opinions of Menno, whom, 
nevertheless, they generally respect as their primitive 
parent and founder, and have advanced a step nearer 
than the other Anabaptists to the religious doctrines and 
customs of other Christian churches. The}/ are, however, 
divided into two distinct sects, which bear the respective 
denominations of Friselanders and Waterlandians, and 
are both without bishops, employing no other ecclesiastical 
ministers than presbyters and deacons. Each congrega- 
tion of this sect is independent of all foreign jurisdiction, 
having its own ecclesiastical council or consistory, which 
is composed of presbyters and deacons. The supreme 
spiritual power is, nevertheless, in the hands of the peo- 
ple, without whose consent nothing of importance can be 
carried into execution. Their presbyters are, generally 
speaking, men of learning, and apply themselves with 
success to the study of physic and philosophy : and a 
public professor is supported, at present, by the sect at 
Amsterdam, for the instruction of their youth in the 
various branches of philosophy and sacred erudition. 

yil. One of these Waterlandian sects divided itself, in 
1664, into two factions, which were respectively called 
Galenists and Apostoolians, from the names of their two 
leaders. The founder of the former sect was Galen 
Abraham Haan, a doctor of physic, and pastor of a Men- 
nonite congregation at Amsterdam, who received the 
applause even of his enemies, on account of his uncommon 



■ For a more particular account of these two Mennonites, see Schyn's 
Dcductio plenior Histor. Mennonit. cap. xv. page 318, and xviii. pa°-e 



penetration and eloquence. This eminent Anabaptist 
in imitation of the Arminians, considered the Christiar 
religion as a system that laid much less stress upon faitl 
than upon practice ; and he was inclined to receive, intc 
the communion of the Mennonites, all who acknowledged 
the divine origin of the books of the Old and JN T ew Testa- 
ment, and. led holy and virtuous lives. Such, in his 
judgment, were true Christians, and had an undoubted 
right to all the rights and privileges that- belonged to that 
character. These comprehensive terms of communion 
were peculiarly favourable to his own theological senti- 
ments, since his notions concerning Christ's divinity, and 
the salvation of mankind by his death and merits, were 
very different from those of the Mennonites, and coincided 
in a great measure with the Socinian system. 

Several persons opposed the sentiments of this latitudi- 
narian, and more especially Samuel Apostool, an eminent 
pastor among the Mennonites at Amsterdam, who not 
only defended, with the utmost zeal, the doctrines gene- 
rally received among the Mennonites, in relation to the 
divinity of Christ and the fruits of his death, but also 
maintained the ancient hypothesis of a visible and glo- 
rious church of Christ upon earth, that was peculiar to 
this sect. a Thus a controversy was excited which pro- 
duced the division now mentioned ; a division which the 
zealous efforts of several of the wisest and most respecta- 
ble members of this community have hitherto proved 
insufficient to heal. The Galenists are not less disposed 
than the Arminians to admit, as members of their com- 
munity, all who call themselves Christians ; and they 
are the only sect of the Anabaptists who reject the 
denomination of Mennonites. The Apostoolians, on the 
contrary, admit to their communion those only who pro- 
fess to believe all the points of doctrine which are con- 
tained in their public confession of faith. b 

CHAPTER YI. 

Concerning the Socinians and Arians* 

I. About the commencement of this century, the sect 
of the Socinians seemed to be well established, and their 
affairs were even in a flourishing condition. In Tran- 
sylvania and Lucko, they enjoyed the liberty of holding, 
without molestation, their religious assemblies, and pro- 
fessing publicly their theological opinions. The advan- 
tages that attended their situation in Poland were still 
more considerable : for they had at Racow a public semi- 
nary, which was furnished with professors eminently dis- 
tinguished by their erudition and genius, together with a 
press for the publication of their writings ; they had also a 
considerable number of congregations in that district, 
and were supported by the patronage of several persons of 
the highestdistinction. Elate with this scene of prosperity, 
they began to form more extensive views, and aimed at 
enlarging the borders of their community, and procuring 
it patrons and protectors in other countries. Authentic 
records are extant, from which it appears, that they sent 
emissaries with this view, about the commencement of 
the century, into Holland, England, Germany, and 
Prussia, who endeavoured to make proselytes to Socini- 



t> Casp. Commelini Descriptio Urbis Amstelodami, tom. i. p. 500.— 
Stoupa's Religion des Hollandois, p. 20. — Bentliem's Hollandischer 
S'chul and Kirchen Staat, p. 1. ch. xix. p. 830. 



Part II. 



HISTORY OF THE SOCINIANS AND ARIANS. 



639 



prism in these. countries, among men of learning and 
men in power ; for it is remarkable, that the Socinians, 
in propagating their religious principles, have always 
followed a quite different method from that which has 
been observed by other sects. It has been the general 
practice of sectaries and innovators to endeavour to 
render themselves popular, and to begin by gaining the 
multitude to their side ; but the disciples of Socinus, who 
are- perpetually exalting. the dignity, prerogatives, and 
authority of reason, have this peculiarity in their manner 
of proceeding, that they are at very little pains to court 
the favour of the people, or to make proselytes to their 
cause among those who are not distinguished from the. 
multitude by their rank or their abilities ; it is only 
among the. learned and the great that they seek disciples 
and patrons- with zealous assiduity. 

II. The. effect of the missions now mentioned, though 
they were conducted and executed by persons of whom 
the greatest part were eminent, both on account of their 
rank and abilities, was nevertheless far from answering 
the views and expectations of the community. In most 
places the success of the cause was doubtful, at best in- 
considerable ; in some, however, the missionaries were fa- 
vourably received, and seemed to employ their labours with 
effect. They had no where a more nattering prospect of 
success than in the university of Altorf, where their sen- 
timents and their cause were promoted with dexterity by 
Ernest Sohner, an acute and learned cultivator of the 
peripatetic system, who was also professor of physic and 
natural philosophy. This subtle philosopher, who had 
joined the Socinians during his residence in Holland, in- 
stilled their principles into the minds of his scholars with 
much greater facility, by his having acquired the highest 
reputation, both for learning and piety. The death, in- 
deed, of this eminent man, which happened in 1612, de- 
prived the rising society of its chief ornament and support ; 
nor could the remaining friends of Socinianism carry on 
the cause of their community with such art and dexte- 
rity, as to escape the vigilant and severe eye of the other 
professors. Their secret designs were accordingly brought 
to light in 1616 ; and the contagion of Socinianism, 
which was gathering strength from day to day, and 
growing imperceptibly into a reigning system, was sud- 
denly dissipated and extinguished by the vigilant severity 
of the magistrates of Nuremberg. The foreign students, 
who had been infected with these doctrines, saved them- 
selves by flight ; while those natives, who were charge- 
able with the same reproach, accepted the remedies that 
were presented to them by the healing hand of orthodoxy, 
and returned quietly to their former theological system. 1 

III. The establishment of the Socinians in Poland, 
"though it seemed to rest upon solid foundations, was 

nevertheless of a short duration. b Its chief supports were 
withdrawn, in 1638, by a public decree of the diet. It 
happened in this year that some of the students of 
Racow vented, in an irregular and tumultuous manner. 

" The learned Gustavus George Zeltner, formerly professor of divi- 
nity in the university of Altorf, composed an ample and learned ac- 
count of this theological revolution, drawn principally from manuscript 
records ; which Gebauer published at Leipsic, in 1729, under the fol- 
lowing title, " Historia Crypto-Socinianismi Altorfinai quondam Aca- 
dcmise infesti, arcana." 

1 We have a circumstantial account of the flourishing state of the 
Racoyian seminary, while it w«s under the direction of the learned 
Martin Ruarus, in the Cimbria Literata of Mollcr, torn. i. p. 572, where 



their religious resentment against a crucifix, at which 
they threw stones, till they beat it down out of its place. 
This act of violence excited such a high degree of indig- 
nation, in the catholics, that they vowed revenge, and 
severely fulfilled this vow ; for it was through their, im- 
portunate solicitations that the terrible law was enacted 
at Warsaw, by which it was resolved, that the college of 
Racow should be demolished, its professors banished with 
ignominy, the printing-house of the Socinians destroyed, 
and their ch.urchcs shut. All this was executed without 
the smallest alleviation or the least delay, notwithstanding 
the efforts made by the powerful patrons of the Socinians 
to ward off the blow: c ■ But a catastrophe, still more ter- 
rible, awaited them ; and the persecution now mention- 
ed was the forerunner of that dreadful revolution, which, 
about twenty years afterwards, brought on the entire 
ruin of this community in Poland : for, by a public and 
solemn act of theu.et holden at Warsaw, in 1658, all the 
Socinians were banished for ever from the territory of that 
republic, and capital punishment was denounced against 
all who should either profess their opinions, or harbour 
their persons. The unhappy exiles were, at first, allowed 
the space of three years to settle their affairs, and to dis- 
pose of their possessions ; but this term was afterwards 
abridged by the cruelty of their enemies, and reduced to 
two years. In 1661, the terrible edict was renewed ; and 
all the Socinians that yet remained in Poland were bar- 
barously driven out of that country, some with the loss 
of their property, others with the loss of their lives, as 
neither sickness, nor any domestic consideration, could 
suspend the execution of that rigorous sentence." 1 

IV. A part of these exiles, who sought refuge among 
their brethren in Transylvania, sunk under the burthen 
of their calamities, and perished amidst the hardships to 
which they were exposed. A considerable number of 
these unhappy emigrants were dispersed through the ad- 
jacent provinces of Silesia, Brandenburg, and Prussia ; 
and their posterity still subsist in those countries. Seve- 
ral of the more eminent members of the sect, in conse- 
quence of the protection granted to them by the duke 
of Brieg, resided for some time at Crossen in Silesia. 
Others went in search of a convenient settlement for them- 
selves and their brethren, into Holland, England, Hol- 
stein, and Denmark. Of all the Socinian exiles, none 
discovered such zeal and industry for the interests and 
establishment of the sect as Stanislaus Lubieniecius, a 
Polish knight, distinguished by his learning, and singu- 
larly esteemed by persons of the highest rank, and even 
by several sovereign princes, on account of his eloquence, 
politeness, and prudence. This illustrious patron of So- 
cinianism succeeded so far in his designs, as to gain the 
favour of Frederic III. king of Denmark, of Christian 
Albert duke of Holstein, and Charles Louis elector Pala- 
tine ; and thus he had almost obtained a secure retreat 
and settlement for the Socinians, about the year 1662, at 
Altena, Fredericstadt, and Manheim ; but his measures 

we learn that Ruarus was a native of Holstein, who became a prose- 
lyte to the Socinian system. 

EpistoladeWissowatii Vita in Sandii Bib. Anti-Trinitar, p. '233 — 
Gust. Georg. Zeltncri His. Crypto-Socinianismi Altorfini. vol. i. p. 299. 

* Stanislai Lubieniecii Hist. Reformat. Polonieoe, lib. iii. c. xvii.xviii. 
p. 279. — Equitis Poloni Vindicia? pro Unit'ariorum in Polonia Religio- 
nis Libertatc, apud Sandium, p. 2G7. 

Lubieniecii Hist. cap. xviii. p. 285, where there is a letter written 
by the Socinians of Crossen. 



640 



SECTS 0. INFERIOR NOTE. 



Sect. II 



were disconcerted, and all his hopes entirely frustrated, 
by -the opposition and remonstrances of the clergy estab- 
lished in those countries ; he was opposed in Denmark 
by Suaning bishop of Sealand, in Holstein by Reinboth, 
and in the Palatinate by John Louis Fabricius. a Several 
other attempts were made, in different countries, in favour 
of Socinianism ; but their success was still less consi- 
derable ; nor could any of the European nations be per- 
suaded to grant a public settlement to a sect, whose 
members denied the divinity of Christ. 

V. The remains, therefore, of this unfortunate commu- 
nity are, at this day, dispersed through different countries, 
particularly in the kingdoms of England and Prussia, the 
electorate of Brandenburg, and the United Provinces, 
where they lie more or less concealed, and hold their reli- 
gious assemblies in a clandestine manner. They are, 
indeed, said to exercise their religion publicly in England, b 
not in consequence of a legal toleration, but through the 
indulgent connivance of the civil magistrate. Some of 
them have embraced the communion of the Arminians ; 
others have joined with those Anabaptists who form a sect 
distinguished by the name of Galenists ; and in this there 
is nothing at all surprising, since neither the Arminians 
nor Anabaptists require, from those who enter into their 
communion, an explicit or circumstantial declaration of 
their religious sentiments. It is also said, that a consid- 
erable number of this dispersed community became mem- 
bers of the religious society called Collegiants. d Amidst 
such frequent changes and vicissitudes, it was not possi- 
ble that the Socinians could maintain a uniform system 
of doctrine, or preserve unaltered and entire the religious 
tenets handed down to them by their ancestors. On the 
contrary, their peculiar and distinctive opinions are vari- 
ously explained and understood both by the learned and 
illiterate members of their community, though they all 

a See Sandii Biblioth. p. 1G5. — Historia Vitse Lubieniecii, prefixed 
to his History. — Molleri Introductio in Histor. Chersones. Cimbricae, 
p. ii. p. 105, and his Cimbria Literata, torn. ii. p. 487. — Jo. Henr. Hei- 
deggeri Vita Joh. Lud. Fabricii, subjoined to the works of the latter. 

fjf* b The Socinians in England have never made any figure as a 
community, but have rather been dispersed among the great variety of 
sects that have arisen in a country where liberty displays its most glo- 
rious fruits, and at the same time exhibits its most striking inconve- 
niences. Besides, few ecclesiastics, or writers of any note, have 
adopted the theological system now under consideration, in all its 
branches. The Socinian doctrine relating to the design and efficacy of 
the death of Christ had indeed many abettors in England during the 
seventeenth century ; and it may be presumed, that its votaries are 
rather increased than diminished in the present ; but those divines who 
have abandoned the Athanasian hypothesis concerning the Trinity of 
Persons in the Godhead, have more generally gone into the Arian and 
Semi-Arian notions of that inexplicable subject, than into those of the 
Socinians, who deny that Jesus Christ existed before his appearance in 
the human nature. The famous John Biddle, after having maintained, 
both in public and in private, during the reign of Charles and the pro- 
tectorship of Cromwell, the Unitarian system, erected an Independent 
congregation in London, the only British church we have heard of, in 
which all the peculiar doctrines of Socianism were inculcated ; for, if 
we may give credit to the account of Sir Peter Pett, this congregation 
held the following notions: " That the fathers under the old covenant 
had only temporal promises ; that saving faith consisted in universal 
obedience performed to the commands of God' and Christ; that Christ 
rose again only by the power of the Father, and not by his own ; that 
justifying faith is not the pure gift of God, but may be acquired by 
men's natural abilities ; that faith cannot believe any thing contrary to, 
or above reason; that there is no original sin; that Christ has not the 
same body now in glory, in which he suffered and rose again ; that the 
saints shall not have the same bodies in heaven which they had on 
earth ; that Christ was not Lord or King before his resurrection, or 
Priest before his ascension ; that the saints shall not, before the day of 
judgment, enjoy the bliss of heaven ; that God does not certainly know 
future contingencies ; that there is not any authority of fathers or general 
councils in determining matters of faith ; that Christ, before his death, 



agree in rejecting the doctrine of the Trinity, and tha 
also of the divinity and satisfaction of Jesus Christ. 6 

VI. After the Socinians, as there is a great affinity be 
tween the two sects, it is proper to mention the Arians, 
who had several celebrated writers in this century, such 
as Sandiusand Biddle. f Of those who also passed under the 
general denomination of Anti-Trinitarians and Unita- 
rians, there are many that may be placed in the class of 
the Socinians and Arians ; for the term Unitarian is 
very comprehensive, and is applicable to a great variety 
of persons, who agree in this common principle, that there 
is no real distinction in the divine nature. The denomi- 
nation of Arian is also given in general to those who con- 
sider Jesus Christ as inferior and subordinate to the Fa- 
ther. But, as this subordination may be understood and 
explained in various ways, it is evident that the term 
Arian, as it is used in modern language, is susceptible of 
different significations ; and that, in consequence, the per- 
sons to whom it is applied cannot be all considered in the 
same point of light with the ancient Arians, or supposed 
to agree perfectly with each other in their religious tenets. 

CHAPTER VII. 

Concerning some Sects of Inferior Note. 

I. It will not be improper to take notice here of a few 
sects of inferior consequence and note, which we could not 
conveniently mention in the history of the more extensive 
and important communities that we have been surveying, 
and which, nevertheless, we cannot omit, for several reasons. 
While the disputes and tumults, produced in Holland in 
1619 by the Arminian system, were at the greatest height, 
a religious society arose, whose members hold at Rhinsberg, 
near Leyden, a solemn assembly in every half-year, and 
are generally known by the denomination of Collegiants.z 



had not any dominion over the angels; and that Christ, by dying, made 
not satisfaction for us." See the preface to Sir Peter Pett's Happy 
future State of England, printed in 1688. 

e The Socinians, who reside at present in the district of Mark, used 
to meet, some years ago, at stated times, at Koningswald, a village in 
the neighbourhood of Frankfort, on the Oder. See the Recueil de Li- 
terature, de Philosophie et d'Histoire (published at Amsterdam, in 
1731*,) p. 44. They published in 1716, at Berlin, their confession of 
faith, in the German language, which is to be found, with a refutation 
thereto annexed, in a book entitled, Den Theologischen Heb. Opfern, 
part x. p. 852. 

§£jf <i This community, of which an account is given in the following 
chapter, called their religious meetings Colleges, that is, congregations 
or assemblies ; and hence they were denominated Collegiants. 

e Many examples might be alleged in proof of this. It will be suffi- 
cient to mention" that of the learned Crellius, who, though he was pro- 
fessor of theology among the Socinians, yet differed in his opinions 
about many points of doctrine, from the sentiments of Socinus and the 
Racovian Catechism, and would not be called a Socinian, but an Arte- 
monite.t See the Journal Literaire, torn. xvii. part i. and the account I 
have given of this celebrated man in my Syntagm. Dissertationum ad 
sanctiores Disciplinas pertinentium, p. 352. — Unschuld. Nachrict. 1750, 
p. 942. — TNTouveau Diction. Historique et Critique, torn. ii. p. 88. 

frjj> This last citation is erroneous ; there is no account of Crellius in 
the place here referred to. 

f For an account of Sandius, father and son, see Arnold and other 
writers, i The life of Biddle is to be found in the Nouveau Diction. 
Historique et Critique, torn. i. p. ii. p. 288. g^> Dr. Mosheim places 
Biddle improperly among the Arians; it is manifest that he belongs to 
the Socinian sect, since, in the third article of his Confession of Faith, 
he professes to believe that Christ has no other than a human nature. 
See the Socinian Tracts, entitled, The Faith of one God, &c. published 
at London in 1691. See also above, note f a C J. 

" See note ["], in the preceding chapter. 

§T_1r * The author of this collection was one Jordan, who was pastor 
of a church in the neighbourhood .of Berlin. 

f^= t After Artemon, who lived in the reign of the Emperor Severus, 
and denied the pre-existence and divinity of Jesus Christ. 



Part II. 



SECTS OF INFERIOR NOTE. 



641 



This community was founded by three brothers, of the 
name of Vander-Kodde, who passed their days in the ob- 
scurity of a rural life, and are said to have been men of 
eminent piety, well acquainted with sacred literature, and 
great enemies to religious controversy. They had for then- 
associate Anthony Cornelius, a man also of a mean condi- 
tion, and who had no qualities that could give any degree 
of weight or credit to their cause. The descendants and 
followers of these men acquired the name of Collegiants, 
because they called their religious assemblies Colleges. 
All are admitted to the communion of this sect who ac- 
knowledge the divinity of the Scriptures, and endeavour 
to live suitably to the precepts and doctrines contained in 
those writings, whatever their peculiar sentiments may be 
concerning the nature of the Deity and the truths of Chris- 
tianity. Their numbers are very considerable in the pro- 
vinces of Holland, Utrecht, East and West-Friseland. 
They meet twice in every week, namely, on Sundays and 
Wednesdays, for the purpose of divine worship ; and, after 
singing a psalm or hymn, and addressing themselves to the 
Deity by prayer, they explain a certain portion of the New 
Testament. The female members of the community are 
not allowed to speak in public ; but all others, without any 
exception founded on rank, condition, or incapacity, have 
a right to communicate the result of their meditations to 
the assembly, and to submit their sentiments to the judg- 
ment of the brethren. All likewise have an unquestion- 
able right to examine and oppose what has been advanced 
by any of the brethren, provided that their opposition be 
attended with a spirit of Christian charity and moderation. 
There is a printed list of the passages of Scripture, that 
are to be examined and illustrated at each of their reli- 
gious meetings ; so that any one who is ambitious of ap- 
pearing among the speakers, may study the subject before- 
hand, and thus come fully prepared to descant upon it in 
public. The Brethren, as has been already observed, have 
a general assembly twice a year at Rhinsbei g, where they 
have ample and convenient houses for the education of 
orphans and the reception of strangers ; and there they 
remain together during the space of four days, which are 
employed in hearing discourses that tend to edification, 
and exhortations which are principally designed to incul- 
cate brotherly love and sanctity of manners. The sacra- 
ment of the Lord's supper is also administered during this 
assembly ; and those adult persons who desire to be bap- 

a See the Dissertation sur les Usages de ceux qu'on appelle en Hol- 
lande Collegiens ct Rhinobourgeois, in the Ceremonies Religieuses de 
tous les Peuples da Monde, torn. iv. p. 323. ; as also a Dutch book, con- 
taining an account of the Collegiants, and published by themselves in 
173(i, under the following title : " De Oorspronck, Natuur, Handelwyze 
en Oogmerk der zo genaamde Ryn'ourgsche Vergadering." 

*> The names of John Bredenburg, and Francis Cuiper, are well 
known among the followers and adversaries of Spinosa; but the cha- 
racter and profession of these two disputants are less generally known. 
Bredenburg, or (as he is otherwise called) Breitenburg, was a Colle- 
giant, and a merchant of Rotterdam, who propagated in a public man- 
ner the doctrine of Spinosa, and pretended to demonstrate mathemati- 
cally its conformity to the dictates of reason. The same man not only 
professed Christianity, but moreover explained, recommended; and 
maintained the Christian religion in the meetings of the Collegiants, 
and asserted, on all occasions, its divine original. To reconcile these 
striking contradictious, he declared, on one hand, that reason and Chris- 
tianity were in direct opposition to each other; but maintained, on the 
other, that we were obliged to believe, even against the evidence of the 
strongest mathematical demonstrations, the religious doctrines compre- 
hended in the Scriptures; (this, indeed, was adding absurdity to absur- 
dity.) He affirmed, that truth was two-fold, theological and philosophi- 
cal: and that those propositions, which were false in theology, were 
true in philosophy. There is a brief but accurate account of the cha- 

No.LIV. 161 



tized, receive the sacrament of baptism, according to the 
ancient and primitive manner of celebrating that institu 
tion, that is, by immersion. Those Collegiants, who 
reside in the province of Friseland, have at present an 
annual meeting at Leewarden, where they administer the 
sacraments, as the distance at which they live from Rhins- 
berg renders it inconvenient for them to repair thither 
twice a year. We shall conclude our account of these 
sectaries by observing, that their community is of a most 
ample and extensive kind ; that it comprehends persons 
of all ranks, orders, and sects, who profess themselves 
Christians, though their sentiments concerning the person 
and doctrine of the divine Founder of Christianity be ex- 
tremely different ; that it is kept together, and its union 
maintained, not by the authority of rulers and doctors, 
the force of ecclesiastical laws, the restraining power of 
creeds and confessions, or the influence of positive rites 
and institutions, but merely by a zeal for the advance- 
ment of practical religion, and a desire of drawing instruc- 
tion from the study of the Scriptures. 1 

II. In such a community, or rather amidst such a multi- 
tude as this, in which opinion is free, and every one is per- 
mitted to judge for himself in religious matters, dissensions 
and controversies can scarcely have place. However, a 
debate attended with some warmth, arose in 1672, be- 
tween the merchants John and Paul Bredenburg, on one 
side, and Abraham Lemmerman and Francis Cuiper on 
the other. John Bredenburg had erected a particular 
society, or college, in which he gave a course of lectures 
upon the religion of nature and reason ; but this under- 
taking was highly disapproved by Lemmerman and Cui- 
per, who were for excluding reason altogether from religious 
inquiries and pursuits. During the heat of this contro- 
versy, Bredenburg discovered a manifest propensity toward 
the sentiments of Spinosa ; he even defended them pub- 
licly, and yet, at the same time, professed a firm attach- 
ment to the Christian religion. 15 Other debates of less con- 
sequence arose in this community ; and the effect was a 
division of the Collegiants into two parties, which held 
their assemblies separately at Rhinsberg. This division 
happened in 1686 ; but it was healed about the com- 
mencement of the following century, by the death of 
those who had principally occasioned it ; and then the 
Collegiants returned to their former union and con- 
cord. 

racter and sentiments of Bredenburg, in the learned work of the Jew. 
Isaac Orobio, entitled, " Certamen Philosophicum propugnata; Veri- 
tatis, divinae et naturalis, adversus Jo. Bredenburgii Principia, ex qui- 
bus, quod Religio Rationi repugnat, demonstrare nilitur." This work, 
which contains Bredenburg's pretended demonstrations of the philoso- 
phy of Spinosa, was first published at Amsterdam in 1703. and after- 
wards at Brussels, in 1731. His antagonist, Francis Cuiper, acquired 
a considerable reputation by his Arcana Atheismi detecta, i. e. the se- 
crets of Atheism detected. He was a bookseller at Amsterdam ; and 
it was he that published, among other things, the Bibliotheca Fratruni 
Polonorum sen Unitarioruin. Those who have a tolerable acquaint- 
ance with the literary history of this century, know that Cuiper, on 
account of the very book which he wrote against Bredenburg, was sus- 
pected of Spinosi.stn, though he was a Collegiant, and a zealous defender 
of the Christian faith, as also of the perfect conformity that subsists 
between right reason and true religion. IGr Dr. Mosheim said a little 
before, in the text, that Lemmerman and Cuiper were for excluding rea- 
son altogether from religion ; how then can he consistently say here of 
the latter, that he was a defender of the conformity between reason and 
religion 1 

"Beside the authors who have been already mentioned, those who 
understand the German language may consult the curious work of 
Simon Frederic Rues, entitled, " Nachiichtcn vom Zuslande der Men- 
uoniten," p. 26"7. 



642 



SECTS OF INFERIOR NOTE. 



Sect. II. 



HI. The Labadists were so called from their founder 
John Labadie, a native of France, a man of no mean 
genius, and remarkable for a natural and masculine elo- 
quence. This man was born in the Romish communion, 
entered into the order of the Jesuits, and, being dismiss- 
ed by them, a became a member of the reformed church, 
and exercised with reputation the ministerial functions 
in France, Switzerland, and Holland. He at length erect- 
ed a new community, which resided successively at Mid- 
dleburg in Zealand, and at Amsterdam. In 1670, it was 
transplanted to Hervorden in Westphalia, at the particular 
desire of the princess Elizabeth, daughter of the elector 
Palatine, and abbess of Hervorden. b It was soon driven 
from that part of Germany, notwithstanding the protec- 
tion of this illustrious princess ; and, in 1672, settled at 
Altena, where its founder died two years after his arrival. 
After the death of Labadie, his followers removed the 
wandering community to Wiewert, in the district of North- 
Holland, where it found a peaceful retreat, and soon fell 
into oblivion ; so that few, if any, traces of it are now to 
be found. 

Among the persons that became members of this sect, 
there were some, whose learning and abilities gave it a 
certain degree of credit and reputation, particularly Anna 
Maria Schurman, of Utrecht, whose extensive erudition 
rendered her so famous in the republic of letters. The 
members of this community, if we may judge of them 
by their own account, did not differ from the reformed 
church so much in their tenets and doctrines, as in their 
manners and rules of discipline; for their founder exhi- 
bited in his own conduct a most austere model of sanc- 
tity and obedience, which his disciples and followers were 
obliged to imitate ; and they were taught to look for the 
communion of saints, not only in the invisible church, 
but also in a visible one, which, according to their views 
of things, ought to be composed of none but such persons 
as were distinguished by their sanctity and virtue, and 
by a pious progress toward perfection. There are still 



f^f * From this expression of our author, some may be led to ima- 
gine that Labadie was expelled by the Jesuits from their society ; and 
many have, in effect, entertained this notion. But this is a palpable 
mistake ; and whoever will be at the pains of consulting the letter of the 
abbe Goujet to father Niceron (published in the Memoires des Homines 
illustres, torn. xx. p. 142.) will find that Labadie had long solicited his 
discharge from that society, and, after many refusals, obtained it at 
length in an honourable manner, by a public act signed at Bordeaux, 
by one of the provincials, on the 17th of April, 1639. For a full ac- 
count of this restless, turbulent, and visionary man, who, by his plans 
of reformation, conducted by a zeal destitute of prudence, produced 
much tumult and disorder, both in the Romish and reformed churches, 
see his Life, composed with learning, impartiality, and judgment, by 
M. Chauffepeid, and inserted in that author's Supplement to Bayle. 

tfjr b This illustrious princess seems to have had as strong a taste 
for fanaticism as her grandfather king James I. of England had for 
scholastic theology. She carried on a correspondence with Penn, the 
famous Quaker, and other members of that extravagant sect. She is, 
nevertheless, celebrated by certain writers, on account of her applica- 
tion to the study of philosophy and poetry. That a poetical fancy may 
have rendered her susceptible of fanatical impressions, is not impossible ; 
but how these impressions could be reconciled with a philosophical 
spirit, is more difficult to imagine. 

5^=- ° Labadie always declared, that he embraced the doctrines of the 
reformed church. Nevertheless, when he was called to perform the 
ministerial functions to a French church at Middel burgh in Zealand, he 
refused to subscribe its confession of faith. Besides, if we examine his 
writings, we shall find that he entertained very odd and singular opi- 
nions on various s'.ojects. He maintained, among other things, " that 
God may and dots, on certain occasions, deceive men ; that the Scrip- 
tures are not sufficient to lead men to salvation, without certain parti- 
cular illuminations and revelations from the Holy Ghost ; that, in 
reading them, we ought to give less attention to the literal sense of the 
words, than to die inward suggestions of the spirit) and that the efficacy 



extant several treatises composed by Labadie, which suffi- 
ciently discover the temper and spirit of the man, and 
bear evident marks of a lively and glowing imagination, 
not tempered by the influence of a sober and accu- 
rate judgment ; and, as persons of this character are 
sometimes carried, by the impetuosity of passion and tne 
seduction of fancy, both into erroneous notions and licen- 
tious pursuits, we are not perhaps to reject, in consequence 
of an excessive charity or liberality of sentiment, the testi- 
monies of those who have found many things worthy of 
censure, both in the life and doctrine of this turbulent 
enthusiast." 1 

IV. Among the fanatical contemporaries of Labadie 
was the famous Antoinette Bourignon de la Porte, a na- 
tive of Flanders, who pretended to be divinely inspired, 
and set apart, by a particular interposition of Heaven, to 
revive the true spirit of Christianity, that had been extin- 
guished by theological animosities and debates. This 
female enthusiast, whose religious feelings were accompa- 
nied with an unparalleled vivacity and ardour, and whose 
fancy was exuberant beyond all expression, joined to these 
qualities a volubility of tongue, less wonderful indeed, 
yet much adapted to seduce the unwary. Furnished 
with these useful talents, she began to propagate her theo- 
logical system, and her enthusiastical notions made a great 
noise in Flanders, Holland, and some parts of Germany, 
where she had resided some years. Nor was it only the 
ignorant multitude that swallowed down with facility her 
visionary doctrines, since it is well known that several 
learned and ingenious men were persuaded of their truth, 
and caught the contagion of her fanaticism. After expe- 
riencing various turns of fortune, and suffering much 
vexation and ridicule on account of her religious fancies, 
she ended her days at Franeker, in Friseland, in 1680. 
Her writings were voluminous ; but it would be a fruitless 
attempt to endeavour to draw from them an accurate and 
consistent scheme of religion ; for the pretended divine 
light, that guides people of this class, does not proceed in 

of the word depends upon the preacher ; — that the faithful ought to have 
all things in common ; that there is no subordination or distinction of 
rank in the true church of Christ ; — that Christ is to reign a thousand 
years upon earth ; that the contemplative life is a state of grace and 
union with God, and the very height of perfection ; that the Christian, 
whose mind is contented and calm, sees all things in God, enjoys the 
Deity, and is perfectly indifferent about every thing that passes in the 
world ; and that the Christian arrives at that happy state by the exer- 
cise of a perfect self-denial, by mortifying the flesh and all sensual 
affections, and by mental prayer." Beside these, he had formed singu- 
lar ideas of the Old and New Testaments, considered as covenants, as 
also concerning the Sabbath, and the true nature of a Christian church. 

It is remarkable, that almost all the sectaries of an enthusiastical 
turn were desirous of entering into communion with Labadie. The 
Brownists offered him their church at Middelburg, when he was sus- 
pended by the French synod from his pastoral functions. The Quakers 
sent their two leading members, Robert Barclay and George Keith, to 
Amsterdam, while he resided there, to examine his doctrine ; and, 
after several conferences with him, these commissioners offered to re- 
ceive him into their communion, which he refused, probably from a 
principle of ambition, and the desire of remaining head of a sect. It is 
even said, that the famous William Penn made a second attempt to gain 
over the Labadists ; and that he went for that purpose to Wiewert, 
where they resided after the death of their founder, but without success. 
We do not pretend to answer for the truth of these assertions, but shall 
only observe, that they are related by Moller, in his Cimbria Literata, 
on the authority of a manuscript journal, of which several extracts have 
been given by Joach. Fred. Feller, in his Trimest. ix Monumentorum 
ineditorum, sect. iii. A. 1717. p. 498—500. 

a Moller's Cimbria Literata, torn. iii. p. 35, and his Isagoge ad Histor. 
Chersones. Cimbrica?, p. 2, cap. v. p. 121.— Arnold's Hist. Eccles. v. i. p. 
ii. lib. xvii. cap. xxi. p. 1186. — Weissman's Hist. Eccles. ssec. xvii. p. 
927. — For an account of the two famous companions of Labadie, name- 
ly, Du Lignon and Yvon, see Cimbria Literata, torn. ii. p. 472, 1020. 



Part II. 



SECTS OF INFERIOR NOTE. 



64c 



a methodical way of reasoning and argument ; it disco- 
vers itself by flashes, which shed nothing but thick dark- 
ness in the minds of those who investigate truth with the 
understanding, and do not trust to the reports of fancy, 
that is so often governed by sense and passion. An atten- 
tive reader will, however, learn something by perusing the 
writings of this fanatical virgin : he will be persuaded, 
that her intellect must have been in a disordered state ; 
that her divine effusions were principally borrowed from 
the productions of the Mystics ; and that by the intem- 
perance of her imagination, she gave an additional air of 
extravagance and absurdity to the tenets which she deriv- 
ed from those pompous enthusiasts. If we attend to the 
main and predominant principle that appears in the inco- 
herent productions of Bourignon, we shall find it to be 
the following : " That the Christian religion neither con- 
sists in knowledge nor in practice, but in a certain inter- 
nal feeling, and divine impulse, arising immediately from 
communion with the Deity." a Among the more consi- 
derable patrons of this fanatical doctrine, we may reckon 
Christian Bartholomew de Cordt, a Jansenist, and priest 
of the oratory at Mechlin, who died at Nordstrand, in 
the duchy of Sleswick ; b and Peter Poiret, a man of a 
bold and penetrating genius, who was a great master of 
the Cartesian philosophy/ The latter was shown in a 
striking manner by his own example, that knowledge 
and ignorance, reason and superstition, are often divided 
by thin partitions ; and that they sometimes not only 
dwell together in the same person, but also, by an unna- 
tural and unaccountable union, afford mutual assistance, 
and thus engender monstrous productions. 

Y. The same spirit, the same views, and the same kind 
of religion that distinguished Bourignon, were observable 
in an English, and also a female fanatic, named Jane 
Leadley, who, toward the conclusion of this century, 
seduced by her visions, predictions, and doctrines, a con- 

a See, for an ample account of Bourignon, Moller's Cimbria Literata, 
and his Isagoge. — Bayle's Diet, at the article Bourignon. — Arnold, vol. 
ii. |3r See also Poiret's Epist. de Auctoribus Mysticis, sect. xiv. p. 
565. This treatise is inserted at the end of his book, de Euriditione 
solida et superficiary. 

>> Molleri Cimbria Literata, torn. ii. p. 149. 

* Poiret dressed out in an artful manner and reduced to a kind of system, 



siderable number of disciples, among whom were sume 
persons of learning ; and thus gave rise to what was call- 
ed the Philadelphian Society. This woman was of opi- 
nion that all dissensions among Christians would cease, 
and the kingdom of the Redeemer become, even here 
below, a glorious scene of charity, concord, and felicity, 
if those who bear the name of Jesus, without regarding 
the forms of doctrine or discipline which distinguish 
particular communions, would all join in committing their 
souls to the internal guide, to be instructed, governed, and 
formed by his divine impulse and suggestions. She even 
went farther, and declared, in the name of the Lord, that 
this desirable event would happen, and that she had a 
divine commission to proclaim the approach of this glori 
ous communion of saints, who were to be collected in one 
visible universal church, or kingdom, before the dissolu 
tion of this earthly globe. This prediction she delivered 
with a peculiar degree of confidence, from a notion that 
her Philadelphian society was the true kingdom of Christ, 
in which alone the divine spirit resided and reigned. We 
shall not mention the other dreams of this enthusiast, 
among which the famous doctrine of the final restoration 
of all intelligent beings to perfection and happiness held 
an eminent place. Leadley was less fortunate than Bou- 
rignon in this respect, that she had not such an eloquent 
and ingenious patron as Poiret to plead her cause, and to 
give an air of philosophy to her wild reveries ; for Por- 
dage and Bromley, who were the chief of her associates, 
had nothing to recommend them but then mystic piety 
and contemplative turn of mind. Pordage, indeed, was 
so far destitute of the powers of elocution and reasoning, 
that he even surpassed Jacob Behmen, whom he admired, 
in obscurity and nonsense ; and, instead of imparting 
instruction to his readers, did no more than excite in them 
a stupid kind of awe by a high-sounding jingle of pom- 
pous words. d 

the wild and incoherent fancies of Bourignon, in his large work, entitled, 
L'CEconomie Divine, ou Systeme Universcl, which was published, 
both in French and Latin, at Amsterdam, in 16S6. For an account of 
this mystic philosopher, whose name and voluminous writings made 
such a noise, see Bibliotheca Brem. Theolog. Philol. torn. iii. p. 75. 

J Jo. Wolf. Jaegeri Historia Sacra et Chilis, skc. xvii. decenn. X. p. 
90.— Petri Poireti Bibliotheca Mysticor. p. 161, 174, 2S3, 286, 



A SHORT VIEW OR GENERAL SKETCH OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



I. The History of the Christian Church during' this 
period, instead of a few pages, would alone require a 
volume ; such are the number and importance of the ma- 
terials that it exhibits to an attentive inquirer. It is there- 
fore to be hoped that, in due time, some able and impar- 
tial writer will employ his labours on this interesting sub- 
iect. At the same time, to render the present work as 
complete as possible, and to give a certain clue to direct 
those who teach or who study ecclesiastical history, through 
a multitude of facts that have not yet been collected, or 
digested into a regular order, we shall draw a general 
sketch that will exhibit the principal outlines of the state 
of religion since the commencement of the eighteenth cen- 
tury. That this sketch may not swell to too great an 
extent, we shall omit the mention of the authors who have 
furnished materials for this period of church history. 
Those who are acquainted with modern literature must 
know, that there are innumerable productions extant, 
whence such a variety of lines and colours might be 
taken, as would render this group and general draught 
a finished piece. 

II. The doctrines of Christianity have been propagated 
in Asia, Africa, and America, with equal zeal, both by the 
Protestant and Popish missionaries. But we cannot say 
the same thing of the true spirit of the Gospel, or of the 
religious discipline and institutions which it recommends 
to the observance of Christians ; for it is an undeniable 
fact, that many of those whom the Romish missionaries 
have persuaded to renounce their false gods, are Christians 
only as far as an external profession and certain religious 
ceremonies go ; and that, instead of departing from the 
superstitions of their ancestors, they observe them still, 
though under a different form. We have, indeed, pom- 
pous accounts of the mighty success with which the Jesu- 
itical ministry has been attended among the barbarous and 
unenlighted nations ; and the French Jesuits, in particu- 
lar, are said to have converted innumerable multitudes in 
the course of their missions. This perhaps cannot be alto- 
gether denied, if we are to call those converts to Christian- 
ity who have received some faint and superficial notions of 
the doctrines of the Gospel ; for it is well known, that 
several congregations of such Christians have been formed 
by the Jesuits in the East-Indies, and more especially in 
the Carnatic, the kingdoms of Madura and Marava, some 
territories on the coast of Malabar, in the kingdom of Ton- 
quin, the Chinese empire, and also in certain provinces of 
America. These conversions have, in outward appear- 
ance, been carried on with particular success, since Antony 
Veri has had the direction of the foreign missions, and has 
taken such especial care, that neither hands should fail for 

• The phrase Tien Tchu 



this spiritual harvest, nor any expenses be spared that might 
be necessary to the execution of such an arduous and im- 
portant undertaking. But these pretended conversions, 
instead of effacing the infamy under which the Jesuits 
labour in consequence of the iniquitous conduct of their 
missionaries in former ages, have only served to augment 
it, and to show their designs and practices in a still more 
odious point of view ; for they are known to be much 
more zealous in satisfying the demands of their avarice 
and ambition, than in promoting the cause of Christ, and 
are said to corrupt and modify, by a variety of inventions, 
the pure doctrine of the Gospel, in order to render it more 
generally palatable, and to increase the number of their 
ambiguous converts. 

III. A famous question arose in this century, relating 
to the conduct of the Jesuits in China, and their manner 
of promoting the cause of the Gospel, by permitting the 
new converts to observe the religious rites and customs of 
their ancestors. This question was decided to the disadvan- 
tage of the missionaries, in 1704, by Clement XI., who, by a 
solemn edict, forbade the Chinese Christians to practise the 
religious rites of their ancestors, and more especially those 
which are celebrated by the Chinese in honour of their de- 
ceased parents, and of their great lawgiver Confucius. This 
severe edict was, nevertheless, considerably mitigated in 
1 715, in order to appease, no doubt, the resentment of the 
Jesuits, whom it exasperated in the highest degree ; for the 
pontiff allowed the missionaries to make use of the word 
tien, to express the divine nature, with the addition of the 
word tchu, to remove its ambiguity, and make it evident, 
that it was not the heaven, but the Lord of heaven, that 
the Christian doctors worshipped : a he also permitted the ob- 
servance of those ceremonies which had so highly offended 
the adversaries of the Jesuits, on condition that they should 
be considered merely as marks of respect to their parents, 
and as tokens of civil homage to their lawgivers, without 
being abused to the purposes of superstition, or even being 
viewed in a religious point of light. In consequence of 
this second papal edict, considerable indulgence is granted 
to the Chinese converts : among other things, they have 
in their houses tablets, on which the names of their an- 
cestors, and particularly of Confucius, are written in golden 
letters ; they are allowed to light candles before these tab 
lets, to make offerings to them of rich perfumes, victuals 
fruits, and other delicacies, and even to prostrate the body 
before them until the head touches the ground. The same 
ceremony of prostration is performed by the Chinese Chris- 
tians at the tombs of their ancestors. 

The former edict, which was designed to prevent the 
motley mixture of Chinese superstition with the institu- 



signifies the Lord of heaven. 



SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



045 



tit <s of Christianity, was conveyed into China, in 1705, 
b)> cardinal Tournon, the pope's legate ; and the second, 
■which was of a more indulgent nature, was sent, in 1721, 
with Mezzabarba, who went to China with the same cha- 
racter. Neither the emperor nor the Jesuits were satislied 
with these edicts. Tournon, who executed the orders of 
his spiritual employer with more zeal than prudence, was, 
by the express command of the emperor, thrown into pri- 
son, where he died in 1710. Mezzabarba, though more 
cautious and prudent, yet returned home without having 
succeeded in his negotiation ; nor could the emperor be 
mgaged, either by arguments or entreaties, to make any 
llteratioh in the institutions and customs of his ancestors.* 
A.t present the state of Christianity in China being ex- 
tremely precarious and uncertain, this famous controversy 
is entirely suspended; and many reasons induce us to 
dunk, that both the pontiffs and the enemies of the Jesuits 
will unite in permitting the latter to depart from the rigour 
jf the papal edicts, and to follow their own artful and in- 
sinuating methods of conversion ; for they will both 
esteem it expedient and lawful to submit to many incon- 
veniences and abuses, rather than to risk the entire sup- 
pression of popery in China. 

IV. The attempts made since the commencement, of 
the present century, b}' the English and Dutch, and more 
especially by the former, to diffuse the light of Christianity 
through the benighted regions of Asia, and America, have 
been carried on with more assiduity and zeal than in the 
preceding age. That the Lutherans have borne their part 
in this salutary work appears abundantly from the Danish 
mission, planned with such piety in 1700 by Frederic IV. 
for the conversion of the Indians who inhabit the coast of 
Malabar, and attended with such remarkable success. 
This noble establishment, which surpasses all that have 
been yet erected for the propagation of the Gospel, not 
only subsists still in a flourishing state, but progressively 
acquires new degrees of perfection under the auspicious 
and munificent patronage of that excellent monarch 
Christian VI. We will, indeed, readily grant, that the 
converts to Christianity, made by the Danish missionaries, 
are less numerous than those which we find in the lists 
of the popish legates ; but it may be affirmed, that they 
are much better Christians, and far excel the latter in sin- 
cerity and zeal. There is a great difference between 
Christians in reality, and Christians in appearance ; and 
it is very certain, that the popish missionaries are much 
more ready than the protestant doctors, to admit into their 
communion proselytes, who have nothing of Christianity 
but the name. 

We have very imperfect accounts of the labours of the 
Russian clergy, the greatest part of whom are still involved 
in that gross ignorance which covered the most unen- 



3Qr " Tournon had been made, by the pope, patriarch of Antioch ; 
and Mezzabarba, to add a certain degree of weight to his mission, was 
created patriarch of Alexandria. After his return, the latter was pro- 
moted to the bishopric of Lodi, a preferment which, though inferior in 
point of station to his imaginary patriarchate, was far more valuable 
in point of ease and profit. 

See a more ample account of this mission in Dr. Mosheim's Memoirs 
of the Christian Church in China. 

tjT b This observation, and the examples by which it is supported in 
the following sentence, stand in need of some correction. Many 
books have, indeed, been published in England against the divinity 
both of the Jewish and Christian dispensations ; and it is justly to be 
lamented, that the inestimable blessing of religious liberty, which the 
wise and good have improved to the glory of Christianity, by setting 

No. LIV. 162 



lightened ages of the church : but we learn, from the 
modern records of that nation, that some of their doctors 
have employed, with a certain degree of success, their zeal 
and industry in spreading the light of the Gospel in those 
provinces which border upon Siberia. 

V. While the missionaries now mentioned exposed 
themselves to the greatest dangers and sufferings, in order 
to diffuse the light of divine truth among these remote and 
darkened nations, there arose in Europe, where the Gospel 
had obtained a firm footing, a multitude of adversaries who 
shut their eyes upon its excellence, and endeavoured to 
eclipse its immortal lustre. There is no country in Europe 
where infidelity has not exhaled its poison ; and scarcely 
any denomination of Christians among whom we may 
not find several persons, who either aim at the extinction 
of all religion, or at least endeavour to invalidate the 
authority of the Christian system. Some carry on these 
unhappy attempts in an open manner, others under the 
mask of a Christian profession ; but no where have these 
enemies of the purest religion, and consequently of man- 
kind, whom it was designed to render wise and happy, 
appeared with more effrontery and insolence, than under 
the free governments of Great-Britain and the United Pro- 
vinces. In England, more especially, it is not uncommon 
to meet with books, in which, not only the doctrines of 
the Gospel, but also the perfections of the Deity, and the 
solemn obligations of piety and virtue, are impudently 
called in question, and turned into derision. b Such im- 
pious productions have cast a deserved reproach on the 
names and memories of Toland, Collins, Tindal, and 
Wools ton, a man of an inauspicious genius, who made 
the most audacious though senseless attempts to invalidate 
the miracles of Christ. Add to these Morgan, Chubb," Man- 
deville, and others. And writers of the same class will be soon 
found in all the countries of Europe, particularly in those 
where the Reformation has introduced a spirit of liberty, 
if mercenary booksellers are still allowed to publish, with- 
out distinction or reserve, every wretched production that 
is addressed to the passions of men, and designed to obli- 
terate in their minds a sense of religion and virtue. 

VI. The sect of Atheists, by which, in strictness of 
speech, those only are to be meant who deny the exist- 
ence and moral government of an infinitely wise and 
powerful Being, by whom all things subsist, is reduced to 
a very small number, and may be considered as almost 
totally extinct. Any who yet remain under the influence 
of this unaccountable delusion, adopt the system of Spi- 
nosa, and suppose the universe to be one vast substance, 
which excites and produces a great variety of motions, all 
uncontrollably necessary, by a sort of internal force, which 
they carefully avoid defining with perspicuity and precision. 

The Deists, under which general denomination those 

its doctrines and precepts in a rational light, and bringing them back 
to their primitive simplicity, has been so far abused by the pride of 
some, and the ignorance and licentiousness of others, as to excne an 
opposition to the Christian system, which is both designed and adapted 
to lead men, through the paths of wisdom and virtue, to happiness and 
perfection. It is, nevertheless, carefully to be observed, that the most 
eminent of the English unbelievers were far from renouncing, at least 
in their writings and profession, the truths of what they call natural 
religion, or denying the unchangeable excellence and obligation.'' of 
virtue and morality. Dr. Mosheim is more especially in an error, 
when he places Collins, Tindal, Morgan, and Chubb, in the list of those 
who called in question the perfections of the Deity and the obligations 
of virtue: it was sufficient to put Mandevillt, Woolston, and Tolund, 
in this infamous class. 



646 SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



are comprehended who deny the divine origin of the 
Gospel in particular, and are enemies to all revealed reli- 
gion, form a motley tribe, which, on account of their 
jarring opinions, may be divided into different classes. 
The most decent, or to use a more proper expression, the 
least extravagant and insipid form of Deism, is that which 
aims at an association between Christianity and natural 
religion, and represents the Gospel as no more than a 
republication of the original laws of nature and reason, 
that were more or less obliterated in the minds of men. 
This is the hypothesis of Tindal, Chubb, Mandeville, 
Morgan, and several others, if we are to give credit to their 
own declarations, which, indeed, ought not always to be 
done without caution. This also appears to have been 
the sentiment of an ingenious writer, whose eloquence 
has been ill employed in a book, entitled, Essential Reli- 
gion distinguished from that which is only accessory ; a 
for the whole religious system of this author consists in 
the three following points : — That there is a God, that the 
world is governed by his wise providence, and that the 
soul is immortal ; and he maintains, that it was to estab- 
lish these three points by his ministry, that Jesus Christ 
came into the world. 

VII. The church of Rome has been governed, since 
the commencement of this century, by Clement XI. Inno- 
cent XIII. Benedict XIII. Clement XII. and Benedict 
XIV. who may be all considered as men of eminent wis- 
dom, virtue, and learning, if we compare them with the 
pontiffs of the preceding ages. Clement XI. and Prosper 
Lambertini, who at present fills the papal chair under the 
title of Benedict XIV., b stand much higher in the list of 
literary fame than the other pontiffs now mentioned ; 
and Benedict XIII. surpassed them all in piety, or at least 
in its appearance, which, in the whole of his conduct, 
was extraordinary and striking. It was he that con- 
ceived the laudable design of reforming many disorders 
in the church, and restraining the corruption and licen- 
tiousness of the clergy ; and for this purpose, in 1725, he 
held a council in the palace of the Lateran, whose acts 
and decrees have been made public. But the event did 
not answer his expectations ; nor is it probable that Bene- 
dict XIV. who is attempting the execution of the same 
worthy purpose, though by different means, will meet 
with better success. 

We must not omit observing here, that the modern 
bishops of Rome make but an indifferent figure in Eu- 
rope, and exhibit little more than an empty shadow of 
the authority of the ancient pontiffs. Their prerogatives 
are diminished, and their power is restrained within very 
narrow bounds. The sovereign princes and states of 
Europe, who embrace their communion, no longer trem- 
ble at the thunder of the Vatican, but treat their anathe- 
mas with contempt. They, indeed, load the holy father 
with pompous titles, and treat him with all the external 
marks of veneration and respect ; yet they have given a 
mortal blow to his authority, by the prudent and artful 
distinction they make between the court of Rome and 
the Roman pontiff; for, under the cover of this distinc- 
tion, they buffet him with one hand, and stroke him with 

fjf * The original title of this book (which is supposed to have been 
written by one Muralt, a Swiss, author of the Lettres sur les Anglois et 
sur les Francois.) is as follows:' ' Lettres sur la Religion essentielle a. 
I'Homnie, distinguee de ce qui n'en est que l'accessoire." There have 
been several excellent refutations of this book published on the conti- 



the other ; and, under the most respectful profession of 
attachment to his person, oppose the measures, and dimi- 
nish still more, from day to day, the authority of his 
court. A variety of modern transactions might be alleged 
in confirmation of this, and more especially the debates 
that have arisen in this century, between the court of 
Rome and those of France, Portugal, Naples, and Sar 
dinia, in all of which that ghostly court has been obliged 
to yield, and to discover its insignificancy and weakness. 
VIII. There have been no serious attempts made in 
recent times to bring about a reconciliation between the 
Protestant and Romish churches ; for, notwithstanding 
the pacific projects formed by private persons with a view 
to this union, it is justly considered as an impracticable 
scheme. The difficulties that attend its execution were 
greatly augmented by the bull Unigenitus, which depriv- 
ed the peace-makers of the principal expedient they 
employed for the accomplishment of this union, by put- 
ting it out of their power to soften and mitigate the doc- 
trines of popery, that appeared the most shocking to the 
friends of the Reformation. This expedient had been 
frequently practised in former times, in order to remove 
the disgust that the Protestants had conceived against the 
church of Rome ; but that edict put an end to all these 
modifications, and, in most of those points that had occa- 
sioned our separation from Rome, represented the doctrine 
of that church in the very same shocking light in which 
it had been viewed by the first reformers. This shews, 
with the utmost evidence, that all the attempts the Romish 
doctors have made, from time to time, to give an air of 
plausibility to their tenets, and render them palatable, 
were so many snares insidiously laid to draw the Protes- 
tants into their communion ; that the specious conditions 
they proposed as the terms of a reconciliation, were perfi- 
dious stratagems ; and that, consequently, there can be 
no firm dependence upon the promises and declarations 
of such a disingenuous set of men. 

IX. The intestine discords, tumults, and divisions, that 
reigned in the Romish church, during the preceding cen- 
tury, were so far from being terminated in this, that new 
fuel was added to the flame. These divisions still 
subsist ; and the animosities of the contending parties 
seem to grow more vehement from day to day. The 
Jesuits are at variance with the Dominicans, and some 
other religious orders, though these quarrels make little 
' noise, and are carried on with some regard to decency 
and prudence; the Dominicans are on bad terms with 
the Franciscans ; the controversy concerning the nature, 
lawfulness, and expediency of the Chinese ceremonies, 
still continues, at least in Europe ; and were we to men- 
tion all the debates that divide the Romish church, which 
boasts so much of its unity and infallibility, the enume- 
ration would be almost endless. The controversy rela- 
ting to Jansenism, one of the principal sources of that 
division which reigned within the papal jurisdiction, 
has been carried on with great spirit and animosity in 
France and in the Netherlands. The Jansenists, or, as 
they rather choose to be called, the disciples of Augustin, 
are inferior to their adversaries the Jesuits, in number, 

nent ; among which the Lettres sur les vrais Principes de la Religion 
composed by the late learned and ingenious M. Bouiller, deserve parti- 
cular notice. 

!3r i> This history was published before the death of Benedict 
XIV. 



SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



647 



power, and influence ; but they equal them in resolution, 
prudence, and learning, and surpass them in sanctity of i 
manners and superstition, by which they excite the 
respect of the people. When their affairs take an unfa- 
vourable turn, and they are oppressed and persecuted by 
their victorious enemies, they find an asylum in the Low- 
Countries; for the greatest part of the catholics in the 
Spanish Netherlands, and all the Romanists who live un- 
der the jurisdiction of the United Provinces, embrace the 
principles and doctrines of Janseruus." The latter have 
almost renounced their allegiance to the pope, though 
they profess a warm attachment to the doctrine and com- 
munion of the church of Rome ; nor are either the ex- 
hortations or threats of the holy father, sufficient to sub- 
due the obstinacy of these wayward children, or to reduce 
\hem to a state of subjection and obedience. 

X. The cause of the Jansenists acquired a peculiar 
degree of credit and reputation, both in this and the pre- 
ceding century, by a French translation of the New Tes- 
tament, made by the learned and pious Pasquier Quesnel, 
a priest of the Oratory, and accompanied with practical 
annotations, adapted to excite lively impressions of reli- 
gion in the minds of men. The quintessence of Jan- 
senism was blended, in an elegant and artful manner, 
with these annotations, and was thus presented to the 
reader under the most pleasing aspect. The Jesuits were 
alarmed at the success of duesnel's book, and particu- 
larly at the change it had wrought in many, in favour of 
the doctrines of Jansenius ; and, to remove out of the 
way an instrument which proved so advantageous to then- 
adversaries, they engaged that weak prince Louis XIV. 
to solicit the condemnation of this production at the court 
of Rome. Clement XI. granted the request of the French 
monarch, because he considered it as the request of the 
Jesuits ; and, in 1713, issued the famous bull Unigenitus, 
in which Quesnel's New Testament was condemned, and 
a hundred and one propositions contained in it were pro- 
nounced heretical. b This bull, which is also known by 
the name of The Constitution, gave a favourable turn to 
the affairs of the Jesuits ; but it was highly detrimental 
to the interests of the Romish church, as many of the 
wiser members of that communion candidly acknowledge ; 
for it not only confirmed the Protestants in their separa- 
tion, by convincing them that the church of Rome was 
resolved to adhere obstinately to its ancient superstitions 
and corruptions, but also offended many of the catholics 
who had no particular attachment to the doctrines of Jan- 
senius, and were only bent on the pursuit of truth and 
the advancement of piety. It must also be observed, that 
the controversy relating to Jansenism was much heated 
and augmented, instead of being mitigated or suspended, 
by this despotic and ill-judged edict. 

f^T * This assertion is too general. It is true, that the greatest part 
of the catholics in the United Provinces are Jansenists, and that there is 
no legal toleration of the Jesuits in that republic. It is, nevertheless, a 
known fact, and a fact that cannot be indifferent to those who have the 
welfare and security of these provinces at heart, that the Jesuits are 
daily gaining ground among the Dutch papists. They have a flourish- 
ing chapel in the city of Utrecht, and have places of worship in several 
other cities, and in a great number of villages, It would be worthy of 
the wisdom of the rulers of the republic to put a stop to this growing 
evil, and not to suffer, in a protestant country, a religious order which 
has been suppressed in a popish one, and declared hostile to the state.* 

J^ *> To show what a political weathercock the infallibility of the 
holy father was upon this occasion, it may not be improper to intro- 
duce an anecdote which is related by Voltaire in his Seicle de Louis 
XIV. vol. ii. The credit of the narrator, indeed, weighs lightly in the 



XI. The dissensions and tumults excited in France by 
this edict were violent in the highest degree. A consi- 
derable number of bishops, and a large body composed 
of persons eminently distinguished by their piety and eru- 
dition, both among the clergy and laity, appealed from 
the bull to a general council. It was more particularly 
opposed by the cardinal Louis Antoine de Noailles, arch- 
bishop of Paris, who, equally unmoved by the authority 
of the pontiff, and by the resentment and indignation of 
Louis XIV., made a noble stand against the despotic pro- 
ceedings of the court of Rome. These defenders of the 
ancient doctrine and liberties of the Gallican church were 
persecuted by the popes, the French monarch, and the 
Jesuits, from whom they received a series of injuries and 
affronts. Even their total ruin was aimed at by these 
unrelenting adversaries ; but this inhuman purpose could 
not be entirely effected. Some of the Jansenists, however, 
were obliged to fly for refuge to their brethren in Holland ; 
others were forced, by the terrors of penal laws, and by 
various acts of tyranny and violence, to receive the papal 
edict ; while a considerable number, deprived of their 
places, and ruined in their fortunes, looked for subsistence 
and tranquillity at a greater distance from their native 
country. The issue of this famous contest was favour- 
able to the bull, which was at length rendered valid by 
the authority of the parliament, and was registered among 
the laws of the state. This contributed, in some mea- 
sure, to restore the public tranquillity ; but it was far from 
diminishing the number of those who complained of the 
despotism of the pontiff ; and the kingdom of France is 
still full of appellants, who reject the authority of the 
bull, and only wait for an opportunity of reviving a con- 
troversy which is rather suspended than erminated, and 
of re-kindling a flame, that is covered without being 
extinguished. 

XII. Amidst the calamities in which the Jansenists 
have been involved, they have only two methods left of 
maintaining their cause against their powerful adversaries ; 
and these are their writings and their miracles. The 
former alone have proved truly useful to them ; the lat- 
ter gave them only a transitory reputation, which being 
ill founded, contributed in the issue to sink their credit. 
The writings in which they have attacked both the pope 
and the Jesuits are innumerable ; and many of them are 
composed with such eloquence, spirit, and solidity, that 
they have produced a remarkable effect. The Jansenists, 
however, looking upon all human means as insufficient 
to support their cause, turned their views toward super- 
natural succours, and endeavoured to make it appear, that 
their cause was the peculiar object of the divine protec- 
tion and approbation. For this purpose they persuaded 
the multitude, that God had endowed the bones and ashes 

balance of historical fame ; but the anecdote is well attested, and is as 
follows: " The abbe-Renaudot, a learned Frenchman, happening to be 
at Rome in the first year of the pontificate of Clement XL, went one 
day to see the pope, who was fond of men of letters, and was himself a 
learned man, and found his holiness reading Father Quesnel's book. 
On seeing Renaudot enter the apartment, the pope said, in a kind of 
rapture, ' Here is a most excellent book : we have no body at Rome 
that is capable of writing in this manner ; — I wish I could engage the 
author to reside here !'" And yet this same book was condemned after- 
wards by tliis same pope. 

gJT c This was the denomination assumed by those who appealed 
from the bull and the court of Rome to a general council. 

* This note is left for the purpose of showing the stale of affairs, at 
the time when Dr. Maclaine inserted it ; but its purport is superseded by 
the effects of the French revolution. Edit. 



648 SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



of certain persons, who had distinguished themselves by 
their zeal in the cause of Jansenius, and had, at the 
point of death, appealed a second time from the pope to 
a general council, with the power of healing the most 
inveterate diseases. The person whose remains were 
principally honoured with this efficacy, was the abbe 
Paris, a man of a respectable family, whose natural cha- 
racter was dark and melancholy ; whose superstition was 
excessive beyond all credibility ; and who, by an austere 
abstinence from bodily nourishment, and the exercise of 
other inhuman branches of penitential discipline, was the 
voluntary cause of his own death. 1 To the miracles 
which were said to be wrought at the tomb of this fana- 
tic, the Jansenists added a great variety of visions and 
revelations to which they audaciously attributed a divine 
origin ; for several members of the community, and more 
especially those who resided at Paris, pretended to be filled 
with the Holy Ghost ; and, in consequence of this pre- 
rogative, delivered instructions, predictions, and exhorta- 
tions, which, though frequently extravagant, and almost 
always insipid, yet moved the passions, and attracted the 
admiration, of the ignorant multitude. The prudence, 
however, of the court of France, put a stop to these fana- 
tical tumults and false miracles ; and, in the situation in 
which things are at present, the Jansenists have nothing 
left but their genius and their pens to maintain their 
cause. b 

XIII. We can say very little of the Greek and Eastern 
churches. The profound ignorance in which they live, 
and the despotic yoke under which they groan, prevent 
their forming any plans to extend their limits, or making 
any attempts to change their state. The Russians, who, 
in the reign of Peter the Great, assumed a less savage 
and barbarous aspect than they had before that memora- 
ole period, have in this century given some grounds to 
hope that they may one day be reckoned among the civi- 
lized nations. There are, nevertheless, immense multi- 
tudes of that rugged people, who are still attached to the 
brutish superstition and discipline of their ancestors ; and 
there are many in whom the barbarous spirit of persecu- 
tion still so far prevails, that, were it in their power, they 
would cut off the Protestants, and all other sects that 
differ from them, by fire and sword. This appears evi- 
dent from a variety of circumstances, and more especi- 
ally from the book which Stephen Javorski has com- 
posed against heretics of all denominations. 

The Greek Christians are said to be treated at present 
by their haughty masters with more clemency and indul- 
gence than in former times. The Nestorians and Mono- 
physites in Asia and Africa persevere in their refusal to 
enter into the communion of the Romish church, notwith- 
standing the earnest intreaties and alluring offers that 
have been made from time to time by the pope's legates, 
to conquer their inflexible constancy. — The pontiffs have 
frequently attempted to renew, by another sacred expedi- 
tion, their former connexions with Abyssinia ; but they 
have not yet been able to find out a method of escaping 

• The imposture, that reigned in these pretended miracles, has been 
detected and exposed by various authors, but by none with more acute- 
ness, perspicuity, and penetration, than by the ingenious Dr. Douglas, 
in his excellent treatise on miracles, entitled the Criterion published in 
1754. 

l^f" b Things are greatly changed since the learned author wrote this 
naragraph. The storm of just resentment that has arisen against the 



the vigilance of that court, which still persists in its ab- 
horrence of popery. Nor is it at all probable that the 
embassy which is now preparing at Rome for the Abys- 
sinian emperor, will be attended with success. The 
Monophysites propagate their doctrine in Asia with zeal 
and assiduity, and, not long ago, gained over to their 
communion a part of the Nestorians who inhabit the 
coasts of India. 

XIV. The Lutheran church, which dates its founda 
tion from the year 1517, and the confession of Augsburg 
from 1530, celebrated in peace and prosperity the secular 
return of those memorable periods in the years 1717 and 
1730. It received, some years ago, a considerable acces- 
sion to the number of its members by the emigration of 
those protestants, who abandoned the territory of Saltz- 
burg, and the town of Berchtolsgaden, in order to breathe 
a free air, and to enjoy unmolested the exercise of their 
religion. One body of these emigrants settled in Prussia, 
another in Holland ; and many of them transplanted 
themselves and their families to America, and other distant 
regions. This circumstance contributed greatly to pro- 
pagate the doctrine, and extend the reputation of the 
Lutheran church, which thus formed several congregations 
of no small note in Asia and America. The state of 
Lutheranism at home has not been so prosperous, since 
we learn both from public transactions, and also from the 
complaints of its professors and patrons, that, in several 
parts of Germany, this church has been injuriously op- 
pressed, and unjustly deprived of some of its privileges 
and advantages, by the votaries of Rome. 

XV. It has been scarcely possible to introduce any 
change into the doctrine and discipline of that church, 
because the ancient confessions and rules that were drawn 
up to point out the tenets that were to be believed, and 
the rites and ceremonies that were to be performed, 
still remain in their full authority, and are considered as 
the sacred guardians of the Lutheran faith and worship. 
The method, however, of illustrating, enforcing, and de- 
fending the doctrines of Christianity, has undergone seve- 
ral changes. About the commencement of this century, 
an artless simplicity was generally observed by the Lu- 
theran ministers, and all philosophical terms and abstract 
reasonings were relinquished, as more adapted to obscure 
than to illustrate the truths of the Gospel. But, in pro- 
cess of time, a very different way of thinking began to 
take place ; and several learned men entertained a notion 
that the doctrines of Christianity could not maintain their 
ground, if they were not supported by the aids of philo- 
sophy, and exhibited and proved in geometrical order. 

The adepts in jurisprudence, who undertook, in the 
last century, the revision and correction of the ecclesias- 
tical code that is in force among the Lutherans, carried 
on their undertaking with great assiduity and spirit ; and 
our church-government would at this day bear another 
aspect, if the ruling powers had judged it expedient to 
listen to their counsels and ■ representations. We see, 
indeed, evident proofs that the directions of these great 

Jesuits, and has been attended with the extinction of their order in Por- 
tugal, France, and in all the Spanish dominions, has disarmed the most 
formidable adversaries of Jansenism, and must consequently be con- 
sidered as an event highly favourable to the Jansenists.* 

See the Continuation. 

* In consequence of the French revolution, more important change* 
have taken place since the translator wrote the last note. — Edit. 



SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



649 



men, relating to the external form of ecclesiastical go- 
vernment, discipline, and worship, are highly respected ; 
and that their ideas, even of doctrine, have been more or 
less adopted by many. Hence it is not surprising, that 
warm disputes have arisen between them and the rulers 
of the church concerning several points. The Lutheran 
doctors are apprehensive that, if the sentiments of some 
of these reformers should take place, religion would be- 
come entirely subservient to the purposes of civil policy, 
and be converted into a mere state-machine ; and this 
apprehension is not peculiar to the clergy, but is also 
entertained by some persons of piety and candour, even 
among the civilians. 

XVI. The liberty of thinking, speaking, and writing, 
concerning religious matters, which began to prevail in 
the last century, was, in this, confirmed and augmented ; 
and it extended so far as to encourage both infidels and 
fanatics to pour forth among the multitude, without 
restraint, all the crudities of their enthusiasm and extra- 
vagance. Accordingly we have seen, and still see, num- 
bers of fanatics and innovators start up, and, under the 
influence of enthusiasm or of a disordered brain, divulge 
their crude fancies and dreams among the people, by 
which they either delude many from the communion of 
the established church, or at least occasion contests and 
divisions of the most disagreeable kind. We mentioned 
formerly several of these disturbers of the tranquillity of 
the church, to whom we may now add the . notorious 
names of Tennhart, Gichtel, Uberfeld,Rosenbach,Bredel, 
Seiz, Roemeling, and many others, who either imagined 
that they were divinely inspired, or, from a persuasion of 
their superior capacity and knowledge, set up for reformers 
of the doctrine and discipline of the church. Many 
writers drew their pens against this presumptuous and 
fanatical tribe, though the greatest part of those who com- 
posed it were really below the notice of men of character, 
and were rather worthy of contempt than of opposition. 
And, indeed, it was not so much the force of reason and 
argument, as the experience of their ill success, that con- 
vinced these fanatics of their folly, and induced them to 
desist from their chimerical projects. Their attempts 
could not stand the trial of time and common sense ; and 
therefore, after having made a transitory noise, they fell 
into oblivion. Such is the common and deserved fate of 
almost all the fanatic ringleaders of the deluded populace ; 
they suddenly start up, and make a figure for a while ; 
but, in general, they ruin their own cause by their im- 

fTJT " It is somewhat surprising to hear Dr. Mosheim speak in such 
vague and general terms of this sect, without taking the least notice of 
their pernicious doctrines and their flagitious practices, that not only 
disfigure the sacred truths of the Gospel, but also sap all the founda- 
tions of morality. To be persuaded of this, the reader, beside the ac- 
counts which Rimius has given of this enormous sect, will do well to 
consult a curious Preface, prefixed to the French translation of a Pas- 
toral Letter against Fanaticism, addressed by Mr. Stinstra, an Anabap- 
tist minister in Friseland, to his congregation, and published at Ley- 
den in 1752. It may not be amiss to add here a passage relating to 
this odious community, from the bishop of Glocester's treatise, entitled, 
the Doctrine of Grace. The words of that great and eminent prelate 
are as follow : " As purity respects practice, the Moravians give us 
little trouble. If we may credit the yet unconfuted relations, both in 
print and in MS., composed by their own members, the participants in 
their most sacred mysterious rites, their practices in the consummation 
of marriage are so horribly, so unspeakably flagitious, that this people 
seem to have no more pretence to be put into the number of Christian 
sects, than the Turlupins 'of the thirteenth century, a vagabond crew 
of miscreants, who rambled over Italy, France, and Germany, calling 
themselves the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit, who. in specu- 

No. LV. 163 



prudence or obstinacy, by their austerity or perverseness, 
by their licentious conduct or their intestine divisions. 

XVII. Many place in this fanatical class the Brethren 
of Herrenhut, who were first formed into a religious com- 
munity in the village so named, in Lusatia, by the famous 
count Zinzendorff, and afterwards grew so numerous that 
their emigrants were spread abroad in almost all the 
countries of Europe, formed settlements in the Indies, and 
even penetrated to the remotest parts of the globe. They 
call themselves the descendants of the Bohemian and 
Moravian Brethren, who, in the fifteenth century, threw 
off the despotic yoke of Rome, animated by the zealous 
exhortations and heroic example of John Huss. They 
may, however, be said, with more propriety, to imitate the 
example of that famous community, than to descend from 
those who composed it ; for it is well known, that there 
are very few Bohemians and Moravians in the fraternity 
of the Herrenhutters ; and it isextremely doubtful, whether 
even this small number are to be considered as the pos- 
terity of the ancient Bohemian Brethren, that distinguish- 
ed themselves so early by their zeal for the Reformation. 

If we are to give credit to the declarations of the Her- 
renhutters, they agree with the Lutherans in their doctrine 
and opinions, and only differ from them in their ecclesi- 
astical discipline, and in those religious institutions and 
rules of life which form the resemblance between the 
Bohemian Brethren and the disciples of Zinzendorff. 
There are, indeed, many who doubt much of the truth 
of this declaration, and suspect that the society now under 
consideration, and more especially their rulers and ring- 
leaders, speak the language of Lutheranism when they 
are among the Lutherans, in order to obtain their favour 
and indulgence ; and those who have examined this 
matter with the greatest attention, represent this fraternity 
as composed of persons of different religions, as well as of 
various ranks and orders. Be that as it may, it is at 
least very difficult to guess the reason that induces them 
to live in such an entire state of separation from the 
Lutheran communion, and to be so ambitiously zealous 
in augmenting their sect, if there be no other difference 
between them and the Lutherans than that of discipline 
and of ceremony ; for the true and genuine followers of 
Jesus Christ are little concerned about the outward forms 
of ecclesiastical government and discipline, knowing that 
real religion consists in faith and charity, and not in 
external rites and institutions. 11 

XVIII. It was the opinion of many, that the succours 

lation, professed that species of atheism called Pantheism, and, in prac- 
tice, pretended to be exempted from all the obligations of morality and 
religion." See The Doctrine of Grace, vol. ii. As to the doctrines of 
this sect, they open a door to the most licentious effects of fanaticism. 
Such among many others are the following, drawn from the. express 
declarations of count Zinzendorff, the head and founder of the commu- 
nity : that the law is not a rule of life to a believer ; — that the moral law 
belongs only to the Jews ; — that a converted person cannot sin against 
light. But of all the singularities for which this sect is famous, the 
notions they entertain of the organs of generation in both sexes are the 
most enormously wild and extravagant. I consider (says Zinzcndorf)", 
in one of his sermons) the parts for distinguishing both sexes in Chris- 
tians, as the most honourable of the whole body, my Lord and God 
having partly inhabited them, and partly worn them himself. This 
raving secretary looks upon the conjugal act as a piece of scenery, in 
which the male represents Christ the husband of souls, and the female 
the church. ' The married brother (says he) knows matrimony, respects 
it, but does not think upon it of his own accord ; and thus the precious 
member of the covenant (i. e. the penis) is so much forgotten, becomes 
so useless, and consequently is reduced to such a natural numbness, by 
not being used, that afterwards, when he is to marry, and use it, the 



650 SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



of philosophy were absolutely necessary to stem the torrent 
of superstition, and stop its growing progress, and that 
these alone were adapted to accomplish this desirable 
purpose. Hence the study of philosophy, which, toward 
the conclusion of the last century, seemed to decline, was 
now revived, established upon a more rational footing, 
and pursued with uncommon assiduity and ardour. The 
branch of philosophy which is commonly known under 
the denomination of Metaphysics, was generally prefer- 
red, as it leads to the first principles of things ; and the 
improvements made in this important science were very 
considerable. These improvements were chiefly produced 
by the genius and penetration of Leibnitz, who threw a 
new light upon metaphysics, and gave this interesting 
branch of philosophy a more regular form. This science 
received a still greater degree of perfection from the philoso- 
phical labours of the acute and indefatigable Wolff, who 
reduced it into a scientific order, and gave to its decisions 
the strength and evidence of a geometrical demonstration. 
Under this new and respectable form it captivated the 
attention and esteem of the greatest part of the German 
philosophers, and of those in general who pursue truth 
through the paths of strict evidence ; and it was applied 
with great ardour and zeal to illustrate and confirm the 
great truths both of natural and revealed religion. This 
application of the First Philosophy gave much uneasiness 
to some pious men, who were extremely solicitous to 
preserve, pure and unmixed, the doctrines of Christianity ; 
and it was accordingly opposed by them with great eager- 
ness and obstinacy. Thus the ancient contest between 
philosophy and theology, faith and reason, was unhappily 
revived, and has been carried on with much animosity 
for several years past. For many are of opinion, that 
this metaphysical philosophy inspires youthful minds with 
notions that are far from being favourable either to the 
doctrines or to the positive institutions of religion ; that, 
seconded by the warmth of fancy, at that age of levity 
and presumption, it engenders an arrogant contempt of 
Divine Revelation, and an excessive attachment to human 
reason, as the only infallible guide of man ; and that, 
instead of throwing new light on the science of theology, 
and giving it an additional air of dignity, it has contributed, 
on the contrary, to cover it with obscurity, and to sink it 
into oblivion and contempt. 

XIX. In order to justify this heavy charge^gainst the 
metaphysical philosophy, they appeal to the writings of 
Laurent Schmidt, whom they commonly call the Wer- 
theim interpreter, from the place of his residence. This 
man, who was by no means destitute of abilities, and had 
acquired a profound knowledge of the philosophy now 
under consideration, undertook, some years ago, a new 
German translation of the Holy Scriptures, to which he 
prefixed a new system of theology, drawn up in a geome- 
trical order, that was to serve him as a guide in the expo- 
sition of the sacred oracles. This undertaking proved 
highly detrimental to its author, as it drew upon him from 
many quarters severe marks of opposition and resentment ; 

Saviour must restore him from this deadness of body. And when an 
Esther by grace, and sister according to her make, gets sight of this 
member, her senses are shut up, and she piously perceives that God 
the Son was a boy. Ye holy matrons, who as wives are about your 
Vice-Christs, honour that precious sign with the utmost veneration.' We 
beg the chaste reader's pardon for presenting him with this odious spe- 
cimen of the horrors of the Moravian theology. 

5jT * Dt. Mosheim gives here but one half of the accusation brought 



for he had scarcely published the Five Books of Moses, as 
a specimen of his method and abilities, when he was not 
only attacked by several writers, but also brought before 
the supreme tribunal of the empire, and there accused 
as an enemy of the Christian religion, and a caviller at 
divine truth. This severe charge was founded upon this 
circumstance only, that he had boldly departed from the 
common explication of certain passages in the books of 
Moses, which are generally supposed to prefigure the Mes- 
siah. 11 On this account he was sent to prison, and his 
errors were looked upon as capitally criminal; but he escap- . 
ed the vigilance of his keepers, and saved himself by flight. 

XX. The bare indication of the controversies that 
have divided the Lutheran church since the commence- 
ment of this century would make up a long list. The 
religious contests that were set on foot by the Pietists 
were carried on in some places with animosity, in others 
with moderation, according to the characters of the 
champions, and the temper and spirit of the people. 
These contests, however, have gradually subsided, and 
seem at present to be all reduced to the following ques- 
tion, whether a wicked man be capable of acquiring a 
true and certain knowledge of divine things, or be sus- 
ceptible of any degree or species of divine illumination. 
The controversy that has been excited by this question is 
considered by many as a mere dispute about words ; its 
decision, at least, is rather a matter of curiosity than 
importance. Many other points, that had been more or 
less debated in the last century, occasioned keen contests 
in this, such as the eternity of hell torments ; the reign of 
Christ upon earth during a thousand years ; and the final 
restoration of all intelligent beings to order, perfection, 
and happiness. The mild and indulgent sentiments of 
John Fabricius, professor of divinity at Helmstadt, con- 
cerning the importance of the controversy between the 
Lutherans and Catholics, excited also a warm debate ; 
for this doctor and his disciples went so far as to maintain, 
that the difference, between those churches, was of so 
little consequence, that a Lutheran might safely embrace 
popery. The warm controversies that have been carried 
on between certain divines, and some eminent civilians, 
concerning the rites and obligations of wedlock, the lawful 
grounds of divorce, and the nature and guilt of concubi- 
nage, are sufficiently known. Other disputes of inferior 
moment, which have been of a sudden growth, and of a 
short duration, we shall pass over in silence, as the know- 
ledge of them is not necessary to our forming an accurate 
idea of the internal state of the Lutheran church. 

XXI. The reformed church still carries the same ex- 
ternal aspect under which it has been already described ; b 
for, though there be everywhere extant certain books, 
creeds, and confessions, by which the wisdom and vigi- 
lance of ancient times thought proper to perpetuate the 
truths of religion, and to preserve them from the conta- 
gion of heresy, yet, in most places, no person is obliged to 
adhere strictly to the doctrines they contain ; and those 
who profess the main and fundamental truths of the Chris- 

against Schmidt, in 1737, when he was charged with attempting to 
prove, that there was not the smallest trace or vestige of the doctrine of 
the Trinity, nor any prediction, pointing out the Messiah, to be found in 
the Five Books of Moses. It was by the authority of an edict ad- 
dressed by Charles VI. to the princes of the empire, that Schmidt was 
imprisoned. 

§rj» b This description the reader will find above, at the beginning of 
the preceding century. 



SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



651 



tian religion, and take care to avoid too great an intimacy 
with the tenets of Socinianism and popery, are deemed 
worthy members of the reformed church. b Hence, in our 
times, this great and extensive community comprehends, 
in its bosom, Arminians, Calvinists, Supralapsarians, Sub- 
lapsarians, and Universalists, who live together in charity 
and friendship, and unite their efforts in healing the breach, 
and diminishing the weight and importance of those con- 
troversies that separate them from each other. d This mode- 
ration is, indeed, severely censured by many of the reform- 
ed divines in Switzerland, Germany, and more especially 
in Holland, who lament, in the most sorrowful strains, the 
decline of the ancient purity and strictness that charac- 
terized the doctrine and discipline of the church, and 
sometimes attack, with the strongest marks of indigna- 
tion and resentment, these modern contemners of primi- 
tive orthodoxy. But, as the moderate party have an evi- 
dent superiority in point of number, power, and influ- 
ence, these attacks of their adversaries are, in general, 
treated with the utmost indifference. 

f^jp * Ximiam consuetudinem. The expression is remarkable and 
malignant ; it would make the ignorant and unwary apt to believe, that 
the reformed church allows its members certain approaches toward 
popery and Socinianism, provided they do not carry these approaches 
too far, even to an intimate union with them. This representation of 
the reformed church is too glaringly false to proceed from ignorance ; 
and Dr. Mosheim's extensive knowledge places him beyond the suspi- 
cion of an involuntary mistake in this matter. It is true, this reflection 
bears hard upon his candour ; and we are extremely sorry that we can- 
not, in this place, do justice to the knowledge of that great man, without 
arraigning his equity. 

f^p >> Nothing can be more unfair, or at least more inaccurate, than 
this representation of things. It proceeds from a supposition that is 
quite chimerical, even that the reformed churches in England, Scotland, 
Holland, Germany, Switzerland, &c. form one general body, and, be- 
side their respective and particular systems of government and disci- 
pline, have some general laws of religious toleration, in consequence of 
which they admit a variety of sects into their communion. But this 
general hierarchy does not exist. The friends of the Reformation, 
whom the multiplied horrors and absurdities of popery obliged to aban- 
don the communion of Rome, were formed, in process of time, into 
distinct ecclesiastical bodies, or national churches, every one of which 
has its peculiar form of government and discipline. The toleration 
that is enjoyed by the various sects and denominations of Christians, 
arises in part from the clemency of the ruling powers, and from the 
charity and forbearance which individuals think themselves bound to 
exercise one toward another. See the following note. 

U" ' If the different denominations of Christians here mentioned 
live together in the mutual exercise of charity and benevolence, notwith- 
standing the diversity of their theological opinions, this circumstance, 
which Dr. Mosheim seems to mention as a reproach, is, on the contrary, 
a proof, that the true and genuine spirit of the Gospel (which is a spirit 
of forbearance, meekness, and charity,) prevails among the members of 
the reformed churches. But it must be carefully observed, that this 
charity, though it discovers the amiable bond of peace, does not, by any 
means, imply uniformity of sentiment or indifference about truth, or lead 
us to suppose that the reformed churches have relaxed or departed from 
their system of doctrine. Indeed, as there is no general reformed 
church, so there is no general reformed Creed or Confession of Faith. 
The church of England has its peculiar system of doctrine and govern- 
ment, which remains still unchanged, and in full force ; and to which 
an assent is demanded from all its members, and in a more especial, 
solemn, and express manner from those who are its ministers. Such is 
the case with the national reformed churches in the United Provinces. 
The dissenters in these countries, who are tolerated by the state, have 
also their respective bonds of ecclesiastical union ; and such of them, 
particularly in England and Ireland, as differ from the establishment only 
in their form of government and worship, and not in matters of doctrine, 
lire treated with indulgence by the moderate members of the national 
church, who look upon them as their brethren. 

j[dr d In the 4to edition of this work, I mistook, in a moment of 
inadvertency, the construction of this sentence in the original Latin, 
and rendered the passage as if Dr. Mosheim had represented the reform- 
ed churches as diminishing the weight and importance of those contro- 
versies that ' separate them from the church of Rome ;' whereas he 
represents them (and, indeed, what he says is rather an encomium than 
a reproach) as diminishing the weight of those controversies which 
1 separate them from each other.' One of the circumstances that made 



XXII. Whoever considers all these things with due 
attention, will be obliged to acknowledge that neither the 
Lutherans nor Arminians have, at this day, any farther 
subject of controversy or debate with the reformed church, 
considered in a general point of view, but only with indi- 
vidual members of this great community ; e for the church, 
considered in its collective and general character, allows 
now to all its members the full liberty of entertaining the 
sentiments which they think most reasonable, in relation 
to those points of doctrine that formerly excluded the 
Lutherans and Arminians from its communion, and looks 
upon the essence of Christianity and its fundamental 
truths as in no wise affected by these points, however 
variously they may be explained by the contending par- 
ties. But this moderation, instead of facilitating the exe- 
cution of the plans that have been proposed by some for 
the re-union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches, 
contributes rather to prevent this re-union, or at least to 
render it much more difficult ; for those among the 
Lutherans who are zealous for the maintenance of the 

me fall more easily into this mistake was my having read, the moment 
before I committed it, Dr. Mosheim's insinuation with respect to the 
spirit of the church of England in the very next page, where he says, 
very inconsiderately, that we may judge of that spirit by the conduct of 
Dr. Wake, who formed a project of peace and union between the Eng- 
lish and Gallican churches, founded upon this condition, that each com- 
munity should retain the greatest part of its peculiar doctrines. This is 
supposing, though upon the foundation of a mistaken fact, that the 
church of England, at least, is making evident approaches to the church 
of Rome. — When I had made the mistake, which turned really an 
encomium into an accusation, I thought it incumbent on me to defend 
the reformed church against the charge of an approximation to popery. 
For this purpose, I observed (in note " of the 4to edition,) l: that the 
reformed churches were never at such a distance from the spirit and 
doctrine of the church of Rome as they are at this day ; and that the 
improvements in science, that characterize the last and the present age, 
seem to render a relapse into Romish superstition morally impossible in 
those who have been once delivered from its baneful influence." The 
ingenious author of the Confessional did not find this reasoning conclu- 
sive; but the objections he has started against it, do not appear to me 
insurmountable. I have, therefore, thrown upon paper some farther 
thoughts upon the present state of the reformed religion, and the influ- 
ence of improvements in philosophy upon its advancement; and these 
thoughts the reader will find in the third part of the Appendix. 

gjr " Even if we grant this to be true with respect to the Arminians, 
it cannot be affirmed, with equal truth, in regard to the Lutherans, 
whose doctrine concerning the corporal presence of Christ in the eucha- 
rist, and the communication of the properties of his divine to his human 
nature, is rejected by all the reformed churches, without exception. But 
it is not universally true, even with respect to the Arminians ; for, though 
the latter are particularly favoured by the church of England ; though 
Arminianism may be said to have become predominant among the 
members of that church, or at least to have lent its influence in mitigating 
some of its articles in the private sentiments of those who subscribe 
them ; yet the thirty-nine Articles of the same church still maintain 
their authority; and, when we judge of the doctrine and discipline of 
any church, it is more natural to form this judgment from its established 
creeds and confessions of faith, than from the sentiments and principles 
of particular persons ; so that, with respect to the church of England, 
the direct contrary of what Dr. Mosheim asserts is strictly true; for it 
is rather with that church, and its rule of faith, that the Lutherans are 
at variance, than with private persons, who, prompted by a spirit of 
Christian moderation, mitigate some of its doctrines, in order charitably 
to extend the limits of its communion. But, if we turn our view to the 
reformed churches in Holland, Germany, and a part of Switzerland, the 
mistake of our author will still appear more palpable ; for some of these 
churches consider certain doctrines both of the Arminians and Luther- 
ans, as a just cause of excluding them from their communion. The 
question here is not, whether this rigour is laudable ; it is the matter of 
fact that we are examining at present. The church of England, in- 
deed, if we consider its present temper and spirit, does not look upon 
any of the errors of the Lutherans as fundamental, and is therefore 
ready to receive them into its communion ; and the same thing may, 
perhaps, be affirmed of several of the reformed churches upon the con- 
tinent. But this is very far from being a proof, that the " Lutherans 
have at this day (as Dr. Mosheim asserts) no farther subject of con- 
troversy or debate with these churches;" it only proves, that these 
churches nourish a spirit of toleration and charity worthy of imitation. 



652 SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



truth, complain, that the reformed church has rendered 
too 'wide the way of salvation, and opened the arms of 
fraternal love and communion, not only to us (Luther- 
ans,) but also to Christians of all sects and denominations. 
Accordingly, we find, that when, about twenty years ago, 
several eminent doctors of our communion, with the 
learned and celebrated Matthew Pfaff at their head, em- 
ployed their good offices with zeal and sincerity in order 
to our union with the reformed church, this specific pro- 
ject was so warmly opposed by the majority of the 
Lutherans, that it was soon rendered abortive. 1 

XXIII. The church of England, which is now the 
chief branch of the great community denominated the 
Reformed Church, continues in the same state, and is 
governed by the same principles, that it assumed at the 
Revolution. The established form of church government 
is episcopacy, which is embraced by the sovereign, the 
nobility, and the greatest part of the people. The Presby- 
terians, and the numerous sects that are comprehended 
under the general title of Non-conformists, enjoy the 
sweets of religious liberty, under the influence of a legal 
toleration. Those, indeed, who are best acquainted with 
the present state of the English nation, confidently affirm 
that the dissenting interest is declining, and that the cause 
of non-conformity owes this gradual decay, in a great 
measure, to the lenity and moderation that are practised 
by the rulers of the established church. The members of 
this church may be divided into two classes, according to 
their different ideas of the origin, extent, and dignity of 
episcopal jurisdiction. Some look upon the government 
of bishops as founded on the authority of a divine institu- 
tion, and are immoderately zealous in extending the power 
and prerogatives of the church ; others, of a more mild 
and sedate spirit, while they consider that form of govern- 
ment as far superior to every other system of ecclesiastical 
polity, and warmly recommend all the precautions that 
are necessary to its preservation and the independence of 
the clergy, yet do not carry this attachment to such an 
excessive degree, as to refuse the name of a church to 
every religious community that is not governed by a 
bishop, or to defend, with intemperate zeal, the preroga- 
tives and pretensions of the episcopal order. b — These two 
classes are sometimes involved in warm debates, and 
oppose each other with no small degree of animosity, of 
which this century has exhibited the following remarkable 
example. Dr. Benjamin Hoadly, bishop of Winchester, 
a prelate eminently distinguished by the accuracy of his 
judgment, and the purity of his flowing and manly elo- 

f^T a The project of the very pious and learned Dr. Pfaff for uniting 
the Lutheran and Reformed churches, and the reasons on which he 
justified this project, are worthy of the truly Christian spirit, and do 
honour to the accurate and sound judgment of that most eminent and 
excellent divine;* and it is somewhat surprising, considering the proofs 
of moderation and judgment that Dr. Mosheim has given in other parts 
of this valuable history, that he neither mentions the project of Dr. Pfaff 
with applause, nor the stiffness of the Lutherans on this occasion with 
any mark of disapprobation. 

|^- •> The learned and pious archbishop Wake, in a letter to Father 
Courayer, dated from Croydon-House, July 9, 1724, expresses himself 
thus : " I bless God that I was born and have been bred in an episcopal 
church, which, I am convinced, has been the government established in 
the Christian church from the very time of the apostles. But I should 
be unwilling to affirm, that, where the ministry is not episcopal, there is 
no church, nor any true administration of the sacraments ; and veiy 
many there are among us who are zealous for episcopacy, yet dare not 
go so far as to annul the ordinances of God performed by any other 
ministry." 

jO" ■ Archbishop Wake certainly corresponded with some learned 



quence, used his utmost endeavours, and not without suc- 
cess, to lower the authority of the church, or at least to 
reduce the power of its rulers within narrow bounds. On 
the other hand, the church and its rulers found several 
able defenders ; and, among the rest, Dr. John Potter, 
archbishop of Canterbury, maintained the rights and pre- 
tensions of the clergy with great eloquence and erudition. 
As to the spirit of the established church of England, in 
relation to those who dissent from its rules of doctrine and 
government, we see it no where better than in the conduct 
of Dr. Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, who formed a 
project of peace and union between the English and Gal- 
lican churches, founded upon this condition, that each 
community should retain the greatest part of its peculiar 
doctrines/ 

XXIV. The unbounded liberty which every individual 
in England enjoys of publishing, without restraint, his 
religious opinions, and of worshipping God in the manner 
which he deems the most conformable to reason and Scrip- 
ture, naturally produces a variety of sects, and gives rise 
to an uninterrupted succession of controversies about theo- 
logical matters. It is scarcely possible for any historian 
who has not resided for some time in England, and exa- 
mined with attention, upon the spot, the laws, the privi- 
leges, the factions, and opinions of that free and happy 
people, to give a just and accurate account of these religious 
sects and controversies. Even the names of the greatest 
part of these sects have not yet reached us ; and many 
of those which have come to our knowledge, we know but 
imperfectly. We are greatly in the dark with respect to 
the grounds and principles of these controversies, because 
we are destitute of the sources from which proper informa- 
tion might be drawn. At present the ministerial labours of 
George Whitefield, who has formed a community, which 
he proposes to render superior in sanctity and perfection to 
all other Christian churches, make a considerable noise in 
England, and are not altogether destitute of success. If 
there is any consistency in this man's theological system, 
and if we are not to look upon him as a mere enthu- 
siast, led by the blind impulse of an irregular fancy, his 
doctrine seems to amount to these two propositions : — 
" That true religion consists alone in holy affections, or in 
a certain inward feeling, which it is impossible to explain ; 
and that Christians ought not to seek truth by the dictates 
of reason, or by the aids of learning, but by laying their 
minds open to the direction and influence of divine illumi- 
nation." 

XXV. The Dutch church is still divided by the con- 



and moderate Frenchmen on this subject, particularly with M. Du-Pin, 
the ecclesiastical historian : and no doubt the archbishop, when he 
assisted Courayer in his Defence of the Validity of the English Ordina- 
tions, by furnishing him with unanswerable proofs drawn from the 
registers at Lambeth-Palace, had it in his view to remove certain 
groundless prejudices, which, while they subsisted among catholics, 
could not but defeat all projects of peace and union between the English 
and Gallican churches. The interests of the protestant religion could 
not be in safer hands than those of archbishop Wake. He*who had 
so ably and so successfully defended protestantism, as a controversial 
writer, could not surely form any project of peace and union with a 
Roman catholic church, tire terms of which would have reflected on his 
character as a negociator. f^ This note has been misunderstood" and 
censured by the acute author of the Confessional. This censure gave 
occasion to the fourth Appendix, which the reader will find in this 
volume, and in which the matter contained in this note is fully illus- 
trated, and the conduct of archbishop Wake set in its true light. 

1^= * See this learned author's Collectio Scriptorum Irenicorum 
ad Unionem inter Protestantes faciendum, published at Hall, in 
1723. 



SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 653 



troversies that arose from the philosophy of Des-Cartes and 
the theology of Cocceius; but these controversies are carried 
on with less bitterness and animosity at present than in 
former times. It is even to be hoped that these contests 
will soon be totally extinguished, since it is well known, 
that the Newtonian philosophy has expelled Cartesianism 
from almost all the seminaries of learning in the United 
Provinces. We have already mentioned the debates that 
were occasioned by the opinions of Roell. In 1703, Fre- 
deric Van Leenhof was suspected of a propensity toward 
the system of Spinosa, and drew upon himself a multi- 
tude of adversaries, by a remarkable book, entitled Heaven 
upon Earth, in which he maintained literally, that it was 
the duty of Christians to rejoice always, and to suffer no 
feelings of affliction and sorrow to interrupt their gaiety. 
The same accusations were brought against an illiterate 
man, named William Deurhoff, who, in some treatises 
composed in the Dutch language, represented the Divine 
Nature under the idea of a certain force, or energy, that is 
diffused throughout the whole universe, and acts in every 
part of the great fabric. The more recent controversies 
that have made a noise in Holland, were those that sprang 
from the opinions of James Saurin and Paul Maty, on two 
very different subjects. The former, who was minister to 
the French at the Hague, and acquired a shining repu- 
tation by his genius and eloquence, fell into an error, which, 
if it may be called such, was at least an error of a very 
pardonable kind ; for, if we except some inaccurate and 
incautious expressions, his only deviation from the received 
opinions consisted in his maintaining, that it was some- 
times lawful to swerve from truth, and to deceive men by 
our speech, in order to the attainment of some great and 
important good. a This sentiment did not please, as the 
most considerable part of the reformed churches adopt the 
doctrine of Augustin, " That a lie or a violation of the 
truth can never be allowable in itself, or advantageous in 
the issue." The conduct of Maty was much more worthy 
of condemnation ; for, in order to explain the mystery of 
the Trinity, he invented the following unsatisfactory hypo- 
thesis.: " That the Son and the Holy Ghost were two finite 
Beings, who had been created by God, and at a certain 
time were united to the divine nature. b 

XXVI. The particular confession of faith, that we have 
already had occasion to mention under the denomination 
of the Formulary of Agreement or Concord, has, since the 
commencement of this century, produced warm and vehe- 



3Qf ' See Saurin's Discours HLstoriques, Theologiques, Critiques, et 
Moraux, sur les Evenements les plus memorables du Vieux et du Nou- 
veau Testament, torn. i. of the folio edition. 

ifjr t Dr. Mosheim, in another of his learned productions, has ex- 
plained, in a more accurate and circumstantial manner, the hypothesis 
of Maty, which amounts to the following propositions : " That the 
Father is the pure Deity ; and that the Son and the Holy Ghost are 
two other persons, in each of whom there are two natures ; one divine, 
which is the same in all the three persons, and with respect to which 
they are one and the same God, having the same numerical divine 
essence ; and the other a finite and dependent nature, which is united to 
the divine nature in the same manner in which the orthodox say, that 
Jesus Christ is God and man." See Dissertationes ad HistOriam 
Ecclesiasticam pertinentes, (published at Altena in 1743,) vol. ii. p. 
498, but principally the original work of Mr. Maty, which was pub- 
lished (at the Hague) in 1729, under the following title: Lettre d'un 
Theologien a un autre Theologien sur le Mystere de la Trinile. — The 
publication of this hypothesis was unnecessary, as it was destitute even 
of the merit of novelty, being very little more than a repetition of what 
Dr. Thomas Burnet, prebendary of Sarum, had said, about ten years 
before, upon this mysterious subject, which nothing but presumption 
can make any man attempt to render intelligible. See a treatise pub- 

No LV. 164 



ment contests in Switzerland, and more especially in the 
canton of Bern. In 1718, the magistrates of Bern pub- 
lished an order, by which all professors, and particularly 
those of the university and church of Lausanne, who were 
suspected of entertaining erroneous opinions, were obliged 
to declare their assent to this Formularly, and to adopt it 
as the rule of their faith. This injunction was so much 
the more grievous, as no demand of that kind had been 
made for some time before this period ; and the custom of 
requiring subscription to this confession had been suspend- 
ed in the case of several who were promoted in the uni- 
versity, or had entered into the church. Accordingly many 
pastors and candidates for holy orders refused the assent 
that was demanded by the magistrates, and some of them 
were punished for this refusal. Hence arose warm con- 
tests and heavy complaints, which engaged the king of 
Great Britain, and the states-general of the United Pro- 
vinces, to offer their intercession, in order to terminate 
these unhappy divisions ; and hence the Formulary lost 
much of its credit and authority. 

Nothing memorable happened during this period in the 
German churches. The Reformed church that was estab- 
lished in the Palatinate, and had formerly been in such 
a flourishing state, suffered greatly from the persecuting 
spirit and the malignant counsels of the votaries of 
Rome. 

XXVII. The Socinians, dispersed through the different 
countries of Europe, have not hitherto been able to form 
a separate congregation, or to celebrate publicly divine 
worship, in a manner conformable to the institutions of 
their sect, although, in several places, they hold clandes- 
tine meetings of a religions kind. The person that made 
the principal figure among them in this century, was the 
learned Samuel Crellius, who died in an advanced age at 
Amsterdam: he indeed preferred the denomination of 
Artemonite to that of Socinian, and departed in many 
points from the received doctrines of that sect. 

The Arians found a learned and resolute patron in Wil- 
liam Whiston, professor of mathematics in the university 
of Cambridge, who defended their doctrine in various pro- 
ductions, and chose rather to resign his chair, than to 
renounce his opinions. He was followed in these opinions, 
as is commonly supposed, by Dr. Samuel Clarke, a man 
of great abilities, judgment, and learning, who, in 1724, 
was accused of altering and modifying the ancient and 
orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. But it must argue a 

lished without his name by Dr. Burnet, in 1720, with this title: The 
Scripture Trinity intelligibly explained; or, An Essay towards the 
Demonstration of a Trinity in Unity from Reason and Scripture, in a 
Chain of Consequences from certain Principles, &c. by a Divine of the 
Church of England. See also the same author's Scripture Doctrine of 
the Redemption of the World by Christ, intelligibly explained, &c. 

gj* c It is too evident that few controversies have so little augmented 
the sum of knowledge, and so much hurt the spirit of charity, as the con- 
troversies that have been carried on in the Christian church in relation 
to the doctrine of the Trinity. Mr. Whiston was one of the first divines 
who revived this controversy in the xviiith century. About the year 
1706, he began to entertain some doubts about the proper eternity and om- 
niscience of Christ. This led him to review the popular doctrine of the 
Trinity ; and, in order to execute this review with a degree of diligence 
and circumspection suitable to its importance, he read the New Testa- 
ment twice over, and also all the genuine monuments of the < Christian 
religion prior to the conclusion of the second century. By this inquiry, 
he was led to think, that, at the incarnation of Christ, the Logos, or 
Eternal Wisdom, supplied the place of ihs-raiitmal so«Z, orxwtyia; that 
the eternity of the Son of God was not a real distinct existence, as of a 
son properly co-eternal with his father by a true eternal generation, but 
rather a metaphysical existence in poientid, or in some sublLnier man- 



654 SKETCH OF THE STATE OF THE CHURCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



great want of equity and candour, to rank this eminent 
man in the class of Arians, taking that term in its proper 
and natural signification ; for he only maintained what 
is commonly called the Arminian Subordination, which 
has been, and is still, adopted by some of the greatest men 
in England, and even by some of the most learned bishops 



ner, in the Father, as his wisdom or word; that Christ's real creation 
or 'generation (for both these terms are used by the earliest writers) 
took place some time before the creation of the world ; that the council 
of Nice itself established no other eternity of Christ ; and, finally, that 
the Arian doctrine, in these points, was the original doctrine of Christ 
himself, of his holy apostles, and of the primitive Christians. Mr. 
Whiston was confirmed in these sentiments by reading Novatian's 
treatise concerning the Trinity, but more especially by the perusal of 
the Apostolical Constitutions, the antiquity and authenticity of which 
he endeavoured, with more zeal than precision and prudence, to prove, 
in the third part of his Primitive Christianity Revived. 

This learned visionary, and upright man, was a considerable sufferer 
by his opinions. He was not only removed from his theological and 
pastoral functions, but also from his mathematical professorship, as if 
Arianism had extended its baneful influence even to the science of 
lines, angles, and surfaces. This measure was undoubtedly singular, 
and it appeared rigid and severe to all those, of both parties, who were 
dispassionate enough to see things in their true point of light ; and, 
indeed though we should grant that the good man's mathematics might, 
by erroneous conclusions, have corrupted his orthodoxy, it will still 
remain extremely difficult to comprehend, how his heterodoxy could 
hurt his mathematics. It was not therefore consistent, either with cle- 
mency or good sense, to turn Mr. Whiston out of his mathematical 
chair, because he did not believe the explication of the Trinity that is 
given in the Athanasian creed; and I mention this as an instance of the 
unfair proceedings of immoderate zeal, which often confounds the plain- 
est distinctions, and deals its punishments without measure or proportion. 

Dr. Clarke also stepped aside from the notions commonly received 
concerning the Trinity ; but his modification of this doctrine was not so 
remote from the popular and orthodox hypothesis, as the sentiment of 
Whision. His method of inquiring into that incomprehensible subject 
was modest, and, at least, promised fairly as a guide to truth. For he 
did not begin by abstract and metaphysical reasonings in his illustra- 
tions of this doctrine, but turned his first researches to the word and to 
the testimony, being persuaded that, as the doctrine of the Trinity was 
a matter of mere revelation, all human explications of it must be tried 
by the declarations of the New Testament, interpreted by the rules of 
grammar, and the principles of sound criticism. It was this persua- 
sion that produced his famous book entitled, The Scripture Doctrine of 
the Trinity, wherein every Text in the New Testament relating to that 
Doctrine is distinctly considered, and the Divinity of our blessed Saviour, 
according to the Scriptures, proved, and explained. The doctrine, 
which this learned divine drew from his researches, was comprehended 
in 55 propositions, which, with the proper illustrations, form the second 
Dart of the work. As the reader will find them in that work at full 
ength, we shall only observe here, that Dr. Clarke, if he was careful 
in searching for the true meaning of those scriptural expressions that 
relate to the divinity of the Son and the Holy Ghost, was equally cir- 
cumspect in avoiding the accusation of heterodoxy, as appears by the 
series of propositions now referred to. There are three great rocks of 
heresy on which many bold adventurers on this Anti-Pacific ocean 
have been seen to split violently. These rocks are Tritheism, Sabelli- 
anism, and Arianism. Dr. Clarke got evidently clear of the first, by 
denying the self-existence of the Son and the Holy Ghost, and by main- 
taining their derivation from, and subordination to, the Father. He 
strenuously laboured to avoid the second, by acknowledging the person- 
ality and distinct agency of the Son and the Holy Ghost ; and he flat- 
tered himself with having escaped from the dangers of the third, by 
his asserting the eternity (for he believed the possibility of an eternal 
production which Whiston could not digest) of the two divine subordi- 
nate persons. But, with all his circumspection, Dr. Clarke did not 
escape opposition and censure. He was answered and abused ; and 
heresy was subdivided and modified, in orderto give him an opprobrious 
appellation, even that of Semi-Arian. The convocation threatened ; 
but the doctor calmed by his prudence the apprehensions and fears 
which his scripture-doctrine of the Trinity had excited in that learned 
and reverend assembly. An authentic account of the proceedings of 
the two houses of convocation upon this occasion, and of Dr. Clarke's 
conduct in consequence of the complaints that were made against his 
book, may be seen in a piece supposed to have been written by the Rev. 
Mr. John Laurence, and published at London, in 1714, under the fol- 
lowing title : An Apology for Dr. Clarke, containing an account of the 
late Proceedings in Convocation upon his Writings concerning the 
Trinity. The true copies of all the original papers relating to this 
affair are published in this apology. 

If Dr. Clarke was attacked by authority, he was also combatted by 



P 
k 



in that country. This doctrine he illustrated with greater 
care and perspicuity than any before him had done, and 
taught that the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, are equal 
in nature, and different in rank, authority, and subordi- 
nation. 1 A great number of English writers have en- 
deavoured, in a variety of modes, to invalidate and under- 

argument. The learned Dr. Waterland was one of his principal adver- 
saries, and stands at the head of a polemical body, composed of eminent 
divines, such as Gastrell, Wells, Nelson, Mayo, Knight, and others 
who appeared in this controversy. Against these, Dr. Clarke, unawed 
by their numbers, defended himself with great spirit and perseverance, 
in several letters and replies. This prolonged a controversy, which 
may often be suspended through the fatigue of the combatants, or the 
change of the mode in theological researches, but which will probably 
never be terminated : for nothing affords such an endless subject of 
debate as a doctrine above the reach of human understanding, and 
expressed in the ambiguous and improper terms of human language, 
such as persons, generations, substance, &c. which, in this controversy, 
either convey no ideas at all, or false ones. The inconveniences, 
accordingly, of departing from the divine simplicity of the scripture- 
language on this subject, and of converting a matter of mere revelation 
into an object of human reasoning, were palpable in the writings of 
both the contending parties. For, if Dr. Clarke was accused of verging 
toward Arianism, by maintaining the derived and caused existence of 
the Son and the Holy Ghost, it seemed no less evident that Dr. Water- 
land was verging toward Tritheism, by maintaining the self-existence 
and independence of these divine persons, and by asserting that the 
subordination of the Son to the Father is only a subordination of of- 
fice and not of nature : so that, if the former divine was deservedly 
called a Semi-Arian, the latter might, with equal justice, be denomina- 
ted a Semi-Tritheist. The difference between these learned men lay 
in this, that Dr. Clarke, after making a faithful collection of the texts 
in Scripture that relate to the Trinity, thought proper to interpret them 
by those maxims and rules of right reasoning, which are used on other 
subjects; whereas Dr. Waterland denied that this method of reasoning 
was to be admitted in illustrating the doctrine of the Trinity, which was 
far exalted above the sphere of human reason ; and therefore he took 
the texts of Scripture in their direct, literal, and grammatical sense. Dr, 
Waterland, however, employed the words persons, subsistence, &c. as 
useful for fixing the notion of distinction ; the words uncreated, eternal, 
and immutable, for ascertaining the divinity of each person ; and the 
words interior, generation, and procession, to indicate their union. This 
was departing from his grammatical method, which ought to have led 
him to this plain conclusion, that the Son and the Holy Ghost, to whom 
divine attributes are ascribed in Scripture (and even the denomination 
of God to the former,) possess these attributes in a manner which it is 
impossible for us to understand in this present state, and the understand- 
ing of which is consequently unessential to our salvation and happiness. 
The doctor, indeed, apologises in his queries (p. 321.) for the use of 
these metaphysical terms, by observing, that " they are not designed to 
enlarge our views, or to add any thing to our stock of ideas, but to 
secure the plain fundamental truth, that Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, 
are all strictly divine, and uncreated; and yet are not three Gods, but 
one God." It is, however, difficult to comprehend how terms that 
neither enlarge our views, nor give us ideas, can secure any truth. It 
is difficult to conceive what our faith gains by being entertained with a 
certain number of sounds. If a Chinese should explain a term of his 
language which I did not understand, by another term, which he knew 
beforehand that I understood as little, his conduct would be justly con- 
sidered as an insult against the rules of conversation and good breeding ; 
and I think it is an equal violation of the equitable principles of candid 
controversy, to offer, as illustrations, propositions or terms that are as 
unintelligible and obscure as the thing to be illustrated. The words of 
the excellent and learned Stillingfleet(in the Preface to his Vindication 
of the Doctrine of the Trinity) administer a plain and a wise rule 
which, if observed by divines, would greatly contribute to heal the 
wounds which both truth and charity have received in this controversy. 
" Since both sides yield (says he) that the matter they dispute about is 
above their reach, the wisest course they can take is, to assert and de- 
fend what is revealed, and not to be peremptory and quarrelsome about 
that which is acknowleged to be above our comprehension ; I mean 
as to the manner how the three persons partake of the divine nature." 

Those who are desirous of a more minute historical view of the man- 
ner in which the Trinitarian controversy has been carried on during the 
present century, may consult a pamphlet that was published in 1720, 
entitled, An Account of all the considerable Books and Pamphlets that 
have been written on either Side in the Controversy concerning the 
Trinity since the year 1712; in which is also contained an Account ot 
the Pamphlets written this last year, on each side, by the Dissenters, 
to the end of the year 1719. The more recent treatises on the subject 
of the Trinity are sufficiently known. 

f^T i It will appear to those who read the preceding note ° that Dr. 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



655 



mine the doctrine of the holy Trinity ; and it was this 
consideration that engaged a lady,- eminently distin- 
guished by her orthodoxy and opulence, to bequeath a 
valuable legacy as a foundation for a lecture, in which 
eight sermons are preached annually by a learned divine, 

Mosheim has here mistaken the true hypothesis of Dr. Clarke, or, at 
least, expresses it imperfectly; for what he says here is rather applica- 
ble to the opinion of Dr. Waterland. Dr. Clarke maintained an equality 



who is nominated to that office by the trustees. This 
foundation has subsisted since the year 1720, and pro- 
mises to posterity an ample collection of learned pro- 
ductions in defence of this branch of the Christian 
faith. 

of perfections in the three persons, but a subordination of nature in point 
of existence and derivation. 
• Lady Moyer. 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



Mosheim's Ecclesiastical History can be justly appre- 
ciated only by considering it as a general epitome. As 
such, it is indeed excellent ; the arrangement is luminous ; 
the style both of the author andof his translator, is in gene- 
ral perspicuous ; and though topics of the greatest im- 
portance are, from the nature of the work, necessarily 
treated with a brevity which the reader may sometimes 
regret, the references at the bottoms of the pages inform 
him where he may, on every subject, find fuller informa- 
tion. It must, however, be confessed, that those references, 
being for the most part made to the works of German 
authors, are of less value to us than to those for whose 
use the history was originally composed ; and. perhaps, 
it cannot be wholly denied, that the author, learned and 
pious as he undoubtedly was, either had not studied the 
works of the primitive fathers of the Christian church 
with sufficient care, or laboured under some prejudices, 
from which the most powerful minds are not wholly 
exempt, that made him refer to learned moderns for the 
decision of questions, which the ancients alone can de- 
cide. This we think, appears most remarkably in the 
view which he exhibits of the constitution, government,, 
and discipline, of the primitive church, of which it is ob- 
vious that we can know nothing but from the testimony 
of the primitive writers. 

The Fathers, as they are called, may have been bad 
critics, as we think they generally were ; they may have 
been extremely credulous, and ready to attribute, to the 
miraculous interposition of God, natural events, for which 
their philosophy did not enable them to account ; and 
their speculative doctrines may have been often corrupted 
by that science, falsely so called, which spread from the 
Alexandrian school over the whole Christian world ; but 
the integrity of men who laid down their lives for what 
they believed to be the truth, cannot surety be questioned. 
" I see no reason," said one," who did not pay to them 
undue deference, " why their veracity should be question- 
ed, when- they bear witness to the state of religion in their 
own times, because they disgraced their judgment, in 
giving ear to every strange tale of monkish extraction. 
Controversy apart, their testimony to common facts may 
yet stand good ;" and surely the constitution, government 
and discipline of the church, were common facts, about 
which none of them could be deceived. 

The view however which Dr. Mosheim has given of 

■ Warburton in his introduction to Julian. 



the primitive church appears not to us to be countenanced 
by any primitive writer ; and accordingly he rarely ap- 
peals directly to them in support of what he advances, but 
refers to modern authors, generally French or Germans, 
who have written on the subject, and who could write 
nothing on it authentic, which they did not derive from 
the ancients. The qualifications indeed which he thinks 
essential to an historian, and the rules which he lays down 
for the manner of treating ecclesiastical history, though 
highly valuable in themselves, are by him stated in such 
a manner as cannot fail to excite, in the reflecting mind, 
suspicions of the authenticity of his account of the go- 
vernment and discipline of the primitive church. After 
observing that, in order to render the history of the church 
useful and interesting, it is necessary to trace effects to 
their causes, and to connect events with the circumstances, 
views, principles, and instruments that have contributed 
to their existence, he adds, " In order to discover the secret 
causes of public events, some general succours are to be 
derived from the history of the times in which they hap- 
pened, and the testimonies of the authors by whom they 
are recorded. But, beside these, a considerable acquain- 
tance with human nature, founded on long observation 
and experience, is extremely useful in researches of this 
kind. The historian who has acquired a competent know- 
ledge of the views that occupy the generality of men, who 
has studied a great variety of characters, and attentively 
observed the force and violence of human passions, toge- 
ther with the infirmities and contradictions they produce 
in the conduct of life, will find, in this knowledge, a key 
to the secret reasons and motives which gave rise to many 
of the most important events of ancient times. A know- 
ledge also of the manners and opinions of the persons con- 
cerned in the events that are related, will contribute much 
to lead us to the true origin of things. 6 

There is unquestionably much truth as well as good 
sense in this account of the qualifications requisite to ren- 
der an historian instructive and interesting; for it is ob- 
vious that he who has merely studied human nature 
through the medium of books, not in the society of men, 
and who has not observed the motives which generally 
influence human conduct, can never trace events to their 
causes, or discover the springs of those actions on which 
perhaps the happiness or misery of millions may depend. 
But, if this knowledge of human nature be ever em ploy- 

<> Introduction, sect. xiii. 



656 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



ed to counteract the testimony of ancient authors, who 
were under no conceivable temptation to write falsely ; or 
if the actions of men in one stage of society be traced to 
the same motives from which similar actions are observed 
to spring in another stage altogether different, and in many 
respects the reverse; if, because men are prompted by 
avarice and ambition to solicit offices which at one period 
lead to honour and opulence, it be inferred that they must 
have been influenced by similar motives at a period when 
such offices led not to opulence or honour, but to certain 
death, in its most hideous forms; if an historian reason thus 
from the observations which he has made on the force 
and violence of human passions, and set his conclusions in 
opposition to facts recorded by ancient authors, who were 
witnesses of what they relate; it is obvious that his confi- 
dence in the knowledge which he has acquired of human 
nature by mixing in society, may lead him into the 
greatest errors ; by inducing him either to neglect entirely, 
or to inspect carelessly, those writings from which alone 
he can derive any authentic information concerning the 
events of which he is writing. 

That Dr. Mosheimwas not entirely free from some bias 
of this kind, seems evident, as, without appealing to any 
ancient authority whatever, he represents the government 
of the primitive church as democratical— a form of govern- 
ment unknown in the religious societies of that age, as 
well heathen as Jewish. 

He had witnessed the tyranny of the Romish clergy, 
and had traced the steps and discovered the causes by 
which the bishops of Rome had gradually reached the 
summit of ecclesiastical usurpation; and not adverting 
perhaps to the fact that, before the conversion of Constan- 
tine, ecclesiastical preferment could be no object of worldly 
ambition or avarice, he appears to have hastily concluded 
that this progress had commenced from the very begin- 
ning. 

Accordingly, as if the matter were self-evident, he 
affirms, in the introduction to his \vork, a "that, when we 
look back to the commencement of the Christian church, 
we find its government administered jointly by the pas- 
tors and the people. But, in process of time, the scene 
changes, and we see these pastors affecting an air of pre- 
eminence and superiority, trampling upon the rights and 
privileges of the community, and assuming to themselves 
a supreme authority, both in civil and religious matters." 

Of this joint administration of the government of the 
original church by the pastors and the people, he thinks it 
not necessary here to offer any evidence whatever ; but, 
when he enters on the subject as an historian, and ob- 
serves that the form of government, which the primitive 
churches borrowed from that of Jerusalem established by 
the apostles themselves, must be esteemed as of divine in- 
stitution, he gives the following account of that form, 
which he endeavours to support by the authority of Scrip- 
ture. 

" In those early times, every Christian church consist- 
ed of the people, their leaders, and the ministers, or dea- 
cons ; and tliese indeed belong essentially to every reli- 
gious society. The people were, undoubtedly, the first in 
authority ; for the apostles showed by their own example, 
that nothing of moment was to be carried on or deter- 

* Sect. vii. 

>< Cent I. part ii. chap. ii. sect. 5, &c. 



mined without the consent of the assembly ; and such a 
method of proceeding was both prudent and necessary in 
those critical times. It was, therefore, the assembly of 
the people, which chose their own rulers and teachers, or 
received them by a free and authoritative consent, when 
recommended by others. The same people rejected or 
confirmed, by their suffrages, the law r s that were proposed 
by their rulers to the assembly ; excommunicated profli- 
gate and unworthy members of the church ; restored the 
penitent to their forfeited privileges ; passed judgment 
upon the different subjects of controversy and dissension, 
that arose in the community ; examined and decided the 
disputes which happened between the elders and deacons; 
and, in a word, exercised all that authority which belongs 
to such as are invested with the sovereign power." 6 

Such, according to our author, was the government of 
the Christian church during the greater part of the first 
century ; and he infers this supreme authority of the peo- 
ple from the Acts of the Apostles, chap. i. v. 15. vi. 3. xv. 
4. xxi. 22 ; but it is difficult to conceive by what mode 
of interpretation these texts can be made to countenance 
the supreme authority of the people in the church. 

At the time of the transaction mentioned in the fif- 
teenth and following verses of the first chapter of the 
Acts of the Apostles, we know, from the testimony of 
St. Paul, c that the number of believers in Jerusalem and 
its neighbourhood amounted at least to five hundred ; but 
St. Luke assures us that the number of names met toge- 
ther at the appointment of Matthias to the apostleship, 
did not exceed one hundred and twenty. If the authority 
of the people was at that period supreme, and if it belong- 
ed to them to elect by their own suffrages even a successor 
in the apostleship to Judas, how came so very large a 
majority to be deprived of their right at the election of 
Matthias? On this question Dr. Lightfoot says, d Quurn 
Matthias et Joses coram apostolis, ut par candidatorum, 
sisterentur, haud constat universum fidelium coetum, sive 
individuum quemvis in eorum electione suo nomine suf- 
fragia tulisse, quin in presbyterio potius, sive in collegio 
virorum 108, inter se coacto, jus et potestatem eligendi 
resedisse." And though in ordinary cases it belonged to 
the apostles to ordain, by imposition of hands, such as 
were chosen to fill any office in the church by these to 
whom they had deputed the right of election, yet in the 
present case, they left the determination between the can- 
didates wholly to the giving-forth of lots, after solemnly 
praying that the divine head of the church would show 
which of them he had chosen to take part of the minis- 
try and apostleship from which Judas had fallen ; and all 
this was done, as the same learned writer observes, 
" utpote qui gradus apostolicos immediata quasi Christi 
manuductione adierint." 

The second text quoted by our author in support of 
the power of the people, appears to us to teach the very 
opposite doctrine in terms which cannot be mistaken. 
When the murmuring of the Grecians against the He- 
brews arose on account of the neglect, real or supposed, 
of their widows in the daily ministration, the sovereign 
people did not take the treasure of the church into their 
own hands, and by their supreme authority appoint offi- 
cers to distribute it to the poor with greater equity. They 

c 1 Cor. xv. 6. 

d Oper. Omn. torn. ii. p. 758, edit. Roterodami. 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



657 



eeem not indeed to have imagined that they had a right 
to take any step whatever in the matter, till " the twelve 
called them together, and said — Look ye out among you 
seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and 
wisdom, whom we (not ye) may appoint over this busi- 
ness ;" thus giving the people authority to elect, specifying 
the number and qualifications of the persons to be elected, 
and still reserving to themselves the authoritative appoint- 
ment of those persons to the work for which they were to 
be chosen. 

In the fifteenth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we 
are told, that a deputation was sent from Antioch to Jeru- 
salem to consult — not the people — but the apostles and 
elders about the necessity of circumcision ; that, when the 
deputies had come to Jerusalem, they were received by 
the church and by the apostles and elders ; that these dis- 
tinguished persons came together to consider of the mat- 
ter referred to their decision ; that, after much disputing 
among the apostles and elders, the question was decided 
against the necessity of circumcision ; and that then it 
pleased the apostles and elders, with the whole church, to 
send chosen men of their own company to Antioch with 
their synodical decree. In all this there is not the slightest 
countenance given to the authority of the multitude. The 
people were not called together on the arrival of the depu- 
ties from Antioch ; and indeed their number was so great 
long before that period, that the tenth part of them could 
not have been contained in any house at the command 
of the apostles within the city of Jerusalem ; nor would 
such a multitude have been allowed by the civil power to 
assemble quietly in the street or in the field. As many of 
them as could find admission were doubtless present at the 
deliberations of the apostles and elders on a question of 
such great and general importance; but the multitude is 
mentioned but once, and then as keeping profound silence. 
The synodical epistle to the Gentiles at Antioch and in 
Syria and Cilicia, is indeed written in the name of the 
apostles and elders and brethren ; but this was, in those 
days, the common style of such epistles. Thus St. Paul's 
epistle to the Galatians is written, not in his own name 
only, but also in the names of all the brethren who were 
with him ; and the first epistle of St. Clement his fellow- 
labourer (which is undoubtedly genuine) is in the name 
of " the church of God which dwelleth or sojourneth at 
Rome, to the church of God which sojourneth at Corinth;" 
though it is certain that all the brethren who were with 
St. Paul had no authority over the Galatians, nor the lay 
members of the church in Rome any right to expostulate 
with the church in Corinth. The synodical decree issued 
at Jerusalem may indeed, with the greatest propriety, be 
called the decree of the church, because it was enacted 
by the undoubted governors of the church ; just as the 
acts of the British parliament are called the laws of Great 
Britain, though the people at large were not consulted in 
the framing of one of them. 

The last text appealed to by Dr. Mosheim as a proof 
of the supreme authority of the people in the church, not 
only proves no such thing, but, if it be at. all applicable to 
the question at issue, is of itself a complete proof that 
they had then no such authority, and indeed that they 
were wholly unfit to be entrusted with such authority. 

* In Stephens' Thesaurus, and even in Scapula's Lexicon, the reader 
will find a number of extracts from Xenophon, Plutarch, and other 
Greek writers, in which yivousKu is of the same import with censeo, exis- 

No.LV. 165 



The case was this. St. Paul, after an absence of some 
length from Jerusalem, returned to that city, and on the 
day after his arrival went into the house of James, who is 
represented as having all the elders about him ; but, as is 
evident from what passed, with not so much as imeoi the 
multitude of laymen in the company. When St. Paul 
had declared particularly what things God had wrought 
among the Gentiles by his ministry, James and the elders 
glorified the Lord, and said unto him, "Thou seest, bro- 
ther, how many thousands of Jews there are who believe ; 
and they are all zealous of the law : and they are informed 
of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews who are among 
the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying, that they ought not 
to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the cus- 
toms. What is it (what is to be done) therefore ? The 
multitude must needs come together, (it cannot be but 
they will come together,) for they will hear that thou art 
come. Do therefore this that we say unto thee : we have 
four men which have a vow on them ; them take, and 
purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, 
that they may shave their heads : and all may know 
(think or judge)" that those things whereof they were 
informed concerning thee are nothing but that thou thy- 
self also walkest orderly and keepest the law." (Acts xxi. 
19—24.) 

This advice St. Paul followed, not however in obe- 
dience to the people as possessing in his opinion the 
supreme authority in the church of Jerusalem, but to 
humour a harmless prejudice, upon that principle which 
induced him, as he declares to the Corinthians," "to be- 
come unto the Jews as a Jew, that he might gain the 
Jews : to them that were under the law, as under the 
law, that he might gain them that were under the law ; 
to them that were without the law, as without the law, 
that he might gain them that were without the law ;" 
and, even in matters indifferent, " to become all things to 
all men, that he might by all means save some." Had 
the multitude possessed the supreme power in the church 
of Jerusalem, St. James and the elders would undoubtedly 
have called them together to hear St. Paul's declaration 
of the things which God had wrought among the Gen- 
tiles by his ministry, and not have left them to be drawn 
together by their own curiosity and zeal, when they should 
hear of his arrival. At any rate St. James and the eldeis 
could not have proposed, nor would St. Paul have agreed, 
to impose on the people by even an innocent deception, 
had those people in the church of Jerusalem been the first 
in authority ; for, in that case, it would have been the 
duty of the two apostles and elders to give a full and fair 
account of their own conduct to their superiors. 

It was certainly known to St. Paul and St. James, and 
probably to the elders, that from the moment when the 
veil of the temple was rent in twain, the ceremonies of the 
Mosaic law were no longer obligatory on the disciples of 
their master. This, however, it appears, was not known 
to the great body of Jewish Christians dwelling at Jeru 
salem, who still continued zealous for the law as well as 
for the faith, and strongly attached to the customs of their 
fathers. Were men labouring under prejudices so invete- 
rate, and in truth so inconsistent with the final object of 
the Gospel, fit to be entrusted wi th- sovereign power in the 

Hmo, and judir.o in Latin. That it is used in that sense by St. Luke is 
obvious, since the multitude could not know that to be false, which was 
undoubtedly true. ■> 1 Cor. ix. 20—28. 



G58 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



Christian church ; with authority to excommunicate un- 
worthy members, or even with the privilege of choosing 
their own teachers ? What should we think of the con- 
stitution of a great school, in which the sovereign power 
was committed to the scholars, with authority to expel 
every member whom they might deem unworthy, and 
even to dismiss the masters, and choose teachers for them- 
selves out of their own number ? Could such a school be 
reasonably expected to prove a seminary of learning, sci- 
ence, virtue, or truth ? Surely not ; and yet Dr. Mosheim 
supposes that the Christian church, founded by the Son 
of God himself for the purpose of training up mankind in 
the faith, piety, and virtue necessary to render them 
" meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in 
light," was thus constituted. That he is in an error, no 
man can doubt, who reflects that the doctrines to be taught 
in the church were, till the manifestation of Christ, un- 
known in the world, and such as human reason could 
never have discovered ; that of such doctrines half-con- 
verted Jews and Heathens were incompetent to judge ; 
that these doctrines were therefore revealed, not to every 
individual in the church, but to those who were " given 
for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the minis- 
try, for the edifying of the body of Christ ;" and that by 
those inspired teachers they were " committed only to 
faithful men, whom they (not the multitude at large) 
judged able to teach others also." How this was done, 
we shall endeavour to show, when we come to give a view 
of the rise, progress, constitution, and object of the Chris- 
tian church, from the infallible records of the New Testa- 
ment, illustrated, where they seem obscure, by primitive 
practice ; but, before we enter on that detail, it will be pro- 
per to analyse our author's account of the officers or min- 
isters of the church, and of their different privileges, about 
which he seems to have fallen into mistakes as great as 
those which led him to attribute the supreme authority in 
each church to the people. 

According to Dr. Mosheim, " the rulers of the church 
were called either presbyters or bishops, which two titles 
are, in the New Testament, undoubtedly applied to the 
game order of men, and such as had distinguished them- 
selves by their superior sanctity and merit. Their parti- 
cular functions were not always the same ; for, while 
<$ome of them confined their labours to the instruction of 
the people, others contributed in different ways to the edi- 
fication of the church. Among the first professors of 
Christianity, there were few men of learning ; few who 
had capacity enough to insinuate, into the minds of a 
gross and ignorant multitude, the knowledge of divine 
things. God, therefore, in his infinite wisdom, judged it 
necessary to raise up, in many churches, extraordinary 
teachers, who were to discourse, in the public assemblies, 
upon the various points of the Christian doctrine, and to 
treat with the people in the name of God, as guided by his 
direction, and clothed with his authority. Such were the 
prophets of the New Testament, an order of men which 
ceased, when the want of teachers, which gave rise to it, 
was abundantly supplied. 

" The church was undoubtedly provided from the be- 
ginning with inferior ministers or deacons. No society 
can be without its servants, and still less such societies as 
those of the first Christians were ; and it appears not only 
probable, but evident, that the young men, who carried 



away the dead bodies of Ananias and Sapphira, were the 
subordinate ministers or deacons of the church of Jerusa- 
lem, who attended the apostles to execute their orders. 
All the other Christian churches followed the example of 
that of Jerusalem, in whatever related to the choice and 
office of the deacons. Some, particularly the eastern 
churches, elected deaconesses, and chose, for that purpose, 
matrons or widows of eminent sanctity, who also minis- 
tered to the necessities of the poor, and performed several 
other offices, that tended to the maintenance of order and 
decency in the church. 

" Such was the constitution of the Christian church in 
its infancy, when its assemblies were neither numerous 
nor splendid. Three or four presbyters, men of remark- 
able piety and wisdom, ruled these small congregations in 
perfect harmony ; nor did they stand in need of any pre- 
sident or superior to maintain concord and order where no 
dissensions were known. But the number of presbyters 
and deacons increasing with that of the churches, and the 
sacred work of the ministry growing more painful and 
weighty, by a number of additional duties, these new 
circumstances required new regulations. It was then 
judged necessary that a man of distinguished gravity and 
wisdom should preside in the council of presbyters, in or- 
der to distribute among his colleagues their several tasks, 
and to be a centre of union to the whole society. This 
person was at first styled the angel of the church to which 
he belonged, but was afterwards distinguished by the name 
of bishop, or inspector ; a name borrowed from the Greek 
language, and expressing the principal part of the episco- 
pal function, which was to inspect and superintend the 
affairs of the church. It is highly probable, that the 
church of Jerusalem, grown considerably numerous, and 
deprived of the ministry of the apostles, who were gone 
to instruct the other nations, was the first which chose a 
president or bishop ; and it is no less probable, that the 
other churches followed by degrees such a respectable ex- 
ample. 

" A bishop, during the first and second centuries, was 
a person who had the care of one Christian assembly, 
which, at that time, was, generally speaking, small enough 
to be contained in a private house. In this assembly he 
acted, not so much with the authority of a master, as with 
the zeal and diligence of a faithful servant. He charged, 
indeed, the presbyters with the performance of those duties 
and services, which the multiplicity of his engagements 
rendered it impossible for him to fulfil ; but he had not the 
power to decide or enact any thing without the consent 
of the presbyters and people ; and, though the episcopal 
office was both laborious and singularly dangerous, yet 
its revenues were extremely small, since the church had 
no certain income, but depended on the gifts or oblations 
of the multitude, which were, no doubt, inconsiderable, 
and were, moreover, to be divided between the bishop, 
presbyters, deacons, and poor. 

" The power and jurisdiction of the bishops were not 
long confined to these narrow limits, but soon extended 
themselves, and that by the following means. The bi- 
shop? who lived in the cities, had, either by their own mi- 
nistry, or that of their presbyters, erected new churches in 
the neighbouring towns and villages. These churches, 
continuing under the inspection and ministry of the bi- 
shops, by whose labours and counsels they had been en- 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



659 



gaged to embrace the Gospel, grew imperceptibly into ec- 
clesiastical provinces, which the Greeks afterwards called 
dioceses. But, as the bishop of the city could not ex- 
tend his labours and inspection to all those churches in the 
country and in the villages, so he appointed certain suffra- 
gans or deputies to govern and to instruct these new soci- 
eties ; and they were distinguished by the title of Chore- 
piscopi, i. e. country bishops. This order held the middle 
rank between bishops and presbyters, being inferior to the 
former and superior to the latter." 1 

Such, according to our author, was the constitution of 
the Christian church during the first century and part of 
the second : for he affirms, b that the jurisdiction of a bishop 
extended not over more than one Christian assembly, and 
that the authority of the people continued supreme, until 
the middle of the second century, when the ancient pri- 
vileges of the people were considerably diminished, and 
the power and authority of the bishops greatly augment- 
ed, by councils, of which, he says, we find not the small- 
est trace before that period. It was not, he adds, till 
some time after the reign of Adrian, that the Christian doc- 
tors had the good fortune to persuade the people, that the 
ministers of the Christian church succeeded to the charac- 
ter, rights, and privileges of the Jewish priesthood. Then, 
indeed, the bishops began to consider themselves as invest- 
ed with a rank and character similar to those of the high- 
priest among the Jews, while the presbyters represented 
the priests, and the deacons the Levites. 

In support of this detail, the author appeals not to one 
ancient writer ; and the consequence is, that the greater 
part of it is in direct opposition to the unanimous testi- 
mony of all antiquity. He refers, indeed, to several texts 
in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles of St. Paul, 
as proofs of what, we believe, has never been controvert- 
ed — that the titles of bishop and presbyter are in the New 
Testament indifferently applied to the same order of men. 
He seems however to mistake when he supposes that the 
order, to which these titles were commonly applied, consist- 
ed of the rulers of the church ; for, though the apostles 
sometimes call themselves elders, the order to which that 
title as well as the title of bishop more properly belonged, 
was evidently subordinate to the apostles, as well as to the 
church rulers, whom he admits to have been known by 
the appellation of angels. 

That the bishops or elders of the New Testament were 
subordinate to the apostles, has never been controverted ; 
and that they were likewise subordinate to the angels of 
die churches, appears indisputable from the charges given 
by " him who hath the sharp sword with two edges, who 
hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet like 
ane brass," to the angels of the churches of Pergamos and 
Thyatira. d These angels are described as eminent for 
their " good works, charity, service, steadfastness in the 
faith, and patience ;" and yet they are both severely 
blamed, and the former threatened for suffering in their 
respective churches false teachers, whom, if they were 
;hemselves nothing more than such presidents of congre- 
gational presbyteries as Dr. Mosheim describes, it is obvi- 
ous that they could not remove from their churches. Ac- 
toramg to him, these presidents, afterwards called bishops, 
Tvert; chosen by the joint suffrages of the other presbyters 

"Cent. I. partii. chap. ii. sections 8, 9, 11, 12, 13. 
b Cent. II. part ii. chap. ii. sect. 1, 2, 3. 



and of the lay members of the congregation to which they 
respectively belonged ; when thus chosen, they acted in 
their respective congregations, not with the authority of 
masters, but with the zeal and diligence of faithful ser- 
vants ; they had not the power to decide or enact any 
thing without the consent of the presbyters and the peo- 
ple, who were in every church the first in authority ; and 
therefore the censure and threatening, for suffering false 
teachers in the churches of Pergamos and Thyatira. were 
on his principles due, not to the angels of those churches, 
but to the presbyters and people ! That the principles 
are erroneous which infer injustice in the Son of God, Dr. 
Mosheim would have been as ready as any man to con- 
fess ; and therefore we have not a doubt that, if, instead 
of paying undue deference to the opinions of some of his 
less candid countrymen, he had duly weighed in his own 
mind the import of what the Spirit said to the seven 
churches, he would have perceived that the angels must 
have been of an order superior to the presbyters properly 
so called ; and that they must have derived their superi- 
ority from some other source than the mere choice of the 
presbyters and people. 

To the truth of this inference it is no objection, that, in 
the New Testament, all officers in the church above the 
order of deacons are indiscriminately called sometimes 
bishops and sometimes presbyters. In the Old Testa- 
ment, the individuals of every order of priesthood, with 
the exception of the mere Levites, are generally styled 
priests without any distinction ; though every Jew and 
every Christian know, that the high-priest was of an or- 
der superior to the rest, and authorized to perform at least 
one ministration to which none of his inferiors were com- 
petent. 

Dr. Mosheim, indeed, seems to think, that there is no 
resemblance, and hardly any analogy between the Jewish 
priesthood and the Christian ministry ; but this is a mis- 
take so palpable, that a man of learning and integrity 
could not have fallen into it, but through the influence o, 
some deep-rooted prejudice. In the fifth chapter of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews there is an evident analogy point- 
ed out between the Jewish and Christian churches, and 
of course, between their respective ministers ; and the first 
epistle of St. Clement of Rome furnishes incontrovertible 
evidence, that long before the reign of Adrian — and even in 
the first century, — the bishops, presbyters, and deacons, 
were considered as invested with rank and characters 
similar to those of the high-priest, priests, and Levites 
among the Jews. That apostolical father, whose name, 
we are assured by St. Paul, was in the book of life, ex- 
postulating with the Corinthians, then in a state of schism 
among themselves, and of sedition against the governors 
of their church, thus reasons with. them. 

" Let us consider those who fight under our earthly 
governors ; how orderly, how readily, and with what ex- 
act obedience they perform those things which are com- 
manded them. AW are not generals, nor commanders of 
thousands, nor centurions, nor captains of fifties, and so 
on ; but every one doeth those things which are enjoined 
him by the king, and by those officers who have the com- 
mand over him. They who are great, cannot yet subsist 
without those that are little ; nor the Utile without the 



• Sect. 4. 

i Rev. chap. ii. 12—21. 



660 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



great. There is a certain mixture in all things, and in 
these there is fitness, x?" "'*- Let us take our own 
body : the head is nothing without the feet ; so neither 
are the feet of use without the head: even the smallest 
members of our body are necessary and useful to the 
whole body : all conspire together, and are adapted by 
one subordination* to the preservation of the whole. Let 
therefore our whole body be saved in Christ Jesus ; and 
let every one be subject to his neighbour according to the 
order in which he is placed by the grace given him. Let 
not the powerful despise the weak, and let the weak reve- 
rence the powerful. 

" Seeing then that these things are manifest unto us, 
even looking into the depths of the divine knowledge, we 
ought to do, in order, all things which the Lord hath com- 
manded us to do ; at stated times to perform our offerings 
and public services ; for he hath commanded them to be 
done not rashly and disorderly, but at predetermined times 
and hours. He hath determined also by his own supreme 
will, where and by whom he would have them to be cele- 
brated ; that so all things beings piously done, unto 
all well-pleasing, they may be acceptable to his will. 
They therefore who make their offerings at the appointed 
seasons, are accepted and happy ; for, following the insti- 
tuted laws (vtfUfMif) of the Lord, they do not go astray. 
For to the chief priest his proper services (AeiT«t/f y«'««) are 
committed ; and to the priests their proper place is ordain- 
ed ; and on the Levites their proper ministries (^i**ev/«i) 
are imposed ; and the layman is confined by the laws or- 
dained for laymen. " b 

It is impossible for an unprejudiced man to read these 
extracts with attention, and to entertain a doubt that St. 
Clement considered the bishops, priests, and Levites in the 
Christian church, as succeeding to the high-priest, priests, 
and Levites in the Jewish. Indeed, if he understood, as 
he appears to have done, the great scheme of human re- 
demption ; if he believed, as our church believes, that, in 
the Old as well as in the New Testament, " everlasting life 
is offered to mankind by Christ, who is the only mediator 
between God and man ;" if, with St. Paul and the inspir- 
ed author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, he considered 
Judaism as Christianity under a veil ; he must have con- 
sidered the Jewish and Christian churches as essentially 
the same, though the ministrations of the former were 
more carnal than those of the latter, on account of the 
grossness of the people. With this view of the stupen- 
dous plan of redemption, it seems impossible that he, or 
indeed any other man, could have considered the bishops, 
presbyters, and deacons of the church, as succeeding to 
any thing else than the rank and character of the high- 
priest, priests and Levites of the temple ; unless, indeed, 
there had been any text of Scripture plainly declaring, 
that the Jewish and Christian churches were wholly uncon- 
nected with each other, and that the former was not intend- 
ed to serve as a school-master to lead the descendants of 
Abraham to Christ. Such a text as this, however, none 
of the sons of latitude have yet pretended to discover. 

It seems likewise very strange that Dr. Mosheim should 
have supposed that, in the church of Jerusalem, there was 
no fixed president over the presbyters or elders, till the dis- 
persion of the apostles ; and that the jurisdiction of such 
presidents, who were then styled angels, and afterwards 



bishops, extended no farther, during the first and second 
centuries, than over one Christian assembly, which was 
generally small enough to be contained in a private house. 
It has been already observed that St. James is represent- 
ed, with the elders about him, as bishop of Jerusalem, when 
St. Paul returned to that city, and declared what things 
God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry. 
Indeed the part which, in the New Testament, James ap- 
pears to have acted from a very early period, cannot be 
accounted for on any other supposition, than that he really 
was, what the concurring testimony of all antiquity de- 
clares him to have been, the fixed bishop or angel of the 
church of Jerusalem. When St. Peter was miraculously 
delivered from prison, and had been received into the house 
of Mary the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, 
(Acts xii.) he said, " Go show these things to James and 
to the brethren." Why to James in particular ? and why 
were the brethren with James rather than with John, 
who had acted a more conspicuous part than he during 
the life of our Lord, as well as at the first preaching of the 
apostles after the shedding abroad of the Holy Ghost, and 
who had not at the period of St. Peter's deliverance, or for 
four years afterwards, left Jerusalem ? In the second 
chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians, St. Paul says, 
that " when Peter was come to Antioch, he withstood him 
to the face, because he was to be blamed. For before 
that certain came from James, he (Peter) did eat with the 
Gentiles ; but, when they were come, he withdrew, and 
separated himself, fearing them who were of the circum- 
cision." In the Acts of the Apostles we have no other 
account of persons from Judea teaching the Gentiles of 
Antioch, that, except they should be circumcised, they 
could not be saved, than that which is given in the fif- 
teenth chapter ; and it is indeed highly improbable, that, 
after the synodical decree at Jerusalem, St. Peter could 
have acted the part of which he was accused by St. Paul, 
or have attempted " to compel the Gentiles to live as 
do the Jews," contrary to the solemn decision of himself 
and the whole church under the immediate influence of 
the Holy Ghost. There is therefore no room for reason- 
able doubt that it was on the occasion mentioned in the 
fifteenth chapter of the Acts, and some time before the 
meeting of the council at Jerusalem, that this dissension 
took place between those great apostles. But. by St. Luke 
the certain men, who wished to impose circumcision and 
the other rites of the Mosaic law on the Gentile Christians 
at Antioch, are said only to have come from Judea ; 
whereas by St. Paul they are said to have come from 
James. Why are certain men, who came down from 
Judea, represented as having come from James, rather 
than from the other apostles and elders, of whom it is evi- 
dent, from the short history of the council, that there must 
have been many then residing in Jerusalem. 

If St. James was the proper bishop of Jerusalem, all 
these facts, which, upon any other supposition, cannot be 
accounted for, were perfectly natural ; for, to whom was 
it so expedient that St. Paul should give an account of 
" the things which God had wrought among the Gentiles 
by his ministry," as to the bishop and presbyters of the 
mother church of the Hebrews? To what individual of 
the church of Jerusalem should St. Peter have sent the 
earliest account of his miraculous deliverance from prison, 

b Chapters 37, 38 and 40. 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



661 



Kit to the bishop of that church ? If St. James had not 
been that bishop, is it conceivable that St. Peter would 
have sent such welcome intelligence to him, rather than 
to his more intimate friend and companion, St. John, who 
was the disciple peculiarly dear to their divine Master ? 
And could any thing be more natural than for St. Paul 
to say that certain brethren, who came to Antioch from 
the church of Judea, came from the governor of that 
church ? This accounts likewise for St. James's presiding 
in the council of apostles and elders, which was holden in 
Jerusalem, for determining the question aboutcircumcising 
the Gentiles ; for that he was president of that council is 
incontrovertible, if any credit be due to the testimony of 
antiquity, to the unanimous opinion of critics and com- 
mentators, (a few members of the modern church of Rome 
excepted.) or, indeed, to the obvious meaning of his words, 

Aio iya KOiva^ 6cc. 

But if James was bishop of the church of Jerusalem, 
and if the constitutions of all other churches were framed 
after that model, there is surely no reason to suppose that 
even in the first century, and still less in the second, the 
bishop or angel of any church had the care of only one 
Christian assembly. The episcopal care of James unques- 
tionably extended over many assemblies. By the preach- 
ing of St. Peter on the day of Pentecost, after the miracu- 
lous effusion of the Holy Ghost we are assured, a that to 
the number of the disciples " there were added about three 
thousand souls." It is indeed probable, that of these many 
were strangers, who, after the celebration of the feast, 
which had brought them to Jerusalem, departed from that 
city, and returned to their respective countries. It appears, 
however, that, soon afterwards, the number of believers 
resident in Jerusalem amounted to five thousand ; and, 
by the time that St. Paul returned to give an account to 
James and the elders, of what things God had done by 
his ministry among the Gentiles, even that number had 
greatly increased. b But ten or even five thousand men 
could not meet for public worship, for the breaking of bread 
and for prayers, in any private house, or any ten private 
houses, belonging to the Christians in Jerusalem ; and, 
therefore, as James appears to have had the episcopal care 
of them all, that care must have extended over many 
assemblies. 

That such was the nature of episcopal jurisdiction even 
in that age appears still more evident, if possible, from St. 
John's epistle, in the Apocalypse, to the seven churches in 
Asia. That epistle is addressed, not £t« Ukx^Uh t^v 
iy tji 'a <rt «, as it probably would have been, had it been 
intended for seven of a greater number of churches in Asia 

Minor, but t«i« fsrra: ly.KXijirlce.ti raws {Ix.KXrjTia.i^ tt tji 'As-fa. 

to the seven churches, the churches in Asia. Those 
seven, therefore, must have been the only societies in Asia 
Minor so organized as to be entitled to the appellation of 
churches, at the time when St. John wrote the Apoca- 
lypse. But is it conceivable that, in an age when " so 
mightily grew the word of God, and prevailed," the num- 
ber of believers, in a country so extensive, which had been 
visited by different apostles and apostolical men, should, 
in the year 96, have been so very small as to constitute 
only seven Christian congregations? Even if this could 
be conceived, the Christians in Asia Minor were too much 



* Acts ii. 41. ■ t The words of St James in die original 

Greek are, Oiwptij, dSsi.61, x6aai uvpiaSts haiv 'lovSaitiiv rav irmaTCVKdrw, &C. 

No. LVI. 166 



scattered over the face of the country, to repair, every one, 
for the purpose of public worship, to one or other of the 
small oratories of Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, 
Sardes, Philadelphia, and Laodicea. From the Acts of 
the Apostles, and the Epistles of St. Paul, we know that, 
long before the writing of the Apocalypse, there were 
believers in various provinces and towns of Asia Minor, 
and even regular churches in the province of Galatia and 
the city of Colosse ; but it seems evident, from the man- 
ner in which St. John expresses himself, that, before the 
year 96, " the candlesticks of Galatia and Colosse," to use 
the apostle's language, ''• had been removed out of their 
places." This indeed can excite no wonder, when we 
reflect that every where the churches were in that age 
beset by persecution without, and by heresies within : that 
the churches of the Galatians appear to have been ex- 
ceedingly corrupt, even when St. Paul wrote bis Epistle 
to them ; and that the city of Colosse was destroyed bj 
an earthquake during the reign of Nero, and, if evei 
rebuilt, certainly not when the Apocalypse was written. It 
is not however to be supposed that there were then no 
Christians in Galatia or the neighbourhood of Colosse, or 
that those Christians did not meet regularly in different 
congregations for " the breaking of bread and for prayers." 
The only inferences that can be drawn, are, that those 
assemblies did not constitute what St. John called churches, 
and that they, with their presbyters and deacons, were 
under the temporary inspection either of the apostle him- 
self or of some of the angels of the seven churches, of 
which he speaks as the only churches then in Asia. 

That the jurisdiction of Timothy and Titus extended 
over more than one Christian assembly at Ephesus and 
in Crete ; that by the apostle they were invested with 
authority over the presbyters as well as people of those 
assemblies ; and that to them an exclusive right was given 
to ordain elders or presbyters in every city under their 
jurisdiction ; are facts which no man has ventured to 
deny, and which no man can deny, who has read St. 
Paul's epistles to Timothy and Titus, and at the same time 
possesses common sense and honesty. Attempts have 
indeed been made to get rid of the inference from these 
facts, by representing the extensive authority with which 
Timothy and Titus were entrusted, as the authority, not 
of fixed governors of the churches over which they were 
to preside, but of Evangelists I This, however, cannot 
be admitted. We are not aware of a single instance in 
the New Testament, where an evangelist, as such, is 
represented as ordaining elders or even deacons ; and it is 
certain that Timothy and Titus neither acted nor could act 
as evangelists at Ephesus or in Crete, except in a sense 
which, under that denomination, includes elders. 

The word evangelist is unquestionably derived from 
the verb i vayye A<£», which, according to an able critic not 
prejudiced in behalf of a hierarchy, "relates to the first 
intimation that is given to a person or people, that is, when 
the subject may be properly called good news. Thus, in 
the Acts of the Apostles, it is frequently used for the first 
publication of the Gospel in a city or village, or amongst 
a particular people." But if this be essential to the radical 
import of the verb, of which indeed there can be no doubt, 
then it follows that an evangelist, Considered as a distinct 

You see, brother, how many myriads there are of Jews who believe. Slc 
" Dr. Campbell of Aberdeen. 



662 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



character, could only be one, whether apostle, elder, dea- 
con, or layman, who first carried the glad tidings of the 
Gospel to an individual or a people. Hence it is, that of the 
seven deacons not one is called an evangelist but Philip, 
because, though Stephen preached the Gospel as well and 
as ably as he, Philip is the only one of the number men- 
tioned by St. Luke as having carried the glad tidings of 
the Gospel beyond the limits of Judea, within which these 
tidings were first told by Christ and his apostles. Hence 
too it follows, that those, whom St. Paul says that Christ, 
after his ascension, " gave as evangelists for the work of 
the ministry," must have been men miraculously inspired 
with the knowledge of the Gospel, which cannot be said 
of Timothy or of Titus, and impelled by the same heavenly 
influence to communicate that knowledge to those to whom 
it was new. But in this sense Timothy and Titus 
could not be evangelists to the churches of Ephesus and 
Crete, because St. Paul himself had preached the Gospel 
in those churches before them, and had even ordained 
presbyters in the church of Ephesus. 

It has indeed been said that tuayyexl^o^cct is occasionally 
used in the same sense with iiiir»m. If we grant this 
for the sake of argument, though we are not aware of a 
single instance in which one of these verbs could be 
properly substituted for the other, still we must observe, 
that the character of an evangelist, in this sense of the 
word, could give to Timothy no superiority over the elders 
of Ephesus, who were teachers as well as he, and enjoined 
by the apostle to " feed the church of God, which he had 
purchased Avith his own blood." Timothy was indeed 
exhorted by St. Paul to " do the work of an evangelist" at 
Ephesus ; but the elders were in duty bound, as well as 
he. to do the work of evangelists ; for in Ephesus there 
were then many people who had not heard of the Gospel, 
which every minister of Christ is bound, as he has oppor- 
tunity, to propagate among the heathens as well as to 
preach among Christians. Timothy was likewise ex- 
horted, in the very same verse, to "accomplish his deacon- 
ship" — Tyv SixKivixv a-ov ?r?i>igo<pop*i<rov • but it would surely 
be absurd to in fer from such an exhortation that the over- 
seer of the presbyters and people of Ephesus was himself 
nothing more than a deacon. 

If it be thus evident that the bishops known in the first 
century by the titles of apostles or angels of the churches 
presided each over more than one Christian assembly, we 
need not pursue the argument through the second and 
third centuries, since it is on all hands agreed, that the 
powers of the bishops were not diminished as the bounda- 
ries of the church were enlarged. This would have been 
extremely absurd ; though we see no evidence that, during 
the second and third centuries, the bishops in general either 
claimed or had the smallest inducement to claim any power 
or pre-eminence which they possessed not in the first. 
What the hierarchy was in the beginning of the second 
century is apparent from the epistles of Ignatius, and from 
the fragments of other primitive writers preserved by 
Eusebius, whilst the canons commonly called apostolical, 
with the writings of St. Cyprian and other fathers of the 
church, define the powers and privileges of each of the 



* Tat £1/ to!J koj/<oi{, Ji rat; ^wpaif, ij raj (raXajutVat ^Ci>p£7ri<r/«5;rsf, h Kal 
%etpo9calav iitv cttktkuttojv ItXqtpoTZi, cSo^c rfj ayia <jvv66o> cl.6i.vai ra cavrcov 
fiirpa, Kal 6iotKitv rot vitoKct/iivas airots cKK^riaias, Kal rfj tbtuv dpKiwOai dinov- 
-rl6i Kai KTjSejiOvia, KaBiarav 6s dvayvuitrras, Kal vno6iaK6vuq y Kal IrropKiaTas, Kal 
tj rirtiiv dpKiwOat 7rpoaywyj, pt'irt 6e TiptafivTtpov, pf/rc iiaxovov %tipoTOvuii 



three orders in the third century in terms which cannot be 
mistaken. From these canons and writings it appears 
evident, that no bishop in that century, with the exception 
perhaps of Victor and Stephen, bishops of Rome, arrogated 
to himself any authority which was not committed to the 
angels of the Asiatic churches, and which Timothy and 
Titus were not enjoined to exercise in the churches of 
Ephesus and Crete. 

The only thing else, in Dr. Mosheim's view of the 
constitution of the primitive church, which calls for ani- 
madversion, is the account which he gives of the origin of 
chorepiscopi, and of deacons in the church of Jerusalem, 
before the ordination of the seven recorded in the sixth 
chapter of the Acts of the Apostles. 

There is no evidence of chorepiscopi being any where 
established in the first or second century, or in the begin- 
ning of the third. They are not mentioned in the apos- 
tolical canons, nor in the writings of Clement of Rome, 
Ignatius of Antioch, or even St. Cyprian. The first 
council that takes any notice of them is that of Ancyra, 
holden in 315, which prohibits them from ordaining 
priests and deacons. They are mentioned by the great 
council of Nice, which provides the place of a village-bishop 
or chorepiscopus for such of the No vatian bishops as should 
abjure their schism, and be reconciled to the catholic 
church. But the fullest, as well as the most accurate and at 
the same time concise account, that is perhaps any where 
extant of the chorepiscopi, is in the tenth canon of the 
Synod of Antioch, holden in the year 341, which decrees, 

" That village-bishops, though they have received epis- 
copal ordination, shall yet keep within their bounds, and 
administer the affairs of the churches subject to them, and 
be content with the management of them, and ordain 
readers, and sub-deacons, and exorcists, and content 
themselves with the power of promoting men to these 
offices, and not dare to ordain a priest or deacon, without 
the consent of the bishop of the city to which they them- 
selves and their districts are subject; and, if any one dare 
to transgress, what has now been determined, he shall be 
deprived of the honour which he has. A village-bishop 
is made by the bishop of the city to which he is subject." 1 

From this canon it is evident that the chorepiscopi 
were bishops regularly ordained ; that they were chosen 
or nominated by the city-bishop, or diocesan, to take upon 
them part of his labour, and were in all things to be direct- 
ed by him, when their duty was not expressly pointed 
out by any canon. They seem to have been introduced 
into the church toward the end of the third century, when 
the extent of some dioceses, the poverty of the bishops, 
and the occasional severity of persecution, rendered it 
difficult, if not impossible, for the diocesan to perform, as 
often as was proper, the various duties of his function ; 
but those village-bishops appear to have sometimes acted 
very irregularly, by multiplying without reason the num- 
ber of the inferior clergy, b and therefore were soon laid 
aside. They were indeed retained for some time after the 
danger of persecution was over, and when the revenues of 
the city-bishop enabled him, without inconvenience, to visit 
every church under his jurisdiction ; but, in 367, it was 

ToXjiiiv, 6i%a Tti ^ v T y 7T0 ^ ,El lirt&KSjTBj-Tl VTrdKCivrai dvrds ri Kai rj %a)pa. Ki 61 
To'Sjirjactsit tis Trapaflrjvai ra bpiaQivra^ KadatpsaOai avrov, rjs usrc^ei Tigris* 
XwpcmcKOTTov 61 ytvecrdai vtto rv rrjs iro)<eu)S, n imoKttrai, cTti<jKOTT$. 

h See the Canons of St. Basil, bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, 
canon 90. 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



66* 



decreed by the council of Laodicea, that no more village- 
bishops or chorepiscopi should be ordained. 

Though we see no evidence whatever that the young j 
men, who carried away the dead bodies of Ananias and 
Sapphira, were such ministers of the church of Jerusalem, 
as Stephen and Philip and the other five, who were ordain- 
ed at the same time with them by the apostles ; yet we 
readily admit that the words vearepoi and vectvl<rxot may sig- 
nify the inferior ministers of the church, as well as the word 
vpso-fiuTepof signifies those of a higher order: we even read- 
ily adopt Dr. Mosheim's opinion, that the words f*.i'£, av and 
vf<aTE/3o5 (St. Luke xxii. 26.) teurspai and Tpec-fivTepots (1 
Peter v. 5.) relate to offices and not to age, and thatnarepoi 
may, in both these texts, mean those ministers of the 
church, who from the beginning have been known by the 
designation of deacons: but it does not therefore follow 
that the young men, who carried out the dead bodies of 
Ananias and Sapphira, were likewise deacons in the eccle- 
siastical sense of the word. 

Among the Jews, every person who touched a dead 
body was hereby rendered unclean ; and it is not very 
probable that St. Peter would wantonly give offence to 
that people, by ordering the ministers of the religion 
which it was his duty to preach, but against which he 
knew them to entertain the most inveterate prejudices, to 
render themselves unclean by doing what the door-keepers 
could have done as well as they. The young men who 
were employed to carry away the dead bodies, may indeed 
have been dixxotot in the sense of menial servants of the in- 
fant church ; but, in the Acts of the Apostles, there is not 
the slightest allusion to ordained deacons until we come 
to the sixth chapter, which gives so full an account of the 
ordination of the seven. Accordingly an ancient com- 
mentator, whose testimony, respecting a matter of fact, is 
surely entitled to greater credit than the mere conjecture 
of the most learned modern, says expressly, when speak- 
ing of the conversion and baptism of Cornelius the centu- 
rion, — Adhuc enim prceter septem diaconos nullus fuit 
ordinatus,"- 

The difficulty in ascertaining the original constitution 
of the church is indeed greater than he can easily con- 
ceive, who has not attended to the power of prejudice. 
The controversies on the subject have been so acrimoni- 
ous, and the tendency to confound Christianity with a 
mere system of what is called natural religion, is in the 
present age so very prevalent, that few men have brought, 
to the inquiry, minds so completely divested of preposses- 
sion, as to be capable of judging impartially. The truth 
may be detailed in the Scriptures with sufficient clearness ; 
but we all study those writings under a bias, more or less 
powerful, in favour of the party to which we belong; 
and that bias, especially if we have ourselves been engag- 
ed in controversy, is very apt to prevent us from seeing 
what is written even as with a sun-beam. We may be 
ambitious of making discoveries in theology, and of be- 
coming the founders of new sects ; and such ambition 
must necessarily impel us to differ as much as possible 
from the luminaries of antiquity, that we may display the 
vigour of our own minds, and our superiority to what we 
are pleased to call prejudice : or we may be so attached to 
antiquity as to consider every practice and every rite of the 
primitive church, as of perpetual obligation, not distin- 

• Hilar, in Eph. cap. iv. 



guishing between what was deemed essential, and what 
was even then considered as only expedient, in conse- 
quence of the circumstances in which the church was 
placed. 

To avoid as much as possible the errors which flow from 
these sources, it will be proper to trace the progress of the 
Gospel from the first preaching of John the Baptist, to the 
completion of the canon of the New Testament ascertain- 
ing, as we proceed, the import of the principle doctrines 
preached, as well as the offices and authority of the several 
preachers ; and pointing out at the same time the privi- 
leges of the people. As all parties appeal to Scripture in 
support of their own opinions and systems, it would be 
fortunate if men could agree on some rule, by w 7 hich 
Scripture, where it appears obscure, should be interpreted: 
and the constitution of the church being a matter of fact 
obvious to all mankind, it seems not difficult to find the 
rule, by which whatever relates to it may be interpreted 
with little danger of mistake. If the principles of the per- 
sons, to whom the writings which compose the New Tes- 
tament were immediately addressed, can be ascertained, 
it will be easy, in cases of any importance, to discover 
how those writings should themselves be understood ; and 
with respect to matters of fact, there can be no doubt, 
that they who conversed with the apostles, perfectly un- 
derstood their meaning. Indeed, as long as the pastors of 
the Christian church had no worldly ambition to gratify, 
by bringing themselves into public notice ; as long as 
pre-eminence among them led not to opulence and power, 
but to poverty, persecution and death, it would be in the 
highest degree unreasonable to question their veracity, 
when they are giving an account of the constitution of 
the church, as established by the apostles. Their testimo- 
ny therefore may be safely employed, not as of authority 
in itself, but as an authentic commentary on what is 
taught on that subject in the sacred pages; and as such 
only do we mean to appeal to it. 

That the church, whatever be its constitution, is some- 
thing of great importance, is unquestionable, since it was 
deemed worthy of being alluded to, even by the forerun- 
ner of our Lord. The very first words on record, of the 
venerable Baptist's preaching, are, "repent ye, for the 
kingdom of Heaven is at hand ;" by which was un- 
doubtedly meant the kingdom of the Messiah, or the 
church of Christ, soon to be established instead of the 
Jewish polity and temple. He goes on, to say, " that 
every valley should be filled, and every mountain and 
hill be made low ; that the crooked should be made 
straight, and the rough ways smooth; and that all flesh 
should see the salvation of God ;" and soon afterwards, 
when he saw Jesus coming unto him, he said to the 
multitude, " Behold the lamb of God, which taketh away 
the sin of the world." 

Our blessed Lord began his own preaching with the 
very same words — " Repent, for the kingdom of Heaven 
is at hand;" or, as St. Mark expresses it, "Jesus came into 
Galilee, preaching the Gospel of the kingdom of God, 
and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of 
God is at hand : repent ye, and believe the Gospel." Ac- 
cording to St. Luke, " When Jesus returned, in the power 
of the Spirit, into Galilee, from -the scene of his tempta- 
tion, he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought 
up ; and, as his custom was, he went into the Synagogue 



664 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



on the Sabbath-day, and stood up to read. And there 
was ' delivered to him the book of the prophet Esaias ; 
and, when he had opened the book, he found the place 
where it is written, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, be- 
cause he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the 
poor, he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to 
preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight 
to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised ; to 
preach the acceptable year of the Lord ;" and this passage 
of the prophet, he applied to himself. 

No christian can be ignorant, that, in this first preach- 
ing of our Lord and his faithful forerunner, there is at 
least one very important truth, which was wholly un- 
known to the Gentiles, and very little understood by the 
generality of the Jews. It is contained in these words of 
the Baptist— "Heboid the Lamb of God which taketh 
away the sin, (tsjv apxpriav) not the sins, of the world." 
What is the sin of the world ? Evidently the transgres- 
sion of our first parents, which brought death and many 
other miseries on themselves, and all their posterity ; and 
to take away these consequences of that sin, was the pur- 
pose for which a redeemer was first promised to the fallen 
pair, from which the " Word, which was in the beginning 
with God, and was God," condescended to take upon him 
human nature, and, with the patience of a lamb led to 
the slaughter, to die on a cross. Controversies have been 
agitated in the church from a very early period, concern- 
ing the nature of that death, which was brought upon 
the human race by the fall of our first parents. This is 
not a proper place for discussing such topics ; but, what- 
ever more may be included in the signification of the 
words fllDi"! D)f2, it is evident from the whole scope of 
the Christian revelation, that the death incurred by the first 
transgression was absolute, without any reason to hope 
for a resurrection from the dead, but through the interpo- 
sition of that seed of the woman, which was to bruise the 
head of the serpent. 

Our Saviour says expressly—" I am the resurrection 
and the life : he that believeth in me, though he were 
dead, yet shall live ; and whosoever liveth, and believeth 
in me, shall never die :" and, in another place, he says, 
" I am he that liveth and was dead : and behold, I am 
alive for evermore ; and have the keys of hell (hades) and 
death." In perfect conformity with this, St. Paul taught 
the Corinthians, and, through them, the whole Christian 
world, that " Christ is risen from the dead, and become 
the first fruits of them that slept ; for, since by man came 
death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead : 
and. as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made 
alive." That these salutary truths were not wholly 
unknown to the ancient prophets, and such other Israelites 
as could look through the shadows of the law to the sub- 
stance of the Gospel, is indisputable : but that they were 
not fully comprehended by any Jew, in the days of our 
SavioUfe sojourning on earth, is evident from a variety 
of passages in the New Testament, as well as from the 
unquestionable fact, that the Sadducees, " who said that 
there is no resurrection, neither angel nor spirit," were 
not only in communion with the other Jews, but capable 
even of executing the office of high-priest. The people 

• That such is the meaning of the word blind, in this passage of St. 
Luke's gospel, appears unquestionable, when it is compared with other 
parts of Scripture, more especially with St. John, chap. x. 16, and 
Rom. ii. 17, 21. 



therefore were not prepared, at our blessed Lord's first 
appearance, to receive these truths in all their lustre ; 
but, as it would have been improper — and too like the 
common practice of impostors — to conceal entirely the 
great object of his mission even for a moment, he pro- 
claimed in the words of the prophet Isaiah, that he was 
sent to preach the Gospel to the poor, and ' deliverance 
to the captives,' and to ' set at liberty them that were 
bruised,' which can mean nothing but deliverance from 
the curse of death, brought on mankind when the serpent 
bruised Adam's heel. 

As these truths are wholly discovered by revelation, 
they could not be left to make their way in the world, 
like the dogmas of philosophy, by the discussions of human 
reason ; for, by the philosophers of that age, a resurrection 
from the dead was deemed impossible. Accordingly both 
our Lord and his forerunner declared that a kingdom 
was at hand — even the kingdom of heaven or of God, in 
which all obstacles to their reception were to be taken 
away ; which should comprehend the Gentiles here called 
the blind," and in which " all flesh should see the sal- 
vation of God." That by the kingdom of Heaven was 
meant the church of Christ, will be seen more clearly in 
the sequel. At present it is sufficient to observe that, 
though at hand, it was not yet come. 

Our Saviour, however, began to lay the foundation of 
it immediately after his baptism, by preaching the Gospel, 
by inviting all the Jews to become his disciples, and by 
working miracles to prove the truth of his mission. By 
these means he attracted many disciples, whom he bap- 
tized, not, as John had done, in the name of " one to 
come after him," b but probably in general terms unto faith 
in the Messiah, declaring that without his baptism no 
man should enter into the kingdom of God c or the 
church. Of these disciples, after continuing all night in 
prayer to God, " he chose twelve, that they should be 
with him, and that he might send them forth to preach, 
whom he named apostles ;" 11 and some time afterwards 
" he appointed other seventy also, and sent them two and 
two before his face into every city and place whither he 
himself would come." e That the seventy were subordi- 
nate to the twelve, and that they were all subject to their 
divine Master, is evident from every passage in the Gos- 
pels, in which any mention is made of these two orders 
of ministers ; and in this arrangement for laying the 
foundation of the Christian church, there is a striking 
resemblance to the means employed for conducting the 
Israelites to the land of promise. 

The Israelites -were delivered from Egyptian slavery 
by Moses the servant of God ; the members of the 
Christian church, who walk worthy of the vocation where- 
with they are called, are delivered from slavery infinitely 
more intolerable by Jesus Christ the Son of God. The 
twelve tribes of Israel wt. ^cted under Moses through 

the wilderness, by twelve officers, the heads of their re- 
spective tribes ; and, on the foundation of the Christian 
church, Christ appointed twelve apostles, who, when he 
should sit on the throne of his " Glory, should also sit on 
twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel." 
And to complete the analogy, as the Lord commanded 

b Acts xix. 4. 

e John iii. 5. 

a St. Luke vi. 12, 13. 

e St. Luke x. 1. 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



665 



Moses to gather unto him seventy men of the elders of 
Israel, who, partaking of the spirit that was upon him, 
should bear the burthen of the people with him ; a so 
Christ appointed the like number of disciples to go before 
his face to every place, whither he himself should come. 

An analogy so striking could not escape the observation 
of the apostles, after their divine Master had " opened 
iheir understandings, that they might understand the 
Scriptures," 11 and perceive the close connexion between 
the Mosaic and Christian dispensations. But, if the ana- 
logy between what may be called the civil polity of the 
Israelites in the wilderness, and the subordination establish- 
ed amonp* our Lord's immediate followers, be thus evident, 
the analogy between the polity of the Jewish church and 
the same subordination is surely not less evident. 

In what relates to religion, the disciples could not but 
perceive that the station of Jesus himself resembled that 
of the high-priest ; that the twelve held a place in the 
little flock similar to that of the priests among the Jews ; 
and that the seventy answered to the Levites in the temple 
service. The twelve were sent out to preach the Gospel 
to all the Jews ; to baptize the converts to the Christian 
faith : and, a little before the death of their Master, they 
were authorised to administer the rite commemorative of 
his sacrifice on the cross. To the seventy no other com- 
mission was given than to go before the face of Christ, 
and prepare the people for his reception, as K the Levites 
were given to Aaron and his sons, to wait upon the ser- 
vice of the tabernacle of the congregation." 11 But neither 
the twelve nor the seventy had yet power to admit a 
single labourer into the vineyard, or to cast an individual 
out of the flock. 

The church indeed was not yet built, e though its foun- 
dation was laid, and a model exhibited for its future 
superstructure. As it is the purchase of Christ's blood, 
who gave himself for it, f the building could not be com- 
pleted till after his resurrection from the dead, and his 
ascension into heaven ; and therefore the apostles were 
from the beginning intended to be the builders/ as soon 
as they should, for that purpose, be endowed with power 
from on high. It has accordingly been justly observed 
by an eminent prelate of the church of England, 11 that 
they were gradually raised to their high office in a man- 
ner strikingly analogous to that in which their blessed 
Master was raised to his ; and that hardly any power is 
said to have belonged to him, which he did not delegate 
to them, when he commissioned them to complete the work 
which he had begun. 

Although he was anointed, from his first appearance 
in this world, to be a king, priest, and prophet, he did not 
actually enter on any of those offices, until the Holy Ghost, 
descending visibly from heaven, had anointed him to them 
a. second time. In like manner, though at an early period 
of his ministry he had separated the twelve from the 
multitude of believers, and promised even then that they 
" should sit on twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes 
of Israel," and that " whatsoever they should bind on 
earth should be bound in heaven, and whatsoever they 
should loose on earth should be loosed in heaven ;" they 



* Numbers xi. 16. 

c St. John iv. 1, 2. 

•St. Matth. xvi. 18, 19. ■ 

« 1 Cor. iii. 10, 11. 

i St. John xx. 21, 22,23. 

No. LYI. 



i>St. Luke xxiv. 45. 

J Numbers iii. 9. viii. 24. 

fGal. v. 25. 

h Archbishop Potter. 

* St. Matth. x. 5, 6. 

167 



did not actually receive this high commission, till after the 
resurrection of their divine Master, when he appeared to 
them saying, — " Peace be unto you ; as my Father hath 
sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said 
this, he breathed on them, saying — Receive ye the Holy 
Ghost ; whose-soever sins ye remit, they are remitted 
unto them ; and whose-soever sins ye retain, they are 
retained."- 

Whilst our blessed Lord sojourned on earth, he was the 
king of the Jews only, and, as such, when he sent forth 
the twelve to preach, he said, " Go not into the way of 
the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter 
ye not ; but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of 
Israel. " k After his resurrection from the dead, as the limits 
of his kingdom were extended, he extended likewise the 
commission of his apostles ; for he said unto them, " All 
power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye 
therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the 
name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy 
Ghost ; teaching them to observe all things whatsoever 
I have commanded you : and lo, I am with you alway, 
even unto the end of the world."' They were not how- 
ever to enter on this great office of converting the nations, 
and opening to them the kingdom of heaven, until they 
should receive the promise of the Father, which they had 
heard from him ; for, added he, " John truly baptized 
with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost 
not many days hence :" m alluding undoubtedly to his 
own baptism, when the Holy Ghost visibly descended on 
himself, as he did on them at the ensuing festival of 
Pentecost. 

Thus striking is the analogy between the manner in 
which the man Christ Jesus was raised to his high office, 
and that in which he raised the apostles to theirs ; and 
thus ample was the authority which he conferred on those 
master-builders of his church. As the promise of the 
keys of the kingdom was first made to St. Peter, he had 
the honour to make the first converts both among the 
Jews and the Gentiles. It was in consequence of his 
preaching on the day of Pentecost, that three thousand 
souls were added to the number of the disciples ; and 
then we read for the first time of a church as actually 
built. Immediately after the effects of that preaching it 
is said that " the Lord added to the church daily such as 
should be saved.'"" St. Peter was likewise employed to 
open the door of the kingdom of Heaven, or the church, 
to the Gentiles/ who, being "aliens to the commonwealth 
of Israel, and strangers to the covenant of promise," had 
hitherto been shut out from it ; and this personal distinc- 
tion — the reward of his heroic zeal in confessing his 
master — is the only foundation on which the supremacy 
of his successors in the see of Rome is endeavoured to be 
built, although it is obviously a distinction in which he 
could have no successor, being indeed temporary, and 
consisting in two single acts.p 

Of these acts one was performed in Jerusalem, and in 
that city was the first Christian church gradually organ- 
ized ; but it was not placed under the government of St. 
Peter, nor was it governed by the apostles in common. 

i St. Matth. xxviii. 18, &c. m Acts i. 4, 5. 

"Acts ii. 14, &c. • Acts x. 

p This has been proved by bishop Horsley, in one of his published 
sermons, with a force of reasoning that admits no reply. Sec his Ser- 
mons. 



666 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



We have already seen that he who presided over the 
church of Jerusalem, even before the dispersion of the 
apostles, was James, called the Lord's brother ; that under 
him was a college of elders (we know not how many,) 
and subordinate to them were the seven deacons. When 
it is said that the church of Jerusalem was not governed 
by the apostles in common, nothing more is meant than 
that James was its immediate governor, or stood in a 
relation to the elders, deacons and people of that church, 
in which the other apostles did not stand ; and of this 
fact no man can doubt who has read without prejudice 
the Acts of the Apostles. That James was ready to be 
guided by the judgment of the apostles ; that he consulted 
them, as long as he had an opportunity, in all the trials 
to which he must have been subjected ; and that he 
occasionally enforced his own admonitions by the weight 
of their authority, is readily granted ; but he never appears 
in the Acts, or is mentioned in the epistles of St. Paul, 
but as the chief governor of the church of Jerusalem, of 
which he is called by the unanimous voice of antiquity 
the first bishop. 

Here then is one church, of which the constitution 
was unquestionably not democratical ; and all the other 
churches that we read of in the New Testament appear 
to have been constituted on the same model with the 
:hurch of Jerusalem. The apostles, in the discharge of 
the duties of their high commission, not only preached 
the Gospel every where, but also " ordained presbyters or 
elders in every church ;" a and in the churches of Ephesus 
and Philippi, 1 ' and doubtless in all the rest, they appear 
to have ordained deacons as well as presbyters. It has 
indeed been contended that the deacons were merely 
trustees for the poor in matters purely secular, and there- 
fore no order of those who have long been known in 
every church by the denomination of the clergy ; but 
the solemnity with which the first deacons were ordained 
by prayer and imposition of hands, the qualifications 
required of those who were to be ordained deacons in the 
church of Ephesus, and the universal practice of the 
primitive church, prove this to be a palpable mistake. 
To distribute the public charity has indeed been one part 
of the deacon's office in all ages, and in every church 
where a legal establishment was not made for the support 
of the poor ; and it was that part of the office which gave 
rise to the order at the particular time at which it was 
instituted ; but that the office included something more — ■ 
and that the seven were, in the language of antiquity, 
Sixkovoi Myov — ministers of the word, as well as Staxovot 
TpxTre^av — ministers of the tables, — is evident from every 
thing that we read of deacons in the New Testament. 

It has been already observed that in the churches of 
Ephesus, Crete, and Asia Minor, as well as in the church 
of Jerusalem, there were officers of a higher order than 
the presbyters ; and to these officers alone belonged the 
right to ordain the presbyters and deacons ; to exhort 
them to the due discharge of their respective duties ; to 
reprove them for their faults, and by consequence to degrade 
them from their offices when no longer worthy of them. 
If Timothy and Titus had not been invested with all | 
this authority, the admonitions of St. Paul to them would 
surely have been different from what we find them in his 

* Acts xiv. 23. *> 1 Philip, i. 1 ; and 1 Tim. iii. 8. 

• See the Epistles to Timothy and Titus passim. 



three epistles. Timothy is particularly instructed in the 
qualifications requisite for presbyters and deacons ; cau- 
tioned against laying hands suddenly on any man, lest 
he should be partaker of other mens sins ; and directed 
how to receive accusations against presbyters ; but, if the 
supreme power in the church of Ephesus had been vested 
in the people, or if the presbyters had shared equally with 
Timothy authority to ordain and reprove each other, such 
instructions as these to any individual would have been 
palpably absurd. It would likewise have been absurd to 
appoint Titus to ordain presbyters in every city of Crete, 
and after the first and second admonition to reject heretics ; 
for, if it had belonged to the office of a presbyter to ordain, 
and finally to judge of heresies, the presbyter first ordained 
by him, might, ex officio, and with the aid of the people, 
have either supported or resisted him in the discharge of 
these duties. 

The governors of churches, to whom the presbyters 
as well as people were thus subject, appear, as Dr. Mosbeim 
acknowledges, to have been generally called, during the 
first centuiy, the angels or apostles of their respective 
churches. Such a governor certainly was Epaphroditus, 
styled by St. Paul his " brother, and companion in labour, 
and fellow-soldier; but the apostle of the church of Phi- 
lippi," and therefore to be "holden by the Philippians in 
reputation. " d Such likewise were Sosthenes and Sylva- 
nus, whom he so frequently associates with himself as 
his partners, fellow-helpers and brethren ; and such were 
those brethren whom he calls a7ra<rroXoi Ux.Xr.atZi, S'oty 
XpttrroZ — "apostles of the churches, the glory of Christ."* 

Doubtless there were presbyters ordained in some places, 
where no men were sufficiently qualified for the govern- ■ 
ment of the infant church ; and the care of such churches 
was retained by the apostle by whom they were founded, 
until some persons could be found to whom the immediate 
inspection both of the presbyters and the people might be 
safely entrusted. Hence it is that St. Paul, when enu- 
merating his labours and sufferings for the promotion of 
the Gospel, expressly mentions, as one of those labours 
which came upon him daily — " the care of all the churches 
which he had planted." It is however evident that each 
church was, as soon as possible, placed under the super- 
intendance of an apostle or angel of its own, that the 
twelve, with St. Paul and Barnabas, might be as little as 
possible interrupted in their glorious career of converting 
all nations ; but it does not appear that in the appointment 
of these angels or secondary apostles, or indeed of the 
presbyters, the people were, in the first century, so much 
as consulted. Paul and Barnabas ordained elders or 
presbyters in every church which they planted ; but St. 
Paul himself assures us that the presbyters so ordained in 
the church of Ephesus, " were made overseers of the flock 
(not by the people but) by the Holy Ghost, to feed the 
church of God, which he hath purchased with his own 
blood." f He likewise informs us that God, and not the 
people, had set, in the church, governments and governors 
of different orders, of which the apostles were the first ;s 
that there were in the church of Thessalonica those who, 
as the people were exhorted to know them, as well as 
esteem them very highly for their work's sake, could not 
have been appointed by those people themselves to "labour 



<* Philip, ii. 25, 29. 
i Acts xx. 28. 



• 2 Cor. viii. 23. 

'1 Cor. xii. 28, and Eph. iv. 11, 12. 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



667 



among them, and be over them in the Lord,"* and that 
in all churches there are overseers, whom the people are 
bound to '''obey as those who have the rule over them, 
and to submit themselves as to those who watch for their 
souls."" 

Who those rulers were, it is not difficult to discover. 
We have seen that, in every completely organized church 
mentioned in the New Testament, there were three orders 
of men, who, each in his station, laboured in the word 
and doctrine. Of these the lowest order was that of dea- 
cons, who appear, from the conduct of Stephen and Philip, 
to have preached and occasionally administered the sacra- 
ment of baptism. Superior to the deacons was the order 
of presbyters, often called bishops, whose duty it was to 
feed the flock of Christ, by preaching the word, and 
administering both the sacraments ; and over both these 
orders we find a president, who is generally called in the 
New Testament the angel or apostle of the particular 
church over which he presided ; whose pastoral care 
extended over more than one congregation ; to whom 
alone belonged the privilege of ordaining presbyters and 
deacons ; who was himself always ordained by apostolic 
hands ; and who alone could finally cut off unworthy 
Christians from the communion of the church. 

It has been often said that the apostles neither had nor 
could have successors, and that therefore the elders, whom 
all admit to be often called bishops in the New Testament, 
are the highest order of ministers intended to continue in 
the church of Christ. This, however, is said, not only 
without authority, but in direct contradiction to the plain- 
est testimony of Scripture, and the consequent practice of 
all antiquity. It was to the apostles alone, and not to the 
multitude of believers, or even to the seventy, that our 
blessed Lord said, " Go ye and teach all nations." It was 
to them alone that he gave the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven, saying, "whatsoever ye shall bind on earth, shall 
be bound in heaven : and whatsoever ye shah, loose on 
earth, shall be loosed in heaven :" and the apostles alone 
were sent by him, as his Father had sent him, with 
authority to govern that kingdom which he had purchased 
with his own blood. As he knew all things, he was fully 
aware that the apostles were mortal, and that, in fact, none 
of them would long survive the approaching destruction 
of Jerusalem. It could not therefore be with themselves 
personally, but with their successors in office from age to 
age, that he was to be always even to the end of the world. 
The church, which he every where calls his kingdom, 
and which he declared to Pilate was not to be of this world, 
was founded by himself, and built by his apostles acting 
under his authority ; and its privileges whatever they may 
be, are derived wholly from him. No man could be 
admitted into the church, or cast out of it, but by the 
authority which he conferred on the apostles for these pur- 
poses ; and therefore, if they were to have no successors, 
the church must have been swept from the face of the 
earth, almost as soon as that ritual service, which was 
established among the Jews, merely as preparatory to it. 
After the death of St. John, no man could either have 
been received into the church, or cast out of it ; and the 
church itself must have perished with that generation. 
Yet Christ himself solemnly promised, that ' : against the 
church to be built on the faith confessed by St. Peter, the 

• 1 Thess. v. 12, 13. 



gates of hell — irliai SiSav — the gates of death, or of the 
receptacle of the dead — should never prevail ;" for he 
well knew, that the perpetuity of the church is necessary 
to the perpetuity of the faith. 

There are indeed men of some learning, who seem to 
think otherwise ; who profess great regard for the doctrines 
and morality of the Gospel ; but who raise hideous out- 
J cries against every claim to any other authority in the 
church of Christ, than what is exercised in literary clubs, 
or philosophical societies. But what must have been the 
consequence to the faith, if, on the death of the apostles 
and other inspired preachers of the Gospel, all ecclesiastical 
authority had ceased, or devolved on the multitude at 
large? With the Old and New Testaments in their 
hands, could the rabble have maintained the purity of the 
faith ? Could they have discovered, even from those 
writings, the consequences of the first transgression ; the 
necessity of a redeemer to fallen man ; or the nature and 
extent of the redemption wrought for him ? Could they 
have discovered the necessity of divine aid to enable us to 
work out our own salvation with fear and trembling, or 
have guarded that doctrine, supposing it discovered, from 
the opposite and dangerous extremes, to which it is too often 
carried even by learned ministers of the church? Could 
such men have preserved in purity the doctrine of one God 
in three persons ; or would they not rather have immedi- 
ately relapsed into the polytheism and idolatry, with which, 
as they had themselves but lately emerged from it, they 
were still surrounded ? Would they have long maintained 
the resurrection of the dead, and a general judgment, 
against the sophisms of those philosophers, who considered 
the body as the prison of the soul, who thought a resur- 
rection of the dead impossible even to omnipotence, and 
who taught, either that the gods could not be offended 
with men, or that the human soul is no subject either of 
reward or of punishment ; being in fact a portion of re «>, 
or the soul of the world, in which it was finally to be re- 
absorbed. 

Even the morality of the Gospel, so justly admired, 
would, if left to the guardianship of the people at large, 
have been as liable to corruption as its peculiar doctrines. 
From the episdes of St. Paul, as well as from the philoso- 
phers, satirists, and profane historians of the age, it appears 
that the morals of the heathen world, at the period when 
the Gospel was first preached to all nations, were sunk to a 
state of the lowest depravity ; that the sensual appetites of 
our nature were indulged to the utmost excess ; that some 
of those, who were converted to the faith, had themselves, 
in their unregenerated state, given way to even' inordinate 
affection ; and that vices, not even to be named among 
Christians, were countenanced by the teaching, if not the 
practice, even of some of the philosophers. Had the mul- 
titude been left, each to interpret the scriptures for himself; 
had they been left without control, to choose their own 
teachers and governors ; had the power of the keys, or 
the supreme authority in the church, been committed to 
them, is it not probable — is it not, indeed, morally certain, 
that they would soon have relapsed into their former 
courses, "as the dog turns to his vomit again, and the sow 
that is washed to her wallowing in the mire ?" 

Although all the doctrines and precepts of Christianity, 
which are essential to salvation, are easily understood by 

b Heb. xii. 17. 



668 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



candour, combined with attention, yet some of them, such 
as St. Paul's doctrine of justification by faith for instance, 
are very liable to be misapprehended, where either candour 
or attention is wanting. But candour and attention are not 
to be looked for in ignorant and illiterate men, when they 
are under the dominion of corrupt habits, or are impelled 
by the strongest propensities of our animal nature ; and 
therefore such men, and the teachers chosen by such men, 
may be expected to interpret that doctrine so as to make 
it encourage their "continuance in sin that grace may 
abound," and enable them to reconcile their impure prac- 
tices with their profession of Christianity. This is not a 
mere hypothesis formed for the sake of argument. It is a 
fact well known to ecclesiastical historians, and occasion- 
ally pointed out by our author, that some of the ancient 
sects, who renounced the communion of the regular church, 
taught that Christ hath set men free, not only from the 
ritual law of Moses, but even from the obligations of mora- 
lity ; and there is reason to suspect that some of the mob- 
commissioned teachers of the present age, acquire their 
popularity by the same execrable doctrine. 

All this was well known to Christ, who therefore estab- 
lished a society or church in the world, to be " the pillar 
and ground of his truth," 1 and the guardian of the morals 
of his disciples. To that society are confined all the privi- 
leges of the Gospel ; b men are to be admitted into it only 
by baptism ; c he who, when the Gospel has been fully 
preached to him, refuses to be baptized, has no claim, by the 
Christian covenant, to salvation ; d and he who submits not 
to the discipline of the church, is in the state of a heathen 
man or a publican." But we have seen that the apostles 
alone had received authority to admit into the church, or 
cast out of it ; and that therefore the apostolical order must 
be continued by succession from those, who were originally 
raised to that order by the divine head of the church, even 
to the end of the world. Accordingly St. Paul speaks of 
apostles ordained by men f in his time, of whom Epaphro- 
ditus appears to have been one, as Barnabas certainly was 
another, and warns the Corinthians against false apostles ;s 
whilst our blessed Lord, by the pen of St. John, makes 
express mention of some, who " said they were apostles, 
and were not, but were found liars." h Nothing of all this 
could have happened, if it had been understood, that the 
primary apostles were to have no successors ; for the twelve 
with St. Paul were all, except St. John, dead some time 
before the false apostles were detected by the angel of the 
church of Ephesus ; and, had they been alive, they must 
have been too well known for the most impudent liars 
then existing, to personate them in a church which had 
been founded by St. Paul, and so lately governed by his 
son Timothy. 

The case appears to have been as Theodoret and others 
expressly represent it — " That those now called bishops 
were anciently called apostles ; but in process of time the 
name of npostle was left to them who .were truly apostles 
(viz. the twelve and St. Paul ;) and the name of bishop 

a 1 Tim. iii. 15 t Acts ii. 47. Luke xviii. 18. 

° St. Matth. xxviii. 19. d St. Mark xvi. 16. 

e St. Matth. xviii. 17, 18. I Gal.i. 1. 

e 2 Cor. xi. 13. h Rev. ii. 2. 

i Tons 6c vvv KaXovptvovs zmvtcrnovs dnooro^ovs aivoiiatov. tov <Jc ynovov 
npoiovros to fitv rris (MtootoXi;; 6vo[ia tois d\riOois d-rroarnXois KaTekmov rriv Sc 
Ti); iirHTKonri; rrpoanyopiav roiq TraAai Kahovficvois dirooroXois i-ncOcaav, &C. 

Theod. in Tim. cap. 3. He repeats the same thing, Com. in Phil. i. 1, 
and ii. 25. The author under the name of Ambrose, generally believed 



was restrained to those who were anciently called apostles. 
Thus Epaphroditus was the apostle of the Philippians, 
Titus of the Cretans, and Timothy of the Asiatics."* This 
change of the denomination of the highest order of eccle- 
siastics, from apostle to bishop, seems to have been made 
about the beginning of the second centuiy, soon after the 
death of St. John, and probably gave occasion to Ignatius 
to insist so much on the obedience due to the bishops, lest 
the churches, to which his epistles were addressed, should 
imagine that the authority of their chief pastors had been 
diminished by the change of their designation. That 
change, however, appears not to have been strictly attend- 
ed to, for several centuries, by those who had occasion to 
write of the immediate successors of the apostles in parti- 
cular churches ; for Clement, bishop of Rome, is by Cle- 
ment of Alexandria, called 11 An-orroAoi KXywvr, and Igna- 
tius, one of the first bishops of Antioch, is by Chrysostom' 

Styled «7roo-roAo5 X.XI fVurxoiro;. 

Thus then it appears that the constitution of the church, 
in the first century, was episcopal in the diocesan sense of 
that word ; that the bishop was the chief pastor of a greater 
or less number of congregations, according to the extent 
of his diocese ; that though both presbyters and deacons 
preached and administered the sacrament of baptism, and 
the former the Lord's supper, they could perform no eccle 
siastical office, but by authority derived from the bishop : m 
that the people had no such authority in the church, as 
Dr. Mosheim supposes ; and that neither the presbyters, 
nor people, nor both united, could excommunicate any 
person, or cast him entirely out of the church, but by the 
sentence of the bishop. It does not however appear that for 
several centuries a bishop's diocese, or the tract of country 
over which his pastoral care extended, was every where di- 
vided into what we now call parishes, each with its resident 
pastor. On the contrary, this division became not general 
before the fifth century, and seems not to have been made 
in England previous to the seventh. It is indeed hardly 
supposable that in the first century the Christians had any 
buildings wholly set apart for the service of the church. 
During that period, the probability is that the bishop, with 
one or two inferior clergymen to assist him, convened part 
of his flock in his own or some other house ; that the 
presbyters were sent by him to other private houses, where 
in different divisions, the remainder of the flock assembled 
themselves together, for the breaking of bread and for 
prayer ; and it is certain, that, when the presbyters re- 
turned to their bishops, they delivered, each into the com- 
mon stock of thechurch, the oblations which had beenmade 
by their respective congregations. When the number of 
Christians every where increased, presbyters appearindeed ; 
even during the sera of persecution, to have been stationed 
in a suburb, or in the country-region of the bishop's dio- 
cese ; but even then the oblations of the people were all 
delivered into the common stock of the mother-church, 
and there distributed into shares, for the maintenance of 
the bishop, for the support of the clergy under him, for 

to be Hilary the deacon, asserts that all bishops were at first called 
apostles, and that it was to distinguish himself from such apostles, that 
St. Paul called himself an " apostle, not of men, neither by men, but 
by Jesus Christ and God the Father." Ambros. Com. in Eph. iv. and in 
Gal. i. 1. 

k Strom, lib. 4. ' Encom. Ign. 

m Mij&is vwpls tov iiWTic6nov t\ 7rpaaaCT0> tuiv dvr\K(ivToiv ei; rr\v UxXriaiav 

ovk t(6v £<rni', ^upis tov cmuKd-nov, ovtc /Sairri^civ, ovtc dydnrw -rrndiv' dXX, S dw 

c«i>os ioKijiaar\, tovto /tat r<3 8cm ivapcarov. Ignatii Epist. ad Smyrn. cap. 8. 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



669 



assisting the poor and strangers, and for purchasing what- 
ever was necessary for the public service of the church. 
After the empire became Christian, what we now call 
parish churches were built, and endowed, sometimes by 
the public, and more frequently by opulent individuals; 
and hence the origin of patronage, or the right granted 
to individuals, to present their own clerks to the churches 
which they had endowed. This practice seems to have 
become general about the year 500, as there are two laws 
by Justinian of that date, authorizing and confirming it ; 
but even then no clerk could be presented without the 
concurrence of the bishop under whom he was to minister, 
nor be supported by any patron against the censures of his 
diocesan, when so unhappy as to have incurred them. 
• In the first and second centuries there seems to have 
been a perfect equality of rank among the several bishops 
of the church, he presiding in provincial synods, in whose 
diocese the synod was holden. Thus, though St. Peter 
certainly took place of St. James in the college of the 
Apostles, St James appears to have presided in the first 
council, because it took place in Jerusalem, of which he 
was acknowledged to be the bishop. This perfect equality, 
however, was gradually done away ; for, by the middle of 
the third century, it is evident that, without acknowledg- 
ing any superiority of order, the bishops of every province 
paid a particular respect to the bishop of the chief city ; 
and hence the origin of metropolitans and patriarchs. To 
this deviation from primitive practice several things con- 
tributed. In the chief city, it must have been the prac- 
tice of the church, from the beginning, to place as bishop 
a man of approved talents, and piety, and virtue ; and 
even when the clergy subsisted on the voluntary oblations 
of the faithful, the bishops of the larger cities must 
have been more opulent than those of the smaller; 
and in every age of the church — the purest as well as 
the most corrupt — opulence has always commanded a 
degree of respect, especially when in the possession of 
talents and virtue. 

There was, however, another and a better motive than 
this for giving precedency to the bishops of the chief cities. 
The whole Christian church is, or ought to be, one society 
or kingdom, united under its divine head, by the profession 
of the same faith, by the administration of the same sacra- 
ments, and by the same government and discipline. In 
the apostolic age, whoever had the misfortune to be ex- 
pelled from one particular church, found himself expelled 
from all particular churches, or, in other words, excom- 
municated by the church universal ; and, by the authority 
of Christ himself, was reduced to the state of a heathen 
man or a publican. Hence St. Cyprian says a — " Episco- 
pal us unus est, cujus a singulis in solidum pars tenetur:" — 
and elsewhere, " Idcirco copiosum est sacerdotium concor- 
dise mutuae glutino atque unitatis vinculo copulatum, ut 
siquis ex collegio nostro haeresin facere, et gregem Christi 
lacerare et vastare tentaverit, subveniant cagteri, et, quasi 
pastores utiles et misericordes, oves Dominicas in gregem 
colligant." b This is indeed the doctrine of a much greater 
man than Cyprian. It is the doctrine of the illustrious 
apostle of the Gentiles, who compares the unity of the 
church, and the due subordination of its several members, 
to the unity of the human body, and the adaptation of its 



1 Ue Unitate Ecclesia;. 
Karat xii. 4, 5.- 1 Cor. 

No. LVI. 



b Epist. 67. ed. Pamel. 68. ed. Fell, 
xii. 12. 31. 
168 



j members to their respective uses ; c beseeching Christians 
J " to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace, be- 
i cause, among them, there is but one body and one spirit 
j even as they are called in one hope of their calling, one Lord, 
one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is 
| above all, and through all, and in them alL" d It is the 
doctrine of a still greater — an infinitely greater personage 
than St. Paul — even of our Lord himself, who declared, that 
the whole Christian world was to be " one fold under him 
the one shepherd," and who, when praying for his imme- 
diate followers, added — " Neither pray I for these alone, 
but for them also who shall believe in me through their 
word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in 
me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us ; that 
the world may believe that thou hast sent me."' 

That this catholic unity might be preserved entire, every 
bishop elect was obliged, before his ordination, to make a 
declaration of his faith to the bishops who ordained him, 
and. immediately after his ordination, to send, by the hands 
of some confidential clergymen, circular or encyclical let- 
ters, as they were called, to foreign churches, declaratory 
of his faith, announcing his promotion to such a see, and 
professing his communion with the churches to which the 
letters were sent. If his faith was deemed catholic, and 
nothing irregular appeared to have taken place in the vari- 
ous steps of his promotion, answers were immediately 
returned to his letters, approving what had been done, and 
acknowledging him as a bishop of the catholic church ; but, 
if doubts were excited in the minds of those to whom the 
encyclical letters were addressed, no answer was returned 
until proper inquiries were made, and all doubts respect- 
ing the faith of the lately consecrated bishop, or the regu- 
larity of his promotion, were completely removed. It wa3 
thus that Christian communion was maintained between 
the remotest churches. But had the bishops been, in the 
modern sense of the word, parochial, and therefore as 
numerous as the various congregations of Christians, 
which assembled under separate roofs for the celebration 
of the mysteries of their religion, it is obvious that this 
salutary process could not have been carried on ; the doc- 
trines taught in distant churches must have been un- 
known to each other ; and catholic unity could have been 
nothing but a name. Even among diocesan bishops, 
when all of equal rank, such a correspondence must have 
become so difficult and tedious, after churches were planted 
in every corner of the empire, that the authors of heresies 
might, as Cyprian expresses it, have divided and laid waste 
the flock of Christ, before the bishops at a distance could 
have stepped in to its assistance ; but, by the institution of 
metropolitans and patriarchs, it became easy and expe- 
ditious, as the bishops corresponded with their own metro- 
politans, the metropolitans with their respective patriarchs, 
and the patriarchs with each other. 

After the conversion of Constantine, the distinctions of 
rank which had thus been introduced among the bishops 
of the church, were confirmed by the council of Nice, and 
modelled according to the precedency that was allowed 
among the civil provinces into which the empire was 
divided ; but, if such an arrangement was attended by 
some advantages, it was productive likewise of many evils. 
It was the parent of those fierce contentions between the 

<• Ephesians iv. 3. 17. 

• St. John x. 16. xvii.20, 21. 



670 



THE FIRST APPENDIX. 



bishops of Rome and Constantinople for precedency, 
which disgraced the character of both as the ministers of 
the meek and lowly Jesus ; and, at last, it furnished the 
former of those prelates with the means of erecting that 
tyranny, which he so long exercised over the whole west- 
ern church. 

About the sera of the council of Nice, if not at an ear- 
lier period, distinctions, unknown in the apostolic age, were 
introduced likewise among the inferior clergy of the same 
order. When parochial churches were endowed and pro- 
vided each with a resident pastor, it was judged expedient 
to give to the bishop a permanent council, which might 
supply the place of those presbyters who had hitherto 
lived with him, but were now removed to their respective 
cures : and from this appointment may be dated the origin 
of deans and chapters. 

At a very early period there seems to have been, in every 
church where there were many deacons, one who by the 
bishop's authority had precedence of the rest ; but there 
is no good evidence that visiting presbyters were any 
where appointed to offices similar to those of our archdea- 
cons, u titil the abolition of the order of chorepiscopi. That 
the appointment took place then, is rendered unquestion- 
able by the 57th canon of the council of Laodicea, which 
substitutes visiting presbyters for those village-bishops, of 
whom it decreed that no more were to be ordained. 

Whether the church acted prudently in all these appa- 
rent deviations from primitive simplicity, is a question 
which we are not called upon to answer ; but it is certain 
hat in none of them did she exceed that authority, with 
which, as an independent society to be spread over the 
whole world, she must have been invested by 'her divine 
awgiver, to adapt her constitution, as much as possible, to 
Ihe circumstances in which she might be placed. To 
this authority St. Paul repeatedly alludes; and if her 
metropolitans and patriarchs, her deans and chapters, her 
visiting presbyters and archdeacons, &c, contributed in 

* Epist. 27, edit. Pamel.— 33, edit. Fell. 



any degree to the maintenance of order and decency, she 
had an unquestionable right to appoint them. Her patri- 
archs and metropolitans, however dignified with titles and 
outward splendour, derived from Christ, by apostolical 
succession, no authority which was not equally possessed 
by every other bishop ; the visiting presbyters, though the 
bishop devolved on them such parts of his authority as 
presbyters were capable of exercising, were still nothing 
more than mere presbyters; and an archdeacon, although 
he had precedence among his brethren, could not admi- 
nister the Lord's supper, and was therefore inferior to the 
lowest presbyter in the church. 

The authority of the church to decree rites or ceremo- 
nies and to make such regulations in the mode of admi- 
nistering her discipline, as are best adapted to produce the 
effects for which her discipline itself was instituted, are facts 
which cannot indeed be questioned. When incorporated 
with the state, her governors may certainly be armed by the 
civil magistrate with civil rank and civil power ; but she 
has no authority to depart in a single article from the faith 
which was once delivered to the saints, or to surrender to 
any man that authority which her bishops derive by sue - 
cession from the apostles. The church is a kingdom not 
of this world ; and therefore, as she derives not her inhe- 
rent authority from the potentates of this world, to the 
potentates of this world she cannot resign that authority. 
Wherever the faith is maintained in purity, and the epis- 
copal succession preserved, there is a true church, or the 
elements of a true church : " quando," to use the words of 
Cyprian, " Ecclesia in episcopo, et clero, et in omnibus 
stantibus, sit constituta ;" a and to the efficacious adminis- 
tration of the word and sacraments, it is of no Consequence 
whether the bishop of such a church be a prince, a peer 
or an obscure pastor ; for, as another ancient writer 1 ' ob- 
serves, " potestas peccatorum remittendorum apostolis data 
est, et ecclesiis quas illi a Christo missi constituerunt, et 
episcopis qui eis ordinatione vicaria successerunt." 

•> Firmilian. inter Cyp. Epistolas, Ep. 75. edit. Pamelii et Fell. 



THE SECOND APPENDIX, 

BY DR. MACLAINE; 

CONCERNING THE SPIRIT AND CONDUCT OF THE FIRST REFORMERS, AND THE CHARGE OF ENTHUSIASM 
(i. e. FANATICISM) THAT HAS BEEN BROUGHT AGAINST THEM BY A CELEBRATED AUTHOR. 



The candour and impartiality, with which Dr. Mosheim 
represents the transactions of those who were agents and 
instruments in bringing about the Reformation, are highly 
laudable. He acknowledges that imprudence, passion, 
and even a low self-interest, mingled sometimes their rash 
proceedings and ignoble motives in this excellent cause ; 
and, in the very nature of things, it could not be other- 
wise. It is one of the inevitable consequences of the sub- 
ordination and connexions of civil society, that many im- 
proper instruments and agents are set to work in all great 
and important revolutions, whether of a religious or politi- 



cal nature. When great men appear in these revolutions, 
they draw after them their dependents ; and the unhappy 
effects of a party spirit are unavoidably-displayed in the 
best cause. The subjects follow. their prince; the multi- 
tude adopt the system of their leaders, without entering 
into its true spirit, or being judiciously attentive to the 
proper methods of promoting it ; and thus irregular pro- 
ceedings are employed in' the maintenance of the truth. 
Thus it happened in the important revolution that 
delivered a great part of Europe from the ignominious 
yoke of the Roman pontiff. The sovereigns, the eccle- 



THE SECOND APPENDIX. 



671 



eiastics, the men of weight, piety, and learning, who arose 
to assert the rights of human nature, the cause of genuine 
Christianity, and the exercise of religious liberty, came 
forth into the field of controversy with a multitude of de- 
pendents, admirers, and friends, whose motives and con- 
duct cannot be entirely justified. Besides, when the eyes 
of whole nations were opened upon the iniquitous absurd- 
ities of popery, and upon the tyranny and insolence of 
the Roman pontiffs, it was scarcely possible to set bounds 
to the indignation of an incensed and tumultuous multi- 
tude, who are naturally prone to extremes, generally pass 
from blind submission to lawless ferocity, and too rarely 
distinguish between the use and abuse of their undoubted 
rights. In a word, many things, which appear to us 
extremely irregular in the conduct and measures of some 
of the instruments of our happy reformation, will be enti- 
tled to a certain degree of indulgence, if the spirit of the 
times, the situation of the contending parties, the barba- 
rous provocations of popery, and the infirmities of human 
nature, be duly and attentively considered. 

The question here is, what was the spirit which ani- 
mated the first and principal reformers, who arose in times 
of darkness and despair to deliver oppressed kingdoms 
from the dominion of Rome, and upon what principles a 
Luther, a Zuingle, a Calvin, a Melanchthon, a Bucer, &c. 
embarked in the arduous cause of the Reformation? This 
question, indeed, is not at all necessary to the defence of 
the Reformation, which rests upon the strong foundations 
of Scripture and reason, and whose excellence is absolute- 
ly independent of the virtues of those who took the lead in 
promoting it. Bad men may be, and often are, embark- 
ed in the best causes, as such causes afford the most spe- 
cious mask to cover mercenary views, or to disguise ambi- 
tious purposes. But until the more than Jesuitical and 
disingenuous Philips resumed the trumpet of calumny , a 
even the voice of popery had ceased to attack the moral 
characters of the leading reformers. 

These eminent men were indeed attacked from another 
quarter, and by a much more respectable writer. The 
truly ingenious Mr. Hume, so justly celebrated as one of 
the first favourites of the historic muse, has. in his history 
of England, and more especially in the history of the 
houses of Tudor and Stuart, represented the character and 
temper of the first reformers in a point of view, which un- 
doubtedly shows, that he had not considered them with the 
close and impartial attention thatought always to precede 
personal reflections. He has laid it down as a principle, 
that superstition and enthusiasm are two species of reli- 
gion that stand in diametrical opposition to each other ; 
and seems to establish it as a fact, that the former is the 
genius of popery, and the latter the characteristic of the 
Reformation. Both the principle and its application must 
appear extremely singular; and three sorts of persons 
must, be more especially surprised at it. 

In the first place, persons of a philosophical turn, who 
are accustomed to study human nature, and to describe 
with precision both its regular and eccentric movements, 
m ust be surprised to see superstition an d fanaticism" re- 

* See the various answers that were made to this biographer by the 
ingenious Mr. Pye, the learned Dr. Neve, and other commendable wri- 
ters who have appeared in this controversy. 

b I use the ward fanaticism here, instead of enthusiasm, to prevent 
all ambiguity; because, as shall be shown presently, Mr. Hume takes 
enthusiasm, in its worse sense when he applies it to "the reformers; and 
in that sense it is not only equivalent to, but is perfectly synonymous 



presented as opposite and jarring qualities. They have 
been often seen together, holding with each other a most 
friendly correspondence ; and indeed if we consider their 
nature, and their essential characters, their union will ap- 
pear, not only possible, but in some cases natural, if not 
necessary. Superstition, which consists in false and 
abject notions of the Deity, in the gloomy and groundless 
fears of invisible beings, and in the absurd rites, that these 
notions and these fears naturally produce, is certainly tbe 
root of various branches of fanaticism. For what is 
fanaticism, but the visions, illuminations, impulses, and 
dreams of an overheated fancy, converted into rules of 
faith, hope, worship, and practice? This fanaticism, as 
it springs up in a melancholy or a cheerful complexion, 
assumes a variety of aspects, and its morose and gloomy 
forms are certainly most congenial with superstition, in its 
proper sense. It was probably this consideration that led 
the author of the article Fanaticism, in the famous Dic- 
tionnaire Encyclopedique, to define it c as " a blind and 
passionate zeal, which arises from superstitious opinions, 
and leads its votaries, to commit ridiculous, unjust, and 
cruel actions, not only without shame, but even with cer- 
tain internal feelings of joy and comfort ;" from which the 
author concludes, that " fanaticism is really nothing more 
than superstition set in motion." This definition unites 
perhaps too closely these two kinds of false religion, whose 
enormities have furnished very ill-grounded pretexts for 
discrediting and misrepresenting the true. It is, however, 
a testimony from one of the pretended oracles of modern 
philosophy, in favour of the compatibility of fanaticism 
with superstition. These two principles are evidently dis- 
tinct ; because superstition is, generally speaking, the 
effect of ignorance, or of a judgment perverted by a sour 
and splenetic temper; whereas fanaticism is the offspring 
of an inflamed imagination, and may exist where there is 
no superstition, i. e. where no false or gloomy notions of 
the divinity are entertained. But, though distinct, they 
are not opposite principles; on the contrary, they lend on 
many occasions, some strength and assistance to each 
other. 

If persons accustomed to philosophical precision will not 
relish the maxim of the celebrated writer which I have 
been now considering, so neither, in the second place, can 
those who are versed in ecclesiastical history look upon 
superstition as a more predominant characteristic of popery 
than fanaticism ; and yet this is a leading idea, which is 
not only visible in many parts of this author's excellent 
History, but appears to be the basis of all the reflections he 
employs, and of all the epithets he uses, in his speculations 
upon the Romish religion. 

And nevertheless it is manifest, that the multitudes of 
fanatics, which arose in the church of Rome before the 
Reformation, are truly innumerable ; and the operations 
of fanaticism in that church were, at least, as visible and 
frequent, as the restless workings of superstition: they 
went, in short, hand in hand, and united their visions and 
their terrors in the support of the papacy. It is, more 
especially, well known, that the greatest part of the mo- 

with, fanaticism. Besides, the latter term is used indiscriminately with 
enthusiasm, by this celebrated historian, in characterising the Reformation. 
c The words of the original are, l; Le fanatisme est un zele avr ugle et 
passionne. qui nait des opinions superstitieuses, et fait commettre dca 
actions ridicules, injustes et cruelles, non sculement sans home, maris 
avee une sortade joye et de consolation. Le fanatisme done nest que 
la superstition mise en mouvement." 



672 



THE SECOND APPENDIX. 



nastic establishments (that alternately insulted the benig- 
nity of Providence by their austerities, and abused it by 
their licentious luxury,) were originally founded in con- 
sequence of pretended illuminations, miraculous dreams, 
and other wild delusions, of an over-heated fancy. When- 
ever a new doctrine was to be established, that could 
augment the authority of the pope, or fill the coffers of the 
clergy ; whenever a new convent was to be erected, there 
was always a vision or a miracle ready to facilitate the busi- 
ness ; nor must it be imagined, that forgery and impos- 
ture were the only agents in this matter; — by no means ; 
— imposture there was ; and it was frequently employed ; 
but impostors made use of fanatics ; and in return fana- 
tics found impostors, who spread abroad their fame, and 
turned their visions to profit. Were I to recount with 
the utmost simplicity, without the smallest addition of 
ludicrous embellishment, the ectasies, visions, seraphic 
amours, celestial apparitions, that are said to have shed 
such an odour of sanctity upon the male and female saints 
of the Romish church ; were I to pass in review the 
famous conformities of St. Francis, the illuminations of 
St. Ignatius, and the enormous cloud of fanatical witnes- 
ses that have dishonoured humanity in bearing testimony 
to popery, this dissertation would become a voluminous 
history. Let the reader cast an eye upon Dr. Mosheim's 
account of those ages which more immediately preceded 
the Reformation, and he will see what a number of sects, 
purely fanatical, arose in the bosom of the Romish 
church. 

But this is not all — for it must be carefully observed, 
that even those extravagant fanatics, who produced such 
disorders in Germany about the commencement of the 
Reformation, were nursed in the bosom qf popery, were 
professed papists before they adopted the cause of Luther ; 
and that many of them even passed directly from popery 
to fanaticism, without even entering into the outward pro- 
fession of Lutheranism. It is also to be observed, that 
beside the fanatics, who exposed themselves to the con- 
tempt of the wise upon the public theatre of popery, 
Seckendorf speaks of a sect that merits this denomination, 
which had spread in the Netherlands, before Luther rais- 
ed his voice against popery, and whose members were 
engaged, by the terror of penal laws, to dissemble their 
sentiments, and even affected a devout compliance with 
the ceremonies of the established worship, until religious 
liberty, introduced by the reformation, encouraged them 
to pull off the mask, and propagate their opinions, several 
of which were licentious and profane. 

But, in the third place, the friends of the Reformation 
must naturally be both surprised and displeased to find 
enthusiasm, or fanaticism, laid down by Mr. Hume, as 
the character and spirit of its founders and abettors, with- 
out any exception or distinction in favour of any one of the 
reformers, That fanaticism was visible in the conduct 
and spirit of many who embraced the. Reformation, is a 
fact which I do not pretend to deny ; and it may be wor- 
thy of the reader's curiosity to consider, for a moment, how 
this came to pass. That religious liberty, which the 
Reformation introduced and granted (in consequence of 
its essential principles) indiscriminately to all, to the learn- 
ed and unlearned, rendered this eruption of enthusiasm 
inevitable. It is one of the imperfections annexed to all 
human things, that our best blessings have their incon- 



veniences, or, at least, are susceptible of abuse. As liberty 
is a natural right, but not a discerning principle, it could 
not open the door to truth without letting error and delu- 
sion come with it. If reason came forth with dignity, 
when delivered from the despotism of authority, and the 
blind servitude of implicit faith ; imagination, also set free 
and less able to bear the prosperous change, came forth 
likewise, but with a different aspect, and exposed to view 
the reveries which it had been long obliged to con- 
ceal. 

Thus many fanatical phantoms were exhibited, which 
neither arose from the spirit of the Reformation, nor from 
the principles of the reformers, but which had been en- 
gendered in the bosom of popery, and which the fostering 
rays of liberty had disclosed ; similar in this, to the enli- 
vening beams of the sun, which fructify indiscriminately 
the salutary plant in the well cultivated ground, and the 
noxious weed in a rank and neglected soil. And as the 
Reformation had no such miraculous influence (not to 
speak of the imperfection that attended its infancy, and 
that has not entirely been removed from its more advanc- 
ed stages) as to cure human nature of its infirmities and 
follies, to convert irregular passions into regular principles, 
or to turn men into angels before the time, it has still left 
the field open, both for fanaticism and superstition to sow 
their tares among the good seed ; and this will probably 
be the case until the end of the world. It is here, that we 
must seek for the true cause of all that condemnable 
enthusiasm which has dishonoured the Christian name 
and often troubled the order of civil society, at different 
periods since the Reformation; and for which the reforma- 
tion is no more responsible, than a free government is 
for the weakness or corruption of those who abuse its 
lenity and indulgence. The Reformation established the 
sacred and inalienable right of private judgment ; but it 
could not hinder the private judgment of many from 
being wild and extravagant. 

The Reformation, then, which the multiplied enormities 
of popery rendered so necessary, must be always distin- 
guished from the abuses that might be, and were often 
made, of the liberty it introduced. If you ask, indeed, 
what was the temper or spirit of the first heralds of this 
happy Reformation, Mr. Hume will tell you, that they 
were universally inflamed with the highest enthusiasm. 
This assertion, if taken singly, and not compared with 
other passages relating to the reformers, might be under- 
stood in a sense consistent with truth, and even honour- 
able to the character of these eminent men. For, if by 
enthusiasm we understand that spirit of ardour, intrepidity, 
and generous zeal, which leads men to brave the most 
formidable obstacles and dangers in defence of a cause, 
whose excellence and importance have made a deep 
impression upon their minds, the first reformers will be 
allowed by their warmest friends to have been enthusiasts. 
This species of enthusiasm is a noble affection, when fitly 
placed and wisely exerted. It is this generous sensibility, 
this ardent feeling of the great and excellent, that forms 
heroes and patriots ; and, without it, nothing difficult and 
arduous, that is attended with danger, or prejudice to our 
temporal interests, can either be attempted with vigour, or 
executed with success. If this ingenious writer had even 
observed, that the ardour of the first reformers was more or 
less violent, that it was more or less blended with the 



THE SECOND APPENDIX. 



673 



warmth and vivacity of human passions, candour would 
be obliged to avow the charge. 

But it is not in any of these points of view, that our 
eminent historian considers the spirit, temper, and enthu- 
siasm of the first reformers. The enthusiasm he attributes 
to them is fanaticism in its worst sense. He speaks indeed 
of the ' inflexible intrepidity, with which they braved 
dangers, torments, and even death itself;' but he calls 
them ' the fanatical and enraged reformers ;' he represents 
fanaticism, through the whole course of his history, as the 
characteristic of the protestant religion and its glorious 
founders : the terms, ' protestant fanaticism — fanatical 
churches' — are interspersed in various parts of his work ; 
and we never meet with the least appearance of a distinc- 
tion between the rational and enthusiastic, the wise and 
indiscreet friends of the Reformation. In short, we find 
a phraseology constantly employed upon this subject, 
which discovers an intention to confound protestantism 
with enthusiasm, and to make reformers and fanatics 
synonymous terms. We are told, that, while absurd 
rites and burthensome superstitions reigned in the Romish 
church, the reformers were ' thrown, by a spirit of oppo- 
sition, into an enthusiastic strain of devotion ;' and, in 
another place, that the latter ' placed all merit in a 
mysterious species of faith, in inward vision, rapture, and 
ecstasy.' It would be endless to quote the passages in 
which this representation of things is repeated in a great 
variety of phrases, and artfully insinuated into the mind 
of the reader, by dexterous strokes of a seducing pencil ; 
which, though scattered here and there, yet gradually 
unite their influence on the imagination of an uninstruc- 
ted and unwary reader, and form, imperceptibly, an 
unfavourable impression of that great event, to which we 
owe at this day our civil and religious liberty, and our 
deliverance from a yoke of superstitious and barbarous 
despotism. Protestants, in all ages and places, are stig- 
matised by Mr. Hume with very dishonourable titles ; and 
it struck me particularly to see even the generous opposers 
of the Spanish inquisition in Holland, whose proceedings 
were so moderate, and whose complaints were so humble, 
until the barbarous yoke of superstition and tyranny be- 
came intolerable ; it struck me, I say, to see these generous 
patriots branded with the general character of bigots. 
This is certainly a severe appellation ; and were it applied 
with much more equity than it is, I think it would still 
come with an ill grace from a lover of freedom, from a 
man who lives and writes with security under the auspi- 
cious shade of that very liberty which the Reformation 
introduced, and for which the Belgic heroes (or bigots — 
if we must call them so) shed their blood. I observe with 
pain, that the phraseology and mode of expression, em- 
ployed perpetually by Mr. Hume, on similar occasions, 
seem to discover a keen dislike of every opposition made 
to power in favour of the Reformation. Upon the too 
general principle which this eminent writer has diffused 
through his history, we shall even be obliged to brand, 
with the opprobrious mark of fanaticism, those generous 
friends of civil and religious liberty, who, in the revolution 
of 16S8, opposed the measures of a popish prince and 
an arbitrary government, and to rank the Burnets, Til- 
lotsons, Stillingfleets, and other immortal ornaments of 

* See the sensible and judicious Letters on Mr. Hume's History of 
Great Britain, that were published at Edinburgh in 175G, and in which 

No. LVII. 169 



the protestant name, among the enthusiastic tribe ; it is 
a question, whether even a Boyle, a Newton, or a Locke, 
will escape a censure which is lavished without mercy 
and without distinction. — But my present business is with 
the first reformers, and to them I return. 

Those who more especially merit that title were Luther, 
Zuingle, Calvin, Melancthon, Bucer, Martyr, Bullinger, 
Beza, (Ecolampadius, and others. Now these were all 
men of learning, who came forth into the field of contro- 
versy (in which the fate of future ages, with respect to 
liberty, was to be decided) with a kind of arms that did 
not at all give them the aspect of persons agitated by the 
impulse, or seduced by the delusions of fanaticism. They 
pretended not to be called to the work they undertook by 
visions, or internal illuminations and impulses ; — they 
never attempted to work miracles, or pleaded a divine 
commission ; — they taught no new religion, nor laid 
claim to any extraordinary vocation ; — they respected 
government, practised and taught submission to civil 
rulers, and desired only the liberty of that conscience 
which God has made free, and which ceases to be con- 
science if it be not free. They maintained, that the faith 
of a Christian was to be determined by the word of God 
alone ; they had recourse to reason and argument, to the 
rules of sound criticism, and to the authority and light of 
history. They translated the Scriptures into the popular 
languages of different countries, and appealed to them as 
the only test of religious truth. They exhorted Christians 
to judge for themselves, to search the Scriptures, break 
asunder the bonds of ignorant prejudice and lawless 
authority, and assert that liberty of conscience to which 
they had an inalienable right as reasonable beings. Mr. 
Hume himself acknowledges, that they offered to submit 
' all religious doctrines to private judgment, and exhorted 
every one to examine the principles formerly imposed 
upon him.' In short, it was their great and avowed 
purpose to oppose the gross corruptions and the spiritual 
tyranny of Rome, a of which Mr. Hume himself complains 
with a just indignation, and which he censures in as keen 
and vehement terms as those which were used by Luther 
and Calvin in their warmest moments. 

I have already insinuated, and I acknowledge it here 
again, that the zeal of the reformers was sometimes in- 
temperate ; but I cannot think this circumstance sufficient 
to justify the aspersion of fanaticism , which is cast both 
on the spirit of the Reformation, and the principal agents 
concerned in it. A man may be over-zealous in the 
advancement of what he supposes to be the true religion, 
without being entitled to the denomination of a fanatic, 
unless we depart from the usual sense of this word, which 
is often enough employed to have acquired, before this 
time, a determinate signification. The intemperate zenl 
of the reformers was the result of that ardour, which takes 
place in all divisions and parties that are founded upon 
objects of real or supposed importance ; and it may be 
affirmed, that, in such circumstances, the most generous 
minds, filled with a persuasion of the goodness of their 
end, and of the uprightness of their intentions, are the 
most liable to transgress the exact bounds of moderation, 
and to adopt measures, which, in the calm hour of delib- 
erate reflection, they themselves would not approve. In 



some points, which I have barely mentioned here, are enlarged upon 
and illustrated, in an ample and satisfactory manner. 



674 



THE SECOND APPENDIX. 



all great divisions, the warmth of natural temper, — the 
provocation of unjust and violent opposition, — a spirit of 
sympathy, which connects, in some cases, the most dis- 
similar characters, renders the mild violent, and the 
phlegmatic warm ; — and frequently the pride of conquest, 
which mingles itself, imperceptibly, with the best principles 
and the most generous views, — produce or nourish an 
intemperate zeal ; and this zeal is, in some cases, almost 
inevitable. On the other hand, it may be suspected, that 
some writers, and Mr. Hume among others, may have 
given too high colours to their descriptions of this in- 
temperate zeal. There is a passage of Sir Robert Cotton, 
that has much meaning. " Most men (says he) grew 
to be frozen in zeal and benumbed, so that whosoever 
pretended a little spark of earnestness, seemed no less 
than red fire hot, in comparison of the other." 

Nothing can be more foreign from my temper and 
sentiments, than to plead the cause of an excessive zeal ; 
more especially, every kind of zeal that approaches to a 
spirit of intolerance and persecution ought to be regarded 
with aversion and horror by all who have at heart the 
interest of genuine Christianity, and the happiness of civil 
society. There may be, nevertheless, cases, in which a 
zeal (not that breathes a spirit of persecution, but) that 
mounts to a certain degree of intemperance, may be not 
only inevitable, but useful ; and not only useful but 
necessary. This assertion I advance almost against my 
will, because it is susceptible of great and dangerous abuse ; 
the assertion, however, is true, though the cases must be 
singularly important and desperate to which such zeal 
may be applied. It has been observed, that the reforma- 
tion was one of these cases, and, all things attentively 
considered, the observation appears to be entirely just ; 
and the violence of expression and vehement measures 
employed by some of the reformers might have been 
(I do not say that they really were) as much the effect 
of provident reflection, as of natural fervour and resentment. 
To a calculating head, which considered closely, in those 
times of corruption and darkness, the strength of the court 
of Rome, the luxury and despotism of the pontiffs, the 
ignorance and licentiousness of the clergy, the superstition 
and stupidity of the people ; in a word, the deep root 
which the papacy had gained through all these circum- 
stances combined, — what was the first thought that must 
naturally have occurred? No doubt, it was this — the 
improbability that cool philosophy, dispassionate reason, 
and affectionate remonstrances, would ever triumph over 
these multiplied and various supports of popery. And, if 
a calculating head must have judged in this manner, a 
generous heart, which considered the blessings that must 
arise upon mankind from religious liberty and a reforma- 
tion of the church, would naturally be excited to apply 
even a violent remedy, if that were necessary, to remove 
such a desperate and horrible disease. It would really 
seem that Luther acted on such a view of things. He 
began mildly, and did not employ the fire of his zeal, 
before he saw that it was essential to the success of his 
cause. Whoever looks into Dr. Mosheim's history, or 
any other impartial account of the sixteenth century, 
will find, that Luther's opposition to the infamous traffic 
of indulgences, was carried on at first in the most sub- 
missive strain, by humble remonstrances addressed to the 
pope, and the most eninent prelates of the church. 



These remonstrances were answered not only by the 
despotic voice of authority, but also by opprobrious in- 
vectives, perfidious plots against his person, and the terror 
of penal laws. Even under these he maintained his 
tranquillity ; and his conduct at the famous diet of Worms, 
though resolute and steady, was nevertheless both respect- 
ful and modest. But, when all moderate measures proved 
ineffectual, then, indeed, he acted with redoubled vigour, 
and added a new degree of warmth and impetuosity to 
his zeal ; and (I repeat it) reflection might have dictated 
those animated proceedings, which were owing, perhaps, 
merely to his resentment, and the natural warmth of his 
temper inflamed by opposition. Certain it is at least, 
that neither the elegant satires of Erasmus (had he 
even been a friend to the cause of liberty), nor the 
timid remonstrances of the gentle Melancthon (who 
was really such), would ever have been sufficient to 
bring about a reformation of the church. The former 
made many laugh, the latter made some reason ; but 
neither of the two could make them act, or set them in 
motion. At such a crisis, bold speech and ardent resolu- 
tion were necessary to produce that happy change in the 
face of religion, which has crowned with inestimable 
blessings one part of Europe, and has been productive of 
many advantages even to the other, which censures it. 

As to Calvin, every one, who has any acquaintance 
with history, knows how he set out in promoting the 
Reformation. It was by a work composed with a classic 
elegance of style, and which, though tinctured with the 
scholastic theology of the times, breathes an uncommon 
spirit of good sense and moderation. This work was the 
Institutes of the Christian religion, in which the learned 
writer shows, that the doctrines of the reformers were 
founded in Scripture and reason ; and one of the designs 
of this book was to show, that the reformers ought not to 
be confounded with certain fanatics, who, about the time 
of the Reformation, sprang from the bosom of the church 
of Rome, and excited tumults and commotions in several 
places. The French monarch (Francis I.) to cover with 
a specious pretext his barbarous persecution of the friends 
of the Reformation, and to prevent the resentment of the 
protestants in Germany, with whom it was his interest 
to be on good terms, alleged that his severity fell only 
upon a sect of enthusiasts, who, under the title of Ana- 
baptists, substituted their visions in the place of the 
doctrines and declarations of the Scriptures. To vindicate 
the reformers from this reproach, Calvin wrote the book 
now under consideration : and though the theology that 
reigns in it be chargeable with some defects, yet it is as 
remote from the spirit and complexion of fanaticism, as 
any thing can be. Nor indeed is this spirit visible in any 
of the writings of Calvin that I have perused. His com- 
mentary upon the Old and New Testament is a produc- 
tion that will always be esteemed, on account of its elegant 
simplicity, and the evident marks it bears of an unpre- 
judiced and impartial inquiry into the plain sense of the 
sacred writings, and of sagacity and penetration in the 
investigation of it. 

If we were to pass in review the writings of the other 
eminent reformers, whose names have been already men- 
tioned, we should find abundant matter to justify them 
in the same respect. They were men of letters, and some 
of them were even men of taste for the age in which they 



THE THIRD APPENDIX. 



G75 



lived ; they cultivated the study of languages, history, 
and criticism and applied themselves with indefatigable 
industry to these studies, which, of all others, are the least 
adapted to excite or nourish a spirit of fanaticism. They 
had, indeed, their errors and prejudices ; nor perhaps were 
they few in number ; but who is free from the same 
charge 1 We have ours too, though they may turn on a 
different set of objects. Their theology savoured somewhat 
of the pedantry and jargon of the schools ; — how could 
it be otherwise, considering the dismal state of philosophy 
at that period ? The advantages we enjoy above them, 



give them, at least, a title to our candour and indulgence ; 
perhaps to our gratitude, as the instruments w T ho prepared 
the way through which these advantages have been con- 
veyed to us. To conclude, let us regret their infirmities ; 
let us reject their errors ; let us even condemn any in- 
stances of ill-judged severity and violence with which they 
may have been chargeable ; but let us never forget, that, 
through perils and obstacles almost insurmountable, they 
opened the path to that religious liberty, which we cannot 
too highly esteem, nor be too careful to improve to rational 
and worthy purposes. 



THE THIRD APPENDIX. 



SOME OBSERVATIONS RELATIVE TO THE PRESENT STATE OF THE REFORMED RELIGION, AND THE INFLUENCE 
OF IMPROVEMENTS IN PHILOSOPHY AND SCIENCE ON ITS PROPAGATION AND ADVANCEMENT; OCCASIONED 
BY SOME PASSAGES IN THE PREFACE TO A BOOK, ENTITLED, THE CONFESSIONAL. 



In one of the notes," which I added to those of Dr. 
Mosheim, in my translation of his Ecclesiastical History, 
I observed, that ' the reformed churches were never at 
such a distance from the spirit and doctrine of the church 
of Rome as they are at this day ; — that the improvements 
in science, that characterise the last and the present age, 
seem to render a relapse into Romish superstition morally 
impossible in those who have been once delivered from its 
baneful influence : and that, if the dawn of science and 
philosophy toward the end of the sixteenth, and the com- 
mencement of the seventeenth centuries, was favourable 
to the cause of the Reformation, their progress, which has 
a kind of influence even upon the multitude, must confirm 
us in the principles that occasioned our separation from 
the church of Rome.' 

This reasoning did not appear conclusive to the in- 
genious author of the Confessional, w T ho has accordingly 
made some critical reflections upon it in the preface to that 
work. However, upon an impartial view of these reflec- 
tions, I find that this author's excessive apprehensions 
of the progress of popery have had an undue influence on 
his method of reasoning on this subject. He supposes 
that the improvements in science and philosophy, in 
some popish countries, have been as considerable as in 
any reformed country ; and afterwards asks, ' What in- 
telligence have we from these popish countries of a pro- 
portionable progress of religious reformation '? Have we 
no reason to suspect (adds he) that, if an accurate account 
were to be taken, the balance, in point of conversions, in 
the most improved of these countries, would be greatly 
against the reformed religion ?' 

I cannot see how these observations, or rather conjec- 
tures, even were they founded in truth and fact, tend to 
prove my reasoning inconclusive. I observed that the 
progress of science was adapted to confirm us (namely, 
Protestants) in the belief and profession of the reformed 
religion ; and I had here in view, as every one may see, 
those countries in which the Protestant religion is esta- 
blished ; and this author answers me by observing, that 
the progress of reformation in some popish countries, is 



* This note was occasioned by my inadvertently mistaking, the true 



not proportionable to the progress of science and philoso- 
phy in these countries. This, surely, is no answer at all, 
since there are in popish countries accidental circumstan- 
ces, that counteract, in favour of popery, the influence of 
those improvements in science, which are in direct opposi- 
tion to its propagation and advancement ; circumstances 
that I shall consider presently, and which do not exist in 
protestant states. This subject is interesting ; and I 
therefore presume, that some farther thoughts upon it 
will not be disagreeable to the candid reader. 

The sagacious author of the Confessional cannot, 1 
think, seriously call in question the natural tendency o* 
improvements in learning and science to strengthen and 
confirm the cause of the Reformation; for, as the founda- 
tions of popery are a blind submission to an usurped 
authority over the understandings and consciences o» 
men, and an implicit credulity that adopts, without 
examination, the miracles and visions that derive their 
existence from the crazy brains of fanatics, or the lucra- 
tive artifice of impostors, so it is unquestionably evident, 
that the progress of sound philosophy, and the spirit of 
free inquiry it produces, strike directly at these founda- 
tions. I say the progress of sound philosophy, that the 
most inattentive reader may not be tempted to imagine 
(as the author of the Confessional has been informed,) 
that ' improvements in philosophy have made many 
sceptics in all churches reformed and unreformed.' For I 
am persuaded, that, as true Christianity can never lead to 
superstition, so true philosophy will never be a guide to 
infidelity and scepticism. We must not be deceived by 
the name of philosophers, which some poets and wits 
have assumed in our clays, particularly upon the conti- 
nent, and which many lavish upon certain subtle refi- 
ners in dialectics, who bear a much greater resemblance 
to overweening sophists, than to real sages. "\\ e muft 
not be so far lost to all power of distinguishing as to con- 
found, in one common mass, the philosophy of a Bacon, 
a Newton, a Boyle, and a Nieuwentyt, with the incohe- 
rent views and rhetorical rants of a Bolingbroke, or the 
flimsy sophistry of a Voltaire ; and though candour must 

sense of the passage to which it relates. It has since been correc'ed. 



676 



THE THIRD APPEND!] 



acknowledge, that some men of true learning have been 
so unhappy as to fall into infidelity, and chanty must 
weep to see a Hume and a D'Alembert joining a set of 
men who are unworthy of their society, and covering a 
daik and uncomfortable system with the lustre of their 
superior talents, yet equity itself may safely affirm, that 
neither their science nor their genius are the causes of 
their scepticism. 

But if the progress of science and free inquiry have a 
natural tendency to destroy the foundations of popery, 
how comes it to pass, that, in popish countries, the pro- 
gress of religious reform bears no proportion to the pro- 
gress of science ? and how can we account for the ground 
which popery (if the apprehensions of the author of the 
Confessional are well founded) gains even in England ? 
Before I answer the first of these questions, it may be 
proper to consider the matter of fact, and to examine, for 
a moment, the state of science and philosophy in popish 
countries : this examination, if I mistake not, will con- 
firm the theory I have laid down with respect to the 
influence of philosophical improvement upon true reli- 
gion. Let us then turn our view first to one of the most 
considerable countries in Europe, I mean Germany ; and 
here we shall be struck with this undoubted fact, that it 
is in the Protestant part of this vast region only, that the 
improvements of science and philosophy appear, while 
the barbarism of the fifteenth century reigns, as yet, in 
those districts of the empire which profess the Romish 
religion. The celebrated M. D'Alembert, in his treatise, 
entitled, ' de l'Abus de la Critique en Matiere de Reli- 
gion,' makes the following remarkable observation on 
this head : " We must acknowledge, though with sor- 
row, the present superiority of the Protestant universities 
in Germany over those of the Romish persuasion. This 
superiority is so striking, that foreigners who travel 
through the empire, and pass from a Romish college to a 
Protestant university, even in the same neighbourhood, 
are induced to think that they have ridden, in an hour, 
four hundred leagues, or lived, in that short space of 
time, four hundred years; that they have passed from 
Salamanca to Cambridge, or from the times of Scotus to 
those of Newton." Will it be believed (says the same 
author,) "in succeeding ages, that, in the year 1750, 
a book was published in one of the principal cities of 
Europe (Vienna) with the following title : ' Systema 
Aristotelicum de Formis substantialibus et Accidentibus 
absolutis, i. e. ' The Aristotelian System concerning sub- 
stantial Forms and absolute Accidents ?' Will it not 
rather be supposed, that this date is an error of the press, 
and that 1550 is the true reading?" See D'Alembert's 
Melanges de Literature, d'Histoire, et de Philosophic, vol. 
iv. p. 376. — This fact seems evidently to show the connex- 
ion that subsists between improvements in science, and 
the free spirit of the reformed religion. The state of 
letters and philosophy in Italy and Spain, where canon- 
law, monkish literature, and scholastic metaphysics, have 
reigned during such a long course of ages, exhibits the 
same gloomy spectacle. Some rays of philosophical light 
are now breaking through the cloud in Italy ; Bosco- 
vich, and some geniuses of the same stamp, have dared 
to hold up the lamp of science, without feeling the rigour 
of the Inquisition, or meeting with the fate of Galileo. 
If this dawning revolution be brought to any degree of 



perfection, it may, in due time produce effects that at 
present we have little hope of. 

France, indeed, seems to be the country which the 
author of the Confessional has principally in view, when 
he speaks of a considerable progress in philosophy in 
popish states, that has not been attended with a propor- 
tionable influence on the reformation of religion. He 
even imagines that, ' if an account were to be taken, the 
the balance, in point of conversions, in this most impro- 
ved of the popish countries, would be greatly against the 
reformed religion.' The reader will perceive, that I 
might grant this, without giving up any thing that I 
maintained in the note which this judicious author cen- 
sures. I shall, however, examine this notion, that we 
may see whether it is to be adopted without restriction ; 
and perhaps it may appear, that the improvements in 
philosophy have had more influence on the spirit of reli- 
gion in France than this author is willing to allow. 

And here I observe, in the first place, that it is no easy 
matter, either for him or for me, to calculate the number 
of conversions that are made, on both sides, by priests 
armed with the secular power, and Protestant ministers, 
discouraged by the frowns of government, and the ter- 
rors of persecution. If we judge of this matter by the 
external face of things, the calculation may, indeed, be 
favourable to his hypothesis, since the apostate Protes- 
tant comes forth to view, and is publicly enrolled in the 
registers of the church, while the converted Papist is 
obliged to conceal his profession, and to approach the truth, 
like Nicodemus, secretly and by night. This evident 
diversity of circumstances, in the respective proselytes, 
shows that we are not to form our judgment by external 
appearances, and renders it but equitable to presume, that 
the progress of knowledge may have produced many 
examples of the progress of reformation, which do not 
strike the eye of the public. Is it not, in effect, to be pre- 
sumed, that if either a toleration, or even an indulgent 
connivance, were granted to French Protestants, many 
would appear friends of the Reformation, who, at present, 
have not sufficient strength of mind to become martyrs, 
or confessors, in its cause? History informs us of the 
rapid progress which the Reformation made in France in 
former times, when a legal toleration was granted to its 
friends. When this toleration was withdrawn, an im- 
mense number of Protestants abandoned their country, 
their relations, and their fortunes, for the sake of their 
religion. But when that abominable system of tyranny 
was set up, which would neither permit the Protestant9 
to profess their religion at home, nor to seek for the enjoy- 
ment of religious liberty abroad, and when they were 
thus reduced to the sad alternative of dissimulation oi 
martyrdom, the courage of many failed, though then 
persuasion remained the same. In the South of France 
many continued, and still continue, their profession, even 
in the face of those booted apostles, who are sent, from 
time to time, to dragoon them into popery. In other 
places (particularly in the metropolis, where the empire of 
the mode, the allurements of court favour, the dread of 
persecution, unite their influence in favour of popery,) 
the public profession of protestantism lies under heavy 
discouragements, and would require a zeal that rises to 
heroism,- — a thing too rare in modern times ! In a word, 
a religion like popery, which forms the main spring in the 



THE THIRD APPENDIX. 



677 



pK/litical machine, which is doubly armed with allure- 
ments and terrors, must damp the fortitude of the feeble 
friend to truth, and attract the external respect even of 
libertines, free-thinkers, and sceptics. 

In the second place, if it should be alleged, that men 
eminent for learning and genius have adhered seriously 
to the profession of popery, the fact cannot be denied. 
But what does it prove 1 It proves only that, in such 
persons, there are circumstances that counteract the natu- 
ral influence of learning and science. It cannot be 
expected that the influence of learning and philosophy 
will always obtain a complete victory over the attachment 
to a superstitious church, that is riveted by the early 
prejudices of education, by impressions formed by the 
examples of respectable persons who have professed and 
defended the doctrine of that church, by a habit of vene- 
ration for authority, and by numberless associations of 
ideas, whose combined influence gives a wonderful bias 
to the mind, and renders the impartial pursuit of truth 
extremely difficult. Thus knowledge is acquired with 
an express design to strengthen previous impressions and 
prejudices. Thus many make considerable improve- 
ments in science, who have never once ventured to re- 
view their religious principles, or to examine the autho- 
rity on which they have been taken up. 

Others observe egregious abuses in the Romish church, 
and are satisfied with rejecting them in secret, without 
thinking them sufficient to justify a separation. This 
class is extremely numerous; and it cannot be said that 
the improvements in science have had no effect upon 
their religious sentiments. They are neither thorough 
Papists nor entire Protestants ; but they are manifestly 
verging toward the Reformation. 

Nearly allied to this class is another set of men, whose 
case is singular and worthy of attention. Even in the 
bosom of the Romish church, they have tolerably just 
notions of the sublime simplicity and genuine beauty of 
the Christian religion: but, either from false reasonings 
upon human nature, or an observation of the powerful 
impressions that authority makes upon the credulity, and 
a pompous ritual upon the senses of the multitude, ima- 
gine that Christianity, in its native form, is too pure and 
elevated for vulgar souls, and therefore countenance and 
maintain the absurdities of popery, from a notion of their 
utility. Those who conversed intimately with the sub- 
lime Fenelon, archbishop of Cambray, have declared, that I 
such was the nature of his sentiments with respect to the 
public religion of his country. 

To all this I may add, that a notion of the necessity of 
a visible universal church, and of a visible centre or bond 
of union, has led many to adhere to the papacy (consi- 
dered in this light,) who look upon some of the principal 
and fundamental doctrines of the Romish church as erro- 
neous and extravagant. Such is the case of the learned 
and worthy Dr. Courayer, whose unshaken fortitude in 
declaring his sentiments obliged him to seek an asylum 
m England; and who, notwithstanding his persuasion of 
the absurdities which abound in the church of Rome, has 
never totally separated himself from its communion ; and 
such is known to be the case with many men of learning 
and piety in that church. Thus it happens, that particu- 
lar and accidental circumstances counteract, in favour of 



No. LYII. 



■ France, Spain, and Portugal. 

170 



popery, the natural effects of improvements in learning 
and philosophy, which have their full and proper influ- 
ence in Protestant countries, where any thing that resem- 
bles these circumstances is directly in favour of the 
reformed religion. 

But I beg that it may be attentively observed, in the 
third place, that, notwithstanding all these particular and 
! accidental obstacles to the progress of the Reformation 
I among men of knowledge and letters, its spirit has, 
| in fact, gained more ground than the ingenious author of 
j the Confessional seems to imagine. I think it must be 
,' allowed, that every branch of superstition that is re- 
trenched from popery, as well as every portion of author- 
j ity that is taken from its pontiff, is a real gain to the cause 
| of the Reformation ; and, though it does not render that 
i cause absolutely triumphant, yet prepares the way for its 
I progress and advancement. Now (in this point of view,* 
; I am persuaded it will appear that, for twenty or thirty 
years past, the Reformation, or at least its spirit, has rather 
gained than lost ground in Roman catholic states. In 
several countries, and more particularly in France, many 
of the gross abuses of popery have been corrected. We 
have seen the saintly legend, in many places, deprived of 
its fairest honours. We have seen a mortal blow given 
i in France to the absolute power of the pope. What is 
still more surprising, we have seen, even in Spain and 
Portugal, the display of a spirit of opposition to the pre- 
tended infallible ruler of the church. We have seen the 
very order, that has been always considered as the chief 
support of the papacy, the order of the Jesuits, the funda- 
mental characteristic of whose institute is an inviolable 
obligation to extend, beyond all limits, the despotic author- 
ity of the pontiffs ; we have seen, I say, that order sup- 
pressed, banished, covered with deserved infamy, in three 
powerful kingdoms; 1 and we see, at this moment, their 
credit declining in other Roman catholic states. We see, 
in several popish countries, and more especially in France, 
the Scriptures more generally in the hands of the people 
than in former times. We have seen the senate of Ten- 
ice, not many months ago, suppressing, by an express 
edict, b the officers of the inquisition in all the small towns, 
reducing their power to a shadow in the larger cities, 
extending the liberty of the press ; and all this in a 
steady opposition to the repeated remonstrances of the 
court of Rome. These, and many other facts that might 
be collected here, facts of a recent date, show that the 
essential spirit of popery, which is a spirit of unlimited 
despotism in the pretended head of the church, and a 
spirit of blind submission and superstition in its mem- 
bers, is rather losing than gaming ground, even in those 
countries that still profess the religion of Rome. 

If this be the case, it would seem, indeed, very strange, 
that popery, which is losing ground at home, should be 
gaining it abroad, and acquiring new strength, as some 
imagine, even in Protestant countries. This, at first sight, 
must appear a paradox of the most enormous size ; and 
it is to be hoped that it will continue to appear such, upon 
the closest examination. — While the spirit and vigour of 
popery are actually declining on the continent, 1 would 
fondly hope, that the apprehensions of some worthy per- 
sons, with respect to its progress in England, are without 
foundation. To account for the growth of popery in an 

» This edict was issued in the month of February, 1767. 



678 



THE THIRD APPENDIX. 



age of light would be incumbent upon me, if the fact 
were (rue. Until this fact be -proved, I may be excused 
from undertaking such a task. The famous story of the 
golden tooth, that employed the laborious researches of 
physicians, chemists, and philosophers, stands upon record, 
■»s a warning to those who are over-hasty to account for 
a thing which has no existence. My distance from Eng- 
land, during many years past, renders me, indeed, less 
capable of judging of the state of popery, than those who 
are upon the spot : I shall therefore confine myself to a 
few reflections upon this interesting subject. 

When it is said that popery gains ground in England, 
one of the two following things must be meant by this 
expression : either that the spirit of the established, and 
other reformed churches, is leaning that way ; or that a 
number of individuals are made proselytes, by the seduc- 
tion of popish emissaries, to the Romish communion. 
With respect to the established church, I think that a can- 
did and accurate observer must vindicate it from the charge 
of a spirit of approximation to Rome. We do not live in 
the days of a Laud ; nor do his successors seem to have 
imbibed his spirit. I do not hear that the claims of church- 
power are carried high in the present times, or that a spirit 
of intolerance characterises the episcopal hierarchy ; and 
though it may be wished, that the case of subscription 
might be made easier to good and learned men, whose 
scruples deserve indulgence, and be better accommodated 
to what is known to be the reigning theology among the 
episcopal clergy, yet it is straining matters too far to allege 
the demand of subscription as a proof tha-t the established 
church is verging toward popery. As to the Protestant 
dissenting churches in England and Ireland, they stand 
so avowedly clear of all imputations of this nature, that 
it is utterly unnecessary to vindicate them on this head. 
If any thing of this kind is to be apprehended from any 
quarter within the pale of the Reformation, it is from the 
quarter of fanaticism, which, by discrediting free inquiry, 
crying down human learning, and encouraging those pre- 
tended illuminations and impulses which give imagination 
an undue ascendency in religion, lays weak minds open 
to the seductions of a church, which has always made its 
conquests by wild visions and false miracles, addressed to 
the passions and fancies of men. Cry down reason, preach 
up implicit faith, extinguish the lamp of free inquiry, make 
inward experience the test of truth ; and then the main 
barriers against popery will be removed. Persons who 
follow this method possibly may continue Protestants ; 
but there is no security against their becoming Papists, 
if the occasion is presented. Were they placed in a scene 
where artful priests and enthusiastic monks could play 
their engines of conversion, their Protestant faith would 
be very likely to fail. 

If by the supposed growth of popery be meant, the 
success of the Romish emissaries in making proselytes to 
their communion, here again the question turns upon a 
matter of fact, upon which I cannot venture to pronounce. 
There is no doubt that the Romish hierarchy carries on 
its operations under the shade of an indulgent connivance ; 
and it is to be feared that its members are ' wiser (i. e. more 
artful and zealous) in their generation than the children 
of light.' The establishment of the Protestant religion 
inspires, it is to be feared, an indolent security into the 
hearts of its friends. Ease and negligence are the fruits 



of prosperity ; and this maxim even extends to religion, 
It is not unusual to see a victorious general sleep upon his 
laurels, and thus give advantage to an enemy, whom ad- 
versity renders vigilant. All good and true Protestants 
will heartily wish that this were otherwise. They will be 
sincerely afflicted at any decline that may happen in the 
zeal and vigilance that ought ever to be employed against 
popery and its emissaries, since they can never cease to 
consider it as a system of wretched superstition and poli- 
tical despotism, and must particularly look upon popery 
in the British isles as pregnant with the principles of dis- 
affection and rebellion, and as at invariable enmity with 
our religious liberty and our happy civil constitution. But 
still there is reason to hope, that it makes very little pro- 
gress, notwithstanding the apprehensions that have been 
entertained on this subject. The insidious publications 
of a Taafe and a Philips, who abuse the terms of charity, 
philanthropy, and humanity, in their flimsy apologies for 
a church whose tender mercies are known to be cruel, 
have alarmed many well-meaning persons. But it is 
much more wise, as well as noble, to be vigilant and steady 
against the enemy, than to take the alarm at the smallest 
of his motions, and to fall into a panic, as if we were con 
scious of our weakness. Be that as it will, I return to my 
first principle, and am still persuaded, that the Protestant 
church, and its prevailing spirit, are, at this present time, 
as averse to popery, as they were at any period since the 
Reformation, and that the thriving state of learning and 
philosophy, is adapted to confirm them in this well-founded 
aversion. Should it even be granted that proselytes to 
popery have been made, among the ignorant and unwary, 
by the emissaries of Rome, this would by no means invali- 
date what I here maintain, though it may justly be con- 
sidered as a powerful incentive to the zeal and vigilance 
of rulers temporal and spiritual, of the pastors and people 
of the reformed churches, against the encroachments of 
Rome. 

The author of the Confessional complains, and perhaps 
justly, of the bold and public appearance which popery 
has of late made in England. " The papists (says he) 
strengthened and animated by an influx of Jesuits, ex- 
pelled even from popish countries for crimes and practices 
of the worst complexion, open public mass-houses, and 
affront the laws of this Protestant kingdom in other res- 
pects, not without insulting some of those who endeavour 
to check their insolence. And we are told, with the utmost 
coolness and composure, that popish bishops go about 
here, and exercise every part of their function, without 
offence, and without observation." This, is, indeed, a cir- 
cumstance that the friends of reformation and religious 
liberty cannot behold without offence : I say, the friends 
of religious liberty ; because the maintenance of all liberty, 
both civil and religious, depends on circumscribing popery 
within proper bounds, since it is not a system of innocent 
speculative opinions, but a yoke of despotism, an enormous 
mixture of princely and priestly tyranny, designed to en- 
slave the consciences of mankind, and to destroy their 
most sacred and invaluable rights. But, at the same time, 
I do not think we can, from this public appearance of 
popery, rationally conclude that it gains ground, much less 
(as the author of the Confessional suggests,) ' that the two 
hierarchies (i. e. the episcopal and the popish) are growing 
daily more and more into a resemblance of each other.' 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



679 



The natural reason of this hold appearance of popery is 
the spirit of toleration, that has been carried to a great 
height, and has rendered the execution of the laws against 
papists, in recent times, less rigorous and severe. 

How it may be proper to act with regard to the growing 
insolence of popery, is a matter that must be left to the 
wisdom and clemency of government. Rigour against 
any thing that bears the name of religion, gives pain to 
a candid and generous mind ; and it is certainly more 
eligible to extend too far, than to circumscribe too nar- 
rowly, the bounds of forbearance and indulgent cha- 
rity. 

If the dangerous tendency of popery, considered as a 
pernicious system of policy, should be pleaded as a suffi- 
cient reason to except it from the indulgence due to merely 
speculative systems of theology ; — if the voice of history 
should be appealed to, as declaring the assassinations, 
rebellions, conspiracies, the horrid scenes of carnage and 



desolation, that popery has produced ; — if standing prin- 
ciples and maxims of the Romish church should be quoted, 
which authorize these enormities ; — if it should be alleged, 
finally, that popery is much more malignant and danger- 
ous in Great Britain than in any other Protestant coun- 
try ; — I acknowledge that all these pleas against it are 
well-founded, and plead for modifications to the connivance 
which the clemency of government may think proper to 
grant to that unfriendly system of religion. All I wish 
is, that mercy and humanity may ever accompany the 

; execution of justice, and that nothing like merely religious 
persecution may stain the British annals ; and all I main- 
tain with respect to the chief point under consideration is, 

\ that the public appearance of popery, which is justly com- 
plained of, is no certain proof of its growth, but rather 
shows its indiscretion than its strength, and the declining 
vigour of our zeal than the glowing influence of its 
maxims. 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



fi CIRCUMSTANTIAL AND EXACT ACCOUNT OF THE CORRESPONDENCE THAT WAS CARRIED ON, IN THE 
/EARS 1717 AND 1718, BETWEEN DR. WILLIAM WAKE, ARCHBISHOP OF CANTERBURY, AND CERTAIN DOC- 
TORS OF THE SORBONNE AT PARIS, RELATIVE TO A PROJECT OF UNION BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND 
GALLICAN CHURCHES. 



-Magis arnica Veritas. 



When the famous Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, laid an [ 
insidious snare for unthinking Protestants, in his artful 
Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of Rome, the 
pious and learned Dr. Wake unmasked this deceiver ; and 
the writings he published on this occasion gave him a dis- 1 
tinguished rank among the victorious champions of the j 
Protestant cause. Should any person, who had perused j 
these writings, be informed, that this ' pretended champion 
of the Protestant religion had set on foot a project of union 
with a popish church, with concessions in favour of the 
grossest superstition and idolatry,' 1 he would be apt to 

* See the Confessional, "d edition, Pref. p. lxxvi. 

•> Dr. Mosheim had certainly a very imperfect idea of this corres- 
pondence ; and he seems to have been misled by the account of it, 
which Kiorning has given in his dissertation De Consecrationibus 
EpiscoporumAnglorum, published at Helmstadt in 1739; which account, 
notwithstanding the means of information its author seemed to have by 
his journey to England, and his conversations with Dr. Courayer, is 
full of mistakes. Thus Kiorning tells us, that Dr. Wake submitted to 
the judgment of the Romish doctors, his correspondents, the conditions 
of peace between the twochuiches, which he had drawn up; — that he 
sent a learned man (Dr. Wilkins, his chaplain) to Paris, to forward and 
complete, if possible, the projected union ; — that, in a certain assembly 
holden at Paris, the difficulties of promoting this union without the 
pope's concurrence were insisted upon by some men of high rank, who 
seemed inclined to the union, aad that these difficulties put an end to 
the conferences ; — that, however, two French divines (whom he sup- 
poses to be Du-Pin and Girardin) were sent to England to propose new 
terms. It now happens unluckily for Mr. Kiorning's reputation as an 
historian, that not one syllable of all this is true, as will appear suffi- 
ciendy to the reader, who peruses with attention the account and the 
pieces which I here lay before the public. — But one of the most egregious 
errors in tire account given by Kiorning, is at page 61 of his Disser- 
tation, where he says, that archbishop Wake was so much elated with 
the prospect of success in the scheme of an accommodation that he 
acquainted the divines of Geneva with it in 1719, and plainly inti- 
mated to them, that he thought it an easier thing than reconciling the 
Protestants with each other. — Let us now see where Kiorning received 



stare ; at least he would require the strongest possible evi- 
dence for a fact, in all appearance so contradictory and 
unaccountable. This accusation has, nevertheless, been 
brought against the eminent prelate, by the ingenious and 
intrepid author of the Confessional ; and it is founded 
upon an extraordinary passage in Dr. Mosheim's Ecclesi- 
astical History; where we are told, that Dr. Wake £ formed 
a project of peace and union between the English and Gai- 
lican churches, founded upon this condition, that each of 
the two communities should retain the greatest part ef 
their respective and peculiar doctrines.' b This passage, 

this information. — Why, truly, it was from a letter of Dr. Wake to Pro- 
fessor Turretin of Geneva, in which there is not one syllable relative 
to a scheme of union between the English and Gallican churches ; and 
yet Kiorning quotes a passage in this letter as the only authority he has 
for this affirmation. The case was this: Dr. Wake, in the former part 
of his letter to Turretin, speaks of the sufferings of the Hungarian and 
Piedmontese churches, which he had successfully endeavoured to alle- 
viate, by engaging George I. to intercede in their behalf; and then pro- 
ceeds to express his desire of healing the differences that disturbed the 
union of the Protestant churches abroad. ' Interim (says he) dum haec 
(i. e. the endeavours to relieve the Hungarian and Piedemontese 
churches) feliciter peraguntur, ignoscite, Fratres Dilectissimi, simajoris 
quidem laboris atque difficultatis, sed longe maximi omnibus comniodi 
inceptum vobis proponam; unionem nimirum, &c.' Professor Turretin, 
in his work entitled, Nubes Testium, printed only the latter part of Dr. 
Wake's letter, beginning with the. words, 'Interim, &c.' and Kiorning-, 
not having seen the preceding part of this letter, which relates to the 
Hungarian and Piedmontese churches, and with which these words are 
connected, took it into his head that these words were relative to the 
scheme of union between the English and Gallican churches. Is or did 
he only take this into his head by way of conjecture, but he affirms, 
very sturdily and positively, that the words have this signification : 
' Haec verba (says he) tangunt pacis cum Gallis instnurandas negotium, 
quod ex temporum rationibus manifestumest.' To show him, however, 
that he grossly errs, I have published among the annexed pieces (No. 
XX.) the whole letter of archbishop Wake to Turretin. 



hSO 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



though it is, perhaps, too uncharitably interpreted by the 
author already mentioned, would furnish, without doubt, 
just matter of censure, were it founded in truth. I was 
both surprised and perplexed while I was translating it. I 
could not immediately procure proper information with 
respect to the fact, nor could I examine Mosheim's proofs 
of this strange assertion, because he alleged none. Des- 
titute of materials, either to invalidate or confirm the fact, 
I made a slight mention, in a short note, of a correspon- 
dence which had been carried on between archbishop Wake 
and Dr. Du-Pin, with the particulars of which I was not 
acquainted ; and, in this my ignorance, only made a gene- 
ral observation, drawn from Dr. Wake's known zeal for 
the Protestant religion, which was designed, not to con- 
firm that assertion, but rather to insinuate my disbelief 
of it. It never could come into my head, that the interests 
of the Protestant religion would have been safe in arch- 
bishop Wake's hands, had I given the smallest degree of 
credit to Dr. Mosheim's assertion, or even suspected that 
this eminent prelate was inclined to form a union between 
the English and Gallican churches, ' founded on this con- 
dition, that each of the two communities should retain 
the greatest part of their respective and peculiar doc- 
trines.' 

If the author of the Confessional had given a little 
more attention to this, he could not have represented me, 
as confirming the fact alleged by Mosheim, much less as 
giving it what he is pleased to call the sanction of my 
approbation. I did not confirm the fact ; for I only said 
there was a correspondence on the subject, without speak- 
ing a syllable of the unpleasing condition that forms the 
charge against Dr. Wake. I shall not enter here into a 
debate about the grammatical import of my expressions, 
as I have something more interesting to present to the 
reader, who is curious of information about archbishop 
Wake's real conduct in relation to the correspondence 
already mentioned. I have been favoured with authentic 
copies of the letters which passed in this correspondence, 
which are now in the hands of Mr. Beauvoir of Canter- 
bury, the worthy son of the clergyman who was chaplain to 
lord Stair in the year 1717, and also with others, from the 
valuable collection of manuscripts left by Dr. Wake to the 
library of Christ-Church College in Oxford. It is from 
these letters that I have drawn the following account, at 
the end of which copies of them are printed, to serve as 
proofs of the truth of this relation, which I publish with 
a disinterested regard to truth. This impartiality may be, 
in some measure, expected from my situation in life, 
which has placed me at a distance from the scenes of reli-" 
gious and ecclesiastical contention in England, and cut 

* The perusal of this letter (which the reader will find among the 
pieces here subjoined, No. I.) is sufficient to remove the suspicions of 
the author of the Confessional, who seems inclined to believe, that arch- 
bishop Wake was the first mover in the project of uniting the English 
and Gallican churches. This author, having mentioned Mr. Beauvoir's 
letter, in which Du-Pin's desire of this union is communicated to the 
archbishop, asks the following question: ' Can any man be certain that 
Beauvoir mentioned this merely out of his own head, and without some 
previous occasion given, in the archbishop's letter to him, for such a con- 
versation with the Sorbonne doctors V I answer to this question, that 
every one who reads the archbishop's letter of the 28th of November, 
to which this letter of Mr. Beauvoir is an answer, may be very certain 
that Dr. Wake's letter did not give him the least occasion for such a con- 
versation, but relates entirely to the Benedictine edition of St. Chrysos- 
tom, Martenne's Thesaurus Anecdotorum, and Moreri's Dictionary. 
'But, says our author, there is an tyc. in this copy of Mr. Beauvoir's 
letter, very suspiciously placed, as if »o cover something improper to be 



me off from those personal connexions, that nourish the 
prejudices of a party spirit, more than many are aware 
of; but it would be still more expected from my principles, 
were they known. 

From this narrative, confirmed by authentic papers, it 
will appear with the utmost evidence, 

1st, That archbishop Wake was not the first mover in 
this correspondence, nor the person who formed the pro- 
ject of union between the English and Gallican churches. 

2dly, That he never made any concessions, nor offered 
to give up, for the sake of peace, any one point of the 
established doctrine and discipline of the church of Eng- 
land, in order to promote this union. 

3dly, That any desires of union with the church of 
Rome, expressed in the archbishop's letters, proceeded from 
the hopes (well founded, or illusory, is not my business to 
examine here) that he at first entertained of a considerable 
reformation in that church, and from an expectation that 
its most absurd doctrines would fall to the ground, if they 
could once be deprived of their great support, the papal 
authority; — the destruction of which authority was the 
very basis of this correspondence. 

It will farther appear, that Dr. Wake considered union 
in external worship, as one of the best methods of healing 
the uncharitable dissensions that are often occasioned by 
a variety of sentiments in point of doctrine, in which a 
perfect uniformity is not to be expected. This is undoubt 
edly a wise principle, when it is not carried too far ; and 
whether or no it was carried too far by this eminent pre- 
late, the candid reader is left to judge from the following 
relation : 

In the month of November, 1717, archbishop Wake 
wrote a letter to Mr. Beauvoir, chaplain to the earl of Stair, 
then ambassador at Paris, in which his grace acknow- 
ledges the receipt of several obliging letters from Mr. Beau- 
voir. This is manifestly the first letter which the prelate 
wrote to that gentleman, and the whole contents of it are 
matters of a literary nature." In answer to this letter, Mr. 
Beauvoir, in one dated the eleventh of December, 1717, 
O. S. gives the archbishop the information he desired, 
about the method of subscribing to a new edition of St. 
Chrysostom, which was at that time in the press at Paris, 
and then mentions his having dined with Du-Pin, and 
three other doctors of the Sorbonne, who talked as if the 
whole kingdom of France was to appeal (in the affair of 
the Bull Unigenitus) to a future general council, and 
who - wished for a union with the church of England, 
as the most effectual means to unite all the western 
churches.' Mr. Beauvoir adds, that Dr. Du-Pin had 
desired him to give his duty to the archbishop. b Here 



disclosed.'* But really if any thing was covered here, it was covered 
from the archbishop as well as from the public, since the very name, <f-e. 
that we see in the printed copy of Mr. Beauvoir's letter, stands in tha 
original. Besides, I would be glad to know, what there is in the placing 
of this, <$-c. that can give rise to suspicion? The passage of Beauvoir's 
letter runs thus: 'They (the Sorbonne doctors) talked as if the whole 
kingdom was to appeal to the future general council, &c. They wished 
for a union with the church of England, as the most effectual means to 
unite all the Western churches.' It is palpably evident, that the <$-c. 
here has not the least relation to the union, in question, and gives no 
sort of reason to suspect any thing but the spirit of discontent, which 
the insolent proceedings of the court of Rome had excited among the 
French divines. 

t See the Letteis subjoined, No. II. 

* The other reflections that the author has there made upon the corres- 
pondence between archbishop Wake and the doctors of the Sorbonne 
are examined in the following note. " 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



681 



we see a first hint, the very first overture that was made 
relative to a project of union between the English and 
Gallican churches ; and this hint comes originally from 
the doctors of the Sorbonne, and is not occasioned by any 
thing- contained in preceding letters from archbishop Wake 
to Mr. Beauvoir, since the one only letter, which Mr. 
Bea avoir had hitherto received from that eminent prelate, 
was entirely taken up in inquiries about some new editions 
of books that were then publishing at Paris. 

Upon this the archbishop wrote a letter to Mr. Beauvoir, 
in which he makes honourable mention of Du-Pin as an 
author of merit, and expresses his desire of serving him, 
with that benevolent politeness which reigns in our learned 
prelate's letters, and seems to have been a striking line in 
his amiable character. 1 Dr. Du-Pin improved this favour- 
able occasion of writing to the archbishop a letter of 
thanks, dated January 31, (February 11, N. S.) 1717-18 ; 
in which, toward the conclusion, he intimates his desire of 
a union between the English and Gallican churches, 
and observes, that the difference between them, in most 
points, was not so great as to render a reconciliation im- 
practicable ; and that it was his earnest wish, that all 
Christians should be united in one sheepfold. His words 
are : ' Unum addam cum bona venia tua, me vehemen- 



* This ' handsome mention' of Dr. Du-Pin, made by the archbishop, 
gives new subject of suspicion to the author of the Confessional. He 
had learned the fact from the article Wake, in the Biographia Britan- 
nica ; ' but, says he, we are left to guess what this handsome mention 
was ; — had the biographer given us this letter, together with that of No- 
vember 27, they might probably (it would have been more accurate to 
have said possibly,) have discovered what the biographer did not want 
we should know, namely, the share Dr. Wake had in forming the pro- 
ject of a union between the two churches. 1 This is guessing with a 
witness : — and it is hard to imagine how the boldest calculator of pro- 
babilities could conclude from Dr. Wake's handsome mention of Dr. 
Du-Pin, that the former had a share, of any kind, in forming the project 
of union now under consideration. For the ingenious guesser happens 
to be quite mistaken in his conjecture; and I hope to convince him of 
this, by satisfying his desire. He desires the letter of the 27th (or rather 
the 28th) of November ; I have referred to it in the preceding note, and 
he may read it at the end of this account. He desires the letter in which 
handsome mention is made of Du-Pin; and I can assure him, that in 
that letter there is not a single syllable relative to a union. The passage 
that regards Dr. Du-Pin is as follows : I am much obliged to you (says 
Dr. Wake, in his letter to Mr. Beauvoir, dated January 2, 1717-18) for 
making my name known to Dr. Du-Pin. He is a gentleman by whose 
labours I have profited these many years ; and I do really admire how 
it is possible for one man to publish so much, and yet so correctly, as 
he has generally done. I desire my respects to him ; and that, if there 
be any thing here whereby I may be serviceable to him, he will freely 
command me.' Such was the archbishop's handsome mention of Du-Pin; 
and it evidently shows that, till then, there never had been any commu- 
nication between them. Yet these are all the proofs which the author 
of the Confessional gives of the probability that the archbishop was the 
first mover in this affair. 

But ' his grace accepted the party, a formal treaty commences, and 
is carried on in a correspondence of some length,' says the author of 
the Confessional. And I would candidly ask that author, upon 
>vhat principles of Christianity, reason, or charity, Dr. Wake could 
nave refused to hear the proposals, terms, and sentiments of the Sor- 
fionne doctors, who discovered an inclination to unite with his church 1 
The author of the Confessional says elsewhere, ' that it was, at the 
best, officious and presumptuous in Dr. Wake to enter into a negotiation 
jf this nature, without authority from the church or the government.' 
But the truth is, that he entered into no negotiation or treaty on this 
lead ; he considered the letters that were written on both sides as a per- 
sonal correspondence between individuals, who could not commence a 
legotiation, until they had received the proper powers from their re- 
spective sovereigns ; and I do think he was greatly in the right to enter 
«to this correspondence, as it seemed very likely, in the then circum- 
stances of the Gallican church, to serve the Protestant interest and the 
>ause of reformation. If, indeed, in the course of this correspondence, 
he had discovered any thing like what Mosheim imputes to him, even 
» disposition toward a union, founded upon the condition that each of 
the two churches should retain the greatest part of their respective and 
peculiar doctrines, I should think his conduct liable to censure. But no 

No. LVII. 171 



ter optare, ut unionis inter Ecclesias Anglicanam et Gal- 
licanam ineundse via aliqua inveniri posset: non ita sumus 
ab invicem in plerisque dissiti, ut non possimus mutuo 
reconciliari. Atque utinam Christiani omnes essent unum 
ovile.' The archbishop wrote an answer to this letter, 
dated February 13-24, 1717-18, in which he asserts, at 
large, the purity of the church of England, in faith, wor- 
ship, government, and discipline, and tells his correspon- 
dent, that he is persuaded that there are few things in the 
doctrine and constitution of that church, which even he 
himself (Du-Pin) would desire to see changed ; the original 
words are: 'Aut ego vehementer fallor, aut in ea pauca 
admodum sunt, quae vel tu — immutanda velles;'and again, 
' Sincere judica, quid in hac nostra ecclesia invenias, quod 
jure damnari debeat, aut nos atra haereticorum, vel etiam 
schismaticorum, nota inurere.' The zeal of the venerable 
prelate goes still farther ; and the moderate sentiments 
which he observed in Dr. Du-Pin's letter induced him to 
exhort the French to maintain, if not. to enlarge, the rights 
and privileges of the Gallican church, for which the exist- 
ing disputes, about the constitution U?iigenitus, furnished 
the most favourable occasion. He also expresses his readi- 
ness to concur in improving any opportunity, that might 
be offered by these debates, to form a union that might 

such thing appears in his letters, which I have subjoined to this account, 
that the candid examiner may receive full satisfaction in this affair. 
Mosheim's mistake is palpable, and the author of the Confessional 
seems certainly to have been too hasty in adopting it. He alleges, that 
Dr. Wake might have maintained the justice and orthodoxy of every 
individual article of the church of England, and yet ' give up some of 
them for the sake of peace.' But the archbishop expressly declares, in his 
letters, that he would give up none of them, and that, though he was a 
friend to peace, he was still a greater friend to truth. The author's re- 
flection, that, without some concessions on the part of the archbishop, 
the treaty could not have gone a step farther, may be questioned in 
theory ; for treaties are often carried on for a long time without conces- 
sions on both sides, or perhaps on either ; and the archbishop might 
hope that Du-Pin, who had yielded several things, would still yield 
more; but this remark is overturned by the plain fact. Besides, I repeat 
what I have already insinuated, that this correspondence does not de- 
serve the name of a treaty* Proposals were made only on Du-Pin's side; 
and these proposals were positively rejected by the archbishop, in his 
letters to Mr. Beauvoir. Nor did he propose any tiling in return to 
either of the Sorbonne doctors, but that they should entirely renounce 
the authority of the pope, hoping, though perhaps too fancifully, that, 
when this was done, the two churches might come to an agreement 
about other matters, as far as was necessary. But the author of the 
Confessional supposes, that the archbishop must have made some con- 
cessions, because the letters on both sides were sent to Rome, and re- 
ceived there as ' so many trophies gained from the enemies of the 
church.' This supposition, however, is somewhat hasty. Could nothing 
but concessions from the archbishop make the court of Rome considei 
those letters in that light'? Would they not think it a great triumph, 
that they had obliged Du-Pin's party to give up the letters as a token 
of their submission, and defeated the archbishop's design of engaging 
the Gallican church to assert its liberty, by throwing off the papal yoke 1 
If Dr. Wake made concessions, where are they'? And if these were 
the trophies, why did not the partisans of Rome publish authentic copies 
of them to the world 1 Did the author of the Confessional ever hear of 
a victorious general, who carefully hid under ground the standards he 
had taken from the enemy 1 This, indeed, is a new method of dealing 
with trophies. Our author, however, does not, as yet, quit his hold ; he 
alleges, that the French divines could not have acknowledged the catho- 
lic benevolence of the archbishop, if he made no concessions to them. 
This reasoning would be plausible, if charity toward those who err 
consisted in embracing their errors; but this is a definition of charity, 
that, I fancy, the ingenious author will give up, upon second 
thoughts. Dr. Wake's catholic benevolence consisted in his esteem 
for the merit and learning of his correspondents, in his compassion for 
their servitude and their errors, in his desire of the reformation and 
liberty of their church, and his inclination to live in friendship and con- 
cord, as far as was possible, with all that bear the Christian name ; and 
this disposition, so suitable to the benevolent genius of Christianity, 
will always reflect a true and solid glory upon his character as a Chris- 
tian bishop. 

* See po»t, note » and the letters subjoined, No. XI. 



682 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



be productive of a farther reformation, in which, not only the 
most rational Protestants, but also a considerable number 
of the Roman catholic churches, should join with the 
church of England ; 'si exhinc (says the archbishop, speak- 
ing of the recent commotions excited by the Constitution) 
aliquid amplius elici possit ad unionem nobiscum ecclesi- 
asticum ineundam ; unde forte nova qusedam reformatio 
exoriatur, in quam non solum ex Protestantibus optimi 
quique, verum etiam pars magna ecclesiarum Communi- 
onis Romano-Catholicee, una nobiscum conveniant.' 

Hitherto we see, that the expressions of the two learned 
doctors of the English and Gallican churches, relating to 
the union under consideration, are of a vague and general 
nature. When they were thus far advanced in their cor- 
respondence, an event happened, which rendered it more 
close, serious, and interesting, and even brought on some 
particular mention of preliminary terms, and certain pre- 
paratives for a future negotiation. The event I mean, 
was a discourse delivered, in an extraordinary meeting of 
the Sorbonne, March 17-28, 1717-18, by Dr. Patrick Piers 
de Girardin, in which he exhorts the doctors of that society 
to proceed in their design of revising the doctrines and rules 
of the church, to separate things necessary from those which 
are not so, by which they will show the church of England 
that they do not hold every decision of the pope for an arti- 
cle of faith. The learned orator observes farther (upon 
what foundation it is difficult to guess,) that the English 
church may be more easily reconciled than the Greek was ; 
and that the disputes between the Gallican church and the 
court of Rome, removing the apprehensions of papal 
tyranny, which terrified the English from the Catholic 
communion, will lead them back into the bosom of the 
church, with greater celerity than they formerly fled from 
it : ' Facient (says he) profecto offensiones, quae vos inter 
et senatum Capitolinum videntur intervenisse, ut Angli 
deposito servitutis metu, in ecclesiee gremium revolent alac- 
rius quam olim inde, quorundam exosi tyrannidem, avo- 
larunt. Meministis ortas inter Paulum et Barnabam dis- 
sensiones animorum tandem eo recidisse, ut singuli propa- 
ganda? in diversis regionibus fidei felicius insudaverint 
sigillatim, quam junctis viribus fortasse insudassent.' 
This last sentence (in which Dr. Girardin observes, that 
Paul and Barnabas probably made more converts in con- 
sequence of their separation, than they would have done 
had they travelled together, and acted in concert,) is not 
a little remarkable ; and, indeed, the whole passage dis- 
covers rather a desire of making proselytes, than an incli- 
nation to form a coalition founded upon concessions and 
some reformation on the side of popery. It may, perhaps, 
be alleged, in opposition to this remark, that prudence 
required a language of this kind, in the infancy of a 
project of union, whatever concessions might be offered 
afterwards to bring about its execution ; ■ and this may 
be true. 

After the delivery of this discourse in the Sorbonne, 
Dr. Du-Pin showed to Girardin archbishop Wake's letter, 
which was also communicated to cardinal de Noailles, 
who admired it greatly, as appears from a letter of Dr. 
Piers de Girardin to Dr. Wake, written, I believe, April 
18-29, 1718. Before the arrival of this letter the arch- 
bishop had received a second from Dr. Du-Pin, and also 
a copy of Girardin's discourse. But he does not seem to 
have entertained any notion, in consequence of all this, 



that the projected union would go on smoothly. On the 
contrary, he no sooner received these letters, than he wrote 
to Mr. Beauvoir (April 15, 1718,) that it was his opinion, 
that neither the regent nor the cardinal would ever come 
to a rupture with the court of Rome ; and that nothing 
could be done, in point of doctrine, until this rupture was 
brought about. He added, that fundamentals should be 
distinguished from matters of less moment, in which dif- 
ferences or errors might be tolerated. He expresses a 
curiosity to know the reception which his former letter to 
Du-Pin had met with ; and he wrote again to that eccle- 
siastic, and also to Girardin (May 1, 1718,) and sent both 
his letters toward the end of that month. 

The doctors of the Sorbonne, whether they were set in 
motion by the real desire of a union with the English 
church, or only intended to make use of this union as 
the means of intimidating the court of Rome, began to 
form a plan of reconciliation, and to specify the terms 
upon which they were willing to bring it into execution. 
Mr. Beauvoir acquaints the archbishop, in July, 1718, 
that Dr. Du-Pin had made a rough draught of an essay 
toward a union, which cardinal de Noailles desired to 
peruse before it was sent to his grace ; and that both Du- 
Pin and Girardin were highly pleased with his grace's 
letters to them. These letters, however, were written 
with a truly Protestant spirit ; the archbishop insisted, in 
them, upon the truth and orthodoxy of the articles of the 
church of England, and did not make any concession, 
which supposed the least approximation to the peculiar 
doctrines, or the smallest approbation of the ambitious 
pretensions of the church of Rome ; he observed, on the 
contrary, that it was now the time for Dr. Du-Pin, and 
his brethren of the Sorbonne, to declare openly their true 
sentiments with respect to the superstition and tyranny of 
that church ; that it was the interest of all Christians to 
unmask that court, and to reduce its authority to its 
primitive limits ; and that, according to the fundamental 
principle of the Reformation in general, and of the 
church of England in particular, Jesus Christ is the only 
founder, source, and head of the church. Accordingly, 
when Mr. Beauvoir had acquainted the archbishop with 
Du-Pin's having formed a plan of union, his grace 
answered in a manner which showed that he looked upon 
the removal of the Gallican church from the jurisdiction 
of Rome as an essential preliminary article, without which 
no negotiation could even be commenced. '•' To speak 
freely (says the prelate, in his letter of the 11th of August, 
to Mr. Beauvoir,) I do not think the regent (the duke of 
Orleans) yet strong enough in his interest, to adventure 
at a separation from the court of Rome. Could the regent 
openly appear in this, the divines would follow, and a 
scheme might fairly be offered for such a union, as 
alone is requisite, between the English and Gallican 
churches. But, till the time comes that the state will 
euter into such a work, all the rest is mere speculation. 
It may amuse a few contemplative men of learning and 
probity, who see the errors of the church, and groan under 
the tyranny of the court of Rome. It may dispose them 
secretly to wish well to us, and think charitably of us ; 
but still they must call themselves Catholics, and us 
Heretics ; and, to all outward appearance, say mass, and 
act so as they have been wont to do. If, under the shel- 
ter of Gallican privileges, they can now and then serve 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



683 



the state by speaking big in the Sorbonne, they will do 
it heartily : but that is all, if I am not greatly mistaken." 

Soon after this the archbishop received Du-Pin's Com- 
monitorium, or advice relating to the method of re-uniting 
the English and Gallican churches ; of the contents of 
which it will not be improper to give here a compendious 
account, as it was read in the Sorbonne, and was approved 
there, and as the concessions it contains, though not suf- 
ficient to satisfy a true Protestant, are yet such as one 
would not expect from a very zealous papist. Dr. Du-Pin, 
after some reflections, in the tedious preface, on the Refor- 
mation, and the present state of the church of England, 
reduces the controversy between the churches to three 
heads, viz. articles of faith, — rules and ceremonies of eccle- 
siastical discipline, — and moral doctrine, or rules of prac- 
tice ; and these he treats, by entering into an examination 
of the XXXIX articles of the church of England. The 
first five of these articles he approves. With regard to 
the Vlth, which affirms that the Scripture contains all 
things necessary to salvation, he expresses himself thus : 
" This we will readily grant, provided that you do not 
entirely exclude tradition, which does not exhibit new 
articles of faith, but confirms and illustrates those which 
are contained in the sacred writings, and places about 
them new guards to defend them against gainsayers, a 
&c." He thinks that the apocryphal books will not occa- 
sion much difficulty. He is, indeed, of opinion, that " they 
ought to be deemed canonical, as those books concerning 
which there were doubts for some time ;" yet, since 
they are not in the first or Jewish canon, he will allow 
them to be called Deutero-Canonical. He consents to 
the Xth article, which relates to free-will, provided that 
by the word power be understood what school-divines call 
potentia proxima, or a direct and immediate power, 
since, without a remote power of doing good works, sin 
could not be imputed. 

With respect to the Xlth article, which contains the 
doctrine of justification, he thus expresses the sentiments 
of his brethren : " We do not deny that it is by faith 
alone that we are justified, but we maintain that faith, 
charity, and good works, are necessary to salvation ; and 
this is acknowledged in the following article. b 

Concerning the XHIth article, he observes, " that there 
will be no dispute, since many divines of both communions 
embrace the doctrine contained in that article," (viz. that 
works done before the grace of Christ are not pleasing to 
God, and have the nature of sin.) He indeed thinks " it 
very harsh to say, that all those actions are sinful which 
have not the grace of Christ for their source ;" but he con- 
siders this rather as a matter of theological discussion than 
as a term of fraternal communion.' 

On the XlVth article, relating to works of supereroga- 
tion (undoubtedly one of the most absurd and pernicious 
doctrines of the Romish church,) he observes, " that works 
of supererogation mean only works conducive to salvation, 
which are not matters of strict precept, but of counsel only ; 
that the word, being new, may be rejected, provided it be 
owned that the faithful do some such works." 

• The original words arc: ' Hoc lubenter admittemus, modo non ex- 
cludatur traditio, qure articulos fidei novos non exhibet, sed confirmatet ex- 
olicatea, quae in sacris Uteris habentur, ac adversus aliter sapientes munit 
eos novis cautionibus, ita ut non nova dicantur, sed antiqua novo.' 

b The original words ai'e: 'Fide sola in Christum nos justificari, 
quod articulo XIrao exponitur, non inficiamur; sed fide, charitate, et ad- 



He makes no objections to the XV, XYI, XYII, and 
XVIIIth articles. 

His observation on the XlXth is, that to the definition 
of the church, the words, under lawful pastors, ought 
to be added ; and that though all particular churches, 
even that of Rome, may err, it is needless to say this in 
a confession of faith. 

He consents to the decision of the XXth article, which 
refuses to the church the power of ordaining any thing 
that is contrary to the word of God ; but he says, it must 
be taken for granted, that the church will never do this 
in matters which overturn essential points of faith, or, to 
use his own words, 'quae fidei substantiam evertant.' 

It is in consequence of this notion that he remarks on 
the XXIst article, that general councils, received by the 
universal church, cannot err ; and that, though particular 
councils may, yet every private man has not a right to 
reject what he thinks contrary to Scripture. 

As to the important points of controversy'contained in 
the XXIId article, he endeavours to mince matters as nicely 
as he can, to see if he can make the cable pass through 
the eye of the needle : and for this purpose observes, that 
souls must be purged, i. e. purified from all defilement 
of sin. before they are admitted to celestial bliss ; that the 
church of Rome does not affirm this to be done by fire ; 
that indulgences are only relaxations or remissions of tem- 
poral penalties in this life ; that the Roman catholics do 
not worship the cross, or relics, or images, or even saints 
before their images, but only pay them an external respect, 
which is not of a religious nature ; and that even the 
external demonstration of respect is a matter of indiffer- 
ence, which may be laid aside or retained without harm. 

He approves the XXIIId article ; and does not pretend 
to dispute about the XXIVth, which ordains the celebra- 
tion of divine worship in the vulgar tongue. He, indeed, 
excuses the Latin and Greek churches for preserving 
their ancient languages ; but, as great care has been taken 
that every thing be understood by translations, he allows, 
that divine service may be performed in the vulgar tongue, 
where that is customary. 

Under the XXYth article he insists that the five Romish 
sacraments be acknowledged as such, whether instituted 
immediately by Christ or not. 

He approves the XXVIth and XXVIIth articles ; and 
he proposes expressing the part of the XXYIIIth that 
relates to Transubstantiation (which term he is willing to 
omit entirely,) in the following manner : " That the 
bread and wine are really changed into the body and 
blood of Christ, which last are truly and really received 
by all, though none but the faithful partake of any benefit 
from them." This extends also to the XXIXth article. 

With regard to the XXXth, he is for mutual toleration, 
and would have the receiving of the communion in both 
kinds held indifferent, and liberty left to each church to 
preserve, or change, or dispense with its customs on certain 
occasions. 

He is less inclined to concessions on the XXXIst article, 
and maintains that the sacrifice of Christ is not only 

junctis bonis operibus, quae omnino necessaria sunt ad salutem, ut arti- 
culo sequenti agnoscitur.' 

" ' De articulo XHImo nulla lis erit, cum multi theologi in eadem ver- 
sentur sententia. Dwius videtur id dici, cas omncs actiones quse ex 
gratia Christi non fiunt, esse peccatu. Nolim tamen de hdc re discep- 
tari, nisi inter theologos.' 



6S4 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



commemorated, but continued, in the eucharist, and that 
every communicant offers him along with, the priest. 

He is not a warm stickler for the celibacy of the clergy, 
Dut consents so far to the XXXIId article, as to allow 
that priests may marry, where the laws of the church do 
not prohibit it. 

In the XXXIIId and XXXIVth articles, he acquiesces 
without exception. 

He suspends his judgment with respect to the XXXVth, 
as he never perused the homilies mentioned therein. 

As to the XXXVIth, he would not have the English 
ordinations pronounced null, though some of them, perhaps, 
are so ; but thinks that, if a union be made, the English 
clergy ought to be continued in their offices and benefices, 
either by right or indulgence, ' sive ex jure, sive ex indul- 
gentia ecclesise.' 

He admits the XXXVIIth, so far as relates to the 
authority of the civil power ; denies all temporal and all 
immediate spiritual jurisdiction of the pope ; but alleges, 
that, by virtue of his primacy, which moderate (he ought 
to have said immoderate) Church-of-England-men do 
not deny, he is bound to see that the true faith be main- 
tained ; that the canons be observed every where ; and, 
when an}' thing is done in violation of either, to provide 
the remedies prescribed for such disorders by the canon 
laws, ' secundum leges canonicas, ut malum resarciatur, 
procurare.' As to the rest, he is of opinion, that every 
church ought to enjoy its own liberties and privileges, 
which the pope has no right to infringe. He declares 
against going too far (the expression is vague, but the 
man probably meant well) in the punishment of heretics, 
against admitting the inquisition into France, and against 
War without a just cause. 

The XXXVIIIth and XXXIXth articles he approves. 
Moreover, in the discipline and worship of the church of 
England, he sees nothing amiss and thinks no attempts 
should be made to discover or prove by whose fault the 
schism was begun. He farther observes, " that a union 
between the English and French bishops and clergy may 
be completed, or at least advanced, without consulting 
the Roman pontiff, who may be informed of the union as 
soon as it is accomplished, and may be desired to consent 
to it ; that, if he consents to it, the affair will then be 
finished ; and that, even without his consent, the union 
shall be valid ; that, in case he attempts to terrify by his 
threats, it will then be expedient to appeal to a general 
council." 1 He concludes by observing, " that this arduous 
matter must first be discussed between a few ; and, if 
there be reason to hope that the bishops, on both sides, 
will agree about the terms of the designed union, that 
hen application must be made to the civil power, to 
advance and confirm the work," to which he wishes all 
success. 

It is from the effect which these proposals and terms 
made upon archbishop Wake, that it will be most natural 
to form a notion of his sentiments with respect to the 
church of Rome. It appears evident, from several passages 
m the writings and letters of this eminent prelate, that he 
was persuaded that a reformation in the church of Rome 
could only be made gradually ; that it was not probable 



■ ' Unio fieri potest aut saltern promoveri, inconsulto pontifice, qui, 
facta, unione, de ea admonebitur,- ac suppliciter rogabitur, ut velit ei con- 
sentire. Si consentiat, jam peracta res erit: sin abnuat, nihilominus 
valebit h«c unio. Et si minas intentet, ad concilium generale appellabitur.' 



that they would renounce all their follies at once ; bu 
that, if they should once begin to make concessions, thi 
would set in motion the work of reformation, which, in 
all likelihood, would receive new accessions of vigour, and 
go on until a happy change should be effected. Thia 
way of thinking might have led the archbishop to give 
an indulgent reception to these proposals of Du-Pin, 
which contained some concessions, and might be an in- 
troduction to more. And yet we find that he rejected 
this piece, as insufficient to serve as a basis, or ground- 
work, to the desired union. On receiving the piece, he 
immediately perceived that he had not sufficient ground 
for carrying on this negotiation, without previously con- 
sulting his brethren, and obtaining a permission from the 
king for this purpose. Beside this, he was resolved not to 
submit either to the direction of Dr. Du-Pin, or to that of 
the Sorbonne, in relation to what was to be retained, or 
what was to be given up, in the doctrine and discipline of 
the two churches ; nor to treat with the church of Rome 
upon any other footing, than that of a perfect equality in 
point of authority and power. He declared more especially, 
that he would never comply with the proposals made in 
Du-Pin's Commonitorium, of which I have now given 
the contents ; observing that, though he was a friend to 
peace, he was still more a friend to truth : and that, " unless 
the Roman catholics gave up some of their doctrines 
and rites," a union with them could never be effected. 
All this is contained in a letter written by the archbishop 
to Mr. Beauvoir, on receiving the Commonitorium. This 
letter is dated August 30, 1718 ; and the reader will find 
a copy of it subjoined to this appendix. b About a month 
after, his grace wrote a letter to Dr. Du-Pin, dated October 
1, 1718, in which he complains of the tyranny of the 
pope, exhorts the Gallican doctors to throw off the papal 
yoke in a national council, since a general one is not to 
be expected ; and declares, that this must be the great 
preliminary and fundamental principle of the projected 
union, which being settled, a uniformity might be brought 
about in other matters, or a diversity of sentiments mutu- 
ally allowed, without any violation of peace or concord. 
The archbishop commends, in the same letter, the candour 
and openness that reign in the Commonitorium ; entreats 
Dr. Du-Pin to write to him always upon the same foot- 
ing, freely, and without disguise or reserve ; and tells him 
he is pleased with several things in that piece, and with 
nothing more than with the doctor's declaring it as his 
opinion, that there is not a great difference between their 
respective sentiments ; but adds, that he cannot at present 
give his sentiments at large concerning that piece.' 

Dr. Wake seems to have aimed principally, in this 
correspondence, at bringing about a separation between 
the Gallican church and the court of Rome. The terms 
in which the French divines often spoke about the liber- 
ties of their church, might give him some hope that this 
separation would take place, if ever these divines should 
be countenanced by the civil power of France. But a 
man of the archbishop's sagacity could not expect that* 
they would enter into a union with any other national 
church all at once. He acted, therefore, with dignity, 
as well as with prudence, when he declined to explain 

b See this Letter, No. III. 

• See this Letter to Du-Pin, No. V. as also the archbishop's letters 
Dr. P. Piers de Girardin, No. Vl. 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



685 



himself on the proposals contained in Du-Pin's Commoni- 
torium. To have answered ambiguously, would have 
been mean ; and to have answered explicitly, would have 
blasted his hopes of separating them from Rome, which 
separation he desired upon the principles of civil and 
ecclesiastical liberty, independent of the discussion of 
theological tenets. The archbishop's sentiments in this 
matter will still appear farther from the letters he wrote to 
Mr. Beauvoir, in October, November, and December, 
1718, and the January following, of which the proper 
extracts arediere subjoined. 1 It appears from these letters, 
that Dr. Wake insisted still upon the abolition of the pope's 
jurisdiction over the Gallican church, and leaving him 
no more than a primacy of rank and honour, and that 
merely by ecclesiastical authority, as he was once bishop 
of the imperial city ; to which empty title our prelate 
seems willing to have consented, provided that it should 
be attended with no infringement of the independence 
and privileges of each particular country and church. 
" Si quam pra^rogativam" (says the archbishop in his letter 
to Girardin, b after having defied the court of Rome to pro- 
duce any precept of Christ in favour of the primacy of its 
bishop) " ecclesiae concilia sedis imperialis episcopo con- 
cesserint (etsi cadente imperio etiam ea praerogativa exci- 
disse merito possit censeri) tamen, quod ad me attinet, 
servatis semper regnorum juribus, ecclesiarum libertatibus, 
episcoporum dignitate, modo in cseteris conveniatur, per 
me licet, suo fruatur qualicumque primatu : non ego illi 
locum primum, non inanem honoris titulum invideo. At 
in alias ecclesias dominari, &c. heec nee nos unquam ferre 
potuimus, nee vos debetis." 

It appears farther, from these letters, that any proposals 
or terms conceived by the archbishop, in relation to this 
project of union, were of a vague and general nature, and 
that his views terminated rather in a plan of mutual tole- 
ration, than in a scheme for effecting an entire uniformity. 
The scheme that seemed to his grace the most likely to 
succeed was, that " the independence of every national 
church, or any other, and its right to determine all matters 
that arise within itself, should be acknowledged on both 
sides ; that, for points of doctrine, they should agree as 
far as possible, in all articles of any moment (as in effect 
the two churches either already did, or easily might) ; 
and, in other matters, that a difference should be allowed 
until God should bring them to a union in them also." c 
It must be allowed, however, though the expression is 
still general, that the archbishop was for " purging out of 
the public offices of the church all such things as hinder 
a perfect communion in divine service, so that persons 
coming from one church to the other might join in prayers, 
and the holy sacrament, and the public service." d He 
was persuaded, that, in the liturgy of the church of Eng- 
land, there was nothing but what the Roman catholics 
would adopt, except the single rubric relating to the 
eucharist ; and that in the Romish liturgy there was 
nothing to which Protestants object, but what the more 
rational Romanists agree might be laid aside, and yet the 



* See No. IV, VII, VIII, IX, X. » Xo. VI. 
' See the pieces subjoined to this appendix, Xo. VIII. 

i Ibid. 

• See Xo. VIII. 
'See Xo. X. 

» Dr Wake seems to hare been sensible of the impropriety of carry- 
ing on a negotiation of this nature without the approbation and counte- 
nance of government. " I always (savs he, in his letter to Mr. Beau- 

No. LYIII. 172 



public offices be not the worse, or more imperfect, for the 
want of it. He therefore thought it proper to make the 
demands already mentioned the ground-work of the project 
of union, at the beginning of the negotiation ; not that he 
meant to stop here, but that, being thus far agreed, they 
might the more easily go farther, descend to particulars, 
and render their scheme more perfect by degrees. e 

The violent measures of the court of Rome against that 
part of the Gallican church which refused to admit the 
constitution Unigenitus as an ecclesiastical law, made 
the archbishop imagine that it would be no difficult matter 
to bring this opposition to an open rupture, and to engage 
the persons concerned in it to throw off the papal yoke, 
which seemed to be borne with impatience in France. 
The despotic bull of Clement XI. dated August 28, 1718, 
and which begins with the words, Pastoralis officii, was 
a formal act of excommunication, thundered out against 
all the anti-constitutionists, as the opposers of the bull 
Unigenitus were called ; and it exasperated the doctors 
of the Sorbonne in the highest degree. It is to this that 
the archbishop alludes, when he says, in his letter to Mr. 
Beauvoir, dated the 23d of January, 1718/ " At present 
he (the pope) has put them out of his communion. We 
have withdrawn ourselves from his ; both are out of com- 
munion with him, and I think it is not material on 
which side the breach lies." But the wished-for separa- 
tion from the court of Rome, notwithstanding all the pro- 
vocations of its pontiff, was still far off. Though, on 
numberless occasions, the French divines showed very 
little respect for the papal authority, yet the renouncing 
it altogether was a step which required deep deliberation, 
and which, however inclined they might be to it, they 
could not make, if they were not seconded by the state. 
But from the state they were not likely to have any 
countenance. The regent of France was governed by 
the abbe Du Bois ; and Du Bois was aspiring eagerly after 
a cardinal's cap. This circumstance (not more unimpor- 
tant that many secret connexions and trivial views that 
daily influence the course of public events, the transactions 
of government, and the fate of nations) was sufficient to 
stop the Sorbonne and its doctors in the midst of their 
career ; and, in effect, it contributed greatly to stop the 
correspondence of which I have been now giving an 
account, and to nip the project of union in the bud. The 
correspondence between the archbishop and the two doctors 
of the Sorbonne had been carried on with a high degree 
of secrecy. This secrecy was prudent, as neither of the 
corresponding parties had been authorised by the civil 
power to negotiate a union between the two churches :' 
and, on Dr. Wake's part, it was partly owing to his having 
nobody that he could trust with what he did. He was 
satisfied (as he says in a letter to Mr. Beauvoir) " that 
most of the high-church bishops and clergy would readily 
come into such a design ; but these (adds his grace) are 
not men either to be confided in, or made use of, by me.'" h 

The correspondence, however, was divulged : and the 
project of union engrossed the whole conversation of the 

voir, which the reader will find at the end of this Appendix, No. XL} 
took it for granted, that no step should be taken toward a union, but 
with the knowledge, approbation, and even by the authority ot civil 
powers. All, therefore, that has passed hitherto stands clear of any ex- 
ception as to the civil magistrate. It is only a consultation, in order to 
find out a way how a union might be made, if a fit occasion should 
hereafter be offered." 
i> See the letters subjoined, No. IX. 



68fc» 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



city of Paris. Lord Stanhope and the earl of Stair were 
congratulated thereupon by some great personages in the 
royal palace. The duke regent himself and the abbe Du 
Bois, minister of foreign affairs, and Mr. Joli de Fleury, the 
attorney-general, gave the line at first, appeared to favour 
the correspondence and the project, and let things run on 
to certain lengths. But the Jesuits and Constitutionists 
sounded the alarm, and overturned the whole scheme, by 
spreading a report, that the cardinal de Noailles, and his 
friends the Jansenists, were upon the point of making a 
coalition with the heretics. Hereupon the regent was in- 
timidated ; and Du Bois had an opportunity of appearing 
a meritorious candidate for a place in the sacred college. 
Dr. Piers Girardin was sent for to court, was severely repri- 
manded by Du Bois, and strictly charged, upon pain of 
being sent to the Bastile, to give up all the letters he had 
received from the archbishop of Canterbury, as also a copy 
of all his own. He was forced to obey : and all the letters 
were immediately sent to Rome, " as so many trophies 
(says a certain author) gained from the enemies of the 
church." 1 The archbishop's letters were greatly admired, 
as striking proofs both of his catholic benevolence and 
extensive abilities. 

Mr. Beauvoir informed the archbishop, by a letter dated 
February 8, 1719, N. S. that Dr. Du-Pin had been sum- 
moned by the abbe Du Bois, to give an account of what 
had passed between him and Dr. Wake. This step 
naturally suspended the correspondence, though the arch- 
bishop was at a loss, at first, whether he should look upon it 
as favourable, or detrimental, to the projected uniom. b The 
letters which he wrote to Mr. Beauvoir and Dr. Du-Pin 
after this, express the same sentiments which he discovered 
through the whole of this transaction. The letter to Du- 
Pin, more especially, is full of a pacific and reconciling 
spirit, and expresses the archbishop's desire of cultivating 
fraternal charity with the doctors, and his regret at the ill 
success of their endeavours toward the projected union. 
Du-Pin died before this letter, which was retarded by 
some accident, arrived at Paris. d Before the archbishop 
had heard of his death, he wrote to Mr. Beauvoir, to 
express his concern, that an account was going to be 
published of what had passed between the two doctors and 
himself, and his hope, " that they would keep in generals, 
as the only way to renew the good design, if occasion 
should serve, and to prevent themselves trouble from the 
reflections of their enemies," on account (as the archbishop 
undoubtedly means) of the concessions they had made, 
which, though insufficient to satisfy true Protestants, were 
adapted to exasperate bigoted papists. The prelate adds, 
in the conclusion of this letter, " I shall be glad to know 
that your doctors still continue their good opinion of us ; 
for, though we need not the approbation of men on our 
own account, yet I cannot but wish it as a mean to bring 
them, if not to a perfect agreement in all things with us, 
(which is not presently to be expected,) yet to such a 
union as may put an end to the odious charges against, 
and consequential aversion of us, as heretics and schis- 
matics, and in truth, make them cease to be so." 

Dr. Du-Pin (whom the archbishop very sincerely 

" These trophies were the defeat of the moderate part of the Gallican 
church, and the rain of their project to break the papal yoke, and unite 
with the church of England. See above, note, p. 143, where the con- 
clusion which the author of the Confessional has drawn from this ex- 
pression ii shown to be groundless. 



lamented, as the only man, after Mr. Ravechet, on whom 
the hopes of a reformation in France seemed to depend) 
left behind him an account of this famous correspondence. 
Some time before he died, he showed it to Mr. Beauvoir, 
and told him, that he intended to communicate it to a very 
great man (probably the regent.) Mr. Beauvoir observed 
to the doctor, that one would be led to imagine, from the 
manner in which this account was drawn up, that the 
archbishop made the first overtures with respect to the cor- 
respondence, and was the first who intimated his desire 
of the union ; whereas it was palpably evident that he 
(Dr. Du-Pin) had first solicited the one and the other. 
Du-Pin acknowledged this freely and candidly, and pro- 
mised to rectify it, but was prevented by death. It does 
not, however, appear, that his death put a final stop to the 
correspondence ; for we learn by a letter from the arch- 
bishop to Mr. Beauvoir, dated August 27, 1719, that Dr. 
Piers Girardin frequently wrote to his grace. But the 
opportunity was past ; the appellants from the bull Uni- 
genitus, or the anti-constitutionists, were divided ; the 
court did not smile at all upon the project, because the 
regent was afraid of the Spanish party and the Jesuits ; 
and therefore the continuation of this correspondence after 
Du-Pin's death was without effect. 

Let the reader now, after having perused this historical 
account, judge of the appearance which Dr. Wake makes 
in this transaction. An impartial reader will certainly draw 
from this whole correspondence the following conclusions : 
that archbishop Wake was invited to this correspondence 
by Dr. Du-P ; r\ the -bos* moderate of all the Roman catho- 
lic divines ; thai he entered into it with a view to improve 
one of the most favourable opportunities that could be 
offered, of withdrawing the church of France from the 
jurisdiction of the pope ; a circumstance which must have 
immediately weakened the power of the court of Rome, 
and, in its consequences, offered a fair prospect of a farther 
reformation in doctrine and worship, as the case happened 
in the church of England, when it happily threw off the 
papal yoke ; — that he did not give Du-Pin, or any of the 
doctors of the Sorbonne, the smallest reason to hope that 
the church of England would give up any one point of 
belief or practice to the church of France ; but insisted, 
on the contrary, that the latter should make alterations 
and concessions, in order to be reconciled to the former ; — 
that he never specified the particular alterations, which 
would be requisite to satisfy the rulers and doctors of the 
church of England, but only expressed a general desire 
of a union between the churches, if that were possible, 
or at least of a mutual toleration ; that he never flattered 
himself that this union could be perfectly accomplished, 
or that the doctors of the Gallican church would be entirely 
brought over to the church of England ; but thought 
that every advance made by them, and every concession, 
must have proved really advantageous to the Protestant 
cause. 

The pacific spirit of Dr. Wake did not only discover 
itself in his correspondence with the Romish doctors, but 
in several other transactions in which he was engaged by 
his constant desire of promoting union and concord among 



b See his letter to Mr. Beauvoir, in the pieces subjoined, No. 
dated February 5 (16,) 1718-19 
' See No. XL— XVIII. 
a See his letter to Mr. Beauvoir, No. XV. 



XI. 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



68? 



Christians ; for it is well known, that he kept up a con- 
stant friendly correspondence with the most eminent 
ministers of the foreign Protestant churches, and showed 
a fraternal regard to them, notwithstanding the difference 
of their discipline and government from that of the church 
of England. In a letter written to the learned le Clerc in 
1716, he expresses, in the most cordial terms, his affection 
for them, and declares positively, that nothing can be 
farther from his thoughts, than the notions adopted by 
certain bigoted and furious writers who refuse to embrace 
the foreign Protestants as their brethren, will not allow 
to their religious assemblies the denomination of churches, 
and deny the validity of their sacraments. He declares, 
on the contrary, these churches to be true Christian 
churches, and expresses a warm desire of their union 
with the church of England. It will be, perhaps, difficult 
to find, in any epistolary composition, ancient, or modern, 
a more elegant simplicity, a more amiable spirit of meek- 
ness, moderation, and charity, and a happier strain of that 
easy and unaffected politeness which draws its expressions 
from a natural habit of goodness and humanity, than we 
meet with in this letter. 1 We see this active and bene- 
volent prelate still continuing to interest himself in the 
welfare of the Protestant churches abroad. In several 
letters written in the years 1718 and 1719, to the pastors 
and professors of Geneva and Switzerland, who were then 
at variance about the doctrines of predestination and grace, 
and some other abstruse points of metaphysical theology, 
he recommends earnestly to them a spirit of mutual toler- 
ation and forbearance, entreats them particularly to be 
moderate in their demands of subscription to articles of 
faith, and proposes to them the example of the church of 
England as worthy of imitation in this respect. In one of 
these letters, he exhorts the doctors of Geneva not to go too 
far in explaining the nature, determining the sense, and 
imposing the belief of doctrines, which the divine wisdom 
has not thought proper to reveal clearly in the Scriptures, 
and the ignorance of which is very consistent with a state of 
salvation ; and he recommends the prudence of the church 
of England, which has expressed these doctrines in such ge- 
neral terms, in its articles, that persons who think very dif- 
ferently about the doctrines may subscribe the articles, 
without wounding their integrity. b His letters to professor 
Schurer of Bern, and to the excellent and learned John 
Alphonso Turretin of Geneva, are in the same strain of 
moderation and charity, and are here subjoined, as every 
way worthy of attentive perusal. But what is more pecu- 
liarly worthy of attention here, is a letter written May 22, 
1719, d to Mr. Jablonski of Poland, who, from a persuasion 
of Dr. Wake's great wisdom, discernment, and moderation, 
had proposed to him the following question, viz. "Whether 
it was lawful and expedient for the Lutherans to treat of 
a union with the church of Rome ; or whether all nego- 
tiations of this kind ought not to be looked upon as dan- 
gerous and delusive V The archbishop's answer to this 
question contains a happy mixture of Protestant zeal and 
Christian charity. He gives the strongest cautions to the 
Polish Lutherans against entering into any treaty of union 
with the. Roman catholics, except on a footing of perfect 
equality, and in consequence of a previous renunciation, 
on the part of the latter, of the tyranny, and even of the 

* See an extract of it among the pieces subjoined, No. XIX. 
<> See the pieces here subjoined, No. XX. 



superiority and jurisdiction of the church of Rome and its 
pontiff; and as to what concerns points of doctrine, he 
exhorts them not to sacrifice truth to temporal advantages, 
or even to a desire of peace. It would carry us too far, 
were we to give a minute account of Dr. Wake's corres- 
pondence with the Protestants of Nismes, or of Lithuania 
and other countries : it may however be affirmed, that no 
prelate, since the Reformation, had so extensive a corres- 
pondence with the Protestants abroad, and none could 
have a more friendly one. 

It does not appear, that the dissenters in England made 
to the archbishop any proposals relative to a union with 
the established church, or that he made any proposals to 
them on that head. The spirit of the times, and the situ- 
ation of the contending parties, offered little prospect of 
success to any scheme of that nature. In queen Anne'o 
time, he was only bishop of Lincoln ; and the disposition 
of the house of commons, and of all the Tory part of the 
nation, was then so unfavourable to the dissenters, that it 
is not at all likely that any attempt toward re-uniting 
them to the established church would have passed into a 
law. And, in the next reign, the face of things was so 
greatly changed in favour of the dissenters, and their 
hopes of recovering the rights and privileges, of which 
they had been deprived, were so sanguine, that it may be 
well questioned whether they would have accepted the 
offer of a union, had it been made to them. Be that as 
it will, one thing is certain, and it is a proof of archbishop 
Wake's moderate and pacific spirit, that, in 1714, when 
the spirit of the court and of the triumphant part of the 
ministry was, with respect to the Whigs in general, and 
to dissenters in particular, a spirit of enmity and oppres- 
sion, this worthy prelate had the courage to stand up in 
opposition to the schism -bill, and to protest against it as a 
hardship upon the dissenters. This step, which must 
have blasted his credit at court, and proved detrimental to 
his private interest, as matters then stood, showed that he 
had a friendly and sincere regard for the dissenters. It is 
true, four years after this, when it w r as proposed to repeal 
the schism-bill and the act against occasional conformity, 
both at once, he disapproved this proposal ; and this cir- 
cumstance has been alleged as an objection to the encomi- 
ums that have been given to his tender regard for the 
dissenters, or at least as a proof that he changed his mind ; 
and that Wake, bishop of Lincoln, was more their friend 
than Wake, archbishop of Canterbury. I do not pre- 
tend to justify this change of conduct. It seems to have 
been, indeed, occasioned by a change of circumstances. 
The dissenters, in their state of oppression during the mi- 
nistry of Bolingbroke and his party, were objects of com- 
passion ; and those who had sagacity enough to perceive 
the ultimate object which that ministry had in view in 
oppressing them, must have interested themselves in their 
sufferings, and opposed their oppressors, from a regard to 
the united causes of Protestantism and liberty. In the 
following reign, their credit rose ; and, while this 
encouraged the wise and moderate men among them to 
plead with prudence and with justice their right to be 
delivered from several real grievances, it elated the violent 
(and violent men there are in all parties even in the cause 
of moderation) to a high degree. This rendered them 



• See these letters, No. XXI, XXII, XXIII. 
J No. XXV. 



688 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



formidable to all those who were jealous of [zealous for] 
the power, privileges, and authority, of the established 
church ; and archbishop Wake was probably of this num- 
ber. He had protested against the shackles that were 
imposed upon them when they lay under the frowns of 
government ; but apprehending, perhaps, that the remo- 
val of these shackles in the day of prosperity would ren- 
der their motions toward power too rapid, he opposed the 
abrogation of the very acts which he had before endea- 
voured to stifle in their birth. In this, however, it must be 
acknowledged, that the spirit of party mingled too much 
of its influence with the dictates of prudence; and that 
prudence, thus accompanied, was not very consistent with 
Dr. Wake's known principles of equity and moderation. 
As I was at a loss how to account for this part of the 
archbishop's conduct, I addressed myself to a learned and 
worthy clergyman of the church of England, who gave 
me the following answer: "Archbishop Wake's objection 
to the repeal of the schism-act was founded on this con- 
sideration only, that such a repeal was needless, as no use 
had been made, or was likely to be made, of that act. It 
is also highly probable, that he would have consented 
without hesitation to rescind it, had nothing farther been 
endeavoured at the same time. But, considering what 
sort of spirit was then shown by the dissenters and others, 
it ought not to be a matter of great wonder, if he was 
afraid that, from the repeal of the other act (viz. that 
against occasional conformity,) considerable damage 
might follow to the church over which he presided ; and, 
even supposing his fears to be excessive, or quite ground- 
less, yet certainly they were pardonable in a man who 
had never done, or designed to do, any thing disagreeable 
to the dissenters in any other affair, and who, in this, had 
the concurrence of some of the greatest and wisest of the 
English lords, and of the earl of Hay, among the Scotch, 
though a professed Presbyterian." 

However some may judge of this particular incident, I 
think it will appear from the whole tenor of archbishop 
Wake's correspondence and transactions with Christian 
churches of 'different denominations, that he was a man 
of a pacific, gentle, and benevolent spirit, and an enemy 
to the feuds, animosities, and party prejudices, which 
divide the professors of one holy religion, and by which 
Christianity is exposed to the assaults of its virulent ene- 
mies, and wounded in the house of its pretended friends. 
To this deserved eulogy, we may add what a learned and 
worthy divine a has said of this eminent prelate, considered 
as a controversial writer, even, " that his accurate and su- 
perior knowledge of the nature of the Romish hierarchy, 
and of the constitution of the church of England, fur- 
nished him with victorious arms, both for the subversion of 
error and the defence of truth. 



AUTHENTIC COPIES OF THE ORIGINAL LETTERS 
FROM WHICH THE PRECEDING ACCOUNT IS DRAWN. 

No. I. 

A Letter from Archbishop Wake to Mr. Beauvoir. 
Lambeth, Nov. 28, S. V. 1717. 
I am indebted to you for several kind letters, and some 
small tracts, which I have had the favour to receive from 

* Dr. William Richardson, master of Emanuel college in Cam- 
bridge, and canon of Lincoln. See his noble edition, and his very 



you. The last, which contains an account of the new 
edition that is going on of Chrysostom, I received yester- 
day. It will, no doubt, be a very valuable edition ; but, 
as they propose to go on with it, I shall hardly live to see 
it finished. They do not tell us, to whom here we may 
go for subscriptions : and it is too much trouble to make 
returns to Paris. They should, for their own advantage, 
say, where subscriptions will be taken in London, and 
where one may call for the several volumes as they come 
out, and pay for the next that are going on. 

Among the account of books you were pleased to send 
me, there is one with a very promising title, Thesaurus 
Anecdotorum, 5 volumes. I wish I could know what the 
chief of those anecdotes are ; it may be a book very well 
worth having. I admire they do not disperse some sheets 
of such works. What they can add to make Moreri's 
Dictionary so very voluminous, I cannot imagine. I 
bought it in two exorbitant volumes, and thought it big 
enough so. While I am writing this, company is come 
in, so that I am forced to break off; and I can only assure 
you, that, upon all occasions, you shall find me very sin- 
cerely, 

Reverend Sir, Your faithful friend, 

W. Cant. 

N. B. This is the earliest letter in the whole collection ; and, by the 
beginning of it, seems to be the first which the archbishop wrote to 
Mr. Beauvoir. 

No. II. 

A Letter from Mr. Beauvoir to Archbishop Wake. 
Paris, Dec. 11, 1717, O. S. 
My Lord, — I had the honour of your grace's letter of 
the 28th ultimo but Sunday last, and therefore could not 
answer it sooner. A person is to be appointed to receive 
subscriptions for the new edition of St. Chrysostom, and 
deliver the copies. Inclosed is an account of Thesaurus 
Anecdotoram. Dr. Du-Pin, with whom I dined last 
Monday, and with the Syndic of the Sorbonne and two 
other doctors, tells me, that what swells Moreri's Diction- 
ary are several additions, and particularly the families of 
Great Britain. He hath the chief hand in this new edi- 
tion. They talked as if the whole kingdom was to appeal 
to the future general council, &c. They wished for a 
union with the church of England, as the most effectual 
means to unite all the western churches. Dr. Du-Pin 
desired me to give his duty to your grace, upon my tell- 
ing him, that I would send you an arret of the parliament 
of Paris relating to him, and a small tract of his. I have 
transmitted them to Mr. Prevereau, at Mr. Secretary 
Addison's office. 

No. III. 

A Letter from Archbishop Wake to Mr. Beauvoir. 

Aug. 30, 1718. 
I told you in one of my last letters, how little I expec- 
ted from the present pretences of a union with us. Since 
I received the papers you sent me, I am more convinced 
that I was not mistaken. My task is pretty hard, and I 
scarce know how to manage myself in this matter. To 
go any farther than I have done in it, even as a divine 
only of the church of England, may meet with censure : 
and, as archbishop of Canterbury, I cannot treat with 



elegant and judicious continuation of Bishop Godwin's Cominentarius 
de PrEesulib'us Anglifc, published in 1743, at Cambridge. His wo«Is 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



689 



tliese gentlemen. I do not think my character at all in- 
ferior to that of an archbishop of Paris : on the contrary, 
without lessening the authority and dignity of the church 
of England, I must say it is in some respects superior. If 
the cardinal -were in earnest for such a union, it would 
not be below him to treat with me himself about it. I 
should then have a sufficient ground to consult with my 
brethren, and to ask his majesty's leave to correspond with 
him concerning it. But to go on any farther with these 
gentlemen, will only expose me to the censure of doing 
what, in my station, ought not to be done without the 
king's knowledge ; and it would be very odd for me to 
have an authoritative permission to treat with those who 
have no manner of authority to treat with me. However, 
I shall venture at some answer or other to both their let- 
ters and papers : and so have done with this affair. 

I cannot tell well what to say to Dr. Du-Pin. If he 
thinks we are to take their direction what to retain, and 
what to give up, he is utterly mistaken. I am a friend to 
peace, but more to truth. And they may depend upon it, 
I shall always account our church to stand upon an equal 
foot with theirs : and that we are no more to receive 
laws from them, than we desire to impose any upon them. 
In short, the church of England is free, is orthodox : she 
has a plenary authority within herself, and has no need 
to recur to any other church to direct her what to retain, 
or what to do. Nor will we, otherwise than in a brotherly 
way, and in a full equality of right and power, ever con- 
sent to have any treaty with that of France. And there- 
fore, if they mean to deal with us, they must lay down 
this for the foundation, that are to deal with one another 
upon equal terms. If, consistently with our own estab- 
lishment, we can agree upon a closer union with one 
another, well : if not, we are as much, and upon as good 
grounds, a free independent church, as they are. And, 
for myself, as archbishop of Canterbury, I have more 
power, larger privileges, and a greater authority, than any 
of their archbishops : from which, by the grace of God, 
I will not depart — no, not for the sake of a union with 
them. 

You see, Sir, what my sense of this matter is ; and may 
perhaps think that I have a little altered my mind since this 
affair was first set on foot. As to my desire of peace and 
union with all other Christian churches, I am still the 
same : but with the doctor's Commonitorium I shall never 
comply. The matter must be put into another method ; 
and, whatever they think, they must alter some of their 
doctrines, and practices too, or a union with them can 
never be effected. Of this, as soon as I have a little more 
leisure, I shall write my mind as inoffensively as I can to 
them, but yet freely too. 

If any thing is to come of this matter, it will be the 
shortest method I can take of accomplishing it, to put them 
in the right way. If nothing (as I believe nothing will be 
done in it,) 'tis good to leave them under a plain know- 
ledge of what we think of ourselves and our church, and 
to let them see, that w T e neither need nor seek the union 
proposed, but for their sake as well as our own ; or rather 
neither for theirs nor ours ; but in order to the promotion 
of a catholic communion (as far as is possible) among all 
the true churches of Christ. 

(p. 167,) are: "Nemo usbiam ecclcsise Romanae vel Anglicanse sta- 
tum penitius cognitum exploratum habuit; et proinde in disputancli 

No. LVI11. 173 



I have now plainly opened my mind to you : you will 
communicate no more of it than is fitting to the two 
doctors, but keep it as a testimony of my sincerity in this 
affair; and that I have no design, but what is consistent 
with the honour and freedom of our English church, and 
with the security of that true and sound doctrine which is 
taught in it, and from which no consideration shall ever 
make me depart. 

I am, Reverend Sir, 
Your affectionate friend and brother, 

W. Cant. 
No. IV. 
From Archbishop Wake to Mr. Beauvoir. 

Oct. 8, 1718. 

Whatever be the consequence of our corresponding 
with the Sorbonne doctors about matters of religion, the 
present situation of our affairs plainly seems to make it 
necessary for us so to do. Under this apprehension I have 
written, though with great difficulty, two letters to your 
two doctors, which I have sent to the secretary's office, to 
go with the next packet to my lord Stair. I beg you to 
enquire after them ; they made up together a pretty thick 
packet, directed to you. In that to Dr. Du-Pin, I have, 
in answer to two of his MSS., described the method of 
making bishops in our church. I believe he will be equally 
both pleased and surprised with it. I wish you could show 
him the form of consecration, as it stands in the end of 
your large common prayer-books. The rest of my letters, 
both to him and Dr. Piers, is a venture which I know not 
how they will take, to convince them of the necessity of 
embracing the present opportunity of breaking off from 
the pope, and going one step farther than they have yet 
done in their opinion of his authority, so as to leave him 
only a primacy of place and honour ; and that merely by 
ecclesiastical authority, as he was once bishop of the im- 
perial city. I hope they both show you my letters : they 
are at this time very long, and upon a nice point. I shall 
be very glad if you can any way learn how they take the 
freedom I have used, and what they really think of it. I 
cannot so much trust to their answers, in which they have 
more room to conceal their thoughts, and seldom want to 
overwhelm me with more compliments than I desire, or am 
well able to bear. 

Pray do all you can to search out their real sense of, 
and motions at the receipt of these two letters ; I shall 
thereby be able the better to judge how far I may venture 
hereafter to offer any thing to them upon the other points 
in difference between us ; though after all, I still think, if 
ever a reformation be made, it is the state that must 
govern the church in it. But this between ourselves. 

No. V. 

A Letter from Archbishop Wake to Dr. Du-Pin, dated 

October 1, 1718. 

Spectatissimo Viro, eruditorum suae gentis, si non et sui sa?culi principi ; 
D° 0, L. Ell. Du-Pin, Docturi Parisiensi. 

Gul. prov. div. Cant. Arch'' in omnibus evtppnvcTv xat smpirrciy. 

Diu est, amplissime Domine, ex quo debitor tibi factua 
sum ob plures tractatus MSS. quos tuo beneficio a dilecto 



arenam prodiittuni ad oppugnandum turn ad propugnanduni instruclissi- 



690 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



mihi in Christo D. Beauvoir accepi. Perlegi diligen- 
ter omnes, nee sine fructu : plurima quippe ab iis, cog- 
nitu dignissima, vel primum didici, vel clarius intellexi ; 
beatamque his difficillimis temporibus censeo ecclesiam Gal- 
licanam, quae talem sibi in pvomptu habeat doctorem, in 
dubiis consiliarium, in juribus suis tuendis advocatum ; 
qui et possit et audeat, non modo contra suos vel erroneos 
vel perfidos symn^stas dignitatem ejus tueri, sed et ipsi 
summo pontifici (ut olim B. Apostolus Paulus Petro) in 
faciem resistere, quia reprehensibilis est. Atque utinam 
haec quae jam Romas aguntur, tandem aliquando omnibus 
vobis animum darent ad jura vestra penitus asserenda ! 
Ut deinceps non ex pragmaticis (ut olim) sanctionibus non 
(ut hoc fere tempore) ex concordatis, non ex prasjudicatis 
hominum opinionibus, res vestras agatis ; sed ea authori- 
tate qua decet ecclesiam tarn illustris ac praspotentis impe- 
rii ; quae nullo jure, vel divino, vel humano, alteri olim aut 
ecclesias aut homini subjicitur ; sed ipsa jus habet intra se 
sua negotia terminandi, et in omnibus, sub rege suo Chris- 
tianissimo, populum suum commissum propriis suis legi- 
bus et sanctionibus gubernandi. 

Expergiscimini itaque, viri, eruditi ; et quod ratio pos- 
tulat, nee refragatur religio, strenue agite. Hoc bonorum 
subditorum erga regem suum officium. Christianorum erga 
episcopos suos, heu ! nimium extraneorum tyrannide op- 
pressos, pietas exigit, flagitat, requirit. Excutite tandem 
jugum istud, quod nee patres vestri, nee vos ferre potuistis. 
Hie ad reformationem non praetensam,sedveram, sed jus- 
tam, sed necessariam ecclesias nostras, primus fuit gradus. 
Quae Cassaris erant, Cassari reddidimus ; quae Dei, Deo. 
Coronas imperiali regni nostri suum suprematum, episcopa- 
tui suani «|<«v, ecclesias suam libertatem restituit, vel eo so- 
lum nomine semper cum honore memorandus, rex Henri- 
cus VIII. Haec omnia sub pedibus conculcaverat idem 
ille tunc nobis, qui jam vobis inimicus. Saspiiis authoritas 
papalis intra certos fines legibus nostris antea fuerat coer- 
cita ; et iis quidem legibus, quas siquis hodie inspiceret, 
impossible ei videretur eas potuisse, aliqua vel vi vel astutia, 
perrumpere. Sed idem nobis accidit quod illis, qui dasmonia- 
cum vinculis ligare voluere. Omnia frustra tentata: nihil 
perfacere inania legum repagula, contra nescio quos prastex- 
tus potestatisdivinas nullis humanis constitutionibus subditas. 
Tandem defatigato regnodura necessitas sua jura tuendioc- 
ulos omnium aperuit. Proponitur quasstio episcopis ac clero 
in utriusque provincias synodo congregatis, an episcopus Ro- 
manus in sacris scripturis habeat aliquam majorem juris- 
dictionem in regno Anglias quam quivis alius externus 
episcopus? In partem sanam, justam, veram, utriusque 
concilii suffragia concurrere. Q-uod episcopi cum suo clero 
statuerant, etiam regni academias calculo suo approbarunt, 
rex cum parliamento sancivit ; adeoque tandem, quod 
unice fieri poterat, sublata penitus potestas, quam nullas 
leges, nulla jura, vel civilia vel ecclesiastica, intra debitos 
lines unquam poterant continere. En nobis promptum ac 
palatum exemplum ; quod sequi vqbis gloriosum, nee mi- 
nus posteris vestris utile fuerit ! Q,uo solo pacem, absque 
veritatis dispendio, tueri valeatis, ac irridere bruta de Vati- 
eano fulmina, quae jumdudum ostenditis vobis non ultra 
terrori esse, utpote a sacris scripturis edoctis, quod male- 
diet io absque causu prolata non superveniet. — Prov. 
xxvi. 2 

State ergo in 1 bertate qua Christus vos donaverit. 
Frustra ad concilium generale nunquam convocandum 



res vestras refertis. Frustra decretorum vim suspendere 
curatis, quae ab initio injusta, erronea, ac absurda, ac plane 
nulla erant. Non talibus subsidiis vobis opus est. Regia 
permissione, authoritate sua a Christo commissa, archie- 
piscopi et episcopi vestri in concilium nationale coeant : 
academiarum, cleri, ac prascipue utrorumque principis the- 
ologicas facultatis Parisiensis, concilium atque auxilium 
sibi assumant : sic muniti quod asquum et justum fuerit 
decernant : quod decreverint etiam civili authoritate fir- 
mandum curent : nee patiantur factiosos homines alio res 
vestras vocare, aut ad judicem appellare qui nullam in vos 
authoritatem exposcere debeat, aut, si exposcat, merito a 
vobis recusari et poterit et debuerit. 

Ignoscas, vir ■roXv^xiin-rari^ indignationi dicam an amori 
meo, si forte aliquanto ultra modum commoveri videar ab 
iis quae vobis his proximis annis acciderint. Veritatem 
Christi omni qua possum animi devotione colo. Hanc vos 
tuemini : pro hac censuras pontificias subiistis, et porro 
ferre parati estis. 

Ille, qui se pro summo ac fere unico Christi vicario ven- 
ditat, veritatem ejus sub pedibus proterit, conculcat. Jus- 
titiam veneror : ac proinde vos injuste, ac plane tyrannice, 
si non oppressos, at petitos, at comminatos ; at ideo solum 
non penitus obrutos, subversos prostratos, qui a Deus furori 
ejus obicem posuit, nee permiserit vos in ipsius manus in- 
cidere ; non possum non vindicare, et contra violentum op- 
pressorem, meum qualecunque suffragium ferre. 

Jura ac libertates inclyti regni, celeberrimas ecclesias, 
praestantissimi cleri cum honore intueor. Haec papa repro- 
bat. contemnit ; et, dum sic alios tractat, merito se aliis 
castigandum, certe intra justos fines coecendum, exhibet. 
Siquid ei potestatis supra alios episcopos Christus commis- 
erit, proferantur tabulae ; jus evincatur ; cedere non recu- 
samus. 

Siquam prasrogativam ecclesias concilia sedis imperialis 
episcopo concesserint (etsi cadente imperio, etiam ea pre- 
rogative, excidisse merito possit censeri ;) tamen quod ad 
me attinet, servatis semper regnorum juribus, ecclesiarum 
libertatibus, episcoporum dignitate, modo in casteris con- 
veniatur, per me licet, suo fruatur, qualicunque primatu : 
non ego illi locum primum, non inanem honoris titulum 
invideo. At in alias ecclesias dominari; episcopatum, 
cujus partem Christus unicuique episcopo in solidum 
reliquit, tantum non in solidum sibi soli vindicare ; siquis 
ejus injustae tyrannidi sese opposuerit, ccelum ac terram in 
illius perniciem commovere ; haec nee nos unquam ferre 
potuimus, nee vos debetis. In hoc pacis fundamento si 
inter nos semel conveniatur, in casteris aut idem sentie- 
mus omnes, aut facile alii aliis dissentiendi libertatem 
absque pacis jactura concedemus. 

Sed abripit calamum meum nescio quis 'Evdofrta^of, 
dum de vestris injuriis nimium sum solicitus; et forte 
liberius quam par esset de his rebus ad te scripsisse 
videbor. 

Ego verd uti ea omnia, quae tu in tuo commonitorio. 
exaraveris, etiam ilia in quibus ab invicem dissentimus, 
grato animo accipio ; ita ut aperte, ut candide, et absque 
omni fuco porro ad me scribere pergas, eaque vra-pfae-tet, 
qua amicum cum amicoagere deceat, imprimis a te peto; 
eo te mihi amiciorem fore existimans, quo simplicius 
quo planius, quicquid censueris, libere dixeris. 

Nee de commonitorio tuo amplius aliquid hoc tempore 
reponam; in quo cum plurima placeant, turn id imprimis. 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



691 



quod etiam tuo judicio, non adeo longe ab invicem diste- 
mus, quin si de fraterna unione ineunda publica aliquan- 
do authoritate deliberari contigerit, via facile inveniri pote- 
nt ad pacem inter nos stabiliendam, salva utrinque 
ecclesiae catbolicee fide ac veritate. 

Quod ad alteros tuos tractatus de constitutione episco- 
porum in ecclesiis vacantibus, siquidem papa, legitime 
requisitus, facultates suas personis a rege nominatis obsti- 
nate pernegaverit ; in iis sane reperio quod non tua eru- 
ditione et judiciosit ; quare, ne prorsus uwu-fioMi discedam, 
ordinem tibi breviter delineabo constituendi episcopos in 
hac reformata nostra ecclesia. 

Tu judicabis, an aliquid magis canonice vel excogitari 
vel statui potuerit. 

No. VI. 

A Letter from Archbishop Wake to Dr. P. Piers 

Girardiyi, written in October 1718. 

Praestantissimo Viro, consummatissimo Theologo D no Patricio Piers 
de Girardin, sacrse Facultatis Parisiensis Theologis Doctori. 
Gul. prov. div. Cant. Arch". Gratiam, Pacem, ac Salutem in Domino. 

Post prolixiores epistolas eruditissimo confratri tuo 
j>o j)ri D u -Pin hoc ipso tempore exaratas ; quasque ego 
paulo minus tuas quam illius existimari, velim ; facilius a 
te veniam impetrabo, vir spectatissime, si abquanto bre- 
vius ad te rescribam ; et in iliis quidem animi mei vel 
amori vel indignationi libere indulsi ; eaque simplicitate, 
qua decet Christianum, et maxime episcopum, quid vobis, 
mea saltern sententia, factu opus sit, aperte exposui. 
Siquid, vel tuo vel illius judicio, asperius quam par esset 
a me exciderit, cum vestri causa adeo commotus fuerim, 
facile id homini tarn benevole erga vos animate, uti spero 
condonabitis: unaque reminiscemini, nullam unquam 
vobis stabilem inter vos pacem, aut catholicam cum aliis 
unionem, haberi posse, dum aliquid ultra merum honoris 
primatum ac TpaeSpUt pontifici Romano tribuitis. Hoc nos 
per aliquot sascula experti sumus; vos jam sentire debetis, 
qui, nescio quo insano ipsius beneficio, adeo commodam 
occasionem nacti estis, non tarn ab illius decretis appellan- 
di, quam ab ipsius dominio ac potestate vos penitus sub- 
ducendi. Ipse vos pro schismaticis habet ; qualem vos 
eum censere debetis. Ipse a vestra communione se 
suosque separandos public e denunciat. Quid vobis in 
hoc casu faciendum? Liceat mihi veteris ilhus Csesareae 
episcopi Firmilani verbis respondere ; sic obm Stephanum 
papam acriter quidem, sed non ideo minus juste, castiga- 
vit : Vide qua imperitid reprehendere audeas eos qui 
contra mendacium pro veritate nituntur. Peccatum 
vero quam magnum tibi exaggerdsti, quando te a tot 
gregibus scidisti : excidisti enim te ipsum, noli te 
fallere ; siquidem ille est vere schismaticus qui se a 
communione ecclesiasticd unitatis apostatam fecerit. 
Dum enim putas omnes a te abstineri posse, solum te 
ab omnibus abstinuisti. Cypr. Op. Epist. 75. 

Agite ergo, viri eruditi, et quo vos divina providentia 
vocat, libenter sequimini. Clemens papa vos abdicavit ; 
a sua et suorum communione repulit, rejecit. Vos illius 
authoritati renunciate. Cathedra Petri, quae in omnibus 
catholicis ecclesiis conservatur, adhsrete : etiam nostram 
ne refugiatis communionem ; quibuscum si non in omni- 
bus omnino doctrines Christianas eapitibus conveniatis, at 
in praxipuis, at in fundamentalibus, at in omnibus artic- 
ulis fidei ad salutem necessariis, plane concentitis ; etiam 
in ceteris, uti speramus, brevi concensuri. Nobis certe eo 



minus vos vel haereticos vel schismaticos fore confidite, 
quod a papa ejecti pro haereticis et schismaticis Romae 
ssstimemini. Sed contrahenda vela, nee indulgendum 
huic meo pro vobis zelo, etsi sit secundum scientiam. 
Prudentibus loquor ; vos ipsi, quod dico, judicate. 

Ad literas tuas, praestantissime Domine, redeo; in qui- 
bus uti tuum de mediocritate mea judicium, magis ex 
affectu erga me tuo, quam secundum merita mea prolatum 
gratanter accipio, ita in eo te nunquam falh patiar. quod 
me pacis ecclesiastical amantissimum credas, omniaqus 
illi consequendee danda putem, praeter veritatem. Quan- 
tum ad illam promovendam tu jamjam contuleris, ex sex 
illis propositionibus quas tuis inseruisti literis, gratus ag- 
nosco : ac nisi ambitiose magis quam hominem privatum 
deceat, me fracturum existimarem, etiam eruditissimis illis 
confratribus tuis doctoribus Sorbonicis, quibus priores 
meas literas communicasti, easdem per te gratias refer- 
rem. Sane facultas vestra Parisiensis, uti maximum in 
his rebus pondus merito habere debeat, sive numerum, 
sive dignitatem, sive denique eruditionem suorum mem- 
brorum spectemus ; ita a vobis exordium sumere debebit 
unio ilia inter nos tantopere desiderata, siquidem earn ali- 
quando iniri voluerit Deus. 

Interim gratulor vobis post illustrissimum card. Noail 
hum, alterum ilium ecclesiae Gallicauae, fidei cathohoae, 
columnam et ornamentum, procuratorem regium D. D. 
Joly de FleuiT ; quem virum ego non jam primum ex 
tuis literis debito prosequi honore didici, verum etiam ob 
ea quae vestri causa his proximis annis publice egerit, 
antea suspicere, et pene venerari, consueveram. Sub his 
ducibus, quid non sperandum in publicum vestrum ac 
catholicae ecclesiae commodum? Intonet de Vaticano 
pontifex Romanus ; fremant inter vos ipsos conjurata 
turba, Romanas curiae servi magis quam suae Galliae fideles 
subditi. His prasidiis ab eorum injuriis tuti, vanas eorum 
iras contemnere valeatis. 

Ego vero, uti omnia vobis publice fausta ac fehcia pre- 
cor, ita tibi, spectatissime vir, me semper addictissimum 
fore promitto. De quo quicquid alias senseris, id saltern 
ut de me credas jure postulo; me sincere veritatem 
Christi et amare et quaerere, et. nisi omnino me fallat ani- 
mus, etiam assecuium esse Nulli. Christiano inimicus 
antehac aut fui aut deinceps sum futurus : sic de erroribus 
eoram, qui a me dissident, judico, ut semper errantes Deo 
judicandos rehnquam. Homo sum, errare possum; si« 
vero animatus audacter dicam, haereticus esse nolo. Te 
vero, siquidem id permittas, fratrem ; sin id minus pla- 
ceat, saltern id indulgebis, ut me vere et ex animo ptofi- 
tear, excellentissime Domine, tui amantissimum. 

W. C. 
No. VII. 

Extract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to Mr. 
Beauvoir. 

Nov. 6, O. S. 1718. 
Your last letter gives me some trouble, but more curi- 
osity. I little thought, when I wrote to your two doctors, 
that my letters should have been read, much less copies 
of them given to any such great persons as you mention. 
I write in haste, as you know, and trust no amanuensis 
to copy for me, because I will not be liable to be betrayed. 
And upon a review of my foul, and only copy of them. 
since I had your account from Paris, I find some thinga 



692 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



might have been more accurately expressed, had I taken 
more time to correct my style. Bat I wish that may be 
the worst exception against them : I fear the freedom I 
took in exhorting them to do somewhat in earnest, upon 
so fair a provocation, with regard to the papal authority, 
1 hough excused as well as I could, will hardly go down so 
effectually as I could wish with them. This raises my 
curiosity to know truly and expressly how that part of 
my letters operated on both your doctors ; which by a 
wary observation, you may in good measure gather from 
their discourse. I cannot tell whether they showed my 
letters to you ; if they did, I am sure you will think I did 
not mince the matter with them in that particular. 

Of your two doctors, Dr. Piers seems the more polite : 
he writes elegantly both for style and matter, and has the 
free air, even as to the business of a union. Yet I do 
not despair of Dr. Du-Pin, whom, thirty years ago, in his 
collection of tracts relating to church discipline, I did not 
think far from the kingdom of God. 

No. VIII. 

Extract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to Mr. 

Beauvoir. 

Nov. 18, 1718. 
At present, my more particular curiosity leads me to 
know the sentiments of the leading men in France with 
regard to the court of Rome ; from which, if we could 
once divide the Gallican church, a reformation in other 
matters would follow of course. The scheme that seems 
to me most likely to prevail, is, to agree in the independ- 
ence (as to all matters of authority) of every national 
church on any others ; and in their right to determine all 
matters that arise within themselves ; and, for points of 
doctrine, to agree, as far as possible, in all articles of any 
moment (as in effect we either already do, or easily may ;) 
and, for other matters, to allow a difference, till God shall 
bring us to a union in those also. One only thing should 
be provided for, to purge out of the public offices of the 
church such things as hinder a perfect communion in the 
service of the church, that so, whenever any come from 
us to them, or from them to us, we may all join together 
iii prayers and the holy sacraments with each other. In 
our liturgy there is nothing but what they allow, save the 
single rubric relating to the eucharist ; in theirs nothing 
but what they agree may be laid aside, and yet the pub- 
lic offices be never the worse or more imperfect for want 
of it. Such a scheme as this, I take to be a more proper 
ground of peace, at the beginning, than to go to more par- 
ticulars ; if in such a foundation we could once agree, the 
rest would be more easily built upon it. If you find occa- 
sion, and that it may be of use, you may extract this ob- 
ject, and offer it to their consideration, as what you take 
to be my sense in the begining of a. treaty ; not that I 
think we shall stop here, but that, being thus far agreed, 
we shall them ore easily go into a greater perfection here- 
after. I desire you to observe, as much as you can, when 
it is I may the most properly write to the doctors. I took 
the subject of the pope's authority in my last, as arising 
naturally from the present state of their affairs, and as the 
first thing to be settled in order to a union. How my 
freedom in that respect has been received, I desire you 
freely to communicate. 



No. IX. 

Extract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to 
Mr. Beauvoir. 

Dec. 2, O. S. 1718. 

I am glad the two doctors seem to receive my last 
letters so well. The truth is, that while they manage as 
they do with the court of Rome, nothing will be done to 
any purpose. And all ends in trifling at the last. We 
honestly deny the pope all authority over us : they pre- 
tend, in words, to allow him so much as is consistent with 
what they call their Gallican privileges ; but let him ever 
so little use it contrary to their good liking, they protest 
against it, appeal to a general council, and then mind 
him as little as we can do. In earnest, I think we treat 
his holiness not only with more sincerity, but more respect 
than they : for, to own a power, and yet keep a reserve 
to obey that power only so far, and in such cases as we 
make ourselves judges of, is a greater affront, than honestly 
to confess that we deny the power, and, for that reason, 
refuse to obey it. But my design was partly to bring 
them to this, and partly to see how they would bear, at 
least the proposal, of totally breaking off from the court 
and bishop of Rome. 

What you can observe, or discover more of their incli- 
nations in this particular, will be of good use ; especially 
if it could be found out what the court would do, and 
how far that may be likely to countenance the clergy in 
such a separation. In the mean time, it cannot be amiss 
to cultivate a friendship with the leading men of that side, 
who may in time be made use of to the good work ol 
reforming in earnest the Gallican church. I am a little 
unhappy that I have none here I yet dare trust with what 
I do ; though I am satisfied most of our high church 
bishops and clergy would readily come into such a design. 
But these are not men either to be confided in, or made 
use of, by 

Your assured friend, 

W. Cant. 

P. S. Did cardinal de Noailles know what authority 
the archbishop of Canterbury has gotten by the reforma- 
tion, and how much a greater man he is now than when 
he was the pope's legatus nahcs, it might encourage 
him to follow so good a pattern, and be assured (in that 
case) he would lose nothing by sending back his cardinal's 
cap to Rome. I doubt your doctors know little of these 
matters. 

No. X. 

Extract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to 
Mr. Beauvoir. 

Jan. 23, O. S. 1718. 
When you see my letter (for I conclude the doctor 
will show it you,) you may do well to bring on the dis- 
course of our episcopal rights and privileges in England, 
and particularly of the prerogatives of the archbishop of 
Canterbury, which, I believe, are greater than those of 
the archbishop of Rheims, or of all the archbishops in 
France. This may raise in them a curiosity to know 
more of this matter, which if they desire, I will take the 
first little leisure I have to give them a more particular 
account of it. We must deal with men in their own way, 
if we mean to do any good with them. They have been 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



693 



used to a pompous ministry, and, like the Jews heretofore, 
would despise the Messiah himself if he should come in a 
poor and low estate to them. And therefore, though, for 
myself, I account all temporal grandeur as nothing, and 
am afraid it has rather hurt the church of Christ, and the 
true spirit of piety and religion, than done any real service 
to either ; yet it may be the means of disposing these 
gentlemen to a more favourable thought of, and inclina- 
tion towards a reformation ; to convince them that they 
may return to the truth of Christianity, and leave the 
corruptions of Rome, without losing any honour, any 
power, that a servant of Christ would desire to be troubled 
withal. Had the first reformers in France yielded to this 
scheme, as we in England showed them an example, the 
whole Gallican church had come in to them, and been at 
this day as we are now : we must therefore hit off the 
blot which they made, and satisfy their ambition so far as to 
show them that they may reform, without giving up either 
their authority or revenues, and be still as great, but much 
better bishops, under our circumstances, than under their 
own. 

As to the pope's authority, I take the difference to be 
only this ; that we may all agree (without troubling our- 
selves with the reason) to allow him a primacy of order 
in the episcopal college. They would have it thought 
necessary to hold communion with him, and allow him 
a little canonical authority over them, as long as he 
will leave them to prescribe the bounds of it. We fairly 
say we know of no authority he has in our realm ; 
but for actual submission to him, they as little mind it as 
we do. 

At present he has put them out of his communion ; 
we have withdrawn ourselves from his ; both are out of 
communion with him, and I think it is not material on 
which side the breach lies. 

No. XI. 

A Letter from Archbishop Wake to Mr. Beauvoir. 

Feb. 5, 1718-19, O. S. 

I do not doubt that mine of the 18th of January, with 
the two inclosed for my lord Stair and Dr. Du-Pin, are 
before this come safe to you. I should not be sorry if, 
upon this late transaction between the doctor and ministry, 
you have kept it in your hands, and not delivered it to him. 
I had just begun a letter to Dr. Piers, but have thrown 
aside what I writ of it, since I received your last ; and 
must beg the favour of you to make my excuse to him. 
with the tenders of my hearty service, till I see a little 
more what the meaning of this present inquisition is. I 
am not so unacquainted with the finesses of courts, as not 
to apprehend, that what is now done may be as well in 
favour of the doctor's attempt, as against it. If the pro- 
cureur-general be indeed well affected to it, he might 
take this method, not only to his own security, but to bring 
the affair under a deliberation, and give a handle to those 
whom it chiefly concerns, to discover their sentiments of 
it. But the matter may be also put to another use, and 
nobody can answer that it shall not be so : and till I see 
what is the meaning of this sudden turn, I shall write no 
more letters for the ' French ministry to examine, but 
content myself to have done enough already to men who 
cannot keep their own counsel, and live in a country 

No. LVIII. 174 



where even the private correspondence of learned men 
with one another must be brought to a public inquiry, 
and be made the subject of a state inquisition. I am not 
aware, that in any of my letters there is one line that can 
give a just offence to the court. I always took it for 
granted, that no step should be taken toward a union, 
but with the knowledge and approbation, and even by the 
authority of civil powers ; and indeed if I am in the right, 
that nothing can be done to any purpose in this case but 
by throwing off the pope's authority, as the first step to 
be made in order to it, it is impossible for any such attempt 
to be made by any power less than the king's. All there- 
fore that has passed hitherto, stands clear of any just 
exception as to the civil magistrate ; it is only a consulta- 
tion, in order to find out a way how a union might 
be made, if a fit occasion should hereafter be offered 
for the doing of it. Yet still I do not like to have my 
letters exposed in such a manner, though satisfied there 
is nothing to be excepted against in them ; and think I 
shall be kind to the doctors themselves, to suspend, at 
least for a while, my farther troubling of them. I hope 
you will endeavour, by some or other of your friends, to 
find out the meaning of this motion ; from whom it came ; 
how far it has gone ; what was the occasion of it ; and 
what is like to be the consequence of it ; what the abbe 
Du-Bois says of my letters, and how they are received 
by him and the other ministers. I shall soon discover 
whether any notice has been taken of it to our ministry ; 
and I should think, if the abbe spoke to your lord about 
it, he would acquaint you with it. 

No. XII. 

Extract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to 
Mr. Beauvoir. 

Feb. 24, 1718. 

I do not at all wonder that the cardinals Rohan and 
Bissi should do all they can to blacken the good cardinal 
de Noailles, and in him the party of the Anti-Constitu- 
tionists, but especially the Sorbonne, their most weighty 
and learned adversaries ; and I am sensible that such a 
complaint is not only the most proper to do this, but to 
put the court itself under some difficulties, which way 
soever it acts upon it. But I am still the more curious to 
learn, if it were possible, not only the proceedings of the 
ministry above board hereupon, but their private thoughts 
and opinions about it. I am under no concern upon my 
own account, farther than that I would be unwilling to 
have my letters scanned by so many great men, which 
will scarcely bear the judgment of my very friends. You 
must do me the favour to get out of your doctors what will 
be most obliging to them, whether to continue to write to 
them, or to be silent for a while, till we see what will be 
the effect of this inquiry. In the mean time, it grows 
every day plainer what I said from the beginning, that 
no reformation can be made but by the authority, and 
with the concurrence of the court ; and that all we divines 
have to do, is to use our interest to gain them to it, and 
to have a plan ready to offer to them, if they would be 
prevailed upon to come into it. 

I am at present engaged in two or three other transac- 
tions of moment to the foreign protestants, which take up 
abundance of my time ; God knows what will be die 



694 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



effect of it. Nevertheless, if I can in any way help to 
promote this, though I am at present without any help, 
alone, in this project, I shall do my utmost, both to keep 
up my poor little interest with the two doctors and their 
friends, and to concert proper methods with them about it. 
The surest way will be, to begin as well, and to go as far 
as we can, in settling a friendly correspondence one with 
another ; to agree to own each other as true brethren, and 
members of the catholic Christian church ; to agree to 
communicate in every thing we can with one another 
(which, on their side, is very easy, there being nothing in 
our offices, in any degree, contrary to their own principles ;) 
and would they purge out of theirs what is contrary to 
ours, we might join in the public service with them, and 
yet leave one another in the free liberty of believing tran- 
substantiation or not, so long as we did not require any 
thing to be done by either in pursuance of that opinion. 
The Lutherans do this very thing ; many of them com- 
municate not only in prayers, but in the communion with 
us ; and we never inquire whether they believe con- 
substantiation, or even pay any worship to Christ as 
present with the elements, so long as their outward actions 
are the same with our own, and they give no offence to 
any with their opinions. 

P. S. Since this last accident, and the public noise of 
a union at Paris, I have spoken something more of it to 
my friends here, who, I begin to hope, will fall in with 
it. I own a correspondence, but say not a tittle how far, 
or in what way, I have proceeded, more than that letters 
have passed, which can no longer be a secret. I have 
never shown one of my own or the doctors to any body. 

No. XIII. 

Extract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to 
Mr. Beauvoir. 

March 16, S. V. 1718. 

I thank you for your account of what passed between 
Mons. Hop and you, relating to the project of a union : 
I doubt that gentleman will not be pleased with it ; be- 
cause, indeed, the Gallican church will never unite with 
any church that has not an orderly episcopacy in it. I 
am very sorry my poor letters are made so public. The 
next thing will be, that either the imprudence of our 
friends, or the malice of our enemies, will print them ; 
and then I shall have censures enough for them, perhaps 
some reflections printed upon them, or answers made to 
them ; but this shall not engage me in any defence of 
them, or in taking any farther notice of them. I beg you 
to keep those I have written to yourself from all view ; 
for I have no copies of them, and I wrote them as I do 
my other ordinary letters, without any great thought or 
consideration, more than what my subject (as I was 
writing) led me in that instant to. This is the liberty 
to be taken with a friend, where one is sure what he 
writes shall go no farther ; but, for the same reason will 
require the strictest suppression from any other view. 
I cannot yet guess what this turn means, nor how it will 
end : I wish your doctors could give you some farther 
light into it. 

P. S. I entreat you never to forget me to the two good 
doctors, whom I love and honour : keep up the little in- 
terest I have with them. As soon as ever the present turn 
is over, I will write to Dr. Girardin. I hope my letters 



will not always be carried as criminals before the secretary 
of state, though I am persuaded he bears no ill-will 
to me. 

No. XIV. 

Extract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to 

Mr. Beauvoir. 

April 29, 1718. 
I am much concerned to hear that Dr. Du-Pin decays 
so fast : I feared by his last letter that he was sinking 
apace. Pray, is there any good print of him taken these 
last years 1 for I have one that was made when he was 
a young man. I am sorry Dr. Piers grows faint-hearted : 
I never thought any thing could be done as to a refor- 
mation in France, without the authority of the court ; but I 
was in hopes the regent and others might have found their 
account in such an attempt ; and then the good disposition 
of the bishops, clergy, and Sorbonne, with the parliament 
of Paris, would have given a great deal of spirit and expe- 
dition to it. I have done what was proper for me in that 
matter : I can now go no farther, till the abbot Du-Bois 
is better disposed ; yet I shall still be pleased to keep up 
a little esteem between those gentlemen, which will do us 
some good, if it does not do them, any service. I am apt 
to think, the good old man (Du-Pin) does not think us 
far from the kingdom of heaven. I have with this sent 
a letter of friendship to Dr. Piers, which you will be so 
kind as to send him, with my kind respects. 

No. XT. 

Extract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to Dr. Dvr 

Pin, dated Lambeth, May 1, 1719. 

N. B. Du-Pin was dead before it arrived at Paris. 

Speraveram equidem tua auctoritate, constantia, eru- 
ditione, pietate, moderatione, quae omnia adeo in te per- 
fecta esse noscuntur, ut vix in aliis singula, praeclari ali- 
quid ad Dei gloriam, eccleeiseque Gallicanse utilitatem, per 
fici potuisse. Crediderim advenisse tempus, in quo, ex- 
cusso Rnmanse tyrannidis jugo, una nobiscum in eandem 
communionem coalesceretis. In dogmatibus, prout a te 
candid e proponuntur, non admodum dissentimus: in regi- 
mine ecclesiastico minus : in fundamentalibus, sive doc- 
trinam sive disciplinam spectemus, vix omnino. Q.uam 
facilis erat ab his initiis ad concordiam progressus, modo 
animos haberemus ad pacem compositos ! Sed hoc princi- 
pibus seculi non arridet, unionis inimicis etiam plurhnum 
displicet : neque nobis forte dabit Deus esse tarn felicibus, 
ut ad hujusmodi unionem nostram qualemcunque operam 
conferamus. Relinquamus hoc illi, in cujus manu sunt 
rerum omnium tempora et occasiones. Sufficiat voluisse 
aliquid in tarn insigni opere, forte et semina in terram pro- 
jecisse, quae fructum tandem multiplicem proferant. Inte 
rim, quod nemo nobis denegare possit, nos invicem ut fra- 
tres, ut ejusdem mystici corporis membra, amplectamur. 

No. XVI. 

Extract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to 

Mr. Beauvoir. 

Feb.9, S.V. 1719-20. 
I heartily wish there were either spirit or incli- 
nation enough in the Sorbonne to go on with our friend 
the abbfi's project : but the fire decays, men's inclinations 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



695 



cool : the court will do nothing, and you are very sensible, 
that without the court nothing can be done in any such 
affair. Nevertheless, their good opinion of the church of 
England should be kept up as much as possible ; we should 
encourage them all we can to account of us as of brethren, 
who have only thrown off, what they are weary of, the 
tyranny of the court of Rome, without any change in any 
fundamental article, either of the doctrine or government 
of the Catholic church ; and upon this ground I shall be 
ready to continue a brotherly correspondence with any of 
their great men, provided it be done with such caution, as 
may not expose my letters to be made prisoners to a secre- 
tary of state, — a thing which can never become my cha- 
racter, and may carry an ill aspect, even in our own court, 
till the thing be rightly understood. 

No. XVII. 

ExtractofaLetterfromtheArchbishoptoMr.Beauvoir. 

March 31, 1720. 
I thank you for your account of the present state of 
the French church. It is a very odd one indeed, but will 
settle into an agreement at last. When once the appel- 
lants begin to break, the court will drive all the obstinate 
(as they will call them ; I should name them, the honest 
men, of courage and constancy) to a compliance. 

No. XVIII. 
Extract of a Letter from the Archbishop to Mr. Beauvoir. 

April 19, O. S. 1720. 
I perceive, by some late letters from him (Piers Gi- 
rardin,) that he begins to despair of the business of the 
constitution. He has reason : the cardinal de Noailles is 
ensnared, and has gone too far to retire. The new arch- 
bishop of Cambray will be a cardinal ; and this affair of 
the constitution must procure the calot for him. The re- 
gent himself is afraid of the Spanish party, and the Jesuits; 
and he will gain, or at least appease them. For all these 
reasons, the doctrine of the church, and the Gallican liber- 
ties, must be abandoned ; and, on the slight pretence of a 
comm'. of no esteem with the opposite party, an accommo- 
dation will certainly be made ; and those who will not 
voluntarily go, shall be driven into it. If our poor friend 
be one of those who must hereby suffer, why may he not 
consider of a retreat hither, and, since he cannot yet bring 
on a union with the two churches, unite himself with 
ours, from which I am sure his principles, and I believe 
his inclinations, are not greatly distant ? But this must be 
managed very tenderly, and rather by a kind of rallying, 
than a direct proposal of it. If he inclines to it, he will 
easily understand your meaning ; if not, 'tis best not to 
go on far with him in a matter in which you will have 
no good success. 

No. XIX. 

xtract of a Letter from Archbishop Wake to 
Mr. le Clerc. 

April, 1719. 

Novum Testamentum Gallicum, notis tuis feliciter or- 

natum, totum, nee sine fructu, perlegi. Praefatione tua 

eidem praefixa mirifice affectus sum ; legi, relegi, quin et 

Bffipius deinccps repetam. Ita me in ipso prsesertim ejus 



initio commovit, ut verae pietatis in ea relucentem spiritum 
nunquam satis laudare possim, vel annuo meo satis alte 
imprimere. 

Et quamvis in annotationibus tuis qusedam liberius dicta 
occurrant, quae non asque omnibus placeant. neque mihi 
ipsi ubique satisfaciant ; fero tamen, et vel in ipso tuo a 
communi sententia discessu aliquid mihi invenire videor, 
quod ignoscere magis quam acerbius reprehendere debeam, 
multo minus inclementius damnare. Libertatem prophe- 
tandi, modo pia ac sobria sit, cum charitate ac mansuetu- 
dine conjuncta, nee contra analogiam fidei semel Sanc- 
tis traditae, adeo non vituperandam, ut etiam probandam, 
censeam. De rebus adiaphoris cum nemine contenden- 
dum puto. Ecclesias reformatas, etsi in aliquibus a nostra 
Anglicana dissentientes, libenter amplector. Optarem equi- 
dem regimen episcopale bene temperatum, et ab omni in- 
justa dominatione sejunctum, quale apud nos obtinet, et, 
siquid ego in his rebus sapiam, ab ipso apostolorum eevo 
in ecclesia receptum fuerit, et ab iis omnibus fuisset reten- 
tum ; nee despero quin aliquando restitutum, si non ipse 
videam, at posteri videbunt. Interim absit ut ego tam ferrei 
pectoris sim, ut ob ejusmodi defectum (sic mihi absque omm 
invidia appellare liceat) aliquas earum a communione nos- 
tra abscindendas credam ; aut, cum quibusdam furiosis in- 
ter nos scriptoribus, eas nulla vera ac valida sacramenta ha- 
bere, adeoque vix Christianos esse pronuntiem. Unionem 
arctiorem inter omnes reformatos procurare quovis pretio 
vellem. Hsec si in regimine ecclesiastico ac publicis eccle- 
siarum ofnciis obtineri potuit ; aut ego plurimum fallor, aut 
id solum brevi conduceret ad animorum inter eos unionem 
conciliandam, et viam sterneret ad plenam in omnibua 
majoris momenti dogmatibus concordiam stabiliendam, 
Quantum hoc ad religionis nostrae securitatem conduceret; 
quantum etiam ad pseudo-catholicorumRomanensium con- 
versionem, caecus sit qui non videat. — Sed abripuit me lon- 
gius quam par esset hasc semper mihi dulcis de pace ac 
unione ecclesiarum reformatarum cogitatio, — &c. 

No. XX. 

Archbishop Wake's letter to the pastors and professors 

of Geneva. 

8th April, 1719. 

Quamvis Uteris vestris nihil mihi gratius potuit afferri, 
non tamen absque summo dolore, vix oculis siccis, eas per- 
legi ; neque credo quenquam esse tam ferrei pectoris, qui 
ad ea mala quae in illis referentur non perhorrescat, mire- 
turque talia ab hominibus erga homines, a popularibus 
erga populares suos, a Christianis denique erga Christia- 
nos, idque (quod fidem omnem exuperare valeat) etiam 
religionis causa, fieri et perpetrari. 

Vos interim, venerandi viri, quod vestri erat officii, sedulo 
praestitistis. Delegates ecclesiarum Hungaricarum amice 
accepistis. duerimoniam eorum, ea qua par erat charitate 
atque sympathia fraterna audivistis ; nullaque mora ad- 
hibata, ad remedium malis ipsorum inveniendum omnes 
vestras cogitationes convertistis. Per illustres magistratus 
vestros, easterns refonnatae religionis principes atque sena- 
tores, ad persecutiones horum fratrum vestrorum serio con- 
siderandas, excitavistis, et ut suam authoritatem interpc- 
nerent ad sedandas eorum oppressiones enixissime obse- 
crastis. 

Denique, nequid vel minimi ponderis desideretur quo 



696 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



stadium vest rum in hoc tarn insigni charitatis opere exe- 
quehdo ostendatis, etiam mea qualicunque opera uti volu- 
istis, ad animum augustissimi regis nostri commovendum, 
ne in hac tarn gravi sua necessitate amictis Christi servis 
deesset. 

O amorem vere Christianum ! et qualem deceat ejusdem 
corporis membra erga se invicem habere ! Dignum pro- 
fecto et vobis, et eximio illo vestro congressu, opus ; ut quo 
praecipue tempore convenistis ad laudes Dei celebrandas, 
qui per duo jam secula religionem reformatam vobis inco- 
lumem servaverit, eodem etiam illam ipsam religionem 
evangelicam in aliis regionibus oppressam, concussam, ac 
tantum non extremum quasi spiritum trahentem, subleve- 
tis et si fieri possit, in integrum restituatis. 

Ego vero, fratres charissimi, et propria voluntate motus, 
et vestro tarn illustri exemplo impulsus, adeo eodem vobis- 
cum ardore accendor, ut nihil non tentandum putem, quo 
vestris tam piis, tarn justis, tamque benignis conatibus op- 
tatum successum compararem. 

Imprimis igitur nobilem virum comitem Sunderlandia? 
primarium regis ministrum sedulo adivi : literas vestras 
illi communicavi ; petii, oravi, ut in hac re suam mibi 
operam utque auxilium concedere vellet; utque simul regi- 
ammajestatemadiremus; non quod deipsiusprompta volun- 
tate, dubitarem, sed ut quae in hac causa facienda essent, eo 
majori vigore atque promptitudine perficerentur. Successit, 
fere ultra spem, conatis noster. Utriusque ecclesia? turn Hun- 
garica? turn vicinee Vallensis, oppressiones regi, eo quo par 
erat affectu, exposuimus. Favorem ejus atque authoritatem 
apud Cassarem regemque Sardinia? obnixe imploravimus, ut 
ab his tam injustis vexationibus, eorum jussu et mandatis, 
liberentur. Et pra?cipue quod ad Pedemontanas ecclesias 
attinet etiam adhortati sumus, ut jure suo a rege Sardinia? 
postularet. ut pacta in his qua? religionis exercitium con- 
cernent, earum gratia inita, meliori fide in posterum obser- 
ventur. Annuit votis nostris rex sevenissimus ; neque du- 
bito quin legatis suis jamdudum pra?ceperit, ut omnem 
quam possunt operam suo nomine impendant, quo ab istis 
adeo iniquis oppressionibus utriusque ecclesia? membra 
liberentur. Orandus Deus ut tanti principis conatibus, in 
hac tam justa, tam pia, tam religioni Christiana? proficua 
interpellatione, aspirare dignetur, et oppressis suis servis 
exoptatam requiem tandem concedere, pro immensa sua 
misericordia, velit. 

Interim, dum haec feliciter, uti spero, peraguntur, ignos- 
cite, fratres dilectissimi, si majoris quidem laboris atque 
difficultatis, sed longe maximi omnibus commodi, incep- 
t um, vobis proponam ; in quo et saepe alias et hoc tempore 
complures primaria? dignitatis viri summo studio allabo- 
rant ; et quod ab omnibus, quibus puritas Evangelii reipsa 
cordi sit, una secum allaborandum sperant. Jamdudum 
sentitis quo mea tendit adhortatio ; ad unionem nimirum 
inter omnes qua? ubique sunt ecclesias, qua? his ultimis 
seculis a communione, seu verius tyrannide pontificis Ro- 
mani. sese subduxerunt, sedulo promovendam. Quin hoc 
fieri possit, si quidem animum ad concordiam promptum 
omnes attulerimus, nullatenus dubitandum est : quin fieri 
debeat, nemo prudens negaverit, &c. &c. 

Vos interim, F. C. hoc agite, ut saltum inter vos ipsos 
pax atque concordia inviolabiliter conserventur. Summo 
quippe dolore, anno pra?terito, accepi dissensiones inter vos 
ortas fuisse, de capitulis aliquot circa doctrinam de gratia 
universali, aliisque qua?stionibus longe difficillimis, in qui- 



bus optimi viri et doctissimi theologi idem per omnia haud- 
quaquam sentiunt. Angit hoc sane, idque non medio 
criter, animum meum. Et quamvis nollem vobis videri 
aMoTpto£7rtcrx.o7rilv J aut in alienam (quod aiunt) messem 
falcem meam immittere ; permittite tamen ut in spiritu 
charitatis, eoque quo erga vos feror amore fraterno, vos 
obsecrem, et in Domino obtester, ut in hujusmodi rebus, 
quatenus id fieri possit, idem sentiatis omnes ; quod si id 
non assequi veleatis, ut saltern sic alii alios feratis, ut nul • 
lum sit inter vos schisma, nullus querimonia? aliquorum 
adversus alios locus ; ut non nimium curiosi sitis in iis 
determinandis qua? Deus non admodum clare revelaverit, 
qua?que absque salutis dispendio tuto nesciri poterint ; 
qua? sapientissimi praedecessores nostri, in omnibus suis 
confessionibus, caute tractanda censuerunt, eaque modera- 
tione, ut universi in iis subscribendis consentirent ; et a 
quorum prudenti cautela sicubi postea discessum fuerit, 
contentiones, lites inimicitia?, aliaque infinita incommoda, 
protinus subsecuta sunt. 

In his disquisitionibus Lutherani a. reformatis dissident ; 
nee reformati ipsi prorsus inter se conveniunt. Ecclesia 
Anglicana optimo consilio, exemplo ab omnibus imitando, 
nullius conscientia?, his in rebus, jugum imponit. Qua? 
de illis in articulis suis statuerit, tafia sunt, ut ab omnibus 
ex a?quo admittantur. His contenta, nee ipsa aliquid 
amplius requirit curiosius statuere. Hinc summa inter 
nos pax cum sobria sentiendi libertate conjuncta. Utinam 
et vobis, iisdem conditionibus, concordia stabiliatur, utque 
veteri confessione vestra Helvetica contenti, neque alicui 
permitteretis aliter docere, neque ab aliquo quidpiam pro- 
fitendum requireretis ultra id quod ab initio requisitum 
fuerit ; cum tamen summi illi viri Calvinus -et Beza (ut 
de aliis taceatur) secus de his articulis sentirent, quam alii 
plures ; quos tamen non solum tolerandos, sed et pro fra- 
tribus habendos rite ac sapienter judicarunt. 

Hoc vobis non mod 6 pacem inter vos ipsos conciliabit, 
verum etiam concordiam cum aliis ecclesiis reformatis 
sartam tectam tuebitur. Absque hujusmodi temperamine, 
unioilla cum Protestantibus,tantopere desiderata, nullo mo- 
do iniri poterit; vos, igitur, serio ha?c,utpar est. considerate: 
nee a nobis, a plerisque aliis reformatis, etiam a vestris ante- 
cessoribus, novis ac durioribus impositionibus secedite, &c. 

N. B. The former part of this letter, which relates to 
the intercession of #rchbishop Wake in behalf of the 
Hungarian and Piedmontese churches, has never been 
hitherto published. The latter part, beginning with these 
words, " Interim dum ha?c feliciter peraguntur, ignoscite," 
(fee. was inserted, by Professor Turretin of Geneva, in his 
work entitled, Nubes Testium. The words " Interim 
dum ha?c," &c. were, from an ignorance of their connex- 
ion with what goes before, supposed by some learned men 
to relate to the projected union between the English and 
Gallican churches ; and Kiorning, who says in his Dis- 
sertation de Consecrationibus Episcoporum Anglorum, 
that Dr. Wake communicated this project to the divines 
of Geneva, fell into this mistake, and probably drew 
Dr. Mosheim after him. 

No. XXI. 
Extract from Archbishop Wake's Letter to Profes- 
sor Schurer, of Bern, July 1718. 
De Anglia nostra te peramanter et sentire et scribere 
plurimum gaudeo. Quanquam enim non adeo caecua 



THE FOURTH APPENDIX. 



697 



sun patriae meae amator, ut non plurirna hie videam quae 
vel penitus sublata vel in melius mutata quovis pretio 
vellem, iamen aliqua etiam in hac temporum faece occur- 
rere, optimis etiam seculis digna, et quaa ipsa primseva 
ecclesia Christiana probare, ne dicam et laudare, potuisset, 
et tu aequissime agnosci? et nos nobis gratulamur. 

No. XXII. 

To Professor Turretin, July 1718. 

Speaking of Bishop Davenant's opinion as ag/eeable to his own. 

Utinam sic sentiremus omnes, et, fundamentalibus 
religionis articulis semper salvis, nihil ultra ab aliquo 
subscribendum requirerernus, quod bonorum hominum 
conscientiis oneri esse potest, certe ecclesiae utilitatem pa- 
rum promovebit. — Ut enim de hac ecclesiarum reforma- 
tarum militate paucis dicam ; primum earum stabilimen- 
tum in hoc consistere, ut omnes sese, quantum fieri possit, 
contra papalem potentiam ac tyrannidem tueantur, nemini 
credo dubium esse posse. Ut in hunc finem quam arctis- 
sime inter se uniantur, et in idem corpus coalescant, adeo 
ut siquid alicui ex iis ecclesiae damni aut detrimenti a 
communi hoste merit illatum, id ab omnibus tanquam 
suum haberetur, concedi etiam necesse est. 

Ut denique pax et concordia cujuslibet ecclesiae refor- 
mats inter suos, ac cum aliis omnibus ejusmodi ecclesiis 
conserventur ; unicuique viro bono, sed praesertim eccle- 
siarum illatum magistratibus atque ministris, totis viribus 
enitendum esse, adeo clare apparet, ut nulla probatione 
firmiori indigeat. 

Afterwards : 

Q,uid in hac re aliud faciendum restat, nisi ut tua et 
amicorum tuorum auctoritate primo facultas vestra theo- 
logica, magistratus, ministri, cives Genevenses, deinde 
eorum exemplo atque hortatu reliqua etiam foederis Hel- 
vetici membra reformata, omnem lapidem moveant, ut 
pacem ecclesiis Bernensibus restituant? Neque id ego 
sic fieri vellem, ut non simul et religionis veritati et doc- 
trinae puritati consulatur. Snbscribant miuistri, profes- 
sores, theologi, confessioni vestrae veteri anno* 
editae : prohibeantur, sub quavis-libet poena, ne ullam in 
concionibus, scriptis, thesibus, praelectionibus, sententiam 
publice tueantur illi confessioni quovis modo contrariam. 
Id solum caveatur, ne multiplicentur hujusmodi subscrip- 
tiones absque necessitate ; neque stricte nimis inquiratur 
in privatas hominum eruditorum sententias ; modo suis 
opinionibus frui pacifice velint, et neque docendo, neque 
disputando, neque scribendo, a publica confessione sece- 
dere, aut errores suos (si tamen errores revera fuerint) in 
scandalum cujus-vis, multo magis ecclesiae aut reipub- 
lic33 divulgare. — Habes, vir spectatissime, sententiam 
meam. 

No. XXIII. 

Extract from a Letter of Archbishop Wake to Pro- 
fessor Schurer, July 1719. 
Q.vm de formula Consensus mihi narras, abunde pla- 
cent, qui, uti nolim laqueum absque causa injici consci- 
entiis bonorum atque eruditorum hominum, ita neque 
fraena laxanda censeo quibuscunque novatoribus ad pa- 
cem publice turbandam, eaque vel scribenda vel docenda, 
quae viris piis jure scandalum prasbeant, quaeque confes- 

♦The date of the confession of faith is omitted in the archbishop's letter. 

No. LIX. 175 



sioni vestrae olim stability falsitatis notam injuria inurere 
videantur. Intra hos igitur limites si steterint magistra- 
tus vestri, neque aliquid amplius a Lausannensibus requi- 
rant, nisi ut hoc demum fine formulae consensus subscri- 
bant ; sperandum est nullum schisma, ea de causa, inter 
vos exoriturum. Pacem publicam tueri, etiam in rebus 
ad fidem spectantibus, magistratus Christianus et potest 
et debet. Conscientiis hominum credenda imponere, nisi 
in rebus claris et perspicuis, et ad salutem omnino neces- 
sariis, nee potest, nee debet. Q.uod si contra faciat, sub- 
ditis tamen semper licebit ad apostolorum exemplar, si 
quidem aliquid falsi, aut incertas veritatis, iis subscriben- 
dum injunxerint, obedire Deo potius quam hominibus. 

No. XXIV. 

Extracts from Archbishop Wake's Letter to Pro- 
fessor Turretin, in answer to one from him, dated 
December 1, 1718. 

Res Bernensium ecclesiasticas nondum penitus tran- 
quillas esse et doleo et miror ; eoque magis, quod hisce 
temporibus has de decretis divinis altercationes ubique fere 
alibi ad exitum sint perductas. Quae mea sit de iis sen- 
tentia, nee adhuc cuiquam aperte declaravi, neque, ut 
deinceps patefaciam, facile me patiar induci. Hoc apud 
nos, turn ex mandatis regiis, turn ex diu servata (utinam 
semper servanda) consuetudine fixum est atque stabilitum, 
neque a quoquam exquirere quid de his rebus sentiat, 
modo articulis religionis, publica auctoritate constitutis, 
subscribat ; neque in concionibus aut etiam disputationi- 
bus theologicis, aliquid amplius de iis determinate, quam 
quod illi articuli expresse statuant, et ab omnibus ad 
ministerii munus admittendis profitendum requirant. 

Then follows an historical narrative of the rise, and 
occasion, and censure of the Lambeth articles ; 
as also of the rise and progress of Arminianism 
under the reigns of James I. and Charles I., and 
of the subsiding of all disputes of that kind under 
Charles II. He then subjoins, 

Et quidem illud imprimis observatu dignum aestimo, 
quam moderate, quam prudenter, in hac tarn difficili dis- 
quisitione, optimi illi viri, martyres ac confessores Christi 
constantissimi, quos Divina Providentia ad reformandam 
hanc nostram ecclesiam seligere dignatus est, se gesserunt. 
Non illi curiositaticujusvis aliquid indulgendum putarunt ; 
non vanis et incertis hominum hypothesibus de decretis 
divinis alicujus fidem alligare fas esse consuerunt. Scie- 
bant quam inscrutabilia sint consiha Dei, et quanto inter- 
vallo omnes nostras cogitationes exuperent. Ideoque non 
religiose minus quam sapienter inter justos terminos sese 
continuerunt ; neque in necessariis ad fidem nostram dc 
hisce mysteriis stabiliendam deficientes ; neque in non- 
necessariis determinandis officiosi ; unde forte pro vera 
fide errorera, pro pace discordiam, pro fraterna unione ac 
charitate divisionem, odia, inimicitias in ecclesiam Christi 
inducere poterant. 

Hasc fuit eorum simplicitas vere evangelica ; pietate 
non minus quam sapientia commendabilis ; coque magis 
suspicienda, ac fere pro divina habenda, quod tot annorum 
experientia reperta sit non soliim optimam fuisse pacis ac 
concordiae regidam, verum etiam unicum contra schismata 
et divisiones remedium. 



HISTORY 



OP THE 



CHRISTIAN CHURCH 



DURING 



THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY; 



FORMING 



A CONTINUATION OF DR. MOSHEIM'S WORK. 






INTRODUCTION. 



The generality of readers, more intent on the consi- 
deration of modern affairs than on the contemplation of 
ancient occurrences, are induced to expect, from historic 
■writers, a much more copious detail of recent than of 
early transactions. The expectation is natural and rea- 
sonable , and it is therefore readily gratified by historians. 
But, like other rules, this also may be allowed to have an 
exception. In modern times, the affairs of the church 
move in a more regular course, and are conducted with 
far greater tranquillity, than in earlier periods ; and hence 
a narrative of such occurrences may prove less interesting 
than the ecclesiastical history of many preceding ages, 
and may consequently require a less minute detail and 
less frequent reflection. 

Dr. Mosheim, in all probability, if he had lived to the 

• Such a conclusion may be drawn from what he says at the beginning 
of his sketch of that century :' Sxculi, quod vivimus, historia Chris- 
tiana voluminis, non paginarum paucarum, materies est, suumque inter 
posteros scriptorem ingenuum et eequum expectat;' — a passage which 



close of the eighteenth century, would have given an 
elaborate and ample sequel to his valuable history ; a but 
the writer who has undertaken to continue that work has 
neither the leisure nor the inclination to expatiate upon 
the subject. It would not, perhaps, be very difficult for 
him to fill volumes with a specification of the religious 
and ecclesiastical affairs of the last century : but he does 
not conceive that such diffusion is necessary, and he 
hopes that a concise statement, with incidental remarks, 
will content his readers. 

Those who wish for a copious history of the Christian 
church during that period, must wait for the exertions oi 
some erudite and able divine, who may have time and 
patience for the accomplishment of the task. 

C. COOTE. 

may be thus translated : The history of the Christian church, during the 
the century in which we live, is the proper subject of a considerable volume, 
rather than of only a few pages ; and it demands from posterity a writer who 
will pay due attention to it, — a liberal, impartial, and judicious author. 



HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 

DURING 

THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



CHAPTER 1. 

History of the Romish Church, duri?ig the Eighteenth 
Century. 

The continued attacks of the Protestants upon the 
church of Rome had forced the outworks, and weakened 
the barriers of that establishment : but it still presented a 
bold front to its assailants, and numbered among its vota- 
ries the major part of the inhabitants of Europe. Its 
greatness was impaired, but not subverted ; and it had 
an imposing, if not a very formidable aspect. The pope's 
power of interdiction and excommunication had ceased to 
fill nations with dismay. Some of the potentates of his 
communion addressed him in a tone which many of his 
predecessors would not have endured ; harassed him with 
various pretensions, and encroached upon that authority 
which he deemed legitimate and even divine. Notwith- 
standing these assaults, he retained some degree of power 
and a considerable portion of influence, and was sup- 
ported in the dignity of supreme pontiff by the greatest 
princes of the continent. 

The prelate who occupied this high station at the com- 
mencement of that century of which we are now treating, 
was Clement XI. or John Francis Albani, who, having 
acquired reputation by his skill in the management of 
affairs, and being also of a spirited character^ had been 
unanimously chosen by the conclave at a time when the 
political horizon of Europe threatened a storm. He rejec- 
ted the offered tiara with a greater appearance of sincerity 
than that which an English divine usually displays when 
he says, on the offer of a bishopric, nolo episcopari ; but 
his scruples and objections were removed by the argu- 
ments, representations, and importunities of the cardinals. 

He made a good beginning of administration. He 
redressed some grievances, discountenanced vice and crimi- 
nality of every kind, performed acts of beneficence, gave 
an example of devotional regularity, and filled vacant 
offices and preferments with men of merit. He then 
directed his attention to politics, and testified a desire of 
preventing a war between the king of France and the 
emperor, on the subject of the Spanish succession. He 
ivrote a letter to each of those princes, exhorting them to 
accommodate all disputes without rushing into hostilities. 
They received his advice with professions of respect for his 
character, but did not suffer it to regulate their conduct. 
Ambition still inflamed the aged Louis : his thirst of do- 
minion still urged him to send forth his legions, and ican- 
tonly (for a lust of power was no sufficient motive) to 
shed the blood of his unoffending fellow creatures. Leo- 
pold professed an equal regard for religion, but was equal- 
ly uninfluenced by justice or humanity. 

With respect to the religious principles of these royal 
No. LIX. 176 



sons of the church, we may observe, that they were not 
animated by true piety, or a genuine spirit of religion. 
They may have believed the doctrines of Christianity ; or. 
perhaps, they merely affected to give credit to the faith 
which they found established in their dominions. They 
attended mass with decorous regularity, witnessed cere- 
monial observances with a serious and devout aspect, and 
promoted among their subjects a religious uniformity. But 
they did not endeavour, like true Christians, to correct their 
evil propensities, amend their hearts, or reform their lives. 
They did not study to preserve " peace upon earth ;" 
they did not cherish " good will towards men." Their 
religion in (the language applied by a respectable histo- 
rian 1 to "William the Conqueror (" prompted them to en- 
dow monasteries, but at the same time allowed them to 
pillage kingdoms : it threw them on their knees before a 
relic or a cross, but suffered them unrestrained to trample 
upon the liberties and the rights of mankind." 

We have no concern with the war into which the rival 
princes entered, as it is unconnected with the history of 
the church. It arose from temporal motives, and refer- 
red to grand political objects. Both princes promised that, 
if the war should extend- to Italy, the papal territories 
should remain uninjured and unmolested: but this pro- 
mise was violated, on the part of Leopold, by the irruption 
of an Austrian detachment into the province of Ferrara. 
Clement having bitterly complained of this conduct, the 
troops retired : but, as they again encroached, he ordered 
an army to be levied. Louis, and his grandson the new 
king of Spain, earnestly requested his holiness to enter 
into an alliance with them, promising great advantages 
not only to the holy see, but to the pontiff himself, as the 
price of his condescension. He had no wish to take part 
with either of the contending families, and therefore refu- 
sed to accede to the confederacy. A report was propagated 
of his assent to the offered terms ; and it derived strength 
from the appearance of the duke of Berwick at Rome ; 
but that nobleman was merely sent from France by the 
royal exile, James II., to congratulate Albani on his ele- 
vation to the papal throne. 

Unable to check the rage of war, the pope soothed his 
anxiety, and gratified his religious zeal, by promoting the 
diffusion of the catholic faith. He even expressed a wish 
that he could visit the remotest parts of the globe for that 
pious and salutary purpose, and lamented his inability of 
accomplishing his desire. Contracting his views he con- 
tented himself with sending legates into various regions, 
particularly into Persia, India, and China, to support and 
extend the interests of Christianity : but the success of 
these heralds of the Gospel did not correspond with the 
wishes of the religious world. We are informed, how- 
a George Lord Lyttleton. 



r04 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



ever, that his entreaties and expostulations procured, for 
the catholics of Thrace, Armenia, and Syria, a respite 
from Mohammedan persecution, and an allowance of the 
free exercise of their religion. 1 This freedom, however, 
was occasionally interrupted and disturbed by the brutality 
of furious infidels, and the animosity of barbarian zealots. 
The legate upon whom he chiefly depended, for the 
success of the eastern mission, was Maillard de Tournon, 
who was ready to encounter every danger in the cause of 
Christianity. This missionary visited India and China 
with a weak and declining frame, but with a heart full of 
pious zeal. He introduced himself to the Chinese empe- 
ror at Pekin ; was politely received, and complimented 
with various presents ; and was gratified with permission 
to preach the Gospel, and expound the doctrines of the 
catholic faith. The imperial potentate, however, did not 
mean that this permission should so far operate, as to 
authorise the legate and his associates to oppose the pre- 
valence of popular institutions and ceremonies, sanctioned 
by long practice. Unwilling to make any concessions to 
the prejudices of paganism, Tournon loudly exclaimed 
against the idolatrous usages of the Chinese, and sharply 
reproved the ministers of state and of religion, for suffer- 
ing the continuance of such degrading absurdities. By this 
freedom he gave great offence to the court ; and he was 
even accused of treason against the emperor. Defying 
the odium which he considered as unmerited, he proceed- 
ed in his pious career, until he was banished from the capi- 
tal, in 1707, and sent to the island of Macao, where he 
was imprisoned with five of his fellow missionaries. 
Admiring his undaunted zeal, the pope elevated him to 
the dignity of a cardinal ; an honour which he declared he 
would not accept, if he should be expected to relinquish 
his mission ; for he was prepared to suffer every incon- 
venience, and undergo every species of persecution, in the 
discharge of Christian duties. When the governor of the 
Philippine islands offered to facilitate his escape, he pe- 
remptorily refused to quit his prison. He died, not with- 
out suspicion of poison, after he had been confined above 
three years. The mission was continued after his death ; 
but it did not promise to be successful, as the prejudices of 
the Chinese were too firmly fixed to be easily eradicated. b 
Clement, in the mean time, continued to observe, with 
an anxious eye, the commotions of Europe. When the 
emperor had proclaimed his son (the archduke Charles) 
king of Spain, his holiness refused to acknowledge the 
young prince in that capacity. A new invasion of Fer- 
rara followed ; but the Austrians did not venture to make 
a conquest of that territory, as Leopold was unwilling to 
inflict any serious injury on the pontiff. As soon as 
Joseph became emperor, he manifested a stronger incli- 
nation than his father had evinced, to thwart and harass 
the head of the church. He restricted the - papal authority 
in point of presentation to benefices ; seized Comacchio, 
and claimed Parma and Placentia as imperial fiefs. His 
troops levied contributions in the ecclesiastical state, and 
alarmed the timid inhabitants. At length, however, he 
consented to an accommodation, and ceased to be a re- 
fractory son of the church. 

a Guarnacci, Vit. et Res Gest. Pontificum Romanorum et Cardina- 
lium, usque ad Clementem XII. torn. ii. p. 7. 

t Guarnacci, Vit Pontif. et Cardin. torn. ii. p. 143, 144. 

c In the year 1708. 

* For an account of the rise of this controversy, and of the doctrines 



A revival of the^ontest between the Jansenists and the 
Jesuits had for some time conspired with politics and war 
to disturb the tranquillity of the court of Rome. d M. Du- 
Pin had published, in 1703, a Case of Conscience, in 
which (according to the pope's letter to the king of France) 
various errors already condemned were revived, and the 
heretical tenets of Jansenius defended ; and for this offence 
he was banished from Paris into the province of Bretagne. 
Forty doctors of the Sorbonne, whose names appeared 
among the signatures of approbation that accompanied 
the Case, were desired to submit to the will of the pontiff ; 
and many of them recanted, while others denied that they 
had given assent to the book. For the more effectual 
repression of Jansenism, a new apostolical constitution was 
issued in 1705, condemning such errors with menaces of 
papal indignation. The archbishop of Sebaste, vicar of 
the holy see in Holland, was removed from his employ- 
ment for a supposed collusion with the Jansenists ; and 
these sectaries were again subjected to ecclesiastical cen 
sure in 1708, when the pope condemned the Moral Reflec 
tions of their celebrated associate, Q,uesnel, upon the Nevs 
Testament. This theologian answered the damnatory 
bull with a spirit which inflamed the contest. The par- 
tisans of Rome called for a new and more explicit con- 
demnation of the Reflections ; and the king of France, 
prejudiced against a sect which the Jesuits represented as 
even more dangerous to the church than that of the 
Huguenots, earnestly solicited the promulgation of a rigour- 
ous edict. Hence arose that decree which was addressed 
to the whole catholic world, but which more particularly 
demanded the attention and observance of the Gallican 
church. 

The Anti-Jansenist ordinance, as it commenced with 
the terms Unigenitus Dei Filius, was quickly known 
throughout Christendom by the appellation of the bull 
Unigenitus. Alleging and lamenting the inefficacy of 
the former condemnation of Q,uesnel's book, the pontiff 
was determined, he said, to apply a stronger remedy to 
the growing disease. Some catholic truths, he allowed, 
were mingled with the mass of corrupt doctrine : but, as 
the insidious and seductive manner in which the errors 
were brought forward, had occasioned a neglect of the 
sound portion of the work, it was necessary to separate 
the tares from the wheat. He and his counsellors, there- 
fore, had extracted a hundred and one propositions from 
the book ; and these he now condemned as false, captious, 
scandalous, pernicious, rash, seditious, impious, blasphe- 
mous, schismatic, and heretical. Not content with cen- 
suring these passages, he subjoined a prohibition of the 
whole performance, and cautioned the people, on pain of 
excommunication, against the perusal of any vindication 
or defence of it, which had been, or might be, offered to 
the public. 

This bull, perhaps, the good sense of Clement would 
have forborne to promulgate, if the zeal of the bigoted and 
domineering Louis had not overawed or perverted the 
pontiff; though it may with equal plausibility be sup- 
posed, that the pope's zeal was sufficient for the object, 
without any solicitation whatever. The Jansenists, per- 



propagated by Jansenius, see Dr. Mosheim's fifth volume, cent xvii. 
sect. ii. part i. chap. i. 

•Guarnacci, Vit. Pontif. et Cardin. torn. ii. p. 11, 18, 19.— Histoire de 
France, sous le Regne de Louis XIV. par M. de Larrey, torn, iii.— 
This bull made its appearance on the 8th of September, 1713, N. S. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



705 



eecuted by that intolerant prince for disregarding the new 
papal constitution, expected less rigorous treatment when 
Philip duke of Orleans became regent of France. The 
cardinal de Noailles, who had warmly supported their 
cause, was introduced into the cabinet : those who had 
been banished were recalled : the resolutions which the 
Sorbonne had adopted in favour of the bull, were annulled, 
as the effect of constraint ; and the conduct of the court 
of Rome was publicly and acrimoniously condemned. 
The pope remonstrated against these proceedings, and 
urged the propriety of submitting to the holy see : but the 
Jansenists called for a general council, calculated to heal 
the disorders of the church. The Jesuits denied the 
necessity of such a convocation, and complained of the 
arrogance of the demand. The regent at length began 
to listen to the persuasions of the bigoted party, and 
menaced the opposers of the bull with his resentment. 
He banished M. Ravechet, syndic of the Sorbonne, into 
Roussillon ; but he would not consent to the deposition 
of that resolute academic, who died in the midst of these 
disputes. An assembly of prelates, convoked by Philip, 
in vain endeavoured to reconcile the parties ; and twenty 
commissioners, nominated for the same purpose, were not 
more successful in their exertions. The parliament of 
Paris took cognizance of the affair, in consequence of an 
appeal from some priests whom the archbishop of Rheims 
had excommunicated for their opposition to the will of 
his holiness. The spiritual sentence was declared null 
and void, and the prelate who had pronounced it was 
condemned in costs and damages. The Jansenists now 
became more bold in their attacks, until the regent, 
alleging the inutility of these disputes, imposed silence by 
a royal declaration." 

An edict which confounded the advocates of truth and 
of sound doctrine with misguided zealots, displeased both 
parties. The pope accused the regent of insincerity and 
injustice, and of enmity to that church which he was 
bound to protect. To the cardinal de Noailles he sent 
a letter, mingling expostulations with entreaty, which 
did not subdue the firmness of that prelate. The cardinal's 
appeal from the bull or " constitution of the holy father 
to the pope better advised, and to a future general 
council," was condemned by the court of inquisition at 
Rome as a scandalous libel ; and its circulation and perusal 
were strictly prohibited. A papal brief afterwards appear- 
ed, b commanding all Christians throughout the world to 
withhold their favour and regard from the opposers of 
the constitution, and threatening these unworthy sons of 
the church, in case of prolonged contumacy, with a for- 
feiture of all ecclesiastical privileges. This brief, exciting 
(he indignation of the Parisian parliament, was suppressed 
by an arret. 

In the progress of the contest, the pope's adherents 
strengthened their parly ; and the Jansenist leaders as- 
sumed a more conciliatory tone. The cardinal declared 
his readiness to accept the constitution, according to his 
own explanation of it ; and, with this qualification, he 
condemned the work of Q.uesnel. Some of the clergy 
disapproved the explanations, as being almost equally 
objectionaoie with the bull itself; and, on the other hand, 



• October 7, 1717, N. S.— Guarnacci, Vit. Pontificum et Cardin. torn. 
ii. p. 21, 22. 

* Dated August 28, 1718. 

No. LIX. W7 



the chief promoters of that act or decree insisted on an 
absolute and unreserved submission to its obvious import. 
Many of the French bishops condescended to explain it, 
in the hope of removing the scruples of the conscientious 
Jansenists ; but the pope, while he commended the zeal 
and good intentions of those prelates, denied the necessity 
of their exertions, as the wisdom and authority of the 
head of the church, who was allowed to dictate to the 
faithful, did not require, from any of its members, expla- 
natory aid or argumentative enforcement. 

The pope ultimately prevailed in the contest. The 
regent resolved to gratify the majority of the higher clergy 
by giving the sanction of the court to the papal edict, 
after it had been for seven years an object of dispute. It 
was ordained/ that the constitution Unigenitus, received 
by the bishops, should be observed by all orders of people 
in the French dominions ; that no university or incor- 
porated society, and no individual of any description 
whatever, should speak, write, maintain or teach, directly 
or indirectly, any thing repugnant to the ordinance, or to 
the explanations given of it by the dignitaries of the Gal- 
lican church ; that all appeals and proceedings against it 
should be deemed void ; and that the courts of parliament, 
and all judges, should assist the prelates in the execution 
of spiritual censures. The parliament of Paris at first 
refused to register this decree, which, said some of its 
members, not only derogated from the dignity of the 
crown, but militated against the rights of the subject, and 
the liberties of the Galkcan church ; but it was confirmed 
by the great council, and promulgated as an operative 
law. Even the cardinal de Noailles at length acquiesced 
in it ; and a parliamentary registration was procured by 
menaces of removal or of exile. d 

The exertions of the cardinal Du-Bois were of signal 
service in subduing the spirit of the principal Jansenists, 
and, after the registration of the edict, he made occasional 
use of lettres de cachet against refractory individuals, and 
revived the oath introduced by Louis XIV. which all 
candidates for holy orders, and for academical degrees, 
were obliged to take, importing that the five propositions 
of Jansenius, respecting grace and free will, were justly 
condemned. 

Clement was highly pleased at this accommodation ; 
but his joy was allayed by the consideration of his declin- 
ing health. He died in the spring of the following year, 
at the age of seventy-one years, during twenty of which 
he had occupied the pontifical throne. His catholic 
biographer ascribes to him an acute understanding and a 
tenacious memory, an unwearied zeal in the pursuit of 
learning, a firmness of mind united with benevolence of 
disposition and courtesy of manners, and a freedom from 
anger and resentment. 6 

His secretary, cardinal Paulucci, would have been 
chosen to succeed him, if the intrigues of the Austrian 
faction had not baffled the views of the Italian members 
of the conclave, whose advantage in point of number 
yielded to imperial tyranny. After a vacancy of seven 
weeks, the pontifical chair was filled with Michael Angelo 
Conti, son of the duke of Poli, who assumed the designa- 
tion of Innocent XIII. Being: in a weak state of health 



° August 4, 1720. 

dMemoires de la Rcgence. 

• Guarnacci Vit. Pontificum et Cardinalium, torn. ii. p. 36. 



706 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING TH« EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



at the time of his election, he did not long preside over 
tire church, his government not being extended by Pro- 
vidence to the end even of the third year. 

It was one of the first cares of this pontiff to accommo- 
date the dispute respecting the investiture of the kingdom 
of Naples. The emperor and the king of Spain had in 
vain solicited that favour from the late pope : but it was 
now granted to the former prince, on the acknowledge- 
ment of tributary subjection to the holy see. Another 
object of Innocent's attention was the maintenance of the 
papal claim to the sovereignty of Parma and Placentia ; 
but he did not, in that respect, succeed to his wish. In 
the mean time he exercised his authority at Rome with 
mildness, and sometimes with that severity which appeared 
to be necessary. To other parts of Christendom he also 
extended his care and vigilance : and Spain, in particular, 
felt his corrective hand. Observing with serious concern, 
and indeed with strong disgust, the dissolute manners 
both of the clergy and laity in that country, he issued an 
admonitory and threatening edict for the repression of 
irregular, disorderly, and vicious practices. He had no 
doubt of the religious zeal and decorous behaviour of his 
catholic majesty,* but lamented, on this occasion, the in- 
sufficient influence even of royal example. b 

Amidst the cares of spiritual and temporal government, 
Innocent found his health seriously declining. Hydropic 
symptoms alarmed him ; and other disorders conspired 
to put an end to his life, in the spring of the year 1724, 
at the age of 68. Few pontiffs were ever more popular 
among their temporal subjects than Innocent XIII., whose 
death, therefore, was sincerely lamented. His successor 
was cardinal Vincent Orsini (eldest son of the duke of 
Gravina,) who, having an early sense of piety, had rejec- 
ted the offer of a splendid marriage, renounced a rich in- 
heritance in favour of a younger brother, and entered into 
the clerical order, in which he distinguished himself by 
his indefatigable zeal as a preacher, by his rigid attention 
to all points of duty, and his scrupulous avoidance of 
every species of luxury and excess. 

The beginning of the pontificate of Benedict XIII. — 
for so the new pope was styled — -was marked by an edict 
against luxury and fantastic extravagance in dress ; and, 
that he might not seem to attend more to ininutice. than 
to objects of importance, he took every opportunity of 
recommending a strict regard to moral and social duties, 
and a steady practice of Christian virtues. His exhorta- 
tions and injunctions had some effect : but, when one 
head of the hydra of vice was striken off, another instant- 
ly grew in its place. If the wishes of Benedict, however, 
were not answered, he consoled himself by reflecting that 
he had done his duty. That consciousness will always 
impart pleasure to a pious mind. It will soothe the 
Christian moralist amidst the evils of life, and at the 
approach of death. 

It was in the first year of his government that the affair 
of Thorn occurred, which, while it contributed to the sup- 
posed advantage of the catholic church by injuring the 
protestant interest in Poland, wounded the feelings of the 
pontiff, who lamented and reprobated the cruelty that 
attended the triumph of the Romanists on that occasion. 
Some Lutherans neglecting or refusing to kneel at a pro- 
cession of the host, a student of the Jesuits' college re 

•Philip V. 



proached and even struck them, and some other zealots 
of that seminary afteiwards insulted the peaceful inhabi- 
tants. The aggressor being apprehended and confined, 
his comrades demanded and obtained his release: but 
they were not suffered to rescue another who had been 
seized by the city-guard. Enraged at this disappoint- 
ment, they committed various outrages ; and, in retalia- 
tion, the college was attacked and plundered by the popu 
lace. The president of the city, on pretence of hi? con 
nivance at this tumult on the part of the people, was 
decapitated by order of a Polish tribunal : nine other 
citizens were subjected to the same fate ; and the privileges 
of the Lutheran inhabitants were arbitrarily annulled. 
This barbarity disgusted those catholics who had any 
sense of humanity, and excited the indignation of every 
protestant community. The Jesuits, however, maintain- 
ed, that they had only inflicted due chastisement on their 
insolent adversaries, who had entered into a nefarious 
conspiracy against their catholic fellow-citizens ; and the 
king of Poland boasted, in the same spirit of bigotry, that 
he had vindicated, by the punishment of profane heretics, 
the honour and dignity of true religion. That prince 
seemed to think that he had sufficiently blended mercy 
with justice, by sparing the lives of the vice-president and 
some other citizens who had been condemned. The 
Jesuits had, at this time, too great an influence at the 
court of Warsaw ; and they rarely exerted that influence 
in the cause of justice or of humanity. 

The more humane and benevolent pontiff consoled him- 
self, amidst these sanguinary deeds, by a bloodless triumph 
of that religion which he superintended. We allude to 
the Jubilee of the year 1725, which he opened with great 
solemnity, and which gladdened the faithful with the confi- 
dent hopes of a plenary remission of their sins. He afterwards 
held a provincial council in the Lateran church, chiefly for 
a reform of the conduct of the clergy ; and the assembly 
voted for an enforcement of some decrees that had been 
enacted by the council of Trent, but which had fallen 
into disuse. On another occasion, he rose above the 
bigotry of his predecessors, by expressing a wish for the 
diffusion of scriptural knowledge ; and, with that view, 
he permitted the people in general to peruse the sacred 
volume, and encouraged the multiplication of copies in 
the modern languages. This permission displeased the 
rigid catholics ; but it was approved by a majority of the 
members of that church. Benedict, about the same time, 
testified his devotion to the Muses, by publicly decorating 
Perfetti, a Tuscan poet, with a crown of laurel. 

A grand scheme of religious comprehension was formed 
by this respectable ruler of the church. It was of no less 
magnitude than the union of the four communities that 
divided Christendom. He proposed, that four councils 
should be holden at different places at the same time, each 
consisting of a certain number of representatives of the 
Romish, Greek, Lutheran, and Calvinist churches, with a 
president of one or other church in each assembly ; that 
the mass should be so altered as not to be repugnant to 
the feelings of the three last denominations of Christians; 
that unpleasing or obnoxious doctrines should be mutually 
softened, and various concessions reciprocally made. A 
scheme of this kind can only be expected to be successfid, 
when the greater part of the professors of each religion 

* Guarnacci, Vit. Pontif. torn. u. p. 384, 385. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



707 



have relinquished all remains of cool animosity, overween- 
ing conceit, and contemptuous illiberality, and when they 
have learned to distinguish properly between essential ob- 
jects and immaterial points. Such a state of mind has 
never yet been observed to influence the members of dif- 
ferent sects, assembled for deliberation and discussion ; 
and we may easily conclude, that, if the four councils had 
met, and the result of their separate meetings had been 
submitted to the consideration of a general assembly, the 
desired union would not have taken place. The scheme, 
indeed, was not prosecuted by the pontiff who entertained 
it ; and the churches in question are still divided. 

However disposed was his holiness to remain upon 
amicable terms with the catholic princes, he could not 
easily avoid all occasions of dispute. A contest had long 
subsisted with the court of Turin, upon three grounds, — 
the right of patronage, the extent of jurisdiction, and the 
sovereignty of different towns. The king of Sardinia 
asserted his pretensions with a high tone ; and the pru- 
dence of Benedict suggested the propriety of compliance, 
not indeed in every particular, but in most of the litigated 
points. An allowance of the general right of royal pre- 
sentation to bishoprics and other preferments, a consider- 
able diminution of the papal fees, and a precise settlement 
of jurisdiction, allayed the displeasure of Victor Amadeus ; 
and an agreement was signed in the year 1727. An ac- 
commodation was not so easily adjusted with the king of 
Portugal, who, not being gratified with regard to the ap- 
pointment of a priest whom he recommended as a candi- 
date for the dignity of cardinal, recalled his ambassador 
from Rome, ordered the papal nuncio to quit his realm, 
and permitted the patriarch of Lisbon to grant dispensa- 
tions, and decide those points and causes which had 
usually been subject to the pope's determination. Bene- 
dict left the settlement of this dispute to his successor : but 
he found an opportunity of effecting an accommodation 
with the emperor, on the subject of ecclesiastical jurisdic- 
tion and discipline in the Neapolitan realm ; a reconcili- 
ation which he purchased by relinquishing some of the 
rights of the holy see.* 

In the devotional and ritual concerns of the church, this 
pontiff approved the office of Gregory VII. and ordered it 
to be read and observed in every church dependent on the 
Romish hierarchy. The laity, in France and other coun- 
tries, were not very willing to comply with the order : but 
Benedict, in this point, insisted upon their obedience and 
submission. If the sovereigns of those states had inter- 
fered on this occasion, he would probably have given up 
the point. 

Indefatigable in his apostolical duties, he continued to 
pray and preach, attend to all pontifical and sacerdotal 
functions, and direct the conduct of subordinate prelates 
and ministers of the church. He frequently visited the 
poor, and not only gave them spiritual comfort, but relieved 
them by his bounty ; selling for that purpose the presents j 
which he received. He habituated himself to the plainest 
fare, and lived in the most frugal manner, like a hermit 



■Guarnacn, Vit. Pontrf. t. ii. p. 417 — 22. — Hist, de Portugal, t. iii. 

* So we are informed by the baron de Polnitz ; and the assertion is 
not disputed by the impartial. Guarnacci, without stating any particu- 
lars of the cardinal's misconduct and criminality, says, that he greatly 
increased his fortune, and governed the pope's dominions at his discre- 
tion. Cement XII. purtished him with a long imprisonment, subjected 
him to a heavy fine, and deprived him of the archbishopric of Benevento. 



in his cell, that he might more liberally bestow upon others 
the blessings of fortune. But it is to be lamented, that, 
from inattention to his political duty, he suffered cardinal 
Coscia, an unprincipled Neapolitan, to pursue a shameful 
course of rapine and extortion. b Yet he died c without 
losing his popularity, in the eighty-second year of his age, 
and the sixth of his pontificate. 

Clement XII., of the Corsini family, was chosen, after 
a long contest, to succeed the mild and humble Benedict. 
He quickly reformed some abuses, which had crept into the 
administration of the Roman state, and then directed his 
attention to foreign affairs. In the canton of Lucerne, in 
Switzerland, the laic magistracy of the chief town had 
presumed to take cognisance of the delinquency of ecclesi- 
astics, and had disobeyed the injunctions of the papal 
nuncio, who had therefore retired into the territory of Uri. 
The pope now adjusted the dispute, and defined the juris- 
diction, without any material derogation from the dignity 
of the holy see. Casting an eye upon Germany, he 
checked in the catholic states the practice of pluralism, 
and only in some cases allowed the same person to hold 
two bishoprics, but never three. In the Saxon electorate, 
he strenuously promoted the return of the protestants to 
Catholicism, which some were inclined to embrace, in imi- 
tation of their sovereign Augustus : but these converts 
were not very numerous. Not neglecting France, he 
opposed by new edicts the progress of Jansenism in that 
realm. Being disgusted at the conduct of the Spaniards, 
who had seized the dutchy of Parma without acknowledg- 
ing his claim of sovereignty over it, he at first refused to 
bestow a cardinal's hat upon a Spanish prince, who was 
then too young to be canonically invested with so impor- 
tant a dignity : but, moved by the importunities of his 
catholic majesty, he suffered the prince to enjoy the title, 
and to be administrator of the temporalities, assigning the 
spiritual jurisdiction to the archbishop of Larissa. A new 
cause of offence soon arose ; for the Spaniards had the 
audacity to enlist, the pope's subjects, and the cruelty to 
commit outrages upon those who resisted such unwarrant- 
able acts. Philip, however, soothed the irritated feelings 
of Clement, from whom he procured, for his son don Car- 
los, the investiture of Naples and Sicily. With the court 
of Lisbon the pontiff had previously secured a reconcili- 
ation, by complying with the request of Joseph : but he 
was not so acquiescent toward the king of Sardinia ; for 
he annulled the convention which that prince had obtained 
from Benedict, alleging that it was too favourable to the 
civil and temporal power. d 

This pontiff was a man of respectable abilities ; had a 
regard for justice ; was cautious and prudent, yet not 
destitute of spirit ; economical, without being meanly par- 
simonious ; easy of access, without rendering himself in- 
decorously familiar. He had a taste for the polite arts, and 
was an encourager of literary merit. Dying in his eighty- 
eight year, 1 he was succeeded by Prosper Laurence Lam- 
bertini, archbishop of Bologna, who entered upon his high 
office under the designation of Benedict XIV. 



" On the 21st of February, 1730. — He ought to be mentioned as an 
author; for many sermons, some accounts of the proceedings of synods, 
a commentary upon the book of Exodus, and sacred epigrams, have 
been published as his productions. His literary merit, however, is not 
of the highest kind. 

d Guarnacci, torn. ii. p. 579, 580, &c. 

•In February, 1740. 



708 HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



' Lambertini had acquired the character of religious mode- 
ration, and the fame of learning ; and, during a pontificate 
of eighteen years, he acted in general with prudence and 
propriety. He did not profess himself a politician, or claim 
the merit of activity and address in the important concerns 
of temporal government : yet he was not so negligent or 
remiss as his patron, the thirteenth Benedict. His chief 
minister was cardinal Valenti, who was at once a virtuoso 
and a man of business. 

In the administration of the church, Benedict XIV. was 
mild and conciliatory, rather than rigid or severe. He was 
aware of the relaxed morality of the clergy in the catholic 
states : but, however he might wish to check their licen- 
tiousness, he did not take any strong or violent measures 
for that purpose. He was disposed to promote a union 
or accommodation between the Roman see, and the Greek 
and protestant churches ; and, if he could have succeeded 
by concession or compromise, he would have reconciled all 
religious differences among Christian communities : but 
that was a task which exceeded his powers of exertion, 
and which, indeed, no man can expect to accomplish. 
He was censured by many of the Romanists for attempt- 
ing to diminish the number of festivals, and to abolish 
some ceremonies which appeared to him to be useless, im- 
proper, or absurd ; a and he also gave offence by the occa- 
sional levity of his conversation, which, however, was un- 
accompanied with immorality or profligacy. 

With the catholic courts he had no violent disputes. 
During the war in which the French were opposed to the 
house of Austria, he seemed inclined to favour the former ; 
but he endeavoured to avoid giving offence to either of 
the rival families. He carried on a negotiation, for some 
years, with Ferdinand, king of Spain, on a subject which 
had frequently been a cause of altercation. His catholic 
majesty claimed the right of presentation to all the bene- 
fices in his ample dominions ; but he at length consented 
to the disposal of fifty-two of the number by the pontiff, 
on condition that they should be given to Spaniards alone, 
and that no pensions should be exacted from the occu- 
pants. By the compact then adjusted, 1 " the revenues of 
vacant benefices were left to a clergyman named by the 
king, not to the rapacity of a committee of papal agents ; 
and, in some other respects, the receipts of the apostolical 
chamber were considerably diminished. 

At the solicitation of those princes who were displeased 
at the intrigues, and offended at the mal-practices of the 
Jesuits, Benedict promised to exert his authority for the 
reform of that order ; and the bull which he issued for this 
purpose was one of the last acts of his life. He died in 
1758, when he had attained the age of eighty-three years. 
He was an erudite and able theologian, as his numerous 
works evince; a liberal patron of learning and the elegant 
arts ; a lively companion, a benevolent arid friendly man. 
Cardinal Rezzonico, bishop of Padua, who succeeded him 
as Clement XIII., had a greater reputation for piety, and 
was more zealous for the high claims of the church : but he 
was not so generally esteemed as his amiable predecessor. 

» He had prepared bulls for these purposes: but the monks excited 
such a clamour on the occasion, that he did not carry them into effect. 
Voyages en differens Pays del' Europe. Haye, 1777; lettre 15. 

It has been affirmed, that he abolished autos da fe in Portugal, at the 
he desire of king Joseph; and, if he had, such a suppression would 
nave been honourable to his memory: but the assertion appears to be 
untrue. 



The doctrines of the Romish church, at this period, 
remained in the same state in which they had long sub- 
sisted. The worship of the Virgin Mary, the tenet of 
transubstantiation, the idea of purgatory, the propriety 
of invoking saints, the right and power of absolution, 
and other parts of the catholic creed, were still retained, 
and still had considerable influence. The pageantry of 
procession, the multitude of ceremonies, and the forms of 
worship, were nearly the same as they had been in the 
preceding century ; and the church-government and 
discipline were not materially altered. But the majority 
of the people entertained less exalted ideas of the pope's 
supremacy, and preferred the authority of general councils. 
The catholic sovereigns were more enlightened, and more 
disposed to tolerate other religions ; and the ecclesiastics 
themselves were less bigoted, and more indulgent to the 
supposed errors of those who differed from them. 

While the affairs of the church were in this predicament, 
the conduct of the Jesuits, and the proceedings against 
that society, drew the public attention more particularly to 
ecclesiastical concerns. The rise and progress of that 
celebrated fraternity, and the chief incidents of its history, 
have been well related by Dr. Mosheim ; and, in our con- 
tinuation of his work, c we have given a concise (but, we 
hope, a satisfactory) account of that renewal of contest, 
with the advocates of Jansenism, which distinguished the 
pontificate of Clement XI. The effect was, in appear- 
ance, favourable to the Jesuits : yet they impaired their 
interest by the violent proceedings of their party against 
the Jansenists. After a long interval of comparative tran- 
quillity, the animosities of contest were revived by the re- 
fusal of sacramental favours to dying persons, who were 
supposed to be attached to the Jansenian heresy. 

But, before we enter into any detail upon this subject, 
it may not be improper to advert to the progress of that 
infidel philosophy, which had no inconsiderable effect in 
promoting the ruin of the Jesuits. Bayle, and other wri- 
ters in the reign of Louis XIV., had propagated a free- 
dom of opinion on religious topics, which had shaken the 
faith of many readers ; and Voltaire, following more open- 
ly a similar course, had disseminated an anti-christian 
spirit, which menaced the establishment with peril. Di- 
derot and d'Alembert, who, in 1751, sent the Encyclope- 
dic into the world, insinuated scepticism and impiety in 
the midst of scientific discussions ; and free-thinking be- 
came so prevalent, as to alarm the clergy, and call forth 
their zeal in the defence of an endangered church. The 
Jesuits, nursed in priest-craft, and devoted to the holy see, 
were peculiarly exposed to these profane attacks. Their 
arts and intrigues were developed, and their selfish policy 
was reprobated with pointed severity. Their Jansenist 
opponents, at the same time, were not spared, as they had 
too much religion to be in favour with sceptics. 

The archbishop of Paris was a friend to the Jesuits ; 
and, therefore, when he was desired by the court to allay, 
by his high authority, the dispute between them and the 
Jansenists, he replied, that it was customary to withhold 

*> In the year 1753. 

" This term has been used, as being, upon the whole, the most ap- 
plicable: but, in some parts, it is a supplement, rather than a sequel. 
For instance, in addition to Dr. Mosheim's sketch of the contest between 
the church and the Jansenists in the reign of Louis XIV., and under the 
following regency, we have given a more detailed account of die pro- 
ceedings on that occasion. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



709 



the sacraments of the church from such as could not pro- 
duce certificates of confession, signed by an orthodox 
priest ; a refusal which had been originally introduced 
with a view of stigmatizing the Huguenots. The parlia- 
ment of Paris fined a priest for having repeatedly evinced 
this kind of bigotry, and issued an ordinance, in 1752, 
prohibiting all acts tending to schism, and all refusal of 
sacraments on pretence of non-adherence to the bull Uni- 
genitus. The king wavered between the parties, and 
hoped to keep them so well poised, that no serious incon- 
venience would ensue from the ferment : but he did not 
steadily preserve the balance ; and both the church and 
state were convulsed. 

The archbishop of Paris took the lead, as a supporter 
of the cause of orthodoxy against the encroachments of 
Jansenism ; and he exhorted the court to oppose with 
vigour the presumptuous magistrates who countenanced 
that heresy. Louis, however, by the advice of the chan- 
cellor Lamoignon, adopted the expedient of an arbitra- 
tion, and appointed delegates of both parties, to accommo- 
date the dispute ; a measure which only inflamed mutual 
acrimony. The parliament persisted in prosecuting such 
priests as withheld the sacraments ; and, when the king 
commanded a discontinuance of these processes, an ani- 
mated remonstrance was voted by the magistrates. He 
punished their disobedience by dispersion and exile, and 
instituted temporary tribunals to act in their stead. But 
the clamours of the public soon induced him to recall 
them ; and an ordinance was then registered, for a ces- 
sation of all religious disputes. 1 

The tranquillity which ensued was of short continu- 
ance. The archbishop was banished from the capital 
for reviving the dispute, and some inferior ecclesiastics of 
his party were more rigorously punished. The clergy 
sat in council for several months, in 1755, without ter- 
minating the schism. They addressed a letter to pope 
Benedict, who, in an indecisive answer, seemed to leave 
the settlement of the affair to his most Christian majesty. 
The embarrassed monarch, after various temporising 
measures, held a bed of justice, in which he peremptorily 
ordered all his subjects to pay respect and submission to 
the bull, without considering it, however, as a rule of 
faith, although the bishops, in the late council, had de- 
clared that it bore that character. By another ordinance, 
he regulated the meetings and altered the constitution of 
the magistracy ; and two courts of the parliament imme- 
diately resigned their functions in disgust. 

The Jesuits were highly pleased at the spirit which 
the king evinced on this occasion ; but, while they exult- 
ed in the depression of the parliament, they did not fore- 
see that their own ruin was approaching. The intrigues 
of the members of that order in Portugal had induced 
Joseph, sovereign of that realm, to watch them closely, 
and to make such reformative arrangements as disgusted 
the fraternity. Hence, when his life was threatened by 
a conspiracy, from which he had a narrow escape, 6 it 
was found that many Jesuits were concerned in the ne- 
farious plot, particularly father Gabriel de Malagrida, 
whom the court, however, out of regard to the church, 
did not put to death as a traitor, but as a heretic. The 
incensed monarch now suppressed the colleges of the 
Jesuits ; and, to restrain the future attempts of ecclesias- 



a Vie Privee de Louis XV. 

No. LX. 



b In September 1758. 
178 



tics against the state, he insisted upon a grant (from the 
pope) of perpetual jurisdiction over the whole clerical body 
in cases of treason and sedition. Clement promised tc 
accede to the demand, if a prelate nominated by him or 
any of his successors should preside on such occasions : 
but he afterwards consented that the king should name a 
bishop for these trials. 6 

No intercession in behalf of the Portuguese Jesuits 
could soften the inflexibility of Joseph, who, in addition 
to the guilt of the late conspiracy, accused them of a 
usurpation of sovereign power in South America, alleging 
that thej r had concurred with their Spanish brethren in 
tyrannising over the natives of Paraguay, whom they had 
tutored to take arms against him and his catholic majesty. 
On account of their various enormities, all the members 
of the fraternity were declared outlaws, in 1759, and 
banished from the dominions of Portugal ; and other 
courts were invited to follow the rigorous example. 

In the meanwhile, the Parisian parliament, so hostile 
to the Jesuits, procured from the court a full re-establish- 
ment ; and, at the same time, the clerical exiles were 
recalled. The magistracy now resumed the proceedings 
against the withholders of the sacramental favours, and 
waited for an opportunity of wreaking signal vengeance 
upon the sons of Loyola. Their commercial rapacity fur- 
nished the desired opportunity. Two merchants whom 
they were bound to supply with articles of traffic, stopped 
payment on the seizure of those goods by British cruisers ; 
and the Jesuits did not take prompt or adequate mea- 
sures to avert the shock. Numerous creditors appeared 
against them ; and the cause was referred, at their de- 
sire, to the grand chamber of the parliament. They dis- 
avowed the imputed agency of Father de la Valette, the 
manager of their trade, whose offence against the church, 
by engaging in commerce, only concerned himself: but 
it was maintained against them, that their superior, or 
general, superintended their trade, as well as other con- 
cerns, and directed the conduct of the agent. The judges 
insisted upon seeing the constitutions of the society ; and 
an exposure was consequently made of the devoted sub- 
mission of all the members to a foreign head, and of their 
dangerous maxims in politics and morality. It also ap- 
peared that they did not constitute a regular religious or- 
der, as the intended contract between them and the state 
had never been completed : their fraternity had been 
merely tolerated, not adopted. Their enemies took ad- 
vantage of these circumstances, and represented in so 
strong a light the danger of keeping such men unbodied, 
that the king resolved to suppress the society ; not, how- 
ever, before the general had refused to submit to a plan 
of regulation, proposed by the French court. The par- 
liament ordained, on the 6th of August, 1762, that the 
Jesuits of France should no longer wear the habit of the 
society, live in community, or obey the orders of foreign 
directors. Their partisans loudly exclaimed against an 
edict which they considered as extremely severe and un- 
just, because those whom it affected were not heard in 
their own defence, and were condemned upon false re- 
ports, for misrepresented doctrines and unproved delin- 
quency. The opinion of the lawfulness of regicide in 
certain cases, they said, seemed to be the chief offence of 
the fraternity ; but it ought first to be proved that this 

• Historia de Portugal, Lisb. 1802; torn. iv. p. 22. 27. 



710 HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



was justly imputable to the. Jesuits, who, as their enemies 
knew, had no concern in Damien's attempt to assassinate 
the French king, and were also entirely innocent with 
regard to other crimes of the same nature, of which they 
had been malignantly accused." 

A regular edict of suppression was delayed for some 
years : but it was at length registered, on the 7th of De- 
cember, 1764, and promulgated by the royal authority. 
The parliaments of Normandy and Bretagne followed, 
with little hesitation, the example of the Parisian magis- 
tracy ; but other parliaments were not fully convinced of 
the justice or expediency of the measure. The pope was 
shocked at the profane audacity of a court that could act 
with such determined hostility against a holy society : but 
his bull, for the reinstatement of the fraternity, was sup- 
pressed in France by an arret of parliament, and was 
declared inoperative in Portugal by the king's express 
command. 

The king of Spain was not more friendly to the Jesuits 
than Louis or Joseph. He was disgusted at their intri- 
guing spirit, and resolved, not merely to humble them, 
but to annihilate their power in his dominions. He seized 
their temporalities in 1767, and banished them, as dan- 
gerous subjects, from every part of Spain and its depen- 
dencies. His son Ferdinand also freed the kingdom 
of Naples and the island of Sicily from the obnoxious 
fraternity. A great number of these exiles were admit- 
ted into the Roman territories, and some other parts of 
Italy ; and many found protection among Protestants. 
The duke of Parma, soon afterwards, commanded all 
members of the order to retire from his dominions ; and 
he, at the same time, hazarded an open rupture with the 
see of Rome, by abolishing the papal jurisdiction in Par- 
ma and Placentia. His holiness declared the duke's ordi- 
nance to that effect null and void, and menaced its pro- 
mulgator with the thunders of the church. Being sup- 
ported by the majority of the catholic princes, the duke 
persisted in his purpose ; and the pontiff was equally reso- 
lute. With a view of intimidating him into a revocation 
of his brief, the French king dispossessed him of Avig- 
non ; and some portions of his Italian territory were seized 
by his Neapolitan majesty. His spiritual authority and 
his revenues were diminished by the duke of Modena ; 
and the Venetians, of whose republic he was born a sub- 
ject, assailed him with similar hostilities. Mortified at 
this treatment, yet unwilling to yield, he was observed to 
decline gradually in his health. Uneasiness and chagrin 
hastening the effect of age, he died in his seventy-sixth 
year, b with the character of a pious and well-meaning 
prelate, who was, however, more influenced by the zeal 
of bigotry than by common sense or wisdom. He ought 
to have been content with maintaining the doctrine and 
worship of the church, without obstinately upholding pa- 
pal usurpations. 

The enemies of the Jesuits had in vain solicited the dis- 
solution of that order, while Clement XIII. filled the papal 
chair : but they conceived strong hopes of success, when a 
prelate of a more philosophical character was chosen pon- 
tiff. This was a Francisoan monk named Francis Lau- 
rence Ganganelli, who thought proper to assume the 
name of his immediate predecessor. 

Instead of concilitating the new pope, the king of 

• Vie Privfie de Louis XV. 



France declared that he would retain Avignon and its 
dependencies : but he condescended to offer a sum o* 
money for a dereliction of them on the part of his holi- 
ness. The king of Naples also insisted upon the cession 
of the district which he had seized, and concurred with 
Louis in urging Clement to suppress that society which 
was so odious to the Christian world ; but the importu- 
nities of these princes, aided by the influence of Spain and 
Portugal, were for some years unsuccessful. Clement 
XIV. felt the difficulties of his situation, and demanded 
time for mature reflection. He conceived it to be his duty 
to patronise and support a religious order, if its utility to 
the church or to society overbalanced its demerits ; and, at 
the same time, he wished to avoid a rupture with those 
courts which had evidently the power, and seemingly the 
inclination, to inflict serious wounds on the papacy . 

In taking a survey of Europe, he found few of its sove- 
reigns inclined to support him against the house of 
Bourbon : we may rather say, that none would authori 
tatively interpose in his behalf. Yet he would not tamelj 
or too readily yield to dictatorial demands. He appre 
hended that one concession, on his part, would lead to new 
requisitions ; and he knew that a facility of compliance 
would only serve to encourage domineering insolence. 
Amidst these reflections, delay did not seem likely to be 
injurious ; and, if he should be obliged to submit, a pro- 
traction of the evil day would at least save appearances, 
even in the eyes of the zealous advocates of papal supre- 
macy. In this, and in other affairs of moment, he resolv- 
ed to think for himself, rather than follow the example 
of those pontiffs who had resigned their own judgments 
to the influence and authority of the cardinals. Many 
members of the sacred college were displeased at his want 
of confidence in men of their rank and merit ; but he dis- 
regarded their murmurs, and declared that he would not 
be governed. It was, he thought, better for a sovereign 
to be in a great measure, his own minister and negotia- 
tor, than to suffer others, as is too frequently the practice, 
to act for him at their discretion. With a volto sciolto, 
he deemed it expedient for a prince to have pensieri 
stretti : not from a mean spirit of hypocrisy or dissimula- 
tion, but from a politic desire of concealing those views 
and schemes of which an unfair advantage might be 
taken. 

The Jesuits affected to believe (and probably many of 
them really thought,) that Clement would not dare to 
suppress their order. But, in the fifth year of his pontifi- 
cate, he resolved, in defiance of all the clamours and mena- 
ces of the zealots, to disembody the fraternity, and amal- 
gamate its members with the unprivileged mass of soci- 
ety. He declared it to be his opinion, that the order had 
ceased to answer the ends of its institution, and that the 
members, by the impropriety of their conduct, their loose 
casuistry, and their mischievous arts, had forfeited all 
claim to farther encouragement. A bull for the annihi- 
lation of the society was therefore promulgated ; c its col 
leges were seized, and its revenues confiscated. Lorenzo 
Ricci, the refractory general of the order, was sent to the 
castle of St. Angelo, and died in confinement. 

Pleased at the ruin of the Jesuits, the French court 
complimented Ganganelli on the justice and expediency 
of his edict, and restored the Venaissin to the holy see. 



In February, 176!). 



'On the 21st of July, 1773. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



711 



The other remonstrating courts also adjusted their dis- 
putes with the pontiff; who, having thus settled the great 
point which had long engaged his attention, might be 
expected to feel little anxiety after the decision which he 
had so deliberately adopted. But, perhaps, he seriously 
apprehended the effects of the secret resentment of the ex- 
Jesuits, who could not look with a favourable eye upon the 
enemy of their order. However that may be, he died in 
the autumn of the following year, at the age of sixty- 
eight. It was supposed that he had been poisoned ; but 
this suspicion has not been verified. 

Of all the priests who for some centuries had filled the 
papal throne, Ganganelh seems to have been, if we except 
Benedict XIV., the most unprejudiced, candid, and lib- 
eral. He did not devote his chief attention to the selfish 
interests of the see of Rome ; nor did he treat other relig- 
ious establishments with supercilious arrogance, studied 
contempt, or marked reprobation. His moderation entail- 
ed upon him the censures of the rigid and severe, who al- 
leged that he was too lukewarm and indifferent in reli- 
gious concerns to be a proper defender of the fortress of 
Catholicism, which required for its support the most stren- 
uous exertions of active zeal. He was even accused of 
being a well-wisher to Protestantism; a heavy charge 
against the head of that church to which the protestants 
were determined foes ; but this charge amounted to no 
more, in effect, than that he was not a bigot to popery. 
His treatment of the Jesuits exposed him to censures still 
more severe, and to all the rancour of malignity ; but, in 
acting against that order, he only complied with the 
wishes of the most enlightened members of the grand 
community of Christendom, and justly dissolved a most 
immoral and unprincipled society. The time was oppor- 
tune for such dissolution ; the clamours which it excited 
soon spent their force ; and a phalanx, once potent and 
formidable had not the power of withstanding the ener- 
gies of papal hostility; energies that were undoubtedly 
declining, but which, in the present case, were supported 
by the chief catholic princes and states. 

The government of the church was now consigned to 
John Angelo Braschi, who had been created cardinal by 
Ganganelli, and was regarded as a moderate man, rather 
than a bigot or zealot. He was more indebted for his elec- 
tion to the clashing of parties, than to the peculiar favour 
or interest of any one faction. He was less popular, at the 
time of his elevation, than his predecessor ; and his par- 
tiality and indulgence to his nephews did not tend to in- 
crease his popularity. Having a graceful person and a 
pleasing countenance, he was fond of show and parade, 
and took every opportunity of exhibiting himself to the 
public. In capacity and eloquence he was not deficient; 
but he had no extraordinary vigour of mind. 

When he had superseded the vulgar name of John by 
the pontifical appellation of Pius the Sixth, some of those 
who were not inclined to think favourably of his disposi- 
tion or his abilities, applied to him a reproachful verse, pre- 
dicting the ruin of Rome under a Sextus.* His friends, 
on the other hand, ridiculed this gloomy prophecy, and 
boasted of his ability, and the goodness of his heart and 
character. He commenced his administration with acts 
of benevolence and charity, with the selection of deserv- 

• " Semper sub Sextis perdita Roma fuit" 
k Particularly Silesia. 



ing men for various offices, and the removal or dis- 
couragement of some individuals who had misbehaved. 
He also formed the resolution of undertaking a work cal- 
culated for national benefit — the draining of the Pontine 
marshes. A bank was instituted to receive subscriptions 
for this purpose ; but, after much labour and expense, the 
work was only effected in part. For what was done, 
however, Pius deserved thanks and praise. 

After the suppression of the order of Jesuits, many who 
had belonged to the fraternity found protection in the do 
minions of the Prussian monarch, who intimated to the 
new pope, that he would not pay the least regard to the 
edict. His holiness replied, that he was bound to enforce 
the bull promulgated by his predecessor ; but he at the 
same time declared, according to Frederic's agent Cio- 
fani, that he would not treat the bod} 7 of ex- Jesuits, then 
residing in the territories of that prince, as an irregular 
establishment. At the instigation, however, of the minis- 
ters of France and Spain, he afterwards required that 
the habit of the dissolved order should no longer be worn 
in the territories of Frederic, and that none of the ex- 
Jesuits should either preach, or administer the eucharist or 
other sacraments. The monarch, adverting to the ability 
which the Jesuits had displayed in the task of education, 
wished them to remain as a society for that purpose, in 
those provinces' 1 in which his catholic subjects were nume • 
rous ; and, w 7 hen Pius conceded this point, the king 
agreed to the requisitions of the pontiff. 

The Jesuits were also protected by the empress of Rus- 
sia; and from the bishop of Mohiloff, who, bred a Calvin- 
ist, had become a catholic, and who domineered over the 
church in Poland, they experienced peculiar favour and 
patronage. He was so eager to re-establish their society, 
that he gave public permission to a body of ex- Jesuits, 
assembled in the province of White Russia, to take proba- 
tionary candidates for the privileges of their order. He 
pretended that Pius had allowed him so to exercise his 
authority : but this assertion was disclaimed by the pon- 
tiff, and probability favours the denial. "When the Spanish 
court remonstrated with the empress on the subject, she 
maintained her pretensions and those of the prelate whom 
she protected, and declared that she would not submit to 
dictation from any court whatever. She afterwards 
authorised her Jesuit subjects to choose a vicar-general, 
who should enjoy all the former privileges of the institu- 
tion ; and, in defiance of all the enemies of the Jesuits, 
she continued to favour the members of an order proscribed 
and stigmatised by the catholic princes. While she dis- 
approved the conduct of many who had been enrolled 
among the sons of Loyola, she said that the general de- 
merits of the society did not appear to her to be so atro- 
cious, as to justify its dissolution, or the severities which 
had preceded and followed that act. d 

In France, the cause of Jesuitism was still abetted by 
many of the dignified clergy ; but they were not so open 
in expressing their wishes for the restoration of the order, 
as they were in counteracting the claims of the Hugue- 
nots, whom the government had ceased to persecute. 
Some, who hated the Jesuits, joined this party in oppo- 
sing the protestants, and also in reprobating the licentious- 
ness of infidels. In an assembly holden in the year 1765, 

° Memoires Hist et Philosophiques sur Pie VI. et son Pontifical, ch. iii. 
* Memoires Hist, et Philos. sur Pie VI. chap iv. 



712 HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



an animated remonstrance had been voted by the prelates 
against the new philosophy. They conjured the king to 
take vigorous measures for the repression of that profane 
boldness, that impious freedom, which vilified whatever 
had for ages been deemed sacred among mankind, and 
aimed al the subversion of all holy and venerable institu- 
tions. If he should be tame or passive at so alarming a 
crisis, the most portentous mischief, they said, might be 
pprehended. They accused the protestants of being 
deeply concerned in these practices, and blamed his ma- 
jesty for not enforcing the laws against those presump- 
tuous sectaries. In the year 1770, the progress of infide- 
lity gave occasion for another remonstrance, in which the 
assembled clergy pointed out various works of the new 
philosophers, as objects of condemnation, 11 and called for 
the exertion of all the powers of government in the defence 
and support of religion, morality, and good order. An 
assembly of bishops, in 1772, renewed the attack upon the 
new philosophy ; but their fulminations were ineffective ; 
and the contagion contin ued to spread. 

Louis XVI., who had a stronger sense of religion than 
his predecessor, lamented the prevalence of scepticism : 
yet he sometimes gave his confidence to men who were 
known to be infidels. Alarmed at the ministerial influ- 
ence of Turgot, the clergy, in a council which they held 
in the year 1775, agreed to such a remonstrance as the 
danger of the church seemed to require. They repre- 
sented to the young monarch, in strong terms, the alarm- 
ing progress of infidelity and atheism, the illegal boldness 
of the protestants, (who had dared even to erect churches,) 
the flagrant licentiousness of the press, and the preva- 
lence of a restless and inquisitive spirit, which threatened 
to unhinge society. Louis promised to attend to these 
complaints ; but he did not take any measures of reme- 
dial efficacy. When he was influenced by free-thinking 
ministers, he was taught to believe that it was not neces- 
sary to interfere ; and, when he was under other guides, 
he was too irresolute to act with vigour. To govern a 
nation so impetuous and volatile as the French, at a time 
when freedom of thought began to prevail, a prince of 
more energetic character was requisite. Sometimes, in- 
deed, he was peremptory ; but he was not consistently 
firm or steadily resolute. He acquiesced in measures 
which in his heart he disapproved ; and he neglected the 
enforcement of those which he conceived to be just, expe- 
dient, and salutary. Under his sway, infidelity and fac- 
tion alarmingly gained ground ; and by assisting the 
American colonists, he increased the agitations of his 
realm. 

Even in Spain and Portugal, though in a much less 
degree than in France, freedom of thought, in the affairs of 
religion, began to diffuse itself among the higher and 
middle classes. The vigilance of the government, how- 
ever, prevented it from being dangerous. In the exten- 
sive territories of the house of Austria, a similar freedom 
was repressed by the spirit of Maria Theresa, whose 
bigotry, at the same time, prompted her to infringe the 
rights of her protestant subjects. b Her son, the emperor 
Joseph, was himself a ffee-thinker, while he professed an 

* These were, among other publications, Christianity Unveiled, God 
and Men, the System of Nature, Sacred Contagion, and Hell Destroy- 
er 1 ; which the parliament ordered to be publicly committed to the flames. 

" " Under the virtuous Theresa," the protestants of Hungary (says 
Dr. Townson) " were not less vexed than under the profligate prince, 



adherence to the doctrines of the Romish church. This 
prince might justly be called the imperial projector. Many 
of his whims, like those of the ingenious but profligate 
duke of Buckingham, " died in thinking :" others were 
matured into schemes. With his political plans we have 
no concern on this occasion : it is only requisite that we 
should take notice of his regulations in the affairs of the 
church. He would not, he said, impeach the established 
doctrines ; but he had a strong inclination to abridge the 
papal power in his dominions ; and, with him, an inch 
nation was soon converted into an act. Pius, being ac- 
quainted with the freedom of Joseph's sentiments, appre- 
hended an attack from that enterprising innovator ; and 
his fears were not visionary ; for the emperor, in 1781, 
began with imposing restrictions upon the operation of 
bulls and rescripts sent from Rome. This ordinance was 
followed by an exemption of monasteries from all obedi- 
ence to the chiefs of the different orders at Rome ; a mea- 
sure which the partisans of the pope, as might be expect- 
ed, reprobated in warm terms. The generals of the 
orders desired the subalterns to maintain with spirit the 
constitutions of their establishments ; but they were over- 
awed into submission by the firmness of the emperor, who 
also released all the colleges of missionaries from their de- 
pendance on the papal court. He farther displeased the 
pontiff by ordering that no money should be sent into fo- 
reign countries for masses ; that no dignity should be so- 
licited at Rome without his permission ; that pilgrimages 
should be discontinued ; and that the number of images 
and ornaments in churches should be diminished. The 
disgust felt by Pius at this conduct, was not allayed by 
the liberal edict of Joseph, granting full toleration to all 
the protestants in his dominions, as well as to all mem- 
bers of the Greek church ; and the dissolution of a great 
number of monasteries, with the conversion of the build- 
ings into colleges, hospitals, or barracks, increased the in- 
dignation of the vicar of St. Peter d . 

Thus harassed and (as he thought) insulted, Pius re- 
solved to visit the emperor, who, among other demands, 
had insisted upon presenting, in future, to all vacant 
bishoprics and benefices in the Milanese and Mantuan 
territories. The pope remonstrated against this profane 
encroachment upon his supposeed right of patronage ; 
but he was persuaded by some of his counsellors to pro- 
mise acquiescence in this point, if Joseph would engage 
to desist from his career of reform. This was an engage- 
ment which none who knew that potentate could expect 
from him ; and, with regard to the intended visit, he de- 
clared that it would be wholly fruitless, although, in a 
private letter to Pius, he had hinted that all dispute- 
might be better accommodated in such a way than by 
mere correspondence. His holiness, to the surprise of all, 
repaired to Vienna, in the hope of warding off a storm 
which blew with increasing violence. Joseph, in one of 
his interviews with his spiritual father, claimed the right 
of altering the ecclesiastical government in his own ter- 
ritories, while he suffered the catholic doctrines to remain 
unimpaired. The pontiff, finding expostulation useless, 
returned to Rome, and suffered the storm to rage. He 

who was taught, that his deviations from virtue might be made up for 
by zeal to the true church." 

c Promulgated on the 13th of October, 1781. 

a Memoires Hist, et Philos. sur Pie VI. chap. xi. — Coxe's HisL of 
the House of Austria, vol. ii. chap. xlv. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 



71c 



probably thought, that Joseph was little better than a 
heretic, however he might pretend to doctrinal purity ; 
and, on the other hand, the emperor imputed to the pope 
the narrowness of bigotry, and a want of philosophic 
liberality of sentiment. 

The continuance of Joseph's reformative measures no 
longer surprised the pope, who had now witnessed the 
inflexibility of that prince's character. The see of Rome 
lost the presentation to bishoprics in Lombardy and other 
Austrian dependencies : its nuncios were deprived of their 
power and jurisdiction in Germany ; and, by these and 
other attacks, the lustre of the papacy was visibly eclipsed. I 

Other catholic sovereigns, even those who had acquired 
the reputation of piety ; did not scruple to assail that fabric 
which was thus weakened. Unfortunately for the cause of 
the papac3^, there seemed to be a generaldisposition, during 
the pontificate of Pius, to diminish theauthority of the see 
over which he presided. The court of Madrid assumed 
a greater degree of religious freedom than it had been 
accustomed to exercise ; claimed rights nearly equal to 
those which the Gallican church had long maintained ; 
reduced the inquisition to a state of passive subserviency ; 
and made a farther diminution of the papal demands of 
revenue. Even the bigoted court of Lisbon entertained 
ideas of reform. The queen was a devout catholic, su- 
perstitiously faithful to the doctrines and attached to the 
ceremonies of popery : but she suffered her son, the 
prince of Brazil, to lead her into anti-papal measures. 
Some publications which had been introduced by the em- 
peror into the schools at Vienna, were translated into the 
language of Portugal, and ordered to be studied, for the 
promotion of free inquiiy, in several new seminaries found- 
ed in that realm. Questions tending to weaken the fa- 
bric of papal supremacy, to abridge the power of the cler- 
ical body, and even to recommend toleration of various 
religions, were authoritatively proposed for discussion in 
ihe universities ; and the press was permitted to aid the 
progress of such argumentation, although .it was not al- 
lowed to impugn the peculiar doctrines of Catholicism. No 
oersons were suffered to devote themselves to monastic 
confinement, without the particular sanction of the sove- 
reign. Even after the death of the prince, the court con- 
tinued to encroach on the claims of the pope and the im- 
munities of the church. The courts of Naples and Flo- 
rence took greater liberties in this respect than that of 
Lisbon. A considerable number of monasteries were sup- 
Dressed by the king and the grand duke : bishoprics and 
rich benefices were granted without consulting his holi- 
ness with regard to the individuals proper to occupy them ; 
and contributions to the Roman treasury were abolished 
or restricted. The republic of Venice dissolved some con- 
ventual foundations, and applied their revenues to better 
purposes than the support of superstitious indolence. The 
duke of Modena put an end to the horrors of the inquisi- 
tion in his dominions, and treated with less respect the 
general authority of the pontiff 1 . These incidents and 
transactions occurred at different times : but they are here 
mentioned together, to preserve a continuity of subject. 
They tend to show the reduced state of the papacy at the 
period in question : but it may be observed, that, for its 
total extinction, Europe was not then prepared. 

The pope could only resist these assaults by remon- 
* Memoires sur Pie VI. chap, xviii. xlx. xxii. 

No. LX. 179 



strances, to which the reforming courts paid no regaid. 
He was fully sensible of the decline of his influence, but 
concealed his chagrin under the appearance of composure. 
With the pomp of ceremony, and with ritual formalities, 
he amused himself and his people, while his authority was 
exposed to rude shocks. He also attended to the im- 
provement of the museum, which had been formed at 
Rome by Benedict XIV., and which Ganganelli had con- 
siderably augmented. 

The catholic princes, in general, not only annihilated, 
or materially reduced, the papal authority over their sub- 
jects, but suffered public opinion so far to operate, as to 
check the arbitrary use of their own authority : and the 
protestant governments also relaxed, in some degree, the 
rigours of power. Much, however, remained to be done 
for the purposes of popular benefit ; for, even in Great 
Britain, the land of boasted freedom, the government was 
rather a combination of monarchy and aristocracy, than 
a proper mixture of those two kinds of polity with demo- 
cracy. 

V\ bile almost every nation in Europe seemed to be 
gradually advancing to a melioration of its government, 
and to a greater freedom of inquiry, the French unfortu- 
nately took the lead, and obscured the rising prospect by 
senseless precipitancy and by absurd innovations. They 
overturned former establishments before they had con- 
certed or devised rational plans of substitution : they in- 
dulged in all the wildness of theory and all the licentious- 
ness of caprice. The most outrageous cruelty was min- 
gled with their political fanaticism ; and the effects were 
calamitous and deplorable. 

A revolution like that which convulsed France, could 
not be expected to prove favourable to the interests of re- 
ligion. Men who were inclined to cherish a boundless 
freedom of opinion, and who boasted of their being whol- 
ly uninfluenced by the wisdom of former tunes, were not 
likely to feel any high degree of respect for that system 
of religion which had long prevailed. Not content with 
ridiculing and reprobating the Romish ritual and esta- 
blishment, they spoke contemptuously of all other creeds ; 
and a neglect of religion became the order of the day. 
The Constituent Assembly, however, amidst all its inno- 
vations, made provision for the continuance of public wor- 
ship ; and the catholic religion was still the predominant 
system. The papal interest, indeed, was materially af- 
fected by the change of government. The vote against 
the payment of fees to the pope, the order for the sup- 
pression of monasteries, the seizure of all the possessions 
of the church as the property of the nation, and the entire 
subjection of the clergy to the civil power, struck at the 
vitals of the court of Rome. Pius, incensed at these pro- 
ceedings, seemed ready to hurl the thunderbolts of pon- 
tifical vengeance upon the audacious and profane revolu- 
tionists ; but prudence checked his arm. He apprehended 
that his menaces and edicts would be disregarded, and 
might only serve to provoke embittered hostilities. In the 
mean time, he endeavoured to secure the friendship of 
those princes whose power might afford him some pro- 
tection amidst the revolutionary storm. 

The bishops and priests, who acted under the new 
constitution of France, were not regarded as true mem- 
bers of the Romish church, by the clergy of the old school, 
however observant they might be of the catholic creed. 



714 HISTORY OF THE GREEK CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



The pope sent a brief to the king, condemning the new 
arrangements ; but Louis was constrained to acquiesce 
in these and other innovations. Only three of the former 
bishops retained their stations : all the other prelates be- 
came non-jurors, and, with the majority of parochial 
ministers, were deprived of their preferments. The legis- 
lative assembly, affecting to be alarmed at the intrigues 
of the clerical non-jurors, menaced them with imprison- 
ment or exile. Many of their number emigrated in the 
sequel ; and many were assassinated by the populace. 

Under the sway of the democratic convention, so little 
attention was paid to religion, that it seemed to be in 
danger of being wholly absorbed by worldly politics. The 
assembly did not, indeed, expressly vote for its extinction 
in the new republic ; but contented itself with encouraging 
the surrender of letter of priesthood, and the open re- 
nunciation of all religious sentiments. At length, how- 
ever, Robespierre pretended to be shocked at the growing 
spirit of atheism, and moved for the promulgation of a 
decree, favourable to the cause of religion. By this ordi- 
nance, a periodical festival was instituted in honour of 
the Creator of the world, or the Supreme Being ; the 
propriety of public worship was allowed ; and the immor- 
tality of the soul was recommended to universal belief. 
The clergy of the old school, however, were still harassed, 
and in danger of exile or confinement, until the legisla- 
ture, in the year 1797, released them from the oaths with 
which then consciences were offended, and merely requir- 
ed tnem to promise submission to the government. Two 
years before this concession was obtained, five bishops had 
ventured to address a circular letter to the clergy ; in 
which they affirmed, that religion, in the altered govern- 
ment of their country, had no longer a political founda- 
tion; that the connexion was dissolved between the church 
and the state ; that the former still expected justice and 
protection from the latter ; but, being left to itself, was 
obliged to take measures for the establishment of doctrinal 
uniformity and general regularity of discipline. They 
recognized the pope as the head of the church, and 
acknowledged the doctrines of Catholicism, as interpreted 
and explained by Bossuet, the celebrated bishop of 
Meaux. a 

Before the end of the same year, another letter was 
addressed to the friends of the church, proposing ten 
metropolitan churches for the whole republic, and a 
bishopric for each department ; recommending a popular 
election both of prelates and parochial ministers ; disown- 
ing the authority of apostolical vicars, or papal delegates, 
and advising the peremptory rejection of all bulls or briefs 
from Rome, unless it should fully appear that they were 
consonant with the ordinances and the spirit of the Gal- 
lican church. b 

When a sufficient time had been allowed for the 
operation of these letters, and for the private influence of 
clerical exhortations, an ecclesiastical • council met in the 
French metropolis, 1 consisting of thirty-eight prelates, 
and fifty-three representatives of the inferior clergy. The 
members agreed to a profession of faith, founded on the 
creed promulgated, in 1560, by pope Pius IV. ; d but they 
were not so bigoted to this faith, as to give license or 

• See Mosheim's History, cent. xvii. sect. ii. part i. chap. i. 
>>Lettre Encyclique de plusieurs Ev&ques de France, a leurs Freres, 

et aux Eglises vacantes, 1795. 

* On the 15th of August, 1797, 



encouragement to the perpetration of any acts of violence 
under the pretence of defending it. However the church 
might be called militant, " it knew and authorized no 
other arms (they said) than prayer and the word of 
God." The country, they added, might be lawfully de- 
fended by the people, with the arm of flesh ; and the 
clergy were desired to inculcate the propriety and justice 
of such patriotic hostilities : but the church ought only to 
defend itself by spiritual arms. Episcopacy was declared 
to be essential to the proper government of the church : 
but royalty, of which that system was the usual accom 
paniment among Christian nations, did not meet with so 
favourable a testimony ; for it was enjoined that royalty 
should be the object of determined hatred, because a proper 
knowledge of national interest strongly condemned that 
form of government ; and it was affirmed, that the ex- 
action of an oath, against the revival of such an obnoxious 
system in France, was by no means repugnant to the laws 
of the Gospel. e 

The proceedings of this assembly were closed by an 
order for the communication of its decrees to the pope, 
who was, at the same time, earnestly solicited to convoke 
a general council. But his holiness declined a compli- 
ance with this request, being probably of opinion that the 
political convulsions of the times precluded ecclesiastical 
accommodation and religious union. 

Amidst these arrangements, the pontiff remained at 
Rome, in a state of suspense and anxiety. He had already 
surrendered three provinces to French invaders ; and he 
had not power to defend the rest of his territories. A 
republic being formed at Rome, in the year 1798, he 
retired into Tuscany ; and, when that dutchy was also 
revolutionized, he was sent as a prisoner of war into Dau- 
phine. Harassed, insulted, and oppressed, he died at 
Briancon/ in the eighty-second year of his age. 

CHAPTER II. 

History of the Greek Church, and of the Christian 
Communities in Asia and Africa. 

If we did not know that trifles (such is the weakness 
of man !) frequently produce serious animosities and per- 
manent divisions, we might be surprised at the long dis- 
sension between the Greek and Romish churches. At 
the time of their separation, both communities agreed in 
the essentials of Christianity ; and they ought to have 
contented themselves Avith that agreement, without ex- 
pecting - their fellow-Christians to concur with them in 
every trivial notion or fantastic opinion, in every idle 
ceremony, or in all circumstances of exterior worship. 
But, forgetting the obligations of brotherly love, they con- 
tinued at variance for ages ; and they are still sufficiently 
estranged from each other, to render the idea of a union 
visionary and hopeless. 

The Greek church, at the beginning of the century, 
extended from the Red Sea to the Frozen Ocean, and 
from the Adriatic to the Caspian. The patriarch of 
Constantinople was, nominally, the head of this church ; 
but his authority was not co-extensive with the similarity 
of doctrine. He held a m onthly synod in that city, with 

d See Mosheim, cent. xvi. sect. iii. part i. chap. i. 

'Canons et Decrets duConcile national de France, tenu a Paiis, en 
l'An de l'Ere Chretienne 1797; mis en ordre par les Eveques reunis a 
Paris. 'In April, 1799. 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



715 



the metropolitans of Antioch and Jerusalem, and twelve 
other prelates. In these councils he had no decisive 
authority : the influence of the majority, the intrigues of 
the more artful members, and sometimes reason or argu- 
ment, decided the questions. He did not retain that effec- 
tive supremacy which some of his predecessors enjoyed 
over the patriarchs of Egypt, Syria, and Palestine : in the 
extensive regions subject to the Russian despot, he had 
not even the shadow of power ; and, between the eastern 
boundaries of Asia Minor and the Caspian, his jurisdiction 
was not honoured with regard or acquiescence. Living 
also uuder the government of an infidel prince, to whom 
every form of Christianity was odious, he was, in fact, a 
slave to an arbitrary barbarian. 

In the provinces of European Turkey, the members of 
the Greek church were, and are still, very numerous, not- 
withstanding the discouragement given to population by 
the tyranny of the government. Almost every successive 
Grand Seignior thought it his duty to oppress them, that he 
might evince his zeal as a defender of the Moslem faith. 
Mustafa III. was more lenient to them than many of his 
predecessors ; but, even under his administration, they 
were insulted and plundered by his Turkish subjects, and 
maltreated in every mode of capricious tyranny. Their 
hierarchy, however, was suffered to subsist ; and they 



were allowed to transmit to their posterity their favourite 
doctrines. 

Frequent attempts were made by the zealous catholics, 
in the course of the century, to draw the Greeks into the 
Romish communion, not by concessions on the part of 
the former, but by derelictions of opinion on the part of 
the latter. In consequence of these endeavours, a schism 
was maintained in various parts of Greece and Asia Minor, 
and the number of proselytes to the papal church became 
considerable. The Mainotes. in the Morea, withstood the 
arts of the Romish missionaries more vigorously, even 
to the end of the century, than the generality of the 
Greeks. They assured the intruders, that they were 
strongly attached to the system of their own church, as 
opposed to that of the Romanists, whose head they con- 
sidered as an unchristian schismatic, for having corrupted 
the purity of the true faith. They particularly condemned 
the prohibition of the marriage of priests, and ridiculed the 
issuing of bulls for the pretended rescue of souls from 
purgatory. They then had only one bishop ; and he, 
like the priests, had no regular allowance, but received 
occasional contributions for particular masses, and cultiva- 
ted the soil, or performed other labours, to procure the 
necessaries of life. The ecclesiastics, in general, led ex- 
emplary lives, and thus deserved that respect with which 
the laity treated them ; and such was their spirit, that 
they were the first to take arms in defence of their country." 

The schism of which we have spoken was very pre- 
valent in Syria. At Aleppo, the northern capital of that 
province, the Christian church, about the middle of the 
century, was in a state of deplorable division. 

The orthodox Greeks, or those who adhered to the old 
system, were less numerous than the followers of the 
Latin church ; but, having greater interest at the Porte, 

* Voyage de Dimo et Nicolo Stephanopoli en Grece, pendant les 
Annees 1797 et.1798; chap, xxxix. 

t> Natural History of Aleppo, by Alex. Russell, M. D. vol. ii. 
chap. ii. 

• The prayer is, that God the Father would send down his Holy 



they kept the bishopric in their hands. They were more 
rigid in the observance of fasts than the opposite party : 
yet the latter attended more to that point of supposed duty 
than the generality of Roman catholics. The Armenians 
were still more scrupulous in this respect ; and some, it is 
said, would rather perish for want of proper sustenance 
during illness, than solicit a dispensation from the rigours 
of abstinence. Like the Greeks, they were divided into 
orthodox and schismatic Christians. The advantage of 
number was on the side of the former ; but the others had 
the superiority in point of opulence. The Maronites con- 
tinued to be attached to the Romish church, retaining, 
however, some doctrinal and ritual differences. They 
had a higher opinion of the sanctity or the convenience 
of a monastic life than the other Christians of Aleppo ; 
but they had no monasteries in that city. The priests of 
these three communities were in general so poor, that 
those who had families were obliged to have recourse to 
some branch of temporal business for the augmentation 
of their income. b 

The state of the Greek church, in point of doctrine and 
practice, may be thus briefly exhibited. Its chief sacra- 
ments are baptism and the Lord's supper. To the former, 
which is deemed necessary to salvation, is annexed the 
chrism, or unction ; and the child is dipped under water 
three tunes, in allusion to the Trinity. In the eucharist, 
three liturgies are used ; but the ordinary one is that of 
St. Chrysostom. This sacrament is administered, even 
to the laity, in both kinds ; and children are allowed to 
receive it. Transubstantiation is not a decided doctrine 
in this church. It is apparently maintained in one of 
the public confessions of faith ; but the words used in the 
service itself' seem merely to imply, that the supposed 
change is an act of the mind, not a physical conversion 
of the sacrameutal elements into the body and blood of 
Christ. 

The Romish notion of purgatory is denied by the vo- 
taries of this church : but they offer up pra3 r ers for those 
who have been removed from the world, and therefore 
seem to think that the soul has some place of residence 
from the day of death to the final judgment. They in- 
voke a multitude of saints, and even burn incense to them. 
Next to Christ, the Yirgin Mary and the twelve apostles 
are particularly honoured. Works of supererogation are 
disallowed. Faith and good works united are deemed 
requisite to produce justification. 

Confession is practised, but not considered as a sacra- 
ment. It is enjoined four times in the year : but, in 
general, it is performed only once in that time. The 
penitents, however, are not required, as in the church of 
Rome, to make a full disclosure of all their sins, or to give 
a minute detail of circumstances. 

Marriage is regarded as a very important object, yet 
not as an indissoluble obligation. Three offices or ser- 
vices are used in its celebration ; namely, that of betroth- 
ing, crowning the individuals, and dissolving the crowns. d 
All the clergy, except bishops and monks, are allowed to 
enter into this union. Beyond a third time, all renewals 
of marriage are forbidden ; and even second marriages 

Spirit to sanctify the elements, and make, them the body and blood of 
Christ, for pardon, grace, and salvation, to all who devoutly receive 
them. 

* The idea of dissolving the crowns may seem ominous ; but it is the 
ceremony which indicates that the marriage is concluded. 



716 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



are ^discountenanced. No solemnizations of matrimony 
are permitted during the fasts, which are usually kept 
with great strictness. 

The ecclesiastical body consists of five orders, if readers 
and sub-deacons be reckoned among the number : the 
others are, deacons, presbyters, and bishops. The ordina- 
tion of the highest class is a very impressive ceremony. 
It terminates with a prayer from the officiating archbishop, 
that Christ will render the new prelate an imitator of him- 
self, the true shepherd ; that he will make him a teacher 
of infants, a leader of the blind, a light to those who walk 
in darkness ; that he may shine in the world, and at last 
receive the great reward prepared for those who boldly 
contend in the cause of the Gospel, and persevere in the 
service of God. 

Although the head of this church has lost his controlling 
authority over the ecclesiastical establishment of Russia, he 
still has the gratification of reflecting, that the doctrinal 
prevalence of the system which he superintends, includes 
that great empire. The Russian clergy had long enjoyed 
important immunities ; and, although these were in some 
measure abridged by Peter the Great, the order still can 
boast of considerable privileges. Among these we may 
mention an exemption from taxes ; and we may add, 
that ecclesiastics are so far favoured in a judicial process, 
as not to be amenable before a temporal judge, unless 
commissaries of their own order be assessors at the trial. 
Before the year 1791, the commandant or chief magistrate 
of a district used to send to the bishop, on every new occa- 
sion, for commissaries ; but, since that time, clerical depu- 
ties have been regularly and permanently appointed for 
that function, by a general order of the holy synod.* 

Under this synod, in the reign of Catharine II., were 
thirty-one eparchies, or spiritual governments. That 
council in 1789, was composed of two metropolitans, three 
archbishops, two bishops, a regular and a secular proto- 
pope, or chief priest, an archimandrite, or abbot, and some 
inferior officers. To each eparchy belonged a consistory, 
formed of an archimandrite, some priors, and secular clergy. 
The titles of metropolitan and archbishop were not at- 
tached to a particular see, but were distinctions merely 
personal. 

The roskolniki, or schismatics, as those were called 
who objected to the prevailing system, which they said, 
involved various corruptions of the doctrine and discipline 
of the ancient Greek church, were not only discounte- 
nanced, but were sometimes cruelly oppressed, before the 
time of Catharine Many of them were put to death by 
the unchristian barbarity of the clergy ; and it is particu- 
larly recorded, that, in the year 1722, whole families of 
those unfortunate sectaries, unwilling to submit to the 
emperor's demand of a renunciation of their opinions, 
enclosed themselves in barns, and perished in the flames 
kindled by their own hands. At the time of this perse- 
cution the chief ecclesiastical adviser of Peter, wasTheo- 
phanes, bishop of Pleskoff, afterwards archbishop of Novo- 
gorod, whose liberality of mind, however, must have ren- 
dered him averse to the murder of reputed heretics. This 
prelate distinguished himself by writing against the mul- 
tiplication of ceremonies, the practice of idolatry, the rigours 

° Tooke's View of the Russian Empire, vol. ii. 

b Historico-Geographical Description of Russia, Siberia, and Great 
Tartary, by Philip John von Strahlenberg, chap. viii. — The Catechism 
prepared by this prelate was stamped with the approbation of the holy 



of monastic seclusion, and the various absurdities of super- 
stition ; and, while he exhorted the people to be content 
with praying, singing pslams, and reading the Scriptures, 
he advised the clergy to preach sermons of practical utility, 
rather than of doctrinal refinement. b 

This schism has continued to our times. Catharine 
treated the sectaries with lenity ; and we do not find that 
they have been persecuted since her decease. Her chief 
attacks, in point of persecution, were directed against the 
abettors and advocates of democracy, and her son Paul, 
in that respect, followed her example. 

The Russian plebeians and peasants are remarkable for 
superstition. Many absurdities are related of them in that 
particular : but it will be sufficient to mention the practice 
of having about the person, or in the apartments of a 
house, representations of saints (called gods) painted on 
boards. These pictures are viewed with an air of high 
respect and reverence ; and, on entering a room, persons 
bow to them, and repeatedly cross themselves. Even many 
of the opulent have these little idols in their possession, 
and court the favour of these imaginary gods. 

Among the multiplicity of tribes subject to the Russian 
emperor, are many Mohammedan and Pagan communi- 
ties. The former are indulged with a toleration of their 
worship ; and missionaries are employed to convert the 
latter, without dragooning them into the adoption of 
Christianity. 

In Armenia, the majority of the people are still Chris- 
tians, of the Monophysite sect. They appear to be more 
addicted to fasting than the professors of any other re- 
ligion whatever ; for it is said, that they have one hun- 
dred and fifty-six fast-days in the year. Their festivals 
also amount to a surprising number : but it is not true, 
that all the days in the year are appropriated to one or 
other of those opposite observances. Many of the natives 
of Armenia are dispersed over the different countries of 
the East, being tolerated as sectaries, and encouraged as 
traders. The Georgians were accustomed to steer be- 
tween the doctrines and practices of the Greeks and Arme- 
nians : but, as they are now subject to the sway of the 
Russian emperor, they lean more to the former system. 

The Nestorians, whose leading opinion is contrary to 
that of the Monophysites, c are scattered over a great part 
of Asia. It has been disputed, whether the Christians who 
inhabit the Malabar coast are really Nestorians. Dr. Bu- 
chanan denies that they are of that sect ; but Mr. Wrede 
maintains that they are. The probability is, that the 
members of many of the churches upon that coast are 
of the Nestorian persuasion, while others have become 
Jacobites or Monophysites. However that may be, these 
congregations are far from being respectable, the members 
being in a state of ignorance and misery. 

That species of Christianity which had been introduced 
into China, was tolerated for many years by the emperor 
Kang-hi : but in the year 1716, he was persuaded by his 
pagan ministers to revive two edicts against the Christians. 
By one of these ordinances, they were prohibited from 
building churches, and making converts ; and, by the 
other, no missionaries were suffered to preach, unless they 
were furnished with an imperial patent, specifying their 



synod, and published in the year 1766. A summary of Christian Di- 
vinity, compiled by Plato, archbishop of Moscow, was about the same 
time recommended to general use. 
• See Mosheim's History, cent. v. part ii. chap. v. sect. ix. xxii. 



HISTORY OF THE EASTERN CHURCH DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 717 



native country, the religious order to which they belonged, 
the time of their arrival in China, and their engagement 
not to return to Europe. They remained in this state of 
depression until the death of Kang-hi, in 1722 ; and then, 
instead of being relieved from it, they were subjected to 
farther restrictions. Young-ching, the new emperor, 
banished or imprisoned some of the princes of his family, 
and many grandees, for their favourable dispositions toward 
Christianity, and ordered the missionaries and their associ- 
ates to be driven from the provinces into the city of Canton. 
Ten years afterward, they were sent to the isle of Macao ; 
and all attempts of Christians to re-enter the empire were 
forbidden by the jealousy of the court. The churches 
were demolished or secularized ; and the natives who had 
embraced Catholicism, were compelled to renounce it, or 
conceal their obnoxious opinions. 

The religion of Jesus can boast of very few triumphs 
in Africa. The Christianity of Congo, or of Zanguebar is 
unworthy of mention : but, in our religious progress, we 
must take notice of Egypt and Abyssinia. 

The Copts, or the descendants of the primitive Chris- 
tians of Egypt, persist in their attachment to the Mono- 
physite doctrine. Their priests are ignorant and unin- 
formed ; but the people treat them with great respect. 
Monastic seclusion is very common among this sect, and 
great austerities are practised by many of the monks and 
nuns. Beside a Coptic patriarch, there is a Greek patri- 
arch in Egypt ; but the church which he rules is in a de- 
clining state. 

Christianity flourishes more in Abyssinia than in Egypt, 
because the sovereign is himself a Christian. The hopes 
of restoring the Romish worship in that empire were en- 
tertained by pope Innocent XII., who was encouraged in 
his views for that purpose by Louis XIV. The Jesuits 
were eager to obtain the honour of this employment ; and 
Poncet, a French apothecary, was sent from Cairo by the 
consul Maillet, with Brevedent, a respectable member of 
the former fraternity. The latter died in Abyssinia ; but 
M. Poncet was introduced to the king (Yasous I.,) whom, 
however, he did not find willing to become a convert, or 
to suffer his people to re-embrace Catholicism. M. du Roule 
was afterwards deputed to the same court : but he had 
scarcely reached Sennaar, in 1704, when he was murdered 
by the natives, at the instigation of the Franciscans, who 
were disgusted at seeing the Abyssinian mission in the 
hands of the Jesuits. Ousts, who usurped the throne in 
1709, was well affected to the Romish system, and secretly 
communed with those Franciscans who yet remained in 
the country : but he did not attempt to influence the con- 
sciences of his people. David, who succeeded him in 1714, 
ordered three of those strangers to be apprehended ; and, 
being condemned as heretics in an assembly of the clergy, 
they were stoned to death. 11 

Another convocation followed, which led to intestine com- 
motions. A new abuna or metropolitan announced to the 
clergy his idea of the consubstantiality of Christ ; an opinion 
contrary to that which had been proclaimed at the gate 
of the palace. 1 ' The ecclesiastics of his party, elate with 
their supposed triumph, insulted the emperor and his court 
by songs and shouts ; for which offence, above a hundred 

* Brace's Travels to discover the Source of the Nile, book iv. 

b The abuna represen ted Christ as being " one God, of the Father alone, 
united to a body perfectly human, consubstantial with ours, and by that 
union becoming the Messiah." The emperor maintained, that the Re- 

No- XL. 180 



of them were instantly massacred by a body of pagan sol 
diers, and the streets of the capital were filled with slaugh- 
ter. During several subsequent reigns, the affairs of the 
Abyssinian church were not so important as to claim our 
notice. With regard to the embassy prepared by pope 
Benedict XIV. for the purpose of effecting a reconciliation 
with that church, it may suffice to observe, that it was 
an abortive attempt. 

The state of this church, during the eighteenth century, 
was less corrupt and degenerate than the Jesuit mission- 
aries represented it. It was said, that a repetition of bap- 
tism was annually administered to all adults ; but this 
assertion has been disproved, or, at least, strongly denied. 
It was also imputed to the priests that they gave the eucha- 
rist improperly. They do not, indeed, make use of words 
so fully expressive of a belief in transubstantiation, as those 
of the Romish ecclesiastics : but that point reflects not the 
least discredit upon them. 

When Mr. Bruce visited Abyssinia, he was surprised at 
the extraordinary number of churches in that empire. 
These were erected near running water, for the conve- 
nience of those ablutions which the people practised ac- 
cording to the Levitical law. The walls were almost 
covered with pictures of saints or other representations ; 
but no figures embossed or in relievo were exhibited ; for 
they considered the use of these as a species of idolatry. 
Each parish had an arch-priest, who superintended both 
its spiritual and secular concerns. The priests and dea- 
cons were allowed to marry : but the monks, who occu- 
pied huts near the churches, were required to live in a 
state of celibacy. The reading of Scripture, and recita- 
tion of homilies of the fathers, formed, beside the eucha- 
rist, the chief portions of divine service. 

CHAPTER III. 

History of the Ecclesiastical Communities of the Lu- 
therans and Calvinists. 

A sense of religion seems to be impressed on the minds 
of all nations, even the most rude and uncivilized : but, as 
it appeals less to the external senses than to the mind and 
the heart, its nature renders it peculiarly liable to dispute. 
The attributes of the Deity, the mode in which he governs 
the world, and interferes in the concerns of mortals, give 
occasion for varieties of sentiment, among those who are 
unwilling to suppose that God ever revealed his will to 
mankind ; and, even where revelation is believed and 
fully admitted, many doubts arise, and diverse opinions 
are entertained and defended. Persons who agree in es- 
sential points, differ in those of less moment, and contend, 
as pro aris et focis, with all the vehemence of animosity, 
and all the bitterness of zeal. Hence, among the oppo- 
sers of popery, who, in one sense, maintained a common 
cause, various sects were formed, and various controver- 
sies occurred. The followers of Luther were hostile to 
those of Calvin : the disciples of Arminius also disagreed 
with the partisans of the Genevan reformer. 

The Lutherans and Calvinists continued, at the begin- 
ning of the eighteenth century, to compose the most nu- 
merous protestant establishments of the European conli- 

deemer was " perfect God and perfect man, by die union one Christ, 
whose body was composed of a precious substance called noncri/, not 
consubstantial with ours, or derived from his mother." Neither of theso 
opinions will be deemed strictly orthodox by sound divines. 



718 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERANS AND CALYINISTS 



nent. The former still flourished in the northern king- 
doms, and in different parts of Germany ; while the latter 
enjoyed their religion in many of the free towns of that 
empire, and under the protection of several of its princes, 
and also retained their influence in some of the cantons 
of Switzerland. 

Frederic, elector of Brandenburg, who became king of 
Prussia in the first year of the century, was more disposed 
t) favour the Calvinists than the Lutherans ; and the 
eformed took advantage of this circumstance to establish 
ministers of their persuasion in places where the Luther- 
ans had hitherto exercised the chief sway. The king, 
however, would not suffer the animosities of the two par- 
ties to proceed to the violence of outrage ; and he was not 
unwilling to tolerate Catholics and Jews in his domi- 
nions.' 1 

Reflecting on the affairs of religion, this prince was of 
opinion that a union of his protestant subjects would be 
conducive to the happiness of his people, and reflect credit 
on his reign ; and he was encouraged in this desirable 
object, by the doctors Ursinus and Jablonski. The former, 
though a Calvinist, had accepted from his majesty the 
episcopal title ; and the latter was the first chaplain at 
court, and also superintendant of the protestant church in 
Poland. These ecclesiastics suggested, that one of the 
first steps to be taken in this business, should be the pub- 
lication of the liturgy of the church of England in a 
German dress ; and, when this translation was completed, 
Ursinus wrote to the archbishop of Canterbury, (Dr. Te- 
nison,) to request his advice with regard to the proceed- 
ings best calculated for the attainment of the desired uni- 
formity. By some negligence or mistake, the letter did not 
reach the primate, though it was said that he had received 
it, and refused to answer it. When he was informed of 
the scheme by a friend of Dr. Ursinus, he did not give it 
the least encouragement j alleging that a reported decla- 
ration of the university of Helmstadt, in the case of the 
queen of Spain, allowing in certain circumstances a dere- 
liction of the protestant religion, had given him too unfa- 
vourable an opinion of the protestant churches of Germa- 
ny, to permit him conscientiously to correspond with any 
of them. b 

The reason alleged by the English prelate may be 
pronounced inadequate and unsatisfactory. For the sup- 
posed opinion of one protestant university, he condemned 
the whole reformed body of Germany, and declined as- 
sisting in a measure that promised benefit to the protest- 
ant cause, as well as credit to the church over which he 
presided. 

This discouragement did not prevent a renewal of the 
attempt after the lapse of a few years. Jablonski, in 
1710, submitted the affair to the consideration of Dr. 
Sharp, archbishop of York, who was pleased at the ap- 
plication, and promised his zealous aid in promoting the 
pious views of his Prussian majesty. Queen Anne adopt- 
ed the scheme, and ordered lord Raby, her representative 
at Berlin, to treat upon the subject with the baron von 
Printzen, the chief counsellor of Frederic in ecclesiastical 
concerns. Several conferences ensued ; and the affair 
seemed to be in a favourable train. Bonnet, the Prus- 

*M6moires pour servir a l'Histoire de la Maison de Brandebourg, 
par le Roi de Prusse. 

> Relation des Meaures qui furetit prises dans les Annfies 1711, 1713, 



sian minister at London, was assured by secretary Saint- 
John, that the court and clergy in general were very well 
disposed to expedite religious union ; and his communica- 
tion to the king invigorated the zeal of the cabinet of Ber- 
lin. Jablonski was now ordered to compose a regular 
plan of ecclesiastical comprehension and reform. He had 
already entered with some minuteness into the considera- 
tions of public worship and church government : and, after 
ulterior deliberation, he presented to the baron a plan for the 
establishment of episcopacy in the Prussian dominions. 
Mr. Ayerst, chaplain to lord Raby, proposed that the court 
of Hanover should be requested to join in the scheme, at 
least in the liturgical part of it ; and Leibnitz intimated 
to that divine, that the princess Sophia would probably 
permit an English chaplain to officiate at her court, if 
queen Anne would defray the expense of his support.' 

When the general attention was called to the diplo- 
matic deliberations at Utrecht, the concerns of religious 
union were neglected, being deemed by politicians com- 
paratively insignificant. The zeal of Frederic declined ; 
and, although he assigned a fund for the maintenance 
and theological education of some of his subjects at the 
English universities, he took no farther measures in the 
scheme of comprehension. He did not, indeed, live to see 
the conclusion of the treaty of Utrecht : the archbishop of 
York, and his royal mistress, also died in the following 
year ; and the scheme was then not merely neglected, 
but abandoned. 

Frederic William, who obtained the crown in the year 
1713, contented himself with promoting peace among hig 
subjects of different religions, without requiring uniformity 
of worship ; and he not only maintained toleration in his 
own territories, but endeavoured to secure to the protest- 
ants, in other parts of Germany, that free exercise of their 
religion, which had been granted by the treaty of West- 
phalia. Considering him as one of the champions of their 
cause, they requested his interposition when they were 
ill treated by their religious adversaries. 

The influence of the French court had procured the 
insertion of a clause in the treaty of Ryswick, importing 
that the catholic religion, in the places given back by 
France, should be continued in the same state in which 
it subsisted at the time of restitution. When the diet 
took the affair into consideration, the protestant members 
refused to concur in this clause ; but their remonstrances 
did not prevail on the emperor to withhold that confirma- 
tion of the treaty which the Romanists desired. In the 
negotiations which followed the Avar for the Spanish suc- 
cession, the claims of the protestants were neglected, and 
the clause was not repealed. They were even ill-treated 
by the elector Palatine, who deprived them of many of 
their public places of worship ; and, as the courts of Ber- 
lin and Hanover made reprisals on the catholics, the latter 
were still farther inflamed into acts of intolerance, illibe- 
rality, and outrage. A convention, indeed, was signed 
between the contending parties, for an observance of the 
treaty of Westphalia ; and an imperial edict was issued 
in the year 1720, for the redress of those grievances of 
which the protestants complained in the Palatinate ; but 
both the agreement and the edict were disregarded." 1 

et 1713, pour introduire la Liturgie Anglicane dans le Roiaume de Prusse 

et dans PEleetorat d'Hanovre. Londres, 4to. 1767. ° Ibid. p. 15 — 37. 

J Coxe's History of the house of Austria, vol. ii. chap. vii. and x. 



DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



719 



In Sweden and Denmark, the Lutherans continued to 
predominate, and the established church was under their 
government. In the former of those realms, clerical re- 
presentatives composed a part of the states or national 
council : but, in the latter, the clergy had no share of po- 
litical power ; and the superintendants, who acted in lieu 
of bishops, were required by the rulers of the state to pro- 
pagate the doctrine of passive obedience. Charles XI. of 
Sweden, and his son the adventurous warrior, kept the 
states so far in subjection, that neither the clergy nor the 
laity dared to exercise the authority which the constitution 
allowed them : but, when Ulrica became queen, they re- 
covered their power, and even extended it beyond the 
bounds of moderation, reducing the royal authority within 
very narrow limits. The queen's husband, the prince of 
Hesse-Cassel, renounced Calvinism to please the clergy, 
who were almost as unwilling to coalesce with the reform- 
ed church, as with catholics. It was not without great 
difficulty that he prevailed upon the diet to grant tolera- 
tion to the Calvinists. In the year 1741, an edict was 
issued, by which those sectaries, and also the members of 
the church of England, were allowed to erect churches, 
and enjoy a full freedom of worship, in all the maritime 
towns, except Carlscrone. The Danish government like- 
wise condescended to grant a partial toleration to the Cal- 
■\inistic protestants ; but the people still viewed them with 
an unfavourable eye. 

The Lutherans lived in greater harmony with the Cal- 
vinists, (or rather in less discord,) in the electorates of 
Brandenburg and Hanover, than in most of the German 
principalities, or in either of the northern kingdoms. The 
Hanoverian clergy, in particular, seemed to indicate a 
stronger desire of fraternal union, than the ecclesiastics of 
other states. In the bishopric of Osnaburg, the protest- 
ants were on better terms with the catholics than in many 
other parts of Germany, because the sovereignty was al- 
ternately enjoyed by a Lutheran and a Romanist. In 
Saxony, when the elector had become a catholic, the ma- 
jority of the people retained their attachment to Luther- 
anism, and would not suffer him to obstruct their profes- 
sion of that faith. In a part of that electorate, a protest- 
ant sect, neither absolutely devoted to the Lutheran nor 
to the Calvinistic creed, yet professing a regard for the 
former system, established itself in the year 1722. When 
the Hussite sect seemed only to be remembered in history, 
and the catholics supposed it to be extinct, a party of re- 
ligionists who honoured the memory of the Bohemian 
reformer, and entertained similar sentiments, appeared in 
Moravia ; but could not obtain, from the Austrian go- 
vernment, the favour of toleration. Count Zinzendorff, 
admiring their zeal, and expecting, in some degree, to 
influence their opinions, invited them into Upper Lusa- 
tia : and the village of Herrenhutf erected under his au- 
spices, soon rose into a considerable Moravian settlement. 
As he had been educated in the Lutheran persuasion, he 
exhorted them to join that church : but they preferred a 
retention of their own principles to an entire association 
with any other church. He was allowed to style himself 
guardian of the fraternity, and at length became its bi- 
shop. Disputes which arose among the members were 

'Signifying the guard or watch of the Lord. 

b The Moravians do not appear todeserve the severe censures thrown 
out against them by Dr. Maclaine, in a note that is justly stigmatised by 
Dr Haweis as impure and malignant, and which, indeed, must excite 



repressed by his authority, and rules of discipline and 
conduct were framed under his eye. Their ministers did 
not deny the doctrine of the Trinity, but directed their 
immediate adoration to Jesus Christ. They affirmed that 
a Christian might ensure salvation by grace arising from 
a lively faith, without the^bsolute necessity of good works : 
yet the Brethren, in their conduct, by no means neglected 
morality. Although they professed to consider their 
church as an episcopal establishment, they did not suffer 
the bishops to exercise any jurisdiction in the first in 
stance ; for all authority originated in their grand synod, 
which consisted not only of bishops, but also of elders, 
and of deputies from every congregation. Subordinate to 
that assembly, were the meetings of elders, both general 
and particular. When questions had been fully discussed 
by the assembled brethren, they were frequently decided 
by lot, which was regarded as an appeal to the Deity. 

The zeal of the United Brethren gradually diffused 
their system over various parts of Germany, and also in- 
troduced it into Great Britain and the United Provinces. 
It likewise made some progress in the northern states. 
In Livonia, the success of its promoters at first excited the 
jealousy of the Russian government ; and two of the 
brethren were committed to prison : but the court after- 
wards consented to tolerate the sect. 

The missionary enterprises of this fraternity were pio 
secuted with indefatigable ardour. In the icy regions of 
Greenland and Labrador, and in the glowing climate of 
the West Indies, the labours of conversion were cheerfully 
sustained. The inveterate prejudices of the Hindoos were 
softened by the earnest appeals of the Brethren ; and the 
brutish barbarism of the Hottentots yielded to the force of 
pious persuasion. b 

With regard to the religion of the United Provinces, 
we may observe, that Calvinism still enjoyed the honour 
of being the established church, and the canons of the 
council of Dordrecht remained in force : but the tenets of 
Arminius were preferred to those of Calvin by a great 
number of people, in every class of society. Ana- 
baptists, Lutherans, and other protestant sects, were freely 
tolerated : and the government connived at the practice 
of the catholic worship, long before it was regularly per- 
mitted. With respect to the form of the establishment, 
we may add, that each Calvinist congregation, beside one 
or more ministers, had deacons and elders : each deputed 
a minister and an elder to the classes ; and each class 
sent deputies to the synod of the province. 

In the progress of the century, religious zeal declined 
among the Dutch : public worship was less frequently 
attended ; and education was less impregnated with a 
Christian spirit. If the theological faculty at any of the 
universities, the members of a class or a synod, condem- 
ned particular publications as repugnant to the established 
creed, or hostile to religion in general, many exclaimed 
against the bigotry and intolerance of these censors : but 
the rulers of the republic thought proper to support the 
decisions of the church, and ministers were sometimes 
deposed, for betraying, in the pulpit or with their pens, 
the interests of Calvinism or of Christianity. For the 
defence and support of that religion, the Teylerian society 



the disgust of every chaste and candid reader. — See the note on page 
019 of the present volume for this specimen of vulgar calumny, which 
could not reasonably have been expected from the translator of Mo- 
shcim. 



"20 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERANS AND CALVINISTS 



was formed at the Hague in 1786 ; and some judicious 
publications have arisen from the rewards offered out of 
the endowment. 

Among the subjects of France, notwithstanding the 
revocation of the edict of Nantes, and the consequent exile 
or destruction of many thousand families of conscientious 
protestants, Calvinism was not extinct. There was great 
danger in professing it under a bigoted government : yet 
a considerable number retained a strong attachment to its 
doctrines. The inhabitants of the Cevennes mountains, 
and of the Vivarais, in particular, were zealous in the 
cause ; and their zeal was invigorated by the eloquence 
of several bold Huguenots, who had returned from exile 
to preach their favourite doctrines. The inhuman vio- 
lence of a Romish priest added fuel to the flame. The 
people rose against this oppressor, put him to death, and 
sacrificed other catholics to their revenge. Troops were 
sent to restore order by summary process : the insurgents 
retired before them, but were not over-awed into submis- 
sion. The cruel punishments to which the soldiery 
subjected the captive malcontents, produced severe reta- 
liation ; and the increasing numbers of the latter so alarm- 
ed the court, that three marechals were successively sent 
to subdue them. Villars at length prevailed upon Cava- 
lier, a young baker, who had assumed the command over 
them, to enter into a treaty in their name ; and it was 
agreed, in the year 1704, that a general amnesty should 
be granted to the party ; and that this leader, and four 
regiments of the protestants, should serve in the French 
army as foreign subsidiaries, enjoying the free exercise of 
their religion. 1 Cavalier was afterwards introduced at 
court ; but, thinking himself in danger amidst the catho- 
lics, and finding that he could not procure so many follow- 
ers in his new plan as he expected, he retired from France, 
'loland, a Calvinist who disdained submission, now acted 
t the head of a body of insurgents ; but he soon lost his 
life, and many of the Huguenots of Languedoc quitted 
France, while the generality of those who remained, ceased 
to profess openly the tenets which had embroiled them 
with the Romanists. Some commotions occasionally 
ensued, from the violent proceedings of the catholics, 
against those who were known to be (or suspected of be- 
ing) still attached to Calvinism ; and, for a long course of 
years, the flame was rather smothered than extinguished. b 
The dissolute successor of the fourteenth Louis had not 
sufficient liberality of mind to restore to the protestants 
the plenitude of toleration. To their religion he preferred 
that in which he had been educated ; and, though he 
probably would not, like his predecessor, have spontane- 
ously annulled the edict of Nantes, he did not think that 
it was either consonant with the dignity or conducive to 
the advantage of the church to favour those who were 
hostile to the establishment. He therefore, by an edict 
of the year 1724, menaced protestant preachers with 
death, and their abettors with imprisonment, or the labours 
of galley-slaves. He also renewed the prohibition of return 
to all emigrants, unless they should abjure the protestant 

a Many of these sectaries pretended to the gift of divination ; and, in 
the year 1705, some of them came over to Great Britain, where they 
met with little encouragement. Those who ventured to appear in Hol- 
land were confined as fanatics, that, amidst hard labour, they might 
have time to recover their senses. 

•> Histoire de France sous le Regne de Louis XIV. par M. de Larrey. 
- Essai sur l'Hist. Generale, oarM. de Voltaire; art. de Calvinismc. 



tenets and ordered that no molestation should be given to 
the present possessors of the estates of refugees, while the 
latter retained their anti-catholic opinions. At length, 
however, he so far yielded to the advice of the less bigoted 
members of his cabinet, as to allow the votaries of the re- 
formation to become legal husbands and wives, by having 
the clergy to witness their marriages as civil contracts ; and 
it was also intimated to them, that no notice should be taken 
of their religious assemblies. Upon these terms, the mare- 
chal Richelieu, in 1754, re-established the tranquillity of 
Languedoc, where compulsory attendance upon the Ro- 
mish worship, and constrained abjurations of supposed 
heresy, had not effected that conversion which the court 
so earnestly wished to produce. . 

In the disputes between Louis XV. and the provincial 
and Parisian parliaments, the protestants were prompted, 
by their zeal for liberty, to side with the opposers of 
the court ; but they were obliged to be cautious in their 
proceedings, that they might not entail upon themselves the 
indignation and vengeance of royalty. They witnessed 
with secret joy the ruin of the Jesuits, the zealous sup- 
porters of Catholicism, and looked forward with renovated 
hope to the grant of a full toleration. 

The French protestants maintained an amicable corres 
pondence with the Genevans, to whose sacramental cele 
brations a multitude of the inhabitants of Languedoc and 
Dauphine resorted at the four great festivals of the year. 
They also encouraged the anti-papal perseverance of the 
Vaudois, who, though molested by the catholic zeal of 
the king of Sardinia, would not suffer his priests to per- 
vert their principles. 

The inhabitants of Bern, and other protestant cantons 
of Switzerland, refused to grant to the Lutherans that 
toleration to which they were entitled. The liberal ex- 
ample of the Genevans, who held out a friendly hand to 
that sect, did not excite imitation among the followers of 
the Helvetic confession. 

While Christian VII. and Gustavus III. reigned in 
Denmark and Sweden, the spirit of toleration became 
more prevalent in those kingdoms. By the former prince, 
the Calvinists were gratified with a greater degree of free- 
dom in point of religion ; but, in some places, they were 
not suffered to preach against other creeds and modes of 
worship, or to make proselytes. The Mennonites, though 
protestants, were placed on the same footing with Roman- 
ists ; were not allowed to contract marriage with Luthe- 
rans without a licence, and were obliged to acquiesce in 
the Lutheran education of their children of both sexes. 
In Sweden, the diet (in 1779) granted, to foreigners 
settling in that country, the freedom of worship, with an 
exception of public ceremonies and processions ; at the 
same time excluding them from offices in the state, and 
forbidding them to propagate their opinions in semina- 
ries." 1 

The Danish church, at that time, consisted of twelve 
superintendants or bishops, many provosts or directors ol 
districts, parochial priests, and chaplains. The annual 



c Vie Privee de Louis XV. 

a Dr. Erskine's Sketches and Hints of Church History and Theo- 
logical Controversy. Yet a writer in the Encyclopaedia Bntanmca, 

(edit. 1791,) after speaking of the Lutheran establishment, says, "There 
is not another sect in these kingdoms," [Denmark, Sweden, and Nor- 
viay.] He probably borrowed the remark from some old geographical 
work. 



DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



721 



revenue of the metropolitan did not exceed one thousand 
pounds ; and the income of some pastors in Iceland 
scarcely amounted to five pounds. In Sweden, there 
were fourteen bishoprics, the occupants of which had not, 
in general, a greater income than the superintendants of 
Denmark. Associated with deputies from each arch- 
deaconry, they formed the second component body of the 
states or national council. The clergy of that kingdom, 
by order of the states, had the care of the general educa- 
tion of the people, all of whom, females as well as males, 
were required to learn the easy arts of reading and 
writing. 

In Germany, the frequent controversies between the 
Lutherans and Calvinists, and also between them and 
the catholics, had cherished and kept up that spirit, of 
free inquiry which originally produced the reformation. 
In the discussion of doctrinal points, and in bringing 
them to the test of Scripture, writers of different capacities 
and dispositions gave such varied interpretations, that 
many readers were perplexed and confounded, and began 
to doubt whether any doctrines had ever been revealed to 
mankind. Some protestant authors, having seduced 
themselves into scepticism in the solitude of their closets, 
propagated their doubts among the people ; still pretend- 
ing, however, to be well-wishers to the cause of religion. 
Others openly ventured to recommend reason as a substi- 
tute for religion. 

The Pietists, on the other hand, continued to promote 
the diffusion of religious zeal and vital Christianity. They 
not only withstood the efforts of infidel philosophy, but 
also reprobated latitudinarian indifference, censured the 
predication of mere morality, and raised their voices against 
the worldly spirit and increasing dissipation of the age. 
They were " exposed to much obloquy" (says an English 
Pietist) 11 "for their rigid maxims, and resolute rejection of 
all unhallowed conformity to the manners and amuse- 
ments of a wicked world." " As the century advanced" 
(he adds) " the fervour of Pietism abated ; and, iniquity 
abounding, the love of many waxed cold." The same 
zealous censor represents the generality of the Lutheran 
clergy, as sinking at that time into a Laodicean state, 
and " maintaining the forms and formulae of Lutheranism, 
instead of the spirit of Christianity." Undoubtedly, this 
was the case with many of the ministers of that church : 
but it does not follow, because they were not continually 
speaking of faith and grace, that they were destitute of a 
Christian spirit, or regardless of the purity of religion. 
They might have less cant, less ostentation of piety, than 
those who considered themselves as the only sincere 
votaries of evangelical truth ; but it is uncandid to in- 
sinuate that they were Christians only in name and in 
form, not in principle or in substance. 

In Saxony and the Prussian territories, the metaphy- 
sical philosophy of Wolff, privy counsellor to Frederic 
William, king of Prussia, had a considerable effect in the 
diffusion of a sceptical spirit ; and, although he was pub- 
licly censured for his pernicious writings, and deprived 
of a professorship at Halle, he continued to propagate his 
sentiments after his retreat into the principality of Hesse 
Cassel. He was subsequently protected by the Swedish 
court, but was more particularly favoured by that philo- 
sophic prince who became king of Prussia in the year 



No. 



* Dr. Haweis. 

LXI. 



»> " II n'y a aucune religion (he said) 

181 



1740. Professor Kant, the celebrated metaphysician, was 
patronised by the same monarch ; and his system like- 
wise tended to generate scepticism. 

This prince, the well-known Frederic, was fond of free 
inquiry, and eager to evince his superiority to what he 
considered as idle prejudice. He therefore easily suffered 
himself to be persuaded by infidel philosophers, that reli- 
gion was the invention of interested hypocrites and artful 
statesmen. He was not more favourable in this respect 
to Christianity than to the Moslem creed. Priests of all 
persuasions were, in his eye, either wilful deluders of the 
multitude, or the credulous instruments of delusion. These 
opinions he gloried in propagating among his friends ; 
and his court thus became the seat of irreligion, and a 
school of impiety. It was a matter of indifference to such 
a monarch, what religion his subjects professed, or whether 
they followed any religion at all, provided that they were 
subservient to his military and political despotism. He 
considered the morality of different sects as nearly the 
same ; b and, while he tolerated all, his active vigilance 
kept his dominions in tranquillity, undisturbed by open 
animosities or serious dissensions. His people were free 
in a religious sense, but in no other respect. 

Societies of illumijiati, or enlightened reasoners, were 
at length formed in some of the protestant towns and prin- 
cipalities of Germany, and even in several of the catholic 
states. At Munich, professor Weishaupt, who had re- 
ceived his education among the Jesuits, became the founder 
of a club of reformists ; and, when he had been banished 
from Bavaria for his dangerous principles, he was pro- 
tected and encouraged by the duke of Saxe-Gotha. Ba- 
ron Knigge strenuously laboured in the same cause ; and, 
although greater effects have been attributed to these 
societies than their real importance may induce us to be- 
lieve, it must be allowed that they paved the way for 
revolutionary mischief, and aided the pernicious influence 
of Gallic impiety and sedition. 

While Louis XVI. filled the French throne, the clergy 
of the establishment repeatedly complained of his conni- 
vance at the encroachments of the protestants, who insulted 
or derided the institutions of the holy church, presumed to 
draw within their pale the children of catholics, taxed the 
people for the payment of salaries to unlicensed ministers, 
obtained the direction of public schools, and procured admis- 
sion into the seats of magistrac3 r . They did not, how T ever, 
dare to recommend an infliction of the rigours of vengeeance 
upon these "deluding and deluded men," but merely advis- 
ed that the protestants should be bribed into an adoption of 
the Romish faith. Louis did not wish that considerations 
of interest should have any influence upon religious con- 
versions ; but he was willing, by occasional grants out of 
the royal temporalities, to assist those converts who re- 
quired relief. The proselytes thus made by the church 
were not very numerous. The number of protestants, on 
the contrary, continued to increase, until the court thought 
it expedient to accede to their wishes. Under the adminis- 
tration of M, de Brienne, archbishop of Toulouse, the king 
issued an edict, by which they were admitted (in January 
1788) to the free practice of their religion, and to all the 
rights of citizens. The revolution soon followed : and all 
religions were then confounded in the vortex of politics. 

Before that revolution commenced its attack upon all 

qui, sur le sujet de la morale, s'ecarte beaucoup des autres. ° 



722 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERANS AND CALVIN1STS 



former institutions, religious as well as political, Frederic 
William, the successor of the infidel king of Prussia, en- 
deavoured to stem the torrent of latitudinarianism and of 
irreligion by a spirited and not injudicious proclamation. 1 
We take notice of this edict, not only because it is remark- 
able in itself, and tends to show the state of religion in 
the Prussian dominions at that time, but also because it 
produced a warm controversy. His majesty ordained, in 
the first place, that the three principal Christian creeds and 
systems (the Reformed, Lutheran, and Romish) should be 
preserved genuine. The second article provided for a con- 
tinued toleration of Moravians, Mennonites, and the Bohe- 
mian brethren, beside Jews ; but prohibited sects, perni- 
cious to the state, from holding public assemblies. Thirdly, 
all endeavours to make proselytes, in any confession, were 
forbidden : yet all persons were at liberty to change their 
religion. Popish emissaries, monks, and ex- Jesuits, were 
particularly prohibited from attempting to convert those 
whom they called heretics. After commending, the gene- 
ral harmony in which the clergy and laity of the three 
confessions seemed to live, the king ordered, that the two 
first churches should preserve their liturgies and directo- 
ries : they might, he said, abolish immaterial ceremonies ; 
but he would not suffer them to change any essential part 
of their old systems ; an injunction which appeared to 
him to be the more necessary, as he had observed that 
many of the preachers of those communities denied im- 
portant articles of Protestantism and Christianity, depre- 
ciated the authority of the Scriptures, and " served up again 
the often-refuted errors of Socinians, Naturalists, 11 and 
Deists," under the pretence of enlightening the people. 
Such ministers as disapproved the creed which they had 
originally adopted, were required to resign their pastoral 
charges, rather than teach any thing contrary to the re- 
ceived doctrines of their church. 

Several free-thinkers and latitudinarians fiercely attacked 
the edict, as if it had been an unwarrantable invasion of 
liberty of conscience ; but it was ably defended by Doctor 
Sender of Halle, and other divines. Its assailants repro- 
bated the arbitrary spirit that fettered the freedom of in- 
quiry, and which commanded individuals to believe with- 
out conviction ; affirmed that Christ's kingdom was not 
of this world, and that the penal laws of temporal govern- 
ments were inapplicable to religion, and wholly unjustifi- 
able when employed for the coercion of the conscience ; 
and animadverted on the inconsistency manifested by a 
protestant ruler, in condemning* and counteracting a free- 
dom of opinion analogous to that which had produced the 
Reformation. The supporters of the decree denied, that 
it enforced belief, as people might still believe only what 
suited their ideas, and might even freely publish their 
thoughts : but when a minister, in the exercise of his pas- 
toral charge, taught doctrines repugnant to those which 
he had formerly undertaken to maintain, or inconsistent 
with the fundamental truths of religion, there was no in- 
justice, they said, in preventing such a preacher from con- 
tinuing to be unfaithful to his trust. 

Infidelity was less observable in Poland than in Prussia 
or Brandenburg : but that country was a frequent scene 
of religious dissension. The Polish protestants had long 

njoyed, not merely toleration, but an equality of privilege 



' Dated at Potsdam, July 9, 1788. 

t Not the cultivators of natural history orphilosophy, but the teachers 



with the catholics. After the expulsion of the Socinians, 
the Romanists obtained the ascendency, and gradually 
encroached on the rights of the protestants, for whose ex- 
clusion from the diet they procured, in the year 1733, a 
decree of the majority of that assembly. After the elec- 
tion of Stanislaus Poniatowski to the sovereignty, in 1764, 
the dissidents (under which term the members of the 
Greek church were included with the Lutherans and Cal- 
vinists) had recourse to the kings of Great Britain, Prussia, 
and Denmark, and to the empress of Russia, who readily 
promised to assist them by intercession for the recovery of 
those privileges which had been stipulated for them in the 
in the treaty of Oliva. The diet, however, for some years, 
would only allow them the freedom of worship ; but, in 
1768, being over-awed by a Russian army, the assembly 
acceded to the requisitions of the four courts. Many of the 
catholic nobles, resenting this compliance, and disgusted 
at the domineering influence of Russia, took up arms for 
religion and liberty ; and a desultory warfare commenced, 
which did not entirely cease before the first partition of 
Poland. The dissidents were then less favoured than they 
had been by the preceding diet ; but, beside toleration, 
they obtained seats in some of the courts of justice. 
When the czarina, and her allies in spoliation (the em- 
press of Germany and king of Prussia,) had seized three 
considerable portions of the country, her influence was 
paramount over that part which still retained the name 
of a kingdom ; and she preserved peace among the vota- 
ries of the different religions. In the provinces which 
were ceded to Austria, the catholics gave little molestation 
to the dissidents, as it was apprehended that, if oppressed, 
they would offer themselves as subjects to the tolerant 
Catharine, or take refuge under the wings of the Prussian 
eagle. c 

By that constitution which Poland obtained in 1791 
from the spirit of her nobles, but which her potent adver- 
saries would not suffer long to subsist, toleration was more 
fully allowed ; and, when the kingdom was finally dis- 
membered, however unjust w 7 as the spoliation, the new 
rulers of the country established the security of religious 
opinion and worship. 

In Hungary, the protestants did not enjoy, during the 
reign of Joseph, the full effect of his liberal declarations 
and fair promises. They complained that his edict was 
not properly enforced ; but, after his death, their solicita- 
tions procured a favourable decree from his successor Leo- 
pold. It was ordained by the diet, in 1791, that persons 
of all ranks should enjoy a perfect freedom of public wor- 
ship, and the liberty of erecting churches, even with steeples 
and bells ; but that, when the protestants should wish to 
build a church, parsonage-house, or school, a mixed com- 
mittee of the district should be holden, to ascertain the 
sufficiency of the proposed means, and the landlord should 
then fix upon the spot ; that no protestants should be com- 
pelled to attend mass, witness catholic processions, or pay 
dues to the Romish priests ; that they might form consis- 
tories and hold synods, but that no laws or ordinances 
framed at those meetings should be operative without the 
royal confirmation ; that their authority over their own 
schools should also be subject to their sovereign's control ; 
and that they might publish religious books, under the in- 



natural religion, as opposed to Christianity. The count de Buffon, 
teed, was a naturalist in both senses. e Coxe's Travels in Poland. 



of 
indeed 



\ 



DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



723 



Bpection of censors of their own appointment, who should, 
however, be responsible to the government for their official 
conduct. It was also decreed that they should be eligible 
to public offices, and even to a seat in the diet, equally with 
the Romanists. a 

These grants were deemed , by th e catholics, greatfavours 
and liberal concessions; but, by the protestants, they were 
considered as no more than natural rights. The Romish 
bigots, in some instances, counteracted the new ordinances, 
and prevented the immediate accomplishment of the patri- 
otic intentions of the diet: but the court, and the catholics 
in general, were disposed to permit the execution of the 
decree. 

The protestants of Bohemia were, at the same time, 
freed from all persecution and molestation, on the subject 
of religion. During a great part of the century, the Jews 
in that kingdom were more favoured by its catholic rulers, 
than were even the Christian sects : but the latter, at 
length, found an opportunity of emerging from their diffi- 
culties and depression. 

When the revolution had broken out in France, the 
spirit of irreligion was more openly manifested in Germany, 
among the three denominations of Christians, than it had 
been at any time from the first establishment of the religion 
of Jesus in that country ; and, being mingled with the de- 
sire of enjoying a greater portion of civil liberty, it prompted 
the people, in several states of the empire, to submit to the 
arms of France, soon after the war began to rage. When 
French fraternity had lost the charm of novelty, many re- 
pented of the blind forwardness with which they had ac- 
cepted it : but, when the yoke was fixed upon their necks, 
it was too late to retract. In the ecclesiastical electorates, 
capricious varieties of opinion were substituted for the catho- 
lic creed ; and, although religion was not absolutely ne- 
glected by all classes of people, either in the protestant or 
catholic states, the worship became less decorous and regu- 
lar ; the public service of God ceased, in a great measure, 
to be an object of devout attention. 

CHAP. IV. 

History of the Church of England and its Dependen- 
cies, and also of the Protestant Sects in the British 
Dominions. 

When the church of England had been rescued from 
danger by the seasonable exertions of the prince of Orange, 
and the free exercise of particular worship had been 
allowed by a wise and liberal parliament to those protes- 
tants who dissented from the general religion of the state, 
the defeat and depression of the catholics, and the removal 
of anxiety from the minds both of the orthodox and the 
sectaries, produced a degreeof tranquillity which the church 
had not enjoyed from the time of the Reformation. The 
schism of the nonjurors, indeed, still subsisted at the be- 
ginning of the eighteenth century ; the legality of the 
ecclesiastical government was boldly disputed by many 
zealots ; and a spirited contest was carried on between the 
high church and low-church factions, or the Tories and 
Whigs of the hierarchy. But the collisions of party were 
less vehement, and the animosity of disputants less bitter 
and malignant. 

V. Anne had reigned immediately after the Revolu- 
* Travels in Hungary, by Robert Townson, LL. D. 



tion, she would not have been so ready as king William 
to grant toleration to dissenters. She suspected them of 
aiming at the ruin of the church, while they professed 
only a wish for an unmolested indulgence of their pecu- 
liar opinions. But, as the legislature had thought proper 
to gratify them with the freedom to which they had long 
aspired, she resolved not to encroach upon their admitted 
claims, or offer the least violence to what she called their 
tender consciences. She wished, however, to prevent the 
practice of occasional conformity, by which not a few pres- 
byterians and other dissenters procured employments in- 
tended only for the orthodox. They took the sacrament 
according to the established forms, to qualify themselves 
by law foi particular offices, and then frequented the 
meeting-houses of non-conformists. The Tories fre- 
quently introduced a bill to restrain this interested dupli- 
city. Thrice their views were baffled by the influence of 
the Whigs ; but when, upon a renewed attempt, clauses 
were inserted for the security of the protestant succession 
and the confirmation of the act which tolerated non-con- 
formity, the low church party suffered the bill to pass. 

In the convocation, or clerical senate, the two parties 
occasionally disputed with eagerness ; but the queen's 
ministers rather checked than promoted these debates, 
because they deemed it sufficient that the parliament 
should be the scene of contest. The literary war, on the 
subject of the claims and rights of the convocation, which 
had been carried on in the reign of William, did not cease 
amidst the discouragement of debates in that assembly : 
but it gradually declined ; and the able work of Dr 
Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, seemed triumphantly to 
close the controversy in favour of the Whigs. The Tories 
had maintained, that it was the indisputable right of the 
clergy, not only to meet in ordinary synods, but (as often 
as a new parliament met) to sit and vote in convocation ; 
and that in this assembly they might deliberate upon 
ecclesiastical affairs, and agree to various resolutions, 
without the formality of a previous license. The opposite 
party referred all the acts of the church to the pleasure of 
the sovereign, without whose permission the clergy could 
not lawfully meet, debate, or enact. 

It is remarkable that the former of these factions, while 
they disputed the power of the temporal prince in religious 
affairs, recommended passive obedience on the part of the 
people, as what the governing power of the state might 
justly claim ; and that the Whigs, on the other hand, 
while they promoted the authoritative interference of the 
crown in the government of the church, professed a desire 
of clipping, on other occasions, the wings of royalty. 

The predications of the maxims and doctrines of Tory- 
ism by Sacheverel, a hot-headed divine, excited in parlia- 
ment a flame which diffused itself through the kingdom. 
The Whig leaders imprudently fanned it, and, by 
impeaching a zealot, whose effusions might safely have 
been neglected, seriously injured their own interests. The 
sentence of the high court of peers seemed rather to be a 
triumph than a punishment ; and the high-church party 
obtained a decisive advantage in the cabinet. The queen 
then indulged the clergy with a greater latitude of debate 
in convocation, than she had allowed them in the former 
part of her reign. 

The church of Ireland was also agitated by the dis- 
tinctions of Whig and Tory : but its tranquillity was not 



724 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, <fcc. 



disturbed in any remarkable degree. The catholics still 
formed the great bulk of the nation: but power was in 
the hands of their adversaries, who, from principles of po- 
licy, and in the spirit of self-defence, were determined to 
hold it with a vigorous grasp. The holders of benefices, 
however, in the wild and unfrequented parts of that 
island, found it difficult and even dangerous to collect 
tithes from the papists, who sometimes were guilty of acts 
of violence and outrage. 

The presbyterian establishment in Scotland remained 
unimpaired under the sway of Anne : and its preservation 
was an essential article of the legislative union which 
dignified her reign. The episcopalians, however, were 
tolerated in that country ; and a bill was enacted, in 1712, 
by the united parliament, in confirmation of the unre- 
strained freedom of their worship. Public chapels, which 
had not been allowed to them in the preceding reign, 
were now erected in many parts of North Britain ; and 
the people, confiding in the protection of the court, were 
not afraid to dissent from the kirk. 

These episcopalians, in general, were unfriendly to 
the Revolution, and to the succession of the house of 
Hanover ; and, therefore, fell under the general suspicion 
of favouring the views of the queen's brother, the catholic 
claimant of the crown. When the elector of Hanover had 
ascended the British throne, this suspicion became 
stronger ; and, during the rebellion that arose in the year 
1715, those who had no concern in it were closely 
watched, and the ministers of their communion were 
restricted in their functions ; with the full exercise of 
which, however, they were soon re-indulged. 

During the reign of that monarch, the church of Eng- 
land continued to flourish. The king, indeed, supported 
that party which did not bear the character of being par- 
ticularly zealous for the ecclesiastical establishment ; and 
we need not be surprised at his habitual regard for the 
Whigs, as they were the only cordial promoters of those 
statutes and arrangements which paved his way to the 
throne. He encouraged those divines who recommended 
the principles of civil liberty, and who at the same time 
wished to subject the church to the state, and give the 
temporal prince a commanding height of religious autho- 
rity ; not such, however, as would enable him to oppress 
the church, but only to secure its welfare and tranquillity, 
in the midst of general toleration. 

After the suppression of the rebellion, while the nation 
enjoyed general repose, the church was disturbed by the 
warm prosecution of a literary controversy. This dispute 
was occasioned by a sermon which the king (who heard 
it) ordered to be printed. Dr. Benjamin Hoadly, who 
had been honoured with a vote of the house of commons, 
requesting the crown to reward his services, as a friend of 
liberty and of the protestant settlement, was the preacher 
of this discourse, in which he delivered his sentiments on 
the subject of Christ's kingdom or church. He endea- 
voured to prove, that the true church did not require any 
other than spiritual sanctions ; that it was not intended by 
its divine founder to be supported by political encourage- 
ments, or checked by political discouragements ; that 
such interferences, on the part of the state, tended to give 
to the church a worldly character, not altogether consistent 
with genuine piety, and not favourable to pure or sublime 
devotion ; and that the ecclesiastical establishment would 



flourish more under its own guidance, than under tempo- 
ral direction. The kingdoms of this world, he said, could 
not suggest proper ideas of that government which ought 
to prevail, in a visible and sensible manner, in Christ's 
kingdom. The sanctions of Christ's laws, appointed by 
himself, were not the rewards of this world, not the offices 
or glories of this state, not the pains of imprisonment or of 
exile, or the smaller discouragements that belong to human 
society ; these could not be the instruments of such a 
persuasion as would be acceptable to God. To " teach 
Christians that they must either profess, or be silent, 
against their OAvn consciences, because of the authority 
of others over them, was to found that authority upon 
the ruins of sincerity and common honesty ; to teach a 
doctrine which would have prevented the Reformation, 
and even the existence of the church of England." No 
power, repugnant to the supreme authority of Christ, 
could be justly claimed over the church by Christians, 
even of the highest rank. His supremacy, as legislator 
and judge, no temporal or human power ought to infringe 
or invalidate. These opinions were censured in convo- 
cation, as tending to produce disorder and anarchy in the 
church, and to prevent the due subserviency of that body 
to the state; and they were combated in print by the cele- 
brated Sherlock and other divines. The dispute was 
denominated the Bangorian controversy; and, when it 
ceased, the same diversity of sentiment remained, which 
had before prevailed on the subject. Such is the frequent 
result of a literary dispute ! 

While the controversy was at its height, the dissentera 
were gratified, in the session of 1718-9, by the introduc- 
tion of a bill, calculated to relieve them from those tests to 
which the bishop of Bangor objected : but it did not pass 
in that favourable shape which it assumed at its first ap- 
pearance ; for it did not provide, as the sovereign wished, 
for the repeal of the sacramental test, although it annulled 
the acts against schism and occasional conformity. 

The dissenters affirm, that tests of this kind are the 
remains of a persecuting spirit, and are therefore disgrace- 
ful to a government which professes to avoid persecution. 
When conscientious individuals, they say, are excluded, 
on account of their religious opinions, from those offices 
and preferments which are bestowed on their fellow-citi- 
zens, they do not enjoy the full rights of toleration. It. is 
not sufficient that they are allowed to worship God in 
their own way, if they be debarred from the general 
advantages of that community with which they are con- 
nected. Their claims, we answer, might be admitted 
where no particular religion is established by law and 
authority, as preferable to all other creeds and systems : 
but, where an ecclesiastical establishment forms a part of 
the constitution, it is by no means unreasonable to 
exclude, from its advantages and emoluments, those who 
are unwilling to conform to it. It is the natural charac- 
ter of sects to be hostile to each other ; and those who dif- 
fer from the establishment cannot be expected to be its 
defenders or preservers. To guard against the intrusion 
of such men, it is ordained that conditions should be 
annexed to the acceptance of benefices ; and, if the con- 
sciences of individuals should be too scrupulous to suffer 
them to accede to the terms, they ought rather to blame 
themselves than the government, for the want of prefer- 
ment in that church to which they are not closely allied • 



DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



72o 



w (to put the affair in another point of view) they may 
congratulate themselves on their disinterested piety. But 
tests, they say, only serve to make hypocrites ; for many 
will be induced to conform outwardly, who secretly retain 
their supposed heresy : only good men, therefore, or the 
ingenuous and sincere professors of religion, are discoun- 
tenanced and stigmatised. We answer, that it is not the 
wish of the rulers of the state to obtain merely exterior 
conformity : that is an, accidental circumstance, arising 
from the interested views of the candidates for prefer- 
ment ; and there is surely less danger in having a few 
hypocritical intruders, than in opening the doors of the 
church to all who may choose to dissent from its doc- 
trines ; the majority of whom, though many of them 
may be pious and worthy men, would wish to overturn 
the prevailing system. 

The utility of the test, as a barrier to the church, has 
influenced the greater part of the nobility, and also of the 
national representatives, to withstand all the efforts made 
by the dissenters for its annulment ; and it is not very 
probable that the present generation will witness its 
removal. It has repeatedly resisted, in our times, all the 
eloquence of latitudinarian orators, and all the arts of 
presbyterian and independent sophists. The chief objec- 
tors to it would, perhaps, if their system should ever be 
predominant, recommend a stronger exclusion of all other 
religionists from power : such is the perverseness, such the 
selfishness of human nature ! 

The tolerant disposition of the king induced him to 
disapprove the violence of the Tories, who endeavoured 
to procure a new penal act against the Arians and So- 
cinians, and all who might be guilty of blasphemy and 
pi ofaneness. The Whigs strenuously opposed the bill ; 
and it was not suffered to be added to the statutes of the 
realm. The same party checked the spirit of debate 
which agitated the ecclesiastical senate ; and, from that 
time, the two houses of convocation have only met pro 
forma, with every new parliament. 

During the remainder of this reign, the church of Eng- 
land, and also that of Ireland, enjoyed tranquillity : but 
the increased liberty of the times encouraged a freedom 
of thinking, which led some bold spirits into a denial of 
Christianity and of all divine revelation. Anthony Col- 
lins was one of these assailants ; and he rendered himself 
so obnoxious to the clergy, that they reviled him as an 
atheist. As he had attacked revelation under the govern- 
ment of a devout queen, it was not likely that he would 
refrain or desist when the sovereign (though not a free- 
thinker) was less religiously disposed. He therefore again 
took up the pen, and, in 1724, published a Discourse of the 
Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion. Some 
able theologians strenuously defended the faith and sys- 
tem which he thus attacked ; and his Scheme of Literal 
Prophecy likewise drew forth spirited replies and indig- 
nant animadversions. Bernard de Mandeville, an emi- 
grant Dutch physician, also wrote, both in this and the 
succeeding reign, against Christianity. Dr. Matthew 
Tindal, a professor of the civil law, represented this reli- 
gion as being coeval with the creation ; — in other words, 
he controverted the credibility of Christ's mission ; and, 

* As the followers of Hutchinson did not form a distinct church or 
society, and continued to belong to the church or body with which they 
were formerly connected, they did not so far give way to schism as to 
compose a sect. 

No. LXI. 182 



alleging the sufficiency of natural religion, denied the 
expediency of any revelation of the divine will. He even 
affected to think that such a communication was incom- 
patible with the rights of mar:. This bold attack was 
repelled by the learning of the orthodox Waterland, and 
the ability of the virtuous though schismatical Foster. 

We do not find that any new sects arose in this island 
under the government of the first George ; but, in the 
long reign of his son, various instances of schism occur 
red, both in North and South Britain. To the former o. 
these reigns may be assigned the formation of a religious 
party? which, although it never became numerous, drew 
some distinguished men into its vortex. Mr. John Hut- 
chinson, a pretender to philosophy, controverted the New- 
tonian system, 6 substituted a plenum for a vacuum, and 
ridiculed the laws of gravity. The true system of nature, 
he said, was to be found in the writings of Moses ; and 
no philosophy could be deemed correct, except that of the 
Hebrew Scriptures. With regard to the doctrine of the 
Trinity, he advanced a fanciful opinion, importing that 
the idea of three persons of one and the same essence, an- 
swered to fire, light, and spirit, the three grand agents in 
nature, or the three modifications of the same substance, 
namely, air. His opinions were eagerly espoused, and 
warmly recommended, by Mr. Julius Bate, whose zeal 
he rewarded by procuring him a benefice. Sixteen years 
after his death, his system was defended by Mr. George 
Home, a young clergyman, whose merit afterwards ele- 
vated him to the episcopal dignity. Forbes, the Scottish 
judge, also wrote in its vindication ; Mr. Romaine, the 
popular preacher, gave his assent to it ; Dr. Wetherell, 
William Jones, and other divines not destitute of learn- 
ing, regarded it as worthy of adoption and support. Bate 
and Spearman, the editors of Hutchinson's works, main- 
tained, not (as some have interpreted the author's mean- 
ing) that the sun moves and the earth stands still, but 
that no scriptural passages, properly construed, are repug- 
nant to the Copernican nypothesis respecting those parts 
of the universe. 

A secession from the established church of Scotland 
took place in the year 1727, in consequence of the inde- 
pendent spirit of John Glas, who, disapproving every 
establishment of a national church, maintained that all 
churches ought only to be congregational ; in other 
words, that no general church ought to be formed for a 
nation, but that each religious society in a kingdom or 
state should be self-constituted and controlled only by 
itself. For this and other opinions, he was suspended from 
his ministerial functions, and, for continued contumacy, 
he was deposed from the rank of minister, first by a pro- 
vincial synod, and afterwards (in 1730) by the general 
assembly of the Scottish church. He persisted, however, 
in the propagation of his sentiments, both by preaching 
and writing, and formed several congregations, of which 
the most numerous was that of Dundee.' 

While Mr. Glas, and those who adopted his opinions, 
were employed in strengthening their secession, some 
other divines, on different grounds, were meditating a re- 
treat from the establishment. These ministers wished to 
maintain the national c hurch in its original strictness ; 

b In a work entitled, "Moses' Principia," the first part of which ap- 
peared in 1724. 

• Adams' Religious World Displayed, vol. iii. p. 170—6. 



726 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, &c. 



and, as they could not accomplish that object, they re- 
solved to form new congregations. Supposed infringe- 
ments of the constitution of the kirk had excited their 
strong disgust. They complained of the laws of patron- 
age, and wished for a popular election of ministers : they 
alleged that the right of protest against the proceedings of 
the assembly had been invaded, and that the rulers of the 
kirk, beside acting arbitrarily, suffered its doctrines to be 
corrupted. Four ministers were suspended from their pa- 
rochial functions, in 1733, for the freedom of their ani- 
madversions on these points ; but the assembly reinstated 
ihem in the following year : yet, as the grievances of 
which they complained were not redressed, they refused 
io re-join the establishment. They strengthened their 
interest by considerable adjunctions of force, drawn from 
the ranks both of the clergy and laity, particularly after 
ehey had published a second testimony of the grounds 
of their secession. Being cited to appear before the as- 
sembly, and refusing to acknowledge its jurisdiction, they 
were debarred, in 1740, from all clerical functions in the 
«irk, and excluded from all emoluments connected with 
mat church. It may be proper to mention, that Ebenezer 
ijrskine, who had acted as minister at Stirling, was the 
chief of these seceders. a 

When the seceders had formed three presbyteries, a 
^division arose among them, in 1747, in consequence of an 
uath which some of them deemed inconsistent with the 
bentiments avowed in their testimony. It was the ordi- 
nary oath of a burgess, in support of the true religion 
established by law. We cannot, said one party, consci- 
entiously honour with that appellation the establishment 
from which we have seceded ; while the other members 
of the synod contended, that the oath might safely be ta- 
ken, as the religion of the state was still the true faith, 
hough many of its ostensible votaries had departed from 
ts principles, or loosely professed it. The former, who 
were called Anti-burghers., prevailed on this occasion, and 
voted, that the oath was incompatible with the testimony : 
they even excommunicated the members by whom it was 
vindicated. This idle dispute long continued to keep the 
seceders in distinct synods : and, at the close of the cen- 
tury, the schism was not entirely healed, though the two 
parties were less hostile than they had been. 

The secession of Mr. Glas was continued by Robert 
Sandeman, who, in 1757, published his opinions in a se- 
ries of letters, which led to the establishment of several 
congregations in England, as well as in Scotland. The 
sect also extended itself to North America, particularly to 
New England. Its members were of opinion, that all who 
found the apostolic report concerning the death and resur- 
rection of Christ true in their minds, possessed that faith 
from which justification resulted, even if they were the 
most sinful of mankind ; that, though good works be not 
essential to justification, it is proper to observe the moral 
precepts which were inculcated in the times of the apostles ; 
that brotherly love and social kindness ought strikingly to 
mark thedemeanour of Christians; that such love however, 
ought not to preclude the excommunication and disgrace of 
an offending brother ; and that, in this and other cases of 
deliberation, not merely »a majority, but the whole congre- 
gation, ought to decide. They required the sacrament of 
the eucharist to be taken every week ; and they encou- 

* Adams' Religious World Displayed, vol. iii. p. 193 — 6. 



raged a great frequency of prayer. They had love-feasts, 
or meetings of mutuaPhospitality, which were terminated 
with hymns and the kiss of charity ; and, in the same 
spirit of fraternal affection, they inculcated the maxim of 
a community of goods. b 

In the same reign, a sect, which soon became far more 
numerous and flourishing than those now mentioned, arose 
in England, and spread over the British dominions. We 
have already remarked, that the animosities between the 
orthodox and the dissenters had gradually subsided after 
the Revolution ; and we may add, that this diminution of 
rancour was more particularly observable after the acces- 
sion of the Hanoverian family to the throne, when the 
principles of toleration were more fully established amidst 
the progress of free inquiry. At the same time, the clergy 
of the establishment seemed in general to sink into a luke- 
warmness and indifference which disgusted all but the 
worldly-minded pursuers of immediate interest. Infidelity 
also gained ground among the laity, and sneers at religion 
were beginning to be a part of the fashionable system. 

This degeneracy was observed with sensations of hor- 
ror by John and Charles Wesley, who were then students 
at the university of Oxford, and had contracted a serious 
turn of mind from the writings of William Law, the cele- 
brated mystic. These devout brothers passed a great 
part of their time in religious conversation, in reflecting 
on the interesting contents of the Holy Scriptures, and in 
private prayer. They were joined by some other aca- 
demics who were religiously disposed ; and a sect which 
afterwards made an extraordinary progress, took its rise 
in the year 1729, deriving the appellation of Methodists 
from the regular distribution of their time, their orderly 
and composed demeanour, and the supposed purity of their 
religious principles. Mr. Hervey, the author of the Medi- 
tations, occasionally attended their meetings ; and, in 
1735, they were gladdened with the adjunction of a young 
and eloquent orator, named George Whitefield. In that 
year, the two Wesleys undertook a voyage to Georgia, 
to impart to the colonists the doctrine of saving grace . 
but their mission did not produce any extraordinary ef- 
fect. When they had left the province, Mr. Whitefield 
undertook the task of chief missionary. 

Pure, genuine, evangelical religion, or that which Mr. 
John Wesley considered as such, was at length publicly 
preached by him, after his return to Great Britain, not in 
the churches of the metropolis or of the different counties, 
(for the incumbents would not suffer him to enter their 
pulpits,) but in the open air and in the fields. As souls 
might be saved even in this seemingly irregular way, it 
was far better, he said, so to preach, than not to preach at 
all. He soon drew many into his opinions, and propa- 
gated, with great success, the doctrine of salvation by faith. 
For his new society he instituted rules, not inexpedient 
or injudicious, recommending an orderly behaviour and 
an avoidance of dissipation and licentiousness. Meeting- 
houses were gradually erected by his followers, and, in 
defiance of the insults of the populace, and the sneers of 
the higher orders, methodism extended itself into all parts 
of England and Wales, made some progress in Scotland, 
and crossed the sea into Ireland. 

A division of sentiment, between Wesley and White- 
field, resulted from those deliberations and reflections 



t Adam, vol. iii. p. 177—90. 



« In the year 1738. 



DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



727 



which occupied the mind of the latter, while he acted as 
a preacher beyond the Atlantic. He became more in- 
clined to Calvinism than to Arminianism, to which the 
former was well affected. This difference, however, did 
not produce in their minds the bitterness of animosity. 
Each spoke favourably of the Christian piety of his quo?i- 
dam associate ; and, if not cordial friends, they were not 
enemies to each other. 

The opinions and the piety of Mr. Whitefield recom- 
mended him to the notice of a devout peeress, who 
appointed him her chaplain, and patronized him through 
life. This lady was Selina, countess dowager of Hunt- 
ingdon, who liberally promoted the erection of meeting- 
houses for the Calvinistic Methodists, and erected a col- 
lege at Treveka (in Monmouthshire) for the instruction 
of future preachers. Happy in the idea and prospect of 
drawing sinners from the error of their way, and of dif- 
fusing an acquaintance with the Scriptures, as understood 
and explained by Mr. Whitefield and his associates, she 
disregarded the ridicule to which she was exposed by a 
taste so unusual among persons of rank, and prosecuted 
her religious career with inflexible perseverance. 1 

The proselytes of "Whitefield were less numerous than 
those of Wesley, and their association was less compact. 
Their ministers and places of worship were respectively 
supported by the different congregations, not (like those 
of the Wesleyan sect) by a general fund. The former 
had not an annual court for the government of the whole 
body : but the latter had a regular session, under the 
name of a Conference, in which the affairs and circum- 
stances of the confederacy were examined, funds provided, 
abuses corrected, and grievances redressed. This meet- 
ing was composed of preachers chosen by the assemblies 
of preachers of different districts, as representatives of the 
Methodist connexion, and of the superintendents of the 
circuits (or inferior divisions :) it was at first limited to 
one hundred of the senior itinerant predicators ; but, in 
the sequel, all the preachers were permitted to assist, if 
they were so inclined, or had an opportunity of attending. 
At first, laymen were allowed to preach ; but ministers 
were afterwards ordained for that purpose by the clerical 
heads of the society. It may here be observed, that Wes- 
ley and some of his associates had taken orders regularly 
in the church of England. 

The same pious and indefatigable preacher, to counter- 
act the misconceptions of the character of a Methodist, 
fully stated the " distinguishing marks" of his followers. 
Those marks, he said, were not to be found in " their 
opinions of any sort," in their words and phrases, or in 
any desire of being " distinguished by actions, customs, or 
usages, of an indifferent nature, undetermined by the word 
of God ;" nor did they lay the whole stress of religion upon 
any single part of it. But they were distinguished by 
having the love of God shed abroad in their hearts, by 
being always happy in God, ever resting on him, giving 
thanks for every thing, praying constantly with earnest- 
ness and fervour ; by purifying their hearts from the lust 
of the flesh and of the eye, from envy and malice, from 
pride and petulance ; by doing kind offices to neighbours 
and strangers, to friends and enemies ; and by other fruits 

* Between the sects thus formed, the chief points of difference are the 
following. The Whitefieldian or Calvinistic Methodist do not admit the 
possibility of attaining perfection in this life; but the followers of Wes- 
ley believe that it may be attained. The latter substitute imputed faith 



of a living faith. Nothing, he added, was required by 
St. Paul but the faith here mentioned. By that alone 
could any one be justified, or accounted righteous before 
God ; and the remission of sins could only be obtained 
through the merits of Christ, not by the good works or 
supposed deserts of individuals. Holiness of heart and 
life would flow from such faith : but good deeds without 
it would be inoperative and nugatory. No man could 
produce it in himself, as it was the work of omnipotence. 
It was the free gift of God to those who were before " un- 
godly and unholy, and fit only for everlasting destruction." 
He who received it was born again, yet was not so per- 
fectly regenerate, as to be fully sanctified ; for there would 
still be some struggles between the jld and the new man, 
which would not cease before tht Holy Spirit had given 
to the zealous Christian " a new and clean heart." He 
would then attain the acme of sanctification, and be 
qualified for the society of "just men made peifect." b 

Thus did Mr. Wesley vindicate his opinions ; and he 
continued to propagate them with zeal and success. He 
sometimes preached four times in one day, in places con- 
siderably distant from each other ; and his zeal seemed 
so far to invigorate his frame, that he fainted not in his 
spiritual course. Not content with preaching, he promoted 
by writing, the system which he deemed most conforma- 
ble to the will of God, the instructions of our Redeemer, 
and the suggestions of the Holy Spirit. 

Mr. Whitefield's constitution did not preserve itself so 
long unbroken, or so well support the fatigue of preaching, 
as that of Mr. Wesley ; for he died of a disorder of the 
lungs, in 1770, at the age of fifty-five years ; whereas the 
life of Wesley was not closed before he had made some 
progress in his eighty-eighth year. 

Nearly at the same time with Mr. Wesley, died the 
countess of Huntingdon, who, although she admired the 
eloquence of Mr. Whitefield, and approved the fundamen- 
tal principles of his system, organized a society that differ- 
ed in some points from his sect, and which, indeed, 
deviated less from the church of England. Her seminary 
at Treveka, not being endowed, expired with her : but a 
new one quickly arose at Cheshunt, from which have 
issued some distinguished preachers. 

A sect less obnoxious than the methodists to the ortho- 
dox clergy, assumed the denomination of United Bre- 
thren. These were called Moravians by the public, and 
are said to have first appeared in England in the year 1728. 
Their rise and progress upon the continent we have 
already noticed. They were favoured with the patronage 
of some of our prelates, (particularly archbishop Potter,) 
by whose recommendation they obtained a parliamentary 
recognition, in 1749, as composing an ancient protestant 
episcopal church. As their number increased, so did their 
zeal ; and they meritoriously distinguished themselves by 
their eagerness for the propagation of Christianity among 
pagans and barbarians. A society was formed at London 
for this purpose ; and missionaries were employed with 
success both in the eastern and western hemispheres 
The Brethren were opposed in their views by numerous 
adversaries, who accused them of disseminating pernicious* 
doctrines, and indulging in dissolute and immoral prac- 

for imputed righteousness. They reject the doctrine of predestination, 
and also that of irresistible grace ; both of which are maintained by the 
disciples of Whitefield and the followers of lady Huntingdon, 
k History of Religion, vol. iv. ■ He died in March 1791. 



728 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, dec. 



tices, particularly at their love-feasts : but they repelled 
these charges with effect, and acquired the esteem of 
unprejudiced observers of their conduct. 

Near the close of the century, this sect had three pro- 
vincial settlements in England, beside meeting-houses or 
chapels in London and some other towns. At the same 
time, the Brethren had six settlements in North America. 
The most flourishing was that of Bethlehem in Pennsyl- 
ania ; an establishment which was distinguished by 
he moral respectability, decorous behaviour, and philan- 
thropic spirit, of its members. They " studied (as we are 
informed by an English visitant of their settlement) to 
render their conduct strictly conformable to the principles 
of the Christian religion. They seemed to have only one 
wish at heart, — the propagation of the Gospel and the 
good of mankind." They were active and industrious ; 
carried on manufactures of woollen and linen, and indeed 
practised all the necessary arts of life ; and, at the same 
time, they did not neglect literary pursuits. Three of the 
largest houses in the town were respectively occupied, in 
1797, by unmarried young men, young women, and 
widows, who were employed in various arts, and lived in a 
monastic or conventual mode. It may be added, that the 
savages are more amenable, to conversion under the influ- 
ence of arguments and persuasions offered by the Moravians, 
than from the endeavours of other votaries of Christianity. 1 
Amidst the progress of sectarian opinions, and particu- 
larly while the Methodists and Moravians were extend- 
ing their influence, an able defender of the establishment 
rose into notice and reputation. This was William War- 
burton, a provincial clergyman (afterwards bishop of 
Glocester,) who, in a work which appeared in the year 
1736, enforced the "necessity and equity of an establish- 
ed religion and a test-law, from the essence and end of 
•ivil society." In his next performance, he was less 
uccessful in point of argument. It was entitled, " the 
Divine Legation of Moses demonstrated on the Principles 
of a Religious Deist, from the Omission of the Doctrine 
of a Future state of Rewards and Punishments, in the 
Jewish Dispensation." We do not dispute the divinity 
of the mission of that legislator, while we believe it to be 
sufficiently evident, that the doctrine in question was a 
part of the ancient Jewish creed. This work was an- 
swered by Dr. Middleton, Stebbing, and other divines, to 
whom Warburton replied with contemptuous acrimony. 
During the rebellion of the year 1745, he was one of the 
assailants of popery, and assisted in confirming the zeal 
of the protestant majority of the nation. He afterwards 
took part in the controversy occasioned by Dr. Middleton's 
Enquiry concerning the Miraculous Powers supposed to 
have subsisted in the Christian Church from the earliest 
Ages ; b a dispute in which he was more orthodox than 
the ingenious author whom he opposed ; who maintained, 
that miracles had ceased at the expiration of the apostolic 
age. Dr. Warburton also defended revealed religion with 
spirit against the infidel philosophy of lord Bolingbroke, 
the annunciation of whose unpublished works had alarm- 
ed the votaries of Christianity ; and an answer from him 
to Hume's Natural History of Religion, roused into as- 
perity the feelings of that artful sceptic. 



* Weld's Travels through the States of North America, in the years 
1795, 1796, and 1797; letter xxxvii. 

b Until the Reformation, it was the general opinion, that a miraculous 
power had continued in the church from the era of Christianity. It was 



The two free-thinkers whom we have here incidentally 
mentioned, call for more than a transient, notice, in a 
history of that religion which they endeavoured to under- 
mine and subvert. Bolingbroke was a man of great 
talents, an able orator, a polite scholar, and an inter- 
esting writer. As a statesman, however, he did not 
evince that wisdom which might have been expected from 
his abilities ; and, as a philosopher, he so conducted his 
inquiries, as to persuade himself into a disbelief of the 
Christian revelation, while he outwardly supported that 
establishment which connected this religion with the 
state. By furnishing his friend, the baid of Twicken- 
ham, with the philosophical basis of the Essay on Man, 
he entailed upon that writer the suspicion either of being 
unfriendly to revelation, or of not fully comprehending the 
tendency of his own poem. Crousaz, a Swiss professor, 
reprobated the Essay as a system of fatality and natura- 
lism ; and, although it was vindicated by Warburton, the 
defence was not generally regarded as satisfactory. Pope, 
however, thought the attack sufficiently repelled, and 
thanked his clerical advocate for what he termed a clear 
and full answer to the charge. 

Bolingbroke's chief attacks upon Christianity were com- 
prehended in his posthumous works. These he ordered to 
be published ; c and therefore he deserves the stigma of a 
propagator of impiety ; a practice which he had condemned 
(in a private letter) as mischievously atrocious. As soon 
as they appeared, they were read with avidity ; but they 
did not answer the expectations either of his friends or of 
the public in general. His reasoning was found to be fee- 
ble and inconclusive ; and his weapon, instead of being the 
club of a giant, seemed merely to be the dart of a pigmy. 

David Hume possessed greater acuteness than the pro- 
fane peer. His vanity would not suffer him to wait for 
his death before he should illuminate the world with his 
anti-religious writings ; and he attacked Christianity with 
a degree of insiduous art, which seduced many readers 
into the paths of infidelity. He ridiculed the belief in 
miracles, and sneered at other parts of the Christian creed. 
Campbell and Adams took the field against him, as cham- 
pions of the miraculous powers of the apostolic age ; and 
other divines defended with zeal the general cause of or- 
thodoxy. It was in consequence of his infidelity, that he 
was disappointed of a professorship of morar philosophy, 
which he wished to obtain ; and, in the general assembly 
of the kirk, it was proposed that a vote of censure should 
pass against him for his attacks upon the religion of his 
country ; but this was not deemed necessary by the 
majority. In the words of Bolingbroke, (applied to free- 
thinkers in general,) Hume was a pest of society, because 
he endeavoured to loosen its bands, and to remove at least 
one curb out of the mouth of that wild beast, man, who 
required many more curbs. 

While infidelity spread on one hand, sectarianism or 
nonconformity increased on the other. The Baptists, 
Anabaptists, or Anti-psedo-baptists, were then gaining 
ground in this country. The remonstrant or general 
Baptists were openly joined, in 1747, by the learned but 
eccentric Winston, who was of opinion that they were 
the best Christians in the kingdom, both in doctrine and 

afterwards maintained by protestants, that such a power did not extend 
beyond the first three centuries from that epoch; but the Romanist 
affirm, that it is still exercised by the saints of their church. 
The editor was David Mallet, the poet. 



DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



729 



practice, and '•' the only body of Christian people who ' 
rightly constituted their three orders of ecclesiastical 
governors, bishops [angels or messengers], presbyters.) ■ 
and deacons.'' He recommended their immersion of 
adults, as the genuine practice of the apostolic age : he 
agreed with them in believing the millennium : and he 
adopted, with them, the idea of hades, or an " interme- j 
diate state and place between heaven and hell." He was j 
pleased with their <: abstaining from blood and things 
strangled.' 1 and with the practice of some of their congre- 
gations, of praying over the sick, and " anointing them 
with holy oil, upon the confession of their sins ;" and, 
with many of those sectaries, he denied original sin. But 
he blamed them for dipping only once, instead of practis- 
ing the trine immersion ; for using wine undiluted with 
water in the sacrament (an abuse which, he said, had also 
crept into the foreign protectant churches ;) and for re- 
quiring that such as had been baptized in infancy, or by ; 
sprinkling, should be re-baptized before they could be 
admitted into this sect. 1 

He afterwards endeavoured to form a union of the Bap- 
tists with the presbyterians and independents : and, with 
this view, he recommended and re-published some " heads 
of agreement assented to by the united ministers in and 
about London, b formerly called presbyterian and con- 
gregational/- But all his efforts, and those of other divines 
m the same cause, were rendered abortive by the prejudices 
of some, the vanity of others, and the general want of a 
conciliatory spirit. 

The Calvinistic or particular Baptists, who had little 
communication with the former class, augmented their 
number much more considerably than the remonstrant 
or Armiman division ; but they had not in their sect so 
many respectable ministers as the other class could boast. 
Some congregations of both classes were also called Sab- 
batarians, from keeping their sabbath on Saturday. 

With an exception of the time of Oliver Cromwell, when 
a Baptist church subsisted at Edinburgh, no traces of the 
sect have been discovered in Scotland before the year 1765, 
when a congregation was formed bv Mr. Carmichael and 
Mr. Mac-Lean. The latter not only assisted the former in 
preaching, but wrote several vindications of Believer-Bap- 
tism, against the attacks of the advocates of infant-sprink- 
ling. These ministers and their followers maintained, 
that, as only the baptism of believers could be justified by 
Scripture, infants, being unable to believe, ought not to 
be made partakers of that sacrament : yet, they thought, 
there was reason to conclude that children, recommended 
to Christ by the prayers of believing parents, would be 
saved, even without that holy ceremony. They admitted 
that mere baptism, without proofs of faith and spiritual 
conversion, would be insufficient to save adults. Faith, 
they said, would operate in that respect without good 
works ; yet the effect of true faith and of God's grace 
would appear in the performance of just, virtuous, and 
benevolent acts. 

In the same division of this island, another party quitted 
the establishment. 1 ' and assumed the title of the reformed 

* Memoirs of the Life of Mr. William Whiston, written by himself, 
p. 461 — 187. — Before this divine entered into the fraternity of Baptists, 
their ablest defender was Dr. John Gale, whose animadversions on Dr. 
Wall's History of Infant Baptism influenced James Foster tojoin die sect. 
This convert became an admired preacher and an esteemed writer; and 
his merit would have reflected honour upon any society. — We may here 
incidentally mention the growing connexion between the baptists and 

No. LXI. 1S3 



Presbytery; a less modest denomination than the dis- 
senting Presbytery, an appellation which has also been 
given to these descendants of the old supporters of the 
solemn league and covenant. Persecuted in the reigns of 
the arbitrary brothers. Charles and James, the covenanters 
enjoyed tranquillity after the Revolution ; but they were 
not satisfied with the religious arrangements of that period. 
They looked back with regret to the good old times, when 
the reformed faith was at its zenith in Scotland, and when 
the three kingdoms were united in the sacred bonds of the 
same pure religion. Lamenting the defection of the na- 
tional rulers, and the majority of the people, from the true 
principles of the Reformation, a party of religious mal- 
contents renounced all connexion with the revolution kirk, 
and, under the guidance of Mac-Millan and Nairn, formed 
a seceding presbytery. By these ministers, others were 
selected for the same fimctions ; and the secession has been 
continued to the present time. Beside the congregations 
of this complexion in North Britain, there are several in 
Ireland, and some in North America. The members pro- 
fess to follow the Scripture as their principal guide, and 
the ordinances of the Westminster assembly in the next 
place. They disapprove the high authority assumed by 
the state over the church of Christ, as the fruit of worldly 
policy, rather than a claim justified by the genuine spirit 
of religion. Yet they submit peaceably to the higher 
powers, and do not indulge in the clamours of sedition or 
the murmurs of disaffection. 

Their worship is thus described by one of their own 
ministers : e " Public prayers, with the heart, and with the 
understanding also, and in a known tongue, but not in 
written or in humanly prescribed forms ; singing psalms 
of divine inspiration, and these alone ; reading and ex- 
pounding the Scriptures ; preaching and receiving the 
word ; administering and receiving the sacraments of 
baptism and the Lord's supper; together with public fasting 
and thanksgiving ; are considered by them as the divinely 
instituted ordinances of religious worship, while they reject 
all ceremonies of human invention." 

While these reformers were slowly increasing their num- 
bers, a more considerable sect, in the year 1752, departed 
from the establishment. Mr. Gillespie, having opposed 
the reception of a new minister, whose appointment was 
unpleasing to the majority of the inhabitants of Inver- 
keithiiig, was expelled from the church in which he offi- 
ciated ; but he soon found followers, who, like him, wished 
to throw the election of pastors into the hands of the peo- 
ple, and formed a congregation at Dunfermline. The 
Presbytery of Relief, in allusion to the desired relief 
from the arbitrary rigour of the laws of patronage, was 
the denomination assumed by this body of seceders. They 
were more liberal than the generality of presbyterians ; for 
they were willing to admit into then communion all those 
who seemed worthy of being called Christians, however 
they might differ with regard to particular points. Their 
congregations continued to multiply ; and, about the close 
of the century, above sixty places A worship belonged to 
the association. 

independents, die latter usually admitting the former into their com- 
munion. 

b In the year 1691. 

e Adam's Religious World Displayed, voL iii. p. 233, &c 

a In die year 1743. 

' In an account of the Old Dissenters, sent to Mr. Adam 'or insertion 
in his Religious World. 



1 30 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, &c 



Above twenty years after the formation of the Presby- 
tery of Relief, the Berean 1 sect arose in Scotland. Mr. 
Barclay, who was its founder, represented a mere belief 
of the Gospel as producing an absolute certainty of salva- 
tion. " Faith in Christ," he said, " and an assurance of 
salvation through his merits, are inseparable, or rather the 
same." As this faith, he added, is the gift of God alone, 
so the individual to whom it is imparted is as conscious 
of possessing it as he is of his existence ; and the assur- 
ance of it is " established, with the resurrection from the 
dead, upon the direct testimony of God, believed in the 
heart." This is, apparently, a confident and presumptu- 
ous statement of the nature of faith, and a personal ap- 
plication of general passages of Scripture. In the opinion 
of the Bereans, unbelief is the sin against the Holy Ghost, 
which has been pronounced unpardonable. They admit 
the most profligate characters into their society, if a belief 
of the Gospel be declared by the applicants ; but these 
members, if they should afterwards disgrace themselves, 
are excluded from the Berean pale. 

The leaders of these sects propagated their sentiments 
by the press, as well as in the pulpit ; and hence frequent 
controversies arose. Among the religious disputes which 
have excited attention in the present reign, that which 
related to confessions may claim early mention. It was 
the opinion of many, both divines and laymen, that the 
freedom of conscience and of sentiment ought not to be so 
far obstructed, even in an established church, as to render an 
occasional disagreement in unessential points a ground of 
exclusion from the emoluments of that church; that, when 
the bulk of a nation agree in a reformed religion, precise 
and circumstantial confessions of faith are unnecessary; and 
and that subscription to a variety of articles, not all closely 
connected or concordant, ought by no means to be enforced. 
Mr. Francis Blackburne, a respectable divine, maintained 
these points with ability in a work entitled " the Confes- 
sional^ or a full and free enquiry into the right, utility, edi- 
fication, and success, of establishing systematic Confessions 
of faith and doctrine in Protestant Churches." Many pens 
were drawn against this work ; and the propriety of sub- 
scription was strongly vindicated. The opposer of confes- 
sions did not resign the preferments which he had already 
obtained, but was so far conscientious as to reject the offer 
of an additional benefice. He had previously entered into 
a controversy respecting a state of happiness or misery 
between death and the resurrection, (a supposition which 
he did not consider as sufficiently countenanced by the 
Scriptures ;) and he afterwards took part in the dispute 
with the catholics, in a manner which did not accord with 
his usual benignity and liberality of mind. He contended 
against the grant of toleration to those who were unwil- 
ling to allow it to others ; but true generosity will prompt 
a person to do more for others than they will do for him ; 
and it ought to be considered, that the catholics of that 
time were not so bigoted or intolerant' as those of former 
periods. 

By those members of the church w ho agreed with Mr. 

* So called from the Bereans of the apostolic age, who " received the 
word with all readiness of mind (ficra naans TrfioQvjiiaq,) and searched the 
Scriptures daily." •> Which first appeared in 1766. 

* Those of South Britain in 1791, and those of Scotland in 1793. — In 
the time between those years, the penal laws against the Scottish epis- 
copalians were abrogated, as the death of the pretender had induced 
them to acquiesce, with seeming cordiality, in the claims of the house of 
Hanover. 



Blackburne on the subject of religious confessions, a peti- 
tion was signed, and presented in 1772 to the house of 
commons. The Tory members strongly opposed the re- 
quest of those whom they considered as latitudinarian 
religionists ; and the assembly refused to relax the rigour 
of compulsory subscription. A similar application being 
made by the protestant dissenters, the commons agreed to 
a bill in their favour ; which, however, the house of peers 
rejected. The catholic dissenters, six years afterwards, 
obtained indulgences for which they had long wished. 
They were permitted to meet publicly in chapels, keep 
schools, and hold landed property, on taking the oath of 
allegiance, and denying that the bishop of Rome had any 
temporal power or jurisdiction in Great Britain. The pres- 
byterians and other protestant sects then renewed their 
request for a release from subscription ; and the legislature 
no longer refused compliance. 

After a long interval, during which the catholics were 
distinguished by their peaceable behaviour, they were 
placed in the same predicament with the orthodox subjects 
of Great Britain, (except with regard to places and employ- 
ments,) on disclaiming the intolerant spirit and sanguinary 
zeal of their church against supposed heretics. 

The catholics of Ireland were more favoured than those 
of Great Britain ; for they were declared eligible to all 
posts and employments, except some of the highest under 
the crown, and were allowed to vote for parliamentary can- 
didates. It may seem surprising, that they should be more 
gratified and indulged, in a country where their great 
superiority of number might make it hazardous to trust 
them with power, than in a kingdom where they formed a 
very small proportion of the community : but it was deemed 
a point of policy to conciliate the sect. When the union 
with Ireland took place, strong hopes were entertained, by 
the catholics, of the grant of every thing which they could 
desire : but the reigning prince repeatedly declared, that 
he could not conscientiously agree to their complete eman- 
cipation, which, he thought, would be repugnant to the 
clause in his coronation-oath, binding him to support the 
church, as by laxo established. Yet, if both houses of 
parliament should vote a bill for the gratification of the 
catholics, his assent to it might be vindicated, as those two 
assemblies, in concert with the sovereign, are allowed to 
make greater alterations than the mere grantof the remain- 
ing demands of a tolerated sect. 

The doctrine of the Trinity, in which the church of 
England and the catholics agree, employed at various 
times the pens of controversial theologians. Some thought 
it incomprehensible ; others laboured to explain it on ra- 
tional principles ; and some opposed it, as unsupported eithet 
by reason or by Scripture. After having sustained occa- 
sional and desultory attacks, it was exposed to a systema- 
tic assault from Dr. Joseph Priestley, who endeavoured to 
prove that it was not the opinion of the early Christians, 
and that it was introduced by artifice and imposture, in 
repugnance to repeated declarations both of the Old and 
New Testament." 1 

i In an Essay on Spirit, Anti-Trinitarian notions were boldly urged, 
in 1751, by a clergyman of the Irish establishment; and Dr. Clayton, 
bishop of Clogher, who had adopted it as his own work, afterwards pro- 
posed, to the peers of Ireland, the omission of the Athanasian and 
Niccne creeds in the service of the church. The zeal of the prelate 
hastened his death ; for, when ha had renewed his attack upon the 
Trinity, he was menaced with a prosecution, the dread of which threw 
him into a nervous fever. 



DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



7?1 



Dr. Priestley was a man of consideiable ialents, of an 
ardent and active spirit, who wished at once to shine as a 
philosopher, a divine and a politician. He certainly ex- 
tended our knowledge of air, and of other natural objects : 
but we are less indebted to him for his endeavours to 
enlighten mankind in theology or in the art of govern- 
ment. In politics, he was inclined to republicanism ; in 
rebgion, he entertained various notions which are exploded 
by more erudite biblical scholars and more profound divines. 
Unawed by the terrors of the law, which denounced pu- 
nishment against all who, in sermons or in writings, denied 
the Trinity, he gave new vigour to the Socinian doctrine, 
and maintained that Christ was a mere man, divinely com- 
missioned indeed, but not God himself, or the son of God. 
He even went farther than Socinus, and affirmed that Jesus 
was only entitled to respect, not to adoration or worship, from 
the world which he so essentially served. He and his follow- 
ers unwilling to be called Socinians, claimed the appellation 
of Unitarians, as they preferred the idea of one God to that 
doctrine which represented the Deity as consisting of three 
persons, equal in power and dignity. Mr. Lindsey warmly 
supported the same opinion ; and he, as well as Dr. Disney, 
resigned a benefice, from a conscientious preference of the 
divine Unity to the Trinity. The number of Unitarians, 
from this time, rapidly increased; and they seemed to think 
themselves the only rational professors of religion, while 
the Trinitarians did not regard them as true Christians. 

To avoid the terrors of the law, the Unitarians made an 
appeal to that tolerating spirit which, they hoped, would 
actuate the majority of the house of commons. They pe- 
titioned that assembly for the repeal of all penalties de- 
nounced against those who denied the Trinity ; and Mr. 
Fox supported their pretensions with animated eloquence. 
But their request was not granted, because many of the 
members considered them as a dangerous set of men, and 
others thought it unnecessary to abrogate the law in ques- 
tion, as it was suffered by the lenity of the government to 
lie dormant. 

Dr. Priestley and many of his Unitarian brethren main- 
tained another doctrine, which excited strong opposition, — 
that of materialism. They asserted that the soul, though 
a sentient principle, was the mere result of an organized 
system of matter ; a and that, consequently, death would 
extinguish all consciousness ; but that a resurrection was 
still possible, and even probable. b This doctrine led to that 
of necessity, or the necessary agency of human beings, 
which this philosopher strenuously inculcated. It extended 
to the mind what was known to belong to matter : it re- 
presented the causes of volition and action, in the former, 
as equally decisive and irresistible with the impellants of 
the material world. These opinions were combated by 
various writers, both in and out of the establishment ; and 
the debated points are not yet decided ; for the disputes of 
theologians are endless. 

* Early in the century of which we are treating, Dr. Coward had pro- 
pagated a similar doctrine ; and his Grand Essay, as he styled his work 
upon this subject, was followed by Dodwell's " Epistolary Discourse, 
proving, from the Scriptures and the first fathers, that the soul is a prin- 
ciple naturally mortal, but immortalized actually by the pleasure of God, 
to punishment or reward, by its union with the divine baptismal 
spirit." Dr. Hartley afterwards discussed the same topic in his Essay 
on Man (published in 1749,) and referred thought, reflection, judgment, 
&c to tne laws of animal organization ; thus endeavouring to invalidate 
the idea of a separate immaterial soul, while he pcemed, in some parts 
o. his work, to be inclined to adopt it. Lu. Methene and Helvetiu6 



On one of these topics we may observe, that the pro- 
perties of the soul are so essentially different from Those of 
matter, as to produce a conviction (even if we had no re- 
velation to guide us in our inquiries,) that these two parts 
of our composition are decidedly dissimilar, notwithstand- 
ing the connexion of one with the other, and the recipro- 
cal influence of each. If the ideas of the materialists, 
howeveV, be adopted, the resurrection (it would seem) will 
not be that which we are taught to expect, namely, that 
of identity, but the excitation of the spark of life in new 
frames. This is a very gloomy and discouraging doc- 
trine, and one that no good man would be disposed to 
propagate. 

The second opinion is represented by its advocates as 
the only mode of doing justice to the \ rescience and om- 
niscience of the Deity. "Whatever is done by any one, 
must, they say, have been fore-known and pre-determined 
by the Almighty : yet persons, they add, are not absolutely 
compelled to act as they do, although it be fated that they 
should so act ; for they are still influenced by motives, 
and have therefore some freedom of choice, being unac- 
quainted with the pre-determination of God respecting 
what they should do, or forbear to do. For instance, 
when a man has been guilty of robbery or murder, which 
his Creator knew that he would commit, these reasoners 
say, that he had the liberty of avoiding either of those 
crimes, but that God permitted him to incur this guilt, 
instead of preventing him by a particular exertion of pro 
vidence. Some of these Necessitarians even boast, that 
their system is the only theory consistent with true mora- 
lity ; but, if definite circumstances (to use their expres- 
sions) produce definite volitions, where will be the merit 
of a good action, or the demerit of a bad one 1 Their 
scheme detracts from the goodness, justice, and wisdom 
of the Deity, by holding him up to view as an encourager 
of evil, and as a punisher of those who, from fate or ne- 
cessity, have fallen into wickedness or guilt. Others 
pretend, that, if the mind had a self-determining power, 
the world would be a scene of confusion, and the purposes 
of God might be defeated : for a self-governing mind, 
therefore, they substitute motives that cannot be effectually 
controlled or resisted. The supposed derangement of the 
plans of Providence is an absurd supposition, in the case 
of an omnipotent Creator ; and the idea of irresistible 
impulse is repugnant to that obvious freedom which ena- 
bles an individual to act from choice, and frequently to 
follow the suggestions of wild caprice. 

Upon this and other points of metaphysical theology, 
arguments might be multiplied on both sides by the so- 
phistry of disputation ; but it is unnecessary to "dwell on 
a subject in which absolute certainty cannot be attained 
by our limited faculties. A Thomas Aquinas or a Duns 
Scotus might spin out a long thread of argument upon 
such a topic; but, though they would amuse some, 

more decidedly and avowedly maintained the doctrine of Materialism; 
and l'Homme Machine of the former was publicly burned in Holland 
Priestley was chiefly influenced by the reasoning of Hartley, and also 
by that of Dr. Law, to adopt sentiments which exposed him to the im- 
putation of infidelity and even of atheism. 

>>Not (said Priestley) from the light or evidence of nature, but from 
the authority of Scripture, and the example of Christ's resurrection. 

c Priestley first imbibed his notions of necessity from Collins, who, in 
1715, had published a Philosophical Inquiry into Human Liberty. 
Leibnitz had previously given to the world his Essays on the Goodnes* 
of God, the Freedom of Man, and the Origin of Evil in which he vin- 



732 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, &c. 



they would wearv others, and give little instruction to 
any. 

The Unitarians, in recent times, have found some art- 
ful and plausible vindicators of their doctrine ; and they 
have been so elevated by their success in making prose- 
lytes, that they seem to expect the ultimate triumph of 
their creed. They assure themselves, that a great num- 
ber of Christians who profess an adherence to th« church 
of England, really think with them, but are deterred by 
motives of interest from an avowal of their opinions. 

The majority of modern Unitarians affirm, that, as far 
as they can judge from Scripture, from which all Chris- 
tians profess to deduce their doctrines, Christ had no 
existence before the time assigned for his human birth ; a 
that he was not miraculously conceived ; and that he is 
not God, nor was ever invested with a super-human na- 
ture. But they allow, that he was chosen by the Crea- 
tor of the world to be a medium of communication 
between him and fallen man, to teach truth and righteous- 
ness, and lead sinners to repentance and salvation ; and 
that he obtained the favour of resurrection, as a reward 
for his obedience to the divine commands, without atoning 
(in the sense of the Trinitarians) for the sins of men by 
his sufferings and death. They consider the Holy Ghost 
not as a distinct person, but as a mere emanation of the 
Deity ; and they are not even willing to allow, that it has 
any extraordinary influence or operation upon the mind 
or heart, so as to produce a disposition to piety. They 
differ from the Methodists in denying the necessity or 
utility of grace, and in earnestly recommending integrity, 
good works, and social kindness ; and many of them 
agree with the Universalists, in thinking that the punish- 
ment of the most flagitious sinners will only be tempo- 
rary, and that the whole human race will finally be 
" gathered unto Christ." 

Some of the Unitarians entered into a controversy with 
the followers of Swedenborg, a Swedish baron, with 
whose ideas of the Trinity they were disgusted. This 
nobleman published Arcana Cailes-tia, (Heavenly Se- 
crets,) Angelic Wisdom, the True Christian Religion, a 
Treatise upon Heaven and Hell, and many other works. 
It may excite surprise, that a being, merely human, 
should pretend to know so much of heaven and hell, or 
presume to judge so confidently of the precise nature of 
both those kingdoms, as did baron Swedenborg : but our 
surprise will abate, when we reflect on the force of enthu- 
siasm and the unfettered boldness of a wild imagination. 
The noble Swede fancied that all secrets respecting futu- 
rity had been disclosed to him, and that he was better 
enabled and qualified to lead an erring world into the way 
of truth, than any former or contemporary theologian. 
He affected to be guided by Scripture in his pursuits and 
researches ; but he interpreted its hints according to his 
own fanciful ideas, and expanded its meaning to a con- 

dicated God's permission of partial evil, according to the system of 
necessity, by contending that it would lead to general good ; and, avoid- 
ing the predestinarian rigour of Calvin, made benevolence the chief 
attribute of the Deity. So thought our ancestors, when they gave the 
name of God (that is, goodness in the abstract) to the Divine Being. 
See Dr. Maclaine's note [e e] upon the progress of Arminianism, Cent, 
xvii. sect. ii. part ii. chap. 3. 

• Those Unitarians who are of the Arian class admit the pre-existence 
of Christ. 

i> Mr. Adam, after remarking that " Some persons will be disposed to 
doubt the credibility" of baron Swedenborg's doctrines, " on the ground 
of the utter improbability, that a mortal man, during his residence in a 



formity with his own visionary conceptions. He peopled 
the new Jerusalem at his pleasure, and regulated its polity 
by the whimsies of his eccentric brain. He framed a reli- 
gious world with as much ease as the author of Utopia 
had formed a civil one ; certainly with good intentions, 
but not always with the soundest judgment. Considering 
himself as commissioned to enlighten his fellow-creaturesr 
with the knowledge of every thing that concerned their 
essential and eternal interests, he published his religious 
code with the air of a dictator, and, as if he had been a 
a new prophet, pretended to point out the promised land. 
The writings of this enthusiastic nobleman did not at 
first produce the desired effect ; but they gradually at- 
tracted notice, and at length so far operated as to make 
many converts. Congregations were formed upon his 
principles, and ministers were animated with a portion ot 
his zeal. His chief doctrines were of the following com- 
plexion. He asserted the divinity of Jesus Christ, in 
whose person, he thought, resided the whole Trinity : a 
point which he endeavoured to explain by comparing it 
with the human trinity. As every man, he said, con- 
sisted of soul, body, and operation, so the Trinity was 
formed by the Father, or soul, the Son, or divine huma- 
nity, and the Holy Ghost, or virtue proceeding from the 
two former. The redemption, he added, was not the 
mere fruit of the supposed death of Christ, considered as 
a sacrifice to the justice or wrath of God, or as an atone- 
ment for the sins of men, but consisted in the triumph 
obtained over Satan and other evil spirits, by the exertion? 
of Jehovah, manifested in the flesh, and appearing in a 
state of glorified humanity. In substance, perhaps, there 
is no great difference between this and the ordinary doc- 
trine of the Trinity. 

Another doctrine, propagated by the baron, was that of 
man's co-operation with Christ. An inclination, he said, 
was requisite on the part of man (as a free agent,) to work 
out his own salvation, as it was unreasonable to suppose 
that he was to remain in a state of indolence, or to ne- 
glect the duties of his station. We therefore ought so 
to exert ourselves, as if all our future hopes and prospects 
depended on our own efforts. Yet, as all our powers are 
the gifts of God, all the merit we are disposed to claim is 
not strictly our own, but must be referred to the adorable 
giver of all grace and virtue : it belongs to Christ, not to 
man. 

The correspondence between spiritual and natural 
things formed the basis of Swedenborg's doctrine relative 
to the Scriptures. He affirmed that they were written 
with an eye to the natural world, so as to explain divine 
things by a comparison with those which are plain and 
obvious. Imagining that he had been favoured with the 
means of interpreting this correspondence, he was willing 
to impart, to the well disposed, the mode of obtaining this 
clue to scriptural truth and celestial wisdom. b 

material body, should have been permitted to enjoy open intercourse wiln 
the world of departed spirits, and instructed, during the irninterruptea 
period of twenty-seven years, in the internal sense of the Scriptures 
hitherto undiscovered," ventures to observe, that " others (as appears 
from many respectable instances) will see nothing improbable in all this 
referring the case to those extraordinary dispensations of the provi- 
dence of an All- wise and All 7 Powerful Being, who, in all ages of the 
world, has been pleased to enlighten and instruct chosen servants con- 
cerning his will and kingdom." The latter opinion seems to be that o. 
Mr. Adam himself; but we cannot wholly concur with him. As nothing 
is impossible with God, it is not impossible- that such a communication 
of his will might take place; but that, we think, is the utmost extent la 



DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



733 



From the Scriptures, and from his own experience, he 
maintained the connexion between human beings and 
angels or spirits, by whose influence and aid the former 
were encouraged to think and act justly, and guided in 
the most interesting concerns. He did not, however, 
wish that the idea of this association should preclude a 
constant attention to holy writ, the grand source of wis- 
dom and illumination. 

In giving advice for the conduct of life, he inculcated 
the propriety of avoiding all sins and vices prohibited by 
the divine law, and of fulfilling every duty required by the 
laws of government and society. He also enjoined repent- 
ance as a necessary preparative to justification and accep- 
tance with God. 

With regard to the resurrection, he declared it to be his 
opinion, that, as every one has a spiritual frame, enclosed 
in a material body, the former, after the death of the indi- 
vidual, would rise again, and dwell for ever with angels, 
or, in case of incorrigible depravity, with evil spirits. 

The variations between these doctrines and those of 
the church of England, did not induce the baron's disci- 
ples and followers in general to desert the communion of 
that church ; nor did all the presbyterians, or other dis- 
senters, who adopted the Swedenborgian tenets, abandon 
the worship to which they were before attached. The 
orthodox ministers, however, seemed to consider them as 
fanatics ; and the majority of the dissenters were not 
pleased with the doctrinal alterations of their respective 
creeds. Yet the votaries of the New Jerusalem gradually 
multiplied ; and several men of ability entered into the 
association. Their preachers still have sufficient influence 
to draw other Christians within their pale, as well as to 
prevent their former communicants from renouncing the 
system. 

Another sect, also, boasted of the spiritual joys of the 
New Jerusalem, but exhibited, in a stronger point of view, 
the leaven of fanaticism. A party of enthusiasts left 
England for America in 1774, and settled in the province 
of New York, where the society soon increased, and re- 
ceived the ludicrous denomination of Shakers, from the 
practice of shaking and dancing. 1 They affected to con- 
sider themselves as forming the only true church, and 
their preachers as possessing all the apostolic gifts. The 
wicked, they thought, would only be punished for a time, 
with an exception of those who should be so incorrigibly 
depraved as to fall from their church : for these miserable 
offenders, there would be no forgiveness. Baptism was 
not practised by these sectaries ; nor did they celebrate 
the eucharist. They did not object to those sacramental 
ceremonies as improper in themselves, but alleged that 

which a rational Christian can proceed in this argument. To see no- 
thing- improbable in it, argues a degree of superstitious credulity, which 
we should not have expected to find in a modern clergyman. What 
reason can we have to suppose that God would impart his will, by a 
supernatural medium, to a person who had no claim to such peculiarity 
of distinction, after the lapse of many ages from a similar revelation, 
and at a time when the most enlightened nations acquiesced in, and 
seemed satisfied with, the scriptural knowledge that they had already 
acquired 1 Is there any thing, in the intimations of Swedenborg, so much 
more important and material than the former treasure of divine wisdom, 
as to justify the belief of a new revelation"! If we admit his ipse 
dixit., we may also believe the declaration of the Arabian legislator, 
who affirmed that he had received from heaven, by the angel Gabriel, 
the substance of the koran ; or we may give credit to the legends and 
pretended miracles in the lives of the Romish saints; listen with im- 
plicit faith to the reveries of Jacob Behman, and regard the vaticinations 
of Joanna Southcoit. as the prophetic effusions of unerring wisdom! 

No. LXII. 184 



they had been abolished in the apostolic times, and that 
tbey were particularly unnecessary in the present age, as 
the new dispensation, (at least with regard to their soci- 
ety) was beginning to take place. This was an allusion 
to the Millennium ; in which period, they said, Christ 
would not appear personally, butonly byhissainted votaries. 
Their leader was Anna Lee, who, they ridiculously pie- 
tended, was the woman mentioned by St. John as a great 
wonder. b The successors of this elect lady have been, 
they say, as perfect in their characters as she was, have 
enjoyed unreserved intercourse with departed spirits and 
with angels, and have possessed the power of imparting 
a plenitude of spiritual blessings to their disciples. 

The Shakers chiefly confined themselves to New Eng- 
land and New York, scarcely making any proselytes in 
the other provinces of North America, from Lake Ontario 
to the frontiers of Florida. During the subjection of those 
provinces to the sway of Great Britain, the religion of the 
church of England prospered in a very inconsiderable de- 
gree among the colonial communities, in comparison with 
presbyterianism. or with the prevailing system of the inde- 
pendents : yet it gradually gained ground, as the people 
became more polished in their manners, and less infected 
with puritanical austerity. The prelate, to whose autho- 
rity the Trans-Atlantic episcopalians then submitted, was 
the bishop of London : but, when the provinces rose to 
the dignity of an independent state, this spiritual con- 
nexion ceased with the political ties which had bound 
them to the mother-country. As a new director of the 
headless church was deemed requisite, application was 
made to some English prelates for the canonical conse- 
cration of a bishop, who was to reside in the province of 
Connecticut. The divine upon whom the Americans 
fixed, was Dr. Seabury, who had been employed as a 
missionary by the society for the propagation of the Gos- 
pels The doubts and hesitation of the prelates of Eng- 
land, with regard to the mode of proceeding in this case, 
on account of the new predicament in which the provin- 
cials stood, induced the reverend stranger to apply to those 
of Scotland ; and by them he was gratified, in the year 
1784, with the episcopal honour and dignity. The par- 
liament afterwards deliberated upon this affair, and enact- 
ed a bill which empowered either the primate or the arch- 
bishop of York to consecrate subjects of foreign states to 
the rank and office of bishop. In consequence of this 
statute, two clergymen, one from Philadelphia, the other 
from New York, were invested by the archbishop of Can- 
terbury and some of his brethren, in 1787, with the epis- 
copal character ; and the sanction thus given to the views 
of the American episcopalians promoted the growth and 



a These devotees, in their religious exercises, resemble the Jumpers 
of Wales, who thus testify their joy for spiritual blessings. 

t> " There appeared a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon un- 
der her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars." Revelations, xii. 1. 

c " Erskine's Sketches of Church-History. — The Dunkers of Korth 
America (so called from their baptizing by immersion) formed a sect 
long before the Shakers, but never became so numerous as these reli- 
gionists. In the year 1777, their number did not exceed 500. Theii 
principal tenet is, that future happiness can only be secured by penance 
and mortification. They deny the imputation of Adam's sin to his pos- 
terity, and the eternity of punishment for wickedness ; hate war and 
violence, and protest against the practise of enslaving others. They 
allow marriage; and yet do not seem to entertain a high opinion of the 
sanctity of that union, as they compel those who have Urns fallen into 
the snare of temptation to retire to a distant settlement. 

J This society had been enabled, by the subscriptions and legacies of 
well-disposed Christians, to make considerable progress, not only in 



734 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, &c. 



respectability of their church. A convention of this church 
had already been holden at Philadelphia ; a and, in that 
assembly, some alterations had been made in the liturgy 
and service of the church of England, and the thirty-nine 
articles were reduced totwenty. Inasubsequentconvention, 
several of these alterations were revoked, and all intentions 
of departing from our church in any essential point of 
doctrine, discipline, or worship, were disclaimed. From this 
ime the number of Episcopalians continued to increase in 
he territories of the United States ; so that, in the penul- 
timate year of the century, fifty-two congregations of that 
description were reckoned in Connecticut, twenty-five in 
New- Jersey, and sixteen in the Massachusetts state, be- 
side a considerable number in other parts of the republican 
territory. Seven bishops then presided over this church, and 
it boasted of a university and an academy at Philadelphia. 
A small party or association, which may be thought 
worthy of some notice among the varied sects of the age, 
arose in England from the zeal of Joanna Southcott. 
This crafty or enthusiastic female offered herself to notice 
as a prophetess in the year 1792 ; and she soon met with 
friends and admirers. She pretended that she was 
influenced and tutored by the Holy Spirit, and that her 
unlimited obedience to that divine power had procured 
for her the signal honour of being commissioned to 
announce the approaching accomplishment of scriptural 
promises, the establishment of Christ's kingdom on the 
ruin of that of Satan, and the redemption of pious believers 
and penitent sinners from the affects of the fall of man. 
She intimated that various disasters and calamities would 
befall the nations, as warnings to a sinful world ; but that 
these awful visitations would have less immediate effect 
upon other communities than upon the people of this fa- 
voured island, who enjoyed the benefit of her personal 
presence. This nation, she said, would have the good 
fortune to be the first redeemed from the bondage of sin 
and the tyranny of Satan, and would become an instru- 
ment in the hands of Providence for awakening the rest of 
the world to a lively sense of true religion. 15 Such a sup- 
position is an instance of patriotic enthusiasm, rather than 
the fruit of just reasoning, or the dictate of a sound mind. 
Another pretended prophet was a naval officer of the 
name of Brothers, who, for giving hints of the king's 
eventual dethronement, when he (the prophet) should be 
recognised as prince of the Hebrew nation, was appre- 
hended as a seditious delinquent. Mr. Halhed, a sena- 
tor of distinguished learning, but apparently not of sound 
judgment, vindicated the fanatical effusions of Brothers, 
and gravely advised the national representatives to peruse 
his writings, that they might have a chance of religious 
conversion. The officer was afterwards confined as a 
lunatic, and was thus deprived of an opportunity of form- 
ing a sect. 

Of those who have faith in supposed prophecies, many 
(particularly the most sinful) may be more disposed to lis- 
ten to the deliberate opinions of the Universalists, than to 
the reveries of Southcott or Brothers. From several pas- 
sages of Scripture, alluding to the restitution of all things 

converting the American savages, but also in diffusing; among the colo- 
nists the doctrines of the church of England. » In the year 1785. 

i> Sketch of the Denominations of the Christian "World, by the Rev. 
John Evans, the eleventh dition, p. 221 — 225. 

* Dr. Chauncy, of Bost ,n, was also a zealous advocate for this doc- 
trine; whence the Universalists are sometimes called by his name. It 



and the reconciliation of all to the Father by the blood of 
the cross, the celebrated Origen, and other divines in suc- 
cessive ages, inferred that redemption and salvation would 
be universal ; that, if punishment should be inflicted upon 
sinners, it would be temporary ; and that an eternity of 
happiness would follow. They entertained the idea of 
election, in a sense which implied that some were chosen 
but merely as examples to others, and as the first-fruits of 
the harvest of salvation. Baxter had softened the rigours 
of Calvinism by admitting, that every one had a portion 
of grace, with which he might work out his own salva- 
tion ; so that if he should not attain everlasting life, it 
would be his own fault. He gave name to a sect which 
so understood his meaning ; but we now hear little of the 
Baxterians. The Universalists were, more positivety 
and determinately, the advocates of fallen man. 

A distinguished modern supporter of the doctrine of 
universal restoration was Mr. Elhanan Winchester, a 
native of North America, who visited Great Britain about 
the year 1787, with a view of disseminating his consola- 
tory tenets. He published a course of lectures which he 
had delivered with applause, upon the " Prophecies 
remaining to be fulfilled," and also Dialogues on Universal 
Restoration. 

The Rellyan universalists may here be mentioned. 
They are the followers of Mr. James Relly, who entered 
into public life as an associate of Whitefield, but at length 
renounced his Calvinistic opinions, and preached salvation 
to all. He believed in "a resurrection to life, and a re- 
surrection to condemnation." Believers only, he thought, 
would enjoy the former, and dwell with Christ in his 
kingdom of the millennium ; but unbelievers, after being 
raised from death would be obliged to wait, in darkness 
and under wrath, the ultimate manifestation of the great 
Redeemer of the world. 

These sectaries were stigmatised as antinomians by 
their adversaries ; but, as they recommended morality and 
good works, they disclaimed the imputation. With re- 
gard to antinomianism, we may here observe, that it tends 
to encourage ewery species of immorality. It releases its 
votaries from the ties of moral honour, and the duties of 
social life. If respectable individuals belong to the sect, 
they were not rendered so by the tenets which they pro- 
fess, but by the innate goodness of character, which the 
wild effusions of their ministers have not corrupted. Let 
piety and devotion be encouraged ; but let not morality 
and rectitude be superseded by affected purity of reli- 
gious zeal. Those sectaries who deride good works, are 
not good members of society ; for they endeavour to loos- 
en its bonds, and to invalidate its regulations. If we 
were not advocates for unlimited toleration, we should 
wish that the latitude of antinomianism might be restrain- 
ed by public authority. 

The antinomian system has been refuted by various 
writers ; and, as it has not been (nor can be) defended 
with equal ability, it rarely makes the least impression 
upon men of sense. It is still professed, however in some 
parts of Great Britain and of Germany. In 1761, one of 

was controverted by the president Edwards and his son ; the latter of 
whom imputed to Chauncy a provisional retention of the scheme of 
Destruction, if the system of the Universalists should not be tenable. 
The abettors of the scheme alluded to, maintain that the wicked will 
neither be subjected to endless misery, nor be finally saved, but will be 
involved in total destruction. 



DURING THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY. 



735 



its professors maintained, that prayers for the forgiveness 
of our sins are unnecessary ; that repentance is not requi- 
site ; that no judgment will take place after this life, and 
no punishment will be inflicted ; that Christ, by subduing 
the evil spirit, introduced universal righteousness, and j 
thus redeemed all mankind from what would otherwise ! 
have been the effect of sin. Many antinomians, on the 
contrary, are rigid Calvinists, and, by their doctrine of 
partial, or indeed general, reprobation, endeavour to coun- 
teract the last mentioned opinion. 

The different sects, beside their habitual eagerness to 
disseminate their particular notions among other classes \ 
of Christians, were in general well disposed to propagate 
Christianity among heathen tribes ; and a few years be- 
lore the century closed, the consideration of the benight- 
ed state of pagan ignorance, in which the inhabitants of 
the numerous islands of the Pacific Ocean were involved, 
prompted the friends of religion to form an extensive 
scheme of missionary exertion. Some clergymen of the \ 
establishment, and of almost every sect, concurred in the j 
scheme : but it appears to have been devised and chiefly 
promoted by Calvinistic Methodists. When subscrip- 
tions had produced a sufficiency of pecuniary supplies for 
the commencement of the enterprise, a ship was freighted 
with every requisite, and sent out under the command of 
Mr. Wilson, who had as much zeal for the success of the 
mission, as any of the preachers that embarked with him. 
Religious colonies were formed at some of the Society and 
Friendly Islands : but difficulties and dangers obstructed 
the progress of conversion, and several of the missionaries 
perished amidst barbarian commotions. Many other ad- 
venturers, however, visited the Pacific with the same 
views, and new attempts were made to subdue the pre- 
judices of the islanders, and bring them within the pale 
of Christianity. 

While the missionaries of the first embarkation were 
thus engaged, Mr. Haldane, an opulent North Briton, on 
the rejection of a proposal which he had made to the 
government for instituting a mission in the East Indies, 
resolved to employ himself and others in a similar plan 
within the limits of this island. He therefore, in 1797. 
organized an association, which he called the " Society for 
propagating the Gospel at home." Itinerant preachers 
were deputed with this view ; tabernacles were built, and 
seminaries established ; and considerable success attended 
the well-meant undertaking. The members of this society ' 
and of the rising congregations were styled New hide- \ 
pendents. Menaced with the vengeance of the kirk, 
they still prosecuted their object, and firmly asserted the 
irreproachable propriety of their conduct, and the commen- 
dable nature of their exertions. They reprobated all 
fixed national creeds and systems, all civil establishments 
of religion; and professed to regulate all church govern- 
ment and discipline by the rules of Scripture, not by hu- \ 
man ordinances. They declared that the church had no 
head upon earth ; yet they were willing to pay proper 
submission to the temporal sovereign. 

Their efforts in the cause of what they considered as 
the true or evangelical religion, exposed them to the cen- 
sures of the kirk ; and a pastoral admonition 3 was issued 

* Dr. Haweis, speaking'of the admonition, says. " Whoever is at the ] 
pains to examine facts, and the assertions in this philippic -against the 
promoters of evangelical religion, will find as many falsehoods as lines." I 



against them by the general assembly ; but they boldly 
continued their career, and extended their influence. 

The New Independents were not the only persons who 
endeavoured to promote religious zeal. Some indivi- 
duals of considered talents, in England, also pursued that 
object, but in a different manner, and without recom- 
mending a secession from the establishment. The preva- 
lent habit of moral preaching, and the want of religious- 
fervor in persons of rank, and also in the middle class of 
society, had disgusted and shocked those Christians who 
were studiously attentive to the concerns of their souls 
and to the interests of genuine piety. Mr. Wilberforce, 
who had distinguished himself by his reiterated efforts for 
the abolition of the slave trade, and had acquired the repu- 
tation of an able and independent senator, surprised the 
public by appearing as a religious writer. He published 
in the year 1797, a "Practical View of the prevailing 
Religious System of Professed Christians, in the higher 
and middle classes in this country, contrasted with real 
Christianity." He enumerated the chief defects of the 
former of these systems, such as the want of adequate 
conceptions concerning our Redeemer and the Holy 
Spirit, or of sufficiently exalted ideas of the strictness of 
practical Christianity, the neglect of the peculiar doctrines 
of our religion, and the allowance of only a narrow and 
qualified jurisdiction to that which ought to embrace every 
object and influence every pursuit. He animadverted on 
the error of substituting amiable tempers and useful lives 
in the place of piety ; a " great and desperate error," 
involving a " fatal distinction between morality and re- 
ligion." The particular good arising from such lives, 
he said, might be more than counterbalanced by the ge- 
neral evil, as they tended to discourage " that principle 
(namely religion) which is the great operative spring of 
usefulness in the bulk of mankind." He therefore ear- 
nestly exhorted his countrymen to attend strictly to the 
doctrines and precepts of evangelical religion and vital 
Christianity, to look to Jesus, imitate the example of his 
blameless hfe, and surrender, unconditionally, their souls 
and bodies to the will and service of God. Undoubtedly, 
he added, the sincere Christian has a great work to per- 
form, and his internal state is a continued scene of disci- 
pline and warfare ; but pleasures of the purest kind 
attend his progress ; and he is enlivened with the con- 
sciousness of well-meant endeavours, encouraged by the 
succours of divine grace, and animated by the hope of a 
blissful immortality. He may enjoy the innocent amuse- 
ments of life, partake of the delights of social intercourse, 
open his heart to the calls of philanthropy, indulge the sen- 
sibilities of taste and genius, and cultivate his mind with 
the varieties of science. 

Much praise is certainly due to the good intentions of 
this writer. Similar praise may be bestowed on a cele- 
brated female who has laboured in the same cause — we 
mean Hannah More. In her "Strictures on the Modern 
System of Female Education, and view of the Principles 
and Conduct prevalent among Women of Rank and For- 
tune," she has given much good advice to the fair sex, 
and lias properly censured the frivolity and dissipation of 
the age, and the relaxed morals of the higher classes. 

It breathes, indeed, a spirit of intolerance ; but, in thus inveighing against 
it, the indignant divine incautiously deviates from that strict veracity 
which he recommends to others. 



SKETCH OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



OF 



THE NINETEENTH CENTURY 



CHAPTER I. 

History of the Romish Church. 

The corrupt state in which we left this church at the 
close of the last century, has not yielded to the influence 
of that superior light which has since illuminated the 
civilized world. The Romish bigots have still some re- 
mains of an intolerant spirit, and still resist the progress 
of free inquiry ; yet even the catholic governments find 
it expedient to profess liberal principles, and to endure that 
boldness of dissent which they dare not punish and can- 
not effectually prevent. 

After the death of the unfortunate pontiff, Pius VI., 
this church remained for eleven months without a head, 
while the cardinals, exiled from Rome, were dispersed 
over different countries. The pious zeal of the emperor 
of Germany at length prompted him to provide a remedy 
for this unsettled state of affairs, which seemed to reflect 
disgrace on those princes who professed a reverential re- 
gard for the catholic hierarchy. He desired the fugitive 
members of the sacred college to hold a conclave at 
Venice, which was then an Austrian dependency ; and 
the cardinal di Chiaramonte, a native of Cesena, who had 
been raised by the late pope to the see of Imola, was 
advanced to the papal dignity." This pontiff assumed 
the designation of Pius VII., and entered with alacrity 
upon the exercise of his spiritual functions, to which the 
advantages of temporal power were again annexed, when 
the Roman territory was recovered by the vigour of the 
allied arms. 

When Napoleon had raised himself to the dignity of 
first consul or sovereign of France, be applied to the new 
pope for the purpose of a religious settlement. It was 
then stipulated that the ' catholic, apostolic, and Romish 
religion,' should be freely and publicly exercised in France ; 
that a new division of dioceses should take place ; that, 
as soon as the first consul should have nominated bishops, 
the pope should confer upon them the honour of canoni- 
cal institution ; that the prelates should appoint, for paro- 
chial ministers, such persons as the three consuls should 
approve ; that no council or synod should meet without 
the consent of the government ; and that no papal legate 
or nuncio should act, and no bull or brief be operative in 
France, unless the ruling power should sanction such in- 
terference. Ten archbishops, and fifty bishops, were as- 
signed to the whole republic ; and it was required that 

» On the 14th of March, 1800. — The votes were long divided between 
Ihe cardinals Bellezoni and Mattei ; but the election terminated in favour 
of the bishop of Imola, even though he was supposed to be more friendly 
to the French than to the Austrian interest. 

That the character of the new pope was not very highly estimated, 
may be inferred, — yet not decisively, — from the satirical effusion of 
Pasquin. the unknown director, or perhapu only the follower, of the 



they should be natives of France, and hav s attained the 
age of thirty years. They were not to be very liberally 
remunerated for the due exercise of their functions, only 
15,000 francs being promised to each of the former as an 
annual stipend, and 10,000 to each of the latter ; b and 
the parochial priests were declared to be entitled only to 
1500 or 1000 francs per annum. 

While Napoleon allowed that the Romish faith should 
be the established religion of France, he did not mean to 
preclude himself or his eventual successors from the power 
of making such alterations as might be deemed expedient, 
either in doctrine or in discipline ; for his great object was 
to be despotic both in religious and civil affairs, and to 
dictate the law in every branch of polity. 

His power was now at its height ; but he was not con- 
tent without the acquisition of the imperial dignity ; and, 
when he had obtained his wish from a servile and prostrate 
nation, he aspired to the honour of being anointed and 
crowned, in the most solemn and religious manner. Full 
of this idea, he applied to his friend the pope, and request- 
ed his speedy attendance at Paris. Sensible of the ex- 
pediency of compliance, Pius submitted with a good grace 
to a mandate which he had not the courage to resist, and 
prepared for a journey to France. Having convoked a 
secret council of cardinals, he congratulated his venerable 
brethren on the effect of the concordat., which had re- 
stored the true worship of God in France, and had sea- 
sonably checked the mischievous influence of impiety and 
profaneness : he applauded the zeal of that powerful prince 
who had promoted this change, and declared that he felt 
himself bound both by policy and gratitude to bestow 
the imperial crown on ' his dearest son in Christ.' When 
a prince earnestly desired the performance of a sacred 
ceremony, it was the duty of the head of the church (said 
the servile pope) to gratify him by impressing a religious 
character on the ties which bound him to his people ; 
and an act of this kind would be rewarded with the divine 
benediction. Having given directions for the administra- 
tion of public affairs (although, in a state which he knew 
not how to govern, no serious injury could result from his 
absence,) he presented himself at Paris in the autumn oi 
the year 1804, and officiated at the imperial cordhation, 
which, with all its splendour, did not strikingly excite 
the joy or enthusiasm of the people. He was treated by 
Napoleon with politeness and respect ; but, if he had the 
honour or the feelings of a man, he could not be altogether 



general opinion at Rome. The anagram of the pontiff's title was thus 
given: Roma, china-ti, that is, ' Rome, humble thyself The pun upon 
the word Pax, inserted by the ' order of Pius above his coat of arms, 
was still more severe: for the satirist hinted that those letters could only 
be meant for the initials of Peggoire Assai X. — ' ten times worse.' 

t> That is, 625 pounds sterling to an archbishop, and two-thirds of that 
sum to an inferior prelate. 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



737 



pleased with his own conduct. He had given the force 
of religious sanction to the usurpation of an adventurer. 

After his return to Rome. Pius gave a pompous account 
of the result of his journey. Even his appearance in 
France, he said, had been visibly beneficial to the cause 
of religion. An innumerable crowd followed him in every 
part of his progress, and his readiness to grant aposto- 
lical benediction gladdened the people, and invigorated 
their pious zeal. He reclaimed to their dutv some bishops 
who had refused to submit to the concordat, and pro- 
cured decrees for the augmentation of the revenues of the 
prelates, for the regular establishment of funds sufficient 
to defray the expenses of public worship, for the erection 
of theological seminaries, and for the revival of many 
religious societies, particularly the Priests of the Mission 
and the Daughters of Charity. He also obtained an edict, 
allowing to the bishops the full liberty of 'judging with 
regard to spiritual offences, and of punishing violations of 
the canonical laws. In return for these concessions 
(which, in all probability, were not carried into full effect,) 
he conferred on the archbishops of Paris and Rouen the 
highest dignity that he could grant, by presenting the 
cardinal's hat to each of those prelates. 

The French had left to the pope scarcely any other 
pretence for interfering in their concerns, than that of 
granting canonical institution to those prelates whom 
their emperor might think proper to nominate : but with 
this shadow of honour his holiness was not so elate as to 
be particularly anxious for the performance of that cere- 
mony. The applications made to him for that purpose 
were coolly disregarded ; so that, in 1811, twenty-seven 
bishops waited for his confirmation of the imperial choice. 
Resenting his refusal. Napoleon declared that the concor- 
dat was at an end, and called a council of prelates to act 
in this case for the refractory pontiff. He hinted that the 
pope, if he would not conduct himself like a Frenchman, 
could not expect to retain any authority or influence in 
the great empire. This is not an unreasonable doctrine ; 
for every state ought to have a peculiar director of its 
religious concerns, rather than have recourse on any 
occasion to a foreign priest. 

Napoleon always pretended to be a friend to religion ; 
and, in his own opinion, he did not forfeit that character, 
when (in the year 1S09) he divested the pope of his temporal 
power : but, however justly he might argue in this case, 
he acted solely from motives of ambition. It suited his 
policy to adopt a line of argument which philosophers had l 
used, by representing the possession of political power as 
inconsistent with the essence of religion, and injurious to 
the purity and sanctity of spiritual government. But the 
despot went still farther, and. by imprisoning the pontiff 
at Avignon, disunited him from the sacred college, pre- 
vented him from presiding in a grand ecclesiastical coun- 
cil, and impaired his authority and influence as a director 
of the conscience and a teacher of piety. Pius did not 
tamely bear the insuits and injuries to which he was sub- 
jected. He protested, in a public declaration, against the 
outrageous violence and sacrilegious wickedness of Napo- 
leon, and even ventured to excommunicate the daring 
oppressor ; but it must be observed, that he evinced his 
moderation even in this act of apparent revenge ; for he 

* We ought not to dispute the pope's veracity: but, as we know that 
the influence of the chief catholic powers constrained Ganganelli to dLs- 

No. LXII. 1 85 



I disclaimed all intention of exciting a revolt or an insur- 
rection, declaring that the act was merely a spiritual cen- 
sure, inflicted with a view of bringing the delinquent to 
a due sense of his error and a consequent reparation of 
j his injustice. He indeed denied and condemned the as- 
; sertion of some former pontiffs, that sovereigns might 
lawfully be deposed by the spiritual father of Christen- 
dom. If a national council had at any time voted the 
deposition of a prince, the pope (he said) might as justly 
confirm the sentence, if it suited his own ideas of policy 
, or rectitude, as he might crown a legitimate prince, or 
consecrate a foreign prelate who had received his appoint- 
ment from the ruling power in the state to which he be- 
longed. This acknowledgement was a concession to the 
reforming spirit of modern times, and a proof of the de- 
cline of pontifical arrogance. 

The idle thunder of excommunication only provoked 
the tyrant's derision, and the mode in which it was soft- 
ened excited ridicule, while this treatment of the pontiff 
was considered by many catholics as a judgment upon 
him for having favoured and indulged an enemy of the 
church in the concordat and at the coronation. 

Still affecting a high regard for religion and its minis- 
ters, the ruler of France concluded a new agreement with 
the pope, whom he unexpectedly gratified with the pri- 
vilege of nomination to ten bishoprics, either in France or 
in Italy, allowing him also to exercise the pontificate in 
France, and in the kingdom which had been formed in 
the north of Italy, in the same manner in which his 
predecessors had acted : but the master of Rome was not 
vet so humbled by a reverse of fortune, as to be disposed 
to reinstate the pontiff in his temporal authority. 

The ruin of Napoleon was at length the consequence 
of his wanton ambition. After his mad expedition to 
Russia, he was unable to withstand that powerful con- 
federacy which, with the most determined zeal, was or- 
ganized against him. Holland and the German states 
shook off his yoke, — and Rome reverted to its temporal 
and spiritual lord. 

Adversity has been styled a teacher of wisdom ; but 
the maxim was not verified by the conduct of the restored 
pontiff, who soon manifested his bigotry and imprudence, 
instead of displaying the enlightened policy of a wise 
prince. Not content with the resumption of ecclesiastical 
property, and the abolition of Napoleon's code in the 
Roman state, he re-ordained the observance of all the 
festivals, re-established the monastic orders, revived in 
some degree the inquisition, and reinstated the obnoxious 
society of the Jesuits. As an excuse for the last measure, 
he declared that the catholic world demanded, with an 
unanimous voice, the revival which he had ordered. 1 
He therefore readily granted to Taddeo Barzozowski, 
' general of the company of Jesus.' and his associates, all 
suitable and necessary powers for the admission of all who 
might be disposed to follow the rules prescribed by Sl 
Ignatius of Loyola, — for the education of youth in the 
principles of the catholic faith and in good morals, — for 
hearing confessions, preaching the word of God, and 
administering the sacraments of the church. As this 
edict required funds for its execution, such property aa 
had not been irrevocably transferred from the former as- 

solve the institution, we doubt whether the call for its re-establishm^r.t 
was either strong or unanimous. 



738 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



sociation was assigned to the new fraternity, compensa- 
tions were allowed for that which had been alienated, 
and subscriptions were requested from the opulent and 
the liberal. 

Even if this impolitic conduct in religious affairs had 
been accompanied with the display of wisdom and justice 
in the civil and ordinary administration, it would not have 
been sufficiently redeemed from censure or complaint ; 
but, when joined with general misgovernment, it tended 
only to convince the public of the pope's unfitness to be the 
ruler of a nation. Pius, however, proceeded in his course 
with little alteration and few concessions, considering 
himself as the worthy successor of St. Peter, and as a 
proper object of general regard and esteem. 11 

After the deposition and banishment of Napoleon, the 
pope entertained the hope of some accession to his autho- 
rity, as it was not to be supposed that Louis XVIII. would 
retain, unaltered, the ecclesiastical settlement which the 
usurper had framed ; but, when a new compact was 
adjusted with France, in the year 1817, it was more cal- 
culated to augment and dignify the establishment, than 
to increase the influence of the supposed head of the 
church. Thirty-two new sees were ordered to be erected ; 
but his holiness was to have no more concern with them 
than to grant canonical institution to such individuals as 
might be nominated by the king ; and it was foreseen or 
understood that, if he should refuse to confirm the royal 
appointment, his majesty would not revoke it ; for Louis, 
however pious and devout, was determined to support the 
independence of his kingdom against the high claims even 
of the spiritual father of Christendom. 

The general state of religion in France, for a conside- 
rable time after the expulsion of Napoleon, was so incon- 
sistent with true piety, that the respectable part of the 
priesthood seemed to apprehend its speedy extinction. 
Alarmed at this prospect, many churchmen, in different 
parts of the kingdom, undertook missions with a view of 
reclaiming the people. As a specimen of the mode in 
which these missions were conducted, we may observe, 
that, in the year 1819, nine ecclesiastics paraded the chief 
streets of Avignon, singing penitential psalms, and two 
of them, halting on a hill, preached to two divisions of 
the assembled multitude. On the following day, they 
visited the churches, and harangued overflowing congre- 
gations ; and, for a week, their time was almost wholly 
employed in giving public or private instructions to the 
citizens, and in visiting the hospitals and prisons for the 
same purpose ; and the second week was principally de- 
voted to the consolation of those who came to confess their 
sins, and who, seeming to be penitent, received absolution 
and pardon. The baptismal vows were publicly renewed 
with pompous solemnity, and, in every church, while the 
Gospel was holden up to general view, all were required 



* While we adopt the general impression which prevailed with regard 
to the political conduct and administration of this pontiff, we are bound 
to annex a different statement, given by a writer who boldly maintains 
the accuracy of his information. — " Pius (says M. Vieusseux) effected 
many useful improvements in the country over which he ruled. His 
impoverished finances, the inveterate habits of the people, the old forms 
and routine of church-government, his own scrupulous and gentle nature, 
and the prejudices of some of 'his advisers, prevented him from doing 
more. He enacted a law, however, compelling the proprietors of the 
urge estates in the Campagna di Roma, to cultivate all their lands, or 
give up, for a reasonable compensation, those which they could not 
bring into culture ; he allowed rewards for the plantation of trees ; he 
< ompleted the cadastro of the Roman provinces, begun before his time, 



to swear that they would faithfully observe the precepts 
contained in that divine book. After the administration 
of all the sacraments of the church, a great cross was 
borne in magnificent procession, and erected on a terrace 
in holy triumph ; and the mission was closed with ap- 
propriate and interesting discourses. 

As these missions had only a partial effect, the state of 
the church was represented as deplorable, in a letter which 
the bishops addressed to the pope. The ecclesiastical disci- 
pline, they said, was relaxed ; many dioceses were so ne- 
glected by their lawful rulers, or so ill-governed, that the 
faithful wandered like sheep without shepherds ; the ene- 
mies of the church took advantage of this weakness, to 
inflict severe wounds on the declining hierarchy ; and the 
pious divines who endeavoured, by acting as itinerant 
preachers, to revive that religious spirit which had nearly 
become extinct, were treated with contempt or with insult. 
It was therefore highly expedient that some measures 
should be speedily taken to restore the dignity and influ- 
ence of the church. Repeated deliberations on this sub- 
ject in the French cabinet led to a royal ordinance for the 
erection of chapels of ease wherever they seemed to be 
requisite, for the immediate grant of pecuniary aid to the 
impoverished church, and for the general protection of 
that establishment. ' It was the duty of every state (said 
the leading minister on this occasion) to foster or to renew 
a religious spirit. To support religion was to support the 
unfortunate whom it consoles, to cherish that morality 
which it elevates, and that virtue which it creates and 
maintains.' 

While these measures were operating to the relief of the 
established church, tranquillity was restored to the south 
of France. At Nismes and other towns, the protestants 
had for several years been most illiberally molested by the 
catholics, and in a great measure deprived of that tolera- 
tion to which they were by law entitled. Some of them 
had been murdered on their way to the meetings of the 
electoral colleges, and, in defending their cause, two mili- 
tary officers of high rank had lost their lives. It was pre- 
tended that the court connived at these outrages, because 
the sufferers were more attached to Napoleon than to the 
house of Bourbon ; but this was an unfounded allegation ; 
for the king, though he did not in every point adhere to 
the charter which he had granted, was not disposed to 
violate its provisions in the case of the protestants. The 
ultra-royalists (as the friends of the old regime were 
styled) would probably have continued these persecutions 
to the present day, if Louis had not covered the de- 
scendants of the Huguenots with the broad mantle of 
toleration. 

The pope, from the time of his restoration to the day 
of his death, was chiefly influenced by the counsels of 
cardinal Gonsalvi, who was a better governor both of the 

and fixed upon its basis the rate of a moderate land-tax, in lieu of the 
arbitrary contributions previously exacted ; he abolished the unjust ex- 
emptions of the upper classes from proportional taxation ; he enforced 
a rigid economy in the expenditure of his household, and in the charges 
of the public departments ; he established manufactures of wool and 
cotton in the houses appropriated to the reception of the poor ; he insti- 
tuted an office for the registration of mortgages, and the security of loans- 
he withdrew from circulation the base and enormously-depreciated coin 
which had been issued in disordered times, and replaced it by standard 
money, at a great loss to his treasury ; and he issued an edict, announc- 
ing a plan of legal and judicial reform, which, however, was imperfect- 
ly followed." 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



739 



church and state than his master. Thus the pontiff be- 
came more popular in the decline of his life than he had 
been in the vigour of his age ; and his death, which hap- 
pened in the eighty-fourth year of his age and the twenty- 
fourth of his reign, 1 was notunlamented either by the clergy 
or the people. 

The intrigues for the election of a new pope were con- 
ducted, on the part of the Italian cardinals, with great art 
and dexterity. They resolved neither to be ruled by the 
French nor by the Austrian faction, and were intent upon 
the choice of a zealot, who would be disposed to assert and 
maintain the high prerogatives of the church. Cardinal 
Severoli, though not so v olent in his disposition as some 
of the bigots wished, v as one whose professed principles 
were agreeable to the party ; and therefore, on one of the 
days of meeting, he had twenty-six votes. He might have 
had as many more as would have served his purpose, if the 
Austrian party had not, in the emperor's name, excluded 
him from the chance of appointment ; for there are four 
potentates who are allowed to exercise that right. When 
the exclusion was announced to him, he seemed to bear it 
with fortitude ; and he desired that the act might be regis- 
tered to prevent the privilege from being exercised twice 
in the same conclave, as in that case one of his intimate 
friends might be rendered ineligible. The disappointment 
preyed on his spirits, and is said to have hastened his 
death. 

On the morning after this rejection, the friends of 
Severoli requested him to name a fit candidate for the 
papal throne. He replied, that, if he had sufficient in- 
fluence over the election, either the cardinal Annibale 
ella Genga, or Gregorio, (an illegitimate son of Charles 
III, of Spain,) would be the next pontiff. The former 
was the determined enemy of Gonsalvi, and his election, 
which quickly followed the recommendation, demon- 
strated the prevalence of the bigoted party. He assumed 
the denomination of Leo XII., because one of his ances- 
tors had received some feudal property from the tenth 
pope of that name. 

Gonsalvi was now dismissed from power, and the chief 
adviser of the new pope was the cardinal della Somiglia, 
who, like his sovereign, had been a libertine in his youth 
and in his middle age. From the high-church principles 
and arbitrary policy of such men, no just government, no 
attention to the rights of the people, could be expected ; 
and their subsequent conduct appears to have proved, 
that those who foreboded ill from their combination with 
the Jesuits, did not judge too harshly. Indeed, priests 
in general are not the best administrators of temporal 
power, and, when we say that they ought to be restricted 
to their spiritual duties, we mean no disrespect to their 
eacred order. 

With all his bigotry, and all his zeal against reform, 
the present pontiff has treated the protestants in his do- 
minions with a degree of mildness and complacency not 
expected from his rigid principles. He even allows a 
chapel at Rome for the exercise of their religion, being 
probably influenced by a regard for the Biitish and other 
protestant governments, even while he thinks that the 
professors of this faith- do not pursue that course which 
would give them a full assurance of salvation. He finds 
it expedient to make some concessions to the more en- 

On the 20th of August, 1823. 



lightened spiritof the age. while his own mind is darkened 
by inveterate prejudices. He would wish to dictate, as his 
predecessors did, to all the princes of Christendom ; but as 
he cannot influence them to the extent of his wishes, he 
is content to exhort without commanding. The prince 
whom he finds most devoted to him, is the French king 
(Charles X.,) who, in his late law against sacrilege, ha? 
imitated the pontifical rigour of the middle ages ; but it 
does not appear that even this monarch is inclined to sur 
render, to the claims of the papacy, any of the prerogatives 
of the Gallican church. 

The reigning pope has had the high honour of celebrat- 
ing a Jubilee. It commenced on Christmas eve, in 1824, 
and a whole year from that time is considered as peculi- 
arly sacred. The beginning of the ceremonial was a solemn 
procession to the sacred gate which leads to St. Peter's 
church. The magistrates of Rome, the chief citizens, 
the cross-bearers and other ecclesiastical attendants, the 
parochial clergy, the bishops and cardinals, and (last in 
order, though first in dignity) the holy father, with his 
tiara carried before him, advanced to the gate. As it did 
not open at the first blow which he gave to the wall with 
a silver hammer, he tried a second, saying, with an air of 
authority, ' I will enter thy house, O Lord.' An opening 
not being yet made, he struck the wall a third time, and, 
with the aid of workmen on the other side, a passage was 
opened for the anxious throng. Fragments of stone, 
thrown out in this operation, were eagerly picked up by 
the votaries of superstition, and the medals which had 
been left within the wall at the jubilee of the year 1800, 
were also seized by the scrambling devotees. The church 
was soon filled to an overflow : the pope set the example 
of singing and praying, and the thanksgiving service was 
performed amidst the united sounds of choral and martial 
music, enlivened by peals of bell-ringing. Similar scenes 
occurred at three other churches ; and all the subjects of 
the state, as well as pilgrims who flocked from various 
countries, now hoped for a remission of their sins, a favour 
which may be purchased at the altars on moderate terms. 
Poor strangers, it appears, obtain this indulgence gratis ; 
and the pope sometimes condescends to grant it to them 
in person. He presides at the celebration of the most 
sacred service in the metropolitan church, and afterwards 
entertains the pilgrims at the Vatican palace with humble 
fare and spiritual conversation, and distributes silver medals 
among them, commemorative of the jubilee. But the 
usual place of resort, for these strangers, is the hospital 
of the Pelegrini, where they are treated with great re- 
spect, and even have their feet washed by some of the 
cardinals. In the course of the year which is thus dig- 
nified with peculiar sanctity, public amusements and diver- 
sions are prohibited : yet the idea of a jubilee ought not, 
we think, to ' impoverish the public stock of harmless plea- 
sure.' Where a general fast is ordered, there may be some 
reason for a suspension of ordinary amusements ; but, in 
the case of a joyful celebritj'. the interdiction seems to be 
misplaced and inapplicable. 

From the religious concerns of France and of Italy, we 
proceed to the survey of other catholic governments. In 
Spain, the pope's authority was not suffered to be free 
from control, as will appear from the following restric- 
tions upon his representative. In 1803, the council of 
Castile, in admitting the archbishop of Nicea to the 



740 



HISTORY OF THE ROMISH CHURCH DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



office of papal legate in the Spanish dominions, stated 
three remarkable exceptions to the authority claimed by 
that officer. One was, that he was not to have the 
power of visiting the patriarchal, metropolitan, or other 
churches, with a view to correction or reform ; another 
was, that he was not to examine any individual, whe- 
ther of a religious or civil character, who might be 
estranged from a particular community or institution, or 
in any way criminal ; and the third imported, that he 
would not be allowed to receive appeals from the ordi- 
nary judges. 

The pontifical authority was still more restricted after 
the usurpation of the Spanish throne by Napoleon's bro- 
ther Joseph, who, while he declared that only the Romish 
religion should be allowed, left to his holiness a mere sha- 
dow of power, suppressed a considerable number of monas- 
teries, and abolished the court of inquisition. But, as the 
continued efficacy of his regulations depended on the per- 
manence of his power, (for they were not attended with 
the general assent of the nation,) it remained for the cortes 
to determine whether his ordinances should be exploded or 
confirmed. They decreed, in the year 1813, that the in- 
quisition was injurious to religion and to the state ; but, 
to gratify the bigots, they voted the erection of episcopal 
courts for the trial of heretics. They made various attempts 
for the reformation of abuses and the redress of grievances; 
but, amidst the prevalence of war and civil dissensions, they 
could not make great or effective progress in their schemes ; 
and their acts were annulled by the tyranny of that prince 
whose throne they endeavoured to establish. Being released 
by Napoleon in 1814, Ferdinand re-entered Spain with 
those emotions of resentment which prompted him to re- 
ject the new constitution ; and, by listening to the sug- 
gestions of priests, excited discontent and odium. He was 
even so attached to the old school of bigotry, that he con- 
curred with the pope in the propriety of re-establishing the 
order of Jesuits, and commanded that all the colleges, 
houses, funds, and rents, which belonged to this fraternity 
at the time of the suppression, and had not been altogether 
alienated, should be quickly restored. Yet, in his other 
concerns with the court of Rome, he displayed a laudable 
spirit; for, when the papal nuncio required that the ancient 
oath of fidelity to the king and regard for his prerogative, 
exacted from every prelate on his consecration, should no 
longer be administered, he answered the unwarrantable 
demand by declaring, that no innovation should be made 
in that respect. This prince, indeed, though deficient in 
sense and judgment, is sufficiently disposed to defend his 
prerogative against papal encroachments and attacks. 
The king of Portugal is equally attached with Ferdinand 
to the Romish faith, and, at the same time, equally ready 
to resist the high claims of the pontiff. 

All the Austrian prelates, except the archbishop of 
Olmutz, are nominated or appointed by the emperor ; and, 
although the papal confirmation is afterwards accepted, it 
is not considered as absolutely necessary. As king of Hun- 
gary, the same prince appoints the prelates of the Latin and 
Greek churches; and those who are named immediately 
exercise their full jurisdiction before they receive the pope's 
confirmation of their appointments ; for it is a settled point 
n these countries, that bishops hold their power directly 
from God. When the episcopal oath is taken, it is under- 
stood to imply only a canonical obedience to the pope, not 



derogating in the smallest degree from the rights of the 
emperor, or encroaching on the duties which the prelates, 
as subjects of the state, are expected to perform to the rul- 
ing power. This practice certainly tends to explode the 
idea of a double allegiance on the part of the Austrian sub- 
jects, whose sovereign, while he is an hereditary bigot to 
the Romish faith, is determined to secure his own autho- 
rity from the encroachments of a foreign pontiff. By the 
Placitum Regium, no papal edicts or rescripts are allowed 
to have any force or operation without the express consent 
of the government ; and no persons are even suffered to 
apply to his holiness with regard to any new act of 
devotion, or for any other purpose, without the emperor's 
permission. 

The catholic zeal of the Bavarian government has in this 
century declined. Bigotry has in a great measure yielded 
to a sense of liberality, and the protestants are not only 
tolerated but encouraged. A new constitution, allowing a 
national assembly, has been conceded to the people, and a 
meliorated system, both in the church and state, conse- 
quently prevails. 

In the catholic cantons of Switzerland, there is not a 
uniformity of religious regulation. The rulers of Fri- 
bourg, in 1815, renounced the right of appointing their 
bishop, leaving it to the uninfluenced judgment of the pope. 
In the Grison territory (now a part of the Swiss republic,) 
the bishop of Coire is elected by the twenty-four canons of 
the establishment ; but it appears that the pope is allowed 
to fill up the vacancies among these canons, alternately 
with the chapter itself. The same bishop promulgates 
the papal ordinances, without waiting for the sanction of 
the temporal power. In the new canton of Tessin, the 
bishop of Como is appointed by the government ; but the 
papal confirmation is deemed requisite for the establish- 
ment of his pretensions. In the Valais, four priests are 
proposed by the chapter to the diet for the episcopal dignity: 
of these, one is selected as the most unobjectionable candi- 
date ; the pontiff at first pretends to reject him, but soon 
after nominates the same person, as if no previous recom- 
mendation had been given. In those states which, before 
the year 1815, composed a part of the diocese of Constance, 
the prelates are chosen by the government ; and his holi- 
ness is expected to confirm the appointment. Thus, on 
the prelate's death, in 1818, a new bishop was nominated 
by the grand duke of Baden, and, though the pope ob- 
jected, he was obliged to yield to the spirit of that prince. 
In most of the cantons, no papal or episcopal ordinances, 
except those which relate to an exemption from fasts, or 
other affairs of little moment, are suffered to operate with- 
out the consent of the civil power. With regard to the 
monasteries, it appears, that the election of the head de- 
pends, in some, upon the pope, and, in the rest, upon the 
bishops. 

In the kingdom of Naples, the pope's authority is seri- 
ously checked by the spirit of the government, although 
the doctrines which he maintains are still professed by 
the people. No bulls, rescripts, or dispensations, are effec- 
tive without the royal assent ; and, in the appointment 
of bishops, the court justly assumes a paramount au 
thority. 

In speaking of Naples, our attention is called to a re- 
markable society, which was formed in the year 1812, 
while Murat (that is, the usurper Joachim) filled the 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK CHURCH DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 741 



throne of Ferdinand. We are induced to mention it, not 
for its chief object, which was evidently political, but 
because its members mingled a sense of religion with their 
general views, and professed a high regard for evangelical 
truth, declaring that their grand aim was to establish on 
that basis a system of freedom and justice. Our Redeemer, 
they said, was the victim of despotic tyranny ; and it was 
therefore the duty of his votaries to use all their efforts for 
its extinction. The founders of this association were the 
friends of the exiled family ; but many persons of differ- 
ent political principles were encouraged to join them ; 
and, borrowing the symbol of their confederacy from the 
charcoal trade, they did not disdain the degrading appel- 
lation of Carbonari. The existence of such a society 
did not escape the vigilance of Murat, who took measures 
for the repression of its audacity ; and, being thus endan- 
gered, it was reduced to a comparatively small number ; 
for the leaders dismissed a very considerable part of their 
force, and carried on their intrigues with greater caution 
and secrecy. After the death of Joachim, Ferdinand, 
the restored king, or rather his minister the prince of 
Canosa, instituted a new association as a counterpoise 
to the Carbonari ; but this did not prevent the great 
increase of the latter, who now propagated their prin- 
ciples of reform over many parts of Europe. At length, 
in the year 1820, their intrigues produced a revolution in 
the Neapolitan kingdom ; but it was easily suppressed by 
the operations of an Austrian army, and many of these 
mal-contents were punished in various modes. The soci- 
ety then desisted from its machinations, and declined into 
insignificance. 

In Sicily, so feeble is the papal power, that it is treated 
with a freedom bordering on contempt ; and the inter- 
course still maintained with the court of Rome is confined 
to the formality of procuring either patents for bishoprics, 
to be granted to those who are nominated by the king, or 
dispensations for spiritual wants, when the individuals 
who apply for them have received the royal permission. 
If these applications should be disregarded, the king, be- 
ing (by an ancient grant) a legate of the holy see by birth, 
would, in all probability, order the prelate who acts for 
him in that capacity, and Avho presides in the spiritual 
courts, to accede to the different requests in the pope's 
name, like the English parliamentarians, who, when 
they opposed Charles I. in the field, pretended to act in his 
name. 

In the grand dutchy of Tuscany, after the laudable 
efforts of Leopold in opposition to papal encroachments, 
little remained to be done in the present century to esta- 
blish the independence of the temporal sovereign. It 
appears, indeed, that the pope ostensibly supplies the va- 
cancies in episcopal preferments ; but the rule is, that the 
names and pretensions of four candidates are communi- 
cated to him by the Tuscan minister at Rome, who points 
out the one more particularly favoured by the grand duke ; 
and with this recommendation his holiness feels himself 
obliged to comply. The ordinary benefices are conferred 
on such persons as are deemed by the king or the bishops 
the most deserving ; and the pope's confirmation of any 
appointment of this kind is considered as absolutely unne- 
cessary. The injunctions of the pontiff are allowed to 
have some influence in cases of conscience or of private 
penance ; but, if the answers to these cases should affect 

No. LXII. 186 



in any way the civil state of the persons who have soli- 
cited the illuminations of his wisdom, the acceptance i3 
noticed and sometimes punished as a misdemeanour. 

Even the hereditary bigotry of the king of Sardinia 
does not render him a slave to the pope. He bestows the 
highest ecclesiastical preferments at his own discretion, 
and rejects such orders from Rome as relate to the exter- 
nal polity of the church. He indeed suffers appeals to be 
made from bishops or their judicial deputies to the pon 
tiff, in those few causes which are still subject to the juris- 
diction of an ecclesiastical tribunal ; but these appeals 
are not actually transferred to Rome, unless each subject 
should have been thrice investigated, without a unifor- 
mity of decision, by pontifical delegates, chosen from the 
whole number of churchmen resident within the king- 
dom. 

CHAPTER II. 

History of the Greek Church, and of the Christian 
Communities in Asia and Africa. 

When the Roman empire was divided into two great 
states, it could not be expected, either that a community 
of interest, or an entire coincidence of religion would long 
prevail. As adult persons, who have left their homes 
and formed new families, do not feel themselves bound 
to adhere invariably to the opinions or the practices of 
their parents, nations, when disjoined by mutual consent, 
gradually adopt new sentiments, both in religion and in 
politics : we cannot, therefore, be surprised on finding that 
the Greeks soon began to differ from their former friends 
and fellow-subjects. The occasional religious differences 
between them have been stated by our predecessor ; they 
were not essentially important, but sufficient in the eyes 
of irritable theologians to justify a secession. The schism 
still subsists to such an extent, that there are many 
Greeks, especially in the Morea, who are more unwilling 
to be upon friendly terms with the members of the Latin 
church, than even with Moslems or pagans. These haters 
of their Christian brethren, we may conclude, are men of 
weak minds and illiberal dispositions ; and the majority 
of the Hellenic race, we hope, are not so bigoted and into- 
lerant, though they certainly do not harmonise with the 
Romanists. A respectable votary of the Greek church, 
we are informed, made a formal application to the pope in 
1825, requesting his authoritative aid and support in the 
present contest, and holding out the prospect of a religious 
union : but it does not appear that he was authorised on 
this occasion by the leaders of the insurgent confederacy, 
or that they are disposed to sacrifice any point of doc- 
trine or even of ceremonial practice for the insignificant 
assistance which they can derive from the feeble remains 
of power and influence, yet enjoyed by the head of the 
Romish church. 

The contest to which we incidentally referred, did not 
arise from any new provocation, but from continued re- 
flection upon the enormity of existing abuses. The 
Greeks, habituated to the most disgraceful slavery, seemed 
to submit with patience to the sway of the most brutal 
barbarians that ever obstructed the progress of humanity 
and civilization : but, when the Spaniards, Portuguese, and 
Neapolitans, had roused themselves from that torpor which 
was apparently inconsistent with the warmth of their dis- 



742 HISTORY OF THE GREEK CHURCH, &c. DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



positions, the descendants of an illustrious nation resolved 
to exert their energy for the recovery of their indepen- 
dence. They boldly took up arms in the year 1821, and 
soon formed a new government, which, unaided by the 
jealous and selfish powers of the continent, they are still 
defending against their savage oppressors. Without spe- 
culating on the probable event of the contest, we shall 
merely observe that they are entitled to encouragement 
and support from all the advocates of freedom, and all the 
professors of Christianity. But, say the abettors of arbi- 
trary power, rebels ought rather to be punished than 
assisted. As a general rule, we admit that position ; but 
Ave may venture to affirm, that an exception ought to be 
allowed in the case of the Greeks, the injured slaves of a 
government which is in itself an anomaly and an out- 
rage. 

The ministers of the church, in general, were among 
the promoters of the revolt, and many of them are even 
engaged in the military service, in which some have dis- 
played great alertness and courage. The priests, also, in 
numerous instances, take part with the rest of the com- 
munity in agricultural labours, and in the mechanic arts, 
and thus eke out their scanty incomes in a mode which 
detracts from the respect that would otherwise be paid to 
them. 

The doctrines and ceremonies of this church do not 
appear to have been altered since the beginning of the 
century. The priests have continued their old course ; 
the people have not called for any innovation ; and, since 
the insurrection unfolded the banners of liberty, religion 
has been treated as a secondary concern. 

Adverting to the state of the Greek church in one 
point of ceremonial observance, which also exhibits traits 
of national manners, we are induced to take notice of the 
celebration of Easter. This festival, being deemed the 
most important of all, is observed with great joy and respect. 
The termination of fasting necessarily leads to the idea of 
feasting ; but devotional exercises and pompous ceremo- 
nies in the churches precede the general indulgence and 
merriment. All the inhabitants of the towns and villages, 
in holiday trim, or in their best apparel, sally forth to pay 
visits and to receive congratulations ; and they salute each 
other on the cheek, saying at the same moment, " Christ 
has risen." Beside private rejoicings, firings from the 
batteries and discharges of small arms announce the pre- 
vailing joy ■ and, not content with putting powder into 
their muskets or pistols, they introduce bullets, not, we 
hope, with a malicious intent, but from the wantonness 
of joy. In the evening a grand ceremony takes place in 
the chief towns: all. men who sustain public characters, 
after attending divine service in the principal church, 
meet in the street, and the members of' the executive 
body, approaching the legislative subjects of the state, 
who are drawn up in a line, embrace them with an air of 
affection. On Easter Monday, the festivities are renewed. 
In the environs of the towns, while many of the women, 
dressed in a tasteful manner, are reclining on the grass, 
listening to the attractive sounds of the guitar and the 
flute, equestrian bands are scouring the plain, and hurling 
their javelins ; other parties are engaged in the Romaic 
dance, while discharges of pistols add to the effect of the 
music; children, fancifully arrayed and crowned with 
flowers, sport around their delighted relatives and friends ; 



and apparent joy and hilarity animate the scene. Yet 
there is no great degree of true piety or sincere devotion 
in this celebration of Easter ; — not more, indeed, than we 
observe in the Christmas festivities of England, where 
few think of the religious origin of the general joy. 

As the Russian ecclesiastical establishment scarcely dif- 
fers in any respect from the mother-church, there is no 
occasion for the formality of descriptive remark. Cere- 
monies are more regarded both by the clergy and the laity 
than the dictates of sound morality. Prostrations befor* 
the pictures or figures of saints, — 

'■ Who never yet had being, 



Or, being, ne'er were saints ; : 

pilgrimages over immense deserts to favourite chapels and 
shrines, and other marks of superstition, are the general 
substitutes for true piety. The majority of the priests are 
men of low birth and imperfect education, and many of 
them attend more to the length of their beards than to 
the propriety of setting a good example to their flocks. 

The late emperor Alexander, while he followed the 
rules of the established church, tolerated all sects in the 
exercise of their respective modes of worship, but did not 
suffer them to make proselytes. It was on this ground 
that he banished the Jesuits from his dominions : if they 
had been content with teaching the elements of literature, 
he would have left them unmolested ; but they endea- 
voured to seduce the youth into the pale of the Romish 
church. The same prince treated the Jews, and the Mos- 
lem and pagan tribes of his Asiatic empire, with mildness 
and forbearance, promoting without enforcing their con 
version. When he completed the reduction of Georgia 
under his yoke, he found the people already Christians ; 
and, allured by his beneficent sway, they seemed more 
observant, than they had before been of the ordinances 
of the Greek church. Over Armenia and Kurdistan he 
had some influence, because those countries seemed not 
to have any regular government ; but he did not osten- 
sibly direct either their religion or politics. 

Directing our course to the neighbouring territory of 
Chaldeea, we meet with a numerous body of Christians. 
They inhabit the country on each side of the Tigris, and 
are said to amount to 500,000 persons. They form an 
unconquered state, and are so determined to resist all 
attempts for their subjugation, that they constantly bear 
weapons of defence, which they do not lay aside even 
when they assemble for public worship. Their ostensible 
ruler is a patriarch, who exercises both a spiritual and 
civil jurisdiction ; but he is not invested with that arbi- 
trary power which is so prevalent in Asia ; for the govern- 
ment is, in effect, rather republican than monarchical. 
The most intelligent men in Chaldeea do not pretend to 
know either at what time, or by whom, Christianity waa 
first preached in that country ; but it is probable that Gre- 
gory, styled the Enlightener, whom the Armenians con- 
sider as the founder of their church, introduced the Gospel 
likewise among the ancestors of those tribes of which we 
are now speaking. Yet, as the majority of their number 
follow the opinions of Nestorius, they differ from the Arme- 
nians, who are Monophysites. They appear to be divi- 
ded into two hostile parties,— namely, the Nestorians, who 
compose an independent church, and the converts to the 
Romish persuasion. Literature, at present, is at a very 



HISTORY OF THE GREEK CHURCH, &c. DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 743 



low e)b among them ; and we need not wonder at this 
circumstance, when their neighbours, in every direction, 
are equally unenlightened, or still more ignorant.* 

In Persia are found the remains of sects that have 
Christianity for the basis of their religion ; but the super- 
structure is a miscellaneous kind of erection, not fully 
suited to the foundation. The Sabeans, near the Persian 
Gulf, have tenets and practices borrowed from the Jewish 
and Mohammedan systems ; but, as they believe in the 
divinity of Christ, and the redemption and atonement, 
they are justly considered as Christians. The Sens resem- 
ble our Quakers in their regard to moral duties, and their 
endeavours to subdue the violence of the passions. 

In India the Christians are widely diffused, not only in 
consequence of the invigorated exertions of modern mis- 
sionaries, but from the remains of ancient conversions. 
Some have thought that the Saads are Christians in their 
hearts, though not in their external professions : but it 
appears that they are still heathens. About 155 years 
ago, one Jogee Das declared, at Dahli and other places, 
that he had been commissioned by the divine pupil of the 
Supreme Being to deliver the people from the clouds of 
error, in which they had been long enveloped ; and he 
soon found many who were willing to secede from the 
Hindoo idolatry, and to assist him in the propagation of 
his doctrines. These sectaries resemble the Quakers in 
the plainness of their dress and the simplicity of their man- 
ners, in the avoidance of frivolous amusements, in that 
opinion of the profaneness of an oath which does not 
exclude a strict regard to honour and truth, and in their 
detestation of war and violence. They believe in the 
immortality of the soul, and expect a day of final judg- 
ment. Many of those who have intercourse with our 
missionaries seem inclined to become Christians ; but, 
even among these well-disposed men, conversions are yet 
uncommon. 

In the territory of Canara we still find a large Chris- 
tian community, sufficiently remarkable to claim our no- 
tice. It was from the settlement of Goa that the rays of 
evangelical light diffused their lustre over Canara ; but at 
what time a Christian colony was first formed in this part 
of Southern India, cannot be ascertained. The influence 
of the Portuguese government not only conduced to the 
protection of the settlers, but procured for them the favour 
of princely patronage, so that they obtained from the ra- 
jahs of the country, grants of land and various privileges. 
They received occasional accessions of European devotees 
and of native converts from Goa, and, by their forcible 
persuasions, drew many of the inhabitants- from the dark- 
ness of idolatry ; and the establishment became so flou- 
rishing, that about 80,000 persons are said to have be- 
longed to it at the time when Hyder Ali, the bold usurper 
of the throne ofMaissour, attacked and subdued Canara. b 
They were terrified at the success of a Moslem conqueror ; 
but he treated them with mildness and humanity, and 
confirmed their privileges. Far different was the conduct 
of his son Tippoo, who, although he found them ready 
to submit to his authority, pretended to suspect that, under 
the influence of Christian zeal, they would not long re- 
main faithful subjects to a prince of his religion. He 

* An account of the Chaldaean Christians, by the Rev. Dr. Robert 
Walsh. bin the year 1767. 

' It is affirmed that, in the year 1815, the French missionaries and 1 



therefore insisted on their adoption of that system which 
he preferred, and, observing their reluctance, proceeded to 
acts of violence and outrage. He banished or imprisoned 
the priests ; sent the greater part of their flocks to Se- 
ringapatam and other towns, to linger in poverty and 
wretchedness ; destroyed the churches, and seized the 
lands. The fall of the tyrant, however, in 1799, revived 
the establishment. Those who had been compelled to 
renounce the Christian faith, were re-admitted into the 
church ; many who had emigrated during the persecution 
returned into Canara : religious structures gradually arose 
in various parts ; and, in 1818, the population was esti- 
mated at 21,800. Agriculture is the occupation of the 
majority of this number ; and, in that and other employ- 
ments, the industrious habits and orderly conduct of the 
people are eminently conspicuous. 

The spiritual concerns of this community are conducted 
by about twenty-five priests, who receive instructions from 
the primate of Goa. The religion of the establishment 
is consequently that of the Romish church. The mass 
is solemnized in Latin, while the sermon and other parts 
of the service are delivered in the vernacular tongue. 
Images of our Redeemer, the Virgin Mary, and favourite 
saints, are exhibited in the churches, and receive humble 
adoration ; but public processions are avoided, from an 
unwillingness to shock the prejudices of the Hindoos. 
There is no ecclesiastical tribunal in the province, and 
the only punishment inflicted by the church is that of 
excommunication, of which there are two species, one 
trifling, and the other not so severe as to preclude the 
exercise of kind and charitable offices toward the delin- 
quent. 

Other parts of India, as well as a part of Canara, have 
received the Gospel from catholic emissaries. A mission- 
ary, writing to a friend in the year 1806, represented the 
Romish places of worship as very numerous in Travan- 
cour ; but he added, that, in most of them, mass was per- 
formed only once in two years. Notwithstanding this 
apparent neglect of exterior ordinances, he thought that 
above 1000 catholic missionaries were dispersed over 
India: but this, we apprehend, is an exaggeration. We 
know, however, that the protestant missionaries are very 
numerous, extending their labours in one direction from 
Lahor to Cape Comorin, and, in another, from the Persian 
frontier to China. The mission in the province of Bengal 
appears to be the most flourishing ; and it is more regu- 
larly organized, in consequence of the establishment of an 
episcopal see and a college at Calcutta. The late Dr. 
Middleton laboured with great zeal for the diffusion both 
of Christianity and learning among the Hindoos ; and 
his successor in the bishopric (Dr. Heber) is usefully em- 
ployed in the promotion of the same objects. 

The promoters of Christianity are not very successful 
in the Chinese empire. They are rarely suffered to 
penetrate into the interior parts of the country; and, 
even at Canton, where the British influence is very con- 
siderable, they are viewed with an eye of jealousy, and 
checked in their benevolent purposes. In the hope of 
more auspicious times, they cany on their operations at 
Macao, and also at Malacca, where a college has been 



their converts had chapels at Fokien and other towns, but that a perse- 
cution arose against them, and ruined a concern which seemed to pro- 
mise well. 



744 HISTORY OF THE LUTHERANS, &c. DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



erected, in which are many Chinese students. The New 
Testament has been translated into the Chinese lan- 
guage ; and copies have been gladly accepted by many 
of those emigrants who have transferred their industry 
and arts to the islands of the Indian ocean. 

In Syria and the Holy Land, our missionaries are also 
actively engaged. They hold religious conversations with 
the natives of all persuasions, preach the pure word of 
God, distribute translations of the Scriptures and religious 
tracts, and establish schools. Their success is not equal 
to their wishes : yet they are not discouraged. If they 
convert few of the Jews or Moslems, they guide the 
members of the Greek and Latin churches into a better 
path in their religious journey. As the Druses are sup- 
posed by some antiquaries to be, in a great measure, the 
descendants of the crusaders of the middle ages, it might 
be expected that they would be disposed to listen to the 
exhortations of Christian preachers. Many of them cer- 
tainly are so inclined ; the reigning emir is said to be a 
Christian in his heart ; and we are assured that the 
votaries of the Gospel in their country out-number the 
followers of the Koran. However that may be, the Druses 
certainly live on more friendly terms with the Christians 
than the subjects of any other government in Western 
Asia. 

In Egypt, the few Europeans who undertake the task 
of conversion are treated with mildness by the pasha who 
now rules over that country as an independent prince ; 
but, though he is fond of European arts, he is not in- 
clined to assist in the propagation of that faith which his 
hereditary prejudices teach him to reprobate, and the 
labours of the missionaries are counteracted by the efforts 
of itinerant Moslems, sent from a college at Cairo to 
enforce the doctrines of the pseudo-prophet. 

The Abyssinians might be called a religious people, if 
we could depend on their professions of piety ; but, when 
they make pompous boasts of their zeal, they speak more 
like Pharisees than lovers of truth. They are more at- 
tentive to forms and ceremonies than to the practice of 
true holiness and virtue ; for their morality hangs loosely 
upon them, and their conduct is not sufficiently regulated 
by the laws of honour or by good principles. Their ad- 
diction to perjury is an odious trait in their characters ; 
for they will frequently imprecate curses upon themselves 
if their assertions should be false, knowing at the same 
moment that they are wholly unfounded ; and, when the 
king has sworn that he will pardon a delinquent, whom 
he afterwards wishes to punish, he says to his attendants, 
' Take notice that I scrape this oath away from the 
tongue which pronounced it,' — making movements and 
gestures corresponding with his faithless declaration. 
They do not regard marriage as a religious obligation, 
and the priests therefore do not officiate on the occasion ; 
and chastity is little regarded by either sex. They con- 
sider fasting as a strong proof of piety,; but the priests, 
while they order the laity to fast about 190 days in a 
year, only practise that kind of forbearance for 70 days. 
At the end of each fast the chief priest entertains his 
brethren, who greedily devour the raw flesh of a cow, 
sing hymns, and drink some fermented liquor until they 
are stupified. With regard to the authority of the abuna 
or metropolitan, it does not appear that he has a great 
extent of power or patronage. Officers, who are not re- 



quired to be priests, administer the revenuesof the churches 
and monasteries, and determine spiritual causes, — an 
appeal to the king alone being permitted, if the decision 
should not give satisfaction. 

CHAPTER III. 

History of the Ecclesiastical Communities of the Lu 
therans and Calvinists. 

The Lutherans still bear the chief sway in the Swe- 
dish and Danish kingdoms. Their zeal, however, is less 
fervent than it formerly was, and they are less arbitrary 
and intolerant. They begin to partake of the candour 
and liberality which are now more prevalent than even 
in the last century ; they entertain more just sentiments 
of the right which all persons have to think for themselves 
in points of religion and of conscience ; and they are more 
disposed to follow, in practice, that rational and well- 
founded axiom. Indeed, they now grant full toleration, 
from which even the Jews are not excluded. The ad- 
dition of Norway to the kingdom of Sweden, in the year 
1814, tended to infuse a more liberal spirit into the go- 
vernment. The easy acquisition of a new territory puts 
a prince into good humour, and he instantly becomes 
more mild and conciliatory : but, even before that event, 
it was ordained, in the new constitution which was pro- 
mulgated in 1809, that no person should be harassed or 
called to an account for his religious opinions, unless it 
should clearly appear that his avowal of them, or the 
exercise of that religion to which they appertained, might 
be injurious to the state. This exception, it may be sa?d, 
furnished a pretence for molesting the sectaries ; yet the 
ordinance, we believe, was intended to convey a complete 
toleration. 

The present Danish government is liberal and bene- 
ficent ; and the king is as attentive to the interests of the 
church as to that of the state. Aware of the poverty of 
his clerical subjects in Iceland, he allows pensions to those 
who cannot procure a sufficiency of income from the 
limited bounty of their congregations ; and he evinces his 
Chi istianzealin the promotion of missionary undertakings. 

In the kingdom of the Netherlands, formed in the 
year 1814, by the union of the seven United Provinces 
with those which the French had wrested from the hands 
of the Austrian emperor, the sovereign, though a Calvin- 
ist, granted to his new subjects an entire freedom of 
religious opinion and worship, and an equal share with 
the protestants in the representative government. This 
equality did not satisfy the prelates, who were of opinion 
that the Romish faith, followed for so many ages by the 
people of the Netherlands, entitled its professors to superior 
privileges : but the king, instead of adopting their sug- 
gestion, merely promised that every proposal connected 
with their religion should be submitted to the considera- 
tion of an executive committee, consisting of catholics. 
Since that time, they have occasionally vented their ib 
humourin complaints and remonstrances ; but they cannot 
effectually resist the commanding influence of the protest- 
ants. In 1825, the king gratified them by the establish- 
ment of a seminary, in which candidates for the catholic 
ministry might acquire a sufficient fund of learning for 
the proper discharge of their sacred trust. With the same 
view, and in the same spirit of complacency, the college 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERANS, <fcc. DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 745 



&f Maynooth in Ireland is supported by the liberality of a 
protestant parliament. 

In France, the protestants are chiefly Calvinists. With 
regard both to the French and German branches of that 
sect, it was stipulated, in the agreement between Napoleon 
and the pope, that a synod, composed of five consistorial 
churches, should regulate all religious and ecclesiastical 
concerns, but that its resolutions should be submitted to 
the riders of the state for confirmation ; and tbat the 
appointment of pastors should be subject to similar recog- 
nition or approbation. If the contributions of the different 
communities should be insufficient for the support of the 
officiating ministers, the government promised to increase 
the amount to a fair allowance. As the incorporation of a 
part of Germany with France had added a multitude of 
Lutherans to the state, it was provided by the same con- 
cordat, that their church should be regulated, under the 
authority of the consuls, by consistories both general and 
local, and by councils of inspection. The ministers of the 
Calvin ist persuasion were to be educated at Geneva, and 
those of the Lutheran church at a peculiar seminary of 
their own religion. When the territories in which these 
protestants resided were withdrawn by the allied powers 
from the French yoke, in the year 1815, such regulations 
were made as softened the arbitrary clauses of the former 
compact, and yet left a controlling authority in the hands 
of the civil power. 

The attachment of the elector (now king) of Saxony to 
the Romish faith did not induce the people of that country 
to relinquish their habitual regard for the Lutheran 
system ; and therefore no catholic bishop is allowed to act 
or reside in that realm, except the king's confessor, to 
whom the pope grants the authority of an apostolic vicar. 
In Upper Lusatia, some dignitaries who form a chapter, 
elect a mitred dean, in the presence and with the appro- 
bation of an Austrian commissary ; and, at Bautzen, there 
is a chapter which, though catholic, has a Lutheran 
president. In civil rights, the members of the two com- 
munions now stand upon an equal footing in Saxony. 

In the Hanoverian territories, the catholics were long 
subjected, by the Lutheran rulers of the state, to various 
restrictions. They were not allowed to carry the host 
publicly, or to have any processions ; and, in points of 
ecclesiastical jurisdiction, they were obliged to have re- 
course to the odious authority of a Lutheran consistory. 
But more auspicious days at length dawned upon them ; 
and they are now gratified with all the rights of citizens. 

In the three electorial archbishoprics (Mentz, Cologne, 
and Treves,) which were incorporated with the Prussian 
monarchy by the congress of Vienna, it might be supposed 
that the catholics, forming the bulk of the population, 
would be treated with lenity and indulgence, if not highly 
favoured ; and, in fact, they have greater privileges than 
their brethren who reside in other parts of the king's domi- 
nions. They have, at the court of Rome, an agent who 
promotes their interest, and encourages the pope to counter- 
act the arbitrary spirit of Frederic. In Silesia, where the 
catholics form only a third part of the population of the 
capital, the king has suppressed some of their monasteries, 
and precluded all appeals to Rome. In East Prussia he 

• In the year 1817. 

>> Among the Bavarian protestants, this reconciliation was adjusted 
with particular formality in the year 1818. The united establishment 

No. LXI1I. 187 



suffers no Romish bishop to act, though the priests are 
retained ; and, in Brandenburg and other provinces, he 
rules the sect with a high hand, yet not with oppressive 
tyranny. At the same time, he favours the Calvinists 
more than the Lutherans, but is so far from suffering the 
former to molest the latter, that he would rather witness 
their union than their discord. 

The increasing liberality of sentiment, in the present 
age, is strikingly evinced by the union of the Lutheran 
and Reformed churches in many of the German states. 
The grand duke of Nassau, being connected in marriage 
with a lady of the latter persuasion, and wishing to pre- 
clude religious differences among his children, resolved, 
as far as his influence could extend, to unite his family 
and his subjects in the same devotional forms and worship; 
and his laudable endeavours were crowned with success. 
In the grand dutchy of Hesse and some other states the 
example was speedily followed ; and the completion of 
three centuries from the first exertions of Luther in the 
cause of religious reform, furnished an appropriate day 1 
for the first public celebration of the new union. To all 
liberal minded Christians this must have been a day of 
joy and of sincere congratulation. They recurred to the 
page of history for an elucidation of the dawn of religious 
reform : they reflected on the troubles and sufferings to 
which their ancestors were subjected in the progress of 
emancipation from the yoke of a corrupt church ; and 
they now hailed with heart-felt satisfaction the union of 
those who, without differing on essential points, had long 
been unhappily divided. b 

Notwithstanding these approaches to a union of senti- 
ment, differences of religious opinion still subsist in various 
parts even of protestant Germany ; for a uniform stand- 
ard of thought cannot be expected to exist in any com- 
munity. In those universities in which freedom of speech 
is in any degree allowed, the desire of political liberty ap- 
pears to be accompanied with free-thinking on the subject 
of religion. It is affirmed by professor Tholuck, that the 
university of Halle is the seat of infidelity, and that even 
some of the teachers of theology are infected with an 
anti-christian spirit. This hostility to the truth, he says, 
is still more prevalent at Weimar, where zealous Chris- 
tians are discountenanced and persecuted : but he seems, 
in this instance, to have used the language of exaggera- 
tion. We admit that those who wish to be reformers in 
politics are in general equally desirous of what the}' call 
a reformation in religion ; but the charge of infidelity is 
the common resource of intolerant bigots, who are offended 
even with such as differ from them in unimportant par- 
ticulars, and stigmatize, as infidelity, that which is merely 
a sectarian difference of opinion. 

Dissatisfied with the religious systems established in 
Germany, the baroness Krudener ventured to propose a 
reform. This lad}*, in her youth, was not strongly im- 
pressed with sentiments of piety. Her vivacity seemed 
to disdain all restrictions, and her morals were not pure 
or correct : but, in the progress of her studies, she at 
length met with the works of Stilling, a German enthu- 
siast, whose effusions, operating upon the warmth of her 
disposition, excited in her mind a strong devotional spirit. 



received the appellation of the Protestant Evangelical Christian Church, 
and the holy scripture was declared to be the only basis of faith to 
which its members ought to adhere. 



746 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERANS, &c. DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



When the sparks of her piety were kindled into a flame, 
she resolved to illuminate the world, as far as her abilities 
would allow, and began, in the year 1813, to propagate 
her opinions publicly at Heidelberg. In the following 
year she visited Paris, in the character of a religious re- 
former, and prayed and preached at her hotel for the 
edification of the dissolute and depraved French ; but, 
while she amused them by her eccentricity, she made no 
impression upon their minds. To Switzerland she after- 
wards directed her course, and preached in the open air 
to large congregations. She dwelt on the necessity of 
regeneration, and asserted the saving power of faith and 
grace, even without those works which are meritorious in 
the opinion of the world. She was consequently more 
severe in her denunciations against what the Methodists 
call sin, than against acts of worldly wickedness and guilt. 
She pretended to be convinced that her frequent and 
earnest prayers had so far secured the divine favour, as to 
give her that inspired and influential character which 
enabled her to reclaim thousands of sinners : but, by 
declaiming at the same time against some civil ordinances, 
she so displeased the rulers of several cantons, that 
they ordered her to quit the country. Retiring into the 
dutchy of Baden, she assembled at her house the supposed 
friends of true religion, and boldly continued her career, 
until the magistrates stopped these irregular proceedings. 
She thus became sensible of the danger of defying the 
constituted authorities, and was more prudent and cau- 
tious in her subsequent conduct. She lived many years 
unmolested on an estate which she possessed near Riga, 
where, as well as in her other places of abode, she was 
idolized by the poor for her numerous acts of charity and 
beneficence. She died in the Crimea, in 1824, without 
the fame of having instituted a formal sect. 

While a protestant lady of Germany thus asserted her 
pretensions to the honour of inspiration, a Romish fanatic 
of the same country seemed to think himself equally 
favoured with the divine aid. This was the prince 
Alexander Hohenlohe of Bamberg, who pretended that he 
could cure bodily disorders by prayers and devotional ex- 
ercises ; and several cases have been obtruded on the 
credulous part of the community, containing attestations, 
seemingly strong, of the providential grant of relief 
(at the precise time when the prince solemnized the mass 
and offered up prayers to Heaven) to persons in distant 
countries, whose friends had applied to him in the fulness 
of their faith and the fervour of their zeal. 

Of the twenty-two cantons which now compose the 
Helsetic confederacy, six are attached to the protestant 
communion ; and of these Bern is the most populous 
and flourishing. In six of the states, the catholics and 
protestants bear equal sway, while the other ten cantons 
follow the Romish system. In these, a tolerating dispo- 
sition usually prevails ; but there has lately been an ex- 
ception from that rule in the case of the Pays de Vaud. 
A new sect arose in this canton, or rather a number of 
persons resolved to commence a more methodical course 
of religious duties and devotional exercises, not supposing 
that their zeal in this respect could excite the displeasure 
of the ruling power. If they had restricted these marks 

• Des Persecutions Religieuses dans le Canton de Vaud. A 

similar case occurred in France in 1825. At the village of St. Etiennc, 
one man, sixteen women, and two children, were apprehended for 



of piety to their own families, the government would not 
have taken the least notice of their conduct ; but their 
offence, it seems, consisted in propagating the same spirit 
among others, by inviting their friends to their houses to 
join in these acts of worship. It does not appear that 
they entertained any new opinions or heterodox notions • 
and therefore the great council of the canton had no suffi- 
cient ground of interference ; nor ought it, indeed, to have 
interfered, even if the people had been heretically disposed : 
for, as belief depends on the unsophisticated mind, it 
ought never to be subjected to force or constraint. A 
minister of the Gospel, however, was accused, in the year 
1824, of the heinous crime of having read and expounded 
a chapter of the Scriptures to four persons beside his own 
family, and condemned to banishment for three years by 
his arbitrary judges. a Other ministers were arraigned 
for similar conduct ; but, when twenty-six clergymen 
petitioned the government to relax its rigour in cases of this 
kind, the prosecutions, we believe, were discontinued. 

While the catholics sometimes transgressed the limits 
prescribed by the government, but (in the case which we 
have stated) without serious delinquency, the protestants 
occasionally deviated from the ordinary course of legitimate 
proceedings, and, in one case, disgraced their holy cause 
by sanguinary excesses. In a village of the canton of 
Zurich, the family and neighbours of a farmer, named 
John Peter, were infected with the superstitious folly 
of his daughter Margaret, who, having a tendency to 
devout enthusiasm, had been inflamed into absolute 
phrenzy by the effusions of itinerant preachers. So high 
was the opinion of her sanctity, that she was even sup- 
posed to have been favoured with celestial inspiration ; 
and, by the influence which she thus obtained, she was 
enabled to hold religious assemblies, in which the most 
shameful extravagances and the most hideous enormities 
were practised. She maintained the necessity of waging 
perpetual war with Satan, to prevent him from triumph- 
ing over Jesus Christ, and recommended, as the most 
effectual mode of saving souls from the grasp of the rest 
less fiend, either an act of self-sacrifice, or the infliction 
of mortal wounds on friends and relatives. At a meeting 
of her disciples, she attacked one of her brothers with 
such fury, that only the opportune aid of a female 
domestic saved him from death. Her sister then offered 
herself as a victim, and was beaten to death with an iron 
mallet by the cruel enthusiast and one of her mad friends. 
Her father did not actually witness these outrages ; 
but he knew that she was perpetrating some enormity, 
and yet did not rush into the apartment to secure peace 
and order. He suffered the storm to rage, while he calmly 
pursued his ordinary occupations. Margaret's phrenzy 
was not yet cooled ; and, while she sat on the bed on 
which remained the palpitating body of her sister, she 
began to strike herself with the mallet. Not satisfied with 
the vigour of her own arm, she desired a friend to use 
the instrument with fatal effect ; but, suddenly thinking 
that crucifixion would be a more legitimate death, she 
insisted on suffering that species of torture. Some pieces of 
timber were then placed upon the bed in the form of a cross, 
and to these she was deliberately nailed, without seeming 



meeting at a private house to read the New Testament; and, for this 
alleged violation of the law, they were reprimanded by the magistrates 
and fined. 



HISTORY OF THE LUTHERANS, (fee. DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



"4.7 



to feel any pain, — so great was her fortitude, and so deter- 
mined her self-devoteinent. At length she said, ' Drive a 
nail into my heart, or split my head ;' the latter part of 
the alternative was instantly executed, and a low moan 
announced her expiration. A judicial inquiry was made 
into these horrid acts ; and Ursula Kundig, the most 
willing and ready agent in the work of murderous fanati- 
cism, was sentenced to imprisonment and labour for sixteen 
years. Some of Margaret's male associates were deprived, 
for the rest of their lives, of their political rights ; and her 
father's house, the scene of her folly and cruelty, was 
demolished. Her opinions and fancies were not imme- 
diately renounced by her votaries, some of whom pretend- 
ed to believe that she would soon re-appear in the world. 

The commanding number of protestants in Switzer- 
land may be supposed to keep those of Piedmont in coun- 
tenance ; but the latter (we mean the Vaudois) have been 
so discouraged by the bigotry of the court and the Romish 
clergy, that they are reduced to a small number, not ex- 
ceeding 20,000 who are under the spiritual direction of 
thirteen pastors. They preserve those tenets which they 
maintained on their original separation from the Romish 
church. ' We are called heretics by the members of that 
church (said their primate Peyrani to a late visitant of 
their secluded valleys ;) but our church is founded on the 
durable rock of Christianity. We have adhered to the 
pure tenets of the apostolic age, and the Romanists have 
separated from us.' 

In all the states of which we have been speaking, the 
Jews were at an early period minglsd with the Christians, 
notwithstanding the rooted odium which subsisted 
between the humbled posterity of the ancient patriarchs 
and the triumphant adorers of the Messiah. Although 
the former may be thought to have no concern in a his- 
tory of the church of Christ, it may not be altogether im- 
proper to take notice of the treatment which they have re- 
ceived in our time from the Christian governments. 
While the French revolution was in progress, Gregorie 
was the first who openly proposed that they should be 
rescued from the state of degradation to which they had 
long been subjected; and, as freedom was then (ostensibly at 
least) the order of the day, there was no pretence for with- 
holding it from the Israelites. In consequence of this 
change of opinion, they were admitted into corporations, 
promoted to a variety of offices, obtained considerable 
rank in the army during Napoleon's sway, and were 
deemed not unfit to belong even to his celebrated Legion 
of Honour. It was pretended that he entertained the idea 
of re-establishing their power in Palestine ; but, though 
he perhaps mentioned that wild scheme in a moment of 
rhodomontade, he had no intention of carrying it into 
effect. By his order, however, seventy-four deputies, rep- 
resenting the whole Jewish community in the French 
empire, met at Paris, in 1806, and gave satisfactory 
answers to various questions respecting their institutions 
and practices, and their ideas of the allegiance due to the 
government. In return they were assured by the empe- 
ror, that he would not only secure to them the free exer- 
cise of their religion, but the full enjoyment of the rights 
of French citizens. This meeting was followed by one 
of a more dignified character and a more religious nature, 
— even by the convocation of the grand Sanhedrim. 
The revival of an assembly which had so long been 



discontinued gladdened the hearts of the Jews. Those 
of Italy were reouested to send deputies to it ; and 
the Mosaic tribes of Germany readily concurred in the 
proposed reform. Their worship was re-organised at 
the meeting ; their moral system was placed on a more 
sound basis ; and their civil conduct was judiciously regu- 
lated. 

In Germany, Lessing, the philosophic dramatist, was 
the first who publicly avowed himself a friend to the 
Jews ; and, with a view to their rescue from degradation 
and contempt, he introduced upon the stage a worthy 
and respectable Jew, as Cumberland did at a later period 
in England. He also gave the hand of friendship to 
Mendelsohn (a youth of that despised race,) whose subse- 
quent literary exertions tended to dispel the mists of pre- 
judice, and promote the diffusion of just and liberal prin- 
ciples. Some distinguished statesmen espoused the same 
cause, and urged the rulers under whom they acted to 
extend equal protection to all classes of their subjects. 
Indeed, the loyal zeal of the Jews entitled them to the 
favourable opinion of the German princes ; and. from 
some of these rulers, they received honourable testimonies 
of approbation, and, from the Prussian monarch, all the 
rights of citizens. These marks of regard gave them a 
degree of confidence which the zealous Christians con- 
strued into arrogance ; and hence arose in some of the 
cities, loud clamours against them. The senate of Lubeck 
resolved to treat them as strangers or aliens, and prohibit- 
ed them from carrying on any branch of trade within 
the limits of the city ; and, in several other free towns, 
the obnoxious Israelites were assailed by the tumultuous 
fury of the populace. But the envoys of the chief German 
powers, assembled at Carlsbad, were so far from being dis- 
posed to countenance these unjustifiable proceedings, that 
they menaced the constituted authorities of those cities 
with signal marks of displeasure, if the Jews should not 
meet with that protection which they had a right to 
claim. This interposition was at once honourable to the 
great powers and effective in its result. 

In Holland, long before the present age, the Jews 
enjoyed full toleration and complete protection. They 
increase rather than decline in number, and now compose 
a thirtieth part of the population. At Amsterdam they 
have many synagogues ; but the most respectable congre- 
gation is that which, near the close of the last century, 
was formed by the secession of some German Jews from the 
old community. 

In Poland, the Jews are highly favoured ; and it has 
been remarked (by many visitants of that kingdom) that 
they have a greater appearance of consequence and 
dignity, than the Israelites who reside in any other 
country. They carry on the chief trade, and, except the 
nobles, they form the most opulent portion of the com- 
munity. 

In Great Britain, the Jews cannot expect to be en 
couraged, because it has been repeatedly declared, from 
the judicial bench, that Christianity is a part of the estab- 
lished and constitutional law of the realm ; yet, with the 
exception of power and office, they have every reason to be 
satisfied with their lot. They have opportunities of ac- 
1 quiring opulence, and they well know that riches not only 
impart comfort, but promote influence. Even under the 
sway of Roman catholic princes and the tyranny of Moa 



748 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, &c 



lem barbarians, they are not prevented from indulging in 
their favourite practice of pecuniary accumulation ; and, 
if they are sometimes harassed and fleeced, they are not 
totally ruined. 

CHAP. IV. 

History of the Church of England and its Depen- 
dencies^ of the various Sects in the British Domin- 
ions, and of the Ecclesiastical Communities in the 
United States of America. 

Our divines affect to consider the church of England 
as the best of all Christian establishments, because they 
belong to it ; and many persous who have no interest in 
it, and who are therefore less prejudiced observers, enter- 
tain the same opinion. Yet there are some who venture 
to make one objection to the establishment, by alleging 
that the princely incomes of many of our prelates excite, 
in the public mind, suspicions of ambition and of selfish- 
ness, and that theological aspirants seek high preferments 
from motives of interest, much more than from views of 
piety. The primitive bishops, say these objectors, were 
content with the means of comfortable subsistence and of 
respectable appearance ; luxury, parade, and ostentation, 
had no charms for them ; they were meek and humble- 
minded, and aimed only at the propagation of religious 
sentiments in that mode which was most likely to render 
them efficacious. But many ages, they continue to ob- 
serve, did not elapse before the prelates were corrupted by 
the flattery and submission of superstitious votaries, and 
by the increasing prosperity of the church ; and they 
were then disposed to assume the lordly demeanor and 
high tone of the noble and the opulent. Even he who 
styled himself the " servant of the servants of God' ; glad- 
ly accept the grant of temporal sovereignty and of princely 
power, and, in his new capacity, acted more as the domi- 
neering potentate than as the father or friend of his people. 
Such conduct in the opinion of these censors, did not tend 
to promote the prevalence of a proper sense of religion, 
which would have been more generally diffused, if the 
leading members of the clerical body had not raised them- 
selves so highly above the ordinary state of society. 

Without presuming to settle this dispute, which Mr. 
Burke triumphantly (as he thought) decided in favour of 
the prevailing system, we take this opportunity of remark- 
ing, that our church is apparently more pure, in point of 
doctrine, than any other Christian establishment, and that 
its discipline is liable to few or no objections. We also 
readily allow that the episcopal bench exhibits talent, 
erudition, and virtue, and that the inferior clergy are, in 
general, respectable ; but, if their piety should be accom- 
panied with greater zeal and earnestness ; their exhorta- 
tions and example would be more influential and edify- 
ing. 

The state of our church, at the close of the last century, 
was as tranquil as it was flourishing. It was not agitated 
by such dissensions as had prevailed at the time when the 
convocation acted in some measure like a parliament ; 
and it exhibited a dignified front and an air of boldness, 
which over-awed the discontented part of the nation. The 
majesty of the fabric was supposed to contribute to the 
preservation of its strength ; and, while the bishops, 
deans, and archdeacons, kept the inferior ranks of the cler- 



ical order in a state of due submission and ready obe- 
dience, the church militant bore the aspect of a formidable 
phalanx. It might reasonably have been concluded, that 
the conscientious spirit which induced the protestants to 
claim for themselves the full freedom of religious opinion, 
would have disposed them to tolerate every sect which 
demanded the same right ; but it unfortunately happens, 
that both churchmen and politicians, when out of power, 
make pompous promises and plausible protestations, which 
they are not willing to remember when they are in 
power. Thus the champions of the church of England, 
when they had obtained a separate establishment by dif- 
fering from the pope, would not quietly suffer any secta- 
ries to differ from them. Even archbishop Cranmer, who 
was considered as very mild and humane, became a cruel 
persecutor, when poor and h umble Christians ventured to 
differ from him ; and queen Elizabeth, when she had sub- 
verted the Romish system in this country, put many per- 
sons to death for only asserting the same privileges which 
she claimed for herself and her supporters. The puritans 
also (when, under the appellation of Presbyterians, they 
gained the ascendency about the middle of the seven- 
teenth century,) persecuted the adherents of the church 
of England with bitter animosity ; and toleration did not 
properly exist in this country before the reign of king 
William III., who, while he studiously discountenanced 
the violent spirit and malignity of the catholics, admit- 
ted the protestants of every denomination to the free 
exercise of their religion. The catholics were not then 
entitled to such indulgence, because time had not then 
shown the increase of their humanity, or the melioration 
of their social feelings ; and even now, when there is no 
reason to suppose that they would break out into the bratal 
fury of religious murder, even if they had the opportunity 
of authoritative exertion, we still say that they ought not to 
be trusted with power. They still cherish the zeal of 
conversion ; they still brand us with the stigma of heresy ; 
they still think that no one can be saved out of the pale of 
their church. They may say that we have no right to 
censure them for entertaining such an opinion ; yet we 
have a right to exclude them from that establishment 
which they would wish to overturn, and from those emol- 
uments in which, if they should ever gain their grand ob- 
ject, they would not allow us to participate. They, and 
also their puritanical opponents, refused to tolerate when 
they ought to have been so inclined, and would still, we 
apprehend, be equally bigoted ; but the members of the 
church of England have derived lenity from the softening 
progress of time, and now make every concession that their 
adversaries can reasonably demand. They allow full pro- 
tection and constitutional security, while they withhold 
the grant of that power which may be abused and mis 
applied. 

This is the point which is still disputed between the 
advocates of the establishment on one hand, and the cath- 
olics and protestant dissenters on the other. The only 
ground of refusal, on the part of the former, is the danger 
that may be apprehended from that hostility which then- 
opponents cannot fully disguise. Notwithstanding this 
ground of alarm, the leaders of the cabinet, in the year 
1807, were advocates for the claims of the catholics. At 
a time when the rancorous hostility of a powerful enemy 
threatened the kingdom with serious danger, it became 



DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



749 



highly expedient to concentrate all the energy of the 
nation, and call forth the animated exertions of every 
class and of every sect. It was therefore proposed by the 
ministry, that the permission which had been granted to 
the Irish catholics to hold any rank in the army except 
the highest stations, should be extended to their brethren 
in Great Britain, and that persons of all religious persua- 
sions should likewise be allowed to serve in the navy. 
When the scheme was communicated to the king, he re- 
luctantly gave his assent to the introduction of a bill on 
the subject. Its provisions, on more deliberate considera- 
tion, were in some degree extended ; and his majesty then 
not only made strong objections to it, but insisted on a 
written assurance from the ministers, that they would 
never again bring it forward. They properly refused to 
agree to a demand which they deemed (and which un- 
questionably was) irregular and unconstitutional, and re- 
tired from the public service. The dread of danger from 
too great concessions to a sect avowedly hostile to the pro- 
testant ascendency, spread from the throne among the 
people, and the cry of ' no popery' again prevailed, not 
merely because it was artfully raised by the partisans of 
ihe new ministry, but from the general unwillingness of 
the nation to favour an intolerant sect. 

As it was supposed that the prince regent was not hos- 
tile to the claims of the catholics, their advocates brought 
forward the question in 1813, at a time when the zeal of 
the British nation against them seemed to be dormant. 
Mr. Grattan denied that they contended for power ; they 
only desired (he said) the same civil rights and official 
qualifications which other citizens enjoyed. He adduced 
the instances of Prance and Hungary to prove, that even 
the bigotry of catholic governments allowed them to give 
more than mere toleration to the protestants ; and this 
was an example which our parliament ought readily to 
follow with regard to the present claimants. In the bill 
which he introduced, it was proposed that they should be 
eligible to a seat in parliament, and might be appointed to j 
any civil office whatever, except two or three of the high- 
est employments, on taking a new oath against the pope's 
temporal power and pretended infallibility, and disavow- 
ing any intention of subverting or disturbing the protestant 
establishment, either in the church or the state. When 
the question was put on the parliamentary clause, it was 
rejected by a majority of four votes ; and the bill, having 
thus lost its leading feature, was indignantly relinquished 
by those who had exerted their whole strength in its 
support. Even the catholics were not united in its 
favour ; for the prelates of their sect, in Ireland, alleged 
that it would encroach on the due exercise of their 
functions, and on the spiritual jurisdiction of their su- 
preme pastor, although this result was not contemplated 
by (he framers of the bill. 

For man}'- years the inferior catholics seemed to treat 
with indifference the question of their emancipation (as 
the claim was styled by their leaders ;) but they at length 
loudly called, more particularly those of Ireland, for the 
restoration of their rights, and it was resolved that every 
effort should be made to interest the parliament in their 
nehalf. Sir Francis Burdett, in the year 1S25, readily un- 
dertook the enforcement of what he conceived to be their 
just pretensions, and introduced a bill which obtained the 
&iipport of the house of commons ; but the peers, impres- 

No. '.XIII. 1SS 



sed with a sense of constitutional policy, rejected the bill 
by a majority of 48 votes. The disappointment did not 
discourage the bold sectaries. Although an association 
which they had formed for the more effectual prosecution 
of their grand object was suppressed by a specific statute, 
they declared that no obstacles which might be thrown in 
in their way by the illiberality and malice of their adver- 
saries should deter them from a renewal of their demands. 

Among the protestant sects in Great Britain, the Pres- 
byterians are considered as the most numerous class ; the. 
Independents are said to be the next in point of number ; 
and the Baptists, or Anabaptists, are supposed to take 
the third place. The Methodists are rapidly increasing ; 
and, indeed, their ministers in general are more earnest 
and zealous than the preachers among the other sects, and 
thus make a more powerful and permanent impression. 

Amidst the multiplication of the votaries of religion, 
the followers of the spirit (we mean the Quakers) do not 
augment their number ; we may rather say, that, for many 
years past, this has been a declining sect. Their more 
extensive concerns in trade, and the consequent increase 
of their connexions with worldly-minded men, and with 
the mass of the community, may have partly contributed 
to thiseffect ; and, amidst the fondness for pleasure that per- 
vades the nation, many of them may have imbibed a spirit 
of dissipation, which the grave elders of the fraternity 
have been unwilling to countenance. A philosophic reader 
may be induced to add, that the more enlightened reflec- 
tion of modern times must have had the principal effect 
in accelerating the decline of Quakerism. Whatever may 
be the causes of it, the fact is admitted by the Friends 
themselves. They still form, however, a respectable sect ; 
and a summary view of the principles which they at the 
present time profess, may perhaps gratify the curious 
observer of sectarian varieties. The)" are of opinion, that 
God has imparted to all human beings, though in different 
degrees, a portion of his own spirit, without which it 
would be impossible for them to discern spiritual things, or 
even to understand the Scriptures. It is, they say, a pri- 
mary and infallible guide ; and, as those who encourage 
it are in their progress to salvation or redemption it be- 
comes also a redeemer. They consider redemption in 
two points of view ; either as it is promoted by outward 
or inward means, or as it relates to past or future sins. 
Jesus Christ, by offering himself as a victim, effected the 
former redemption ; but it is the spirit, or Christ within 
which tends to produce the latter, by leading to regenera- 
tion and to the perfection of piety and virtue. Christ, they 
add, was man, because he became incarnate ; and he 
was divinity, because he was the word. A resurrection, 
they think, will take place, though not of the body as it, is. 
In the regulations of future punishment, guilt will not be 
imputed to any one on the ground of original sin, or the 
delinquency of Adam and Eve, but only for the actual com- 
mission of sin. Baptism and the eucharist are not essen- 
tials of Christianity as outward ordinances, but only as 
they are administered by the spirit. By this internal guide, 
persons of both sexes are qualified for the ministerial func- 
tions ; and, like the primitive Christians, they ought to 
preach the Gospel gratuitously. No difference of religious 
opinion can be a just ground of- obloquy or persecution. 
Evil ought not to be returned for evil ; and not only all 
priv:>i« violence, but all wars and public hostilities, ought 



750 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, &c. 



to be avoided. The loss of life is not a proper punishment 
for any crime ; the reformation of a delinquent ought to 
be the great object of jurisprudence. The laws ought 
not in any case to be forcibly resisted ; and, even if the 
conscience should be offended by submitting to them, the 
penalties are to be patiently borne. Moral education ought 
to be the object of particular attention ; and it is the duty 
of every religious community, not only to assist its poor 
members in point of bodily comfort, but to provide for the 
instruction of their children. The dignity of man re- 
quires, that his word should be equivalent to an oath ; 
and the Scriptures, in the most positive manner, con- 
firm this sentiment. Trade is not in itself degrading ; 
but honesty, and a punctual adherence to engagements, 
are requisite for its prosecution, and such branches as 
may be attended with the moral detriment of the trader 
himself or of others, ought to be carefully avoided by 
every Christian. 

These principles unquestionably exhibit the Quakers 
in the light of a moral sect ; and those who are well ac- 
quainted with them will not deny their general claim to 
that character. They may also be regarded as a friendly 
community, if not distinguished by politeness of beha- 
viour or elegance of manners. Shrewdness and good 
sense are frequently observed among them, though we 
cannot affirm that many of them are eminent for learn- 
ing or erudition. 

The Quakers, when their sect had oeen full}'' formed, 
were scarcely ever divided by doctrinal disputes; but, early 
in the present century they began to be agitated by a spirit 
of dissension : and the committee of management, selected 
at ore of the annual meetings, seemed willing to assume 
a degree of authority which the synod never intended to 
allow. One of the friends, in a spirited pamphlet, ani- 
madverted upon this arrogant conduct, and particularly 
censured the proceedings against Hannah Bernard, an 
itinerant expounder of Quakerism, who, for denying the 
Trinity, expressing her disbelief in miracles, and differing 
from the committee in other points, had been prohibited 
from preaching. William Matthews also took up the pen 
against the new dictators, whom he accused of having 
arbitrarily excommunicated him for such doctrinal varia- 
tions as he was prepared to justify. Dissensions of this 
kind are occasionally renewed, without leading, however, 
to a violent explosion. 

Although the Unitarians had been excused from the 
obligation of subscribing the thirty-nine articles, they 
were not satisfied while the act of king William hung 
over their heads, menacing them with penal inflictions, 
if they should deny the Trinity either in conversation or 
in writing ; but from this state of apprehension they were 
relieved in the year 1813. Another ground of dissatisfac- 
tion still remained ; for their marriages, like those of the 
catholics, were not considered as legal, when the ceremo- 
nies were merely accordant to their own ritual. They 
therefore repeatedly applied to the parliament for a redress 
of this grievance. On their last application, in 1825, they 
were alarmed at the declaration of the lord chancellor, that, 
however they might think themselves protected by statute 
law, they are yet liable to prosecution and punishment, 
by the common law of the land, for denying that doctrine 
which is an essential part of Christianity. They loudly 
complained of this insinuation, and declared that they 



would take the earliest opportunity of obviating its effects. 
The learned judge says that they are not Christians, a3 
they deny the divinity of our Redeemer; and yet he con- 
nives at the toleration enjoyed by the Jews, the avowed 
enemies of every establishment which bears the impress 
of Christianity. He has uniformly opposed their efforts to 
procure an act of parliament for the solemnization of their 
marriages according to their own forms, and, in this perti- 
nacity, he is supported by the majority of the peers, in defi- 
ance of the arguments and influence of his more liberal 
friend, the prime minister. There is no good reason for 
withholding so slight a favour, or (as the Unitarians would 
say) so just a claim. 

A new association has been formed upon the same basis. 
The framers of this society were at first Universalists, 
and so far orthodox as to be Trinitarians ; but a doubt arose 
in the mind of one of the members, whether the holy Tri- 
nity really existed, and, in the progress of deliberation, he 
convinced himself that the idea of the divine Unity was 
a more rational doctrine. By the plausibility of his argu- 
ments he drew others into his opinion ; and, when the 
pastor of the flock pronounced it to be heretical, a seces- 
sion was the natural result. The seceders publicly de- 
clared the motives and reasons of their conduct, and, as 
if they were at a loss for an ecclesiastical constitution, and 
had never before thought of such a subject, attentively 
studied the New Testament, with a view of ascertaining 
the nature and the laws of the primitive Christian church. 
The result of this inquiry was a conviction that the unity 
of the church was one of its principal characteristics ; that 
the equality of its members distinguished the kingdom of 
Jesus from all political realms, and formed the true ground 
and security of Christianity liberty ; that this general 
equality ought not to prevent the appointment of elders 
and of deacons, who might preserve order in the establish- 
ment, and superintend its concerns ; that not only these, 
but all the members of their society, had a right to teach 
and exhort, so as to preclude the necessity of appointing 
regular preachers ; and that it was a sufficient ground of 
communion with their sect, to acknowledge the authority 
of Christ as a divine teacher, without regard to the various 
doctrines which have been engrafted upon that simple basis. 
They style themselves Free-thinking Christians, and ap 
pear to have made some progress in impressing ethers with 
their sentiments. 

While these sectaries were extending their influence, a 
scheme of union was framed by the advocates of the same 
general principles. It was proposed, in the year 1825, that 
three partial societies should be united under the title of 
the British and Foreign Unitarian Association, which would 
be authorized to embrace every object and circumstance 
connected with the propagation of Unitarianism. The 
proposal Avas readily adopted ; and, as many protestant 
dissenters had lately joined in the petitions presented to 
the parliament against the relief of the catholics, the assem- 
bly took this opportunity of expressing a ' thorough disa- 
vowal and disapprobation' of such conduct, and a deter- 
mination to support every effort which might be made to 
' break the chains imposed by interested or short-sighted 
policy upon the sacred rights of conscience.' 

Some years before this concentration of Unitarian 
strength, a secession from the established church occurred, 
not perhaps very important, but at least entitled to our 



DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



75 



notice. Several ministers, who had been in the habit of 
conferring on religious topics, began to question the pro- 
priety of continuing in a state of external adherence to 
the church, when they entertained what they deemed 
reasonable objections to various parts of the ritual and 
the liturgy, and also disapproved the enforced dependence 
of the church (according to the present constitution) upon 
the temporal power. The baptismal service, they said, 
prescribed a ritual observance in lieu of a divine and spi- 
ritual operation : in the service appropriated to the dead, 
every one was styled a Christian, whereas many who were 
thus honoured were merely so in external profession ; and 
the Athanasian creed was repugnant to that scriptural de- 
claration which promised salvation to all who believed in 
Christ. They at length resolved to renounce the general 
assent which they had given at their ordination to the 
thirty-nine articles, the homilies, and the prayer book, 
while they readily acquiesced in particular clauses of those 
branches of our religious system ; and, being conscientious 
men, they resigned their ecclesiastical preferments, which 
they considered as the wages of error, if not of iniquity. 
They then began to exercise their new ministry in the 
vicinity of Taunton ; but, being considered as Antinomi- 
ans, they were not so far respected as to be enabled to 
make great progress in the work of proselytism. They 
agreed with the Methodists in their opinion of faith, which 
alone, they thought, could produce a sinner's justification; 
and, when it was argued against them that they did not suf- 
ficiently inculcate the axiom of religious obedience, they 
alleged that their enforcement of the principle or the theory 
would lead to the requisite practice. They believed (as far 
as we can judge from the opinions of some individuals of 
their number) that Christ existed with God before the cre- 
ation of the present world, and that he is the proper object 
of religious worship, the prophet, priest, and king of the 
church ; and they leaned to the doctrine of election, with- 
out making it so prominent a part of their system as the 
rigid Calvinists do. With regard to the Trinity, they held 
a middle course between the orthodox clergy and the Uni- 
tarians. Some variations have occurred in their opinions 
since their original secession ; but these are of little mo- 
ment, and are such as might reasonably be expected from 
sectaries who have not framed a deliberate creed. 

The reveries of Joanna Southcott we mentioned on a 
former occasion. She continued her delusions long after 
the commencement of this century, and not only retained 
her influence over her original followers, but drew many 
more into her train. A seal, bearing the initials of her 
name, which she pretended to have accidentally found 
when she was at work in her master's house, furnished 
her with a pretence for declaring that she was authorized 
by Providence to propagate a new revelation ; and, in the 
midst of her spiritual avocations, she derived temporal 
advantage from the sale of sealed passports for the admis 
sion of the faithful into the celestial regions. Near the 
close of her life, in the year 1814, she impudently an- 
nounced herself as the future mother (though a virgin) 
of the Shiloli promised in holy writ. Her followers now 
became still more numerous, and by their senseless liber- 
ality, presents were lavished upon the supposed object of 
divine favour, that the approaching birth might be cele- 
brated with due splendour. The lady, however, died with- 
out enjoying the honour of being a mother. Many of her 



friends would not believe that she was actually dead, and 
fondly expected the speedy resuscitation of the spark of 
life : but, after an anxious suspense of four days, they 
resigned their hopes, and suffered her to be consigned, like 
an ordinary mortal, to the grave. Her chaplain then 
declared, that she had renounced, on her death-bed, the 
visions of her disordered brain ; yet there are still, it is said, 
many who are not ashamed to own that they yet follow 
her opinions. It might have been supposed that her re- 
cantation would have put an end to the delusion : but, 
even in enlightened times, the most senseless fanaticism 
will occasionally take possession of weak heads and narrow 
minds. 

Compared with the wild fanaticism of Joanna, the 
sentiments of Dr. Alexander Tilloch may even seem 
reasonable. He was a philosophical and scientific man, 
who differed in some respects from the established church. 
He and his friends assumed the denomination of Chris- 
tian Dissenters, declaring, at the same time, that they 
were slaves to no sect, though it was supposed that they 
entertained opinions similar to those of the Sandema- 
nians. They professed a determination of directing 
their conduct by the rules and injunctions of the Scrip- 
tures, and went so far in the formation of a sect as to 
appoint two elders for the administration of their spiritual 
concerns. The death of the philosopher, in the year 1825, 
probably dissolved the association ; for we do not hear of 
its continuance. 

An attempt to form a religious party at Coventry may 
here be mentioned, though its features are not so marked 
as to entitle it to the distinction of a new sect. The mem- 
bers call themselves Samaritans, and we hope that their phi- 
lanthropy gives them a just claim to the honourable appel- 
lation. They resemble the Quakers in the plainness of 
their apparel, in their allowance of female preachers, and 
their abstinence from oaths ; but they seem to lean more 
to the doctrines of the Methodists than to those of any 
other sect. 

A zealot named Muloch lately endeavoured to create 
a sect, by exclaiming against the corruptions of Chris- 
tianity, and proposing such a reform as would, in his 
opinion, render that religion much more efficacious and 
salutary than it now is. By drawing the people about 
him at Oxford, and exhorting them to adopt his opinions 
and advice, he exposed himself to an attack from the sup- 
porters of orthodoxy : but the riot had no serious conse- 
quences. In his conduct toward the members of his society, 
he has shown himself to be more influenced by the arbi- 
trary and intemperate spirit of Knox than the conciliatory 
mildness of Melancthon. 

Having thus treated of the established church, and also 
noticed the deliberate secessions from its rules and ordi- 
nances, we advert to missionary concerns, in which both 
the orthodox and the heterodox are disposed to concur. 
Missions had been occasionally undertaken before the cur- 
rent century ; but it is only in our times that the attempts 
of British subjects with that view have assumed a regular 
and systematic form. The English, for ages, were very 
slow in the promotion of missionary labours. They 
thought more of their immediate concerns than of foreign 
undertakings, and were content with the secure enjoyment 
of their religion at home, without troubling themselves 
about the faitli or the piety of the rest of the world. 



752 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, &c. 



Desultory attempts, indeed, were occasionally made for 
the conversion of the slaves in our colonies, and also of 
the neighbouring savages ; and, after the establishment 
of the Society for the propagation of the Gospel in Foreign 
Parts, either zealous and adventurous clergymen, or pious 
and well educated laymen, were regularly employed in 
that salutary work ; yet their operations were conducted 
on a small scale, and the government did not add its ener- 
etic weight to the scheme, but merely suffered it to take 
ts course under that nominal encouragement which it 
derived from a royal charter. A new ebullition of zeal, 
however, in this cause, appeared before the close of the 
last century, and it has so far increased in vigour, as to 
form one of the marked features of the age in which we 
live. The first stimulus in our time appears to have been 
given by a mechanic of the name of Carey, and John 
Thomas, an equally zealous Christian. The former, being 
strongly inclined to preach the Gospel, had solicited and 
obtained the honour of ordination among the Baptists ; 
and, at a meeting of his brethren, he proposed a question 
relative to the practicability of an effective diffusion of 
evangelical truth among the pagan communities. As the 
other ministers concurred with him in the affirmative 
opinion, he went with his family to India, accompanied 
by his friend, who had already preached to the Hindoos 
in Bengal. They were afterwards joined by some other 
missionaries, but were checked in their pious operations 
by the British government, and therefore gladly took re- 
fuge in the Dauish town of Serampore, where they opened 
a school, and converted some of the natives to Christianity. 
The marquis Wellesley at length allowed them to travel 
in those provinces which he governed; but this permission, 
far from being fully granted, was arbitrarily restricted. 
The missionaries, however, prosecuted their course with- 
out murmuring, and in some measure diminished the 
number of Pagans. 

While Mr. Carey and his associates were thus employed, 
a scheme of conversion was formed, in the year 1800, on 
a grand and comprehensive plan by the ministers and 
friends of the established church, and the institution was 
denominated the 'Church Missionary Society to Africa and 
the East,' with a proviso that the ostensible limitation of 
the efforts of its members and missionaries should not 
■ bind them to an exclusion of their attempts from any 
other unoccupied place, which might present a prospect of 
success to their labours.' The leaders of the society at first 
resolved that none but those who had received episcopal 
ordination should act on these occasions ; but, when it was 
found difficult to procure a sufficient number of clerical 
missionaries, catechists were employed in the propagation 
of the Christian doctrines and the enforcement of salutary 
precepts. For the promotion of these objects, pecuniary 
contributions were earnestly solicited in all parts of the 

1 To this institution, and other schemes calculated for religious pur- 
poses, the subjects of the British empire are now more liberal than they 
everwere before our time. For instance, in the year 1822, they contributed 
a sum nearly amounting to 352,000Z. — a subscription far exceeding the 
revenues of some German principalities. The British and Foreign 
Bible Society received much more than a fourth part of this sum; the 
next receipts, in point of magnitude, accrued to the Society for pro- 
moting Christian Knowledge ; the next, to the Church Missionary Insti- 
tution ; the London and Wesleyan Missionary Societies obtained the 
next proportion ; the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 
Foreign Parts had a smaller, yet a considerable share ; then came the 
Baptist Missionary Institution, and the Society for the Conversion of 
the Jews. The five societies which received the smallest sums were the i 



kingdom and of its dependencies ; and even the smallest 
donations were thankfully accepted. During many years 
the produce was very inconsiderable, the zeal of the nation, 
not being sufficiently awakened : yet the fund of the society 
continued to increase, and its income has enabled it to 
establish nine grand missions : these are extended over 
forty-two stations, comprehending 255 schools, in which 
about 1,350 adults and 11,500 children are instructed in 
religion and the elements of literature. 11 For the use of 
these pupils and other inhabitants of the countiy about 
these stations, the Scriptures have been printed in a great 
variety of languages, and useful tracts, composed in a 
familiar style, have been circulated. As a specimen of 
the effect of these pious labours, the growing civilization 
of the colony of Sierra Leone may be mentioned with 
pleasure. Two thirds of its population consist of ne- 
groes, (rescued from the hands of base and infamous 
dealers in slaves,) the majority of whom, by the care and 
example of Christian instructors, have been so far civilized 
as to become quiet and friendly neighbours, industrious 
artisans and agriculturists, and devout frequenters of places 
of worship. 

Other instances of missionary success may be drawn 
from many of the inhabited spots in the Pacific Ocean. 
In the Society Islands, in particular, a great change has 
taken place. The manners and deportment of the natives 
are comparatively civilized ; their morals are much less de- 
praved, and (says a reverend gentleman) a " system of 
idolatry has been annihilated, which was reared by 
treachery and crime, and had for ages, through the ter- 
rors which it inspired, kept the population in a state of 
abject wretchedness." The Scriptures have been trans- 
lated into that language which, with little variation of 
dialect, is diffused over many clusters of islands in the 
wide extent of the Pacific ; and, in various places, public 
meetings are annually holden by the chieftains, to de- 
liberate on the most effectual means of propagating that 
religion which they consider as a great blessing, commu- 
nicated to them by the servants of God and the friends 
of mankind. 

As the success of these labours, however, appeared to 
be partial and limited, it was found expedient to quicken, 
at intervals, the zeal of the public. It was therefore stated, 
in a late address from the Society for the Propagation of 
Christian Knowledge, that the great increase of population 
in those territories to which its operations had been more 
particularly directed, rendered a considerable augmenta- 
tion of the number of missionaries and school-masters 
necessary for the useful prosecution of its career, although 
these now exceeded 200 in the American colonies alone ; 
that, ' with a view to the formation of a body of native 
clergy for the service of the colonies, the society had con- 
tributed largely to the support of the King's College (at 



following ; — one which was established for the promotion of religious 
knowledge among the poor, one for the distribution of the Scriptures 
among seamen in the mercantile service., one for the diffusion of ortho- 
dox tracts, and Sunday School Society, and the Irish Society of London. 
This enumeration, though partial (for the list then published included 
thirty-one associations, )"serves to evince the proportional interest taken 
by the public in these pious undertakings. Many might think that tho 
Gospel Society deserved the most marked encouragement from the con- 
tributors; but we have no right to blame, in this instance, the exercise 
of private discretion. These associations undoubtedly reflect great 
credit on the country to which we belong; and we trust that the zeal by 
which they are fostered will not suffer any abatement. 



DURING THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. 



753 



Windsor in Nova Scotia,) by an annual grant and by the 
endowment of divinity scholarships and exhibitions ;' that 
the directors of its funds had also made frequent grants 
toward the erection of churches in the infant settlements, 
and had been greatly instrumental in diffusing the national 
system of education over every part of the Trans-Atlantic 
colonies ; and that another source of expenditure had 
been opened by the extended colonization of the southern 
parts of Africa" and the interior of New Holland. Thus 
religious instruction and elementary learning were hap- 
pily combined. 

The systematic addition of the duty of the school-mas- 
ter to that of the missionary arose from the zeal of the 
Rev. Dr. Bell. who. wishing to render ordinary scholarship 
more general, introduced a system of elementary educa- 
tion more comprehensive with regard to the number of 
pupils, and more rapid in its progress, than the ordinary 
mode of instruction. The supporters of the scheme boasted 
that 500 boys and girls might be taught to read and write, 
and to perform the common rules of arithmetic, sooner 
than fifty in the usual way. The plan chiefly consisted 
in simultaneous dictation to a large assemblage, and in 
the emplovment of a number of instructors gradually se- 
lected from the aggregate number of the pupils. 

The scheme has an air of quackery ; but it has been 
practised with such success, in the national schools of 
Great Britain, and in various parts of the continent, that 
there are more readers and writers than at an}* former 
period. It is now a prevailing wish that all the inhabi- 
tants of this and every other country should receive in- 
struction in reading- and writing : but the proposal has 
been condemned by some prejudiced men of the higher 
class of society, who pretend that the plebeian learners 
would thus sooner imbibe ideas of reform and false doc- 
trines of ever}" kind, or, from the pride of learning, would 
contract ideas too high for the stations which they might 
eventually fill. In reply to these objections we may remark, 
that principles of pretended reform may be taught to indi- 
viduals who cannot read, and whose illiteracy will render 
them less able to detect the fallacies of the artful teacher ; 
and. in the next place, that the instruction derivable by 
tlie poor from this plan, though useful, will not be of so 
elevated a kind as to inspire them with overweening pride 
or vanity, or give them a disgust to the meanness of ordi- 
nary occupations. 

The labours of the missionaries in the "West Indies 
were exposed to a serious check by the commotions which 
arose at Barbadoes in the year 1S23. Apprehending that 
the parliament might be induced to put an end to slavery, 
and knowing that measures had been taken to repress the 
shameful tyranny of the planters, the leading men in that 
island exclaimed against the ' viilanous African Society,' 
calumniated the characters of Mr. Wilberforce and his 
friends, and denounced vengeance against the Methodist 
missionaries, whom they accused of instigating the negroes 
and mulattoes to disaffection and sedition. The charge 
was ill-founded ; yet many persons of reputed respecta- 
bility encouraged the white rabble of Bridge-town to insult 
and harass the Methodists and their friends, and demolish 
their meeting houses. The chief pueacher fled in con- 
sternation to the island of St. Vincent ; those who re- 
mained at Barbadoes were not allowed to act as ministers, 
and no other missionaries were suffered to land. The 
No. LX11I. 1S9 



parliament expressed its indignation at these outrages ; 
but we do not find that any steps were taken for the 
punishment of the perpetrators. This forbearance excited 
strong animadversion when contrasted with the cruel 
treatment of the slaves in Demarara, many of whom, for 
an unwillingness to work, and for some riotous acts, were 
sacrificed, under the forms of justice, to the vindictive rage 
of the planters. 

The late appointment of several bishops for the West 
Indies will, it is hoped, produce, by the influence of their 
examples and persuasions, a better spirit among the white 
population, and promote the conversionand enlightenment 
of the people of colour and the negroes. But it is neces- 
sary, for the due accomplishment of these desirable pur- 
poses, that the new prelates should be more active and 
zealous than those of Europe. 

In the United States of North America, the episcopal 
appointments are still kept up, and the other religious 
communities and congregations are in that regular pro- 
gress which proves that the nation is not ungodly, al- 
thousrh the laws and government do not ordain or recosf- 
nize, as in the European states, the superiority of a parti- 
cular creed or mode of worship. Hence there is no occasion 
for the grant of toleration, as that term implies an allow- 
ance, by the ruling power, of such doctrines, ceremonies, 
and practices, as are not exactly consonant with the esta- 
blished system. As no community predominates over 
another, all are equal in the eye of the law ; the Episco- 
palians and Presbyterians, the Jews and Roman catholics, 
the Moravians and Quakers, are perfectly on a level. 

Among the more recent religious communities beyond 
the Atlantic, the Shakers seem to have excited the great- 
est degree of attention. Having mentioned their origin 
and their doctrines on a former occasion, we now state 
some particulars respecting their manners and conduct. 
Even while they disallow marriage, and do not permit a 
man to touch a woman on any occasion or pretence, they 
are assembled in families. The males and females occupy 
different apartments in the same house, and have separate 
tables, but meet occasionally for society and labour, as 
well as for religious service. They exercise all the use- 
ful arts and manufactures among themselves, without 
being indebted to persons of other persuasions for the least 
assistance. As far as they conveniently can, they have 
every thing in common ; and, when new members are 
admitted, they are required to assign their property to the 
directors of the society for the general benefit. They 
profess to follow the advice of the apostle, " Let all things 
be done decently and in order." In one respect they ap- 
pear to be disorderly ; for, in the midst of their public- 
worship, they sing and dance like maniacs : yet. they have 
• : method in their madness/'" Upon the whole, they form 
a quiet, inoffensive, and apparently virtuous community. 

Another sect (if indeed a religious party in a country 
which has no established national creed can properly be 
called a sect) has arisen in North America ; but it is little 
known, and not very prevalent. Mr. Bees, a Welsh cler- 
gyman, transported himself to America with the benevo- 
lent view of propagating Christianity in that form which 
he considered as the most pure and genuine, or rather in 
that way which would leave every one at liberty to follow 
his own opinion in points which were not essential, while 
he acknowledged Christ as his only head. He proposed 






754 



HISTORY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, &c, 



that the society which should be instituted should be 
styled the Christian Church, and that no other guide than 
the New Testament should be allowed to its members ; 
and a secondary part of his scheme was the propagation 
of the Gospel among the heathen communities. While 
he laboured to make religious converts, he endeavoured, 
with equal zeal, to put an end to the existence of slavery 
in the United States ; but he did not, either in this or in 
his other pursuit, meet with that success which his good 
intentions deserved. 

Thus we have taken a cursory survey of the state of 
Christianity, both in the eastern and western hemispheres, 



and of its progress during the first quarter of the present 
century. Some progress it has unquestionably made, 
although its increase has not been so great as its zealous 
friends wished or expected. Its movements, depending 
on human agency, are necessarily slow ; and, if no mira- 
cles should intervene, many ages may elapse, before the 
majority of the pagan nations, of the Jewish tribes, and of 
the followers of the Arabian pseudo-prophet, shall be num- 
bered among the votaries of that system which we consci- 
entiously follow and earnestly recommend. In the mean 
time, let Christians preserve their faith unimpaired, and ex- 
hibit, to unbelievers, impressive examples of piety and virtue; 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



ADVERTISEMENT, 



BY DR. MACLAINE. 



The following Tables have been compiled with much attention and pains from the best authors ; 
and it is therefore hoped that they will be considered as an useful addition to Dr. Mosheim's work; 
and the more so, as they are not confined to the persons and things contained in it. 

The dates, that are placed in the columns which contain the sovereign princes and popes, are de- 
signed to mark the year of their decease. 

As several of the Ecclesiastical and Theological Writers, mentioned in these Tables, deserve a place 
also among profane authors, on account of their philosophical, literary, or historical productions ; so 
their names will be repeated in the two distinct columns that contain the learned men of each century. 

It is farther to be observed, that the Romish church, even long before the time of the Reformation, 
looked upon many persons as heretics, whom we, on our principles, cannot consider in the same 
light, and whose doctrines really tended to promote that reformation in which we glory. I have 
therefore, in many places, added the words real or reputed after heretics, rather than seem to submit, 
in this point, to the decisions of a superstitious church. 



CENTURY I. 



Scveieig & Princes. 



Roman em^Tots 

Augustus 

Tiber Ins 

Caligula 

Claudius 

Nero 

Galba 

Otho 

Vitellius 

Vespasia*. 

Titus 

Domitian 

Nerva 



A. D. 

14 
37 
41 
54 

68 
69 
69 
70 
79 
81 
96 
08 



Popes, or Bishops of 
Rome. 



The succession of the 
first bishops of Rome 
is a matter full of in- 
tricacy and obscurity. 
— We shall herein 
follow the learned bi- 
shop Pearson. 

Linus. 

Anacletus. 

Clement. 

Evaristus. 

Alexander. 

The dates of the deaths 
of the Roman pontiffs 
are not the same in the 
accounts of chronolo- 
gists. 

Petau, Fleury,Pearson, 
Marcel, Pfaff, Bower, 
Lenglet, and others, 
differ frequentlyin this 
respect; and their dif- 
ferences sometimes 
are considerable. 

For example, the death 
of pope Anicetus is 
placed, by Petau and 
Lenglet, in the year 
161, bv Pearson and 
Pfaff in 162, by Fleu- 
ry,Walch, andBower. 
in 168. 

As it is impossible to 
reconcile these histo- 
rians, and difficult of- 
ten to decide which 
calculates best, we 

190 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Writers. 



The Evangelists and 
Apostles. 

The three Apostolic 
Fathers, 
Clement, 
Barnabas, 
Hermas. 
Philo, the Jew. 

Flavius Josephus. 

These are almost all 
the genuine ecclesias- 
tical writers of the first 
century, whose works 
are now extant; for 
the supposed letter of 
Christ to Abgarus, the 
the Gospels, Acts 
Epistles, and Litur- 
gies, that have (beside 
those which we esteem 
canonical) been attri- 
buted to the Apostles 
— as also the Epistles 
of Mary to Ignatius 
and others — the Acts 
of Pilate — the Epistles 
of Seneca to St. Paul, 
&c. Must be consider- 
ed as a pocryphal and 
spurious. 

The works that bear 
thename of Dionysius 
the Areopagite, were 
forged in the fifth cen- 
tury. 



Heretics. 



Dositheus. 

Simon Magus. 

The Gnostics, Cerin- 
thus, Hymenaeus,Phi- 
letus, who together 
with Denias and Dio- 
trephes, are rather to 
be consideres as apos- 
tates than as heretics. 

The Nicolaitans. 

Ebion. 

TheNazarenes. 

N. B. The Ebionites 
and Nazarenes 

though generally pla- 
ced by the the learned 
in the first century, 
yet belong more pro- 
perly to the second. 



Remarkable Events. 



The tax of Augustus 
Caesar. 

The birth of Christ. 

The offerings presented 
to Jesus Christ by the 
Wise Menfrom the East. 

The Four Passovers cele- 
brated by Christ. 

John the Baptist behead- 
ed. 

Christ's miracles, suf- 
ferings, death, resurrec- 
tion, and ascension. 

The descent of the Holy 
Ghost. 

St. Stephen, the first 
Martyr. 

The Conversion of St. 
Paul. 

Institution of Agapce, or 
Feasts of Charity. 

Baptism is administered 
by immersion. 

Several ChristianChurch- 
es founded. 

The first persecution un- 
der Nero. 

The oracles reduced to si- 
lence, a dubious, or ra- 
ther a fabulous story. 

The destruction of Jeru- 
salem. 

The accounts of a dispute 
between St. Peter and 
Simon the magician at 
Rome, and of the erec- 
tion of a statue to the, 



Profane Authors. 



Titus Livius. 

Germanicus. 

Gratius. 

Ovid. 

Hyginus. 

Labeo. 

Valerius Maximus. 

Phsedrus. 

Verrius Flaccus. 

Strabo. 

Dionysius of Alexandria. 

Seneca, the rhetorician. 

Seneca, the philosopher 

and poet. 
Velleius Paterculus. 
Cremutius 
Isidore of Charax. 
Celsus, the physician. 
Massurius Sabinus. 
Didymus of Alexandria. 
Cocceius Nerva. 
Philo die Jew. 
Pomponius Mela. 
Columella. 
Remmius Palaemon. 
Votienus. 
Servilius Marcus. 
Anna;us Cornutus. 
Lucan. 

Andromachus. 
Petronius. 
Persius. 
Epictetus. 
Dioscoridcs. 
Flavius Josephus. 
Silius Italicus. 
Valerius Flaccui. 



758 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



[Cent, ft 



Sovereign Princes. 



Popes, or Bishops of 
Pome. 



shall follow Pearson 
and Pfaffasl-.e surest 
guides. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological writers, 



Heretics. 



Remarkable Etents. 



latter in that city, seem 

idle fictions. 
The second persecution 

of the Christians under 

Domitian. 
St. John thrown into a 

caldron of boiling oil, a 

doubtful story. 
The adventures of Apol- 

lonius Tyaneus. 



Profane Author). 



Pliny the Elder. 

Pliny the Younger. 

Asconius Pedianus. 

Plinius Valerianus, 

Juvenal. 

Martial. 

Statius. 

Frontinus. 

Q.uintilian. 

Dion Chrysostom. 

Tacitus. 

Phlegon. 

Apion. 

Trogus Pompeius. 

Athenodorus. 



CENTURY n. 



Sovereign Princes. 



Roman Emperors: a. r>. Xystus or Sixtus 



Popes, or Bishops of 
Rome. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Writers. 



Trajan 
Adrian 
Anton. Pius 
M. Antoninus 
L. Verus Commo- 
dus 
Pertinax 
Did. Julianus 
Niger 
41binus 



117|Telesphorus 
138 Hyginus 



161 

i80 

192 
193 
193 
194 
197 



Pius I. 

Anicetus 

Soter 

Eleutherius 

Victor 



127 Ignatius of Antioch. 
138j Poly carp. 
150 Justin Martyr. 
153JHegesippus. 



162 
172 

185 
196 



Heretics. 



Remarkable Events, and 
Religious Rites and In- 
stitutions. 



Theophilus of Antioch, 
the first who made use 
of the word Trinity 
to express the distinc- 
tion of what divines 
call persons inthe God- 
head. The Christian 
church is very little 
obliged to him for his 
invention. 

The use of this and 
and other unscriptural 
terms, to which men 
attach either no ideas, 
or false ones, has 
wounded charity and 
peace, without pro- 
moting truth and 
knowledge. It has 
produced heresies of 
the worst kind. — 

Melito. 

Tatian.* 

Papias. 

Claudius Apollinaris. 

Hermias. 

Athenagoras. 

ClemensAlexandrinus. 

Tertullian. 

Aquila. 

Theodotion. 

Symmachus. 

The unknown Author 
of the Sibylline Ora- 
cles, 

Irenaeus. 

Polycrates. 

Dionysius of Corinth. 

Pantamus. 

GluadraUis. 

Add to these several 
fragments of the wri- 
tings of some of the 
principalherelics men- 
tioned in the following 
column. These frag- 
ments are collected by 
Cotelerius, Grabe, &c. 



Nazarenes. 

Gnostics. 

Cainites. 

Elxai. 

Saturninus. 

The Millenarians. 

Basilides. 

Isidore, the Son. 

Carpocrates and his 
followers. 

Marcellina and Epi- 
phanes. 

Prodicus, the chief of 
the Adamites. 

Valentine and his fol- 
lowers. 

*Tatian supposed to be 
the chief of the En- 
cratites, Hydropara- 
states, and Apotactics. 

Ptolomaeus Secundus. 

Cerdo. 

Marcion. 

Florinus. 

The Docetae, or Phan- 
tasiasts. 

The Melitonians. 

The Saccophori. 

Severians. 

Ophites. 

Artotyrites. 

Theodotus, theTanner, 
chief of the Alogi. 

Montanus. 

Tertullian. 

Priscilla and Maxi- 
milla, who where call 
ed Montanists, Cata 
phryges, and Pepu 
zians. 

The Sethites and Abel 
ites. 

Heracleon. 

Bassus. 

jColarbasua. 

Blastus. 

Mark. 

The Valentinians. 

Bardesanes. 

Hermogenes. 

Apelles. 

Praxeas, the chief of 
thePatropassians, Se- 
leucus and Hermias. 

Artemon. 



Third persecution under 
Trajan, mitigated by the 
intercession of Pliny, the 
Younger. 

Fourth persecution under 
Adrian. 

Fifth Persecution under 
Antoninus Pius, con- 
tinued under Marcus 
Aurelius and Lucius 
Verus. 

Conversion of the Ger- 
mans and Gauls, and (if 
we may give credit to 
Bede) of the Britons. 

The Thundering Legion 
— a dubious event- 
Insurrections of the Jews 
against the Romans. 
Sedition and slaughter 
of that people under the 
standards of Barcoche- 
ba, the false Messiah 

The Jews are driven 
from Jerusalem. 

Horrible calumnies 

thrown out against the 
Christians by Luciah, 
Crescens, Celsus, and 
the Pagans in general. 

The perusal of the Si- 
bylline Oracles prohibit- 
ed by an imperial edict. 

Christian assemblies are 
held on Sundays, and 
other stated days, in pri- 
vate houses, and in the 
burying-places of Mar- 
tyrs. 

Infant baptism and spon- 
sors used in this century 

Various festivals and 
fasts established. 

A distinction formed be- 
tween bishops and pres- 
byters, who, with the 
deacons and readers, are 
the only orders of eccle- 
siastics known in this 
century. ' The sign of 
the cross and anoint- 
ing used. 

The custom of praying 
towards the East intro- 
duced. 



Profane Authors. 



Arrian. 

Aulus Gellius. 

Plutarch. 

Floras. 

Celsus, the lawyer. 

CEnomaus Philo of Phce- 
nicia. 

Ptolemy, the astronomet 
and geographer. 

Salvius Juliawius. 

Seutonius. 

Apolionius, the philoso- 
pher. 

Appian. 

Fronto. 

Maximus Tyrius. 

Taurus Calvisius. 

Apuleius. 

Artemidorus. 

Lucian. 

Numenes. 

Pausanias. 

Polyrenus. 

Sextus Empiricus. 

Athenasus. 

Julius Pollux. 

Diogenes Laertius. 

Gallienus. 

Ammonius Saccas. 

Priscus. 

Cephalion. 

Aristides. 

Hermogenes, who at the 
age of seventeen publish- 
ed his Rhetoric ; at 
twenty, his Book on 
Ideas ; and, at twenty- 
five, is said to have for- 
gotten all that he had 
learned. 

Justin Martyr. 

Theophilus of Antioch. 

Chrysorus. 

Marcus Antoninus. 

Harpocration. 

Athenagoras. 

Celsus, the philosopher. 

Julinus Solinus. 

Plotinus. 

Papinian. 



Cent. III.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY EL 



759 



Sovereign Princes. 



Roman Emperors: a. d. 
Severus 211 

Caracalla 217 

Geta 212 

Macrinus 218 

Heliogabalus 222 

Severus Alexander 235 
Maximin 237 

Gordian I. II. 237 

Pupienus and Bal- 

binus 238 

Gordian III. 244 

Philip the Arabian 
supposed to have 
been the firstCmis- 
tian emperor 5250 
Decius 252 

Gallus and V/ rs 1 - 

anus 253 

^Emilianus 253 

Valerian 259 

Gallienus 268 

Claudius II 270 

duintilius 270 

Aurelian 275 

Tacitus 275 

Florianus 276 

Probus 282 

Carus 283 

Carinus 284 

Nurr.eriasvus 284 

Dirrletian 
fV/imian 



Popes, or Bishops of 
Rome. 



Zephyrinus 

Callistus 

Urban 

Pontianus 

Anterus 

Fabianus 

Cornelius 



219 
224 
231 
235 
236 
251 
254 



A contest between 
him and Novatian 
Lucius 256 

Stephen 258 

Sixtus II. 259 

Dionysius 270 

Felix _ 275 

Eutychianus 283 

Caius Marcellinus 296 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Writers. 



The author of the Acts 
of Perpetua and Feli- 
citas. 

Minutius Felix. 

Hippolytus. 

Ammonius. 

Julius Africanus. 

Origen. 

Cyprian. 

Novatian. 

Gregory Thaum. 

Dionysius of Alexan- 
dria. 

Pamphilus. 

Anatolius. 

Arnobius Africanus. 

Commodianus. 

Archelaus. 

Lucianus. 

Hesychius. 

Methodius. 

Theognostus. 

Malchion. 

Paul of Samosata. 

Stephen, R. Pont. 

Eusebius, a deacon of 
Alexandria. 

Dionysius, R. Pont 

Basilides, Bishop of 
Pentapolis. 

Victorinus. 

Prudentius. 



Heretics. 



Adelphius. 

Aquilinus. 

Manes, the chief of the 
Manicheans. 

Hierax. 

Noetus. 

Sabellius. 

Beryllus. 

Paul of Samosata. 

Novatians. 

Patropassians. 

Arabians. 

Cathari. 

Valesians. 

Privatus. 

A schism between Ste- 
phen and Cyprian 
concerning the re-bap- 
tizing of heretics. 



Remarkable Events, and 
Religious Rites and In- 
stitutions. 



Profane Authors. 



Sixth Persecution under 
Severus, in which Le- 
onidas, Irenseus, Victor, 
bishop of Rome, Perpe- 
tua, Felicitas, and others, 
suffer martyrdom. 

Seventh Persecution 

(after one under Maxi- 
min) under Decius, in 
which Fabianus, the 
Roman pontiff, Babylas, 
Alexander, and others, 
suffer martyrdom. 

Eighth Persecution un- 
der Valerian, in which 
those more illustrious 
martyrs, Cyprian, Lu- 
cius, Stephen I. Sixtus I. 
and Laurentius, suffer 
for the faith. 

Ninth Persecution under 
Diocletian, Maximian, 
Galerius, and Maximin, 
much more cruel than 
the preceding, and fa- 
mous for the martyrdom 
of the Theban Legion, 
which however is a 
very dubious story. 

The Jewish Talmud and 
and Targum composed 
in this century. 

The Jews are allowed to 
return into Palestine. 

Jewish schools erected 
at Babylon, Sora, and 
other places. 

Remarkable deaths of 
those who persecuted the 
Christians, related by 
Tertullian, Eusebius, 
and Lucius Csecilius. 

Many illustrious men, 
andRoman senators, con- 
verted to Christianity. 

The originof the monastic 
life derived from the aus- 
tere manners of Paul the 
Theban, the firsthermit. 

Diocletian assumes the 
name and honours due 
to Jupiter, and orders the 
people to worship him. 

Religious rites are great- 
ly multiplied in this cen- 
tury ; altars used ; wax 
tapers employed. 

Public churches, called in 
Greek Kupnu-n, built for 
the celebration of divine 
worship. 

The Pagan mysteries in- 
judiciously imitated in 
many respects by Chris- 
tians. 

The tasting of milk and 
honey, previous to bap- 
tism, introduced. The 
person is anointed be- 
fore and after that holy 
rite — receives a crown, I 
and goes arrayed in! 
white for sometime after. | 

The story of the seven j 
sleepers of Ephesus, and 
the martyrdom of Ursu- 
la, and the 11,000 British 
Virgins, the principal fa- 
bles invented in this cen- 
tury. 



^Elius Maurus. 
Oppian, the Poet. 
Gluintus Seren. 
Sammonicus. 
Julius Africanus. 
Aeolus. 
Dio Cassius. 
Ulpian. 
Ephorus. 
Censorinus. 
C. Curius Fortunatas. 
Herodian. 
Nicagoras. 
Amelius. 
Gentilianus. 
Erennius. 
Dexippus. 
Cassius Longinus. 
Julius Capitolinus. 
iElius Lampridius. 
Trebellius Pollio. 
Porphyry. 
jElius Spartianus. 
Flavius Vopiscus. 
M. Aurel. 
Olymp. 
Nemesianus. 
Alexander, a Greek phi- 
losopher. 
Philostratus. 
Julius Paulus. 
Sextus Pomponrus. 
Herennius. 
Modestinus. 
Hermogenianus. 
Palladius Rutilius. 
Taurus .SSmilianus. 
Justin. 

Julius Calphumius. 
Arnobius. 



760 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY IV. 



[Cent. IV 



Sovereign Princes. 



the 



Roman Emperors : 

Diocletian and 
Maximian abdi- 
cate the empire in 
the year 

Galerius 

Constantius 

Constantine 
Great 

His adversaries, 

Maximin 

Maxentius 

Licinius 

Constantine II. 

Constantius 

Constans 

Julian, the Apos- 
tate 

Jovian 

Valentinian 

Valens 

Gratian 

Valentinian II. 

Theodosius the 
Great 

The division ofthe 
Roman Empire 
into the Eastern 
and WesternEm- 
pires. 

[ The Visigoths set- 
tle in Gaul and 
Spain about the 
end, of this cen- 
tury.] 

Athanaric 

A'aric. 



Popes, or Bishops of 
Rome. 



Marcellinus 
Marcellus 
Eusebius 
Melchiades 
305 'Sylvester 

311 Mark 
306 1 Julius 

Liberius 

337 A schism between 

Liberius and Fe- 
313 lix 

312 Damasus 

325 A new schism be- 

338 tween this pontiff 
361 and Ursinus. 



304 
309 
311 
313 
335 
336 
352 
367 



384 



350 Siricius 



363 
364 
375 
378 
383 
392 



395 



382 



398 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Writers. 



Heretics, real or re- 
puted. 



Lactantius Firm. 
Lucius Cascilius. 
Dorotheus, bishop of 

Tyre. 
Eusebius, bishop of 

Cssarea. 
Constantine the Great. 
Eustathius, bishop of 

Antioch. 
Commodianus. 
Alexander, bishop of 

Alexandria. 
Juvencus. 
Athanasius, bishop of 

Alexandria. 
Antonius, who (with 

Paul the hermit) was 

the first institutor of 

the monastic life. 
Marcellus, bishop of 

Ancyra. 
Theodore bishop of 

Heraclea. 
Julius, bishop of Rome. 
Jul. Firm. 
Maternus. 
Pachomius. 
Eusebius, bishop of 

Emessa. 
Serapion. 
Cyril, bishop of Jeru 

salem. 
Hilarius, bishop of 

Poictiers. 
Lucifer, bishop of Ca- 

gliari. 
Phoebadius, bishop of 

Agen. 
Eunomius. 

Zeno, bishop of Ve- 
rona. 

Titus, bishop of Bostra 
Damacus, bishop of 

Rome. 
Epiphanius, bishop of 

Salamis. 
Optatus, bishop of 

Milevi. 
Pacianus. 
Marius Victorinus, 
Liberius, bishop of 

Rome. 
Ephraim the Syrian. 
Didymus of Alex. 
Basil, bishop of Ceesa- 

rea. 
Gregoiy, bishop of Na- 

zianzum. 
Gregory, bishop of 

Nyssa. 
Amphilochius, bishop 

of Iconium. 
Hegesippus. 
Apolliharis,Fatherand 

Son. 
Eusebius, Bishop of 

Verceil. 
Diodore, bishop of Tar- 
sus. 
Proba Falconia. 
The three Macarii, 
Ambrose. 
Jerome. 
Ruffinus. 
Philastrius. 
Paulinus, bishop of 

Nola. 
Augustin. 
John Chrysostom. 



The Manichasans dis- 
guised under the de- 
nominations of En- 
cratites, Apotactics, 
Saccophori, Hydro- 
parastates, and Soli- 
taries. 

Arius andhis followers, 
who were divided in- 
to Eunomians, Semi- 
arians, Eusebians, 
Homoiousians,Acaci- 
ans, and Psathyrians 

Photinus, Apollinaris, 
Father and Son. 

Macedonius. 

The Anthropomor- 
phites. 

Priscillian. 

Andaeus. 

The Messalians, c 
Euchites. 

Collyridians. 

Eustathians. 

Coluthus. 

Helvidius. 

Bonosus. 

Vigilantius. 

Three schisms of the 
Meletians, and Luci- 
ferians, and Dona 
tists. 



Remarkable Events, and 
Religious Rites and In- 
stitutions. 



Profane Authors. 



iElius Donatus. 

Servius. 

Helladius. 

Andronicus Nonius. 

Marcellus. 

Sext. Aurelius Victor. 

Maximus of Smyrna,who 
is supposed to have 
taught the emperor Juli- 
an magic. 

Oribases. 

Eutropius. 

Libanius. 

Ausonius. 

Pappus, the famous olb- 
thematician. 

Prudentius. 

Rufus Festus. 

Avienus. 

Themistius. 

Flavius Vegetius. 

Hierocles. 

Julian. 

Ammianus Marcelling* , 

Symmachus. 

Lactantius. 

Jamblichus. 

iElius Lampridius. 

Eusebius of Cssarea. 

Jul. Firmicus Maternus, 

Chalcidius. 

Pomponius. 

Festus. 

Q.uintus Curtius. 

Macrobius. 



The Tenth Persecution 
continued. 

The Athanasians or Or- 
thodox persecuted by 
Constantius, who was 
anArian. and by Valens, 
who ordered 80 of their 
deputies, all ecclesias- 
tics, to be put on board 
of a ship, to which fire 
was set as soon as it had 
cleared the coast. 

The Christians persecu- 
ted by Sapor. 

The supposed conversion 
of Constantinethe Great, 
by a vision representing 
a fiery cross in the air. 

First General council. It 
was held at Nice in 325. 
In ittheopinionsofArius 
were condemned, and the 
popes declared merely 
equal in dignity to other 
Christian bishops. 

A second general council 
isheld in the year 381, at 
Constantinople,in which 
the errors of Macedonius 
are condemned. 

Remarkable progress of 
the Christian religion a- 
mong the Indians,Goths. 
Marcomanni, and Iberi- 
ans. 

The famous donation of 
Constantine in favour of 
the Roman see — a mere 
fable. 

The miraculous defeat of 
Eugeniusby Theodosius 

Julian's attempt to invali- 
date the predictions of 
the prophets, by en- 
couraging the Jews tore- 
buildthetempleofJerusa- 
lem,defeated byan earth- 
quake and fiery eruption. 
See the learned bp.War- 
burton's interesting and 
ingenious work, entitled 
Julian. 

Theodosius the Great is 
obliged by Ambrose, bi- 
shop of Milan, to dopub- 
licpenanceforthe slaugh- 
ter of the Thessalonians. 

T heEuch aristw as,during 
this century, administer- 
ed in some places to in- 
fants and persons de- 
ceased. 

Something like the doc- 
trine of Transubstantia- 
tion is maintained, and 
the ceremony of the ele- 
vation used in the cele- 
bration of the Eucharist. 

The council of Elvira in Spain, beld in the ycai 
305, not only solemnly forbids the adoration of pic- 
tures or images, but even prohibits the use »f them. 

The use of incense and ofthe censer, with seve- 
ral other superstitious rites, introduced. — The 
churches are considered as externally holy, the 
saints are invoked, images used, and the Cross 
worshipped. 

The clerical order augmented by new ranks of 
ecclesiastics, such as archdeacons, country bishops, 

I archbishops, metropolitans, exarchs &c. 



Cent. V.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY V. 



761 



Sovereign Princes. 


Popes, or Bishop. 
Rome. 


of 


Ecclesiastical and 
Theological writers. 


Heretics real or re- 
puted. 


Remarkable Events. 


Profane Authors. 


Emperors of the West. 


Anastasius 


402 


Gaudentius, bishop of 


Vigilantius. 


Foundation of the French 


Anienus. 


A. D. 


Innocent 


417 


Bresse. 


Pelagius, Coelestius, 


monarchy by Phara- 


Martianus Capella. 


Honorius 423 


Zosimus 


418 


Sulpicius Severus. 


Julian, authors of 


mond, or rather by Clo- 


Claudian. 


Valcntinian III. 455 


Boniface I. 


423 


Palladius. 


what is called the 


vis. 


Eunapius. 


Maximus 455 


A schism between 




Heraclides. 


Pelagian Heresy. 


An earthquake swallows 


Macrobius. 


Avitus 456 


this pope andEu- 




Innocenlius. 


John Cassian. 


up several cities in Pa- 


Olympiodorus. 


Majorianus 401 


1 alius 




Polybius. 


Faustus. 


lestine. 


Orosius. 


Severus 465 


Celestine I. 


432 


Pelagius. 


Gennadius, Vincent of 


A third General Council 


Peutinger. 


Anthemius 472 


Sixtus III. 


440 


Coelestius. 


Lerins, Semi-Pela- 


held atEphesus, at which 


Rutilius Claudius. 


Olybrius 472 


Leo the Great 


461 


Theodore, bishop of 


gians. 
INestorius. 


Nestorius was deposed, 


Numantianus. 


Glycerius deposed 


Hilarius 


467 


Mopsuesta. 


in the year 431. 


Servius Honoratus. 


in 474 


Simplicius 


483 


Polychronius. 


Theodoret. 


A fourth General Coun- 


Sidonius Apollinaris. 


Julius Nepos depo- 


Felix III. 


492 


Nonnus. 


Theodore of Tarsus. 


cil held at Chalcedon 


Candidus, the Isauriai 


sed in 475 


Gelasius 


496 


Synesius. 


Theodore of Mopsus. 


- against Eutyches in the 


Zosimus, the historian 


Romulus Augus- 


Anastasius II. 


498 


Isidore of Pelusium. 


Nestorians. 


year 451. 


Idacius. 


tulus, who reign- 


Symmachus 1. A 




Cyril of Alexandria. 


Eutyches. 


Progress of Christianity 


Quintus, or Cointus. 


ed till the 23d of 


schism between 




Orosius. 


Dioscorus. 


among the Franks and 


Priscus. 


August, when 


him and Lauren- 




Marius Mercator. 


The Acephali. — Mo- 


Germans. 


Musaeus. 


Odoacer took the 


tius. 




Maximus, bishop of 


nophysites. — Jacob- 


The conversion ofthelrish 


Proclus. 


title of king of 






Turin. 


ites. — Armenians. — 


to the Christian faith at- 


Simplicius. 


Italy, and put an 






Theodoret. 


Theopaschites. — Pre- 


tempted in vain by Pal- 


end to the wes- 






Cassian. 


destinarians. — Coeli- 


ladius, but effected by 
St. Patrick, whose origi- 




tern empire. 






Peter Chrysologus. 


colae. 




Kings of Italy : 






Hilarius. 


Peter, the Fuller. 


nal name was Succathus, 




Odoacer 493 






Philostorgius. 


Xenaias. 


who arrived in Ireland 




Theodoric 






Vincent of Lerins. 




in the year 432. 




Emperors of the East : 






Socrates. 




Terrible persecutions car- 




Arcadius 408 






Sozomenes. 




ried on against the Chris- 




Theodosius II. 450 






Leo the Great. 




tians in Britain, by the 
Picts, Scots, and Anglo- 




Marcianus 457 






Prosper. 






Leo I. 474 






Idacius. 




Saxons,-in Spain, Gaul, 




Leo II. 474 






Basil. 




and Africa, by the Van- 




Zeno Isaur 491 






Seleucus. 




dals — in Italy and Pan- 




Anastasius 






Arnobius the Younger. 




nonia, by the Visigoths 




Gothic kings of Spain : 






Claudian Mamertus. 




— in Africa, by the Do- 




Alaric 411 






Faustus. 




natists and Circumcel- 




Ataulpijos 415 






Felix, the Roman pon- 




lians — in Persia, bylsde- 




Sigeric 415 






tiff. 




gerd'es — beside the par- 




Vallia 420 






Vigilius Tapsensis, 




ticular persecutions car- 




Theodoric 451 






supposed by some 




ried on alternately 




Thorismond 452 






learned men to have 




against the Arians and 




Theodoric II. 466 






been the author of 




Athanasians. 




Euric 484 






what is commonly 




The extinction of the 




Alaric II. 






called the Athanasian 




western empire. 




Kings of France : 






Creed. 




The Theodosian Code 




Pharamond, first 






Victor the African. 




drawn up. 




king, 420 






Gennadius. 




The city of Venice found- 




Clodion 451 






Zosimus. 




ed by the inhabitants of 




Meroveus 456 






Prosper. 




the adjacent coast, who 




Childeric 481 






Sidonius Apollinar. 




fled from the incursions 




Clovisl. 






-<Eneas Gaza. 




of the Barbarians. 




The Kings of the Van- 










Felix III. bishop of Rome 




dals in Africa, where 










( whomBower and others 




they settled, in the 










look upon as the second 




year _ 429 










pope of that name) is ex- 




Genseric 466 










communicated, and his 




Huneric 484 










name struck out of the 




Gontamond 496 










diptychs, or sacred re- 




Thrasamond 










gisters, by Aca?ius, bi- 




Kings of England : 










shop of Constantinople. 




Vortigern 










Many ridiculous fables 




Kingdom of Kent 










are invented during this 
century ; such as the 




founded by Hen- 












gist the Saxon, in 










story of the vial of oil, 




457, and that of 










brought from heaven by 
a pigeon at the baptism 




Sussex by iElla, 












in 499 










of Clovis — the vision of 
Attila, &c. 




No. LXIV. 


191 






i 







762 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY VI. 



[Cent. VI. 



Sovereign Princes. 



Kings of Italy, a. d. 
Theodoric 526 

Athalaric 534 

Arnalasuntha 534 

Theodatus 536 

Vitiges 540 

Idebald 541 

Totila 553 

Teias 554 

Emperors of the East : 
Anastasius 518 

Justin I. 527 

Justinian 565 

Justin II. 578 

Tiberius II. 586 

Mauritius 

Gothic Kings ofSpai n : 
Alaric 507 

Gesalric 512 

Amalaric 531 

Theudis 548 

Theodegesil 548 

Agila 552 

Athanagilda 567 

Leuva 568 

Leuvigild 585 

Recared 

These princes 
were masters also 
of Narbonne and 
Aquitaine. 
Kings of England: 
The third Saxon 
kingdom is found- 
ed in England by 
Cerdie, in 519, 
and is called the 
kingdom of the 
"West Saxons. 
The fourth, or that 
of the East Sax- 
ons, by Erchen- 
win, in 527 

The fifth, that of 
Northumberland, 
by Ida, in 547 

The sixth, that of 
the East Angles, 
by Uffa, in 573 

The seventh, that 
ofMercia, by Cri- 
da, in 585 

Thus was succes- 
sively formed the 
Saxon Heptar- 
chy. 
Kings of France : 
Clovis I. 511 

The kingdom is di- 
vided among his 
four sons, viz. 
Thierry, Metz, 534 
Clodomir, Or- 
leans 534 
Childebert, Paris 558 
Clotaire, Soisons 562 
A second divi- 
sion of the king- 
dom among the 
four sons of Clo- 
taire 1. viz. Che- 
rebert, Paris 566 
Gontran, Orleans 593 
Chilperic, Sois- 

sons 584 

Sigebert, Metz 575 
Kings of the Vandals 

in Africa : 
Thrasamond 523 



Popes, or Bishops of 


Rome. 




Symmachus 


514 


Hormisdas 


523 


John I. 


526 


Felix IV. 


529 


Boniface II. 


531 


A schism between 




Boniface and 




Dioscorus 




John II. 


535 


Agapetus I. 


536 


Sylverius 


540 


A schism between 




Sylverius and V 


- 


gilius. 




Vigilius 


555 


Pelagius I. 


558 


John III. 


572 


Benedict I. 


577 


Pelagius II. 


590 


Gregory I. 





Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Writers 



Sovereign Princes. 

Concluded. 

A. D. 

Hilderic 530 

Gilimer, defeated 
and taken priso- 
ner byBelisarius, 
in the year 534 

By this event 
Africa became 
again subject to 
the Emperors of 
! the East. 

Kings oftheLombards, 
who entered Italy in 
the year 568 

Alboinus 571 

Clephis 573 

Antharis 590 

| Agilulph 

Exarchs of Ravenna : 
Lingonus 583 

! Smaragdus 588 

Romanus 598 

jCallinicua 



Csesarius, bishop of 
Aries. 

Fulgentius, bishop of 
Ruspa. 

Boethius. 

Timothy of Constan 
tinople. 

Emodius. 

Severus. 

Cassiodorus. 

Procopius. 

Peter, the deacon. 

Maxentius, a Scythian 
monk. 

Dionysius, the Little. 

Fulgentius Ferrandus. 

Marcellinus. 

Zachary, the school- 
man. 

Hesychius. 

Facundus Hermian. 

Pope Vigilius. 

Rusticus, a Roman 
deacon. 

Junilius. 

Victor of Capua. 

Primasius. 

Jornandes. 

Liberatus. 

Victor the African. 

Venantius Fortunatus. 

Anastasius of Mount 
Sinai, afterwards bi- 
shop of Antioch. 

John the schoolman. 

Cosmas. 

Gildas. 

Leander. 

John of Constantino- 
ple. 

Columbanus. 

Leontius Byzant. 

Leontius of Cyprus. 

Gregory the Great. 

Isidore of Seville. 

Lucius Carinus. 

Proclus Diadochus. 



Heretics. 



Deuterius. 

Severus, leader of the 
Acephali. 

Themistius, chief of 
the Agnoites, who 
maintained that Christ 
was ignorant of the 
day of judgment. 

Barsanians, or Semi- 
dulites, whomaintain- 
ed that Christ had suf- 
fered only in appear- 
ance. 

Jacob Zanzale, the 
chief of the Jacobites, 
or Monophysites. 

John Philopomus, the 
chief of the Tritheites. 

Damianists. 

Origenists. 

Corrupticola;. 

Accemetae. 

The Arians, Nesto- 
rians, Eutychians, and 
Pelagians, continued 
to raise troubles in the 
church. 



Remarkable Events. 



Learned Men, Historians, 
Philosophers, and Poets. 



Several nations converted 
to Christianity. 

The canon of the mass 
established by Gregory 
the Great. 

The Benedictine Order 
founded. 

Forty Benedictine monks, 
with Augustine at their 
head, are sent into Bri- 
tain by Gregory the 
Great, in the year 596 ; 
who convert Ethelbert 
king of Kent, to the 
Clmstian faith. 

TheOstrogothic kingdom 
is destroyed by Justinian, 
who becomes master of 
Italy. 

The Lombards invade 
Italy in the year 568, 
and erect a new king- 
dom at Ticinum. 

The Christians are per- 
secuted in several places. 

The orthodoxare oppress 
ed by the emperor Anas- 
tasius, Thrasamondjking 
of the Vandals, Theodo 
ric, king of the Osto- 
goths, «fec. 

Female convents are 
greatly multiplied in 
this century. 

Litanies introduced into 
the church of France, 

The Arians are driven 
out. 

Superstition of the Sty- 
lites introduced by Si- 
meon, the head of that 
crazy sect, who spent 
his life on the top of a 
pillar, and foolishly 
imagined, that he would, 
by this trick, render him 
self agreeable to the 
Deity. The Romish 
writers say, he chose 
this lofty habitation (for 
the pillar was 36 cubits 
high) to avoid the mul- 
titude which crowded 
about him to see his 
miracles. 

The Christian sera is 
formed in this century 
by Dionysius the Little, 
who first began to reckon 
the course of time from 
the birth of Christ. 

The Justinian code, Pan- 
dect, Institutions, and 
Novels, collected and 
formed into a body. 

Antioch,thatwas destroy- 
ed by an earthquake, is 
rebuilt by Justinian. 

The fifth general council 
assembled at Constanti- 
nople in the year 553, 
under Justinian I. in 
which the Origenists 
and the Three Chapters 
were condemned. 



Justinian Boethius. 

Trebonian. 

Agathias, who continued 
the history composed by 
Procopius. 

Jornandes. 

Gregory of Tours. 

Marius, bishop of Avran- 
ches, an eminent histo- 
rian. 

Menander, the historian. 

Stephen of Byzantium. 

Magn. Aurelius Cassio- 
dorus. 

Dionysius the Little. 



Cent. VII.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY VH. 



763 



Sovereign 
ces. 



Prin-\ Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Emperor; of the ; Gregory 1. 



East i 

Mauritius 
Phocas 
Heraclius 
Constantine 

III. 
Heraclianus 
Constans If. 
Constantine 

IV. 
Leontius 
Tiberius III. 
Justinian II. 



| Sabinianus 
i. d.! Boniface III. 
GO-2 Boniface IV. 
610 Deodatus 

641 j Boniface V. 
jHonorius I. 

641 1 SeverinusI. 

642 John IV. 
668, Theodore I. 

Martin I. 
685;Eugenius I. 
698|Vitalianus 
703 1 Adeodatus 

j Domnus 



Kings of the Goths i Agatho I 



621 
621 
631 
636 
640 
642 

649 
672 

680 
687 



654 
660 
668 
673 
679 
690 
695 



in, Spam 
Victeric 
Gondemar 
Sisebut 
Recared II. 
Suinthila 
Sizenand 
Chintila 
Tulga 
Chindasuin- 

the 
Recesuinllie 
Vamba 
Ervige 
Egica 
Kings of France : 
Clotaire II. 623 
Dagobert 638 

Sigebert II. 
Clovis 
Clotaire III. 
Childeric II. 

Dagobert II. 

Theodoric 

Clods III. 

Childebert III. 

The race of 

the weak 

kings begins 

with Theo- 
doric III. and 
ends with 
ChildericIII. 
England, : 

The Heptarchy. 

Kings of the Lom- 
bards in Italy 

Agilulph 616 

Aclaloaldus 626 

Ariovaidus 

Rotharis 

Rodoald 

Aripert 

Gondipert 

Grimoald 

Garibald 

Bertharit 

Cunipert 

Exarchs 

venna 

Smaragdus 

John 

Eleutherius 

Isaac 



Leo II. 

Benedict II. 

John V. 

Conon 

Sergius I. 

A schism 
easioned 
the preten- 
sions of 
Theodore 
and Paschal. 



604 
605 
606 
614 
617 
625 
630 
639 
641 
648 
655 
656 
671 
676 
678 
682 
684 
685 
686 
687 
701 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Augustine, first 
archbishop of 
Canterbury was 
nominated to that 
high office in the 
year 597 by Gre- 
gory the Great, 
bishop of Rome, 
with the consent 
of Ethelbert, king 
ofKent: he died 
in year 611, or, as 
some say, in 605. 



Laurence 

Melletus 

Justus 

Honorius 

Adeodatus 

Theodore 

Brithwald 



619 
624 
634 
653 
664 
690 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



oc- 
by 



of 



638 

653 

656 

66: 

662 

673 

673 

689 

706 

Ra- 



dio 

615 
617 
618 



Theodore Cal- 

liopa 
Olympius 
TheodoreCnl- 

liopa II. 
Theodore 

ohn 
a'.o 



649 
650 

686 
687 

702 



a 
Rom. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



John Philonus. 
John Malela. 
Hesychius of Je- 
rusalem. 
Theophylact. 
Simocatta. 
Antiochus. 
Modestus. 
Cyrus of Alexand. 
Jonas. 
Gallus. 

John Moschus. 
Andreas Damas- 

cenus. 
George Pisides 
Eligius. 
The two Theodo- 
res. 

Pauius. 

The emp. Hera- 
clius. 
Maximus Conf. 
Theodore the 

monk. 
The emp. Con 

stans II. 
Martin, bishop of 

Rome. 
Maurus of Ra- 
venna. 
Anastasius 
monk — a 
presb. 
Fructuosus. 
Peter, metropoli- 
tan of Nicome- 
dia. 
Julian Pomerius. 
Agatho. 

John of Thessalo- 
nica. 
Cresconius. 
Ildefonsus. 
Marculph. 
John Climachus. 
Fortunatus Ve- 

nant 
Isidore of Seville, 
who composed 
Commentaries on 
the Historical 
Books of the old 
Testament, and 
is acknowledged 
to have been the 
principal author 
of the famous 
Mosarabic Litur- 
gy, which is the 
ancient Liturgy 
of Spain. 
Dorotheus. 
Sophronius, bi- 
shop of Jerusa- 
lem. 



The ancient here- 
sies were still in 
vigour duringthis 
century ; to these 
were added the 
sects of the Pau- 
licians and Mo- 
nothelites. 



Remarkable Events. 



Profane Authors. 



An extraordinary pro- 
gress is made in the con- 
version of the English. 

The archbishoprics of 
London and York are 
founded, with 12 bis- 
hoprics under the juris- 
diction of each. 

The archbishopric of 
London is translated to 
Canterbury. 

The Gospel is propaga- 
ted with success in Hol- 
land, Friseland and Ger- 
many. 

The schism, between the 
Greek and Latin 
churches, commences in 
this centuiy. 

The rise of Mohammed, 
and the rapid progress of 
his religion, which is 
propagated by fire and 
sword. 

The Mohammedan sera, 
called the Hegira, com 
mences with the year of 
Christ 622. 

The destruction of the 
Persian monarchy un 
der the reign of Isdeger- 
des III. 

BonifacelV.receives from 
that odious tyrant Pho- 
cas (who was the great 
patron of the popes and 
the chief promoters of 
their grandeur) the fa- 
mous Pantheon, which is 
converted into a church. 
Here Cybele was suc- 
ceeded by the Virgin 
Mary, and the Pagan 
deities by Christian mar- 
tyrs. Idolatry still sub- 
sisted ; but the objects 
of it were changed. 

In a, king of the "West 
Saxons, resigns his 
crown, and assumes 
the monastic habit in a 
convent at Rome. Dur- 
ing the Heptarchy, ma- 
ny Saxon kings took the 
same religious turn 
Pope Agatho discon 
tinued the payment of 
the tribute which the 
see of Rome had been 
accustomed to pay the 
emperor at the election 
of its pontiff. 

i The Sixth General coun 
cil is held at Constanti- 
nople, under Constan- 
tine Pogonatus, against 
the Monothelites, in the 
year 680. 

The Seventh, which is 
looked upon by some as 
a kind of supplement to 
this, was held in the 
Trullus, under Justinian 
[I, in the year 692, and 
is called tluinisexlum. 



The author of the Alex- 
andrian Chronicle. 

Isidore of Seville, who, 
beside his theological 
productions, composed 
a Histoiy of the Goths 
and Vandals, and a 
work entitled Etymo- 
logicon Scientiarum, in 
which he gives an ac- 
count of the origin and 
nature of the different 
sciences. 

In this century com- 
menced that long pe- 
riod of ignorance and 
darkness, which re- 
mained until the ligh* 
of the Reformation 
arose. 



7G4 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY VIE. 



l Cent. VIII. 



Sovereign 

G0 , 



'rm-l Popes, or Bishops 
I of Rome. 



Emperors of 

Eo.st A 
Justinian II. 711 
Fhilippicus 713 
AnastasiusII. 714 
Theodosius 
III. 716 

Leo III. 

Isaur 741 

ConstantineV. 
Copron. 775 

Leo LV. 780 

Constantine 
VI. 
Porphyr. 797 

Irene. 

Kings of the Visi- 
goths in Spain: 
Egica 701 

Vitiza 710 

Roderic, the last 
king of the 
Goths 
Kings of Leon and 
the Asturias 



the John VI. 705 

John VII. 707 
Sisinnius 708 

Constantine 714 
Gregory II. 731 
Gregory III. 741 
Zachary 752 

Stephen II. 752 
Stephen III. 757 
Paul 767 

A schism be- 
tweenPaul and 
Theophylact. 
Stephen IV. 772 
A schism be- 
tween Con- 
stantine, 
Philip, and 
Stephen IV. 
Adrian 797 

Leo III. 



713 



737 
739 

757 
768 
774 
783 
789 
791 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Brithwald 

Tatwin 

Nothelm 

Cuthbert 

Bregwin 

Lambert 

Athelard. 



731 
734 
741 

758 
•762 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Heretics real or 
reputed. 



Pelagius 
Favila 
Alphonso 
Froila 
Aurelio 
Silo 

Mauregato 
Veremond 
Alphonso II 
Kings of France : 
Childebertlll. 711 
Dagobertlll. 715 
Chilperic II 720 
TheodoricIV. 736 
Interregnum, 
fromtheyear 
737 to 743, 
during 
which time 
Carloman 
and Pepin, 
sons of 

Charles 
Martel, go- 
vern without 
the regaltitle. 
Childeric III. 
dethroned in 750 
The last king 
of the first 
race. 
Second race: 
Pepin 768 

Charlemagne 
England : 
The Heptar- 
chy. 
Kings of the Lom- 
bards in Italy : 
Luitpert 704 

Ragombert 704 
Aripert 
Ansprand 
Luitprand 
Rachis 
Aistulphus 
Dcsiderius 
The kingdom 
of the Lom- 
bards, which 
subsisted 
during the 
space of 206 



712 

712 
744 
750 
756 
773 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 
Concluded. 

A. D. 

years, was 
overturned 
by Charle- 
magne, who, 
having de- 
feated Desi- 
derius, caus- 
ed himself 
to becrowned 
king of the 
Lombards, 
in the year 774. 
Exarchs of Ra- 
venna. 
Theophylact 710 
Jo. Procopius 712 
Paul 729 

Eutychius 752 
The Exarchate 
subsisted during 
the space of 185 
years. 
It endedin thereign 
of Aistulphus, 
king of the Lom- 
bards, who re- 
duced Ravenna 
and added it to 
his dominions 
But this prince 
was obliged by 
Pepin, king of 
France,to surren 
der theExarchate, 
with all its terri- 
tories,castles, &c. 
to be for ever held 
by Stephen III 
and his succes- 
sors in the see of 
Rome. 
This is the true 
foundation of the 
temporal gran- 
deur of the popes. 



Venerable Bede. 

JohnDamascenus. 

The anonymous 
author of a Book 
entitled, OrdoRo- 
manus de Divi- 
nis Officiis, pub- 
lished in theBibl. 
Patr. 

Charlemagne : see 
the Capitularia, 
published by Ba- 
luze at Paris, in 
1677, and the 
Codex Carolinus, 
published at In- 
golstadt, in 1634, 
by Gretzer. 

Ambrosius Auth- 
pertus. 

The popes Grego- 
ry I. Gregory II. 
and Adrian. 

Paul the Lombard. 

Paulinus, bishop 
of Aquiieia. 

Alcuin, a native of 
England, and one 
of the principal 
instruments em- 
ployed byCharle- 
magne for the 
restoration of 
learning. He is 
considered by M. 
Du-Pin as the 
person that first 
introduced polite 
literature into 
France ; and it is 
to him that the 
universities of 
Paris, Tours, 
Soissons,&c. owe 
their origin. 

Felix, archbishop 
of Ravenna. 

German us, bishop 
of Constantino- 
ple. 

The unknown 
author of a book 
entitled, Liber 
Diurnus Pontifi- 
cumRomanorum. 
Egbert archbi- 
shop of York. 

Bartholomew, 
monk of Edessa, 
who refuted the 
Koran. 

Boniface, archbi- 
shop of Mentz, 
commonly called 
the Apostle of 
Germany. 

Anastasius, abbot 
in Palestine. 

Theophanes 

Aldhelm, bishop of 
Sherborne, under 
the heptarchy, 
and nephew to 
Ina, king of the 
West Saxons. 



The Eutychains, 
Monothelites,and 
Jacobites, con- 
tinue to propa- 
gate their doc- 
trines. 

The Paulo-Johan- 
nists, who were 
so called from 
their leaders Paul 
and John, and 
embraced the per- 
nicious errors of 
Valentine and 
Manes. 

The Agonoclites 
a wrong headed 
set of people who 
prayed dancing 

Adelbert. 

Felix, bishop of 
Urgel. 

Elipand, bishop of 
Toledo. 

Leo, the Isaurian 
who destroyed 
the images in the 
churches, and 
was the chief of 
the Iconoclastes 
andClement, who 
preferred the de- 
cisions of Scrip- 
ture to the de- 
crees of councils 
are reputed here- 
tics by the church 
of Rome. Virgi- 
lius was also ac- 
cused of heresy, 
by pope Zachar- 
ry, because he 
was a good ma- 
thematician, and 
believed the exis 
tence of And 
podes. 

Those who pro- 
moted the wor- 
ship of images 
and relics in this 
century deserve 
much more justly 
the denomination 
of Heretics. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious rites. 



Rapid progress of the Sa- 
racens in Asia and 
Africa. 

The subversion of the 
kingdom of the Lom- 
bards and of the exar- 
chate of Ravenna, the 
latter of which is grant- 
ed to the see of Rome, 
by Pepin, king of 
France. Charlemagne 
adds to the grant of Pe- 
pin several provinces, 
though the titles and 
acts of this grant have 
not been produced by 
the Roman Catholic his- 
torians. 

The ceremony of kissing 
thepope's toe introduced. 

The Saxons, with Wite- 
kind, their monarch, 
converted to Chris- 
tianity. 

The Christians perse- 
cuted by the Saracens, 
who massacred five 
hundred monks in the 
abbey of Lerins, 

The Saracens take pos 
session of Spain. 

Controversy between the 
Greek and Latin 
churches, concerning the 
Holy Ghost's proceed 
ing from the Son. 

The Germans converted 
by Boniface. 

The Gospel propagated 
in Hyrcania and Tar- 
tary. 

The right of election to 
the see of Rome con- 
ferred upon Charle- 
magne and his succes- 
sors by pope Adrian, in 
a council of bishops as- 
sembled at Rome. 

The worship of images 
authorised by the second 
council of Nice, in the 
year 787, which is im- 
properly called the se- 
venth general council. 

The reading of the epis- 
tles and gospels intro- 
duced into the service of 
the church. 

Solitary or private 
masses instituted. 

Churches built in honour 
of saints. 

Masses for the dead. 

Willebrod sent to convert 
the Frisons ; he was the 
first bishop of Utrecht. 



Profane authors. 



Alcuin — see the fourU 
column. 
Bede. 

Fredegarius. 
John Damascenus. 
George Syncellus. 
Virgilius. 



Cent. IX.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY IX. 



765 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Emperors oj ihi 
East : 

A. D. 

Irene 802 

Nicephorus 811 
Stauratius 811 
Michael Cu- 
ropolites 813 
Leo Armen. 820 
Michael Balb. 829 
Theophilus 842 
Michael III. 867 
Basil I. 

Macedo 886 

Leo VI. 
Philos. 
Emperors of the 

West : 
The Western 
Empire was 
restored in 
the year 800, 
in favour 
of Charle- 
magne, who 
died in 814 

Louis, theDe- 
bonnaire 840 
Lothaire 855 

Louis II. 875 

Charles II. 
surnamed the 
Bald 877 

Louis III. 879 
Carloman 880 
Charles III. 
deposed 887 

After the death 
of this prince, 
(who was the 
last king of 
France that 
was emperor) 
Germany and 
Italy were en- 
tirely separat- 
ed from the 
French mo- 
narchy, 

Arnolph 899 

Louis IV. 
Kings of Spain, 
i.e. of Leon and 
tlie Aslurias. 
Alphonso the 
Chaste 824 

Ramiro 851 

Ovdogno 862 

Alphonso III. 
Kings of France : 
Charlemagne 814 
Louis the De- 

bonnaire 840 
Charles the 

Bald 877 

Louis III. 879 
Carloraan 884 
Charles III. 888 
Eudes 889 

Charles the 

Sireph. 
Kings of Etg 

land: 
The Heptar- 
chy finished 
by the union 
of the seven 
kingdoms an- 

No. I .XIV. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Leo III. 816'Athelard 

Stephen "V. 817 Wulfred 
Paschal I. 824Theogild 
Eugenius II. 827 
A schism be- 
tween Euge- 
nius II. and 
Zizinnus. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



806 
830 1 
830 



827 
844 
847 
855 



Valentine 
Gregory IV 
Sergius II. 
Leo IV. 
Pope Joan 
Bened. III. 858 
A schism be- 
tween Bene- 
dict and Ana- 
stasius. 
Nicolas I. 867 
Adrian II. 872 
John VIII. 882 
Marimus I. 884 
Adrian III. 885 
Formosus 897 
A schism be- 
tween him 
and Sergius. 
Boniface VI. 897 



192 



Nicephorus, pa- 
triarch of Con- 
stantinople. 

Amalarius, bishop 
of Treves. 

Theodore Studita. 

Agobard, archbi- 
shop of Lyons. 

Eginhard. 

Claudius. 

Clement, bishop 
of Turin. 

Jonas, bishop of 
Orleans. 

Freculph,bishop of 
Lysieux. 

Moses Barcepha. 

Photius, patriarch 
of Constantino- 
ple. 

Theod. Abucara. 

Petrus Siculus. 

Nicetas David. 

Rabanus Maurus, 
archbishop of 
Mentz. 

Hilduin. 

Servatus Lupus. 

Drepanius Florus. 

Druthmar. 

Godeschalcus. 

Paschasius Rad- 
bert, the chief of 
the Transubstan- 
tiarians. 

Bertram or Ra- 
tram of Corby, 
who refuted the 
monstrous errors 
of Radbert, and 
was at the head 
of those who de- 
nied the corporal 
presence ofChrist 
in the Eucharist. 

Haymo, bishop of 
Halberstadt. 

WalafridusStrabo. 

Hincmar, archbi- 
shop of Rheims. 

John ScotErigena. 

Ansegisus. 

Florus, the deacon. 

Prudens, bishop of 
Troyes. 

Remy of Lyons. 

Nicolas. 

Adrian. 

John VIII. Pope. 

Anastasius, Bibl. 

Auxilius. 

Theodulph, bishop 
of Orleans. 

Smaragdus. 

Aldric, bishop of 
Mans. 

Ado of Vienna. 

Isidore Mercator, 
author of the 
False Decretals. 

Jesse, bishop of 
Amiens. 

Dungale. 

Halitgaire, bishop 
of Cambray. 

Amulo,archbishop 
of Lyons. 

Vamlalbert. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



Paulicians, a 

branch of the 
Manicheans. 

Iconoclastes 

Iconolatrae, or 

image worship- 
ers. 

Pradestinarians. 

Adoptians. 

Transubstantia- 
rians. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religions Rites, 



The conversion of the 
Swedes, Danes, Saxons, 
Huns, Bohemians, Mo- 
ravians, Sclavonians, 
Russians, Indians, and 
Bulgarians : by the last 
a controversy is occa- 
sioned between the 
Greek and Latin 
churches. 

jThe rise of transubstan- 
tiation and the sacrifice 
of the mass. 

The cause of Christianity 
suffers in the east under 
the Saracens, and in 
Europe under the Nor- 
mans. 

The power of the pope 
increases; that of the 
bishops diminishes ; and 
the emperors are divest- 
ed of their ecclesiasti- 
cal authority. 

The Decretals are forged 
by which the popes ex- 
tended the limits of their 
jurisdiction and au- 
thority. 

The fictitious relics of St. 
Mark, St. James, and 
St. Bartholomew, are 
imposed upon the credu- 
lity of the people. 

Monks and abbots now 
first employed in civil 
affairs, and called to 
the courts of princes. 

The festival of All-Saints 
is added, in this century, 
to the Latin calendar by 
GregorylV. though some 
authors of note place 
this institution in the 
seventh century, and at- 
tribute it to Boniface IV. 

The superstitious festi 
val of the Assumption 
of the Virgin Mary, in 
stituted by the council 
of Mentz, and confirm- 
ed by popeNicolas I. and 
afterwards by Leo X. 

The trial by cold water 
introduced by pope 
Eugenius II. though 
Le Brun, in his His- 
toire des Pratiques Su- 
perstitieses, endeavours 
to prove this ridiculous 
invention more ancient. 

The emperor Louis II. is 
obliged by the arrogant 
pontiff Nicolas I. toper- 
form the functions of a 
groom, and hold the 
bridle of this pope's 
horse, while his pretend- 
ed holiness was dis- 
mounting. 

The first Legends or 
Lives of the Saints ap- 
pear in this century. 



Profane Authors. 



Photius. 

Smaragdud. 

Eginhard. 

Rabanus Maurus. 

Abbon. 

Herempert. 

Leon. 

Sergius. 

Methodius. 

Walafridus Strabo. 

John Scot Erigena. 

Alfred the Great, king 
of England. 

His Saxon version of 
Orosius was never 
published. 

Abon-Nabas, an Ara- 
bian poet. 

The khalif al-Mamoun, 
an eminent mathemati- 
cian and astronomer. 
N. B. Haroun, the fa- 
ther of this prince, 
sent to Charlemagne a 
striking clock, with 
springs and wheels, 
which was the first 
ever seen in France, 
and shows that, at 
this period, the arts 
were more cultivated 
inAsia than in Europe. 



766 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



[Cent. IX 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Borne. 



A. D. 

der the go- 
vernment of 
Egbert. 
Egbert 836 

Ethelwolf 857 
Ethelbald 860 
Ethelbert 866 

Ethelred I. 871 
Alfred the 

Great 901 

Kings of Scot- 
toid : 
The history of 
Scotland is di- 
vided into four 
great periods. 
The first, 
which com- 
mences with 
Fergus I. 330 
years before 
Christ, and 
contains a se- 
ries of 68 
kings, ending 
with Alpi- 
nus, in the 
year 823, is 
looked upon 
as entirely 
fabulous. We 
shall there- 
fore begin 
this chronolo- 
gical list with 
the second pe- 
riod, which 
commences 
with Ken- 
neth II. 

Kenneth II. 854 
Donald V. 858 
Constantinell. 874 
Ethus 875 

Gregory 893 

Donald VI. 
Kings of Sweden: 
The origin of 
this kingdom 
is covered 
with uncer- 
tainty and fa- 
bles. 

Some histori- 
ans reckon 36 
kings before 
Biorno III., 
but it is with 
this prince 
Chat chronolo- 
gers generally 
begin their 
series. 

Biorno III. 824 
Brantamond 827 
Sivard 842 

Heroth 856 

Charles VI. 868 
Biorno IV. 883 
lngo, or In- 
geld 391 



Stephen VII. 901 
A schism be- 
tween Ste- 
phen VII. 
John IX. Ro- 
manus I. and 
II. and Theo- 
dore II. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Celnoth 
Ethelred 
Plegmund. 



871 
889 



Angelome. 

Epiphanes, arch- 
bishop of Con- 
stantia, in the is- 
land of Cyprus. 

Regino. 

Abbo. 

"William, the libra- 
rian. 

Pope Formosus. 

Pope Stephen. 

Methodius, who 
invented the Scla- 
vonian charac- 
ters, and made a 
translation of the 
Bible for the Bul- 
garians, which 
was used by the 
Russians. 

Alfred the Great, 
king of England, 
composed a 

Saxon Para- 
phrase on the Ec- 
clesiastical His- 
tory of Bede, a 
Saxon Version of 
Orosius, and a 
Saxon Psalter. 

The emperorBasil 
Maced. 

The emperor Leo, 
surnamed the 
Wise. 



Clement, bishop of 
Turin, who fol 
lowed the senti- 
ments of Felix of 
Urgel. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



Bemarkable Events. 
Belisious Bites. 



The Apostles' Creed is 
sung in the churches. — 
Organs, bells, and vocal 
music, are introduced in 
many places. — Festivals 
multiplied. 

The order of St. An- 
drew, or the Knights of 
the Thistle in Scotland. 

Michael I. emperor of the 
East, abdicates the 
throne, and retires into a 
monastery, with his 
wife and six children. 

Photius, patriarch of 
Constantinople, excom- 
municates the pope. 

The canonization of 
saints introduced by 
Pope Leo II. 

The university of Oxford 
founded by Alfred. 

The sciences are culti- 
vated among the Sara- 
cens, and, particularly 
encouraged by the khalif 
Al-Mamoun. 

Theophilus, from his ab- 
horrence of images, ban- 
ishes the painters out 
of the Eastern Empire. 

Harold,king of Denmark, 
is dethroned by his sub- 
jects, on account of his 
attachment to Chris- 
tianity. 

The university of Paris 
founded. 



Profane Authors. 



Albategni, the mathe- 
matician. 

Albumasar, or Abou 
Mashar, the Arabian 
astronomer. 



Cent. X.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY X. 



767 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Emperors of the 
East: a. D. 

Leo, the philo- 
sopher 911 

Alexander 912 

Constantine 
VII. surnam- 
ed Porphyro- 
genitus 959 

Romanus ' Le- 
capenus took 
advantage of 
the youth of 
this prince, 
and seized 
the imperial 
throne, but 
was deposed 
by his son 
Stephen, and 
and died in 948 

Romanus, first 
or second son 
to Constan- 
tine VII. 963 

Nioephorus 
Phoc. 970 

John Zimisces 975 

Basil III. 

Constantine 
VIII. 

Emperors of Ike 
West: 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



912 
919 



sur- 
the 



936 
973 
983 



Louis IV 

Conrad I. 

Henry I. 
named 
Fowler 

Otho I. 

OthoII. 

Otho III. 

Kings of Spain i.e. 
Leon and, Astu- 
rias : 

Alphonso III. 
surnamed the 
Great, abdi- 
catesthe crown 
in the year 910 

Garcias 913 

Ordogno II. 923 

Froila II. 924 

Alphonso IV 931 

Ramiro II. 950 

Ordogno III. 955 

Ordogno IV, 

Sanchez the 
Fat 

Ramiro HI. 

Bermudo, call 
ed, by some, 
Veremond II. 999 

Alphonso V. 

Kings of France: 

Charles the 
Simple 929 

Ralph usurps 
the throne 
Louis d'Outre- 

mer 954 

Lothaire II. 986 
Louis the Idler, 
the last king 
of the line of 
Charlemagne 987 

Third, Race : 
Hugh Capet 996" 
Robert. - ( 



John IX. 905 

A schism be- 
tween John 
IX. and Ser- 
gius. 
Benedict IV. 906 
Leo V. 906 

A schism be- 
tween LeoV. 
and Christo- 
pher. 

Christopher 907 
A schism be- 
tween Chris- 
topher and 
Sergius. 
Sergius HI. 910 
Anastasius III.912 
Lando 913 

John X. 928 

Leo VI. 929 

Stephen VIII. 931 
John XI. 936 

Leo VII. 939 

Stephen IX. 943 
Marinus II. 
Agapetus II. 
John XII. 
A schism be- 
tween John 
XII. and Leo. 
Leo VIII. 964 
Benedict V. 965 
John XIII. 972 
Domnus II. 972 
Benedict VI. 975 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Plegmund 

Athelm 

Wolfhelm 

Odo 

Dunstan 



956 

967 

982 



946 
955 
964 



917 
924 
934 
959 



Ecclesiastical and 
Tlteolugical Wri- 
ters. 



Meta- 



By 



Simeon 
phrastes. 

Leontius of 
zantium. 

Odo of Clugni. 

Ratherius, bishop 
Verona and 

Liege. 

Hippolytus, the 
Theban. 

Odo, archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

Eutychius, pa- 
triarch of Alex- 
andria. 

Said, patriarch of 
Alexandria, 

Flodoard. 

Joseph Genesius 
Atto, bishop of 
Verceil. 

Dunstan, archbi- 
shop of Canter- 
bury, 

Luitprand,abbotof 
Fleury. 

Notger, bishop of 
Liege. 

Suidas. 

Roswida, a poet- 
ess. 

Edgar, king 
England. 

JElfridus. 

Heriger. 

Olympiodorus. 

(Ecumenius. 

Odilo. 

Burchard. 



of 



Heretics real or 
reputed. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious rites. 



No new heresies 
were invented 
during this cen- 
tury. That of 
the Anthropo- 
morphites was 
revived, and the 
greatest part of 
the others were 
continued. Thus 
we find Nestori- 
ans, Eutychians, 
Paulicians, A 
menians, Anthro- 
pomorphites, and 
Manichsans, 
making a noise in 
this century. 



Irruption of the Huns 
intoGermany, and of the 
Normans into France. 

The Danes invade Eng- 
land. 

The Moors enter Spain. 

The Hungarians, and 
several northern nations, 
are converted to Chris- 
tianity. 

The pirate Rollo is made 
duke of Normandy, and 
embraces the Christian 
faith. 

The Polanders are con 
verted to Christianity 
under Micislaus, in the 
year 965. 

The Christian religion is 
established in Moscovy, 
Denmark, and Norway. 

The plan of the holy war 
is formed in this centu- 
ry, by pope Sylvester II. 

The baptism of bells ; the 
festival in remembrance 
of departed souls; the 
institution of the Rosa- 
ry; and a multitude of 
superstitious rites, shock- 
ing to common sense, 
and an insult upon true 
religion, are introduced 
in this century. 

Fire-ordeal introduced. 

The Turks andSaracens 
united. 

The Danish war con- 
tinues to convulse Eng- 
land. 

Feudal tenures begin to 
take place in France. 

The influence and power 
of the monks increase 
greatly in England. 



Profane author; 



This century, by way 
of eminence, is styled 
the age of barbarism 
and ignorance. 

The greatest part of the 
ecclesiastical and the- 
ological authors men- 
tioned in the column 
were mean, ignorant, 
and trivial writers, 
and wrote upon mean 
and trivial subjects. At 
the head of the learn- 
ed men of this age we 
must place Gerbert 
otherwise known by 
the papal denomina- 
tion of Sylvester II. 
This learned pontiff 
endeavoured to revive 
the drooping sciences ; 
and the effects of his 
zeal were visible in 
this, but still more in 
the following contury. 

Suidas. 

Geber, an Arabian che- 
mist, celebrated by the 
learned Boerhaave. 

Constantine Porphyro- 
gen. 

Mohammed Ebn Jaber 
Al-Batani, an Arabian 
astronomer. 



7b8 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



[Cent. XI. 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Kings of Eng- 
land: A. D. 
Edward 925 

Athelstan 941 
Edmund 946 

Ed red 955 

Ed wy 959 

Edgar 975 

Edward the 

Martyr 979 

Ethelredll. 
Kings of Scot- 
land : 
Donald VI. 903 
Constantine 

III. 943 
Malcolm I. 958 
Indulf 967 
Duff 972 
Cullen 976 
Kenneth III. 994 
Constantine 

IV. 995 
Grime 

Kings of Sweden : 
Ingeld II. 907 
Eric VI. 926 

Eric VII. 940 

Eric VIII. 980 
Olaus II. the 

Tributary. 
The begin- 
nings of the 
Danish mo- 
narchy are so 
fabulous that 
we shall be- 
gin with Ha- 
rold, who died 
in 980 

Sweyn 

Poland : 
Micislaus, the 
first Christian 
duke dies 999 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Pome. 



Boniface VII. 984 
Benedict VII. 984 
John XIV. 985 
John XV. 985 
John XVI. 996 
Gregory V. 999 
A schism be- 
tween John 
and Gregory 
V. 
Sylvester II. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Ethelgar 
Sincius 
Aluric, or 



989 
994 
Alfric. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Valerius of As- 
torga in Spain. 
His Lives of the 
Fathers, very dif- 
ferent from those 
that are publish- 
ed, are still in MS. 
in the library of 
Toledo. 

John Malela. 

Constantine Por- 
phyrogenitus. 

John of Capua. 

Nicholas, patri- 
arch of Constan- 
nople. 

Gregory of Caesa- 
rea. 

Epiphanes. 

Severus. 

Alfric, archbishop 
of Canterbury. 

Pope Gerbert. 

Oswald. 

Sisinnius. 

Hubald. 

Luitprand. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



The kingdom of Italy is 
united by Otho to the 
German empire. 

Pope Boniface VII. is de- 
posed and banished for 
his crimes. 

Arithmetical figures are 
brought from Arabia in- 
to Europe by the Sara- 
cens. 

The empire of Germany 
is rendered elective by 
Otho III. 



Profane Authors. 



Razi, a celebrated Ara- 
bian chemist and phy- 
sician. 

Leontius, one of the 
Byzantine historians. 

Joseph Genesius. 



CENTURY XI. 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Emperors of the 
East : 

A. D. 

Basil III. 1025 
Constantine 

VIII. 1028 
Romanus II. 

Argyr. 1034 

Michael IV. 

Paphl. 1041 

Michael V. 

Calaphates 1051 
Constantine 

IX. Mono- 
mach. 1054 

Theodora 1056 
Michael VI. 

Strat. 1057 

Isaac I. Comn. 1059 
Constantine 

X. Ducas 1067 
Romanus III. 
Diogenes 1071 
Nicephorus II. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Sylvester II. 1003 
John XVII. 1003 
John XVIII. 1009 
Sergius IV. 1012 
Benedict 
VIII. 1024 

A schism be- 
tween Gre- 
gory and 
Benedict. 
John XIX. 1033 
Benedict IX. 1044 
A schism be- 
tween the 
two Johns 
and Bene- 
dict. 

Gregory VI. 1046 
Clement II. 1048 
DamasusII. 1049 
Leo IX. 1054 

Victor II. 1057 
Stephen X. 1059 
Benedict X. 1059 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Aluric or Al- 
fric. 1006 
Elphegus, 
massacred 
by the Danes 
in 1012 
Livingus 1020 
Agelnoth 1038 
Eadsius 1050 
Robert Geme- 
ticensis 1052 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Dithmar, bishop of 
Mersburg. 

Leo the Gramma- 
marian. 

Aimon. 

Fulpert, bishop of 
Chartres. 

Adelbold, bishop of 
Utrecht. 

Alexis, patriarch 
of Constantino- 
ple. 

Berno, of Augs- 
burg. 

Ademar. 

The Brunos. 

Lanfrane, archbi- 
shop of Canter- 
bury. 

Theophanes Ce- 
rameus. 

Nilus Doxopa- 
trius. 

Michael Psellus. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



Berenger, famous 
for his opposition 
to the monstrous 
doctrine of tran 
substantiation. 

Roscelin, a Tri 
theite 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



The Crusades are carried 
on with all the enormi- 
ties that usually attend 
a blind, extravagant,and 
inhuman zeal. 

Godfrey of Bouillon takes 
possession of Jerusa- 
lem in the year 1099. 

A contest between the 
emperors and popes, in 
in which the latter dis- 
cover a most arrogant 
and despotic spirit. 

The dignity of cardinal 
is first instituted in this 
century. 

The Moors are driven by 
degrees from several 
parts of Spain ; hence 
arose the division of that 
country into so many 
little kingdoms. 

Matilda, daughter of Bo- 
niface, duke of Tus- 



Profane Authors. 



Leo, the Grammarian. 

Adelbord. 

Michael Psellus. 

Anselm, archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

Guido Aretino, inventor 
of musical notes. 

Wippo. 

John Scylitzes. 

Avicenna, or Ebn Sina, 
an Arabian philoso- 
pher. 

Stephen, the first Chris- 
tian king of Hungary. 

Alphes, a Jew. 

Josippon, or the false 
Josephus. 

Ferdousi, a Persian 
Poet. 

Roscellin. 



Cent. XL] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



769 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Botoniates 1081 
AlexisI.Com- 
nen. 
Emperors of the 

West : 
OthoIII. ' 1002 
Henry II. 1024 
Conrad II. 1039 
Henry III. 1056 
Henry IV. 
Kings of Spain, 
i.e. of Leon and 
the Asturias. 
Alphonso V. 1027 
VercmondIII.1037 
Kings of Leon and 

Castile united : 
Ferdinand I. 
surnamed 
the Great 1065 
Sancho II. 1073 
Alphonso VI. 
Kings of France : 
Robert 1031 

Henry I. 1060 
Philip I. 
Kings of Eng- 

land ; 
Ethelred II. 1016 
Edmond Iron- 
side 1017 
Canute the 
Great, king 
of Denmark 1035 
Haro'd Hare- 
foot 1039 
Hardicanute 1041 
Edward the 
Confessor 1066 
Harold 1066 

Norman line 
William the 
Conqueror 1087 
William Ru- 
fus 1100 

Kings of Scot- 
land : 
Grime 1003 

Malcolm II. 1033 
Donald VII. 
by some call- 
ed Duncan 1040 
Macbeth 1057 
Malcolm III. 1093 
Donald VIII. 
dethroned 1094 
Duncan II. 1096 
Donald again 1097 
Kings of Sweden : 
Olaus II. 1019 
Asmund 1035 
Asmundslem 1041 
Hakon 1059 

Stenchil 1061 

Ingo III. 1064 
Alstan 1080 

Philip. 
Kings of Den- 
mark : 
Bweyn 
i'anute the 
Great, king 
of England 1035 
(Hardicanute 1041 
Vlagnus 1048 

Sweyn II. 1074 
Harold 1076 

St. Canute 1085 
Olaus 1093 

Eric II. 

No. LXV. 



Nicolas II. 1061 

A schism be- 
tween Nico- 
las and Be- 
nedict. 

Alexanderll. 1073 

A schism be- 
tween Alex- 
ander and 
Cadalous. 

Gregory VII. 1086 

A schism be- 
tween Gre- 
gory and 
Guy, bishop 
of Ravenna. 

Victor III. 1088 

Urban II. 1099 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Stigand, 
posed in 
Lanfranc 
Anselm 



de- 



1070 
1089 



1034 
1058 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces: 

Concluded. 

Kings of Poland : 

Boleslaus, a. d. 
first king, 1025 

Micislaus 

Interregnum 

Casimir 

Boleslaus II. 1081 
jUladislaus. 

Kings of Jerusa- 
lem. 

Godfrey, cho- 
sen king in 
1099, dies in 1100 

Baldwin I. 

193 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Michael Cerula- 
rius. 

Simeon the Youn- 
ger. 

Theophylact, a 
Bulgarian. 

Cardinal Hum- 
bert. 

Petrus Damianus. 

Marianus Scotus. 

Anselm, archbi- 
shop of Canter- 
bury. 

Ivo, bishop of 
Chartres. 

Hildebert, archbi- 
shop of Tours. 

Pope Gregory VII. 

Gerhard. 

Hugh of Breteuil. 

Berthold. 

Hermannus Con- 
tract. 

Peter, patriarch of 
Antioch. 

Glaber Radulphus. 

Deoduinus bi- 

shop of Liege. 

Adelman. 

Nicetas Pectora- 
tus. 

Leo of Bulgaria. 

Guitmund. 

Manasses, archbi- 
shop of Rheims. 

John, patriarch of 
Antioch. 

Sigefrid. 

Samon of Gaza 

Samuel of Mo- 
rocco, a convert- 
ed Jew. 

John Xiphilin. 

Lambert. 

Adam of Bremen 

John Curopalata. 

Benno of Ravenna. 

Nicholas of Me- 
throne. 

Philip theSolitary. 

O'hlon of Fulda. 

Tangmar. 

Guido Aretino. 

Eugesippus. 

A famous, but 
anonymouswork, 
called Microlo- 
gus, appeared in 
this century. 

Dominic of Grado. 

Alberic. 

Osborn, a monk of 
Canterbury. 



Heretics real 
reputed. 



A sect of French 
Manichaeans, 
condemned in the 
council of Or- 
leans. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious riles. 



cany, leaves all herpos 
sessions to the church of 
Rome, in consequence of 
her passionate attach- 
ment to Hildebrand, 
otherwise known by the 
papal name of Gregory 
VII. with whom she 
lived in a licentious com- 
merce. 

Sicily, Castile, Poland, 
and Hungary, are erect- 
ed into kingdoms. 

The kingdom of Burgun- 
dy and Aries is tranfer- 
red to the emperor Con- 
rad II. by Rondolph 
king of Burgundy. 

Several of the popes are 
looked upon as magi- 
cians, as, in these times 
of darkness, learning, 
and more especially 
philosophy and mathe- 
matics, were considered 
as magic. 

Investitures introduced in 
this century. 

Papal tyranny is nobly 
opposed by the emperors 
Henry I. II. and III. by 
William I. king of Eng- 
land, and other monarchs 
of that nation, by Phi 
lip, king of France, and 
by the British and Ger- 
man churches. 

Baptism is performed by 
triple immersion. 

The Sabbath Fasts intro- 
duced by Gregory VII. 

The Cistercian, Carthu 
sian, and Whipping 
Orders, with many 
others, are founded in 
this century. 

The emperor Henry IV. 
goes barefooted to the 
insolent pontiff Gregory 
VII. at Canusium, and 
does homage to this spi 
ritual tyrant in the most 
ignominious manner. 
The same emperor, 
however, beseiges Rome 
soon after, and makes a 
noble stand against the 
pontiff. 

Domesday-book is com- 
piled from a survey of 
all the estates in Eng- 
land. 

Jerusalem is thken by the 
Crusaders. 



John me philosopher 
John Curopalata, one of 

the Byzantine histo 

rians. 



Profane authors. 



770 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY XE. 



[Cent. XI I 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Emperors of the 
East: 



1118 
1143 
1180 
1183 

1185 



of the 

1106 
1125 
1138 
1152 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Alexis I. 

Comnen. 
John II. Com 

nen. 
Emanuel 

Comnen. 
Alexis II. 

Comnen. 
Andronicus 

Comnen. 
IsaacII.Ang. 1195 
Alexis III. 
Emperors 
West 
Henry IV. 
Henry V. 
Lothaire II. 
Conrad III. 
Frederic I. 

surnamed 

Barbarossa 1190 
Henry VI. 1198 
Philip. 

Kings of Spain, 
i. e. of Leon and 
Castile : 
Alphonso VI. 1109 
Alphonso 

VII. 
Alphonso 

VIII. 
Sancho III. 
Ferdinand II. 1175 
Alphonso IX 
Kings of France : 
Philip I. 1108 

Louis VI 

surnamed 

the Gross 1137 
Louis VII. 

surnamed 

the Young 
Philip Aug, 
Kings of 

la nd : 
Henry I. 
Stephen 
Henry II. 
Richard 1. 
John. 
Kings of 

land : 
Edgar 
Alexander 
David 
Malcolm IV 

William. 

Kings of Sweden 



Pascal II. 1118 

Anti-Popes. 

Clement, Al- 
bert, Theo- 
dore, and 
Maginulph. 

Gelasius II. 

Calistus II, 

Honorius II. 

Innocent II. 

Celestine II. 

Lucius II. 

Eugenius III. 1153 

Anastasius 
IV. 1154 

Adrian IV. 1159 



1119 
1124 
1130 
1143 
1144 
1145 



1134 

1157 

1158 



1180 

Eng- 

1135 
1154 

1189 
1199 

Scot- 

1106 
1124 
1153 
1165 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Anselm 

Ralph 

William 

Corboil 
Theobald 
Thomas 

Becket 
Richard 



de 



1109 
1122 
e 

1136 
1161 

1170 
1183 



1110 
1129 
1140 



de- 



Philip 
Ingo IV. 
Ragwald 
Magnus, 
posed in 
Suercher 
Eric,theHolyll61 
Charles VII. 1168 
Canute 
Suercher II 
K'.ngs of 
mark 
Eric II. 
Ni eoias 
Eric III. 
Eric IV. 
Canute V. 



1148 
1160 



1192 



Den- 



im 
1135 
1138 
1147 
1155 



Gilbert, abbot of 
Westminster. 

Guibert. 

Sigebert cf Gem- 
blours. 

Peter Alphonso. 

Odo of Orleans. 

Godfrey of Ven- 
dome. 

Rupert of Duitz. 

Baldric. 

Arnulph, bishop of 
Lisieux. 

Bernard of Clair- 
val. 

Abelard. 

Athelred. 

Baldwin, archbi- 
shop of Canter- 
bury. 

Euthymius Zigab. 

William of Mal- 
mesbury. 

John of Salisbury. 

Thomas Becket, 
archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

Gervase, a monk 
of Canterbury. 

Nicephorus of Bri- 
enne. 

Anselm, bishop of 
Havelberg. 

Jo. Zonaras. 

Mich. Glycas. 

Hugo Victorinus. 

Eadmerus. 

George Cedrenus. 

Peter, the Vener- 
able. 

Honorius of Au- 
tun. 

Foucher. 

Alger. 

Gratian. 

Peter Lombard. 

Henry of Hunt- 
ingdon. 

William bishop of 
Rheims. 

Constantine Har- 
men. 

Orderic Vital. 

Constantine Ma- 
nass. 

Zacharias Chry- 
sop. 

Peter of Blois. 

Peter Comestor. 

Peter de Cellus. 

Peter of Poictiers. 

John Cinnamus. 

John Beleth. 

Helmold. 

Gislebert, bishop 
of London. 

Stephen Harding. 

George Xiphilin. 

Alexan. Arist. 



Heretics, real o r 
reputed. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



The Bogomiles 
and Catharists 
were a kind of 
Manicheans. 

The Pasaginians 
were a kind of 
Arians, who also 
discovered a. 

strange attach- j 
ment to the cere- 1 
monial law of: 
Moses. 

Eon, a madman, 
rather than a he- 
retic. 

The same thing! 
may be said of! 
Tranquillinus. 

As to Arnold of 
Brescia, the Pe- 
trobrussians, 
Henricians, 
Waldenses, and 
Apostolics, if al- 
lowance be made 
for some few 
points, they ra- 
ther deserve the 
title of Refor- 
mers and Wit- 
nesses to the 
Truth, than that 
of Heretics. 

Peter Abelard and 
Gilbert de la Por- 
ree differed from 
the notions com- 
monly received 
with respect to 
the Holy Trinity. 



Profane Authors. 



The Sclavonians and the 
inhabitants of the island 
of Rugen receive the 
light of the Gospel, and 
their example is follow- 
ed by the Livonians and 
Finlanders. 

The state of affairs in 
Asiatic Tartary changes 
in favour of the Chris- 
tians, by the elevation of| 
Prester-John. 

The Crusade is renewed. 

The kingdom of Jerusa- 
lem is overturned, and 
the affairs of the Chris- 
tians in Palestine de- 
cline. 

A third Crusade under- 
taken. 

The three famous milita- 
ry orders instituted, viz. 
The Knights of St. John 
of Jerusalem — The 
Knights Templars — 
The Teutonic Knight: 
of St. Mary. 

The original MS. of the 
famous Pandect of Jus- 
tinian is discovered in 
the ruins of Amalphi, or 
Melfi, when that city 
was taken by Lothaire 
II. in 1137, and this em- 
peror makes a present of 
it to the city of Pisa, 
whose fleet had contri- 
buted, in a particular 
manner, to the success of 
the siege. 

The contest between the 
emperors and popes is 
renewed under Frederic 
Barbarossa and Adrian 
IV. — The insolence of 
the popes excessive. 

Becket, archbishop of 
Canterbury, assassina- 
ted before the altar, 
while he was at vespers 
in Ids cathedral. 

The scandalous traffic of 
indulgences begun by 
the bishops, and soon af- 
ter monopolized by the 
popes. 

The ScholasticTheology, 
whose jargon did such 
mischief in the church, 
had its rise in this cen- 
tury. 

The seeds of the Refor- 
mation were sown, in 
this century, by the Wal- 
denses, and other emi- 
nent men in England 
and France. 

Pope Paschal II. orders 
the Lord's supper to be 
administered only in one 
kind, and retrenches the 
cup. 

The Canon-law formed 
into a body, by Gra- 
tian. 

Academical degrees in- 
troduced in this century. 

Learning revives and is 



Anselm of Leon. 

Vacarius. 

Leoninus, the supposed 
introducer of Latin 
rhymes. 

Roger Hoveden. 

John of Salisbury. 

William of Malmes- 
bury. 

John Zonaras. 

George Cedrenus. 

John Cinnamus. 

Silvester Girald, bishop 
of St. David's. 

Godfrey of Viterbo. 

William of Newburgh, 
an English historian. 

Pelagius, bishop of 
Oviedo. 

John of Milan, author 
of the poem called 
Schola Salermitana. 

Robert Pullein, an Eng- 
lish cardinal. 

Abraham Eben-Ezra. 

John and Isaac Tzetzes. 

Henry of Huntingdon. 

Nicetas. 

Werner. 

Moses MaimoniJes. 

Anvari, a Persian as- 
tronomer. 

Portius Azo. 

Nestor, a Russian his- 
torian. 

Falcandus. 

Benjamin of Tudela, a 
Spanish Jew, whose 
Travels were trans- 
lated by Baratier. 

Averroes, or Ebn-Zohr. 

Eustathius, bishop of 
Thessalonica. 

Solomon Jarchi. 



Cent. XIII.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



771 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



A. D. 

Sweyn III. 1157 
Waldemar 1182 
Canute VI. 
Kings of Poland: 
Uladislaus 1102 
BoleslausIII. 1139 
UladislausII. 1146 
BoleslauslV. 1173 
Micislaus 1178 
CasimirlL 1195 
Lescus or Le- 

choV. 
Kings of Jerusa- 
lem : 
Baldwin I. 1118 
Baldwin II. 1131 
Foulques or 

Fulk 1141 

Baldwin III. 1162 
Almeric 1 173 

Baldwin IV. 1185 
Baldwin V. 1186 
GuyofLusig- 

nan. 
Jerusalem 

was retaken 

by the Infi- 
dels in 1187 
Almeric from 

1196 to 1205 

Kings of Portu- 
gal: 
Alphonso I. 

proclaimed 

king in 1139 

dies in 1185 

Sancho I. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Alexander 

HI. 
Lucius III. 
Ur III. 
Gregory 

VIII. 
Clement III. 
Celostinelll. 



1181 

1185 

1187 

1188 
1191 
1199 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Baldwin 1191 
Reginald 

Fitz-Jocelin 1191 
Hubert Fitz 

Walter. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Godfrey of Vi- 
tcrbo. 

Theod. 

Balsamon. 

Richard of St. Vic- 
tor. 

William of Aux- 
erre. 

Bruno of Asti. 

Simeon of Dur- 
ham. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



The Albigenses, 
a branch of the 
Waldenses, are 
branded with 
the denomination 
of Manichaeans 



Remarkable Events 
Religious Rites. 



encouraged in the uni- 
versity of Cambridge. 

The pope declares war 
against Roger king of 
Sicily, who takes from 
his holiness Capua and 
Beneventum. 

The council of Clarendon 
held against Becket. 

The kings of England 
and France go to the 
Holy Land. 

Heniy II. of England, 
being called by one of 
the Irish kings to assist 
him, takes possession of 
Ireland. 



Profane Authors. 



Al-Hasen, an Arabian, 
who composed a large 
work on Optics. 

George Al-Makin, au- 
thor of the History of 
the Saracens translated 
by Erpenias. 

Geoffrey of Monmouth. 



CENTURY XIE. 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Emperors of the 
East : 

A. D. 

Alexis III de- 
throned in 1203 
Alexis IV. de- 
throned in 1204 
Alexis Du- 
cas, surnam- 
ed Murzur- 
phle. 1204 

Latin Emperors 
of the East resid- 
ing at Constanti- 
nople : 

Balduin I. 1205 
Henry 1216 

Peter 1221 

Robert 1229 

Balduin II. 1259 
Greek Emperors 
residing at Nice 
Theodore 

Lascaris 1222 

John Ducas 

III. 1255 

Theodore 

Lascaris 1259 
John Lasca- 
ris IV. 1259 
Michael Paljeolo- 



Innocent III. 
Honorius III. 
Gregory IX. 
CelestinelV. 
Innocent IV. 
Alexander 
IV. 
Urban IV. 
Clement IV. 
Gregory X. 
Innocent V. 
Adrian V. 
John XX. 
Nicolas III. 
Martin IV. 



1216 
1226 
1241 
1243 
1254 

1261 

1264 
1268 
1276 
1276 
1276 
1277 
1280 
1285 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Hub. Fitz- 

Walter 1204 
Stephen 

Langton 1228 
Richard Le 

Grand 1231 

St. Edmund 1242 
Boniface 1270 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



Joachim. 

John, bishop of 
Macedonia. 

DemetriusChoma- 
tenus. Mark, pa- 
triarch of Alex- 
andria. 

Malachy, archbi- 
shop of Armagh. 

Nicetas Choniata. 

Francois d'Assise. 

Alan de l'lsle. 

Jacobus de Vitri- 
aco. 

Peter, the monk. 

Antony of Padua. 

Germanus. 

Caesarius. 

William of Paris. 

Raymond of Pen- 
nafort. 

Alexander Hales. 

Edmund Rich, 
archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

Thomas of Spala 
tro. 

John Peckham 
archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

Roger Bacon. 



The Waldenses. 

Nestorians. 

Jacobites. 

The Brethren and 
Sisters of the 
Free Spirit.other- 
wise called Beg- 
hards and Be- 
guttes, Beghins 
and Turlupins. 

Amalric. Joachim. 

Wihelmina. 

The sect of the 
Apostles. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



Profane Authors. 



The Moslem religion 
triumphs over Chris- 
tianity in China and the 
northern parts of Asia, 
by flattering the passions 
of voluptuous princes. 

A papal embassy is sent' 
to the Tartars by Inno-j 
cent IV. 

A fourth crusade is un- 
dertaken by the French j 
and Venetians, who 
make themselves mas- 
ters of Constantinople, 
with a design to restore 
the throne to Isaac An- 
gelus, who had been de-! 
throned by his brother! 
Ducas. 

The emperor Isaac is put 1 
to death in a sedition, 
and his son Alexis 
strangled by Alexis Du- 
cas, the ringleader of 
this faction. 

The crusaders take Con- 
stantinople a second 
time, dethrone Ducas, 
and elect Baldwin, count 
of Flanders, emperor of 
the Greeks. 



Roger Bacon, one of the 
great restorers of learn- 
ing and philosophy. 

Saxo Grammaticus. 

Ralph de Diceto. 

Walter of Coventry. 

Alexander of Paris, the 
founder of French poe- 
try. 

Villehardouin, an his- 
torian. 

Accursi of Florence. 

Kimchi, a Spanish Jew 

Conrad de Lichtenau. 

John Holywood, called 
De Sacro Bosco, au- 
thor of the Sphaera 
Mundi. 

Actuarius, aGreek phy- 
sician. 

Rod. Ximpnes, archbi- 
shop of Toledo. 

Michael Coniat, bishop 
of Athens. 

Ivel. 

Rigord, an historian. 

Pierre de Vignes. 

Matthew Paris. 

Sufliidus. 

Sozomen, author of the 
Universal Chronolo- 



772 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



[Cent. XIU. 



Sovereign Priii- Popes, or Bishops 
ees. of Rome. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



a. d. HonoriusIV. 



and 
em- 
he 



1283 



gus retakes 
Constanti- 
nople in the 
year 1261, 
and thus 
unites, in his 
person, the 
Latin 
Greek 
pires ; 
dies in 
Andronicus. 

II. 
Emperors of the 

West : 
Philip 1208 

Otho IV. 1218 
Frederic II. 1250 
Civil wars 
and an in- 
terregnum, 
duringwhich 
Conrad of 
Suabia,Wil- 
liam count of 
Holland, 
Richardking 
of England, 
Alphonso of 
Spain, Otto- 
car of Bohe- 
mia, appear 
an the scene 
of action. 
Rodolphus of 
Hapsburg is 
elected em- 
peror inl273, 
and dies in 1291 
Adolphus of 
Nassau, de- 
posed in 1298 
Albert I. 

Kings of Spam. 
i.e. of Leon and 
Castile : 
Alphonso IX.1214 
Henry I. 1217 
Ferdinand 
III. 1252 

Alphonso X. 1284 
Sancho IV. 1295 
FerninandlV. 
Kings of France 
Philip Aug. 1223 
Louis VIII. 1226 
Louis IX. 

sainted 1270 

Philip III. the 

Hardy 1285 

Philip IV. the 

Fair. 
Kings of Eng- 
land : 
John 1216 

Henry III. 1272 
Edward I. 
Kings of Scot- 
land : 
William 1214 

Alexander 11.1249 
Alexander 
III. 1285 

Interregnum. 
Jvhn Baliol. 
Kings of Sweden : 
Suercherll. 1211 
Eric X. 1218 

John I. 1222 

Eric XI. 1250 



Nicolas IV. 
Celestine V. 



1288 
1292 
1294 



Robert Kil- 
wardby 1278 

John Peck- 
ham 1291 

Robert Win- 
chesley. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Albert, the Great. 

Rob. Grossetete. 

Vincent de Beau- 
vais. 

Robert of the Sor- 
bonne. 

George Acropol ita. 

Hugo de St. Caro. 

George Metochita. 

Guillaume de St. 
Amour. 

Nicephorus Blem. 

Thomas Aquinas. 

Bonaventura. 

Gilbert of Tour- 
nay. 

John of Paris, an 
opposer of tran- 
substantiation 
and papal tyran- 
ny. 

John Beccus. 

Nicetus Acomina- 
tus. 

Theodore Lasca- 
r'is. 

Arsenius. 

George Pachymer 

George the Cy 
prian. 

Stephen Langton, 
archbishop of 
Canterbury. 

Robert Capito. 

Thomas Canti- 
prat. 

Richard Middle- 
ton. 

William Durand 

./Egidius de Co- 
lumna. 

Guil. Peraldus. 

Martin Polon. 

Raymond Martin 

Jacob deVoragine. 

Guillaume deSeig- 
nelai, bishop of 
Auxerre. 

William of Au- 
vergne, bishop of 
Paris. 

Henry of Ghent. 

Pope Boniface 
VIII. 



Heretics real or 
reputed. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious rites. 



John of Parma, 
author of the 
everlasting gos- 
pel. 

Flagellants. 

Circumcelliones. 



Profane authors. 



The empire of the Franks 
in the East, which had 
subsisted fifty-seven 
years, is overturned by 
Michael Palrcologus. 

A fifth crusade, which is 
carried on by the con- 
federate arms of Italy 
and Germany. 

The fleet of the crusaders 
ruined by the Saracens. 

The fifth crusade under- 
taken by Louis IX. who 
takes Damietta, but is 
afterwards reduced, with 
his army, to extremities; 
dies of the plague in a 
second crusade, and is 
canonized. 

The knights of the Teu 
tonic Order, under the 
command of Herman de 
Saliza, conquer and con- 
vert to Christianity the 
Prussians, at the desire 
of Conrad, duke of 
Masovia. 

Christianity is propaga- 
ted among the Arabians 
in Spain. 

The philosophy of Aris- 
totle triumphs over all 
the systems that were in 
vogue before this cen- 
tury. 

The power of creating 
bishops, abbots, &c. is 
claimed by the Roman 
pontiffs, whose wealth 
and revenues are thereby 
greatly augmented. 

John, kingof England, ex- 
communicated by pope 
Innocent III. is guilty of 
the basest compliances, 
through his slavish fear 
of that insolent pontiff. 

The inquisition establish- 
ed in Narbonne Gaul, 
and committed to the 
direction of Dominic and 
his order, who treat the 
Waldenses, and other 
reputed heretics, with 
most inhuman cruelty. 

The adoration of the Host 
is introduced by Pope 
Honorius III. 

The Magna Charta is 
signed by king John and 
his barons on the 15th 
of June, at Runemede. 
near Windsor. 

A debate arises between 
the Dominicans and 
Franciscans concerning 
the immaculate concep- 
tion of the Virgin Mary. 

Jubilees instituted by 
pope Boniface VIII. 

The Sicilian Vespers — 
when the French in 
Sicily, to the number of 
8000, were massacred in 
in one evening, at a sig- 
nal given by John of 
Prochyta, a Sicilian no- 
bleman. 

Conrad, duke of Suabia, 
and Fredei ic of Austria, 
beheaded at Naples by 



gy, which is yet in 
MS. in the possession 
of the Regular Canons 
of Fesoli, near Flo- 
rence. 

Barthol. Cotton, of Nor- 
which ; see Wharton's 
Anglia Sacra. 

Engelbert. 

Thomas Wicke, an 
English historian. 

Vitellio, a Polish ma- 
thematician. 

Albert the Great. 

Colonna, archbishop of 
Messina. 

Michael Scot, the trans- 
lator of Aristotle. 

Gregory Abulfaragins. 

Foscanof Bologna. 

Alphonso, king of Cas- 
tile. 

Cavalcanti of Florence. 

Dinus, a famous jurist. 

Marco Polo, a Venetian, 
whose travels in Chi- 
na are curious. 

Francis Barberini, an 
Italian poet. 



Cent. XIV.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



773 



Sovereign Prin- Popes, or Biskops 
ces. of Rome. 



A. D. 

Waldemar 1276 
Magnus 1390 
Birger. 

Kings of Den- 
mark : 
Canute VI. 1202 
Waldemar 11.1241 
Eric VI. 1250 

Abel 1252 

Christopher 1259 
Eric VII. 1266 
Eric VIII. 
Kings of Poland : 
Lescus 'V. 1203 
Uladislaus 

III. 1226 
Boleslaus V. 1279 
Lescus VI. 12S9 
Boleslaus, 

Henry, and 

Uladislaus, 

take the title 

ofGfovernors. 
Premislaus. 1296 
Uladislaus 

IV. deposed 

in 1300 

Wenceslaus, 
king of Bo- 
hemia. 
Kings of Portu- 
gal: 
Sanchc I. 1212 
AlphonsoII. 1223 
Sancho II. 1246 
AlphonsoIII. 1279 
Denis. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



; Ecclesiastical and 
I Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Heretics, real 
reputed. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



the counsel of pope Cle- 
ment IV. 

The Jews are driven out 
of France by Louis IX. 
and all the copies of the 
Talmud, that could be 
found, are burned. 

The college of electors 
founded in the empire. 

The association of the 
Hans- Towns. 

The Dominicans, Fran- 
ciscans, Servites, Men- 
dicants, and the Her- 
mits of St. Augustin, 
date the origin of their 
orders from this century. 

The fables concerning 
the removal of the 
chapel of Loretto ; the 
vision of Sim. Stockius, 
the Wandering Jew, 
and St. Antony's oblig- 
ing an ass to adore the 
sacrament, are invented 
about tliis time. 

The festivals of the Na- 
tivity of the blessed Vir- 
gin, and of the Holy 
Sacrament or Body of 
Christ, instituted. 

The rise of die house of 
Austria is referred to 
this century. 

Wales is conquered by 
Edward, and united to 
England. 

There is an uninterrupt- 
ed succession of Eng- 
lish parliaments from 
the year 1293. 



Profane Authors. 



CENTURY XIV. 



Sovereign Prin- Popes, or Bishops Archbishops of 'r^Jt'tical * Wri H erel * cs > rea ^ <w * 
ces. of Rome. Canterbury. I ? " reputed, 



Emperors of the 
East: 

A. D. 

Andronicus 

II. 1332 

Andronicus, 

the Younger 1341 
John Canta- 

cuzenus 

usurps the 

government 

under John 

Palseologus, 

and holds it 

till the year 1355 
Tolin VI. Pa- 

l»ol. 1390 

Andronicus 

IV. 1392 

Emanuel II. 
Emperors of the 

West: 
Albert I. 1303 
Henry VII. 

of Luxem- 
burg 1313 
TouisV.Bav. 1347 
LharlesIV. 1378 

No. LXV. 



Boniface 
VIII. 1303 

Benedict XI. 1304 
Clement V. 1314 
John XXI. 1334 
A schism be- 
tween Peter 
and John. 
BenedictXII. 1342 
Clement VI. 1352 
Innocent VI. 1362 
Urban V. 1372 
A schism be- 
tweenUrban 
andClemenL 
Gregory XL 1378 
The death of 
Gregory XI. 
occasioned 
that violent 
schism 
which threw 
the western 
church into 
; the ■ utmost 
confusion. 
The church of 
Rome had 

194 



Robert Win- 
chelsey 1313 

Walter Ray- 
nold 1327 

Simon Mep- 
ham 1333 

I. Stratford 1348 

Thomas 
Brad war- 
dine 1349 

Simon Islip 1365 

Simon Lang- 
ham 1374 



Nicephorus Callis- 
tus. 

Raymond Lully. 

Matthsus Blasta- 
res. 

Greg. Acindynus. 

John Cantacuze- 
nus. 

Nicephorus Greg. 

Duns Scotus. 

Andrew of New- 
castle. 

Francis Mayron. 

Durand of St Por- 
tian. 

Nicolas de Lyra. 

John Bacon. 

Willam Occam. 

Nicolas Trivet 

Andrew Home. 

Richard Bury. 

Walter Burley. 

Richard Hampole 

Robert Holkot 

Thomas Brad war- 
dine, archbishop 
of Canterbury. 

John Wickliffe. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



Waldenses. 

Palamites, Hesy- 
chasts, and&uiet- 
ists, three diffe- 
rent names for 
one sect 

Spiritual Francis- 
cans. 

CeccusAsculanus, 
who was burned 
at Florence by 
the Inquisition 
for making some 
experiments in 
mechanics that 
appeared miracu- 
lous to the vulgar. 
'Beghards, and Be-! 
guines. 

As to the Cellites 
I or Lollards, they 
! cannot be deemed 
heretics. 

The followers of 
John Wickliffe 
deserve an emi- 
nent place, with 
their leader, in] 



Fruitless attempts made 
to renew the crusades. 

Christianity encouraged 
in Tartary and China : 
but loses ground towards 
the end of this century. 

The Lithuanians and 
Jagello, their prince, con- 
verted to the Christian 
faith in the year 1366. 

Many of the Jews are 
compelled to receive the 
Gospel. 

Philosophy and Grecian 
literature are cultivated 
with zeal in this century. 

The disputes between the 
Realists and Nomina- 
lists revive. 

Philip the Fair, king of 
France, opposes with 
spirit the tyrannic pre- 
tensions of the pope to 
a temporal jurisdiction 
over kings and princes, 
and demands a general 
council to depose Boni- 
face, VIII. whom he ac- 



Profane Authors. 



Dante, the principal 
restorer of philosophy 
and letters, and also 
one of the most sub- 
lime poets of modern 
times. 

Petrarca. 

Boccaccio. 

Chaucer. 

Matthew of Westmin- 
ster. 

Nicolas Trivet. 

Nicephorus Gregoras a 
compiler of the By- 
zantine History. 

Theodore Metochita. 

Guillaume de Naugis, 
historian. 

Henry Stero, histo- 
rian. 

Dinus Mugellanus. 

Evrard, historian. 

Hayton an Armenian 
historian. 

Albertino Mussato. 

Oderic de Forli. 

Leopold, bishop of Bam 
berg. 



74 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



[Cent. XIV 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Eng- 

1307 
1327 
1377 
1399 

Scot- 

1306 



A. D. 

Wenceslaus 1406 
Kings of Spain 
i. e. Leon and 
Castile : 
FerdinandIV.1312 
AlphonsoXI. 1350 
Pedro the 

Cruel 1369 

Henry II. 1379 
John I. 1390 

Henry III. 
Kings of France : 
Philip the 
Fair 1314 

Louis X 
Hutin 1316 

Philip V. 1322 
Philip VI. of 

Valois 1350 

John 1364 

Charles V. 1380 
Charles VI. 
Kings of 

land : 
Edward I. 
Edward II. 
Edward III. 
Richard II. 
Henry IV. 
Kings of 

land : 
John Baliol 
Robert Bruce 1329 
David II. 1370 
Robert II. 1390 
Robert III. 
Kings of Siveden : 
Birger 1326 

Magnus 1363 

Albert,defeat- 
ed by Mar- 
garet queen 
of Denmark 
in 1387, dies 
in the year 1396 
Margaret. 
Sovereigns of Den- 
mark : 
Eric VIII. 
Christopher 

II. 
Waldemar 
III. 
Olaus 
Margaret. 
Kings of Poland: 
Wenceslaus 1305 
Uladislaus re- 
ascends the 
throne, and 
dies in 1333 

Casimir III. 
the last of 
the Piasts 1370 
Louis, king 

of Hungary 1381 
Interregnum. 
Uladislaus 
Jag-ell on, 
duke of Li- 
thuania. 
Kings of Portu- 
gal 

Denis 1325 

AlphonsoIV. 1357 
Pedro, the 
Justiciary 1367 
Ferdinand 1383 
Interregnum 
John I. 



two popes, 

one residing 

at Rome, 

the other at 

Avignon. 
At Rome: 
Urban VI. 1389 
Boniface IX. 

At Avignon: 
Clement VII. 

not acknow- 
ledged 1394 
Benedict XIII. 



1321 

1333 

1375 
1387 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Simon Sud- 
bury 1381 

W. Courte- 
nay 1396 

Thomas Arun- 
del. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Heretics real 
reputed. 



Thomas Stubbs. the list of Re- 
John de Burgo. formers. 
William Wolfort.i Nicolas of Cala- 
The last thirteen! bria. 
all English au- Martin Gonsalvo 



thors. 

Peter Aureolus. 

John Bassolis. 

Bernard Guido. 

Alvarus Pelagius. 

Theophanes, bi- 
shop of Nice. 

Philotheus. 

Antonius Andreas. 

Herveus Natalis. 

Thomas of Stras- 
burg. 

Raynerius of Pisa. 

John of Fribourg. 

Pope Clement VI. 

Thomas Joysius. 

John of Naples. 

Albert of Padua. 

Michael Cesenas. 

Gregory Palamas. 

Andronicus. 

Peter of Duisburg. 

Ludolf Saxon. 

Cardinal Caietan. 

James of Viterbo. 

Cardinal Balde. 

George of Rimini. 

The popes Bene- 
dict XI. and XII. 

Gui of Perpignan. 

Nicolas Cabasilas, 
archbishop of 
Thessalonica. 

Richard, bishop of 
Armagh. 

Demetrius Cydo- 
nius. 

Petranch. 

Peter Berchorius. 

JohnCyparissotes 

Nicolas Ovesme. 

Philip Ribot. 

Nilus Rhodius. 

Maximus Plan. 

John Taulerus. 

Greg. Palamas. 

Nic. Eymericus. 

John Rusbroch. 

Manuel Caleca. 

Catharine of Si 
enna. 

St. Bridget. 

Gerard of 
phen. 

Pierre Ailli. 

Francis Zabarclla. 

Marsigli of Padua, 
who wrote a- 
gainst the papal 
jurisdiction. 

Philippe de Ma- 
zieres. 

Jordan of duedin- 

burg. 
Barth. Albizi of 
Pisa, author of 
the famous book 
of the Conformi- 
ties of St. Fran- 
cis with Jesus 
Christ. 
Fabri, bishop of 

Chartres. 
Michael Anglia- 

nus. 
Raymond Jordan. 



Bartold de Ror 
bach. 
The Dancers. 



Zut- 



cuses of heresy, simony, 
and several enormities. 

The papal authority de- 
clines. 

The residence of the popes 
removed to Avignon. 

The universities of Avig- 
non, Perugia, Orleans, 
Angers, Florence, Ca- 
hors, Heidelberg, 

Prague, Perpignan, Co- 
logne, Pavia, Cracow, 
Vienna, Orange, Sien- 
na, Erfort, Geneva, 
founded. 

The rise of the great 
western schism, which 
destroyed the unity of 
the Latin church, and 
placed at its head two 
rival popes. 

John Wickliff opposes 
the monks, whose licen- 
tiousness and ignorance 
were scandalous, and re- 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious rites. 



Profane authors. 



Peter of Duisburg, an 
historian. 

Albert of Strasburg, an 
historian. 

Balaam of Calabria, 
master of Petrarch. 

Joinville. 

Peter de Apono, physi- 
cian and astronomer. 

Marsigli of Padua, a 
famous lawyer. 

John Andre, an eminent 
jurist. 

Leontius Pilato, one of 
the restorers of learn- 
ing. 

Gentiles de Foligno. 

Ismael Abulfeda, an 
Arabian prince. 

Peter of Ferrara. 

Arnold of Villa-Nova. 

William Grisant, an 
English mathemati- 
cian. 

Homodi of Milan. 



commends the study of] Albergotti of Arezzo 



the Holy Scriptures. 

A warm contest arises 
among the Franciscans 
about the poverty of 
Christ and his Apostles. 
Another between the 
Scotists and Thomists, 
about the doctrines of 
their respective chiefs. 

Pope Clement V. orders 
the Jubilee which Boni- 
face had appointed to be 
held in every hundredth 
year to be celebrated 
twice within that period. 

The Knights Templars 
are seized and imprison 
ed ; the greatest part 
of them put to death, and 
their order suppressed. 

The Golden Bull, contain 
ing rules for the election 
of an emperor of Ger- 
many, and a precise ac- 
count of the dignity and 
privileges of the electors, 
is issued by Charles IV. 

Clement VI. adds the 
country of Avignon to 
the papal territories. 

The emperor Henry VII 
dies, and is supposed by 
some authors to have 
been poisoned by a con- 
secrated wafer, which he 
received at the sacra- 
ment, from the hands of 
Bernard Politian, a Do- 
minican monk. This 
account is denied by 
authors of good credit. 
The matter, however, is 
still undecided. 

Gunpowder is invented 
by Schwartz, a monk. 

The mariner's compass is 
invented by John Gioia 
or as others allege, by 
Flavio. 

The city of Rhodes is 
taken from the Saracens, 
in the year 1309, by the 
Knights Hospitalers, 
subsequently called the 
Knights of Malta. 



Philip of Leyden. 
Baldus de Ubaldis. 
Froissart, a French his- 
torian. 



Cent. XV.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



775 



Soveieign Prin- 


Popes, or Bishops 


Archbishops of 


Ecclesiastical and 


ces. 


of Rome. 


Canterbury. 


ters. 


A. D. 






Jac. de Theramo. 


Ottoman Empe- 






Manuel Chrysolo- 


rors : 






ras. 


The ancient 






Cardinal Francis 


history of 






Zabarella, with 


the Turks 






many others, too 


extends from 






numerous to men- 


the begin- 






tion. 


ning of the 








seventh to 








the com- 








mencement 








of the four- 








teenth centu- 








ry. The mo- 








dern com- 








mences 








about the 








beginning of 








the four- 








eenth centu- 








ry. 








Othman 1327 








Or Khan 1359 








Amurath, or 








Morad 1389 








Bajazet or 








Ba-yezid. 









Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



Timour extends his con- 
quests in the East. 

The Bible is translated 
into French by the order 
of Charles V. 

The festival of the holy 
lance and nails that 
pierced Jesus Christ in- 
stituted by Clement V. 
— Such was this pontiff's 
arrogance, that once, 
while he was dining, he 
ordered Dandolo, the 
Venetian ambassador, 
to be chained under the 
table like a dog. 

The beginning of the 
Swiss Cantons. 

The emperor Louis of 
Bavari a, Philip the Fair, 
king of France, Edward 
III., king of England, 
who opposed the tyranny 
of the popes, may be 
looked upon as wit- 
nesses to the truth and 
preparers of the Refor- 
mation. 

To these we may add 
Duraud,Gerson,01ivus, 
who called the pope 
Anti-christ, and Wick- 
liff, who rejected Iran- 
substantiation, the sacri- 
fice of the mass, the 
adoration of the host, 
purgatory, meritorious 
satisfactions by penance, 
auricular confession, the 
celibacy of the clergy, 
papal excommunica- 
tions, the worship of 
images, of the Virgin 
and relics. 

The order of the Garter 
is instituted in England 
by Edward III. 



Profane Authors. 



CENTURY XV. 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Emperors of the 
East: a. d. 

Emanuel II. 1425 

John VI. 

Palreologus 1448 

Constantine 
Palaologus, 
so far down 
as the year 
1453, when 
Constanti- 
nople was 
taken by 
Mohammed 
II. 

Emperors of the 
West : 

Rupert or Ro- 
bert 1410 

Jodocus not 
acknow- 
ledged. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Boniface IX. 1404 

Innocent VII. 1406 

Gregory XII. 
deposed 1409 

AlexandnrV.1410 

John XXII. 
deposed 1417 

Martin V. 1431 

Eugenius IV. 1447 

A schism. — 
The council 
of Basil de- 
pose Euge- 
nius, and 
elect Ama- 
deus, first 
duke of Sa- 
voy, who as- 
sumes the 
title of Fe- 
lix V. Euge- 
nius, how- 



Thomas 
Arundel 1413 

H. Chichele 1443 

John Staf- 
ford 1452 

John Kemp 1453 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



John Huss. 

Jerome of Prague. 

Paulus Anglicus. 

John Gerson. 

Herman de Petra. 

Theod. de Niem. 
bishop of Cam- 
bray. 

Tho. Valdensis. 

PopeAlexanderV. 

John Capreolus. 

Peter de Anchar- 
ano. 

Nicolas de Cle- 
mangis. 

Theod. Urias. 

Alphons. 

Tostat. 

John, patriarch of 
Antioch. 

Mark of Ephe- 
sus. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



TheWaldenses. 

The Wickliffites. 

The White Bre- 
thren. 

The men of under- 
standing, who 
were headed by 
jEgidius Cantar, 
and William of 
Hildernissen. 

Picard, an Adam- 
ite. 

The following de- 
serve rather the 
denomination of 
Reformers than 
Heretics, viz. 
John Huss, Je- 
rome of Prague. 

Branches of the 
Hussites, the Ca- 
lixtines. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



The Moors and Jews are 
converted in Spain, by 
force. 

In the year 1492, Chris- 
topher Columbus opens 
a passage into America, 
by the discovery of the 
islands of Hispaniola, 
Cuba, and Jamaica. 

Constantinople taken by 
the Turks in the year 
1453. 

Letters flourish in Italy, 
under the protection of 
the house of Medici and 
the Neapolitan mo- 
narchs of the house of 
Arragon. 

The calamities of the 
Greeks under the 
Turkish government, 
conduce to Sic advance- 



frofane Authors. 



Laurentius Valla, the 
great restorer of Latin 
elocution. 

Leonard Aretin 

Gasparini. 

William Lyndewood. 

Alexander Chartier 

Fr. Frezzi. 

Christina of Pisa. 

Paul de Castro. 

Poggio of Florence. 

John Fortescue, high 
chancellor of Eng- 
land. 

Theod. Gaza. 

Bart. Facio. 

Dluglossus, a Polish his- 
torian. 

R. Sane, de Arevallo. 

Chalcondylas. 

J. Savonarola. 

Marcilius Ficinus. 



776 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



[Cent. X\ 



Sovereign Prin- 
ce*. 



Sigismund 1437 

Albert II. of 
Austria 1439 

Frederic III. 1493 

Maximilian I. 

Kings of Spain, 
i. e. of Leon and 
Castile : 

Henry III. 1406 

John II. 1454 

Henry IV. 1474 

Ferdinand, in 
right of Isa- 
bella. 

Kings of France: 

Charles VI. 

Charles VII. 1461 

Louis XI. 1483 

Charles VIII. 1498 

Louis XII. 

Kings of Eng- 
land : 

Henry IV. 1413 

Henry V. 1422 

Henry VI. de- 
throned in 1461 

Edward IV. 1483 

Edward V. 1483 

Richard III. 1485 

Henry VIII. 

Kings of Scot- 
land : 

Robert III. 1406 

James I. 1437 

James II. 1460 

James III. 1488 

James IV. 

Sovereigns of 
Sweden and 
Denmark : 

Margaret 1412 

Eric IX. de- 
posed in 1438 

Christopher 
III. 1448 

Charles Ca- 
nutson 1471 

An interreg- 
num until 
the year 1483 

John. 

Kings of Poland : 

Uladislaus, 
Jag. 1434 

Uladislaus, 
king of Hun- 
gary. 1444 

An interreg- 
num of three 
years. 

CasimirlV. 1492 

John Albert. 

Kings of Portu- 
gal: 

John I. 1433 

Edward 1438 

Alphonso V. 1481 

John II. 1495 

Emmanuel 
the Great. 

Ottoman Empe- 
rors : 

Ba-yezid, ta- 
ken prisoner 
by Timour 
in 1402 

Solyman 1410 

Mousa 1413 

Mohammed 1.1421 

Morad II. 1451 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



ever, tri- 
umphs in the 

Nicolas V. 1455 
CalistusIII. 1458 
Pius II. 1464 

Paul II. 1471 

Sixtus IV. 1484 
Innocent 

VIII. 1492 

AlexanderVl. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Thomas Bou- 
chier 1486 

J. Morton 1500 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Cardinal Bessa- 
rion. 

G. Scholarius. 

G. Gcmistus. 

John de Turrecre- 
mata. 

George of Trape- 
zond. 

John Capistran. 

Laurentius Valla. 

John of Segovia. 

Franc, dela Place. 

Reginald, bishop 
of St. Asaph. 

Antoninus, arch- 
bishop of Flo- 
rence. 

Nicolas de Cusa. 
bishop of Brixen, 
and cardinal. 

Thomas a, Kem- 
pis. 

Anton. deRosellis. 

Rickel. 

Ducas. 

Bened. deAccoltis. 

Guill. dAoupe- 
lande. 

James Paradise, 
an English Car- 
thusian. 

iEncas Sylvius 
Picolomini, or 
pope. 

Pius II. Lorenzo 
Justiniani. 

John Gobelin. 

Alphonso de Spi- 
na. 

Greg, of Heim- 
burg. 

Theod. Lelio. 

Henry of Gorcum. 

I. Ant.Campanus. 

Alex, de Imola. 

Henry Harphius. 

J. Perez. 

P. de Natalibus. 

B. Platina. 

P. Niger. 

John de Wesalia. 

Hermol. 

Barbarus. 

Michael of Milan. 

Stephen Brulefer. 

Cardinal Andr. du 
St. Sixte. 

Savanarola. 

Marsilius Ficinus. 

John Tritheme. 

Picus, or Pico of 
Mirandula. 

Ant. de Lebrixa. 

Boussard. 

J. Reuchlin, other- 
wise called Cap- 
nio. 

Jovianus Ponta- 
nus. 

Nicolas Simonis. 

Claude deSeyssel. 

Simeon of Thes- 
salonica. 

Gobelin Persona. 

Henry of Hesse. 

George Phranza. 

Vincent Ferrieres. 

Julianus Cssari- 
nus. 

Nich. Tudeschus. 

Raymond de 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



Orebites. 

Orphans. 

Taborites. 

Bohemian Bre- 
thren; also John 
Petit. 

John Wellus. 

Peter Osma. 

Matth. Grabon. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



ment of learning among 
the Latins. 

The council of Constance 
is assembled by the em- 
peror Sigismond in the 
year 1414. 

John Huss, and Jerome 
of Prague, are commit- 
ted to the flames, by a 
decree of that council. 

The council of Basil is 
opened in the year 1431, 
and in it the reformation 
of the church is attempt- 
ed in vain. 

Horrible enormities are 
committed by the popes 
of this century, and 
more especially by 
Alexander VI. 

The council of Constance 
remove the sacramental 
cup from the laity, and 
declare it lawful to vio 
late the most solemn 
engagements when 

made to heretics. 

The war of the Hussites 
in Bohemia. 

Institution of the Order 
of the Golden Fleece. 

The Moors and Jews 
driven out of Spain. 

The Massacre of Varna 
in the year 1444. 

The order of Minimes 
instituted by Franc, de 
Paulo. 

Exploits of the Maid of 
Orleans. 

The art of printing with 
moveable wooden types, 
is invented by Coster at 
Haerlem ; and the far- 
ther improvements of 
this admirable art are 
owing to Gensfleisch 
and Guttemberg, of 
Mentz, and Schoefler of 
Strasbourg. 

The universities of Leip- 
sic, Louvaine, Fribourg, 
Rostock, Basil, Tubin- 
gen, Wurtzburg, Tu- 
rin, Ingolstadt, St. An- 
drew's in Scotland 
Poictiers, Glasgow 

Gripswald in Pomera- 
nia, Pisa, Bourdeaux, 
Treves, Toledo, Upsal 
Mentz, Copenhagen, 
founded in this cen 
tury. 

The first book printed 
with types of Metal ; 
which was the Vulgate 
Bible, published at 
Mentz in 1450 : a second 
edition of the same book 
appeared at Mentz in 
1642, and has been mis- 
taken for the first. 

The famous Pragmatic 
Sanction established in 
France. 

The university of Caen 
in Normandy is found- 
ed by the English in the 
year 1437. 

The Portuguese sail, for 
the first time, to the East 



Profane Authors. 



John Picus de Miran- 
dula. 

Marc. Coc. Sabellicus 

Forestus. 

Ant. Bonfinius. 

Jovian. 

Pontanus. 

G. Gemistus. 

J. Alvarot. 

Guarini of Verona. 

J. Juv. des Ursins. 

Mass. Vegio. 

Flavio Bindo. 

J. Argyropulus. 

Dr. Thomas Linacre 

The Strozzi. 

Bon. Monbritius. 

P. Callim. 

Esperiente. 

Jul. Pompon Lsetus. 

Angelo. 

Pohtiano. 

Fuljjosi. 

A. Urceus Codrus. 

Mich. Marullus. 

Oliver de la Marche. 

Caiado. 

Abrabanel. 

Calepin. 

Rebel. 

Martial de Paris. 

Phil, de Comines. 

Al. Achillini. 

Scipio Carteromaco. 

John Baptista Porto. 

Aldus Manutius. 

Cherefeddin Ali, a Pei»- 
sian historian. 

Arabshah, an Arabian 
historian. 

J. Whethamsted. 

Ulug-beg, a Tartar 
prince. 

J. Braccelli. 

Palmieri. Villon, other- 
wise Corbueil. 

Muller, surnamed Re- 
giomontanus. 

Calentius, a Latin poet 

Dom. Calderini. 

Barth. Fontius. 

Enguerr. de Monstre- 
let. 

Andronicus of Thessa- 
lonica. 

Er. Philelphi. 

Alex. Imola. 

J. Ant. Campani. 

Nich. Perotti. 

Th. Littleton. 

Ant. of Palermo. 

Constant. 

Lascaris. 

A. Barbatius. 

Gobelin Persona. 

Bern. Justiniani. 

Dieb. 

Schilling. 

Ralph Agricola. 

I. Andreas. 

Alex. ab. Alexandre 

G. Merula. M. M. 

Boiardo. 

A. Mancinelli. 

Rob. Gaguin. 

Bern. Corio. 

Garbr. Altilius. 

Gul. Caoursin. 

J. Nai. 

Al. Ranuccmi. 

P. Crinitus. 



Cent. XVI.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



777 



Sovereign Prin- Popes, or Bishops 
ces. of Rome. 



Mohammed a. d. 
II. who takes 
Constanti- 
nople in 1453 
and dies in 1481 

Bayezid II. 

Czars, or Empe- 
rors of Russia : 

There reigns, in 
the chronology of 
these princes, an 
uncommon de- 
gree of confusion, 
suitable to the 
barbarism of that 
nation. In the 
year 1732, they 
began to publish, 
at Petersburg, a 
series of then- 
sovereigns, be- 
ginning with 
duke Ruric, who 
is supposed to 
have reigned in 
the ninth century. 
From that time 
downward, all is 
darkness and per- 
plexity, until we 
come to the reign 
of John Basilo- 
witzl.who, in the 
fifteenth century, 
shook off the yoke 
*>{ the Tartars, 
and assumed first 
the title of Czar 
after having con- 
quered the king 
dom of Casan 
We therefore be- 
gin with this 
prince, and shall 
follow the chro- 
nology observed 
by the authors of 
the Modern Uni- 
versal History, 
in their History 
of Russia. The 
reader may, how- 
ever, consult the 
Tablettes Chro- 
nologiques de 
l'Histoire Uni- 
verselle of Len- 
glet, who places 
this prince in the 
16th. century.* 
John Basilowitz. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Sabunde, or Se- 
beyde. 

Catharine of Bo- 
logna. 

Gregorius Melis- 
sen. 

Marcus Eugenius. 

Sylvester Syropul. 

Ambrose, general 
of the Camaldo- 
lites. 

George Codinus. 

Onuphr. 

Panvinius. 

Gabriel Biel. 

John Nauclerus. 

John Nieder. 



' He died In that cen 
tury, but flourished 
chiefly in the fifteenth 
Edit. 



Heretics real 
reputed. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious rites. 



Indies, under Vasquez 
de Gama. 
Maximilian divides the 
empire into six circles. 



Molines. 
Cettes. 

John Murmelius. 
Mark Musurus. 
Jason Mainus. 
Pandolfo Collenucio. 
R. Langius. 
Pietro Cosimo. 
Abraham Zachut. 



Profane authors. 



CENTURY XVI. 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Emperors: a.d. Alexander 
Maximilian 1.1519 VI 
CharlesV. ab- 
dicates the 
empire in 
1556, and 
dies in 
Ferdinand 



No. LXV. 



1503 

Pius III. 1503 

Julius II. 1513 

Leo X. 1521 

Adrian VI. 1523 

1558 Clement VII. 1534 

1564 Paul III. 1549 

195 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Henry Dean 1504 
W. Warham 1532 
Thomas 

Cranmer 
Reginald 

Pole 
Matthew 

Parker 



1555 
1558 



1575 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



John Sleidan. 
William Budaus. 
Desiderius Eras- 
mus. 

Martin Luther. 
Ph. Melancthon. 
John Brentius. 
Martin Bucer. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



Schwenckfeld. 

Andr. Osiander. 

Stancarus. 

The Ad : aphorists. 

Interimists. 

Agricola of Eisle- 
ben, the chief of 
the Antinomians 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



The Reformation is in- 
troduced into Germany 
by Luther, in the year 
1517; into France by 
Calvin about 1529 ; into 
Switzerland by Zuingle, 
in 1519. 

Henry VIII. of England, 



Profane Authors. 



British Authors. 
Sir Thomas More. 
Thomas Linacrc. 
S. Purchas. 
Thomas Elliot. 
Hect. Bocthius. 
J. Leland, the anti- 
quary. 



778 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



[Cent. XVL 



Sovereign Prin- Popes, or Bishops 
ces. of Rome. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



A. D. JullUS III. 

Maximilian Marcellus II 

II. 1576 Paul IV. 

Rodolph II. Pius IV. 

Kings of Spain : Pius V. 

Ferdinand V. 
surnamed 
the Catholic, 
king of Ar- 
ragon, in 
consequence 
of his mar- 
riage with 
Isabella, be- 
comes king 
of Castile ; 
andtheking- 
doms of Ar- 
ragon and 
Castile re- 
main united. 
Isabella 
died in 1504, 
and Ferdi- 

1516 



1555 Edmund 

1555 Grindal 1583 

1559 John Whitegift. 

1566 

1572 



Gregory 

XIII. 
Sixtus V. 
Urban VII 
Gregory 

XIV. 
Innocent IX. 1592 
ClementVIII. 



of 



1506 
1516 
r 

1558 
1598 



1585 
1590 
1590 

1591 



nand in 
Philip I. 

Austria 
Jane 
Charles I. 

V. 
Philip II. 

Philip III. 
N. B— Philip 

Il.seizedPor- 

tugal, which 

remained in 

the posses- 
sion of the 

kings of 
Spain until 
the year 1640 

Kings of France : 

Louis XII. 1515 

Francis I. 1547 

Henry II. 

Francis II. 

Charles IX 

Henry III. 

Henry IV. 

Kings of 
land : 

Henry VII. 

Henry VIII. 1547 

Edward VI. 1553 

Mary 

Elizabeth. 

Kings of 
land : 

James IV. 

James V. 

Mary, be- 
headed in 1587 

James VI. 

Kings of Sweden 
and Denmark: 

John 1513 

Christiern II. 
deposed in 1522 

Gustavus 

Ericson 1560 

N. B. Swe- 
den is sepa- 
rated from 
Denmark 
under this 
prince. 

Eric deposed 
in 1568 

John III. 1592 

Sigismond, 
king of Po- 



1559 
1560 
1574 
1589 

Eng- 

1509 



1558 

Scoi- 

1513 
1542 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



Ulric Zuingle. 
Peter Galatin. 
Fr. Ximenes. 
Thomas More. 
John Whitegift, 

archbishop of 

Canterbury. 
John Fisher. 
John CEcolampa- 

dius. 
And. Carolosta- 

dius, orCarlstadt. 
John Tiligius. 
James Faber. 
Matthew Flacius. 
John Calvin. 
Martin Chemnitz. 
James Andreas. 

David Chytrrcus. 

William Farel. 

Thedore Beza. 

Faustus Socinus. 

Bened.AriasMon- 
tanus. 

And. Osiander. 

JEgid. 

Hunnius. 

Melchior Canus. 

Polyc. 

Lyserus. 

George Wicellus. 

Cardinal Bellar- 
mine. 

Stella. 

Crantzius. 

Thomas Illyricus. 

Jacob Ben-Chaim, 
who gave an edi- 
tion of the He- 
brew Bible. 

Sanderus. 

Isid. Clarius. 

John Major. 

Andrew Vega. 

Franc. Vatable. 

Cardinal Sadolet. 

Cardinal Corte- 
sius. 

John Cochlasus. 

Alphons. Zamora. 

Vivaldi. 

J. Almain. 

Spagnoli. 

Aug. Dathus. 

Pope Adrian VI. 

Petro de Monte. 

Pope Leo X. 

Alb. Pighius. 

Henry VIII. king 
of England. 

Louis Vives. 

S. Pagninus. 

Leo de Castro. 

Matth. Ugonius. 

Cardinal Caietan. 

James Hoogs traat. 

Ambr. Catharini. 

John Faber. 

Ortuin Gratius. 

John Eckins. 

Leander Albcrti. 

Nic. Serrarius. 

Pet. Canisius. 

C«sar Baronius. 

Fran. Ribera. 

Pierre Pithou. 

Mich. Baius. 

W. Alan, English 
cardinal. 

Dr. John Colet. 

Mercator. 



George Major. 

N. Amsdorff. 

The Synergists. 

M. Flacius. 

The Crypto-Cal 
vinists. 

Anabaptists. 

Mennonites. 

Theoph. Paracel- 
sus. 

Postellus. 

David Georgius 

Franc. Pucius. 

Defid. Erasmus. 

Agrippa. 

Cassander and 
Wicelius. 

Conr. Vorstius. 

Sam. Huberus. 

Mich. Servetus. 

Valent. 

Gentilis. 

Laelius Socinus. 

Faustus Socinus. 

Q.uintin, the chief 
of the Libertines 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 



Profane Authors. 



throws off the papal 
yoke, and becomes su- 
preme head of the church. 
Edward VI. encourages 
the Reformation in Eng- 
land. 

The reign of queen Mary 
restores Popery, and ex- 
hibits a scene of barba- 
rous persecution that 
shocks nature. 
The name of Protestants 
given to the Reformed at 
the Diet of Spire, in 
1529. 
The league of Smalcald 
is formed in 1530. 
The Reformation intro- 
duced into Scotland by 
John Knox, about the 
year 1560 ; and into 
Ireland by George 
Brown, about the same 
time; into the United 
Provinces, about the 
year 1566. 
Gustavus Ericson intro- 
duces the Reformation 
into Sweden, by the mi- 
nistry of Olaus Petri, in 
1530. 
It was received in Den- 
mark, in 1521. 
The Gospel is propaga- 
ted by the papal mis- 
sionaries in India 
Japan, and China. 
The Jesuit order is found- 
ed, in 1540, by Ignatius 
Loyola. 
The famous council of 

Trent is assembled. 
The Pragmatic Sanction 
is abrogated by Leo X. 
and the Concordat sub- 
stituted for it. Pope Ju- 
lius III. bestows a car- 
dinal's hat upon the 
keeper of his monkeys. 
The Inquisition is estab- 
lished at Rome by Paul 
IV. 

The war of the Peasants. 
The universities of Wit- 
tenberg, Francfort on the 
Oder, Alcala, Saragossa, 
Marpurg, Seville, Com- 
postella, Oviedo, Gre- 
nada, Franeker, Stras- 
bourg, Parma, Mace- 
rata, Tortosa, Coimbra, 
Konigsberg, Leyden, 
Florence, Rhcims, Dil- 
lingen, Mexico, St. Do- 
mingo, Tarragona, 
Helmstadt, Altorf, Pa- 
derborn, Sigen, founded 
in this century. 
The treaty of Passau, in 

1552. 
The Paris massacre of 
the Protestants on St. 
Bartholomew's day. 
The republic of the Uni- 
ted Provinces formed by 
the union of Utrecht. 
TheedictofNantcs grant- 
ed to the Protestants by 
Henry IV. of France. 



Ed. Wotton. 

J. Christophorson. 

Cuth. Tonstal. 

R. Ascham. 

J. Kaye. 

Thomas Smith. 

George Buchanan. 

Alex. Arbuthnot. 

Sir Phil. Sidney. 

John Fox. 

Fr. Walsingham. 

Ed. Grant. 

Ed. Anderson. 

John Dee. 

Thomas Craig. 

G. Creighton. 

Ed. Brerewood. 
French Authors : 

William Budaus, or 
Bude. 

Clement Marot 

Fr. Rabelais. 

Ja. Dubois (Sylvius.) 

Pierre Gilles. 

Or. Finee. 

Robert Etienne, or Ste- 
phens. 

P. Belon. 

William Morel. 

Adr. Turnebus. 

Ch. Du Moulin. 

Gilb. Cousin. 

Mich, de l'Hopital. 

L. Le Roy (Regius.) 

Hub. Languet, authoi 
of the Vindicise contr» 
Tyrannos. 

Laur. Joubert. 

James Pelletier. 

Fr. Belleforest. 

M. A. Fr. Muret. 

P. Ronsard. 

J. Dorat. 

James Cujas. 

Fr. Hotoman. 

James Amyot. 

Mich, de Montagne. 

Mich, de Castelnau. 

P. Pithou. 

J. Bodin. 

Nic Vignier. 

Bl. de Vigenere. 

Henri Etienne, com- 
monly called Stephens. 

J. De Serres(Serranus.) 

CI. Fauchet 

J. Passerat. 

J. J. Boissard. 

P. Daniel d'Orleans. 

Francis Victe. 

Cardinal d'Ossat. 

Rob. Constantin. 

P. Morin. 

Jos. Just. 

Scaliger. 

Nic. Rapin. 

J. Papire. 

Masson. 

P. B. Brantome 

St. Pasquier. 

Italian Authors : 

Americo Vespucci. 

J. Jocondi of Verona, 
who discovered tha 
Letters of Pliny. 

A. F. Grazzini. 

Leonicini, the transla- 
tor of Galen. 

Pompon ace. 

M. A. Casanova. 

P. Gravina. 



Cent. XVI.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



779 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 


Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 


Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 


Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 


Heretics, real or 
reputed. 


Remarkable Events. 
Religious Rites. 


Profane Authors. 


A. D. 






Nic. Harpfield. 






Sannazarius. 


land, depos- 






Leunclavius. 






Machiavel. 


in 1599 






Molina. 






Vida. 


Charles IX. 






Salmeron. 






J. A. Lascaris. 


Kings of Den- 






Maldonat. 






Alcyonius, translator of 


mark : 






J. Natalis. 






Aristotle. 


Christiern II. 






J. P. Maffei. 






Ariosto. 


deposed in 1522 






Cardinal Hosius. 






Bern. Maffei. 


Frederic I. 1533 






Jansenius. 






Fr. Guicciardini. 


Chris tie rn 






John Tillet. 






Cardinal Bembo. 


III. 1559 






James Naclantus. 






Cardinal Sadolet. 


Frederic IT. 1588 






De Vargas. 






And. Alciat. 


ChristiernlV. 






Cardinal Seri- 






M. A.Flaminio d'Imola. 


Kings of Poland: 






pand. 






Lilius Giraldus. 


John Albert, 1501 






And. Masius. 






J. Fracastor. 


Alexander 1506 






Pope Paul IV. 






Polydore Virgil. 


Sigismund I. 1548 






Widmanstadt. 






M. A. Majoragio. 


Sigismund II. 1572 






Cassander. 






P. Aretino. 


Henry of An- 






Stapleton. 






J. de la Casa. 


jou, until the 






Mercerus. 






L. Alamanni. 


year 1574 






F. Xavier. 






N. Tartaglia. 


Stephen Ba- 






Ign. Loyola. 






Palingenius. 


thori 1587 






Bishop Gardiner. 






Jul. Caesar Scalierg. 


Sigismond 






Jer. Oleaster, with 






Zanchius. 


king of Swe- 






many others too 






Gab. Faerno. 


den. 






numerous to men- 






Gab. Fallopius. 


Kings of Portu- 






tion. 






J. Acronius. 


gal : 






N. B. It is remark- 






Lodovico Cornaro. 


Emanuel the 






able that, among 






Roberlello. 


Great 1521 






the ecclesiastical 






Palearius. 


John III. 1557 






writers of this 






Onuph. Panvini. 


Sebastian 1578 






century, there are 






Argentieri. 


Henry, Card. 1580 






above 55 who em- 






J. Bar de Vignole. 


Portugal is 






ployed their la- 






Paul Manutius. 


reduced un- 






bours in the ex- 






Jerome Cardan. 


der the do- 






position and illus- 






A. Palladia 


minion of 






tration of the 






C. Sigonius. 


Spain by 






Scriptures ; and 






P. Victorius. 


Philip II. 






this happy cir- 






Oct. Ferrari. 


Ottoman Empe- 






cumstance con- 






James Zabarella. 


rors : 






tributed, without 






L. Guicciardini. 


Ba-yezidll. 1512 






doubt, to prepare 






A. de Costanzo. 


Selim I. 1520 




the minds of ma- 






Torq. Tasso. 


Solyman II. 1566 




ny for the Re- 






Fr. Patritius, or Patrizi 


Selim II. 1574 






formation, and 






Ant. Riccoboni. 


Morad III. 1595 






thus rendered its 






G. Panciroli. 


Mohammed 






progress more 






And. Cesalpino. 


III. 






rapid. 






Natalis Comes. 


Czars of Muscovy: 
John Basilo- 












Aldrovandi. 












Gratiani. 


witz 1505 












B. Guarini. 


Basil Ivano- 












Siciss Authors: 


witz, who re- 












Aur. Ph. Paracelus. 


ceived from 


Profane Authors : 
Concluded. 


Theod. Bibliander. 


Maximilian 










Theod. Swinger. 


I. the title of 










P. Lotichius. 


Isaac Casaubon. 


Emperor 1533 










Conrad Gesner. 


German, Dutch, and 


John Basilo- 










G. Fabricius. 


Flemish Authors: 


witz II. 1584 










A. Masius. 


J. Reuchlin. 


Theodorelva- 










Joach. Camerarius. 


P. Mosellan. ' 


nowitz 1597 










Virgilius of Zuichem. 


M. Aurogallus, who as- 


Boris Gode- 










Hubert Goltzius. 


sisted Luther in the 


now. 










John Sturmius. 


translation of the B ible. 


Stadt-holders of 










J Sambuc. 


H. C. Agrippa. 


the United Pro- 










A. G. de Busbec 


D. Erasmus of Rotter- 


vinces : 










J. Leunclavius. 


dam. 


William I. 










G. Mercator. 


Luscinius. 


the glorious 










Laev. Torrentius. 


Simon Grynaeus. 


founder of 










Raphelengius. 


Adr. Barland of Zea- 


their liberty 1584 










Ortelius. 


land. 


Maurice. 










Heurnius of Utrecht 

Justus Lipsius. 

Paul Merula of Leyden. 

A. Gorlaeus. 

Schonaeus. 

Em. van Meteren. 

Dom. Baudius. 

Danish Authors : 
Tycho Brahe, the astro- 


Nic. Copernicus, a Prus- 
sian. 

J. Secundus of the 
Hague. 

J. Olaus Magnus. 

Pcutinger. 

Paul Fagius. 

Sebastian Munster. 

G. Agricola. 










nomer. 


John Sleidan. 




1 








Nicolas Craig. 


Gasp. Bruschius. 



780 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY XVn. 



[Cent. XVII. 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Emperors: a. d. 

Rodolph II. 1612 

Matthias 1619 

Ferdinand II. 1637 

Ferdinand 
III. 1657 

Leopold I. 

Kings of Spain: 

Philip III. 1621 

Philip IV. 1665 

(Portugal 
throws off 
the Spanish 
yoke, and 
recovers its 
independ- 
ence, in the 
year 1640.) 

Charles II. 1700 

Sovereigns of 

France : 

Henry IV. 1610 

Louis XIII. 1643 

Louis XIV. 
Sovereigns of 
England : 

Elizabeth 1603 

James I. (VI 
of Scotland.)! 625 

Charles I. be- 
headed in the 
year 1649 

Cromwell 
usurps the 
government 
under the 
title of Lord 
Protector, 
and dies in 1658 

Charles II. 1685 

James II, 
abandons 
his kingdom 
in the year 
1688, and 
dies in 1701 

William III. 
and Mary 1694 

Kings of Scot- 
land : 

James VI. 1625 

This prince 
and his suc- 
cessors 
•were kings 
both of Eng- 
land and 
Scotland so 
far down as 
the year 
1707, when 
these king- 
doms were 
united into 
one monar- 
chy. 
Kings of Sweden : 
Charles IX. 1611 
Gustavus 

Adolphus 1632 
Christina ab- 
dicates the 
crown in 
1654, and 
dies in 
Charles Gus- 
tavus 1660 
Charles XI. 1697 



Clement 

VIII. 
Leo XI. 
Paul V. 
Gregory XV, 
Urban VIII. 
Innocent X. 
Alexander 

VII. 
Clement IX. 
Clement X. 



1605 
1605 
1621 
1623 
1644 
1565 

1667 
1669 
1676 



Dr. J. Whit- 
gift 1604 

Dr. R. Ban- 
croft 1610 

Dr, George 
Abbot 1633 

Dr. W. Laud 1645 

Dr.W. Juxon 1663 

Dr. Gil. Shel- 
don. 1677 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Protestant Wri- 
ters : 
Archbishop Ab- 
bot. 
John Lightfoot. 
Matthew Poole. 
Bishop Pearson. 
Bishop Fell. 
Gataker. 
Bishop Ward. 
Owen. 

Edward Pocock. 
Dr. Goodwin. 
Dr. Manton. 
Richard Baxter. 
Dr. Calamy. 
Howe. 
Bates. 

Bishop Bull. 
Grew. 

Bishop Burnet. 
Jo. Forbes. 
J. Baxter. 
Archbishop Tillot- 

son. 
Dr. Sherlock. 
Archbishop 

Wake. 
Chillingworth. 
Henry Hammond 
Thomas Hyde. 
William Cave. 
Brian Walton. 
Drusius. 
Hospinian. 
Trigland. 
Ittigius. 
Fr. Spanheim. 
R. Cudworth. 
Ed. Stillingfleet. 
H. Prideaux. 
J. Locke. 
W. Lloyd, bishop 

of Worcester. 
J. Milton. 
St. Nye. 
Claude. 
Daille. 
J. Morin. 
Amyrault. 
Samuel and James 

Basnage. 
Jurieu. 
Benoit. 
Turretin. 
Elias Saurin. 
Morus. 
Le Cene. 
Mesterzat. 
Le Blanc. 
Arminius. 
Grotius. 
Episcopius. 
Curcellseus. 
Limborch. 
Slcidan. 
Coccelus. 
Voetius. 
Gomar. 
Lud. Capellus, or 

Louis Cnpel. 
S. Bochart. 
Gerhard. 
Hoe. 
Calixtus. 
G. and Fred. Heil- 

bronner. 
Haffenreffer. 



Heretics real or 
reputed. 



The doctrine of the 
Jesuits, concern- 
ing philosophical 
sin, condemned 
by pope Alexan- 
der VIII. in 1690. 

The Probabilists 
(so the Jesuits 
were called from 
their odious doc- 
trine of proba- 
bility,) con- 
demned by the 
Sorbonne. 

The Franciscans 
are judged here- 
tics on account of 
theirdoctrine con- 
cerning the im- 
maculate concep- 
tion of the Virgin 
Mary. 

Jansenius, Glues- 
nel, and Arnauld, 
as also Fenelon, 
Molinos, and the 
pietists, are con- 
demned in 
France. 

Arminius, and his 
followers, the 
Universalists. 
Bekker, the Car- 
tesian divines, 
Labadie. 

Bourignon, Poiret, 
LeehofF, and 

ClaudcPajon.are 
regarded as here- 
tics by the re- 
formed churches 
in France and 
Holland. 

The Independents 
Antinomians, 
Ranters, andQ.ua- 
kers, and among 
the latter, Fox, 
Barclay, Keith, 
and Penn, are 
looked upon in the 
same light. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious riles. 



The congregation de pro- 
paganda Fide, founded 
at Rome in 1622, by 
pope Gregoiy XV. 

Christianity is propaga- 
ted in the kingdoms of 
Siam, Tonquin, and Co- 
chin-china, by the Jesuit 
missionaries. 

The thirty years' war 
breaks out. 

The Moors are driven 
out of Spain. 

The Protestants are per- 
secuted in France. 

TheGunpowder-Treason 
discovered in England. 

A rupture between pope 
Paul V. and the Vene- 
tians. 

The Royal Society is 
founded in the year 1662. 

A Jubilee is celebrated by 
pope Clement VIII. in 
the year 1600. 

In 1605, Maurice, land 
grave of Hesse Cassel, 
introduces the reformed 
religion into Marpurg. 

Paul V. excommunicates 
the Venetians, whose 
cause is defended by 
Fra. Paolo. 

In the year 1606, Ro- 
dolph II. allows the 
Hungarians the free 
exercise of the Protes- 
tant religion, formerly 
granted by Ferdinand I. 
but abolished by his suc- 
cessor. 

In 1608, the Socinians 
publish their Catechism 
at Cracow. 

The Silesians, Mora- 
vians, and Bohemians, 
are allowed by Rodolph 
II. tie free exercise of 
their religion in 1609. 

The Protestants form a 
confederacy atHeilbron 
in 1610 ; and the Roman 
catholics form a league 
at Wurtzburg in oppo 
sition to it. 

The Bohemians choose 
Frederic V. elector Pa 
latine, for their king, in 
order to maintain them 
in the free exercise of 
the Protestant religion 
— but he is conquered, 
and they are forced to 
embrace popery. 

In 1625, the princes of 
LowerSaxony enter into 
a league with Christian 
IV. of Denmark, which 
concludes by the peace 
of Lubeck. 

Ferdinand II. publishes, 
in 1629,: an edict, order- 
ing the Protestants to 
surrender and restore all 
the ecclesiastical do- 
mains and possessions 
of which they had be- 
come masters after the 



Profane authors. 



No century has been so 
fertile in authors as 
this before us. Their 
number amounts to 
above 850. We shall 
confine ourselves to 
those who were most 
eminent in each coun- 
try. 

In Great Britain and 
Ireland : 

Sir John Harrington. 

James Harrington. 

J. Pitt. 

R. Stanihurst. 

Sir Henry Saville. 

Thomas Hariot, the in- 
ventor of Algebra. 

W. Camden. 

Nicolas Fuller. 

Benjamin Jonson. 

Shakespear, or Shak- 
speare. 

Henry Wotton. 

Thomas Lydiat. 

Joseph Hall, called the 
English Seneca. 

Lord Herbert of Cher- 
bury. 

Thomas Gataker. 

W. Habington. 

Archbishop Usher. 

W. Harvey, who first 
discovered the circula- 
tion of the blood. 

Sir Ken. Digby. 

Sir James Ware. 

John Milton. 

Abraham Cowley. 

The Chancellor Claitn- 
don. 

Sir Matthew Hale. 

Fr. Glisson. 

Thomas Stanley. 

Joseph Glanvil. 

Samuel Butler. 

Algernon Sidney. 

John Collins, mathema 
tician. 

Robert Morison. 

William Dugdale. 

Ralph Cudworth. 

J. Rushworth. 

Robert Boyle, 

John Locke. 

W. Molyneux. 

Sir Paul Ricaut. 

H. Hody. 

Bishop Beverege. 

Sir Samuel Garth. 

Thomas Gale. 

John Philips. 

Bishop Sprat. 

Thomas Dempster. 

John Fletcher. 

Ph. Massinger. 

Edm. Gunici. 

Francis Bacon, lord 
Verulam. 

Thomas Ridley. 

John Speed. 

John Donne. 

Bishop Godwin, th 
annalist. 

Edward Coke. 

Thomas Randolph. 

Thomas Farnaby. 



Cent. XYII.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



781 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Popes, or Bishops i Archbishops of 
of Rome. Canterbury. 



Charles XII 
Kings of Den- 
mark : 



d. Innocent XI. 1689 
Alexander 

VIII. 1691 

Innocent XII. 1700 



Dr. W. San- 
croft, de- 
prived in 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Thummius. 
The Osianders. 
Musaeus. 



Heretics, real or 
reputed. 



ChristiernIV.1648, 
Frederic III. 1670 
Christian V. 1699 
Frederic IV. 
Kings of Poland : 
Sigismond 

III. 1632 
Uladislaus 

Sig. 1648 

JohnCasimir 1669 
Michael I. 1674 
JohnSobieski 1696 
Frederic Au- 
gustus, elec- 
tor of Saxo- 
ny. 
Kings of Portu- 
gal: 
John, duke of 
Braganza, 
chosen king 
in 1640, dies 
in 1656 

Alphonso VI. 

dethroned in 166" 
Pedro II. 
Ottoman Empe- 
rors : 
Mohammed 
UI. 1604 

Ahmed I. 1617 
Mustapha 1617 
Osman 1622 

Mustapha re- 
stored. 1623 
Morad IV. 1640 
Ibrahim 1649 
Mohammed 

IV. 1687 
Solyman III. 1691 
Ahmed II. 1695 
Mustapha II. 
Czars of Moscovy : 
Boric 1605 
Theodore Bo- 

rissowitz 1605 

The false De- 
metrius 1 606 

Basil Zuski 1610 

Demetrius II. 1610 

Demetrius 

III. 1610 
Uladislaus of 

Poland 1613 

Demetrius 

IV. 1613 
Michael 

Theodoro- 

witz 1645 

Alexis Mi- 

chaelowitz 1676 
Theodore 

Alexiowitz 1682 
Ivan, or John, 

and Peter I. 

jointly. 

Ivan died in 1696 
Stadt-hulders of 

the United Pro- 
vinces : 
Maurice 1625 

Frederic 

Henry 1647 



No. LXY1. 



"1690, died 1693 Hutter. 
Dr. John Til- i Hunnius,Guyand 
lotson. 1694! Nic. 



Dr. Thomas 
Tenison. 



196 



The Mentzers 

Godfrey Olcarius. 

Fred. Baldwin. 

Alb. Grawer. 

Carpzovius. 

Tarnovius. 

J. and Paul John 

Asselman. 
Eilhart Luber. 
The Lysers. 
Michael Walter. 
Joach.Hildebrand 
J. Val. Andreas. 
Solomon Glassius. 
Ab. Calovius. 
Theod. Hachspan. 
J. Hulseman. 
Jacob Weller. 
J. Conr. Dan 

hauer. 
J. G. Dorschaeus. 
John Arndt. 
Martin Geyer. 
Schertzer. 
BalthasarandJohn 

Meisner. 
Aug. Pfeiffer, 
Muller. 
H. and J. Just. 

Chr. Schomer. 
Sebast. 
Schmidt. 
Christ. 
Horsholt. 
Ph. Jac. Spener. 
G. Th. Mayer. 
Fred. Bechman. 
From Gerhard to 

Fred. Bechman 

inclusively, all 

are Lutherans 
Roman Catholic 

Authors : 
Baronius. 
Bellarmine. 
Serrarius. 
Fevardentius. 
Possevin. 
Gretser. 
Combesis. 
Nat. Alexander. 
J. Sirmond. 
Petau. 
Cellot. 
Caussin. 
Renaud. 
Fra. Paolo. 
Pallavicini. 
Labbe. 
Maimbourg. 
Thomassin. 
S fond rat. 
Aguirre. 
Henry Noris. 
D'Achery. 
Mabillon. 
Hardouin. 
Simon. 
Ruinart. 
Montfaucon. 
Galloni. 
Cornelius 

pide. 
Bonfrere. 
Menard 



a La- 



Add to these, En- 
thusiasts, and 
Fanatics of vari- 
ous kinds such as 
Jacob Behmen, 
Valentine Wei- 
gel, Nic. Drabi- 
cius, Seidel. 

Stifelius, and the 
Rosecrucians. 



Remarkable Events. 
Religious Riles. 



pacification of Passau. 
— This edict is disobey- 
ed. 

Gustavus Adolphus en- 
ters Germany. 

The peace of Munster 
and Osnabrug conclud- 
ed, by which the three 
religions are tolerated in 
the empire. 

The synod of Dordrecht 
assembled in the year 
1618. 

Henry IV.of France is as- 
sassinated by Ravaillac. 

This event exposes the 
Protestants to new per- 
secutions. 

The edict of Nantes is 
perfidiously revoked by 
Louis XIV. and the Pro- 
testants are treated with 
the utmost barbarity. 

A contest between Louis 
XIV. and pope Innocent 
XL, concerning the col- 
lation of benefices, and 
the privileges and pre- 
tensions of the crown 
during their vacancy. 

The French clergy, in a 
general assembly at St. 
Germain's, declare the 
pope's pretensions to 
temporalities null and 
void ; place the authority 
of a general council 
above that of the pope, 
and maintain that his 
decisions are not infal- 
lible, unless they be at- 
tended with the consent 
of the church. 

The Irish massacre in 
1641, in which above 
40,000 (some say 
150 ; 000) Protestants 
are murdered. 

Charles I. king of Eng- 
land, beheaded in the 
year 1649. 

A sort of common-wealth 
introduced byCromwell, 
under which episcopacy 
suffers, and the Presby- 
terians, or rather the In- 
dependents, flourish. 

Charles II. restored, and 
with him episcopacy re- 
established. 

The glorious Revolution 
renders memorable the 
year 16S8. 

The Protestants are op- 
pressed and persecuted 
in many places. 

Several false Messiahs 
discovered, particularly 
Sabbati Levi, who, to 
avoid death, embraces 
the Moslem faith. 

The universities of Lun- 
den in Sweden, Giessen, 
Pampeluna, Saltzburg, 
Derpt in Livonia, Ut- 
recht, Abo, Duisburg, 
Kiel in Holstein,- In- 
spruck, Halle. The 
academies of Inscrip- 
tions and of Sciences 
founded at Paris. 



Profane Authors. 



John Napier, inventor 

of logarithms. 
G. Keating. 
John Greaves. 
Edward Simson. 
John Selden. 
William Burton. 
Richard Zouch. 
W. Ou?htred. 
B. Walton. 
P. Heylin. 
James Howel. 
Sir John Denham. 
Sir John Marsham. 
Bishop Wilkins. 
James Gregory. 
Thomas Willis. 
Bulst. Whitelocke. 
John Price. 
Isaac Barrow. 
Thomas Hobbes. 
Thomas Brown. 
Thomas Marshal. 
Edmund Castel. 
Thomas Otway. 
Ed. Waller. 
Dr. Sydenham. 
Anthony Wood. 
Ed. Bernard, professor 

of astronomy. 
Bishop Slillingfleet. 
William Somner. 
John Dryden. 
John Wallis. 
John Ray. 
D. Gregory. 
M. Lister. 
Henry Dodwell. 
N. Grew. 
Sir H. Spelman. 

French Authors: 
J. Aug. de Thou. 
Pineau. 
Gilot 
Mornac. 
P. Matthieu. 
Du Vair. 
Fr. Pithou. 
J. Barclai. 
Savaron. 
Pr. Jeannin. 
Godefroi. 
Bergier. 
Le Mercier. 
Boulanger. 
GoularL 
Malherbe. 
Marillac. 

N. and C. Le Bois. 
J. B. Le Menestrier. 
J. Bap. Duval. 
P. Haye du Chastelet 
R. Des Cartes. 
N. Fab. de Peiresc. 
Henr. due de Rohan. 
De Meziriac. 
J. Bourdelot. 
J. Guthieres. 
And. du Chesne. 
Louis Savot 
Val. Conrart 
Cardinal Richelieu. 
Rochemallet. 
Philip Monet. 
Nicholas Bourbon. 
Augustus Galland. 
J. F. Niceron. 
Edm. Merille, 
Samuel Petit. 
M. Mersenne. 
Voiture. 



*82 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



[Cent. XVII 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 


Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 


Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 


Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 


Heretics, real or 
reputed. 


Profane 


Authors. 




A. D. 






Segenot. 




De Vaugelas. 


Vaillant. 




William II. 1650 






Bernard. 




Ch. Justcl. 


P. Silv. Regis. 


The dignity 






Lamy. 




Did. Herault. 


Theod. Agrip. d'Au. 


of Stadt-hol- 






Bollandus. 




J. Baudouin. 


bigne. 


der remains 






Henschen. 




P. du Puy. 


Italian Authors : 


vacant dur- 






Papebroch. 




G. and L. de St. Marthe. 


Prosper Alpini. 


ing the space 






Perron. 




Denis Petau. 


B. Baldi. 


of 22 years. 






Estius. 




G. Fournier. 


J. A. Magini. 
A.Morosini. 








Launoy. 




CI. Saumaise. 








Tillemont. 




G. Naude. 


Luc. Valeri. 








Godeau. 




N. Rigault. 


Paul Beni. 








Albaspinaeus. 




J. L. de Balzac. 


Davila. 








Richelieu. 




G. B. de Gramont. 


L. Pignoria. 








Holstenius. 




Sarasin. 


Salvador. 








Baluzius. 




D. Blondel. 


Sanctorius. 








Bona. 




P. Gassendi. 


Thomas Campanella. 








Huet. 




J. Bignon. 


Alexander Donato. 








Bossuet. 




C. H. Fabrot. 


Mascardi Galilei. 








Fenelon. 




L. Ch. Le Fevre. 


Bentivoglio. 








Thiers. 




N. Perrot d'Ablancourt. 


Strozzi. 








Du-Pin. 




N. Sanson. 


Leo de Modena. 








Leo Allatius. 




Briet. 


Bonav. 








Zaccagni. 




Tan. Le Fevre. 


Cavalieri. 








Cotelier. 




La Mothe Vayer. 


Ev. Torricelli. 








Filesac. 




Moliere. 


J. V. Rossi. 








Visconti. 




G. M. le Jay. 


Fam. Strada. 








Molina. 




Roberval. 


T. Galluzzi. 








Arriaga. 




Rohault. 


Martini. 








Rigault. 




H. and Adr. de Valois. 


Imperiali. 








Richer. 




F. H. d'Aubignac. 


Tomassini. 








Pererius. 




J. Esprit. 


Virgil io Malvezzi. 








Mariana. 




L. Moreri. 


Molmetti. 








Fr. Pithou. 




Due de Rochefoucault. 


Sert. Orsato. 








Fr. de Sales. 




R. le Bossu. 


J. B. Nani. 








M. de Calafio. 




F. E. de Mezeray. 


J. A. Borelli. 








Lessius. 




P. Corneille. 


Ricci. 








Pineda. 




Ed. Mariotte. 


Oct. Ferrari. 








C. Jansenius. 




J. Spon. 


Bartalocci. 








Bentivoglio. 




G. d'Estrades. 


M. Malpighi. 








Sponde. 




Charles and 


Bellori. 








Bzovius. 




Perrault. 


Viviani. 








H. de Valois. 




P. Bayle. 


Bellini. 








P. de Marca. 




Vauban. 


Bocconi. 








Arnaud d'Andilly. 




Tournefort. 


Averani. 








Du Cange. 




Th. Corneille. 


Cassini. 








Pascal. 




Boileau. 


Magalotti. 








Du Boulay. 




Ren. Rapin. 


Spanish and Portuguese 








A. Arnaud. 




Jean Doujat, 


Authors : 








Vavasseur. 




Fr. Bernier. 


Cervantes. 








Neercassel. 




Ch. Du Fresne. 


Antonio de Ledesma. 








J. Le Maitre de 




Du Cange. 


J. Mariana, the historian. 








Sacy. 




Is. de Benserade. 


Antonio Herrera, tha 








Pagi. 




Thevenot. 


historian. 








Pezron. 




G. Menage. 


Aldrete, the antiquarian. 








Gerberon. 




De St. Real. 


Balbuena. 








duesnel. 




Pelisson. 


J. L. de la Cerda. 








These are the most 




Bussy Rabutin. 


Lopez de Vega, the 








distinguished 




Ch. Patin. 


Spanish Homer. 








writers of the 




B. d'Herbelot. 


Nic. de Antonio. 








Romish church 




CI. Lancelot. 


Balth. Gracian. 








during this cen- 




St. Evremond. 


Diego de Coutu. 










tury. 




Amelot de la Houssaye. 
Louis Cousin. 
F. S. Regn. 
Des Marais. 
A. Felibien. 


Jos. Texeira. 

Rod. Lobo. 

Eman. Faria e Sousa. 

Ant. Perez. 

Man. Alvarez. 














Jean de la Bruyere. 


Pegase. 












Sim. Foucher. 
J. Domat. 
J. B. Santeuil. 
C. P. Richelet. 
P. J. d 'Orleans 
J. Racine. 
J. Barbeyrac. 
J. B. Morin. 
Baudrarid. 
Segrais. 
Chevreau. 
Charpentier." 
Bouhours. 


German, Dutch, Swiss, 
Swedish, fyc. Authors : 

Pauw, Anatomy. 

Aiguillon. 

Emmius. 

Gruterus. 

Bertius. 

Andr. Schott. 

Martin ius. 

Snellius of Leyden 

James and Adrian Me- 
this. 

Cunffius. 












Marquis de l'Hopital. 


J. Meursius. 





ce>-t. xnn.] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



783 



Sovereign Prin- Popes, or Bishops 
ces. of Rome. 


Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 


Ecclesiastical and] mreli ^ 

Theological Un-\ ' ud _ 

ters. r 


Profane authors. 










Louis de Dieu. 


Hoffman. 










J. B. van Helmont 


Scioppiua. 












Hugo Grotius. 


G. J. Vossius. 












Louis de Dieu. 


Barthius. 












Erycius Puteanus. 


Freinsheim. 












Gasp. Barlaeus. 


Schrevelius. 












Van Hooft. 


J. Gerard. 












Const. Imperator. 


Hornius. 












Manasseh Ben- Israel. 


Etmuller. 












B. Varenius. 


Olaus Rudbeck. [son. 












Sanderus. 


Bartholinus, father and 












Vander-Linden. 


Isaac Pontanus. 












J. Golius. 


Chr. Longomontanus. 












Ailzema. 


J. Rhodius. 












Hceschelius. 


Bangius. 












Ch. Helvicus. 


Ad. Olearius. 












Melchior Adam. 


Graaf. 












Cluverius. 


Swammerdam. 












Hospinian. 


Ath. Kircher. 












Rosinus. 


Anna Maria Schurman. 












Buitorf, father and son. 


Ab. de Wicquefort. 












Kepler. 


J. Kunckel. 












Goldast. 


Ludolf. 












Horstius. 


J. G. Grsevius. 












Sennert. 


Burchard de Voider. 












Erasmus Schmidt. 


Varenius. 












Alstedius. 


Dodonaeus. 












J. F. Gronovius. 


Otto Guerick, inventor 












Meric Casaubon. 


of the air-pump. 












Fr. Junius. 


MorhofE 












Conringius. 


Isaac Vossius. 












R. Heinsius. 


Olaus Borrichius. 












Noldius. 


G. Sagittarius. 












H. Meibomius. 


J. Tollius. 












Olaus AVormius. 


Huygens. 












Jos. Arndius. 


Pufendorff. 












J. G. Suicer. 


Leusden. 












"Wetstein. 


Wagenseil. 












Gur tier. 


Brockhuisen. 












Thomasius. 


Cellarius. 










; 


i J. P. Pareus. 


Ezekiel Spanheim. 



CENTURY XVILL 



Sovereign 
ces. 



Prin- Popes, or Bishops 
of Pome. 



Archbishops of Ecclesiastical and Rereti and ljpv 
Canterbury/ Ttedogical Wrx- Thinkers . 



ters. 



Remarkable Events 
in the Church. 



Emperors of Ger- Clement XI. 
many: a. d. Innocent 

Leopold 1705 XIII. 

Joseph 1711 Benedict 

Charles VI. 1740 XIII. 

Charles VII. Clement XII. 

(elector of Benedict 

Bavaria) 1745 XIV. 

Francis of 
Lorrain 1765 

Joseph II. 1790 

Leopold II. 1792 

Francis II. 

Kings of Spain: 

Philip V. re- 
signs the 
crown ir 1724 

Louis dies in 1724 

Philip reas- 
cends the 
throne; and 
dies in 1746 

Ferdinand 
VI. 1759 

Charles III. 1768 

Charles IV. 

Kings of France. \ 

Louis XIV. 1715, 



1721 Dr. Thomas _ X. B. In this list, 
Tenison 1715 only deceased au- 
1724 Dr. AVilliam thors are men- 

Wake 1737 tioned. 

1730 Dr. John Pot- Protestant Wri- 

1740 ter 1747 ters: 

Dr. Thomas Sir Isaac Xewton. 

1753 Herring 1757 Dr Bentley. 
Dr. Matthew Archbishops 

Hutton 175S "Wake, Potter, 
and Seeker. 
Bishops Hare, 
Cumberland, At- 
terbury, Berke- 
ley, Butler, Ben- 
son, Smallridge, 
Sherlock, Cony- 
beare, AVarbur- 
ton.Lowth.Hurd, 
Horsley, and, 
Porteus. 
Wesley. 
Dr. Mill. 
Dr. Edwards. 
Dr. Whitby. 
Dr. Clarke. 
W. Whiston. 
, Wollaston. 



John Toland. 
Matthew Tindall. 
Ant. Collins. 
Thomas AVool- 

ston. 
Charles Blount. 
Thomas Chubb. 
Thomas Morgan. 
Bernard de Man- 

deville. 
Lord Bolingbroke, 

and others less 

worthy of notice. 



The French missionaries 
make many converts to 
popery in the eastern 
parts of the world; in 
the Carnatic, on the 
coast of Malabar, in 
China, &c. 

A great controversy is 
occasioned by the indul- 
gence of the Jesuits to- 
wards the Chinese, in 
allowing them to retain 
die religious ceremonies 
of paganism. 

Protestant missionaries 
are sent to India by the 
English, Dutch, and 
Danes. 

The bull Unigenitus, 
issued by Clement XI. 
in 1713, condemnsdues- 
nel's edition of the Xew 
Testament, and, pro- 
duces violent debates 
and divisions in the Gal- 
ilean church, more es- 
pecially between the Je- 
suits and the Jansenisls., 



Profane Authors. 



Sir Isaac Xewton. 

J. Flamsteed. 

J. Keill. 

Maclaurin. 

Bradley. 

Dr. Clarke. 

Dr. Bentley. 

Bishop Hare. 

Addison. 

Pope. 

Gay. 

Prior. 

Dr. Swift. 

Sir R. Steele. 

Dr. Arbuthnot. 

Dr. Friend. 

Dr. Mead. 

Dr. Woodward. 

Sir Hans Sloane. 

Sir Christopher "Wren. 

Dr. Halley. 

Dr. Hutcheson, the rae- 

taphvsician. 
Dr. Middleton. 
Dr. Berkeley, bishop o. 

Clovne. 
The ' lords Shaftsbury 

and Bolingbroke. 



784 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



[Cent. XVIII. 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 


Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 


Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 


Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 


Heretics, and 
Free Thinkers : 


Remarkable Events 
in the Church. 


Profane Authors. 


A. D. 


Clement 


Dr. Thomas 


The lord chancel- 


Among the sects 


The latter endeavour to 


Congreve. 


Louis XV. 1774 XIII. 


Seeker 1768 


lor King. 


of this century 


support their declining 


Wycherly. 


Louis XVI. 


Clement 


Dr. Frederic 


Dr. J. Leland. 


we may reckon 


credit by fictitious mira- 


Sir John Vanbrugh. 


deposed in 


XIV. 1774 


Cornwallis 1783 


Dr. Derham. 


the Herrenhut- 


cles, said to be wrought 


Lord Somers. 


1792 and be- 


Pius VI. 1799 


Dr. John 


Jeremiah Seed. 


ters, or Moravian 


at the tomb of the abbe 


Mrs. Cockburn. 


headed in 1793 


Pius VII. 


Moore. 


James Hervey. 


brethren, and the 


Paris. 


Nicholas and Thoma» 


After several 






Balguy. 


followers of Swe- 


The study of philosophy 


Rowe. 


changes of 






Chapman. 


denborg. 


is placed on a new foot- 


Mrs. Rowe. 


government, 






Dr. Jortin. 




ing in Germany, by 
Leibnitz and Wolff; 


Thompson. 


Bonaparte 






Dr. Paley. 




Dr. Young. 


became so- 






Dr. Blair. 




and their method of de- 


Akenside. 


vereign of 






Dr. Hickes. 




monstration is transfer- 


Armstrong. 


France in 






Abernethy. 




red by some divines to 


Collins. 


1799 under 






Dr. George Ben- 




theology. 


Gray. 


the denomi- 






son. 




Christopher Matthew 


Lord Lyttleton. 


nation of first 






Dr. Chandler. 




Pfaff, a very learned and 


Glover. 


consul, for 






Dr. James Foster. 




respectable divine, forms 


Goldsmith. 


which he af- 






Dr. Watts. 




a plan of reconciliation 


Churchill. 


terwards 






Dr. Doddridge. 




and union between the 


Cowper. 


substituted 






Dr. Taylor, of 




Lutheran and Reformed 


Burns. 


the more dig- 






Norwich. 




churches ; the execution 


Foote. 


nified title of 






Pierce. 




which, however, is pre- 


Colman. 


emperor. 






Hallet. 




vented by bigotry and 


The earl of Chesterfield. 


Sovereigns of 






Grove. 




party spirit. 


Horace, earl of Orford. 


Great Britain : 






Lardner. 




Sacheverel, an incendia- 


SirWilliam Blacks tone. 


William III. 1702 






Dr. Priestley. 




ry ,who inveighs against 


Hume. 


Anne 1714 






French, Swiss, 




civil and religious liber- 


Robertson. 


George I. 1727 






German, and 




ty is impeached and cen- 


Stuart. 


George II. 1760 






Dutch Writers. 




sured. 


Gibbon. 


George III. 






Abbadie. 




Lady Moyer founds a lec- 


Burnet, or lord Mon- 


Sovereigns of 






Pictet. 




ture for the defence of 


boddo. 


Sweden : 






James Saurin. 




the Trinity. 


Home, or lord Kames. 


Charles XII. 1718 






Oudin. 




Dr. Bampton also esta- 


Sir William Jones. 


Ulrica Ele- 






Ostervald. 




blishes a lecture at Ox- 


Harris. 


onora 1751 






Jurieu. 




ford, for the general de- 


Dr. Johnson. 


Frederic of 






Turretin. 




fence of Christianity. 


Adam Smith. 


Hesse Cas- 






Werenfels. 




The Protestant religion, 


Burke. 


sel 1751 






Vitringa. 




and the blessings of civil 


Richardson. 


Adolphus of 






Leydeiker. 




liberty, are established in 


Fielding 


Holstein 1771 






Marck. 




Great Britain by the ac- 


Smollett. 


Gustavus HI. 






Braun. 




cession of the house of 


Dr. Moore. 


— assassina- 






Jablonski. 




Brunswick-Lunenburg 


Dr. William Hunter. 


ted in 1792 






Mosheim. 




to the throne. 


John Hunter. 


Gustavus IV. 






Witsius and Trig- 




An attempt is made to as- 


Pott. 


deposed by 






land of Ley- 




sassinate Louis XV. by 


Dr. Heberden. 


his uncle in 1809 






den. 




Damien, who is sup- 


Sir John Pringle. 


Kings of Den- 






Spener. 




posed (but not on suffi- 


Dr. Cullen. 


mark : 






Pecht. 




cient grounds) to have 


Dr. Brown. 


Frederic IV. 1730 






Mayer. 




been instigated by the 


Dr. Darwin. 


ChristiernVI.1746 






Masius. 




Jesuits to that nefarious 


Dr. Black. 


Frederic V. 1766 






Wandalinus. 




act. 


Stephen Hales. 


Christiern 




- 


Winder. 




Louis suppresses the or- 


Henry Cavendish. 


VII. 






Fabricius. 




der of Jesuits in France, 


Dr. Priestley. 


Kings of Poland: 






Schmidt. 




shuts their schools, and 


French Authoi* 


Frederic Au- 






Rechenberg. 




confiscates their reve- 


Malebranche. 


gustus 1733 






Ittigius. 




nues, in the year 1764. 


B. Lany. 


Stanislaus is 






Seeligman. 




The kings of Portugal 


Lemery. 


twice elect- 






Loscher 




and Spain banish all Je- 


Fenelon. 


ed, but abdi- 






Foertsch. 




suits from their domi- 


Sauveur. 


cates the 






Buddeus. 




nions. 


P. de la Hire. 


crown. 






Luthenius. 




Pope Clement XIV. dis- 


Flechier. 


Frederic Au- 






Antonius. 




solves the order in 1773. 


Le Vassor. 


gustus II. 1764 






Franckius. 




A revolution breaks out 


J. F. Simon. 


Stanislaus, 






Langius. 




in France in 1789 ; and, 


Isaac de Larrcy. 


count Poni- 






Maius. 




in its progress, the Gal- 


J. F. Felibitn. 


atowski, suc- 






Pritius. 




lican church is nearly 


Andrew and Anne Da- 


ceeds; but he 






N. B. The twenty 




annihilated ; but Bona- 


cier. 


is deposed by 






writers last men- 




parte restores Catholi- 


Claudius and WU'.iam 


foreign pow- 






tioned are Lu- 




cism. 


de l'lsle. 


ers in 1794, 






therans. 




Pope Pius VI. is deposed 


Renaudot. 


and the king- 






Romish Authors: 




by the French, and dies 


Tarteron. 


dom is dis- 






Gonsalez. 




in exile, in 1799. 


Huet. 


membered. 






Beaugendre. 






J. le Long. 


Sovereigns of 






Papin. 






Boulainvilliers. 


Portugal : 






Van Espen. 
F. Lami. 






Louis and John Boivin, 


Pedro II. 1706 










Rapin de Thoyras. 


John V. 1750 






Pouget. 






James Basnage. 


Joseph 1777 






Des-Marets. 






J. and P. L. Savary. 


Maria. 






D. de St. Marthe. 
Hyac. Serri. 
G. Helyot. 






Louis de Sacy. 

Du Resnel. 

N. L. de la Caille. 



Cent. XVIIL] 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 



-85 



Savsreign Prin- 
ces. 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Turkish Empe- 
rors: A. D. 
Mustapha II. 1703 
Ahmed III, 

— deposed in 1730 
Mahmoud 1754 
Osraan III. 1757 
MustaphaIII.1774 
Abdul-hamedl789 
Selim III. 

Russian Sove- 
reigns : 
Peter the 

Great 1725 

Catharine I. 1727 
Peter II. 1730 
Anne 1 740 

Ivan, or John 

— deposed in 

1741, and as- 
sassinated 

in 1762 

Elizabeth 1762 
Peterlll. mur- 
dered in 1762 
Catharine II. 1796 
Stadt-hulders of \ 

the United Pro-\ 

vinces : 

William III. 1702 
This dignity 

remained va- 
cant for 45 

years. 

William IV. 1751 

William V. 

deposed by 

the French 

in 1795. 

Kings of Prussia : 

Frederic I. 1713 
Frederic 

William I. 1740 
Frederic II. 1786 
Frederic 

William II. 1797 
Frederic 

William III. 
Kings of Sardi- 
nia : 

Victor Ama- 

deus I. 1730 

Oharlea 

Emanuel 1773 

Victor II. 1796 



No. LXVl. 



197 



F. Timoleon de 
Choisi. 

Huet. 

J. Martiany. 
Hure. 
Habert 
Fleuri. 
Massillon. 
Eusebius Renau- 
dot. 

Houdry. 
P. Constant. 
Baltus. 
P. de la Broue. 

G. Daniel. 
Hardouin. 

J. J. Boileau. 

Marsollier. 

Gamier. 

Le Boeuf. 

Anselme. 

Joubert. 

Tournemine 

Duguet. 

Longuerue. 

Le GLuien. 

Longueval. 

Vertot. 

Gibert. 

Martenne. 

Boursier. 

Blondel. 

Montfaueon. 

C.delaRu?. 

Sabatier. 
enoit. 

Colbert. 

Languet. 

Dantine. 

Houteville. 

Lenglct du-Fres- 
noi. 

Martin. 

Berruyer. 

De Caylus. 

Bon. Racine. 

Calmet. 

Celier. 

Maran. 

Des-Champs. 

Morvan de Belle- 
garde. 

The popes Cle- 
ment XI. 

Benedic XIII. and 
XIV. 

Orsini. 

Muratori. 

Bianchini. 

Orsi. 

Tomasi. 

Banduri. 



Heretics, and Free 
Thinkers : 



Profane Authors. 



B. de la Monnoye. 

The abbe Fraguier. 

Gabriel Daniel. 

G. J. du Verney. 

Valincourt. 

Geoffroy. 

De la Mothe. 

Joachim le Grand. 

Sanadon. 

Dumon. 

Vertot. 

Catrou. 

Rouille. 

Beausobre. 

The abbe de la Bleterie 

Niceron. 

DelaBarre. 

Melon. 

De la Croze. 

Vanier. 

Montfaueon. 

Rollin. 

Longuerue. 

Banier. 

Cardinal Polignac. 

J. J. Rousseau. 

Du-Bois. 

Brumoy. 

Velley. 

Villaret. 

Bourget. 

Bignon. 

Goguet. 

Abbe de St. Pierre. 

Fontenelle. 

Du-Halde. 

De Moivre. 

Bougeant. 

Folard. 

Marquis de Puy-Segur. 

M. D'Argens. 

Abbe Des-Fountaines. 

Freret. 

Le Sage. 

The Fourmonts. 

Montesquieu. 

Mongault. 

Gabrielle du Chastelet. 

Des-touches. 

Terrason. 

Caylus. 

Casp. de Real. 

Crevier. 

Marmontel. 

Reaumur. 

Du-Hamel. 

Le Gendre. 

Morabin. 

Helvetius. 

Maupertius. 

Condillac. 

D'Alembert 

Voltaire. 

The Crebillons. 

Diderot. 

Condorcet. 

Clairault 

Buffon. 

Lavosier. 

Bailly. 

Mirabeau. 

Italian Authors 
Poli. 

Magiiabechi. 
Musitani. 
Battaglini. 
Gravina. 
Lancisi. 
Buonanni. 
Zanicheli. 
Fontanini. 



Micheli. 

Manfredi. 

Giannone. 

Muratori. 

Zeno. 

MafTei. 

Cardinals Quirini and 

Passionei. 
Buonamici. 
Cassini. 
Beccaria. 
Spalanzani. 
Metastasio. 

Swiss Writers. 
D. and J. le Clerc. 
Konig. 
Burlamaqui. 
Schenchzer. 
Crousaz. 
The Bernouillis. 
Euler. 

De Saussure. 
De Luc. 
Haller. 
Mallet. 
Sol. Gesner. 

German Authors t 
Leibnitz. 
Wolff. 
Krosig. 
Kuster. 
Moller. 

J. A. Schmidt. 
Eccard. 
Mencke. 
Hubner. 
J. A. Fabricius. 
Neumann. 
Heineccius. 
C. Wormius. 
Keysler. 
Doppelmaier. 
Reiske. 
Werner. 
Pallas. 

Zimmermann. 
Herder. 
Gellert. 
Mendelsohn. 
Klopstock. 
Muller. 

Dutch Writers: 
Adrian Reland. 
J. F. Gronovius. 
Cuper. 
Perizonius. 
Nieuwentyt. 
Noodt. 
Hartsoeker. 
Bynkershoek. 
Boerhaave. 
W. J. Gravesande. 
Schultens. 
Van Loon. 
Muschenbroek. 
Wesseling. 
Havercamp. 
Hemsterhuis. 
Nieuland. 

Russian Writers : 
Prince Cherbatoff. 
Lomonosoff. 
Sumorokoff. 
Danish and Swedish .4m- 

thors: 
Baron Holberg. 
Fabricius. 
C. von Linne, or Lin* 

naeus. 

Sir Torbern Bergman. 
.Scheele. 



786 



CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES. 

CENTURY XIX. 



[Cent. XIX. 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 



Emperor of Ger- 
many or of Aus- 
tria : A. D. 

Francis II. 

Kings of Spain: 

Charles IV. 
is deposedby 
Napoleon 1808 

Ferdinand VII. 
succeeds ; but he 
is inveigled into 
France. 

Joseph Bonaparte 
usurps the throne, 
and reigns over 
a part of the 
kingdom, while 
the other parts 
are ruled by a 
council of state 
and the Cortes. 

Inl814, Ferdinand 
was liberated by 
the tyrant, and 
restored ; and he 
still [in 1826] 
rules over a reluc- 
tant nation. 
Sovereigns of 
Portugal : 

Maria 1816 

John VI. 1826 

Sovereigns of 

France : 

Bonaparte or the 
emperor Napo- 
leon, reigned un- 
til the year 1814 : 
he was then de- 
posed andbanish- 
ed. In 1815, he 
regained his 
power, but lost it 
before the end of 
the year. 

Louis XVIII. 1824 

Charles X. 

King of Holland. 

Louis Bona- 
parte, from 
1806 to 1810. 

King of the Ne- 
therlands : 

"William Vi. 
prince of 
Orange. 

King of Prussia : 

Frederic V. 
or Frederic 
William III. 

Kings ofBovaria : 

Maximilian 1821 

Charles 
Louis. 

King of Saxony 

Frederic Augus 
tus. 

Kings of Wur- 
tcmberg : 

Frederic 
William 1817 

His son. 

King of Hanover 

George Au- 

fustus, also 
ing of 

Great Bri- 
tain, 



Popes, or Bishops 
of Rome. 



Pius VII. 182c 
Leo XII. 



Sovereign Prin- 
ces. 
Concluded. 

A. D. 

Kings of Sweden: 

Gustavus IV. 
deposed in 1809 

CharlesXIII.1818 

Charles XIV. 

Kings of Den- 
mark : 

Christiern 
VII. 1808 

Frederic VI. 

Emperors of Rus- 
sia : 

Paul, murder- 
ed in 1801 

Alexander 1825 

Nicolas. 

Emperors of Tur- 
key : 

Selim IK. de- 
throned in 1807 

MustaphalV. 
deposed in 1808 

Mahmoud II. 

Kings of Naples 
and Sicily : 

Ferdinand 
IV. 1824 

Francis. 

Kings of Sardi- 
nia: 

Charles 
Emanuel II. 
resigned 1802 

Victor III. re- 
signed 1821 

Charles Felix. 



Archbishops of 
Canterbury. 



Dr. John 

Moore 
Dr. Charles 
Manners 
Sutton. 



1805 



Ecclesiastical and 
Theological Wri- 
ters. 



Dr. Richard Wat- 
son, bishop of 
Llandaff. 

Dr. GeorgeHorne, 
bishop of Nor- 
wich. 

Dr. Joseph White. 

Dr. Joshua Toul- 



Sectaries. 



Joanna Southcott, 

The baroness von 

Krudener. 



Remarkable Events 
in the Church. 



Napoleon concludes a 
treaty with the pope, in 
1801, for the adjustment 
of the religious concerns 
of France. 

The French seize the 
pope's territories, con- 
fine his holiness, and 
leave him only a shadow 
of power. 

In 1809, by the new con- 
stitution of Sweden, a 
full religious toleration 
is allowed. 

Recovering his authority 
in 1814, the pope annuls 
theFrench regulations at 
Rome, re-establishes the 
monastic orders, and re- 
vives the Society of 
Jesuits. 

By the union of the Aus- 
trian Netherlands with 
Holland, in 1814, the 
catholics lose their sway 
in the former country. 

In several of the German 
states, the Lutherans 
and Calvinists, in 1817 
and 1818, enter into a 
union. 

In 1817. Louis XVIII. 
concludes a concordat 
with the pope. 

Theyear 1825 is marked, 
at Rome, by the solem- 
nity of a Jubilee. 



Profane Authors. 



Richard Porsoi Greek 
professor at Cam- 
bridge. 

Lord Byron. 

Elizabeth Carter. 

Anna Seward. 

Dr. Erasmus Darwin. 

Dr. James Beattie. 

Richard Cumberland. 

Richard Brinsley Sheri- 
dan. 

John Home Tooke. 

John Wolcot. 
French Writers 

Madame de Stael. 

Madame Cottin. 
German Authors: 

Klopstock. 

Schdler. 

Wieland. 

Kotzebue. 



INDEX. 



INDEX. 



ABBOT, archbishop of Canterbury, character and conduct of, 609. 
Abelard, Peter, author of the Scholastic System, 282 ; he is condemned 

as a heretic, 284 ; attacks heresies in general, 285. 
Abgarus, story of, 10. 

Absalom, archbishop of Lunden, in Sweden, 260. 
Abul-Faraj, an eminent Syrian writer, 298. 

Abyssinia, Romish missions to, 547, 548, 777 : Lutheran missions, 577. 
Abyssinians embrace the Monophysite doctrine, 202; state of their 

church at different times, 445 ; 717, 744. 
Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, is deposed, 128. 
Academics, their impious notions, 4. 
Academical institutions in Europe, 298, 454, 463, 474. 
Acephali, a sect, 128. 
Adalbert, bishop of Prague, a martyr, 206. 
Adamites, tenets of, 55. 

— Bohemian, an account of, 377. 

Adrian, the emperor, a persecutor of the Christians, 36. 

I. pope, gratifies Charlemagne with the right of election to the 

see of Rome, 171. 

■ IV., arrogance of, 273. 

— — — VI., good character of, 398. 

JEon, the eternal nature, 18. 

./Erian controversy, 95. 

Africans, the nature of their conversion in xv. cent examined, 358; in 

xvii. cent. 523. 
Agnoetas, a sect, 144. 

Agobard, archbishop of Lyons, account of, 184, 190. 
Agricola, founder of the Antinomian sect in Germany, 461. 
Albert the Great, character of, 300, 320 ; his system of divinity, 322. 
Albigenses, or Paulician sect, 257 ; cruel persecution of them, 329. 
Alcuin, character and works of, 172. 
Aldhelm, account of, 1 54. 
Alexander III. pope, confers on the cardinals the sole right of electing 

to the pontificate, 233, 275 ; orders schools to be erected 268 ; deposes 

the emperor Frederic I. 273; is driven from Rome. 3c; retrieves his 

affairs, 274 ; extends the papal authority, 275. 

■ VI. infamous character of, 370, 386. 

VII. conduct of, 519 ; bull against Jansenius, 566. 

■ VIII. character of, 638. 

Natalis, writes against the popish claims, 550. 

Alexandria, patriarch of, one of the heads of the Christian church, 88 ; 
extent of his authority in xvi. cent. 441. 

Alfred, his taste for letters, 184 ; the most learned men under him, ib. 

Allatius, Leo, his works for uniting the Greek and Romish churches, 574. 

Almamoun, khalif of Bagdad, an eminent patron of science, 183. 

Almeric, an account of, 300. 

Alphonso, king of Leon, an eminent patron of letters, in xiii. cent. 298; 
the fame he acquired by his astronomical tables, ib. 

Alphonso VI., king of Naples, a zealous promoter of learning, 360. 

Altenburg, conference at, 465. 

Alva, duke of, a cruel persecutor of the protestants, 416 ; effect of his 
tyranny, ib. 

Amalric, the absurd and impious doctrine taught by him, 332. 

Ambrose, bishop of Milan, his character, 89 ; his three books on the 
duty of ministers, 92. 

of Camaldoli, his works, 372. 

America, when first visited by the Europeans, 358 ; its inhabitants con- 
verted to Christianity, ib.; English and Dutch colonies there in xvi. 
cent. 522 : Romish missions, 523, Protestant missions, 524 ; the am- 
bition of the Jesuits in Paraguay, ib. ; an episcopal church in North 
America, 733. 

Ames, William, account of, 488; he treats morality as a separate 
science, 604. 

Ammonius Saccus, founder of the new Platonists, 39 ; attempts a coa- 
lition of all sects with his own system, ib. ; the principles of his phi- 
losophy, ib. ; his moral discipline, 40 ; the pernicious effects of his 
philosophy to Christianity, and hence the foundation of the monks 
and mystics, ib. ; the rapid progress of his sect, 61. 

Amour, Guillaume de St., a strenuous opposer of the mendicant friars, 
311 ; is banished, ib. ; his works and great character, ib. 

Amsterdam, clergy and magistrates of, oppose the toleration of the 
Mennonites, 500. 

Amyrault, Moses, account of his works, 604; form of his doctrine and 
reconciliatory endeavours, 606 ; proceedings of the Swiss church 
against him, 622. 

Na. LXVI. 198 



Anabaptists, their enthusiastic, seditious, and vile principles in xvi. 
cent, and punishments they undergo, 409. 

Anabaptists (Mennonites,) their history, 490; maxim whence their pe- 
culiarities arose, 491; their progress, 492; crimes of many of them, 
ib. ; points of doctrine maintained by the most rational of them, ib. ; 
severe punishments inflicted on them, 493. 

of Munster, their seditious madness, 493 ; measures taken 



to extirpate them, 494; plot against the magistrates defeated, ib.; how 
comforted by Menno, ib. ; origin of the sects that started up among 
them, 495 ; warm contest, 496 ; new dissensions among them, ib. ; 
their creed, confessions, and peculiar tenets, ib. ; state of learning 
and philosophy among them, 499 ; their settlement in the United Pro- 
vinces, 500 ; English, called Baptists, with an account of their various 
denominations, ib. ; singular sect called Davidists, 501 ; various for- 
tunes of the Anabaptists in xvii. cent. 636; union restored among 
them, 637; different sects, with their several characters and notions, 
ib. ; external form of their church, ib. ; three orders of ministers 
among them, ib. 

Anachorets, a monastic order in iv. cent. 94. 

Anastasius, gives rise to the Nestorian controversy, 124. 
the emperor, protects the Acephali, 143. 



Anchialus, patriarch of Constantinople, an eminent patron of letters in 

xii. cent. 267. 
Andreas, James, employed in reconciling the Lutheran divines, 466. 
Andronicus, the emperor, forbids all controversies concerning specula- 
tive points of theology, 280. 
Angelome, a monk of Lisieux, an acute, but fantastic writer in ix. 

cent. 193. 
Anglo-Saxons, oppress the Christians, 111; some few converted by 

Augustin, 131 ; a universal conversion among them in vii. cent. 146; 

the causes of this conversion considered, ib. 
Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, improves the science cf logic, 229; 

inventor of the famous argument ascribed to Des-Cartes, 230; one of 

the first who composed a system of divinity, 250. 

of Laon, his character, 279, 282. 

of Havelberg, a strenuous advocate for the Latins against the 

Greeks, 285. 
Ansgar, founder of the Cimbrian, Danish and Swedish churches, 180. 
Anthropomarphites, a sect in x. cent. 220. 
Antichrist, ensigns of, what so called by the Puritans, 480. 
Antinomians, their rise among the Lutherans, 461 ; suppression by 

Luther, ib. ; tenets, ib. ; English, their rise, and pernicious tenets, 615; 

their modern state, 734. 
Antioch, jurisdiction of its patriarch in iv. cent. 88; the extent of his 

power in xvi. cent. 441. 
Antoninus, Marcus, a persecutor of the Christians, 36; his partiality 

to the Stoics, and its effects upon learning, 38. 
Pius, persecution under him, 36. 



Antonius Paulus, endeavours to correct the abuses among the clergy ir. 
xvii. cent. 591. 

Antony, forms in Egypt the Monks into a body, 93 ; the rapid progress 
of this order in the east, and maxims of their philosophy which seduced 
Christians, ib. 

of Vienne, order of, 247. 

Apollinarian heresy, 104. 

Apollonius Tyanseus, a knave, and an impostor, 60. 

Apostles of Christ, why limited to twelve, 10; the success of their 
ministry, 11 ; their authority and office, 20; they and their disciples 
the principal writers, 23 ; the creed, by whom composed, 25. * 

a sect in xiii. cent. 333; their extirpation, ib. 

Apostolics, a sect in xii. cent. 292; the remarkable purity of their lives, ib. 

Aquinas, Thomas, a very powerful advocate for the philosophy of 
Aristotle, 300; his character, 320; method of explaining the Scriptures, 
322; orthodoxy questioned, 323; famous sum, what 324; polemic 
work against the Gentiles, ib. ; several of his doctrines opposed by 
John Duns Scotus, 353. 

Arabian philosophers, tenets of some, 73 ; confuted by Origen, they 
abandoned their erroneous sentiments, ib; form schools in Spain and 
Italy, in x. cent. 212; source of knowledge among the Europeans, 
ib.; and 228; authors of divination and astrology "in the West, ib. 

Arbricelies, Robert, founds a monastery at Fontevraud in xii. cent. 277; 
one singularity in his rule, 278. 

Archbishops, authority of, in iv. cent. 86. 

Arianism, its rise in iv. cent. 102 ; the tenets of its author, ib. ; its pro- 
gress before tire first Nicene council, ib. ; its history after that tune, 



790 



INDEX. 



103, &c. ; various sects of it, which may be reduced to three classes, 
104; its state in vi. cent. 143; encouraged by the Lombards in vii. 
cent. 155. 

Arians, two eminent writers among them in xvii. cent. 640; to whom 
the denomination of Arian is applicable, ib. ; most eminent patrons 
in xviii. cent. 653; bad consequences of Arianism, ib. ; points of its 
doctrine adopted by Mr. Whiston, and consequence, ib. ; controversy 
occasioned by Dr. Clarke's opinions concerning the Trinity, and by 
whom opposed, 654. 

Aristotelian philosophy, admired by the Nestorians in vi. cent. 135 ; its 
progress in viii. cent. 165 ; taught by the reformed church in xvi. cent. 
486; introduced into theology, and bad consequence, 487; its state in 
xvii. cent. 532, 557, 583. 

Aristotle, his notions of God and the human soul, 5 ; had many ad- 
mirers in xiii. cent. — the prejudice done by them to Christianity, 296. 

Arius, maintains the inferiority of the second person of the Trinity, 102 ; 
expelled from the church, ib. ; condemned by the council of Nice, ib. ; 
recalled from exile, 103; dies a miserable death, ib. 

Armagh, Richard of, attacks the Mendicants, 345. 

Armenia, Great and Less, Christianity established there, 82, 83. 

Armenians, an account of, in xvi. cent. 445; their state in xvii. cent. 
577; generous behaviour of the shah Abbas toward them, ib.; the 
advantages they received from the settlement of a great number of 
Armenians in different parts of Europe, ib. ; state of their church in 
xviii. cent. 716. 

Arminianism, its rise and progress, in xvii. cent. 622. 

Arminius, James, founder of the Arminian church, 605; professes pub- 
licly his opinions about predestination, grace, &c. in opposition to 
those of Calvin, ib. ; two favourable circumstances for him, 623 ; by 
whom opposed, and controversy thereupon, with his death, ib. ; pro- 
gress of his sect, ib. ; 

Arnauld, a patron of the Jansenists, 564 ; his dispute with Claude, con- 
cerning transubstantiation, 574. 

Arndt, a moral writer in xvii. cent. 588 ; his good character and 
works, 597. 

Arnobius, a defender of the Christians, 65. 

Arnold, of Brescia, account of him and his sect, 290. 

, of Villa Nova, his extensive learning, 301. 

, Godfrey, disturbs the Lutheran church, 594 : his ecclesiasti- 
cal history censured, ib. 

Artemon, a sectary, 55. 

Arts, seven, the wretched manner of teaching than in viii. cent. 166. 

Ascetics, their rise and principles, 45. 

Asculanus, Ceccus, a famous philosopher in xiv. cent. 339 ; his fate, ib. 

Asia, Protestant missions in, 522 ; English and Dutch colonies, 26. 

Asiatic Gnostics, a sect in ii. cent. 50. 

Asinus, John Pungens, substitutes consubstantiation for transubstan- 
tiation, in xiii. cent. 325. 

Assemblies, the first Christian, 48. 

Associations, religious, in Great Britain, 752. 

Astesanus, his character, 352, 353. 

Astrology, mixed with philosophy, considered as magic in xiv. cent. 399. 

Asylum, right of, contested, 551. 

Athanasius, account of, 88 ; he is deposed by the council of Tyre, 103. 

Athenagoras, an excellent writer in ii. cent. 42. 

Atto, bishop of Vercelli, his works useful in describing the genius of 
the people in x. cent. 216. 

Audseus, forms a sect, 106. 

Augsburg, conference at, between Luther and Caietan, 392; diet 
holden in that city by Charles V., 406; famous confession made by 
the protestants, ib. ; a refutation of it attempted by the catholics. 407; 
three methods proposed for terminating these religious dissensions, 
ib. ; a severe decree against the reformers, ib. ; a religious peace con- 
cluded at the second diet, 413 ; acts favourable to the protestants 
passed, 414. 

Augustin, bishop of Hippo, high character of, 89 ; his success against 
the Donatists, 101 ; he suppresses Pelagianism, 129 ; opposes the 
Predestinarians, 130. 

— — , a Benedictine monk, sent into Britain as a missionary, 131. 

, St., monks of, their rise in xiii. cent. 309. 

Avignon, popes remove thither their residence in xiv. cent. 341; their 
power diminished, ib. ; invent new schemes to acquire riches, ib. 

Aurelian, state of the church under him, 60. 

Aureolus, Peter, a scholastic doctor, 352. 

Austria, commotions in, against the protestants in xvii. cent. 539; state 
of the Austrian church, 740. 

Authbert, a converter of the pagans in ix. cent. 180. 

Autherius, bishop of Bethlehem, founds the congregation of the Holy 
Sacrament, 514. 

Bacon, John, a scholastic divine, 352. 

, Roger, his great character, 299, 301, 320. 

, lord Verulam, his character, 529. 

Baius, disputes about grace in xvi. cent. 439 ; he is accused and stig- 
matised, ib. 
Baldus, his character, 338. 
Balsamon, Theodore, a Greek writer, 279. 



Bangorian controversy, 724. 

Baptism, not to be considered as a mere ceremony, 27; the manner of 

celebrating it in i. cent. 28'; in ii. cent. 49 ; in iii. cent 70 ; in iv. 

cent. 99. 
Baptists, general and particular, doctrines and practices of, 500; far- 
ther account of both, vi. 728, 729. 
Baradaius, Jacob, restores the Monophysites, 144; is acknowledged as 

their second founder, 145. 
Barbarians, Western, persecute the Christians, 209. 
Barcepha, Moses, his great character, 189. 
Barclay, Robert, a defender of the Quakers, 630. 
Barcochebas, a great enemy to the Christians, 36. 
Bardesanes, founder of a sect. 51. 
Barnabites, order of, founded in xvi. cent. 431 ; soon deviate from their 

first rule, ib. 
Baronius' annals, an account of, 431. 
Barsumas, a zealous promoter of Nestorianism, 125. 
Bartolus, his character, 338. 
Basil, bishop of Csesarea, account of, 88. 

, the council of, 367; its decrees and acts, ib. 

Basilides, chief of the Egyptian Gnostics, 52; enormous errors of his 

system, 53 ; his moral doctrine, ib. 
Basilius, the Macedonian, under him the Sclavonians and Russians are 

converted, 180. 

founder of a sect in xii. cent. 287 ; his tenets, ib. 



Bassi, Matthew de, founder of the Capuchin order, 429. 

Bayle, a sceptical philosopher, 536. 

Becker, Balthasar, peculiar sentiments of, 621 ; contest occasioned by 

them, ib. 
Becket, archbishop of Canterbury, subscribes, and afterwards rejects 

the constitutions of Clarendon, 274 ; is assassinated in his own chapel, 

275 ; enrolled among the most eminent saints, ib. 
Bede, the venerable, a celebrated Englishman, 172. 
Beghards, austere sectaries, 316 ;. harassed by Charles IV. in Germany, 

349; corrupted by the Brethren of the Free Spirit, 356; persecution 

of them, 356, 377. 
Beguines, a female sect, 318, 356. 
Behmen, Jacob, one of the Rosecrucian brethren, 532 ; his chimerical 

notions, 598. 
Believers, distinguished from catechumens, 21, 25. 
Bell's scheme of education, 753. 

Bellarmine, an eminent defender of the Romish church, 435. 
Bellator, his character as a commentator, 139. 
Bembo, cardinal, a supposed infidel writer, 419. 
Benedict, of Nursia, founder of an order of monks, 137, 138. 

, abbot of Aniane, employed to reform the practices of the monks, 



189; restores the monastic discipline, ib. ; subjects the various mo- 
nastic orders to that of Benedict of Mount-Cassin, ib. ; his discipline 
soon declines, ib. 

VI., pope, his character and fate, 213, 214. 

VII., account of, 214. 

IX., his infamous character, 231, 

XII., his good character, 342. 

XIII., anti-pope, an account of, 344, 362. 

XIII., pope, his character, vi. 646, 706 ; his death, 707. 

XIV., great character of, 646; his conduct and government, 708. 



Benedictine order, rise of, in vi. cent. 137; the founder's views in this 
institution, ib. ; degeneracy among the monks from his practice, ib. ; 
its rapid progress in the West, ib.; the founder's discipline neglected 
and forgotten by the monks in x. cent. 215 ; literary fame of tho 
order, 558. 

Benefices, the right of nomination to them assumed by the Romish 
pontiffs, 302. 

Berean sect in Scotland, 730. 

Berenger, disputes with Lanfranc against the real presence of Christ's 
body and blood in the Holy Sacrament, 249 ; explains the doctrines 
of Scripture by logical and metaphysical rules, ib. ; maintains his 
doctrine of the Eucharist against synodical decrees, and the threats 
of punishment from the civil power, 252; abjures his opinions, but 
teaches them soon afterwards, ib. ; makes a public recantation with 
an oath, and yet propagates his real sentiments of the Eucharist, ib.; 
second declaration before Gregoiy VII., 253 ; subscribes a third con- 
fession with an oath, 254 ; yet retracts publicly, and composes a re- 
futation, ib. ; his fate, and the progress of his doctrine, ib. ; his real 
sentiments, ib. ; the weakness of the arguments used by the Roman 
catholic writers against the real sentiments of this divine, 255. 

Berg, the famous form of concord reviewed there, and its con- 
tents, 467. 

Bermudes, John, sent into Abyssinia with (he title of patriarch, 424. 

Bern, an account of the cruel and impious fraud acted upon one Jetzer, 
by the Dominicans, 388. 

Bern, church of, opposes Calvinism. 476. 

Bernard, St., abbot of Clairval, preaches up a crusade in xii. cent. 263; 
draws up a rule of discipline for the knights Templars, 264; consi- 
dered as the second founder of the Cistertian monks, 276 ; combats the 
doctrine of the schoolmen, 284 ; his charge against Abelard, ib. ; as 



INDEX. 



791 



also against Gilbert de la Porree, ib. ; he combats the sect of the 
Apostolics, 292. 

Bertram, Batrara, eminent for refuting Radbert's doctrine of the Eu- 
charist, 190, 196; defends Godeschalcus, 197; his dispute with Hinc- 
mar, about the hymn, Trina Deitas, 198; maintains the cause of the 
Latin church against Photius, 200. 

Berulle, cardinal, institutes the order of Oratorians, 555. 

Bessarion, how employed by the Greeks in the council of Florence, 368 ; 
his character, 381. 

Beza, Theodore, a translator of the New Testament, 486. 

Bibliander, an eminent writer in xvi. cent. 490. 

Biblical colleges, what so called, and their rise in xvii. cent. 591. 

Biblicists, Christian doctors so called, flourish in xii. cent. 283 ; decline 
in xiii. cent. 322; they warmly oppose the scholastic divines, 323. 

Biddle, John, a famous Socinian writer, 640. 

Bishops, appointed first at Jerusalem, 22 ; their authority augmented by 
the councils, 41 ; their contentions with each other about the extent of 
powers in iv. and following centuries, produced violent commotions in 
the church, 88; disputes between the bishops of Rome and of Con- 
stantinople, 113; the prelates endeavour to extend their jurisdiction, 
214; they aspire after, and obtain, temporal dignities, 215; op- 
pose the arrogance of the pontiffs in xiii. cent. 302; disputes between 
them and the Mendicants, 310; sentiments of the Puritans concern- 
ing them, 478 ; a famous assembly of bishops at Paris, 551. 

Blackburne, author of the Confessional, 730. 

Blanc, Louis le, attempts to reconcile the Romish and Reformed churches, 
607, 608. 

Blandrata, George, propagates Socinianism in Transylvania, 508. 

Blois, Peter of, an eminent writer, 280. 

Blount, Charles, his oracles of reason, and death, 527. 

Bockhold, John, mock king of Munster, an account of, 493 ; his short 
reign and ignominious death, ib. 

Boethius, the philosopher, 134, 138. 

Bogomiles, a sect in xii. cent. 287. 

Bohemia, commotions excited by the ministry of John Huss, 363; ter- 
minated, 374; troubles there excited against the Protestants, 539; 
who defend themselves furiously, ib. ; progress of the war unfavour- 
able to them, ib. ; Gustavus Adolphus intervenes, 540; end of the 
thirty years' war, ib. ; the peace of Westphalia advantageous to the 
Protestants — the disappointment of the pope, 541. 

) lemian, or Moravian brethren, character of, 482. 

Bunimians, converted to Christianity in ix. cent. 180; a religious war 
in Bohemia, 539. 

Bois, abbe du, his ambition, a principal obstacle to the project of union 
between the English and French churches, 685; he oppresses the 
Jansenists, 705. 

Bolingbroke, the infidel lord, character of, 728. 

Bologna, the fame of its university in xii. cent. 267. 

Bolsec, Jerome, character of, 489. 

Bonaparte obtains the chief sway in France, 736 ; settles with the pope 
the affairs of the church, ib. ; defies the authority of the pontiff, 737 ; 
deprives him of his temporal power, ib. ; concludes a new agreement 
with him, ib. ; is ruined and deposed, ib. 

Bonaventura, an eminent scholastic divine, 312, 320. 

Boniface III., pope, engages the emperor Phocas to deprive the bishop 
of Constantinople of the title of Universal Bishop, and to confer it 
upon the Roman pontiff, 151. 

■ V. enacts the law for taking refuge in churches in vii. cent. 155. 

, Winfred, converts the Germans, 161 ; his other pious ex- 
ploits, ib. 



, attempts the conversion of the Prussians in xi. cent. 221 ; his 
fate, 222. 

VIII. domineers over the church and state, 307 ; institutes the 

jubilee, 307, 326; excommunicates Philip the Fair, 340; is seized by 
order of that prince, and dies, ib. 

Borri, Joseph Francis, his romantic notions, 572 ; his fate, ib. 

Bosius, George, his doctrine, 595. 

Bossuet, bishop of Meaux, his character, and famous work for recon- 
ciling the French Protestants, 544; followed by others on their own 
private authority, ib. ; his artful eloquence, 546 ; his defence of the 
Regale, 551 ; dispute with Fenelon, and the occasion, 571. 

Boulainvilliers, count, character of, 529. 

Bourignon, Antoinette, her main and predominant principle, 642. 

Boyle, Robert, his lectures, 525. 

Brachmans or Bramins, veneration paid to them in India, 515 ; their title 
assumed by the Jesuit missionaries, ib. 

Bradwardine, archbishop of Canterbury, an eminent mathematician, 
338; his book on Providence, 353. 

Breckling. Frederic, his uncharitable writings, and character, 599. 

Bredenberg, John, defends the doctrine of Spinosa, 641; debate between 
him and Cuiper concerning the use of reason in religious matters, ib. 

Brethren and sisters of the Free Spirit, a sect in xiii. cent. 330; various 
names and singular behaviour, lb. ; dangerous and impious conclu- 
sions drawn by them from their mystic theology, ib. ; their shocking 
violation of decency, 331 ; execrable and blasphemous doctrine of 
some among them, ib. ; their first rise seems to have been in Italy, 



332; edicts against them in xiv. cent. 355; they undergo severe 
punishments from the court of Inquisition, 377 ; as also from 
Ziska, 378. 

Brethren and Clerks of the Common Life, account of, 371 : division 
into the lettered and illiterate, and their several employments, ib. ; the 
fame of' the schools erected by them, ib. 

white, rise of, 378 ; suppression of the sect, ib. 

British ecclesiastics, successful in their ministry among the Germans in 
viii. cent. 161. 

Brito, character of, 299. 

Brothers, Richard, an enthusiast, 734. 

Brown, George, archbishop of Dublin, zealous in the cause of the Re- 
formation in Ireland, 415; his character, ib. ; he is deprived under 
queen Mary, 416; his singular account of the genius and spirit of 
the Jesuits, 427. 

Brown, Robert, founder of the Brownists in xvi. cent. 480; his notions, 
ib. ; he renounces his separation from the church of England, 481. 

Bruno, foundcrof the Carthusians, 246. 

, a commentator, 249. 

Bruys, Peter, attempts to reform the abuses and superstition of his times, 
and is charged with fanaticism, 289 ; is committed to the flames, ib. 

Bryennius, Nicephorus, an eminent historian, in xii. cent. 267. 

, Josephus, his works, 372. 

Bucer, Martin, endeavours to bring about a reconciliation between the 
Reformed and the Lutherans, 471 ; how defeated, 472. 

Bugenhagius, draws up a form of religious government and doctrine 
for the Danes, 404. 

Bulgarians, converted to Christianity in ix. cent. 180. 

Bullinger, a distinguished reformer, 486. 

Burchard, bishop of Worms, 216. 

Burgundians, spontaneously embrace Christianity, 109. 

Burley, Walter, the use of his works, 339. 

Bus, Caesar de, founder of the order of fathers of the Christian doc- 
trine, iv. 430. 

Buscher, Statius, opposes the pacific projects of Calixtus, 589; an ac- 
count of his Crypto-Papismus, ib. 

Cabbala, the source of many errors among the Jews, 8. 

Caacilianus, bishop of Carthage, condemned, 99. 

Casfarius, of Aries, his works, 138, 140. 

Caietan, cardinal, an opponent of Luther, 392. 

Calcutta, college of, 743. 

Calistus, Nicephorus, an eminent writer, 338. 

Calixtines, m Bohemia, their rise in xv. cent. 374 ; four demands, ib 

Calixtus, George, his zeal for reconciling the Protestants and Catholics 
in xvii. cent. 545 ; as also the Lutherans and Reformed, 582 ; his 
peculiar method and form of theology, 587; author of Syncretism, 
and character, 588 ; his death, 589 ; doctrine condemned, and creed 
drawn up against it by the Lutheran doctors, ib. ; opinions, 590 ; 
his real design, ib. 

Calixtus II. pope, his great character, 272 ; disputes concerning inves- 
titures subside by his prudence, ib. 

III. institutes the festival of the Transfiguration, 377. 

Calovius, a Lutheran writer in xvii. cent. 589. 

Calvin, John, a short character of him, 405 ; he commences the contro- 
versy about predestination, 473; establishes the reformed church, ib. ; 
his grand views how in part executed, 474 ; his changes are not ap- 
proved or received by all the Reformed, 475; his doctrine gains 
ground in Germany, 476 ; in France, ib. ; and in Britain, 477 ; his 
system made the public rule of faith in England under Edward VI., 
ib. ; adopted in the Netherlands, 481 ; his rigid discipline, and resolu- 
tion in establishing it, 485 ; his scriptural commentary, ivh)' sharply 
censured, 486 ; his institutes of the Christian religion, 487 ; his con- 
test with the spiritual libertines, 488; with those of Geneva, ib. ; he 
puts Servetus to death, 503 ; his method of interpreting Scripture 
scrupulously followed by the members of the Reformed church, 602. 

Calvinists, secret, or Crypto-Calvinists, in Saxony, 466. 

Camaldolites, a monastic order in xi. cent. 245. 

Cambalu, (now Pekin in China,) erected into an archbishopric in xiv. 
cent. 335. 

Camerarius, Joachim, a learned commentator, 457. 

Cameron, John, his reconciling doctrine, 606. 

Campanella, a philosopher in xvi. cent. 420. 

Campanus, his heretical notions, 502. 

Canara, state of the Christians in, 743. 

Canon of Scripture, supposed to be fixed about ii. cent. 23. 

Canons, a religious order, 171 ; encouraged by Louis the Debonaire, 
who institutes the first canonesses, 189; degeneracy of the order, ib: 
reformation attempted, and new laws made, 247; distinction into re- 
gular and secular, ib ; introduction into England, ib. 

, regular, their useful lives and manners in xii. cent. 277; con- 
test with the monks, ib. 

-, Roman, their luxurious lives, 428. 



Cantacuzcnus, John, the historian of his own times, 351. 
Cantipratensis, Thomas, his character, 320. 
Capistran, John, eminent for his defence of papal authority, 372. 
Capito, Robert, an account of, 299, 320. 



792 



INDEX. 



Capel, Louis, voluminous and elaborate work of, 607. 

Capreolus, John, his character, 373. 

Capuchins, rise of, 429; banished from Venice in xvii. cent. 549; but 
recalled, ib. 

Cap'utiati, a sect of fanatics in xii. cent. 292. 

Cardan, a philosopher in xvi. cent. 420. 

Cardinals, the right of electing to the see of Rome, vested in them in 
xi. cent. 232; their origin and rights, 233; divided into two classes, 
ib. ; their college augmented by Alexander III. 234. 

Carey, a distinguished missionary, 752. 

Cario, an eminent historian among the Lutherans, 454. 

Carlostadt, the reformer, intemperate zeal of, 459 ; he propagates his 
doctrine in Switzerland, 460. 

Carmelites, a monastic order, their rise in xii. cent. 278; their rule of 
discipline, ib. ; reformation introduced among them in xvi. cent. 430; 
divisions among them, ib. 

Carpathius, John, his moral writings, 175. 

Carpocrates, an Egyptian Gnostic, 53 ; his impious tenets, ib. 

Cartes, M. des, character of, 532 ; his philosophy, 533 ; strong opposi- 
tion to it, ib. ; his metaphysical system propagated with success, 535; 
improved by Malebranche and Leibnitz, with the character of each, 
ib. ; its progress, 602. 

Cartesian controversy in Holland, 619 ; philosophy, why considered as 
a system of impiety, ib. 

Carthusians, a monastic order, its rise in xi. cent. 246 ; founder, and 
severe laws, ib. ; why so few nuns of that order, ib. 

Cassian, his character, 116. 

Cassiodorus, his expositions of Scripture, 139. 

Castalio, Sebastian, opposes Calvin, and his character, 488. 

Castilians, the extraordinary method used by them to determine the 
superior excellence of the Roman or Gothic service in xi. cent. 256. 

Castilione, Gilbert de, refutes the Jews, 285. 

Casuists, ancient, not so good as the Lutherans, 458. 

Catechumens, an order of Christians, 21. 

Catharists, or Paulicians, a sect, 257 ; their unhappy state in xii. 
cent. 288. 

Cedrenus, an historian in xi. cent. 227. 

Celestine, I., pope, sends Palladius and Patrick to convert the Irish in 
v. cent. 109. 

V. obnoxious to the clergy, 307; his resignation, ib. 

Cellites, their rise at Antwerp in xiv. cent. 350 ; their fame and pro- 
gress, ib. 

Celsus, his objections against Christianity refuted by Origen, 37. 

Celts, learning among them in i. cent. 19. 

Cene, Charles le, denies original sin, 609; his singular translation of 
the Bible condemned, ib. 

Century, i. its ecclesiastical history, 1, 7; ii. cent. 33; iii. cent. 57; iv. 
cent. 77 ; v. cent. 108 ; vi. cent. 131 ; vii. cent. 146 ; viii. cent. 161 ; ix. 
cent. 180; x. cent. 205; xi. cent. 221; xii. cent. 227; xiii. cent. 293; 
xiv. cent. 335; xv. cent. 358; xvi. cent. 385, and Appendix II. 670; 
xvii. cent. 513 ; xviii. cent. 644. and Appendix III. 675 ; xix. cent. 736. 

Cerdo, founder of a sect in Asia, 51. 

Ceremonies, two only instituted by Christ, 26; why multiplied in ii. 
cent. 47; the esteem of modern Platonism a cause of their increase 
in iii. cent. 69; their burthen in iv. cent. 97; how multiplied in v. 
cent, with a general view of the new rites, 121 ; additions to them by 
almost every pope, 155; a general account of them in ix. cent. 200; 
many of them drawn from Pagan rites, 201 ; their increase in x. cent. 
219; their multiplication in xiii. cent. 325; many and useless cere- 
monies remain in xvi. cent. 440. 

Cerinthus, founder of an heretical sect, 32 ; blends the doctrines of Christ 
with the errors of the Jews and Gnostics, ib. 

Cerularius, Michael, patriarch of Constantinople, revives the contro- 
versy between the Greeks and Latins in xi. cent. 251 ; violent mea- 
sures used on both sides, ib. 

Chalcedon, fourth general council at, 126. 

Chaldajan Christians, 742. 

Chapters, controversy about the three, in vi. cent. 168. 

Charenton, synod of, in xvii. cent. 580. 

Charity, feasts of, called Agapas, 28 ; suppressed in v. cent. 121. 

Charlemagne, his expedition against the Saxons, 162 ; his design of 
propagating Christianity, ib. ; his method of converting the Saxons, 
ib.; his attempts against the Saracens not very successful, 163; he 
revives learning among the Latins, 165 ; if founder of the university 
of Paris, considered, ib. ; his grant to the see of Rome, 169 ; opportu- 
nity opened for the western empire, which he embraces, ib. ; his sup- 
posed works, 172; his attachment to the Romish ritual, 173. 

Charles, the Bald, a great patron of science, 183. 

— ; V. emperor, calls a diet atWorms, at which Luther is banished, 

397; latifies the sentence, ib. ; is an advocate for papal authority at 
the diet of Augsburg, 406 ; concludes a peace with the Lutherans, 408 ; 
listens to the counsels of Paul III., 411 ; his designs give occasion to 
the Protestants to take up arms, ib. ; he raises an army against 
them, ib. ; his base and perfidious behaviour to the landgrave of 
Hesse, ib.; his real views, 413; disconcerted by Maurice of 
Saxony 413. 



Charles I., of England, his character, 542; three principal objects of his 
administration, 611. 

II., patron of science, 530; his character, 542; state of the 



church under him, 617. 

Chemists, or Fire-Philosophers, 532. 

Chemnitz, Martin, his examination of the council of Trent commend- 
ed, 455. 

Chillingworth, a leader of the Latitudinarians, his great character, 616. 

China, Christianity planted there in vii. cent. 146 ; state of that religion 
among the Chinese in xiv. cent. 335 ; missions there in xvii. cent. 517 ; 
their astonishing success, ib. ; a change of affairs, 716. 

Choniates, Nicetas, a good historian, 297. 

Chorepiscopi, their origin and office, 22. 

Chosroes, king of Persia, a violent persecutor of the Christians, 133; 
a patron of the Aristotelian philosophy, 135. 

Christ, his birth, 9 ; accounts of him in the four Gospels, 10 ; his choice 
of apostles and disciples, ib. ; his death, 1 1 ; resurrection and ascen- 
sion, ib. ; his Gospel preached first to the Jews and Samaritans, ib; 
respected among the Gentiles, 12 ; he left the form of the church un- 
determined, 20; instituted only two sacraments, 26; comparison be- 
tween him and the philosophers, and its consequences, 60 ; a parallel 
arrogantly drawn between him and Apollonius Tyansus, 61 ; dis- 
putes about the nature of his body in vi. cent. 144 ; debates about the 
manner of his birth in ix. cent. 199 ; the festival of his body, or the 
Holy Sacrament, in xiii. cent. 325; controversy in xv. cent, concern- 
ing the worship due to his blood, 376; his divine nature denied by 
the Socinians, 502 ; omnipresence of his flesh, a subject of debate, 
595 ; his generation according to Roell's sentiments, 620 ; his hu- 
manity denied by the Quakers, 633. 

Christian religion, the whole comprehended in two great points, 24 ; 
ceremonies multiplied in ii. cent, and the reasons, 46 ; first reason, a 
desire to enlarge the borders of the church, 47; second reason, to re- 
fute calumnies and reproaches, ib. ; third reason, the abuse of Jewish 
rites, ib. ; fourth reason, the imitation of the heathen mysteries, ib. ; 
fifth reason, the symbolic manner of teaching among the eastern na- 
tions, 48 ; sixth reason, prejudices of converted Jews and Gentiles, 
ib. ; assemblies, where and when holden by the primitive Christians, 
ib. ; the state of the Christian doctrine in iii. cent. 65 ; vicious method 
of controversy practised by the defenders of the church, and spurious 
writings among them, 67; progress of this religion in the east, in vi. 
cent. 131 ; in the west, ib. 

Christianity, causes of its rapid progress supernatural, 13 ; its pro- 
gress in the Roman empire, 33 ; in Germany, ib. ; in Gaul, ib. ; it is 
gradually corrupted, 42; its success in iii. cent, must be imputed partly 
to divine, partly to human causes, 57 ; embraced by the Goths, 58, 
83 ; interpreted according to the principles of the Platonic philoso- 
phy, 65; Julian attempts its destruction, 81 ; the efforts of the philo- 
sophers against it, 82 ; it is established in Armenia, 83 ; its progress 
among the Abyssinians, ib. ; the causes of the many conversions in 
iv. cent. ib. ; corrupted by the introduction of various rites, 97 ; em- 
braced by the Burgundians, 109 ; by the Franks, ib. ; causes of the 
conversions in v. cent, examined, 110 ; attempts of the Pagans to de- 
stroy its credit, ib. ; its decline in Britain, through the cruelty of the 
Anglo-Saxons, 111 ; opposed by secret enemies, ib. ; its progress in 
the East, 131 ; the conversion of the Anglo-Saxons, ib. ; it is intro- 
duced into China, 146; propagated in Hyrcania and Tartary, 161; 
suffers through the success of the Turks and Saracens, 163; embraced 
by the Danes and Swedes, 180; by the Bulgarians, Bohemians, and 
Moravians, 180; by the Sclavonians, ib. ; by the Russians, 181 ; by 
the Poles and Hungarians, 205, 206; by the Danes and Norwegians, 
207; by the Pomeranians, 260; by the Finlanders, ib. ; by the Livo- 
nians. 261 ; its decline in Asia in xiv. cent. 336 ; it is propagated by 
Spanish and Portuguese missions, 418 ; preached in India, 515 ; 
its prosperous state in xviii. cent. 644; its enemies in Europe, and 
more especially in England, 645. 

Christians, in the first cent, persecuted by the Romans, 14; loaded with 
opprobrious calumnies, 15; their persecution under Nero, 16; why 
persecuted by Domitian, ib. ; divided into believers and catechumens, 
25 ; their care in the education of their youth, ib. ; secret doctrines, 
ib. ; lives and manners, 26 ; controversies among them, ib. ; churches 
established among them, and how the public worship was conducted, 
27; the Lord's Supper, feasts of charity and baptism, 28; the perse- 
cution under Trajan, 35 ; under Adrian, ib. ; under Antoninus Pius, 
36 ; under Marcus Antoninus, ib. ; the clemency of Commodus to- 
ward them, ib. ; their calamities under Severus, 37, 58 ; their learning 
in ii. cent. 140; excommunication found necessary among them, 46; 
their penitential discipline gradually modelled by the Heathen mys- 
teries, ib. ; their immunities increased under various emperors in iii. 
cent. 57; their numbers increased, ib. ; persecution under Maximin, 
59 ; under Decius and Valerian, 59, 60 ; their state under Gallienus 
and Claudius tolerable, 60; attempts of the Jews against them, 61 ; 
their affairs reduced to a dangerous crisis under Diocletian, 77 ; mise- 
ries very great under Galerius, 78 ; happy state under Constantine 
the Great, ib. ; revival of learning among them in iv. cent. 85 ; two 
most pernicious maxims adopted by- their teachers, 94 ; controversies 
frequent among them, 95 ; suffer from the success of barbarous inva- 



INDEX. 



^93 



ders in v. cent. 110; the cruelty of the Goths and Vandals to them 
in Gaul, 111 ; their calamities from the PicU and Scots in Britain, ib. ; 
misfortunes in Persia, ib. ; sufferings from the Vandals, 122 ; from 
the Anglo-Saxons, Huns, and Lombards, 133 ; from Chosroes in 
Persia, ib. ; they are oppressed by die Saracens in Spain and Sar- 
dinian, 163 ; their zuperstitious piety and morals in viii. cent. 173 ; 
persecuted in x. cent, by the barbarians in the west, 209 ; their affairs 
in Palestine in a declining state, 202 ; oppressed by the Saracens in 
xii. cent, and the cause, 265; an important division of their doctors, 
283; a sect of free-thinking Christians, 486. 

Christiern II. king of Denmark, promotes the Reformation, but from 
bad motives, 404 ; is deposed, ib. ; the different conduct of his suc- 
cessor Frederic, ib. ; 

III. reforms the Danish church from Romish superstition, 

404 ; he suppresses episcopacy, 405. 

Christina, queen of Sweden, her change of religion and character, 546; 
joins with Louis XIV. against Innocent XI. 551. 

Chrysoloras, Michael, his character, 338. 

Chrysostom, account of, 89 ; the rigorous proceedings of Theophilus 
against hi'n, 120 ; the injustice of his sufferings considered, 121. 

Church, the first Christian, 12, Dr. Mosheim's ideas of the primitive 
church corrected, 655 to 670 ; prosperous state of the modern 
church, 644. 

, Arminian, its rise, 622; doctrine of Arminius, 623; progress of 
this church after his death, ib.; pacific methods used by its members, 
but in vain, ib. ; their doctrine comprehended in five articles, 624 ; 
prince Maurice declares against them, 625; synod convoked at Dor- 
drecht, to examine their doctrine, ib. ; their tenets condemned by it, 
626 ; they are persecuted variously, ib. ; are invited into Holstein, 
and form themselves into a colon} - , ib. ; recalled from exile, 627 ; 
their ancient and modern systems, ib ; their confession of faith, 628; 
united only in their opinions concerning predestination and grace, ib.; 
their success in England, ib. ; their ecclesiastical government, 629. 

, Dutch, its state in xviii. cent. 653. 

— , Eastern, its history in xvi. cent. 441 ; divided into three commu- 

n cies, ib. 

— ■• — , of England at first inclined to the sentiments of Luther, 477; 
1 -it changed after the death of Henry VIII. to Calvinism, ib. ; re- 

eived a new form of ceremonials and discipline under queen Eliza- 
beth, 478 ; its controversy with the Puritans, ib. ; revolution in favour 
•f Arminianism, 605; its genius and spirit, ib. ; state under James I. 
and changes made in it, 609, 610; state under Charles I., 611 : under 
Cromwell, 615 ; Presbyterian government established, ib. ; what sects 
flourished at this time, ib. ; its state under Charles II. and his suc- 
cessors, 617; divisions, whence the terms of High-church, and Low- 
church, ib. ; its state in xviii. cent. 652; established form of government, 
ib. ; its division into two classes, ib. ; warm disputes between them, with 
the principal champions, ib. ; various sects in England, through the un- 
bounded liberty of the press, ib. ; scheme of union with the French 
church, ib. ; history of our church in xviii. cent. 723 ; in xix. 
cent 748. 

, Greek, its state in xvi. cent. 441 ; in xvii. cent. 574 ; its invin- 
cible aversion to the Latin church, ib ; its doctrine, if not corrupted 
by the Romish missionaries and doctors, ib. ; its history in xviii. 
cent. 714 ; in xix. cent. 741. 

, Helvetic, what points first excited a difference between its mem- 
bers and the Lutherans, 474; the former adopt Zuingle's doctrine of 
the eucharist, ib. ; oppose Bucer's endeavours to modify their doc- 
trine to some degree of conformity with that of Luther, ib. ; •warm 
contests concerning the formulary of concord. 653. 

, Lutheran, its rise, 396 ; progress retarded by internal divisions 
relative to the eucharist, 399 ; and by a civil war, ib. ; it w-as at length 
raised to the dignity of a lawful and complete hierarchy, 451 ; the sum 
of its doctrine, ib. ; its ceremonies and public worship, 452: its visible 
head and form of government, ib. ; liturgies, public worship, and 
method of instruction, ib. ; holidays and ecclesiastical discipline, 453; 
state of learning among its members, 454; various fate of philoso- 
phy among them, 455 ; sects, ib. ; science of theology corrected and 
improved, 456 ; respective merits of interpreters, 457 ; state of mo- 
rality, 458 ; polemic or controversial theology introduced, ib. ; aspe- 
rity in its disputants, how alleviated, ib. ; three periods to be distin- 
guished in the history of this church, 459 ; disputes in the first period, 
ib. ; in the second, 461 ; form of doctrine projected, 465 ; this church 
loses ground in some places, 579; attempts made toward a union with 
the reformed church, 580; declaration cf the synod of Charanton,ib. ; 
prosperous events, 583 ; progress in learning, ib. ; state of philosophy, 
ib. ; most eminent writers in xvii. cent. 586 ; external and internal 
state of the church in question in xviii. cent. 648 ; it receives a con- 
siderable accession, but is oppressed at home, ib. ; various contests 
and divisions, 649; its state in Prussia, 718; in the north of Europe, 
718, 744 ; in Germany, 256, 745. 

, reformed, its history, 469 ; constitution, 470 ; its progress in 

Switzerland, 471 ; controversy between the Lutherans and reformed, 
with regard to the eucharist, 472 : dispute about predestination, 473 ; 
the chief founder of this church, 474 ; its progress in Germany and 
France, 476; iis state in the Netherlands, 481 ; in Poland, 482; dif 

No. LXVU 199 



ference between its doctrines and those of Luther, 484 ; its form of 
government, 485 ; state of discipline, 486 : learning, ib. ; interpreters 
of Scripture, ib. ; theological doctrines, 487 ; state of morality, ib. : 
persons of eminent genius in this church, 490; its history in xvii. 
cent. 600; limits extended, ib. ; decline in France, ib. ; in the Palati- 
nate, 602; controversies, 604; its state in xviii. cent. 650, 717; its 
great extent, and who may account themselves members of it, 651 
projects of re-union between the reformed and the Lutherans, 651, 718; 
Church actual union in some instances, 745. 

Church, reformed, in France, disposed to favour Arminianism, 606 
blamed for making concessions of moment to popery, and this point 
examined, ib. ; controversy raised by the hypothetical universalists, 
ib. ; Cameron's attempt, and Amyrault's form of reconciliation, ib. 

Romish, great schism of, in xiv. cent. 343 ; plan for reforming 

it, in xvi. cent 410 ; zealous in appointing an infinite number of mis- 
sionaries, 424 ; character of its commentators, 434 ; state of practical 
religion among its members, 435 ; moral writers divided into three 
classes, ib.; character of its polemic divines, ib. ; its internal state ex- 
amined, ib. ; its principal subjects of dispute, reduced to six, and ex- 
plained, 436 ; vain attempts to unite the Russian church to this, 448 ; 
little success attends the labours of the missionaries among the Eas- 
tern sects, 449 ; how far it was considered a true church by the com- 
missioners of queen Elizabeth, 452 ; its history and popes in xvii. 
cent. 537 ; its attempts to ruin the protestants, unsuccessful, 538 ; wri- 
ters on both sides, 539 ; it loses ground in the East, with two striking 
instances of it, 547; general decline of the papal authority, 548; 
French maxim concerning it, embraced by most princes and states of 
Europe, ib. ; its doctrine very corrupt in xvii. cent. 559 ; all prospect 
of reconciling the protestants with die members of the Romish com- 
munion quite removed in xviii. cent. 646; intestine divisions in this 
church, ib. ; controversy between the Jesuits and Jansenists, ib. ; de- 
bates occasioned by the New Testament of Quesnel, with the bull of 
Clement XI. in condemnation of it, 647 ; commotions raised by this 
bull in France, 647 ; pretended miracles by die remains of the abbe 
Paris refuted, and visions of the Jansenists considered, and success 
of their cause, 648 ; ruin of the church in France, 714 ; its restora- 
tion, 714, 738. 

rulers, how called in i. cent. 21 ; their character and 



office, ib. 

, Russian, its history in xvii. cent. 575; change introduced into it 

by Peter I., ib. ; its state in xviii. cent. 648, 716 ; in xix. cent. 742. 

Churches, Eastern, separated from the Greeks and Latins, 444 : com- 
prehended under two classes, ib. ; their state in xviii. cent. 648. 

, if the first Christians had any, considered, 27 ; splendid 

erections in iv. cent. 97. 

, more ancient, history of, 19. 

-, modern, an account of, 451. 



Cimbrians, converted to Christianity in ix. cent. 179. 

Circumcelliones, in Africa, their rise and ravages, 100; severe proceed- 
ings against diem, 101. 

Cistertian monks, dieir rise in xi. cent. 245 ; their discipline, ib. ; their 
opulence and credit in xii. cent, due to St. Bernard, 276. 

Clarendon, constitutions of, 274. 

Clarke, Dr. Samuel, charged with altering the orthodox doctrine of the 
Trinity, 653 ; his method of inquiring into diat subject, and his doc- 
trine of it, 654. 

Claude, John, opinions of, 574. 

Claudius, bishop of Turin, his exposition and chronology, 190; his 
laudable zeal against images and their worship, 195. 

Clemangis, Nicolas de, his great character, 372. 

Clemens, bishop of Rome, the most eminent writer in i. cent. 23. 

Alexandrinus, his great character, 42. 

Clement III., pope, remarkably zealous for crusades, 276. 

IV. favours the French, 306. 

V. a mere creature of die French court, 341. 

VI. his character and ambition, 343. 

VII. his character, 398. 

VIII. an account of. 537. 

IX. character of, 587, 588 ; peace of, 566. 

XI. decides the controversy relating to die Chinese rites against 

the Jesuits, 644; issues die bull Unigenitus, 647 704; his charac- 
ter, 705. 

XII. character of, 646, 707. 

XIII. conduct and misfortunes of, 708, 710. 

XIV. dissolves the order of Jesuits, 710; his character, ib. 



Clergy, a perfect equality among them in i. cent. 22; their vices in iii. 
cent. 63 ; in iv. cent. 88 ; their excessive pride in v. cent. 115: source 
of their vices, ib. ; their vices not to be restrained by the legislature 
in viii. cent. 166; veneration for them greater in the West than in 
the East, ib. : increase of their revenues, ib. ; dieir temporal digni- 
ties, 167 ; their vices in ix. cent. 185 ; zealous in die cause of supersti- 
tion, 190; their vices in x. cent, principally imputable to the examples 
of the pontiffs of Rome, 212; decay of piety and discipline among 
them in xi. cent. 230; their infamous lives in xiii. cent 301 ; com- 
plaints against them in xiv. cent. 340; the greatdeclinc ol~ the Christian 
church in xv. cent, through dieir neglect and vices, 362 , the ooj.ru 



794 



INDEX. 



of universal contempt in xvi. cent. 387; the doctrines they chiefly 
inculcated, 389. 

Clergy of Rome, their state in xvi. cent. 428 ; obtain considerable ad- 
vantages at the expense of the pontiffs, ib. ; manners of the superior 
clergy, and cause of their great corruption, ib. ; their state in xvii. 
cent. v. 553. 

Clerks, apostolic, account of that order, and its abolition, 350. 

■ , regular, their rise in xvi. cent. 430. 

Clovis, king of the Franks, converted to Christianity, 109 ; the influence 
of his conversion on the minds of the Franks, ib. ; the miracles to be 
performed at his baptism, a fiction, ib. 

Clugni, monks of, incorporated by Odo, 215 ; their discipline soon 
adopted in all the European convents, ib. ; their great prosperity, 244. 

Cocceius, John, his sentiments followed by the Dutch divines in xvii. 
cent. 587 ; his method of interpreting Scripture, 603 ; his chimerical 
system, 619. 

Coelestius, doctrine of, 129. 

Coenobites, an order of monks in iv. cent. 94. 

College de propaganda fide, founded at Rome in xvii. cent. 513; ano- 
ther by Urban VIII. ib. ; some of the same nature in France, ib; 
altercations of their missionaries with those of the Jesuits, 514. 

Colleges for study and education, 268. 

Collegiants, a Socinian sect, their rise in xvii. cent. 640 ; their customs 
and tenets, 641. 

Collins, the freethinker, 645. 

Columban, an account of, 137, 138, 146. 

Commentaries, chains of, in ix. cent. 193. 

Commentators, pervert the natural expressions of Scripture, 91 ; their 
divisions into two classes, 139 ; their character in different centuries, 
218,249, 282, 352, 375. 

Commission-court, high account of, 479 ; its exorbitant power, ib. 

Commodus, the emperor, state of the Christians under him, 37. 

Comnenus, the emperor, maintains a controversy with the Mani- 
chseans, 257. 

-i , Emanuel, his character and works, 285. 

Conception, immaculate, of the Virgin Mary, a subject of dispute in 
xii. cent. 286 ; controversy about it in xvii. cent, between the Fran- 
ciscans and Dominicans, 569. 

Concord, form of, 451,467; produces much disturbance, 467; suppress- 
ed in Brandenburg, 580 ; disputes in Switzerland concerning it, 622 ; 
abrogated at Basil and Geneva, ib. 

Concordat, forcibly imposed on his subjects by Francis I. of France, 
38*i ; a new one, settled by Napoleon, 736; another 737. 

Conferences, religious, at Ratisbon, Leipsic, Thorn, and Cassel, 543, 
581, 582. 

Confessional, some groundless remarks in it answered, 675. 

Confessors, who are entitled to this name, 15. 

Confucius, assertion concerning him, 520; religious worship paid to 
him by the Chinese, ib. 

Con gal, abbot, propagates the monastic discipline in Great Britain, 137. 

Congregations, various, at Rome, 422, 440. 

, of the Holy Sacrament in France, 514. 

Conrad, of Marpurg, the first German inquisitor, 328 ; his barbarity 
and fate, ib. 

Constance, the famous council of, 363 ; limits the authority of the 
pope, ib. ; condemns John Huss to death, 364 ; issues a decree against 
the writings and ashes of Wickliffe, 366 ; deprives the laity of the 
cup in the holy sacrament, ib. 

Constantine the Great, grants the Christians power to live according to 
their own laws and institutions, 78 ; is converted to Christianity, 79; 
the sincerity of his faith proved, ib. ; he models the ecclesiastical 
government according to the civil, 86. 

', Copronymus, his zeal a.gainst image-worship, 177. 

, Porphyrogeneta, his zeal for reviving learning among the 

Greeks, 210. 

Constantinople, the first council at, 105 ; another, 141 ; others, 194, 195. 

■ , patriarch of, his jurisdiction in iv. cent. 88; contends 

with the pope for supremacy in v. cent. 1 13 ; his power augmented 
by Leo in viii. cent. 170; disputes about pre-eminence in ix. cent. 
199; by whom elected in modern times, 442 ; his extensive power 
and revenues, ib. 

Controversial writers, employed in explaining the terms of salvation 
and acceptance in i. cent. 26 ; their merit and demerit in ii. cent. 44 ; 
the rules of the ancient sophists esteemed by them as the best method 
of confuting error, 119 ; their works destitute of moderation and pru- 
dence, in vi. cent. 140 ; how far they may be considered as worthy 
of an attentive perusal in vii. cent. 154 ; few engaged in essential 
points of religion in viii. cent, but confined to the disputes about 
image-worship, 175 ; prevented in ix. cent, by intestine divisions, 
from opposing the common enemies of their faith, 194; scholastic 
method of disputing introduced among them in xi. cent. 250; and 
flourishes in xii. cent. 285; they are more numerous than respectable, 
in xiii. cent. 324 ; few worthy of notice in xiv. cent. 353 ; many emi- 
nent among them in xv. cent. 376 ; and in xvi. cent. 435. 

Controversies, private, in xvi. cent. 597. 

Controversy concerning the Millennium, 68 ; the baptism of heretics, 



ib.; Meletian, 95; ^Erian, ib • Arian, 102; between Jerome and 
Vigilantius, 120 ; concerning the three chapters, 141 ; about the deri- 
vation of the Holy Ghost, 177 ; concerning images among the Greeks, 
194; and among the Latins, 195; upon the eucharist, 196; predes- 
tination and grace, 197; the words Trina Deltas, 198; the birth of 
Christ, 199 ; universal ideas, 211 ; the immaculate conception of the 
Virgin Mary, 286 ; the worship of Christ's blood, 376 ; the presence 
of Christ's body and blood in the sacrament, 399 ; good works, 462 
the proper mode of conducting missions, 518; the mixture of divine 
grace, 562; the use of reason in religion, 620; the kingdom of Christ, 
724 ; the right of free inquiry, 722. 

Conversions, in iv. and v. cent, the causes of, considered, 83, 110 ; in ix. 
cent, the nature of, and views, 181 ; Jesuitical modes of conver- 
sion, 515. 

Convocation, in England, an inefficient assembly from the time of 
George I., 725. 

Copiata?, their office in the church, 64. 

Copts, their aversion to the church of Rome, 424 ; state of their church 
in xviii. cent. 717. 

Cosmas, bishop of Jerusalem, a composer of hymns, 172. 

Council, general, one very much desired in xvi. cent. 408; why retard- 
ed by pope Clement VII., ib. ; his successor proposes to assemble 
one at Mantua, which is protested against by the reformers, who draw 
up the articles of Smalcald, 409. 

Councils, if any in i. cent. 22 ; their origin among the Greeks, 41. 

, oecumenical, when first established, 86 ; declared to be supe- 
rior in authority to the pope, 363. 

Courayer, Dr. a defender of the church of England, 652. 

Cranmer, an eminent prelate, 490. 

Crellius protects the Crypto-Calvinists, 468 ; suffers death, 469. 

Crescens, his virulent efforts against Christianity, 37. 

Cromwell, state of the church under him, 615. 

Cross, the miraculous, perhaps a dream, 79, 80. 

Crusades, See Wars, Holy. 

Cyprian, bishops of Carthage, opposes the re-admission of the lapsed, 
59 ; suffers martyrdom under Valerian, 60 ; a character of his 
works, 65. 

Cyran, abbot of St., a well-meaning fanatic, 567. 

Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, his character, 116 ; he anathematises Nes- 
torius twelve times, 124; presides at the council of Ephesus, ib. ; 
condemns Nestorius, ib. ; anathematised at Ephesus by John of An- 
tioch, 125. 

, patriarch of Constantinople, his character, 274. 

Damanscenus, John, his concise yet comprehensive view of Aristotle's 
doctrine, 165; his character, 172; systematic works, 175; polemic 
"writings, ib. 

Damianists, a sect in vi. cent. 145. 

Damianus, character of, 248, 250. 

Dancers, a sect in xiv. cent. 357. 

Daniel, Gabriel, defends the Jesuits, 437. 

Davides, Francis, propagates Socinianism, 509. 

Davidists, a ridiculous sect in xvi. cent. 501. 

Deaconesses, in the primitive church, 22. 

Deacons, of the church at Jerusalem, 21. 

Decius, the dreadful persecution under him, and consequences, 59. 

Decretals, forged, procured by the pontiffs to establish their supremacy, 
188; genuine ones, 301. 

Deist's, promote their principles with impunity under Cromwell, 615 ; 
account of them in xviii. cent.; their notions, and principal writers, 64o. 

Delft, assembly of the Dutch clergy at, 619. 

Demiurge, of the Eastern philosophers, 18. 

Denmark, the people of, converted to Christianity in ix. cent. 180 ; and 
confirmed in it in x. cent. 207 ; the rise and progress of the Reforma- 
tion in xvi. cent. 404; modern state of the Danish church, 719, 744. 

D'Espence, an eminent expositor, in xv. cent. 434. 

Devay, Matthias, introduces the doctrine of the Swiss churches into 
Hungary and Transylvania, 482. 

Deurhoff, William, notions and works of, 653. 

Diadochus, a moral writer in v. cent, his works, 119 

Dialecticians, or sophists, 228, 270, 376. 

Didymus attacks the whole body of heretics, 92. 

Dinant, David of, a great admirer and disciple of Amalric: his funda- 
mental principle, 332. 

Diocesses, origin of, 22. 

Diocletian, persecution under, 77. 

Dionysius, bishop of Alexandria, the Great, 65. 

, the Areopagite, a Greek fanatic, 93. 

, pretended Areopagite, works of, 140 ; panegyrics on him, 194. 

, the Little, works of, 138, 140. 

■, chief of the Mystics, an account of, 376. 



Dioscorus, account of, 126. 
Dippelius, fanaticism of, 594; character of him and his writings, 595. 
Disciples, LXX., authority and office of, 20. 

Discord between Greeks and Latins ; seeds sown in vii. cent. 154. 
Dissenters, are tolerated in England, 617; their state in xviii. cent. 724 
in xix. cent. 749. 



INDEX. 



795 



Dissidents, Polish, toleration of, 722. 

Divines, Belgic, oppose the form of concord, 467; adopt the sentiments 
of Voet, 618. 

. biblical, their state in xiv. cent. 352. 

, didactic, in xiv. cent, both Greek and Latin, adopt the rules of 
the Aristotelian philosophy in their writings, 352. 
— — . Mystic, m xiv. cent, account of, 353. 

, Polemic. See Controversial Writers. 

, Saxon, draw up a new creed, 589. 
Divinity, systematic, not to be met with in ii. cent. 43. 
Doctors, Christian, divided into two classes in xii. cent. 283. 
■ , Lutheran, corrupted by the stratagems of the Jesuits, 457; ne- 
ver attempted to give a regular system of morality, 458. 

Swiss, strive to reduce all churches under one form of ecclesias- 



tical government, 470 ; endeavour to reconcile the puritans and 
church of England, 489. 

Doctrine, secret, among the ancient Christians, 25. 

, Fathers of the Christian, 430. 

Dodwell, Henry, zeal and works of, 617. 

Dominic, his zeal in extirpating error, and destroying heretics, 309 ; he 
founds a monastic order, ib. 

Dominicans, an order of monks founded in xiii. cent. 309 ; the vow of 
absolute poverty is imposed on them by their founder, ib. ; some are 
sent into England, and called Black Friars, 310 ; styled jacobins in 
France, ib. ; esteemed by the popes, with the eminent services done to 
the latter, ib. ; dispute between them and the university of Paris, 
311 ; they erect their first court of inquisition at Toulouse. 328 ; de- 
prived of their ancient honours, and how long, 354 ; the cruel and 
impious fraud practised by them at Bern, 388 ; they are greatly in- 
strumental in obtaining the condemnation of Luther, 289. 

Domitian, a persecutor of the Christians, 16. 

Donatists, rise of the controversy with, 991 ; they are repeatedly con- 
demned by councils, 100 ; their state under Julian and Gratian, 101 ; 
the two causes of their decline, ib. ; ruin, 122, 143. 

Dorotheus, a moral writer, 154. 

Dort, or Dordrecht, synod of, in which the doctrine of Arminius is 
condemned, 609, 625. 

Dositheus, a Samaritan impostor, 30. 

Doxopatrius. eminent for his knowledge in ecclesiastical polity, 247. 

Dudith, his character, 506. 

Dulcinus, leader of the sect of the apostles, 333. 

Dungal, an Irishman, his great character, 185. 

Dunstan, abbot of Glastonbury, 367. 

Dureus, John, great character of, 581 ; some of his tenets, 582. 

Durand, William, account of, 320. 

, of St. Portian, a polemic divine, 322. 

Dursians, Druses, or Duruzians, a sect inhabiting Mount Libanus, 
447, 715. 

Dutch, their schemes for propagating Christianity in the East Indies, 
522 ; zeal for spreading die Gospel in the American provinces, how 
obstructed, 525 ; sects among them in xvii. cent. 621. 

Duytz, Rupert of, an eminent expositor of the Scriptures, 279. 

Easter, disputes in ii. cent, about the time of keeping it, 48 ; the cele- 
bration made the same through all Christian churches, -49. 

Ebionites, a sect of heretics in ii. cent. 50. 

Eccard, Henry, a famous brother of the Free Spirit, 356. 

Eckius, one of the first adversaries of Luther. 394. 

Eclectic philosophers, their order established at Alexandria, 5 ; how dif- 
ferent from those philosophers of this name in the time of Ammo- 
nius, 39. 

, philosophers so called in xvii. cent. 536 ; the most famous 

among them, ib. 

Ecthesis, a remarkable edict, 157. 

Eginhard, character of, 184 ; author of the life of Charlemagne, 190. 

Elfric, aichbishop of Canturbury, character of, 216. 

Eligius, or Eloi, bishop of Limoges, his works, 152; his character of a 
good Christian, 153. 

Elipand, archbishop of Toledo, his heretical tenets, 174. 

Elizabeth, of Schonauge, the prophetess in xii. cent. 281. 

, queen of England, her character, and religious establishment, 

414 ; her rigorous treatment of the puritans, 478 ; her opinions con- 
cerning church government, 480, 485. 

, princes Palatine, shows favour to the Labadists, 642; her taste 

for fanaticism, ib. 
Elliot, John, his success in converting the North Americans, 524. 

Elxai, and his followers, an account of, 50. 

Emperors, Christian, their severity against Paganism in iv. cent.; why 
levelled against the multitude, 82. 

Empire, Roman, its state at Christ's birth, 1 ; the nature of its govern- 
ment considered, ib. ; its extent advantageous to Christianity, ib.; en- 
joys peace at the time of Christ's appearance ; the necessity for such 
a tranquillity to the success of the Gospel, ib. 

, eastern, its decline in viii. cent, through intestine divisions and 

invasive hostilities, 163.' 
England, its advantages for literature in vii. cent, due to Theodore of 
Tarsus, 150 ; learning promoted in ix. cent, by Alfred, 184 ; the study 



of the sciences encouraged by William the Conqueror, 227 ; it re- 
nounces the opinions of Calvin, relative to the divine decrees, 470; 
court of Rome fails in its attempts against it, 542 ; enemies of Chris- 
tianity here in xviii. cent, with some mistakes rectified, 645, 646, 725. 

English send missiona.ies into America, in xvi. cent. 419; firmly re- 
ject the plan of Geneva, 485; disensions, and two parties thereupon, 
ib. ; this schism prevented from extending to the reformed abroad, ib. ; 
new missions in America, 522. 

Ennodius, bishop of Ticinum, his adulatory apology for pope Symma- 
chus, and its consequences, 136. 

Eon, a fanatic in xii. cent. 292. 

Ephesus, third general council of, condemns INestorius, 124 ; the doc- 
trine concerning Christ established at this council commonly received 
among Christians, 125. 

-, council of, why called the assembly of robbers, 126. 



Ephraim, the Syrian, his character, 89. 

Epictetus,an ornament to the Stoics, 38. 

Epicureans, their principal doctrines, 4. 

Epiphanius, his character and works, 89. 

Episcopacy acquires strength from the councils, 41 ; triumphs in England 
under James I., 609. 

Episcopius, Simon, a leading man among the Arminians, 625. 

Erasmus attacks the superstitions of the clergy and court of Rome 
in his writings, 385; ably interprets the Scriptures, 434. 

Ernest, Justinian, his plan for propagating the Gospel abroad, how pre- 
vented, 522. 

of Hesse, changes his religion, 546. 

of Saxe-Gotha, a pious prince, 577. 

Essenes, a Jewish sect, 7. 

Ethelbert, the first Christian king among the Anglo-Saxons, 131. 

Evagrius, an account of his ecclesiastical history, 137. 

Evangelists, to whom this title is due, 20, 661. 

Eucharists, controversy in ix. cent, concerning Christ's presence, 196; no 
fixed opinion concerning this doctrine in the Latin churches, 197 ; how 
explained in x. cent. 217 ; doctrine of transubstantiation established 
in xiii. cent. 325; rites instituted in relation to it, ib. ; the opus opera- 
turn in it, 438 ; frequent celebration of it, a subject of debate in the 
Romish church, ib. 

Eucharius, a moral writer, 116, 119. 

Eugenius III., pope, his good character, and the troubles he under- 
went, 273. 

Eugenius IV. calls the council of Basil, 367 ; attempts in vain to dis- 
solve it, 368 ; is deposed, ib. 

Eugippus, a writer of the lives of the saints, 140. 

Eulogius, a polemic writer, 137. 

Eusebius, bishop of Csesarea, his character, 88. 

Eustathian troubles, 95. 

Eustathius, bishop of Thessalonica, his commentaries on Homer, 267. 

Eustratius, his works and character, iii. 279. 

Eutyches, his sentiments concerning Christ, and supposed tenets, 279 ; 
he is excommunicated and deposed, ib. ; is acquainted, ib. 

Eutychian sect, its rise, 126 ; its state in the vi. cent. 143. 

Eutychius, bishop of Alexandria, 216. 

Excommunication, necessary in the infancy of the Christian church, 
26 ; the nature and extent of it in viii. cent. 167; warm contest about 
it in xvi. cent. 495. 

Exorcists, duty of, 64. 

Fanatics, many infect the Greeks in xii. cent. 287; disputes between 
some and Luther, 459 ; diey excite tumults, ib. 

Farnovians, a sect of Socinians in xvi. cent. 506, 510. 

Farnovius, (Farnesius,) founder of a sect, 512; his tenets and eminent 
disciples, ib. : he separates from the Unitarians, ib. 

Fasting, when introduced into the Christian church, 28 ; considered as 
a security against the power of demons, 70; the manner of observ- 
ing this custom in iv. cent 98. 

Fathers, of the church, general character of, 24 ; the merit of their mo- 
ral writings examined, 44 ; remarkable veneration paid to them, and 
to all theological writers of the first six centuries, 174. 

Felix II., bishop of Rome, deprives Acacius of the see of Constan- 
tinople, 128. 

, bishop of Urgel, broaches heretical doctrine, 179. 

Felix V. (duke of Savoy) elected bishop of Rome hy the council of 
Basil, 368; resigns, 369. 

Fenelon, archbishop of Cambray, defends Madame Guyon against 
Bossuet, 571. 

Ferrara, council of, in xv. cent. 368. 

Festivals, the increase of, in iv. cent, with the cause, 98 ; their number 
in vi. cent. 142 ; one instituted in remembrance of all departed 
souls, 219. 

Ficinus, Marsilius, an ornament to the Platonists in xv. cent. 376. 

Fifth-monarchy men, their rise and character, 615. 

Finlanders, converted to Christianity in xii. cent. 260. 

Firmin propagates the Gospel in viii. cent. 162. 

Fisher, Samuel, assists Fox in reducing Quakerism to a kind of regular 
form, 630. 

Flacius, Matthias, excites divisions in the Lutheran church, 463. 



796 



INDEX. 



Flagellantes, nse and account of, 321 ; their impious tenets, ib. ; a new 
sect of them, 379 ; the sum of their doctrine, ib. 

Flavianus, bishop of Constantinople, beaten to death in the second 
council of Ephesus, 126. 

Florence, council at, summoned by Eugenius IV., 368. 

Fludd, Robert, defends the philosophy of Paracelsus, 456 ; refuted by 
Gassendi, 532. 

Forbes, William, his pacific counsels and character, 545. 

Fortunatus, his character, 138. 

Fox, George. See Quakers. 

France, the flourishing state of learning there in xi. cent. 227; spirit- 
ual libertines get footing there in xvi. cent. 488. 

Francfort, a council assembled by Charlemagne, 177 ; the worship of 
images unanimously condemned, ib. 

Francis, founder of the Franciscans — his extraordinary change of life 
and manners, 310. 

Francis I. king of France, abrogates the Pragmatic Sanction, and in- 
stitutes the Concordat, 386. 

Franciscans, an order of friars, their rise in xiii. cent. 309 ; their ser- 
vices to the popes, 310; the miseries which the rigid Franciscans un- 
dergo, 315 ; quarrel of the whole order with pope John XXII., 348 ; 
peace concluded, 349 ; a division of this fraternity, 350. 

Franks, conversion of, 109. 

Fratricelli, their origin in xiii. cent. 316; how they differed from the 
Spiritual Franciscans, ib. ; enormities among them in xiv. cent. 346; 
their suppression ordered by John XXII., 347; many of them are 
burned for opposing his orders, ib. ; persecuted again in xv. cent. 371. 

Frauds, pious, 46, 91. 

Frederic I. (Barbarossa,) emperor, determines to restrain the authority of 
the church, 273 ; enacts a law to prevent transferring fiefs without the 
consent of their superior lords, ib. ; supports the election of Calixtus 
III. in opposition to Alexander III., 274 ; concludes a treaty with the 
latter, ib. 

Frederic II. is excommunicated, 294 ; takes possession of Jerusalem, 
ib. ; charged with impiety, 297; zealous in promoting literature, 298. 

- , the Wise, elector of Saxony, espouses the cause of Luther, 

392, 397. 

•III. elector Palatine, patronises the Calvinists, 476; his son 



restores Lutheranism, ib. 

Frumentius, the success of his ministry among the Abyssinians in iv. 
cent. 83. 

Fulbert, bishop of Chartres, his character, 248. 

Fulgentius attacks the Pelagians and Arians with great warmth, 138. 

Gal St.. propagates the Gosoel among the Suevi and Helvetii, 146, 

Galenists, a sect of the Waterlandians, 638. 

Galerius, Maximian, persecutes the Christians, 78. 

Galileo the astronomer, his fame, 530. 

Gallic pontiffs, diminution of papal power under them, 341 ; their 
schemes to acquire wealth, ib. 

Gassendi, an eminent philosopher in xvii. cent. 532; attacks Aristotle 
and his followers, ib ; his wise method of philosophical investigation, 
533 ; why the chief adversary of Des-Cartes, ib. 

Gaul, conversion of the inhabitants of, 33, 83, 109. 

Geneva, church of, 485 ; a college founded in that city by Calvin, 486. 

Genghiz-Khan, great success of, 266. 

Gennadius, writes against the Latins in xv. cent, his good charac- 
ter, 372. 

Gentilli, council at, 177. 

George, David, founder of the Davidists in xvi. cent. 501 ; his charac- 
ter and tenets, ib. 

Georgians, converted to Christianity by a captive, 83 ; their religious 
state, 444. 

Gerard's impious doctrine, 162. 

, a leader of fanatics at Munster, 493. 

Germans, are partly christianized in ii. cent. 33; wholly converted in 
viii. cent. 161. 

Germans, a sect of Anabaptists, 496. 

Gerson, John, a zealous opposer of papal despotism, 372; labours to 
reform the schoolmen, 375. 

Ghost, Holy, controversy concerning its derivation, 196. 

Gilbert, bishop of London, extensive erudition of, 282. 

Glassius, his sacred philology, 587. 

Gnostics, a sect in the time of the apostles, 29 ; their impious opinions 
about Christ, and moral doctrines, 30; dissensions among them, ib. ; 
their principles revived in iv. cent. 105. 

Godeschale, begins a controversy concerning predestination and grace, 
197 ; his doctrine is twice condemned, ib. 

Godfrey, duke of Lorrain, engages in the first crusade in xi. cent. 223 ; 
his great character, ib. 

Gomar, Francis, opposes Arminius, 605, 623. 

Gospel, promulgation of, 11. 

Goths, their conversion to Christianity, 58, 83 ; their cruelty to the 
Christians in Gaul, 111. 

Grace, various controversies concerning, in v. cent. 130 ; Augustin's 
opinion concerning it, ib. ; disputes about it in ix. cent, and its un- 
happy consequences, 197; a subject of controversy in xvi. cent. 437; 



contests about it in xvii. cent, and hence the terms Sublapsarians and 
Supralapsarians, 604. 

Gras, Louisa le, founds the Virgins of Love, 556. 

Gratian composes an epitome of the canon law, 269, 280. 

Greece, the state of learning there in i. cent. 19; Romish missions, 574. 

Greek and Latin churches, schism between them unhappily revived in 
xi. cent. 251 ; many attempts for a reconciliation in xiii. cent, ineffec- 
tual, 324, 325 ; similar attempts in xviii. cent. 715. 

Greeks, empire ruined, 359 ; religious and political state of the Greeks, 
441 to 444. 

Gregory, Thaumaturgus, conduct and works of, 47, 65. 

the Enlightener, converts the Armenians, 83. 

Nazianzen, and of Nyssa, account of them and their 

works, 89. 

the Great, sends Augustine with many Benedictines into 

Britain, 131 ; the success of his labours in the west, 132 ; his litera- 
ry character, 138 ; moral and religious character, 139 ; expositions, 
ib. ; canon of the mass, 142. 

of Tours, his character as a writer, 138. 

II., pope, deposes Leo the Isaurian, 176; his zeal for ima- 



ges, ib. 

III. also zealous for image worship, 176. 

VII. (Hildebrand,) his election unanimously approved, 235 ; 

his extraordinary character, ib. ; he aims at universal empire in the 
church and state, ib. ; enacts decrees against simony and concubi- 
nage among the clergy, 237, 238 ; is sainted, 243 ; his moderate and 
and candid behaviour to Berenger, 253 ; his real sentiments of the 
eucharist, 254. 

IX. excommunicates the emperor Frederic II. 304. 

X. acts arbitrarily, 306. 

XI. his character, 343. 

XII. (Angelo Corrario,) anti-pope, 362 ; resigns, 363. 

■ XV. founds the college de propaganda fide at Rome, 513 • 

his character, 537. 

Gribaldi, Matthew, his doctrine, 504. 

Grisons, doctrine of Claudius propagated among them, 502. 

Groningenists, a sect of the refined Anabaptists, 637. 

Grotius, Hugo, endeavours to reconcile the church of Rome and the 
Protestants, 545 ; a philosophical reformer, particularly of the Peri- 
patetics, 584; his hypothesis concerning the prophets, 603 ; a favourer 
of the Arminians, 623 ; rupture between him and prince Maurice, 624, 

Gruet opposes Calvin, 488; his impious tenets, and fate, ib. 

Guelphs and Guibellines, seditious factions in Italy in xiii. cent. 305. 

Gunpowder Plot, an account of, 542. 

Gustavus Vasa, king of Sweden, zealous in promoting the Reforma 
tion, 403. 

Adolphus, maintains the cause of Germanic liberty against 

the emperor Ferdinand, 540 ; falls at the battle of Lutzen, ib. 

Guthebald, an English priest, successful in his mission among the Nor- 
wegians, 207. 

Guy, Juvenal, attempts a reformation among the monks in xv. cent. 370. 

Guyon, Madame, a patron of Quietism in France, 571 ; her writings 
refuted by Bossuet, ib. 

Haan, Galen Abraham, founder of the Galenists, and character, 638 ; 
his opinions, and by whom opposed, ib. 

Hales, Alexander, the Irrefragable Doctor, 300. 

, a chief leader of the Latitudinarians, in xvii. cent, his great cha- 
racter, 616. 

Halitgarius, his system of morality, 193. 

Hampton-court, famous conference at, 609. 

Harald propagates and establishes Christianity among the Danes in ix. 
cent. 207. 

Harriouin, character of, 558. 

Harmenopulus, a polemic writer, 279, 285. 

Harphius, Henry, a mystic writer, 394, 376. 

Hattemists, a Dutch sect, 621 ; a chief maxim among them, 622. 

Haymo, bishop of Halberstadt, 190. 

Heidegger, Henry, form of concord drawn up by him, and its fate, 622 

Heidelberg, catechism of, adopted by the Calvinists, 476. 

Helmont, a Rosecrucian, 532. 

Hemerobaptists, a sect among the Jews, 446. 

Hemmingius, Nicolas, his character, 483. 

Henoticon, published by Zeno, 128; produces new contests among the 
Eutychians, ib. 

Henricians, a sect in xii. cent. 289. 

Henry, archbishop of Upsal, founder of the church of the Finlanders, 
260; is murdered and sainted, 261. 

IV., emperor, refuses to resign his right of investiture, 241 ; as- 



sembles a council at Worms, and accuses pope Gregory VII. of fla> 
gitious practices, 242 ; is excommunicated and deposed by Gregory, 
ib. ; his pusillanimous conduct at Canusium, ib. ; breaks his conven- 
tion and renews the war against the pope, ib. ; dies in misery, 271. 

V. imprisons the pope, 271. 

II. of England, his dispute with pope Alexander III., 274; rea- 
sons to think he did not consent to the murder of Becket, 275. 

VIII. of England, renounces the papal supremacy, 410. 



INDEX. 



797 



Henry IV. of France, renounces the reformed religion with views of 
policy, 477. 

Heraclian's book against the Manichseans, 143. 

Heraclius, emperor, persecutes the Jews, and compels them to embrace 
Christianity, in vii. cent. 147; his edict in favour of the Monothe- 
lites, 156. 

Herbert, of Cherbury, lord, account of, 527 ; instance of his fanati- 
cism, ib. 

Heresies, ancient, revive in v. cent, and cause new troubles, 122 ; re- 
mains of them in vi. cent. 142, 143 ; continue in x. cent. 220. 

Heretics spring up occasionally, 28, 50, 71, 99, &c. 

Heric, a celebrated monk of Auxerre, 185. 

Hermits, their rise in iii. cent. 66. 

Hermogenes, tenets of, 55. 

Herrenhutters, rise of that sect in xviii. cent. 649 ; Dr. Mosheim's vague 
description of it censured, with its character by Dr. Maclaine, ib. ; 
farther account of it, 719. 

Hervey, a learned Benedictine monk, 282. 

Hevelms, a German philosopher, 530. 

Heyling, pious labours of, in Ethiopia, 576. 

Hierax, the founder of a sect, 73. 

High-churchmen, principles of the English, 618. 

Hilary, bishop of Poictiers, 352. 

Hildebert, archbishop of Tours, his excellent system of divinity, 250. 

Hildebrand, pope. See Gregory VII. 

Hildegard, a pretended prophetess in xii. cent. 281. 

Hilduin, author of the Areopagitica, 190. 

Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims, his character, 190. 

Hippolytus, works of, 67. 

History of the church, the method of treating it in the xvi. cent. ; why 
changed from that of the preceding centuries, 383 ; its division into 
two heads, ib. ; of the Reformation, 385 ; its improvements in xvii. 
cent. 530 ; innumerable advantages of it, ib. ; a short view of it in 
xviii. cent. 644; a more copious account, 703 ; in xix. cent. 736. 

Hoadly, bishop of Winchester, excites a controversy, 724. 

Hobbes, a daring and artful opposer of Christianity, 525. 

Hoburg, Christian, a petulant writer against the Lutherans, 599. 

Hoe, Matthew, his defence of the Protestants, 539; his perfidy, ib. 

Hoffman, disputes between that divine and his colleagues, 456 ; his 
tenets, ib. 

^iihenlohe, the prince, a fanatic, 746. 

Holidays, their number diminished by an edict of Urban VIII., 572. 

Holstenius, Lacas, attempts to reconcile the Greek and Latin 
churches, 574. 

Homilies, their origin in viii. cent. 174. 

Honorius I., pope, embellishes churches in vii. cent. 155 ; favours the 
doctrine of one will in Christ, 156. 

Hospitalers, Knights, origin and nature of their office, 264 ; deviate 
from the design of their original institution, and commence warriors, 
ib. ; settle in Malta, ib. 

Huber, his controversy concerning predestination, 469. 

Huet, bishop of Avranches, his works, 536. 

Huguenots, persecuted, 478, 542, 601. 

Humbert, cardinal, an eminent polemic writer among the Greeks, 248. 

Hume, his censure of Luther's opposition to indulgences, and other 
popish superstitions, refuted, 391 ; his charge against the Reformers 
examined and refuted, Appendix, 670; his character, 728. 

Hungary, Christianity established in that realm, 206 ; reformation in- 
troduced and settled, 482 ; state of Protestantism in that country in 
xviii. cent. 722. 

Huss, John, his character, 363 ; he declaims vehemently against the 
corruptions of the clergy and court of Rome, 364 ; is condemned by 
the council of Constance, and burned alive, ib. ; the true cause of his 
sufferings, 365. 

Hussites, commotions excited by them, 373; their unwillingness to ad- 
minister the sacrament in one kind only, ib. ; many put to cruel deaths, 
374 ; war carried on, and shocking cruelties committed by them and 
their opponents, ib. 

Hutchinsonians, an account of, 725. 

Hyrcania, the Gospel propagated there in viii. cent. 161. 

Jablonski's plan of ecclesiastical discipline and public worship, 718. 

Jacobites, a sect of the Monophysites, 144. 

Jagellon, duke of Lithuania, by what means converted, 335. 

Jamblichus, of Chalcis, an account of this philosopher and his suc- 
cessors, 85. 

James I. king of Great-Britain, attempts the reconciliation of the Lu- 
theran and Reformed churches, 580 ; his seeming attachment to the 
Puritans, 609 ; his change of conduct after his accession to the crown, 
ib. ; his pliability and inconsistency, 610. 

' II., imprudence of, 543; why obliged to abdicate the throne, ib.; 

tolerates the Quakers, and from what motives, 630. 

Jansenism, its rise, and the contests it produced, 563 ; Jansenius' book, 
ib. ; attacked by the Jesuits, 564 ; who procure its condemnation at 
Rome, ib. ; revival of the contest, 704, 708. 

Jansenists, their contest with the Jesuits described, and how both par- 
ties were balanced, 564 ; methods and arguments employed by both 

No. LXVII. 300 



parties in this controversy, and miracles pretended by the Jansenists, 
564, 565 ; persecuted, and by whom, 566 ; their austere piety ex- 
amined, 567; deservedly denominated Rigorists, ib. ; revival of the 
contest, 704, 708. 

Japan, state of Christianity in that empire, 521; prejudices of the na- 
tives, and divisions among the missionaries, ib. ; its downfall and ex- 
tirpation, how effected, ib. 

Jaqueline, the abbess, character of, 568. 

Jasidians, or Jezdaans, a sect, 447 ; their opinion about the evil genius, ib. 

Iconoclasts, origin of, 176. 

Iconoduli, or Ieonolatrae, 176. 

Ideas, universal, controversy about, 211. 

Jerome, of Palestine, his character, 89. 

Jerusalem, the seat of the first Christian church, 12 ; famous council 
holden there in xvii. cent. 574. 

knights of St. John of, 246. 



Jesuates, or apostolic clerks, their rise in xiv. cent. 350 ; their order 
abolished, ib. 

Jesuiabas, Nestorian pontiff, his treaty with Mohammed and Omar in 
viii. cent. 155. 

Jesuits, order of, 418; the methods by which they propagated Christi- 
anity considered, ib. ; the nature and division of this society into three 
classes, 426 ; their zeal for the interest of the Roman pontiffs, and 
the true motives of their missions, ib. ; their notions of divine grace 
and original sin, 437 ; doctrine about the motives to moral actions, ib. ; 
about the sacraments, ib. ; make use of the intricate sophistry of the 
schoolmen to puzzle the Protestants, 455 ; their stratagems corrupt 
the Lutheran doctors, 457; accused of sinister views by the other 
orders, 514 ; and of malpractices in China, 518 ; principal charge 
against them, 519 ; their influence in France considered, 552; multi- 
tude of their adversaries, 556 ; some of their pernicious maxims, 560; 
their disputes with the Jansenists, 563, 704, 708 ; their temporalry suc- 
cess, 709; they at length excite such odium, that the king of France 
suppresses their order, 710 ; they are banished from Portugal and 
Spain, 709; and the pope annihilates their fraternity, 710 ; but ano- 
ther pontiff re-instates the order, 737. 

Jesus, fathers of the oratory of the Holy, 555. 

Jews, their civil and religious state under Herod, 6; after his death, ib. ; 
their sufferings, ib. ; their religion corrupted among all ranks, ib; their 
principal sects, ib. ; variously interpret the doctrine of future rewards 
and punishments, 7; the moral doctrine of their sects, 8; corrupt the 
external worship of God, by rites from the Gentiles, ib. ; their state 
out of Palestine, an evident proof of a providence in human affairs, 9 ; 
they persecute the Christians in Palestine and foreign countries, 13; 
their pretexts for this procedure, and the punishments inflicted upon 
them, 14; the state of their philosophy, 19; their sedition under Bar- 
cochebas, and its melancholy consequences to them, with its advan- 
tages to Christianity, 35 ; their fruitless attempt to rebuild their tem- 
ple in iv. cent. 81 ; many converted in vi. cent, and by what means, 
132; many writers against them, in xii. cent. 285 ; the crimes charged 
upon them, and the forced conversion of many of them in xiv. cent. 
336 ; their state in xix. cent. 747. 

Ignatius, bishop of Antioch, his epistles, 24 ; he is exposed by Trajan 
to wild beasts, 24, 35. 

■, patriarch of Constantinople, deposed by the emperor 



Michael, 199 ; re-instated, ib. 

Ignatius, Loyola, founder of the order of Jesuits, 418, 426. 

Ildefonso, archbishop of Toledo, 154. 

Illuminati, societies of, 721. 

Images, worship of, its rise, 90; great progress in v. cent. 117; dispute 
concerning it in the eastern and western churches, and consequences, 
175 ; the cause of a civil war in the reign of the emperor Leo, 176 ; 
zealously defended by Gregory II. and III. ib, ; new controversies con- 
cerning it in the east, 194; where it is established, 195; disputes 
among the Latins concerning it, and a middle course taken, ib. ; the 
use of them in churches allowed, but their worship prohibited, ib. 

Impanation, or consubstantiation, 475. 

Independents claim the honour of carrying the Gospel into America, 
524 ; charged with promoting dissensions in England, 612 ; Rapin's 
account of them examined and corrected, 613 ; whether chargeable 
with the death of Charles I., ib. ; remarks on Dr. Mosheim's defence of 
them, ib. ; their difference from the Presbyterians, ib. ; their modera- 
tion commended, and how more commendable than the Brownists, 
614; their prosperity under Cromwell, 615; their union with the 
Presbyterians, ib. ; new independents, 735. 

India, Christianity propagated there in xvii. cent. 515. 

Indulgences, the power of granting them first assumed by the bishops 
in xii. cent. 281 ; monopolised by the popes, ib. ; their nature and ex- 
tent explained, ib. ; supererogation invented and taught by St. Thomas 
to justify them, ib. ; this doctrine refuted, ib. 

Infidelity, progress of, in xvi. cent. 419; in xvii. cent. 525; in xviii. 
cent. 728. 

Innocent II., pope, exempts the Cistertians from paying tithes, 277. 

III., tyrannises over several princes and kingdoms, 303; aug- 



ments the papal wealth and power, ib. ; introduces trinsubstantiation 
and auricular confession, 321. 



798 



INDEX. 



Innocent IV., a turbulent pontiff, 305. 

VI., a respectable ruler of the church, 343. 

X., condemns the indulgence shown by the Jesuits toward the 

Chinese superstitions, 519; his vile character and illicit commerce 
with Donna Olympia, 537; endeavours to obstruct the peace of West- 
phalia, 541. 

— — XL, high character of, 538; contest with Louis XIV. 551. 

XII., character of, 538. 

XIII., a respectable pontiff, 646, 705. 

Inquisition, its origin in Gaul in xiii. cent. 327 ; its form settled, ib. ; 
absurd and iniquitous proceedings of this court, 328; privileges 
granted to it by various princes, ib. ; violently opposed by the public, 
ib. ; its severity in xiv. cent. 355 ; congregation of, instituted by Paul 
III. 422. 

Instruction, form of, adopted by the Calvinists, by whom composed, and 
for what use, 476. 

Interim, an edict of Charles V. 412 ; troubles excited by it, ib. 

Investitures, tumults in xi. cent, through the law about them, 239 ; cus- 
tom by the ring and crosier, 240 ; methods used by the clergy to de- 
prive the emperors of their right, ib. ; and by the emperors to retain 
it, ib. ; origin of this custom, 241 ; offence given to the pontiffs, ib. ; 
war declared thereon, ib. ; Rodolph revolts against Heniy III. 242 ; 
and is chosen emperor, ib. ; the terrible war that follows upon his 
election continues till the death of Gregory VII. 243 ; tumults under 
Urban II. ib. ; disputes renewed in xii. cent. 271 ; a treaty concluded 
at Worms on that subject, 272. 

Joachim, abbot of Flora, an account of the everlasting Gospel attributed 
to him, 313 ; his character and works, 320 ; his predictions the cause 
of many sects, 333. 

Joan, pope, story of, 186. 

John, the forerunner of the Messiah ; his character, and success of his 
ministry, 10. 

, bishop of Jerusalem, a zealous advocate for Origen, 96. 

of Constantinople, or the Faster, assumes the title of Universal 

Bishop, 135. 

— IV., pope, condemns the Monothelites, 157. 
, surnamed Carpathius, his character, 175. 

of Capua, a monkish historian, 211. 

X., his infamous character, 212 ; he is imprisoned and put to 

death, 213. 

XL, an account of him and his death, and character of his mo- 
ther Marozia, 213. 

XII., implores the assistance of Othothe Great, with a promise of 

tire purple, 213 ; breaks his oath of allegiance to Otho — is degraded — 
reassumes the pontificate, and dies miserably, ib. 

XIII., raised to the popedom by Otho the Great, 213. 

XIV., pontificate of, 214. 

XV., his administration peaceable, 214; enrolls the first saint, 218. 

the Sophist, the head of the Nominalists, 230. 

— — , of Salisbury, a distinguished English ecclesiastic, 280. 

king of England, is excommunicated and deposed by Innocent III; 

304 ; procures absolution by swearing fealty to the pope, ib. 

of Parma, a famous ecclesiastic in xiii. cent. 312. 

XXII., pope, a zealous advocate for crusades, 335 ; engages in a 

contest with Louis duke of Bavaria, 342; who deposes him, ib.; his 
severity to the Fratricelli, 347. 

XX1IL, anti-pope, his infamous character, 363 ; he assembles a 

council at Constance, but is deposed by it, ib. 

, elector of Saxony, establishes a church in his dominions entirely 
different from the church of Rome, 400. 

Jonas, bishop of Orleans, his system of morality, 193. 

Irenaeus, bishop of Lyons, his great character, and use of his works, 42. 

Irene, the profligate empress, 177. 

Irish converted to Christianity in v. cent, 110; eminent for their learn- 
ing in viii. cent. 174 ; illustrate Christian doctrine by philosophical 
principles, ib. ; the rise of the Reformation among them, 415. 

Isbraniki (Roskolniki,) sect in Russia, its rise in xvii. cent. 575; they 
excite commotions by some of their tenets, ib. ; methods taken to con- 
quer their obstinacy fruitless, ib. ; farther account of them, 716. 

Isidore, of Pelusium, his character, 116. 

; — of Seville, a scriptural commentator, 139. 

Jubilee year, when first instituted, 326 ; its pretended antiquity contra- 
dicted and refuted, ib. ; altered in xiv. cent. 354. 

Julian, the emperor, attempts to destroy Christianity, 81 ; his consum- 
mate dexterity, and ruinous projects, how prevented, ib. ; his charac- 
ter, ib. 

— ■ — , bishop of Halicarnassus, his doctrine of the body of Christ, 144. 

Juliana, her extravagant conceits, 326. 

Julius Africanus, his character and works, 65. 

II., pope, character of, 386 ; miserable state of the church under 

him, ib. 

III., his vile character, 428. 

xvo, bishop of Chartres, zealous in maintaining thp rights of the 
church, 248. 

Justin, the martyr, writes two apologies for the Christians, 36, 42 ; re- 
marks on his works, 43, 44. 



Justinian, emperor, his edict against Origen, 140 ; his Pandect found 
in xii. cent, at Amalphi, 268. 

Juvenal, bishop of iElia, his ambition, 113; assumes the dignity of 
patriarch of all Palestine, ib. 

Kabbala, or the Jewish science, 19. 

Kang-hi, Chinese emperor, a friend to Christianity, 518 ; great charac- 
ter, and munificence to the Jesuits, ib. ; a change in his sentiments, 645. 

Keith, George a regulator of Quakerism, 631. 

Kempis, Thomas a, his character, 373, 376. 

Knighthood, orders of, instituted in xii. cent 264. 

Knights, sword-bearers, an order founded to convert the Livonians, 261 

Knox, John, the reformer, 414, 477. 

Knutzen, founder of a transient sect, 528. 

Kodde, (Vander) three brothers, founders of the Collegiants, 641. 

Krudener, the baroness, an enthusiast, 745. 

Labadie, John, his singular tenets, 642 ; character of some of the mem- 
bers of his sect, 643. 

Lactantius, an excellent writer among the Latins, 89. 

Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury, 229, 248. 

Langton, an English primate, 303, 320. 

Languages, Greek. Oriental, &c, studied in xii. cent. 299 ; progress o. 
that study in xvii. cent. 531 ; advantageous to the cause of religion, ib 

Latins, learning encouraged among them by Charlemagne, 165 ; state 
of philosophy among them in x. cent, wretched, 211 ; complaints of 
infidelity and atheism among them in xiii. cent. 296 ; great schism 
among them in xiv. cent. 343 ; the multiplicity of ceremonies they 
had in xv. cent. 377. 

Latitudinarians, their rise in England, 616 ; doctrine and chief lead- 
ers, ib. 

Laud, archbishop, introduces Arminianism into England, 605 ; his 
mixed character and arbitrary proceedings, 611; his unhappy 
fate, 612. 

Law, Roman, its study happily restored in xii. cent. 268 ; opinion about 
substituting it in tire place of all others, ib. ; canon, admitted to the 
same privilege, 269 ; civil and canon, much studied in xiii. cent. 301 

Learning, when first introduced to support the cause of Christianity 
42 ; advantageous to the Reformation, and one great cause of it, 385. 
See Letters. 

Legion, story of the thundering, 34. 

Leibnitz, his philosophy retards the progress of Arminianism in Ger- 
many, 628 ; some of his principles are favourable to Calvinism, 629. 

Leipsic, conference at, for reconciling the Lutheran and reformed 
churches, 580. 

Leo I., the Great, a vigorous asserter of the power of the Roman see, 
115; his character, 116; his epistle to Flavianus received as a rule 
of faith, 127. 

the Isaurian, his contest with the pope, 170 ; zeal against image- 
worship, 176 ; he is excommunicated, ib. 

IV., emperor, endeavours to suppress the practice of image- wor- 
ship, 177. 

the Wise, an account of, 183. 

VI., emperor, writes against the Saracens, 194. 

the Philosopher, promotes learning among the Greeks, 210; his 

fourth marriage occasions violent disputes in the Greek churches, 218. 

V., pope, dethroned and imprisoned, 212. 

IX., aims at universal dominion, 230 ; grants to the Normans their 

conquered and usurped countries, 231 ; his character, ib. 

X., his bad character, 386 ; his famous edict for granting indul- 
gences, with their extent, 391, 392. 

XII., a bigoted pontiff, 739 ; celebrates a jubilee, ib. 

Leszynski, his impiety and fate, 528. 

Letters flourish under Trajan, 38 ; their decay, 62 ; dispute concern- 
ing their utility in iii. cent. ib. ; their state in iv. cent. 85 ; encouraged 
by Constantine and by succeeding emperors, ib. ; their excellence ac- 
knowledged in v. cent. 112; found only among the monks and bishops 
in vi. cent. 134 ; their state in vii. cent. 149 ; decline among the 
Greeks in viii. cent. 183; they revive among the Latins under Char- 
lemagne, ib. ; controversies with the Latins cause them to flourish 
among the Greeks in ix. cent. ib. ; impediments to their progress in 
the West, 184 ; encouraged in Greece, 210 ; their state among the, 
Saracens, 210 ; their deplorable fate among the Latins in x. cent. 211 ; 
restored by pope Sylvester II. ib. ; the entire decay of the sciences 
how prevented among the Greeks in xi. cent. 227 ; and their princi- 
pal writers, ib. ; revive in the West, ib. ; are studied among the 
Latins with the greatest assiduity, in xii. cent. 267; their great pro- 
gress in the West in xiii. cent. 294;. many learned men among the 
Greeks in xiv. cent. 338 ; state of learning among the Latins, 338, 
360 ; what branches of it were cultivated in Italy, 360 ; its reduced 
. state, 389; its revival, 419 ; its state in xvii. cent. 557. 

Lucopetrus, founder of a fanatical sect, 287. 

Leutard, troubles excited by him in x. cent. 220 

Leutheric, archbishop of Sens, his notion that none but good men can 
receive the body of Christ, 252. 

Libertines, spiritual brethren and sisters, their tenets, 488. 

Licinius, persecution of the Christians under him, 80 ; his turbulence, 
defeat, and death, ib. 



INDEX 



799 



L'Isle, Alan de, an eminent logician in xiii. cent. 299. 

Lithuanians, partly converted by the Teutonic knights in xiii. cent. 295 ; 
their conversion completed in xiv. cent. 335. 

Liturgy of the church of England, a plan for introducing it into Prus- 
sia and the Hanoverian electorate, 718. 

Livonians, compelled to embrace the Gospel by the greatest cruelty and 
oppression, 261. 

Locke, John, the philosopher, 535. 

Logic, the study of, much admired and followed in xi. cent. 228 ; the 
most eminent logicians, ib. 

Lollard, Walter, not founder of the Lollards, 356. 

Lollards, account of, 350, 356. 

Lombard, Peter, an eminent theologian, 280, 282; his book of sen- 
tences in greater repute than the Bible, 284. 

London, the Royal Society founded at, 530. 

Lord's Supper, its celebration in ii. cent. 49 ; in iii. cent. 70 ; its sym- 
bols adored, 99. 

Love, Family of, an anabaptist sect, 501. 

, Virgins of, an order in the Romish church, 556. 

Louis, the Debonnaire, a patron of the arts and sciences, 183 ; his edict 
in behalf of the pope's election, spurious, 186; his zeal in suppress- 
ing the vices of the monks, 189 ; he encourages Mysticism, 194. 

IX., of France, afterwards sainted, his two crusades and their 

success, 295 ; his famous edict, called the Pragmatic Sanction, 302. 

, duke of Bavaria, his contest with John XXII., 342 ; he patro- 
nises the Franciscans, 349. 

, elector Palatine, restores Lutheranism in Germany, 476. 

XIV., of France, his solemn ambassy to the king of Siam, 516 ; 

great patron of the arts and sciences, 530 ; contest with two of the 
popes, 550 ; he persecutes the Jansenists, 567; revokes die edict of 
Nantes, 601. 

Low-Churchmen in xvii. cent. 617. 

Lucar, Cyrillus, opposes the union of the Greek and Latin churches, 
574 ; is put to death, ib. 

Lucas, a follower of Spinosa, 531. 

Luciferians, a sect, 95. 

Ludolph, his learned labours, 577. 

Lully, Raymond, a philosopher, 339 ; different opions about him, ib. 

Lupus, Servatus, great abilities and works of, 185, 190. 

Luther, Martin, character of, 390 ; he warmly opposes Tetzel's preach- 
ing of indulgences, and hence the rise of the Reformation is to be 
dated, 391 ; his motives vindicated, ib. ; he is violently opposed, 392; 
his fruidess conference with Caietan, ib. ; his dispute with Eckius, 
394 ; he is excommunicated by Leo X., 396 ; separates himself from 
the church of Rome, ib. ; offers submission to the determination of a 
general council lawfully assembled, ib. ; is unjustly banished, 397 ; his 
doctrine of the eucharist, 399 ; draws up the Articles of Torgau, 403; 
his catechisms. 451 ; form of concord, ib. ; explications of Scripture, 
487 ; he suppresses the Antinomians, 461 ; publishes his confession 
of faith, 472. 

Lutherans, esteemed by the Spaniards as better subjects than the Cal- 
vinists, 481 ; their ecclesiastical laws and polity, 586 ; the state of 
theology and moral science among them, 587, 588 ; state of their 
church in xviii. cent. 717 ; in xix. cent. 744. 

Lutkeman, Joachim, his singular opinions, 597. 

Lyons, a council at, in xiii. cent. 306; a famous decree concerning the 
cardinals, during the vacancy of the pontificate, ib. 

Lyranus, Nicolas, great character of, 352. 

Mabillon, a Learned Benedictine, 554. 

Macarius, character of, as a moralist, 92. 

, of Ireland, his gross error, 185. 

Maccovius, introduces subtilties into theology, 487; followed by 
others, ib. 

Macedonius, a heretic in iv. cent. 105. 

Madura, account of that successful mission, and its author, 515 ; the 
singular method used, ib. 

Magnus, Albertus, a philosophical divine, 320. 

Magus, Simon, a blasphemous sectary, 31. 

Mahomet. See Mohammed. 

Malebranche, the philosopher, 535. 

Mandeville, an infidel, 645. 

Manes, Manichaeus, account of him, 71 ; his doctrine of two principles, 
ib. ; various reports about his death, ib. ; his summary concerning 
man, Christ, and the Holy Ghost, ib. ; his opinions of the Old und 
New Testaments, 72 ; his rule of life austere, ib. 

Manichaeans, their general assembly, 73; their state in vi. cent. 143; 
continue in xv. cent. 377. 

Marca, Peter de, writes against the papal claims, 550. 

Marcellus, of Ancyra, a sectary, 105. 

Mareion, founder of a sect in Asia, 51. 

Margaret of Navarre, favours the Reformation in France, 405. 

Mark, the hermit, his works and character, 119. 

Maronites, whence so called, 158; retain the opinions of the Monothe- 
Iites till xii. cent. ib. ; their subjection to Rome in xvi. cent. 449. 

Mayronius, Francis, a scholastic divine, 352. 

Marpurg, conference at, 402. 



Marriage allowed to the clergy, 64. 

Martial, the bishop, declared an apostle, 256. 

Martin, bishop of Tourr., converts the Gauls in iv. cent. 83 ; erects the 

first monasteries in Grind, 93. 

, bishop of Braga. his summary of a virtuous life, 140. 

, pope, anathematises the Monothelites and dieir patrons, 157; 

is banished for one year, ib. 

Raymond, a distinguished author, 299. 324. 

IV., his character and insolence, 306. 

V., assembles a council at Basil, which attempts the reformation 



of the church, but in vain, 367. 

Martyr, Peter, zealous in propagating Calvinism in England, 477 ; a 
writer of common-place divinity, 487. 

Martyrs, sufferings of, 15, 16, &c. 

Mary, queen, restores popery in England, 414. 

, Virgin, when first worshipped, 107; her image introduced into 

churches in v. cent. 121 ; veneration for her increased in x. cent. 219 ; 
institution of the Rosary and Crown in honour of her, ib. ; contro- 
versy concerning her immaculate conception, 286, 569. 

Massalians, (Euchites,) dieir antiquity, 106 ; their tenets, ib. ; a gene- 
ral name for Eastern heretics and enthusiasts in xii. cent. 287. 

Mass, Canon of, 142; solitary masses, when supposed to be intro- 
duced, 178. 

Materialism, doctrine of, 731. 

Mathematical sect, rise of, 534 ; its progress, 535. 

Matilda, duchess of Tuscany, her donation to the see of Rome, 225. 

Matthias, John, his pacific attempts, 582. 

Matdiison, John, ringleader of the fanatics of Munster, 493. 

Maty, Paul, his notions of the Trinity, and consequent controversy, 653. 

Maui - , St., congregation of, 554; select number of learned members, and 
dieir adversaries, ib. ; many and admirable productions, ib. 

Maurice, elector of Saxony, promotes the famous treaty of Passan, 413. 
landgrave of Hesse, embraces Calvinism, 379 ; harasses the 



Lutherans, ib. 

stadt-holder, seemingly inclined to favour the Arminians, 

623 ; declares against diem, with his ambitious views, 624 ; his vio- 
lent proceedings against diem, 625. 

Maximin, persecution under that emperor, 59. 

Maxims, two very dangerous, adopted in iv. cent. 94. 

Maximus, Julian's master, aPlatonist, 85. 

of Turin, an account of his homilies, 116. 

, a Greek monk, account of him and his works, 153. 

Mayer, Michael, a leader of the Rosecrusians, 532. 

Mayhew, a Puritan missionary in America, 524. 

Mazen, Nicolas de, very zealous in reforming die monks of Ger- 
many, 370. 

Medici, the zeal of this family in cultivating learning, 360. 

Medici, Cosmo de, a zealous patron of the Platonic philosophy, 361. 

Melancthon, Philip, character of, 394; he prepares die famous confes- 
sion of Augsburg, 403 ; confutes Faber's objections to it, 407; his 
dispute with Eckius at Worms, 410; his sentiments of die edict 
called Interim, 412 ; the cause of a schism among die Lutherans, ib. ; 
die method of philosophy adopted by him. 420 ; his unsuccessful at- 
tempt to unite the Greeks with the Protestants, 443 ; his writings in 
philosophy, 455 ; his explanations of the Scriptures, 456 : he is 
placed at the head of die Lutheran church, 461 ; compared widi Ludier, 
ib. ; accused of apostasy by the Lutherans, 462; desirous of an union 
between die reformed and die Lutherans, 472 ; which is facilitated by 
Calvin, ib. ; but meets with obstacles, ib. 

Melancthonians, a philosophical sect, 455. 

Melchites, oriental Christians, 156. 

Meletian controversy, die true causes of, 95 ; continued till v. cent. ib. 

Melito, bishop of Sardis, his works, 44. 

Menander, his wild and frantic notions, 31. 

Mendez, patriarch of iEthiopia, his imprudent zeal and arrogance, 547; 
he is banished, 548. 

Mendicants, their institution in xiii. cent. 308 ; confined to four socie- 
ties only, 309 ; dieir universal fame, ib. ; pride and arrogance, 311 ; 
impious wiles, ib. ; they fall under a general odium, 344, 370. 

Menno, Simon, account of, 494 ; his remarkable success in gaining 
proselytes, ib, ; his doctrines, ib. ; his rigorous laws mitigated by die 
Anabaptists in xvii. cent. 637. 

Mennonites, dieir various fortunes in xvii. cent. 636 ; different sects of 
them, 637. 

Mentz, Felix, his detestable character, 492. 

Mercator, Marius, a warm opposer of Pelagius, 116. 

Metaphysical sect, rise of, 534 ; improvement and propagation, 535 ; 
it falls into contempt, 584. 

Medi, Ezekiel, account of that fanatic, 599. 

Methodists, popish, most eminent in France, 545 ; divided into two 
classes, ib. 

■, protestant, account of, 726 ; divisions among diem, ib. ; 



their tenets, 727 ; influenceof the sect, 749. 
Methodius, eminent for his piety, 65. 

die Confessor, his zeal for image worship, 189. 

(with Cyril) converts the Moesians and oilier nations, 180. 



800 



INDEX. 



Metropolitans, whether any in i. cent. 23 ; their rights, 41 ; the extent 

of their power in iv. cent. 86. 
Mezzabarba is sent into China as papal legate, 645 ; unsuccessful, ib. 
Micislaus, duke of Poland, converted to Christianity, 206 ; his zeal for 

the conversion of his subjects, ib. 
Millennium, controversy concerning it in iii. cent. 68. 
Miltitz, a Saxon knight, holds conferences with Luther, 393. 
Ministry, necessity of a public one, 19. 
Minucius, Felix, an able writer, 65. 

Miracles, advantageous to Christianity, 13 ; it is denied that they had 
entirely ceased in iv. cent. 83 ; their number and reality in viii. cent, 
examined, 164. 
Missionaries, their success in barbarous nations, and particularly Jesuits, 

514 ; a burst of missionary zeal in xix. cent. 751, 752. 
Missions, priests of, 556. 

account of inxviii. cent. 645; protestant, and more particularly 

the Danish, ib. 
Missionary voyages from Great Britain to the Pacific ocean, 735 ; a 

grand missionary system, 752. 
Mogislaus, Peter, an eminent prelate of the Greek church, 442. 
Mohammed, erroneously called Mahomet, appears in vii. century, 147 ; 
delivers the koran as the word of God, ib. ; his success accounted for, 
148 ; his pretended Testament, 155. 
Molina, character of, 439, 440. 
Molinists, controversies with them concerning predestination and 

liberty, 440. 
Molinos, Michael de, excites new controversies in the church, 570; his 
book entitled the Spiritual Guide, ib. ; principles whence his followers 
were called duietists, ib. ; he is obliged to recant, and dies in prison, ib. 
Monarchy, men of the fifth, their enthusiastic notions, 615. 
Monks, formed into a regular body in iv. cent. 93 ; different orders, 94; 
adopted among the clergy, ib.; claim eminent stations in the church, 115; 
are not subject to the patriarchal power, 116; are exempted by the 
pope from episcopal jurisdiction, 151 ; excessive veneration paid to 
them in ix. cent. 188 ; employed in civil affairs, ib. ; decline of their 
discipline, 189 ; their state in xi. cent, and increase of their immuni- 
ties, 244 ; their ignorance and corruption, ib. ; great corruption gives 
rise to chivalry, ib. ; new orders, 245 ; their great increase in xiii. 
cent. 307 ; a reformation attempted among them in xv. cent. 370 ; 
their corrupt state in xvi. cent. 387 ; much reformed, 429 j new orders, 
430 ; a partial reform, 554. 
Monophysites, their tenets concerning the nature of Christ, 128 ; en- 
couraged by the emperor Anastasius, 143 ; depressed by Justin and 
successive emperors, ib. ; their sect restored by Baradaeus, 144; 
divisions among them terminated, ib. ; they flourish in xvi. cent. 444; 
their religious doctrines and rites, 445 ; their ignorance, ib. ; in Asia, 
their state in xvii. cent. 576 ; those of Africa obstinately resist the 
Roman yoke, ib. ; their state in xviii. cent. 648. 
Monothelites, the rise of this sect in vii. cent. 156 ; condemned by a 
general council, 157 ; different opinions among them, ib. ; their fate 
after the council of Constantinople, 158. 
Montanus, a heretic, attempts to supply the pretended defects of the 

Gospel, 56 ; his excessive austerity, ib. ; success of his doctrine, ib. 
Moors, or Saracens, some converted in xv. cent. 358 ; banished out of 

Spain in xvii. cent. 541 ; consequences, 542. 
Moralists (moral writers,) in ii. cent. 45 ; the double doctrine then intro- 
duced by them, ib. ; its effects, ib. ; the most eminent in iv. cent, with 
their defects, 92; their character in v. cent. 119; mystic principles 
adopted by them, 120 ; reduce practical religion to the observance of a 
few virtues in vii. cent. 154 ; imbibe many of the Aristotelian princi- 
ples in viii. cent. 175 ; principally employed in ix. cent, in collecting 
the sentiments of the Fathers on morality, 193 ; content themselves in 
x. cent, with composing homilies, and writing the lives of the saints, 
218 ; contemptible in xi. cent. 250 ; partly scholastic, partly mystic, in 
xii. cent. 284 ; their character in xiii. cent. 323 ; chiefly enployed in 
collecting and solving cases of conscience, and in moralizing on the 
nature and actions of the brute creation, in xiv. cent. 353 ; their 
character in xvi. cent. 458. 
Morality, Romish, its low state in xvi. cent. 435. 
Moravians, their conversion in ix. cent. 180. 
Moravian brethren, an account of, 482. See United Brethren. 
More, Hannah, recommends religious reform, 735. 
Morinus endeavours to unite the Greek and Latin churches, 574. 
Moscovy, patriarch of, when first appointed, 444. 
Moses, Barcepha, a Syrian bishop, in ix. cent. 189. 

Cretensis, an impostor, 108. 

Moulin, Peter du, is employed to reconcile the Lutherans and the Re- 
formed, 580. 
Munster seized by the fanatics in xvi. cent. 459 ; retaken by its sove- 
reign, ib. ; peace of Germany concluded in that city, 540. 
Munzer, a fanatic leader, 459, 492; is ignominiously put to death, 492; 

fate of his associates, ib. 
Mystics, their rise in the East, 40 ; their increase in iv. cent. 93 ; their 
cause promoted in v. cent. 119; their pernicious influence on moral 
writers, 120; flourish in ix. cent. 194; their method of explaining 
truth adopted in xii. cent. 282 ; oppose the scholastics in xiii. cent. 323; 



many of distinguished merit among them in xv. cent. 376 ; the only 
remaining sparks of piety in xvi. cent, were in them, 390 ; why 
called duietists, 570 ; their precepts embraced by the Quakers, 632. 

Nagel, Paul, his reveries, 599. 

Nantes, famous edict of, 477 ; revoked by Louis XIV. 601. 

Nations, state of those not under the Romans, 1 ; the genius of, and 
liberty enjoyed by, the northern, 2; all sunk in superstition, but of 
different kinds, ib. 

Nature, its law studied with great attention in xvii. cent. 531 ; the study 
advantageous to Christian morality, ib. 

Naylor, James, a most extravagant Quaker, 630. 

Nazarenes, the rise of, 50 ; their division into two sects, ib. 

Necessity, a subject of controversy, 731. 

Neri, Philip, institutes the priests of the oratory in xvi. cent. 431. 

Nero persecutes the Christians, 14, 16. 

Nfistorianism, its rise and author, 123 ; its progress after the council of 
Ephesus, 125; its success in the East, ib. ; its state in vi. cent. 143. 

Nestorians, their divisions cease, 125; their doctrine, 126; they intro- 
duce Christianity among the Chinese, 146 ; flourish under the Sara- 
cens, 155 ; plant the Gospel in Tartary in x. cent. 205 ; two factions 
among them in xvi. cent. 425 ; their notions of the two natures and 
two persons in Christ explained, 446 ; their state in xvii. cent. 577. 

Nestorius, anathematized by Cyril, bishop of Alexandria, 124 ; con- 
demned to banishment by a general council at Ephesus, ib. 

Newton, Sir Isaac, his estimable character, 535 ; the excellence of his 
philosophy how proved, 536 ; liberty of thinking restored by him and 
Des Cartes, ib. 

Nice, the first general council at, 102 ; the account of it imperfect, ib. ; 
it condemns Arius, 103 ; second council, 177 ; superstitious decrees in 
favour of image worship, ib ; its authority and this decision acknow- 
ledged by the church of Rome, ib. 

Nicephorus, a defender of image-worship, 189. 

, Callistus, his ecclesiastical history, account of, 338. 

, Gregoras, his character, 338. 



Nicetas, David, account of, 189. 

Nicolaitans, a sect, 32. 

Nicolas, patriarch of Constantinople, deposed, 219 ; restored, ib. 

II., pope, his famous decree concerning the election of the supreme 



pontiff, 232. 

III., aggrandizes the papal see, 302 ; confirms the rigid rules of 



St. Francis, 314. 
—— IV., his character, 306, 307. 

V., a great patron of learning, 368. 

• Henry, founder of the Family of Love, 501. 



Nicole, a Jansenist divine, 546. 

Nieder, John, his works, and the use of them, 392. 

Nihusius, a popish methodist, 545. 

Nobili, Robert de, account of that Jesuit's mission, 515 ; his singi u 
stratagems, ib. 

Noetus, his doctrine of the Trinity, 73. 

Nogaret, William de, seizes Boniface VIII. 340; prosecutes hi3 i ccif- 
sation against that pontiff after his death, ib. 

Nominalists, who, and whence so called, 185 ; dispute betweeen them 
and the Realists, 229 ; their chief, John the Sophist, 230 ; the s~ate of 
their disputes in different centuries, 270, 339, 362. 

Non-conformists, a name given to the Puritans, 488 ; their hopes frus- 
trated under Charles II. 617 ; they flourish under William III. ib. j 
their state in England in xviii. cent. 652. 

Non-jurors, (high churchmen,) their rise, 617 ; their notions, C18. 

Norbert, founder of the order of Premontre, 278. 

Normans, their invasions in ix. cent. 182; form settlements, ib. ; the 
sufferings of the Christians under them, ib ; many were converted 
in x. cent, with Rollo, ib. ; flourishing state of learning unong them 
in xi. cent. 227. 

Norway, people of, converted by Guthbald, 227. 

Novatian disturbs the peace of the church in iii. cent. 74. 

Nuremberg, diet at, 398; peace between Charles V. and the. Protestants 
at a second diet, 408 ; the terms, ib. ; the effects, ib. 

Occam, William, a strenuous defender of the Nominalists, 339 ; his 
didactic writings, 352. 

Ochino, Bernardino, his opinions, 489. 

Odensee, edict at, 404. 

Odilo, of Clugni, his works, 216. 

Odo, abbot of Clugni, attempts to reform the monks, 215; his char 
ter, 216. . 

CEcolampadius resumes the dispute concerning the eucharist v ft 
Luther, 471 ; his expositions of Scripture, 486. 

CEcumenical council, first established in iv. cent. 86. 

CEcumenius, his chain, 216. 

Oliva, or d'Olive, Pierre Jean, a famous Franciscan, excites dimen- 
sions in the order, 314 ; his fanaticism, ib. 

Olympia, Donna, the mistress of pope Innocent X. 537. 

Olympiodorus, a Platonic philosopher, 85. 

Ophites, a sect of ridiculous heretics in ii. cent. 55. 

Oratory, priests of the, 431, 558. 

Orders, ecclesiastical, their great vices in xii. cent 276. 



INDEX. 



SOI 



Orders, religious, new, in xiv. cent 350 ; new, in xv. cent. 378. 

• monastic, their state in xvii. cent 553 ; reformations made, and 



hence two classes, 554. 

Origen, character of, 64 : his erroneous method of explaining Christian 
truths by the Platonic philosophy, 66 ; his Stromata and principles, 
67 ; moral works, ib. ; rigorous measures are taken by two councils 
against him, 69; he confutes the Arabian philosophers, 74; contro- 
versies concerning him in iv. cent. 96 ; troubles in the East on 
account of his writings, ib. ; his doctrine ordered to be suppressed, 97; 
condemned with his followers in a general council, 141 : his doctrine 
adopted by the Quakers, 632. 

Orosius obviates many objections against Christianity, 111, 116. 

Osiander, Andrew, excites disputes in xvi. cent. 464. 

Ostreg, synods at, 46"2. 

Otho the Great, his zeal for Christianity, 307 ; excessive liberality to the 
clergy, and its unhappy effects, ib. ; he is saluted with the title of 
emperor by pope John XII. 213 ; calls a council, and degrades the ' 
perjured pontiff, ib. ; his death and miserable consequences, 213, 214 ; 
nis authoritative edict, 214. 

Otho, bishop of Bamberg, converts the Pomeranians in xii. cent. 260. 

IV., emperor, deposed and excommunicated by pope Innocent , 

III. 303. 

Pacific age, that time so denominated when Christ came into the world, 1 ; ! 

Paganism, state of, 2 ; great variety of religions among the Pagans, ib. ; j 
their idolatry, ib. ; their mysteries, 3 ; remains of Paganism in iv. I 
cent although zealously opposed by the Christian emperors, 82: some 
remains in vL cent, even among the learned, 132. 

Pajon, Claude, attempts to modify die doctrine of the reformed church, 60S. 

Palamas, Gregory, supports the doctrine of the Quietists, 355 ; his no- i 
tions concerning the divine operation, ib. 

Palatinate, decline of the Protestant cause in that part of Germany, 602. ! 

Palestine, its two religions, the Jewish and Samaritan, much corrupted : 
among the people at our Saviour's coming in the world, 6 ; the de- 
cline of the Christian cause in that country in xii. cent. 262. 

Palladius, works and character of, 116. 

Pantheists, account of this impious sect, 529 ; most eminent members 
among them, ib. 

Papal power saved from ruin by the force of the secular arm, and by 
imperial edicts, in xvi. cent. 406. 

Papin, Isaac, propagates the doctrine of Pajon, 603, 609. 

Paracelsists, eminent in xvi. cent. 455. 

Paracelsus. Theophrastus, founds the sect of Theosophists, 421. 

Paris, frequented in xii. cent for its eminent divines, 282 ; the first 
European university founded in that city in xiii. cent 293 ; severe 
discip line in it, 299 ; Parisian academy of sciences, in xvii. cent 530 ; 
grand council in that city, 714. 

•— — , Matthew, the historian, 299. 

— — , "William of, a metaphysical divine, 320. 

, John of, his great character, ib. 

, Abbe de, pretended miracles wrought at his tomb, 565. 

Pasaginians (circumcised,') a sect in xii. cent 292. 

Pascal II., pope, renews the disputes concerning investitures, 271 ; is 
condemned by a council at Rome, ib. 

author of the Provincial Letters, 560. 



Passau, treaty of, 413. 

Paterinus, a common name given to all heretics in xi. cent 233. 

Patriarchs, the nature of their office explained, 41 ; bishop of P^ome 
their reputed chief, 87 ; inconveniences arising from the patriarchal 
government, 114 ; contests with each other, and melancholy effects, ib. 

Patrick converts the Irish in v. cent. 110. 

Patripassians, who, and why so called, 55. 

Patronage, origin of the right of, 97. 

Paul, the apostle, extraordinary character of, 12. 

, the first hermit, 66. 

— of Samosata, founder of a sect, 74. 

, the Deacon, his fame in viii. cent. 174. 

II., pope, his mixed character, 369. 

III., proposes a reformation, 410 ; dispute about his real charac- 
ter, 427. 

IV., founder of the Theatins, 423, 430. 

V., his character, 537; contest with the Venetians, 537, 549. 

Sarpi, commonly called Father Paul, 549. 

, Vincent de, founder of the priests of the mission, in xvii. 
cent 556. 

Paulicians, controversy of the Greeks with them, 155 ; a sect in ix. cent 
202 ; persecuted by the Greek emperors, ib. ; meet with protection 
from the Saracens, ib. ; whether Manichaans or not, considered, 203; 
their opinions in six articles, ib. ; miserable state under the Greeks in 
xi. cent 257 ; their first assembly at Orleans, 258 ; their calamitous 
fate, ib. 

Paulinus of Aquileia, his character and works, 172. 

, bishop of Nola, his works, 90. 

Peasants, their horrid war in xvi. cent 399 ; their claims made reli- 
gious by Munzer, ib. ; they are defeated at iVIulhausen, 400. 

Pelagianism, rise of, 129 ; it is suppressed by Augustin's writings, ib. 

Penance, which had been long neelected, is restored in vii. cent. 154. 

No. LXYIT. 201 



Penitential discipline, 46, 121. 

Penn, "William, settles the Quakers in Pennsylvania, 631 ; his charac- 
ter, ib. ; his writings, 632. 

Pennafort, Raymond de, his decretals, 301 ; his polemic works against 
the Jews and Saracens, 324. 

People, their right of choosing their rulers and teachers in the primi 
tive church, 21 ; their remarkable ignorance in xvi. cent 390. 

Pepin, usurps the crown of France in viii. cent 168 ; is supported by 
pope Zacliary, ib. ; anointed and crowned by Stephen, ib. ; his dona- 
tion to the see of Rome, 169. 

Perald, "William, literary fame of, 320. 

Peripatetics flourish in xvii. cent. 532 ; meet with formidable adversa- 
ries in Des Cartes and Gassendi, 583, 564. 

Perrault, account of his book on the morality of the Jesuits, 560. 

Persia, three persecutions in that country against the Christians, 84. 

Peter Fullo (the Fuller.) founder of the sect called Theopaschiles, 127. 

the hermit his superstitious zeal for a war to the Holy Land, 222. 

the Great, emperor of Russia, introduces a change into the Russian 

church, 575; grants liberty of conscience, ib. 

Petersen, John "William, his inventions and reveries, 595. 

Petit, doctrine of, concerning the lawfulness of putting a tyrant to 
death, 366. 

Petrarch zealous in reviving the study of the learned languages, 338. 

Petrobrussians, a sect in xii. cent 289. 

Peucer attempts to reform Lutheranism, 466 ; his character and suf- 
ferings, ib. 

Peyrere, Isaac la, his strange doctrine, 571. 

Pezelius, his catechism favourable to the sentiments of Calvin, 467. 

Pfaff, Matthew, zealous in projecting a union between the Lutherans 
and the reformed. 651, 652; opposed by the Lutherans, ib. 

Pharisees, their tenets, 7. 

Philadelphian society, founded in xvii. cent 643. 

Philip, fattier and son, emperors, supposed to be Christians, 57. 

die Solitary, an eminent moral writer, 284. 

the Fair, king of France, vigorously opposes the papal power, 



340; charges pope Boniface VIII. with enormous vices, ib. ; and 
hastens the death of that pontiff, ib. 

Philippicus, Bardanes, emperor of the Greeks, espouses the cause of the 

Monothelites, 175 ; is excommunicated and deposed, 176. 

Philosophers obscure the truth, 5 ; Oriental, their first principles, 17 ; 
their opinions concerning the Deity, 18 ; of the origin of the world, ib.; 
some converted to Christianity, and their conversion if advantageous, 
considered, 35; their efforts in iv. cent against Christianity, 82; two 
great sects of them in xvii. cent 531. 

Philosophical sin, the doctrine of, 437. 

Philosophy, two kinds prevailed at Christ's birth, 4 ; the Eastern not 
much known, 17 ; the success of die Platonic system due to Plotinus 
in iii. cent 62 ; promoted by Julian, 85 ; Aristotelian, revived in v. 
cent 113 ; confined within the circle of the Dialectics in xi. cent 228 ; 
encouraged among the Greeks in xii. cent. 266 ; three methods of 
teaching it in diat cent 269 ; astrology mixed with it in xiv. cent and 
considered as magic, 339 ; the Platonic species in high esteem in xv. 
cent 361 ; Aristotelian, dangerous to revealed religion, ib. ; its state 
in xvi. cent 420, 432 ; progress of, in xvii. cent 583. 

Photinus, author of an heretical sect in iv. cent 105 ; dies in exile, ib. 

Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, 183, 1S9 ; first controversy be- 
tween the Greeks and Latins on his account 199 ; mutual excommu- 
nications, ib. ; the second contest in wlr.ch he is degraded, ib. ; he 
engages die bishops to espouse his cause, as a public cause of the 
church, ib. ; is restored to his see, 200 ; is again degraded, ib. 

Pictet, a French writer, 604. 

Pietism, rise of, 591 ; Spener's private meetings for its promotion, ib. ; 
the name of Pietists to whom applied, 592; their extravagant fana- 
ticism, ib. ; two objects of debate, 593 ; the third object on which the 
Pietists insisted, 594 ; their state in xviii. cent 721. 

Pin, Dr. du, exposes the injustice of the papal claims, 550 ; account of 
the correspondence carried on between him and archbishop Wake, 679. 

Pisa, council of, 362 ; another, 386. 

Piscator, John, his doctrine concerning the obedience of Christ, 606. 

Pius II., pope, obtains the abrogation of the Pragmatic Sanction. 369 • 
his impudent retraction of former opinions, ib. 

IV., account of, 428. 

V., eminent for his austerity, and sainted, 428. 

VI., (Braschi,) goverrment of. 711 ; his visit to the emperor, 712; 

he is attacked by many princes, 713 ; dies in confinement 714. 

VII., adjusts a concordat with the first consul of France, 736; 

crowns Napoleon, ib. ; is deprived of his power, and imprisoned, 737 : 
restored, ib. ; dies at a great age, 739. 

Place, M. de la, his opinions concerning original sin, and contests occa-- 
sioned by it, 607. 

Placette, La, his moral works, 604. 

Planudes, Maximus, his character, 333. 

Plato, his notions concerning the Deity, 5; his opinions adopted by 
many in xii. cent 267. 

Platonics or Platonists, dieir tenets, 5; their schools more frequented 
than those of the Stoics, 38; new, their rise in Egypt in ii. cent ib.; 



802 



INDEX. 



whence styled Eclectics, ib. ; the principles of their philosophy, as im- 
proved by Ammonius, 39; they flourish in iii. cent. ib. ; their- state in 
iv. cent. 85 ; in v. cent. 112 ; their suppression, 135. 
Plotinus, his doctrine widely propagated in iii. cent. 62. 
Plutarch renews the celebrated academy at Athens in iii. cent. 62. 
Poiret, Peter, a follower of Bourignon, 643. 
Poland, commotions excited there by Stancarus, 465 ; progress of the 

Reformation in xvi. cent. 482. 
Polanders, conversion of, 205, 206. 
Polycarp, a martyr, 36. 
Pomeranians converted to Christianity, 260. 

Pomerius, Julian, his confutation of the Jews, and other works, 152. 
Pongilup, Armannus, his fame and piety, 316. 
Pontius, of Nola, his good character and works, 116. 

Popes, (Roman pontiffs,) when first distinguished by a certain pre-emi- 
nence over other bishops, 63; in what sense this superiority must be 
understood, ib. ; their power in iv. cent, whence, 87; the double election, 
and its melancholy consequence, ib. ; the limits of their authority, ib. ; 
steps laid for their future despotism, ib. ; they contend with the bishop 
of Constantinople for unlimited supremacy, 135 ; are subject to the 
control of the Gothic princes, 136 ; obtain the title of Universal 
Bishops, 151; are raised to the dignity of temporal princes, 169; the 
nature of their jurisdiction under Charlemagne, 170; their opinions 
opposed in councils assembled by the Franks and Germans, 172 ; 
their power augmented by the divisions of the empire in ix. cent. 187; 
they diminish the power of councils and the bishops, ib. ; frauds and 
forgeries to support their claims, ib. ; their supreme legislative au- 
thority, though opposed, gains ground, 214 ; their motives for 
encouraging the first crusade, 224 ; assume the designation of Pope, 
or Universal Father, in xi. cent. 230 ; accessions to their power by 
the zeal of pope Gregory VII. 237; violent dissensions between them 
and the emperors concerning extent of power, in xii. cent. 270 ; they 
deprive bishops of the right of canonization, 275 ; and of the power 
to grant indulgences, 281 ; aim at universal dominion, 301 ; their arro- 
gant claims opposed by civil and ecclesiastical powers, 302 ; great 
accessions of power due to Innocent III. and Nicolas III., 303 ; the 
advantage they derived from the orders of Mendicants, and their re- 
turns for these favours, 310 ; their authority diminished under the 
Gallic pontiffs, 341 ; their power declared, by the councils of Con- 
stance and Basil, to be inferior to that of general councils, 363, 367; 
deprived of their expectances, reservations, and provisions, 367 ; their 
zeal for propagating Christianity in xvi. cent, examined, 418; what 
distinction must be made between their authority and the court of 
Rome, 423 ; debates concerning their power, ib. ; they find zealous 
advocates' for their authority in the Jesuits, 427 ; their infallibility 
and unlimited supremacy not universally acknowledged by the church 
of Rome, 435; restrictions upon their power in various countries, 
739, 740. 

Porphyry, a more virulent than formidable enemy of Christianity, 60. 

Porree, Gilbert de la, charged with blasphemy, 284 ; his errors the con- 
sequence of an excessive subtlety and a metaphysical method of ex- 
plaining the Christian doctrine, ib. 

Porretta, Margaret, fate of, 356. 

Port-Royal, convent of, described, 568 ; sanctity of the religous in it, 
and its fame, ib. ; its ruin, 569. 

Portugal, contest of its court with Rome in xvii. cent. 549. 

Positivi, Christian doctors in xii. cent. 283. 

Pratorius, an advocate of vital religion, 597. 

Prague, Jerome of, condemned to the flames, 365. 

Praxeas, his notions concerning the Trinity, 55; his followers called 
Monarchians, ib. 

Predestinarians, whence their rise in v. cent. 130 ; their doctrine, ib. ; 
opposed by Augustin, ib. 

Predestination and Grace, controversy csneerning, in ix. cent. 197; also 
in xvii. cent. 604. 

Premontre, an order of monks founded by Norbert in xii. cent. 278 ; 
their universal fame, ib. ; excessive poverty at first, and subsequent 
opulence, ib. 

Presbyters of the church, 21. 

Presbyterians flourish under Cromwell, 615. 

Prescription, how pleaded against error in iii. cent.- 68 ; polemics rest 
upon it in xvii. cent. 546. 

Prester, John, account of, 205 ; his successor deprived of his kingdom 
by Gengliiz Khan, 266; the effect of his death on the affairs of the 
Christians in Tartary, ib. 

Priesthood, an artful parallel between the Jewish and Christian, 41. 

Priestley a sectarian philosopher, 731. 

Printing, this art discovered in xv. cent. 360 ; by whom invented, ib. 

Priscillian revives theGnosticheresy in iv. 105; condemned to death, 106. 

Priscillianists, tenets of, ib. 

Proclus, a modern Platonist, 112. 

Prophets of the New Testament, 21. 

Prosper, of Aqnitaine, an eminent writer, 116. 

Protestants, whence this name, 401; deliberate about forming a league, 
402 ; dissension among them about the eucharist, ib. ; present a con- 
fession of their fartfi at Augsburg, 406 ; attempt to propagate the 



Gospel in foreign parts, 419 ; their missions in Asia, 522 ; in 
America, 524 ; persecuted by the Romanists in xvii. cent. 541 ; milder 
methods used by their enemies, 543 ; public and private conferences 
take place between the doctors of both churches; but the breach is 
widened, ib. ; methods of reconciliation by the Romanists inef- 
fectual, 544. 

■ , French, a great variety in their religious sentiments, 476 ; 

join in communion with the church of Geneva, ib. ; pe ice-makers 
among them in xvii. cent. 544 ; then- state in xviii. cent. 711, 721 ; in 
xix. cent 745. 

Prussia, Frederic, king of, an open infidel, 721. 

Prussians are compelled to receive Christianity, 295. 

Psellus, Michael, great character of, 227, 247. 

Ptolemaites, a Valentinian sect, 54. 

Purgatory, its analogy to pagan superstition, 117; the success of this 
doctrine in x. cent. 216. 

Puritans, (Nonconformists,) their rise in xvi. cent. 477; their doctrine, 
478 ; their principles respecting church government and worship, 479 ; 
divided into a variety of sects, 480 ; controversy between them and 
the church of England, 489 ; contest about doctrinal points, 490 ; 
their missons to America, 524 : their state under James and Charles 
I., 610,611. 

Gtuadrivium, meaning of, 228. 

Quakers, rise of, 629 ; tumults and proceedings against them, ib. ; their 
first attempts under Cromwell, 630 ; strange instances of most ex- 
travagant fanaticism, ib. ; they assume a regular form of discipline, 
ib. ; their settlement in America, 631; intestine disputes and contests 
among them, ib. ; their religion considered in a general point of view, 
632; account of Barclay's works, particularly his catechism, ib. j 
their fundemental doctrine, the same with that of the ancient mystics, 
ib. ; their moral doctrine comprehended in two precepts, 634 ; their 
singular customs, ib. ; a farther account of them, 749. 

, their vindication, made by direction and in behalf of a meet- 

ingrepresenting the society in the states of Pennsylvania, New Jersey, 
&c. held in Philadelphia, llmo. 22, 1799, extracted from the Philadel- 
phia edition of that year, and now re-published at the request of a 
number of the society of Friends in New York, 635. 

duesnel, author of the celebrated New Testament, 561, 704. 

Quietism, controversies occasioned by its doctrine in xvii. cent. 570. 

Q-uietists (Hesychasts,) their rise in the East, 354; their notions of a 
celestial light within them, 355. 

GLuinisextum, council of Constantinople in vii. cent. 155, 158. 

Rabanus, Maurus, archbishop of Mentz, called the Light of France 
and Germany, 184, 189 ; his commentaries, 193. 

Rabelais, the French wit, 419. 

Racow, catechism of, 508. 

Radbert, account of, 190, 196. 

Ramus, Peter, an esteemed philosopher, 420. 

Rasa, Procopius, the head of the Hussites, 374. 

Ratheir, bishop of Verona, his works and character, 216. 

Rathman, Herman, controversy occasioned by his writings, 596. 

Ratisbon, conference at, 410. 

Raymond, earl of Toulouse, opposes the pretended heretics, 329 ; his 
son attacks and defends them by turns, ib. 

Realists, who so called, 185 ; schoolmen chiefly such in xiii. cent. 322 ; 
their disputes with the Nominalists in xiv. cent. 339. 

Reformation, its history in xvi. cent. 385 ; its foundation laid on the 
revival of letters, ib. ; how the people were in some measure pre- 
pared to receive it, 387 ; its origin in Germany, 394 ; its rise and pro- 
gress in Sweden, 403 ; in Denmark, 404 ; in France, 405 ; and in 
other European states, 406 ; its history from the Augsburg confession 
till the war consequent upon the Smalcald league, ib. ; from the 
Smalcald war till the peace of Religion at Augsburg, 411 ; a judg- 
ment of it, and the means used for producing it, 417 ; it civilized many 
nations, 421 ; its rise in England, 409 ; how promoted by Edward 
VI. and his character, 414; takes place in Scotland, ib. ; its success in 
Ireland, 416; its progress in the United Provinces, ib. ; conduct ot 
the nobility and people at this time, considered and explained, ib.; the 
religion of Switzerland established there, ib.; in Italy, its progress, ib. 

Reformers, the first, vindicated, 670 ; state of the reformed religion in 
modern times, 675 to 679. 

Refugees, French, their character, 470. 

Regale, a right enjoyed by the French kings, and opposed by Innocent 
XI. 551. 

Reinboth, singularity of his opinions, 597. 

Reineccius, a Lutheran historian, 454. 

Relics, excessive veneration for them in ix cent. 192; by what arts 
collected, ib. 

Religion, early method of teaching it in the Christian church, 24 ; cor- 
rupted by the principles of modern Platonism, 65 ; its state in iv. cent. 
90; degenerate into superstition, ib. ; pious frauds, whence, 91 ; me- 
thod of explaining Scripture on Origen's plan, ib. ; its doctrines deter- 
mined with more accuracy in v. cent. 117; practical, how explained 
in vi. cent, and methods used for advancing it, 139; its deplorable 
state in vii. cent. 152; its decline in viii. cent. 172; the ignorance and 
superstition of ix. cent., and the causes, 190; its state in x. cent. 216; 



INDEX. 



803 



made to consist in the observance of external rites in xi. cent. 248 ; 
its melancholy state in xii. cent. 280; a deplorable account of it in 
xiii. cent. 320 ; corrupted in xiv. cent, and hence the number ofseclaries 
increased. 352 ; many defenders engage to prevent its total decay in 
xv. cent. 373 ; reduced to mere external pomp and show, 377; its 
state upon the continent in modern times, 708, 712, 713, 718, 736 ; in 
Great Britain, 723, 748. 

Religious errcTs, their punishment by civil penalties, when introduced, 94. 

Remi the apostle of the Gauls, 131. 

Remonstrants. See Arminians. 

Reservation, ecclesiastical, stipulated by Charles V. for the Roman 
Catholics in xvi. cent. 453. 

Restitution, edict issued in Germany. 540 ; how put in execution, ib. 

Reuchlin restores learning among the Germans in xv. cent. 360. 

Revolution. French, unfavourable to religion, 713. 

Rheims, William of. his works adapted to promote practical religion, 280. 

Rhodes, Alexander of, his mission to Siam, &c. 516. 

Ricci, Matthew, a zealous missionary in xvi. cent. 419. 

Richelieu, cardinal, attempts to reclaim the Protestants, 544 ; his des- 
potic maxim, 610. 

Richer. Edmund, opposes the pontifical authority over the Gallican 
church, 434. 

Rigorists, Jansenists so denominated, 567. 

Rites. See Ceremonies. 

Rivier propagates the philosophy of Paracelsus at Paris, 456. 

Ptobert, of Arbriselles, founder of the Fontevraud order of monks in 
xii. cent. 277 ; his singular discipline and rules, how defended, 278. 

, de Sorbonne, founder of a college for the study of divinity in 

xiii. cent. 299. 

Robinson, John, founder of the Independent sect, 299. 

Rochelle, city of, granted to the reformed in France, 600 ; taken from 
them by Louis XIII. and terrible consequences of it to the re- 
formed, 601. 

Roderic, Christopher, a famous Jesuit, 424. 

Roell, Herman Alexander, controversy set on foot by him about the use 
of reason in religion, 620 ; his notions about divine decrees, &c. ib. 

Rollo, the pirate, is converted, 205. 

Romanis, Humbert de, attempts to reform the monks in xiii. cent. 320 ; 
his Spiritual Institutes, 324. 

Roman empire, its extent advantageous to Christianity, 1; its state in 
v. cent. 108. 

■ Catholic faith, derived from two sources, 432 : uncertainty about 

its real doctrine, ib. ; difference of opinion about determining doc- 
trines and controversies, ib. 

religion, its principal heads, 432, 433. 



Romans imposed the names of their own deities on those of other na- 
tions, and hence the perplexities in the history of the ancient super- 
stitions, 2 ; why they persecuted the Christians, 14 ; state of learn- 
ing and philosophical sects among them, 19; they introduced letters 
and philosophy into the conquered countries, ib. 

Rome, its bishops. See Popes. 

■ , the decline of this church, and whence dated, 423; its internal 

constitution strengthened in various ways, 426 ; its contest with Por- 
tugal in xvii. cent. 549 ; with Louis XIV. 550 ; peace concluded on 
inglorious terms for the pope, ib. ; a second contest, ib. ; em assembly 
of bishops drew up four propositions, opposed by the pope publicly 
and privately, 551 ; another contest, ib. ; an accommodation, 552 ; 
whether the papal authority gained ground in this cent. ib. ; history 
of this church in xviii. cent. 703 ; in xix. cent. T36. 

-, its state of learning in xvii. cent. 557 ; improved by the French, 



ib. ; philosophy much changed in France, and those most distinguished 
in it, ib. : ill treatment of them, ib. ; the French example followed in 
Italy, &c. ib. ; Jesuits improve learning most, and are followed by 
the Benedictines, 558; decline of learning among the Jesuits ever 
since, ib. ; emulation of the priests of the Oratory, and the most dis- 
tinguished among them, ib. ; principal authors of the Romish com- 
munion, 159 ; its doctrine more corrupt than in the former ages, ib. ; 
Jesuits, why supported by the popes, ib. ; they sap the foundations 
of morality by several pernicious maxims, 560 ; are condemned by 
Alexander VII. and VIII.. yet their moral tenets not suppressed, 561 ; 
why the great made them their confessors, ib. ; their maxims and 
practices not adopted by all the fraternity, ib. ; state of exegetic theo- 
logy among the Romanists, in xvii. cent. ib. ; Scripture how obscured, 
ib.; state of didactic, moral, and polemic theology at this time, 562 ; con- 
test between the Jesuits and Dominicans, about grace, ib. ; contest 
occasioned by the rise and progress of Jansenism, 563. 

Roscellinus, controversy relative to the Trinity, begun by him in xi. 
cent. 259. 

Rosecracians inveigh against the Peripatetics, 532; most eminent 
among them, with their followers, ib. ; attacked by Gassendi, ib. 

Rufinas of Aquileia, character of, 90. 

Rupert of Duytz, a great controversialist, 286. 

Russians converted in ix. cent, and by what prudent means, 1S1 : their 
conversion misrepresented by Le Cluien, ib. ; they adopted the doc- 
trine and discipline of the Greeks, 444 ; state of their church in xvii. 
eent 575 ; in xviii. cent. 716 ; in xix. cent. 742. 



Saads, a sect in India, 743. 

Sabeans, a sect of Christians, near the Persian gulf, whose tenets and 
practices are borrowed from the Jews and Mohammedans, 743. 

Sabellius, his notions of the Trinity, 73. 

Sacrament, festival of, its origin in xiii. cent 266. 

Sadducees, their tenets, 7. 

Sagarelli, Gerard, founder of the sect of Apostles in xii. cent. 333; is 
committed to the flames, ib. 

Saints, veneration paid to them, 326 ; their number considerably aug- 
mented in v. cent 117; their sepulchres frequented, ib. ; their prayers 
thought to be victorious at the throne of God, 136 ; a confidence in 
their merits thought necessary to salvation in viii. cent. 173 ; tutelar 
their origin, 191; their lives, ib. 

Salisbury, John of, his just and severe censure of the Nominalists, 
Realists, and Formalists, 270. 

Salvian, his book on divine government, 111; character, 116; moral 
writings excellent, 119. 

Samaritans, their notions, 9; a sect of that denomination in Eng- 
land, 751. 

Sanchez, a philosopher, 536. 

Sancroft, archbishop of Canterbury, is deprived with seven other pre- 
lates of his ecclesiastical dignity, 617. 

Sanction, Pragmatic, instituted for retrenching papal power, 369 ; when, 
and by whom made, ib. ; it is abrogated in part by Louis XI. of 
France, ib. ; its total abrogation obtained from Francis I. 386. 

Sandeman, a sectarian w'riter, 726. 

Sandius, an eminent writer among the Arians, 640. 

Saracens, their successful incursions in the east in viii. cent. 163 ; their 
usurpations in the west, ib. ; their progress toward universal empire 
in ix. cent. 181 ; the progress of their arms more injurious to the gos- 
pel in the east than in die west, ib. ; the Ottoman empire establish- 
ed on the ruin of their power, 208; state of learning among them, 
210 ; expeditions formed against them, 222 : history of this holy war, 
223 ; reasons for and against these wars, 224 ; with their unhappy 
consequences, ib. 

Sardis, council of, its fourth canon supposed to have been the chief step 
to the sovereignty of the pope, 87. 

Savanarola, Jerome, his great character. 372 ; his unhappy fate. ib. 

Saurin, James, his opinion concerning the lawfulness of violating the 
truth, and controversy thereon, 653. 

Saxony, divines of, attempt a new reformation, 466. 

Sceptics, their method, and most eminent among them in xvii. cent. 534 ; 
in xviii. cent. 645, 725, 728. 

Schade, John Caspar, his character, 595 ; his imprudent zeal excites 
commotions in the Lutheran church, ib. 

Schism, the great western, in xiv. cent., an account of, 343 ; proposals 
for terminating it, 344; fomented and continued in xv. cent. 362; 
healed by the prudence of Nicolas V. 368 ; between the Greeks and 
Latins, 376 ; why not healed, ib. 

Schmidt, Erasmus, a leaimed expositor of Scripture, 587. 

Sebastian, an interpreter of Scripture, ib. 

Laurent, the Wertheim interpreter, 650. 

Scholastic theology, rise of, 65. 

Scholastics, properly so called, in xii. cent. 282; are opposed from dif- 
ferent quarters, 283; and principally by St. Bernard, 284 ; are chiefly 
Realists in xiii. cent. 322; their dangerous tenets, 323; hated and 
opposed in xv. cent. 375 ; and principally by die restorers of polite 
literature, ib. 

Schoolmen, or the cultivators of scholastic theology, 65 ; chiefly cm- 
ployed in collecting the ancient interpretations of the Fathers in xiii. 
cent. 322 ; contentions among them in xiv. cent. 323. 

Schools, established for Christian philosophy, 25 : very serviceable to 
Christianity, 85; cathedral andmonasticschools, 165; new schools, 228 

Schurman, Anna Maria, character of, 642. 

Schwenkfeld, George, his debates with Luther, 460. 

Sciences, their sad state in vii. cent. 150; a new division of them, and 
their number increased in xii. cent. 268; their improvement in xvii. 
cent. 529 ; their distinguished promoters, and advantages hence aris- 
ing to society and religion, 530; their state among the Luthe- 
rans, 583. 

Scientific societies at London and Paris, 530. 

Scioppius employed to write against the Protestants, 539. 

Scalvonians, converted by Waldemar, king of Denmark, in xii. cent. 
260; their conversion completed by the zeal of Henry the 
Lion, 261. 

Scotists, followers of Duns Scotus, 353. 

Scotland, whether Christian in iii. cent. 58; church of, its founder, 4 , , , 
how far it adopts the system established at Geneva, ib. ; a remarkable 
declaration of James I. respecting the kirk, 610 ; sects in Scotland, 
726, 735. 

Scotus, Johannes Erijena, an eminent philosopher, 184 ; blends the 
Mystic theology with the Scholastic, ib. ; his notions and great mo- 
desty, 185 ; high character, 190. 

Marianus, his works, 248. 

John Duns, eminent for the acuteness and subtlety of his 

genius, 351. 



804 



INDEX. 



Scriptures, canon of, supposed to be settled before the middle of ii. cent. 
23 ; early method of interpreting them, 24 ; the New Testament 
translated into several languages, 34 ; versions of both Testaments, 
91 • zeal for them in ii. cent. 43 ; the zeal of many for their diffusion 
in iii. cent, and advantages hence arising to Christianity, 58 ; inter- 
preters of the Scriptures censured, and why, 67; versions in iv. cent, 
not well executed, 91 ; the most eminent commentators in v. cent. 118; 
Origen's method adopted by many, ib. ; logical discussions deemed 
better tests of truth than the Scriptures, ib. ; expositors in vii. cent, 
few, and very unlearned, 153 ; the study of them much promoted by 
Charlemagne, 173 ; allegorical interpreters of, in ix. cent., and their 
fundamental principle, 193 ; explained in xii. cent, chiefly according 
to the rules of Mysticism, 129 ; which prevailed much in xiii. cent. 
171 ; absurd modes of interpretation in xvi. cent. 434 ; also in xvii. 
cent. 603. 

Sectarian philosophers, why so called in xvii. cent. 584. 

Sects formed in the times of the apostles, 28 ; those which arose from 
the oriental philosophy, very detrimental to Christianity, 50; illite- 
rate, which prevailed in ii. cent. 55; remains of the ancient in iii. 
cent. 71 ; and in iv. cent. 99 ; Manicheeans most prevalent, ib. ; ancient, 
flourish in vii. cent. 155 ; and recover strength in viii. cent, from the 
divisions in the Grecian empire, 170 ; and subsists in xi. cent. 257 ; 
numerous among the Latins in xii. cent, and the abuses which gave 
rise to them, 288; multiplied in xiii. cent. 327; unanimous in oppos- 
ing superstition, and the papal power, ib. ; among the Dutch in xvii. 
cent. 621 ; of inferior note in that cent. ; an account of them, 641 ; 
sects in Great Britain in xviii. cent. 652, 725, &c. in xix. cent. 749; 
in the United States of America, 753. 

Sens, a sect in Persia, resembling our Quakers, 743. 

Seidel, Martin, extravagant notions of, 599. 

Selina, countess dowager of Huntingdon, patronises the Calvinistic 
Methodists, 727. 

Semi-Arians, tenets of, 104. 

Semi-Pelagians, five leading principles of, 130; strongly opposed by 
the disciples of St. Augustin, yet support themselves, and make rapid 
progress, ib. 

Sendomir, synod of, 482. 

Sens, Bernardine of, a celebrated mystic writer in xv. cent. 373. 

Servetus, Michael, character and writings of, 503 ; he is accused by 
Calvin of blasphemy, ib. ; condemned to the flames, ib. ; doctrine of 
the Trinity, ib. 

Servitas observe several rules peculiar to themselves, 308. 

Severian, character of his moral writings, 119. 

Severus, Septimius, persecutes the Christians, 37. 

, Alexander, shows favour to the Christians, 57 

, Sulpitius, an eminent historian, 90. 

, the Monophysite, made patriarch of Antioch, 143 ; is de- 
posed, ib. ; his doctrine concerning the body of Christ, 144. 

Sfondrati, Celestine, his doctrine of predestination, 572. 

Shaftesbury, earl of, the free-thinker, 526. 

Shakers, account of, 733. 

Sharrock, the great advantages derived to religion from his moral 
works, 604. 

Siam, fruitless attempts to convert the king and people of that coun- 
try, 517. 

Sidonius Apollinaris, a Christian writer, 17. 

Sigismund, John, elector of Brandenburg, embraces the communion of 
the reformed church, 579 ; but leaves his subjects free as to their reli- 
gious sentiments, ib. ; the effects of this liberty, ib. ; controversy and 
civil commotions that ensued, 580 ; the form of concord hereupon 
suppressed, ib. 

Simeon, head of the Stylites, 119. 

, of Constantinople, styled the Metaphrast, 216. 

Sin, original, doctrine of, disputed by La Place, 607; denied by Le 
Cene, 609. 

Smalcald league, how formed by the confederate princes, 408 ; its 
articles, 451. 

^ocinians, their origin, 502; they spread their doctrine in Poland, 505; 
their progress and different classes, ib. ; their summary of religion, 
506 ; account of their catechism, ib. ; their divisions and intestine 
controversies, 511 ; their flourishing state in xvii. cent'. 638; their ex- 
tensive views, ib. ; their decline and sufferings in Poland, 639 ; 
banished thence for ever with the utmost severity, ib. ; fate of the 
exiles, ib. ; many of them embrace the communion of other sects, 
610 ; account of the English Socinians in xviii. cent. 731. 

Socinus, Lajlius,. adopts the Helvetic confession of faith, 502; his ne- 
phew Faustus changes the ancient Unitarian religion, 508. 

Sohner, Ernest, a learned Peripatetic, and advocate for Socinian- 
ism, 639. 

Sophronius opposes the Monothelites, 152. 

Sorbonne, doctors of, their college founded for the study of divinity in 
xiii. cent. 299. 

Southcott, Joanna, an English devotee, 734 ; her death, 751. 

Spanheim, breach between him and Vander-Wayen, 618. 

Spener, his method of teaching theology, and success, 587 ; he sets on 
foot the controversy on Pietism, 59l. 



Spinosa, an account of, 528 ; his works, and the tenets therein, ib. ; he 
was seduced into his system by the philosophy of Rene Des-Cartes, 
ib. ; account of his followers, 529. 

Spire, diet at, 400 ; its issue favourable to Luther and the reformers 
401 : a second diet, in which the resolutions of the former diet are re- 
voked, ib. ; the decree of this diet considered as iniquitous and intoler- 
able by several princes, who protest against it, ib. ; See Protestants. 

Spirituals, a rigid branch of the Franciscans, 312, 314, 315, 346. 

Stancarus, debates excited by, 456. 

Stephen I. bishop of Rome, his insolent behaviour to the Asiatic Chris- 
tians on account of the baptism of heretics, 69 ; vigorously opposed by 
Cyprian, ib. 

II., anoints and crowns the usurper Pepin, 168; hence he is 



made a temporal prince, 169. 

, establishes Christianity among the Hungarians, in x. cent. 206. 

de Muret, founds the monastic order of Grandmontains in 



xi. cent. 245 ; enjoins great austerity, 246 ; contentions for superiority 
among some of his order, and consequences, ib. ; rigorous discipline 
enjoined by him gradually mitigated, ib. 

Stereoma, a celebrated work published by the Crypto-Calvinists, and 
on what account, 466. 

Stiefel, Isaiah, his absurdities, 599. 

Stockius, Simon, the monstrous fiction relative to him, 311. 

Stoics, their explication of the divine nature and the human soul, 5. 

Strabo, Walafiidus, an eminent author, 190, 200. 

Strigelius, Victor, his contest with Flacius, 463. 

Stylites, a superstitious sect of pillar saints in v. cent. 119 ; their sin- 
gular and extravagant fancies, ib. ; not suppressed before xii. cent 
120. 

Sub-deacons, the nature of their office, 64. 

Sublapsarians, their doctrince, and why so called, 604. 

Sulpitius, Severus, the most eminent historian in iv. cent. 90. 

Supererogation, doctrine of, its foundation laid in xiii. cent. 321. 

Superstition, its great increase in v. cent. 117; i"> vi. cent. 138 ; this 
accounted for, and exemplified by the doctrines then taught, 139 ; in- 
sinuates itself into the transactions of civil life in ix. cent, and whence, 
201 ; how nourished by many idle opinions in x. cent. 217; particu- 
larly that of an immediate and final judgment, ib. ; effects of this 
opinion beneficial to the church, ib. ; reigns among the people in xii. 
cent. 280 ; connexion between it and fanaticism considered, Appen- 
dix, 670. 

Supralapsarians, who so called, and why, 604. 

Swedenborgians, a remarkable sect, 732. 

Swedes embrace Christianity in ix. cent. 180; convert many in Finland 
in xii. cent, and by what means, 261 ; reformation established among 
them in xvi. cent. 403 ; state of their church in xviii. cent. 719. 

Switzerland, origin of the Reformation by Zuingle, 395; progress of it, 
ib. ; receives the doctrine of Carlostadt, 460; adopts the opinions ot 
Zuingle, 470 ; disputes about the form of concord, 622, 653 ; state ot 
the church, 740, 746. 

Sylvester II., pope, gives the signal for the first crusade, 208 ; he re- 
stores learning, 211 ; the success of his zeal for literature, ib. ; his 
high character, 216. 

Symmachus, violent dispute between him and Laurentius, 136. 

Syncellus endeavours to raise the credit of Mysticism, 194. 

Syncretistical (Calixtine) controversies, their rise in xvii. cent. 588, 
the share which Buschcr had in them, 588, 589; the animated oppo- 
sition of Calixtus to his Saxon accusers, 589 ; continuation of thes* 
debates by Calovius and other able divines, ib. 

Syncretists, Platonic, their rise in xv. cent. 361. 

Synergists, their doctrine, 463 ; strongly opposed by the Lutherans, l 

Synods, their origin in ii. cent. 41. 

Systems, ancient religious, 4. 

Taborites, in Bohemia, their rise, 223; extravagant demands for a tota 
reformation, 224 ; the cruelties they were guilty of, and their princi- 
ples, ib. ; the reformation that took place among them, ib. 

Taio, bishop of Saragossa, composer of a system of divinity, 154,250 

Tanquelin, horrid blasphemy of, 290; his fate, ib. 

Tartary, Christianity embraced there in x. cent. 205 ; propagated in xi. 
cent, by the Nestorians, 220 ; embassies, and missions from Rome in 
xiii. cent. 293. 

Tatian's character and opinions, 52. 

Templars, origin of their knights, and names of their founders, 264 , 
the order extirpated by the council of Vienne, 357 ; the impiety im- 
puted to some not justly to be charged upon all, ib. 

Temples, to the saints, multiplied in vi. cent, and superstitious opinion* 
adopted about them, 142. 

Tertiaries, an order of Franciscans, 317. 

Tertullian, a learned defender of Christianity, 42, 44. 

Testament, New, when brought into use, 23 ; its translations how use- 
ful, and the principal among them, 34 ; the zeal of Christians in 
spreading abroad these versions, and the benefits hence arising to the 
cause of religion, in iii. cent. 322. 

Tests, religious, observations upon, 724. 

Tetzel, John, his matchless impudence in preaching up the impious doc 
trine of indulgences in xvi. cent. 391. 



INDEX. 



806 



Teutonic inights, their office, 265; formed into a fraternity in Germany, ib. 

Theatins, a monastic order, 307. 

Theodore, Lascaris, a Greek theological writer, 319. 

Theodore, of Mopsuestia, his character, 116, 118. 

, of Tarsus, archbishop of Canterbury, promotes learning in 
England, 150; restores penance in vii. cent. 154 ; account of his new 
Penitential, ib. 

Theodoret, an eminent writer, 116, 118. 

Theodosius, die Great, his zeal against Paganism in iv. cent. 82. 

— — , the Younger, discovers an ardent zeal for promoting Chris- 
tianity, and extirpating idolatry, 108. 

-, bishop of Alexandria, revives the sect of the Monophy- 



sites, 143. 

Theodotus, his erroneous notions about Christ, 55. 

Theology, controversial. See Controversial Writers. 

, didactic, its simplicity in the infant state of Christiantiy, 25; 
gradually loses its simplicity in ii. cent 42 ; corrupted by introducing 
Platonic tenets into the Christian system in iii. cent. 65 ; its most 
eminent writers in iv. cent 91; its deplorable state in v. cent 118; 
its writers in vii. cent deserve no commendation, 153 ; state in viii. 
cent 174 ; also in xii. cent. 282 ; different sects of didactic divines at 
Paris, ib. ; a principal object of study in xiii. cent. 322; greatly im- 
proved in xvi. cent. 421. 

, explanatory, its state in vi. cent. 139; in viii. cent. 173; en- 



tirely neglected by the Greeks and Latins in x. cent. 218 ; its state 
in xi. cent. 249 ; undertaken by few men of judgment and penetra- 
tion in xii. cent. 282 ; the mystic method much adopted in xiii. cent 
322; modeled after the sentiments of the fathers of the church, in 
xiv. cent. 352 ; its state in xv. cent 375 ; much freedom used in stating 
points of doctrine, in xvi. cent. 3S9 ; its state in the church of Rome, 433. 

, mystic, its rise in iii. cent 65. 

, polemic, badly handled in vi. cent 140; its state in vii. cent 154; 



tire defence of Christianity against the Jews neglected through intes- 
tine divisions in ix. cent. 194 ; wretched writers in xii. cent. 285 ; 
writers more numerous than respectable in xiii. cent. 324. 

, positive, whence derived, 139. 

-, scholastic, whence its origin in iii. cent. 65 ; admired in xi. 



cent 249 ; why so called, 250 ; the modest views of the first Scholas- 
tics, ib; the system declines into captious philosophy, 280. 

, its deplorable state, 389 ; its improvement, 421. 

Theopaschites, a sect, 127. 

Theophanes, bishop of Nice, his works and character, 351, 353. 

, a distinguished Russian prelate, 716. 

Theophilus, bishop of Antioch, his works, 42. 

■ , bishop of Alexandria, 116. 

— , the emperor, his zeal against image-worship, 195. 

Theophylact, patriarch of Greece, his infamous character, 212. 

• , of Bulgaria, the most eminent expositor among the Greeks 

in xi. cent 248. 

Theosophists, rise and character of, 421. 

Therapeuta, a sect among the Jews, 7. 

Theresa, a Spanish lady, reforms the Carmelites, 430. 

Thesilonica, Simeon of, account of his works, 372. 

Thomasius, vehemently attacks the Peripatetics in xvii. cent 584 ; suc- 
cess of his philosophy, ib. 

Thomists, the followers of Thomas Aquinas, 353. 

Thorn, charitable conference at, 543 ; a scene of Jesuitical cruelty, 706. 

Tilloch, Dr. Alexander, a sectarian philosopher, 751. 

Timotheus, his confutation of the various heresies in vii. cent 154. 

, the Nestorian pontiff, propagates the Gospel with great suc- 
cess in Hyrcania and Tartary, 161. 

Timour, the Tartar, zealous for the extirpation of Christianity, 336 ; 
his religion doubtful, ib. 

Tindal, hypothesis of, 646. 

Toland, John, his character and works, 527, 529. 

Toleration, the act in favour of the Nonconformists in England under 
William III., 617. 

Torgaw, articles of, 403 ; convocation of, 466. 

Tostatus, Alphonsus, his works and character, 372, 375. 

Tournon, cardinal, carries into China the severe edict of Clement XI. 
against the use of Chinese rites, 645 ; dies in prison, 704. 

Trajan suffers the Christians to be persecuted, 35. 

Tran substantiation, doctrine of, sanctioned by the pope, 321,325: adopt- 
ed by the Greek church in xvii. cent. 574 ; attacked by John Claude, 
with Arnaud's defence of its antiquity, ib. 

Trappe, La, an austere monastic order, 555 ; character of its founder, ib. 

Trent, objects of the council of, 432; its decrees how far acknowledged 
by the members of the church of Rome, ib. ; afford no clear and per- 
fect knowledge of the Romish faith, 433. 

Trinity, disputes concerning it arise in iv. cent 101 ; Origen's opinion 
of it embraced by many Christians, 102 ; what that is, ib. ; and its 
dangerous tendency in the hands of unskilful judges, ib. ; revival of 
this controversy in xviii. cent. 653. 

Trinity, fraternity of, 308. . 

Tritheists, their tenets, and rise in vi. cent 144; their division into the 
Philoponists and Cononites, 145. 

No. LXVIIL 202 



Trithemius restores learning in Germany, 360. 

Trivium, a term invented to express the three sciences first learned in 
the schools, 166. 

Turks, progress of, 208, 359 ; they subvert the Greek empire, 359. 

Turlupins, or brethren of the free spirit, 330. 

Turrecremata, John de, an eminent scholastic writer, 373. 

Type, or Formulary, published by Constans the emperor, 157. 

Udalric. bishop of Augsburg, the first person solemnly sainted by the 
pope, 191. 

Uke Walles, founder of the Ukewallists, 637; customs of the sect, 638. 

Uladislaus IV., king of Poland, his scheme of religious union unsuc- 
cessful, 581. 

Ulphilas, bishop of the Ggths. the eminent service he did to Christianity 
and his country in iv. cent. 83. 

Understanding, men of, a sect in xv. cent 378. 

Uniformity, act of, issued by queen Elizabeth, 478; another by Charles 
II. more rigorous, 617. 

Unigenitus, famous bull of Clement XI. so called, and consequence of 
it, 647, 704. 

Union of the Lutheran and reformed churches, in various parts of Ger- 
many, 745. 

Unitarians, their religious principles changed by Socinus, 508; those 
of Great Britain differ from Socinus, 731 ; relief granted to them, 
750 ; a new association, ib. 

United Provinces, whence they became united, 416; zealous in the 
cause of the Reformation, ib. ; how, and when, delivered from the 
Spanish yoke, ib. ; an universal toleration of religious sentiments 
permitted, ib. 

United Brethren, or the Moravian sect, 649, 719, 727. 

Universalists, hypothetical, controversy excited by them, and summary 
of their doctrine, 606 ; other universalists, 734. 

Universities founded by the Lutherans and Calvinists in xvi. cent 454. 

Urban II., pope, his character, 243 ; lays the foundation of a new cru- 
sade, ib. ; forbids the clergy to take oaths of allegiance to their sove- 
reigns, ib. 

IV., institutes the festival of the body of Christ, 306. 

VI., his odious character, 343. 

VIII., his character and works, 537 ; he attempts to unite the 



Greek and Latin churches. 574. 
Ursinus, his form of instruction, or the Catechism of Heidelberg, 476. 
Ursulines, nunnery of, 431. 
Val-Ombroso, a congregation of Benedictine monks founded there in xi. 

cent. 245. 
Valentine, the founder of a powerful sect in ii. cent. 53 ; his principles, 

54 ; idle dreams, ib. 
Valerian's persecution of the Christians, 60. 

Valla, Laurentius, a tolerable annotator on tne New Testament, 375. 
Vandals, in Africa, raged against the Christians in v. cent 122 ; the 

miracles said to be performed at this time, examined, 123. 
Vanini, impious treatises' and fate of, 527. 
Venice, secret assemblies of Socinians held there, 504; rupture of its 

inhabitants with the pope Paul V., 549 ; consequences of it, ib. 
Veron, the Jesuit, one of the Popish Methodists, 545; his method of 

managing controversy, ib. 
Verschorists, a Dutch sect, 621. 
Victor, bishop of Rome, sends an imperious letter to the churches of 

Asia, 49 ; his orders are rejected by them, ib. 

, Hugh of St., distinguished by his great genius, 279. 

-, Richard of St., an eminent mystic, 279. 



Vigilantius attacks the superstition of the fifth cent 120; his contro- 
versy with Jerome unsuccessful, ib. 

Vigilius, bishop of Rome, often changes sides in his determinations 
about the three chapters, 141. 

Villa Nova, Arnold of, his extensive knowledge, 301. 

Vincent of Lerins, his treaties against the sects, 117. 

Vindication of the Quakers, 635. 

Viret, an eminent writer among the Reformed, 490. 

Vitriaco, Jacobus de, his character, 299. 

Voet, founder of a sect of philosophers, 618. 

Volusius, a theologist of Mentz, his reconciling attempt, 544. 

Vulgate, account of that Latin Bible, 433 ; solemnly adopted by the 
council of Trent, and why, ib. 

Wake, archbishop of Canterbury, writes a learned answer to Bossuet's 
exposition of the Romish faith, 544 ; he promotes a union between 
the English and Gallican churches, 652 ; a circumstantial account of 
the correspondence carried on between him and certain French doc- 
tors, relative to the union, 679, 698. 

Waldemar I., king of Denmark, his zeal for propagating Christianity 
in vii. cent 260. 

Waldenses, or Vaudois, their origin, various names, and history, 290 • 
their doctrine, discipline, and views, 291 ; they adopt the three orders 
of bishops, priests, and deacons, ib.; increase in xiv. cent. 352; their 
state and settlement in xv. cent 377 ; account of their reformation in 
xvi. cent 482; persecuted by the dukes of Savoy, 541, 720; their 
state in xix. cent. 747. 

Walter, head of the Beghards in xiv. cent 356. 



806 



INDEX. 



Wansleb, John Michael, is sent into Abyssinia, 577; neglects his mis- 
sion, and turns Romanist, ib. 

'W'arburton, bishop of Glocester, an eminent controversialist, 728. 

Wars, holy, the first plan laid for them in x. cent. 208 ; and renewed in 
xi. cent. 223 ; history of the first, ib. ; the melancholy consequences 
arising from them, and their legality examined, 224 ; their unhappy 
effects on religion, 225; the unfortunate issue of the second of them, 
263 ; and cause, ib. ; history of the third, 263, 264 ; promoted by the 
popes, and why, 293; new wars of this kind, 294, 295; attempts to 
renew them in xiv. cent, unsuccessful, 335. 

Warsaw, terrible law against the Socinians there, and how executed, 639. 

Waterland, Dr., opposes Dr. Clarke's sentiments concerning the Trinity, 
654 ; censured as a Semi-Tritheist, ib. 

Waterlandians, a sect of Anabaptists in xvi. cent. 496 ; publish a sum- 
mary of their doctrine, 497; their respect for learning, 499 ; abandon 
the severe discipline and opinions of Menno, 638; divided into two 
sects, ib. ; account of their ecclesiastical government, ib. 

Wayen, John Vander, flaming dissension between him and Frederic 
Spanheim, with the occasion, 618. 

Wesley, John and Charles, founders of Methodism in England, 726. 

Wessel, John, called the light of the word, 372. 

Westphal, Joachim, renews the controversy on the eucharist, 472 ; is 
answered by Calvin, ib. 

Westphalia involved in calamities by the fanatics in xvi. cent. 459 ; fa- 
mous peace of, 540. 

Whiston, William, defends the doctrine of the Arians, 653. 

Whitby, Dr., account of his dissertation on the manner of interpreting 
the Scriptures, 603. 

White, Thomas, his notions and works, 571. 

Whitefield, George, his ministerial labours and great views, 652 ; his 
tenets, 727. 

Whitehead, a distinguished writer among the Quakers, 632. 

Wickliff, John, attacks the monks and papal authority, 345 ; exhorts 
the people to study the Scriptures, ib. ; leaves many followers, who 
are persec^ed by the churchmen, ib. 

Wilberfoi'cej "am, an advocate for vital Christianity, 735. 

Wilhelmina, .avagant notions of, 333. 

William the Conqueror, refuses to be subservient to the see of Rome, 243. 

III., king of England, tolerates the Nonconformists, 617; 

deprives eight prelates of their sees, for refusing to take the oath of 
allegiance to him, ib. 

Willibrod, an Anglo-Saxon missionary, 146. 

Witnesses of the Truth, those so called, who attempted a reformation of 
religion in ix. cent. 248 ; their opposition to the superstitions of the 
church more vehement than prudent, 249. 



Wlodomir, the first Christian sovereign of Russia, 206. 

Wolff, his philosophy and that of Leibritz detrimental to Arminianiem 

628 ; applied to the illustration of the Scriptures by some German 

divines, 629 ; he reduces metaphysics to a scientific order, 650 ; his 

philosophy promotes scepticism, 721. 
Worms, treaty of, concerning investitures, 272 ; the edict passed against 

Luther at a diet in that city, 397. 
Worship, the first places of, 27 ; its form in i. cent. ib. ; in iv. cent. 98 : 

in vi. cent. 142; variety of liturgies used in it, 210; it consisted of 

little more than a pompous round of external ceremonies in xvi. cent 

389. 
Writers, Greek, chief in iii. cent. 64; in iv. cent. 88; in v. cent. 116; in 

vi. cent. 139; in vii. cent. 152; in viii. cent. 172; in ix. cent. 189; in x. 

cent. 210, 216; in xi. cent. 247; inxii. cent. 279; in xiii. cent. 319; in 

xiv. cent. 351 ; in xv. cent. 372. 
, Latin, in iii. cent. 65; in iv. cent. 89; in v. cent. 116; in vi. cent. 

138; in vii. cent. 152; in viii. cent. 172; in ix. cent. 193; inx. cent. 211, 

216; inxi. cent. 248; in xii. cent. 279; in xiii. cent. 320; in xiv. cent. 

352; in xv. cent. 392. 

, Oriental, in iii. cent. 64 ; in vi. cent. 107; in viii. cent. 172. 

, Lutheran, their character in xvi. cent. 470; most eminent in 

xvii. cent. 586. 

, Romish, in xvii. cent. 559. 



Xavier, Francis, his character, 418; his zeal and success in propagating 
the Gospel in India and Japan, ib. 

Xenaias, of Hierapolis, his hypothesis concerning the body of Christ, 
144. 

Zarchary, pope, deposes Childeric, and gives the crown of France to 
Pepin, 168. 

Zeno, the emperor, publishes a decree of union, 128. 

Zinzendorff, count, founds the sect of the United Brethren in xviii. cent 
649; his notions, ib. 

Ziska, the general of the Hussites, 373. 

Zonaras, John, his character and works, 267, 279. 

Zosimus, the historian, an enemy to the Christians, 111. 

■ , pope, first protects, and then condemns, Pelagius, 129. 

Zuinglius or Zuingle, Ulric, begins the reformation in Switzerland 
395; his resolution and success against Samson the monk, ib. ; his 
blemishes considered, 396 ; his doctrine of the eucharist, 399 ; clears 
himself iom accusations of heresy, 402 ; becomes founder of the re- 
formed church, 470; his doctrine and discipline corrected by CalviK 
in three points, 474. 

Zurich, a war in that canton between the protestants and the Roman 
catholics, 471 ; its church attached to Zuingle's doctrines. 472 ; a ie» 
markable case of fanaticism in that community, 746. 



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